The Irish standard., 1917-05-12
SOME REAL EARLY
SCHOOL MASTERS OF
IRISH NATIONALITY

The Part Played by Them In the Pho
neer Times-History Of Generous
and Heroic Deeds Is One Of Special
Interest-spIendid Type of Teacher
that Carried Much knowledge to
Americas Shores.
In these days of inquiry into, the
history of the Irish pioneers in Amer
lea there is no feature of this subject
more appropriate for research, yet
none so much neglected, as that of
Ireland's contribution to early Ameri-
can education. While the part played
by the "Exiles from Erin" during the
period of the Colonial and Revolution
airy wars is now being related with
more or less precision and particular
ity, as yet no friendly hand had gar
nered the memorials of the Irish
schoolmasters of colonial times who
helped to lay the foundation of our
system OF publication education.
1t is much to be regretted that some
competent historian did not undertake
this task many years ago, for in the
lapse of time and in the neglect of
opportunity, events which should have
been preserved can now hardly be
given with historical confidence, hard
ly even as tradition. But, though
much has persisted, many sources of
information still remain; and in this
hitherto unexplored mine of historical
facts the writer has occasionally
delved for those golden nuggets"
which have so long been hidden from
the knowledge of the general reading
public.
The history of the Irish schoolmas-
ter in the American colonies is one
that is filled with special interest,
and, from my knowledge of the sub
ject, believe it is one that should take
the place of primary Importance in
reviewing the story of Irish achieve
ment in this country. In that
land Of misfortune and travail, where,
Crouch meath the sheltering hedge or
stretched on mountain fern, the teach
er and his pupils met, feloniously to
learn" it is not to be wondered at
that the schoolmaster became wan
derer and an outlaw, and the marvel
of it all is that so many of them sur
vived to join in after years that apos-
tleship of teachers who trained the
youth of the American colonies to I'M
derstand better the blessing of liberty
and independence.
1t is related that on one OCCASION,
when member of the English house
of lords tauntingly referred to the
Irish peasants as rude and ignorant"
Lord Byron promptly answered, and
with all the bitter sarcasm for which
he was noted: AYE, we'll may you
call them ignorant, my lord, when you
burn the schoolhouse and hang the
schoolmaster!" The pithy reply from
a generous Englishman was the quin-
tessence of the story of the Irish
schoolmaster in his own country dur
ing the time of the penal laws-a
piece of legislation described by Ed
mund Burke as lone of the most
frjghtful engines of oppression that
the perverted ingenuity of man could
conceive"
This 1rish-American teacher stands
out as a splendid type of "the early
Irish Schoolmaster" and, with all pro.
priety, he surely may be ranked among
the Fathers of the Republic. AS an
historical writer has so pithily ex-
pressed it: HE was the father of
a governor of New Hampshire, and of
a governor of Massachusetts, of an
attorney general of New Hampshire
and Massachusetts, of New Hamp-
shire's only major general in the Con-
army, of the first judge ap-
pointed by Washington in New Hamp-
shire and of four sons who were Off
GERS in the Continental army. He was
of an attorney general of |
New Hampshire, of a governor of |
Maine and of United States senator !
from Maine. He was great-grand- |
father of an attorney general of New
and great-grandfather Of
an officer in the Thirteenth New
regiment in the Civil War;"
Such was the Irish schoolmaster,
John Sullivan, from the city of the
Broken Treaty. Banned in his native
country and driven across the seas by
English oppression, he lighted the
orch of learning in the western CONT
nent and thus forged a link in the
chain which binds America to Ireland ]