It was a big day for Jordan Mulikat, who was all polished shoes, neatly knotted tie, shiny red lunchbox and a wide toothy grin as he arrived for his first day at Ireland’s most controversial new school.The four-year-old was one of around 80 black children arriving at Bracken Educate Together primary school, which opened yesterday in record time after the education ministry belatedly realised it had a crisis on its hands earlier this month.
Ireland’s booming economy has sucked in hundreds of thousands of immigrants over the past decade, creating an ever-increasing infrastructure gap which has hit the northern parts of Dublin the hardest.
This summer the children of the 'new Irish’ discovered that while many of their white friends would be starting at Balbriggan’s established schools there were no places left for them.
Amid noisy accusations and counter-claims about racism, a non-denominational education charity was called in to set up a school to accommodate those who had been turned away.
Yesterday, in driving rain, scores of parents dropped their children off at the inappropriately named Sunshine House, a Catholic institution with a statue of Jesus above the entrance which normally provides holiday activities for underprivileged minors.
The building already houses an Irish-language school but it was abundantly clear which children were going to the Educate Together classrooms. Their parents posed proudly for photographs outside.
“It’s such a relief,” said Monika Mulikat, Jordan’s mother, who works in a local bank. “The reason we were given by the other schools for refusing him was Jordan’s age, because he was born in April 2003. “I am a Catholic and so is Jordan, so I was very upset when he didn’t get a place.”
98 per cent of Ireland’s schools are run by the Catholic Church and by law they may discriminate when awarding places on the basis of baptismal certificates.
Obviously this was not the factor in Jordan’s case. “I think some of the schools were racist, it was a factor,” said Mrs Mulikat. “We queued for three hours at one, only to be told that there wasn’t a place for him.
“At another I contacted I was told 'We have to look after our own first’. I asked what did that mean and got the reply 'All I’m saying is we need to pick our own’. And even those who managed to get places, I know there are some parents who are not happy at how their children are being treated.”
Bracken is the third emergency school to be opened this year for similar reasons: vast new housing estates are being constructed around Dublin without the vital ingredients of new towns.
The relief and joy felt by parents was tempered by fears that their children are being funnelled into an educational apartheid system. It was a charge rejected by Paul Rowe, chief executive officer of Educate Together, a charity providing alternatives to faith-based education.
“We are very disappointed at its description as a school for blacks, but we know that there is an intersection between racial and religious discrimination. Until the government addresses this it is inevitable that racial divisions will emerge.”
Mr Rowe said that by 2013 north County Dublin would have an extra 100,000 children, requiring 60 new schools. He was confident that Bracken would “develop to reflect naturally the diversity of the community”.
Nevertheless, his comments were interrupted by the arrival of an irate May McKeon, chairman of the town council, who demanded to be given a list of the names and addresses of the new school children.
Mrs McKeon said that Balbriggan was being turned into a scapegoat and that local feeling was running high against Educate Together.
“We have always welcomed everybody here but it is hard to keep the infrastructure right. Balbriggan’s population has trebled in the last ten years. No child has been turned away for either race or religious reasons. I have grandchildren who got into schools by the skin of their teeth.
“Our welfare offices in this town are overflowing. There are too many financial incentives to come to Balbriggan.”
Her daughter, Fiona Kavanagh, said that in the established schools a third of pupils was non-Irish.
“The education ministry should have distributed resources between the schools and not created a new all-black school because that is in nobody’s interests for future integration. The existing schools have been educating together for years.”
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