Sir, – In response to the reported comments (Home News, May 11th) of Adrian Oughton’s presentation of the Church of Ireland’s Board of Education report at the General Synod that, “Trinity by its actions in effect refused to accept as undergraduates Protestant young men and women who wish to be primary teachers”, we wish to point out that there is deep concern Trinity College would be associated with such discriminatory practice. We believe our concerns are shared elsewhere, including among some members of the Church of Ireland community.
We have allowed some time to elapse before responding to such patently untrue allegations while we attempted to clarify matters with Archbishop Dr Michael Jackson and with Mr Oughton.
Trinity College Dublin is a pluralist university as evidenced by our student and staff profile.
We respect the ethos of Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) and currently register CICE students. We will be pleased to continue registering such students this September and beyond, unless and until the CICE instructs us otherwise.
Trinity is also working with Marino Institute of Education, UCD, and NCAD in a partnership to provide a training programme for primary school teachers that is pluralist and open to all.
We will be responding directly to the Church of Ireland’s Board of Education in relation to its report. – Yours, etc,
JOHN COMAN,
College Secretary,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.