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A STLOY OF THE INCUFFORATION OF TfE IRISH IN 8RITAIN WITH SPECIAL FEFERENCE TO CATHOL IC STATE EOICAT I ON: INVOLVING A COPAAI SON OF THE ATTITICES OF PUPILS AtD TEACHERS IN SELECTED CTUCff SCHOOLS IN LONDON AND LI VEIPOOL. FW1Y J HI D(MAN Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Institute of Education University of London i gag 2 A STWY OF THE I NCOFFORAT I ON OF THE I RI SH IN BR! TA I N WI TH SPEC I 4L Fi-FNCE TO CATHOL! C STATE EDUCATI ON. DMJLVI NG A COf'PARI SON OF THE ATTIThOES OF PUPILS APD TEACHERS IN EELECTED CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN LONDON AND LIVEFOOL ABSTRACT The central hypothesis of the thesis is ttat en important aim of Catholic state education has been to Incorporate the children of Irish working-class migrants. This hypothesis Is differently explored in part one and part two of the thesis. Part one is essentially a sociological account of the relationship between the English Catholic Church, the State and the migrant comminity in the 19th century. This eccount is preceded by an analysis of Irish migrants and the political, economic and cultural contexts of their settlement In Britain. Part one attempts to show the role which the structure and content of Catholic elementary education played in the process of denatlonalising the children of this migrant corrnunity. This was achieved by institutionalising a silence on the p01 itic& origins of the migrants and by forging a bond between the Church and Its Irish congregation based on Cetholicity and corm.inity. In this way the pclItic& voice of the Irish In Britain was stilled end the process of incorporation was facilitated Renewed migration from Ireland ensured that these incorporatist strategies continued to be employed end relevant in the 20th century. Part two consists of en exploratory empirical study comparing the attitudes of pupils and teachers from selected Catholic schools In LIVerpool and London, the former being the main site of 19th-century migration and the latter the main site of 20th-century migration. The aims of this investigation were two-fold: to explore whether the practices of Catholic schools continue to renderthe Irish antecedents of the majority of their pupils Invisible and thus perpetuate the incorporatist strategies of the 19th century; and to discover the degree to which class, religion and national Identity, mediated through generation and region, still significantly determine the Identity and experience of being Irish In Britain. 3 icKNOW_EDGEI"€NTS I have been fortunate throughout the period of research and writing this thesis to have had the support end encouragement of my family and friends. To my supervisor, Professor Basil Bernstein, I owe a particular debt of gratitude; if I em now a better sociologist it Is in large part due to his level of engagement with the thesis. Without the willing and Interested co-operation of both pupils end teachers in four Catholic schools in London end Liverpool the research would have been impossible. I em equally grateful to former colleagues and pupils in the Catholic comprehensive school in which I taught f or facilitating the pilot study should like to thank the Catholic Education Council for permission to consult the Reports of the Catholic Poor School Comittee and the volumes of The Catholic School. I should also like to thank the staff of a number of libraries for the helpful service they provided: the Catholic Library, London, the National Library in ibl in, the Institute of Education Library, arid the libraries of the University of Liverpool and the University of London. Philip Corrigan was helpful in setting up the research. The following people have all given me material assistance in completing the thesis, for which I am very grateful: Francis Bernstein, Shane Blackman, Lemah Bonick, the entire Boyce family, Case Breen, Howard Davies, Anne Doggett, Christine Donnelly, Denis end Eileen Dooley1 Pat East, Mary Eaton, John Harris, Margaret Hickman, Janet Holland, Joan inglis, Celia Jenkins, Gall Lewis, Melissa Llpkin, Don Magee, Sona Mazey, Biddy and Steve Morley, Pat and Richard Moore, Samir Sanber. Thanks are also due to the staff of MaTson Bouqullion, Bayswater, for making It such a nice place to work. