ABSTRACT
Teachers in Ireland is fortunate to have inherited a great tradition of teacher activism from the past, especially given the work of Vere Foster and colleagues including the businessman Chamney as proprietor and editor of the Irish Teachers' Journal. A key theme identified by Pearse in The Murder Machine was the preferred substance of Irish education in the cause of the nation, which called into play 'the work of the first Minister of Education in a free Ireland'. An Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) publication on Catherine Mahon, prepared and written by Síle Chuinneagáin, who adapted her M.Ed. research thesis 'Women Teachers and INTO Policy 1905–1916' was exemplary. In the report and programme presented by the National Programme Conference to the Minister for Education, the INTO had endorsed the 1922 programme, but the INTO entered a reservation that it sought a reduction in the number of compulsory subjects.
