Sir, - Archbishop Empey noted (March 12th) that David Trimble'scomments "were more reflective of an Ireland that existed when he was ayoung man than of the State today". There is one area, however, wherethere has been no change.
It is a little-known fact that since 1971 non-Catholic parents ofdeaf children in the Republic have had no option but the Catholic-rundeaf schools.
The 1972 Department of Education Report on deaf education makes itclear: "If their parents wish them to attend schools under Protestantmanagement, arrangements should be made to have Protestant childrenadmitted to suitable schools in Northern Ireland or Britain.Alternatively, they can attend Cabra."
"Cabra" refers to the two Dublin schools for the deaf in Cabra runby the Catholic Institute for the Deaf (CID). That pathetic situationstill pertains today. As a result, many parents started sending theirdeaf children to mainstream schools. Here they became isolated fromtheir natural cohorts and miss the stimulation of meaningfulcommunication with fellow pupils. Without Irish Sign Language (ISL),they could not even communicate with their own family.
In 1997, the deaf community started a partnership with parents ofdeaf children for the purpose of setting up and running a school fordeaf children in Dublin. This partnership offers multi-denominationaland co-educational education along the lines of the Educate Togetherschools. This project will give ISL as the primary language and Englishas the second language. Families with a deaf child will be taught ISLand so bring the natural language of the deaf into their home.
The system has been implemented in Sweden and Denmark for over 10years with great results. Many deaf students are now on a par withtheir hearing cohorts, and learn English as well as their nativelanguages. Over 80 per cent of deaf school-leavers in the Republic havethe literacy level of eight- or nine-year-olds.
It follows that this partnership project offers badly needededucational progress to deaf Irish students. This project offers nothreat to Catholicism (a better education will allow a betterunderstanding of religion), yet the CID is putting every possibleobstacle in the way of this project. So, there is some truth in what MrTrimble said last week, but the Protestants in the Republic appear tobe too polite to complain about this hidden discrimination, and themedia don't seem to be concerned. - Yours, etc.,
E.J. CREAN,
Cypress Park,
Dublin 6W.