Trying to create a socialist utopia
Sir — In his article (Sport, Sunday Independent, October 15) on the future of the GAA under a new Ard Stiurthoir, Colm O’Rourke makes a number of very valid points with which I most certainly agree.
But he uses the topic also to have a dig at the Government, for its lack of foresight in education policies. And he also digs at the Asti which, he claims sarcastically, is the great workers’ representative looking to overthrow the State’s institutions to create some kind of socialist utopia.
Criticising the Government I can agree with, but his latest swipe at the Asti is quite simply outlandish.
This organisation has been alone in recent times, standing up for the very principles of equality and fairness to which Colm would like to see the GAA powers-that-be return.
The Asti led the campaign for pay restoration for those who had the misfortune to join the teaching profession after 2011.
In doing so it was pilloried — not just by figures in the extreme mainstream media, but also by a number of fellow trade unionists, whose sense of solidarity momentarily left them.
The Asti also stood alone in resisting the implementation of the new Junior Cycle.
Now that this has been instituted, people will eventually awaken to the dumbing down of our education system and the increased inequality in Irish society by the awarding of school certificates in place of State certification.
These and other campaigns were undertaken by the ASTI — at times clumsily, at other times reluctantly and at the cost of internal division.
Yet they were undertaken sincerely, with the defence of principles, not the overthrow of the State, at their core.
Trotsky was nowhere to be seen.
If it is a socialist utopia the Asti is fighting for in seeking justice for lower-paid teachers and fairness and equality in our education system, then so be it.
May it inspire the GAA hierarchy in likewise fashion to achieve the socialist utopia Colm would also like to see for Gaelic games. Martin McMullan, Artane, Dublin 5