One of the most momentous events in the history of the Irish State occurred 60 years ago this month when the buccaneering minister for education Donogh O’Malley stunned everybody, including his government colleagues, by announcing the introduction of free education.
There was consternation by the Department of Finance, which had been kept in ignorance of his planned announcement, despite the huge implications for the exchequer. And there was initial scepticism about whether O’Malley would be able to deliver on his promise. This was reflected in the report of the speech by The Irish Times, and the reaction of many involved in education.
However, despite all the misgivings, free secondary education and a national system of school transport were introduced the following year. The impact on the country was transformational.
At a recent seminar, an international expert was asked why Ireland had moved from being one of the poorest countries in Europe in the 1960s to one of the richest today. Unsurprisingly, he referenced membership of the European Union, but he also cited the country’s education system as one of the top three reasons for the transformation.
In his landmark speech on September 10th, 1966, at an event organised by the National Union of Journalists, O’Malley – who had only been appointed minister for education two months earlier – pointed out that many families could not afford to pay for the education of their children, with a third receiving no further education after leaving primary school.
“This is a dark stain on the national conscience. For it means that some one third of our people have been condemned, through no fault of their own, to become part-educated unskilled labour – part of the weakest in society who are destined for the wall of unemployment or forced into emigration. It is one of the great tragedies of our history since independence that we have not found the means to check this terrible loss of a national potential for economic and cultural development.”
He went on to say that this grim situation must be tackled with speed and determination. “Therefore, I am very glad to announce this evening that I am drawing up a scheme under which no boy or girl in this State will ever again be deprived of full educational opportunity – from primary to university level – by reason of the fact that their parents cannot afford to pay for it.”
Preparations for a gradual widening of educational opportunity had in fact been going on for some time. O’Malley’s predecessors Patrick Hillery and George Colley had undertaken a detailed examination of the issue, and plans were afoot to introduce free education on a gradual basis as it was believed the money was not there for a once-off expansion.
When O’Malley took over at Education, officials told him of the plan to introduce free secondary schooling up to the age of 16 by 1970, to coincide with a raising of the age of compulsory education, but O’Malley decided not to wait.
“Two factors compelled the Minister to anticipate and change the 1970 plan,” according to Sr Eileen Randles in her definitive Post Primary Education in Ireland 1957-1970.
“On the one hand there was the impetuous personality of the Minister, who liked the drama of quick and decisive action. On the other hand was the knowledge that the Fine Gael party was about to publish a revolutionary document on education, some details of which were privately known to Department of Education officials.”
Whether or not O’Malley received the go-ahead from taoiseach Lemass is a moot point. He revealed the plan when minister for finance, Jack Lynch, was out of the country. There was no detailed calculation of the cost, and the rough estimate he gave subsequently proved completely inaccurate.
Making the announcement to a gathering of journalists was clearly designed to generate maximum publicity. Just a few hours earlier, representatives of all the bodies involved in post-primary education were invited to the Department of Education offices in Marlborough Street and given the general terms of the scheme. By that stage, a copy of the minister’s speech had already been sent to the Sunday papers and reports the following morning caused a sensation.
While O’Malley’s approach was risky and politically motivated, there could be no pulling back after the blaze of publicity that accompanied the announcement. It was the catalyst for overcoming all bureaucratic obstacles, and the government had no option but to introduce free secondary education.
The minister was not as successful in getting the changes he wanted at third level. In April 1967, he announced plans for a merger between UCD and TCD, but it encountered fierce opposition from both institutions and the idea petered out after O’Malley’s death. More importantly, though, in December 1967, he announced the creation of nine regional technical colleges which marked a decisive broadening of the Irish higher education system.
Tragically, in March 1968, O’Malley suffered a heart attack and died at the age of just 47. Franciscan priest Fr Simon O’Byrne was hardly exaggerating when, in response he described the introduction of free education as the 20th-century equivalent of Catholic emancipation.