A TINY valley school off the main Cork to Killarney road, which had received no pupils this September, finally closed yesterday, allowing its principal to be transferred.
Until the go-ahead by the Department of Education yesterday afternoon, after local radio highlighted the issue in the morning, school principal Denis O’Sullivan had opened his empty classroom daily for the past seven weeks, but had not been reassigned to a teaching position.
Scoil Mhuire, originally a two-teacher school in a scenic valley looking on to the Clydagh river and the Paps mountains, about 16km (12 miles) off the N22 Cork to Killarney road, had been seen as likely to close as a result of the numbers of pupils dwindling.
In 2010, just three pupils enrolled. In June Fr Bill Radley, chairman of the board of management and parish priest of Clonkeen and Glenflesk, informed the Department of Education there were no enrolments for September and requested closure and the transfer of Mr O’Sullivan.
An assistant teacher had been redeployed.
Fr Radley said this was followed up by a phone call and a letter from the board of management as Mr O’Sullivan was anxious to teach. However, the school board had “surprisingly” received no reply from the department, and Mr O’Sullivan opened an empty classroom each day, where he updated records and catalogued the history of the school.
Finally yesterday, the department contacted Fr Radley to say the transfer could go ahead this morning. “Mr O’Sullivan has been assigned elsewhere. All this happened today. I am very pleased,” Fr Radley said.
The school was not an old school but it was closing because the population had dwindled in the area and this was because of planning restrictions, Fr Radley said.
A new road had been built bypassing Clonkeen and this, combined with restrictions on development in an area of natural beauty, had led to the downturn, he said.Children from the area are attending nearby schools.
The Clonkeen school opened in 1961 replacing a much older school which was now used as a community centre.
The post office too had closed, the priest said.