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Updated at 6.30pm
THE FAMILY OF a child who struggled to find a school place because of a controversial ‘Catholics first’ policy in some primary schools are holding a march on government buildings this evening.
Roopesh Panicker spent months trying to find a primary school place for his daughter Eva last year only to be told that there were no places available in eight schools near his home in Dublin.
When Roopesh, a Hindu originally from India and now an Irish citizen, asked why his daughter had been refused he was told that the schools were full and that she would be put on a waiting list.
However several schools later told him that they could not guarantee his child a spot for the following school year as she was not baptised.
The case generated headlines when it came to light earlier this year, and has been the subject of debate this week at the Web Summit.
Ruta Emilija / Twitter#walk4eva campaign and some experiences on #equality of #education in #Ireland. Or lack thereof. #WebSummit2015 pic.twitter.com/EpZxpKnyTP
— Ruta Emilija (@RutaEmilija) November 2, 2015
“I couldn’t believe it when they told me that my daughter was not guaranteed a place because she isn’t Catholic,” Roopesh said.
“It is because of this admissions policy that my daughter is put in the bottom category, below any Catholic child.
“I have no problem with any religion and I even went to a Catholic school myself growing up but when it comes to a child’s education we should not discriminate.”
Sarah Thatt Foley / TwitterPeople gathering before @EndaKennyTD in support of equal access to eduction #Walk4Eva @EducateTogether pic.twitter.com/OsEgNLGiDd
— Sarah Thatt-Foley (@ST_Foley) November 5, 2015
Paddy Cosgrave / TwitterIreland is an incredible country where all children will I hope be cherished equally soon. #Walk4Eva pic.twitter.com/FMKAirBrOe
— Paddy Cosgrave (@paddycosgrave) November 5, 2015
Roopesh contacted the Dublin Archdiocese and the Department of Education for advice on the matter. He said he received a phonecall from the Archbishop’s office advising that he baptise his child, leaving him furious.
“They asked how they could help, and when I explained my situation they suggested that I should baptise my daughter in order to secure a school place.
“I was shocked that they would say this, I couldn’t believe that they would suggest that my daughter change her religion.
“Neither I nor my wife slept that night – we were both in shock.”
A statement from the Dublin Archdiocese said “no school should advise parents to baptise their child to secure a place in that school ahead of another child”.
It added that the decision to put a child forward for baptism was a decision in faith which required “adequate Catechetical Preparation over time”.
A spokesperson added that they had no information of a phonecall of the type mentioned by Roopesh Panicker taking place.
March
Eva eventually got a place in a school around half an hour’s drive away.
The family called on supporters to take part in a march to Government Buildings on Dublin’s Merrion Street at 6pm today.
Photos posted online with the hashtag #walk4eva showed supporters gathering on Merrion Street, as Roopesh spoke to the media alongside his daughter.
“My goal is to keep pressure on the government,” he told us yesterday.
“I want to see a change in the Irish school system where being human comes before a child’s religion.”
Walk 4 Eva / TwitterIf you support us, please join us by walking from wherever you are based in Dublin to arrive at Merrion Street for 6pm. #Walk4Eva
— Walk 4 Eva (@walk4eva) November 1, 2015
Discrimination
The vast majority of primary schools in Ireland are owned by religious denominations. The taxpayer, however, pays for the bulk of the building and running costs.
In an Ipsos MRBI poll for The Irish Times earlier this year, the majority of respondents agreed that children should have equal access to school places whether or not they had been baptised.
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I find it tough to believe that in an age where we have the iss,GPS and all that tech that we can find a terrorist in the middle of the Afghan mountains but we can’t locate an airplane.
Fair point but for all we know, it’s completely disintegrated and could be in small pieces over God knows how many square miles. There may not be much to find.
I feel so sorry for the families whose loved ones have just disappeared, Just like that.
Terrible tragedy.
Yes but it could be an airplane hundreds of metres below the surface. Not an easy thing to find in a massive area. The fact it went so far off course without anyone realising is the scariest thing. Queue all the mad conspiracies. The agony of all the poor families of people lost must be incredible.
The most shocking part is how they managed to lose it in the first place. I always thought that a plane would be constantly monitored on numerous forms of technology. The reality appears to be quite the opposite
In fairness, it’s not an airplane…
It’s several million pieces of one at this stage
We are also living in an age of wholesale lies and mainstream media deception.
That’s very weird as yesterday the Australian media reported unusual activity by the search ships: “A graphic supplied by Mike Chillit, a US-based ship tracker, shows a lot of interest where the 90th east meridian meets 37 degrees south latitude, south-west of Perth. This is in the vicinity of where the first informed guesses were made of MH370′s likely impact with the sea…to this day, the cargo manifest has not been fully revealed”
Not even as much as a seat cushion or a piece of luggage.
The aircraft might be in a million pieces but there has to be a trace somewhere.
The terrorist isn’t hiding two miles underwater…
Aeroplane, not airplane! Americanisms need to stop!
You are right ofcourse Egg Head, I apologise. Your name is, perhaps, we’ll chosen.
There,their, the’re Egge head…. I typed “Aircraft” :)
Paul, you actually make a stupid comparison. Think about it.
Frank, you left out the lying and insane conspiracy theories from the Internet trolls. For every lie in “the mainstream media”, there are a 1,000 lies on quack web sites.
