Caroline bows out after 30 years at Gaelscoil

When the O Fiaich siblings, Caroline, Daithí and Denise, get together, they probably have more in common than most, for all three are primary school teachers.

Caroline and Denise both work at Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn, on Ashe Road, Mullingar, where Caroline has been principal since the school opened, while Daithí is 10km out the road, principal at Sonna NS.

A dramatic change to the dynamic kicks in now, however, as Caroline has retired.

Teaching was in the blood for the trio, who grew up in Mount Street, where their dad, Tommy Fee, had a shop: their mother, Peggy, was also a primary school teacher, and a member of the staff at St Cremin’s NS in Multyfarnham, which is how, Caroline explains, her own primary school education came to be at St Cremin’s and not one of the Mullingar schools, although for second level, she attended Loreto College before winning a place at St Pat’s in Drumcondra to study primary teaching.

Sadly, Peggy died at the tragically young age of 37, but in one of those extraordinary twists life can end up taking, Caroline’s second post – after a spell teaching in Castletown Geoghegan – saw her wind up teaching at St Cremin’s for seven and a half years.

Caroline had always liked the Irish language, but her passion for it intensified in fourth year at school: “I went to the Gaeltacht, and when my father picked me up after I couldn’t speak English – although it was really more the case that I didn’t want to speak English,” she laughs.

In the year 1994, Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn opened, and Caroline has been with it from the start: “We started in Oaklawns, in what was actually a shop unit with a three-bedroom bungalow,” Caroline recalls. That building is now the Carewell Medical Centre.

Such was the demand for places that pretty much from the off, the school kept having to install more and more prefab accommodation, which was why there was great joy when, after 10 years, Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn made the move to its present custom-built building on a large site on the Ashe Road.

There are now 200 children attending and receiving their full education through Irish.

Now that Caroline has retired, the new principal is to be Waterford native Bríd de Bhial, a long-time member of the team at Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn.

A coincidence is that Bríd – like Caroline – has three daughters.

Caroline’s three are Fíonna Robinson, an interior designer in Mullingar, Muirne Robinson, who lives in Boston, and Brígh Robinson, who opened the Hatch 23 coffee van in Mullingar but who is currently working in Australia. The three are all avid Gaelgeoirí.

Last week, Caroline was in Derry attending her last INTO conference. “I have been heavily involved in the INTO and also the IPPN – I always loved all things to do with the union,” she says, adding that she was delighted to see a Longford teacher, Carmel Browne, become the new INTO president at the Derry event.

Now that she is retired, Caroline says she has no plans, but happy that she is out early and active, she won’t be sitting still: “I love walking and running and swimming,” she says. She also loves the Irish language, music and culture – and given that she has spent 30 years passing on that love to others, she now lives in a town with a lot more Irish speakers than when the Gaelscoil started.