The Church of Ireland’s Response to Changes in the National School Curriculum in Post-independence Ireland 1922–1940

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Irish Free State as the church attempted to adapt to the new state’s curricular priorities which centred on the revival of the Irish language as the spoken language of the people. In this context, the chapter examines the church’s attempts to deal with the content of school textbooks, the position of Church of Ireland schools located in counties located along the border with Northern Ireland and the difficulty of transporting its pupils to its scattered network of schools. It also examines the impact of the establishment by the state in 1927 of Coláiste Moibhí, a Church of Ireland managed but state-funded college which used the Irish language as an exclusive teaching medium.