A decision by the Department of Education to close a primary school with just five pupils in Co Sligo now appears likely to be reversed.
After a campaign which quickly attracted the support of every prospective candidate in the next Dail election, Derrylehan National School, at the foot of Ben Bulben, is unlikely to close next June.
The chairman of the board of management, Father Cyril Haran, said he was "very confident" as he could now guarantee that the school would have 10 pupils in September.
A fax is to be sent to the Department of Education tomorrow outlining the basis of the school's appeal against the closure decision.
Father Haran and the families who send their children to the school argue that they receive an excellent education and that it is the only focal point in a community without a shop, post office or public house.
"If there is a sign of life in a depopulated or denuded area, then don't destroy it or smother it, nurture it," Father Haran said.
He is no stranger to the issue of central government closing small country schools. He remembers writing about it more than 30 years ago when efforts were made to close all two-teacher schools.
The Department of Education rule on school closure states that once enrolment falls below eight for two consecutive years, grants can be withdrawn. But a spokeswoman this week stressed that the Minister would always look sympathetically at each individual case.
Projected numbers are taken into account, and a closure decision is based on a comprehensive report from an inspector. If the school is of a minority religion, this can also be a factor in keeping it open.
Father Haran said he believed the population of the area was growing. Four new houses were being built close to the school, and three of those families had children. But it was a "chicken-and-egg" situation, he said, as parents would send their children to the school only if they thought it would remain open.
He stressed that the five new pupils he expected the school to have next year were not coming from another school nearby but from families who had moved the 11 miles from Sligo town. Derrylehan is just three miles from Grange village.
Father Haran points out that the second classroom in the school is rented by a woman who runs a Montessori preschool attended by 23 children from a wide area. If some of those parents could be persuaded to enrol their children, the school could thrive again, and it would need to have only 12 pupils to get a second teacher.
Of the five pupils who attend now, all are boys and two are brothers.
A meeting at the school last Thursday night attracted about 70 people, Rural Resettlement Ireland offered to help, although it would take some time to resettle a family in the area. Father Haran urgently needed pupils for September.