Historic reunion for Dalkey’s Educate Together founders

FOUNDING members, former and current parents and pupils and friends of Dalkey School Project NS came together at Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel recently for a very special event to celebrate 40 years since the school’s foundation.

In 1978, Dalkey School Project (DSP) first opened its doors as a three-teacher school with 92 pupils in a Victorian house in Vesey Place.

Now, 40 years later there is a flourishing network of 84 primary and 13 second-level Educate Together Schools attended by 28,000 children.

The founding of DSP in 1978 was the culmination of hard work by a number of concerned parents who wanted inclusive schools that embraced difference and celebrated principles of tolerance and mutual respect.

They envisaged a place where children of all social, cultural and religious backgrounds were equally respected.

DSP was to provide the first true alternative to the monopoly of religious-run schools in Ireland.

The President of Ireland Michael D Higgins has referred to these “pioneering” members of the Dalkey School Project as “audacious and brave”, and he has saluted the Educate Together movement as “a critical and committed agent of change in the Irish education system”. 

Principal Miriam Hurley welcomed everyone to the historic event.

“The Dalkey School Project was founded by people with different beliefs, opinions and personalities yet dedicated to working as a team to establish inclusive education for children,” Ms Hurley said. “No child an outsider was a basic tenet of our school and continues to be at the centre of the Educate Together movement.”

The reunion was an opportunity to reunite the DSP community, who enjoyed an evening of reminiscences and music with performances by DSP alumni including one of the school’s first students, Josh Johnston and the Moogies.