The principal of a primary school in Dungannon has praised the Belfast Telegraph for its role in securing a new school building.

It was an article in the paper in November 1999, that drew attention to “disgraceful” conditions at the school, which played a major role in getting Department for Education funding for a new building.

John Kilpatrick said: “There was a lot of pressure put on the Department by the article and it made people sit up.

“I think that it did swing it for us as we were right on the front page.”

When he was interviewed in 1999 he told the Telegraph that dining facilities there were no better than a “Victorian soup kitchen”.

Work is due to start within days on the £1.2m project, which will build a new school.

Classes are expected to move there at Easter next year.

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