9/9 Today, the common school year exists without prejudice to religious observance. A Board can still close on January 6th. It just is not automatically a school holiday anymore. That quiet shift tells you a great deal about how power in Irish education really changes.
8/9 The Irish Bishops' Conference changed its position. The language softened. Closure was no longer mandatory. It was desirable. The solution was to pass the decision downwards to individual schools. The Church retained a voice, but not a veto.
7/9 Perhaps it raises an uncomfortable question about ethos more broadly: if it survives only while it goes unchallenged, how deep does it really run, and what exactly is holding it in place?
6/9 What is striking, in hindsight, is what did not happen next. There were no sanctions. No withdrawal of patronage. No public rebukes. Once schools tested the boundary and discovered that nothing followed, the authority itself was exposed.
5/9 The real shift came through behaviour. In 2014, the first year Irish primary schools returned on January 6th, a number of schools simply didn't comply with their diocese. Despite instructions to close, some stayed open. There were no public statements. Schools just opened.
4/9 The INTO noticed almost immediately that Catholic patrons continued to issue instructions about Holy Days of Obligation that cut across the agreed calendar. Schools were being told to close on certain dates, sometimes at short notice, sometimes inconsistently across dioceses.
3/9 The trigger was mundane rather than theological. Around 2004, the Department introduced a common school year to bring predictability to family life. Parents were tired of irregular closures from different schools, often in the same area.
2/9 Then, sometime in the mid-2000s, that certainty quietly disappeared. What replaced it was not a dramatic showdown or a headline-grabbing reform, but a circular which caused the slow, administrative unravelling of Church authority over the school calendar.
1/9 If you grew up in Ireland, January 6th was untouchable. The Feast of the Epiphany marked the true end of the holidays for Irish primary schools. It was not debated, negotiated, or questioned. Schools were closed because the Catholic Church said they were closed.
Did you know until 2014, Irish primary schools never opened before 7th January as the 6th is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation? The history of how the church ceded control after some schools rebelled is an interesting one.
Lots of issues with the article in my view. None of the methodologies are alien in today's classrooms for one
Sorry for only replying now. I got logged out of the app and didn't realise until now so missed notifications. It looks like he was flying kites with this
I'm so sorry, I missed your reply. I got logged out of the app so missed all my notifications. I think McHugh had good intentions but not sure he reduced the initiatives. I must check!
I have a few thoughts about this article but would be interested in hearing what stuck out for you www.irishtimes.com/ireland/edu...
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Ho hum... I guess we should start the year as normal with the **most** important educational story people seem to be able to think about. Any hopes schools will be treated as anything other than childcare by the media remain the same
www.independent.ie/irish-news/...
On the Disappointment of Almost Meeting my Hero and a Story of a Plastic Cup
This is a story I wrote in 2022 that has nothing to do with education. I hope you enjoy it.
Happy New Year.
simonmlewis.substack.com/p/on-the-di...
A clip from my annual review of primary education in Ireland. Listen to the full episode here: pod.fo/e/36e0c5
