Connacht Tribune
Students seek public support to save their school
A public meeting will be held in Coláiste an Chreagáin in Mountbellew next Tuesday, as parents and students try to garner wider community support to save the school.
There is an open invite to the community to attend and County Councillors and Oireachtas members have been issued written invitations to the April 18 meeting, which begins at 7.30pm.
The public meeting is in response to plans by the school’s board of management to cease taking students as of this September, 2017, and to ‘wind down’ the mainstream education side of the secondary school.
The plan is to focus solely on third level further education and training as of 2019, when the current first, second and third years will have completed their Junior Certificate, and the fourth and fifth will have completed their Leaving Cert.
The move, which was announced a fortnight ago, is being resisted by parents and students.
Fourth Year student, Regan Maher, from Newbridge, told the Connacht Tribune that the meeting was being organised to dispel the preconceived notions the wider community has about Coláiste and Chreagáin.
“People tend to think our school is for people with less ability or for those who are not as academic as those who go to the other schools around us but that is just not the case,” said Regan, who represents County Galway on the national executive of Comhairle na nÓg.
“I’d like people to come to the meeting, leave their preconceived notions at the door and come to the meeting and hear about what the school is really like.”
Regan is one of a committee of about a dozen who have set-up an online campaign to save the school.
She was among a group of students who were accompanied by parents on Monday who travelled to Portumna to hand deliver invitation letters to the county’s politicians to attend next Tuesday’s meeting. They have written to President Michael D Higgins inviting him to visit the school.
Regan explains that the school is more like a family rather than your typical school.
At Christmas, for example, the local priest and board of management in the school, broke bread together with teachers and students who had cooked a Christmas turkey dinner feast.
And why is it such a special school worth saving?
“We are like a family . . . there is no trouble here, there are no discipline problems and there is no bullying,” said Regan.
Students can play a whole variety of sports and there are many opportunities for extracurricular activities.
She had high praise for the dedication of the teachers at the school, also.
Regan recalled falling behind in her maths class but her teacher stayed behind and put in extra, voluntary hours to tutor her and bring her up to speed.
The same is true with other teachers who go above and beyond the call of duty to help students with extra lessons after hours, she said.
If the school does close, then the alternatives are St Cuan’s in Castleblakeney or Holy Rosary Mountbellew.
But as Regan points out, they are not ideal options.
“There is one student in first year now who wants to be an engineer and who is studying metal work – he will not be able to continue to do metal work in either of those schools. What will he do?”
John Cunningham, a parent and member of the campaign committee to save the school, said the manner in which the bombshell news was dropped, by text and then letter, a fortnight ago, caused panic and distress.
“Some of the children were doing oral Irish exams that week. It was incredibly bad timing, and caused a lot of upset,” he said.
Mr Cunningham said there are 16 children firmly committed to enrolling in first year in September but this announcement was designed to “scatter them”.
He said the school is a safe and happy environment for the children attending, and the teachers are first class. “They are doing fantastic stuff up there. This announcement has caused huge distress,” he said.
Mr Cunningham urged people to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
The school was opened in 1932 but it was confirmed last week that the school will cease accepting first years and transition year students due to low projected intake for September 2017.
Students have set-up an online petition and campaign to try to save the school by boosting numbers – they have appealed to youngsters in the area to opt to go to first year at Coláiste an Chreagáin so that its Board of Management might reverse its decision to focus on further education and training.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
