Essays in the history of irish education

Essays in the history of irish education

The Irish Education System History Essay During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Churches played an important role in terms of education in Ireland. They had control of the majority of education systems within the country Essays in the History of Irish Education. Editors: Walsh, Brendan (Ed.) This book provides a complete overview of the development of education in Ireland including the complex issue of how religion can coexist with education and how a national identity can be aided through Irish language blogger.com: Palgrave Macmillan UK The Historiography of Irish Education: A Review Essay The history of education in Ireland has traditionally been linked to teacher education programs. It has been, and still is, viewed as a part of this professional training rather than a specialized branch of history. Accordingly, much of the writ

The Irish Education System History Essay

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Churches played an important role in terms of education in Ireland, essays in the history of irish education. They had control of the majority of education systems within the country. It can be argued that the dominance of the Churches in Ireland was a result of the country being colonialized by England. The Church of Ireland had power due the English rule at the time, while the Catholic Church had power in an attempt to defect the influences of the English.

The Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland battled for many years over the control of the education system, essays in the history of irish education. In the eighteenth century, the Protestant Church appeared to be in control of the education system. However, throughout the eighteenth century, the management turned in favour of the Catholics. This control continued in to the twentieth century until the State slowly took over. There have been a number of factors that have contributed to this change in management and these will be discussed throughout the essay.

This essay will go through the development of Irish education based on the role of the Churches, the factors and policies calling for change and finally, the position it is in now. The starting point for a discussion on this topic would bring us all the way back to the early nineteenth century. In the first national school system was established in Ireland. Lord Stanley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland called for the need for a school system that was run by the State.

In his letter to His Grace the Duke of Leinster, Stanley outlined his concern "to unite in one system children of different creeds Stanley p.

Essentially, Stanley wanted to integrate students of all sects in to one national school system. The proposal led to conflict between many institutions: "the Roman Catholic Church fought the Church of Ireland, the government fought the churches, and the parents fought the government" Carone This system was also subsidised by the State. The National Board was responsible for running the national school system and consisted of members from both religious backgrounds- Catholic and Protestant.

However, as time progressed, conflict arose as the gap between the churches began to grow. This conflict went on for many years with both sides infiltrating and putting their own members on the National Board.

This is a noteworthy statistic as it highlights the persistence and determination of the Catholic Church and this is evident throughout the essay. From here, the education battle between both churches continued. The Catholic Church attempted "to gain power over the Church of Ireland by winning a series of education battles against the government" and used education to hinder the effects of their religious counterparts Akenson p, essays in the history of irish education.

In response to this, the Church Education Society was founded by the Protestants. Both Churches also continued to seek finance for their own educational systems. However, the Catholic Church lost a substantial amount of money trying to accomplish this and inthe Protestant Church also realised that this was unattainable Akenson The responses of the churches however, were quite contrasting. The Protestants drafted and submitted a petition for a grant that was widely discarded by the State.

The Catholics took a somewhat alternative route and tried to tweak the national school system in order to satisfy their own requirements. The Catholic Church was defended by the fact that the initial construction of the national education system was done on the basis of an "informal letter". It was argued that the letter written by Lord Stanley to the Duke of Leinster was to be considered informal, simply because it was not followed an Education Act Alvey This ultimately meant that the principles under which the system was grounded could be reformed in favour of the Catholic Church.

As can be expected, the Essays in the history of irish education saw this as an opportunity and exerted a great deal of pressure on the government. In addition, the political stance of the Catholic Church began to grow and the image of the Church of Ireland was deteriorating in the eyes of those in control of the country Akenson Thus began the emergence of the role of the Catholic Church in the s, consistently pushing for a more denominational education system.

The supremacy of the Catholics was assisted by Paul Cullen following his appointment as Archbishop of the Church. Cullen called for a reform of the Catholic Church and condemned them to align with the ethics and standards in Rome. With regards to the education system, he proposed that the Irish Catholic Church take responsibility for the supervision and control of it Alvey It was Cullen who responsible for the abolishment of the National Education system as he claimed that such a system put the faith of Catholic children at risk.

What he wanted was an official denominational system that provided Catholic schools with direct grant assistance Farren The Commission of Inquiryalso known as The Powis Commission, outlined the achievements of the current National School system and highlighted the negative aspects of it.

They paid particular attention to poor attendance rates and achievements as well as the surprisingly low number of teachers receiving formal training Essays in the history of irish education Commission of Inquiry into Irish Education It can be argued that the Catholic Church were to blame for the low number of trained teachers in due to the fact they had a "ban on entry to district model schools" Ibid.

The management of the third level education system in Ireland followed a similar pattern to that of the national school system. There was a close link between the two, again due to governmental and denominational impacts.

At the time there were only two universities in Ireland. The University of Dublin was run by the Catholics while the Protestants had control over Trinity College. The Catholic Church disagreed with the ethos and practice of Trinity College and believed it was not satisfactory to educate Catholics.

