Metalwork Teachers & their training - recounted and written by Mr. Liam Lee, January 2009

Metalwork Teachers and their Training

 A personal reminiscence by Liam Lee

The history of Metalwork teacher training is divisible into three main periods. Each of these periods is associated with the institution in which the training took place. All that follows are my personal opinions, memories and the facts as I know them. In no way am I attempting to write a history of the Course. That is something which needs to be done, but done in a comprehensive and scholarly manner. I leave the authoritative account to another, but hope that this may form a basis for such an account.                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                   January 2009           

First Period. Ringsend Technical Institute

In 1927 the Department of Education of the newly formed Free State took a decision to train teachers of both Woodwork and Metalwork. This was one of the first education initiatives of the new state. The decision was prompted by a need for teachers of practical subjects. These were to serve in the new school system, which would arise as a consequence of the proposed Vocational Education Act.  A course had been run in the summer of 1927. I have no knowledge as to who attended this course, but I assume they were some of the teachers who taught in the Technical Schools/Institutes which were to be found in the cities and many of the larger towns. These institutions were involved in apprentice and technician education and training.  In 1930 it was decided to inaugurate the training of Metalwork teachers and to locate the new course at the Ringsend Technical Institute in Dublin 4.

This institution had an interesting history having been founded in 1893 as the Pembroke Technical Schools. The site and buildings were provided by the Earl of Pembroke. The running costs were provided for by the subscriptions of a large group of people. These included Lords Iveagh and Ardilaun of the Guinness family, both Archbishops of Dublin and many of the city businesses. A rate of 1 penny was struck by local Pembroke Council and a Board of Governors was formed. The school offered the following bewildering range of subjects: - Navigation, Heat, Mathematics, Drawing, Fishery, Sail Making, Cookery, Dressmaking, Meteorology, Mechanics, Geometry, Manual Instruction, Net Making, Smithwork and Laundry Work. Following on the 1899 Irish Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act, Pembroke Council took responsibility for the running of the institution, renamed the Ringsend Technical Institute. It is interesting to note that in 1911 Eamon de Valera applied for the post of teacher of mathematics, but lost out to a Mr. P. Gallagher. The institute evolved gradually and in 1925, with the appointment of Martin Keady as Principal, the institute became, in effect, the precursor and model of the Vocational Schools of later years.

 The entry requirements to the proposed training course were, that candidates have completed an engineering apprenticeship and have passed a specified number of technical and technological examinations. This mode of entry to a teacher training institution was unique in the context of the rather poorly industrialised Ireland of the time. However, it was commonplace in the industrially developed areas of Europe such as Germany and Scandinavia.  The responsibility for organizing and running the course was entrusted to Martin Keady, assisted by one Samuel Evans, known to all as Sam.

Martin Keady made a considerable contribution to the building of the fledgling state. He was the Principal of Ringsend, later became Principal of what was then Bolton Street Technical College, and was the first Chairman of the Labour Court. In his capacity as principal of the Institute, he acted as Director of the course. A Fellow of the Royal College of Science, he taught the Engineering Science element of the new course.

Sam Evans was a teacher with the newly formed City of Dublin VEC , taught Motor Car Engineering and related subjects in Ringsend. He was the son of a Welshman who had also taught the same subjects in Ringsend.  There is a story to the effect that Evans senior first came to Ireland to oversee the maintenance of the English Viceroy’s new fangled motor vehicles. Sam was devoted to the concept of excellence in the making of engineering artifacts, but was outrageously eccentric. It would appear that he passed both traits on to a long line of metalwork teachers.

Sam was given the interesting title of ‘Chief Instructor’. This indeed was a strange choice, as was the title of ‘Manual Instructor’ awarded to the graduates of the course, when one considers that the course was called The Metalwork Teacher Training Course. However, these titles were in accord with the general philosophy, which appeared to underlie the foundation of the Vocational School system. That system was for the very poor, would in effect educate manual, or semi-skilled workers and under no circumstances offer anything of a challenge to the existing secondary school system, or its pupils. Assurances of the latter were given to the secondary school authorities. While the above was the intent of the Bill, what transpired in due course in these new schools was quite different. The above assurances were further bolstered by a denial of access, on the part of pupils of the vocational schools, to the existing state examinations. Eventually examinations called the Day Group Certificate were established specifically for the new schools. This, in effect, denied the students of these schools’ entry to the Civil Service, Gardai, Army (Officer), and of course to third level education. A form of educational apartheid was about to be institutionalised and would last for four decades, but more of this anon.

