Education in Irish Culture
A brief history of education in Ireland.
Location: Ireland
"He that is not strong had better be cunning."[1]
Druidic and Bardic Schools in Ireland
The students of early Ireland enjoyed access to one of the strongest education systems of the ancient world. It's schools gave rise to the nickname insula sanctorum et doctorum the island of saints and scholars. Without a written language, students memorized the laws, literature, and medicine of their society in druidic schools. Poetry and music aided memorization. Certain clans reserved the right to train their children for inherited roles as lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, scribes, and poets. Most, including many noble children, did not have access to education until the early Modern Era.[2][3]
Monastic Education in Ireland
The monastic system of St. Patrick and his followers shifted religious education away from the druids. Bardic and trade schools continued as private colleges. Ireland, never invaded by Rome, became a hub of learning after the empire's decline. Medieval students from Saxon Britain and Western Europe traveled overseas to study under Irish teachers. Young monks then left the island as a rite of passage, building new monasteries far from their native shores.[4]
Monastic education in Ireland lasted hundreds of years, declining only with the monasteries themselves. They were replaced by European-style universities. The oldest university in Ireland today is Trinity College in Dublin, founded in 1592.[5]
Catholic Suppression and Education in British Ireland
After the Tudor conquest, the native Irish faced new restrictions on their access to education. Restrictive laws limited education for Catholic families. They banned Catholic school-teachers and sending Catholic children abroad to study. In response, many communities organized secretive "hedge schools." Often taught by Catholic priests, the schools held classes outdoors or in barns with children posted as lookouts.[6]
Modern Irish Education
Modern education in Ireland is overseen by the National Board of Education, established in 1831. Literacy at the time favored regions under strong British control. In 1841, 67 percent of young adults in Connacht were illiterate, compared to 33 percent in Leinster and Ulster.[7]
Between 1841 and 1911, the overall literacy rate rose from 47 to 88 percent. Most primary schools on the island are now overseen by Catholic organizations. As Ireland's economy has modernized, its need for education has increased as well. From 1973 to 2005, enrollment in higher education quintupled.[8][9]
Bibliography
W. K. "Irish Proverbs," The College Magazine 1 (1817), 49-57.
John Healy, Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (Dublin: Benzinger, 1902), 252.
Michael J. O'Kelly, Early Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Prehistory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Edward R. Norman and St Joseph J. K. S., The Early Development of Irish Society: The Evidence of Aerial Photography (London: Cambridge U.P., 1969), 90-97.
Seán Duffy, Ailbhe MacShamhráin, and James Moynes, eds., Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2005), 679.
John Coolahan, Irish Education: Its History and Structure (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 2005), 3-10.
Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800-1925 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), 19.
Joseph Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society, 1848-1918 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2008).
Sara O'Sullivan, Contemporary Ireland: A Sociological Map (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2007).
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