Gaelscoil stages walkout over poor conditions

Over 500 students and staff staged a walkout at Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede over the poor conditions in the school.

The school, which opened in 2001, has been left to stagnate with no permanent school building, school hall, library, canteen, indoor assembly space, or bike shelters.

Planning has been granted for all of the aforementioned facilities, with no sign of them emerging anytime soon.

In the heat of a general election campaign with a sense of malaise surrounding education standards in Ireland, Wednesday’s protest was an example of the issues the next government will have on their intray.

Gaelcholáiste Reachrann is the only Gaelscoil in the Dublin Bay North constituency and receives a fraction of the engagement and supports of other schools in the area receive.

Two-thirds of the facilities at the school are prefabs, a hangover of the Celtic Tiger era of school construction which has stuck around.

Prefabs are designed for temporary use and are notorious for not being able to retain heat, forcing students and teachers to wear coats in class for most of the school year.

The parent of one 12-year-old boy attending the school said “our kids have been abandoned by three successive Ministers for Education.”

“They should be ashamed of themselves, and they can expect an earful on the doorsteps.”

Joe Ó Dónaill, principal of nearby primary school Gaelscoil Míde said “hundreds of pupils from Gaelscoil Míde have attended Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in the last 23 years. As a principal, I am always delighted and proud that our pupils are continuing their education as Gaeilge, I know that they will get great care and an excellent education.”

“However, I also feel sorry that they are leaving our beautiful school to go to a building that would have been unsatisfactory even when I attended school myself, a long time ago! The country is awash with money. It is high time to stop talking and to start building.”

The school was put on the Department of Education’s list for architectural planning and a full design team was appointed back in 2007, with no improvements made in the 17-year gap (or the seven Taoiseachs) since.

There are four steps involved in a new school build; the preliminary stage, a design process (split in two parts,) a tender and award process, then construction.

At present, the plan is stuck on the second part of the second stage of planning, a symptom of Ireland’s Kafka-esque construction system.

At time of going to press on Friday afternoon, the week before the general election, 4,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Department of Education to intervene and improve standards in the school.

The sub-standard quality of the facilities is a bitter pill to swallow for local residents; local TD 

Richard Bruton was Minister for Education between 2016 and 2018 yet no action was taken to improve the school.

Local residents said “we have been told by the department it was a priority for them for 2024 and despite us nearing the end of the year now, no progress has been made on this whatsoever.”

Local Fianna Fáil councillor Tom Brabazon, whose son attends the school and attended the protest, said that the tender process will begin in the first quarter of 2025.

With his Fianna Fáil colleague Norma Foley in charge of the Minister for Education brief, he said “we have seen the Department approve other educational projects rapidly in the area, and I believe this should be seen as a model for delivery for the new building of Gaelcoláiste Reachrann.”

“I am as angry as any other parent about the delays and the bureaucracy the Department of Education have engaged in,” and said he has repeatedly raised the issue with Minister Foley.

Sinn Féin councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha said “this issue has come up at many doors throughout our canvass in the past few weeks, showing the spread of pupils in the school from across Dublin Bay North and beyond.”

“This much-loved school’s new building has been held up by planning bungles and bureaucratic delays; it is not acceptable.

The parent of one Junior Cert student hailed the teachers as “saints” who “continue to excel despite these substandard conditions.”

“In fact, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann has excelled in academic and sporting achievements as evidenced by school league tables and a wealth of silverware,” they noted.

Michelle McGoldrick, who organised the petition said “despite the amazing work done by teachers in Gaelcholáiste Reachrann, there is only so much they can do in these deplorable conditions.”

“It’s a wonder they can get anyone to work in the school at all. These conditions are having a huge negative impact on both teachers and students and something needs to be done about it urgently.”

“Our children are expected to concentrate and reach their full potential learning in freezing cold conditions, in prefabs that are not fit for purpose.”

“The school has to turn down opportunities for extracurricular activities, such as drama and sports because they don’t have the facilities to accommodate it; they have to walk 15 minutes to a nearby hall to do PE, and if the weather is bad they have to cancel.”

“This simply is not good enough and there is no excuse for it to be going on for 24 years,” she said,