@Boganity Mike Chillit has done an amazing job of covering the movements and activity of Go Phoenix, Discovery, Equator and the newly arrived Supporter, but I don’t see anything odd in the four ships’ activity in recent days. And I don’t recall Mike saying himself the activity was unusual, other than at timespointing out the changing sweeps or going off track to test the better sonar they have now. Do you have a link to any piece in the Australian media where (and why) the movements were ‘unusual?’
William Grogan_ “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” Adolf Hitler
We must also remember that the History book on the shelf is the one that always repeats itself.
Frank, it doesn’t always work. You and the other tin foil mad hatters lie continuously and we still don’t believe you. PS When did anyone claim Hitler was ever right? He was a complete dork. His book is such crap that it’s unreadable. She why quote him?
They used special force troops on the ground to find terrorists in the afghan mountains not GPS they did use satellites to pick up movement of these people but it was troops on the ground who pinpointed their exact positions, when your looking in an ocean it’s a whole different ball game, a lot of plane would be at bottom of the ocean and the rest would be scattered for hundreds of miles after couple weeks so it’s really tough to find exact position where it went down
Another false flag Frank? Explain your opinion on what happened the plane, I could do with a chuckle….
Hitler didn’t actually say that, Frank. The quote has no foundation, and can never be directly cited to a source, and even in meaning it is taken out of context when properly translated from its idea and subtext in Mein Kampf. You’ve been corrected on this before on Journal, but as usual, you don’t listen.
Frank spins his own lies and repeats them over and over again and he doesn’t realize it.
Declan Noonan_ Coming from someone like yourself that would bend over backwards for what is perhaps the most corrupt Government so far in US History.
http://static.uglyhedgehog.com/upload/2012/9/29/thumb-1348892054679-obama_lies.jpg
I am wrong It says in the link above that Gas prices are 200% of what they were…..
GAS prices have actually dropped considerably in the last few months but all at the expense of throwing Russia under the Bus and leading the world on course for WW3
Why don’t you talk to your buddies in Iran about that Frank – they voted to keep oil prices low too…
Frank will love this
For once I think Frank may have a valid point
We cannot say that Australia didn’t keep an “eye” out for this plane.
http://s13.postimg.org/3pqew5son/Planeeyee.jpg
End of the air search: Crews that searched for missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 pose for final photo in Perth as operation is scaled down
Malaysian Airlines have it all to lose, this would be their preferred scenario, wishful thinking.
I agree with you but I think this decision was more to do with pressure from the families. Until the passengers are officially declared to be dead their families can’t move on as insurances can’t pay out, money in the deceased bank accounts can’t be accessed, financial liabilities can’t be wrapped up etc etc.
Very strange that they couldn’t find the plane when we can send a missile from anywhere and accurately hit its target
Non sequitur.
Even now, Malaysia authorities have still provided no credible evidence that MH370 (after its left turn) ever entered the Malacca Strait before going south and eventually being picked up by the Inmarsat data. Indonesia and China, based on their radar and satellite data, still say there is no evidence that MH370 ever entered the Malacca Strait. Which means, when the aircraft was picked up by Inmarsat, it still had a lot more fuel to take it further south well past 39 degrees south and beyond where the current search is concentrated.
I think the biggest issue the families have with this is the Annex 13 stipulation in the Convention on Civil Aviation for missing aircraft – the declaration generally only applies to accidents when a search for wreckage, bodies and evidence has been terminated. This is obviously not the case with MH370, where a search is ongoing. I think folks should also be careful not to make ungrounded assumptions – that it is also a part of the grand conspiracy. There is a lot of legalese going on here and it’s not just about compensation claims against Malaysia Airlines. This also has to do with clearing the way forward for families with life polices on relatives. Life assurance companies are not going to pay out on policies without some declaration of ‘missing, presumed dead.’
What irks me most in today’s press conference is Malaysia’s claim that it investigated all possible leads. Rubbish! One of the most credible leads was the 300 floating objects picked up on satellite in the South Indian ocean two weeks into the search, and its instruction to Chinese vessels to call off their investigation of them. Even after SAR insisted that based on the Inmarsat data, they were searching in the right priority area, their projected drift patterns said debris would come ashore in Sumatra after 120 days; this data proved completely wrong! And yet to the tune of 60m dollars they refuse to admit their priority area may be wrong.
Very little info coming out of inquiry into why Ukranian fighter jet shot other Malaysian Airways down over its territory
What, the one that, even according to its manufacturers, wasn’t capable of doing it?
Probably because the inquiry is both an aircrash investigation and criminal case and some of the wreckage only arrived back in the Netherlands for cataloguing, examination and rebuild on a frame in mid December. Only then will physical evidence prove what kind of missile brought down MH17 – a ground to air missile, or a missile or cannon fire from a military jet. The final report is not due until later this year. Only at that stage will criminal action be advised in the report recommendations, and an international case file.
The sanctions on Russia last year, at the behest of the USA on the EU, have still to this day not been supported with evidence in the public domain, beyond a reliance on social media and witness reports. Similarly, accusations against Ukraine for its possible involvement, have not been properly substantiated. These are all political issues, the role of criminal authorities in each country, and not the role of the Dutch Safety Board. The DSB exist to investigate the actual air incident itself, explain what happened, provide data and evidence, and then report; not to actually prosecute or bring to justice those responsible.
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