O’CONNELL, Philip. The Schools and Scholars of Breiffne.

With a foreword by Most Rev. Dr. Lyons and an introduction by Rev. T. Corcoran. With illustrations and folding maps. Dublin: Browne, 1942. pp. xl, 669. First edition. Octavo. Modern red buckram, titled in gilt. Ex lib with neat stamp. A very good copy. Rare.
The author states that this work presents an account of “the early Bardic Schools, the influence of the mediaeval ecclesiastical institutions, and an account of the several educational schemes, both of native and foreign origin, which had been formulated in the period 1600 to 1850’ in Breiffne. While, therefore, it ranges over some twelve centuries it does not pretend to be an exhaustive history of educational institutions in Breiffne over all that period.” Only twenty-five pages are given to the early bardic schools, about the same number to the schools of the medieval period, and the remainder of the work to the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. From a very wide range of reading the author has collected material which substantiates for this area the already well-known major trends in Irish educational history. The third section, which is the main part of the book, gives an account of educational organisation under Archbishop Oliver Plunket, the Cavan Royal School, the charity and charter schools, the popular classical schools, the itinerant Gaelic teachers, the prosleytising societies and their use of the Irish language, and St. Augustine’s Diocesan Seminary. O’Connell is at his best in dealing with the popular schools, especially with the itinerant schoolmasters, Peter Galligan and his contemporaries, where his knowledge of local topography and tradition add colour to the historical facts. The attitude of the Catholic Church to the various schemes of education described here is a topic of primary importance in the history of Irish education.