'We keep our heads down . . . we've been quiet for too long'
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"We keep our heads down but that can make us an easy target," says Avril Copithorne, a farmer's wife from Fort Arthur, Kinsale, Co Cork.
"We are not rich Kinsale people, we are in dry stock farming which has been struggling for the past few years."
Much of the income from the farm and the 'pin money' from boarding dogs goes on the education of Avril and Philip's three daughters in Bandon Grammar School 12 miles away.
Her brother's children get free education in the Ashton Comprehensive School in Cork city, but the Copithornes live too far away to avail of it.
"It would take our children an hour and a half to get there in the morning," says Avril.
She and her husband wanted their children Grace (16), Adrienne (15) and Alice (12) to receive an education in their own ethos and the nearest such school is Bandon, where they are very happy, but at a huge financial cost.
"I had to sign a cheque this week for €2,500 and the same again in January," says Avril.
She admits to being "terribly annoyed" over the cuts in State support for Protestant schools to date and the prospect of worse to come.
She suggests that maybe the Protestant community "has been too quiet for too long" over education.
- John Walshe
