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Ministers, bishops and the changing balance of power in Irish education 1950–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

John Walsh
John Walsh*
Affiliation:
School of Education, Trinity College, Dublin
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Extract

This study explores how power over primary and post-primary education was contested between a traditional Catholic elite and the Irish state during a period of far-reaching educational reform. The interaction between successive ministers for education and the Catholic bishops was a constant feature of the politics of educational expansion, but it was an uneasy and volatile relationship, which sometimes shaded into hostility. Power was contested between a newlyassertive Department of Education and the clerical managers or religious orders who traditionally controlled the schools. The Catholic Church did not react to policy change as a monolithic entity: divisions emerged within the traditional elite under the strain of adapting to unprecedented policy change, underlined by significant tensions between the bishops and the Catholic managerial authorities. A traditional consensus on the predominance of the Catholic Church in education disappeared, to be replaced by a new balance of power in which the state both contested with traditional stakeholders and collaborated uneasily with them to advance educational reform.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 149 , May 2012 , pp. 108 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2012

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References

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9 I wish to acknowledge the comments of Dr Ciara Breathnach on this point.

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35 Minutes, standing committee, 12 May 1964 (ibid.).

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48 Ibid.

49 ‘School closures unconstitutional, says Dr Browne’, Irish Press, 7 Feb. 1966.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 ‘Minister replies to Bishop’s criticisms’, Irish Press, 7 Feb. 1966.

53 ‘No further comment - Dr Browne’, Irish Press, 8 Feb.1966.

54 ‘Minister replies to bishop’s criticisms’, Irish Press, 7 Feb. 1966.

55 Ibid.

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57 Dáil Éireann deb., ccxx, 1729–31 (16 Feb. 1966).

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82 Hughes to O’Malley, 27 Jan. 1967 (ibid.).

83 Ibid.

84 Summary of points made by the minister to the joint managerial committee, 31 Jan. 1967 (D.D.A., McQuaid Papers, AB8/B/XV/b/05).

85 Ibid.

86 Memorandum by the Catholic managerial committee to the hierarchy, 12 Feb. 1967 (D.D.A., McQuaid Papers, AB8/B/XV/b/05).

87 Hughes to McQuaid, 2 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

88 McQuaid to Hughes, 3 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

89 McQuaid to Fergus, 21 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

90 Ibid.

91 McQuaid to Ó Raifeartaigh, 27 Jan. 1967 (N.A.I., D/T 98/6/144, S.12891F).

92 Meetings of Fr Hughes and Mother Jordana with the Christian Brothers’ major superiors and the major superiors of the other Brothers' institutes, 26 Jan.1967 (D.D.A., McQuaid Papers, AB8/B/XV/b/05).

93 McQuaid to O’Malley, 2 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

94 O’Malley to McQuaid, 7 Feb. 1967; McQuaid to O’Malley, 8 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

95 The minister’s scheme for free education, Feb. 1967, p. 7 (N.A.I., D/T 98/6/144, S.12891F).

96 Seanad Éireann deb., lxii, 1074–1111, (9 Feb. 1967).

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103 Memorandum to the government, 27 June 1967 (N.A.I, D/T 98/6/95).

104 T. Ó Raifeartaigh, note of discussion between O’Malley and Conway, p. 1 (N.A.I., D/T 98/6/144, S.12891F).

105 Ibid., pp.1–2.

106 Memorandum from the Catholic managerial committee to the episcopal commission for post-primary education, 12 Feb. 1967, pp.1–2 (D.D.A., McQuaid Papers, AB8/B/XV/b/05).

107 Ibid., p. 2.

108 Hughes to McQuaid, 17 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

109 The O’Malley scheme, note for the information of the bishops, Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

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112 Hughes to the clerical major superiors, 17 Feb. 1967 (ibid.).

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