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Children's Literature Collections pp 165–182Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Kildare Place Society and the Beginnings of Formal Education in Ireland

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Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature ((CRACL))

Abstract

The Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland was founded in Dublin in 1811. It was commonly known as the Kildare Place Society from the location of its headquarters in the city. The aim of the Society was to provide a ‘well-ordered education’ for the poorer classes in Ireland. One of its most successful ventures was the publication of school books, in particular its two popular text books The Dublin Spelling Book (1813) and The Dublin Reading Book (1819), as well as its library readers of the 1820s. When the National School system was set up in 1831 its National Lesson Books were closely based on the pioneer publications of the Kildare Place Society.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    First report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland (Dublin, 1811).

  2. 2.

    S.M. Parkes, Kildare Place: a history of the Church of Ireland Training College and College of Education, 1811–2010, 2nd edn (Dublin, 2011); H. Hislop, ‘The Kildare Place Society: an Irish experiment in popular education’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Dublin, 1990. In October 2016, the Church of Ireland College of Education was incorporated into Dublin City University and its library collections transferred to DCU Library.

  3. 3.

    D. Salmon (ed.), The practical parts of Lancaster’s improvements and Bell’s experiment (Cambridge, 1932).

  4. 4.

    Parkes, Kildare Place, pp. 17–36.

  5. 5.

    G. FitzGerald, Irish primary education in the early nineteenth century (Dublin, 2013), p. 54.

  6. 6.

    Twelfth report of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland (Dublin, 1824), Appendix VI; D. Raftery and S.M. Parkes (eds), Female education in Ireland, 1700–1900, Minerva or Madonna? (Dublin, 2007), pp. 5–32.

  7. 7.

    Commissioners of National Education of Ireland (CNEI) published a series of five graded lesson books that formed the basic curriculum of national schools from the 1830s.

  8. 8.

    D.H. Akenson, The Irish education experiment: the national system of education in Ireland in the nineteenth century (London, 1970).

  9. 9.

    The two Penal Laws proscribing Catholic education had been repealed in 1782 and 1793. See T. Bartlett, The fall and the rise of the Irish nation: the Catholic question, 1690–1830 (Dublin, 1992); S.J. Connolly, Religion, law and power: the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660–1760 (Oxford, 1992).

  10. 10.

    A. McManus, The Irish hedge school and its books, 1695–1831 (Dublin, 2002). A wide range of textbooks were used in the hedge schools and a full list was printed in an appendix to the report of the 1825 Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry.

  11. 11.

    For a review of the books used in hedge schools, see McManus, Irish hedge school, pp. 135–69.

  12. 12.

    McManus, Irish hedge school.

  13. 13.

    M. Pollard, Dublin’s trade in books, 1550–1800 (Oxford, 1989); C. Benson and S. Fitzpatrick, That woman!—studies in Irish bibliography: a Festschrift for Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard (Dublin, 2005).

  14. 14.

    H. Hislop, ‘Kildare Place Society chapbooks: curriculum and Irish identity, 1811–1831’ in Susan M. Parkes (ed.), Education and national identity: the Irish diaspora (Aspects of Education, 54) (Hull, 1997).

  15. 15.

    J. Shefrin, The Dartons: publishers of educational aids, pastimes & juvenile ephemera, 1787–1876 (Los Angeles, 2009).

  16. 16.

    Dublin spelling book, p. 1.

  17. 17.

    Oxford dictionary of national biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com; Lindley Murray, English exercises, adapted to the grammar lately published by L. Murray…designed for the benefit of private learners as well as for the use of schools (London, 1798).

  18. 18.

    Lindley Murray, The English reader; or pieces in prose or poetry selected from the best writers, 10th edn (London, 1810). See also Karlijn Navest, ‘Reading lessons for “baby grammarians”: Lady Ellenor Fenn and the teaching of English grammar’ in Morag Styles and Evelyn Arizpe, Acts of reading: teachers, text and childhood (Stoke-on-Trent, 2009), pp. 73–86.

  19. 19.

    Printed by Bentham and Hardy, Cecilia Street, Dublin.

  20. 20.

    Dublin spelling book, p. 4.

  21. 21.

    Dublin spelling book, p. 197.

  22. 22.

    Dublin spelling book, p. 200.

  23. 23.

    First report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, p. 465.

  24. 24.

    H. Kingsmill Moore, An unwritten chapter in the history of education; being the history of the Society for the Education of the Poor of Ireland, generally known as the Kildare Place Society 1811–1831 (London, 1904), pp. 221–24.

  25. 25.

    L. Fenton, Frederick Douglass in Ireland: the black O’Connell (Cork, 2014).

  26. 26.

    Commissioners of National Education of Ireland, Girls’ Reading Book (Dublin, 1845).

  27. 27.

    Sampler books of needlework are held in the KPS archives.

  28. 28.

    Moore, Unwritten chapter, pp. 233–42.

  29. 29.

    J.H. Pestalozzi, How Gertrude teaches her children (1801), E. Cooke (ed.), Lucy E. Holland and Frances C. Turner (trans.) (London, 1894); K. Silber, Pestalozzi: the man and his work (London, 1960). Pestalozzi’s ideas were inspired by Rousseau and formulated a theory of education based on the concept of spontaneous self-development and the ideal of the good mother who teaches her children.

  30. 30.

    C. Williams, ‘Pestalozzi and John Synge’ in N. McMillan (ed.), Prometheus’s fire: a history of scientific and technological education in Ireland (Carlow, 2000).

  31. 31.

