Windguru and Magic Seaweed are not websites most school principals would consult first thing every morning, but then Mairéad Ní Fhátharta’s daily routine isn’t typical of many a príomhoide.
She is in a minority as one of just 18 principals employed for offshore islands – 13 primary and five post-primary – extending from west Cork up to northwest Donegal.
The tail-end of Storm Abigail had turned the Atlantic into a cauldron on the day she was due to travel out from Inis Meáin for a recent meeting in Galway. Before she left, she had to do a bit of rescheduling for classes which might fall foul of the weather.
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Her art teacher, who commutes every Friday from Salthill, could get caught if ferries were cancelled, while conditions were too bad for the plane. A mother of two young children, Ní Fhátharta also had to let her husband, mother and mother-in- law know that she might not be able to get home until wind and sea state settled again. “You really have to live on an island – not just visit during summer – to know how much your life is controlled by the elements,”she says.
Out on Tory off Donegal, Derry-born principal Máire-Cláir Nic Mhathúna is never quite sure if she will get out to Letterkenny for meetings, as the community of just 150 people depends on the boat and is regularly cut off, even in summer.
On paper, though, she has one of the most enviable posts in the State. She is one of five post-primary staff teaching four pupils, and one part-time student, in Coláiste Pobail Cholmcille, which has been on the island since 1999.
Participate
Ní Fhátharta, a native of Inis Meáin, is passionate in her belief that this option is a right, rather than a luxury, for the five islands that have it. Like many before her, she had no choice but to leave at the age of 12 and enrol at Coláiste Chroí Mhuire in Spiddal as a boarder. “We were lucky as we could go back in at least every second weekend, but it does break your connection with home when you are really there for the holidays,”she says.
Her school, Coláiste Naomh Eoin, opened as a pilot scheme in 2001 and is the youngest of the five island post-primaries. Oldest is Coláiste Naomh Éinne on Inis Mór, which was established in 1953 and has 62 students currently on the roll.
Among them are two handball world champions and four county football players, principal Mícheál Ó Culáin points out,while it boasts frequent winners of national contests in dance and sean-nós singing.
“It was when we almost lost the air service that we realised how important it is to these pupils, in allowing them to fully participate,” Ó Culáin says. “Some of these kids are commuting several times a week out and back to Galway.”
On the southernmost Aran island, Inis Oírr’s post-primary, Coláiste Ghobnait, opened in 1985. It has 23 pupils enrolled for the current academic year, while Donegal’s Arranmore island, further up the coast, has its highest enrolment to date, at 93 students, in Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada.
The 25-year-old Arranmore post-primary is so accessible from Burtonport that it is attracting students who are not from the island, and some of the 43 pupils take the ferry daily to and from the mainland.
Most inaccessible is Tory, where Coláiste Pobail Cholmcille opened in 1999. While its physical remoteness is a constant challenge, it is also an attraction for its principal. “Once the students know the deadly nature of the sea here, they are totally safe,” Nic Mhathúna says.
Fluent Irish
A fluent Irish speaker, Nic Mhathúna was originally principal of the Gaeltacht island’s primary school. She trained in the North which qualifies her for both primary and second-level, and she currently teaches Irish, geography, physics and special needs support.
“It’s not easy to get staff who can teach through Irish and are prepared to live out here, because the weather is just too unpredictable to commute, even at weekends,”she says. “Fortunately, two of our teachers are married and have settled on the island, and it is going through a bit of a baby boom.
“You can’t get substitutes, really, and you have to be prepared to get caught out here if you are living elsewhere,” she adds. “I do remember that the weather was so bad that one of our staff didn’t get home for Christmas one year.”
On Inis Oírr, Mairéad Ní Fhátharta shares a music teacher with Inis Mór. If the photocopier breaks down, or a computer or plumbing glitch can’t be fixed by an island resident, she has to hire from the mainland and cover travel time and costs.
“It means a job that might cost most schools €500 could cost us €1,500,”she says. Together with her four fellow principals, she has prepared a case for an increased budget of €10,000 for island schools, along with an increase in teacher allocation, the reinstatement of an island allowance for offshore island teachers and an increase in places for non-island pupils on the highly successful learning through Irish scholarship scheme (see right).
Ní Fhátharta says there is a compelling argument for increased support on a number of levels. She points out that the collective population of 2,896 on Ireland’s offshore islands in the 2011 census represents a 6 per cent fall in 20 years, at a time when the national population was growing by nearly 30 per cent.
“There was a time when island parents might have thought sending their child to an island post-primary might put them at a disadvantage, in terms of subjects or extra-curricular activities, but in fact our schools are thriving,” Ní Fhátharta stresses. ”These schools are central to support for the Irish language and heritage, and they need to be nurtured – it is a delicate balance.”
The case has been supported by the Galway-Roscommon Education and Training Board, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and by the Irish Islands Federation, Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann. The director of schools of the Galway-Roscommon board, Tomás Mac Pháidín, notes such supports won't create a precedent, as island schools are in a very different position.
“Currently, teachers can’t afford to work on the islands and the quota is not providing beyond basic subject options. We have estimated the improved supports would cost no more than €530,000 annually, across all five post-primary schools.”
The Department of Education says in response that each of the island post-primary schools gets one additional post “in respect of island status”. It says it is “committed to the development and publication of a policy on Gaeltacht provision with a view to strengthening Irish-medium education provision in the Gaeltacht”, covering “early years, primary and post-primary education”.
Although they don’t have to battle with subject range, principals with the larger network of island primary schools share similar struggles. Five of 13 schools offshore are one-teacher, seven are two- teacher and one is a three-teacher.
