The Commissioners and the Killanin and Molony Inquiries

Abstract

In 1917, the Commissioners of the National Board, and Starkie in particular, were buffeted on every side by teachers, managers, politicians, and the press. A threatened INTO strike in 1918 for higher wages was deferred as the Government, yielding to ressure from the teachers, agreed to establish a committee to inquire into the whole question of salaries and conditions of service. Concurrently, Starkie was feeling increasingly isolated from his colleagues. He was criticized stringently in the national press and was convinced that much of the information that appeared was being furnished stealthily to journalists by fellow members of the Board. This is the background to the considerations of the present chapter on the Resident Commissioner of National Education’s relationships with his fellow Commissioners on the National Board, on the Killanin and Molony inquiries into education in Ireland. It considers also the deterioration of his influence and issues with which he had to deal in relation to his personal life and health that had a negative impact on the quality of his work.