A fi rst-of-a-kind faith school has been launched in Ireland under the patronage of Catholic, Muslim and Jewish leaders to accommodate pupils from the three religions under the same roof.

“Instead of having one patron, the school will have tripartite patronage,” Mary Shine Thompson, chairperson of the Intercultural Interdenominational Primary School (IIPS), told reporters.

Enrolment in the tri-religious school in Kildare county, southwest of Dublin, has already begun and it is due to open its doors by the next academic year.

Unlike most schools, which are run under the Roman Catholic Church, IIPS will have a joint Catholic, Islamic and Jewish supervision. The project’s main sponsors are Dr James Moriarty, the Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Rabbi Charles Middleburgh of the Dublin Progressive Jewish congregation and Imam Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Center of Ireland. Founders say the school will be the fi rst of its kind in Europe, capturing the ethos of three religions together.

“The children of three religious denominations will be taught their own faiths, as is allowed for within the regulations of Irish state primary schools, but they will also learn about each others’ faiths,” Thompson said.

Thompson, an academic at St Patrick’s College, believes the school responds to new realities in the country.

“At one level this initiative is about responding to a changing Ireland.”

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) also welcomed the plans for the school. ‘It’s a positive development,’ John Carr, the INTO General Secretary said. ‘It is the right of parents to choose a religious education for their child. We respect that right.’

As more and more people from different cultural and religious backgrounds come to live in the country, people will decide to educate their children together, Carr said.

Ireland has recently become a favorable destination for a growing fl ow of immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

According to the 2006 census, the country is home to some 33,000 Muslims, making up about 1 percent of the total population.