DUBLIN, Oct. 17 -- Second-level teachers in Ireland will be in their classrooms on 21 October after all, but not back to normal. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said on Friday it had suspended that day's national strike while directing its more than 20,000 members to keep up the withdrawal from selected activities, among them the so-called Croke Park hours, that began on 5 October.

The reprieve followed 24 hours of talks between Government representatives and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, whose Public Services Committee brings together 19 unions. The Department of the Taoiseach named Kevin Foley, who chairs the Workplace Relations Commission, Oonagh Buckley, secretary general of the Department of Environment, Climate ...