NW Irish school couldbecome attractive toProtestant families

Rosemary Watterson was referring to Gaelscoil Neachtain, in Dungiven, a co-educational, interdenominational Irish-medium primary school.

It became the first Irish-medium controlled school in WELB in 2012.

Briefing the Education Committee at Stormont within the past fortnight, the Board’s chief administrative officer said: “I suppose that, initially, in Dungiven, the majority of pupils came from the maintained sector.

“However, in the Western Board, if that is a controlled school and, by definition, multi-denominational, it could well be that that would be an attractive school to the Protestant community.

“Obviously, it may take a long time, but it could well be. I am aware that, in the Protestant community, there are Irish-speaking people who may wish to avail themselves of an Irish-medium education. “We could be talking about the very long term, but I think that it is quite an exciting project.”

Mrs Watterson also said that she would like to see more Irish-medium schools in the controlled sector.

“It is a controlled school and obviously open to all communities. That is something that we would like to see developed. Already, the board of governors has representatives from both communities,” she said.