teacher‐training

teacher‐training was only gradually accepted as essential, apprentice ‘monitors’ being the norm until well into the 19th century. The Kildare Place Society was a pioneer in the field, establishing model schools based on Joseph Lancaster's monitorial system, with residential accommodation for the candidate teachers. This was the method adopted by the commissioners for national schools, but the commissioners' district model schools and training institution at Marlborough Street, Dublin, were declared unsuitable for Catholic teachers. It was not until 1883 that government accepted the principle of state aid for denominational training institutions, financial support being given to two Catholic colleges in Dublin (Drumcondra and Carysfort) and to the Church of Ireland Training College (Kildare Place), enabling them to extend facilities and provide two‐year courses of training.

Other colleges were added to a system which remained virtually unchanged for several decades. With partition, the existing denominational colleges in the Irish Free State continued to supply the denominationally managed national school system there, Marlborough Street being closed. In Northern Ireland, Stranmillis College was founded to supply the state sector. Women teachers for the voluntary Catholic schools attended St Mary's College, Belfast, the men attending Strawberry Hill, in London, until the foundation of St Joseph's College in Belfast. (St Mary's and St Joseph's form St Mary's University College since 1999.)

Kenneth Milne