“Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux”
‘Learning from Each Other’ – since 1994
The boulder has become a symbol of the project to build Shimna. The boulder emerged when the builders were digging down to build the foundations for phase 2. With an enormous effort, they delivered the boulder to pride of place at the front door of the school.
Kevin identifies as an existentialist, ideas epitomised in the work of Albert Camus. Camus’ expression of existentialism through the myth of Sisyphus seemed to encapsulate the job of building Shimna; rolling the boulder up the hill, only to start rolling again from the bottom. But in the words of Camus, ‘Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux’, and Kevin was indeed happy in the task of building Shimna. He chose Camus words as the inscription for his boulder, and Deborah McDowell’s stonemason husband Stephen was happy to inscribe.
The boulder provided the backdrop for special moments throughout the history of the school. Staff member Regis from the French department chose the spot for his farewell photograph as he returned to France.
Student Tighearnach Dawes did too.
So did many others!
Yet another link with the French department came when head of French, Anne Clarke Belanger, spotted her two wee sons giving the boulder a big shove!
When Kevin came to retire, a photo with Sisyphe was an essential on his last day.
Kevin’s final success in terms of Shimna’s building was in having the plans, permissions and enthusiasm at the ready when Fresh Start money became available from the Northern Ireland Office for funding a permanent building. Because our semi-permanent building didn’t obviously look as if it needed to be replaced, Shimna wasn’t on the original Fresh Start list. It took a mad, early morning dash to a meeting in Antrim to present the facts and the plans that won Shimna the funding. Kevin led the Project Board working with the Department of Education, NICIE and the professionals to make sure the project was guaranteed, consulted with parents and the local community and underway before he retired.
The boulder would be the only element of the original structure to link with the new building. Facilites manager Robbie Mulholland worked with staff member Juneve’s stonemason father to add the tribute to Kevin to the inscription on the boulder. ‘C’est mon rocher’ had been Kevin’s watchword for the responsibility he had taken on as founding principal of Shimna.
Robbie also made sure that all the contractors who tendered for the job of building the school would be in no doubt as to the importance of siting the boulder within the new scheme, and early on during construction, the boulder was moved to a new site at the entrance to the school.
And when Kevin came to speak at the official sod cutting ceremony for the new school building, he was able to view the new site for the boulder and take a final photo, smiling in celebration of a job well done.
