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Creating a Modern Educational System? International Influence, Domestic Elites and the Transformation of the Irish Educational Sector, 1950–1975

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Essays in the History of Irish Education

Abstract

The educational sector in the Irish state, which had been notable for the enduring power of traditional institutions and values in the first generation of the independent Irish state, experienced a far-reaching transformation in the mid-twentieth century, linked to governmental intervention on an unprecedented scale. A dramatic change in government policy towards higher education, designed to produce a more highly qualified labour force and meet increased social demand for post-primary and later higher education, stimulated a long-term transformation of the educational sector in the 30-year period from the 1950s to the 1980s. Government policies incorporated expansion of participation at post-primary and higher level; rationalisation of traditional structures and institutional patterns; curriculum reform and the development of traditionally neglected strands of education, which took on greater importance for economic development. Far-reaching policy changes were driven by changing attitudes among domestic political elites, linked to the influence of international ideas mediated through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This chapter sets out to explore the origins of the most significant policy changes in this period, underlying influences that shaped policy change and the long-term implications for the modern educational sector in the Republic: a comprehensive discussion of all of the many policy developments that occurred in this period falls outside the scope of this work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    J. Walsh, The Politics of Expansion: the transformation of educational policy in the Republic of Ireland (Manchester, 2009), 311–327.

  2. 2.

    A comprehensive overview of educational developments between the 1950s and 1980s is given in J. Walsh, The Politics of Expansion: the transformation of educational policy in the Republic of Ireland (Manchester, 2009) and J. Coolahan, Irish education: its history and structure (Dublin: IPA, 1981); for the development of special education, see M. Shevlin’s chapter in this work.

  3. 3.

    Dáil Debates, vol.159, col.1494, July 19, 1956.

  4. 4.

    Séamus Ó Buachalla, Education Policy in Twentieth Century Ireland (Dublin, 1988), 274.

  5. 5.

    Ó Buachalla, Education Policy, 212–13; Lindsey Earner Byrne, ‘Reinforcing the family: The role of gender, morality and sexuality in Irish welfare policy, 1922–44’ History of Family: International Quarterly, 13 no.4 (2008), 360–369.

  6. 6.

    J. H. Whyte, Church and State in modern Ireland 1923–70 (Dublin: 1971), 158–61.

  7. 7.

    Áine Hyland and Ken Milne, Irish Educational Documents 2 (CICE, 1992), 219–222.

  8. 8.

    Report of the Council of Education (1) The Function of the Primary School (2) The Curriculum to be Pursued in the Primary School (Dublin: 1954), 290.

  9. 9.

    Report of the Council of Education (2), The Curriculum of the Secondary School (Dublin: 1962), 256.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 252.

  11. 11.

    John Walsh, ‘Ministers, bishops and the changing balance of power in Irish education 1950–70’ in Irish Historical Studies, 38 no.149 (2012), 108–127.

  12. 12.

    J.J. O’Meara, Reform in Education (Dublin: Mount Salus Press, 1958), 6.

  13. 13.

    Eileen Randles, Post-Primary Education in Ireland 1957–70 (Dublin: 1975), 322–323.

  14. 14.

    John Coolahan, Irish education: its history and structure (Dublin: IPA, 1981), 131–140.

  15. 15.

    Denis O’Sullivan, Cultural Politics and Irish Education since the 1950s (Dublin: 2005), 104.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., 143.

  17. 17.

    P. Clancy, ‘The Evolution of Policy in Third-Level Education’ in Mulcahy, D.G and O’Sullivan, D. Irish Educational Policy: Process and Substance (Dublin: IPA, 1989), 99–150.

  18. 18.

    Dáil Debates, vol. 177, col. 470, 28 October 1959; Ó Buachalla, Education Policy, 73.

  19. 19.

    J. Walsh, Politics of Expansion, 323.

  20. 20.

    J. Horgan, Seán Lemass: Enigmatic Patriot (Dublin, 1997), 293.

  21. 21.

    J. Walsh, ‘A quiet revolution—International influence, domestic elites and the transformation of higher technical education in Ireland 1959–72’, Irish Educational Studies 30, no.3 (2011), 367.

  22. 22.

    Governing Committee for Scientific and Technical Personnel, STP/GC (61) 1, Outline Programme For Scientific And Technical Personnel 1961–62 (NAI D/FIN 2001/3/546, D500/2/62), January 30, 1961, 3–4; OECD Press Statement, October 5, 1961.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 4.

  24. 24.

    Andrew Loxley et al, ‘Investment and the tests of time’, Irish Educational Studies, 33, no.2 (2014), 173–191.

  25. 25.

