As we headed towards the thirtieth anniversary, it was time to look back at all the special days in our lengthening history. The first of those days was the day that All Children’s parents acted on the growing realisation that seven years of Integration would come to an end when the first P1 cohort of pupils were due to sit the 11+.
They would then have to separate along Northern Ireland’s traditional lines, both in terms of religious/cultural background and supposed academic achievement. There was no choice, so those parents got together and planned Shimna.
The next significant day was when they met NICIE Development Officer Kevin Lambe, who in two short years as Development Officer at the newly constituted NICIE, had supported groups of parents across Northern Ireland in setting up thirteen Integrated schools. The meeting on 2nd October 1993 in the Burrendale Hotel was hugely significant in that the meeting brought together other parents from across South Down who were also seeking to break through divisions and educate their children together. That was the meeting where the Agreed Statements were developed on which Shimna Integrated College would be founded. There were the days when Kevin Lambe was appointed principal in competitive interviews, also in the Burrendale Hotel, and when the team of seven teachers was appointed.
There was the day that Kevin and founder parent David McGinn discovered Murlough House, not only spacious enough to house the school for the first year, but also, thanks to previous owner Queen’s University, with a modern laboratory building! The first meeting of staff took place in June 1994 in Murlough, followed by trips with the architect Arthur Acheson to visit other quick build sites with the promise that we really could build a school in a year. There was the day when Gordon Wilson travelled from Enniskillen to cut the first sod on the Lawnfield site, which we didn’t yet own! There were the meetings with Philip Woods and Sean Killough of the Allied Irish Bank, when Kevin persuaded them somehow that lending us a million and a half was a good investment. This time in the meetings were in the magnificent setting of the Enniskeen gazing out over the mountains.
All the while the founder parents were recruiting students to reach that magic figure of sixty students which would mean that Department of Education funding would kick in for staff salaries, desks, chairs and running costs. On 18th June 1994, the founding parents held a barbecue at Murlough House, a wonderful sunny day when staff, parents, governors and prospective students came together for the first time. On that very day the Loughinisland shootings were a terrible reminder of the urgency of at least making a start in building a future that might mean our students would grow up together and build peace.
Our first assembly on 1st September 1994 brought together the founding parents, the students, the staff, and founder uncle Tommy Sands, who has always been such a support. That was a very, very special day. It was a very special day for Daniel, who spent part of the day up a tree, and for Andy who spent part of the day sitting under the tree, gently coaxing him down! ( I’m just not sure about putting this in) That first year was full of firsts experienced together: the first Remembrance Day, with tales of family experiences of WW2, including a bit of smuggling: the first St Patrick’s Day with both Festival and Féis dancing, an integrated triumph itself; the first International Women’s Day when Siún and Ellen sneaked in the night before to put some purple and green wrapping paper to good use.
There was ‘Christmas Jazz’, our first musical in the pre-renovation, freezing Annesley Hall, our first school trip to France, our visit from the Sam Maguire Cup, our visit from the first police car – most of us had only seen armoured landrovers before then. There was the realisation that our first day had also been the first day of the IRA ceasefire, followed a few weeks later by the Loyalist ceasefire. There was the terrible realisation with the shooting of postal worker Frank Kerr, on 10th November 1994, that our Troubles were not over. There was the increased determination to make Integration happen with the support of the Communication Workers Union, Royal Mail and Frank Kerr’s family.
There was our first ever Parents Consultation evening on 19th October 1994, when we had to warn of badgers crossing! There was the first meeting of the Parent Council, a central pillar of Integration. A unique feature of Integrated schools is that they are founded by parents, and the status of the Parent Council is enshrined in the Articles of Association of Shimna Integrated College.
