Teachers’ Experience of School: First-hand Accounts, 1943–1965

Abstract

The discussion presented here forms part of a wider study into the history of teaching in Ireland primarily employing oral testimony from one-to-one interviews with retired teachers. This chapter is based upon recollections discovered in archive collections, teaching memoirs and the oral testimony of 29 retired post-primary teachers [hereafter, respondents] that took place between 2010 and 2013. Five respondents acted as school principals; one as a deputy principal, two as former presidents of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland and two were former Ministers of Education and all were self-selecting. The oldest respondent [Sister Boniface] began teaching in 1943. All contributed under anonymity and are allocated pseudonyms with the exception of Niamh Breathnach and Mary Hanafin who spoke as former holders of the office of Minster for Education, the latter also contributing as a former secondary school teacher. Some of the respondents worked in more than one type of school during their career, 17 % in Community Schools and the remainder in denominationally operated schools under Religious or lay management.