A planning application for a monastic hedge school submitted by Mr John Moriarty, a writer and mystic, is for permission to house 16 residents and 24 occasional visitors. It will comprise 16 individual cells, an oratory, dining room, a lecture room and a reception building at Cumeen Upper, a valley about four miles from Kilgarvan in south Kerry.
Mr Moriarty said the idea of the hedge school was "that it is at a distance from church and state" and that it will be independent in its teaching "the two revelations of nature and of the mystics".
He is worried about plans to build a wind-farm nearby, but has pressed ahead with the purchase of the 23 acres of land which contain woodland, water and rock as well as meadow. "Everywhere now we see human intention and purpose. We need wild nature," he said.
Place names in the locality also influenced his decision to locate the school at Cumeen Upper.
Nearby are names containing the word "diseart" indicating a hermitage. The mountain retreat of St Finbarr at Gougane Barra, once a place of pilgrimage for the locality, is nearby.
A board of eight trustees has been set up. They include business men and women, a neighbouring householder and Mr Maurice O'Connell, former governor of the Central Bank. Mr Moriarty has already approached neighbours and one is a trustee of the projects. He wanted to reassure people he was "going to run a tight ship".
"This isn't just a human community but one of plants, animals, lichens, human beings and insects," he said. The monastic rhythm of the day was the greatest of all teaching, he added.
More than €90,000 has been donated by individuals and religious orders for the purchase of the land. Much more will be needed for architects fees and such, but Mr Moriarty is confident the money will come through. He envisages that at first it will be a retreat centre and later the school will take over.