About one-fifth of the 470 students at Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, the Dingle community school, yesterday staged a protest over the school's all-Irish policy.
The school, run by a board of trustees and the Kerry Education Service, opened this autumn. Serving the Gaeltacht area of west Kerry, it is an amalgamation of the town's separate boys' CBS and girls' Presentation secondary schools which, it is claimed, had a more relaxed policy towards the teaching of all subjects through Irish.
Since it opened there has been rumbling disquiet among a small section of the local community and public meetings have been called.
Spokesman for the students Felim Ó Briain said the protesters wanted the previous schools' policy to continue. This involved giving students the choice of doing subjects through Irish or English.
However, school principal Pádraig Firtéar said the school was instigating the policy of the trustees that subjects be taught through Irish.
Irish-language groups have come out strongly in support of the school's all-Irish policy.
