Mona Hearn:Countless children and young people who have experienced difficulties in their lives have reason to be grateful to the late Mona Hearn. Under her pioneering leadership, the first courses in childcare and preschool education were introduced into mainstream third-level education. So began the training of the newly emerging professions of social care and early childhood education in Ireland.
Dr Hearn, who died on January 19th, was former head of the School of Home and Social Sciences, Cathal Brugha Street, (now part of the Dublin Institute of Technology). She was born in Dundalk in 1928, the eldest of a family of four. Having achieved first place in the entrance examination, she trained as a domestic science teacher in Cathal Brugha Street, joining the staff there in 1959. By the time she retired in 1993, she had made a major contribution to the professionalisation of the childcare and early education sector.
In the industrial and reformatory school system of the second half of the 20th century, however, services were managed by religious or charitable organisations and staff were largely unqualified and poorly paid. The Kennedy Report was a watershed in 1970 in advocating a developmental model of childcare and recommending the introduction of formal training for childcare workers.
There was a new interest in the developmental needs of children with many concerned individuals and groups highlighting the shortcomings of residential and daycare services.
Following approaches from the then Eastern Health Board in the early 1970s to the management of the College of Catering in Cathal Brugha Street, an in-service course (the diploma in childcare) for staff employed in the childcare sector was introduced in 1974.
Dr Hearn, while not a childcare expert, proved herself adept at drawing together experts in the field to establish and deliver an education programme which became widely respected. As a result, the quality of care and therapeutic provision for countless disadvantaged children and young people in residential care was greatly improved.
In the early days, most graduates worked in residential childcare which was very much the Cinderella of the social services. In 1977, following further requests from the Eastern Health Board and the World Organisation of Pre-School Education, a course specifically designed to train pre-school care workers was established.
Dr Hearn was committed to the advancement of both professions and sought continually to improve the quality of the training within DIT by responding to changing needs. Her involvement at international level as a founding member of the European Social Educator Training Network and as a member of the world organisation ensured best practice was implemented in DIT's training.
Over the years, both courses have gone from strength to strength, developing from certificate to degree level and, in an advance which would have made her very proud, the first taught masters level course will be offered in September.
Her commitment to lifelong learning was evident not only in relation to the social care profession but also through her own example. In 1962 she was awarded a bachelor of social science degree from UCD. She went on to study for a masters in education (1972) and received a PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 1985.
On her retirement, she enjoyed the learning opportunities offered by Rathmines Senior College and surprised herself by having a number of her paintings included in a public exhibition. In recent times, she had been working on the family histories of her parents and on writing up the memoirs of her mother, Eileen Keady.
Another of her interests was in the social history of 19th- and early 20th- century Ireland. A study of domestic service in Dublin (1880-1922) was the subject of her PhD dissertation and resulted in the publication of a book entitled Below Stairs in 1993.
The laundry industry, an essential part of 19th-century domestic life, was little studied until Dr Hearn undertook a study of Dublin's largest laundry and the role of its founder, Thomas Edmondson, a member of a larger British Isles Quaker network which resulted in a book entitled Thomas Edmondson and the Dublin Laundry: a Quaker Businessman 1837-1908.
Dr Hearn also co-authored a book on Dublin's Victorian houses.
Mona Hearn, born January 25th, 1928; died January 19th, 2007