PANDEMIC? What pandemic? That was the nervous attitude of school management across Enniscorthy last week as they waited anxiously for the flu epidemic to strike. No cases were reported across the seven primary and secondary schools in the town.

'Perhaps the weather up here on Vinegar Hill blows all the germs away,' joked one member of staff at St. Senan's primary school with fingers firmly crossed. It is believed that one child had a dose of the flu during the half term break but otherwise the campus at Father Murphy Close has been untroubled by H1N1.

It was the same story at the other side of the river, with St. Aidan's primary principal Peter Creedon stating: 'We have no cases that I am aware of. I am amazed and delighted. Let's hope that it stays that way. We are taking all the precautions.' Wherever the 30,000 cases reported across the State for the week were, it was not in the classrooms or staff rooms of Enniscorthy.

'We have no confirmed cases,' was the word from Margaret Jacob at St. Mary's primary in Parnell Avenue, a line that was echoed on Ross Road at Gaelscoil Iniscorthaidh: 'We have had no official report or diagnosis of the flu here.' It appeared that all the disinfectant and all the tissues and all the talks about hygiene were doing their job.

'We didn't hear anything about swine flu,' said a spokeswoman for Enniscorthy Vocational College, though other second level school in the area had at least some experience of the virus – but not on this week. Coláiste Bride racked up at least four influenza patients in the early weeks of term but none seemed to pass on the bug on to classmates.

Principal John Ryan at St. Mary's CBS was likewise untroubled since the half term break, and he could not make out any pattern of infection among the handful of cases that surfaced before then.