From Memory to Understanding

In 1965, more than 150 years after its establishment, the Christian Brothers constituted the largest male religious order in the Republic of Ireland, and an international membership of three thousand seven hundred and nine. By 2005, the membership numbered less than half of that. Furthermore, in 2008, fewer than ten brothers were still teaching in Irish schools.

The history of the order in its heyday - between Irish Independence in 1922 until the early 1970s - is currently covered by two very different bodies of work. On the one hand there are the hagiographies, and on the other, the very necessary exposés of the disturbing practices engaged in by individual brothers. This book offers a third, complementary and new perspective, locating the Christian Brothers within the context of the history of the Catholic Church internationally and nationally. It details the nature of religious brothers, the distinction between the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers, both of whom claim the same founder, the practices used for the recruitment and training of brothers, both as members of a religious order and as teachers, the background of those who attended the Brothers' schools, and the nature of what they were taught, and the pedagogical approaches used.

Many in Ireland, and elsewhere in the English-speaking world where the Christian Brothers established their schools, have unanswered questions about the order and the role it played for so long in Irish society and in the mission of the Church. Written from the author's own experience of being taught by the Brothers, this book provides an account that speaks both to former students still living and also to a wider population, including those who, while not having experienced a Brothers' education themselves, are nevertheless curious about it.

Tom O'Donoghue is Professor Emeritus at The University of Western Australia, a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society (UK) and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a former President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society and a recipient of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland Lifetime Achievement Award. His research interests centre on the historical antecedents to contemporary issues in education, including Catholic education, especially in relation to personnel, policy, curriculum and pedagogy. He has worked as a teacher in Ireland, England, and Australia; held academic positions in Papua New Guinea, Australia and Singapore; lectured extensively in Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur; and conducted research in Timor Leste, Rwanda, Cambodia, Serbia, and Chile.