‘There seems to be some misunderstanding’: church-state relations and the establishment of Carraroe comprehensive, 1963–67

Abstract

This paper charts the development of one of Ireland's first comprehensive schools located in Carraroe in County Galway. Through a systematic, historical analysis of Department of Education and diocesan correspondence, this article provides a unique insight into how official policy was reconciled at ground level. The analysis exposes the ambiguity of previous studies surrounding the role of the church hierarchy in educational reform during the 1960s and seeks to clearly identify key personnel involved in consolidating policy concerning the comprehensive school scheme. Underpinning this narrative, is the deliberate exclusion, by both church and state, of local school authorities from policy decision-making regarding the comprehensive school in Carraroe. In particular, this paper illustrates how a paradigm shift in Department of Education negotiation tactics provided the government with an effective means for introducing new educational policy measures in the future.

Keywords:

• educational reform
• comprehensive schools
• women religious
• co-education

Introduction

During the 1960s, the Irish education system underwent a period of radical change. Numerous reforms took place at the various levels of the education system which transformed Irish education ‘out of all recognition’ (Walsh 2009). According to Randles (1975, 11), these ‘changes in the Irish educational system did not start on any particular date. Rather, they evolved from the economic, political, social and educational circumstances’ in Ireland and across Europe at the time. This understanding of the evolution of Irish education has generated a plethora of studies which have examined the ‘collective’ impact of policies, schemes and reforms on the education system during this particular period (see for example, Coolahan 2011, 2017; Farren 1995; Hyland and Milne 1992; McManus 2014; Ó Buachalla 1988; O’Connor 1968; O’Sullivan 2005; Randles 1975; Walsh 2009). While these collective histories are important for understanding the breadth of change which occurred at this time, there is ample room for more nuanced studies to critically analyse the complexity of specific schemes and reforming measures. More recently, scholars such as Harford (2018) and Delaney and Raftery (2020) have focused their attention on the legacy and impact of Donogh O’Malley's Free Education Scheme. The introduction of free -post primary education in 1967, has been recognised by these historians and others, as ‘one of the most important developments in the history of independent Ireland’, providing, as it did, free second-level education to all pupils (Harford 2018, 2). Clearly, the Free Education Scheme merits this scholarly attention, but in order to fully understand this period of radical reform, other measures, including George Colley's programme to rationalise resources and Patrick Hillery's comprehensive school scheme, require closer scrutiny. Moreover, the focus of many of these publications, both the collective histories and individual studies of particular reforms, have tended to favour an examination of the official history of Irish education, documenting many of the changes which occurred through the public lens of the Department of Education and its respective Minsters.

Several historians have reflected on this period and the role of the government as indicative of a ‘new leadership emphasis’ and ‘appropriating a great deal of power’ (Coolahan 2011, 133; Randles 1975, 125). But writing in 2009 (384), Clarke observed that this traditional narrative of educational reform in Ireland during the 1960s ‘ …  has led to a certain imbalance in the analysis of education policy formation’. In particular, Clarke (2009, 384) noted the ‘lack of attention paid to the role played by the Catholic hierarchy’ in negotiations with the Department of Education at the time. It is worth mentioning that, in the mid-1960s, the Catholic Church had a direct involvement, through its male and female Catholic religious orders, with 424 of the 586 secondary schools in operation throughout the country (Department of Education 1966). This lacuna in scholarship, therefore, raises serious questions about the extent of influence and power which the Department of Education had over educational reform in the 1960s, particularly in respect of those schools owned and managed by Catholic religious. While Clarke (2009) in her examination of the Catholic hierarchy's role in education reform, particularly in negotiations surrounding the comprehensive school scheme fills a gap in research, what is omitted are the views of those who were responsible for policy formation at ground level. In particular, the case of the development of Carraroe Comprehensive merits closer scrutiny because at the time of the government's announcement, the Catholic Church already had a vested interest in the area.

In the 1950s, the parish of Carraroe was an area with a scattered population where no secondary school facilities, for boys or girls, had previously been established. In 1954, the Presentation sisters from Tuam were invited to establish a secondary school in the area (Fr Andrew Moran to Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Joseph Walsh, May 1964, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/7). Following lengthy negotiations between the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Joseph Walsh, the parish priest Fr Andrew Moran and his successor Fr Michael Godwin, and the nuns in Tuam, the Presentation sisters finally opened their school in Carraroe on 1 September 1959 (Waldron 2002, 64). Although the Catholic hierarchy were profoundly opposed to co-educational schools, the Presentation sisters were permitted to accept both girls and boys in Carraroe. The Catholic Church only consented to co-education in their schools in areas where it was deemed an ‘extreme necessity’ (Cork Examiner, May 28, 1958). In Carraroe, co-education was accepted as a practical solution to the otherwise absence of secondary education provision in the area.

Until the 1960s, the Presentation Order in Ireland believed that they were a congregation of ‘diocesan right’ with solemn vows, which meant that Presentation communities came under the direct authority of their local bishop.¹ The bishop was considered the First Superior of the congregation and he, therefore, assumed responsibility for all matters, both temporal and spiritual, within the community (Constitutions 1935, 59). According to their constitutions, no ‘matter of importance relating to the House or Community [could] be undertaken without the consent of the Bishop’ (59–60). The local bishop, therefore, held ultimate superiority within the Presentation congregation. This was an all-pervasive superiority and often extended into the management and administration of the convent secondary schools. When Patrick Hillery first announced that Carraroe had been chosen as an area to pilot the comprehensive school scheme, the matter became of immediate consequence to the sisters in Carraroe and their First Superior, Archbishop Walsh.