This led to the Catholic Church again pushing for state finance of a denominational system. This body was set up in and consisted of three universities within the state: Belfast, Cork and Galway. Due to the unhappiness and constant pressure of the Catholic Church, the State decided to intervene. Some finances were raised and the Catholic University was founded in Dublin in a purely Catholic University.

However, the University suffered a setback shortly after its foundation because of a lack of additional financing and State grants. The Royal University offered indirect support to the Catholic Church and its board consisted of an even split between Catholics and Protestants. The institution also offered education to students from all denominations, meaning all students could sit the same examinations.

The creation of the Royal University also helped the Catholic University by reconstructing and remodelling it. Henceforth, it became known as the University College Dublin. Irish education experienced many changes throughout its existence. Another change came about in through the Intermediate Education Act. Again, we see great pressure being exerted by the Catholic Church as they aimed to improve the Gaelic language amongst its population.

It can be argued that this was a defence mechanism used by the Catholics to fend off the impact of the English. The Act imposed a voluntary board and gave them the authority and responsibility of implementing and constituting a public examinations system Ibid. The first set of examinations under the Act came the following year in Under the Act fees were allocated to schools who were in alignment with the regulations of the board. Furthermore, it gave students the opportunity to obtain awards and prizes for success and effort Coolahan Although the Act was non-denominational, it did offer denominational support to schools.

All that was required of the schools was that they adhere to the requirements of the examinations- everything else appeared irrelevant. However as time progressed, deficiencies arose in the Act and init was reconstructed, essays in the history of irish education. State funding was finally made available for denominational teacher training in This was a significant achievement for the Catholic Church.

After decades of pressure and determination, they finally received denominational state finance. While it was the state that had the final decision in allocating finance, it was highly influenced by the actions of the Catholic Church. Although there was conflict between the government and the Catholic Church over the elementary and university educational systems, there was essentially no conflict with regards to secondary education. The number of Catholic schools significantly increased from with the numbers surging from twenty-one to forty-eight respectively.

Irish Catholic secondary education shared similar characteristics to that of a private school. Furthermore, they had adopted a curriculum that was based around the Irish language and by the early s, the Catholic Church was satisfied with the system they had in essays in the history of irish education Duggan However, they still had an impact elsewhere, essays in the history of irish education.

In order to promote Catholicism, they continued to reinforce religion in schools. While the schools were managed and run by the Catholic Church, it is important to mention that they were financed by the state as outlined in the Intermediate Education Act As we can see, the Catholic Church had control of the Irish education system in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Their influence over the system became increasingly powerful as time progressed. At the beginningthe State had little involvement and their actions and strategies were highly opposed by the Catholic Church who developed their own ideas. It was only in when Ireland became a free state that things began to change. Since then, the State has taken a more proactive route in determining the ethos and tradition of Irish schools.

Firstly they introduced teacher registration where the State became responsible for paying teacher salaries. In addition, the State contributed to essays in the history of irish education running of the schools with the aid of a capital grant scheme.

Compulsory attendance for students under 14 was also introduced. In this sense, the history that was being taught in schools was being manipulated in order to represent the values of society, essays in the history of irish education. Once Ireland gained its independence, Minister for Education Eoin MacNeill introduced a new education policy.

However, the policy was brought in on the basis of state-aid as opposed to state control. His logical being:. MacNeill p. He acknowledged that the University of Dublin and the National University met these requirements and allocated financial aid to both parties. Furthermore, the primary and secondary systems were held under supervision to determine if they qualified for State funding MacNeill However, finances that were made available were not particular to any institution, essays in the history of irish education.

Finally, he stated that elementary education was "declared free to all by the Constitution, has been made compulsory to all by Statute" MacNeill p. One might expect that after the introduction of the aforementioned policies by the state, the Catholic Church would surrender their pursuit in trying to control the education system. Nevertheless, the Catholics were stubborn and instead, succeeded in utilising the curriculum being used in an attempt to influence the education system and ultimately, society.

The State appeared to be getting more control of the education system since the Free State was essays in the history of irish education.

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Essays in the History of Irish Education. Editors: Walsh, Brendan (Ed.) This book provides a complete overview of the development of education in Ireland including the complex issue of how religion can coexist with education and how a national identity can be aided through Irish language blogger.com: Palgrave Macmillan UK The Irish Education System History Essay During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Churches played an important role in terms of education in Ireland. They had control of the majority of education systems within the country Chapter 1. The National System of Education Tom Walsh.-Chapter 2. 'An Essential Service' The National Board and Teacher Education, Susan M. Parkes.-Chapter 3. Forged in the Fire of Persecution: Edmund Rice () and the Counter-Reformationary Character of the Irish Christian Brothers-- Daire Keogh.-Chapter 4