Irish Teachers' Conditions

Public Meeting’s demand for Irish Primary Education.

Striking Speeches and Figures

At Influentially-Attended Meeting in Galway.

Mr. Martin McDonogh, J.P., Chairman Galway Urban Council, presided at an influentially-attended meeting held at Galway Town Hall on Saturday, and attended by all sections of the public, to consider the position of primary education in Ireland, when the following resolution, proposed by Very Rev. A.J. Considine, Adm., V.F seconded by Very Rev. T.F. Canon Macken, P.P. V.F. Dunmore, Secretary Catholic Clerical Managers in Ireland, and member of the Standing Council, and supported by Canon Berry, D.D. Protestant Rector ; Mr. P.S. McDonnell, Co.C,; Rev. Peter Davis P.P., and others, was passed unanimously:

“That we demand for Irish Primary Education the full equivalent for the sums now, or hereinafter to be applied for similar purposes in Great Britain.  That we call on the Government and the Treasury to grant also such a sum as to make full reparation for the inequitable treatment meted to Irish education and to Irish teachers.  That in any revised scheme the only conditions of promotion should be efficiency and length of service, and that all such things as averages and artificial barriers should be immediately abolished, as averages alone are responsible for keeping seventy-five per cent of the teachers from reaching the highest grades.”

Mr. P. W. Joyce N.T., Barna who acted as Secretary to the meeting, read apologies for absence from Mr. John Dillon, Mr. W. O’Malley and Mr. W.J. Duffy, M.P.’s and the Rev Professor O’ Kelly. Capt. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., hoped the meeting would provide him with material to speak on the vote on Irish education, and added that money spend on education in Ireland is the best invested money I know. If Germany is able to hold up its end against the world, the reason is that German are, on the whole, the most thoroughly educated people in Europe, and that applies to Catholic Germany no less than to the rest of the country.

Our case in the House will be strengthened if the claim put forward is not confined to the necessity for increased salaries, but deals also with the need for better accommodation, appliances, books, etc.”  Capt. Gywnn added the first need was a body of teachers properly paid, and having a proper and suitable status as citizens and a secure tenure.

Connacht Tribune, 21 July 1917

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