Rather than religion being the issue at the centre of the dispute at Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg, it has been the vehicle through which this dispute has been conducted, writes Brendán Mac Cormaic.
I read with dismay The Irish Times editorial of Friday last regarding the dispute at Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg.
I would like to take issue with three key points of that editorial: that the issue at the centre of the dispute is the teaching of religion, in particular whether Catholic and Protestant children should be separated during religion classes; that when it comes to teaching religion as truth this should be done outside school hours rather that separating children along denominational lines, and finally the idea which is implicit in the editorial that where the principal and "a majority of the parents" hold a certain view, that that view should prevail.
With regard to this last point I dispute both the assumed fact of the majority and the concept.
Teaching religion is clearly an issue in the dispute but it is not the central issue in the dismissal of the principal. It is impossible to understand the religious issue without understanding the concept of interdenominational education as defined and applied in our interdenominational schools. A key element of this concept is that the children receive their religious education together including those elements which are different.
In practice, since "95 per cent of the beliefs of both religions (Catholic and Church of Ireland) are indistinguishable from one another" to quote the draft document from Tulach na nÓg, the doctrinal differences relate primarily to the sacrament of First Holy Communion.
To have children of different religions together for those matters which are common beliefs is certainly laudable, but ecumenism really begins when children are together for those beliefs which are not common.
When Church of Ireland children are involved in the preparation of their Catholic fellow pupils for First Holy Communion and when Catholic children are involved when the teaching of specific Church of Ireland beliefs takes place is not to minimise the importance of say the Catholic concept of the real presence or an attempt to blur the religious differences. It is, rather, a powerful prayer to God for the ending of the scandal of Christian division.
Clearly this approach is radical. It does not have the overt support of the official churches as the article by Bishop Richard Clarke in your edition of Saturday last shows. It raises the requirement for teachers of always distinguishing in these matters between absolute truth and something which is true for one religious group but not true for another.
There can be practical issues to resolve in the classroom. At the core of this concept is not just tolerance and respect for difference but also solidarity in difference; while I am no theologian, solidarity in difference, I would suggest, is in this context a manifestation of the Christian idea of charity. It is also a good preparation for the practicalities of life in the Ireland of tomorrow where there will not only be Christians of various hues but people of non-Christian religions and many people of no religious persuasion at all.
Such an approach requires three essential ingredients to succeed: it must have the support or at least the acceptance of society at large, it must be supported by the parents and it must have the support of the teachers.
THE difficulty with this approach in Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg did not arise because the teachers, and in particular the principal, had difficulties with the implementation of such a policy. Such difficulties and the resolution of them given the complexity and the challenge of this type of school would be a normal part of the development of the concept.
The difficulty arose in that the proposed solution - which was never a school policy - to remove preparation of Catholic children for First Holy Communion to outside school hours and to employ catechists was a clear departure from the ethos of the school. Furthermore, as reported in this paper last Saturday, there was no ambiguity in the minds of the founders of the school but that the concept of interdenominationalism meant that all religious instruction would take place within school hours.
The stand taken by the principal with regard to "segregation" was puzzling to say the least. He had, he said, a difficulty with teaching two "diametrically opposed truths" to two different groups in the same class and was not prepared to "segregate" the children on the basis of their religion during school hours, but he had no difficulty with the segregation of the same children after school hours.
To try to resolve the issue, the board of the Foras met the school board of management in January. Arising out of that meeting and following a request from the board of management, the Foras began to arrange for a facilitation process to be set up to see how best to implement the concept of interdenominationalism. If that facilitation process had proceeded uninterrupted, it is my belief that the issues could have been resolved satisfactorily.
However, suddenly following a letter from the board of management - which like every board has parent representation - to the parents outlining the school policy in relation to interdenominationalism, Mr Tomás Ó Dúlaing decided to challenge the board in a public letter to parents.
His action was all the more inexplicable not just in that the facilitators had not yet begun their work, but that, as he said himself in his letter to the parents: "In first class this year all the children, with one exception, are making their Communion" and that "the child in question made Communion last year". In other words there was plenty of time to resolve the issues without recourse to confrontation.
This letter, followed by the publicity campaign carried out by him and those parents supporting him, plus what happened at a subsequent board meeting called to ask him to explain his action, changed the nature of the dispute from a disagreement with regard to religious instruction and the ethos of the school to a serious matter of industrial relations.
If the letter had never been issued it is extremely unlikely that there would have been any disciplinary hearing and Mr Ó Dúlaing would still be principal. He deliberately and publicly challenged the board of management.
Our belief from comments by several of the parents is that the concept of interdenominational education was never clearly explained to them by the principal or staff while the issue of religious instruction was being discussed.
We find it difficult to understand why a man with the intelligence and political experience of Mr Ó Dúlaing would take the action he did except that the issue seemed ideal to challenge the board of management - Protestant children being "segregated" by Catholic decision-makers and the media by and large uncritically accepted that analysis.
It did not help that both the board and the Foras were under legal instruction not to engage in any public comment about the issue while there was a disciplinary hearing in the offing.
SO rather than the issue of this dispute being, as you state, the teaching of religion, religion has been simply the vehicle through which this dispute has been conducted. The core issue was this: who runs our primary schools - the principal or the board of management? There is a secondary issue: does the principal and even a majority of the parents have the absolute right to change the ethos of a school?
Take an example. If the principal of a Church of Ireland school decided, with the support of a majority of parents, that as the majority of children were Catholics, the school ethos should change to a Catholic one, would that justify such a change? What about the rights of the Protestant minority in such a situation? What stand would The Irish Times take? Would it support the principal and the parents? I doubt it.
Finally, it is worth stating that Foras Pátrúnachta na Scoileanna lán- Ghaeilge Teoranta is patron of 38 all-Irish primary schools, the majority catholic-ethos schools, but with eight interdenominational and four multidenominational schools.
The concept which you espouse in your editorial "that when it comes to teaching religion as truth this should be done outside school hours" is a concept which already exists in our multidenominational schools and I can assure you that the Foras will defend with equal ferocity this ethos, should it be challenged.
The all-Irish school movement is therefore at the forefront of developments from the ground up with regard not only to our beautiful Irish language but also with regard to religious choice. Our movement has broken the institutional mould - always a risky thing to do, and I can think of no better description of what we are about than to paraphrase Wolfe Tone, which I put into Irish.
"Chun muintir uilig na hÉireann a aontú, chun cuimheamh gach sean easaontas a dhíobhadh , agus chun an gnáth-ainm Éireannach a chur in áit an aicme chreidimh Prodastúnach, Catliceach agus Easaontóir - sin iad mo mhianta."
Breandán Mac Cormaic is on the board of directors of the Foras Patrúnachta na Scoileanna lán-Ghaeilge and is chairman of an Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíocht.