By Andy Spearman
Yesterday was a big day for the pupils and staff of Duleek Girls Primary School, after all it’s not every day that the American Ambassador to Ireland pays a visit.
Ambassador Claire D Cronin was in Duleek to unveil a sculpture of Kate Kennedy, a pioneer of women’s rights in the US who was born in 1827 less than a mile from the front gates of the school in the townland of Gaskinstown.
Kate attended the local national school before emigrating to New York and later moving to San Francisco where she worked as a teacher and went on to become a school principal.
Outraged by the fact that the San Francisco Board of Education paid male teachers 50 percent more than their female colleagues for the same work, Kate set out on a course of legal actions which eventually resulted in the discrimination being made illegal.
This campaigning work made Kate Kennedy famous in the USA but not in the country of her birth. Only in recent years did her name emerge and only then after a series of coincidences which started in 1994 when local journalist Ken Murray came across a reference in a second hand book to the pioneering work of a Kate Kennedy from County Meath and he began digging.
Roll on almost thirty years to today and finally the name of Kate Kennedy has been officially recognised in the place she started out from in 1847.
Ambassador Cronin was joined by local dignitaries, members of the Kennedy family from Ireland and the USA and all of the pupils and staff of the Duleek Girls Primary School for what turned out to be a very special event.
Ambassador Cronin took great delight in mingling with the girls of the school, chatting with them and posing for photos. It is to their credit that, throughout more than 40 minutes of speeches, the girls cheered in all the right places.
Fiona Lawless of Meath County Council acknowledged the memory of Kate Kennedy as a strong Meath woman like so many others around today in the heritage county.
“One of the great things when you look around is that there are some very strong women in Meath” she said. “I hope this is the first of many statues of Meath women. Our Chief Executive is a woman and we have the highest female representation of any county in the country.
“The future pupils of this primary school will look at this memorial and will be so proud that this visionary, the first person in the world to achieve equality in terms of equal pay for equal work, came from Duleek. There is no doubt that this world is a much better place because of that strong Meath woman.”
School Principal, Padraig McGovern, welcomed Ambassador Cronin saying it was an absolute privilege to have her on the school campus on International Women’s Day.
Mr. McGovern had some special words of thanks for sculptor Betty Newman-Maguire who created the statue which will stand for ever more outside the front door of the school.
“Betty has been absolutely amazing” he said, “she has directed this whole project and the artworks on display in the school are a result of the time that Betty has put in and also the efforts of the pupils and teachers over the past few months.”
In a nice touch, the principal also called for a round of applause for the school’s pupils who were all gathered outside for the ceremony.
“There aren’t too many schools where you have 350 children out in the cold on a windy day like that” he said. “They’re made of tough stuff the women of Duleek!”
“I’m very proud to be in a school with pupils from 27 countries and providing education to pupils from countries where they don’t have a right to education. Say what you like but the Irish education system is doing a lot of very good work. It has a long way to go and that has to be called out as well but that is for another day.”
“I hope that the girls in this school, as they pass this sculpture every day, will be inspired and if they see any sort of inequality they are going to challenge it and ask the difficult questions.”
Ken Murray, who was MC for the proceedings, said that he had been speaking to Anna McHugh of An Post who told him that there will be a stamp issued in honour of Kate Kennedy to mark International Women’s Day 2025.
Prior to unveiling the statue of Kate Kennedy Ambassador Cronin said: “I forgot my coat but I received such a warm welcome that one isn’t necessary.
Addressing the young pupils directly she said: You are our future, it’s a big responsibility but take it and run with it.”
She had a special word for Alexia Mojum, a pupil at the school who had read out a poem she had written for the occasion.
Speaking about the significance of International Women’s Day, the Ambassador said: We have come very far but there is still a long, long way to go.
“We are so fortunate to live in our democracies but we have to be cognisant that around the world there are places where women and young girls do not have the same opportunities. There are countries where girls cannot go to school and countries where women risk their lives to go and vote.
“So, as far as we have come, we must continue our efforts to make sure that the gains that have been made continue to be held and we continue to go further down that road.”
