The youngest child of an All-Ireland winning footballer has been denied a nursery place at his local school following a bitter dispute over a parish boundary.
Cahir McDonnell, son of three-time All Star and former Armagh captain Steven McDonnell, lives just half a mile from Cloughoge PS outside Newry.
The popular school's nursery unit was oversubscribed this year, receiving 70 applications for 52 places.
Cahir was one of the children who missed out after the governors applied the school's published tie-breaking criteria.
But his parents have now been left furious with education authorities after an appeal against the decision was rejected.
At the centre of the row is the boundary between two south Armagh parishes - Upper Killeavy and Middle Killeavy.
Mr McDonnell insists he lives in Upper Killeavy and provided evidence to an independent appeal tribunal to support this.
Parish collection envelopes with the McDonnell family's home address printed on them also clearly state their home is in Upper Killeavy.
However, a roughly sketched parish boundary map, shown to the appeals tribunal, places the McDonnell family in Middle Killeavy.
Pre-school places at Cloughoge are awarded first to children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, followed by those with special educational needs.
After that, pupils from Upper Killeavy are given preference over those from the neighbouring parish.
Due to the school being oversubscribed, applications from Middle Killeavy were turned down this year.
Mr McDonnell said he was stunned to learn that his son was among those to lose out, especially when his three other children had previously been admitted to the school.
In its published admissions criteria, the school states that "a certified copy of the boundaries of the parish of Upper Killeavy and the traditional catchment area of Middle Killeavy Parish is available for inspection in the school".
Mr McDonnell said he was never able to obtain an official parish boundary map.
The north's new Education Authority this week told the McDonnell family its appeal had been dismissed, adding that it was unable to accept letters and parish envelopes as evidence of residency in Upper Killeavy "as these documents had not been available to the board of governors".
It said on viewing the boundary map, which was obtained by the tribunal, it was accepted that Cahir's address was within Middle Killeavy.
However, Mr McDonnell insists the family lives in the parish of Upper Killeavy.
"We have two sons at the school presently and our daughter has gone through the school. Both myself and my wife Lisa also attended the school and have a lifetime affiliation with the school," he said.
"During our appeal we were told that letters provided by ourselves from Killeavy GAC as well as parish donation envelopes stating our residence in the parish of Upper Killeavy would be taken into consideration as long as we agreed to the so-called parish boundary map, which could not be located during the appeal hearing.
"Our letters were not considered, yet the map that could not be located was. This is a disgrace of the highest order."
The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) said the governors of Cloughoge PS are responsible for setting admissions criteria in line with Department of Education guidelines.
"The school this year received 70 applicants for enrolment with only 52 places available. In the case of over-subscription it is up to the governors to apply the criteria," a spokesman said.
"CCMS has no reason to doubt that in this instance the governors have acted appropriately."
The Education Authority said it was the remit of the Independent Appeal Tribunal to determine if a school applied its criteria correctly, adding that it was unable to comment on the decision.
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While almost nine out of every 10 children will usually attend their first choice pre-school, there are many families who miss out every year because they do not meet the criteria.
This year, more than 95 per cent of children secured a place in one of their preferred settings at the end of stage one of the admissions process.
A more-detailed breakdown obtained by the Irish News revealed that 86 per cent were placed in their first preference setting.
The next 7 per cent were awarded places in their second preference school while 2 per cent will go to their third choice.
Many parents remain unhappy, however, with complaints that admissions criteria continue to disadvantage working parents.
Where a pre-school has too many applications, priority must be given to families in receipt of income support or jobseekers' allowance.
This has become a greater problem in recent years when applications have been spiralling.
In addition, there is no uniformity to pre-school admissions, except that places must be first offered to `poorer' families.
In the event that there might be more applicants than the places available, schools are free to apply other criteria in whatever order they want.
In the McDonnell family's case, the school gave preference to Upper Killeavy families over the neighbouring parish.
Elsewhere, other schools offer preference to "children who live nearest to the school" or those "who have had a brother or sister enrolled or previously enrolled", or even children for whom the school has been listed on the application form as first preference.
