Lost Potential? The Rejection of the 1923 Education Act
10 March 2021
About this Event
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is hosting a free virtual talk on 10 March 2021 exploring the failure of the 1923 Education Act. The talk will be given by Noel Lindsay, a third-year PhD researcher and departmental assistant in the department of History at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.
The 1923 Education Act attempted to create an integrated system of primary education in Northern Ireland. Lord Londonderry, the first appointed education minister for Northern Ireland following partition, sought to have schools educate Catholic and Protestant children alongside each other.
The act also prohibited schools from providing denominational religious instruction, in an effort to improve integration and relations between the communities. Yet Catholic and Protestant leaders opposed the act’s provisions, and continually argued against government efforts to create a more integrated system of education throughout the 1920s.
As the centenary of this act approaches, Noel Lindsay’s talk will explore why the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches opposed the act, and how their objections ensured a continued system of segregated education in Northern Ireland.
