Donogh O'Malley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister for Education | |
| In office 13 July 1966 – 10 March 1968 | |
| Taoiseach | Jack Lynch |
| Preceded by | George Colley |
| Succeeded by | Brian Lenihan |
| Minister for Health | |
| In office 21 April 1965 – 13 July 1966 | |
| Taoiseach | Jack Lynch |
| Preceded by | Seán MacEntee |
| Succeeded by | Seán Flanagan |
| Parliamentary Secretary | |
| 1961–1965 | Finance |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 1954 – 10 March 1968 | |
| Constituency | Limerick East |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Donogh Brendan O'Malley (1921-01-18)18 January 1921 Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 10 March 1968(1968-03-10) (aged 47) Limerick, Ireland |
| Political party | Fianna Fáil |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingDaragh |
| Relatives |
|
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University College Galway |
Donogh Brendan O'Malley (18 January 1921 – 10 March 1968) was an IrishFianna Fáil politician andrugby union player who served asMinister for Education from 1966 to 1968,Minister for Health from 1965 to 1966 andParliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance from 1961 to 1965. He served as aTeachta Dála (TD) for theLimerick East constituency from 1954 to 1968.[1]
He is best remembered as the Minister who introduced free secondary school education in the Republic of Ireland.[2][3]
O'Malley was born inLimerick on 18 January 1921, one of eight surviving children of Joseph O'Malley, civil engineer, and his wife, Mary "Cis" (née Tooher).[4] Born into a wealthy middle-class family, he was educated by the Jesuits atCrescent College and later atClongowes Wood College,County Kildare. He later studied atUniversity College Galway (UCG),[5] where he was conferred with a degree in civil engineering in 1943. He later returned to Limerick, where he worked as an engineer before becoming involved in politics.
O'Malley played rugby at provincial level forMunster,Leinster andConnacht and at club level forBohemians andShannon RFC. His chances at an international career were ruined by the suspension of international fixtures duringWorld War II. It was at a rugby match inTralee that he first met Dr. Hilda Moriarty (1922–1991), who he would go on to marry in August 1947.[6] Moriarty was from aGaeltacht area inDaingean Ui Chuis,County Kerry, and assisted him with the Irish language segments of his speeches.[6] The couple had two children: the actorDaragh O'Malley, and Suzanne, a fashion designer. O'Malley's wife is famous asPatrick Kavanagh's ideal love in the poem "On Raglan Road".[7][8][9] Prior to meeting Hilda, O'Malley had been engaged to Audrey Harris (sister of the actorRichard Harris) who died tragically at the age of 21.[10]
Although O'Malley ran as aFianna Fáil candidate (the party which emerged from the anti-Treaty side in theIrish Civil War), he was born into a politically active family who supportedCumann na nGaedheal (the party which emerged from the pro-Treaty side) until a falling-out with the party in the early 1930s.[6] He first became involved in local politics as a member ofLimerick Corporation. He becameMayor of Limerick in 1961, the third O'Malley brother to hold the office (Desmond O'Malley was mayor from 1941 to 1943, and Michael O'Malley from 1948 to 1949). O'Malley was a strong electoral performer, topping the poll in every general election he ran in.[11]
Donogh O'Malley was first elected toDáil Éireann as aFianna FáilTD forLimerick East at the1954 general election;[12] Fianna Fáil was not returned to government on that occasion. He spent the rest of the decade on the backbenches; however, his party was returned to power in 1957. Two years later, the modernising process began whenSeán Lemass took over fromÉamon de Valera asTaoiseach. Lemass introduced younger cabinet ministers, as the old guard who had served the party since its foundation in 1926 began to retire.
In 1961, O'Malley joined the government asParliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance. O'Malley was part of a new, brasher style of politician that emerged in the 1960s, sometimes nicknamed "the men in themohair suits".[13][14] It was expected that this generation of politician, born after the Civil War, would be a modernising force in post-de Valera Ireland.
Although his sporting background was in rugby and swimming, it wasAssociation football which O'Malley got involved in at a leadership level, becoming President of theFootball Association of Ireland despite never having played the sport.[6][15]
Following Fianna Fáil's retention of power in the1965 general election, O'Malley joined the cabinet asMinister for Health. He spent just over a year in this position before he was appointedMinister for Education, a position in which he displayed renowned dynamism. Having succeeded another dynamic young minister,Patrick Hillery (a political ally and friend who had attended medical school with O'Malley's wife, Hilda) he resolved to act swiftly to introduce the recommendations of an official report on education.
