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SCHOOL CHILDREN IN Cabra in Dublin’s northside have been without their GAA grounds for three years.
In January 2016 Naomh Fionnbarra GAA club in Cabra, Dublin donated its all-weather pitch to the local gaelscoil so that a new school building could be constructed.
Under the terms of the contract, the club said the Department of Education leased the pitch to use during the construction of the new Gaelscoil Bharra building. As part of the deal, the department would build an all-weather pitch to replace the one used in the building phase.
The new school was built by Sammon Construction which ceased operating following the collapse of Carillion Construction earlier this year.
The building opened in September 2017, however school principal Seán Ó Donaile has told TheJournal.ie there have been issues.
The heating doesn’t work, we have no drinking water, there’s a lengthy snag list.
The GAA club and school have always been linked, the pupils have had no pitch to play on for three years, and it seems no one is accountable.
The sentiment is shared by the GAA club, spokesperson Nicky Keogh said:
This would not happen in more affluent areas, where a young community is denied these vital facilities. What makes the issue more frustrating is the fact that the pitch could be finished in one month if the Department of Education was more efficient.
According to the club, the Department of Education said in October 2017 there was five weeks worth of work left in order to complete the pitch.
Over 12 months on, and the pitch has not been completed. The club has spent in region €40,000 on the hiring of other facilities in the meantime (pitches etc) – money they will now have to fundraise to recoup.
In response to a query on the matter a Department of Education and Skills spokesperson released the following statement TheJournal.ie:
Tender negotiations between the Bondsman, the Design Team and the specialist sub-contractors for the completion works are at an advanced stage and it is anticipated that an agreed figure can be reached by late November/early December.
The Design Team has been liaising with the Principal of Gaelscoil Bharra in relation to any defects and snags in the school building, and all these items have been included in the ongoing negotiations.
The spokesperson also said the Design Team is “keeping the GAA Club informed of progress”.
Naomh Fionnbarra GAA club has 600 members, 400 of those children, and runs 16 juvenile teams.
Ó Donaile said the school fully supports the protest, “as it is, we’re banging our heads against a brick wall”.
Protesting seems the only way to get anything done.
A delegation of parents and children from Naomh Fionnbarra GAA club and Gaelscoil Bharra will travel from Dublin to the Department of Education’s offices in Tullamore, County Offaly today. There they will hand over hundreds of letters from children calling for their pitch to be restored.
Keogh said they are making the journey because the development office of the department is based in Tullamore and they want to deliver their protest directly.
Club secretary Seamus McGrattan has described the entire situation as “a mess”:
The most frustrating aspect is not that we are still waiting after three years for this project to be completed, but there is zero accountability in the Department of Education.
A significant number of communities are suffering, the children and young people are suffering and no-one will take responsibility for the mess.
Naomh Fionnbarra GAA club has requested a meeting with Minister Joe McHugh to discuss the situation.
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A fantastic result. No longer will the law or our constitution consider religion above criticism and proper scrutiny.
@Good enough for Jehovah: watch Fry and Hitchens debate on YouTube
Truly brilliant
Well done everyone who voted YES. Another small step towards a truly secular state.
@The Risen: We need to make sure our idiot politicians maintain freedom of speech from now on.
@Daniel Donovan: and some of the idiots like @TheRisen who push a SF agenda. They got stuffed in this presidential election.
@Brendan Kernan: in fairness he mentioned several times that he planned to spoil his vote in the Presidential election by writing ‘GOD’ on the ballot
And thats all that really matters to the insecure Irish…meantime, the banana republic operates unchallenged!!
@John Smith: Not to mention that the few days that the dail will be in session over the next year will be squandered now on changing various laws to suit this newly changed constitution. How much will the legal advice bill go up by? We’re only greesing the wheels of the banana republic.
