The Douay Testaments only are used; the three Scripture Classes, from 50 to 60, read a lesson in the Testament daily, and commit to memory four chapters at least in the quarter of the year – the specimens of reading very good. Some of the girls taught to work lace on bobbins. Mr D., one of the Kildare-Street inspectors (a Roman Catholic gentleman), happened to be present to-day, on his tour of inspection. He considers the union of this school with the London Hibernian Society, of which the Cork Hibernian Society is a branch, or with any other Education Society, as injurious to the plan of the Kildare-Street and leading to the supposition of the latter being a proselytizing body, which is the character given to the London Hibernian. He allowed, however, that the Kildare-Street rules are correctly adhered to in this school.
Mr D. objects equally to any school connected with the
Kildare-Street Society being also in unison with the trustees of Erasmus Smith,
who require the master, in all cases, to be a Protestant; or with the Parochial
Schools, because in these the Catechism must be taught, and the teacher is the
parish clerk; or with the Capel Street Association, for similar reasons. He conceives, however, that the Cork Branch of
the London Hibernian Society is the most liberal, and their management the
least objectionable to the Roman Catholics.
Visited the endowed Classical School of Lismore, an
ancient foundation by the Earls of Cork, now vested in the Duke of Devonshire. Exterior of building and premises good and
fair, but the interior rotten; ample accommodation, and wide playground, with
large schoolroom lately built by the Duke. But the school is declining, or rather has
long ago declined; seems the common penalty in Ireland of all fostering
endowments. The master could receive 40
boarders, now he has only 13. He once
had the former number, but they were made up of boys who came with him from
Fermoy, where he taught as an assistant.