A Mayo columnist's question: Is free education really free?
by Dr. Richard Martin
In my kitchen I have a few photos on the wall.
Mostly dead mathematicians and two Irish politicians. Only two. Sean Lemass and Donough O’Malley.
Lemass takes centre stage. There will never be another Sean Lemass.
He was on the rooftop of the GPO with his brother Noel in 1916 and helped carry James Connolly out from the smouldering wreck of a building when the rebels surrendered.
He followed Dev into the Dáil and looked across the chamber at men who had murdered and mutilated his brother Noel and left him to rot in the Dublin mountains.
The slightly constitutional party in time became fully constitutional. He is the architect of modern Ireland and the father of us all.
In the late ‘50s, along with T.K. Whittaker, he transformed this island with a programme for economic development. Whittaker needed Lemass and Lemass needed Whittaker.
He never was involved in any scandal and never amassed personal wealth. He served the Irish people with honour and no blemish on his character.
His legacy is that he is the gold standard by which any serious politician that enters Leinster House measures her or himself against.
The only person I could possibly compare Lemass with is the artist Jack B. Yeats who painted much of his work in Mayo when he resided with Ernie O’Malley in Burrishoole Lodge.
Every year in Whyte’s Auction House in Dublin they have two or three major art auctions. Work by the usual Irish masters always surfaces for auction. Paul Henry, Louis Le Brocquy and others.
But the works by Yeats are always the most valuable and sought after. He’s the gold standard.
Interestingly, he won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics in 1924 with his painting ‘The Liffey Swim’.
There can’t be too many families that won a Nobel Prize and an Olympic medal. His brother W.B. won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Sean Lemass and the Yeats siblings will never be surpassed.
The pride of Irish culture, art and public life.
Anyway, back to the other photo. Donough.
Donough O’Malley studied engineering in Galway in the 1940s. He was a classmate of my grand-uncle Tom Kelly from Cloghans.
After Tom Kelly graduated he emigrated to Pennsylvania where he worked as a civil engineer.
When he would return to Ireland he would fly via Shannon and would connect with his friend and classmate Donough in Limerick. The university in Galway was very small back then. My grandfather was there also and he was acquainted with Donough.
As we all know – or should know – Donough O’Malley introduced free secondary school education in 1967 and unfortunately passed away a year later in 1968.
His nephew Dessie succeeded Donough in the subsequent by-election. Niall Blaney is on record as saying that helping Dessie O’Malley be elected was the greatest mistake of his career.
He was probably right.
The Blaney machine was the most formidable election machine in the state.
Only Bertie’s ‘Drumcondra Mafia’ or Ring’s machine in Westport could be mentioned in the same sentence, but they weren’t really a patch on it either.
“More and more I have students coming who are struggling with the fundamentals and basics. It’s not their fault. The system is at fault.”
So why am I day dreaming about free education?
Well, as we all know, it transformed this island.
The greatest resource Ireland has is its people. We don’t have great reservoirs of natural resources like oil, gas or coal, and the gas we did have in north Mayo is now owned by Vermilion – a Canadian company – and a Canadian pension fund. Nice.
We have seen the American empire literally unravel before our eyes over the last decade. Why?
The great weakness of the American dream is that they put a dollar sign on everything. Health and education being the big ones. If you don’t educate people the end result is the likes of Trump.
The MAGA movement is built upon the pillars of anger, despair and rage. Ordinary everyday Americans don’t see a future and the American dream is just a dream. Something they will never see.
It’s a mirage and as such when people are enraged by the failure of the system they will inevitably throw the grenade into the ballot box.
In Ireland we have largely resisted that temptation. I would venture to say that is because we are a well-educated, free thinking society.
The question is, is it free? Free education?
Today, right now in Ireland, is it free? I’m not so sure.
If it’s free why are there grinds schools all over the county and country?
When I was in school there were teachers who did grinds after school, but nothing on the scale of what we have today.
And in my view we have an alarming societal development. Only the affluent and wealthy can afford to pay for grinds.
It’s a costly business. So a societal gap is emerging. The haves and the have nots.
If you can afford to pay for private tuition your kids will be okay and get a good Leaving Cert.
If you can’t afford to pay for private tuition, your kids may be at the mercy of the gods in some cases.
But why is there such a proliferation of grinds schools? And hundreds of kids all across the county are going to them.
I have my own views on the matter and give private tuition myself. I teach maths.
I believe a grind should be an adjunct to what’s happening in the school, and more and more I have students coming who are struggling with the fundamentals and basics. It’s not their fault. The system is at fault.
I have students coming to me and deep down I know they will struggle to pass Leaving Cert higher level maths.
So I’ve started bringing them in for extra hours for free. I have to. Otherwise there’s just no point and the heart-breaking thing is deep down I know that they are very bright and talented and I’m not prepared to let them fall through the cracks.
Do I worry about the future?
Yes, I do. Standards, I fear, have fallen. And ultimately a price will be paid.
I am happy that St. Gerald’s College in Castlebar has never lost the standards that were set by Christy Tynan and the late Sean Kearins over decades.
Cormac McCarthy from Castlebar is doing a wonderful job as head of the maths department at Sancta Maria College in Louisburgh.
I couldn’t pay a higher compliment to Cormac by saying that he is the only teacher I’ve met who could hold a candle to Christy Tynan.
Cormac can teach maths, applied maths, chemistry and biology to Leaving Cert honours standard. Christy is the only other teacher I’ve met who could do that.
And, of course, they wear their skill and knowledge ever so lightly.