Bus service won’t pick up Catholic students

Jimmy Woulfe of The Examiner has broken a very interesting story today in which he describes how a Limerick brother and sister have been refused travel on a VEC school bus because they're Catholic.

The bus which passes their house every morning only picks up protestant children who go to Villiers Secondary School(above), not catholic children.

The school is under Protestant management and for this reason the students were refused bus passes by the Vocational Educational Committee.

Councillor John Gilligan said on the matter,

“I was flabbergasted when I found out in the Irish Examiner that the City VEC was operating a bus for the benefit of students at Villiers School. We have responsibility for St Nessan’s and the old Red Tech in O’Connell Avenue and have nothing to do with Villiers"

The letter of denial received by the students from the VEC read as follow

“Villiers School is a school under Protestant management and only children of Protestant denominations have an entitlement to transport on the special Adare Villiers bus service.”