The lecturer, his son, the judge and the Minister - an institutional story

In June 2000, two lecturers at Limerick Institute of Technology were correcting that summer's exam papers. They noticed striking similarities between one student's answer books and the model answers they had drawn up themselves prior to the exam.

Peter Ronan and Michael O'Connor quickly formed the view, independent of one another, that the student must have gained access to the answers, and possibly the questions, for three of the papers: "Land Surveying", "Theory of Structures" and "Services and Environmental Science". In some instances, mistakes on the model answers were replicated in the student's work.

If these facts weren't troubling enough, another one made the situation worse: the second-year construction-studies student was local lad and Shannon rugby player Cormac O'Loughlin, the son of the head of the School of the Built Environment, Gerry O'Loughlin. (The father is also chairman of the Shannon rugby club.)

In a relatively small college of 3,500 students, and in the close quarters of a still-smaller department, this would be acutely embarrassing.

The two lecturers decided to press ahead and raise the issue as a fundamental breach of the examination process. According to the minutes of a meeting they held with senior management of the institute on June 12th, Ronan and O'Connor "both reported extreme stress and anxiety over the incident, but felt morally obliged to raise it formally".

During the subsequent examination-board investigation, student Cormac O'Loughlin admitted having prior access to model answers. He received a "fail" and was suspended from exams for two years. Gerry O'Loughlin has denied having any knowledge of his son's wrongdoing.

However, Ronan and O'Connor's "stress and anxiety" has not abated in the ensuing 18 months. The two lecturers did not foresee that subsequent events would dominate their lives right up to the present. Since the beginning of this term, they have been on sick leave, after complaining of stress.

They have also been effectively quarantined by their union, the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), and are instructed not to talk to the media or public representatives.

"It is not a gagging order. We are not kowtowing them into silence," says a TUI official. "We take the view as a union that if we are handling the case, then we are handling the case."

Pressure for action has grown, and late last month, the Minister for Education, Dr Michael Woods, entered the fray. For Woods, this was a dramatic U-turn: as recently as October, a spokesman said "the matter can and should be resolved locally". Last year in the Dβil, Woods himself said he had no legal power to establish a sworn public inquiry into the affair. He re-affirmed that stance in a letter to Ronan and O'Connor in January.

However, in the Dβil on November 22nd, Woods changed his tune. He stated for the first time that he did, after all, have the powers to establish a sworn inquiry under the RTCs Acts.

Not surprisingly, the Limerick IT governing body responded to the statement by putting the ball firmly in the Minister's court. The governors last week agreed to a proposal from the college director, JP MacDonagh, that that the Minister be requested to establish a sworn inquiry; they also decided that Gerry O'Loughlin should be suspended on full pay.

Woods will now make "an early decision" on the inquiry request, according to a Department spokeswoman.

Assuming Woods assents to Limerick IT's request, the inquiry won't be the first into this deceptively simple case. In January retired High Court judge Rory O'Hanlon was appointed by the college to conduct an independent inquiry - under pressure from the TUI, which this time last year threatened to opt out of exam preparations if such an inquiry were not established.

O'Hanlon's report was leaked in August, bringing his harsh criticisms into the public arena.Gerry O'Loughlin has told The Irish Times that he disagrees with the retired judge's conclusions - the report suggested O'Loughlin had made "a misguided attempt" to assist his son.

O'Hanlon's report revealed crucial evidence, including details of the student's account of how he came across the exam papers in his father's office. "His father, when he came to give evidence, pleaded ignorance of what had happened. He did, however, say that at the relevant time, he would have had a very large accumulation of draft examination papers and model answers in his study for the final approval in his capacity of head of school; that while it was his general practice to lock his study when he left if for a period, he was liable at times to omit to do so if summoned away unexpectedly," O'Hanlon's report stated.

Cormac O'Loughlin said he photocopied the papers at the library photocopier, across from his father's office, before leaving the originals back. "He was insistent that he memorised the answer papers and brought none of the pirated material into the exam with him.

"Asked how he could possibly memorise lengthy tables of figures, he responded saying: 'No offence to yourself, but you have asked me the same question three times and I have given you the same answer. I memorised the answer papers and that was it. I was actually able to reproduce it in the exam'."

Gerry O'Loughlin vouched for his son's powers of recall: "Well, you can take it from me that Cormac has a great memory." O'Hanlon stated his belief that the student's punishment was insufficient, though he understood there was a legal issue over expelling a student.

While the two-year suspension "might be appropriate as a penalty for the conventional case of cheating, involving the bringing in of aides memoire in the form of notes to the examination hall, it appears to me that the breach of the examination system in this case was of such a fundamental character as to warrant exclusion from the institute for the future," O'Hanlon wrote.

The report also dealt with a prior incident, after the summer 1999 exams, when Michael O'Connor raised the issue of the similarity between a model answer and a student's answer in the "Services and Environmental Science" paper. According to O'Hanlon, the course team, which included the former Mayor of Limerick, John Ryan, "decided to leave well enough alone in the absence of more concrete proof of cheating". It was O'Hanlon's belief, he wrote, that the concerns "were, as a matter of probability, well founded".

The O'Hanlon report was never officially made public, though photocopiers have been humming since the first copies were received by the parties involved. Not even the 20 members of the governing body were allowed to take a copy home, but were given access to it for an hour before a special meeting in October.

That meeting was inconclusive. Ironically, it was largely taken up by the other disturbing aspect of this affair: the allegations Ronan and O'Connor made to the governing body in September about hostile treatment by college management. Management strenuously denies the charge, but in a statement to The Irish Times, the college secretary said the two lecturers had shown a "less than helpful attitude in dealing with the case".

Ronan and O'Connor say they have never been thanked for their whistle-blowing. However, a January statement from the college claimed otherwise, stating: "LIT management reassured them of the correctness of their action, commended them for it and sought their co-operation in dealing with the matter."

Nonetheless, from the outset, TUI branch members have said the two lecturers were not getting the necessary support.

The union's September 2000 motion called for a sworn inquiry not only into the cheating incident itself but also "why an environment prevails which makes it difficult for our members to bring such issues to the attention of college management".

The governing body has backed the management. At a recent meeting, it passed a vote of confidence in MacDonagh for his handling of the case. However, governors are now clearly relieved that the time-consuming issue is finally off their agenda - and on to the Minister's.

The TUI has driven many of the developments in this affair, and has willingly fought the case of the two lecturers, Ronan and O'Connor - while keeping in mind that it also represents Gerry O'Loughlin. However, amid all the delicate to-ing and fro-ing among management, the union and the governing body, it is possible the students are the less considered of all the relevant parties.

"While the mud-slinging continues, people are quick to forget the plight of students," says Colm Jordan, education officer of the Union of Students in Ireland. "USI utterly condemns any form of cheating or plagiarism, and it follows that no double standards must exist and these rules must extend to college staff."