By Christy Parker | Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Gaelscoil Chorain will celebrate its silver anniversary with a night of music and dancing at the Walter Raleigh Hotel on Saturday next (14th November). Local band Phantom Sound will supply the rhythm as parents past and present, along with former pupils re-unite in an atmosphere certain to be fused not just with joy, but pride.

Gaelscoil Chorain’s inauguration in 1983 placed it firmly in the history books as it pioneered a new era in Gaelscoileanna in Ireland. Apart from a few modhscoil that existed since the 50′s, mainstream tuition through the native language was unheard of. “It provided the first alternative to the long- established, Christian Brothers system at the time,” reflects Principal Sean O’Murchu.

The school began with 32 pupils in a six-room ex-technical school building off the main street. Enrolments mushroomed to over 250 and an extra room had to be acquired in the nearby community centre (and a pedestrian crossing installed between them). In 1997, the school moved to its present premises in, the former CBS national school, when that establishment merged with the Presentation Convent.

The school now has 17 staff and teachers catering for 272 pupils in ten rooms. Further space is needed in truth but the Batt O’keefe cutbacks aren’t going to accommodate that necessity in the near future. The school has won numerous awards through the years, inclusive of drama, dancing, singing, music and sport. Small wonder that Mr. O’Murchu, who has been in situ since day on, describes the atmosphere at the school as “happy.”

Children are forever synonymous with stories and as Kerry-born Mr. O’Murchu reflects, there are many tales, amusing and endearing, to be told regarding the Gaelscoil Chorain. Those are for another day’s reading. Its difficult however, not to mention one of the school’s more intriguing ex-pupils, from the 1980′s, an era when foreign nationalities were rarely found behind a desk in an Irish school. “A lad of about nine enrolled,” recalls Sean. “He was unusual in that his father was German, which was his first language. His second language was Polish, as was his mother’s nationality. He spoke fluent French because the family had been living in France. Now he was learning Irish and English in Youghal.”

If nothing else, the story illustrates the amazing capacity for children to take in and retain vast amounts of information in their formative years. It also reminds that languages -and any subject- are more easily mastered when learned without force, threat and coercion. All of which makes it a shame that previous generations of Irish people learned Irish without loving or appreciating it, thanks to methods and personnel more suited to a torture chamber than a classroom.

Gaelscoil Chorain is far removed from those dark days, though there is concern, as in every school, that ‘the Batt factor’ will bring serious disruption. “If we lose a teacher or more for a day, we won’t be able to get a substitute any more,” complains Mr. O’Murchu. “This means dispersing pupils into other classes and it’s going to be a nightmare, especially if different ages have to merge. I don’t think parents fully realise just how awfully disruptive it is likely to be.”
Perhaps the next generation of politicians will better respect the education establishments that launched them to where they are.

None of which considerations will dissuade those attending Saturday night’s celebration from enjoying the wonderful achievements of the past 25 years -and looking forward to the next quarter century and beyond.

Dance starts 8.30 pm. Finger food/snack provided. Advance tickets @ €12 available from Gaelscoil Chorain 024)-93547, Walter Raleigh Hotel or McCarthy’s newsagents Tallow Street.
Web: http://homepage.eircom.net/~scoil/failte.htm