Another teacher with these early courses was Matthew Barry. Matthew taught the Plane and Solid Geometry elements of Technical Drawing. His grandson, Sebastian, is one of our leading playwrights. 

 For the first thirty years the courses consisted of an intake of sixteen trainees, were of a two years’ duration, cycle, i.e. each course finished before another started, and in the early days there were periods during which no courses were run. Training was completely suspended during World War II. The award was a Manual Instructors Certificate of the Department of Education. The words Metalwork Teacher did not appear on the certificate until 1966. I suspect that perhaps the imminent extension of the state examinations of Intermediate and Leaving Certificates to the Vocational Schools played a role in the 1966 change. All awards both prior to and after 1966 were at Pass level only. There was a mechanism whereby postgraduate examinations, set by the Department of Education at specified Advanced Technological levels, merited the award of an Honours Certificate.

In the case of that first course, I was closely acquainted with just one of its graduates.  Tom McCarthy was a larger than life character. A native of Kerry, he taught in Wexford and was principal of a school there, later moving to Bolton Street where he was Head of   Mechanical Engineering Apprentice Department, and in retirement he aptly closed his teaching career by teaching, in a part-time capacity, on a number of metalwork teacher training courses. An indication of his range of expertise can be demonstrated by the fact that in his early days he acted on behalf of Conrad na Gaeilge travelling by bicycle as an itinerant teacher of Irish in County Kerry, and in those final teaching days he taught the skills of blacksmithing to trainee teachers. This multi- faceted range of skills was typical of many of those metalwork teachers who were to follow in his footsteps.  They, like him, were completely devoted to their pupils and their subjects. Another graduate of the first course was Paddy Donnelly, a native of Shankill in County Dublin. Both he and Tom McCarthy had the rather strange experience of being sent, by the CEO of their new Vocational Education Committees, to rural towns. Their instructions were to acquire a premises and set up a Vocational School there!  In Paddy’s case the town was Ballymahon in Co. Longford. There he remained for the duration of his teaching life, first as Teacher-in-Charge and later as Principal. His experiences – and those of Tom McCarthy – were almost unbelievable.

After World War II, with the exception of the year 1957/58, there was an almost unbroken succession of courses of the same cyclic form.  In the early 1960’s the number of trainees on each course doubled to thirty-two and a new course was started each year. In the 1940’s Martin Keady had transferred to Bolton Street and was replaced as Principal and Course Director by Aloysius. M McLoughlin, commonly known as Louis. Another Fellow of the College of Science, A.M. McLoughlin also took on the responsibility for teaching the Engineering Science elements. In 1956 a recent graduate of Ringsend joined the teaching staff with responsibility for the area of electrical and electronic engineering. This was Larry Hunt who would figure largely in the development of the course in future years. Larry’s arrival occurred midway through my own years as a student on the 1955/57 course. At a later date I regularly, untruthfully, but quite mischievously made a point of blaming him for my lack of expertise in the areas he taught.

Sam Evans continued in his role as Chief Instructor until his retirement in1958.  His was the major influence on the formation of those early teachers of metalwork and he was something of a legend in his lifetime. Much given to flowery language, Sam once opened a press conference with words, “My dear press”

I was a student on that final complete course taught by Sam. We, the sixteen students, were a mixed bunch. Four Louthmen, four from Dublin, three from Cork, two from Tipp, two more from Galway and a lone Sligoman. Only six counties were represented, but this was no accident for, with the addition Carlow, these counties provided the great bulk of candidates for training. The very limited amount of engineering industry, which existed in those days, was mostly to be found in these counties    

In the late fifties Sam Evans was replaced as Chief Instructor by Seamus Rossiter who had previously taught for about twenty years in Bolton Street. The arrival of Seamus was important, in as much as he himself was a graduate of the Ringsend course. In his time in Bolton Street he had taught many of those who would later train as metalwork teachers. It is clear that throughout the country it was the influence of metalwork teachers which would steer most of the undergraduates towards the Ringsend training course The resulting close relationship which developed between metalwork teachers nationally was, I believe, unique. In later years I heard Prof. Diarmuid Leonard of UL describe metalwork teachers as an incestuous lot!  I took no offence since I knew exactly what he meant.   

