Latin makes a return to St. Colman's College, Claremorris, Ireland

There haven't been many articles on Latin education over the past two weeks or so (besides a few with little more info than "Latin is cool" that aren't worth mentioning), but here's one from today about the return of Latin to St. Colman's College in western Ireland:

AFTER a lapse of around 30 years, Latin is back in St Colman’s College, Claremorris. Four students have expressed an interest in taking the subject for the Junior Certificate examinations in 2010. It is understood that they are the only students in the province of Connacht contemplating doing the subject for either the Junior or Leaving Cert exams at this time.

Latin was once taught extensively in many schools throughout the country and here in the Connacht region. Numerous students took the subject in St Colman’s College up to the mid-1970s. But over the past three decades, the study of Latin and Greek and Classical Studies went out of favour and all but vanished from the curriculum.

Roy Hession, a member of the staff at St Colman’s College, and who is also a member of the Classical Association of Ireland, decided to give students the option of taking Latin as a course subject for the Junior Certificate.

It's starting very slowly though at first, and will be building up speed bit by bit:

“At the moment, we are doing the subject for half an hour one evening a week after school and we also hope to take a few Saturday sessions. The idea is to progress this to the Junior Cert in 2010 and ultimately to re-introduce Latin as an optional subject for the senior cycle,” says Roy.