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From: Barbara Hopper< >
Subject: Re: Hedge teacher
Date: 26 Jul 1998 05:58:18 GMT


Gerald Sullivan () writes:
> Can someone explain the term hedge teacher used in Ireland.
>
Get or borrow a copy of Kenneth Neill's "An Illustrated History of the
Irish People." It has a drawing of a hedge school on page 92 with the
following caption:

"A 'hedge-school' in operation in the Irish countryside. Such
gatherings were most common in Munster, where they helped keep alive a
sense of separate Gaelic identity."

Typically an older Gaelic speaker would instruct youngsters who would
gather in outdoor groups, there being no formal school devoted to the
teaching of the Gaelic in the late 1790s - 1840s. Gaelic had been
forbidden by law, and Catholics couldn't hold office or run for Parliament.

What a sad time it must have been.

--
B. Hopper
Prize-Winning Genealogist and Family Historian
Research Service at Canada's National Archives (Hourly Rates)
Chief Judge of Ontario's Only Annual Family History Contest

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