    Moore, Unwritten chapter, pp. 252–53.

  32. 32.

    V. Coghlan, and G. O’Connor, ‘The Kildare Place Society: an influential force in 19th century Irish education’ in M. Styles and E. Arizpe (eds), Acts of reading, teachers, text and childhood (Stoke-on-Trent, 2009), pp. 87–96.

  33. 33.

    First report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, pp. 464–65.

  34. 34.

    The original wooden print blocks are in the KPS archives.

  35. 35.

    Evidence of Reverend Charles Bardin in the First report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, pp. 463–65.

  36. 36.

    Bardin was appointed rector of Newtown-Hamilton, Armagh, in 1813 and eventually became examining chaplain to the Church of Ireland Primate of Armagh. See First report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, HC 1825 (400) xii, pp. 463–69.

  37. 37.

    D. Bowen, The Protestant crusade in Ireland, 1800–70 (Dublin, 1978): M. Moffett, Soupers and jumpers: the Protestant missions in Connemara, 1848–1937 (Dublin, 2008).

  38. 38.

    First report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, HC 1825 (400) xii, I; Second–ninth reports of Irish Education Inquiry, HC 1826–27 (12) xiii, I. The Second report is a survey of schools in each parish based on returns from the Protestant and Catholic clergy; see G. FitzGerald, Irish primary education.

  39. 39.

    Parkes, Kildare Place, pp. 34–6.

  40. 40.

    J.M. Goldstrom, The social content of education, 1808–1870: a study of the working class school reader in England and Ireland (Shannon, 1972); Hislop, ‘Kildare Place Society chapbooks’, pp. 98–117.

  41. 41.

    McManus, Irish hedge school, pp. 218–36; N. Ó Cosáin, Print and popular culture in Ireland, 1750–1850 (London, 1997); D. Raftery, ‘Colonizing the mind: the use of English writers in the education of the Irish poor, c.1750–1850’ in M. Hilton and J. Shefrin (eds), Educating the child in Enlightenment Britain: beliefs, cultures, practices (Farnham, 2009).

Selected Bibiography

  • Akenson, D.H., The Irish education experiment: the national system of education in Ireland in the nineteenth century (London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1970).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett, T., The fall and the rise of the Irish nation: the Catholic question, 1690‒1830 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson, C. and S. Fitzpatrick, That woman! – studies in Irish bibliography: a Festschrift for Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, D., The Protestant crusade in Ireland, 1800‒70 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  • Coghlan, V. and G. O’Connor, ‘The Kildare Place Society: an influential force in 19th century Irish education’ in M. Styles and E. Arizpe (eds), Acts of reading: teachers, text and childhood (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, 2009), pp. 87‒96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, S.J., Religion, law and power: the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660‒1760 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, L., Frederick Douglass in Ireland: the black O’Connell (Cork: Collins Press, 2014).

    Google Scholar 

  • FitzGerald, G., Irish primary education in the early nineteenth century (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstrom, J.M., The social content of education, 1808‒1870: a study of the working class school reader in England and Ireland (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hislop, H., ‘The Kildare Place Society: an Irish experiment in popular education’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Dublin, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hislop, H., ‘Kildare Place Society chapbooks: curriculum and Irish identity, 1811‒1831’ in S.M. Parkes (ed.), Education and national identity: the Irish diaspora (Aspects of Education, 54) (Hull: University of Hull, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlijn, Navest, ‘Reading lessons for “baby grammarians”: Lady Ellenor Fenn and the teaching of English grammar’ in M. Styles and E. Arizpe (eds), Acts of reading: teachers, text and childhood (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, 2009), pp. 73‒86.

    Google Scholar 

  • McManus, A., The Irish hedge school and its books, 1695‒1831 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  • Moffett, M., Soupers and jumpers: the Protestant missions in Connemara, 1848‒1937 (Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ó Cosáin, N., Print and popular culture in Ireland, 1750‒1850 (London: Macmillan, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, S.M., Kildare Place: a history of the Church of Ireland Training College and College of Education, 1811‒2010, 2nd edn (Dublin: CICE, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, M., Dublin’s trade in books, 1550‒1800 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • Raftery, D., ‘Colonizing the mind: the use of English writers in the education of the Irish poor, c.1750‒1850’ in M. Hilton and J. Shefrin (eds), Educating the child in Enlightenment Britain: beliefs, cultures, practices (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  • Raftery, D. and S.M. Parkes (eds), Female education in Ireland, 1700‒1900, Minerva or Madonna? (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007), pp. 5‒32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, D. (ed.), The practical parts of Lancaster’s improvements and Bell’s experiment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932).

    Google Scholar 

  • Shefrin, J., The Dartons: publishers of educational aids, pastimes & juvenile ephemera, 1787‒1876 (Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional Press, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  • Shefrin, J. and M. Hilton, Educating the child in Enlightenment Britain: beliefs, cultures, practices (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  • Silber, K., Pestalozzi: the man and his work (London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1960).

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C., ‘Pestalozzi and John Synge’ in N. McMillan (ed.), Prometheus’s fire: a history of scientific and technological education in Ireland (Carlow: Tyndall Publications, 2000).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Susan M. Parkes

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  1. Susan M. Parkes
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Correspondence to Susan M. Parkes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of English, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Keith O'Sullivan

  2. School of English, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Pádraic Whyte

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Parkes, S.M. (2017). Kildare Place Society and the Beginnings of Formal Education in Ireland. In: O'Sullivan, K., Whyte, P. (eds) Children's Literature Collections. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59757-1_10

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