The Presentation order and the  transformation of the Irish denominational  secondary school, 1940-72

Despite considerable research on Irish secondary education, there remains a lacuna in our understanding of the inherent structural and organisational mechanisms which prescribed second-level education in Ireland for the greater part of the twentieth century. In particular, historians of Irish post-primary education have tended to neglect the role which religious congregations played in the provision and delivery of secondary education and as such, their experience has been largely excluded from the canon of educational history. In selecting a group of female religious synonymous with the provision of education, this study seeks to identify Catholic religious teaching orders within the broader discourse of Irish secondary education. This study is concerned with the Presentation sisters, a native Irish congregation of female religious, established in 1775, for the sole purpose of providing education to young Catholic girls who, by the mid-1960s, were among the main providers of girls’ secondary education in Ireland. The analysis incorporates the oral testimonies of twenty-three Presentation sisters who taught in various secondary schools throughout the Republic of Ireland between 1940 and 1972 and also examines diverse and often unique archival sources concerned with the Presentation sisters and their schools. Until the mid-1960s, the Presentation secondary school was a private, voluntary entity, governed and organised according to the hierarchal structures of the broader Catholic Church. Despite, the subordinate position which female religious regularly assumed within church affairs, this studyreveals that the Presentation sisters demonstrated considerable autonomy both as progressive educators and acute business women. They willingly adapted to reforms introduced by the Department of Education from the late 1950s onwards, and contributed to the success of many government education policies. Following the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), the Presentation sisters reassessed their position in education and introduced changes which brought their apostolic mission in line with the needs of the time. In considering the era before, during and after educational reform, this study offers new insights into the transformation of the traditional, denominational secondary school system. This research also follows on from earlier studies concerned with the role and experience of female religious in Irish society. It exposes the previously hidden history of female religious as secondary school educators and examines the invaluable contribution which not only the Presentation sisters, but religious congregations in general, made to Irish second-level education.