Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent– 7 March 2013

Technical Memories (Part 47) – A Magna Carta of Hope

On Thursday 12 June 1930, the delegates attending day two of the Irish Technical Congress were entertained to dinner by the Cork reception committee. In the Victoria Hotel, Cork, Mr Jeremiah Hurley, President, Cork Workers’ Council, proposed the toast of Technical Education. He opened his speech by commenting that technical education in Ireland was not of a recent growth. As history recorded he noted,“in the very earliest times in Ireland they had very highly skilled technicians in stone work, metal work, and on parchment”. He gave the example of the Cross of Cong, which was unique example of metal work, which was “unrivalled in the world”. The stonework on Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel and beautiful penmanship and illumination of the Book of Kells were a tribute he commented “to the skill of the early technicians, and which had no rival in this age of wonders”.

Mr Hurley believed the future of the country was very bright, and he looked to the new Vocational Education Bill as the “Magna Carta of Technical Education”. He believed that the country would again lead in the “art of peace”, as it had done before the Irish War of Independence. Technical education he expressed was “really the hope of the country”.

Mr William Ellis, Chairman of the Cork Municipal committee of Technical Instruction, in his toast reminded the audience that before the Department was established, Brother Dominic Burke, in the North Monastery School had established trades classes for the technical training of the working class children who then frequented the North Monastery; “Much of the skill and distinction which Cork tradesmen of an earlier generation achieved was due to the practical training provided by the Christian Brothers in Cork”.

Mr Ellis also recalled the powerful advocacy of a distinguished Cork Vincentian, Father Dowling, who “crusaded throughout the land, for very many years”, urging the promotion of technical education in all populous centres of technical education. He also paid tribute to Arthur F Sharman Crawford, who he noted had “much faith in the possibilities of technically educated Corkmen that he gave generously of his wealth and freely of his time to the lay the foundations soundly and widely of Technical Education in our city”.

Speaking from his experience as a worker Mr Ellis held that the advancement of technical instruction was full of “weighty possibilities” in Cork City. He spoke about the establishment of Fords, the largest single industry in the whole country, which aimed when fully working, to employ more than 7,000 men. Around it, he hoped that subsidiary metal and other industries would arise, “each affording fresh outlets for native skill and enterprise”. He wished for future vocation education schemes to be based on the existing manufactures and trades of each locality and on industries suited to such localities. The scheme of technical education in Cork must aim, he argued, to be linked to the large development of the engineering and mechanical trades. He outlined that classes must train the rising generation to be skilled electrical and mechanical engineers. This would make them not only “valuable assets to Messrs. Fords’ great industry in Cork and to other existing industries, but make them so noted for their skill and industry so that other employers will be encouraged to start metal and other allied trades in Cork, and so make our city an important engineering centre”.

Mr Ellis also referred to the completion of the National project- the Shannon Hydro Electric Scheme; “It is more than a coincidence that the new Vocational Education Bill should be introduced just as the Shannon electricity is being made for all parts of the country. There is, I am certain, bound to be a great development in the electrical trades of the country; indeed that development had already begun”. Technical education, he described, could not fail to be of practical help, both to the master electrician and to his workman and apprentice. Commenting on the scourge of emigrating tradesmen, he noted: “The sooner we train our own journeymen to be electrical engineers the sooner we will stop importing qualified men, and exporting as emigrants our own gifted but untrained youths”. In all the centres of technical education, classes he argued should be provided to promote electrical trades.

Mr Ellis claimed in his toast that the age of steam was largely responsible for the “herding” into towns and cities of enormous masses of people who were met with far from ideal conditions in factories and warehouses;“This period drew our people from the land, from the beautiful healthy countryside, into the crowded and unhealthy industrial districts in our cities and towns. As a consequence, our country suffered both by the loss of good health amongst its industrial cases, and by the loss of wealth from the decline of tillage and industry in rural districts”. He felt and hoped that the age of electricity would see a movement of the people from the cities and towns back to the countryside.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

681a.   Congress Standing Committee, June 1930, Mr J.F. King, Principal, Crawford Technical Institute, back row, last gentlemen on right; Mr William Ellis, second from right, front row  (picture: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 46) – Pitchforking Inefficiency

Delegates, gathering in Cork for the 1930 Technical Education Congress, were also shown what Cork had to offer. In the evening of day 1 on 11 June, the delegates, at the invitation of the Cork Reception Committee made a trip around Cork Harbour. Calling at Cobh on the return journey they visited St Colman’s Cathedral and at night attended a concert in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute.

On day two of a three day congress, the afternoon discussion reveals insights into ideas that in time were to become major policies for vocational education in Ireland.The discussion on the Vocational Education Bill was opened by Fr Cotter, parish priest, Tipperary, who said the Bill as he understood it submerged the small technical committees into general County bodies, such as the County Councils. In Tipperary they had a very small technical body, composed of representatives from Tipperary town and the rural district adjoining. The management the Tipperary Technical School had been successful and a great deal of that was due to the work of the secretary and the local committee. He was afraid that if they were submerged into a general committee of the whole County Council, the personal contact would be lost. He did not think that a general committee, such as the County Council, working far away from the school in Tipperary, would have the same influence over the school as the local committee. He believed the Bill should be broadened so as to continue the extent local supervision and knowledge.