There was a wonderful day in June, when the first cohort of Shimna students moved to the new building on the Lawnfield site. There was the official opening on 13th December 1995, with a power cut, poetry, music, a Lambeg and a bodhran sounding out together. As happened on a number of occasions, our guest for the official opening, in this case Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew, had to cancel at the last minute as work towards a lasting peace continued, but we were delighted that his wife Lady Mayhew came to do the honours and perform the official opening. Every year after that brought a special day as we continued to move into newly opened sections of our building, following Arthur’s ingenious plan to open up attics and basements, always providing the facilities in time for our students studying for GCSE and A level.
In theory, if you judged our attainment and potential by 11+ results, only one of our students would qualify for sixth form. Our very first GCSE results day was a triumph, when Shimna topped the examination league tables for the South Eastern Education and Library Board, and two thirds of our students moved on into sixth form. Our other students moved on to further education, to apprenticeships and to employment, and everyone came together again at our first formal in the Europa Hotel, still at the time the most bombed hotel in Europe.
Picking out special days becomes more of a challenge, because every day was a day of firsts and new developments. In 1998, yet again, work on the peace process interrupted Shimna’s celebrations. This time, our guest, Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, was hard at work on the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and had to cancel her appointment to cut the first sod for Phase 2 of our building. But, her wonderful mother, Tina, stepped in and on a glorious sunny day, that first sod was cut.
The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement Mo worked so hard to achieve meant that our guest at the official opening of the Forbes Building, Minister of Education John O’Dowd, was able to be there and do the honours for that official opening.
2017 came and an anniversary shared among the whole Integrated community. It was the 35th anniversary of the founding of the very first Integrated school, Lagan College, and that made it the 35th anniversary of Integrated education. Shimna was involved in a whole range of celebratory projects. First of all, a book was commissioned, “There Were no Desks”, a title commemorating the experience of every group of founding parents when they realised they just had to do it all themselves! The book was full of interviews with the people who made Integration happen in those early days, and of course Kevin, as the first Development Officer of the reconstituted NICIE and then founding principal of Shimna, was one of the contributors. He also served on the editing committee, a huge piece of work getting ready for publication. Alongside this came the preparations for an evening of celebration at the Ulster Museum, with Kevin as the compere. Our drama students, singers and musicians and those from Lagan were centre stage in a stunning music and drama performance, ‘Big Small Stories’ celebrating what Integration means.
Marking our own 25th was going to be different. Save the glamorous ball for the decades! We celebrated our 25th with a fabulous rush of creativity. Mairi McCurdy and the English department produced an anthology of our students’ poetry, and invited former head of English, and founder parent, Gráinne Tobin to edit the publication. Gráinne is herself a published poet and inspirational at encouraging others to write. The launch was a lovely event of readings and celebration of creativity.
The art department had won a Carson bursary for a wonderful legacy project, inspired by the 2018 Armistice day display of ceramic poppies. Melanie Skelcher and students set about creating a field of white ceramic poppies symbolising peace. The work was invested in the 25th year, with the kiln on full power for days and days, with the long term plan of ‘planting’ the field in our grounds when the new building is in place and the grounds reconfigured.
The anniversary year also saw our first entry for Junk Kouture, and a very spectacular entry it was, full of local symbolism of coastal images and globally saving our oceans. The art department also contributed to the poetry anthology with a cover design by Chris Barbour.
Collaboration was the order of the anniversary, with another art competition to design the CD cover for the most spectacular anniversary event of all. Ria Maguire, with our students and staff, composed an anniversary song, performed and recorded by a massed choir of Shimna and All Children’s students, staff, parents and governors. And Alison Bahadoor McGlynn baked a celebratory cake for the day of the performance!
Many years before, at the ‘All Aboard’ concert in the Waterfront Hall, a wonderful collaboration among all the Integrated schools, a very young Shimna student, the same Ria Maguire, had stood alone on the enormous stage to sing ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’.
The 25th anniversary song was inspirational, the experience of singing it absolutely life enhancing. And we have the recording to remind us ever after. As part of the project, an animation was developed to accompany the song, which was played at anniversary events throughout the Integrated movement.
We know how to mark days like this.
