College education Ireland 1820-1830
My ancestor was born in County Cavan, Ireland 1813 and arrived in US 1832 with his widowed mother, 2 sisters and 1 brother. They were not poor and it is said that he had a college education. What did that mean for a young man at that time? Was it really college?
Answers
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A lot depends on what religion they were. There was a priests' college in County Cavan, I believe. The colleges typically were controlled by the Church of Ireland (England) and therefore only members of that church were usually allowed in unless under special conditions. There were some Presbyterian colleges as well. Catholics had no public schools provided for them so they likely never went beyond a first few years of schooling, if they had any at all.
In order for a Catholic to attend a college he would have to have been sponsored by a Protestant and only granted entrance due to unusual gifts and talents.
Just something to consider--What do you mean by "not poor"? Were they landowners? Difficult inheritance laws and the related poverty caused by unjust land and taxation system was the motivation for the mass emigration, but the landowners had no need to leave Ireland until decades later.
(Most of my 10 Irish immigrant lines claimed they were not "the poor Irish" because they knew no one at that time could prove otherwise. Some also were even "college educated" yet all the current evidence indicates otherwise.)
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Catholics could attend Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland's most prestigious university, from 1793. Until 1873 they faced discrimination and were barred from certain courses and scholarships. Catholic clergy frowned upon their members who attended Trinity and between 1871 and 1970 banned their members from attending.
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There is a huge data base of alumni from Dublin's Trinity College. You could search for him there. I think they charge you on ancestryireland.com, but in the past there was a free and very slow, because the file is so huge, website to search for one's ancestor. Good luck.
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