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)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 February 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 43) – A Bill in Question

By early June 1930, industrial unrest was being talked about at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute. An article published in the Cork Examiner on 11 June 1930 notes a letter being read out at the committee meeting, which asserted the gripes of part-time teachers. They would not resume work for the next session if there was any reduction on the existing rate of remuneration, which as agreed the previous year included 20 per cent advance on the pre war basic rate.

At this June meeting the programme of instruction was also presented, which was the same as the previous year with the addition of a course in sanitary science. The committee anticipated that there would be a number of public health appointments in the future and the course was to be held with a view to qualify candidates. The course was to be conducted by a doctor and it was suggested to comprise 30 lectures. Mr King, the principal, proposed that a fee of £25 be paid by interested participants. After regular business, the committee members made final arrangements for the reception and entertainment of the delegates to the Technical Congress in Cork in the institute on 11-13 June 1930.

The Irish Technical Congress was an annual assembly of teachers, members of various county and urban committees, and others interested in the technical or vocational side of education. The year 1930 coincided with the Vocational Education Bill which was before the Oireachtas in Dáil Éireann. The Cork Examiner on 12 June 1930 details that the Bill proposed to recast the entire system which for many years was under control of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, but in 1924 was taken over by the Department of Education. The editorial notes;” At the same time, it may have been just as well that the consideration of the whole scheme of vocational education should be put back until the present time, thus allowing time for the easing off of the early enthusiasms…the country is in calm mood today and even the enthusiasts of seven years ago, having learned important lessons by experience, are less inclined to rush matters”.

Professor John Marcus O’Sullivan, Minister for Education, visited Germany in Easter 1928 and visited a range of facilities for the study of the education question in that country. In a subsequent follow up paper he noted that he met German educationalists who described: “We have lost everything in the war, but the one thing left to us is the youth of the country and their proper education- we are determined to make the most of these two things”. In February 1929 Minister O’Sullivan, in a keynote speech in Listowel Co. Kerry, noted that Ireland had not suffered in the same way as Germany, but the German statement could be applied to Ireland. Irish people, he asserted had brains, imagination and ability which, trained in the proper way, was one of the biggest assets the country had. The Minister was convinced that Technical Education ought to be looked upon as “important as primary, and as honourable as secondary and university education and not as a Cinderella amongst the different branches of education,and  not as a luxury to occupy people’s evenings”. In his opinion, which was also based on extensive interviews with Irish technical institutes, no country could afford to lag behind in the matter of training; “if they had not a properly trained population in craftsmanship they could not have a successful nation”. He hoped that a system would be developed whereby boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 16 years would be compelled to attend continuation schools. It was hoped to introduce a part-time system of compulsory attendance for those who were employed and a whole time attendance for those who were not employed. He hoped to get rid of the general claim that technical education did not play any part in the country’s industrial training. He also hoped to evolve a system, which would play a real part in the “promotion and welfare of Ireland’s industries”.

In the 12 June 1930 editorial in the Cork Examiner, the journalist admitted that the system of agricultural and technical education initiated under the Act of 1899 had done a great deal for the country but it was not sufficient for modern requirements. He asserted: “In every country more and more attention is being given to the practical training of young people in the scientific principles of the occupations or trades, which they intend to follow, and not only is instruction given in the underlying principles, but actual workshop training is provided…rule of thumb methods no longer serve the purpose of either the skilled worker or the so-called unskilled man”.

The editorial notes that the new Bill was aimed at providing the necessary facilities for rural and urban areas; The bill was a complicated measure calling for serious reflection: “The teachers and members of Technical committees now meeting at Cork should be better able than any others to form opinions as to its merits or defects, and recommendations they make in connection with it should receive careful consideration from the Government of the Free State”.

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:

677a. Professor John Marcus O’Sullivan, Minister for Education, 1926-1932 (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 January 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 41) – O’Rahilly’s Lament”

 “I have no use for ideas in themselves- they must be translated into life or literature. Too many of us are quick on the uptake but might be slow on the output” (Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, 10 October 1927, lecture to the members of the Economic and Literary Society of the Cork Municipal School of Commerce).

Professor O’Rahilly’s lecture in one sense gives an insight into his personal thoughts on the problems of the Irish Free State. Indeed, much of what he noted in his lecture has echoes in any age of Irish history, no mind in his time. Some of his ideas are thought provoking at any rate to refer to especially in building the story of the more social theory side of technical education in Cork. In his lecture entitled “Efficiency” he noted that he was not much of a believer in brains, which he had found “did not count for very much in life at all”. He believed in character, grit, will power, and ‘spunk’. He believed not so much in the man but in his capacity for getting out what was in him. He commented that most people only owned a very small bit of themselves, and that bit they had no control over. He noted that he had met printers to carpenters, who were as good “as any man”, but they lacked power of concentration. Some people he noted “just go along with half minds on the jobs”. What was required he commented was to be all there- the majority of the people, he believed, were “half-witted and need to have their minds mobilised for the work in hand”.

Professor O’Rahilly had seen much change in Ireland in years previous to his lecture. He had led Irish delegations to the International Labour Organization conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on a conciliatory role in trade union and employers disputes in Munster. Standing as a candidate in the Cork Borough for Cumann na nGaedheal, he was elected to the 4th Dáil at the 1923 general election. He resigned in 1924. He had became Registrar of University college Cork in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University. He spent a year, in 1927, at Harvard studying social and political theory. Indeed he had a huge interest in adult education as advocated by one of his biographers Denis O’Sullivan in 1989. O’Rahilly would in time set up an adult education programme that extended university education in social and economic subjects to a much wider audience.

In his 1927 lecture O’Rahilly noted that the primary motive force in life should be religious and social. In a country like America he observed that the “mere exercise of power seemed to be an end in itself and seemed to enable them to be efficient in a sense. Through the mere exercise of power they were looking for money, enjoyment, Ford cars, and pictures”. He did not think that was desirable and it was not very applicable to a “poor country” like Ireland.

Referring to obvious cases where a sense of social obligation was not sufficiently present, O’Rahilly went on to instance the Irish political system, about which there was a great deal of discussion at that time. He noted: “In a lot of ways we must only admit we deserve it; we know we have not been carrying out these things with the high sense of public duty that we should do…Our obligations should not be to the candidate for the position, but to the people he is going to serve who are very often poor people. Their bounden duty was to vote for the man who was efficient but very little of that was found in the country…They [politicians] had a solemn obligation to the public and to the poor but they had little consciousness of it. The first thing necessary was the motive force that would drive them on and give them something to live for”. However, he followed this up by commenting that the “social sense cut both ways”. Those elected had also got to live and work in the country; They were not unique. They were not sports or supermen. They were not capable of working in isolation from their party fellows; “Even Newton or Einstein had first to master the accumulated store of knowledge and only by piecing together what other men had thought and done”.

In a wide ranging lecture, Professor O’Rahilly found that a great number of Cork men were receptive to new ideas. With a strong theme of what Americans were doing in America, he finished up his delivery speaking about the national diaspora and their potential; “let us not forget that the greatest of them all are the millions of our kith and kin beyond the seas…we have got to close up our ranks and make a united appeal; I do not mean a begging expedition…they are willing to organise on the other side, and there are three or four big business men who would gladly place their services at the disposal of their country if asked, but they never were”.

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:

675a. Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, UCC (source: Boole Library, UCC)