Frustration at Gaelscoil delay spills onto streets

THIRTEEN years of frustration for parents and teachers, at a south Tipperary primary school, spilled over onto the streets yesterday.

Hundreds of protesters marched in Clonmel over a delay in providing a site for a new Gaelscoil.

Two hundred pupils, along with a large group of parents and all the staff members from Gaelscoil Chluain Meala, braved frosty conditions to march through the town and deliver their complaints at county council headquarters.

Onlookers and shoppers in the busy town clapped and cheered as the children sang their way along O’Connell Street and Gladstone Street, while motorists — despite traffic delays — sounded horns and waved in sympathy with the children.

Walking in support behind the students, parents’ council chairperson Marian O’Brien said that all concerned were simply fed up waiting for a new school building to replace the rented, overcrowded, facility the gaelscoil had been using for the last 13 years.

“We’re no closer to getting any satisfaction,” she said.

There had been hopes that the school would be able to develop part of the existing third-level campus, on the edge of Clonmel, with plans in place for the Tipperary Institute to relocate to a nearby site.

However, a meeting with officials last week revealed no site has been finalised.

“The general perception seems to be that we’ll get a site from the Tipperary Institute but that’s not the case,” said Ms O’Brien. “It’s apparent as well that Minister Hanafin seems to think it’s just a matter of the school waiting to get the site up there, so maybe she’ll now realise what the situation is.”

Gaelscoil principal Treasa Nic Dhiarmada said that pupils, who originally attended the school when a new building had been promised, were now old enough to vote.

“There’s absolute frustration,” she said. “We had a meeting last Tuesday with the Tipperary Institute and local politicians. It became more evident at the meeting that our school was not a priority at all.”

A section of the Tipperary Institute site on Clonmel’s inner relief road was earmarked in the past as the most suitable place for development of the gaelscoil. However, according to Ms Nic Dhiarmada, the site they may finally be allocated, will not be on campus.

In recent years, parents have been forced to fund raise just to keep their present school building in Irishtown maintained and in a habitable condition while also paying for 5% of the rent.

But, with a site still to be identified and negotiations to begin on getting it developed, the current crop of pupils at Gaelscoil Chluain Meala could be long gone from the primary sector before the dream of a new school is realised.