Fears that country’s oldest Irish summer college in Cork may not reopen this year

100 years after Coláiste na Mumhan opened, Coiste Forbartha Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh has expressed concerns about the future of the historically important Irish college 

The development association in Ballingeary, Co Cork, said it does not have any confidence in the Coláiste na Mumhan committee. File picture: Dan Linehan

A Gaeltacht community has called for clarity from the group which runs the country’s oldest Irish summer college amid concerns that it won’t open this summer.

The development association, Coiste Forbartha Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, in Ballingeary, Co Cork, said the Coláiste na Mumhan committee needs to reveal its plans, or hand the running of the college over to the community.

“We do not have any confidence in the group and believe the only way the Coláiste will run is by allowing the community to organise every aspect of the courses for summer 2024,” the Coiste said.

Coláiste na Mumhan opened in 1904 in the Muscraí gaeltacht as Ireland’s first Irish language teacher training college.

An Irish Examiner Archive photo from August 1954 of notable past pupils who attended Coláiste Na Mumhan's first courses in 1904 — Máire Ní Cuill; then education minister Richard Mulcahy;  Eibhlín Ni Croinín; Treasa Bean Ní Suilleabháin; A Ó Tuama; Liam De Róiste; Seán Ó Cuill; and Prof Cormac Ó Cadhlaig.

The college, and the village itself, played a key role in the rival of the Irish language at the beginning of the last century, with many leading historical figures such as Terence MacSwiney, Cathal Brugha, Liam de Róiste, Tomás Mac Curtain, Richard Mulcahy, Thomas MacDonagh, and Patrick Pearse among those to spend time in the area learning the language. 

Today, it is run by a not-for-profit community organisation, with three trustees listed.

It offers hostel-style accommodation for around 175 students and offers a three-week residential course in June and a two-week residential course in July for students aged 12 to 18. More students who stay in local houses, run by Mná Tí's, attend the same courses.

The college reopened last summer after covid but the Coiste Forbartha became concerned for 2024 when just one three-week course for this summer was listed on the college website, at a cost of €1,000, with no registration or booking facility available.

Tadhg Dineen, a member of the Coiste Forbartha, who studied, worked and later taught in the Coláiste, said it is too important a facility for the village and wider Muscraí gaeltacht to remain idle.

“We believe that the college governing body will have an uphill battle to fill the courses and to organise staffing for this summer especially when there isn’t an active member in the group from the locality," the Coiste said.

“The running of the courses which provide employment for teachers, catering staff, and Bean an Tí’s, is vital for the small village and its Gaeltacht heritage.” 

Efforts to contact the Coláiste have been unsuccessful, with calls on Wednesday to the phone numbers listed on its website unanswered, and no response to an email query. 

However, in a statement to the Coiste last week, the Coláiste committee said it had started working on a “strategic, long-term, ambitious plan” almost two years ago, that the plan is being implemented and “we are currently investigating funding sources....to upgrade the facilities for the future and implement the plans”.

“We hope to run courses in 2024 depending on appropriate resources and facilities, management, staff, and teaching resources together with the appropriate appropriate facilities."