Cork woman named vice-president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation

WEST Cork native Anne Horan has been named vice-president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation.

Ms Horan, the eldest of six girls, was born in Ballineen, West Cork, and studied to be a primary school teacher at Mary Immaculate College, doing her teaching practice at St Mary’s Central School in Enniskeane.

She taught in a one-teacher school on the Mizen peninsula for six years, and got involved in the Schull branch of INTO during that time, telling The Echo, “They were wonderful people, and I made great friends. Life brought me to Limerick then, where my father was originally from,” she said, explaining that she taught in St Fergus National School for 16 years, where she was able to teach her own two children.

She moved from Schull, the second-smallest INTO branch, to Glin, the smallest, saying “I felt at home, I was welcomed and supported. That support is what INTO was all about for me.” 

“Going to branch meetings and getting information from other teachers about what was happening around the country was so important, because we had no mobile phones at the time,” she said.

In 2008, Ms Horan moved to Carrickerry NS, a rural school in west Limerick, where she is teaching principal.

“Carickerry NS has 59 pupils and three teachers, and it’s in a lovely rural community that really values its small school,” she said.

Ms Horan has worked at all levels of the union, from staff representative to member of the benefits fund committee to a full member of the central executive committee, and will be appointed vice-president on the final day of the INTO annual congress.

“I’m really honoured to be president of such a strong union: We have 50,000 members both north and south, and I plan to work diligently on their behalf. I’m looking forward to the year ahead.”