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The famous Hedge Schools appeared in Ireland as a result of English occupation resulting from Parliamentary victory in the English Civil War and Cromwell's campaigns in Ireland. The Hedge Schools were conducted in secret because they were illegal. The Hedge Schools called 'scoileanna scairte' in Irish were set up almost entirely for Catholic children. Parliament outlawed
all schools for Catholic and 'non-conforming' children (1695). (Non-conformist referred to Protestant sects which were not significant in Ireland.) They were also not allowed to send their children abroad to school. This of course only involved the rich. But at the time only a minority of Irish children were attending any kind of school. There were no free public schools in Ireland or anywhere else at the time. The Hedge Schools despite the name were not all conducted outdoors--remember this is Ireland and it rained a lot. They might have used small buildings. The most common practice was for the teachers to teach in homes that offered them room and board. This could, however, not be a permanent matter as word would eventually get about to the authorities. And such a sitiation was not consusive to the pernanence needed for effective education. If poverty was especially severe, the teachers might have to move about to get other employment. The teachers were mostly men, though there were a few women teachers. The Hedge Schools varied from school to school, or probably more correctly teacher to teacher. The children were taught taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Greek and Latin may also have been taught, but not as commonly. You have to question how effective the teaching could be without established schools and long-term instruction. Children of all ages attended these schools. They could not have been very large groups or the authorities would have noted. Thus the teacher had to deal with a group of mixed ages, making teaching very difficult. Younger children just learning to read need a lot of attention. And because there were no permanent facilities, there were few if any books. And then there were the issues of paying teachers. You could hardly earn an income by teaching a small group of poor students on an intermittent basis--and facing arrest and prosecution. In addition, hedge school teachers faced the problem that the disposessed Irish peasantry was very poor. Few had much money, so often the paid what they could, food or turf. The hedge schools existed, but the number of children virtually by definition would have been small and the quality of education limited. The penal laws came to an end in 1782. This meant that hedge schools did not have to be in secret places anymore. Some moved in to larger buildings. They remained as private schools even up to the 1880's. These schools were often called after their teacher if, for example, the school lasted in one place for a period of time.
A good example is Closhessy's hedge school recorded in 1824 in Maudlin Street, Kilkenny.
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