91福利社

Kilkeel's built heritage being lost - St Louis' Convent

Kilkeel is a town whose built heritage is gradually becoming more and more mundane. Architecturally Kilkeel has a few monstrosities like the dole office on Newry and the Vogue Cinema (which is probably listed) but its gems like Christ Church (CofI) and St Louis Convent House and Chapel still provide the visitor with a sense of the craftsmanshp of past generations.

Like in many parts of Northern Ireland, old buildings with character and stories to tell are being destroyed in the name of progress. Many local schools are now the subject of renewal - mostly for the good as they were built in the dreary 1950s or the tasteless 1960s. However not all schools are deserving of the same fate. It seems that those responsible within the education board for new schools send out the most blind of auditors to decide the fate of elegant buildings.

BACKGROUND TO ST LOUIS, KILKEEL
St Louis' Convent, Kilkeel was founded by the Institute of St Louis - an French order of nuns whose main apostolate was education. Through the kind gesture of a local man, the sisters eventually established their convent at what became known as Mount Carmel on the Newry Road. Between 1922 and 1970 the school founded by Sr M. Louis McGrath SSL educated girls only. The boys arrived and of late have proven that the school is up there with the best footballing schools in Ulster. In 1990 the boarding school for girls closed but the school has continued to thrive. Sadly, the sisters who still remain the trustees of the school, vacated the convent in 1996, five years after the retirement of the last religious Principal, Sr Mary Moran SSL. The lay Principals Dr C Devlin and Mr S Rogers supported by a great staff, have steered the ship well and have expounded the St Louis Spirit.

BUILDINGS
The fine Convent house is a 3 storey building with a fine front fa莽ade facing east - its main entrance bearing stain glass windows with the SL crest. A bell, used for the Angelus and Mass sits atop the convent in a little belfry. The Chapel of the Convent is the view most people have as they enter Kilkeel from Newry. The square based tower with its "forked" crown is exactly like the one of St Macartan's Diocesan School Monaghan, the town which is now the home to the Motherhouse of the St Louis' sisters. It is reminiscent of the buildings of Picardy and Champagne in France and would have reminded the sisters of their origins. The school is a mixture of pleasant old and less impressive modern buildings including a 1973 science block and boarding school. The latter buildings are less than interesting and although functional don't provide the necessary facilities for a modern Grammar School.

St Louis' is no different to any other Northern Irish School - it needs to compete to provide a first class education for its pupils into the future. It is understandable that St Louis Grammar School requires new facilities - of that there is no doubt. The school will benefit from new sports facilities, science laboratories and general classrooms but it is questionable whether that should be done at the expense of the entire complex of buildings. The demolition of those parts of St Louis' which the Mourne Observer recently referred to as one of the finest school buildings in Down if not in Northern Ireland will be a very sad event indeed. I am sure those involved with the initial feasibility study were blinded by financial considerations when announcing that the school was to be built on a new site (on the current football pitch). Sensitivity to Architecture is not a Northern Irish trait - in fact it is a notably absent characteristic of those responsible for Planning in !
this neck of the woods.

PLANS

It would be great if the plans for the new St Louis' Grammar School were linked into those buildings which have come to symbolise St Louis'. Transforming the convent building into the main administrative area with board rooms and new classroom suites would be good. The Chapel could be retained, but as it stands, a new space for worship (as large an the current one) is not something which will be funded by the Department of Education. New developments at both Rathmore Grammar School, Finaghy and the Domincan College Fortwilliam successfully combined old with new. Instead it seems Kilkeel will be left bereft of one of its architectural gems under whose bangor blue slates the happiest days of many lives have passed by.

What do you think?