Councillors and education chiefs in West Dunbartonshire were just heaving sighs of relief after agreeing to build a new school to replace the crumbling St Michael’s Roman Catholic Primary in Dumbarton when Flourish, the official organ of the archdiocese, hit church news-stands.
The newspaper is guided by the fair hand of Father Noel Barry, also Catholic rep on the education committee, and the man who led the onslaught for the St Michael rebuilding.
A piece, bearing no byline, trumpeted the victory of St Michael’s, a process in which Father Barry, Raymond Robertson, the Scottish National Party, the school board and St Michael himself, played roughly equal parts.
Father Barry lost no time in setting out the battle plans for his next assault, saying: “Among the most serious unresolved problems facing the council are the unacceptable conditions in which children at St Mary’s (Duntocher) and St Stephen’s (Dalmuir) are being educated. I hope that no effort will be spared by local councillors to ensure that these children are not disadvantaged further.”
Father Barry is clearly planning a hat-trick, with a new St Michael’s joining a new St Mary’s and St Stephen’s in a litany of saints which seems to be giving the council a devil of a time.
Isn’t that what Catholic Church reps are for? Deo gratias.
