Fears that a Dublin national school would not be able to reopen next Friday because of a Traveller encampment on the school grounds evaporated at the weekend when the Travellers agreed to move on.
The board of management of Our Lady's National School in Ballinteer had scheduled a meeting for tonight to decide what action they would take against the Travellers. It has now been cancelled.
Earlier this month the chairwoman of the board of management, Ms Aileen McCarthy, said that unless the situation was resolved the board would be unable to reopen the school because of health and safety concerns. She said their only option seemed to be taking out a costly court injunction against the Travellers.
Yesterday, however, she said the board of management had, through dialogue, got the Travellers to agree to move on. They left on Saturday after spending six weeks on the school grounds.
Ms McCarthy stressed that despite reports that many communities were paying "goodbye money" to Travellers to get them to move on, no money had changed hands in this case.
"We are delighted with this development and that the situation has been resolved peacefully. One of the community representatives on our board talked to the Traveller families and explained the situation to them," she said.
"Through dialogue and gaining their trust and confidence, the situation has been resolved."
The community representative, Mr Michael Killeen, said he had helped the Travellers fill out a housing application form before they left. "The pen is mightier than the sword. It is amazing what can be achieved through dialogue," he said.
He added that the Traveller families had hired a skip to clear away their rubbish before leaving and boulders were now in place to prevent a recurrence of trespass on the school's property.