Under reduced thresholds for these schools, a second teaching post (as in principal and one teacher) is funded if there are eight pupils on the roll as of September 30th and a third (principal and two teachers) if there are 45 pupils, the Department of Education says.
Constant battle
In spite of this allowance, principals have a constant battle with numbers. Just over four years ago, Inishturk off Co Mayo launched a “save our school” campaign, as it was concerned about the future of its primary, St Columba’s NS, dating from 1886. It appealed to young families in Dublin and elsewhere to consider relocating. Currently, the island has a population of almost 60.
"Unfortunately, no one took up the offer – even though we do have great broadband," island development officer Mary Catherine Heanue says."We have three children on the roll now, but the skipper of our new ferry has a five month-old baby . . . so we are all depending on her."
Three years ago, Inis Meáin’s primary school lost its second teacher, as it fell to six pupils on the roll in 2011. Even though this rose to eight the following year, the department based its allocation on the previous September 30th figure.
Principal Orlaith Breathnach fell ill that same year and the department employed a substitute. However,when she returned to work she was told she required 20 pupils – then reduced to 15 by the department - to employ an assistant.
Not happy with this, Inis Meáin residents took a protest to Dublin. A temporary solution was found when Zurich Insurance offered to fund the second post for two-years. Zurich has looked for "nothing in return", she says, but it has set a precedent that no one wants to think about too much.
In a recent issue of Marine Times, islands correspondent Olwyn Gill described Inis Meáin's situation, in having to rely on a private company, as a "national disgrace". Ní Fhátharta says it shows that a national sustainability plan for all islands is required.
“Politicians must appreciate what the islands have to offer now and on them,” Gill noted,” instead of packing up our heritage in boxes and books to be stored in museums by investing in them today.”
Island children: ‘The weather is always on your mind’
Aisling O’Malley remembers that her father, Michael Bob, hated Sunday evenings during school term on Clare island, Co Mayo.
"The island would empty as the secondary students were taking the ferry out to Roonagh," O'Malley, now a primary school teacher with Educate Together in Midleton, Co Cork, recalls.
From the age of 13, she was one of those Sunday travellers, as she enrolled in Sancta Maria College in Louisburgh.
“Some of us would repeat sixth class, just so we were more prepared, but it never crossed our minds that there was any alternative if you wanted a secondary school education,”she says.
“I was very homesick at first, but it must be much harder on the parents.
“I’ll never forget the first day – the ferry couldn’t sail till Monday morning. Everyone already had their seats by the time we arrived – two of us – and we already felt like outcasts. We were shy enough as it was.”
Special relationship
As the eldest of three girls, she was the first to leave in her house. She remembers how she would buy a newspaper and chocolate for her sisters on a Friday evening before taking the ferry back in.
“There were many positive aspects – you developed independent skills, and we were perceived by the teachers to be mature and responsible. And you would learn to manage money,”she says.
"The weather was always in your mind, in case the ferry would be cancelled. I remember once we were lucky enough to travel by helicopter when the island had been cut off for a while and the Air Corps was bringing out supplies."
Her younger sister Bébhinn, a qualified adventure sports instructor and guide with Vagabond small group adventure tours, remembers there was a closeness between island pupils.
There was also a special relationship with the families on the mainland who offered weekly boarding, she says.
“There was a great community of island kids - they all looked out for and after each other. And it was important to have access to a variety of subjects, which you would get on a mainland school. There’s no doubt that it taught you life skills at an early age.”
Post-primary education is now a very different experience for the likes of Peter Ó Donnachadha (15) on Inis Mór. Not only can he stay on the island, but he can commute to Galway for handball and football training – and is currently a world handball champion.
“You have to travel for handball to keep up your skills level, and then I was on the Galway Gaelic football development squad for under-14s last year,” the transition year student at Coláiste Naomh Éinne says.
“Four of us would travel out for mid- week matches,” with the football club contributing to flight costs, which are set at a special island rate. “It was well worth it, as we got to the county final.”
He adds: “Having the air service in Indreabhán means I can stay with relatives on a Sunday or a Wednesday night and take the 8.30am plane on a Monday morning. My mother Niamh collects me, and I am in school by 8.45am.”
Improved island transport, initiated by former Gaeltacht and islands minister Éamon Ó Cuív, has also allowed for traffic in the opposite direction. A State-funded scholarship scheme offering places to non- Gaeltacht students in Gaeltacht post-primary schools has given the islands a fillip.
Demand for the 10 places allocated through Scéim na bhfoghlaimeoirí Gaeilge, to each of the three Aran islands, often outstrips supply, Inis Meáin principal Mairéad Ní Fhátharta says. It includes the cost of accommodation for the year.
Completely different
Joy Flaherty, a pupil at John Scottus School, a fee-paying school in Donnybrook, Dublin, wrote in this newspaper about her transition year experience on Inis Meáin and how she enjoyed it so much that she came back to do her Leaving Certificate on the island http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/a-dublin-girl-finds-her-place-on-inis-me%C3%A1in-1.1573674.
“Going to school here is completely different from Dublin. You always feel so safe here,”she wrote. “ I found it a bit difficult to settle in at first. Not that I was homesick as such, more that I have always lived in the city.
“You can jump on a bus into town after school or stay the night at your friend’s house. I’m too busy for that here.”
“A brainwave” is how Micheál Ó Cualáín describes the scholarship scheme. “It’s total immersion for a year, but pupils are also prepared for change too, because social media gives them those connections,”he says.
“Once there was a stigma attached to being from these communities, but now everyone wants to be an islander.”
