The Demise of the Hedge Schools
Towards the end of the eighteenth century,
the Penal Laws slowly lost their momentum
and they were gradually repealed in a
piecemeal series of laws. O’Hegarty (1952:
20) argues that their abolition would have been
influenced by the declaration of independence
by the United States of America in 1776, and
the fact that Britain would need Catholic and
Irish troops in the impending war with France.
Moreover, the Catholic Relief Act, 1782
acknowledged that the existing legislation was
too severe and had not had the desired effect.
Therefore, this legislation permitted Catholics
to teach, but under strict conditions such as
pledging allegiance to the Crown, not teaching
in Protestant schools and not teaching
Protestant children. The modification of these
restrictions on Catholics resulted in a number
of Catholic teaching orders setting out to
provide the poor with a Catholic education.
For example, the Christian Brothers began
their series of primary schools for boys in
1802, following the example of the Mercy
Sisters, who had commenced their education of
girls a short time previously. Nevertheless, a
few years later one contemporary commentator
wrote that “the state of education in Ireland is
truly lamentable, and her legislators could not
confer a more signal blessing upon the country,
than providing an ample remedy for the present
defective system” (Barlow 1814: 361).
Gradually, a consensus of opinion developed
which favoured the State assuming a dominant
role in extending a nationwide system of
elementary education. Daly (1979) points out
that around this time the Catholic clergy were
facing an educational crisis, with an increasing
demand for education from a growing
population, the need to finance its Church
building programme and the danger that many
of the young population that were unable to
afford to pay for their schooling might be
attracted to free proselytising schools. After
much debate a ‘national’ education system,
free of any suspicion of proselytism, was
established in 1831. It is interesting to note that
around that time close to seven million Irish
people – about six million Roman Catholics
and one million Protestants of various
denominations – lived on the island (Coleman
2007).
Daly (1979, p. 162) argues that the “national
schools did not mark a sudden discontinuity, in
many instances existing schools and teachers
continued with a new source of finance”.
Following the practice within some of the
hedge schools, the subject of ‘book-keeping’
was formally added to the curriculum of the
national schools. The minimum amount of
proficiency in the subject required students “to
know how to keep cash, personal, real, and
farm accounts and how to write out bills, shop
accounts etc.” (Commissioners of National
Education 1860: 2). However, hedge schools
did not immediately disappear, since
subsequent evidence given to the Royal
Commission (Powis report 1870) estimated
that there were at least 500 to 600 hedge
schools still in operation towards the end of the
1860s. Indeed, in addition to providing an
account of some hedge schools, FernandezSuarez
(2006) describes and colourfully
indicates that the last documented hedge school
in Ireland was in use until 1892. A possible
reason for their continued existence is the fact
that the goal of the national school system was
“as far as practicable, to bring forward an
intelligent class of farm labourers and
servants” (Commissioners of National
Education in Ireland 1837-38: 125), whereas
the curriculum and instruction in hedge schools
was more flexib