Mr O’Sullivan from Tralee highlighted another problem that existed in his town. They were an urban area with a highly developed scheme of technical education. They did not want to go in under a County scheme. He suggested that there should be some provisions under the Bill, which would prevent the Minister of Education from forcing a scheduled urban area to come into a County scheme- in other words, a provision, which would protect the urban area.

Mr Thomas Patrick Gill, former President of the Irish Technical Instruction Association, expressed the view that the smaller urban area committees did work successfully. However, through a sheer lack of accommodation, they were obliged every session to turn away hundreds of young people who were clamouring for admission. The figures every year had been growing, and the 1930 figures compared with the pre-war years (1912-13) were higher than ever. In Cork the increase in the demand for admission to the Technical School, as compared with 1912-13, was 54 per cent. In Limerick it was 39 per cent, in Waterford 41 per cent, in Drogheda, it was 37 per cent, and in Sligo 29 per cent. In some places the increase was particularly high. In Dublin it was no less than 228 per cent. In Galway, it was 201 per cent. The average increase for all the leading technical education institutes in the Free State was 118 per cent.

Miss Breen from Kerry felt that the Bill was a step in the right direction. However she thought that the financial set-up was a concern. She noted that ratepayers were not able to bear any more expense and the scheme should be financed from a central fund. It was also suggested that the secretaries of the County Councils should not be executive officers. She did not think there was one secretary of a County Council who knew anything about technical education, or about any other kind of education; she noted that: “inefficients should not be pitchforked into important positions of that kind”.

Writer and teacher Daniel Corkery, who spoke on behalf of the Irish teachers, referred to the necessity for setting aside a fourth part of the rate levied for technical education every year for adult education, by which he meant education to all students over sixteen years of age. He detailed:“it should be more obligatory on every Vocational Education committee to set up at least one sub committee to look after adult education, and at least one organiser of continuation adult education should be appointed in each county. There was a danger that not only would adult education be neglected, but that it would be thrown aside”. Commenting on the fact that not a word of Irish appeared on the programme of that congress, Daniel Corkery said that the number of pupils attending the classes in Irish conducted by the Cork County Technical Committee was equal to the number attending all the other classes, conducted by that committee.

Cork committee member William Ellis alluded to the fact that music was not included in the Bill originally. It was a resolution from the Cork Borough Committee which was instrumental in having it included. In Cork he noted there had been a School of Music, which was established over 52 years previously. It was only recognised in 1928 by the Department of Education. Dublin had a similar school for some years. In the committee stage of the Bill, Mr R S Anthony TD got the word “music” inserted in it. Miss Breen, a delegate, said she had no objection to the Cork and Dublin School of Music benefitting so long as other places were included in the Bill.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

680a. St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  21 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 45) – Away from Drudgery

“The new Vocational Educational Bill, which replaces in the greater part of the country the Acts of 1889, 1891, and 1899 is in many respects a revolutionary measure, and it will be your duty during the Congress to consider its merits and demerits, and how far the changes which are proposed therein will affect your particular area” (Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, 11 June 1930, Cork).

At the Cork Congress in 1930, 46 technical instruction committees from the Free State were present with 10 from Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Ministry of Education was represented. Rev Dr Dowse, Bishop of Cork noted: “The Congress unites the whole of Ireland, North and South”.

Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, spoke at length at the congress. Responding to the new Vocational Education Bill he noted of the provision of Technical Education in any country: “It is almost automatically connected with the industries of the country and the success or failure of the industries has a vital effect on the provision of the associated technical training”. He stressed that home industries needed support and encouragement; “A vigourous campaign for the support of home-manufactured needs to be waged”. He gave the example of the first industrial Development Association, which was inaugurated in Cork. That example gave a lead to other districts to establish similar associations. By the aid of such associations, local industries gained the support they deserved and “supplied a field for the absorption of the youth trained in the technical schools”.

Mr Bowen also referred to the teachers of Irish. In his view many had laboured for years in the teaching of the national language, often voluntarily without remuneration and “at considerable inconvenience, before being employed by committees”. Their work was a national work and a labour of love. The position of these teachers under the new Bill was not very clearly provided for. “It would be well if the Department of Education gave facilities for the training of these teachers in other subjects on the curriculum of Continuation Education, particularly as owing to the abolition of the special rate for Irish under the Bill”.

In the matter of curricula for continuation education, the free scope was welcomed by Mr Bowen. He detailed the importance of teaching craftsmanship to young people: “The encouragement of craftsmanship was very desirable at an early age and the inclusion of some craft in the programme of work for both boys and girls would help considerably to develop the individual tastes and inclinations of the student”. Indeed D J Coakley, Principal of Cork Chamber of Commerce, in a speech after Mr Bowen outlined the potential of Cork’s youth. He detailed that in Cork City there were 37 primary schools with an enrolment of 14,500 students, 12 secondary schools with an enrolment of 1,670 students, 1 day trades preparatory school with an enrolment of 130 students, 4 municipal schools with an enrolment of 3,200 students. University College Cork had an enrolment of 600 students whilst the Munster Institute comprised 50 students. There were also a number of private schools.

