Should Gorey have a community school?

February 1984

Co. Wexford VEC at its meeting on Monday failed to reach a decision on its attitude to calls for a new Community School in Gorey, to replace three existing schools.

There was a wide difference of opinion among members to the proposal, and it was agreed to defer consideration to a future meeting.

Two Gorey members spoke strongly in favour of a new Community School and said it would be a more practical step to take than adding extensions to the existing schools – the convent, the Brothers, and the vocational school.

But many others believed such a development would downgrade the vocational school and would further erode powers from the VEC.

Gorey’s Mr Ml. Hobbs (F.G.) said it would involve an enormous amount of money to provide extensions to the existing schools. One new school for the children of the future would be a better option, he argued.

But the Mayor of Wexford, Ald. Peter Roche, claimed that if every school under the VEC entered such an arrangement, the power of the VEC would soon be non-existent.

There had been fears in Wexford town, he said, when other schools introduced practical classes such as woodwork, and they had to express their concerns to the school authorities. Part of their concern was for the jobs of their teachers. He urged caution in considering such a move.

Enniscorthy councillor, Morgan Doyle, said their duty as a committee was to defend and promote vocational education and they should not deviate from this. They had a very good school in Gorey, despite the bad condition of it, and they should do nothing to change it. He said they should do the job they were put on the committee to do, and that is to look after the vocational schools.

Gorey’s John Hosey (F.F.) said his party colleague Lorcan Allen had already called for the provision of the new school for Gorey as the most suitable school for the children of the town, and he agreed with him. He fully supported the calls for a new community school for the town.

‘ The CBS is so small that you couldn’t swing a cat in it,’ he said, ‘and there is no room for further development. The Loreto Abbey has an extension planned, but if one section is extended, it will be away from the main school and children will have to travel beneath the railway line.

‘But if the three schools could be brought together it would provide the best education in the best possible environment, and I don’t see anything wrong with that,’ he said.

Cllr. Leo Carthy (Ind.) said the responsibility of the VEC was the safeguarding of its own schools and it should not do anything to downgrade them.

But the suggestion of any downgrading was scotched by Mr. Hobbs, who said he had children in each of the three existing schools, and he didn’t want to see any of them being downgraded.

‘Only Mr. Hosey and I are from Gorey and are looking at the situation from a Gorey point of view. Others here are just trying to protect their positions on this committee. And 99.9 per cent of the teachers in the vocational school in Gorey want a single school in the town,’ he said.

There was much further debate but no decision on the VEC position was reached and the matter is to be on the agenda again for the next meeting.