William Brady has a twelve-hour day in Dublin. He's out in the morning at
5:30 to deliver papers. He's at school until three. He runs errands for the
sweet shop till seven.

"You get too tired for school work. How does your teacher like that?"

"Ash! She can't do anything."

Intuitively he knows that he can protect himself behind the fortress of
words in the school attendance act: "A person shall not be deemed to have
taken a child into his employment in contravention of this act if it is
proved that the employment by reason of being during the hours when school
is not in session does not interfere with the efficient elementary
instruction of the child."[20]

Nine-year-old Patrick Gallagher may go to the Letterkenny Hiring Fair and
sell his baby services to a farmer. Some one may say to Paddy:

"Why aren't you at school?"

"Surely, I live over two miles away from school."

The law thinks two miles are too far for him to walk. So he may be hired to
work instead. Reads the education act: "A person shall not be deemed to
have taken a child into his employment in contravention of this act if it
is proved to the satisfaction of the court that during the employment there
is not within two miles ... from the residence of the child any ... school
which the child can attend."[21]

Incidentally England does not encourage Irish education. England does not
provide enough money to erect the best schools nor to attract the best
teachers. But England agreed to an Irish education grant.[22] She
established a central board of education in Ireland, and promised that
through this board she would pay two-thirds of the school building bill and
teachers' salaries to any one who was zealous enough to erect a school.
Does England come through with the funds? Not, says the vice-regal
committee, unless she feels like it. In 1900 she agreed with Ireland that
Ireland's teachers should be paid higher salaries, but stipulated that the
increase in salaries would not mean an immediate increase in grants.

New building grants were suspended altogether for a time. In 1902, an
annual grant of L185,000 was diverted from Irish primary education and used
for quite extraneous purposes. And when England does give money for Irish
education, she pays no heed to the requirements stated by the Irish
commissioners of education.[23] Instead she says: "This amount I happen to
be giving to English education; I will grant a proportionate amount to
Irish ed