The story of Droichead is littered with twists and turns and all sorts of unexplainable changes that if it were a real bridge, it would have collapsed. While its foundation was fairly solid, it had a number of issues, not least the fact that it wasn’t going to be properly resourced, and secondly that it was going to be very difficult to work from a HR and Industrial Relations point of view. However, the Teaching Council found itself with a very powerful ally – the INTO, the primary teachers’ union. In a complete u-turn from its original NEVER NEVER mantra, the INTO leadership convinced almost all of its CEC reps to take on Droichead in their schools. For one of the first times in my memory at least, the INTO leadership stood in direct opposition to the vast majority of its own members. In this part of the episode, I am going to explore the reaction of teachers on the ground to the INTO’s decision and what happened next.
