The new mural at the entrance to St Joseph’s was created by Lisa Harkin (pictured back right) who was joined at the unveiling ceremony by, back from left, Jennifer Boyle and John Keane, parent council members and Terence Dineen, principal as well as, front from left, pupilsLuke Boyle and George and Sam Keane.
The principal of St Joseph’s National School in Ballyheigue took words from Mr Hume’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1998 and incorporated them into the mural.
Terence Dineen said he was motivated to create the mural by Mr Hume’s death in August as well as the death of George Floyd.
Mr Floyd was an African American man who died when a US police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while trying to detain him in Minneapolis in May this year.
Mr Dineen said he was shocked by the number of calls to radio stations from people in Ireland who had experienced racism or verbal/physical abuse because they were different in some way.
He said some of the callers talked about experiencing bullying in schools.
“This got me thinking of how we could portray the image that our school aspires to and how we could remind ourselves of this message every day,” he said.
“Then John Hume passed away. Here was a man who we all admired and I am no different.
“John Hume was a man who believed that things could change, that differences were to be respected and when his funeral was to take place his family asked that a candle be lit as a sign of peace.”
With the help of St Joseph’s Parents’ Council, Mr Dineen asked former pupil Lisa Harkin to come up with a mural for the front of the school which embraced the two events.
“Not an easy undertaking but Lisa surpassed our expectations. She produced two beautiful colourful lively and engaging pieces. One painting illustrates inclusion of every child in a very happy rainbow filled scene,” he added.
“The other bears the words of John Hume `The answer to difference is to respect it’ which he included in his Nobel lecture in 1998.”
Mr Dineen said the two paintings illustrated the ethos of St Josephs.
He added the Nobel laureate’s words now greet the pupils of St Josephs each morning as they arrive.
Tags: