Protestant teachers to teach Protestant children
A History of Ulster by Jonathan Bardon (The Blackstaff Press, 1992)
On 3 March 1925 Londonderry gave a press conference reaffirming that his Education Act would not be changed. The United Education Committee's meeting on 5 March in the Presbyterian Assembly Hall in Belfast was impressively attended and - while the education minister was in England - Craig capitulated and an amending bill was rushed through parliament with such indecent speed that it had received royal assent by 13 March. Henceforth clergy could advise on the appointment of teachers; education authorities could take a candidate's religion into account when making a teaching appointment; and teachers were compelled to give `simple Bible instruction' as part of their contractual duties. Not surprisingly, Londonderry resigned the following year to take on what were for him more congenial opponents - his mining employees in the Durham coalfield.
Dr Corkey and his `discontented divines' were not yet satisfied and such was the vehemence of their campaign that the principal Protestant and Catholic teachers' unions jointly opposed it. Once again an impending general election, in 1929, gave the United Education Committee its opportunity. James Caulfield, 5th Viscount Charlemount and Lord Londonderry's more compliant successor, hastily prepared a new bill. This time the Catholic Church did not stand aside: Joseph Devlin, now leading ten Nationalists in the Northern Ireland Commons, argued that Catholic schools were worse off than before partition; Catholic bishops threatened to invoke Section 5 of the 1920 act; the Ancient Order of Hibernians held monster protest meetings across the six counties on Saint Patrick's Day, with ten thousand attending at Omagh; and the Irish News published a letter, surrounded by a funeral black band from the bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Daniel Mageean:
In view of the attack on Catholic interests in education by the bill now before the parliament of the Six Counties, I would ask the clergy of this diocese to say in the mass the prayer Pro qua-conque Necessitate... and I would request the laity to join with the priest in praying that God may guide and help us in this hour of danger.
The bishops' threat was enough and on 8 May 1930 the prime minister announced at an Orange luncheon in Warrenpoint that an additional clause in the Education Bill would provide 50 per cent grants for building and extension of privately managed elementary schools.
The Reformed Churches, which have asserted that `the Protestant cause was
in grave peril', had triumphed, nevertheless. They were able to ensure that
only Protestant teachers would be appointed to schools wholly funded by
the state and local authorities and that in such schools it was the duty
of education authorities to provide Bible instruction in compulsory attendance
hours as long as the parents of at least ten children demanded it. The ac's
additional clause greatly improved the position of Catholic schools but
it was clear the provisions of the 1920 act had been flouted. The 1930 Education
Act allowed two school systems to operate, the Catholic one only partly
funded from local and central government sources, and the fully funded one
attended almost exclusively by Protestants because `simple Bible instruction
' was in effect mandatory. The reading of any version of the Bible without
denominational comment was unacceptable to Catholic's, and Dr Mageean explained
further.
We cannot transfer our schools. We cannot accept simple Bible teaching.
I wish to emphasize this point. Simple Bible teaching is based on the fundamental
principle of Protestantism, the interpretation of sacred Scriptures by private
judgement.
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