At the age of two years, the infants are transferred to one of the three Schools of the District. Of these, that in Church Court, which, as the feeder of the central National School, has enrolled upon its books about one hundred and fifty scholars between the ages of two and seven years, receives the great proportion. The rest, for the most part, are absorbed by either the Jennings’ Buildings or the Gore Lane School, each of which possess a prescriptive right to mention in these pages, not only from the grants they have severally obtained, but from the position they hold in the Parochial organization.
is a purlieu of the town, leading out of the High Street, and is the chosen settlement of the Irish Romanists. It consists of a series of courts and alleys which, for closeness and filth, are probably without a parallel westward of St. Paul’s. Being a _cul de sac_, unlighted, irregularly paved, and indifferently supplied with water, its best disposed inhabitants find it difficult to cultivate the habits of civilized life. The majority give the matter up, and seek in alcoholic and other stimulants, an antidote against wretchedness, malaria, and disease. Nowhere are the evils of overcrowded chambers more apparent. Single rooms frequently shelter two, and even three families. Its choicest district exhibits a return of forty families to eighteen houses; of one hundred and sixty persons, exclusive of lodgers, sleeping in thirty nine rooms. The entire population, inclusive of Palace Place, must exceed one thousand five hundred souls. Prior to the erection of the present School, it was impossible for ladies to penetrate its recesses. The Police entered its retreats in couples. In 1847 the work of reformation commenced; since then a steady progress has been made. At first, the school was emphatically a ragged school; its scholars were literally running wild and half naked in the streets; they outraged alike propriety and decency. Gradually, a change has been wrought. Cleanliness and obedience are rule, where formerly dirt and turbulence prevailed. Gifts of serviceable clothing to the elder and most regular pupils of both sexes have introduced some appreciation of tidiness and self-respect. Above all, the systematic visitation of its Ladies’ Committee and their friends, has been productive of most humanizing effects. Slight attempts are recognizable, on the part of the residents, to render their locality less decidedly objectionable. They have, at least, before them a higher standard, which a few are endeavouring to reach. The teaching of the children has thus reacted on the mothers; and though from the constant importation of fresh immigrants the battle must be fought uphill, there can be but little doubt on which side the victory will rest at last. But with the Homeric hero it is fair to wish for light. Granted the day and the contest must be successful. It is the ignorance of the Irish, that is the nurse of their misery; lighten this darkness, and as the clouds of superstition and prejudice roll away, whatever germs of good, and they are many, now lie undeveloped in their hearts, will blossom beneath the genial rays of knowledge, and bring forth fruit in season. Already thirty children have gone from this school to earn their own living in the states of life to which it has pleased God to call them; and if in their different situations they are practising, as the reports of their employers testify, the virtues of honesty, sobriety, and industry, of gentleness and modesty, there can be no undue assumption in attributing this happy issue far more to discipline and precept, than to nature or example.