Teaching Matters:The exclusion of children from their neighbourhood schools in some areas of Dublin and elsewhere in recent months, on grounds of religious affiliation, has starkly highlighted the issues of school patronage and the State's role in Irish education provision, writes Prof Tom Collins.
In particular, it reminded us how the State has traditionally adopted a largely subsidiary role - essentially conceding control in the field of education to the Catholic Church while at the same time underpinning the costs of provision.
Of the approximately 3,500 schools in Ireland, more than 3,000 are under Catholic Church control. The dominance of Catholic education means that - even in situations where there is no absolute scarcity of school places - children of other faiths may have little discretion in their school choice. From a Catholic Church viewpoint, of course, it means that its personnel and resources are put at the disposal of non-Catholics in the provision of education.
Throughout history, every generation leaves some problems unresolved for subsequent generations to address, and in other cases simply creates new problems where none heretofore existed. The school patronage debate is such a problem. It has been an issue of conversation and contestation in Ireland for centuries, but most particularly since the establishment of the Irish National School System in 1831.
The National School system was established to provide a multi- denominational primary education system which would bring together children from many denominations while providing for separate religious instruction.
From its origins, the system came under attack from the different religious groups in Ireland. The Presbyterians were disposed to see the new schools as Godless entities and endeavoured to secure state funding for separate, denominationally based institutions. The Church of Ireland likewise took issue with aspects of the nondenominational character of the original proposals and also campaigned for state funding for separate provision.
A decision by the Board of Commissioners in the mid 1840s to vest all schools which were benefiting from Board Building Grants in the Board, who would then become the trustees of these schools, was one element which galvanised Catholic opposition to the new system.
The synod of Thurles in 1850, presided over by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Cullen, "issued several decrees warning about the dangers of the National School System and stated clearly that the 'separate education of Catholic youth is in every way to be preferred to it'." Notwithstanding such philosophical objections, the
Catholic Church was also able to take a pragmatic view of things. This was captured in Cullen's observation that, while the National System was very dangerous when considered in general because its aim was to introduce a mingling of Protestants and Catholics, "in places where there in fact are no Protestants this mingling cannot be achieved".
The increasing confidence of the Catholic bishops in the sphere of primary education was reflected in many other aspects of Irish life in the second half of the 19th century. In this period the Catholic Church set about a project of institutional growth and expansion which would underpin its powerful influence in the emerging new state in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century.
Between 1840 and 1871, the ratio of priests to people in Ireland almost doubled. The rise of indigenous religious orders from the middle of the 19th century would lay down a countrywide infrastructure of Catholic- sponsored education and health care provision for the succeeding century and a half.
In terms of nation and state building, these orders would make a crucial contribution to the evolution of a Catholic middle class in Ireland, supplying an ongoing stream of able and talented recruits to areas such as teaching, nursing, the police, and the civil and public service generally.
From the foundation of the State until the late 1960s, the balance of power in State-Church relations in education would remain largely unchanged and decidedly favouring the Church position. This was true both of primary and of secondary education and was characterised by a caution (if not fear) on the part of the State to intrude on the Church's domain.
A generation has passed since the Papal visit to Ireland in 1979. Coming 150 years after Daniel O'Connell had secured Catholic emancipation in 1829, the visit was a triumphant celebration of the extraordinary growth of Irish Catholicism. One generation on, the enduring image of the Papal visit is that of Bishop Eamonn Casey and Fr Michael Cleary on the stage with the Pope in Galway.
Multiple factors, some specifically of a Church-related character and others of a wider socio-cultural nature, have converged to undermine the moral and institutional position of the Church - something that seemed so secure and unassailable at that Papal visit.
With regard to education, an aging and declining clergy has undermined the Church's day-to- day grip in schools. Suddenly, the old model of school patronage - hewn out of the vigour and ambition of 19th-century Irish Catholicism and institutionalised in the apparatus of the State since Independence - seems out of place. It is no longer able to meet the needs of the modern multicultural, multi-ethnic and secular society
