The parents of two boys who have refused to learn Irish at their local primary school in Co Wicklow are planning to educating them at home.
Mr Tom Higgins and Ms Theresa Dunne presented their two sons at the entrance to Tigh na nOg school in Blessington yesterday morning, but were asked to leave the premises by the school authorities.
The school told the parents at the end of last term that Troy (9) and Hadley (6) cannot be readmitted to the school because they refused to follow "the full school curriculum", which includes Irish.
Mr Higgins, a company director, said if the school refused to readmit his sons, he would educate them at home. He said a legal challenge to the school's ruling was being considered.
He said the rights of parents to decide what classes their children took was being ignored and his sons did not want to do Irish because "it is no use to them".
Speaking at the school entrance, Mr Higgins said the school refused to tell him exactly why the children were not being readmitted.
He then asked Mr Brian Dowling, chairman of the school's board, to hold an extraordinary general meeting of parents. "If the parents agree with the decision not to readmit the boys then we will abide by that decision," he said.
Mr Dowling replied by asking him to leave the premises. Nobody in the school was prepared to comment. Other parents dropping their children at the school mainly ignored the protest. Mr Higgins is planning to present his sons at the school again today and has offered to fund the cost of an Irish teacher for the school if the subject is no longer compulsory.
"It is not about Irish per se, it is about the rights of parents to decide what their children should learn or not learn," he said.
Private schools such as Tigh na nOg receive no State funds and have the right to devise their own curriculum. In practice, most copy the national school curriculum, which includes Irish. However, the school is legally entitled to offer whatever subjects it wishes.