APPEALS to save one of Ireland’s last Island primary schools have been launched after only three children enrolled for the next school year.
Scoil Naisiunta Inis Chleire is a historic Irish-speaking primary school situated on the island of Cape Clear off the coast of West Cork.
The 129-year-old school is currently seeking a new principal teacher and students in an attempt to avoid closure.
It echoes appeals made in 2018, when the school’s only two teachers retired.
Now fears that Ireland’s southernmost Gaeltacht island primary school could close have resurfaced.
As a result, the local community development organisation, Comharchumann Chleire Teo, has launched a campaign aimed at bringing families with school-age children to the island.
Amenities such cheap long-term rental accommodation and fibre broadband are being advertised in an attempt to draw visitors to the island.
A €35,000-a-year tourist manager job is also being offered, in order to manage the Cape Clear Fastnet Experience and Heritage Centre, a site which received €1million from Failte Ireland and Udaras na Gaeltachta last year.
While families with a competent level of Irish are considered favourable, the island is also keen to attract families from various backgrounds and nationalities.
The island, notably already boasts a varied community, with residents from France, Germany, Ukraine, America, and Scotland.
Cape Clear’s island development agency manager, Kevin McCann, and his board are currently offering two low-cost rental properties for September as an incentive for young families to move to the island.
Mr McCann said to the Irish Examiner: “We don’t expect people to stay forever, although that would be nice. But we do want to encourage anybody with young children and preferably at least one person who wants to be a school principal to come and join our community.”
NEWCOMERS NEEDED
He added: “Island life is not for everyone. But what they will get here is a wonderful sense of community and people do rely on each other here more than in the bigger, more urban areas.”
Residents like McCann worry that a closure of the school would threaten the island’s viability.
The island currently boasts a local bus service, a public library, a public health nurse, two pubs, and its own postal service.
However, with the number of children enrolled for the next school year down to just three from 15 in 2015, newcomers are urgently needed to keep the island’s vibrant community afloat.
