Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE EDMUND RICE Schools Trust was unaware Education Minister Norma Foley had approved their plans to transform Synge Street C.B.S. in Dublin 8 into a Gaelscoil until just one day before the announcement.
In a statement, the Trust said itself and the school’s board of management, of which two staff members are included, had taken part in extensive engagement and analysis over the decision to allow girls to enrol at the school and begin teaching as Gaeilge.
Additionally long-running campaigns, spearheaded by parents from Dublin 8 and surrounding areas, to have a feeder Gaelscoil in that part of the city were also not informed of the decision.
According to the ERST, the Department told it on Tuesday afternoon that Minister Foley would be announcing, on television the following day, that female students will enrol at the school and first-year classes will be taught through Irish, starting in September 2026
“It was great to get this news but it was unexpected – in terms of the timing,” it said in a statement to The Journal.
Synge Street CBS – one of Dublin’s best-known school’s after it was the centre of the 2016-film ‘Sing Street’ – is an all-boys’ school run under a Christian Brothers ethos. It was founded in 1864 and has been in Dublin 8 since.
It has a coveted list of past pupils, including presenter Gay Byrne, footballer Andy Reid, director John Carney and once-Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, and has won four BT Young Scientists awards – unbeaten by any other school in Ireland.
It is under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice School Trust (ERST), a network of over 90 schools in the Republic of Ireland which were formally under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers. Its schools promote a “Christian concept of the world”.
Discussions over the plan by the school’s Board of Management ended with the approval and support of the ERST and the Department of Education.
The idea to enrol female students and begin teaching in Irish was part of plans to boost the number of students in the school, as local families have chosen in favour of co-educational schools rather than single-sex schools in the area.
RTÉ News has reported that staff were too blind sided by the announcement. ERST has insisted to The Journal that Principal Clare Catterson informed staff of the Minister’s announcing “straight away”.
First-year students entering Synge Street C.B.S. in September 2026 will be the only class that is taught completely as Gaeilge. All other students who enrolled before will continue their education through English.
By September 2032 the school will be lán-Gaeilge.
ERST said that it is working with the Department and is “satisfied” that the necessary steps will be completed in time to allow for female students to start at Synge Street on the date provided.
Supports will also be given to teaching staff who wish to teach through Irish. This includes access to all relevant assistance, such as lessons and improving other technical skills.
“Both the Department of Education and ERST’s network of teachers in Gaelcholáistí will be assisting with this process,” the Trust added, in a statement.
Julian De Spáinn, General Secretary of Conradh Na Gaeilge and chairperson of the Parents’ Committee for Gaelcholáiste 2, 4, 6, 8 – a group of residents seeking a Gaelscoil in the area – has welcomed the move.
De Spáinn added, however, that the campaign had not been contacted by the Department and was disappointed to learn that the school won’t be ‘lán Gaeilge’ until September 2032 – as that won’t cater to existing students in the Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8 areas.
“What we’ve been looking for, us parents, is a school that is functioning completely as Gaeilge for students when they open. That’s what the campaign was about, not looking for partial immersion education or one unit, we’re looking for full-immersion education.”
Despite this, De Spáinn said he was pleased with the decision as the new Gaelcholáiste would still serve the students in the area into the future and said that he would welcome if similar moves are made by schools in other locales.
He commended the work of parents and other campaigners for their work over the last three years. There are currently no plans for the campaign to meet with the minister and De Spáinn claims it had not had discussions with Foley before.
One parent from the area, who spoke to The Journal and did not wish to be named, said that the decision by Synge Street C.B.S. to transition into a Gaelscoil was a “really smart move” as there is a “real demand” for a Gaelscoil in the region.
“I do think that demand will be filled really quickly,” they said.
Some parents in the locale already believe the area is severely under served when it comes to school spaces.
Louise FitzPatrick runs the ‘Educate D8‘ campaign. The group wants there to be a non-denominational, co-educational school in Dublin 8 and claims that students are leaving the area to seek Education Together schools.
While she welcomed the announcement to turn Synge Street into a Gaelscoil, and congratulated De Spáinn and other parents who were seeking the move, she said she believes the demand will only add to the lack of school spaces.
