SCHOOLS
Education is very general. There are fifteen schools under the following control: Capel Street Association for the Discountenancing of Vice (1), Kildare Street Society (5), London Hibernian Society (4), New National Society (4), parish school supported by the rector (1). These schools educate 750 children, three-fourths of whom are Protestants. The houses are partly built by subscription and partly by the societies, and teachers seldom reside. There is also a substantial Sunday school at the Camowen meeting house which has the merit of being the first established in Tyrone about 30 years ago. A Sunday school is also held in the mill at Mullaghmore, one near the curate’s house at Newlands, and one in Mayne. Indeed, no poor persons anxious to educate their family need send them far from home in this parish.
Answers to Statistical Queries of the North West Society of Ireland, by SAMUEL CUTHBERTSON [1820s]
(47) Yes, the Protestant part of the community have greatly improved by Sunday Schools
(48) From 20 pence to 2 shillings as the masters are fed with the children. About 10 schools.
(49) The Catholics who live mostly in the back part of the country are mostly coarse, rough in their manners but education is beginning to polish them.