My greatgrandfather was born in 1841, not 1881. Source: IRL-KERRY@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [IRL-KERRY] Education in Famine Ireland/Kerry With the Union with the UK in 1800 and the Emancipation of the Catholics in 1829, the construction of the National Schools system began in 1831 and speedily replaced the hedge schools. But my ggf, born in 1881, was known to complain that his parents hadn't given him as good an education as he would have liked. So hedge schools must have existed up to the 1850s or so in the Knocknagoshel area.