To advance toward a comparative history of Catholic education, this paper examines relations between the Roman Catholic Church (the Church) and the state in the case of Ireland. We compare these church-state relations regarding education in Ireland with developments in England, Wales and Scotland. Our comparative approach illuminates schooling in a country in which Catholicism has always been the religion of the majority and where the Church has seen control of education as a way of preserving its influence.

Catholic education constitutes the oldest tradition within Christian schooling. It is also a tradition which was contested during various periods, particularly following the Protestant Reformation. From then until the First Vatican Council in 1869, the influence of the Church

progressively weakened. The Church responded aggressively, expressing its opposition to an increasingly pluralist and rationalistic society. It also promoted a highly organised system of ecclesiastical administration which was clerically dominated, hierarchical and strongly centralised.

Throughout the latter half of the 19^th and much of the 20^th century, the provision of Catholic schooling expanded, particularly for the poor in the traditional Catholic countries. Africa and Asia also witnessed expansion due to a great new wave of missionary work in which religious orders from France, Italy, Belgium and Holland were especially prominent (Hogan 1992, 55-61).

With regard to Ireland, throughout the 17th and 18th century, the British state sought to dominate the Catholic Irish through Protestant proselytism and a series of Penal Laws aimed at the removal of all of their rights to property, religion and education. Although the effect on the great majority seems to have been the promotion of resistance and a strengthening of loyalty to Catholicism, many of the native Catholic gentry went into exile. Over time, priests replaced them as leaders in local communities. In the latter half of the 18th and early decades of the 19^th century, the priests’ leadership role increased, aided by the relaxation of the Penal Laws and the granting of Catholic Emancipation throughout the United Kingdom in 1829.

In the remainder of this paper, we consider this assertiveness in the form of militant Catholicism for the sub-period 1831-1922. We then go on to consider relations between Church and State on education for two subsequent sub-periods, namely, 1922-1966, and 1966 to the present.

Crook, David and McCulloch, Gary (2002). “Introduction: Comparative approaches to the history of education.” History of Education 31(5): 397-400. Dunn, Seamus. 1988. “Education, Religion and Cultural Change in the Republic of Ireland.” In Christianity and Educational Provision in International Perspective, ed. Witold Tulasiewicz and Colin Brock. London: Routledge. Fahey, Tony. 1994. “Catholicism and Industrial Society in Ireland.” In The Development of Industrial Society in Ireland, ed. J.H. Goldthorpe and C.T. Whelan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Grace, Gerald. 2002. Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Grace, Gerald and Joe O’Keefe. 2007. International Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges for School Systems in the 21st Century. Dordrecht: Springer. Harford, Judith. 2009. “The Emergence of a National Policy on Teacher Education in Ireland.” Journal of Educational Administration and History 41(1): 45–56. Madeley, J.T.S. 2003. “A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Church-State Relations in Europe.” In Church and State in Contemporary Europe: The Chimera of Neutrality. ed. J.T.S. Madeley and Z. Enyedi. Portland: Frank Cass O’Donoghue, Tom. 1999. The Catholic Church and the Secondary School Curriculum in Ireland, 1922–62. New York: Peter Lang. O’Donoghue, Tom. 2004. Come Follow Me and Forsake Temptation:Catholic Schooling and the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers for Religious Teaching Orders, 1922-1965 . New York: Peter Lang. O’Sullivan, Denis. 2005. Cultural Politics and Irish Education since the 1950s: Policy Paradigms and Power. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. Raffe, David, Karen Branen, Linda Croxford and Chris Martin. 1999. “Comparing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.” Comparative Education 35(1): 9-25. Titley, Brian. 1983. Church, State, and the Control of Schooling in Ireland 1900–1944. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's University Press. Williams, Kevin. 1999. “Faith and the Nation: Education and Religious Identity in the Republic of Ireland.” British Journal of Educational Studies 47(4): 317–331.