West Belfast: NI's First Irish school marks half-century

The first Irish-medium school in Northern Ireland has held a tree-planting ceremony to mark 50 years since it first opened.

Bunscoil Phobal Feirste was housed in a single classroom and had only a handful of pupils when it was set up in west Belfast in 1971.

Today there are more than 400 pupils in a modern building.

In Northern Ireland, more than 7,000 children are currently in Irish-medium education.

There are about 35 Irish-medium primary schools and two post-primaries, and more than 40 nursery schools.

Some other maintained schools have Irish-medium units.

Bunscoil Phobal Feirste pupils in class in the 1970s

Bunscoil Phobal Feirste was originally set up by a small number of families who established the first "urban Gaeltacht" on Shaw's Road in west Belfast in the late 1960s.

The Irish-speaking families bought a site and built a number of homes to live in.

In 1971 they opened Bunscoil Phobal Feirste - the first Irish-medium primary in Northern Ireland - in a one-room portable building.

The the school was originally housed in a hut

Seán Mac Seáin was one of the school's founders and he joined some of the others to plant a tree at the Bunscoil to celebrate its half-century.

He said the building, which housed about seven children, was dismantled on another site and brought to the new school.

He said: "As you look round you now you can see the big changes, it's unbelievable."

Mr Mac Seáin praised the work of Linda Ervine and others who were expanding Irish-medium education into east Belfast.

Seán Mac Seáin was one of the school's founders

"From small steps, big things happen," he said.

"It takes years and I suppose it takes political will as well and a lot of people really working together."

A pre-school - or Naíscoil - for younger pupils followed the Bunscoil Phobal Feirste in 1978, and in 1984 it became a maintained primary school which enabled it to be funded by the Department for Education (DE).

Before that, parents and pupils had to raise funds for the running costs themselves.

Parents collecting in a Christmas raffle to raise funds for the school in 1981

The school's current head, Séamus Ó Tuama, is also a former pupil.

"These parents had a desire and a love for the language and a willingness that their children be educated through the Irish language and they started on this holy ground - as I refer to it - with one hut and out of that hut has grown an entire sector," he told BBC News NI.

"The founding of the school was a real game-changer.

"To walk in through those gates with my own son every morning - the way my father did with me when we had only those huts - it's a great feeling."

The school's current head, Séamus Ó Tuama, is also a former pupil

Both the US Consul General Paul Narain and Belfast's Lord Mayor Kate Nicholl visited the school on Wednesday to hear its story.

"It was a joy to meet some of the founders, they really started an incredible movement," Ms Nicholl said.

"The school has resulted in so many other children being able to be educated in a similar way."

Seán Mac Seáin's passion for language has not stopped growing since 1971.

"It's wonderful to have a second language," he said.

"It doesn't matter whether it's French, German or whatever it is, it's an education of its own.

Bunscoil Phobal Feirste has gone from a handful of students to having more than 400 pupils

"It expands your mind."

The first Irish-medium post-primary, Coláiste Feirste, subsequently opened in west Belfast in 1991 with a second post-primary, Gaelcholáiste Dhoire, established in Dungiven in 2015.

A number of other events are planned to mark the 50th anniversary of Bunscoil Phobal Feirste thoughout the school year.