FitzPatrick says Dublin 8 is “severely under served” when it comes to school places in the area, and the new Gaelscoil will have to have a larger catchment region in order to attract students from other parts of the city.
She also took dissatisfaction with the fact that the new Gaelscoil will still be run under the Christian Brother ethos, arguing that there needs to be a school without a religious ethos, as 60% of residents in Dublin 8 are not Catholic.
“This school is still going to remain in patronage of the Catholic Church, like three other schools in the area, one being part of Church of Ireland,” FitzPatrick told The Journal.
“This means that there is still is not a school in the area – and won’t be a school in the area – for children who don’t want to be educated under a religious patronage.”
FitzPatrick and other parents from the area are to meet with Education minister Norma Foley next month to discuss the issue.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Make the Christian Brothers an illegal organisation, seize their assets, remove their tax breaks, until they make some effort to cooperate with the high courts in compensating the children they raped.
@Dermot Blaine: I have a family member who was sexually abused by these Christian brothers over 50 times while in school so I agree with you. China has declare Islam as a mental illness and I believe the world will be a better place if all religions were declares as a mental illness. FFG oversaw them for over 80 years so until someone new comes into govt I can only imagine the real impact Christianity had on Irish families and not enough are speaking out about this life-ruining trauma from “holy” religions
@Dermot Blaine: id love to see this but it will never happen the government don’t have the balls to even change the law so a class action be taken against then in the irish court. 100′s or 1000′s of victims taken a class action would sort them out.
@The Gate Florist: the unChristian Brothers are being sued in the high court by their victims. In order for the cases to proceed the they have to appoint a representative to the High Court, which they have refused to do for several years now. It’s a scandal and actually in a way, a continuation of the abuse that they want us to think is historical. They are an obnoxious shower of creeps, but half our TDs or more, will defend them and refuse to go after them.
@9QRixo8H: I have heard liberalism described as a mental disorder. I would be careful who you cite. Funny, if you were chinses I could invision you persecuting the Uyghurs.
@Oh Mammy: adults believing in an imaginary friend is the very definition of mental illness. Not to mention believing they eat his body and drink his blood at their religious ceremonies. Bonkers stuff that no sane person would believe unless they were brainwashed into from the cradle.
@Dermot Blaine: that’s your opinion and you are entitled to it. Many do not share you opinion and they are entitled to theirs.
@Oh Mammy: of course. But stop indoctrinating your beliefs into children, until they at least reach the age of reason, at which point they’d probably laugh at the idea of an imaginary friend in the sky.
@Dermot Blaine: aren’t you pushing your doctrine right here, right now?
@Oh Mammy: no, I’m sharing an opinion with what I assume are grown adults, not impressionable children. I’m sure you can spot the difference.
@Dermot Blaine: my opinion is that you are, absolutely, entitled to yours and me to mine. If I may be so bold, could I get an Amen?
@Dermot Blaine: The Beverley sisters.
@9QRixo8H: you are a nasty troll and well as a person that fails miserably when it comes to reading comprehension. You are a belles endus maximus.
@9QRixo8H:
Many *humans* have done, and continue to do, great and abominable harm in the *corrupted* name of Religion.
But that doesn’t mean we should all turn into spiteful, mean spirited, hateful, Secular Fascists like the French! Or the Chinese!!
Majority of even Atheist, and anti-Theist, people still cannot see how Israel is *exactly the same* as ISIS – a Fascistic Political ideology that has *hijacked* and *corrupted* the true Tenets of each of the Faiths, while simultaneously exploiting those weak in the knowledge & understanding of their faith or psychologically vulnerable (including minors&victims of domestic coercion/overt abuse).
Heck, even in Ireland, Loyalists somehow managed to muddle and mix Religion with Political Ideology – a very specifically targeted eugenics&fascitic ideology that no other Protestants elsewhere in the world seem to share!!!
(Although, in broader more general terms, eugenics is certainly the historic purview of all Protestant-dominant Colonial Projects).
So what good could it really do to Fascistically outlaw Freedom of Faith!?
Freedom of Religion is enshrined and protected in both National and International Laws.
And, quite frankly, you are never going to stop every human being from believing in a “Magic Man in the Sky”, or more generally – “the mystical” aspect of the reality of Human Existence.
