Kildare Place Society

Entidad colectiva

Kildare Place Society

1811-1884

The Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland, also known as the ‘Kildare Place Society’ (due to its location in Dublin) was a voluntary educational agency founded in 1811 before the establishment of the National Board of Education in 1831. Its stated purpose was to promote non-denominational education in Ireland, especially among the poor. These aims coincided with government thinking on education at the time and led to parliamentary financial assistance. Between 1816 and 1831 (when the parliamentary grant was withdrawn) the Society benefited from public money to the amount of near one quarter of a million pounds. With these funds at its disposal the Society attempted to promote education in Ireland on a national basis. The number of schools under its aegis grew from a mere 8 in 1816, to an impressive 1,621 in 1831. When the Irish National School System was established in that year, the Kildare Place Society became the Church Education Society, and this group went on to manage the training of teachers for Protestant schools until the Church of Ireland Training College was established in 1884.

This organisation eventually became the Church of Ireland College of Education. The Society also made advances in other directions after 1831. It initiated the publication of ‘cheap books' for use in schools and local lending libraries. It established male and female model schools in Dublin where teaching methods could be experimented with. Related to this venture, the Society established a teacher-training course, which both aspirants to the profession and those already engaged in teaching, could avail of. Perhaps the greatest of the Society's innervations was its promotion of a rigorous system of school inspection. All these areas of educational activity were unique in early 19th century Ireland, and they were coordinated to an effective degree by the Society's administration in Dublin.