Jack, 8, has to commute four hours every day for school in Cork

Despite its size, there is no special school for all of West Cork. This leaves children with no other option but to leave their community and travel to the city each day

Jack's long commute leaves him exhausted, says his mother, Sarah. Picture Dan Linehan

Eight-year-old Jack O’Donovan is the first on, and the last off, his bus to school every day.

Attending St Gabriel’s Special School, he spends almost four hours every day commuting to and from school in Bishopstown, Cork city, from his home near Clonakilty in West Cork. 

Luckily, Jack loves the bus. The exhausting daily commute, however, doesn’t make things easy for his family. 

“If he has an appointment or needs an appointment with a GP, he has to miss a day at school,” his mother Sarah O’Donovan told the Irish Examiner.

“It's too far to say ‘oh, I’ll just run him in’; It’s a two-hour roundtrip.” 

A mother of four, Jack is Sarah’s second oldest child. He has Pitt-Hopkins syndrome and requires a special school.

“Special school places are so hard to find, I’d be afraid to complain,” Sarah said. “The school is fantastic, they are brilliant, we really were so lucky to get it.”

“The biggest thing for me is that if something happens Jack in school, if he’s sick or hurts himself, I have to go all the way to Cork. 

"If you are bringing two other small kids with you then, you can’t just throw them in the car and run.”

“You have to either get someone to mind them, or make sure you have a drink and a snack and a bag packed and ready. It’s not like you are running down to the local national school.

“I would always make sure there is someone on standby, like my mother, who could mind them if I have to run up.” 

Every morning, Jack sets off on the bus at 7.30am. After making several stops along the way to pick up other students, it arrives at school for 9.20am. He finishes school at 2.45pm, getting home at 4.30pm most afternoons.

“By the time he is home all we are doing basically is having dinner and going to bed,” Sarah said. “I can’t really do anything else in the evening with him because he’s so tired. The day is done really.” 

Despite its large geographical area, there is currently no special school for all of West Cork. This leaves children with no other option but to leave their community and travel usually by bus or taxi into the city each day, according to Laura O'Mahony.

Laura is one of the parents who set up the West Cork Special School Campaign. The group knows of 15 children who are currently travelling to the city for school from west of Bandon.

They believe that up to 60 children could benefit from a special school in the region.

Laura’s son Max, now six, started making the daily trip at the age of five from his home near Clonakilty through the Jack Lynch tunnel all the way to St Killian's Special School in Mayfield.

“It’s taking us around one hour and 20 minutes to get there each way,” Laura said, adding that if the traffic is bad, the journey can take much longer.

Until recently, Laura and her husband would drive Max themselves as no suitable transport was available. Max now has a taxi and an escort.

“We have been very lucky that he has taken quite well to the taxi. Both the driver and escort have been amazing from the start.” 

Unfortunately, Max gets very upset when the car hits traffic. He has a diagnosis of non-verbal autism with a moderate intellectual disability.

“He has no problem expressing his love and affection for his family,” Laura said. “He does this without words and through body language. Obviously he gets very frustrated when I fail to understand what he wants and needs. Unfortunately, he often displays this in the form of self-injurious behaviour. It’s the most upsetting thing you can ever imagine as a parent.” 

Traffic is an unavoidable feature on Max’s journey to school. His parents have shortened his day as much as possible so that he isn’t distressed, and that further time isn’t being added to his journey.

“Children with autism often find traffic, lights, noise, and all that goes with travel extremely stressful,” Laura said. “This means that when they arrive at school they are not in the correct mindset for learning.

“Sometimes he’s in really bad form before school starts because of heavy traffic. He hates traffic lights and I have no idea how many he has to face going to school everyday. He never gets upset driving around West Cork because he knows the roads and knows where to expect a stop.” 

Due to the long journey every day, Max is “absolutely exhausted” when he returns home from school.

This means that he is unable to attend necessary therapy such as occupational therapy (OT), speech and language therapy, and play therapy.

