In the News This Week - ending 11th June

There has been a huge outcry from the parents at Our Lady’s Grove school and from the local Goatstown community, in relation to the sale of the land surrounding our schools.

National and local newspapers and the RTE have been reporting. Respected journalists, broadcasters, university lecturers and Irish historians have been vocal about protecting school lands from being sold by religious orders.

This is a round up of news on the campaign by Concerned Parents and Residents against the sale of remaining land around Our Lady’s Grove Schools.

6th June
OLG in The Irish Times Letters

Sale of School Lands and Private Schools
'Sir, – The Irish education system is in crisis and desperately in need of visionary leadership. On the one hand we read of brothers and nuns morphing into the worst kinds of property speculators, selling school lands, despite this not being in the best interests of the children they were entrusted to serve, with Our Lady’s Grove and Clonkeen College being the most recent examples. Then we read of the rising numbers of those choosing to send their children to heavily State-supported private schools. 

When is a Minister for Education going to stand up to the many powerful vested interests, such as the Catholic Church and the old boys’ network, and say for once and for all that the State will provide state schools, with a place for each child regardless of their parents’ faith or income? If, beyond that, parents want something different or elitist for their children, they should pay the entire economic cost themselves. Then and only then can we have a level playing field in what is surely one the most important cornerstones of a just society. 
– Yours, etc, SHEILA MAHER, Dublin 14'

7th June
OLG on Barabara Scully.com, a freelance journalist and broadcaster

Religious Orders are selling out on our children; why we should all be concerned
'We now have a Catholic church in decline in Ireland, along with ageing religious orders and yet most of our schools are still on land owned by various congregations. And these congregations, possibly seeing the writing on the wall in terms of public support, along with the prospect of big bucks from rising land values are selling up. Selling up land which is a vital part of OUR school’s infrastructure.

The Sisters of Jesus and Mary have recently sold 5 acres of land formerly used by Our Lady’s Grove school in Goatstown for a reported €13million. In recent weeks, we have learned that the Christian Brothers have done a deal with a developer to sell off most of the playing pitches belonging to Clonkeen School in Deansgrange for a reported €18 million.
In both cases, these non fee paying schools will be left without a vital amenity. Outdoor space and playing fields should not be a luxury item for any school, (although of course not every school has access to same) particularly today with rising obesity and mental health issues in our young people.


The collateral damage in these actions by the religious orders is our children, once again, whose general wellbeing, mental and physical health are being sacrificed at the altar of greed by congregations of the Catholic Church.


It is time that we, the people, demand that our Minister for Education puts a stop to this fire sale of our schools valuable, precious assets. Ruairi Quinn was right, back in 2009 when he said that this is not just an issue for the Department of Education but one for all of society.

This is an issue that demands a national conversation. We owe it not only to our children but to our grandchildren and great grandchildren to protect this vital part of our schools’ infrastructure. As long as schools exist, their playing fields should be protected, from developers, from greedy religious orders and from spineless ministers. A good start would be to stop the sale of Clonkeen’s grounds before passing legislation that would protect all schools from this asset stripping.'

8th June
OLG in the Dublin Gazette
Darragh McKiernan – Our Lady’s Grove Land Sale Slammed by Locals

'Objectors now say that the school is left with no green space and no room for future expansion. 
The decision to sell the land has caused a stir, with parents left feeling “betrayed” while others took to social media to vent their anger.

One poster said: “I was born, raised and have returned to this community and over the past 20 years have watched it close in on itself through continued commercial development.”
TD and Green Party Deputy Leader Catherine Martin expressed her disappointment at the news, saying that it is “very disheartening for the community in Goatstown”.


She added: “This is a systemic problem which shows a lack of forward planning in the entire county. With the sale of land at Our Lady’s Grove and another proposed sale of land at Clonkeen College in Blackrock, there is a very worrying trend of land around schools in our area being sold off for residential development when it should be used to safeguard the present and future needs of our educational facilities.”


Labour’s Lettie McCarthy sees the issue as both a “moral and ethical” one. She told The Gazette: “We are all aware how vital adequate playing pitches and recreational resources are for our young school going people.

“A variation of the Development Plan will take several months and there is nothing to prevent a developer lodging a planning application (in this time) which the planning department and An Bord Pleanala will be obliged to accept from a zoning perspective, so time is of the essence.


“I am calling on the Minister of Education to intervene immediately and ensure this land stays with the school.”'


9th June
OLG in The Irish Times
Kitty Holland: Motions aim to protect school lands from housing development

'Clonkeen College and Our Lady’s Grove are among the few non-fee-paying post-primary schools in an area of rapid population growth. Of the 105 primary and post-primary schools in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county council area, 93 are in zoned residential land.

Given that land in the area is among the most sought-after for housing in the State, concern is increasing that school patrons will be tempted to sell tracts of school land for housing.

Councillors Karen Furlong (Green Party), Shay Brennan (Fianna Fáil) and Sorcha Nic Cormaic (Sinn Féin) will call for a suspension of standing orders to move a motion calling for a reopening of the county development to rezone school lands from “objective A” (residential) to “objective F” (open space and recreational). John Bailey (Fine Gael) is moving a similar motion.

