For today’s post, I will analyse the establishment of deaf institutions Ireland and the debate between oralism (lip-reading) and manualism (sign language) as the best method to educate the deaf. There were three deaf institutions in Ireland: Claremont in Glasnevin, Dublin, St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls in Cabra, Dublin and St. Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys in Cabra.
In the eighteenth century, deafness was viewed as an “a chastisement from above upon the parents” (Pritchard, Education and the Handicapped, 1760-1960, p.2). Mathews ‘Mainstreaming of Deaf Education In the Republic of Ireland: Language, Power, Resistance’, p.1) argues that deafness has many causes: including variation on a chromosome carried by both parents, “a mechanical obstruction in their middle ear”, an “auditory nerve may not function”, or trauma experienced at birth, exposure to medication harming aural faculties, or viral or bacterial infection impairing hearing. The first signing school was founded in France by Charles Michel Epee while Samuel Heinicke established the first oral school in Germany in 1778 (Crean, Breaking the Silence: The Education of the Deaf in Ireland, 1816-1996, p.12). These types of specialist institutions charged expensive fees, restricting them to the upper and middle classes. The provision of services in Ireland lagged behind international developments, but only slightly. Mathews (‘Mainstreaming Deaf Education’, p.122) notes that before the 1800s, the deaf were dealt with by industrial schools, asylums, and penitentiaries. However, in 1814, Dr Charles Orpen set up a school for the deaf in Smithfield penitentiary in Dublin (which moved to Claremont in 1816) (Susanne Mohr, Mouth Actions in Sign Language: An Empirical Study of Irish Sign Language, p.9).
According to Pollard (The Avenue: A History of the Claremont Institution p.78), a deaf child was educated for 4 to 5 years and pupils older than 12 were not admitted. Therefore, deaf adults and teenagers were excluded from this provision, remaining uneducated. However, as with all aspects of education, and most aspects of health, provision for the deaf was denominational, and the nineteenth century witnessed a growth of Catholic institutions. Father Thomas McNamara was concerned that there were no educational facilities for Irish Catholic deaf children (Terri Broderick and Regina Duggan, Origins and Developments of St. Mary’s School for Deaf, p.16). The Catholic Church supported separate education for boys and girls. Broderick and Duggan note that Fr McNamara and the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr Daniel Murray approached the Dominican Convent of Cabra to undertake the education of deaf girls (Broderick and Duggan, St. Mary’s, p.15). A Committee, later known as the Catholic Institute of the Deaf, was set up in 1846 to fund raise for deaf schools (Ibid, p.166). Accordingly, St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls was established in Cabra in 1846 and St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys was established under the management of the Christian Brothers, in Cabra, in 1857 (Crean, Breaking the Silence, p.40). The Catholic Institutions introduced sign language while the Protestant institution embraced the oralist method.
In 1880, the Teacher’s Congress for the Deaf was held in Milan. It further divided deaf institutions in Ireland and abroad as it heralded oralism as the best method to educate the deaf. Mohr (Mouth Actions, p.11) states that as a result, “sign language was banned from all schools across Europe” and was replaced by the oral teaching method. In July 1885, the Conference of Headmasters called for State aid for the deaf and the Government appointed a Royal Commission in response (Pritchard, Education, p.95). In 1889, The Royal Commission on the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, Blind and Imbeciles also preferred the oral method. However, there were no deaf people on the commission and Archbishop Walsh, Chairman of the CID, complained that there were also no Irish or Catholic persons on the Commission (Crean, Breaking the Silence, p.35). The Catholic Church were opposed to government interference in traditionally controlled aspects of health and social provision and they also supported the manual method.
In 1893, the Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act was introduced. It introduced the segregation of the sexes and of signers and those who spoke and lip-read in schools (Leeson and Lynch, ‘Three Leaps of Faith and Four Giant Steps: Developing Interpreter Training in Ireland’ in J. Napier (ed.), Signed Language Interpreter Education and Training: A World Survey, p.3). According to Pollard (The Avenue, p.66), after 1894, “almost all deaf children were sent to school”. Mathews acknowledges that government polices favoured the oralist approach in the early twentieth century (Mathews, ‘Mainstreaming of Deaf Education’, p.124).
Oralism was established in Protestant deaf schools in Ireland in 1918 (Mohr, Mouth Actions, 11). Crean (Breaking the Silence, p.35) argues that because of the political upheaval in Ireland after 1922, the education of the deaf in Ireland was a “combination of religious and political establishments”. Religious orders were repsonsible for the care for the sick and poor in Ireland from the nineteenth century. In 1922, when the Irish Free State was founded, the Catholic Church re-asserted their powerful position in Irish society. The culture of secrecy surrounding disability such as deafness, continued as children were hidden in large, isolated institutions or at home. The outbreak of the Second World War allowed for technological advances such including hearing aids which significantly changed the lives of deaf children and adults. The Catholic institutions maintained manualism as the preferred method until the 1950s. However, the failures of oralism were recognised during th1 1960s, allowing for the combination of the two methods as the best method to educate the deaf. The Irish government also introduced policies which allowed for the mainstreaming of deaf children into ‘ordinary’ Irish schools.
Bibliography
Broderick, Terri and Regina Duggan, Origins and Developments of St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls, Cabra, St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls, Dublin, 1996.
Crean, Edward J, Breaking the Silence: The Education of the Deaf in Ireland, 1816-1996, Irish Deaf Society Publications,Dublin, 1997.
Leeson, Lorraine and Theresa Lynch, ‘Three Leaps of Faith and Four Giant Steps: Developing Interpreter Training in Ireland’ in J. Napier (ed.), Signed Language Interpreter Education and Training: A World Survey, Gallaudet University Press, Washington D.C.,2009.
Mathews, Elizabeth S., ‘Mainstreaming of Deaf Education in the Republic of Ireland: Language, Power, Resistance’. PhD Thesis, NUI Maynooth, 2011.
Mohr, Susanne, Mouth Actions in Sign Language: An Empirical Study of Irish Sign Language, Ishara Press, Preston UK, 2014.
Pollard, Rachel, The Avenue: A History of the Claremont Institution, Denzille Press, Dublin, 2006.
Pritchard, D. G., Education and the Handicapped, 1760-1960, Routledge and Keegan Paul, London, 1963. nt 3;\l
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