Battle for the soul of a school
Ciara Kelly and the schism at a Protestant school that has one side decrying religious tyranny and the other accusing parents of being lazy, middle class, and too indifferent to go to church
IT’S a row that involves Dr Ciara Kelly, the local vicar and dozens of well-connected parents.
No wonder residents in the affluent coastal town of Greystones can talk of little else these days.
The bitter dispute has even prompted the town’s former vicar to beg the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin to intervene.
‘The town is being torn apart and the controversy is bringing the Church into public ridicule,’ Rev Edgar Swann said in a letter to Archbishop Michael Jackson.
So what can have caused such rancour in the well-heeled streets of Greystones?
The answer is that the local vicar has said that children who attend his church, will be given priority when allocating places at the local primary school, St Patrick’s.
It’s caused consternation among Protestant parents who don’t go to church and lapsed Catholic parents for whom the Church of Ireland has always been a handy alternative to the local Catholic school.
The ensuing row has seen the vicar, Canon David Mungavin, step down – temporarily – from his role at the school, the headmistress resign, several board members leave and several more teachers hand in their notice. After resigning,
‘Catholics are baptised into the C of I to get in’
the departing principal, Eileen Jackson, wrote to parents saying that she was leaving because of the school’s ‘new direction’ in making admission to ‘state-funded education a collateral benefit of parochial engagement’.
So incensed was Newstalk and Operation Transformation presenter, Dr Kelly, whose children attend the school, that she started a petition in support of the departing principal. ‘Eileen Jackson is being forced’ to resign, she said ‘and it can’t be assumed parents have confidence in the Board of Management’. She said BoM, of which Canon Mungavin was chair – until he recently temporarily stepped aside – have ‘changed the school’s CofI ethos to be less inclusive, and Ms Jackson can’t stand over it.
‘This comes on top of the BoM turning down an extra teacher – our school was entitled at the end of last year – which would have improved pupil-teacher ratios. So the BoM have currently presided over us having less teachers than our kids are entitled to and losing our excellent school principal.
‘This is not a storm in a tea cup,’ she added.
Dr Kelly has plenty of vocal support. The former EastEnders and Emmerdale actor, Simon Coury, who lives in the town, said: ‘I entirely support Eileen’s stance and am deeply concerned by the actions of the board.’
Julian Swann, a parishioner, former pupil at St Patrick’s – and son of the former vicar – added: ‘It’s very sad to see the ethos of inclusivity being eroded in the manner. One wonders what’ll be next for what is starting to appear more like a tyrannical regime than a Church. And everything that Christianity shouldn’t be.’
An extraordinary general meeting of the school’s parents association had a turnout of 90%.
A confidence vote in both the BoM and the chair of the board were overwhelmingly defeated, with about 80% opposing both motions. A confidence vote in the principal was carried by 95%.
Supporters of the vicar have been less publicly vocal but one told the MoS that the storm is being caused by ‘lazy middle-class parents’ who can’t be bothered going to church.
Greystones has a higher ratio of Protestants in the community than any other place in Ireland, said the woman who didn’t want to be named. ‘The school is there for Protestant children, if there are other places available after that, they go to Catholics or whoever. But it’s Protestant kids first and what’s wrong with that? It’s a Protestant school for God’s sake. The vicar had to find a way of prioritising even among Church of Ireland children, as there’s now such a demand for places.
‘The fact is, and everybody knows this, some parents who are Catholics baptise their kids in the Church of Ireland to get them into the school. And then they’re never seen in church again.’
Another member of the Church of Ireland who has two children at the school agrees. ‘This year we had 22 Church of Ireland children admitted to junior infants out of a total of 24 places. And people were giving out, saying that wasn’t inclusive.
‘So what are we supposed to do? Tell the Church of Ireland children to go away? It’s maddening. And at the bottom of this I believe, is the fact that many parents simply don’t want religion in their children’s school at all.
‘That’s fine and I respect that viewpoint but those parents need to go a non-religious school in the first place then. There are two in Greystones.’
It does seem this row has been brewing for some years. For instance, the rule that prioritises children who attend church has been there for at least five years.
Amid the current kerfuffle it also appears to have gone largely unnoticed that the town’s Church of Ireland secondary school has exactly the same admission policy.
Another source of controversy at the school is the decision by the BoM to apparently turn down the offer of an extra teacher by the Department of Education.
Some parents claim the move was an attempt by the BoM to prevent school numbers growing, potentially diluting the CofI ethos. However, a CofI spokeswoman dismissed that and said it wasn’t Canon Mungavin’s board that turned down the extra teacher but the Archbishop himself.
Another point apparently lost on many in this dispute is that soon Canon Mungavin and his board will not be allowed to prioritise children based on their church attendance.
As one seasoned churchgoer drily observed: ‘They’re all getting their knickers in twist over nothing.’
Under new school admission laws, due to come into effect next year, minority faith schools will continue to be permitted to give priority enrolment on the basis of religion.
However, a Department of Education spokesman said schools will not be permitted to rank these students ‘on the basis of the extent to which the child or his or her family are involved in local religious activities’.
Meanwhile, the row in Greystones shows no signs of abating to the annoyance of some churchgoers.
‘There’s rows like this going on all over the country,’ said one.
‘The difference... is that they don’t have a whole bunch of media professionals living there.’