Email claiming fear among staff 'had shady motivation'
Added on May 12, 2005' Thursday May 12th 2005
AN email claiming there is a "palpable sense of fear" among staff at the Colaiste Mhuire teacher training college was "obviously crafted to appear in a national newspaper", according to a spokesman for the governing body of the Marino Institute of Education.
The email, from lecturing staff to former colleague Br Rory Geoghegan, who claims he has been banished to Zambia for voicing criticism about events in Marino, states that an "oppressive regime still operates with no sign of repentance in our midst".
The MIE spokesperson said its conclusion about the motivation for the email was supported by the speed with which it made its way to a national newspaper office via its apparent destination in Africa.
The college, and the associated Marino Institute of Education, has been at the centre of allegations of bullying and lack of transparency in financial matters since the resignation of former college president Caoimhe Mairtin.
The email, written on Monday, accuses the governing body at Marino of "transforming our place of work from a caring, nurturing, exciting, vibrant and collegial entity to a forbidding mechanistic unit seeking to imprison the spirit and incarcerate the soul through a top down, remote and unapproachable management structure".
It claims the body was "insensitive" when, "in response to legitimate questions from a conscientious president" it "began and continued a reign of incomprehensible intimidation and harassment, leading to disillusionment, fear, repression and considerable frustration".
The MIE authorities said last night that they have been the target of a number of unsubstantiated allegations. They had initiated their own investigation, and were co-operating with the one initiated by the Department of Education and Science.
"This is not the stance of an institution that has something to hide or is afraid of change", said the MIE spokesperson, who also denied suggestions that staff had walked out of a meeting earlier this week.
Katherine Donnelly
? Irish Independent