Irish Charter Schools were operated by The Incorporated Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland. The Charter Schools admitted only Catholics, under the condition that they be educated as Protestants. These schools were intended, in the words of their programme, "to rescue the souls of thousands of poor children from the dangers of Popish superstition and idolatry, and their bodies from the miseries of idleness and beggary." [1]
In 1731 Hugh Boulter, Primate of Armagh, submitted the findings of the Inquiry into Illegal Popish Schools by the House of Lords, which was set up "to prevent the growth of Popery, and to secure this Kingdom from any dangers from the great Number of Papists in this Nation." [2] He advocated a school system "to teach the children of the papists the English tongue, and the principles of the Christian religion", as long as they converted to Protestantism. [3] The same year, the archbishops and bishops of the Established Church in Ireland, among others, petitioned George II for a charter to set up schools where the children of Irish Catholics would be given free instruction in the English language and the Protestant religion. Boys would learn a trade and girls domestic skills, and maybe even be given a marriage portion, assuming they remained Protestant. At this time the Penal Laws were in full force: the Catholic clergy was outlawed, and no Catholic was permitted "publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning", so there was no source of education for Catholics. [4] The charter was granted in 1733 and the king promised £1,000 per annum. The first school was opened at Castledermot on 20 acres (81,000 m2) of land donated by the Earl of Kildare. [5]
Over the following decades further finance was provided by the British government. The school system was overseen by a Committee of Fifteen who met weekly in Suffolk St. in Dublin. However, the numbers attending fell far short of expectations, despite various stratagems resorted to keep up the intake of children, such as taking beggar children off the street and taking in orphan babies. In the 1780s large discrepancies between the numbers reported to be at the schools, and the actual number found there were found and reported by John Howard, FRS. At that time there were 41 schools and four nurseries in the system. [6] The schools were viewed with the deepest suspicion by Catholics. [1]
John Wesley visited the school at Ballinrobe in 1785, where he found children being kept in atrocious conditions. [7] Inspections towards the end of the century showed massive abuse of the system, many children receiving little instruction but being used mainly as farm labourers or weavers and subject to squalid conditions, punishment and disease. [5]
The reputations and population of the schools continued to decrease from the turn of the 19th century until they petered out around mid-century.
Ardbraccan is an ancient place of worship in County Meath, Ireland. It is the location of the former residence of the Roman Catholic, then, after the Reformation, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath. it was also a place of prominence in pre-Christian Pagan history. It is approximately 52 km from Dublin via the M3 Motorway, and 4 km from Navan. Ardbraccan is in a civil parish of the same name.
Adam Loftus was an English Anglican bishop who was Archbishop of Armagh, and later Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1581. He was also the first Provost of Trinity College Dublin.
The Primacy of Ireland belongs to the diocesan bishop of the Irish diocese with highest precedence. The Archbishop of Armagh is titled Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin Primate of Ireland, signifying that they are the senior clerics on the island of Ireland, the Primate of All Ireland being the more senior. The titles are used by both the Catholic Church in Ireland and Church of Ireland. Primate is a title of honour, and in the Middle Ages there was an intense rivalry between Armagh and Dublin as to seniority. The Archbishop of Armagh's leading status is based on the belief that his see was founded by St. Patrick, making Armagh the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. On the other hand, Dublin is the political, cultural, social, economic and secular centre of Ireland, and has been for many centuries, thus making the Archbishop of Dublin someone of considerable influence, with a high national profile. The dispute between the two archbishoprics was settled by Pope Innocent VI in 1353, with occasional brief controversy since. The distinction mirrors that in the Church of England between the Primate of All England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Primate of England, the Archbishop of York.
County Louth is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the north-east, across Carlingford Lough. It is the smallest county in Ireland by land area and the 17th most populous, with just over 139,100 residents as of 2022. The county is named after the village of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county.
The words Popery and Papism are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians to label their Roman Catholic opponents, who differed from them in accepting the authority of the Pope over the Christian Church. The words were popularised during the English Reformation (1532–1559), when the Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and divisions emerged between those who rejected papal authority and those who continued to follow Rome. The words are recognised as pejorative; they have been in widespread use in Protestant writings until the mid-nineteenth century, including use in some laws that remain in force in the United Kingdom.
William King was an Anglican divine in the Church of Ireland, who was Archbishop of Dublin from 1703 to 1729. He was an author and supported the Glorious Revolution. He had considerable political influence in Ireland, including an effective veto on judicial appointments.
Fingal is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. Its name is derived from the medieval territory of Scandinavian foreigners that settled in the area. Fingal County Council is the local authority for the county. In 2022 the population of the county was 330,506, making it the second most populated council in Dublin and the third most populous county in the state.
Oliver Plunkett was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and the last victim of the Popish Plot. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint in almost seven hundred years.
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and return of confiscated Catholic lands. Planned as a swift coup d'état to gain control of the Protestant-dominated central government, instead it led to the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Hugh Boulter was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, from 1724 until his death. He also served as the chaplain to George I from 1719.
Santry is a suburb on the northside of Dublin, Ireland, bordering Coolock, Glasnevin, Kilmore and Ballymun. It straddles the boundary of Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council jurisdictions.
The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, bearing the title Primate of All Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh.
The Archdiocese of Armagh is a Latin ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the northern part of Ireland. The ordinary is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh who is also the Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Armagh and the Primate of All Ireland. The mother church is St Patrick's Cathedral. The claim of the archdiocese to pre-eminence in Ireland as the primatial see rests upon its traditional establishment by Saint Patrick circa 445. It was recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells.
Events from the year 1680 in Ireland.
Ballygall is a small suburban area located between Glasnevin and Finglas, on the northside of the city of Dublin, Ireland. It is also a townland divided between the civil parish of Finglas and that of Glasnevin. It was settled by Vikings in the 11th century, and later by the Cambro-Normans.
John Hoadly was an Anglican divine in the Church of Ireland. He served as Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, as Archbishop of Dublin, and as Archbishop of Armagh from 1742 until his death.
Richard West was an English barrister, judge, playwright and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1726. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1725 to 1726, succeeding Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton.
The Recusancy referred to those who refused to attend services of the state-established Anglican Church of Ireland. The individuals were known as "recusants". The term, which derives ultimately from the Latin recusare, was first used in England to refer to those who remained within the Roman Catholic Church and did not attend services of the Church of England, with a 1593 statute determining the penalties against "Popish recusants".
Clonmethan is a townland and a civil parish in the ancient barony of Balrothery West, Fingal in Ireland. It is bordered by the parishes of Palmerstown to the west, Grallagh to the north, Hollywood to the northeast, Westpalstown to the east, Killossery to the southeast, Killsallaghan to the south, and Greenoge, County Meath to the southwest.
John D'Alton (1792–1867) was an Irish lawyer, historian, biographer and genealogist.