The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) held its annual congress this year in Killarney, Co. Kerry, bringing together hundreds of primary school teachers from across the country for three days of debate and decision‑making. As a delegate for the third year running, I have witnessed a marked shift in the tone and focus of our union’s flagship event.
Encouragingly, this year’s agenda contained fewer of the ‘culture‑war’ and activism-based motions that had been increasingly featured in recent congresses. In Galway in 2023 and Derry in 2024, discussions around ‘transgender identities’, ‘anti‑far right’ activism and international solidarity with Palestine featured — often at the expense of attention to bread and butter teaching issues.
By contrast, the Killarney congress largely concentrated on issues that genuinely affect teachers: curriculum overload, lack of affordable housing for young teachers, special‑education supports and new proposals for assault leave when staff are attacked in the classroom.
How INTO congress works
The INTO congress operates through a democratic system in which motions are submitted by branches, district committees, or the Central Executive Committee, and prioritised by members for inclusion in the final agenda, before being debated and voted upon by delegates at the congress event. In theory, this ensures that the most pressing concerns rise from the grassroots. In practice, however, it can also allow a relatively small number of highly engaged, activist members, who dominate certain branches, to advance motions on broader political or ideological issues within what is primarily a professional forum.
The Palestine question yet again
Despite the more pragmatic tone, one motion this year reignited INTO’s ongoing campaign of ‘solidarity with Gaza.’ It called on members to support efforts to pressure the GAA to end its sponsorship arrangement with insurance company Allianz, which some activists claim has indirect financial links to Israel.
Any further political campaigning on that front by the INTO risks alienating rank and file members who joined the union to defend teaching standards”
Several delegates, including myself, spoke against the motion — not out of disregard for civilian suffering, but because it represents a selective and divisive form of activism. The GAA already voted to retain Allianz as sponsors. Any further political campaigning on that front by the INTO risks alienating rank and file members who joined the union to defend teaching standards, not to wage symbolic battles on foreign policy.
These types of motions calling for political activism on non-teaching issues also risk discouraging members from attending branch meetings and getting involved with their teaching union in general when such activism and ‘culture war’ material takes up a disproportionate amount of time.
I made the point that many have grown weary of INTO leadership focusing on and using international causes to distract from the lack of progress made in recent years on its core responsibilities in working conditions for teachers. To my surprise, this point drew sustained applause from delegates, which suggests that many teachers would rather the INTO focus more on issues that affect teachers today, instead of performative allyship and virtue signalling.
The bias of ‘selective solidarity’
INTO’s communications have increasingly centred on the Palestinian cause in recent years. Gaza features regularly in the union’s monthly InTouch magazine and its national emails. At this year’s congress, delegates even displayed an ‘International Quilt of Resistance’ to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine. There are also two fringe events based on Palestinian solidarity hosted at the congress for the past three years running. Yet the union has never shown comparable commitment to the humanitarian crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, etc., or to the women and girls of Afghanistan who are denied any education under the rule of the Taliban.
If INTO insists on supporting humanitarian causes, it should do so even‑handedly. Otherwise, it risks giving the impression that its activism is driven more by fashionable politics than by a desire to uphold universal human rights.
Whatever one’s views, using classrooms to take a position in a foreign conflict is entirely inappropriate”
Even more troubling, in a news item last year from the INTO, which was emailed to members and available online, schools were encouraged to participate in a “global call to action” involving children painting Palestinian flags and displaying them in school — a move that blurred the line between humanitarian awareness and political indoctrination. Whatever one’s views, using classrooms to take a position in a foreign conflict is entirely inappropriate.
None of this is to suggest that teachers should be indifferent to global issues. On the contrary, education has always played a role in fostering empathy, awareness, and civic responsibility. But a trade union is not a general advocacy organisation. Its primary function is to represent its members in matters relating to their profession.
Aisling Considine lives in Dublin 15 with her family, where she also works as a primary school teacher. A passionate Gaeilgeoir and community activist, she ran for election in 2024.