And then there were three ...
Saturday September 07 2002
Ballinruane is the kind of place many city people visualise when they think of the country.
Situated deep in the heart of farming east Galway, it is either an unspoilt rural idyll or the indisputable middle of nowhere, depending on your viewpoint.
The road to St Joseph's national school is so narrow that two vehicles would have difficulty passing. Parts of it have grass growing up the middle. There are numerous splatters of flattened dried cow dung, presumably from the dairy animals grazing peacefully in nearby fields. There is only one house in the immediate vicinity. The only sounds are the cawing of crows and the barely discernible rumble of a distant tractor.
It is a place of almost perfect stillness. Indeed, the very same could be said of the school itself.
Though it was built almost a century ago, there is nothing rundown about the neat, freshly-painted building which stands out like a bright yellow beacon on a slight rise in the local countryside. Inside, the two bright attractive classrooms are crammed with the kind of things you would find in any busy primary school desks and chairs, a computer, shelves groaning with books, children's artwork on the walls.
But no children.
For most of this week, the only sound in Ballinruane school has come from the radio. The lone teacher, Bernadette Jordan, keeps it switched on for company. A sweeping brush is wedged against the front door to hold it open, should anyone pass by who might break the monotony of the day.
This much-publicised school has just three children on its roll book this year. The Wards Bernie (9), Debbie (7) and Tom (6) began the new academic year in unorthodox fashion last Monday morning when they arrived in a horse and trap, driven by their 12-year-old brother Martin.
But it proved to be something of a false start. They didn't attend on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or on any subsequent day this week. The reason given was that the family had gone to Dublin to visit the children's sick uncle. Nevertheless, the school remained open for each of the four days, should they or any other pupils from the area turn up for classes. All week, Mrs Jordan has opened the school at 9.30, remained on the premises all day, and locked it again on the dot of 3pm.
Ballinruane hit the national headlines this time last year when local parents withdrew their children because of the arrival of what they said was a disproportionately high number of Travellers' children at the school. Prior to that, there were just 12 local children enrolled. This low number meant that the future viability of the two-teacher school was in doubt anyway.
Controversy flared when two Traveller families, originally from Co Galway, moved back from Co Louth where they had been living for about 10 years. Eight Traveller children were due to attend the school.
When local parents objected, the other Traveller family moved away again, leaving only five Ward brothers and sisters on the roll book. Following efforts by the Department of Education and the school board of management, 10 of the 12 original pupils returned but only for a brief period.
The reduced Traveller numbers ultimately didn't sway the settled parents, who subsequently transferred their children to two other nearby national schools. Eight went to Garbally, and the other four to Menlough. Both schools are about three miles away in different directions.
The Ward youngsters became the only pupils at Ballinruane, where the teachers made every effort to keep school life as normal as possible. The two older Wards, Martin and Rebecca, have since moved on to secondary school in nearby Mountbellew.
At the time of the controversy, the local parents responded to media coverage of the story by making virtually no public comment. However, they denied being anti-Traveller and said they recognised and supported the rights of Travellers living in the community to be educated in the local school. They said they had been concerned for some time about the future of the school at Ballinruane and were trying to address those concerns with the department. Whatever about last year's action, there is no boycott of the school this year technically at least. The former Ballinruane pupils are now well settled into their new schools. Even if the Travellers had left, it is unlikely that the local children would have returned to their old classrooms last Monday.
The schools at Garbally and Menlough have about 50 pupils each and are in a much more viable and healthy state than Ballinruane was even before last year's walk-out.
A year on, local people are still trying to put this unhappy episode behind them. The media coverage of recent days has only served to bring the issue up again. The favoured option in the area is still very much one of keeping the head down and the mouth shut. This remains a highly delicate and sensitive matter which nobody is keen to re-visit.
The locals feel vulnerable to accusations of racism and bigotry, which they insist are not true. But they believe there is little to be gained from talking about it.
Ann Ward, the mother of the three remaining children at Ballinruane, says it is all down to discrimination against Travellers. She says the children experienced no problems when they attended school in Dunleer, Co Louth, where the family lived previously. She has 10 children in all. The oldest, Mary, actually attended Ballinruane school about 18 years ago, without a problem. Other members of the family also went there around the same time, she says. "There was no discrimination in them days."
She says the family came back to Co Galway because it was their home. They didn't expect to encounter problems and it was a big shock to her when they did. The Wards live on the roadside about a mile and a half from the school.
Mrs Ward says her children spent a "very, very sad, lonely year" at the school last year, with nobody else to talk to but the teachers. She would like them to have playmates, but she is pleased the department has kept the school open for them.
"It has been a lonely year and they are facing another lonely year in Ballinruane. It's very hard."
One solution would be for the Ward children to transfer to one of the other schools in the area, thereby paving the way for the inevitable closure of Ballinruane. There is nothing to indicate that the pupils who left last year will be coming back.
The idea of a transfer was put to Mrs Ward by the chairman of the Ballinruane board of management, Fr Sean Kilbane, as recently as last Sunday. There are no Traveller children in either of the other schools. If they enrolled in Garbally, they would have the added advantage of qualifying for school transport. Instead of the horse and trap, they would be picked up morning and evening by the school bus.
However, Mrs Ward claims she has no option but to keep the children at Ballinruane, for the moment at least. She believes that if they were to transfer to another school, the parents there would respond in the same way and withdraw their children.
"The same thing would come up again. They'd definitely take the children out again. I know the story. I know it would happen again.
"The priest wanted me to try it out and see what would happen. But I said I'd leave it for another while. I'll leave it for another month or two anyway. I haven't got a lot of options. I will just have to accept what comes."
On the children's absence from class this week, Mrs Ward says this is the first time they have missed school like this. And she promises they will be back at their desks on Monday morning. She says the children had a good attendance record last year. Irrespective of what the Wards decide, Ballinruane school is likely to be shut by this time next year. Before the new term started, Fr Kilbane put out a call in the parish newsletter for any new pupils in the locality who might like to enrol, but he got no takers. The school is now down to one teacher. It will probably see the present school year out, but no more than that. A school with just three pupils is clearly not a going concern.
The current regulations state that if a school has less than eight pupils for two consecutive years, it will close. Last year, Ballinruane had 12. This year it has just three.
The only thing which could possibly save it might be an official reluctance to shut a school in which there are only Traveller children the headlines would be choice: 'Department Orders Travellers To Move On.'
Ballinruane school this week looked like a strange classroom version of the Marie Celeste: everything in its exact place, but with the pupils mysteriously vanished. By next September 98 years after it first opened it may already be part of Irish educational history.
- Willie Dillon
