The aspirations of the 1916 leaders are being undermined in our education system, INTO president Sheila Nunan said last night.
She said many parents had no choice but to send their child to a school of a given denomination that did not reflect their beliefs.
She also strongly defended the rights of gay and lesbian teachers and launched a new campaign for smaller class sizes.
Opening the Irish National Teacher's Union annual conference in Killarney, she said many children, the inheritors of the 1916 legacy, were still coming to school hungry, cold, undernourished and inadequately dressed.
On religious liberties, she said the union strongly supported the right of all parents to enrol their child in a school that reflected their beliefs.
"Today, many parents have little choice but to send their children to a school that is not of their beliefs. Their religious liberties and those of their children are not guaranteed.
"Providing for a child to opt out of a religion lesson attended by the majority of his or her peers, even where this can be arranged, does not pass the test."
Ms Nunan also criticised the Employment Equality Act 1998 which, she said gave boards of management "a licence to discriminate against gay and lesbian teachers".
"No other group has to lie like this to make a living," she said.
The INTO was also calling for a national debate on the teaching of Irish.
She said echoes of a failed attitude to the language could be found in the Irish exam for primary teachers "which puts knowledge of seventeenth century Irish verse before professional classroom competency".
Reading and writing in Irish was being introduced far too early in most primary schools. "The initial enthusiasm for the language withers and dies for both parents and pupils when the books, spelling and grammar appear on the landscape."
She said there was a need for "radical curricular reform" with only spoken Irish in primary schools "or at least until the pupils reach fifth or sixth class".
"Let's do without textbooks, teach grammar through everyday usage and curb the enthusiasm to correct every single spelling mistake for that time. To achieve this there must be a national language policy," she said.
Ms Nunan said the campaign for smaller class sizes would be taken to every school.
Urgent action was also needed to help disadvantaged children who were alienated from a very young age.
"Sadly, many teachers working in the area of educational disadvantage see this alienation and can already write a script that does not have a happy ending for their pupils. This should not be a legacy of a now wealthy nation."
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Editorial comment, page 15