John Charles McQuaid - National Teachers Strike 1946

National Teachers Strike 1946

The seven-month long strike by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) in 1946 strained the relationship between the Archbishop and de Valera who was Taoiseach at the time. The national (primary school) teachers wanted a wage increase and parity with their secondary school colleagues. As former teachers (and de Valera had also been Minister for Education in 1939/40), both men had a very high opinion of the teaching profession but the Government was facing severe financial constraints. De Valera acknowledged the national teachers great responsibilities, but was not only unwilling to grant them parity with secondary teachers, but refused to meet their more modest pay demands.

In his book "De Valera, The Man and the Myths" historian and journalist T. Ryle Dwyer writes: "When the teachers went on strike, de Valera viewed their demands as a challenge to the authority of his government, and he resisted their demands with the same kind of determination which he had resisted hunger-strikers. He even went to the point of straining his long friendship with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, who tried to intercede on behalf of the teachers. Eventually the Archbishop persuaded the INTO to capitulate, but many teachers remained bitter and they would become enthusiastic supporters of Clann na Poblachta."