The Irish Christian Brothers and the National Board of Education: Challenging the Myths

Abstract

For close to 170 years the general consensus from historians has been that Edmund Rice, who founded the Irish Christian Brothers in 1802, was an unenthusiastic applicant to the National Board of Education in Ireland in 1832 and later withdrew his schools because he believed his education was incompatible with the philosophy underpinning the conduct of Board schools. Three myths were created and have circulated over many years to uphold and sustain a pretence that this was the situation which prevailed. These myths are that the Christian Brothers were reluctant participants with the Board; that the Board’s system of education was inimical to the Brothers; and that the Christian Brothers left the Board as a matter of principle. This paper contests these myths and argues that they made virtue of an internal rift that dramatically divided the Christian Brothers politically for over a century. This was a rift that sidelined Edmund Rice and those who supported him.