Teachers Inspire Ireland

We conclude the series by meeting the four teachers who were presented with their Teachers Inspire award for 2023 at a special event in DCU in May. The awards were presented by our curator, and podcast host, Louise. The awardees for 2023 are: Jill Farrell, a primary school teacher in County Limerick, Joe O'Driscoll, who was a primary school teacher in County Cork, Dublin secondary school teacher M...

For our penultimate episode we talk to Joyce Abbott, a teacher who inspired a student to name a hit TV series, set in a school, after her! The former student is American comedian and actress Quinta Brunson and the show is Abbott Elementary. As well as popular characters, great scripting and touching storylines, it portrays the huge efforts made by teachers, often with little resources, to do the b...

Providing teachers with the opportunity to work with student teachers while also progressing their own studies, is at the heart of the Teacher Fellowship Programme. It is a unique programme offered by DCU and the second group of teachers began their fellowship a few months ago. Louise is joined by two of them – primary school teacher Emma Farragher and secondary school teacher Niall Farrell. They...

The Teachers Inspire awardees have come from primary and secondary school level.  One question we have frequently pondered is why there are so many more women than men picking teaching as a career, particularly in primary school. To discuss this, Louise is joined by Dr Alan Gorman who is Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice lecturer in DCU Institute of Education. He trained, an...

For the final time in this series we meet one of the 2022 Teachers Inspire awardees and the parent who nominated her.   Some of the most moving and powerful nominations are from parents and often it is because the teacher has noticed ‘something.’   Joining Louise is Gemma Maher, who is now the principal at Rathcoole Educate Together National School in county Dublin but, as you will hear, the nomin...

DCU is unique when it comes to autism because in 2018, it became the world's first designated autism-friendly university and plans were announced last year to make it an even friendlier campus for autistic staff and students with the launch of phase two of the autism-friendly project. In this episode Louise is joined by Fiona Earley, the Autism Coordinator in DCU, and by Clíodhna Harrison, a DCU C...

The teenage years bring challenges for all young people.    For this episode Louise is joined by Jacob Donegan who by the age of six knew he was not in the right body.  He tells her about the day he saw a story in a magazine about a girl who ‘transitioned to the boy he was,’ and he turned to tell his father, “that’s me.”   Now in his twenties, Jacob has been very open about his transitioning journ...

Louise is joined by Drs Kay Maunsell and Leanne Coll who, with their DCU colleagues, deliver a ground breaking Graduate Diploma in SPHE/RSE. The students are experienced secondary school teachers from across the country and they are the first group to study on the programme which is the only specialist teacher development programme of its kind at post primary level in Ireland.  Leanne and Kay tell...

It is time to meet another of the Teachers Inspire awardees of 2022.   Ruairi Farrell is the Principal of Greystones Community College but some 15 years ago he was a Year Head in another school where he intervened after becoming concerned about a student.   The student was Ciara Nolan and in her nomination to Teachers Inspire last year she said he was ‘always looking and making sure everyone was o...

Her memoir ‘Poor” has been a bestseller for months, it has won two awards in recent weeks and in this episode Dr Katriona O’Sullivan joins Louise to talk about the teachers at primary and second level that she has never forgotten.  Some showed her how to wash, another nurtured a love of reading and literature. But they also did much more: they made her feel empowered and cared for. In many ways th...

Free play and fun, Lego and Barbie all get a mention in this fascinating discussion Louise has with Prof Hamsa Venkat, the Naughton Family Chair in Early Years/Primary STEM education in DCU.    They hear from children, parents and the facilitator of a Brickx club where, without realising it, young children were solving engineering and maths problems as they designed and built amazing creations dur...

Two secondary school principals join Louise to discuss one of the big questions for parents, and students, when it comes to selecting a secondary school.   Louise chats to secondary school principals Alan Mynes, Ballymakenny College, Drogheda and Seán Stack, St Joseph's, Fairview, Dublin who share their experiences and discuss mixed and single-sex schools.    Seán’s father was a teacher and he att...

