1 So called by Richard A. Blake, one of the two Catholic commissioners, in evidence, Report from the select committee of the house of commons on education in Ireland, p. 307, H.C. 1835, (630–1), xiii.

2 ’ Letter from the secretary for Ireland to his grace the Duke of Leinster, on the formation of a board of education ’, H.C. 1831–2, (196), xxix. Published also in the Dublin Gazette of 6 and again of 18 Nov. 1831 (and not, as stated in the board's minute of 24 April 1834, in the issue of 5 December 1831). Published, with discrepancies from the official version, in the commissioners’ early reports. For the explanation, by Carlile, one of the commissioners, that these discrepancies were ‘ variations [that] were made in the letter when it was passing through the office [of the national board] ’ see p. 55, H.C. 1837, (485), ix, and for a list of the discrepancies see pp. 23–5, H.C. 1870, (c. 6), xxviii.

There is some doubt as to whether the day of the month was entered on the original, for which see Report from the select committee of the house of lords on the plan of education in Ireland, pp. 28–30, H.C. 1837, (543–I) viii. Even at that time the autograph letter was apparently not available.

3 The reference was to a government commission of inquiry into Irish educational foundations that sat from 1809 to 1812, namely, Report from the commissioners of the board of education in Ireland, pursuant to act 46 Geo. 3, c. 122; xiv, View of the chief foundations, with some general remarks, H.C. 1812–13, (21), vi.

4 This society, founded in 1811 ‘for the promoting of the education of the poor in Ireland ’ and usually, from the site of its school in Dublin, called the Kildare Place Society, had since 1815 been in receipt of a substantial annual state grant for distribution to schools on the basis mentioned by Stanley. The attendance of Catholic children at schools in connection with it shrank greatly in the 1820s as it became known that the society awarded portion of its annual grant to avowedly proselytising schools ( Barry O'Brien, R., Fifty years of concessions to Ireland, i. 121 Google Scholar). For the story of the Kildare Place Society and the case for it, see H. Kingsmill Moore, An unwritten chapter in the history of education.

5 ’ Mixed education ’ was the term given to the education in the same school of pupils of different denominations. For a very clear exposition of the principle upon which Catholic objection to ‘ mixed education ’ is based, see Rev. McGrath, Fergal, Newman's university: idea and reality, pp. 22–3Google Scholar.

6 Published in the first report of the commissioners. See also Fitzpatrick, , Life, times and correspondence of the Right Rev. Dr Doyle, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin; i. 10; ii. 344Google Scholar.

7 See Carlile's letter to The Times of 20 August 1853. See also Report from the select committee of the house of lords on the new plan of education in Ireland, p. 16, H.C. 1837, (543–I), viii, where the Stanley letter is described as the board's ‘ constitution ’

8 There were a number of other points of policy of which they did not approve, but their objection in principle went deeper than any single point involved. Rev Dr Henry Cooke, their ablest and most distinguished spokesman, while admitting the will of the parents, directly expressed, and Christian charity, as far as it could act without surrender of principle, as limits to the use of the bible in school, declared : ‘ But any such limiting powers to kings, parliaments or boards, clergy or patrons, or committees I utterly and determinately deny ’ ( Porter, J. L., Life and times of Henry Cooke p. 216 Google Scholar).

9 N.L.I., Minutes of the national board.

9a The rules and directions concerned were:—

No. 1. The ordinary school business, during which all the children, of whatever denomination they be, are required to attend, and which is expected to embrace a competent number of hours in each day, is to consist exclusively of instruction in those branches of knowledge which belong to literary and moral education. Such extracts from the scriptures as are prepared under the sanction of the board may be used, and are earnestly recommended by the board to be used during these hours allotted to this ordinary school business.

No. 2. One day in each week (independently of Sunday) is to be set apart for religious instruction of the children, on which day such pastors or other persons as are approved of by the parents or guardians of the children, shall have access to them for that purpose whether those pastors have signed the original application or not.

No. 3. The managers of schools are also expected, should the parents of any of the children desire it, to afford convenient opportunity and facility for the same purpose, either before or after the ordinary school business (as the managers may determine), on the other days of the week.

No. 4. Any arrangement of this description that may be made, is to be publicly notified in the schools, in order that those children, and those only, may be present at their religious instruction, whose parents or guardians approve of their being so.

No. 5. The reading of the scriptures, either in the authorised or Douay version, is regarded as a religious exercise, and as such to be confined to those hours set apart for religious instruction. The same regulation is also to be observed respecting prayer.

10 Report from the select committee to inquire into the progress of the new plan of education in Ireland, p. 26, H.C. 1837, (485), ix.

11 Ibid., p. 102.

12 Ibid., p. 103.

13 Porter, J. L., Life of Cooke, p. 221 Google Scholar.

14 This had been the position up to 1833, when, on account of some abuses that had occurred, the rule had been altered.

15 Report from the select committee appointed to inquire into the new plan of education in Ireland, p. 71, H.C. 1837, (485), ix.

17 Ibid., p. 22.

18 Ibid., p. 467.

19 The ‘ assistance ’ was not a building grant, but a grant of salary and free books.

20 See Report from the select committee of the house of lords appointed to inquire into the practical working of the system of national education in Ireland, p. 737, H.C. 1854, (525–i), xv, where Cooke spoke of young inspectors as ‘ not knowing our [the synod's] privileges ’ At that committee (ibid., pp. 1146–1159, (525–ii)) Henry, the presbyterian commissioner, listed the eight presbyterian points of objection to the national system and explained how six of these [including the one in question] had been conceded by the board. Similarly, Archbishop Whately of the established church, who had been a commissioner of national education from 1831 to 1852, there stated that the board had no concern whatsoever in the matter and that it was for the parent to attend at the school daily, if necessary, to ensure that his child was not present during religious instruction of which the parent did not approve for him.

Henry in his evidence made the extraordinary claim that Blake had averred in his presence that it had never been in the mind of the board that the onus of excluding pupils from religious instruction of a different denomination should devolve on the school authorities, and that Archbishop Murray had likewise said that he personally could not in conscience be a party to such exclusion, this being a matter for the parent. Blake and Archbishop Murray were then dead and some remarks they may have made in the sense of not being a party to such exclusion where the parents desired otherwise may have been misapprehended.

20a That the rule here discussed as to attendance or not of Catholic pupils at protestant religious instruction was not a mere abstract or speculative matter is clear from the evidence of Cooke and Stopford at the house of lords’ select committee of 1854, where Cooke stated that, as far as he knew, Catholic pupils at presbyterian schools always remained for the bible class, and Stopford claimed that in the national school under his charge the seven or eight Catholic pupils invariably remained for religious instruction, which, he said, consisted in ‘ reading and teaching the scripture ’

21 Henry, the commissioner who had been the intermediary in the board's compromise of 1840 with the synod, was later to be appointed first president of Queen's College, Belfast.