Eddie McGrady MP said:

“Today is the culmination of years of effort and commitment to the children and the needs of the community of Saul & Ballee, by the priests, teachers, parents and parish.

The official opening of this new state of the art school is not just a triumph for rural education in today’s climate of rural school closures, but it is a triumph for the local community who have persevered and ensured that this rural primary school will stay at the heart of its local community.

This area as we know is steeped in Irish and Christian history. It is widely accepted that Christianity developed here in Saul under Saint Patrick’s teachings; and it was here in Saul that St Patrick plucked a shamrock from the fertile Saul soil and explained the Holy Trinity through its three leaves.

Saul was the ecclesiastical centre in Ireland at that time of St Patrick, and today this new modern school building some 1600 years on will play a large part in continuing the ecclesiastical heritage of Saul.

I have no doubt of the future success that will come to St Patrick’s Primary, and I look forward to the future of this vibrant rural primary school and the role it will play in it local community.