Opponents warned that it would be hostile to religion and cause major trouble. In the mid-Seventies senior figures in the educational establishment were vehemently opposed to the idea of a multi-denominational national school in South Dublin.

Exactly 30 years ago, Dalkey School Project National School opened in a house in Vesey Place near Dun Laoghaire with 100 pupils.

The multi-denominational school had a difficult birth, but it went on to thrive, eventually finding a permanent home in Glenageary. It was the first Educate Together school in the country.

Now, three decades on, Educate Together is the fastest growing educational movement in the State with an estimated 10,000 pupils under its tutelage.

Twelve new schools run by the multi-denominational group were opened earlier this month.

There are now 56 schools run by the Educate Together group in the State.

Campaigned

Educate Together intends to continue to expand its network rapidly, with plans for a further 45 schools in the coming years. And next year, the body hopes to open its first second level school in Waterford.

When Micheal Johnston, Aine Hyland and a group of other interested parents campaigned to open the first school in the Seventies, they were treated by some as radical subversives.

In the year when Dalkey School Project National School opened, a Catholic group calling itself the Council for Social Concerned distributed leaflets in Dalkey issuing stark warnings: "Atheistic interest in the Dalkey School Project is clear. Ireland's system of education is denominational by Constitutional guarantee.

"We submit that there is no need for such a school as this which can only be divisive. It can only be hostile to religion in an age when it was never more needed... Dalkey could be a precedent for major trouble in other areas.''

Michael Johnston, the journalist who was chairman of Dalkey School Project at the time, says much of the opposition to the school was behind the scenes.

"A lot of it was subtle opposition. We found that we had a lot of planning problems, and I think a lot of these were not for planning reasons. On the other hand, we also won a lot of support and there was clearly a huge demand for multi-denominational education."

Jack Lynch, who was Taoiseach by the time the first school opened, was an early supporter.

Mr Johnston pays particular tribute to the teachers who helped to start the first school. The demand for places was so great that at one stage the school was being run from four separate locations in the Dun Laoghaire area.

"The teachers deserve credit because they were putting their careers on the line and taking a risk," says Mr Johnston. "The whole thing could have gone belly-up."

Mr Johnston believes the active involvement of parents in the setting up of the schools has been central to their success.

"I think that when parents help to run a school it gives the place a tremendous boost. They have an incentive for the schools to flourish."

Contrary to the early fears of detractors, the schools are not hostile to religion. Instead, they deliver what Educate Together describes as an "ethical education programme".

Pupils are taught about the main faiths and belief systems in the world.

Educate Together schools make facilities available to groups of parents who run faith-formation classes outside school hours. The extra-curricular Catholic religious classes tend to be heavily subscribed in the schools.

Paul Rowe, chief executive of Educate Together, says: "This avoids any situation in which children are separated on religious grounds during the school day, and fully respects the religious rights of parents, staff and children."

In some areas, most notably Lucan, the fast-expanding suburb of Dublin, Educate Together is fast achieving parity with church schools in terms of numbers.

The new Lucan East school is the fifth Educate Together school in the area.

Paul Rowe says: "There is a growing realisation among the new generation of Irish parents that the Ireland in which their children are growing up is radically more diverse than the Ireland in which they grew up themselves."

Source: independent.ie