Introduction; Brendan Walsh -- Chapter 1. The National System of Education 1831-2000; Tom Walsh -- Chapter 2. 'An Essential Service' The National Board and Teacher Education, 1831-70; Susan M. Parkes -- Chapter 3. Forged in the Fire of Persecution: Edmund Rice (1762-1844) and the Counter-Reformationary Character of the Irish Christian Brothers; Dáire Keogh -- Chapter 4. Girls at School in Nine…