@John Smith: that really irritates me too about the Irish. The pathologically need to be liked or accepted by other nations. It’s a deep seated inferiority complex. They love the pat on the head from their “superiors”. Drives me nuts. Then when something goes “wrong” and we are harshly judged my other nations it’s the coin flipped – aren’t we a terrible people, the worst little nation in the world.
@David Patrick Cahill: Whaddya on about?
@Bríd Gallagher: The need for validation or acceptance or to be liked. The obsession with how others view us. Its an Irish trait that annoys me. I voted to remove blasphemy from the constitution but at same time I don’t care how the outside world views the result of the referendum. Its a recurring theme very time we have a referendum. We rush to see how other nation’s have reacted to the result. Have you not noticed this?
@David Patrick Cahill: Not even when it could mean life or death to people abroad?
Speaking as someone who was almost expelled from a Gaeltacht for reading a book that was only disapproved of, I’m not surprised that some people vaguely think it might have been a good way to enforce some sort of control over others.
@David Patrick Cahill: Speak for yourself, I dont suffer from cultural cringe.
@David Patrick Cahill: why let it bother you David? Surely you wouldn’t waste your time reading and commenting on the article if the international reaction is irrelevant to you?
about time too !! No religion is above scrutiny !!
@Chris Cantwell: careful now ,say that to the wrong person and you could end up with your head …. ( fill in blanks yourself) !
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Off down to the local Mosque. Wish be luck
The more liberal society becomes it appears the more intolerant people become. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.
@Aine O Connor: So true
@Aine O Connor: Ain’t that the truth. The illiberal liberals.
The atheists are in their element, Ireland of the saints and scholars no longer applies (hasn’t in years anyway) so when are they going to target the Angelus at 6pm on radio and television, Christmas is safe for the moment as its only about consumer spending for most.
@Charles Coughlan: ‘ so when are they going to target the Angelus at 6pm on radio and television’
Well it’s a long weekend so we’ll probably pick things up from next Tuesday.
@Charles Coughlan: Christmas originated as a Pagan festival anyway not a Christian one
@Charles Coughlan: I wish they could be called “Secularists” instead.
I am sure there are plenty of atheists who don’t give a crap either way, and not the least bit militant about ultimately irrelevant things like this.
Hope it passes, but European Court of Human Rights said defaming Mo “exceeds the limits of free expression” So religious rights trumps human rights in the European Human Rights just as we join Spain in reject blasphemy.
Crazy that it’s 2018 and saying that God does not exist is only now going out the bleedin window.
Madness
@andyearley: of course he exists – where do you think chocolate comes from.
@Etherman: Easter bunny’s ass
@Etherman: and hell exists. That’s where marzipan and mince pies come from
Another big do about a non-issue. Anything rather than tackle real problems
Should have been an ecumenical matter.
Now do what England does and call it a hate crime to say something a bit critical about 1 religion that can’t take any criticism
I do love Stephen fry
@Drahcir Neirbo: you are alike
@Michael Maher: thanks although I’m nowhere as clever as he, thanks
A liberal tolerant Ireland that’s happy to kill precious unborn babies. How wrong. How very very very sad.
@Bernard Byrne: ok hun?
@Bernard Byrne: Feel free to incubate them in your own womb Bernard.
Great, now who’s coming to my Draw Muhammad contest?
@Harry Dunn: count me in but will use a nom de plume just in case oh I get it now signed Justin casey
Does this mean I can curse in the comments section?
@Paddy Kavanagh: Wow what a life! The epitome of freedom is saying bad words on the journal.ie.
@Bríd Gallagher: yep
Language is subjective. No good language, no bad language. Just language
I think that the verdict of the vote on blasphemy is not good, this country is going downhill fast, Ireland was a very religious country but now it is not so, I serve in the church and I believe in God and so do a lot of eastern Europeans, Ireland is bending to the whims of the unbelievers if we do or say anything we are bad, but if they say or do anything it is ok for them. Ireland is gone from being a very religious country to being a soft touch, in a period of 2 years
“Now listen very carefully as I will only say this once”!
“OUCH , what did you do that for?”
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