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New I.R.A


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All IRA jokes aside I believe 2016 is the date bounded about. I'm very glad of it as if I dinne move my daughter will go there and as a 98' alumni myself the huts where a state then. Mr Bill Walker (depute heed) back then told me they were very much a temp measure when

they were built. Apparently the IRA was meant to be much bigger and these were just a stopgap. I'm sure Mr B can can shine some light on it lol!

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I am sure Mr Bannerperson will be happy and quick to educate, debate, inform, scold , elucidate, possibly obfuscate, interpret, confuse, review , go.."phew", annotate, analyse, conclude, high-falute, dictate and dynamically divide and conquer us all with a daring dash of precise prose, a plethora of parametric, profuse anagrams and terrific, trite, textual tongue-ticklers trimmed to

tease and tantalise our epiglottis's.

Hold on, let me just draw a wee breath before the onslaught..... :crazy::wave:

And I hear that the cops are bringing in a large Mountie for County..... smile.canadian%20mountie.png

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OK then... potted history of what's happened. The current building at Culduthel was opened in 1977 and worked in tandem with the old one at Midmills until 1979 when that became Culloden Academy for a year and then the College.

Since 1979, the Culduthel building has housed Inverness Royal Academy which is the local comprehensive for that southerly slice of Inverness and the landward area.

The initial plan was to add a "Phase 2" by extending the original building towards where the Culduthel Christian Centre is now. This was to include a lot of extra classrooms and even a swimming pool and explains why certain services like staff bases and the lift are at the far end of the building. That was supposed to become the middle after Phase 2, but that was never built. Instead they added the huts as a "temporary" measure in the early 80s as the roll grew to 1300 (it's about 900 now and was as low as 750 about 15-20 years ago due to a combination of demography and birth rates.)

And so the building has been since the early 80s but the reality is that it is of very poor quality. Interestingly it was built by an organisation called The Lesser Construction Company. Very apt.

Things have got worse and worse over the years, prompting (now ex) Councillor Dave Henderson to brand the place a "slum" which the press instantly jumped on. This name has stuck ever since and while some of my colleagues get a bit impatient about this, I actually think that the label has played a significant part in the (quite lengthy) process, the latest stage of which was Thursday's announcement that, subject to £16M from the Scottish Government, this is Highland Council's preferred project for the next new build.

The projected finishing date is 2016 and reportedly the new school will go on the blaes playing area beside the current one, although how a whole new school can be fitted in there is mystifying some of us.

This will be Inverness Royal Academy's fourth building after Academy Street (Bar Pivo or whatever that's called now) 1792-1895, Midmills 1895 -1979 and the current one 1977-present. The school has its roots in a previous church school which started near Friars Street in 1233 which in turn handed over in the 1500s to a Grammar School which was first on Bank Lane near the old Courier Office and then in Dunbar's Hospital on Church Street before it was closed in 1792.

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I mind the stories in the papers when the latest version was built, of workers seeing ghosts in the building.

Will the ghoul flit to the new place?

Well Dougie, I am one of just three people left who have been in that building since day 1 and I've certainly never seen anything!

I believe the alleged ghost was meant to relate to the neolithic burial chambers on the site.

But on the other hand I happen to be writing this at my desk in the BBC in Culduthel Road where I've also worked for 30 years and which is also said to be haunted. Again I've never seen anything, despite keeping some pretty late hours here after midweek games when I'm in the building on my own as I am just now and I invariab

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I mind the stories in the papers when the latest version was built, of workers seeing ghosts in the building.

Will the ghoul flit to the new place?

Well Dougie, I am one of just three people left who have been in that building since day 1 and I've certainly never seen anything!

I believe the alleged ghost was meant to relate to the neolithic burial chambers on the site.

But on the other hand I happen to be writing this at my desk in the BBC in Culduthel Road where I've also worked for 30 years and which is also said to be haunted. Again I've never seen anything, despite keeping some pretty late hours here after midweek games when I'm in the building on my own as I am just now and I invariab

Oh dear, cut off in mid sentence, CB caught by the ghouls...

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I mind the stories in the papers when the latest version was built, of workers seeing ghosts in the building.

Will the ghoul flit to the new place?

Well Dougie, I am one of just three people left who have been in that building since day 1 and I've certainly never seen anything!

I believe the alleged ghost was meant to relate to the neolithic burial chambers on the site.

But on the other hand I happen to be writing this at my desk in the BBC in Culduthel Road where I've also worked for 30 years and which is also said to be haunted. Again I've never seen anything, despite keeping some pretty late hours here after midweek games when I'm in the building on my own as I am just now and I invariab

Oh dear, cut off in mid sentence, CB caught by the ghouls...

No.... alive, well and still totally unhaunted! Just thought I would try that one on to see if anybody noticed. Well spotted Dougie :lol:

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I mind the stories in the papers when the latest version was built, of workers seeing ghosts in the building.

Will the ghoul flit to the new place?

Well Dougie, I am one of just three people left who have been in that building since day 1 and I've certainly never seen anything!

I believe the alleged ghost was meant to relate to the neolithic burial chambers on the site.

But on the other hand I happen to be writing this at my desk in the BBC in Culduthel Road where I've also worked for 30 years and which is also said to be haunted. Again I've never seen anything, despite keeping some pretty late hours here after midweek games when I'm in the building on my own as I am just now and I invariab

Oh dear, cut off in mid sentence, CB caught by the ghouls...

No - alive, well and still completely unhaunted! I thought I would just try that one on to see if anyone noticed. Well spotted Dougie :lol:

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  • 2 months later...

There's a ghoul in the school

But not in the pool

Because there aint one ....

You know , Charles, et al, I get misty-eyed when I think of the IRA at Midmills Road. Don't you think what with these impressive steps at the front , that it was a really classy school in many ways and sure produced some very clever graduates too.

I remember old DJ MacDonald, resplendent in gown and mortar board carrying the eagled -eyed look on his stern and educated face. His bark was , I think, worse than his bite but i I was lucky enough never to have been sent to his door for a review of my behaviour. Not that I was all goodie two shoes and I got belted very hard on more than one occasion.Mr Thom was a small man but did he ever hurt me once with a double hander that nearly took me hand off.

I just got bored with listening to the teach droning on....and on... and on.

Ah, the joys of youth and looking back I would not have missed a moment of it all'cos I did learn something--I think i am sure of that. :blush:

So Charles, tell me do, what did you learn that has stayed with you all thes long years...? :wink:

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  • 1 month later...

How does any school get Royal status and if its a new build can it still carry the Royal in the name?

 

Quite simply it bought the "Royal" bit off George III, for quite a few quid I'm led to believe, in 1793, the year after it was founded. Simple as that. The royals had the habit of raising a few bob by selling royal charters to the plebs (am I allowed to use that word? :laugh: ) Mind you, by 1793 poor George was probably well and truly barking.

 

There is no problem carrying the name on since it goes with the institution not the building. this will be the Royal Academy's fourth building since it was founded in 1792.

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  • 3 months later...

I am from Muir of Ord and suffered through Dungwall Academy, I was one of two Inverness fans out of my friends as my family were originally from Beauly. But I did perhaps enjoy the end of my time when we earned SPL status, certainly not royal status where i went...

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