On the retirement of A.M. McLoughlin, Tom Carney became Principal and Director of the course. Tom, a commerce graduate from Mayo, would act in this role until the Course later moved to the College of Technology, Bolton Street. A founder member of what is now known as the Teachers Union of Ireland, he served as its President for some years. It was about this time that the numbers were doubled to thirty-two entrants, with an annual graduation.

In 1966 Seamus Rossiter resigned, to become principal of St. Kevin’s College, Clogher Rd. Dublin and Larry Hunt was appointed Chief Instructor in his place.

These moves created a vacancy in the teaching staff and I was invited to join the course. This invitation gives an insight into the paternalistic, almost feudal control, which the Department maintained over the course and its equivalent Woodwork and Rural Science courses. Indeed, in the case of the Woodwork course, I believe the control was indeed best described as feudal. A department Inspector by the name of Edwards was the feudal lord of the Course.

At the time I was employed by the County Kildare VEC and was on secondment to the Army Apprentice School in Naas. I was first approached by a senior Department Inspector, who asked what my reaction would be if formally invited to teach on the training course. This, I later learned, was to ensure that a formal Department invitation did not suffer the indignity of a refusal! After consideration I accepted the offer and was seconded to the Department. That secondment illustrates the ad hoc nature of the Course. All of the full time members of the staff were seconded to the course. They received what I think was officially described as an hourly emolument. In time I likened this to the infamous Dublin Dockers’ read, i.e. if you worked the hour you got paid the emolument, if you were ill, tough luck. This insecurity, together with the fact that ones purported seniority with ones’ real employer was in doubt, became a source of some irritation for me.  In 1969 I initiated a process amongst my colleagues which resulted in a series of discussions with the Department in the person of the Chief Inspector, Michael O’Flanagan. The outcome of these discussions was peculiar to say the least, but indicative of the even more peculiar relationship between the Department and the practical teacher training courses. Our respective employers, and they were all VECs, were instructed to appoint each of us as “Supernumerary Principals”. I remember likening it to the titular bishops in the Catholic Church - they had no diocese and we had no schools. It was all that the Department could come up with in the context of the ad hoc nature of the course, but at least it was a permanent form of reward for the work being done. The solution was later extended to both the Woodwork and Rural Science courses. By the way, Larry Hunt, as befitted his status as Chief Instructor, was awarded the principalship of an even bigger non-existent school!

My secondment to the Department of Education, and my later secondment to Thomond College of Education, ensured that for only the last few months of my thirty-two year teaching career was I paid directly by the body for which I worked. County Kildare VEC paid me from 1957 until 1988 without ever getting a day’s work out of me. They of course were refunded my salary by whomsoever I was actually working for.  This was also true for my other teacher training course colleagues.

Towards the end of 1968 a memo was sent to the Department, with the suggestion that, in-school, long-term teaching practice be established. Up to then teaching practice consisted of a mixture of peer teaching and very brief periods with second-level pupils. In the case of Ringsend, the second level pupils were from the adjoining school and were teaching practiced to near death. In the spring of 1969 the Department agreed to place Metalwork trainee teachers in school around the country. This was a wonderful advance in the training of practical teachers – the Woodwork, Rural Science and Home Economics courses, which were all run by the Department, also lacked proper in-school teaching practice. They commenced the programme the following year.  It is my recollection that the aforementioned Woodwork Inspector Edwards, phoned me after our first group returned from TP inquiring as to how we had organised the whole thing. It says something about relationships in the Inspectorate at that time, because Mr. Edwards did not ask his Metalwork colleague John Byrne, in the adjoining office! Of those developments with which I was closely associated in my teaching career, I take great pride in helping to get a worthwhile TP programme off the ground.

Second Period. Bolton Street College of Technology,

In 1972, forty-one years after its establishment, the Course was transferred to the College of Technology, Bolton Street.