‘Ministerial pronouncements are indeed important, and usually mark a definite step in some direction’ but as this paper will show, those steps were often constrained by the ambitions and motivations of others with a vested interest in educational matters, most notably the Catholic Church (Randles 1975, 11). Through a systematic, cross-examination of Department of Education and diocesan correspondence, this paper provides a more nuanced understanding of how the comprehensive school scheme was reconciled at local level. This case study approach, informed by traditional methods of historical analysis, allows for a more in-depth examination of the key personnel involved in the decision-making process concerning one of Ireland's first comprehensive schools in Carraroe, County Galway and in so doing adds to existing discourses surrounding the history of reform in Irish education. Of particular importance, is the role, or lack thereof, of local school authorities and managerial bodies in negotiations surrounding Carraroe comprehensive.

1960s Ireland and educational reform

Until the 1960s government involvement in post-primary education had been limited to curricular reform and laying down specific conditions which schools were required to comply with in order to gain recognition and avail of state grants. Moreover, successive governments were not concerned with structural or administrative reform in education. This subsidiary role assumed by the state during the first half of the twentieth century contributed to the creation of a number of problems within the education sector. For one, by the early 1960s, pupil participation was alarmingly low. During the school year 1962–63, an estimated 3,363 boys and 3,186 girls left full-time education prior to completing their intermediate certificate (Department of Education 1965b, 360–362). Some of the factors which contributed to this high percentage of early school leavers included employment opportunities, but more significantly there were issues in relation to schools and their location, fees, capacity, entry restrictions, curriculum and general organisation (Department of Education 1965a, 176). Another problem associated with the Irish education system at this time was the division of post-primary education provision between secondary and vocational schools. In the traditional post-primary school system, the secondary school offered an academic type education while the vocational school provided for more practical instruction with virtually no room for co-operation between the two. Consequently, the provision of post-primary education in Ireland was characterised by an apparent separateness. This division was not based solely on the method of instruction but also on assumptions regarding the widely perceived inferior status of vocational schooling. From the passing of the Vocational Education Act in 1930, the Catholic Church had sought to undermine the value of vocational schooling, a condition that was largely upheld by respective Irish governments during the first half of the twentieth century (O’Donoghue 1999, 101–2; Logan 1999, 62–92) This measure seems to have had the desired effect as societal attitudes of the time indicated an overall preference for traditional second-level education. In the school year 1960–61, for example, a total of 76,843 pupils were enrolled in the traditional secondary school, compared to just 26,090 students who were completing wholetime continuation education in the vocational school (Department of Education 1961, 68 and 126). Because the development of secondary schools was largely reliant on the private initiative of individual religious congregations, there was also no specific planning for the building of secondary schools which led to an obvious geographical imbalance in the location of recognised post-primary centres. By 1952, for example, there were 191 recognised secondary schools operating in Leinster and 166 in Munster compared to just 62 in Connacht (Department of Education 1953). The limited role assumed by the Department of Education in educational provision and planning meant that there were no means available to local communities to address the absence of post-primary schools which was largely a problem associated with rural Ireland. By the late 1950s, the inherent limitations of the Irish post-primary school system became a matter of concern for the Department of Education.

In 1958, the Irish government produced the White Paper on Economic Expansion which led to the publication of the first official programme for economic expansion (Coolahan 2011, 131). Together, these reports highlighted the importance of education as an economic investment, concluding that the ‘prosperity of a modern technological society depended on the availability of an educated workforce’ (131). This idea that a stable and profitable economy depended on investment and development in education had first been suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1958 (Walsh 2009, 63). Future developments in Irish education were to be heavily influenced by OECD recommendations, particularly following an OECD conference in Washington DC, in October 1961. The conference was attended by two Irish delegates, namely Seán MacGearailt and John F. McInerney, who were encouraged by the OECD to undertake a pilot study on education in Ireland (64). The then Minister for Education, Patrick Hillery, agreed to the study and on 29 July 1962 he appointed a team to carry out the OECD-sponsored survey on Irish secondary education (Department of Education 1965a, XXXVII). According to Hillery, the main purpose of the report was ‘to assess the educational needs of our expanding economy as well as the economic implications of ever increasing demand for education’ (Hyland and Milne 1992, 30). The report, which became known as Investment in Education, indicated that in the future education would form a major aspect of government economic policy (31). Indeed, the findings of Investment were to have a major impact on educational reform in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The comprehensive school scheme

Hillery was first appointed Minister for Education in 1959, a position that he did not wholeheartedly welcome (Walsh 2008, 69). Indeed, at the time of his appointment, Hillery's experience of the Irish education system was limited to his own participation in it. This lack of experience was a concern for Hillery who, according to Walsh, set out ‘to gain a full understanding of the major issues facing his department and to develop his own ideas for resolving long-standing educational problems’ (72). Hillery sought to address the inherent limitations of Irish second-level education, by developing a policy for post-primary education which centred on the ‘co-ordination of provision and extension of educational opportunity’ (Ó Buachalla 1988, 281). The Minister for Education intended to achieve this aim by establishing a new type of post-primary school. He stated on 20 May 1963: ‘My plan is for the provision by the State of a number of new post-primary schools to cater for particular regions’. The new type of post-primary school which Hillery envisioned was a comprehensive post-primary day school that would provide second-level education to pupils from the age of about twelve to sixteen years. It was estimated by the Minister that the comprehensive school would cater for a minimum of 150 pupils. In order to secure ample pupil numbers to attend the proposed comprehensive schools, Hillery intended to establish transport services for students living ‘within a radius of about ten miles’ from the school. To avail of the transport services, the pupils would have to reside ‘three miles or over from the school’. Hillery expected that ‘Such pupils would be charged for transport a flat rate of so much per day, the remaining cost of fares to fall on the school budget’. The Minister accorded that school fees would be ‘reasonable’ and ‘would be reduced in cases of hardship’. Hillery proposed a common core curriculum consisting of ‘Irish, English, mathematics and some form of hand-eye training (example drawing, manual instruction). Other subjects provided for would be history, geography, Latin, one (or where possible, more than one) continental language, science, rural science, art, singing and so on’. The Minister did not make explicit specifications for religious instruction in the proposed comprehensive schools but asserted that ‘provision for it must be taken for granted’ (Statement by Dr. P. J. Hillery, T.D., Minister for Education, in regard to post-primary education, N.A.I., TAOIS, S17405/63).

