Schools split over Dempsey's half-day ban
Lord Mayor Colm Burke, stood firm as he began his annual round of school visits, despite a letter from Noel Dempsey calling a halt to the tradition started in Cork in 1920.
Mr Burke asked the first three schools he visited to take a half day and they agreed. Four others upheld Mr Dempsey's directive. In the next five weeks the mayor intends to make the same request at another 99 schools.
"I can't see why the tradition can't continue. It's a tradition which is 83 years old and was started by the then Lord Mayor, Terence McSwiney," Cllr Burke said.
Ironically, he spoke just yards away from Tomás McCurtain-McGrath, the great-grandson of the city's first Lord Mayor, Tomás McCurtain.
The young man is a pupil at Christian Brothers College, where teachers agreed to the Lord Mayor's request and let the 950 secondary school pupils go home at noon.
CBC deputy principal Tony McCarthy said he didn't think the new rules imposed by Mr Dempsey would be broken if they repaid the time lost. Mr Dempsey has said all secondary schools must provide pupils with 167 full days' education per year.
"If necessary we will have to change the calendar we sent out to parents," Mr McCarthy said.
He said the school had a couple of "discretionary days" which included time to honour its founder, Edmund Rice, and for sporting events, such as the Munster schools senior cup of which CBC are current holders.
Earlier, St Angela's College also went along with the Lord Mayor's request. A statement issued by the college said that out of respect for the city's first citizen and in accordance with a long tradition it would end classes at noon.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said schools taking the half-day would have to make it up. As schools have set mid-term, Christmas and Easter breaks, time is likely to be made up before the summer holidays.
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