The National School System in Ballincollig and Carrigrohane 1831 – 1921

In 1831, Lord Stanley, the Irish Chief Secretary, proposed a system of national elementary education. For its time it was one of the most advanced in the world and it was established forty years before a similar system was set up in England.

Lord Stanley set up a National Board of Education to run the system which he hoped would provide “combined moral and literary and separate religious education”, thereby bringing Protestants and Catholics into the same school. The Commissioners of National Education had to control of government grants to fund local schools and it was hoped that a uniform system of education would replace the different types of schools existing up to then.

Pre-1831

Prior to 1831 in Ireland elementary schools were mainly either supported by voluntary societies such as the Kildare Place Society or were day schools or ‘pay’ schools. Day schools were run by parish priests and supported by parish contributions, while ‘pay’ schools were started and maintained by private individuals. Ballincollig and Carrigrohane followed this overall pattern.

In the mid- 1820’s there were 7 schools in Ballincollig and Carrigrohane; 2 Protestant, 4 Catholic and 1 mixed religious school in the Barracks. The 2 largest schools were Catholic and the next largest school was in the Barracks. The established Church (Church of Ireland) school was very small. There were 2 schools free and these were supported by the Kildare Place Society – one was the Church of Ireland parish school and the second was the mixed school in the Barracks. The main Catholic school was managed by a committee of which the parish priest was the chairman and it was supported by parish contributions as well as payment by pupils. The other Catholic schools were ‘pay’ schools run by masters and mistresses, while the final two schools (one Catholic, one Protestant) also appear to have been ‘pay’ schools. Only two of the schools were located in proper school buildings.

Scripture was read – without note or comment – in the Kildare Place Society schools as this was a condition of receiving support. But there was no scripture readings in the Catholic school. In 1826, 23.5% of the 342 children attending the schools were of the Established Church, while 76.5% were Roman Catholics. In the same year, 66.4% of the pupils were male, while 33.6% were female, but over the next two decades, girls’ numbers increased more rapidly than boys. Even before 1831, therefore, there were many children going to school in Ballincollig, but it was difficult to say how good the schools were.

The First National School

After the National Board of Education was set up in 1831, existing or proposed schools could apply for aid for building, salaries and books. This school was built in 1821-1822 in the Roman Catholic chapel grounds of lime and mortar with a slated roof. The school was in excellent repair and in 1833 had been re-slated, re-furnished and extended. Its dimensions were 44.5 feet long by 18 feet wide by 13 feet high. Inside, it was divided into two rooms, a boys room which was 30 feet by 18 feet and a girls room which was 13 feet by 18 feet. The school house contained 12 desks and seats and about 140 children could find accommodation there. It had been erected by the parishioners by funds received from a collection within the parish and other donations.

The school was run under the direction of a committee, the treasurer/secretary of which was Augustus McSwinny of Carrigrohane. The committee received its yearly income from local subscriptions, chapel collections and the quarterly salary paid by parents who could afford it. Around the early 1830s the usual attendance in summer was a hundred and thirty males and forty females, while in winter about seventy males and twenty-five females usually attended. There were three teachers - two males and one female who taught plain needle work and dime making only. The children were taught ordinary lessons on all weekdays. However, portions of Mondays and Saturdays were set aside for Religious Education. The textbooks used were ordinary elementary ones but some parents bought extra books for their children, like little histories, printed under the sanction of the Kildare Street Society.

The application for financial aid to cover the cost of work done to the school building was accompanied with a request for the reading books of the Commissioners of National Education as well as slates and pencils, scripture lessons and a history of the bible. The application was signed by both Catholics, including the parish priest, and Protestants. This was a development encouraged by the Commissioners nationally.

Two National School

The population of the parish of Carrigrohane, which included the town of Ballincollig, continued to grow in the 1830’s. Other elementary schools continued to exist side by side with the national school.

In the early 1840’s the existing national school was struck off the Commissioner’s list because the one teacher who taught there then was judged to be incapable of improvement and the Manager failed to appoint a competent teacher.

