Catholic Schooling
in Ireland
Andrew G.McGrady Ph.D.
Center for Research in Religion and Education
Mater Dei Institute of Education
Dublin City University.
CRRE
Staff & Research Areas
Andrew McGrady
Paul Tighe
Brendan Leahy
The Religious Dimension
of Education in Irish
Second Level Schools
Research Fellow in Ethics
Research Fellow in
Ecumenism / InterReligious Dialogue
The Irish Context
Socio-Cultural, Political & Economic Factors
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Articulation of Irish Identity (NI, Good
Friday Agreement)
Economic Factors (Celtic Tiger, Full
Employment, Young & educated work-force,
bridge EU & USA)
Increasing Pluralism (Immigration, EU, Media)
Legislation (1998 Education Act).
Neutrality (Non-nuclear; Defence Forces etc)
Crisis of Authority / Scandals – sexual,
political
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN IRELAND
Theological, educational, cultural, demographic and
legal change.

increasing pluralism,
1998 Education Act
new management structures for Catholic schools,
changing patterns of religiosity among pupils and
parents,
changing patterns of religious commitment among
school staff,
increased parental choice in school selection,

State syllabus and examination for RE
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Religiosity in Ireland
(European Values Survey 1981, 1990 and 1999) & 1998 ISSP
(International Social Survey Programme) Data for Ireland
Decline in adherence to core religious (Christian)
beliefs such as belief in a personal God, belief in
the resurrection, belief in life after death, belief
in Heaven, Hell, the soul etc.
 Decline in the practice of religion measured in
terms of attendance at religious services and
attachment to the sacramental life of the Church
– baptisms, marriages, funeral rites, confessional
practice etc.
 Church teaching in the broad area of ethics is
progressively less influential in determining
lifestyle choices among its members or adherents.

Religiosity in Ireland
(European Values Survey 1981, 1990 and 1999) & 1998 ISSP
(International Social Survey Programme) Data for Ireland
Strong sense of religiosity among the Irish
population as measured by a belief in the
importance of the spiritual dimension of human
life.
 Christian values such as solidarity with the poor,
respect for life, respect for the rights of
minorities etc, have an influence on the civic
values of society.
 Increasing involvement of lay people in the
ministerial activities of the Church and in the
formal study of theology leading to professional
qualifications.

Structure of
Schools in Ireland
In 2001/ 2002 the
Catholic Church in Ireland
has ownership of
 3,050
primary Schools (age 4-12)
 424 Voluntary Secondary Schools
(age 12-18)
 14 third level Colleges and
 one Pontifical University (unfunded)
Primary Schools
Age
Level
4
5
(i) NATIONAL SCHOOLS
6
(Denominationally based, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim)
Primary
7
Level
8
(ii) Gaelscoileanna
9
(Irish Language)
10
11
(iii) Educate Together
12
(multi-denominational)
Second Level Schools
13
(i) Voluntary Secondary Schools
14
Junior Cycle
15
(ii) Vocational Schools &
16
Community Colleges
17
18
Junior Certificate Examination
Transition Year Option
Senior Cycle
(iii) Community & Comprehensive Schools
Leaving Certificate Examination
Second Level Schools
Voluntary Schools
(Religious Cong
denominational
Single sex)
Vocational Schools
(State,
non-denominational)
Community Schools
(multi-denominational
Co-educational)
Church, State and Education
Ireland
has a Churchlinked system of Primary
and Secondary schools
which receives almost
100% funding from the
State.
CORI
Religious Congregations
Education Offices
School Ethos and Culture
AMCSC / JMB
CPSMA
Diocesan Education
Offices
DAs (RE)
Department of Christian Doctrine & Evangelization
Episcopal Commission for Education
Episcopal Commission for Catechetics
Funding Flow
VCS VCS
School School
State
Funds
DES
C&C C&C
School School
School
CEOs
State
Funds
Congregations
School
School
School
Funding

IRELAND
 Direct funding of
teachers salaries,
school running costs
etc.
 Full State funding for
teacher education.