Among other reasons was the fact that some of the fabric of the Institute in Ringsend was in serious disrepair and plans were in hand for a rebuilding programme. There is evidence that plans for the rebuilding of Ringsend were at an advanced stage as early as 1957. These included provision for the Woodwork teachers training course on the same site. The plans came to nothing and twelve years later the fabric had so deteriorated that I can remember addressing a class of trainees through a mist of gently falling snowflakes. The move represented the second, and shortest, period of the history of the Course. Larry Hunt was responsible for overseeing this move. Only four staff moved to Bolton Street and they were the full-time members of staff who were responsible for the core Engineering and Applied subjects, together with Irish. The Course had relied on the services of part-time staff in the areas of pedagogics, English, maths etc. For their own reasons some of these staff chose not to continue this service and others had to be recruited from the staff of the College of Technology. The full-time members of staff at the time of this move were, Larry Hunt, William Lee, Liam Lee and Micheal O’ Mainin. It is worth noting that the first three named were themselves graduates of the Course. The late William Lee, known to his colleagues as Willie, was also known as Liam, or to his students as ‘The Lord’. The presence of two Liam Lees could be confusing, but only to outsiders and the Revenue Commissioners. Modesty, or more truthfully embarrassment, prohibits me from putting my nickname in print. Well not really, it was in fact ‘Talkie’. I will leave the reason for the name to the imagination of the reader.

In Ringsend the course had the services of three technicians, two of whom, Paddy Carroll and Henry Harris, moved with the Course. Paddy was something of a legend in his own right. The third technician, the science technician Brian Siggins, chose to remain in Ringsend. This represented a great loss to the Course. An educator in his own inimitable way, Secretary of the Old Dublin Society, a campaigner for the Wood Quay site years before F.X. Martin and his colleagues became interested, and the rescuer of a multitude of Viking and Norman artifacts from the Sandymount dump. These artifacts, rescued over several days with the aid of the sixth class in Ringsend Boy’s National School, were quietly dumped there by those charged with the excavation. They may now be seen in the Dublin Civic Museum. Brian had an ongoing influence on the Courses he served, which was equal to that of the teaching staff.       

On arrival in the new setting another full-time secondment was made. John Quinn, a young graduate engineer on the staff of Bolton Street, was appointed. Once again John had graduated from the Course in 1966. The incestuous remark of Diarmuid Leonard was not far from the mark. The ad hoc nature of the course was once again evident in Bolton Street. It was a Department of Education course, which was in, but not of the college. The facilities used were ‘rented’ from the college. Some were for the sole use of the Course, while others were shared in common with other college departments. 

From 1972 until 1979 the Course operated in Bolton Street with existing full-time staff, together with the specialist services of some Bolton Street lecturers. Micheal O Mainin, a wonderful teach of Irish, died shortly after the move to Bolton Street.

 However, 1979 saw the beginning of the third period of Metalwork Teacher training which continues to the present, with the opening of the purpose-built Science and Technology Building at Thomond College of Education in Limerick. Three of the staff, Larry Hunt, John Quinn and I were to move to Limerick. Liam (‘Willie’) Lee opted to remain in Dublin. In the event, John Quinn changed his mind and saw out the last course in Dublin. The Department wished to ensure the supply of Metalwork teachers while Thomond was gearing up. To that end it was decided to start a new course in Dublin in the autumn of 1979 and thus produce the final graduates from there in 1981. This would result in a two-year gap which was deemed to be acceptable by the Department of Education. In a surprise move, Seamus Rossiter resumed the role of Chief Instructor. At the time Seamus was a member of the provisional Board of Governors of Thomond College, which had been given the responsibility of overseeing the establishment of that institution.

The entry requirements for the new course were of two forms. In the case of one group it was the Leaving Certificate and in the case of the other group the industrial experience base, which had prevailed to this time, was to be retained. In each cohort there were to be thirty-two Leaving Certificate entrants, together with sixteen from industry. The course was to be of four years’ duration in the case of the former and three years in the case of the latter. 

Third Period. Thomond College of Education and the University of Limerick

 In September of 1979 Larry Hunt took up his appointment as Senior Lecturer and Head of the Metal and Engineering Technology Department in Thomond.  I was due to follow him on the 1^st October, but Pope John Paul chose that day to visit Limerick and I decided to stay in Dublin rather than cramp his style. Perhaps I should have seen an omen in that deferral, considering what we were about to face into. On the morning of my arrival the first young person I met in the front hall was another new staff member, and John Breen has been a good friend ever since. Besides Larry and I, there was half a dozen other new staff who had to served on the Woodwork and Rural Science courses. 

