DEAR MADAM - I have noted the controversy and opposition of many people in Fermanagh to the Minister of Education’s decision to close both Portora Royal School and the Collegiate Grammar school. We in County Armagh had a similar possibility but we resisted it and instead retained the Royal School Armagh and integrated the existing Armagh Girls High School into it by the construction of a new school building on the site of the Royal School. The then Archbishop of Armagh and the representatives of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland were united to retain Armagh Royal School under the control of the Armagh Protestant Board of Education. This amalgamation has been a great success for academic, sporting and cultural achievement. Armagh Royal has now the second largest Boarding Department in Northern Ireland.

I am surprised that the Fermanagh Protestant Board of Education is acquiescing to the proposal by the Minister to close down Portora Royal School. I wonder do the families connected with the various Protestant churches in Fermanagh agree that the Fermanagh Protestant Board of Education should surrender control of one of the most admired educational establishments in Northern Ireland. Have they given their support to their representatives in the Board of Governors to close down Portora Royal?

I have always supported the right of Catholic parents to send their children to Catholic Schools. And at present the new Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, with the full support of the Minister of Education, is providing new secondary schools such as in Lurgan for 1,500 pupils and in Armagh at St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral for 1,200 pupils. It seems bizarre that at the same time the leaders of the Protestant churches in Fermanagh, after 400 years, have decided to give up their control of one of the jewels of Ulster Education. Could the precedent in Armagh be the answer in Fermanagh?

Yours faithfully, JOHN KILCLOONEY