Minimum 40K marching in education cuts protest in Dublin today

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1206/breaking6.htm

Coming from the Irish Times and in view of the use of the word 'minimum', I'm guessing this is code for more like 50-60K. The march in Cork a few weeks ago which was at least 30K strong, was said by gardai to be 25K on the day - and reported in the Examiner and the IT as 'up to 20K'. (The gardai routinely understate the size of demonstrations - frequently by as much as half.)

NB, the media are dead against the teaching unions in this matter. When you consider the coverage given to the 12K pensioners march, the relegation of the massive education cuts protests to page 4 - with no front page/top of programme references is outrageous.

As suspected, figure is now being said to be more like 60K:

http://www.politics.ie/education-science/38550-marching-dublin-against-cuts.html

And this is from RTE, who were atrocious about the Cork march. I wouldn't be surprised if the true figure is more like 75-80K. INTO said they were expecting about 100K people.

Seems a bit much to be expecting a television crew to be sent to Cork, doesn't it?

johnfás wrote:

Seems a bit much to be expecting a television crew to be sent to Cork, doesn't it?

Us culchies getting above our station johnfas. You're right, I was forgettin' meself

Well they didn't deem it necessary to send a camera crew to Thomond Park in 1978 on the day that Munster beat the All Blacks so it is not that surprising. Paschal Sheehy seems to hold the fort down there as best he can.

Cutting the books allowance for disadvantaged pupils and Traveller education allowances was such a sh!tty thing to do. I hope that this march is directed at the whole package, not just the bits affecting teachers' earnings.

Batt O'Keefe's little "concession" exercise, if intended to defuse this, does not seem to have worked.

cactus flower wrote:

Cutting the books allowance for disadvantaged pupils and Traveller education allowances was such a sh!tty thing to do. I hope that this march is directed at the whole package, not just the bits affecting teachers' earnings.

Batt O'Keefe's little "concession" exercise, if intended to defuse this, does not seem to have worked.

It is for sure Cactus. The INTO speakers in Cork really emphasised the myriad hidden cuts on the most educationally vulnerable - the cuts affecting immigrant children whose first language isn't English, special needs cutbacks and so forth. They were really keen to show what is going on beyond their own immediate problems. The media have been SO BAD about all of this. And besides that, teachers have a right to feel aggrieved on their own behalf. O' Keeffe has reversed some of the substitute teacher cuts he made because they were so unworkable and unfair. Teachers are enraged by the attempts to villify them as chancers exploiting rules designed to ensure continuint of teaching. It was completley unjustified. As many as 2,200 are now thought to be likely to lose their jobs if the class size changes go through. O' K was claiming it would be no more than 200. Before these cuts ever were announced, job insecurity and employment practices were already very harsh. Many teachers were being employed on an hourly basis. Their contracts are deliberately kept very uncertain so that they can have no legal expectation of continued employment. This was all going on while everone thought the garden was full of roses.