Ashling Murphy's parents, Raymond and Kathleen, with INTO General Secretary John Boyle (left) and Prof. Eugene Wall (right). Photo: Moya Nolan.

Parents of Ashling Murphy attend Tullamore launch of scholarship in her memory

The parents of Ashling Murphy attended the launch in Tullamore recently of a scholarship in memory of their beloved daughter.

The Ashling Murphy Memorial Entrance Scholarship is being jointly awarded by the INTO and Mary Immaculate College (MIC) to remember the life of Ashling and cherish her memory.

Beginning next year, the scholarship will be awarded to a first year Bachelor of Education student in acknowledgment of their exceptional talent and achievements in the area of traditional Irish music.

The initiative was launched during the INTO Consultative Conference on Education, which took place on November 18 and 19 in the Tullamore Court Hotel.

The conference has an overall theme of 'Language Matters', and in a year when children fleeing from the war in Ukraine have unexpectedly found themselves sitting in classrooms in every county in Ireland, learning as Gaeilge and in English, this was a particularly timely topic for the teaching profession to consider.

Discussions on learning and research with a focus on language, and workshops with themes of language, teaching, and learning took place at the conference.

How best to teach language to children and the integration of modern language into the Irish primary curriculum were two of the topics addressed by speakers in Tullamore.

Keynote speakers for the conference included Karen Ruddock, Director of Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI) and Pádraig Ó Duibhir, Director of the DCU Research Centre for Learning and Teaching of Irish.

Attendees at the INTO Consultative Conference on Education in the Tullamore Court Hotel on November 18 and 19. Photo: Moya Nolan.

A special tenth anniversary edition of the Irish Teachers’ Journal was also launched at the conference by INTO President John Driscoll.

The aim of the journal since its first publication in 2013, is to encourage teacher thought and creativity through discussions and reflections on current issues in education.

It also aims to provide a platform for teachers on the island of Ireland to have their research findings published and brought to a wider audience. The journal is distributed to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland and primary and post primary schools in Northern Ireland.

The INTO Education Committee (EDC) was established in 1967 to advise the Central Executive Committee (CEC) on matters relating to education. The EDC consists of one representative from each of the 16 INTO districts, each elected for a three-year term. The committee meets five times a year.

Since its establishment, the EDC has considered a wide range of matters relevant to teachers, including special education, social inclusion, curriculum review, assessment, and teacher education. The committee hosts consultative conferences on an annual basis.