The announcement that An Foras Patrúnachta has sacked Mr Tomás Ó Dúlaing as principal at Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg in Dunboyne, Co Meath, is to be regretted
That the sacking has taken place against a background where Mr Ó Dúlaing had the support of a majority of parents of pupils at the school, and the teachers, speaks volumes about current inadequacies where governance in Irish education is concerned, particularly at primary level. It is specious of the school's board of management to insist that they had no alternative but to seek Mr Ó Dúlaing dismissal. They could have listened to the parents and teachers, instead of which they preferred to turn what would be seen elsewhere as disagreement into an issue of authority.
The board would have it that they know best. They, "representing, as we believe, all that is the best for pupils and parents alike" felt "forced by circumstances, entirely unforeseen and entirely outside of our control to take this most drastic step of asking the principal of our school to vacate his position." This is self-serving and does not adequately explain the position. They also find it "extremely unfortunate that this has been misconstrued to be a dispute about religion." Religion, they felt "has been exploited in this dispute." The issue at the centre of the dispute is the teaching of religion. In particular, whether Catholic and Protestant children should be separated during religion classes. To avoid such "segregation", as he put it, Mr Ó Dúlaing felt that preparation for First Holy Communion, for instance, should take place outside school hours. The Board insists all religious instruction must take place within school hours.
Meanwhile the Department of Education has stood well back. Disciplinary proceedings do not involve them, and teaching religion in schools was a matter for patron bodies, a spokeswoman said this week. "Neither the Minister nor the Department has any wish to interfere in such matters," she said. Considering that it is the taxpayer who funds all these schools, and who pays all the teachers' salaries, it should be incumbent on a Minister of Education to "intefere" in such matters, whatever the current, outdated restrictions on him/her doing so.
In an increasingly pluralistic and secular Ireland one cannot escape the reasonableness of the argument of Mr Ó Dúlaing, a majority of parents at the Dunboyne Gaelscoil, and teachers there that when it comes to teaching religion as truth this should be done outside school hours rather than separating children along denominational or, as happens also now in many Irish schools, along faith lines. What is required is a forum on all these issues, as suggested by the INTO. It should involve parents, teachers, boards of management, patron bodies, church and other faith representatives, and the Department of Education.Then we might avoid future 'Dunboynes'