A 50th anniversary book of tributes to the People's College in Dublin was unveiled yesterday by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin. The book contains tributes from senior figures in the trade union movement, led by the president and general secretary of the ICTU, Mr Edmund Browne and Mr Peter Cassells, to the founders of the Workers' Education college in June 1948.
The book tells how the college was opposed by Roman Catholic, political, educational and media figures, led by Prof Alfred O'Rahilly of UCC, the Catholic Standard, Archbishop John McQuaid of Dublin, and the Jesuits. UCD withdrew its support and some trade unions also boycotted it.
The book's author, Mr Patrick Coyle, says it was "a sorry period, and much of the polemic seems meaningless now after almost half a century of political, social and cultural change".