{"id":507862,"date":"2026-06-19T12:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507862\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T12:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:03:18","slug":"donegal-school-chosen-as-irelands-favourite-building-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507862\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal school chosen as ‘Ireland’s favourite building’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A special educational needs school in Co Donegal has been chosen as “Ireland’s favourite building” as part of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) public choice award.<\/p>\n

The institute said the Little Angels School building in Letterkenny captured the imagination of the public with its “immense practicality and inclusive design”.<\/p>\n

The building is situated within a landscape of sensory gardens, trails and amenity areas.<\/p>\n

This year, 44 buildings or public spaces were shortlisted for the public choice award, including six international buildings from as far as the US and Japan.<\/p>\n

President of the RIAI Fionnuala May said the award was open to all its members.<\/p>\n

She said the architecture awards take in “a wide variety of projects that have been completed during 2025”.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the winning entry, Ms May said the building “seeks to define what a school should be”.<\/p>\n

\"Aeriel
\nThe school in Letterkenny was designed by McGarry N\u00ed \u00c9anaigh Architects<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland, she said the New Special Educational Needs School in Letterkenny defines both the school\u2019s “bare function” and also its “atmosphere and character”.<\/p>\n

“And it was really important that was done because it seeks to have early intervention with children with mild or moderate autism and severe and profound.<\/p>\n

“And so, it needed, in order to satisfy those needs, to meet all those needs, it needed to consult with everything.<\/p>\n

“It’s very beautiful as well though,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior
\nThe building houses the Little Angels School in Letterkenny<\/p>\n

Chief Executive of the Donegal Education and Training Board Anne McHugh said the award was a “fantastic achievement” for the Little Angels School and for McGarry N\u00ed \u00c9anaigh Architects.<\/p>\n

“This beautiful school building is a special building in so many ways that not only represents the vision of the architects but represents the hard work of so many dedicated people,” Ms McHugh said.<\/p>\n

“To have that vision and hard work validated with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Public Choice award is incredible.<\/p>\n

“This building gives the students and staff an environment they can truly be proud of.<\/p>\n

“It’s a wonderful day for the entire school community and we sincerely thank the public here in Co Donegal and across the country for recognising it with this wonderful award.”<\/p>\n

\"Exterior
\nRIAI said Project Connect at RCSI in Dublin was sensitive to its historic surroundings<\/p>\n

The runner-up for Ireland\u2019s favourite building was Project Connect at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on St Stephen\u2019s Green in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The institute said the building balanced “bold contemporary architecture with sensitivity to its historic surroundings”.<\/p>\n

In third place was the Shackleton Experience on Emly Square in Athy, Co Kildare.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior
\nThe Shackleton Experience in Athy transformed a protected structure<\/p>\n

The building “boldly” reimagined a protected structure as a civic and cultural home for Ernest Shackleton\u2019s legacy, transforming it into a “world-class visitor experience”, the RIAI said.<\/p>\n

All the entries can be viewed on the RIAI website.<\/p>\n

The RIAI Irish Architecture Awards will take place tomorrow evening, where the full list of winners across all categories will be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A special educational needs school in Co Donegal has been chosen as “Ireland’s favourite building” as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-507862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}