Overview
- Higgins, who addressed the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation in Killarney on Wednesday, said war has become normalised and is driving a push toward militarisation.
- He called defining security by lethal force a "species failure" and urged teachers to "be the arrow, not the target."
- He criticised unregulated corporate power as "disaster capitalism" and said unaccountable power poses a major threat to democracy.
- Citing UN goals, he said only 18% of targets are on track and warned that global malnutrition has set back progress by about 15 years.
- Delegates gave him a sustained standing ovation during one of his first speeches since completing 14 years in office, in a talk focused on education’s civic mission.