The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-04-22
IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

1t is dreary and ungracious task.
( says Mr.. Bryan J. Clinch, writing il
the current number of the American
catholic Quarterly Review. ito have tC
dwell upon the grievances of a people
ana point out how illusory are the pro-
LESSONS of liberality and boasts OF
progress under its rulers; but it is a
interests of truth. Public education In
ireland today is wholly inadequate to
the needs of its people and the cause
lies almost wholly in it's rulers
Inc bulk of the public funds Cfor uni
Versity educationJ are still reserved al
most as fully as during the penal code
Tor classes numbering little over one
fourth of the population of Ireland"
Few things, indeed, more forcibly
strike the student of conditions in Ire
land than the poverty of the university
system open to Catholics. The Royal
University of Ireland, purely an exam
lhing body, governed by the board of
commissioners named by the British
ministry, is little else but a pis aller
and is as far remote from the classic
conception of an ideal university as
the east is from the west, its function
consisting solely in mapping out for
students a curriculum and in conduct
ing examinations on~that curriculum
IL controls funds of the yearly value
OF $I0V,OO0> granted by the government.
| Gut OF this sum some thirty fellows
SeIected by competitive examination,
are paid salaries of $1,000 yearly, fifteen
OF them being assigned to the Catholic
| University college in Dublin, the 9TH
ers to the so-called undenominational
| queens colleges. These Queens col
| Ieges-Galway, Belfast and Cork-de-
| pend on subsidy of some 5000 600 an
| hually, granted for teachers and schol-
arshlps Though, ostensibly, at their
| creation in 1S45 to have been undenofn-
national, their tendency was from the
beginning of a strictly sectarian nature.
and it has remained so till this day,
the teaching staff of each college being
seVen-eighths of it, if not Protestant,
at least non-Catholic. while the num-
Der of Catholic students is distinctly a
minus quantity.
The Catholic university, now Univer-
sity college, Dublin was founded by
the Irish bishops soon after the crea-
ton of the Queens colleges and at the
urgent recommendation of the Synod of
Thurles in 1850, 1t depended for its
support on the bounty of the people of
Ireland and till 1877 collected for it's
maintenance some $40, 600 annually. De-
spite its lack of means. it attracted
many students, and from the date of
It's practical Incorporation in 1882 with |
the other government colleges under |
the aegis of the newly founded Royal !
University of Ireland. it proved an
overwhelming superiority over the |
queens institution in point of view
OF intellect and numbers-so much So |
in truth, as to attract many non-Cath- |
olic students TO its courses At this day |
IT attracts five-siXths of Irish Catholic |
students, to say nothing of a large num-
Der of on-Catholics. The relative num-
Der of students in the Catholic univer- |
sity, as against those in the three non |
sectarfan colleges, is about four to five. |
Says Mr.. Clinch, in demonstrating the |
comparative progress of the colleges:
From the returns of the Royal uni
versity during the ten years ending
with 1909 it appears that 1850 distinc-
tons of all kinds were won by the four
colleges. OF these Cork gained sixty
five, Galway $50, Belfast $50 and the
Catholic university 704. Those distinc-
tions are of two grades of merit, known
as first and second. OF the first or
highest 34S were divided by the three
state institutions and 374 taken by the
Catholic college. Among the first-class
distinctions special class is given to
the bachelor scholarships, the student
ships for masters of arts and what are
known as first ?class honors prizes for |
exceptionally high answering at the
second and first year examinations. OF
these in all twenty-five were awarded
during ten years. Fifteen were taken
by Catholic university students. and
seven by the three non-sectarian col
leges. The latter combined also won
twenty-nine scholarships and thirteen
studentships. University college. with
four-fifths of the number of their stu
dents, took thirty of the former and
fourteen of the latter Two special stu
dentships in biological science were Of
fered during the ten years and both
were taken by Catholic students. They
also carried off six of the eight special
gold medals offered for English prose
and Latin verse. 1t may be added that
this years examinations show four stu
awarded, the subjects being
classics, mathematics. experimental
science and mental and moral science.
All four were won by students Of the
Catholic University college
Let US note, in passing, the different .
position of Trinity college. Dublin
The students of Trinity are drawn al
most exclusively from a class limited
TO one-eighth of the population of Ire
Iand-a class, it may be saidfi. almost
wholly hostile to Irish national aspira
lions. Its buildings, gardens and rural
estates are valued close on $4,000, 900,
Of s10,000.000 Independently of stu
tents ices lit has an income of about
100000 yearly. The authorities form a
close corporation with a provost and
eight seniors fellows at its head It's
membership is recruited b yarhitrary
,o-option During three centuries one
Catholic has been elected to a junior
ellowship
Over this hugely endowed academy, ;
Is well as over the queens college. the 5
Catholic Universit has triumphed in :
ooint of view of scholarship of a
ligh intellectual kind. This fact is
'rimful of eloquence. 1t shoys that
Ireland has not lost her traditional :
lai INTO be called a land productive of s
cholars-given the OCCASION: shows I
hat she is equally determined to fore
20 any university education which is
ikely to sap her original beliefs-name- .
y, the teaching Of a n-Catholic. not -
o say an anti-Catholic. university. It
'roves further that, as Mr.. Church \
ays "the spirit which sways the bulk z
f Irish Catholics today in the matter !
f education seems precisely the same K
S made their grandfathers accept po- X
tical acknowledgements than the T
Established church. The policy of gov :
rnment that refuses them equality in | e
EDUCATIONAL funds is exactly the same x
S that which refused them share in x
representation seventy {
We years ago."