This significant study traces the relationship between education and social change in Ireland from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, marking the effects of the successes and failures of educational policy on the conditions of Irish society.

Incisively written by a leading group of contributors, this text is both sweeping and thorough in accounting for the various manifestations of education in Ireland from the 17th century onwards. The book's material measures how the education system altered the times as well as how it changed with them; issues such as the training of the Garda Síochána are illustrated along with the policing of the education system by the Church and State.

Combining scholarly rigour and lively analysis, this material is presented in a manner that is varied yet thematically unified - it is a narrative concerning education that encompasses the character of the Irish nation as a whole.