(IRELAND, January 13 2008) - It will be a faith-based school like no other; one that unites rather than segregates. A group of Irish parents, religious leaders and academics will start enrolment to a unique educational experiment teaching Christians, Jews and Muslims together.

They claim their school will be the first of its kind in Europe: one based on religious values but that will capture the ethos of Islam, Judaism and Christianity together in one building. The group aims to open the tri-religious school in September, even though they have yet to find a building.

Plans for the school come at a time of huge social change in the Irish Republic. Ireland's Department of Justice privately admits that one in five of the Republic's population is now non-indigenous Irish, as thousands of immigrants continue to settle in the state. Their arrival has put huge pressures in particular on the Irish education system, which had traditionally been overwhelmingly Catholic and under the control of that Church.

One of the founders and the chairperson of the tri-religious Intercultural Interdenominational Primary School based in Co Kildare, Mary Shine Thompson, said: 'Instead of having one patron, the school will have tripartite patronage. The children of three religious denominations will be taught their own faiths, as is allowed for within the regulations of Irish state primary schools, but they will also learn about each others' faiths. The faiths therefore will form part of the ethos of the school.'

By contrast, in Ireland's non-denominational schools religion is taught outside the main school programme at the discretion of parents.

Thompson emphasised that the proposed school will not restrict entry to only children of Muslim, Jewish or Christian families. Children of other faiths and none will be made welcome, she said.

The Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr James Moriarty, Rabbi Charles Middleburgh of the Dublin Progressive Jewish congregation and Imam Hussein Halawa, from the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, are the main supporters and sponsors of the project.

Thompson, the dean of research and humanities at the St Patrick's College Drumcondra campus of Dublin City University, admitted that their initiative has been launched at a critical juncture in the Republic's cultural development.

'At one level this initiative is about responding to a changing Ireland,' she said. 'One challenge we Irish face is how to retain the best of our traditions while welcoming exciting new expressions of Irishness. This school is one span in the bridge to the future.'

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Last updated 14/01/2008 06:49:16

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