Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 August 2012

Technical Memories (Part 27)

Sharman Crawford’s Grievances

In 1917, the Irish Convention was the fifth attempt to implement Home Rule. It brought together the enormous number of one hundred and one delegates from different political fields and other interests. It was a response to the dramatically altered Irish political climate after the 1916 rising and was proposed by David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, in May 1917 to John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

From the outset, intentions, reservations and expectations differed considerably. The Nationalist MPs T. P. O’Connor and Stephen Gwynn came to the conclusion, that a Conference might be the Irish Party’s only hope of salvation. If the chance of a Conference were lost they mooted that “there was nothing ahead but disaster”. The Irish Question could no longer be settled on the floor of the House of Commons. On the 25 July 1917 large crowds assembled at College Green in Dublin as the Irish Convention to meet for the first time. They sat in Dublin from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the Irish Question and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its wider future and come to an understanding on recommendations.

Prior but unlinked to the Convention, on 30 and 31 May 1917, the fourteenth congress met in Dublin of the Irish Technical Instruction Association. The theme for discussion was the broader question of the problems facing technical education in Ireland. Indeed, many of the arguments on the need for more funding into education are still been argued today by various users of education. Arthur F. Sharman Crawford from Cork gave a paper on educational development at the congress. He opened his paper by requesting more investment into the building and equipping of technical institutes. He proposed the followed resolution:-“That this congress, representative of technical Instruction Committees of Ireland, places on record its sense of the absolute necessity for prompt action in the further development of Technical Education in Ireland, and requests the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to urge on the government the strong claims of Ireland for a full share of any public funds allocated to educational purposes in the United Kingdom. The War has brought into special prominence the importance to these countries of technical, agricultural, and scientific education, but our schemes in Ireland are debarred from much needed development in this direction through want of funds”.

Sharman Crawford further urged that there should be close co-operation between the primary, intermediate and the technical branches of education, in order to develop to the full the “mental and material resources” of the country. He was strongly of the opinion that in the construction of a broad educational system for Ireland, due regard should be had to the “exceptional needs” of the country, and that its claims should receive the liberal and sympathetic consideration of the Imperial Parliament.

Elaborating, Sharman Crawford noted that funds were “so urgently needed”. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act for Ireland, which was passed in 1899, had a “fatal problem”, he noted. No money was provided towards the building and equipment of schools. Money was allocated to the agricultural side a capital sum of £15,000 to build and equip a veterinary college, and a further sum of £10,000 to enlarge and stock the Munster Dairy Institute, Cork. He noted that the congress, through various motions, had advocated for years the necessity of building grants but none had been forthcoming. The funds at the disposal of the Department were quite insufficient for giving committee assistance and that the matter had to be tackled somehow. The result was that committees had to raise loans for building and equipment, and, therefore, “started their careers with a millstone of interest and sinking fund round their necks”, with a large portion of their incomes pledged for building purposes.

To Sharman Crawford, every year, as the pressure of the people for Technical Education grew stronger, committees across the country had the experience of having to refuse new classes that were urgently needed. However, they were encouraged, according to Sharman Crawford to be prepared to assist in the industrial development expected after the war but were met by the challenge that no funding was forthcoming to meet the changing economic climate – indeed as a matter of fact, the Department was receiving less grants than before the war. He also urged very strongly the necessity for war bonuses added to the salaries of their teachers. He believed that teachers were one of the few bodies of salary earners that no provision was being made for in order to meet the enormously increased cost of living,

Sharman Crawford stated that all branches of education were in the same state, and instead of working in “water-tight compartments”, the time had come to unite in the common cause; “today this congress should proclaim in no uncertain voice to the government and the public that they must have these bonds of starvation removed from their limbs, so that they could help the Irish people to take their proper place in the great industrial development movement”.

To be continued…

Caption:

656a. Remaining facade of Munster Dairy School, Model Farm Road (source: Kieran McCarthy)