A chara, – In An Irishman’s Diary (November 5th), Ronan McGreevy states that the Anglo-Irish Treaty would never have been signed in December 1921 but for the inclusion of the Boundary Commission. He adds that nationalist Ireland expected the commission would cede the majority nationalist counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone to the Free State along with Derry city and south Armagh, therefore making the fledging northern state “sink into insignificance”, as Michael Collins put it.
Although he had signed the Treaty, Michael Collins was vehemently opposed to partition. At the first meeting of the Provisional government on January 16th, 1922, he encouraged non-cooperation with the northern government in every possible way and told his ministers to prepare a scheme which would make it impossible for the northern parliament to operate successfully. One of the key areas of non-cooperation would be education.
At the second meeting of the Provisional government in Dublin on February 2nd, 1922, a policy of non-cooperation with the northern government was formally adopted. Bishop Joseph McCrory, Catholic bishop of Down and Connor, who also strongly opposed partition, was present at the meeting and assured the cabinet of his support. At that meeting, the cabinet agreed to pay the salaries of any northern teachers who boycotted the Belfast ministry for education.
However, since the government did not want this money to be traceable back to Dublin it was decided not to pay the teachers out of the education vote but to pay them from the secret service vote.
The Music Quiz: Which diva is the ex-stepmum of English folkie Leona Naess?
How 485 million years of Earth’s temperature history reveals climate tipping points and extinction risks
Tracking the path of the internet revolution
Nightbitch: Amy Adams gives it her all, but the close of the film feels like a malign deception
A Northern Ireland national teacher, John Duffin, agreed to act as an intermediary between the non-co-operating teachers and the Dublin government. Every month, he collected the claims from the northern teachers and assisted by an employee on the Belfast to Dublin train, sent these claims to Dublin. Individual cheques were then prepared in Dublin for the teachers and transported (again by train) to Belfast where Duffin distributed them to the teachers involved.
At the height of the boycott, more than 700 Catholic teachers across the six counties were paid from the Secret Service vote.
The Munster and Leinster Bank in Dublin agreed to honour the cheques and to maintain confidentiality.
The salary claims from the northern teachers amounted on average to £16,000 per month.
As time went on, members of the cabinet became increasingly concerned about the implications of these payments, but Michael Collins as chair of the Provisional government was determined to maintain the boycott and instructed the minister for education, Fionán Lynch, to continue to pay the northern teachers.
Following the killing of Michael Collins on August 22nd, 1922, there was no longer any support from cabinet for the northern teachers.
The teachers were anxious to have the matter settled but the Dublin government was not willing to admit that the boycotting teachers were paid from Dublin nor were they willing to make any move to facilitate a settlement. Their response to the northern teachers was to ask the northern Catholic bishops and the Catholic managers to settle the issue.
It was eventually two NI Catholic priests who negotiated a settlement with the Belfast government and the teachers were paid their salaries by the northern ministry from November 1922.
The teachers were the ultimate losers. They lost almost a year’s increments as well as part of their pensions, as their pension contributions had not been paid into any pension fund.
Many of them also lost out on promotion opportunities. And ultimately, as the Catholic Church had refused to engage with the northern government about proposed educational reform, Catholic education in Northern Ireland was to suffer financially for subsequent generations. – Yours, etc,
ÁINE HYLAND,
Emeritus Professor of Education,
University College Cork.