A comprehensive school for Carraroe?

Hillery's comprehensive school programme was to be implemented as a pilot scheme in areas where the Department of Education deemed that facilities for post-primary education did not exist. These areas were mainly confined to the west of Ireland where, according to the Minister, ‘the population is so scattered as to make the establishment of a secondary school or vocational school a most unlikely event’ (Statement by Dr. P. J. Hillery, T.D., Minister for Education, in regard to post-primary education, N.A.I., TAOIS, S17405/63). The first three locations to be selected by the Department of Education for consideration in the comprehensive school scheme were Cootehill, County Cavan, Shannon, County Clare and Carraroe, County Galway (Walsh 2009, 89). Carraroe, which is situated in south Connemara in the heart of Ireland's largest Gaeltacht region, was certainly deserving of increased government investment in education. In 1956, the population of the Connemara Gaeltacht stood at 24,584. The entire region was serviced by just one secondary school, located in Spiddal, and four vocational schools. In addition, there was one school on the island of Inis Mór providing education to junior cycle pupils only (Kerryman, 24 October 1970). As previously outlined a co-educational secondary school was established in Carraroe by the Presentation sisters in 1959. By the time of Hillery's announcement regarding the development of a comprehensive scheme for post-primary education, the Presentation sisters already had eighty-four pupils, thirty-five boys and forty-nine girls, enrolled in their secondary school in Carraroe (Department of Education 1963). Although not a large school, pupil enrolments had increased each year since the school had been founded. Due to the school's central location in the Connemara Gaeltacht, the sisters in Carraroe had expected that pupil enrolments would continue to increase and in 1963 they contacted the architect Simon Kelly, with the intention of developing plans for a new secondary school building in the area (Simon Kelly to the Reverend Mother, Tuam, April 19, 1963, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/7).

According to Canon Waldron, sometime in 1963, the Department of Education wrote to Sister Rita, the principal of the existing secondary school in Carraroe, and formally invited her to consider adopting the comprehensive school scheme (Waldron 2002, 66). It is not clear if Sister Rita engaged in any discussions with the Department of Education at this time. In any case, in 1963 the Presentation sisters still considered themselves as a congregation of diocesan rite. As a result, Sister Rita would not have been in a position to accept the Department of Education's offer without first consulting her local bishop. At the time of the government's announcement regarding comprehensive secondary schools, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Joseph Walsh, was in Rome attending the Second Vatican Council, 1962–5 (66). When he returned home for Christmas in December 1963, Sister Rita contacted him and informed him of recent events in Carraroe:

Mr. Finlay, the Head Primary Inspector called on us lately. He said that he feels Dr. Hillery's comprehensive schools will not come for a long time, if ever, as there is no money  …  It is hard to know what these government departments have in their minds but Mr. Finlay had little hope of a comprehensive school here, especially as there is a good technical school in the area also  … . (Sister Rita to Archbishop Walsh, December 20, 1963, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/7)

A technical school had been founded in the Carraroe around the same time that the Presentation sisters had established their co-educational secondary school (Waldron 2002, 62). From the late 1950s onwards both schools had experienced a continued growth in pupil numbers (65–66). By 1963, the Galway Vocational Educational Committee was also seeking to expand its existing school to help cater for the increasing pupil enrolments (65–66). Due to the apparent success of both schools, one could understand why Finlay believed that there was ‘little hope of a comprehensive school’ in Carraroe. It would seem, from Sister Rita's correspondence, that Finlay did not support Hillery's comprehensive school scheme. It is also possible that Sister Rita had anticipated that Archbishop Walsh would not have approved of a comprehensive school in Carraroe. Her letter could be seen as an attempt by the Presentation sisters to reassure the archbishop that a comprehensive school would not be realised in Carraroe.

While the archbishop had been in Rome, Sister Rita had also received a visit from the then Minister for Defence, Gerald Bartley. As an appointed representative of the Galway West constituency and former Minister for the Gaeltacht (1959–61), Bartley clearly had a vested interest in his party's proposed scheme for Carraroe. According to Sister Rita, ‘[he] was very curious about our plans. He drew down the comprehensive schools but I did not pretend that we were interested. He said that of course we were too well catered for in Carraroe to expect a comprehensive school’. Although Bartley reinforced Finlay's earlier claim that there was little chance that a comprehensive school would be founded in Carraroe, it is possible that such reflections were simply a means of ascertaining Sister Rita's true sentiments towards the scheme. Indeed, it seems likely that Bartley was in favour of a comprehensive school and had come to Carraroe in order to assess the area. Nonetheless, it would appear that Sister Rita herself was wary of the scheme. She concluded her letter to the archbishop stating: ‘In the end I feel God will help us out. So far, He has blessed the school and I trust in Him, not in governments, though in a place like here, governments should help’ (Sister Rita to Archbishop Walsh, December 20, 1963, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/7).

However, regarding the provision of education, it was not the managers of secondary schools with whom respective governments were concerned but rather the Irish Catholic hierarchy. Around 1964, in a memorandum to the government entitled ‘Proposals relating to comprehensive post-primary education’, Minister Hillery announced his intention ‘to consult with the Bishops concerned in each case in relation to giving effect to what is contemplated’ in the pilot scheme for comprehensive schools (Department of Education, ‘Proposals relating to comprehensive post-primary education’, undated, N.A.I., TSCH, 3/S17405/95). The memorandum did not contain any further references to consultations with other parties with a vested interest in the comprehensive school scheme. This seemingly deliberate move to exclude managerial organisations and teacher unions from decision-making did not go unnoticed: Charles McCarthy, General Secretary of the Vocational Teachers’ Association (VTA) outlined his ‘disappointment  …  that comprehensive schools have been introduced  …  without any consultation with those whose experience and assistance could be vital’ (Irish Press, 21 May 1963). Although McCarthy was critical of the Minister's exclusionary tactics, organisations like the VTA, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) and the Teacher's Union of Ireland (TUI) were, from their inception, frequently excluded from consultations with the Department and Catholic managerial bodies (see Coolahan 1984; Cunningham 2010; Logan 1999). Writing in 1968, Seán O’Connor, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education, lamented that ‘The lay secondary teacher remains always the hired man  …  he is never-part of the decision-making (O’Connor 1968). The Tribunal on Teachers Salaries (1968) and the subsequent introduction of posts of responsibility would go some way towards improving the conditions of lay teachers but in 1964 they remained very much on the peripheral of decision-making. What is possibly more telling about Hillery's actions at this time, was his decision to exclude the religious managerial bodies from consultations.

