Page 74 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 74
A MORE EQUAL
IRELAND
Niall Crowley
My choice has been to work to promote and contribute to a more equal Ireland. This has consumed my commitment, endeavour
and creaivity for nearly three decades. It has not always been easy work. It becomes paricularly diicult when equality is,
as it must be, deined in terms of real change in the situaion and experiences of groups currently disadvantaged and subject
to discriminaion. It is sadly sill far more acceptable to pursue equality merely in terms of fairness and an illusory equality of
opportunity. Nevertheless I have never regreted the choice I made; it has always been rewarding.
We need a more equal Ireland if we believe in the dignity and worth of all human beings. Dignity is diminished by
discriminaion. Worth is damaged by disadvantage.
To understand that in a more equal society almost everyone does beter, is to realize why we must demand an equal society
in Ireland. Inequality is at the source of a broad range of health and social problems. Socieies that enjoy greater equality
evidence higher educaional atainment, longer life-expectancy, greater creaivity, lower levels of violence, lower rates of
imprisonment and lower levels of mental health problems.
This decision to make the pursuit of equality my goal has taken me into a wide range of diferent and interesing roles.
It started in earnest in Mozambique in 1982. I worked as a civil engineer for the Mozambican Government. I could witness the
global inequaliies between the so-called developed and developing worlds. This experience allowed me to be part of a socialist
project to develop an economy at the service of a society and, most importantly, to understand that there were alternaives that
could produce more equal socieies.
My choice then took me to Pavee Point, the Travellers’ rights centre, where I worked for twelve years as a community worker.
I could witness the inequaliies in our own society and the impact of racism on what was then our largest minority ethnic group.
This experience allowed me to be part of building a social movement of Travellers and setled people seeking a society that would
celebrate cultural diference and demonstrate this celebraion by making adjustments of policy and pracice to take account of
the pracical implicaions of this cultural diversity.
More recently I moved into the statutory sector when I became Chief Execuive Oicer of the newly established Equality
Authority in 1999. The Equality Authority held signiicant potenial to contribute to a more equal Ireland. It could support
individuals who had experienced discriminaion to seek redress and it could hold public and private sector organisaions to
account for the standards of non-discriminaion set in equality legislaion. The Equality Authority could also contribute to a new
culture of rights in Ireland and shape a posiive and informed cultural response to diversity and equality.
For ten years the Equality Authority did make a diference for individuals who challenged discriminaion, for organisaions
that wanted to implement good pracice to enhance equality in employment and service provision and for a wider society that
grew in valuing diversity. It met its demise with a Government that felt threatened enough by its work to render it unviable with
a budget cut of 43% in October 2008. I resigned because I felt this rejecion of equality should be protested publicly and because I
did not want to be part of a pretense that all was sill well in the Equality Authority.
My choice to work for a more equal Ireland was not made in one paricular instant. It grew in ambiion, commitment and
understanding over ime with these diferent experiences. However its origins in part do lie in Gonzaga, which I atended in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. At the ime Gonzaga enjoyed a reputaion for being an elite establishment and a launching pad for the
leaders of the future. Maybe it was an unlikely staring point for my paricular ambiions.
Yet Gonzaga did allow the curiosity to explore alternaives. It did not smother curiosity in an imposed consensus favouring
the status quo. Gonzaga did encourage an intellectual rigour in exploring ideas. It did not cramp invenion in the interests of
rote learning to secure the necessary university points. Gonzaga did include for diversity and aforded some room for diference.
I don’t think I was smart enough to take full advantage of that at the ime. However I picked up enough to pursue and grow a
rewarding career over the following years.
Niall Crowley
Class of 1974
IRELAND
Niall Crowley
My choice has been to work to promote and contribute to a more equal Ireland. This has consumed my commitment, endeavour
and creaivity for nearly three decades. It has not always been easy work. It becomes paricularly diicult when equality is,
as it must be, deined in terms of real change in the situaion and experiences of groups currently disadvantaged and subject
to discriminaion. It is sadly sill far more acceptable to pursue equality merely in terms of fairness and an illusory equality of
opportunity. Nevertheless I have never regreted the choice I made; it has always been rewarding.
We need a more equal Ireland if we believe in the dignity and worth of all human beings. Dignity is diminished by
discriminaion. Worth is damaged by disadvantage.
To understand that in a more equal society almost everyone does beter, is to realize why we must demand an equal society
in Ireland. Inequality is at the source of a broad range of health and social problems. Socieies that enjoy greater equality
evidence higher educaional atainment, longer life-expectancy, greater creaivity, lower levels of violence, lower rates of
imprisonment and lower levels of mental health problems.
This decision to make the pursuit of equality my goal has taken me into a wide range of diferent and interesing roles.
It started in earnest in Mozambique in 1982. I worked as a civil engineer for the Mozambican Government. I could witness the
global inequaliies between the so-called developed and developing worlds. This experience allowed me to be part of a socialist
project to develop an economy at the service of a society and, most importantly, to understand that there were alternaives that
could produce more equal socieies.
My choice then took me to Pavee Point, the Travellers’ rights centre, where I worked for twelve years as a community worker.
I could witness the inequaliies in our own society and the impact of racism on what was then our largest minority ethnic group.
This experience allowed me to be part of building a social movement of Travellers and setled people seeking a society that would
celebrate cultural diference and demonstrate this celebraion by making adjustments of policy and pracice to take account of
the pracical implicaions of this cultural diversity.
More recently I moved into the statutory sector when I became Chief Execuive Oicer of the newly established Equality
Authority in 1999. The Equality Authority held signiicant potenial to contribute to a more equal Ireland. It could support
individuals who had experienced discriminaion to seek redress and it could hold public and private sector organisaions to
account for the standards of non-discriminaion set in equality legislaion. The Equality Authority could also contribute to a new
culture of rights in Ireland and shape a posiive and informed cultural response to diversity and equality.
For ten years the Equality Authority did make a diference for individuals who challenged discriminaion, for organisaions
that wanted to implement good pracice to enhance equality in employment and service provision and for a wider society that
grew in valuing diversity. It met its demise with a Government that felt threatened enough by its work to render it unviable with
a budget cut of 43% in October 2008. I resigned because I felt this rejecion of equality should be protested publicly and because I
did not want to be part of a pretense that all was sill well in the Equality Authority.
My choice to work for a more equal Ireland was not made in one paricular instant. It grew in ambiion, commitment and
understanding over ime with these diferent experiences. However its origins in part do lie in Gonzaga, which I atended in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. At the ime Gonzaga enjoyed a reputaion for being an elite establishment and a launching pad for the
leaders of the future. Maybe it was an unlikely staring point for my paricular ambiions.
Yet Gonzaga did allow the curiosity to explore alternaives. It did not smother curiosity in an imposed consensus favouring
the status quo. Gonzaga did encourage an intellectual rigour in exploring ideas. It did not cramp invenion in the interests of
rote learning to secure the necessary university points. Gonzaga did include for diversity and aforded some room for diference.
I don’t think I was smart enough to take full advantage of that at the ime. However I picked up enough to pursue and grow a
rewarding career over the following years.
Niall Crowley
Class of 1974
