This significant study traces the relationship between education and social change in Ireland from the 17th to the 20th century, marking the effects of the successes and failures of educational policy on Irish society. Incisively written by a leading group of contributors, the book is both sweeping and thorough in accounting for the various manifestations of education in Ireland. Educating Ireland measures how the education system altered the times, as well as how it changed with them. Issues, such as the training of the Garda Siochana, are illustrated along with the policing of the education system by the Church and State. Combining scholarly rigor and lively analysis, the 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. *** "For those of us who thought that the Irish belief in the value of education was born in the 1960s and derived from a combination of free education with economic opportunities, the finding that Irish people in the eighteenth century were prepared to fight for the education of their children with 'a tenacity born of desperation' (2) comes as a pleasant surprise.... There are a number of features of this collection of essays that enhance its appeal not only to scholars whose primary interest is in the history of education but also for teachers and others with a curiosity about aspects of education." - Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2015 [Subject: Educational History, Cultural History, Irish Studies]