St. Munchin’s College, Limerick,
23rd December 1904

My Lord Bishop,

I am directed by the Bishop of Limerick to acknowledge the receipt of the letter of the 21st instant which you have been so good as to send him through your secretary. The Bishop had already, before writing to you, carefully read and considered your statement in Parliament relating to the Irish Training Colleges, and it was because of the unsatisfactory position in which these statements seemed to him to have left the question, in which he is interested, that he ventured to address you.

In your letter of the 21st instant, the only passage that touches the merits of the cases refers to the settlement of 1900 as final with regards to the Provincial Training Colleges and a bar to their obtaining a building grant. I am to point out that by giving £50,000 as a building grant to Marlborough Street College, you have yourself disturbed that settlement and reopened the whole question. With reference to the last sentence in your letter, in which you state that it was made clear to the managers of the Provincial Training Colleges that no building grant could be made to them “out of moneys annually voted by Parliament,” I am to point out that that consideration, however effectual hitherto, does not apply now since you have made the Ireland Development Grant available for these building funds.

I am further to point out that the question to which the Bishop sought an answer was as to the principle on which you determined that the claim of Marlborough Street College to a building grant, and of some other colleges to an increase in the number of their students, should be dealt with at once, and out of the Ireland Development Grant, whereas the claim of the provincial training colleges to a building grant, which prima facie is equally closely connected with the interests of primary education, is postponed to an indefinite future. In the absence of any explanation of these apparent inconsistencies, the Bishop still regards the whole thing as a most unfair discrimination against the provincial colleges.

As to the distinction, on which you lay considerable stress, between metropolitan and provincial colleges, the Bishop desires me to say that he really cannot see what difference it can make in the validity of a claim for financial aid, whether the college on whose behalf it is made is situated in Dublin or Limerick, and he considers the date of its erection, whether before or after the year 1890, equally irrelevant. The important question is, what do the interests of primary education in Ireland require, and the Bishop is of the opinion that educational moneys should be distributed solely with a view to that consideration, and without regard to the religion or politics of the claimants.

As this is a matter of public importance, the Bishop, with your permission, would wish to publish this correspondence.

I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Andrew Murphy, Secretary.

Reply from Chief Secretary for Ireland to Bishop of Limerick.

Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle,
29th December 1904

My Lord Bishop,

I am desired by Mr Wyndham to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 23rd, and to say that he offers no objection to your desire to publish the subject of Irish Training Colleges.

I have the honour to be, my Lord Bishop, your obedient servant,

Murray Hornbrook

The Most Rev Dr O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick.

Limerick Echo – Tuesday 10 January 1905