Mr Edward Morton, Head master of City of Dublin Technical Schools, Kevin Street, contributed a paper on the Electrical Equipment of Technical Schools”. Mr Morton treated the subject from the point of view of equipment for the teaching of the simple principles of electrical engineering, as applied in the electrical trades and the general principles of electrical engineering practice. The point of interest lay in whether it was essential to equip certain schools for electro-technology classes, and if so to what degree.

After Morton’s Speech, Dr T A McLaughlin, Managing Director of the Electricity referred to a special exhibition which his board had fitted up in Cork institute. He described that the domestic section was equipped “with all those appliances which definitely take the drudgery out of a woman’s work at home, enabling her to carry out her household duties with the minimum of physical effort”. He spoke about how the old type of kitchen with its coal range and the consequent dirt and dust and labour was being replaced by a clean electric kitchen. The electric washing machine replaces the wash tub and the “drudgery” associated with it; “An electric motor does the washing in a tenth of the time “without the exercise of human labour”. Commenting further he noted; “An electric vacuum cleaner replaces the sweeping brush, and numerous small electric appliances take over the other tasks in the home”.

Dr McLaughlin felt that the domestic economy of Ireland’s technical schools should be equipped with electrical appliances and that female students should be taught the elementary factors in the electric wiring of a home, the use of electric fuses and how to replace them; “I suggest to you that the technical schools in our towns and villages should take the lead in teaching womenfolk how their sisters in other lands have solved the problem of house-work in this modern age. The homes of our towns and villages will be the better and happier for elementary scientific management”.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

679a. Advert for ESB exhibition, Crawford Municipal Technical Institute (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  14 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 44) – A Bill of Change

The 1930 Technical congress at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute provided a very useful forum to discuss the Vocational Education Bill of that year.  The bill would affect changes to 69 technical schools across the country. The overall total of 2,500 students was deemed a low attendance and was considered to reflect the low demand for technically-trained people in Ireland.

At the heart of the bill it was proposed that new committees would administer continuation and technical education for 14 to 16 year-olds. At the congress, continuation education was defined as “general and practical training in preparation for employment in trades”, while technical education was described as “pertaining to trades, manufacturers, commerce and other industrial pursuits”. The new committees were to be charged with the duty of setting up and maintaining vocational schools.

The bill proposed that every scheduled urban district would have their own vocational education scheme and every county would have a county vocational education one. A committee was to represent every vocational education area. The committee for a rural or urban district vocational education area would consist of fourteen members elected by the local government council. Not less than five nor more than eight would be people who are members of a council. A committee would consider all such representations made to it by persons resident in its area who had an interest and experience in educational matters, and by persons concerned in local manufactures, trades and industries. A voice would also to be given to persons qualified to represent the views of employers and employees in matters of educational interest relating to districts.

The budget of a committee would come from a portion of the rates from the local Council or the fund that was put aside as part of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 and /or the poor rate. A vocational education committee could, in accordance with a scale prepared by it and approved by the Minister, fix and charge fees for attendance at all or any schools and courses of instruction maintained or provided by it under the proposed Act.

Every vocational education committee would on or before the 1st day of December in every local financial year, prepare and submit to the Minister an estimate. When the Minister considered an annual scheme he would issue to the vocational education committee a certificate authorising such committees to demand from the rating authority for the vocational education area of such committee a financial contribution. The Minister may, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, make grants to vocational education committees in aid of expenditure under annual schemes in accordance with regulations made by the Minister and with the approval of the Minister for Finance.

Every course of instruction provided under the committee would consist, in the case of a compulsory course, of one hundred and eighty hours of instruction in each local financial year.  Every parent of a young person resident in a district to which the continuation section was applied to would make sure that young persons attend for instruction in continuation education (unless there is a reasonable excuse for not so doing). It was proposed that if a parent did not comply with a warning duly served on him under this section, he was obliged, to cause the young person, to whom such warning relates to, to attend for instruction (unless the parent satisfied the Court that he had used all reasonable efforts). If the parent was guilty of an offence under this section; in the case of a first offence, they would be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

On the vocational side of the new Act, it was proposed that it would be the duty of every employer of a young person to send them for instruction. The local technical school was to contribute to the expenses incurred by persons resident in its area in obtaining technical education at schools or courses within or outside their area.

Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, in his keynote address on day one of the Cork congress noted that the provision of continuation education, as well as technical education, and the compulsory powers embodied in the Bill, provided a long felt need. The financial provisions would enable committees to make sure their work was more effective and useful.  He deemed that the bill was an “instrument, which would enable teachers to further education in general”. It would help to link up primary education in the country with both secondary and technical education. He critiqued that it would take a number of years before the general policy outlined in the bill would become fully effective, and many difficulties would have to be overcome during the years following. The two main difficulties, he detailed, were a lack of a sufficient supply of teachers to deal with the increased numbers of students, and secondly, the lack of suitable accommodation, particularly in the country areas.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

678a. Capwell Road, 1933, discussed in previous articles (source: Cork City Library)