Coolfore, West Farney and the National School System, 1826-1968

Throughout rural Ireland, small single-storey stone buildings can be found, several bearing 'national school' on a stone plaque above the door. These are the schoolhouses that were a common feature of the built environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The local national school was and still remains an essential institution in the social life of each parish. This book tells the story of the national school system in Ireland, since its establishment in 1831 to the mid to late twentieth century.