The Catholic Headmasters Association (CHA) was established in 1878 to provide support and structure to Catholic secondary schools. The CHA was largely comprised of male religious headmasters but had close links with the hierarchy and represented the Catholic Church's interest in second-level education. Because there was no equivalent organisation for women religious and convent schools at the time, the CHA also acted on their behalf. In 1929, the Conference of Convent Secondary Schools (CCSS) was founded to provide a platform specifically for convent schools to ‘facilitate interchange of ideas’ and to represent their interests in negotiations with the Department and teacher unions. In the past, the CHA, and to a lesser degree, the CCSS, were regularly consulted with by the Department of Education in matters relating to the curriculum and changes in second-level courses. However, when Minister Hillery announced his comprehensive scheme on 20 May 1963, the CHA complained that they had not received ‘a copy of the Minister's press statement’ (cited in Doyle 2000, 38) Although the CCSS did not make any direct statements at the time of Hillery's announcement, they later reflected on the fact that the Minister had excluded them during an unprecedented time of ‘state intrusion into secondary education’ (ibid.). The Minister's decision to not engage in talks with the CCSS seems even more peculiar, considering that the Presentation Order were among their membership and, because of their school in Carraroe, would be directly impacted by the proposed comprehensive scheme. Nonetheless, organisations like the CHA and CCSS were unlikely to recommend or implement any new schemes without prior approval from the Catholic hierarchy, so including them in negotiations seemed futile. Clearly, the decision to exclude managerial organisations from consultations and to negotiate directly with the bishops, was a tactical move which the Minister hoped would ensure a swift and favourable outcome.

Negotiations: the Archbishop and the secretary

On 8 January 1964, Archbishop Walsh, met with the Department of Education to discuss the possibility of establishing a comprehensive school in Carraroe. The intention of the Department of Education was to combine the existing Presentation secondary school with the vocational school, thus creating a co-educational, comprehensive, secondary school in the district. Following the discussions, Archbishop Walsh requested that the Department ‘set out in writing the factors which make it necessary that both boys and girls be admitted to the school in question’. On 17 January 1964, Secretary to the Department of Education, Dr. T. Ó Raifeartaigh, wrote to Archbishop Walsh and explained the government's position in relation to the proposed comprehensive school in Carraroe:

To merit its name a comprehensive school must offer a wide range of subjects, and it is the Minister's intention that the comprehensive schools  …  shall offer courses in technical subjects, in science subjects and in academic subjects. This wide curriculum will demand a large teaching staff and sufficient pupils to establish three full classes, at least, in each year of the course. Thus the minimum number required each year would be seventy-five, but to offset the drop-out at age fourteen an annual intake of about ninety would be most desirable.

We have examined the enrolments in all schools within a radius of ten miles from Carraroe  …  In all the schools within the area we found a total enrolment of sixty-three boys and seventy-six girls in the twelve to thirteen age range  …  it would be rash to assume that more than two -thirds would be willing to attend [Carraroe]  …  On the two-thirds basis about forty-two boys and fifty girls would be available annually. If the enrolment is to be confined to boys or girls then the annual intake would be too low to warrant establishing a comprehensive school in the area.

On a concluding note, the secretary acknowledged that Carraroe already had a mixed secondary school operated by the Presentation sisters, and also a mixed vocational school. But Ó Raifeartaigh advised the archbishop that the Minister for Education intended to combine both schools in order to create a ‘large comprehensive school’. If enrolment in the proposed comprehensive school was confined to either boys or girls then, according to the secretary, ‘post-primary provision would have to be maintained for the other sex either by retaining the secondary school and vocational school or by establishing a second comprehensive’. The establishment of two separate single-sex schools would create ‘practical difficulties’ and furthermore would affect ‘facilities available in each school’ thus hampering ‘the prospects of survival of any of them’. Ó Raifeartaigh concluded his correspondence by reassuring the archbishop that ‘the Department would, of course, be happy to agree to the arrangement proposed by Your Grace whereby a suitably qualified priest would be a member of the teaching staff of the school’ (Department of Education to Archbishop Walsh, January 17, 1964, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). This was undoubtedly an attempt by the secretary and the Department of Education to persuade the archbishop into accepting the government's proposals for the intended co-educational, comprehensive school in Carraroe.

On 5 March 1964 Archbishop Walsh responded to Ó Raifeartaigh outlining some of his concerns regarding the proposed establishment of a comprehensive secondary school in Carraroe. Walsh's main objection to the scheme was the government's plan to pursue a policy of co-education in the comprehensive schools. He stipulated that ‘While I am most anxious that the people of Carraroe should enjoy the best facilities, I must say that in my opinion the arguments you adduce are not sufficient to warrant mixed education’. Walsh argued that although Carraroe already had a mixed secondary school, the pupils attending it came only from that specific parish. The Department of Education proposed to introduce transport facilities for the adjoining parishes which would, therefore, increase the number of pupils attending the secondary school in Carraroe. On this basis Archbishop Walsh argued that ‘there will be a sufficient number of pupils for separate schools’. More generally, Archbishop Walsh rejected the government's proposal for a co-educational comprehensive school on the basis that it was:

At variance with the memorandum of the interview between the Minister for Education and the Bishops of Achonry and Elphin on 28 June 1963. At that interview, according to the memorandum, “The Minister said that there was no question of mixed education.” This quotation was confirmed by the letter of the Department of Education date 26 July 1963.

