{"id":381177,"date":"2026-04-04T05:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:59:08","slug":"only-ireland-has-resorted-to-hijacking-a-protected-community-day-of-rest-for-exams-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381177\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Ireland has resorted to hijacking a protected community day of rest for exams \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 Reading your letters page from here in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/france\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/france\/\">France<\/a>, I was stunned to discover that back in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/\">Ireland<\/a> State exams on Sunday have become a  feature of life (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/31\/leaving-cert-spanish-oral-tests-clash-with-teen-sleep-patterns\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/31\/leaving-cert-spanish-oral-tests-clash-with-teen-sleep-patterns\/\">Leaving Cert Spanish oral tests clash with teen sleep patterns<\/a>,\u201d Letters, March 31st).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The same would be unthinkable in France, as indeed in all other counties in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/europe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/europe\/\">Europe<\/a>, and most countries in the world. They all have the same logistical problems as Ireland and most are just as secular, but none have resorted to hijacking a community day of rest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It is extraordinary that this happened in Ireland, slowly, by stealth, with no debate, no discussion, no apparent opposition from teachers or parents. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sunday March 29th was particularly draconian, being both the day the clocks went forward, and Palm Sunday.. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Would the Department of Education also like to get their hands on Easter Sunday? And why not Christmas as well? \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">CIAR\u00c1N MAC GUILL<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Clichy,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 Reading your letters page from here in France, I was stunned to discover that back in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1814,61,60,3184,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-381177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-leaving-certificate","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}