Gerard Retires from Board. Gerard Mc Quillan retired from the Board of Management of Edenmore N.S. last year after 30 years of service to the school. He joined the board in 1989 and during his time he has played a major role in seeing the school transform in both terms of size and stature. He has helped to oversee many building and maintenance projects during his 30 years and Gerard's expertise within all areas of construction has been a major asset. He has always made himself available to help the school out whenever called upon and consistently worked diligently behind the scenes in his unassuming way for the benefit of Edenmore N.S. Gerard attended the school in the 1960's and has very fond memories of his time here when school life was a lot different than it is today and there was certainly less health and safety concerns! He joined the board whenever his children began to attend the school and stayed on it for many years after they left. The entire Mc Quillan family have a great affinity with Edenmore N.S. and they have all been extremely supportive towards the school throughout the years and continue to do so. Fr Martin and Declan Mc Garvey, from the Board of Management, along with principal Barry Cuddy made a presentation to Gerard and all thanked him for everything that he has done for the school and spoke about the huge loss that he will be to the school board. I was speaking to Gerard afterwards and he expressed his huge disappointment that the new building for the Autism Unit had stalled due to planning problems. He was involved in all the developments at the school during the past 30 years as he regarded the School as the centre of and playing a central role in the life of the people of rural Ireland. It is why the Creche was situated beside the Primary School and why it was very important to have the Autism Unit at the same compound as the school for the benefit of all children attending. It is also vital for the life of the community there to have all three units together for consistency and ease of access. It appears in the Northern Standard that local public representatives are making efforts to get a solution to the planning problem through the Department of Education and we hope that they are successful at an early date so that the work can commence on the building which is badly needed. I would also hope that this happens as I am a past-pupil of Edenmore and know the importance of having the three units together in one place. Meanwhile it is congratulations and thanks to Gerard for his tremendous work over the years for our Alma Mater and for the great support he has given to the School authorities during his time on the Board.