Tom Higgins, the father of the two boys who have refused to learn Irish at their local primary school in Blessington, Co Wicklow, has been taking a great deal of flak this week. He has chosen to take on the Irish language lobby and the educational establishment - and he is suffering the consequences. He has been ridiculed and criticised for his allegedly anti-Irish views.
Yesterday, the general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, Senator Joe O'Toole, said it was "mind-boggling" to listen to Mr Higgins's views and "startling" to hear his claim that learning Irish was a completely useless exercise.
In fact, Mr Higgins has emphasised that his dispute is not about Irish per se. "It is about the rights of parents to decide what their children should learn or not learn," he insists.
The truth is that parent power remains something of an alien concept in Irish education. Senator O'Toole believes parents and teachers are equal partners in education, but the facts suggest otherwise.
In the Republic, parents have a marginal influence on the education their children receive. Parent associations are now in place in most primary schools, but in practical terms many function solely as a fund-raising arm of the school. They have little say in issues such as school opening times, the code of behaviour and homework policy.
It can also be difficult for parents to exert an influence at board of management level. Usually there are two parent representatives on boards but they are heavily outnumbered by teachers, management and the religious.
In a wider political sense, parents are also struggling to make an impact as a group. The only representative forum available to the parents of 500,000 primary school children is the National Parents Councils (primary). Its chief executive, Fionnuala Kilfeather, is widely acknowledged as an outstanding lobbyist but she is often rowing against the tide.
The organisation, which receives meagre funds, has still to establish roots in about 40 per cent of national schools. In theory, it sits around the table as an equal partner with the teaching unions and the Department of Education but it has very little muscle to flex.
If the NPC were to raise up its hand and suggest, for example, that the teaching of Irish takes up too much time in primary school, it would quickly be rolled over by the collective power of the INTO, the Department and the Irish language lobby.
Mr Higgins's suggestion that his sons do not want to do Irish because "it is no use to them" has also unleashed a wave of criticism. From listening to the response on the airwaves, one might think that Mr Higgins is a lonely voice. The reality, like it or not, is that he reflects a view held by thousands.
Last year, an MRBI survey for this newspaper posed the question: given a choice would you prefer to see children learn Irish or a continental language at primary school? A clear majority (55 per cent) would prefer to see their child learn a continental language, yet no move has been made to introduce one on the curriculum.
At present, the teaching of Irish absorbs about 30 per cent of all teaching time at primary level, more than any other subject. On local radio yesterday Senator O'Toole said the subject, in his personal view, absorbs too much curriculum time.
Irish presents other difficulties in primary school. Is it fair to ask the 10 per cent of primary students with real literacy difficulties in English to take on the Irish language as well?
One learning-support teacher told me earlier this week about how she had slowly built up the confidence of her class in the English language, only to see it crushed by their very poor performance in Irish. In her view, Mr Higgins has raised awkward questions but "no one wants to listen".
It is easy to criticise Mr Higgins. He has made mistakes. His tactic of placing his own children in the frontline - he maintains he has no other choice - was ill-advised. Similarly, it is hard to make the case for curriculum reform based solely on the whim of any one parent or any one child. That would be a recipe for chaos.
But Mr Higgins is not all wrong. He has raised important questions about the role of parents in education and about the priority given to the Irish language. And these questions will not go away.
Sean Flynn is Education Editor of The Irish Times