Abstract
When he gave his first speech as Resident Commissioner in February 1900, William Starkie emphasized what he considered was a glaring need for the co-ordination of Irish education and for operations to take place along democratic lines. In another speech two years later to the British Association in Belfast, he developed his arguments on those matters. That was at a time when, under the guidance of British civil servants, most notably Sir Robert Morant, the restructuring of education administration was a live issue in England and led to the passing of education Acts in 1899 and 1902. Starkie was aware of the advances being made in England and concurred with the administrative cohesion achieved there brought about by the passing of the 1902 Act. By contrast, the machinery of Irish government at the turn of the century was, as one observer commented, a hotch-potch of departments, boards, and offices. The administration of national and intermediate education was no exception and the reorganization of education management as currently being designed in England was desired by many, including the Resident Commissioner. This chapter is concerned with the action he took to put his desires into action.
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Notes
- 1.
W. J. M. Starkie, Recent Reforms in Irish Education Primary and Secondary with a View to Their Co-ordination (Dublin: Blackie, 1902), p. 24.
- 2.
The 1902 Act established a Board of Education, a central administrative agency, that supervised the three branches of education. Under the Act a consultative council was also founded and a register of teachers commenced.
- 3.
T. West., op. cit., p. 60.
- 4.
The English 1902 Bill, while not enacted at this stage was, because of parliamentary negotiations held during the summer, guaranteed success.
- 5.
W. J. M. Starkie, Recent Reforms in Irish Education Primary and Secondary with a View to Their Co-ordination, op. cit., p. 3.
- 6.
W. J. M. Starkie’, op. cit., p. 6. Starkie exhibited a broad knowledge of education developments in England.
- 7.
Ibid., p. 31.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 35.
- 9.
Ibid., pp. 31–32.
- 10.
Ibid., p. 34.
- 11.
This system, unlike that in England, would be separate from the national school system and would form an alternative to the church-administered intermediate schools.
- 12.
Ibid., p. 34.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 35.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 24.
- 15.
Ibid., pp. 37–38.
- 16.
Reference to Starkie’s handling of issues by Dr. Wilson, member of the National Board, SP 9210 b., 5 February 1902.
- 17.
On his death bed, neither William Starkie nor his family received the quality of consolation or sympathy usually extended by an attending clergyman. The priest in attendance, contrary to the traditions of the time, refused to partake in the proffered beverage and berated May Starkie for not sending for him sooner, while her husband was still conscious. Was this priest still harbouring memories of the notorious ‘attack on the clergy’ of some 20 years previously, or was he irked that Starkie had been denied the opportunity to repent his abuse of the Catholic Church? It appears that despite his regular observance of church ceremonies, Starkie retained his anti-church reputation until his death.
- 18.
That association became known as the Catholic Primary School Managers’ Association (CPSMA).
- 19.
Catholic Clerical School Managers’ Association: Minute Book, Russell Library, Maynooth, 17 November 1903.
- 20.
Catholic Clerical Managers’ Association: Minute Book, Resolution passed at the inaugural meeting of the Association, 17 November 1903.
- 21.
SP 9202 no. 182, Foley to Starkie, 13 February 1903.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Catholic Clerical Managers’ Association: Minute Book, 5 June 1906, p. 61.
- 24.
J. Curry, ‘Dr. Starkie and the Catholic Clerical National School Managers of Ireland, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 13, January–June 1903: 289–316.
- 25.
Rev. M. O’Riordan. A Reply to Dr. Starkie’s Attack on the Managers of National Schools (Dublin: M. H. Gill and the Leader, 1903).
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid., pp. 17–18.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 31.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
SP 9210 c., 30 November 1903.
- 31.
SP 9209 no. 414, 4 December 1919.
- 32.
Ibid., no. 72, 17 May 1901. “His Grace” is an obvious reference to Dr. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin.
- 33.
Ibid., no. 254, 24 June 1901 by Philip Hanson. Philip Hanson was a secretary at Dublin Castle.
- 34.
SP 9210 c., 10 March 1903. This was the draft of a letter written to Wyndham but which he never despatched.
- 35.
Another member of the Board Lord Morris and Killanin, who was appointed to the board in 1868, died 10 September 1901. Professor Dowden (appointed 1896) resigned his seat on the Board in 1901, and Sir Malcolm Inglis (appointed 1887) retired from the board because of ill-health. In all, five members of the Board either resigned or died during 1901. The Sixty-Eighth Report of the CNEI 1901 [cd. 1198] H. C. 1902, p. 43.
- 36.
Established by William O’Brien in January 1900, the United Irish League had 393 branches and a membership of 46,000. Within three months that had increased to 462 branches with a membership ranging between 60,000 (minimum) and 80,000 (maximum). By the summer its strength had mushroomed to 989 branches with 98,400 members.
- 37.
SP 9210 c., 10 March 1903.
- 38.
The Seventieth Report of the CNEI for 1903, p. 4; The Seventy-second Report of the CNEI for 1905–1906.
- 39.
Á. Hyland, ‘Educational Innovation—A Case History’.
- 40.
W. J. M. Starkie, Statement of Evidence to the Vice-Regal Commission of Inquiry 1913, p. 21.
- 41.
