OLG Land Sale – Public Meeting, Tues May 30th
There will be a public meeting on Tuesday next, 30th May at 8pm, upstairs in The Goat, regarding the sale of 5 acres of land attached to Our Lady’s Grove primary and secondary schools.
The Religious of Jesus and Mary is selling 5 acres of land (not just some but all of the last green space) attached to Our Lady’s Grove primary and secondary schools for €10 million. A group of concerned OLG parents is organising this meeting to air their concerns and work out a plan of action. All local politicians have been invited.
This is a very serious issue for the schools as it means that there will be no green space attached to the schools and no room for expansion in the future. The secondary school will be particularly at a disadvantage; it is the only public girls secondary in the area and is surrounded by private girls schools with wonderful facilities.
The Order sold a first tranche of land in 2012 and a retirement home and residential development have been built. The Order does not owe any money as part of the redress scheme so it is hard to know why the land is being sold.
Religious orders in the vicinity have sold other land attached to public schools in recent years – Notre Dame in Churchtown last year, St. Pauls in Raheny, Oatlands School have all sold land recently and the Edward Rice Trust of Clonkeen College is now planning to do the same. Aside from the particular issues associated with the OLG schools, there seems to be a wider question as a society of how land associated with public schools can be retained, even if they were originally owned by religious orders.
The group feels that the Department of Education should purchase the land – it is a public school after all – or the nuns should not sell it, as they were given the land for educational purposes in the first instance, not for residential development.
To sign the petition to request that this land be transferred to public ownership, click here: www.change.org/p/minister-of-education-richard-bruton-request-transfer-of-the-remaining-land-of-our-lady-s-grove-goatstown-to-public-ownership
Visit this page for more information: olglandforsale.blogspot.ie/2017/04/sale-of-lands-at-our-ladys-grove.html.
Email: olglandforsale@gmail.com
Two earlier posts on this website in relation to this sale of land: www.roebuckresidents.com/our-ladys-grove-phase-2-update
www.roebuckresidents.com/our-ladys-grove-land-campaign-for-transfer-to-public-ownership/
Letter published in The Irish Times regarding this issue:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/religious-orders-and-public-school-lands-1.3017578