Annascaul parents brave freezing tempertures in all-night queues at Tralee school

Out in the cold....

Parents from the Annascaul area joined parents in Tralee last night (Friday January 9th) as they queued in freezing temperatures in order to secure places for their children at the school in the next school year at the Presentation Secondary School Tralee. A similar scenario ensued last week as parents queued for five nights to secure places for their children at another Tralee school, Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School.

However significantly, many of the parents from the Annascaul area who are queuing tonight in freezing temperatures are doing so over the debacle at Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne where an all-Irish teaching policy is in place.

Annascaul's primary school, Scoil Breac Chluain, is within the Dingle school catchment area, which also means a school bus service is supplied.

According to the families, many of the pupils would like to attend the Dingle school, however feel that they cannot cope with the pressure of studying every subject through the medium of Irish, as primary school teaching in Annascaul is done bilingually.

Calls to introduce a bilingual stream in the school were turned down and a group, Concerned Parents of Chorca Dhuibhne, began legal proceedings against the school.

However the High Court has since appointed a mediator, prestigious barrister Dr. Gerald Hogan, the author of several books and numerous articles and who has appeared in and argued many important cases in the High Court, Supreme Court, European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. He is expected to arrive at the school to begin mediation talksn between the school's board of management and the parents group this month.

However for the parents of the children who felt they had no choice but to pursue second level education in Tralee, they will for now, in their own words, continue to remain out in the cold.

Pictured above left, members of the Concerned Parents of Chorca Dhuibhne group.