often less long-lived than ours."[16]



SCHOOL CLOSED

There's small chance for the Irish to better their condition through
education. Many Irish children don't go to school. It is estimated that out
of 500,000 school children, 150,000 do not attend school. Why not? Here are
two reasons advanced by the Vice-Regal Committee on Primary Education,
Ireland, in its report published by His Majesty's Stationers, Dublin, 1919:

Many families are too poor.

England does not encourage Irish education.

Irish poverty is recognized in the school laws; the Irish Education act
passed by Parliament in 1892 is full of excuses for children who must go to
work instead of to school. Thousands of Irish youngsters must avail
themselves of these excuses. Ireland has 64,000 children under the age of
14 at work. But Scotland with virtually the same population has only
37,500.[17]

Eight-year-old Michael Mallin drags kelp out of a rush basket and packs it
down for fertilizer between the brown ridges of the little hand-spaded
field in Donegal.

"Is there no school to be going to, Michael?"

"There do be a school, but to help my da' there is no one home but me."