As previously outlined, the Irish Catholic Church was strongly opposed to co-education in its secondary schools and had received a guarantee from the Minister for Education that it would not be imposed on them. Walsh continued:

At the very beginning, when the Minister did me the honour of consulting me, he stated that each comprehensive school would have about 150 pupils, and that transport would be provided for them. The number mentioned to me at the interview and contemplated in your letter is 300. If this is the number to be aimed at all around, it seems to me that you may put up an argument for mixed education not only in Carraroe but in every single case. For I cannot visualise any area outside the towns where you could have separate schools for boys and girls, each school containing 300 pupils. So the undertaking given in the letter of 26 July 1963 simply would be dishonoured.

It is apparent that Archbishop Walsh's main objection to the comprehensive school scheme was the government's intention to make co-education a common characteristic of this type of schooling. Yet the Catholic Church had already established a co-educational school in Carraroe and so it could be argued that they were not completely opposed to the idea. However, it is possible that the Catholic hierarchy had only consented to the mixed-sex school in Carraroe as the region conformed to their regulations regarding cases of ‘extreme necessity’, that is to say that there were no existing provisions for secondary education in the locality and the individual enrolments of either boys or girls would not have merited the establishment of two separate schools. Therefore, it would seem that co-educational comprehensive schools would only be accepted in areas where the Catholic Church deemed that separate schools for boys and girls were not viable. However, according to Walsh, the Minister's proposed 300 pupil intake would make the likelihood of establishing independent single-sex schools unattainable in the vast majority of locations throughout Ireland. Due to such restrictions it was, therefore, clear that co-education would not be accepted in Carraroe or in any other Catholic Church jurisdiction where the Department of Education intended to introduce the comprehensive school scheme and all that it involved.

Another point of contention concerned the level of education which was to be provided by the proposed comprehensive school in Carraroe. Archbishop Walsh reminded Ó Raifeartaigh that at this time ‘the students at Carraroe are receiving a full secondary education’. According to Dr. Hillery's scheme, the comprehensive school would only cater for pupils as far as the intermediate certificate examination. Archbishop Walsh indicated that:

 …  there seems to be some misunderstanding. The Bishops of Achonry and Elphin, who interviewed both the Minister and the Secretary of the Department, stated in a report to the Bishops that the comprehensive school envisaged would not stop at the intermediate certificate but would bring all students who were likely to profit by it up to the leaving certificate examination. If this impression of the Bishops is correct, then the new Carraroe school should have five classes, not three-as stated in the second paragraph of your letter. If my interpretation of your letter is correct, I should like to know what is to become of the students who at the end of the intermediate certificate are able and willing to benefit by studying for the leaving certificate. Our experience is that the large majority are most anxious to continue (5 March 1964).

The comprehensive school scheme, therefore, had some obvious limitations which the Department of Education had apparently not considered. In 1964, the situation in Carraroe was unique in that it already had a recognised secondary school providing post-primary education to leaving certificate level.

On 11 April 1964, Ó Raifeartaigh replied to Archbishop Walsh and once again pressed for the establishment of a co-educational comprehensive school. Ó Raifeartaigh reminded the archbishop that the proposed transport facilities, which would cater for pupils who wished to attend Carraroe comprehensive, were limited to a ten-mile radius and ‘within the area outlined there were not sufficient pupils available to warrant the establishment of separate comprehensive schools for boys and girls’. Ó Raifeartaigh assured the archbishop that it was not the intention of the Minister for Education to make all comprehensive schools co-educational but that ‘such mixed schools would be necessary in areas of scattered population’. According to him, ‘Carraroe is an area of this kind’. In relation to Archbishop Walsh's query regarding pupil numbers Ó Raifeartaigh declared that ‘We did not at any stage contemplate a minimum number of 300 for the three-year cycle’. The figure of 300 was based on predictions for expected pupil enrolments. The Department of Education expected that a number of pupils would terminate their education and seek employment upon completion of the intermediate course and the remaining pupils would either pursue technical education or continue their secondary schooling to leaving certificate level (11 April 1964).

By May 1964 negotiations between the Archbishop of Tuam and the Department of Education had made little progress. On 13 May Archbishop Walsh again summarised his main objections to the proposed comprehensive school in Carraroe:

1. The figure of 150 mentioned by the Minister would be adequate for such a school

2. Apart from exceptional circumstances ‘mixed education’ was not contemplated

The Archbishop of Tuam was completely dissatisfied with Ó Raifeartaigh's response and believed that there had ‘been a very serious change in the Minister's plan since the Bishops met him’. As a result, he advised the Secretary that:

I must have the opportunity of consulting the Bishops before arriving at a decision. I could not by myself take the responsibility of making a decision in regard to Carraroe. For if a comprehensive school with mixed education is founded in Carraroe, this may be taken by all as a headline, and any one may hold that similar circumstances warrant the introduction of mixed education in all other areas. Then I should be held up as the sponsor of mixed education (13 May 1964).

It is apparent that the Archbishop of Tuam was not prepared to accept any conditions proposed by the Department of Education which would not be acceptable to the wider Catholic hierarchy. Archbishop Walsh was cautious in his discussions regarding the comprehensive school scheme, ensuring that he was not used as a pawn in negotiations between the Department of Education and the Catholic Church hierarchy. While Archbishop Walsh was not opposed to the initial establishment of a co-educational school by the Presentation sisters in Carraroe in 1959, the conditions put forward by the Department of Education in 1964 for the proposed comprehensive school were clearly not acceptable. Walsh's main opposition to the comprehensive scheme was that the Minister's proposed 300 pupil enrolment would mean that all such schools would be mixed-sex, an objection which was clearly supported by the other Catholic bishops of the time. Instead, the archbishop believed that there would be sufficient pupil numbers to permit the establishment of two separate school centres. However, this was not a proposal supported by the Department of Education.

