Catholics in the Protestant state

Catholics in Ulster 1603-1983: An Interpretative History by Oliver P Rafferty (Gill & MacMillan, 1994)

This victory of the northern Bishops over the Belfast parliamentary was by no means the only such triumph. As co-adjudicator Archbishop of Armagh, O'Donnell had assiduously lobbied Lord Londonderry for specific provision for the training of Catholic male teachers. In March 1923 the Bishops had ruled that Catholic teachers trained at the state-run Stranmillis College would not be employed in Catholic schools. Not to be outdone, the government regulated that teachers trained in the Irish Free State, mostly at the Catholic College of St Patrick's Drumcondra, who completed their training after 1925 would not be eligible for employment in the north. In addition Londonderry indicated that `notwithstanding [the March 1923] warning, Catholic candidates of good educational qualifications are presenting themselves for training [at Stranmillis] in sufficient numbers to supply the vacancies for male teachers in Catholic schools.'5

Negotiations were entered into with a view to the Northern Ireland government paying for Catholic students to train at St Mary's College, Hammersmith, London, which transferred to Strawberry Hill at Twickenham in 1925, and the Church agreed to employ the students then at Stranmillis provided the final-year students undertook a summer school in religious instruction. The first-year students moved to St Mary's with the new intake in 1925. One of the many complications in all this was a shortfall in the amount of money available to train the Northern Ireland students in London. Londonderry was able to sell the proposal to his cabinet colleagues only by assuring them that the training in London was cheaper than they provided in Belfast. In this he was more than a little economical with the truth. The principal of St Mary's wrote to O'Donnell that the English Catholic Education Council did not see why it should makeup the shortfall in government funds available for Northern Ireland students.6 Somewhat reluctantly, it has to be said, the northern Bishops agreed to pay £300 a year to St Mary's Strawberry Hill for the Northern Ireland students. Such successes in the education field could not however dispel the fear of the Catholic hierarchy that the Unionist government was determined to undermine the position and status of Catholicism within the state. Although he 1930 Education Act was favourable to Catholic interests, it was obvious to all concerned that its provisions were initially designed to placate the Protestant clergy and the Orange Order on the question of the role of education as an instrument for preserving the Protestant way of life in Northern Ireland. The Protestant Churches had set an agenda for the education debate and virtually dictated the terms for settling the question. It is also true that the hierarchy had simply refused to exert any positive influence on the development of the government's educational policy. O'Donnell had declined the offer of a place on the Northern Ireland Advisory Council on Education in November 1924. Despite the minister's pleading both he and Cardinal Logue refused to recommend anyone for the post.7

1The Irish News, 22 Feb. 1927

2Quoted in Akenson, Education and Enmity, p. 66.

3Cf. Patrick Buckland, The Factory of Grievances: Devolved Government in Northern Ireland, 1921-39 (Dublin, 1979), p. 261.

4Following a representation from the Archbishop O'Donnell in December 1924, even members of religious orders teaching in schools were to receive salaries on the same basis as other teachers. Before this they were paid only a `maintenance allowance'.

5AAA, Londonderry to O'Donnell, 1 Jan. 1925. Londonderry argues in this letter that his `education administration' had won the `approval and confidence of the Catholic community'.

6AA, Rev. J.J. Doyle to O'Donnell, 27 May 1925.

7Londonderry had written to O'Donnell on 15 Nov, 1924: `It would be of the greatest assistance to me if you and His Eminence would consider the matter and recommend to me a person who I might substitute for yourself upon the Council, if indeed it is impossible for you to reconsider your decision'. The full correspondence on this matter is preserved in the Armagh Archives.