Children protest over field of dreams

CHILDREN who have been educated in a football club for up to eight years yesterday built cardboard classrooms in a field they hope will be chosen for a new school building.

Parents, staff and pupils of Gaelscoil Cholmcille in Dublin are awaiting a Department of Education decision which could secure the site within weeks. The protest was organised to highlight the impoverished conditions they have been in since opening in 1996.

While the clubhouse and prefabs were suitable in the early days, the school now has 210 pupils and almost 100 children applying for 30 junior infant places next year. The parents said the shanty school was intended to highlight how their treatment by the Department of Education is comparable to how children were treated 300 years ago.