Within two years, however, there were renewed applications for aid from Ballincollig to the Commissioners of National Education. This seemed to be due to the appointment of a new and more vigorous parish priest, Rev. David Horgan, Significantly whereas the first application for aid in the 1830’s was signed by both Catholic and Protestant laymen, later applications were only signed by the parish priest.

In September 1843 the boys’ school applied for aid and in July 1844 the girls’ school did so. The existing school building in the chapel grounds was renovated and a second storey was added. The boys occupied the bottom floor and the girls occupied the top floor. Each now had a classroom with a floor area of 44 feet by 18 feet. The boys’ attendance had only increased slightly from the 1830’s but the girls had doubled and a further increase was expected. The textbooks of the national school system were already in use in the schools and separate religious and secular education was being followed. Saturdays were used in both schools for religious instruction, while the girls’ school also conducted religious on alternate Wednesday evenings.

More National Schools

There was a major re-organisation of the schools in the 1870’s. The continued growth in the number of pupils led to the establishment of the infant-school which came under the national school system in 1874.

It also meant that around this time the original school building, dating from the 1820’s with an extension in the 1840’s, was not adequate any longer. However, in the 1860’s an 1870’s, the parish built a new Catholic church, and the old church now became the location for the three Catholic national schools- boys’, girls’ and infants’.

For a short time also in the 1870’s, Ballincollig-Carrigrohane had a forth national school. Up to this time Church of Ireland parochial schools had stayed outside the national school system. Instead these schools were run by the Church Education Society. As the national schools, more and more, became denominational schools, under the control of the Presbyterian or Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland was also able to control their own schools within the system. In 1872 local Carrigrohane Church of Ireland school applied for aid for the Commissioners of Nation Education, but they only remained in the national school system until 1878.

Textbooks

The textbooks used by the pupils in Ballincollig were the same as those used by the pupils of almost every other national school in Ireland at that time. They used the books which had been used by the Commissioners. Though it was not compulsory to use these books, they were brought cheap and very good.

The series included readers, grammars and texts on arithmetic, geography, history, geometry, and natural philosophy. The basic set of seven readers from the “First Book of Lessons” to the “Fifth Book of Lessons” and including two sequels to the “Second Book of Lessons” took the pupil from elementary reading to a quite advanced standard. It is interesting to note that as well as providing a basis for the acquisition of reading skills, the texts were also designed to instil an appreciation of respectability and moral values.

Teachers

The teachers faced a number of difficulties. First of all there were large numbers to be taught and if there were no assistant,classes from infants to sixth class were taught by the one teacher. But even when an assistant appointed, both teachers continued to teach in the one room. Most of the teachers in Ballincollig in the middle of the 19th century were very young in the 1840’s, for example, the ages ranged from 26 to 16. One of the reasons for this, probably was that the national school system had only been set up shortly before this and, therefore, as a growing system it attracted many young people.

As well as being young most of the teachers were untrained. This arose over a dispute between the Catholic school authorities and the Commissioners concerning teacher training. But at least one teacher had come up through the monitorial system. Monitors were children in fifth or sixth class who were good students and were picked out by the teachers to help out with teaching by taking charge of some class while the teacher taught other classes.

There were many problems in dealing with the new teachers and some of these were due to a lack of teacher training. A number of teachers were inefficient and unsatisfactory at conducting their lessons. For example, the two teachers in Ballincollig in the mid-1840’s were dismissed for that reason, one by an inspector and another by the manager of the school. A third teacher just disappeared, never returning after the Christmas break in 1846.

Not all the problems, however, were due to lack of training. One of the most unusual cases, concerned a teacher with venereal disease. A doctors report to the Commissioners stated that a teacher in Ballincollig got venereal disease before arriving at the training centre in Glasnevin. The Commissioners deemed him unfit to teach and he was duly dismissed. The manager, however, thought this was unfair and asked for the teacher, who was now married, to be re-instated. But, the Commissioners refused to allow this to happen. Subsequently, though, that teacher was employed and taught in Ballincollig for a few years after that.

Political questions were just as likely to get a teacher dismissed as moral questions. Thomas Duggan taught in the in the boys’ school and was involved in using the local branch of the Young Mens’ Society as a ‘cover’ for recruiting IRB men. In spite of several warnings from the parish priest, he continued his involvement with the IRB and he was dismissed from his post in February 1862 by the Commissioners of National Education.