    E. J. McGrath, ‘Sputnik and American Education’, Teachers’ College Record 59 no. 7 (1958), 379–395.

  26. 26.

    S. O’ Connor, A Troubled Sky: Reflection on the Irish Educational Scene (Dublin, 1986), 2.

  27. 27.

    Department of Education, Memorandum to the Government (NAI D/T 6231C), 28 April 1958, 1–3.

  28. 28.

    Department of Education, Circular 16/64, May 1964.

  29. 29.

    J. Walsh, Politics of Expansion, 49–50.

  30. 30.

    Dáil Debates, vol.191, col.2342, August 1, 1961.

  31. 31.

    Statement by Dr. P.J. Hillery T.D., Minister for Education, in relation to Post-Primary Education, May 20, 1963 (N.A.I., D/T 17405 C/63), 6–8.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Minutes, General Meeting of the Hierarchy, June 25, 1963, 3 (DDA., McQuaid Papers, AB8/B/XV/b/05).

  34. 34.

    Committee of Public Accounts, Aropriation Accounts 1965–66, 117–118.

  35. 35.

    J. Coolahan, Irish Education, 139.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 11–13.

  37. 37.

    Department of Education, Tuarascáil Shealadach, unpublished report, 1962; Imelda Bonel-Elliott, ‘The role of the Duggan Report (1962) in the reform of the Irish education system’, Administration 44, no. 3 (1996), 42–60. The Committee was headed by Dr. Maurice Duggan, a senior inspector, but consisted mainly of middle ranking inspectors, including O’Callaghan and Tomás Ó Floinn, who had their first significant opportunity to influence policy through this internal departmental forum; it is likely that a key purpose of the Committee was to draw middle-level officials and inspectors into the policy-making process and shake up a traditionally conservative department.

  38. 38.

    OECD, Training of Technicians in Ireland, OECD Reviews of National Policies for Science and Education (Paris:, OECD, 1964), 88–89.

  39. 39.

    J. Walsh, ‘Have the Snakes Come Back? The Family and the defence of traditional Catholic educational structures in Ireland’, History of Family: International Quarterly 13, no.4 (2008), 416–425.

  40. 40.

    J. F. McInerney, Note of meeting (NAI D/Finance 2001/3/546, D500/2/62), October 31, 1961, 1; S. Ó Buachalla, ‘Investment in Education: Context, Content and Impact’, Administration 44, no.3 (1996), 10–20.

  41. 41.

    S. O’Connor, A Troubled Sky, 63.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Economic Development (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1958), 112–113.

  44. 44.

    Whitaker to N. S Ó Nualláin, 20 November 1961; Whitaker to Ó Raifeartaigh, December 15, 1961 (NAI D/Finance 2001/3/775, D500/8/63).

  45. 45.

    The Second Programme for Economic Expansion, Part I, laid by the Government before each House of the Oireachtas, August 1963 (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1963), 17.

  46. 46.

    Lynch, who was then professor of economics at UCD, was a former adviser to Taoiseach John A. Costello and enjoyed strong connections with both the government and Fine Gael.

  47. 47.

    A. Hyland, ‘The Investment in Education report 1965—recollections and reminiscences’, Irish Educational Studies 33, no.2 (2014),123–139.

  48. 48.

    Investment in Education, Part 1, Report of the Survey Team nominated by the Minister for Education in October 1962 (Dublin, 1965), 387.

  49. 49.

    D. O’Sullivan, Cultural Politics, 140.

  50. 50.

    Interview with Professor Martin O’Donoghue, January 10, 2005.

  51. 51.

    Investment in Education, Part I, 201.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 391.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 141.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 160–161.

  55. 55.

    NIEC, Comments on Investment in Education (Dublin, 1966), 12.

  56. 56.

    Investment in Education, Part 1, 12.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., 172.

  58. 58.

    Ibid, 277.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 392.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.,. 228–289.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.,. 262–263.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 233.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., 264.

  64. 64.

    Dáil Debates, vol.217, col.1960-68, July 21, 1965.

  65. 65.

    Irish Press, ‘Mr. Colley’s Lecture’, February 7, 1966.

  66. 66.

    Irish Press, ‘School closures unconstitutional, says Dr. Browne’, February 7, 1966.

  67. 67.

    J. Walsh, ‘Ministers, bishops and the changing balance of power in Irish education 1950–70’ Irish Historical Studies 38, no.149 (2012), 108–127.

  68. 68.

    Irish Independent, ‘Clash at Galway’, February 7, 1966.

  69. 69.

    T. Ó Floinn, Recent Developments in Education in Ireland, June 1972 (N.A.I., DFA 2003/17/383); J. Coolahan, ‘Educational Policy for National Schools 1960-85’, in Irish Educational Policy, (Eds.), D. G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan (Dublin, 1989), 42.

