In September 2022, Nenagh will become the town with the first "thriving" school to reconfigure to the ETB and change from being a Catholic School to being a Community National School. John Gunnell is currently the principal of St. Mary's Junior Boys' National School, soon to be Nenagh CNS.

I've covered the politics behind the reconfiguration, but I'm also interested in what it's like for a school community to go through the process. I was very grateful to John for agreeing to chat to me about the move and he offered some interesting insight, which may be of interest to any school thinking of moving away from their patronage.