On 16 May 1964, Ó Raifeartaigh advised the archbishop that the matters would ‘require further consideration’ by the Department of Education, the outcome of which is unclear (Department of Education to Archbishop Walsh, May 16, 1964, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9). However, on 6 August 1964, the Department of Education again wrote to Archbishop Walsh thanking him ‘for the plans in connection with the proposed comprehensive school for Carraroe’ (6 August 1964). It seems from this acknowledgment that the Department of Education had reached an agreement with Archbishop Walsh regarding the establishment of the comprehensive school. Again, it is not clear what the exact terms of this agreement were or whether or not the school would be co-educational. Nonetheless, the Department of Education was satisfied that they had secured, at least in general terms, Archbishop Walsh's approval. The next step in the comprehensive school programme was to obtain a site for the building of the new school.

Tension over the Deed of Trust

On 5 March 1965 the parish priest of Carraroe, Fr. Michael Godwin, wrote to the Archbishop of Tuam informing him that the Department of Education ‘has finally agreed to recommend the Nuns [Presentation sisters] land as the more suitable site for building [the new comprehensive school]’ (Fr. Godwin to Archbishop Walsh, March 3, 1965, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9). However, the development of a comprehensive school on a site owned by the Presentation sisters brought to the fore new considerations which necessitated the renewal of negotiations between the Department of Education and the Archbishop of Tuam. Interestingly, from this point onwards it would seem that there were no further discussions regarding co-education as legalities surrounding the building of the school took precedence in all communications between the Department and Archbishop Walsh. The transfer of the site from the Presentation sisters to the Department of Education was complex and required both parties to enlist a solicitor to advise on the changeover. The main issue of concern for both the Department of Education and Archbishop Walsh were the terms of the Deed of Trust for the comprehensive schools. Before the site could be transferred to the Department of Education, Archbishop Walsh required clarification on a number of points which had previously been raised by the Standing Committee of Bishops appointed to consider and negotiate the general terms of Hillery's scheme. As early as January 1964, the Secretary for the Department of Education had provided the Episcopal Committee with a provisional draft for the Deed of Trust for comprehensive schools (Secretary of the Department of Education to Archbishop Fergus, January 1964, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). The main conditions of the proposed Deed were as follows:

1. The school site will be purchased by the Bishop or his nominee out of a grant provided by the State.

2. a. The school will be vested in trustees who will be nominated by the Bishop, subject to the approval of the Minister [for Education].

   b. In the event of a vacancy the surviving trustees will nominate a person to fill the vacancy (this is the practice in regard to National schools).

3. The Minister will be a party to the deed so as to ensure that the buildings will continue to be used for the purposes intended by him.

4. The lease will be for 999 years.

5. The Committee of Management will be responsible for the insurance, maintenance and upkeep of the premises and for the day-to-day administration of the schools (Minutes of the standing Committee of the Irish hierarchy, January 10, 1967, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/8).

However, in negotiating the Deeds of Trust for Carraroe comprehensive school the Department of Education had made a number of adjustments to the Deed of Trust. In a letter to William B. Galvin, solicitor for the Presentation sisters, dated 15 November 1966, the Department of Education stipulated that the Minister would purchase the site directly from the Presentation sisters. The original draft had stated that the bishop would purchase the site with a grant provided by the state. There was no mention of such a grant in the Department's revised Deed (Department of Education, solicitor, to Mr. Galvin, solicitor, November 15, 1966, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9). Secondly, it was decided that a board of management would be appointed to manage the school. According to the Catholic hierarchy, the three members of the board of management would be the trustees, appointed in the same manner as the trustees of national schools where the Minister for Education was but a party to the Deed. However, according to proposals made by the Department of Education ‘The Minister shall  …  appoint a board of management’. The position of ‘trustee’ was also removed from the conditions of the Deed. Finally, it was ‘agreed that the Bishop's nominee, as Chairman, would have the right of appointing the teachers  …  subject to the later approval of the Minister. Now it is the Board that is given the right of presenting candidates to the Minister’ (Comprehensive schools, observations made by the Standing Committee of Bishops, undated, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). According to Walsh, the Catholic hierarchy was not opposed to Minister Hillery's comprehensive school scheme but were anxious to ensure that the Deed would safeguard the status of denominational education (Walsh 2009, 94). It is, therefore, no surprise that the changes to the Deed proposed by the Department of Education were heavily criticised by Archbishop Walsh and the Standing Committee of Bishops. The revised terms of the Deed of Trust seriously undermined the position which the Catholic hierarchy would hold within the comprehensive school. Until more favourable terms could be reached, Archbishop Walsh declined to sanction the Deed of Trust for Carraroe comprehensive (Archbishop Walsh to William Galvin, solicitor, February 10, 1967, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/8).

While negotiations were continuing between the archbishop and the Department of Education regarding the Deed of Trust, the Department contacted the Presentation sisters to inquire about proceedings in relation to the site at Carraroe. On 5 September 1965 S. Ó Mathúna, Principal Officer of the Department of Education, wrote to the Reverend Mother of the Presentation Convent, Tuam and indicated that the Chief State Solicitor had advised him that ‘the order does not wish to proceed with the transfer of title to the site until the purchase price has been settled’. Ó Mathúna informed the Reverend Mother that an application for the purchase of the site had been forwarded to the Minister for Finance and ‘it is hoped that the offer will be allowed’. Construction works for the comprehensive school in Carraroe had already commenced when Ó Mathúna contacted the sisters in Tuam and as a result, he was most anxious that the Presentation sisters would carry out all legal procedures regarding the transfer of the site as quickly as possible so as to avoid ‘difficulties  …  concerning payments to the contractor’. Ó Mathúna asked that the Presentation sisters to ‘proceed immediately with the completion of the legal indentures and if they would inform their own solicitor accordingly’. Subsequently, the Department of Education informed the Presentation sisters’ solicitor, William B. Galvin, of the government's intention to purchase the site from the order (Department of Education to the Reverend Mother, Tuam, September 5, 1965, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9). However, progress regarding the transfer of the site from the Presentation sisters to the Department of Education was slow. The main issue arising from the proposed transfer was failure to reach an agreement regarding the purchase price for the site.

