Sir, - Girls' boarding schools have always been considered to be a highly respected form of education and way of life. Why is it, then, that these are quickly and quietly creeping out of existence? As a 16-year-old girl in boarding school, I fail to see where else I will make such firm friendships or learn to tolerate and accept people as they are and not how I would like them to be.
For centuries young girls have been sent to boarding schools in Ireland and abroad and very few will say that it has totally ruined their life. Boarding school life is a unique way of living and, as irony would have it, it will only be after the last boarding school has shut its doors that people will begin to realise exactly what they have lost. - Yours, etc.,
Kilteel, Naas, Co Kildare.