Appendix to Second Report of the Dill Committee.
- 42.
The Building Committee had sat on 3, 4, 5 and 8 September and Starkie made his speech on 11 September 1902.
- 43.
The report of the Committee on Building Grants was suppressed and the Committee did not receive any support from the executive or the Treasury on its recommendations. The Seventieth Report of the CNEI for 1903.
- 44.
SP 9210 e., 3 June 1918.
- 45.
Hyland, Á. ‘An Analysis of the Administration and Financing of….Education in Ireland’, p. 235.
- 46.
Quoted in Á. Hyland, Á and K. Milne (eds.)., op cit., p. 157.
- 47.
Ibid., p. 155.
- 48.
Second Report of the Dill Committee, p. 350.
- 49.
CSORP, 1904, 10,032. Memo on Mr. F. Dale’s Report from A. P. MacDonnell to Wyndham: “The Development Grant is by origin an educational grant, and if the prior lien on it created by the Land Purchase Act of last year is satisfied, Education must be admitted to have the next permanent claim on its resources.”
- 50.
P 9201, no. 389, 14 July 1912.
- 51.
W. J. M. Starkie, The History of Irish … Education During the Last Decade, p. 6.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Á. Hyland. ‘An Analysis of the Administration and Financing of Primary and Secondary Education’, p. 243.
- 54.
W. J. M. Starkie, The History of Irish….Education During the Last Decade, p. 4.
- 55.
SP 9209 no. 266, 7 March 1903. Letter from Philip Hanson at Dublin Castle to Starkie. Hanson was referring to the report and recommendations of the School Building Committee.
- 56.
Ibid.
- 57.
W. J. M. Starkie. The History of Irish….Education During the Last Decade, p. 4.
- 58.
SP 9210 c., Finis. A recapitulation of the happenings of the year entered into his diary immediately after his entry for 31 December 1903.
- 59.
SP 9212 11 October 1918.
- 60.
SP 9210 c., 3 December 1903.
- 61.
Ibid., 2 December 1903.
- 62.
Ibid., 21 December 1903. Dougherty was an official at the Treasury.
- 63.
SP 9210 c., 11 November 1903.
- 64.
Ibid.
- 65.
Second Report to the Dill Committee, p. 291.
- 66.
W. J. M. Starkie, The History of Irish….Education During the Last Decade, p. 1.
- 67.
C. B. Shannon., op. cit., p. 129.
- 68.
SP 9210 c., 10 March 1903.
- 69.
Ibid.
- 70.
SP. 9210 c., 10 March 1903.
- 71.
Ibid.
- 72.
Ibid., 11 March 1903.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Ibid., 27 March 1903.
- 75.
Ibid., Finis, 31 December 1903.
- 76.
SP 9209, no. 600, ‘Statement of the Facts Connected with the Appointment of Mr. Dilworth as Secretary in Place of Mr. Hamilton Resigned’. n.d.
- 77.
O’Donovan, P. J., ‘The National School Inspectorate and its Administrative Context in Ireland, 1870–1962.’
- 78.
SP 9210 c., March 1903.
- 79.
Ibid., 2 December 1903.
- 80.
Irish School Weekly, 28 May 1904; SP 9202 no. 194, 24 March 1905, Letter from Bishop Foley to Starkie in which he acknowledged that “it cost £17,000 to administer £70,000.”
- 81.
W. J. M. Starkie., Recent Reforms in Irish Education, p. 15.
- 82.
SP 9201, no. 266, 7 March 1903.
- 83.
W. J. M. Starkie, The History of Irish….Education During the Last Decade, p. 6.
- 84.
Ibid., p. 5.
- 85.
Ibid., p. 7.
- 86.
Seventieth Report of the CNEI for the year 1903, pp. 4–5. This report bears the date 1905 as its publication was “suppressed, although Home Rule was not mention in it, because we made some comments on Mr. Wyndham’s stopping of the building grant.” Second Report of the Dill Committee, p. 369.
- 87.
Ibid., p.5.
- 88.
Seventy-first Report of the CNEI for the Year 1904, pp. 22–23.
- 89.
Ibid.
- 90.
Ibid., p. 294. During this period the vote for primary education increased from £1,287,943 to £1,390,833.
- 91.
Seventy-second Report of the CNEI for the year 1905–6, p. 11.
- 92.
Á. Hyland, ‘An Analysis of the Administration and Financing of Primary and Secondary Education’.
- 93.
Ibid., p. 262.
- 94.
The Seventy-fourth Report of the CNEI for the Year 1907–08, p. 5.
- 95.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 96.
The grant, valued at £120,000 per annum, was never committed in total to educational developments.
- 97.
W. J. M. Starkie, The History of Irish….Education During the Last Decade, p. 6.
- 98.
Ibid., p. 24.
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Hyland, Á. ‘An Analysis of the Administration and Financing of National and Secondary Education in Ireland, 1850–1922’ (TCD, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, 1982).
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O’Doherty, T., O’Donoghue, T. (2021). Attempts to Influence Government Policy. In: Radical Reform in Irish Schools, 1900-1922. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74282-9_4
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