As a trade unionist , I attended several meetings with representatives of the Inspectorate and the Government Department, including Ministers. Assurances were always given that inspections were conducted in a positive , supportive ethos. Frequently, this did not match the experience of schools.
Read more →
The Camera Club has resumed in blended form – attendance for some and Zoom connection for the rest. I viewed online a first class presentation by Ken Lindsay of Eastwood last night. While interaction with other members has gone, there are bonuses – no travel and home comfort.
Read more →
I now understand that Clive headed, with undisguised brutality, the group which plundered the Indian Sub-Continent. The echoes of Empire which surfaced in the EU Referendum carefully selected a picture of a benign regime where indigenous peoples were extras. We were fed a distorted and highly abridged version of reality. My primary school teacher, if he knew, failed to point out that Wolfe had perfected the bayonet technique during service in Ireland where he helped to subdue restless natives. Scots will be aware that he also saw service with Cumberland at Culloden. Had I known those facts then, I would have better understood why the British Empire was coloured red on our classroom World map.
Read more →
Willie Clarke was a miner and he manifested all of the great qualities which mark apart that breed of workers. He was hewn from the rocks that he crushed from the moment of his descent to the grim coalface as a child. Miners learn interdependency in one
Read more →
Derry provides the perfect microcosm for the shortcomings of the Northern Ireland Government; for the first forty years of its existence in the new state, a Nationalist majority, through political gerrymander, was governed by a Unionist minority. Its hinterland was County Donegal and, in the original concept for temporary partition in 1914, it along with Fermanagh and Tyrone would have been part of the new Irish Free State. Tory support for the UVF and Unionism ensured that the Walled City and its links to Orange Iconography remained within the Loyalist fold
Read more →
The European Union is the best example in the history of the world of conflict resolution” – John Hume in the European Parliament, 4th of May 2004
Read more →ANNIE’S SONG – for the women of Scotland It wouldn’t have mattered much had Annie Davidson McEwen been one of Dundee’s property owners in February 1918 because her vote would never have been used, she having died in the flu epidemic later that year. Her neighbours did
Read more →
Gabriella clung tearfully to her mother’s arms, terrified that these men again wanted to take Mum away . The woman was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the Iranian Police had arrived to return her to prison . She had been granted temporary release to be with her family and
Read more →
VALUE TEACHERS – VALUE EDUCATION It is just over 17 years since the McCrone Agreement on Teachers’ pay was signed. An increase in salary of 23% was received by Scotland’ s teachers, along with agreement on the implementation of a 35 hour week. It appeared to be
Read more →Our group of Irish teachers who met President Lyndon Johnson in the White House Rose Garden in July 1967, witnessed a morose, brooding giant of a man who was being rent asunder by the casualties in Vietnam and the growing protests on the campus across the country.
Read more →