The debate rumbling through a Meath town is only partly about religion, butthe arguments about what sort of teaching of sacraments is appropriate in an 'interdenominational' school border on theological. Emmet Oliver, Education Correspondent, reports

Parents with children at the gaelscoil in Dunboyne have been asked some rather awkward questions by their children from the back seat of the car these last few weeks.

"Mammy, what is a board of management?" "Why does the principal have to go away?""Daddy, are we one of the Catholics or one of the Protestants?" Answering these questions to the satisfaction of a wide-eyed six- or seven-year-old is no easy task for any parent. But when the answers are perplexing for most of us in the adult world, it is understandable if parents find themselves struggling for the right words.

For the last year the children at the school have been relatively shielded from the dispute that now looks like costing them their principal.

But in the last fortnight the presence of cameras crews, bright lights, journalists and parents waving placards at the school's entrance has meant most of them know something is going on.

In a letter to parents on March 15th (which probably prompted the board of management to make a move against him), principal Tomas Ó Dúlaing reflected this worry about "what the children know".

"At this age children clearly find it difficult to say the words Catholic and Protestant, let alone understand the doctrinal differences that underpin the different traditions," he wrote.

This warning about polluting young minds with distasteful adult concerns has arguably not been heeded by all the grown-ups in the Dunboyne dispute. The children are understandably perplexed. The dispute, at least on the surface, is about how religion is taught in the school. But there is a lot more beside.

The school founded about four years ago is interdenominational, not multi-denominational. In other words it seeks to educate children via two Christian religions, Catholicism and Protestantism only, not "all faiths and none", like multi-denominational schools.

As theologians will tell you, the differences between the two faiths, despite everything we have lived through in Northern Ireland, is relatively small.

So the school decided, when it was founded, that both faiths should be supported during religion class. The classes would involve teaching religion in broad brushstrokes, affirming the common bonds between the two churches.

So 95 per cent of the time there has been no problem; but what about the 5 per cent? Well, preparation for the sacraments has become the sticking point. What happens when first class, which could contain both Protestants and Catholics, has to be prepared for first Holy Communion?.

This is the fault line which separates the two sides. The board of management and a small group of parents are on one side, with the principal, teachers and the majority of parents on the other; talking of "two sides" is not a simplification. If anything, talking about "sides" underplays the deep bitterness and enmity which have been the hallmarks of this dispute.

When children are dropped in the morning, parents sometimes have heated exchanges - some refuse to talk to fellow parents, while others are said to avert their gaze if they see a parent from the other "side" coming their way.

The opinions held may be heartfelt, but this is not normal - at least not in Dunboyne.

The bitterness is all the more surprising when you consider how abstract some of the debate is. For example, there are only a tiny number of Protestant children in the school for a start, so the possibility of anybody being segregated from year to year is relatively low.

Secondly, there is no Protestant child in first class this year. So the philosophical debate is exactly that. This year it has little practical import, though for a parent with a Church of Ireland child in the high-infants class it is an understandable concern.

While many parents nowadays are apathetic and somewhat tardy about getting involved in their local school, this group of parents appear to be cut from a different cloth; they and are deeply passionate about the issues. The added ingredient of personal enmity arises because many of the parents who founded the school now find themselves on opposite sides of the fault line.

Dunboyne, transformed in recent years from a sleepy Meath village into a bustling commuter satellite of Dublin, is buzzing with talk of the dispute.

When you strip away the layers (and there are several) the dispute comes down to how religious education should be delivered in a school with more than one faith. Who sets that policy? The board of management and patron? Or the parents in that school?

The board of management, acting on the advice and policy of the school's patron Foras Patrunachta, says religion, for Catholic and Protestant pupils must take place in school time.

It says if some parts of religion class, such as the sacraments, are taken outside the school setting, the school will become a multi-denominational school, not an inter-denominational school.

The other side says: why not remove the things which are likely to cause division and segregation and put them outside school hours, thereby neutralising any potential conflict? This was suggested in the letter of March 15th which probably led to Ó Dúlaing's downfall.

His argument in that letter was laudible, sensible, reasoned and practical. However by writing to the parents and calling the board's policy "undemocratic", he probably put himself on a collision course with the board.

Ultimately the board are his employers, for good or ill, and any practised union official will tell you that in a school dispute if you go up against your board you tend to lose.

However, Ó Dúlaing's supporters say his loyalty to his employers did not outweigh the duty of care he has to the children, and that duty is to protect them from any form of segregation.

One parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, is not sure about his chosen method. "I think a lot of parents have a basic sympathy with his position, but to go out so publicly and take on the board was always going to end in tears."

Whatever of his tactics, O'Dulaing's demand that the sacraments be taught outside school hours was hardly a dangerous heresy. Essentially it amounted to a practical way to ensure that young, impressionable children did not find themselves in embarrassing and awkward situations during the school day.

However, in letters seen by EL, Foras makes it clear it is resolutely against Ó Dúlaing's idea.

In a letter dated February 9th, Foras representative Donall Ó Conaill makes this very clear: he says you cannot have children being taught after school without a full complement of staff being available to watch over them.

"Outside providers", the letter warns, would be required to teach the children the sacraments. However, the letter fails to say what would be so wrong about this, except to say that it is the practice in multi-denominational schools and is therefore wrong for Dunboyne.

Also, it fails to deal with the central point: if the majority of parents want such an arrangement, why should the patron not adjust its general policy for local circumstance? A petition was circulated a few weeks ago on this issue and, remarkably, 75 per cent of parents signed in favour of the principal's views and called for leniency from the board in its treatment of him.

Despite this, the official parents association, led by parent Grainne Kelly, is supportive of the board and says once Ó Dúlaing challenged the board it became strictly an industrial-relations issue.

"That issue is now in the industrial relations arena, it has nothing to do with parents at this stage," she says. She claims Catholic parents at the school have been misrepresented by other parents and the media.

Kelly says teaching the sacraments to Catholic pupils outside hours would also be a form of segregation, with Catholic pupils segregated from their classmates.

Other parents say the parents' association is no longer representing the views of the majority and they want an emergency meeting. Kelly says any parent is welcome to become a member of the association, and she has invited parents to a meeting tomorrow to express their views.

Michael Dungan, who has set up a separate parents' group, says the association has is too close to the board.

"We have asked a series of questions and we have got no answers," he says.

According to Dungan, the key point to remember about this dispute is that it is not about Catholics and Protestants.

"Some of the biggest defenders of the minority, which in this case are Church of Ireland, are the Catholic parents and the principal," he says.

Ó Dúlaing's future, meanwhile, rests with the Foras patron body, and the INTO is trying to save his job. He is due an appeal hearing, then his future will be decided.

People in the town feel more than a little sympathy with him, with everyone agreeing he was an outstanding principal. This week he was receiving generous support from local people, many of them coming up and hugging him in the street to show support. "There are not many people nowadays who are prepared to stand up for a principle," said one local. "It almost seems slightly old fashioned now."