This book outlines the lives of six female members of the Irish Ascendancy, and describes their involvement with educational provision for poor children in Ireland at the end of the long eighteenth century. It argues that these women were moved by empathy and by a sense of duty, and that they were motivated by political considerations, pragmatism and, especially, religious belief. The book highlights the women’s agency and locates their contribution in international and literary contexts; and by exploring sources and evidence not previously considered, it generates an enhanced understanding of Ascendancy women’s involvement with the provision of elementary education for poor Irish children. This book will appeal to scholars and researchers in the fields of Education and History of Education. It will also have broad appeal for those interested in Gender and Women’s Studies, in Georgian Ireland and in the history of Ascendancy families and estates.

The late seventeenth and early eighteenth century was a period of great social and political change within Ireland, as the Protestant Ascendancy gained control of the country, aided by the English government and aristocracy, withwhom the ruling class in Ireland mixed through marriage and travel. The resulting Anglo-Irish elite, with its distinct transnational identity, differed markedly from the preceding Irish elite, but, at the same time, because of itsIrish dimension, was very different also from the contemporary English and Scottish upper classes. Women played key roles in this Anglo-Irish elite, and the nature of the Protestant Ascendancy can only be completely understood byconsidering women's roles fully. This book provides a thorough examination of the role of women in Ascendancy Ireland. It discusses marriage, family and social life; explores women's roles in economic and political life and in charitable activities; and places Irish elite women of this period in their wider historiographical context. The book is based on extensive original research, including among the papers of aristocratic families in Ireland and Britain, and provides a wealth of detail on elite women's lives in this period. Rachel Wilson completed her doctorate in modern history at Queen's University, Belfast.

A comprehensive cultural history of childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland, which explores how the notion of childhood fluctuated depending on class, gender, and religious identity, and presents invaluable new insights into Irish boarding schools, the material culture of childhood, and the experience of boys and girls in education.

The first biographical study of Nano Nagle, the foundress of he Presentation order of nuns, that positions her within Irish social history, and assesses her vast international legacy. Nano Nagle: The Life and the Education Legacy draws on archival materials from three continents, providing a compelling account of how one woman's extraordinary life challenged social constraints and championed social justice and equality. Leading education historian, Deirdre Raftery, has produced not only a vital new biographical study of an exceptional Irish woman, but also a study of how thousands of Irish women joined the Presentation order of nuns and taught in their schools all over the world. Within that is the story of the Irish female diaspora in Newfoundland, India, North America, England, Australia, Africa and the Philippines. Nano Nagle: The Life and the Education Legacy throws opens a new window on an unknown aspect of Irish social history, while also demonstrating Ireland's significant contribution to the global history of female education.

This book outlines the lives of six female members of the Irish Ascendancy, and describes their involvement with educational provision for poor children in Ireland at the end of the long eighteenth century. It argues that these women were moved by empathy and by a sense of duty, and that they were motivated by political considerations, pragmatism and, especially, religious belief. The book highlights the women’s agency and locates their contribution in international and literary contexts; and by exploring sources and evidence not previously considered, it generates an enhanced understanding of Ascendancy women’s involvement with the provision of elementary education for poor Irish children. This book will appeal to scholars and researchers in the fields of Education and History of Education. It will also have broad appeal for those interested in Gender and Women’s Studies, in Georgian Ireland and in the history of Ascendancy families and estates.

This volume offers fresh perspectives on the political, military, religious, social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and environmental history of early modern Ireland and situates these discussions in global and comparative contexts. The opening chapters focus on 'Politics' and 'Religion and War' and offer a chronological narrative, informed by the re-interpretation of new archives. The remaining chapters are more thematic, with chapters on 'Society', 'Culture', and 'Economy and Environment', and often respond to wider methodologies and historiographical debates. Interdisciplinary cross-pollination - between, on the one hand, history and, on the other, disciplines like anthropology, archaeology, geography, computer science, literature and gender and environmental studies - informs many of the chapters. The volume offers a range of new departures by a generation of scholars who explain in a refreshing and accessible manner how and why people acted as they did in the transformative and tumultuous years between 1550 and 1730.

Religious education is always a local or regional practice. This is evident in the studies in the present volume on religion and education. The production and the transfer of knowledge in this field are particular and take place in certain historical contexts, so that both can be understood as historical processes. With regard to these theoretical assumptions, the authors of the present volume deliver case studies concerning religious education research in Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Argentina, as well as other countries. Several questions from these contributions might be relevant for further studies: Is religion being underrated in educational research? Is education, on the other hand, being underrated in religious studies? Do these questions depend on national traditions in educational as well as religious research? Are there transnational exchanges between countries through networks, guilds and media? And finally, what might be the additional benefits of such research compared to international comparative studies?