The head of a Gaelscoil in Donegal has resigned after provoking a furious reaction from other natitonal school principals in the county by claiming that children from Irish-language schools attain a higher level of Irish.
Ms Mandy Byrne (25), principal of the interdenominational Gaelscoil na gCeithre Maistri, in Donegal town has given notice of her intention to resign for "personal reasons".
In a feature about the school published in the Donegal Democrat on April 10th, Ms Byrne said that in her experience children from Gaelscoileanna "raise the bar and attain a level of excellence in Irish that other children never can . . . Ordinary English-speaking national schools don't seem to have the level of competency required," she said.
Following the article a letter, signed by six primary school principals in Donegal, was sent to the Department of Education complaining that the language used in the article was "denigrating" to all teachers in ordinary English-speaking primary schools.
Ms Heather Hannon, principal of Donegal Glebe National School, said yesterday that the comments seemed to amount to "a canvassing exercise".
Another principal in the area said the tone of the comments reflected in a negative way on other schools.
He said the article had elements of "commercial advertising" ..
The other principals had raised legitimate questions but ones that should be addressed more to the journalist and the newspaper than the teacher in question, according to Mr Colm O Dúlacháin of Gaelscoileanna, the organisation of Irish-language schools.
