Sir, – Brian Stewart (September 22nd) is mistaken when he writes “As far as I am aware, there were no national schools in existence before the church went to the trouble and expense of having its members found them”.
The national schools were established by the state in 1831 as a multi-denominational system. It was the churches, led in the first instance, by the Presbyterian community, that sought to and eventually succeeded in subverting this model. – Yours, etc,