A spokesman for the council said: “The development plan should not be read having regard solely to a single objective – it has to be considered having regard to a suite of policies and objectives . The council’s plan includes a number of policies and objectives regarding both new and existing schools.”'

9th June
OLG on 98fm
Sharron Lynskey: Calls To Protect Playing Fields At South Dublin Schools

'There are calls to protect school lands in South Dublin from being sold for housing.

Over 1,300 students in the Deansgrande and Goatstown areas could be without a blade of grass to play on if an emergency motion on Monday fails to pass.
The motion will call on Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to rezone school lands from residential to open space and recreational. It's after the religious owners of Clonkeen College in Deansgrange and Our Lady's Grove in Goatstown sold the fields for housing development.
In Clonkeen College, the Christian Brothers are offloading 7.5 acres of playing fields while in Our Lady's Grove primary and secondary schools in Goatstown 5.4 acres have been sold.

"I don’t think the answer to the housing crisis is to start building apartment blocks on children's playing fields", says Green Party Councillor Ossian Smyth.
"We have a housing crisis – that doesn’t mean you build on every square inch of everything you can find".
"These kids are coming from all kinds of backgrounds, all races, every area of Dublin and to pick on them and say 'you’re the people who are going to use your playing fields’ … it’s just really, really unfair".'

9th June
OLG in Dublin People
Opposition mounts to sale of school lands

'Opposition is mounting to the sale of lands at Our Lady's Grove Primary School and Jesus and Mary Secondary School in Goatstown.
The Sisters of Jesus and Mary are reportedly selling the 5.4 acres of land for €13 million.

Furious parents say this is some of the last green space available to the schools.
A public meeting on Tuesday, May 30, in the upstairs function room of the Goat Grill was attended by approximately 120 people. Attendees held a “robust discussion” of concerns while they started to work out a plan of action for the coming months.

A concerned parents’ group has been set up by those with children in the school and they have begun to mobilise other parents and local residents around the issue.

“We are working out a plan of action and set up a blog and a petition and have also just started a Facebook group,” one parent wrote. “We strongly feel that either the Department of Education should purchase the land - it is a public school after all - or the nuns should not sell it, as they were given the land for educational purposes in the first instance, not for residential development.


“This is a very serious issue for our school as it means that there will be no green space attached to the schools and no room for expansion in the future,” the parents’ representative added. “The secondary school will be particularly at a disadvantage as it is the only public girls’ secondary school in the area and is surrounded by private girls’ schools with wonderful facilities.”


Another parent wrote: “The primary school already has so little recreational space that children are required for safety reasons to take turns running in the yard at break time.
“The Montessori school that has been located on the grounds for 20 years has been forced to relocate and the future of the afterschool care is also in question due to this sale.”


Campaigners are now encouraging parents and residents to contact Dún Laoghaire Rathdown county councillors in time for the next council meeting on June 12 and encourage them to vote to rezone the land.'

10th June
Irish Independent
Ronald Quinlan - How builder, brokers and private investors did secret €18m deal for school lands

'News of developer Bill Durkan's acquisition of Clonkeen College lands comes just days after the Irish Independent revealed that another of his family's companies - Durkan Estates Clonskeagh Ltd - has bought a 5.4 acre site beside Our Lady's Grove Primary School on Goatstown Road.

Parents of children attending Our Lady's Grove Primary School and Jesus and Mary College had voiced their objections to the sale, arguing that the schools would be left with no green space and no room to expand in the future. But the nuns have defended their decision to sell, saying the income it delivers will be used to support the congregation's other ministries, including overseas missions and the ongoing care of sisters, a number of whom would have taught in the two schools.'

10th June

OLG in The Irish Times Letters
Religious orders and selling land

'Sir, – Tony Fahey argues that religious orders are entitled to dispose of their property in the same manner as any other property owner (“Ireland’s religious orders earned their wealth”, June 9th). Taken from a commercial perspective this seems like a reasonable argument but then religious orders never before claimed to be commercial organisations. In the past they always claimed to do things for the greater glory of God and the benefit of society and were usually granted charitable status by the State. Selling school playing fields, no matter how they were acquired, can hardly be regarded as a benefit to society. 

– Yours, etc, LOUIS O’FLAHERTY, Dublin 9

Sir, – If all the religious schools in the towns and cities of Ireland were to simultaneously sell their playing fields and other sporting facilities for housing development, as they are apparently entitled to do, chaos would ensue as the schoolchildren of Ireland would be immediately deprived of the resources to keep healthy and fit. Perhaps we need a national study of the vulnerabilities in Irish society in the areas of health, education and social services resulting from many decades of allowing religious orders to control key aspects of society. 

– Yours, etc, LESLIE LAWLESS, Dublin 4'

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Continue to engage with all DLR Councillors, T.D.'s and the Minister for Education on this urgent issue for our school and indeed all schools in DLR and beyond.

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