Family, friends and army colleagues of Irish UN peacekeeper Private Sean Rooney have funded Ireland’s first dedicated “rainbows room” in a Co Meath school.
The project, which opened today in Ratoath Community College, offers a safe space for children and young people experiencing loss due to bereavement or parental separation to meet and talk to others facing the same experience.
Anne Staunton, CEO of Rainbows Ireland, which provides the free voluntary service, said the project will serve as an example for other schools across the country.
“What we are creating here is a very safe confidential trusted space,” she said.
“This is giving a message [to students] in this school that they are supported here, that they belong here, and that is very powerful,” she said.
Rainbows Ireland dedicated the project to the memory of Private Rooney, 24, who was killed when the UN convoy he was travelling in was attacked in December 2022.
Since then, Private Rooney’s family, friends and army colleagues have been fundraising for Rainbows Ireland, a service Mr Rooney himself used when his own father died in the service.
Speaking at the launch, Private Rooney’s mother Natasha McCloskey said she was “honoured” to be a part of the celebration.
“Sean was ten when his dad passed, and his primary school got me in touch with Rainbows, so he did the programme and he really benefitted from it,” she said.
“It’s very fitting to be Sean’s legacy that he would help young children because he was such a good person,” she said.
Christopher O’Neill, Private Rooney’s best friend, has played an instrumental role in fundraising, organising an event in which friends and family of Private Rooney played a charity football match against an army select team in Dundalk’s Oriel Park.
Named the Sean Rooney Cup, the charity match was played last December and raised €21,077 for charity.
Mr O’Neill said that dedicating the project in Private Sean Rooney’s name will hold “a special place in his heart”.
“It’s great to know that his name will live in the memory of helping other kids in the same situation he was in,” he said.
The centrepiece of the rainbows room, a wall-to-wall painted mural, was spearheaded by Ratoath TY students Áine Fitzgerald and Hannah Carroll, who used her own loss to inspire her work.
“As someone who has experienced the loss of a loved one I understand the significance that makes someone feel welcomed and calm within it,” she said.
The rainbows room was officially opened following a short service, and will now be available to all Ratoath students facing the loss of a loved one.
