Patronage of newly built school in Mullingar

techdiver

Bit of a rant here, but a new school is being built in Mullingar to replace the old Curraghmore national school.

This is a fully state funded school on newly acquired land not belonging to the catholic church.

The school is still being handed over to the church to govern and is being called "Holy Family" national school! WTF!

If the argument for so many schools still being held hostage by the church is that they are on church land etc then why are newly built schools being handed over and allowed to be given such in your face catholic name to boot??

Qrt

techdiver wrote: »

Bit of a rant here, but a new school is being built in Mullingar to replace the old Curraghmore national school.

This is a fully state funded school on newly acquired land not belonging to the catholic church.

The school is still being handed over to the church to govern and is being called "Holy Family" national school! WTF!

If the argument for so many schools still being held hostage by the church is that they are on church land etc then why are newly built schools being handed over and allowed to be given such in your face catholic name to boot??

Locals should kick up a fuss. It sounds like an identical scenario to the National Maternity Hospital one from a while back.

wexie

techdiver wrote: »

If the argument for so many schools still being held hostage by the church is that they are on church land etc then why are newly built schools being handed over and allowed to be given such in your face catholic name to boot??

I genuinely can't think of a single sensible reason why this kind of nonsense should be happening in this day and age :mad:

evolving_doors

wexie wrote: »

I genuinely can't think of a single sensible reason why this kind of nonsense should be happening in this day and age :mad:

could be part of reparation deals for abuse/industrial schools/mother and baby homes... incorporating a switcharoo

Keep an eye on property owned by religious orders in your area.
You might see a For Sale sign going up on a discrete portion of land... or else houses being built on land... Who owns the land?
Was there any consultation with the community? Your local councillors should know.
What religious order is the patronage of the new school?

byhookorbycrook

Is it a new building or an actual new school?

wexie

evolving_doors wrote: »

could be part of reparation deals for abuse/industrial schools/mother and baby homes... incorporating a switcharoo

wouldn't be much of a reparation deal would it? With the state giving the church something rather than the other way around.

Then again considering how some other negotiations seem to be done sometimes little would surprise me anymore

byhookorbycrook

Did a google, it seems to be a new building and not a new school start up, so patronage was never up for grabs.
There's an ET and a Gaelscoil and a COI school in Mullingar already, so not like a lack of choice.

evolving_doors

Who paid for the land?

techdiver

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Did a google, it seems to be a new building and not a new school start up, so patronage was never up for grabs.
There's an ET and a Gaelscoil and a COI school in Mullingar already, so not like a lack of choice.

I don't see this as relevant. Just because it's replacing an existing school should mean nothing from a patronage point of view. 100% tax payer funded so should not be handed over to the church. It was a chance for a clean break and a devolution of a school away from an institution that places instruction of superstition ahead of science and mathematics.

Regarding choice, that is not clear cut either. Most mullingar schools are over subscribed and they offer a strict admission based on catchment. As such most have no choice.

I also believe the naming of the school is a blatant "**** you" to anyone that wants proper secular education and is making a statement that the Catholic Church is still the only game in town when it comes to children's education.

techdiver

evolving_doors wrote: »

Who paid for the land?

The tax payer via the Dept of Education.

byhookorbycrook

techdiver wrote: »

I don't see this as relevant. Just because it's replacing an existing school should mean nothing from a patronage point of view. 100% tax payer funded so should not be handed over to the church. It was a chance for a clean break and a devolution of a school away from an institution that places instruction of superstition ahead of science and mathematics.

Regarding choice, that is not clear cut either. Most mullingar schools are over subscribed and they offer a strict admission based on catchment. As such most have no choice.

I also believe the naming of the school is a blatant "**** you" to anyone that wants proper secular education and is making a statement that the Catholic Church is still the only game in town when it comes to children's education.

But it's not replacing a school. it's replacing a building, there's a big difference. If most schools are oversubscribed, is a bigger school building not a good thing? There's no secular primary education in Ireland, so that was never going to be the case for this school or any others for a good while yet.

techdiver

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

But it's not replacing a school. it's replacing a building, there's a big difference. If most schools are oversubscribed, is a bigger school building not a good thing? There's no secular primary education in Ireland, so that was never going to be the case for this school or any others for a good while yet.

To me it's the same situation as the new national maternity hospital. If the state 100% funds it, there should be no governance by the church. Why is this so difficult?

Also why is it so difficult for the state to directly run schools? They essentially do it already accept for allowing the local parish priest dictate the day to day decisions in every school.

I'm just sick of wider society having to still live with this status quo in 2018.

byhookorbycrook

Until the govt. either declares all religion , be it minority or other is to be removed from schools, you can't expect a new school, never mind a new build to be secular. So the issue of this new build isn't up for grabs- whether it should be is a moot point at present.

The reason the DES don't run schools is that they cannot afford to. As it is, schools are chronically underfunded and thousands of children spend their lives in prefabs or very run down buildings.Day to day, schools depend on fund raising and voluntary contributions to keep the doors open. The DES isn't going to take that on anytime soon.

And just to add, that the days of the local PP running a school are well gone, in most places.

evolving_doors

techdiver wrote: »

To me it's the same situation as the new national maternity hospital. If the state 100% funds it, there should be no governance by the church. Why is this so difficult?

Also why is it so difficult for the state to directly run schools? They essentially do it already accept for allowing the local parish priest dictate the day to day decisions in every school.

I'm just sick of wider society having to still live with this status quo in 2018.

The state just provides 'for' education, it doesn't actually provide education.
So they provided for it by paying for the land. If they hadn't done so then parents would have been threatening local votes... get the school built, keep the same pupils/staff/patronage/ethos ... leave discussion on new patronage to completely newly built schools starting from scratch.

They provide for education every single day by paying for most schools' heating, building, wages etc.

Now... actually providing an education, my view is that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. I've heard about a few educate togethers and Ruairi Quins new model primary schools, great for the kids and financial in vestments to make em work, but a horrible atmosphere for staff to work in with a high turnover. The stories are just so bizarre I think it would easily identify the individuals involved if they saw it here.

Although in fairness there's school's going for donkeys years that aren't so great either.