On 9 November 1965, Galvin wrote to the Chief State Solicitor, who was acting on behalf of the Department of Education, and advised him that ‘before we can make any further progress in this matter the purchase price should be agreed upon’ (9 November 1965). Galvin then proceeded to provide the Chief State Solicitor with a complete breakdown of costs incurred by the Presentation sisters in relation to the site in Carraroe (Table 1).

Table 1. Financial cost incurred by the Presentation sisters for the initial purchase of the site in Carraroe and renovation of buildings therein, 1959–65.

	£.	s.	d.
Purchase price, stamp duty, etc.	3,688	10	0
Renovations and repairs to dwelling house	553	6	0
Installation of electric light	20	0	0
Total cost	4,141	16	0

Source: Galvin to Chief State Solicitor, November 9, 1965, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9.

Prior to the government's announcement in 1963 of the comprehensive school scheme, the Presentation sisters had commenced building plans for a new secondary school in Carraroe (Simon Kelly, Architect, to the Reverend Mother, Tuam, May 14, 1963, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/7). These plans were subsequently abandoned when the Department of Education announced that a comprehensive school would be established in Carraroe. Galvin believed that the Presentation sisters should be reimbursed for the costs associated with their original plans for a new secondary school (Table 2).

Table 2. Financial cost incurred by the Presentation sisters for works carried out on intended secondary school, 1959–65.

	£.	s.	d.
Architect's fees	4,070	10	3
Quantity surveyor	1,649	0	10
Electrical engineer	493	13	0
Structural engineer	610	6	3
Total	6,823	10	4

Source: Galvin to Chief State Solicitor, November 9, 1965, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9.

According to Galvin, the Presentation sisters had been living in a house on the proposed site for the comprehensive school in Carraroe. When plans for the erection of the Presentation school were undertaken, the house was knocked and the sisters were required to take up residence at the Presentation Convent in Tiernea which was approximately seventeen kilometres from Carraroe. As a result, the sisters teaching in Carraroe had to purchase a car, at a cost of £800, in order to travel to and from Tiernea. In addition, they also had to erect a chalet at a cost of £546 to meet their supplementary residential requirements. A further £25 was required to install electricity for light in the chalet. By November 1965, the total cost of the expenses incurred by the Presentation sisters in Carraroe was £12,336 6s. 4d. Galvin advised the Chief State Solicitor that this figure should ‘be a guide to you in arriving at the purchase money’. He also stated that ‘there is no reason why the order should be out of pocket over this transaction and they also feel that my expenses should be paid’ (William Galvin, solicitor, to the Chief State Solicitor, November 9, 1965, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/9).

On 2 March 1966, following a letter from Galvin informing him that construction of the comprehensive school had commenced on the site in Carraroe, Archbishop Walsh informed the Reverend Mother of the Presentation Convent, Tuam that he was:

 …  astounded to see from Mr. Galvin's letter that the school is being built on our site without any permission. I was never informed either by you or by the Department that the building of the school had been undertaken. I must now ask that no more be done until the question of the site is fully settled to our satisfaction (2 March 1966).

At the time of the archbishop's letter to the Reverend Mother, negotiations with the Department of Education regarding the Deed of Trust were still on-going. Archbishop Walsh was not prepared to allow the transfer of the site until a favourable agreement had been reached. Furthermore, the purchase price for the site at Carraroe had not yet been finalised. However, the following week the Reverend Mother in Tuam advised the archbishop that O’Mahoney of the Department of Education, and Galvin, the order's solicitor, had been to the convent to discuss the purchase price for the site in Carraroe. O’Mahoney offered the Presentation sisters a sum of £10,000 for the site. According to the Reverend Mother, Galvin ‘thought that the offer could not be better-it was truly more than any of us hoped to get’ (Reverend Mother, Tuam to Archbishop Walsh, March 9, 1966, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). On 21 March 1966 Archbishop Walsh wrote to Galvin and agreed to accept the offer of £10,000 for the purchase of the site at Carraroe ‘provided that the Department honours the agreement made between the Bishops of Ireland and the Department in regard to comprehensive schools’ (Archbishop Walsh to William Galvin, solicitor, March 21, 1966, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/8). Despite having reached a favourable agreement for the sale of the site in Carraroe, the archbishop remained steadfast in his conviction that the Deed of Trust would not be sanctioned until the conditions put forward by the Catholic bishops were agreed to.

On 6 April 1966 the Presentation sisters in Tuam received the first instalment of £8,0000 for the purchase of the site at Carraroe from the Department of Education. The sisters intended to use part of this payment to pay their architect, Simon Kelly, for works done at the site in Carraroe. The remainder of the money, it was hoped, would be deposited in an account for the erection of a new convent in Carraroe (Reverend Mother, Tuam to Archbishop Walsh, April 6, 1966, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). It is possible that the Department of Education had presented the Presentation sisters with a formal offer for the purchase price of the site in Carraroe in an effort to expedite negotiations with the Archbishop of Tuam. While the sisters had accepted the purchase price offered by the Department of Education, talks in relation to the legal transfer of the site and the Deeds of Trust continued. As late as 10 February 1967, Archbishop Walsh had still not approved the Deed. In a letter to Galvin, the archbishop advised that he had the support of the Standing Committee of Bishops who believed that the conditions put forward by the Department of Education in relation to the site at Carraroe were not in tandem with the original agreement as stipulated by Ó Raifeartaigh in January 1964 (Archbishop Walsh to William Galvin, solicitor, February 10, 1967, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/8). Until the original draft of the Deed of Trust for comprehensive schools was acknowledged by the Department of Education, Walsh and his peers were not prepared to accept the agreement.

