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The Presbyterian Campaign (1923–1930) Against the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918

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A History of Catholic Education and Schooling in Scotland

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Abstract

This chapter explores the response of the Church of Scotland to the accommodations of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, from 1923 to 1930. This is accomplished through close examination of the proceedings of the annual Assembly and through study of some of the historical studies of the time and some late twentieth-century studies. The chapter demonstrates that the campaign for the repeal or revision of the Education (Scotland) Act 1918 was very quickly disaggregated from the campaign for the restriction of Irish Catholic immigration. Instead, the campaign concerned with education had a twofold purpose: (1) to express strong disapproval and even censure of the perceived privileges accorded to the transferred Catholic schools and (2) to recover the influence of the Church of Scotland in school education and in religious instruction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    S. J. Brown, “‘Outside the Covenant’: The Scottish Presbyterian Churches and Irish Immigration, 1922–1938”, Innes Review, 42(1), 1991, 19–45.

  2. 2.

    For example: G. P. T. Finn (2003), “Sectarianism”, in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes (eds.), Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), 897–907; S. Bruce, T. Glendinning, I. Paterson and M. Rosie, Sectarianism in Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004); J. Conroy, “Sectarianism and Scottish Education”, in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes (eds.), Scottish Education: Beyond Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), 793–803.

  3. 3.

    Appendix Education (Scotland) Bill. Statement by the Education Committee of the Church of Scotland: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1872 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  4. 4.

    Report of the Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1873: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1873 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  5. 5.

    Stevenson, J. Stevenson, Fulfilling a Vision. The Contribution of the Church of Scotland to School Education, 1772–1872 (Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2012), 142–145.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., 145.

  7. 7.

    Report of the Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1918: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1918 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  8. 8.

    Report of Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1919: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1919 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  9. 9.

    Report of Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1920: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1920 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons); Report of Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1921: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1921 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons); Report of Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1922: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1922 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  10. 10.

    Report of Education Committee submitted to the General Assembly, May 1923: Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland for the year 1923 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  11. 11.

    Report of committee to consider overtures from the Presbytery of Glasgow and from the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr on ‘Irish Immigration’ and the ‘Education (Scotland) Act 1918’ to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 23 May 1923.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 751. There is some mention of Poles working in coal mining districts, but the threat is perceived to be caused by the Irish race.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 750.

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., 758.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 751.

  18. 18.

    Ibid.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 758.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 757.

  21. 21.

    M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London: Pimlico, 1992); T. M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700–2007 (London: Penguin 2006); Brown, ‘Outside the covenant’.

  22. 22.

    Report of committee to consider overtures, 759.

  23. 23.

    Ibid.

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Ibid.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 760.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 763.

  29. 29.

    M. Turda, “Race, Science, and Eugenics in the 20th Century”, in A. Bashford and P. Levine, Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 62–79.

  30. 30.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Education (Scotland) Act 1918 to Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1924 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 647.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration, to Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1924 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 640.

  35. 35.

    Education (Scotland) Act 1918 in Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1925 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  36. 36.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration to Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1925 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons). The General Assembly instructed the Sub-Committee to ‘watch over the racial situation in Scotland’ (727).

  37. 37.

    Proposed Amendments to the Education (Scotland) Act 1918. Appendix V of Report on Committee on Church and Nation in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1926 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 592.

  39. 39.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration to Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1926 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons), 596.

  40. 40.

    Education (Scotland) Act 1918, Appendix IV of Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1927 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 1192.

  42. 42.

    Irish Immigration, Appendix V of Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1927 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  43. 43.

    Education (Scotland) Act 1918, Appendix IV of Church and Nation Committee, in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1928 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  44. 44.

    A. Bain, “The significance of the Bonnybridge School Case of 1922–1929 for Catholic education in Scotland”, Innes Review, 62(1), 2011, 70–81.

  45. 45.

    W. F. Brown, “The Bonnybridge School Case”, The Tablet, 21 December 1929.

  46. 46.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Education (Scotland) Act 1918 to Church and Nation Committee, in Supplementary Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly at the Adjourned Meeting, 1928 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  47. 47.

