Opened: June 1981
Builder: T. Fewer & Sons
Cost: £600,000 approximately
In the mid-seventies the then Parish Priest, Fr. T. Doherty, applied to the Department of Education for permission to extend the old school which was experiencing a growth in student numbers. Permission was refused on the grounds that the site was too restricted for further development and Fr. Doherty was advised by the D.E.S. to begin to look for a suitable site for a new building.
Little progress was made in this regard until Fr. Doherty’s successor Fr. R. Keane was appointed Parish Priest. A site of approximately 4.5 acres was acquired and work on the the new building was begun in early 1980. The school opened in June 1981. Sadly, Fr. Keane, who was the driving force behind the whole project, died unexpectedly in April of that year, two months before the school opened.
The new school replaced the older (1889) building which now serves as a Community Centre and was renamed in October 2007 in honour of Fr. Rufus Halley who was martyred in the Philipinnes. This in turn replaced the original Butlerstown School which was established, along with many other schools, by the Education Act of 1836.