Weaving an 80-year-old tapestry at Spanish Point

EIGHTY years of education at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Spanish Point was marked last Saturday night with the launch of Salty Faces and Ferocious Appetites – A Tapestry of Stories from a Seaside School in the nearby Armada Hotel.

The book, edited by Anne Jones, is a compendium of stories covering 80 years of the school with striking coloured photographs of past and present student, teachers and management personnel.
Many of the photographs were taken by Clare Champion photographer John Kelly, who is a past pupil.
The book title comes from the story told by Sr Bernardine Meskell, mother abbess of the Poor Clare Monastery in Ennis, who was a pupil at the school from 1958 to 1963.
The book contains an array of stories from former pupils and teachers, many of whom are now living and working in all corners of the globe.
On March 19, 1929 – the feast of St Joseph – Sea View House, Spanish Point was purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. Captain Ellis who owned considerable property in the area was anxious to dispose of Sea View House before he left for Dublin. Though the deed of purchase was signed on March 19, the nuns did not take up residence until July 1 that year. The stables and coach house were transformed into a school building with three classrooms. A secondary school was opened on September 4, 1929. Forty pupils enrolled and this was the nucleus of St Joseph’s Secondary School, Spanish Point in its opening academic year.