Last week, women celebrated Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Little Christmas, a day when Mná na hÉireann take a well-earned rest and let the men take over the housework.

The media coverage on the Junior Cycle reform and the strikes by the teacher unions to-date suggests there is no public mood to take the concerns of the teachers into account. 

I want to argue that Jean Claude Trichet’s ‘secret’ letter to Brian Lenihan and the consistent pressure directed at two governments, and by default every citizen in the Republic, now needs to be brought to the European Court of Human Rights .