Tunnel vision!

HUNDREDS of students from two Northside gaelscoileanna took part in an imaginative protest last week.

Pupils of Scoil Mobhí and Scoil Chaitríona marched the short distance from their classrooms to the front pitch of CLG Na Fianna where they formed a human chain.

The event was designed to demonstrate the size of the two giant holes where it’s being proposed tunnel boring and excavation for the Metrolink project will be carried out. Each of the circles formed had a diameter of 30 metres. Under the current preferred plans for MetroLink, the site immediately beside their schools would be a construction site for a minimum of six years.

At its closest point, the site will be a mere two metres from the art room of Scoil Chaitríona and five metres from the inside of the junior infants classroom in Scoil Mobhí.

It will run the full length of the school yard of the primary school and head of Scoil Chaitríona, Carmel de Grae, said it was "unprecedented" to have a site of this scale so close to a school.

"We have serious concerns for the health and safety of our students and staff,” she said.

“With dozens of trucks a day, removing excavation soil from the site, entering and exiting via Mobhi Road, it will be hugely dangerous for students accessing both schools whether by car, bus, bike or on foot.”

Scoil Mobhí principal Marcella NicNiallaigh also warned of major health concerns from dust and diesel emissions, noise and vibrations.

"Those factors will make effective education impossible for the duration of the project – a minimum of six years and probably longer.”

The teachers also believe construction will raise serious questions about students' ability to complete State Examination requirements.

Both principals warned that the proposal to have the boring site and an underground station at the campus was already impacting on the decisions parents were taking on whether to send their children to, or keep them at, the two schools.

Scoil Chaitríona has already had a "steady stream” of inquiries from parents concerned about sending their children to what will essentially be a building site for the duration of their secondary education.

“They have indicated that if it goes ahead as planned, they will withdraw their children,” said de Grae.

“We would then go from a school with a growing enrolment to one with threatened viability.”

The principals stressed that the development would have a hugely damaging impact on the Irish language community. Scoil Chaitríona has 449 students, while Scoil Mobhí has a further 250. Both are all Irish co-educational schools.

"We are a loss to comprehend how this proposal was ever put forward and quite simply there is no way it could co-exist with the two schools,” they said in a joint statement.

“It would blight the educational experience of our pupils for up to a decade and put their health and safety at risk. That is unthinkable.”