This is indicative of a rising degree of hysteria in that group's activities which their "rip the heart out of the Catholic community" hyperbole confirms. Happily, I'm confident that the clergy have far more sense than to be drawn in to their web.
When the amalgamation of the three east Antrim maintained schools became inevitable the CCMS very sensibly chose Garron Tower as the best option for a number of compelling reasons, the most significant being that in doing so the minority pupils who will have to move to this school will have the advantage of joining an educational establishment of the highest standard.
While "all ability" schooling presents special challenges, anyone whose work has involved them in the "quality" issue will be aware that it's far easier to maintain a high standard than it is to work up to one. Given this fact alone, the demand that Garron Tower should be closed and its 600 pupils should be forced kicking and screaming to attend the failed entity of St Comgall's represents a breathtaking degree of perversity.
In every Larne Times report of the "Keep St Comgall's" campaign we find earlier fatuous excuses dropped and new ones presented. Gone is the ludicrous claim that the shore road is "too dangerous" for children to travel to school, despite the fact that Larne children have been travelling this road to school for the last half-century. In this regard it's worth noting that as many Larne children currently attend Garron Tower as are enroled in St Comgall's.
Clearly the "Keep St Comgall's" faction do not represent the groundswell of opinion that they would have us believe. We're hearing nothing of their boast that they would achieve a 5,000-strong petition to support their case, for the simple reason that it was never a credible claim in the first place.
Gone is the silly claim that modern education can only be delivered in an urban environment. The single instance that last year Garron Tower sent a pupil to Oxford with five straight grade As in A-levels gives the lie to that assertion.
Gone is the nonsense over the alleged absence of planning permission and the threadbare claims that St Comgall's and Larne High School constitute an educational entity: Incidentally I note that Larne Grammar now appear to have excluded themselves from the "Keep St Comgall's" claim that they were part of this arrangement.
When calling for the views of parents' views to be considered it would be interesting to know how they feel about their children being shuffled across town between classes
It is a measure of both the "Keep St Comgall's" group's desperation and their lack of political and cultural nous that they solicited the support of the area MP, Sammy Wilson. His lukewarm response is understandable considering that both politically and culturally Mr Wilson is entirely antipathetic to the maintained sector and doesn't believe it should exist.
It is to be hoped that this very silly campaign of councillors Wilson, Neeson and O'Connor will be given the short shrift by Ms Ruane (the Education Minister) that it deserves. The consequences of acceding to their demands could damage the education of children in the east Antrim area for generations.

P J McNally,
Larne

PS: Lest the wrong impression be given, I have neither chick nor child at Garron Tower and, a quarter-century ago, our own children went to St Comgall's.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to pressure on editorial space, in our efforts to ensure readers are informed of latest developments the Larne Times seeks to avoid repetition of points that have already been reported. Issues which Mr McNally claims have been "dropped" by the St Comgall's College Support Group are included in the alternative development proposal which, as reported last week, the group intends to present to the Minister.