No real State funding
for Catholic Education
Services.
 State funding for
Chaplains in VEC &
Community School
sectors.
Choice

The Catholic School was the local school.
Parents effectively did not choose a
Catholic school.
 Choice was exercised between VSC and
VSC and between VSC and VEC on
academic grounds.
 Teachers also effectively did not choose to
teach in a Catholic school.
Overview of Irish Education
System
High value placed upon Education in Ireland.
 Well regarded by parents & employers.
 75% of school leavers go on to some form of third
level.
 Partnership model in place … 1998 Education Act.
 Extremes of ‘market-model’ and school evaluation
explicitly rejected.
 Limited centralized control.
 Teaching well regarded – benchmarking of salaries.
 Focus in next 5 years will favour the primary sector.

RE Successes in Irish Context

Academically and Professionally qualified
RE teachers.
 New State Syllabus drawn up in partnership
 Development of Chaplaincy (Pastoral Care
of pupils & teachers)
 Countrywide curriculum & textbooks of
good quality.
 Positive pupil attitudes towards school RE.
Problem Areas

Activity really limited to those aspects of schools
which are immediately covered by State funding.
No real RE / catechesis outside of school context.
 Little work done on pastoral strategies & RE.
 Links with parish and parents – minimal.
 Cautious approach to defining Catholic identity.
Legal & Constitutional
Framework
Gravissimum Educationis
Rights pertaining to education
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Universal right of all men and women to
education.
A sacred right to a moral and religious formation.
A right to a specifically Christian Education
The right of the Church to establish specifically
Catholic schools.
Primary and inalienable right and duty of parents
to educate their children
Right of patents to a free choice of schooling for
their children.
Irish Constitution Article 42
(concerning Education)
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The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator
of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the
inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to
their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical
and social education of their children.
Parents shall be free to provide this education in their homes or
in private schools or in schools recognized or established by the
State.
The State shall not oblige parents in violation of their
conscience and lawful preference to send their children to
schools established by the State, or to any particular type of
school designated by the State.
The State shall, however, as guardian of the common good,
require in view of actual conditions that the children receive a
certain minimum education. moral. intellectual and social.
Irish Constitution Article 42
(concerning Education)
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The State shall provide for free primary education and shall
endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private
and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public
good requires it, provide other educational facilities or
institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of
parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral
formation.
In exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral
reasons fail in their duty towards their children, the State as
guardian of the common good, by appropriate means shall
endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always
with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of
the child.
Irish Constitution - Article 44
(concerning Religion)

The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship
is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in
reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.
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Freedom of conscience and the free profession and
practice of religion are, subject to public order and
morality, guaranteed to every citizen.
The State guarantees not to endow any religion.
The State shall not impose any disabilities or make any
discrimination on the ground of religious profession, belief
or status.
Irish Constitution - Article 44
(concerning Religion)
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Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not
discriminate between schools under the management of
different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect
prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school
receiving public money without attending religious
instruction at that school.
Every religious denomination shall have the right to manage
its own affairs, own, acquire and administer property,
movable and immovable, and maintain institutions for
religious or charitable purposes.
The property of any religious denomination or any
educational institution shall not be diverted save for
necessary works of public utility and on payment of
compensation.
Five Key Principles
White Paper on Education 1995
Pluralism
Partnership
Equality
Quality
Accountability
Catholic Ethos of the School
Education Act (1998)
A Board of Management shall: ‘uphold, and be
accountable to the patron for so upholding, the
characteristic spirit of the school as determined
by the cultural, educational, moral, religious,
social, linguistic and spiritual values and traditions
which inform and are characteristic of the
objectives and conduct of the school, and at all
times act in accordance with any Act of the
Oireachtas or instrument relating to the
establishment or operation of the school’ and
‘consult with and keep the patron informed of
decisions and proposals of the board.’ (section 15.
(2) (b) & (c).
Supreme Court: payment of
chaplains in community schools (1996)
While the effect of Art 44.2 is to outlaw the ‘establishment’
by the State of any religion, State aid to a denominational
school for educational purposes is not an ‘endowment’ within
the meaning of Art 44.2.2. Parental rights to provide for
the religious and moral education of their children involve
the right to have religious education, beyond mere religious
instruction, in the schools their children attend. The role of
a chaplain is to help provide this extra dimension to the
religious education of children. Therefore payment by the
State of chaplains in community schools is a manifestation,
under modern conditions, of principles approved by Articles
44 and 42 of the Constitution.
Defining Catholic Education
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference
Handing on the Faith in the Home (1979)
 Syllabus for the Religious Education of
Catholic Pupils in Post-Primary Schools
(1982)
 Submission to the New Ireland Forum
(1984)
 Guidelines for the Faith Formation and
Development of Catholic Students (1999).

