'Huge blow' as Cork Irish college won't open for a third year

Summer courses at Coláiste na Mumhan in West Cork were fully booked, but staffing and Covid issues have forced the school to close again

Coláiste na Mumhan

The country’s oldest Irish college will be closed for a third consecutive year due to the effects of the pandemic, with the cancellation of this summer’s courses a “huge blow” to students, staff, and the Gaeltacht community.

Following two years of Covid-enforced closure, Coláiste na Mumhan, founded in Béal Átha ’n Ghaorthaidh, Co Cork, in 1904, was due to reopen in June for the first of this year’s residential courses for 12 to 18-year-olds, which was almost at capacity.

The closure, which denies hundreds of prospective students an opportunity to attend a Gaeltacht course, came after the college was unable to recruit kitchen staff or comply with Covid ventilation regulations in some of its dormitories.

The cancellation caused great disappointment for students, said Coláiste na Mumhan secretary Liam Shorten. 

“I feel so sorry for parents. It’s too late to apply for whatever other Irish college might be open," he said.

“The ceannairí [student leaders] that I had promised jobs to, I had to ring up and say ‘we can’t open, so try and get summer work elsewhere’.

For the local shops it’s a huge blow.

He said the closure also meant the college’s outdoor swimming pool, usually made available to the local community, would not open this year.

“The whole village was looking forward to having people around again for the summer because it brings a great buzz,” he said. 

"We had the place painted outside and ready to go. It’s all very disappointing.” 

As a member of the college’s five-person voluntary steering committee, he said: “People in the locality who look to you to open, you’re letting them down; you’re letting the parents down who were hoping their children would be with you for three weeks; and people who were signed up to work, you have to let them down as well, and that’s three years in a row where we’ve had to cancel.” 

Massive loss to economy

With its three-week course costing €925 and two weeks €625, the annual loss to the rural economy was estimated at up to €500,000.

The committee, however, had no choice but to cancel after facing “two huge hurdles”, said Mr Shorten.

“We didn’t have enough applications for staff to run our kitchen, our cleaning staff, staff in the yard, and we struggled to recruit teaching staff,” he said.

Despite advertising and contacting training colleges and local businesses, which themselves reported pandemic staff shortages, too few applicants emerged. 

"We tried everything but it failed us in the end," Mr Shorten said.

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A second issue was Covid transmission risk and he criticised delays in support for residential colleges attempting to navigate Covid regulations before reopening.

The Department of the Gaeltacht and Irish language colleges federation Concos were “to-ing and fro-ing over Covid guidelines for Irish colleges and no guidance was coming”, he said.

“We filled our courses and then they issued guidelines. We got no support. 

We were told we would have to purchase our own PPE.

Mr Shorten, a school vice-principal, added: “Schools would have been given grants for PPE but we were left to our own devices and told ‘do your own risk assessment’.” 

The committee engaged a health and safety company, which advised that some of the college bedrooms would not comply with Covid guidelines on ventilation.

Colleges in Connemara, Meath, and Donegal were also cancelled and Mr Shorten said Coláiste na Mumhan’s aim now is to undertake required Covid measures with a view to reopening next year.