LAY SCHOOLS:
As we are mainly interested in the monastic schools we shall deal with the lay schools only so far as is necessary to explain the general educational situation in Ireland during the period we have chosen. Originally pagan and taught by druids these lay schools held their ground after the general spread of the new faith, but were now taught by Christian ollamhna or doctors, laymen who took the place of the druid teachers of earlier times.[198]
The aim of these schools at first was apparently to prepare a limited number of men as brehons or judges, and filí or poets, and senachidhe or historians. In very early times the same man performed two or more of these offices. In later times there was a tendency to specialization. A lay college generally comprised three distinct schools. We are told that Cormac MacAirt, King of Ireland (254–277 A.D.) founded three schools, one for the study of Military Science, one for Law and one for General Literature.[199] It would appear that schools of this last type developed into the “Bardic Schools” in which were taught poetry, history, and vernacular literature in general. The law schools and military schools were evidently exclusively professional, whereas the “Bardic Schools” were attended by those seeking admission to the Bardic Order and others desiring a liberal education.[200]