Stranded pupils enjoy Italian hospitality

Every ash cloud has a silver lining it seems, as a group of North Clare teenagers and teachers stranded in Italy since last Saturday are finding themselves on the cultural experience of a lifetime.

The 18 transition-year pupils and four teachers from Ennistymon Vocational School, who have been in Northern Italy for the past two weeks, are in good spirits and are being well looked after, according to principal, Mary Joyce.
The group travelled to Bassano, near Venice on Thursday, April 8 on a 10-day trip as part of a European education programme. However, as planes across Europe were grounded, the group found themselves facing a night without accommodation until locals opened their hearts and their doors to them.
The group was due back in Ireland last Sunday but the flight was cancelled because of the closure of Irish and Northern European airspace following the eruption of an Icelandic volcano.
“They were staying in a hostel for the 10 nights but on Sunday, there was a festival in the area so there was no hostel space for them. The families of the Italian students took them in, which has been an invaluable experience. They have spent 10 days getting to know these kids and now they are living in their homes with them. You couldn’t measure the value of it. As part of their preparations, they had to learn some Italian and now they are getting to use it living with their mamas and papas,” Mary told The Clare Champion.
“The Italian school has four English teachers and they are all spending time with the Irish students and supporting them. The activities of the Comenius Project were completed in the first week so now they are going to school with the Italian children. School in Italy starts at 8am, which I think is great. I might introduce that here. They go to school from 8am to 1pm from Monday to Saturday so if they don’t get home this Saturday, they’ll still have to go to school,” she added.
Staying an additional week has proved somewhat financially challenging but as well as parents sending money to the children independently, Mary sent €3,000 raised by the school by bag-packing in Fitzpatrick’s supermarket over Easter.
“Obviously, we had other plans for the money but there isn’t anything you can do about these situations,” explained Mary.
The school principal herself travelled with the young people to Italy but she and a colleague returned on Tuesday, April 13 and two other teachers joined the group in their place.
“It was a wonderful tour. There is beautiful countryside, the people are amazing and the food is great. It is the best place on earth to be stranded,” Mary claimed.
The group is scheduled to fly back to Ireland this Saturday but if this does not happen, Mary has a fallback plan in place involving a 2,400km road trip.
“I spoke to the teachers on Tuesday and they were a little bit stressed trying to organise a bus from Bassano to Calais. It is funny, really. I had been on to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Irish embassy and every sort of official body but it turned out the local people here were the best help of all.
“Pat O’Neill, whose son Simon is on the trip, has been brilliant. He works down in Shannon and has kept us informed on things like the weather and flight information.
“He even booked the students onto a flight for this Saturday. I was sitting looking at the Aer Lingus website considering the best way to go about the whole thing when he just rang and said he had it done.
“We even have a back-up plan in case flights can’t take off on Saturday. Willie Scales, the local bus driver in Ennistymon, had a contact in Dover, a man from Galway called Tommy Manning. He said he would be willing to drive to Bassano and bring them home from there if needs be,” Mary claimed.
The pupils travelled as part of the Comenius project under which their flights and accommodation was paid for. Ennistymon Vocational School is twinned with a school in Bassano for the purposes of the project and the pupils were undertaking a comparative study of the Inagh River with the Brenta River in Italy.
The young people brought a video recorder with them to make a DVD of their work called A Tale of Two Rivers. However, Mary joked that they will, no doubt, have got some very interesting footage of the effects of a volcanic eruption on teenagers.
There have been some casualties of the pupils’ delayed return, most notably the school’s sporting ambitions. “Our woodwork teacher is also the football coach and he has had to postpone a few of the matches and is operating with just a skeleton panel. One of our stranded students has also found himself with an injury. On the day they were meant to come home, there was a soccer match between the Irish students and their Italian counterparts and one of the lads, Padraig Haugh, got a sprained knee. Padraig had looked a doubt for the trip as he only received his passport the day we were leaving because of the passport office difficulties here.
“It has been a saga but all’s well that ends well. They have had a great holiday and they are safe and well minded and they have a lifetime of memories. We are obviously hugely grateful to the teachers that are with them for their calm and patience and the teachers in the school there have been great too. The school community there have been phenomenal and the families taking the children into their homes is really something. They will never forget this trip. It is a lifetime memory,” Mary concluded.