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 2 Acknowl edgements 3 Introduction 7 PART O1\E TP-E HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION Chapter 1 The Origins of Anti-Irish Racism 17 and Anti-Catholicism Chapter 2 Irish Migration and the British Economy 37 In the 19th century Chapter 3 The Construction of the Irish as a 58 Social and Political Problem Chapter 4 The Catholic Church and Irish Cormunities 91 in Britain Chapter 5 Catholic Education: The Segregation and 112 Differentiation of the Irish In Britain Chapter 6 Catholic Education: The Incorporation of 151 the Irish In BrItain 5 PART T'WC Ti-E E!F IA I CAL. STUDY Page Chapter 7 Introduction to the Ençlrlcal Study 190 Chapter 8 Findings: Identity 214 Chapter 9 Findings: The Irish In Britain 257 Chapter 10 FindIngs: Catholicism and Catholic Schools 327 and Irish Identity Chapter 11 Findings: Northern Ireland 388 Conclusion 442 Bibliography 466 Appendices 48 t LIST OF APPENDICES Page 1. Method of An&ysIn the Interview D pta 461 2. Chi-Sgu8re Test V&ues 466 7 I NTAOOUCT I ON 1. OEGIM1INGS This thesis developed from my experiences when teaching in a Catholic comprehensive school In south London in the 1970s. On the one hand, my attempts to teach about Ireland or the Irish In Britain as part of sociology courses were hindered both by the dearth of materials for use in schools on the subject and by the specific content of those that did exist. On the other hand, the preponderance of either ignorance or reluctance to talk about things Irish was striking In a school where over half the pupils and many of the staff were Irish or of Irish descent. In previous research I attempted to establish what was the basis of the presentation of Britain's relationship to Ireland in school texts (Hickman 1980), thus addressing what I had found was problematic about the specific content of the materials which did Include reference to Ireland. The present thesis addresses the silence I encountered when teaching: the silence of many pupils about their Irish background. Both personal knowledge and initial research indicated that this silence In the school reflected wider silences. Being second-generation Irish I was well aware of the ambiguities, ambiv&ences and pressures that can surround being Irish in Britain. Part of the pressure resides in the absence of recognition of Ireland and the Irish In British culture, except in certain designated contexts. Thus, for example, school materials in general marginal ise Ireland and the significance of Britain's relationship to Ireland, but all accounts of 19th-century British political history deal with the 'Irish Question' and the burden it proved for Gladstone. This conforms to the model of explanation which underpins all explanations of Anglo-Irish relations that figure In school texts. The model is one which emphasises the rationality and non-violence of British policy and traditions compared with the irrationality and violence of Irish actions and traditions. This model of explanation does not originate with textbook 8 production but emanates from the academic disciplines upon which such texts are based (Hickman 1980). The dual silence, that is, of the Irish in Britain nd in British culture about Ireland, has meant that the Irish do not figure In the riulticultural or 'race relations' debate which has had such an inexorable growth in the past twenty years. when I comenced the present research there W69 one published sociological text on the Irish in Britain, and this remains the case as I complete the thesis. The author, Jackson (1963), presents his analysis within an assimilation perspective. He details the hostility and difficulties the irish encountered when they first migrated to Britain in large numbers in the 19th century. Sut he goes on to explain that when the next large migration of the Irish to Britain occurred, in the mid-2Oth century, the situation had improved. The 19th-century migrants and their descendants had been assimilated and the new Irish migrants did not face the same degree of opposition or discrimination. However, at the end of the book Jackson does broach the Issue of Irish identity in Britain. Jackson poses the problem of identity as a psychological process of adjustment involving the resolution of two worlds: that which has been left behind but continues to exert a powerful influence; and the new and very different society to which the migrants have journeyed. The implication of his analysis Is that this process of adjustment Is the main problem which the Irish in Britain now face and that this is an unfortunate but inevitable part of the assimilation process. in particular, Jackson considers that It is the second-generation Irish who will experience 'the pressures to conform to new social patterns' (Jackson 1963: 160). He anticipates that there might be potential tension between the children and their parents' who would retain nuch of the reality of their Irish identity and heritage. Jackson considers that Catholic schools, because they contain many Irish teachers might help avoid this potential conflict. The present thesis in many respects convnences where Jackson had to finish his account of the Irish in Britain. My o experiences and knowledge as a pupil and as a teacher did not bear out Jackson's corrrnents on the role of Catholic education. Further, 9 the resurgence of a public profile for the Irish com.inity In the early 1960s called into question Jackson's prediction of assimilation end his assumptions about the necessarily Improved circumstances of the Irish In Britain In the ROth century.

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