On 30 September 1967, the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Henry Murphy, wrote to Archbishop Walsh and informed him that ‘the Department of Education has accepted all the suggestions made by the hierarchy in regard to the form of the Deed of Trust for comprehensive Schools  …  the Deeds will now be prepared’ (Bishop of Limerick to Archbishop Walsh, September 30, 1967, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). However, the reluctance of the Catholic hierarchy to come to a formal agreement with the Department of Education over the Deed of Trust had little impact on the establishment and operation of the comprehensive school in Carraroe. By the time an agreement had been reached regarding the Deed of Trust, the comprehensive secondary school had already been in operation for just over one year. Pearse Conroy, the former principal of the vocational school, had been appointed principal with Sister Ursula of the Presentation sisters assuming the role of vice principal (Waldron 2002, 66). Fr. James Quinn was selected as the first chaplain to the school (66). He was succeeded a year later by Fr. Thomas Mannion (Department of Education to Archbishop Walsh, August 31, 1967, T.D.A., C.P., P18/2/10). By the end of the school year 1969–70 the total number of pupils enrolled in Carraroe comprehensive was 321: 146 boys and 175 girls (Department of Education 1970).

Conclusion

According to Clarke,

The system of comprehensive education introduced did not represent a radical departure for greater state involvement in education, rather the final Deeds of Trust as agreed between the Catholic hierarchy and the Department of Education placed these new schools under denominational influence. (Clarke 2009, 398)

Although the final Deeds of Trust could be seen as a victory for the Catholic hierarchy, in the case of Carraroe, that victory came with significant concessions. At critical moments during the negotiation, Archbishop Walsh either conceded to Departmental plans or was quite simply outmanoeuvred: despite objections from the Catholic hierarchy, Carraroe Comprehensive was opened as a co-educational school. Moreover, in facilitating the sale of the site before the price was agreed, Walsh lost considerable bargaining power. Finally, in allowing the opening of the comprehensive school in Carraroe before agreement was reached on the Deed of Trust, Archbishop Walsh had, perhaps unintentionally, enabled the Department to succeed in their agenda.

The manner in which the comprehensive school was established in Carraroe would also further indicate that in the transition from private, denominational to comprehensive secondary school, the process was almost entirely a church-state affair. There was little consultation with the Presentation sisters, who, until 1966, had independently provided for and managed the existing secondary school in Carraroe. There is also no archival material available to suggest that any member of the Presentation Order, or indeed the CCSS, were ever present during negotiations between the Department of Education and the Catholic hierarchy. Clearly, in the case of Cararroe Comprehensive, decisions regarding the school lay not with the congregation of religious who provided secondary education but in the larger public institutions of church and state.

The comprehensive scheme itself may not have represented a radical departure for greater state involvement in education, but the paradigm shift in Departmental negotiation tactics should not be underestimated. The opening of the comprehensive school in Carraroe in 1966 coincided with another major Departmental announcement: On 10 September 1966, Hillery's successor, Donogh O’Malley, announced that from September 1967 post-primary education would be free to intermediate level. This announcement came as a surprise to a number of government officials and to the various teaching and managerial organisations because none of them had been involved in consultations regarding the proposed scheme. According to Randles, O’Malley's announcement ‘has been described as one of the most curious in recent Irish politics, ignoring as it did all the rules of conventional decision-making’ (Randles 1975, 220–21). However, as was seen in Hillery's deliberate decision to exclude the Catholic managerial bodies and teacher unions from consultations regarding the comprehensive scheme, O’Malley's approach was neither novel nor unique. What was significant about O’Malley's Free Education Scheme was that it signalled a significant departure from the traditional positions occupied by church and state in educational affairs. Through the comprehensive scheme, Hillery had attempted to increase Departmental influence in second-level education by establishing a state-supported post-primary school, but this plan was ultimately defeated with the final Deeds of Trust. His vision was, however, realised through the widescale acceptance of the Free Education Scheme and subsequent events of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The changing dynamic of church-state roles in education was compounded by the reality that religious vocations reached their peak in the mid-1960s and thereafter began a steady decline (MacCurtain 2008, 286). With the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) calling for increased lay involvement in Church affairs and the subsequent publication of the Future Involvement of Religious in Education (FIRE) report in 1973, the Catholic Church was reconciled to engaging in more meaningful consultations with the Department of Education and teacher unions regarding the future of its schools and its religious staff. These negotiations paved the way for a more democratic and inclusive post-primary school system with the establishment of student unions and parents’ associations from the early 1970s and, most significantly, the introduction of boards of management in the mid-1980s.

Clearly, Carraroe Comprehensive was established on the cusp of major change in Irish post-primary education. While the number of comprehensive schools was never very great, fifteen in total, the manner in how they were established gave rise to a new way of conducting educational affairs and contributed, in no insignificant way, to this period of unprecedented reform in Irish education.

Acknowledgment

The author gratefully acknowledges Tuam Diocesan Archives for granting permission to reproduce information obtained from their collection in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catriona Delaney

Dr. Catriona Delaney is a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Education, University College Dublin. She completed her PhD at the Department of History, University of Limerick in 2016. Together with Deirdre Raftery and Catherine Nowlan-Roebuck, she co-authored Nano Nagle: the Life and the Legacy (2019). She and has contributed articles to several peer reviewed journals and is a member of the steering committee of the H-WRBI.

Notes

1 As a community of Catholic female religious the Presentation sisters were subject to the law of the Catholic Church, more specifically the Canon Law governing communities of sisters. The Canon Law provided guidelines for the establishment and organisation of female religious institutes and also included rules regarding the constitutions and vows adopted by the order. See Rev. Geser (1938). The Presentation sisters had been of pontifical right with simple vows since 1918. However, they did not realise this change to their status until sometime after Vatican II, 1962–65. See O’Reilly (2013).