Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15
SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
An Explanation of the Fact That SO
Many Irish Immigrants
ARE not VERY WELL EDUCATED.
Facilities for Learning offered the Chill
dren Of Peasants.
A oNE.sIDED GOVERNMENT POLICY

WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPATcH.1
Apart from the land question there is no
other in which the Irish people are more in
terested at present than that of education.
This has always been a difficult problem
for the people of that unfortunate country
to solve, and they are apparently as near
the point of solution to-day as they were 90
years ago. Discrimination by thu English
Government in favor of Protestant schools
has done more to engender religious preJu-
dices there than anything else.
The American people wonder, and justly
too, why 1t is that Ireland that boasts of SO
many schools and colleges, so:.many Bishops
and priests whose fame in science, art and
literature has reached to the utmost ends of
the civilized world. should year after year
send away from its shores so many hundreds
of poorly educated people to seek new homes
in a foreign country. To scan the statistics
OF Irish emigration for the past % years no
one u~nacquainted with the country would
suppose that it was a fit place to live in. To
meet some of these unhappy people on their
arrival here and converse with them, one
would naturally suppose that a schoolhouse
was an unknown quantity in the land they
came from.
Great Institutions Of Learning.
1t would be difficult to suppose the exist
ence of Trinity College in Dublin, or the
Catholic University in the same city. How
much more burdensome to the Imagination
would it be to picture a college in Belfast
known as the Queens College, as we'll as
similar institutions bearing the same name
in Galway and Cork; not to mention hum
dreds of smaller but equally as good COL
leges in every diocese in the land. There
are few colleges in America that compare
favorably with Trinity College, Dublin, or
any of the other colleges just mentioned.
And still the quality of the immigration
every year to this country from that little
green isle does not speak we'll for those who
have charge Of educational matters there.
1t must not be forgotten that the people
who are forced to leave Ireland belong to
the poorer classes, and when it is seen how
these people are reared, and what privations
they are compelled to endure to make ends
meet, it would not be wondered at that they
are so sparingly educated; but rather the
wonder would be how they are even able to
read and write.
Schools for the Poor.
When the children of poor Irish parents
are able to articulate distinctly enough to be
understood outside the family circle, they
are sent to the parish school. These schools,
it might be observed here, are not what are
known in America as parochial schools,
though to q certain extent they are under
the care and inspection of the priest in
charge of the parish. They are called ma
tional schools, and are open to Catholics and
non-Catholics alike. For the most part,
however, there are schools for both demon.
nations in each parish.
The priest in charge of the parish has the
privilege of selecting his own principal or
master" as he is called there, and the
master" in turn appoints his own assist
ants. These teachers, to hold their posi-
tons, must pass satisfactory examinations
every six months before a district examin-
ing board whose members are appointed by
the National Board of Education. Should
they fail to come up to the standard re-
quired the parish priest is notified. and he
appoints others In their places. In schools
where boys and girls are gathered together
the teacher in charge Is usually a male
teacher. But it is customary to have
separate rooms for the boys and the same for
the girls, in charge of teachers of their own
sex.
Only q Few Years of School
The children are sent to school very
young, as that is the only time their parents
can ordinarily spare them. OF course there
are many children who get an excellent edu-
cation, but it is of those who get but a smat-
tering of education that this article will
treat. The children whose parents are poor
can get but two or three years at most at
school before they are taken away to help
their father on the farm or herd some more
wealthy neighbours cattle. His parents cir
cumstances demand his services, even though
he gets but two shillings q week. The rent
must be paid twice a year; the house must
be kept up and all the other incidental ex-
penses connected with a home met; and to
do this on two or three acres of land all the
members of the family must be willing to
help.
If the average Irish boy had to depend on
the day schools to teach him how to read and
write he would in many cases be o stranger
to the English language. In the majority
of parishes these schools are open during
the winter evenings, when the attendance in
many instances exceeds that of the day
school. In those parishes where no even
ing instruction is given in the schools the
heads OF families in the parish arrange to
have a teacher go from house to house after
shutdown to give instruction in 'reading,
'riting and 'rIthmetic."
A Sort of Travelling School
The pupils are notified each night where
SCHOOL will be held" the following night,
and the teacher insists upon all the boys
meeting. He carries his own blackboard,
maps and the like with him, and he ex-
plains the 'rule of three" oftener by a
charred stick upon a white wall than by
means of chalk on a blackboard. The resin
candles of years past that threw but very
little light beyond the hearthstone have
given way to oil lamps. though in a good
many places to this day the resin candle,
with its splitting habit, is still as essential as
the three-legged Creepy"
Many a representative man in Ireland to-
day owes his elementary education to the
night schools of his earlier days. Father
Tom Burke, whose name will live in history
as long as history lives, once told the writer
when discussing educational topics that he
first got his Unsuitable thirst for learning
from attending night schools In an old Irish
cabin. The late Bishop Of Kerry, Rt. Rev.
Daniel Mccarthy, was once heard to say
that the boy who attended night school and
persevered would some day make his mark
In the world.
Bishop McCarthy's Example.
Bishop Mccarthy, when a boy, attended
night should whenever he could, and it was
then that he first made up his mind to do his
part. Night after night he walked to the