Management Board Members’ Handbook
(CPSMA, revised 2000, page 16)
“A Roman Catholic School (which is established in
connection with the Minister) aims at promoting the
full and harmonious development of all aspects of the
person of the pupil: intellectual, physical, cultural,
moral and spiritual, including a living relationship with
God and with other people. The school models and
promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in
God and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The Catholic school provides Religious
education for the pupils in accordance with the
doctrines, practices and tradition of the Roman
Catholic Church and promotes the formation of the
pupils in the Catholic Faith”.
Home, School, Parish
The Need for a Pastoral Strategy

The Irish Catholic Bishops have recently
stated that “the school community cannot
and should not be expected to carry the
responsibility for faith formation and
development entirely on its own” and have
called for a renewed “catechetical vision of
the home, school and parish community
working together in support of the young
person’s journey towards maturity of faith”.
The Religious Dimension of
Education in the Second Level
School
Ethos & Staffing
Principal
Religious
Educator
Ethos
Chaplain
The withdrawal of Religious
from schools.
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Lay principals
Lay members of school Boards of Management
Sustaining the distinctive ethos of the Catholic
school and the specific educational educational
charism of particular religious congregations?
Provide courses and qualifications for leadership
in the Catholic school.
Educational mission statements.
Junior Certificate Syllabus in Religious Education
(Ecumenical and inter-faith)
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To foster an awareness that the human search for meaning is
common to all peoples, of all ages and at all times;
To explore how this search for meaning has found, and continues to
find, expression in religion;
To appreciate the richness of religious traditions and to
acknowledge the non-religious interpretation of life;
To identify how understandings of God, religious traditions, and in
particular the Christian tradition, have contributed to the culture
in which we live, and continue to have an impact on personal lifestyle, inter-personal relationships and relationships between
individuals and their communities and contexts;
To contribute to the spiritual and moral development of the
student.
State Syllabus in RE
FAITH
DEVELOPMENT &
COMMITMENT
BALANCE?
KNOWLEDGE &
UNDERSTANDING
OF RELIGION
Activities in which Chaplains are
Predominantly Engaged
Counselling
1.78
Liturgy
5.04
Supporting Other Staff
5.88
Bereavement Support
6.63
Intervening in Discipline Problems
8.91
Meeting & Visiting Parents
11.05
Hospital Visits
12.09
Mean ranks: 1 = highest, 22 = lowest
End
The distinctive spirit of the
Catholic School
“No less than other schools does the Catholic school pursue cultural goals
and the human formation of youth. But its proper function is to create
for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel
spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new
creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own
personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the
news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire
of the world, life and man is illumined by faith. So indeed the Catholic
school, while it is open, as it must be, to the situation of the
contemporary world, leads its students to promote efficaciously the
good of the earthly city and also prepares them for service in the
spread of the Kingdom of God, so that by leading an exemplary
apostolic life they become, as it were, a saving leaven in the human
community” (GE8).
Six fundamental Characteristics
of the Catholic School CSTTM 4
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
a place of integral education of the human
person through a clear educational project of
which Christ is the foundation;
having an ecclesial identity
having a cultural identity
basing its educational mission on the work of
love
being of service to society
being an educating community characterized
by distinctive traits.
Documents of the Magisterium
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Gravissimum educationis, the Declaration on Christian
Education (1965)
General Catechetical Directory (1971)
The Catholic School (1977),
Catechesi tradendae (1979)
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to the Faith (1982)
The Religious Dimension of Education in the Catholic School
(1988)
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994)
General Directory for Catechesis, (1997)
The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third
Millennium (1997).
Key theological principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
the Church’s involvement in education arises from
its ‘salvific mission’ (evangelization)
Catholic schools therefore have an ecclesial
identity being manifestations of the church itself
evangelization requires an engagement not just
with individuals but with culture itself
authentic education relates to full human
development
which is nurtured by immersion in a community
ultimately full human development can only be
understood in Christocentric terms