A primary school principal has spoken out on the effect the deportation of two students has had on the local community.

Earlier in the week, five children and thirty adults were removed from Ireland on a chartered flight as part of the Department of Justice’s new crackdown on immigration.

Principal of St James’ Primary School Ciarán Cronin told Lunchtime Live that two of the boys who were deported had been in his school for three years.

“In 2022 we enrolled 32 children that were living in the Red Cow Hotel,” he said.

“We’re on the Luas line, there’s no school based out there, so we thought it would be a good fit.

“They all joined our school on a Tuesday, and they were just the most fantastic addition to our school.”

Primary school children reading in a classroom in the UK.

Mr Cronin said that while some of this original group of children had since been moved to different accommodations across the country, there are still about 14 attending the school.

“On Wednesday morning, they all came to school visibly distressed,” he said.

“They were so upset – shaking, there were tears; and when we were asking them what happened, they told us that two of the boys that are in second class and sixth class, they’d been taken away in a minivan with all their stuff to go to the airport to be deported.

“We were just flummoxed by it, how do you explain that to children?”

'This won't leave children'

According to Mr Cronin, the school had been aware that the boys’ parents had entered into the process of deportation.

However, he said while the children’s father had already been arrested pending his deportation, he was under the impression that their mother had an appointment with immigration services on July 15th.

“I’m not going to comment on deportation laws and how it should be done because obviously it’s a thing that is needed in any country,” he said.

“But the way children are treated should be given the utmost priority that things are done in a respectful; a trauma-informed way.

“This won’t leave children for the rest of their lives, that have witnessed that, that have seen that – they're going to be scarred for life from this.”

Mr Cronin said there is “such a sombre mood about the school” following the event.

“It’s as if someone’s passed away,” he said.

Main image: An empty classroom, Alamy