Abstract
Commissioner Starkie had no great interest in the cultural nationalist movement that took place in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century and that was associated intimately with interest in the Irish language and Irish history. On his appointment to the National Board, though, he became aware that English was very much the language of instruction in quite a number of schools in districts where Irish was the first language of pupils and he considered that to be unsound pedagogically. He was also aware of the lack of emphasis on the Irish language for the majority of pupils around the country and he expressed a desire that on grounds of patriotism the situation should be changed. In addition, during the year of his appointment he could not escape turning his mind to those matters even if he wished not to, as the status of Irish in schools was the subject of prolonged and heated debate at the Palles Commission (1899). In particular, he was aware of the evidence given by such international scholars as Dr. Alfred Nutt, President of the Folklore Society in England, Professor E. C. Stern of Berlin, Dr. Ernst Windisch of Leipzig, and Professor Kuno Meyer of Liverpool, presented to the commission by Douglas Hyde. This chapter is concerned with subsequent developments taken by the National Board to promote the Irish language throughout the nation’s national schools.
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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. 10.
- 2.
W. J. M. Starkie. Address Delivered on the Occasion of the Distribution of Prizes at the Albert Model Farm, Glasnevin, on 19 February 1900, SP 9210 a/5, p. 2.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Second Report of the Dill Committee, p. 341.
- 5.
W. J. M. Starkie, Recent Reforms in Irish Education Primary and Secondary with a View to their Co-ordination, p. 26.
- 6.
In 1879 Irish was recognized as an extra subject for fees, to be taught after school hours. A further concession was given in 1883, when Irish was permitted as an ordinary school subject provided it did not interfere with the general work of the school. The following year permission was granted to use Irish as the medium of instruction in Irish-speaking areas, as an aid to the elucidation of English. Despite such developments there was a great timidity among teachers and managers to apply these rules, and Irish was taught in only 88 schools out of a total of 8684 national schools operating in 1900. See S. Ó Buachalla, (ed.) The Letters of P. H. Pearse (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1980).
- 7.
Fees would be paid at a rate of ten shillings per pupil for mathematics and Irish, and a rate of five shillings per pupil was agreed for the other subjects.
- 8.
Cited in S. Ó Buachalla (ed.), A Significant Irish Educationalist, pp. 23–24.
- 9.
W. J. M. Starkie, Recent Reforms in Irish Education, p. 26.
- 10.
Second Report of the Dill Commission.
- 11.
D. Miller, Church, State and Nation in Ireland, p. 38. Maynooth College re-established a chair of Irish in 1891 and it produced a steady stream of language enthusiasts among the younger clergy. See J. Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish Nation State (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987).
- 12.
R. Dudley Edwards, Pádraig Pearse: The Triumph of Failure (Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1990).
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
D. W. Miller, op. cit., p. 36.
- 15.
J. Hutchinson, op. cit.
- 16.
D. W. Miller, op. cit., p. 37.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 37.
- 18.
Second Report of the Dill Commission, p. 289.
- 19.
SP 9209 no. 22, Dr. John H. Bernard to Starkie. Undated but makes reference to the last Board Meeting as being on 28 August 1900.
- 20.
Second Report of the Dill Commission, p. 289.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 341.
- 22.
R. Dudley Edwards, R. op. cit., p. 39.
A contemporary ballad contained the following verse:
Verse
Verse The Irish language, Mahaffy said. Is a couple of books written clerkly. A dirty word in a song or two. ‘Matter a damn’ says Berkeley.
Although he spoke several languages, including Greek, Latin, French, and German, there is no indication that Starkie considered learning Irish. - 23.
Second Report of the Dill Committee, p. 329.
- 24.
Ibid., p. 341.
- 25.
P. Ó. Fearaíl, The Story of Conradh na Gaeilge (Dublin: Clódhanna Teo., 1975).
- 26.
It could be that May and William Starkie attend Alexandra College in April 1902, when Kuno Meyer delivered the Margaret Stokes Memorial lecture. As close friends of the principal, Dr. Mulvany, and as past student and member of staff, respectively, the Starkies usually supported the activities of the college at which their daughters were enrolled.
- 27.
P. Pearse. “The New Coisde Gnótha: its work.” An Claidheamh Soluis, 9 May 1903.
- 28.
R. Dudley Edwards. op. cit. At the Palles Commission on Intermediate Education, of the 14 contributors who suggested that Irish be deleted from the Intermediate curriculum or that at least the marks assigned to it be reduced, five of them were professors at Trinity College. The most famous of the dissenters was John Pentland Mahaffy, close friend of Starkie.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
P. Pearse. “Bilingual education!” 23 April 1904, cited by S. Ó. Buachalla, A Significant Irish Educationist, p. 43.
- 31.
SP 9209 no. 183, Bishop Foley to Starkie, 4 June 1905.
- 32.
SP 9209 no. 370, Starkie to Sir A. MacDonnell, 18 March 1904.
- 33.
In 1901 Irish was taught as an extra subject in 109 schools to 4092 pupils, earning £955 in fees. By 1905 Irish was being taught in 1204 schools to 24,918 pupils, and the fees paid had increased to £12,000. Seventy-second Report of the CNEI for the year 1905–06, p. 2; An Claidheamh Soluis, 23 March 1907.
- 34.
D. W. Miller., op. cit., p. 132.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Seventy-second Report of the CNEI for the year 1905–06, p. 20; Appendix to the Second Report of the Dill Commission.
- 37.
An Claidheamh Soluis, 23 March 1907.
