Quaker Education in Ireland 1680 - 1840

In undertaking this research my aim has been to trace the development of Quaker education in Ireland from its beginnings in the late seventeenth century, up to the early decades of the nineteenth. I have begun by placing Quakerism in its historical context, and have examined briefly the origins of the movement in England and Ireland, with reference to the political, social and religious factors which gave rise to its development.In the early chapters of this study I have outlined the broad aims of Quaker education, and I have endeavoured to explain in general terms what the Society of Friends hoped to achieve in its schools. I have traced the development of Quaker schools in Ireland, starting with the early, rather erratic day schools of the Society, and have gone on to examine the major features of Quaker boarding schools. Considerable attention has been paid to the Quaker curriculum, and I have examined the various influences which gave the curriculum its particular stamp. A full chapter has been devoted to the discipline employed in Irish Quaker school, and I have attempted to show how that system of discipline was determined largely by the rigid disciplinary code which governed the activities of the Quaker church. In the later chapters of the thesis I have examined the characteristics of the most commonly used Quaker school textbooks, and the rather mechanical teaching methods used in classroom instruction. While the bulk of this research concentrates on Quaker education within the rather narrow confines of the Society of Friends, I have devoted the final chapter to education on a broader plane