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Union of Kilrush,
Killard, Kilfieragh, Moyferta, and Kilballyhone
VII. The
Education and Employment of Children, &c.
Education
The education of the children here is irregular and imperfect, but a general
desire for learning to read, write, and keep accounts prevails in every
townland. The employment of the children interferes very much with their
education, as they are constantly occupied in agriculture and the fisheries,
or in saving turf, and leading the horses that draw it to the shores of
the river.
Hedge Schools
The hedge schools are as miserable, and the books read in them as worthless
as they have been observed to be in other parts of Ireland. Indeed so
universally similar are the latter in this country, that a list of those
found at the schools here in 1808, served to enumerate those at present
used in one of the northern parishes, a survey of which appeared in the
first volume of this work.
Classical
Schools
Here are twenty-one schools, viz. at Kilrush, two classical schools; one
of them kept by the Rev. Henry Allen, curate assistant to the incumbent
of this union; number of pupils 32—and four English and arithmetical
schools; the number of scholars 185. There are also four other schools
there, at which 60 girls and 40 boys are taught.
| 2
schools in Killard |
number
of scholars |
160 |
| 4
schools in Kilfieragh |
|
200 |
| 4
schools in Donaha |
|
180 |
| 1
schools in Kilballyhone |
|
50 |
The total
number of pupils in all these schools amounts to 913.
In 1807,
there were but eight schools in this union, and but 275 children taught
in them (See Dutton’s Survey of Clare, page 238). This marks the
progress of education and of the English language here.
Charter School
There was a charter school erected on the estate of Anthony Hickman, Esq.
At Ballykett, early in the last century. It maintained 40 boys, and had
two acres of ground annexed to it; but it has been for many years in ruins.
Irish MSS
Here are no public libraries, nor any manuscripts, except a few in the
Irish character, preserved by a family of the MacMahons, in Carrigaholt.
A public library at Kilrush would be a desirable acquisition there. It
should be furnished with the English and Irish Farmer’s Journals,
and Agricultural Magazines, with army and Navy Lists, the New Encyclopædia,
and all the Statistical publications. The same room might serve as a kind
of Exchange, and a closet adjoining it should be a repository for the
Bible Society.
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