Celebrations as North Mon gets reprieve from closure

The first day of spring sunshine marked celebrations at a northside school in Cork City, days after a reprieve from possible closure. The 170 boys — along with teachers and parents — of Scoil Mhuire Fatima took their party outdoors at lunchtime on Friday as they marked victory in their campaign against its planned closure.

It was proposed that the school at the North Monastery would be amalgamated with St Vincent’s primary school at the convent across the road next September, in a plan from school trustees that shocked the community when first reported in the Irish Examiner nearly a month ago.

However, overwhelming support for the campaign of opposition, driven by parents of Scoil Mhuire Fatima, forced the Edmund Rice Schools Trust to say last Monday that the proposal is being withdrawn.