A brave new vision for education in Ireland: the Dalkey School Project 1974 to 1984

The title of this book A Brave New Vision for Education in Ireland is taken from the keynote address delivered by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, at the annual general meeting of Educate Together in May 2016. In his address he congratulated the founders of the first Educate Together school which opened in Dalkey, Co. Dublin in 1978, referring to “their courage, commitment and pioneering nature.” He stated that the Educate Together movement which started at that time has been a critical and committed agent of change in the Irish education system. He reminded his audience that Ireland in 1978 was a very different landscape from that of today – an Ireland very much on the brink of seismic change but an Ireland which had yet to overcome a cultural conservatism that had dominated Ireland since independence.