ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the characterisations of the Irish National Teachers Organisation's (INTO) ongoing struggles for teacher status and their professional standing and describes activist teachers' support for national schools in relation to Irish nationalism and republicanism. Lukacs provided a forearming perspective in his discussion of British-inspired conservatism and liberalism: 'Conservatives were more attached to religion, monarchy, classes, traditions and land' with 'liberals to reason, parliamentarianism, free speech, commerce and trade, industry' signalled by 'progress'. The differences if not the alignments of these two camps can be identified in yet another sample of documentary research projects that could be developed to inform INTO policy debates about national schools in the present harnessed to the future of Ireland. This sample sheds light on some watershed moments, captured in the following: 1946 teachers' strike; 1947 INTO Plan for Education; 1957 INTO presidential address by Margaret Skinnider and 1968 INTO centenary history book 100 Years of Progress.