There is no better way to start the 2023 podcast series than with one of our most recent awardees.   Louise is joined by Joe McAndrew who may have retired over twenty years ago from Banagher National School but his influence on former pupil Ann Loughney never faded.   Ann tells Louise, “it wasn't hard to think of a million reasons to nominate Joe. He’s just been so inspirational to me all of my li...

For the final episode of this series the podcast comes to you from DCU, the home of Teachers Inspire.  A special event was held there for the four teachers who are our Teachers Inspire awardees for this year at which Louise presented them with their award. The teachers are Gemma Maher from County Dublin, Joe McAndrew from County Mayo, Jennifer Hutton from County Carlow and Ruairi Farrell from Coun...

Professor Mathias Urban, Desmond Chair of Early Childhood Educate and Director of the Early Childhood Research Centre at DCU is Louise’s guest.   He talks about DCU’s decision to use a donation from Mr Dermot Desmond to set up the only dedicated research centre at university level in Ireland that looks at questions around early childhood from an interdisciplinary angle.   He tells Louise about ear...

In this episode Louise is joined by Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin.   An Assistant Professor in the School of Mathematics & Statistics at UCD, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin talks about her love of education and how she did not initially set out to be a teacher. She tells Louise she is someone who “never thought that they were good at maths,” and she had failed her maths test at Christmas in sixth year. It was...

In this episode Louise hears about a unique programme that DCU offers student teachers at primary and secondary level. The STEM Teacher Internship Programme – known as (STInt) – provides 12-week paid summer internships in STEM roles. Professor Deirdre Butler from the school of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies tells Louise the programme, “is actually globally unique.” She explains what...

This episode looks at DCU’s Changemaker Schools Network which is a collaborative, professional, learning network of 19 primary schools from all over the island of Ireland who are creating systemic change in education. Louise hears from Fiona Collins, the network coordinator. She tells her the network aims to support teachers to lead programmes of change in their schools and to support schools to a...

Every year Teachers Inspire receives nominations that continue to remind us of the role teachers can play and how sometimes a single sentence or suggestion can make a powerful impact. The nominations for 2022 have closed and are being reviewed at the moment. The four awardees will be announced in the near future.   In the meantime, for this episode, Louise introduces us to two of the nominators.  ...

DCU Alumni can be found around the globe and in this episode Louise is joined by two who remain deeply committed to education. They are Dearbháil Lawless, the CEO of AONTAS, Ireland’s National Adult Learning Organisation and Kevin Shortall, principal of St Aidan’s Community School in Tallaght. They share their personal stories about accessing education and what, and where, education has brought th...

Celebrating the influence and impact teachers have had on their students is at the heart of Teachers Inspire.  Hundreds of people have shared their stories and told us about that one teacher who helped to change their life. Some of the teachers nominated for a Teachers Inspire award were retired, others are still working in schools, primary and secondary, around the country. A great many of them t...

It is thirty years since DCU set up it’s Centre for Talented Youth Ireland for children who are high achievers.   Codes and Ciphers, Law, Veterinary Science and Philosophy are some of the courses available at the centre, which is known as CTY Ireland. They are for young people from the ages of six to seventeen, who have high academic ability or are bright and motivated. They learn about subjects a...

Teachers Inspire 2022 is now open for nominations at https://www.teachersinspire.ie/shareyourstory Nominating a teacher, whether primary or secondary, is done by filling in a form on teachersinspire.ie.  Virgin Media journalist Rob O’Hanrahan chats to Louise about why he nominated his former teacher at Skerries Community College. He had been a shy student yet with her support he took up public spe...

Teachers Inspire 2022 is now open for nominations at https://www.teachersinspire.ie/shareyourstory English teacher Una Smith, from Virginia College in county Cavan, was one of the four Teachers Inspire awardees last year.  Shauna Sheridan decided to nominate her after watching our host Louise chatting about Teachers Inspire on Ireland:AM on Virgin Media television. As well as preparing for her Lea...

Teachers Inspire 2022 is now open for nominations at https://www.teachersinspire.ie/shareyourstory A love of reading and the pleasure, and benefits, of reading to children feature in this episode of the Teachers Inspire podcast. Louise is joined by Dr Sinead McNally, Assistant Professor in Psychology at the DCU Institute of Education and they listen to parents who share a great love of reading to,...