The principal and teachers at Arklow Community College in Wicklow are now treating the incident as an internal school matter, despite the involvement of the local gardai. School principal Andy Bolger has denied that such disruption at the school has roots in racial tension between students.

On 7 September, a large number of students were involved in a fight near the school grounds, prompting onlookers to call the gardai.

By the time gardai arrived, most of the violence between up to 30 students had died down and gardai brought it further under control.

The following Monday, another fight broke out in the Lamberton area near the school between Irish and Polish students and, according to garda sources, the melee also included some parents of Polish students who were collecting them from school and other members of the public.

A garda source told the Sunday Tribune that during one of the incidents a young woman sustained a black eye after being hit in the face by another student.

Bolger this weekend played down the incidents, claiming the two fights were misreported by local media. "This was just an incident, it's nothing to do with racial tension, " he told the Tribune. "It just happened to be between Irish and Polish students. As far as I'm concerned, it didn't have origins in racial tension.

There may be racial tension out there, but that wasn't to do with this incident. And by 'out there', I do not mean in this school."

Bolger met gardai about the incident, but told the Sunday Tribune it was a school matter and would be dealt with internally in order to protect the children involved.