Sir, – Quite apart from the cost involved, which is itself a serious consideration, the logistical and regulatory compliance issues involved in large infrastructural projects make the oft-repeated mantra of those who would retain religious patronage in our national school system – that the answer to oversubscription in certain areas is “to build more schools” – a trite observation.
Even in those cases where unbaptised children are accepted into the vast majority of our national schools, they are still open to religious indoctrination against the wishes of their parents. This happens because of the so-called “integrated curriculum”, which means that Catholic dogma runs through all subjects that are taught in the schools.
In a very real sense, people who find it impossible to subscribe to the idea that there exists a superior, supernatural being that directs matters here on Earth, and who are honest about it, are regarded as second-class citizens in Ireland – a country that has the effrontery to call itself a republic.
A blatantly sectarian schools system? It most certainly is. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.