*Photograph: Joe Buckley
CLARE STUDENTS experienced shock, fear and for some a sense of happiness over the course of a dramatic few hours on Tuesday morning.
*By Michael Fitzgerald and Tom Spelman.
There was a mixed reaction from second level students in Clare over the threat placed on schools in parts of the county which resulted in half-day and full-day closures on Tuesday. Some students were shocked with the seriousness of the day’s events while others said they were happy to get the day off school.
Emma O’Rourke, a fifth year student from Ennis said she first became aware of the threat via Snapchat. “At first, I thought it was a joke when I saw it online but then I came into school and the doors were all locked. There were teachers standing at the doors and everyone was on the phone to their parents trying to go home”. She said she didn’t believe the threatening email was real at first but then became alarmed when she saw how serious the teachers were about it.
Rice College students Felix Spelman and Ben Johnson, both from Ennis, said they knew the threat wasn’t real. “The date was in an American format and it said he was from Sixmilebridge, so he wouldn’t have been able to get to Ennis”, said Johnson. “A teacher called us down to the PE hall and told us we all had to go home”, he added.
Despite the initial shock, the majority of students were happy to get the day off school as those in junior and senior Cycle are currently sitting their mock examinations. “Everyone was excited for the day off school, no one really believed it was real”, Felix commented. His schoolmate Ben agreed, “Everyone was shocked to hear about it, but at the same time everyone was happy to get a day off school”.
Third year students in St Flannan’s College had a similar reaction. Tadhg O’Loughlin from Ennis said he first heard about the threat by seeing a photo on a friend’s phone.
He said that there was a mixture of fear and happiness in the school on Tuesday as many were delighted to be missing their mocks. “I had history and science yesterday but they’re moved now until the 3rd of March. There were a few photos going around with bombs and stuff. It didn’t seem that real like I didn’t think he was actually going to come in and start shooting people in the school”.
Junior Certificate student Jack Doyle said, “The lads were talking about it there when we went in in the morning, we didn’t really know what to believe. I don’t know did people believe it, it was surreal like when we all had to go home. It was kind of strange. Different people looked a bit worried, it was very exciting”, the Ennis teenager said. “In the back of everyone’s mind I think everyone thought it could be real”.
