Mothers weepy on first day at school

LUNCH boxes packed, shoes polished and bottom lips trembling, they fought back tears as the first day at school beckoned — and they were just the parents.

As the day of reckoning dawned, it was the grown-ups who were struggling with their emotions as the 50,000 students headed off.

“I was a little bit blubbery, to be honest, but Chelsea was all excited. All the children were, actually, it was the mums who were a bit apprehensive, but the children couldn’t wait to get rid of us,” Kathryn Burke, from Tuam, Co Galway, said. Four-and-a-half-year-old Chelsea couldn’t wait to go to school yesterday. Being a veteran of playschool, she was no stranger to making friends, but her mother was a little sad to see her go.