“We had to give up his spot at The Rainbow club in Cork on Saturdays as he just couldn’t physically do it,” Laura said. “We gave up Strides Hippotherapy. He was attending OT at Sensational Kids in Clonakilty and he loved it but we put a hold on the sessions because he doesn’t have the energy or time in his day. He desperately needs to attend such therapies.” 

If Max’s school was closer, he would also have more time to do the things he loves like go to the beach to watch the waves crash, go horse riding, and on the swings at the park, his mother adds: “If he had the energy at the weekend, perhaps he would make a friend or be able to attend local clubs.” 

A long daily commute from Rosscarbery also means less time in the evenings for 13-year-old Logan Hayes. 

“He’s quite tired, we’ve actually had to bring his bedtime back an hour,” his mother Sharon told the Irish Examiner.

“My other children are older and when they went to secondary school, their bedtimes became later, whereas his now has to be earlier. He’s home at 4.30 in the evening and in bed by 8pm. He comes in the door, he’ll go lie on his bed for maybe half an hour to relax, have dinner and then we are into his bedtime routine.” 

Logan had attended a local school in an autism class for nine years. When it came time for secondary school, his family applied to different schools but to no avail.

He started in St Mary’s in Rochestown in September 2022.

 “We’re very happy with them, we couldn’t say anything bad about them,” Sharon said.

However, the family has encountered issues with bus escorts due to their location. Logan’s bus leaves Carrigaline early every morning, picking up up the bus escort before travelling west to Rosscarbery to pick up Logan between 7.30am and 7.45am. The bus picks up three more children en route to school, arriving for 9.20am.

The commute means a bus escort leaves their home at 6 am every morning, has a couple of hours free before heading back onto the bus again for home time. They make it home themselves from 6.30 pm to 7 pm every evening.

Sharon said: “We had the issue of finding a school, so when we found the school, we thought – This is great, we have a school, we have somewhere for him to go." 

It’s an issue in a million years you wouldn’t think of, she added. “You’d think the places are the problem, there’s no schools, so what do you do? Once you have the school and the escort and the bus, you’d be thinking everything should be smooth sailing from here.” 

Tessa Howlin is 10, and goes to school in St Killian's in Mayfield, Cork city. “Tessa’s brain is understood in St Killians,” her mother Emma told the Irish Examiner. She has a "phenomenal" teacher, Emma added.  “She understands her so well. The difference just shows she can succeed with the right people and the right setting.”

Tessa is very neurodiverse. 

"She’s diagnosed autistic with Aspergers but she suffers with anxiety. She would have an OCD type disorder as well where she would think there’s a lot of germs around.” 

She initially started out with bus transport to school.

“For her, this was impossible," Emma said. "By the time she got to school she was already ready to explode.”

“We applied for transport for her to travel on her own. Tess was at home for nearly three and a half months waiting for that to be cleared which was an absolute nightmare and just ridiculous.” 

“It's bad enough that a child has to travel an hour to get to school, then they make it so much more difficult for you to access that transport. I’m very grateful that we’ve got her now going up and down in her taxi but it's not been easy. It's been horrendous.” 

A new special school for West Cork isn’t going to open in Tessa’s lifetime, she added.

"But if I can stop any parent going through what we’ve gone through. The Government has to understand that mainstream schools with units are fantastic for some children, but they don’t work for other children.”

“Mainstream is not for every child. I appreciate it works for lots of children with additional needs but there are a lot of children that it doesn’t work for. These children are not being catered for, they are not being looked after – Not in West Cork anyway.”

“It’s not OK for a child to travel for an hour, or two hours or four hours to go to school. It’s taking away their afterschool life, it’s taking away their chances to make friends, it's just making other struggles even more difficult.” 

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that the department and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) have introduced a number of strategic initiatives to plan for and provide sufficient special classes and special school places.

Five new special schools have been established over the last three years, with two of these in Co  Cork. One of the new special schools in Rochestown Community Special School will have space for 24 children to begin with. 

“This new school will grow to accommodate over 60 students over the next few years," the spokesman added. “This new school will bring the number of special schools in Co Cork to 15 special schools catering for approximately 1,000 students.”