Some of Clongowes Wood's famous past pupils are being asked to help fund a major development programme at the boys' boarding school near Naas, Co Kildare.
The €22 million development will include a sports centre with a 25 metre indoor swimming pool, an academic resource centre, a new science, technology and art wing and a medical centre.
Some €12 million has been donated by past pupils and supporters of the Jesuit-run school and it has no plans to seek public funding. Subject to planning permission, the facilities are due for completion by the end of 2010.
The school has some of the most illustrious past pupils in the country to seek support from, including businessmen Michael O'Leary, Michael Smurfit and David Dilger. Other past pupils include EU ambassador to the US John Bruton, U2 manager Paul McGuinness, Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan and barrister Eoin McGonigal.
A second phase will involve a centre for the performing arts and improved student accommodation. The school is embarking on an access programme which eventually aims to provide scholarships and bursaries to up to 10 per cent of the student body.
The Clongowes Towards 200 plan has been drawn up to mark the college's 200th anniversary, which will be celebrated in 2014.
Parents gathered at the school yesterday to hear details of the plan, which is being managed by the Clongowes Wood College Foundation. Headmaster Fr Leonard Moloney said the plans would ensure that the college would "continue to grow and develop according to the principles and characters of Jesuit education".
The Clongowes Towards 200 document says: "Ireland has now reached a level of prosperity beyond the imaginations of our college's founders. It is therefore appropriate and necessary that the ongoing capital and other developments of the college be funded largely from alumni, parents, parents of alumni and friends".
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