Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 18 April 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 52) –A Rallying Centre”

“It is not generally realised that my Department has co-operated with many vocational education committees in endeavouring to provide suitable training for entrants to new industries. Two-thirds of the cost of training suitable persons for technological posts in the new Sugar Beet Factories at Mallow, Tuam, and Thurles were defrayed by my Department, the remaining third being borne by Comhlucht Siucre Éireann Teo” (Thomas Derrig TD, Minister of Education, 21 June 1935).

Thomas Derrig TD, Minister of Education, spoke at length at the luncheon following the laying of the foundation stone of the Cork College of Commerce in June 1935. He summarised some of the key developments in education and its relationship with industry since the passing of the Vocational Education Act in 1930 and in light of the ongoing economic war with Britain. In particular he described how apprentices required for Irish sugar factories for example were selected by an examination under the auspices of his Department with the co-operation of local Vocational Education Committees. Almost all these apprentices were drawn from course at the technical schools. He also promoted a number of other projects. A number of youths were trained in Wolverhampton, in preparation for employment in an aluminium factory. Provision was made in another technical school for training girls for new hosiery factories. Similar facilities for classes in connection with boot factories were provided for in four or five schools. A class in ceramic art was formed in preparation for the establishment of a new pottery factory. Power machines were installed in certain centres for the provision of trade instruction for the ready-made clothing industry.

Derrig’s Department and vocational educational committees were also anxious to co-operate with industrialists in providing technical training not only for new employees, but also to those already engaged in industry and who wished to add to their qualification as a means towards attaining more “responsible posts”. He was arranging in the summer of 1935 a special course in retail practice and salesmanship for senior commercial teachers. Over 40 teachers were drawn from all parts of the country to receive intensive courses in being an assistant in the drapery and the grocery and provision trades.

Derrig also described the constant demand for the extension of existing technical schools and the erection of new ones. He noted during his speech that the “laying of the foundation stone of your magnificent new School of Commerce and Domestic Science today forms but one link in the chain of schools that have been erected since 1930”. In Dublin important extensions had been made in Vocational Educational schools at Ballsbridge and Rathmines; the new branch school at Marino was soon to be completed. Plans were being prepared to erect a new School of Domestic Science in a central position, near O’Connell Street. In Limerick additions had been made to their central school, and a proposal was under consideration to erect a new feeder school in another part of the city. The Waterford Technical School had been also considerably extended to meet existing educational demands.

New schools were provided for in Galway and Drogheda and an extension was provided for at the Wexford school. In over 20 counties smaller schools had been erected or were near completion by 1935. Many had been constructed to cater for the needs of the rural population and according to Derrig represented an important step in the development of our national rural economy: “Such schools properly administered should not only enable the boys and girls in our rural areas to play a more efficient part in the many agricultural projects now being encouraged, but also a rallying centre for the social and national life of the rural population”.

Progress was not only confined to the building of schools and as Derrig noted “the formation of relationships with industry”. He described that several vocational schools were also exercising their valuable influence slowly but definitely on the development of the Irish language. There was, he argued, a definite advance in the teaching of subjects through Irish. The marked increase in previous years in the number of teachers qualifying for the Ceard Teastas Gaeilge was a “gratifying sign of development”. Continuing he argued that: “no amount of the teaching of Irish or of subjects through Irish can succeed in making the present generation realise the value and worth of their national language unless it is combined with a deliberate effort on the part of all concerned to make Irish the living language not only of the school, but also of the playing fields, and above all, of the home”.

Concluding his address Minister Derrig referred to a question raised regarding the setting up of Conservatoire of Music in the Country, and expressed the hope that the day “would come soon when they would have one in the country, whether in Dublin or in Country”. Interesting and like the request for a Cork conservatoire of music, Mr J Hurley at the luncheon representing the Crawford Municipal Technical College, expressed the hope that the application for a college of technology in Cork would also not be lost sight and would soon come to fruition.

To be continued…

Caption:

687a. Cork College of Commerce, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)