Over 40,000 express Fury over education cutbacks

Teachers, parents, students – and an old Irish folk band – unite, reports Conor McMorrow

Tens of thousands of protesters marched from Parnell Square to Merrion Square in Dublin yesterday in the hope the government will reverse its planned education cutbacks

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At least 40,000 teachers, parents and students took to the streets of Dublin yesterday afternoon to protest against the education cutbacks announced in the budget.

The massive crowd marched behind a giant banner with "Schools United" emblazoned across it as they made their way from Parnell Square to Merrion Square where folk group The Fureys blasted out 'Red Rose Café' from the back of a lorry. The lyrics "they came from the farms and the factories" never seemed as appropriate as the crowd exceeded all expectations.

Teachers' union officials claimed there were more than 70,000 protestors. Some Gardaí said their colleagues in the helicopter above estimated there were 60,000 present, while the Garda Press Office claimed there were only 40,000.

"It depends who you ask. If you ask a garda who happens to be married to a teacher they are always going to exaggerate the figure," joked one union official. Who would have thought such a large crowd of teachers couldn't count up the heads?

"There was fantastic reaction to the campaign and the crowds here today show that," said Brian Flood, principal of Courtna-cuddy NS in Wexford. "It nearly brought tears to my eyes when I saw the crowd. We all feel so strongly about this. We are all hoping that the minister is going to take into account the huge numbers that took to the streets for the protest."

Raymond McHugh, principal of St Macartan's College in Monaghan, said: "The minister is saying that these cuts will only put us back two years but he is wrong. The reality is that the cuts are going to put us back to 1999 levels."

Speaking from the lorry, Pat Hurley of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland blasted: "Children cannot be made pay for government incompetence."

He added that government would pay for their budget cuts at the ballot boxes in future.

Don Ryan, president of the Teachers Union of Ireland, said: "The opportunities that the minister denies your child cannot be restored next year or the year after. Your child cannot wait until this country's economy recovers from the damage done by this government's ineptit­ude. The cutbacks lack care, they lack humanity and they lack compassion."

In the most passionate speech of the day, Irish National Teachers' Organisation president Declan Kelleher said: "You wouldn't find the weakest economy in eastern Europe putting over 30 children into one classroom… This is not the end of the battle, this is only the beginning."