Page:EB1911 - Volume 14.djvu/787

Rh appointments to the senate and to fellowships were made on the principle that one half of those appointed should be Roman Catholics and the other half Protestants; and in such subjects as history and philosophy there were two courses of study prescribed, one for Roman Catholics and the other for Protestants. In 1905 the number who matriculated was 947, of whom 218 were females, and the number of students who passed the academic examinations was 2190. The university buildings are in Dublin and the fellows were mostly professors in the various colleges whose students were undergraduates.

The three Queen’s Colleges, at Belfast, Cork and Galway, were founded in 1849 and until 1882 formed the Queen’s University. Their curriculum comprised all the usual courses of instruction, except theology. They were open to all denominations, but, as might be expected, the Belfast college (dissolved under the Irish Universities Act 1908; see below) was almost entirely Protestant. Its situation in a great industrial centre also made it the most important and flourishing of the three, its students numbering over 400. It possessed an excellent medical school, which was largely increased owing to private benefactions.

The Irish Universities Act 1908 provided for the foundation of two new universities, having their seats respectively at Dublin and at Belfast. The Royal University of Ireland at Dublin and the Queen’s College, Belfast, were dissolved. Provision was made for a new college to be founded at Dublin. This college and the existing Queen’s Colleges at Cork and Galway were made constituent colleges of the new university at Dublin. Letters patent dated December 2, 1908, granted charters to these foundations under the titles of the National University of Ireland (Dublin), the Queen’s University of Belfast and the University Colleges of Dublin, Cork and Galway. It was provided by the act that no test of religious belief should be imposed on any person as a condition of his holding any position in any foundation under the act. A body of commissioners was appointed for each of the new foundations to draw up statutes for its government; and for the purpose of dealing with any matter calling for joint action, a joint commission, half from each of the above commissions, was established. Regulations as to grants-in-aid were made by the act, with the stipulation that no sum from them should be devoted to the provision or maintenance of any building, or tutorial or other office, for religious purposes, though private benefaction for such purposes is not prohibited. Provisions were also made as to the transfer of graduates and students, so that they might occupy under the new régime positions equivalent to those which they occupied previously, in respect both of degrees and the keeping of terms. The commissioners were directed to work out schemes for the employment of officers already employed in the institutions affected by the new arrangements, and for the compensation of those whose employment could not be continued. A committee of the privy council in Ireland was appointed, to be styled the Irish Universities Committee.

The Roman Catholic University College in Dublin may be described as a survival of the Roman Catholic University, a voluntary institution founded in 1854. In 1882 the Roman Catholic bishops placed the buildings belonging to the university under the control and direction of the archbishop of Dublin, who undertook to maintain a college in which education would be given according to the regulations of the Royal University. In 1883 the direction of the college was entrusted to the Jesuits. Although the college receives no grant from public funds, it has proved very successful and attracts a considerable number of students, the great majority of whom belong to the Church of Rome.

The Royal College of Science was established in Dublin in 1867 under the authority of the Science and Art Department, London. Its object is to supply a complete course of instruction in science as applicable to the industrial arts. In 1900 the college was transferred from the Science and Art Department to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

(q.v.) College was founded by an Irish act of parliament in 1795 for the training of Roman Catholic students for the Irish priesthood. By an act of 1844 it was permanently endowed by a grant from the consolidated fund of over £26,000 a year. This grant was withdrawn by the Irish Church Act 1869, the college receiving as compensation a lump sum of over £372,000. The average number of students entering each year is about 100.

There are two Presbyterian colleges, the General Assembly’s College at Belfast, which is purely theological, and the Magee College, Londonderry, which has literary, scientific and theological courses. In 1881 the Assembly’s College and the theological professors of Magee College were constituted a faculty with power to grant degrees in divinity.

In addition to the foregoing, seven Roman Catholic institutions were ranked as colleges in the census of 1901:—All Hallows (Drumcondra), Holycross (Clonliffe), University College (Blackrock), St Patrick’s (Carlow), St Kieran’s (Kilkenny), St Stanislaus’s (Tullamore) and St Patrick’s (Thurles). In 1901 the aggregate number of students was 715, of whom 209 were returned as under the faculty of divinity.

As regards secondary schools a broad distinction can be drawn according to religion. The Roman Catholics have diocesan schools, schools under religious orders, monastic and convent schools, and Christian Brothers’ schools, which were attended, according to the census returns in 1901, by nearly 22,000

pupils, male and female. On the other hand are the endowed schools, which are almost exclusively Protestant in their government. Under this heading may be included royal and diocesan schools and schools upon the foundation of Erasmus Smith, and others privately endowed. In 1901 these schools numbered 55 and had an attendance of 2653 pupils. To these must be added various private establishments, which in the same year had over 8000 pupils, mainly Protestants. Dealing with these secondary schools as a whole the census of 1901 gives figures as to the number of pupils engaged upon what the commissioners call the “higher studies,” i.e. studies involving instruction in at least one foreign language. In 1881 the number of such pupils was 18,657; in 1891, 23,484; and in 1901, 28,484, of whom 17,103 were males and 11,381 females, divided as follows among the different religions—Roman Catholics 18,248, Protestant Episcopalians 5669, Presbyterians 3011, Methodists 760, and others 567. This increase in the number of pupils engaged in the higher studies is probably due to a large extent to the scheme for the encouragement of intermediate education which was established by act of parliament in 1879. A sum of £1,000,000, part of the Irish Church surplus, was assigned by that act for the promotion of the intermediate secular education of boys and girls in Ireland. The administration of this fund was entrusted to a board of commissioners, who were to apply its revenue for the purposes of the act (1) by carrying on a system of public examinations, (2) by awarding exhibitions, prizes and certificates to students, and (3) by the payment of results fees to the manager of schools. An amending act was passed in 1900 and the examinations are now held under rules made in virtue of that act. The number of students who presented themselves for examination in 1905 was 9677; the amount expended in exhibitions and prizes was £8536; and the grants to schools amounted to over £50,000. The examinations were held at 259 centres in 99 different localities.

Primary education in Ireland is under the general control of the commissioners of national education, who were first created in 1831 to take the place of the society for the education of the poor, and incorporated in 1845. In the year of their incorporation the schools under the control of the commissioners numbered 3426, with 432,844 pupils, and the amount of the parliamentary grants was £75,000; while in 1905 there were 8659 schools, with 737,752 pupils, and the grant was almost £1,400,000. Of the pupils attending in the latter year, 74% were Roman Catholics, 12% Protestant Episcopalians and 11% Presbyterians. The schools under the commissioners include national schools proper, model and workhouse schools and a number of monastic and convent schools. The Irish Education Act of 1892 provided that the parents of children of not less than 6 nor more than 14 years of age should cause them to attend school in the absence of reasonable excuse on at least 150 days in the year in municipal boroughs and in towns or townships under commissioners; and provisions were made for the partial or total abolition of fees in specified circumstances, for a parliamentary school grant in lieu of abolished school fees, and for the augmentation of the salaries of the national teachers.

There are 5 reformatory schools, 3 for boys and 2 for girls, and 68 industrial schools, 5 Protestant and 63 Roman Catholic.

By the constituting act of 1899 the control of technical education in Ireland was handed over to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction and now forms an important part of its work. The annual sum of £55,000 was allocated for the purpose, and this is augmented in various ways.

The department has devoted itself to (1) promoting instruction in experimental science, drawing, manual instruction and