{"id":516610,"date":"2026-06-24T21:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516610\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T21:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:42:16","slug":"at-least-theyll-have-someone-to-converse-with-only-two-pupils-enrolled-in-new-gaelcholaiste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516610\/","title":{"rendered":"‘At least they’ll have someone to converse with’: Only two pupils enrolled in new gaelchol\u00e1iste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only two students have enrolled to attend the new gaelchol\u00e1iste at Synge Street in Dublin in September following a controversial decision<\/a> to transition the famous secondary school to an Irish-medium institute.<\/p>\n

Incoming pupils will be taught through Irish in first year from September, while the school\u2019s existing 250 students will continue at Synge Street CBS as English-medium education is phased out.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people attended a demonstration outside Leinster House last February, demanding a timeline from the Government for the opening of the new gaelchol\u00e1iste.<\/p>\n

Campaigners have also called on the Department of Education<\/a> to purchase a former monastery building beside Synge Street CBS for \u20ac3.75m due to fears that the existing school would have insufficient capacity to meet demand.<\/p>\n

However, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST), which is the patron and trustee of the school, has confirmed that only two students have enrolled for the new term in around nine weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, two students have enrolled for the gaelchol\u00e1iste at Synge Street for next September and a Gaeilge-only section of the school is being created over the summer for these students,\u201d said a spokesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students commencing this autumn will be fully supported in learning and socialising as Gaeilge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about the low level of enrollment for the upcoming semester, a spokesperson for the Association of Secondary Teachers (ASTI) reiterated its call for the transition to be paused to allow for consultation on what is best for the school and wider community.<\/p>\n

The father of a student at Synge Street, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed relief that a second child had decided to enroll in the new gaelchol\u00e1iste in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast I heard, there was only one, and we were wondering if they were going to have to talk to themselves in order to become proficient in the Irish language. At least now, they\u2019ll have someone to converse with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the bright side, the new Irish-medium school is going to have the best pupil-teacher ratio in the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Synge Street CBS is one of the country\u2019s most famous post-primary schools, counting many celebrities, political figures, and sports stars among its alumni. It has been referred to as \u201cthe Eton of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

For a period in the 1970s, both the taoiseach and president \u2014 Liam Cosgrave and Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh \u2014 were Synge Street alumni, while RT\u00c9 icons Gay Byrne and Mike Murphy have also passed through its doors.<\/p>\n

Other previous attendees include former finance minister Richie Ryan, former Formula 1 boss Eddie Jordan, and Ireland international footballers Don Givens and Andy Reid.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of plans to transition Synge Street CBS to a gaelchol\u00e1iste in September 2024, ASTI president Donal Cremin said students, parents, and teachers had been \u201cignored, bypassed and disregarded\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the transition had been a \u201cunilaterally imposed decision\u201d, and called for consultation.<\/p>\n

The spokesman for the ERST said the trust \u201chas been and is fully supportive of the school\u2019s decision to transition to a gaelchol\u00e1iste\u201d, adding that it was \u201cdelighted\u201d there was already interest in 2027 enrolment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this context, it\u2019s worth noting that the school\u2019s l\u00e1n Gaeilge summer camp (for fourth, fifth, and sixth class students) is over-subscribed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Department of Education did not respond to queries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only two students have enrolled to attend the new gaelchol\u00e1iste at Synge Street in Dublin in September following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3363,835,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-516610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-back-to-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516610","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=516610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}