The first permanent appointment made following our arrival was that of Seamus Harrold, as our first Engineering Workshop Technician. Like those earlier technicians who worked with the course, Seamus was to make his own particular mark on the course and would become something of a byword with the trainee teachers.

The word unpleasant would best describe those first few months in Thomond.  The existing staff, of the Physical Education programme were in dispute with the college authorities - I now have no memory of the particular grievance - though it may have had a connection with our arrival-we, the newcomers, were in the middle. While we were assured by some, that we were not the focus of the dispute, we nevertheless were the ones who suffered. Services of all forms were withheld. The new building was unheated that autumn as part of their protest, and we were left in the cold. Indeed, left in the cold in more ways than the physical. I do remember one angry member of the existing staff bluntly informing me that I was not welcome! I also overheard a discussion as to whether people who did not possess degrees should teach in a third level institution. This was certainly an interesting point, since most of the newcomers, including myself, who had worked on the Department courses did indeed lack university degrees and their numbers were swelled the recruitment of new staff from the Colleges of Technology in Limerick. In the case of the Metal and Engineering Technology Department these new staff were Liam Hennessy, Liam Donovan and Christy Molamphy, all trained Metalwork teachers, who previous to that were lecturers in the Limerick Regional Technical College. However, it has to be said that at that point in the development of the training of teachers of practical subjects, and as a consequence of the previous policy of the Department of Education, those particular staff, and they alone, were both qualified and competent to teach certain core elements of the new degree courses. And whether others were aware of it, or not, they brought with them special insights, knowledge, skills and above all a fierce commitment to practical education which had developed over the previous fifty years.

This was not the first time that I had encountered such hostility to practical subject education from supposed colleagues. Shortly after I returned to the training course in Ringsend, I read an article in ASTIR, the journal of the ASTI. It had been written under a non-de -plume. In it the writer complained of the difficulty he was experiencing in teaching English to “mechanical engineering technicians who aspired to being teachers” - the use of a non-de-plume was pointless since only one person taught English on the course.  As a matter of interest, one of those in that group who causing this gentleman such difficulty was a young man named Tom Murphy. Tom of course later developed into one of the great playwrights of the last half-century. The article writer, who could with some charity be described as a poor teacher, used later bask in the reflected glory of Tom’s success, until I publicly reminded him of the ASTIR article. Indeed, on occasion he was to lay claim to be the prime mover in Tom’s success!

And the fierce commitment to practical subjects, mentioned previously, was needed during the writing of the submission on the proposed content of the degree programme. Again and again attempts were made to limit, or diminish the practical content. There was no obvious malice, or indeed matters of principle involved, since most of the maneuvering arose from empire building. In other words, reduce practical elements and increase those elements, which added to the importance of other departments. However, it was clear that there were some who felt that practical subjects had no place in a degree programme! (If they had their way, one wonders where the graduates of there proposed course would have been employed) Strangely enough, I understood their difficulty. All over Europe student teachers were following undergraduate programmes, which had serious concentration on practical subjects. In Ireland there was no precedent in the universities for such practically based courses and therefore it was a concept outside of the experience of those who were objecting. If, for example, one examined the practical/ workshop input, in most university engineering programmes in Ireland at the time, it amounted to little more than a joke. This was in complete contrast, to what existed in the rest of Europe.  So the fact that practical subjects could form the core of a degree programme was, in the Irish context, a new and strange concept. I often heard the remark made that “It is not degree material” when discussing the level of importance to be attributed to Technical Drawing, or Workshop Practice in the new programme. In the schools a Metalwork/Engineering teacher without a high level of craft and other practical skills would be quite useless. Sadly, some of the objectors were unable to make the imaginative leap necessary to facilitate the transition of the practical courses to the tertiary level. Again this is probably most easily explained by the lack of a manufacturing tradition – no real industrial revolution had occurred in what was essentially an agriculture-based economy. The total separation, apartheid, which existed in Ireland between the educational backgrounds of most university graduates and the backgrounds of those who had come through the vocational/technical system was probably a contributing factor to mistrust which existed in the early days in Limerick. The separation, and indeed hostility, which existed between the secondary schools and the vocational schools is best left to another day. Suffice to say it reflected poorly on those religious institutions that controlled the secondary sector. 

