On the subject of schools - the following site has information on 'The Erasmus Smith Trust'. http://www.highschooldublin.com/erasmus.htm If you scroll down you will come to 'The English Schools' - I've copied/pasted the text - there is also a graphic there of the 'Architectural plan for Milford English School, county Donegal, 1812' THE ENGLISH SCHOOLS The Trust was also concerned with providing primary education, and ran nearly 200 'English Schools', distributed throughout the 32 counties of Ireland. Those who ran these schools referred to them as English Schools because they taught entirely through the medium of English, but local people tended to refer to them as Erasmus Smith Schools. The first English School was in Xelva, Valentia Island, county Kerry, and the last one was in Ardee, county Louth. The schools ran on the basis that the local community would pay for half of the teacher's salary, for half of any repairs and maintenance and for half of the books and equipment required for teaching. Many of these schools were established between 1810 and 1820, usually on the land of a wealthy land owner, if they were not on Erasmus Smith Trust land. By the mid-1800's the financial burden of the schools became so great that they were forced to cut back the number of schools in their care. The land acts in the 1880's created difficulties for the patrons of the English Schools, as they were, more often than not, wealthy Protestant landowners. It was at this period that the greatest diminution in numbers occurred, and many of the English Schools became National Schools. In the beginning, the English Schools were to provide basic education for tenants' children and then other poor children in the parish. In the last few decades in which the Trust ran primary schools, the schools were mostly in outlying areas, where Protestant communities were very small, but where there was a desire that the children be given a Protestant education as was the case in Glencolumbkille English School, county Donegal. Because of the wide dispersal of the English Schools, they are perhaps better known that the grammar schools although the establishment of grammar schools was the main aim of the Trust. the graphic is here for the 'Architectural plan for Milford English School, county Donegal, 1812' Maureen in Sydney ----- Original Message ----- Subject: [DONEGALEIRE] Re: DONEGALEIRE-D Digest V04 #64 Regards the Irish schools-as early as 1811 there was a school at Glenfannett which has now completely disappeared from the map. Would this have been a church sponsored school? iande63782@AOL.com ==== DONEGALEIRE Mailing List ==== Try searching the Obituaries at Rootsweb: Interactive search http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/obituary/obituary.pl To browse through the archives of the list go to http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl Visit my homepage at http://freepages.genealogy.com/~donegaleire ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237

Maureen wrote . . . <SNIP> On the subject of schools - the following site has information on 'The Erasmus Smith Trust'. http://www.highschooldublin.com/erasmus.htm If you scroll down you will come to 'The English Schools' <END SNIP> Thanks for that Maureen. Those English Schools sound commendable. However it doesn't seem to have been the case for some. An inspector from the Department Of Education gave the following account of conditions at the wee Terlin schoolhouse just outside Creeslough, Donegal. “Terlin School 1855 Report A thatched house. It is entirely unsuitable. Furnished; one tablet only on the wall; no map; nor globe; nor apparatus of any kind. School accounts falsified; the whole of the free stock not in the school. The teacher is upwards of sixty years of age; not trained; has been seventeen or eighteen years in the National Board; has been examined frequently by the head of the District Inspectors, and always failed to obtain a class. He receives eleven pounds per annum from the board; he pays £1-5-0 [one pound and five shillings] a year rent for the schoolhouse and teaches the landlord’s children gratuitously. He is in a state of dotage brought on by physical infirmity, poverty, disappointment, is altogether unfit for his position. There were no children present at the time of my visit. This school is situated in a wild mountainous place, where education has been and continues to be very much neglected. (Grant withdrawn from the school) On Rolls: 65 Present: 0 Total Annual Salary of teacher: £11-0-0 [eleven pounds] . . .” The school closed in 1855 with this report A new school opened in 1856 with a new, competent teacher. My great grandfather, Big Dinny, went to this new school; apparently he got as far as the 'fourth book' Slan Henry --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.620 / Virus Database: 399 - Release Date: 11/03/2004