Several of the lecturers who called for an investigation of the practices and career progression of Dr. Niall McElwee in 2000 have called for the terms of reference of the inquiry to be widened. As mentioned here first on Saturday, 3 female lecturers had written to then Minister for Education, Micheal Martin and expressed their concern on the manner in which McElwee was promoted in WIT, the use of slides containing images of abused children and his attitude towards fellow lecturers.
Today’s Irish Times – (Sub required)
Dr Anne Byrne-Lynch, one of the signatories, said: “We called for an inquiry then. Either it should be included in the terms of reference or the Department of Education should have a separate inquiry. The system clearly fell down.”
Alice McDermott, who has been a lecturer at WIT for 22 years, said there were “red flags” as to Dr McElwee’s behaviour which should have precluded him from his appointment in Athlone. “I went to the head of department about his behaviour, but I should have taken it further,” she said.
“Questions need to be answered as to the extent of the investigation into his behaviour in Waterford and what reference he got that allowed him to take up the job in Athlone.”
Dr Frances Finnegan, who is retiring as a lecturer after 27 years in WIT, said her life had been made “very difficult” when she originated the complaint in May 1998 about Dr McElwee’s use of graphic images of abused children. She said some students who had seen the material had counselling as a result.
“My concerns about Dr McElwee haven’t been done in retrospect. What happened in Waterford was really odd. When he was showing those slides in Waterford, if it had been dealt with properly then, perhaps he probably would not have carried on,” she said.
“We need to know if Athlone knew about these slides or if they didn’t why weren’t they told by WIT, especially given that he was appointed to a position of special sensitivity,” she said.
WIT has defended its actions, saying they had asked him to stop using the slides in 1999 following the complaints. In a statement earlier this week, WIT said the institute “acted promptly and judiciously in order to discharge its responsibilities and obligations”.
Meanwhile over at the Irish Independent it seems that they have become poetry savvy following their numerous visits to Maman Poulet in recent days.
The terms of reference for the inquiry will be published this morning – more later.
And the knives come out … you can find a bit more about Alice McDermott’s campaigning on domestic violence issues, as a founder of “19+1″ at:
http://www.munster-express.ie/070105/news8.html
In the Irish independent (ur link above, MP) Ennis cannot recall doing a reference for McElwee for the AIT job. the other two refs for the post were child care experts.
I don’t think you can put this down to the ‘spleen of academe’.
The fact is that a fellow lecturer in Waterford I. T. reported their concerns in 1998, re the material that Niall McElwee was showing to his students on the child care course and also, apparently, to Art students; and, according to Dr. Frances Finnegan, for some time “no action was taken”.
I know that everything seems very clear in hindsight, but this was 9 years ago.
In the meantime, we have the case of his behaviour in the disco in Athlone and the conviction in Amsterdam.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
The Irish Independent, 19th July, reports in relation to a reference for Dr Niall McElwee for his post in AIT –
Dr John Ennis, head of the School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology (IT), told the Irish Independent it was “fruitless to speculate on something I don’t have hard evidence on.
“I don’t recall writing it,” he said. “It is at such a remove and there is nothing in the records. There is no copy of it here. I don’t have a record of what was supposed to have been written.”
Dr John Ennis co-authored a poetry book with Dr Niall McElwee in 2006. A reveiw of this (see link on this blog site) commends him on his memory –
“John Ennis in his beautiful heartfelt poem subtitled, A Keen At The Gates Of The Heart, continues his inspirational links and journeys in Newfoundland. He grew up in the midlands where his uncle Larry was a railway man with his flag stickler, breast pocket watch and whistle. Ennis carries this romance of memory with little or no reference to Celtic Mythology to embrace the personae of hardworking engineers coming from Pertshire in Scotland and other far-flung places…”
Isn`t it strange that Dr John Ennis interviewed Niall McElwee for his first post in WIT, was Head of Department when Niall McElwee was promoted, was his line manager while the several different female members of staff complained about him, continued to stay in contact with Dr Niall McElwee after he left WIT to publish the above poetry book – (published by School of Humanities at Waterford I. T. and Centre for Child and Youth Care Learning at Athlone I.T.) YET cannot remember whether he gave Dr Niall McElwee a reference .. ????
Isn`t it strange too that WIT have stated clearly that nobody from their organisation gave a reference in an OFFICIAL capacity for Dr Niall McElwee ??