Irish Speakers and Schooling in the Gaeltacht, 1900 to the Present by Tom O’Donoghue & Teresa O’Doherty

Author:Tom O’Donoghue & Teresa O’Doherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030260217
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

A similar development, commenced in 1936, resulted in the Department of Education offering 10 scholarships to girls from the Gaeltacht to enable them to train as children’s nurses. To be eligible to apply for them, native speakers of Irish had to be between the ages of 18 and 25; success was determined on the basis of one’s results in a written and oral test in Irish based on the sixth standard programme for the national schools.

In the first year of the scheme, 10 scholarships were awarded, four going to girls from County Galway, two to girls from County Donegal, two to girls from County Kerry and one each to girls from County Mayo and County Cork. 88 These scholarships entitled the holders to free accommodation and education while enrolled in the 18 months course at St. Patrick’s Infant Hospital and Nursery College, Temple Hill, Blackrock, County Dublin. They also received a grant of £20 towards the costs of outfits and travelling. The expectation was that they, and girls who would graduate in subsequent years, would eventually go on to take up appointments in the Gaeltacht and in other parts of the country, where they could be influential in spreading the language.

In 1931, the Department of Education issued an explanatory memorandum on continuation education to the VECs located around the country, indicating they should develop a system of education suited to the particular needs of their constituent areas. Instruction given was to be of a general vocational nature, along with some preparation for occupations available to young people living locally. Eleven years later, in 1940, a document entitled Memorandum V.40, 89 endorsed this conception of a continuation school. A common first-year course was prescribed. This consisted of a mix of general literary, business, practical and religious education during a 28-hour school week. The Department of Education also recommended that county borough, urban and rural areas offer separate courses suited to local circumstances. The notion was that each such course would help one to develop manual skill and develop an interest in rural life. Rural science and gardening were also to be taught, to develop pupils’ intelligence along with their manual skills. Further, teachers were to teach domestic economy in a manner such that the concern was not just to be with utilitarian considerations. In other words, continuation courses were to have more of an education, as opposed to a purely training, value.

The reports of the Department of Education from the mid-1930s, and through the 1940s, also indicated that quite an amount of detail on various bespoke courses were offered during block teaching periods and in evening classes. These were for both young and older students in the Gaeltacht. In 1935–36, the Department observed a “healthy development of classes in connection with home spinning and dyeing” 90 in technical schools. It went on:In Galway, instruction was given entirely in Irish in the Gaeltacht areas, and included instruction in the dyeing and carding of wool and the spinning and knitting of the wool thus dyed.

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