  70. 70.

    Report of Central Executive Committee 1971–72 (INTO, 1972), 36; J. Coolahan, ‘National Schools 1960–85’, in Irish Educational Policy, (Eds.), D. G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan, 42.

  71. 71.

    J. Coolahan, ‘National Schools 1960–1985’, in Irish Educational Policy, D. G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan, 49; Children and their Primary Schools: A report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) 1 (London, 1966), 189–202.

  72. 72.

    Tomás Ó Floinn, Recent Developments in Education, June 1972 (NAI DFA 2003/17/383), 17.

  73. 73.

    De Buitléar, ‘Curaclam Nua le hAghaidh na Bunscoile’, Oideas 3 (Autumn 1969), 4–12.

  74. 74.

    J. Coolahan, ‘National Schools 1960–1985’, in Irish Educational Policy, (Eds.), D. G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan, 50.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., 52–53.

  76. 76.

    Department of Education, W26/30, M80/1, Progress Report for the Quarter ended on 30 June 1961, July 21, 1961; Ó Buachalla, Education Policy, 281.

  77. 77.

    Department of Education, M.E.1, Scheme in aid of the Employment of Graduate Science Teachers, July 1963.

  78. 78.

    Dáil Debates, vol.195, col.1383, May 23, 1962.

  79. 79.

    Tomás Ó Floinn, Recent Developments in Education, June 1972 (NAI DFA 2003/17/383), 13.

  80. 80.

    S. Ó Buachalla, Education Policy, 358.

  81. 81.

    S. O’Connor, ‘Post-Primary Education: Now and in the Future’, Studies, vol.57, no.3 (1968): 233–249.

  82. 82.

    Clonmel Nationalist, ‘Intermediate Certificate for Vocational Pupils, Minister’s Clonmel Announcement’, October 9, 1965.

  83. 83.

    Dáil Debates, vol.226, col.104, December 6, 1966.

  84. 84.

    S. O’Connor, A Troubled Sky, 159.

  85. 85.

    Br. Walsh and Br. O’Donovan to Colley, February 20, 1966 (Irish Christian Brothers’ Archive, St. Mary’s Province).

  86. 86.

    ASTI, Minutes of Central Executive Committee, January 4, 1967, 2.

  87. 87.

    Ibid., 141.

  88. 88.

    D. G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan, ‘Extract from an interview of Séan O’Connor: 8 September 1986’, Irish Educational Studies 33, no.2 (2014),141–153.

  89. 89.

    The Minister was a guest speaker at a seminar of the NUJ held in Dún Laoghaire (the Co. Dublin suburb previously known as Kingstown).

  90. 90.

    Irish Times, ‘State Plans Free Education For All Children’, September 12, 1966.

  91. 91.

    Lemass to O’Malley, September 12, 1966 (N.A.I., D/T 96/6/356, S.12891F); Interview with Tony Ó Dálaigh, Dublin, 3 May 2002.

  92. 92.

    Whitaker to Lemass, September 12, 1966 (NAI D/T 96/6/356, S.12891F).

  93. 93.

    Ibid.

  94. 94.

    S. O’Connor, A Troubled Sky, 144.

  95. 95.

    J. Walsh, ‘Ministers, bishops and the changing balance of power in Irish education 1950–70’ in Irish Historical Studies, 38 no.149 (2012), 108–27.

  96. 96.

    E. Randles, Post-Primary Education, 276; Committee of Public Accounts, Aropriation Accounts 1967–1968 (Dublin: 1969), 118.

  97. 97.

    Tuarascáil, Tablaí Staitistic, An Roinn Oideachais 1966–1967 (Dublin: 1968), 36, Tuarascáil, Tablaí Staitistic, An Roinn Oideachais 1967–1968 (Dublin: 1969), 3.

  98. 98.

    Tuarascáil, Tablaí Staitistic, An Roinn Oideachais 1965–1966 (Dublin: 1967), 3, Tuarascáil, An Roinn Oideachais 1966–1967, 36.

  99. 99.

    Tomás Ó Floinn, Recent Developments in Education, June 1972 (NAI DFA 2003/17/383); Tuarascáil, Tablaí Staitistic, An Roinn Oideachais 1968/69–1971/72 (Dublin: 1974), 26.

  100. 100.

    J. Horgan, Seán Lemass, 293.

  101. 101.

    Aine Hyland, ‘The Investment in Education report 1965—recollections and reminiscences’, Irish Educational Studies 33, no.2 (2014),123–139.

  102. 102.

    S. O’Connor, ‘Post-Primary Education now and in the future’, Studies 57, no.3 (1968), 233–249.

  103. 103.

