This article is from page 4 of the 2009-12-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A COMPLETE divide between the Catholic Church and primary schools in north Clare is now a realistic pos- sibility following calls from the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) to remove the Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, from his position as patron of the schools.
The organisation, which represents principles from more than 3,000 pri- mary school throughout the country, made the unprecedented comments following the appearance of the Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora in the Murphy Report re- leased late last month.
In a major poll of all principles conducted by the IPPN, more than 80 per cent of those who responded said that those named in the Murphy Report should be removed as patrons of schools.
Speaking over the weekend, Bishop Drennan has said that he has no in- tention of standing down from his position – leaving the school princi- pals and clergy in conflict over who should be patron of the 12 north Clare schools.
According to Larry Fleming, spokesperson for the Irish Primary Principals’ Network the move is un- precedented for his organisation.
“This is a very emotive issue and the fact that four out of five of our
members believe that the bishops should go is not surprising to me. The protection of children has to be addressed and this is a brave step for school principals. We felt in good conscience that we could not sit idly by and not say something,” he told