Tyrone school is saved by campaign

By Roisin Henderson

AFTER a long, hard-fought campaign, the community in Fivemiletown is celebrating a very happy new year this week with the news it has saved St Mary’s Primary School from closure.

Having spent 2023 protesting and fighting for the school’s survival, it has been confirmed the community-led campaign has been successful and people power has prevailed, with the proposal to shut St Mary’s now officially withdrawn.

It was this time last year the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and the Education Authority (EA) earmarked the school for closure. This was despite the fact they had the fastest-growing enrolment of any primary school in the North, and had been widely recognised as being a vital cross-community resource in the local area.

This prompted outrage locally, with parents and prominent members of the local society – including Bishop of Clogher Larry Duffy and elected representatives from across the political spectrum – passionately calling for the school to remain open.

Mairaid Kelly, chairwoman of the St Mary’s Board of Governors which has been leading the campaign, said it was “an understatement” to say all involved were delighted with the news they had achieved their goal to save the school.

“This is a small, rural community who pulled together in opposition to what was always a flawed proposal that failed to properly apply educational policy, and we won,” said Ms Kelly.

“Hundreds of us marched through the streets, we collected almost 10,000 signatures in support of our school and we had support from right across the political spectrum.

“Our school is going from strength to strength, our children are thriving and we hope the removal of this threat will help to increase confidence in our school to enable us to grow and remain a vital part of this community. We look forward to welcoming more families to our school in September.”

Ms Kelly added, “This campaign showed that sometimes public bodies get things wrong, and when they do people really can make a change if they pull together and have evidence to support their case.

“There are still lots of unanswered questions as to why our community had to fight so hard to have our voices heard, and we will be focusing on sustaining our school and doing whatever we can to ensure those voices of small, rural schools are listened to in future.”

MLAs Deborah Erskine and Colm Gildernew, both long-standing supporters of the school, have both welcomed the good news, as has Parish Priest Fr Brendan Gallagher.

“The people of Fivemiletown were united in their opposition to this proposal to close this valued rural school, and this decision is a vindication of all of their efforts,” said Ms Erskine.

Mr Gildernew commented, “This is a huge and significant victory for the people of Fivemiletown, and indeed all small rural communities who are fighting for the retention of their services.”

Fr Gallagher paid tribute to all those who had fought so hard for the school, “Everyone worked together to ensure that St Mary’s would remain open to welcome all children to experience the unique benefits of a small, vibrant and caring school.”

News the closure proposal has been withdrawn comes even before a legal challenge to the decision to close the school had reached its conclusion.

These legal proceedings – which are being taken on behalf of a pupil at the school – are due to be heard in the coming months, and will consider issues related to alleged ‘procedural unfairness’ and ‘illegality’ in how the CCMS handled a request to withdraw the proposal to close the school.