    Ibid., 200.

  48. 48.

    Ibid.

  49. 49.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration, to Church and Nation Committee in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1928 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  50. 50.

    Local Government (Scotland) Bill, Committee on Church and Nation in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, May 1929 and at the Adjourned Meeting October 1929 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 711–712.

  52. 52.

    A. Muir, John White (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1958), 274–275.

  53. 53.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration, to Church and Nation Committee in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1929 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  54. 54.

    J. McKay, The Kirk and the Kingdom (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).

  55. 55.

    Report of the Committee on Education in Church of Scotland: Reports to the General Assembly with the Legislative Acts, 1930 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  56. 56.

    M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London: Pimlico, 1992), 437.

  57. 57.

    Report of the Committee on Education, 1930, 1123.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 1128.

  59. 59.

    Report of Sub-Committee on Irish Immigration, to Church and Nation Committee in Reports on the schemes of the Church of Scotland with the Legislative Acts passed by the General Assembly, 1930 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons).

  60. 60.

    Brown, ‘Outside the covenant’; Bruce et al., Sectarianism in Scotland; Muir, John White.

  61. 61.

    Brown, ‘Outside the covenant’.

  62. 62.

    A. Gammie, Dr John White: A Biography and a Study (London: James Clarke, 1929), 115–16.

  63. 63.

    J. R. Fleming, A History of the Church in Scotland 1875–1929 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1933).

  64. 64.

    Ibid., 146–147.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 148.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 150.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., 151.

  68. 68.

    Church & Society Council, Sectarianism, A Report for the Church of Scotland General Assembly, May 2012.

  69. 69.

    S. M. Kesting, “Ecumenism in Scotland”, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 14(2), 2014, 175–192.

  70. 70.

    Andrew T. N. Muirhead, Reformation, Dissent and Diversity (London: Bloomsbury), 212.

  71. 71.

    Kesting, ‘Ecumenism’, 176.

  72. 72.

    E. Kelly, “Challenging Sectarianism in Scotland: The Prism of Racism”, Scottish Affairs, 42(1), 2003, 32–46; The Church and Nation Committee, The Demon in our Society (2002).

  73. 73.

    Church & Society Council, Sectarianism (2012).

  74. 74.

    D. B. Forrester, “Ecclesia Scoticana – Established, Free or National?”, Theology 102(806), 1999, 80–89.

  75. 75.

    D. M. Murray, Rebuilding the Kirk: Presbyterian Reunion in Scotland 1909–1929 (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 2000), 272–273.

  76. 76.

    Fleming, Church in Scotland.

  77. 77.

    Muirhead, Reformation, 34.

  78. 78.

    Ibid.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., 208.

  80. 80.

    Murray, Rebuilding the Kirk, 273.

  81. 81.

    D. Sinclair, “The Identity of a Nation”, in T. M. Devine (ed.), Scotland’s Shame? Bigotry and Sectarianism in Modern Scotland (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2000).

  82. 82.

    The Church and Nation Committee (2002), 19–20.

  83. 83.

    Report of Department of Education to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1999), 2.4.2.

  84. 84.

    Report of committee to consider overtures (1923).

  85. 85.

    See S. J. McKinney, “The historical and contemporary debate about the relation of Catholic schools in Scotland and the social problem of sectarianism”, Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica – Journal of Theories and Research in Education, 10(1), 2015, 13–45.

  86. 86.

    A. M. Douglas, Church and School in Scotland (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1985).

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  1. School of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

    Stephen J. McKinney

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  1. School of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

    Stephen J. McKinney

  2. Glasgow, UK

    Raymond McCluskey

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McKinney, S.J. (2019). The Presbyterian Campaign (1923–1930) Against the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. In: McKinney, S., McCluskey, R. (eds) A History of Catholic Education and Schooling in Scotland. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51370-0_8

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