The degree submission, which was to eventually emerge, was very similar in technological and scientific content to that which had been taught in Bolton Street. Workshop Technology, Technical Drawing, Mathematics, Physics/Engineering Science and Electrical/Electronic Engineering formed the core of the technological subjects. In the older course discrete, relevant elements of Chemistry and Material Science had been taught. In the new programme they were taught as separate subjects. The greatest difference, however, was to be found in the Education programme which was far more extensive, in both depth and content than that which had existed previously. This was a very welcome and timely addition.

In time the programme was accepted by the NCEA, who were then the awarding body. In 1983 the first graduates emerged and the day of the B. Tech(Ed.) in Metal and Engineering Technology had arrived. Since then a steady stream of young teachers has emerged from Limerick. In time too, I believe that all our colleagues in Thomond came to accept the role and expertise of those of us from the ‘ad hoc’ world of practicality.

Sadly, in the late 1980s the college ended its recruitment of industrially experienced candidates. This was a both a retrograde and stupid decision, the reason for which I am aware, but have never understood. These entrants brought a measure of maturity to the courses. They were between five and twelve years older than the Leaving Certificate entrants, had experience of the world of work and indeed some were family men. This mention of men would be a good point at which to draw attention to the total absence of women from these courses. The type of society which then existed in Ireland ensured that until the late seventies at least, women were not to be found in the engineering, or associated industries. Even after the liberalisation of the entrance requirement in 1979, it was to be over a decade before the first woman Metalwork teacher emerged. Since then there have been only a very few other women graduates.

As one of only two people who served in all three institutions I think it only fair that I should comment on the graduates who came from each period.

 For this purpose, I treat the Ringsend and Bolton Street graduates as one. These laid the foundations for our subjects during the first half-century. The most obvious characteristics which these graduates had in common, was their maturity and their commitment to both their subjects and their pupils. By and large the earliest teachers were remarkable people. For many years, particularly the earlier ones, these teachers operated in a society which was hostile to anything ‘manual’ - other than farming - and hence the subject was, if not looked down upon, at least sniffed at. This, I suppose, was not surprising in a non-industrialised and largely rural based economy. To illustrate something of the challenge they faced when compared with their contemporaries in Europe it is worthwhile listening to something Prof. Mike Cooley once said. “In the case of three of the most eminent professors of engineering in Germany, the first thing they put on their CV’s is the fact that they were craft apprentices, in contrast to here (Ireland) where people often pretend that they have never had anything to do with metalwork or any manual work. A completely different type of tradition.” 

As well as this kind of hostility they, with one or at most two colleagues, were sent to towns to set up schools without even a premises being available to them. Schools were set in disused shops, old houses and in one case a workshop shared part of a barn; the other part was being used to raise bonhams. In some areas the abandoned workhouses were pressed into use by the local authorities. These buildings, wretched symbols of a period of great and demeaning suffering for our poorest people, were once described as ‘rearing their accursed gables and pinnacles of Tudor barbarism’…. ‘like the fortress of Giant Despair’. That they were to be used again, this time to educate the equally poor children of a later generation, was illustrative of my earlier comment regarding educational apartheid. One wonders at the sheer insensitivity of the state establishment, whatever the economic arguments that might be advanced in support of their use. I have visited two of the workhouse-schools, one of which is still in use to this day, and found great work being done there. This is not to say that they should have ever been used, but merely to demonstrate the willingness of those staff to do whatever was needed to educate their charges, irrespective of the facilities available to them.

 The graduates of Ringsend and Bolton Street joined with their colleagues from other disciplines and in time built a satisfactory system of education in the Vocational Schools. Though denied entry for their pupils to the state examinations at Intermediate and Leaving Certificate Level - as a consequence of which pupils were not allowed access to universities and most grades in the Civil Service - they nevertheless carved out specific niches for their schools. Industry and commerce came to rely on these schools as guarantors of excellence when recruiting. This was particularly so in the case of engineering apprentices and technicians. The emerging semi-state industrial sector, together with more enlightened private employers, demanded a greater level of general and technical education for their apprentices and technicians. Metalwork teachers were to the fore in providing for this demand at both secondary and apprentice training level. Because of the increasingly progressive and enlightened views of industry, if not of the establishment, and the educational opportunities provided by them, many vocational school ex-pupils broke through that apartheid barrier of which I have spoken. In time, and before access to the state examinations was available to them, they made progress into the professions by, for example, becoming graduates, associates and fellows of the Institutes of; Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineers. By this route ex-pupils of Vocational schools found their way on to the boards of both private and semi-state industries. Again, in the under industrialised conditions of the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s they contributed to the development of indigenous industry. In the late 70s research by Brian Rothery found that the founder/owners of native manufacturing industry were almost entirely ex-pupils of vocational schools. The majority of these firms had a mechanical engineering base and the influence of the Metalwork teacher was evident. I believe society in general owes a debt of gratitude to all of those who worked in, and graduated from, these institutions. The pioneering graduate teachers, despite a deal of hostility from those who should have known better, helped build a great educational system when it was badly needed by a section of our children. Those who followed later consolidated and developed on that work and then successfully made the transition to the state examination system.