To be human is to believe . . . .*in something*.
Even if it is only Humanity itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Beliefs exist to smack you down & challenge you to get back up & re-invest your faith in them.
Truly, though, it is the *humans* that are the most challenging divils to try to sustain your faith in.
Such is the path of the ever bewildered Humanitarian Atheist
>le sigh<
@Dermot Blaine: Well now Dermot. That is an entirely Protestant disposition – taking things full throttle *literally*.
Catholics do not, and were never meant to, believe that “the body and blood of Christ” were or are actual literal pieces of biological matter.
Indeed, the whole Catholic system of belief is *supposed to be* entirely mystical alchemy whimsy.
*And* understood as such!!
It is the *Protestant* “religion” that has driven much of Christianity into beligerant and militant literalism.
@Dermot Blaine:
…although fully agree with putting a separation of Church and State prohibition in place to prevent the indoctrination of Children.
In particular an immediate cessation on the truly perverse and paedophilic practice of putting 7yr old little girls in (“purity”/”virginal”) white dresses.
It is truly disgusting. And wholly unnecessary.
No minor should be committing to any Religion until the age of 16, minimum!!
This is why I simultaneously believe that “multi-denominational” should mean also the secular and clinical *teaching of* the true tenets of the major denominations.
Not the teaching of, or neglect to, Secular ignorance.
We might produce far far less Zionist Zealots across 3 Religions, or indeed any&all headbanger zealots (*”extremists”*) of any&all Faiths, if the State held a tighter rein on legitimacy of Theological Teachings & Curriculum.
Incredible disdain for all the staff shown by Minister Norma Foley, totally unacceptable, one disaster after another, the School Bus shambles still isn’t sorted.
@SV3tN8M4: I get the impression she is a six-pack without the plastic thingy to hold them all together.
@William Slevin: get the Churches, all of them, out of our schools now. Brainwashing children into believing medieval superstitious nonsense is a, form of child abuse too.
@Dermot Blaine: and governmental indoctrination will fill the void. I believe that is far worse.
@Oh Mammy: If it was an actual, possible or probable thing it would be. But it’s not.
@Oh Mammy: No it is not.
@Gerry Lamont: but it will
@Jack Hayes: it is very probable. It’s in the mail my friend.
Is this a secondary school? Like, will a history teacher who has always taught in English now have to teach the same curriculum but in Irish?
@ecrowley ecrowley: As a former CBS pupil that came through the A stream that was essentially the precursor of the Gaelscoil I think that it is an impediment for anyone who is bad at languages. For the majority of students I would recommend being taught through the medium of English. Latin has been of benefit since leaving school. Irish was a waste of time.
@Vincent Alexander: That’s a very different issue. But it’s unfair on teachers to have to change the language of the subject they’ve been teaching. Secondary teachers shouldn’t be expected to have a good standard of Irish. It’s different in primary school as Gaeilge is par for the course. You can’t just set up a Gaelscoil for secondary school and expect teachers to jump right in.
@ecrowley ecrowley:
In about 7 years.
Yes.
But a conversion course/PhD/Masters in ‘Education through medium of Irish’ or some such should only take 18 months, IF they are willing to or want to do it.
There is one for Primary, in Marino, I think.
So I’m sure DCU, UCD and/or Trinity also have an intensive short course that can prepare and support Teachers in transitioning through languages within the context of their field of qualification (Geography/Maths/English/Mechanical Drawing/Woodwork/Art/Music/History/Physics/Chemistry/Biology/JC Science/JC Business/LC Accounting/LC Economics etcetera).
However, everyone has 5-7 years to consider what they want to do.
And meanwhile, fresh blood Gaelgóirí Graduates can take on the new entrants through their Junior Cycle until crunch time on who is able or willing to teach both JC and LC as Gaeilge.
@ecrowley ecrowley:
Why should it be “different in Primary School”?
The answer is – it shouldn’t.
Why can’t you just set up a Gaeilscoil for Secondary?
Answer – yes you can.
And what’s more, this one has been coming down the tracks for a long, long, time.
Where there are Primaries . . .there inevitably *must be* Secondaries to feed into.
We are 100 years into Freedom from the Anglophone Oppressor, and what have we actually achieved in indigenous Language Revival?
