The images we will look at are related to schools in Fingal. The majority of the photos are associated with St. Colmcille's Boys' and Girls' Schools in Swords.
St. Colmcille's Boys' school has a very interesting history. If you would like to learn more about it, see the local history page on their website.
Swords Village, 1904
The image above depicts Swords in 1904. What can you see? Of course, the town is very different now, over 100 years later. Schools have changed a lot too, including in relation to the subjects studied. In the late 1800s, a pupil attending school in Swords would have expected to study the following: grammar, compositon, geography, arithmetic, geometry (boys), algebra (boys), needlework (girls), drawing, elementary science and object lessons, health and habits.
Are these the same subjects that you study in your school today? Some of the subjects studied by boys and girls were different in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why do you think this was?