EDUCATION OF WOMEN:
We have ample evidence that education in ancient Ireland was not confined to men. As we have already seen, the Brehon Laws made provision for the education of girls as well as for that of boys. In a convent established by St. Brigid (d. 525 A.D.) at Kildare we are told that St. Mel was employed to instruct herself and her nurse,[216] and the history of that school would lead us to infer that it compared not unfavourably with some of the great monastic schools. St. Brendan of Clonfert (d. 577 A.D.) when a child about one year old was placed in fosterage in the convent of St. Ita at Killeedy, Co. Limerick, where he remained for five years. This young saint always looked upon St. Ita as his foster mother and often had listened to her counsels.[217] On one occasion she advised him not to study with women lest some evilly disposed person might revile him.[218] We may safely infer from this that it was not unusual for young children to receive the rudiments of education from the nuns, but that by the time they reached the age of six or more probably seven years[219] they were sent to the monastic school. Moreover, St. Ita’s words of advice clearly suggest that education was provided for girls but that except in the case of children of pre-adolescent age she was decidedly opposed to co-education. Unlike St. Brendan and some other saints, St. Columbanus was not put to fosterage and his childhood’s days were spent in his father’s home under his mother’s care.[220] His latest and best biographer informs us that he received his earliest literary education from an elderly lady who lived near his parent’s home.[221] One of the First Order of Saints named Mugint founded a school in Scotland to which girls as well as boys were admitted.[222] It is evident likewise that the Irish missionaries in Northumbria did much for the education of women. Among the more noteworthy convents or monasteries for women that owe their origin to Irish missionaries were St. Bees, Coldingham, Streanshalch or Whitby which are all referred to by Bede.[223] It was in this last-named monastery and by the enlightened patronage of Abbess Hilda that the earliest Anglo-Saxon poet, Caedmon, was encouraged in his efforts.[224] That women were sometimes accomplished scribes is quite probable. In an old record we are informed that in the sixth century King Branduff’s mother had a writing style (delg graiph), so that she must have practised writing on waxen tablets,[225] this being spoken of in old MSS. as a common practice among ladies.[226]
There is not sufficient evidence to justify the assertion that girls were admitted as students to monastic schools, though we read that one of the daughters of the King of Cualann was sent to Clonard to learn to read her Psalms (in Latin),[227] and Plummer thinks that women taught in this school.[228] Probably there was a separate school for women. From what we know of the Second Order of Saints to which St. Finnian, the founder of Clonard, belonged we cannot believe that co-education would be likely to receive any sanction as a desirable practice in a monastic school. On the other hand, with Mugint and the other saints of the First Order such a practice may possibly have been quite usual; for “strong in faith they feared not the breath of temptation.”[229]
Many other instances of educational facilities for women might be adduced, but enough has been said to prove the position for which we have been contending, namely, that though education was not universal nor compulsory there was ample facilities for all to acquire a liberal education. That a very large proportion of both sexes availed themselves of this privilege there can be no reasonable doubt.