With the establishment of the Regional Technical Colleges, graduates of the Metalwork Courses became vital in bridging the gap between theory and practice in the education of technicians and technologists. They played a vital role in what have now become Institutes of Technology. As well as working as lecturers, some headed engineering departments in these institutions.

I take this opportunity salute them all.

Coming to the graduates from UL, I have this to say. I spent ten years working with them in the university and since my retirement I have had an ongoing involvement in Teaching Practice. In general, I have found the same dedication to the teaching of their subject matter as had existed in earlier days. Among them, and this holds to the present, I have encountered some outstanding young teachers. In the workplace they too face great challenges as society attempts to identify which technological subjects will be taught. They face a rapidly changing technological scene, but I am confident that the will cope and give of their best to the pupils. If ever there was any doubt as to the critical importance of technology and technological education to our well being in the modern world, recent economic events will have erased such doubts. That the young graduates are fully integrated into the world of metalwork can be seen in the fact that the present Chairman and of the Engineering and Technology Teachers Association is David Monaghan a UL graduate and most, if not all, of the ETTA executive are also UL graduates. Earlier Padraig Kirk, a UL graduate, took over the Chair from Christy Conville, a Ringsend graduate. Michael Martin UL followed Padraig Kirk, he was succeeded by Dan Keane of the Galway Course, he in turn giving way to David Monaghan the present Chair.

 The first woman graduate, Elizabeth Davis, was General Secretary of the Association for some time and many other young UL graduates have served on the executive committee. The staff, in UL, are to be congratulated on the quality of the teachers who have graduated from the institution. Long may it continue so. For myself I have made many good friends during my years in Thomond/UL, and I have the greatest respect for them, in both their personal and professional capacities.

I retired from Thomond in 1989 and so never served in UL, other than in the role of a TP tutor. My retirement followed my development of heart disease and was 10 years early. I retired on medical advice since it was felt that I would no survive more than a few years!

The retirement of Larry Hunt in 1992, the last of those who taught in the Dublin, closed a chapter in Metalwork teacher training.  Christy Molamphy, who taught Graphics and who trained with me retired about the same time.

 Liam Hennessy retired, following a long fight with heart disease in 2002. The author, with Dr. Larry Smyth, of the standard Leaving Cert. Engineering text, he gave great service to Teacher training. With his death, the direct and long connection between the Course and Ringsend and Bolton Street finally ended.

Liam Donovan, who trained on a special course in Cork, in the 1960’s retired a couple of years ago. He was the last of the graduates recruited from an industrial background to serve in UL.

The future of Engineering and Metalwork teacher training is now in the hands of UL graduates – Pat Phelan, Seamus Gordon and Niall Seery - who themselves are Engineering Teachers. I do believe that the ethos of dedication to subject and students which originated in Ringsend, 79 years ago survives and is thriving in UL.     

In referring to the development of the subject, Metalwork, it would be easy to see only the narrow technical elements of the metalwork teachers work, but they have never confined themselves to a narrow presentation of their subject. Perhaps I should refer again to Professor Mike Cooley in this regard. Mike, an ex-pupil of Tuam Vocational School, is among other things an international authority on the relationship between technology and humankind. On many occasions Mike has publicly stated that the greatest single influence on his educational and professional development was Sean Cleary, his metalwork teacher in Tuam. Other metalwork teachers throughout the country have similarly served as inspirational models, particularly to those in greatest need of such inspiration.

Finally, may I say that I am proud to have played a part in the foregoing story, to have assisted in the development of The Subject, and it’s related technological subjects and to have known and served with wonderful people while doing so.