This volume focuses on the creation, structure and evolution of the Irish national system of education. It illustrates how the system was shaped by the religious, social and political realities of nineteenth century Ireland and discusses the effects that the system had upon the Irish nation: namely that it was the chief means by which the country was transformed from one in which illiteracy predominated to one in which most people, even the poorest, could read and write.

Mini-set H: History of Education re-issues 24 volumes which span a century of publishing:1900 - 1995. The volumes cover Education in Ancient Rome, Irish education in the 19th century, schools in Victorian Britain, changing patterns in higher education, secondary education in post-war Britain, education and the British colonial experience and the history of educational theory and reform.