National Schools and the Irish Famine: Education in the Poor Law Unions of of Rathdown, Roscrea and Loughrea, 1840-1850

The thesis examines the experience of national education, in the three Poor Law Unions: Rathdown, Roscrea and Loughrea between 1840 and 1850. This was a decade that was overshadowed by the impact of the Irish Famine. A system of national schooling had been established in Ireland in 1831; some seven years later saw the introduction of the Poor Law Act into Ireland, and the division of the country into 130 Poor Law Unions each with its associated workhouse and workhouse school. Drawing on the annual reports of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland and the minutes of the Boards of Guardians of the three unions, the thesis provides an analysis of aspects of national schooling in the period under review, including management structures and practices, patterns of enrolment, school buildings and resources and health and welfare. The analysis allows the thesis to provide new insights into the lives of national school teachers and pupils, during the Irish Famine. The close analysis of the management of both the local national schools and the workhouse schools highlights the impact of different management practices on schooling and on the pupils. The study of school enrolment throws a new light on how and why there was an increase across the country during the Famine period. The thesis also examines evidence for how teaching and learning took place in national schools in the three Poor Law Unions under scrutiny. The thesis provides the first in-depth examination of the effects of the Famine on national schooling and also offers an original analysis of how the Poor Law Union workhouses – and workhouse schools – had an impact on the embryonic national school system. The close examination of the experience of schooling in three PLUs, including in workhouse schools, makes a new and original contribution to both the history of education and the history of childhood.