Free Just Mary by Mary O'Rourke

background informed me that this was a measure that would just not be worn by the teachers’ unions. I knew in fact that
parents wouldn’t initially attach that much significance to the issue, until prodded to do so by the INTO , the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland ( ASTI ) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland ( TUI ), because to parents, if their child was in a classroom and being well taught, that was all that really
mattered.
    In April 1987, before the true implications of Ray MacSharry’s proposed budget had become clear, I had to undertake my obligatory tour of the teachers’ unions’ Easter
conferences. As a former teacher, I knew already that these conferences were like enormous bear pits, where the Minister was treated like a strange animal in a zoo — to be gazed at,
pilloried, baited and in the end to be just plain put up with, until he or she went off to his or her next stop on the Via Dolorosa. Fortunately, I went along knowing that, if I had one strong
thing going for me, it was that I had actual teaching experience myself and that I genuinely believed that teachers work hard and contribute much to society by their careful nurturing of a young
person — particularly at primary level, I felt (even though my own professional experience had been at secondary level), when one takes over
in loco parentis
, so to speak. Also to my
great advantage, I had my valued confidante, Margaret Walsh, who was a secondary school teacher in Dublin and an ex-president of ASTI , and whom, shortly after my appointment
as Minister, I had asked to be my Advisor in the Department. To my delight, Margaret had accepted the position and there is no doubt that her presence and wise counsel greatly helped my passage
through the ASTI conference and those of the other unions that Easter and in fact throughout my years in Education. Also of huge benefit was the good relationship I had
built up during my time as a teacher with my own trade union, the ASTI , and with their then General Secretary, Kieran Mulvey. Kieran, whilst berating me as Minister as good
as the next, was always careful to keep things cordial and courteous.
    I cannot over-emphasise here the extent to which Ireland was not just in the financial doldrums, but in a financial wasteland. We found ourselves directionless in a vast tundra of national debt,
over which the previous government had presided apparently helplessly for more than four-and-a-half years. Alan Dukes and John Bruton, as the two successive Ministers for Finance, had no doubt
tried to rein in spending but because of the influence of Labour, were just not able to do so with any kind of effectiveness.
    As I have said, the really big cuts Mac the Knife had in mind had not yet been formalised, and so that Easter at the conferences of the teachers’ unions, I was given a fool’s pardon,
so to speak. I distinctly remember going to the INTO ’s Annual Congress in Ennis that year. As a school principal in a small rural school in County Clare, my paternal
grandfather had been a firebrand union adherent, noted for his radical views and his sterling espousal of the INTO . In true Lenihan fashion, he had fallen out with the
hierarchy and had had various spats with authority, so there was nothing new in the spark of antiauthoritarianism which was to re-emerge in our family in the following generations. All of this was
mentioned in speeches at the conference and I felt a glow of fondness for my grandfather, who had in his own way blazed a trail, allowing me a safe entry to this, my first teachers’ union
conference. Luckily for me too, the ASTI were hospitable as well and politeness prevailed. The TUI , under the direction of Jim Dorney, were more
watchful and wary, but the proceedings at their conference also passed off without difficulty that Easter.
    This was all before the really bad news broke, of course. For me, the most painful financial decision endorsed by Cabinet in 1987 to 1988