FA.
That’s wot.
Next to nada.
Despite not having all of Ulster. We have so much more and far far greater opportunity to restore our indigenous identity than *any other* post-Colonial Nation.
And, indeed, the fós Occupied & Displaced First Nations of America, Australia, Greenland, and the tri-Faith Holy Land of Palestine.
Nobody is being coerced into “jumping right in” with immediate effect.
First Years ain’t coming for another year.
And Leaving Cert Cycle Teachers wont be required for another 6 years from now.
Obviously Dept of Gaeltacht *and* Dept of Edu’ should to co-fund post-Graduate [subject translation/conversion] courses for any Teachers that wish to take up translating their course material and teaching communication tríd Gaeilge.
Foley is incorrect. Should be fooley
Not agreeing with the way this is done but the only way to keep irish alive is Gaelscoil
Brendan O’Bries is Jack the Ripper. He built a vegan friendly time machine.
Honestly. Everyone needs to just calm down.
Kewl da jets dere lads!
If anyone is due the rage & backlash from Teachers or Parents, it should be *Norma Foley*.
Not the Trust or the Principal.
“Normies” sneakily *snaked* that announcement out from under the Trust and the Principal just to grab the glory and public adulation on TG4.
She must have had some sort of incling that she was going to be roasted on TG4 over the Coalition’s multi-decade-long *contempt* for the indigenous Language, and in particular contempt for multigenerational residents of the (initially) State-supported/State-protected Gaeltacht areas who can now no longer House their multiple generations within the Language strongholds.
…and if there is shortage of houses for young people/young couples. What inevitably follows is shortage of places at non-French Montessori but rather Montessori-as-Gaeilge, agus na Gaeilscoileanna (Bunscoil agus Meánscoil).
But seriously. What a truly horrible mean spirited thing to do to any group of staff, but especially staff serving the Foundation of our Nation and Civilization.
FFG have had nothing short of absolute persistent *contempt* for Civilization-making Public Staff (Teachers, Gards, Nurses, Doctors, Fire Fighters, Paramedics, and the wider general public Sanitation Services from Council Workers to the [Agri-biz assault on] EPA to Sewage Dumping).
But lookit lads.
It might have been a shockingly sudden announcement.
But it is by no means a shockingly sudden or dramatic change for employees at the school!!
There are a whole 7 academic YEARS before Teaching-through-English ceases at the school.
Can we not be thankful for that?
Nobody is losing their jobs *next year* in a squeeze between “quit, or learn to teach through Irish”.
All the current Leaving Cert cycle, AND Junior Cert cycle (this year’s & next year’s, 1st years) still have to complete their program through English.
And as for the Algophobic puritans…
… again…. kewl da jets babes!
I’m sure the school can handle a schoolyard and/or buildings linguistic segregation between Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle.
After all, the fact is, growing up in an *after-school* environment that is entirely English-speaking (shops near school+buses+home+extra-curriculars/sports clubs) is gonna scupper the gains regardless.
To be clear: there is NO Secondary Gaeilscoil in Dublin that can stop, or even tries to stop, English-speaking during breaktimes.
Not even those attempting to assert a certain area of Dublin has somehow definitely become designatable as a “Gaeltacht”.
**F-A-C-T**
Doesn’t exist, anywhere, no matter what “they” claim!
Tough titty!
For Dublin 8 to have any hope of retaining after-school Gaeilge they would have to consider opening up Sporting Liberties’ minimalist ask & concept for ‘just a Sports field’ into a multi-storey multi-sport indoor facility (with rootop outdoor pitch, alongside the Renewables, if really desired!), with Community Hall facilities that might facilitate after-school Homework Clubs/supervision as Gaeilge, Coláiste na bhFiann’s ‘Cumann na bhFiann (Social Youth Club strictly ‘as Gaeilge’), and Comhaltas (tríd Ghaeilge).
*And hire young staff from the school* to hold the part-time bilingual job positions.
And get a swimming pool put in while yeer at it!!
And grab a TONNE of income off of those Dublin 6 and 4 Mammies & Daddies for all the after-school services!! ;-P
But mostly, let’s *really* give Dublin 8, and Dublin Gaeilgóirs, more than they are asking for, and everything they deserve.
have your say