Letters Of application

Letters to the board of education
from Fr. P Nolan

Rev. Patrick Nolan with the support of Sir Francis Lynch Blosse helped to build and open schools in the area of Balla and Manulla. These letters appeared in the appendix of the first report from the commissioners of education in Ireland. Published on the 30th May 1825. 

These letters don’t refer directly to Prison school, but they mention a reference to a second school in Manulla which is very likely to be Prizon school, as no other school shows up in the records.

Few things to take note of before reading these letters.

• Manulla is spelt Minola
• A Rood of ground is equal to ¼ acre
• 60l is another way of writing £60. The currency would have been Pounds, shillings and pence L.s.d or £.s.d. See here

Extracts from Correspondence of Roman Catholic Clergymen with the Kildare place Society.
From the Rev. Patrick Nolan, Parish Priest of Balla, County of Mayo.

To the Society for promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland.

Dec 22nd, 1823

        Balla,

Dec. 22nd, 1823

Sir,

I have to acknowledge the favour of receiving a letter from you some posts back, and from the hurry of business could not answer it sooner.

I had applied to the Society of Kildare-Street for aid to build a school-house in Minola and Balla, presuming they would be glad to have such application made to them, as it was the object of their establishment to promote the education of the poor. As to the plan or dimensions, I mentioned before, that one house was 40 feet long and the other 30; breadth in proportion. The estimate of one may be from 60l. to 70l. and the other from 50/. to 60l; as to local contribution, I cannot exactly say what it may be, as the people are so poor, and under so many other taxes; but I am sure of some, say 10d. a house among

500 houses in both places. I can also depend on labour a day from every house. The tenure of the plot in Minola is a rood of ground Lord Kilmaine made a grant of to me some time back: in Balla is a plot of which there is a lease of three lives; there can be no doubt that the plot of any such charitable establishment would be reclaimed by the landlords. When the school houses are built, I shall then comply with any regulations proposed by the Society, compatible with our church. I am confident, that honourable Society has no other object in view but the individual one of ameliorating the condition of their poor countrymen without distinction of every description, and the first step towards attaining that desirable end, is the building of school houses.

(signed)

Patrick Nolan, P.P.

April 25th, 1824

Balla, 

April 25th, 1824.

Sir,

Having been prevented by various incidents from attending sooner to your last letter, dated 7th February, and wishing to satisfy the Society in every respect, I have to state that fewer schools (as you say) well attended to, would be more effectual to attain the desired end, and that you would grant aid towards building one school-house at present. I perfectly coincide with you in opinion. As to the site, I am in the same situation with my neighbouring town, Castlebar. It is on the plot Lord Lucan gave for the chapel, the school-house for free education was built, to which your Society granted aid of money and school materials, which I have seen, and it is on that reliance that I made my application. I am building the school-house in Minola, on the plot Lord Kilmaine gave some years back for building a chapel, there can be no doubt therefore of its permanent use to the public. The dimensions I have already mentioned, 40 feet by 20; the estimate will be in proportion to the grant given. The trustees are John Bourke, Thomas Bourke, Francis Ivers, Patt Ivers, all living in the town of Minola, of course interested in the cause. I myself, the manager.

I have already stated the local contribution, which I compute half-crown a house in money and work, among about 200 families.

This being done, I should not hesitate to conform to the principles of your Society, as I think them liberal, not like other societies who have impossibility for their object, that of making proselytes of millions. If they could succeed in anything, it is in making a few hypocrites.

The additional grant we learn, made by Government to your Society, makes me, and hundreds of poor forlorn creatures for whom I am begging assistance to cultivate their rude and uninformed minds, hope for a favourable answer.

 (signed) Patrick Nolan, P. P.

Nov. 8 th, 1823

Balla,
Nov. 8th, 1823.

Gentlemen,

Having got the eleventh report of your Society from Mr. Donelan. your agent at Balcarra, at a meeting of clergy where I preside, and finding you are desirous 0f being informed respecting the general state of education among the poor of Ireland, I think it my duty to acquaint you with the state of these parishes, Balla, Balcarra, and half parish of Minola; the causes which impede the progress of education is their great poverty, and having no school-houses. I built the walls of a school-house in Balla, and another in Minola, and from the badness of the times, and getting no assistance from the people, could not finish them.

These circumstances I submit to your humane consideration; – any aid yon may think proper in your wisdom and charity to extend to this poor district, shall be duly acknowledged and subject to the inspection of your agent.

I can assure you, gentlemen, with confidence, there is no part of the county Mayo stands more in want of your liberal consideration than the present.

(signed)

Patrick Nolan, P.P.

Jan. 30th, 1824

Balla, 

Jan. 30th, 1824.

Sir,

I acknowledge to have received your letter of the 10th, mentioning you laid my last letter, on the subject of education of the poor, before the committee, for which I return you thanks.

Desirous of being a humble instrument in the hands of the Society, in promoting the blessings of enlightenment among the poor in this district, I made the communications I thought necessary in my different answers. In my last letter I proposed to build two school houses, one in Minola, on a handsome site, and another in Balla. The houses would be in proportion to the aid I received from the Society; I mentioned the local aid I could expect from a poor population.

You now say the committee expect a pledge from me that the Testament will be read without note or comment, and no catechism at school hours; I can give no pledge but my word and character, which is well known these 30 years past, to people of every rank and description in this country.

(signed) 

Patrick Nolan, P.P.