    J. Walsh, Politics of Expansion, 268–274.

  104. 104.

    Louis O’Flaherty, Management and Control in Irish Education: the post-primary experience (Dublin: 1992), 74.

  105. 105.

    D. Barry, ‘The Involvement and Impact of a Professional Interest Group’, in Irish Educational Policy: Process and Substance, (Eds.), D.G. Mulcahy and D. O’Sullivan (Dublin: 1989), 146.

  106. 106.

    The National University of Ireland was created by the Irish Universities Act, 1908, consisting of University College Dublin (UCD), University College Cork (UCC) and University College Galway (UCG); Maynooth College was subsequently included as a recognised college of the NUI. UCD was a newly constituted university college in Dublin that inherited the traditions, culture and many of the staff of the Jesuit college of the same name on St. Stephen’s Green (1883–1909). The other two constituent colleges were originally founded as Queen’s Colleges in 1849 but were condemned by the Catholic bishops at the Synod of Thurles in 1850 as ‘a system of education fraught with grievous and intrinsic dangers’ due to their non-denominational character. The NUI was designed to offer a federal university that met Catholic aspirations for higher education within a framework acceptable to the Catholic bishops.

  107. 107.

    Committee of Public Accounts, Aropriation Accounts 1958–1959 (Dublin: Stationery Office 1959), 88.

  108. 108.

    Steering Committee on Technical Education. Report to the Minister for Education on Regional Technical Colleges (Dublin, 1969), 36–39.

  109. 109.

    J. Walsh, ‘A quiet revolution—International influence, domestic elites and the transformation of higher technical education in Ireland 1959–72’, Irish Educational Studies, 30, no.3 (2011), 379.

  110. 110.

    HEA, Progress Report 1974 (HEA, 1974), 57; Tomás Ó Floinn, Recent Developments (NAI, DFA 2003/17/383), June 1972, 14.

  111. 111.

    J. Walsh, ‘The Transformation of Higher Education in Ireland, 1945–1980’ in Higher Education in Ireland: Practices, Policies and Possibilities (Ed.), Loxley, Seery and Walsh (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 5–32.

  112. 112.

    Memorandum by the Minister for Education, December 15, 1966 (NAI D/T 98/6/195).

  113. 113.

    Report of the Commission on Higher Education 1960–1967 (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1967), 53; Interview with James Dukes, April 28, 2003.

  114. 114.

    J. Walsh, “‘The problem of Trinity College Dublin’: a historical perspective on rationalisation in higher education in Ireland”, Irish Educational Studies 33, no.1 (2014), 5–19.

  115. 115.

    Ibid.; S. O’Connor, A Troubled Sky, 203.

  116. 116.

    McQuaid Papers, Minutes of the meeting of the Hierarchy, 22–24 June 1970 (DDA AB8/B/XV/b/07), 5.

  117. 117.

    HEA, Report to the Minister for Education on university reorganisation (Dublin, 1972), 83–87.

  118. 118.

    Séamus Ó Cathail, ‘Ireland: The University and the State’, Cre-Information 58 no. 2 (1982), 44–55.

  119. 119.

    John Coolahan, ‘The National University of Ireland and the Changing Structure of Irish Higher Education, 1967–2007’, in The National University of Ireland 1908–2008 Centenary Essays (Ed.), Coolahan et al (Dublin, 2008), 269.

  120. 120.

    HEA, Report to the Minister for Education on university reorganisation (Dublin: HEA, 1972), 59.

  121. 121.

    HEA, First Report 1968–1969 (Dublin: HEA, 1969), 3–4.

  122. 122.

    HEA, Progress Report 1974 (Dublin: HEA, 1974), 56.

  123. 123.

    HEA, Interim Report of the Steering Committee’s Technical Working Group (Dublin: HEA, 1995), 25–27.

  124. 124.

    Ibid., 18.

  125. 125.

    Ibid., 30.

  126. 126.

    Ibid., 19

  127. 127.

    S. Ó Buachalla, ‘Policy and Structural Developments in Irish Higher Education’. European Journal of Education 19 no.2 (1984),165–171.

Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Prof. Áine Hyland in sourcing documentation for this paper and the comments of Dr. Ciara Breathnach on earlier drafts of the paper. I also wish to acknowledge the support of the Cultures Academic Values and Education Research Centre in Trinity College, Dublin.

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    John Walsh

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  1. School of Education Studies, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Brendan Walsh

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Walsh, J. (2016). Creating a Modern Educational System? International Influence, Domestic Elites and the Transformation of the Irish Educational Sector, 1950–1975. In: Walsh, B. (eds) Essays in the History of Irish Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51482-0_9

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