A LOCAL schoolteacher is running the Belfast Marathon to raise funds for an Irish medium youth organisation, which is being hit by Education Authority cuts.
Gaelscoil na Móna teacher Caoimhe Scullion will take on the 26.2-mile challenge in aid of Glór na Móna. The youth organisation is facing a £86,000 cut to its budget, resulting in "instant service closures".
Caoimhe, whose son Rossa attends Glór na Móna, said she wanted to "do something positive" to highlight the issue.
"I was doing the marathon anyway and I wasn't expecting to raise money, I was doing it as a personal achievement, but once I heard this was happening I thought it would be a good opportunity to highlight it and to do something for our language, our community and our children," she said.
As well as raising funds, she said the fight to save Glór na Móna is part of a long-running battle against discrimination that has impacted the Irish medium sector.
"I've been educated through Irish medium myself and I've seen how much we've been discriminated against," said
"First of all the bunscoileanna (Irish medium primary schools) that weren't funded, then we finally got funding. Then I was in the second year of Coláiste Feirste, Méanscoil then, and we had to stand outside Stormont with placards to try to get recognition and funding for our school. We used to clean our classrooms, our parents had to go in and clean. So I've had this my whole life.
"Now I teach in Gaelscoil na Móna and my two children go to Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh. You think at this stage that everything is going well with the schools being funded and the youth clubs.
"My wee boy goes on a Tuesday and Thursday night and he skips out the door. He loves it. He wouldn't be the most confident of kids, he's very quiet. He goes there and he's surrounded by his own friends and you haven't to worry about him going to an English medium youth club where he doesn't know anybody.
"I know he's safe and he's happy, and his confidence is flourishing. When I heard that there was a chance it could be closing I just thought 'not again – here we go all over again'. We've had 'Dearg le Fearg' and the campaign for Acht na Gaeilge, we've got all these schools, and now they're going to take our youth club away.
"The kids in the school I teach in attend Glór na Móna, and my daugher who is only P1 can't wait to go. I'm hoping it will still be there by the time she's old enough to go."
