November Document of the Month
The Commissioners for National Education (National Education Board) were established in 1831 for the purpose of administering a fund of £30,000 placed at the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant for the education of the poor in Ireland. Their powers were based on a set of instructions drawn up by Chief Secretary Stanley and were not defined in any enactment.
Teachers were expected to be proficient in reading and explanation; penmanship; spelling; grammar and parsing; geography; arithmetic and needlework for females.
Needlework is not what one would normally expect to find in our National Education collection. However, many of the ED 9 category of records relating to individual schools contain the needlework samples and examination papers with result marks provided by teachers.
This partially completed piece of needlework bears the name of Mary O’Connor and the date (18)51. It is contained on the file from Pery Square Female National School in Limerick (ref. ED9/4341).
More information on what is contained within our National Education collection can be found here.
