Irish influence on Western education began 14 centuries ago. From the 6th to the 8th century, when western Europe was largely illiterate, nearly 1,000 Irish missionaries traveled to England and the Continent to teach Christianity. During the early Middle Ages, Irish missionaries founded monasteries that achieved extensive cultural influence; the monastery at Sankt Gallen (Saint Gall), Switzerland, is especially well known for its contributions to education and literature.
Classical studies flowered in ancient Ireland. Distinctive also at the time were the bardic schools of writers and other learned men who traveled from town to town, teaching their arts to students. The bardic schools, an important part of Irish education, were suppressed in the 16th century by Henry VIII, king of England.
University education in Ireland began with the founding of the University of Dublin, or Trinity College, in 1592. The National University of Ireland, established in 1908 in Dublin, has constituent university colleges in Cork, Dublin, and Galway. Other leading colleges are Saint Patrick's College (1795), in Maynooth, affiliated with the National University; Dublin City University, founded in 1975; and the University of Limerick, founded in 1970.
The Irish language has been taught in all government-subsidized schools since 1922, but fewer than 10,000 pupils speak it as their first language.
Ireland has a free public school system, with attendance compulsory for all children between 6 and 15 years of age. In the 1995 school year 367,700 pupils were enrolled in 3,391 elementary schools. Secondary schools, primarily operated by religious orders and largely subsidized by the state, enrolled 389,400. Enrollment at universities and colleges totaled 134,600. Ireland also has several state-subsidized training colleges, various technical colleges in the larger communities, and a network of winter classes that provide agricultural instruction for rural inhabitants.
