Teachers display placards in support of Palestine at conference in Killarney

TUI President David Waters received a standing ovation from delegates when he called on the minister to condemn the 'scandalous violence' in Gaza

Olive O'Connell, member of the Executive Committee at the Teachers Union of Ireland Congress in Killarney. Picture: Tommy Clancy

Placards in support of Palestine were held aloft by a majority of some 500 teachers when a government minister took to the stage at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland’s (TUI) annual congress today.

Standing up in silence, hundreds of teachers held signs saying ‘Sanction Israel now’; ‘Government action not words’; and ‘351 schools bombed by Israel’.