Two local high school teachers have featured in an Irish Times article about the journey that brought them here from Northern Ireland to work.

Headlined ’Ulsterwomen find perfect mix of city and country on Isle of Man’, it tells how Rachel Lucas and Derbiled Boyle had never met while they were both studying at Queen’s University Belfast, but stumbled across each other in the island, where they moved during the middle of the pandemic.

Ballakermeen head Adrienne Burnett had been giving a presentation at the University of Liverpool (where the women were doing their postgraduate diplomas) to recruit teachers, when Ms Lucas’s tutor had told her that Ms Boyle had also been offered a place in the island and suggested they could live together.

Mrs Burnett said: ’I was thrilled to read the article in The Irish Times about our two teachers from Ulster, Rachel who teaches at Ballakermeen and Derbiled at Queen Elizabeth II High School.

’Thanks to the warm welcome they have received from the Manx community, we have two great teachers who have settled here.

’Let’s hope the article encourages other Irish teachers to apply for posts on-island, not least because teacher recruitment is a growing issue, not just on island, but throughout the UK.’