As Minister for Education, O'Malley extended the school transport scheme and commissioned the building of new non-denominational comprehensive and community schools in areas where they were needed. He introducedRegional Technical Colleges (RTCs), now called Institutes of Technology, in areas where there was no third level college. The best example of this policy is theUniversity of Limerick, originally an Institute of Higher Education, where O'Malley is credited with taking the steps to ensure that it became a university. His plan to mergeTrinity College Dublin andUniversity College Dublin aroused huge controversy, and was not successful, despite being supported by his cabinet colleagueBrian Lenihan. Access to third-level education was also extended, the old scholarship system being replaced by a system of means-tested grants that gave easier access to students without well-off parents.[16]
Mid-twentieth century Ireland experienced significantemigration, especially to the neighbouring United Kingdom where, in addition to employment opportunities, there was a better state provision of education and healthcare. Social change in Ireland and policies intending to correct this deficit were often met with strong resistance, such asNoël Browne's proposedMother and Child Scheme.[17] As a former Health Minister, O'Malley had first-hand experience of running the department which had attempted to introduce this scheme and understood the processes that caused it to fail, such as resistance fromDepartment of Finance andJohn Charles McQuaid. This influenced his strategy in presenting the free-education proposal.
Shortly after O'Malley was appointed, he announced that from 1969 all education up toIntermediate Certificate level would be without cost, and free buses would bring students in rural areas to their nearest school. O'Malley seems to have made this decision himself without consulting other ministers; however, he did discuss it with Lemass.Jack Lynch—who, asMinister for Finance, had to find the money to pay for the programme—was not consulted and was dismayed at the announcement.
On 10 September 1966, O'Malley addressed a dinner of theNational Union of Journalists in which he publicly revealed the scheme.[3][18]
“I propose therefore, from the coming school year, beginning in September of next year, to introduce a scheme whereby, up to the completion of the Intermediate Certificate course, the opportunity for free post-primary education will be available to all families.”
“This free education will be available in the comprehensive and vocational schools, and in the general run of secondary schools. I say the general run of secondary schools because there will still be schools, charging higher fees, who may not opt to take my scheme; and the parent who wants to send his child to one of these schools and pay the fees will of course be free to do so.
“Going on from there, I intend also to make provision whereby no pupil will, for lack of means, be prevented from continuing his or her education up to the end of the Leaving Certificate course. Further, I propose that assistance towards the cost of books and accessories will be given, through the period of his or her course, to the student on whom it would be a hardship to meet all such costs".[19]
By announcing the decision first to journalists and on a Saturday (during a month when theDáil was in recess), the positive public reaction would temper resistance to the idea before the next cabinet meeting.[6][20] O'Malley's proposals were hugely popular with the public, and it was impossible for the government to go back on his word.[18]
Some Irish commentators consider that O'Malley's extension of education, changing Ireland from a land where the majority were schooled only to the age of 14 to a country with universal secondary-school education, indirectly led to theCeltic Tiger boom of the 1990s-2000s[21] when it was followed for some years by an extension of free education to primary degree level in university, a scheme that was launched in 1996 by theLabour Party and axed in 2009 by Fianna Fáil'sBatt O'Keeffe.[22]
In 1967 O’Malley appointedJustice Eileen Kennedy to chair a committee to carry out a survey and report on thereformatory andindustrial school systems.[23][24][25] The report, which was published in 1970, was considered ground-breaking in many areas and came to be known as the Kennedy Report.[26][27]
The Report made recommendations about a number of matters, including theMagdalene laundries, in relation to which they were not acted upon.[28] The report recommended the closure of a number of reformatories, including thelatterly infamous reformatory atDaingean,County Offaly.[29]
O'Malley's reforms made him one of the most popular members of the government; he was affectionately known as 'the School Man' for his work in education. His sudden death in Limerick on 10 March 1968, before his vision for the education system was completed, came as a shock to the public. He was buried with a fullIrish state funeral.[30][31]
Following his death, his widow, Hilda O'Malley, did not run in the subsequentby-election for the seat he had left vacant. It was won narrowly by their nephewDesmond O'Malley. Hilda sought the Fianna Fáil nomination for the1969 general election, but Fianna Fáil gave the party nomination to Desmond, as the sitting TD. Hilda O'Malley ran as an Independent candidate in that election; after what proved a bitter campaign against her nephew, she failed to get the fourth seat in Limerick East by just 200 votes.[32]
A new book, Unfulfilled Promise, outlines how Donogh was educated by the Jesuits in the Crescent School in Limerick and also Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. He was both a bright student and a talented rugby player and he went on to play rugby for Connaught, Ulster and Munster before qualifying as a civil engineer at UCG.
O'Malley stole the Blueshirt thunder and, as a result it was virtually impossible for his Cabinet colleagues not to support his initiative. O'Malley had forewarned Seán Lemass of his plans. When the Taoiseach did not object, O'Malley took this as approval. TK Whitaker, the influential secretary of the Department of Finance, protested to the Taoiseach that O'Malley had not consulted the Department. "While he did not expressly say so, I deduced from what he said (and the smile on his face) that he had personally authorised Donogh O'Malley to make this announcement," Whitaker noted.
| Civic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Patrick Kelly | Mayor of Limerick 1961 | Succeeded by Frank Glasgow |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance 1961–1965 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 1965–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education 1966–1968 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
