Scale down of pupils’ protest in Irish row

STUDENTS objecting to the teaching of all subjects through Irish in a Co Kerry school yesterday scaled down their protest, with many returning to their classrooms.

However, up to 40 students continued with the two-day protest outside Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibne. All are due back in class today.

The 470-student school which opened in late August, is an amalgamated school which replaces two former schools run by the Presentation Order and the Christian Brothers in Dingle.

Students claim that subjects were taught through both Irish and English in the former schools and want that situation to continue.

Parents are also protesting against the Irish-only policy in the new school and have held a number of meetings on the issue in Dingle, which is in the Gaeltacht.

While parents say they are not supporting the students’ protests, they point out at the same time they understand the situation facing students, especially those who do not have a command of Irish and don’t know what’s going on in class, as a result.

Meanwhile, former education minister Mary O’Rourke, said she hoped the all-Irish policy of the school’s management board will be relaxed. She felt provision should be made for students who don’t want a total immersion in Irish.

A number of Gaeltacht organisations, including Údarás na Gaeltachta, are strongly supporting the school’s language policy.

In a statement, they said the Irish language had reached crisis point in the west Kerry Gaeltacht and if this trend was to be reversed, strong endorsement had to be given to the school’s language policy. The survival of the language depended on an integrated, planned process, it added.

“The transmission of the language from one generation to the next (the raising of children through the medium of Irish) is the critical and most important step in this process,” the statement said.

“We take it that the Department of Education fully supports the raising of children through the medium of Irish in the Gaeltacht. This cannot be done without fully supporting education through the medium of Irish.”

The statement said parents could not be expected to raise their children through Irish without having full education through Irish to back their efforts.

But, it also called for language support for children whose first language was not Irish in order to prepare them for all-Irish education.

There were no signs of a resolution to the row last night.