A planning application has been lodged with Mallow Town Council for a €5.5 million extension to Davis College which will see the school cater for an extra 625 pupils. The school at Summerhill, which already has over 550 students, will grow significantly with the addition of 35 classrooms, laboratories, administration rooms, social areas, and a special needs education unit. The adjacent Irish language primary school, Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís, is also to expand. The news was welcomed by Cllr Noel O’Connor, Mayor of Co. Cork and chairman of the college’s Board of Management, who described it as a major boost for the town.
Funding for extensions at both schools was approved in 2011, but local residents raised objections about increased traffic passing through their estates, and following extensive consultation, the plan was amended to change the access route to the adjacent Sexton’s Boreen. Under this plan, the boreen will be widened to allow for two-way traffic with a turning point at the top, and students and traffic will now access both schools via this road instead of the Orchards, where traffic has been a major issue for several years. The cost of the construction of the road is €500,000, and in a letter to residents this week Davis College Principal Denis Healy and Gaelscoil Principal Donal Ó Murchú expressed appreciation to the residents’ association of the area for engaging in the process.
Davis College moved from Annabella to their new school, built on a greenfield site in Summerhill, in 2001. Originally built to house 450 pupils, it has grown to over 550 this year, and next September is expected to enrol 700. The adjacent Gaelscoil has seen a proportional increase in enrolments.