Schools in Bantry/Skibbereen/Schull area West Cork 19th century School Boycott, Dromore (Bantry) 1880s Remarkable as a consequence of the Catholic Church dispute with the British Government that for 30 years (c1845-75)children were taught by untrained teachers
In the early 19th century there was an extensive network of informal or hedge schools in the area. A Parliamentary enquiry of 1823 lists these.
An idea of what informal schools might be like is described in the Diary of Humprey O”Sullivan (Amhlaóibh Ó Suilleabáin) published in 1820. In the 1790, he and his father left the Killarney area to set up a hedge school in South Kilkenny. The locals built a sod house in three days for the school. He later left teaching and became a prosperous merchant.
The Church of Ireland schools had funding from the Church Education Society. Their records are in the Representative Church Body Library in Rathgar in Dublin…