Crowd marches through Westport in solidarity with Holy Trinity NS

A large crowd marched through Westport with staff and students of Holy Trinity NS to a site where the school had been promised a new school building. 

Beginning at The Octagon, the crowd marched in down Shop Street, through Mill Street and past The Fairgreen to Scoil Phádraig on Altamount Street in opposition to plans to use the building as temporary accommodation for the all-girls Sacred Heart School (SHS)

Scoil Phádraig had been earmarked for Holy Trinity NS, who were told in March that it would be refurbished for SHS due to its ‘urgent’ accommodation needs. 

Eoin Holmes, Chairman of the Holy Trinity NS Building Committee, told The Mayo News that the refurbishment of Scoil Phádaig would cost the Department of Education over €4 million. 

Mr Holmes said the Department of Education was doing ‘terrible damage’ to the Church of Ireland community in Westport. At present, Holy Trinity NS is the only Protestant school within an area approximately the size of Co Louth. 

He again called on the department to reverse their decision to accommodate SHS at Scoil Phádraig and instead use modular accommodation on the grounds of the existing SHS campus. 

“The Department did not consider equality, diversity and inclusion when they made the decision to decant - their words - the girls from Sacred Heart School up to this site,” said Mr Holmes. 

“The Department are going to spend €4 million renovating this for temporary accommodation - that temporary accommodation, by the way, could be fifteen or twenty years - by which time Holy Trinity could well be wound up if this continues in our school, which is utterly unsuitable.”

Local Fianna Fáil councillor Brendan Mulroy called on the Minister for Education, Norma Foley to intervene on the matter. 

Speaking to The Mayo News before the start of the march, Cllr Mulroy said he did not have confidence that the minister would intervene before the general election. 

“I’m very disappointed in the Minister. And I think that at this stage I think she should intervene and just give the site to Holy Trinity and the Sacred Heart School a greenfield site,” he said. 

The site at Scoil Phádaig had originally been given to Holy Trinity NS by the Sisters of Mercy to be used for their new school building. 

Holy Trinity NS subsequently signed the site over the Department of Education on the understanding that it would advance the delivery of a new school building. 

The department has been publicly accused in the past of discriminating against a minority religion by not providing Holy Trinity NS with a suitable school building. 

Fr John Kenny, Parish Priest of Westport, told The Mayo News he was ‘very disappointed’ with the way the Department of Education had handled the situation.

“I don’t see it as an issue of ecumenism or as the church getting on or St Mary’s [Church] getting on with Holy Trinity, or Church of Ireland, I see it as an issue of government planning, the Department of Education, how they went about their work,” said Fr Kenny. 

“The community here gets on very well together, in fact the Church of Ireland have accommodated Catholic students as well as their own denomination, so that’s not the issue,” he added. 

^{Students from Holy Trinity NS demonstrate outside The Octagon in Westport (Pic: Conor McKeown)}

Orla Brickenden, Principal of Holy Trinity NS, said she was ‘completely overwhelmed with the level of support’ that they have had from the Westport community. 

She described the March as their ‘last stand’ for a new school building at Scoil Phádraig. 

“We just are so happy to see that so many people in Westport support us, so many people are behind us and so many people know that the idea that the Sacred Heart are going to temporarily occupy our new school building is just ridiculous,” she told The Mayo News.

“The fact that has been taken from us is just so unfair and the building that we’re in is not fit for purpose. We’ve been on this road for 14 years now.”

She added: “We’ve a lovely little school and it’s right in the heart of Westport, but we are all on top of each other. Our classrooms are very small and cramped, our playground is the size of a tennis court, we are walking in and out of each other’s rooms, there is no corridors, if you want to go upstairs you have to go leave the building to go up. There’s just so many challenges within our building. Also just the heating, ventilation, everything is just compromised.”

The Mayo News has contacted the Department of Education and Minister for Education, Norma Foley, for comment.