The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THIS week saw Clohanbeg National School announce that it will not reopen after the current school year ends.
Clohanbeg NS first opened in 1879, and in a statement on Facebook this week it confirmed that its education will soon cease there permanently.
“We are all extremely disappointed to announce that Clohanbeg NS is due to close in June. It has been a long struggle over the last few years to avoid this happening and keep the school open.
“Unfortunately with a big exodus from sixth class this eyar our numbers are too low to continue as a viable school. We will be holding a ceremony to mark the clsoing of the school on Saturday, June 25. All are welcome. More details to follow.”
School Principal Pat Comber said that the school will be amalgamated with Cree, and the ceremony marking the closure will be on the day after the school holidays begin.
While the news was made public this week, the decision was made earlier in the year.
“The decision was taken as far back as last February really. You have to do things in time and we weren’t going to have sufficient pupil numbers to continue as a viable school.
“Over the last few years our numbers have dropped alarmingly due to the lack of young children in the area. There are some kids in our area but they are attending other schools, mostly because they moved into the area.
“Generally there wouldn’t be enough enrolment to come in over the next three or four years, there’s only maybe three or four younger children in the area.”
Ultimately changes in the local demographics are the reason for the closure.
“It’s probably rural depopulation really, a lack of younger people living in the area. A lot of properties were sold in the area over the last few years, but it didn’t increase the number of children, a lot of people who moved in would have been older and retired people.
“I’m here 34 years now and all the families used to have four or five or six children, but that no longer applies. Most families would have only one or two or three children. We’re out in the countryside, not near any village and it’s harder for rural schools.”
He said that over the course of his career a number of other West Clare schools closed for similar reasons.
Mr Comber said that with much of the preparatory work done, it was felt that it was now time to confirm the closure.
“There was a good bit of work to be done in the background, so we hadn’t released the information officially. A lot of people would have known, but maybe the general public mightn’t have and we wanted to clarify the situation.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
