Limerick minister's educational reforms 'transformed Ireland'

A PLAQUE unveiled in Sixmilebridge should serve as a “constant reminder” that no child’s future should ever be “limited by the circumstances in which they were born”.

Sixty years ago this month, former Education Minister, the late Donogh O’Malley announced one of the most far-reaching reforms Ireland had ever seen - free post-primary education for children up to the age of 18.

To mark the auspicious anniversary, members of the O’Malley family joined Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton to unveil a memorial to the minister in Sixmilebridge, at the spot where he prematurely lost his life just two years later.

The Fianna Fail man’s son Daragh O'Malley, who has carved out a successful career as an actor spoke at the unveiling in the village, where he described the lack of free education as a “stain on the national conscience”.

"It’s not ancient history. It is just 60 years ago, and the tracks of desperation are still quite fresh,” he said.

"My father believed this was wrong. He believed a child’s future should not be determined solely by their parents’ ability to find the money for school fees. His free secondary education scheme did not merely remove the school fees. It removed a barrier. It opened the doors of secondary schools to children who may otherwise have never passed through them,” Mr O’Malley said.

The course of history has been altered by his father's decision, he said.

"It changed Ireland and tens of thousands of young people from country towns like Sixmilebridge have gone on to become teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, artists – actors even – academics and corporate leaders all around the world, having been given opportunities their parents and grandparents could only have ever dreamed of. This was not inevitable. Someone had to imagine it, someone had to argue for it, someone had to pay for it,” Mr O’Malley added to a standing ovation.

One of the people who benefitted from the reform was Mick Guinee, the founder and chairman of EI Electronics.

"I epitomise what Donogh set out to achieve. I came from a working class background who through the privilege of second and third-level education have been able to establish an Irish company trading in international markets and contributing to the economy of Ireland through the 1,000-plus jobs we support in the region,” he said.

"The lives of Irish people have been transformed because a door was opened. Donogh O’Malley open that door,” Mr Guinee said. “He was a maverick. But it often takes a maverick to have the courage to take a risk and being about change.”

Ms Naughton, who unveiled the plaque alongside Donogh O’Malley’s son, reflected on the former Education Minister’s other achievements while in the post – the introduction of third-level technology colleges, and free bus travel. "His policy announcement helped support significantly increased participation in higher and further educaiton, much grater access to professional careers, a more highly educated workforce and an overall much improved sense of expectation about what children in Ireland can go on to achieve,” the minister said.

Also addressing the ceremony commemorating Mr O’Malley’s legacy were Limerick-educated student Juliette Pinson, a recipient of the Donogh O’Malley scholarship and the president of Engineers Ireland David Murphy.

There were musical tributes before the unveiling of the plaque outside the Little Church in the village.

City man Michael O’Dwyer is leading two years of tributes to the reforming minister covering his announcement of September 1966 to his untimely death just two years later.