Drink, or rather sale of drink, also posed problems. An unusual case concerned a publican’s wife who was appointed as an assistant teacher to the boys’ school in the early 1990’s. Rule 88a stated that the wife of a publican could not be a school teacher. The assistant was duly dismissed. The problem was solved, however, when her husband transferred the ownership of the pub by a deed of assignment to a third person and the teacher was reaffirmed as an assistant in 1907.

Before becoming part of the national school system the teachers were paid by the pupils according to a scale of charges laid down by the parish priest in the boys’ school, for example, in 1843 reading and spelling cost 2 shillings (10p); a quarter, 6d (21/2p) was added on if writing was included; another 6d (2.5) for arithmetic and; another 3s (15p) for extra subjects. With successful applications for aid the teachers’ salaries were paid by the Commissioners but there were also local contributions for the maintenance of the school.

In the middle of the 19th century the salaries varied a good deal from £8 to £19, with trained teachers receiving more than their untrained colleagues. Teachers were also divided into classes. A first class teacher received more than a third class teacher. If an assistant teacher taught with a master or mistress naturally received additional pay. After 1870 payment by results began. A teacher received extra after this depending on the results achieved by his or her pupils in annual examinations. On one occasion in Ballincollig this led to demands for payment due for extra subject of vocal music. An inspector’s report was necessary before the money was paid.

In 1907 a dispute broke out in Ballincollig over pay. After the re-organisation of the schools which led to the abolition of the infant school the principal of the infant school became an assistant teacher in the girls’ school. However, this meant that her pay was reduced. The inspector suggested that she become a privileged assistant which meant that she would continue to receive a principal’s salary. If this was to happen the salary of the existing principal of the girls’ school would have to be reduced as the principal would have to share the Residual Capitation Grant with the assistant. The existing principal refused to pay any part of the grant to the new assistant, the manager said he had no power to compel the principal to do so and it is not clear how the differences were resolved.

Decline and Re-organisation

The population decline in Ballincollig and Carrigrohane in the late 19th century from 2,049 in 1871 to 1,377 in 1911 naturally led to a decline in the number of children attending the schools. The numbers of new entrants to the boys’ school declined from 46 in 1878 to 21 in 1911. The average attendance dropped from 95 in the boys’ school and 78 in the girls’ school in 1869 (total = 173) to the following average attendances in 1906: boys’ school =37.8, girls’ school = 37.4, infants’ school = 43 (total = 118). Confirmation numbers also declined. Between 1873 and 1881 an average of 133 pupils were confirmed every two years; but between 1899 and 1907 this fell to 77 every 2 years. The fall in numbers naturally led to problems.

Until 1906 each of the 3 schools had 2 teachers, and a master/mistress and an assistant. However, because of a decline in roles an average attendance, the assistants were lost and the schools would only be entitled to a junior assistant mistresses. The need for re-organisation was obvious. The manager suggested the abolition of the infant and the transfer of these students to the existing boys’ and girls’ schools. The transfer would result in an average of 50 pupils in each school and allow a certified assistant to be appointed in both schools. This was an advantage to the schools because although the staff were numerically weaker certified assistants were better qualified. The inspector agreed with the managers suggestion but he was not satisfied with the arrangement of classrooms. The girls’ room was neither well lighted nor well ventilated, the lowest window being 8 or 9 feet above the floor, and the area of glass was insufficient. This was due to the fact that the building was formally a chapel. The former infants room was much better and only needed slight improvements. It was suggested that the girls’ might transfer to the infants room and the manager agreed with this. The new girls’ room was 55 feet by 19 feet and could accommodate 81, the boys’ room was 50 feet by 20 feet and could accommodate 80.

However, further renovations suggested by the inspector such as the portioning of the girls room and the boys room, so that each of the teachers would have separate rooms and the conversion of the former kindergarten room into a cloakroom were resisted by the manager. The manager was adamant that the parish had no money – so adamant, indeed, that the inspector believed there was no point in pressing the matter further.

Conclusion

By 1921, therefore, Ballincollig and Carigrohane was down to two national schools