- 38.
Ibid., p. 127.
- 39.
An Claidheamh Soluis, 25 May 1907.
- 40.
An Claidheamh Soluis.
- 41.
SP 9209 no. 58, 30 June1906, Starkie to Bryce, Chief Secretary.
- 42.
Ibid., no. 102, 29 May 1906, W. M. Davies at the Irish Office in London to Starkie.
- 43.
Ibid., no. 108, 19 July 1907, telegram from Starkie to the Irish Office in London.
- 44.
Anthony Traill, Provost of Trinity, appointed 1901; Frederick Fitzgerald appointed 1902; Rev. David Taylor appointed 1902; Lord Killanin appointed 1904; Bishop Foley appointed 1905; Edward Gwynn appointed 1905; Gerald Dease appointed 1905; Mr. Justice Ross appointed 1905.
- 45.
Seventy-second report of the CNEI for the year 1905–06, p. 21.
- 46.
C. Ó hAodha, “Bilingualism” as an objective in Education in Ireland 1893–1941 (Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1982).
- 47.
Ibid. By the year 1921 Irish was being taught as an “extra” subject in 1879 schools, earning fees of £20,576, while 239 schools were teaching the Bilingual Programme, receiving £6869 in fees.
- 48.
Ibid. The first of those summer Irish colleges conducted by the League for the purpose of training teachers in Irish were established in 1902 and received recognition and financial aid from the National Board in 1906. Twenty per cent of the full teaching force were recognized as qualified to teach Irish as an ordinary or extra subject in 1910. By 1921 the number of recognized colleges had reached 23 and 3100 of their trainees qualified to teach Irish.
- 49.
Second Report of the Dill Committee.
- 50.
D. Fitzpatrick, “The futility of history: a failed experiment in Irish education,” in Ideology and the Historians, C. Brady, (ed.) (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1991), p. 169.
- 51.
Ibid., p. 172.
- 52.
Appendix to the Sixty-eighth Report of the CNEI for the year 1901, p. 27.
- 53.
Appendix to the Sixty-ninth Report of the CNEI for the year 1902, p. 59. Mr. McElwaine reporting on the Ballinasloe Circuit.
- 54.
P. W. Joyce, A Child’s History of Ireland (Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1903), pp. v–vi.
- 55.
SP 9211, 31 May 1918.
- 56.
MCNEI 1916 pp. 323–325; MCNEI 1917 pp. 67–68, 145, 156–158, 402.
- 57.
SP 9211, 14 April 1918.
- 58.
SP 9209 d., 3 October 1917.
- 59.
SP 9202 no. 220, 21 September 1908, Bishop Foley to Starkie.
- 60.
W. Starkie., op. cit.
- 61.
SP 9210 d., 16 January and 1 January 1918, respectively.
- 62.
SP 9211.
- 63.
SP 9210 d., 28 February 1917.
- 64.
Ibid., 19 February 1918.
- 65.
SP 9211, 16 June 1918.
- 66.
Ibid., 24 June 1918.
- 67.
Ibid., 3 April 1918.
- 68.
Ibid., 22 June 1918.
- 69.
Obituary, Irish Times, 22 July 1920.
- 70.
Ibid., 13 November 1917.
- 71.
SP 9211, 11 April 1918.
- 72.
Starkie, E., op. cit., pp. 307–308.
- 73.
T. de Vere White. The Anglo-Irish: The Men and Women who were Involved in a Confluence of Cultures that Spanned 200 Years (London: Victor Gollancz, 1972), p. 194. This comment was made with particular reference to William, Walter and Enid Starkie.
- 74.
SP 9210 d., 3 April 1917.
- 75.
SP 9211, 4 April 1918.
- 76.
SP 9210 d., 26 February 1918.
- 77.
SP 9211, 4 April 1918.
- 78.
Ibid.
- 79.
Ibid., 11 April 1918.
- 80.
SP 9210 d., 28 February 1918.
- 81.
SP 9211, 22 May 1918.
- 82.
SP 9211, 23 April 1918.
- 83.
Ibid., 24 May 1918.
- 84.
Ibid., 21 April 1918.
- 85.
Ibid., 23 April 1918.
- 86.
Letter from Patrick Greene, Ballinalee, Co. Longford, 17 July 1995.
- 87.
Starkie, M. What is Patriotism? (London: HMSO, 1916), p. 4.
- 88.
Ibid., p. 5.
- 89.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 90.
Ibid., p. 9.
- 91.
Ibid., p. 15.
- 92.
Ibid.
- 93.
Ibid., p. 16.
- 94.
The Irish Times, Letter from Rev. James Sheridan, Banagher, 10 August 1916.
- 95.
The Irish Times 5 July 1916 and 19 August 1916, respectively. The latter was a letter from William Corkey, Belfast, to which Bonaparte-Wyse replied, “The Commissioners have no objection to the display and use of the Union Jack in the manner and for the purpose specified in your letter.”.
- 96.
Freeman’s Journal, 7 August 1916. Mrs. Proudie is a reference to the bishop’s wife in Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire novels.
- 97.
Ibid.
- 98.
Ibid.
- 99.
Irish Times, 5 July 1916.
- 100.
SP 9211, 19 May 1918.
- 101.
Ibid., 20 June 1918.
- 102.
Miller, D. W., op. cit., p. 330.
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O’Doherty, T., O’Donoghue, T. (2021). The Inclusion of the Irish Language and Irish History in Primary Schools. In: Radical Reform in Irish Schools, 1900-1922. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74282-9_7
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