The US census for 1860, 1870 and 1880 for Thomas Donahue lists him as being unable to read or write. The 1870 entry for his wife Mary McKeough does not reflect her literacy but her entries for1860 and 1880 reveal that she too was illiterate. What might have been the conditions that faced so many of the population of Ireland that found so many of the immigrants landing on North American soil unable to read or write.
The Irish had it rather difficult to find a decent Catholic education in Ireland itself certainly during the childhood of these two ancestors. Catholic schools were forbidden under the law beginning in the early 1700’s up until 1782 when the law was repealed.
The purpose of the law was to force the Catholic parents to send their children to free Government schools where they were proselytized and encouraged to abandon their faith. The Catholics throughout the country defied the edict and would not allow their children to attend . The statistics prove out that the defiance of the law had a near total impact among the Catholic congregations of the entire country.
Private, clandestine if not secret schools began to take over the education of the Catholic children and they became known as the Hedgeschools. The name originated from the fact that the schools were hidden from the authorities and were conducted anyplace they were able to find secret hidden space, often literally in the shadows of field hedges or within the walls of ancient ruins, decaying, crumbling monasteries', churches or remote barns. The result was that most of the classes were conducted in an open air classroom .
These hidden schools were even then not available to all for the secret schools did require a compensation to be collected from the parents for the pay of the teachers. Not all peasants could afford what little payment was required. Thus the birth range of Thomas and Mary Donahue found Ireland only beginning to bring the Catholic schools out of hiding and it is easy to assume just why the two parents came to North America unable to read or write.
The following is a link that adds more detail to the education difficulties that existed in Ireland for many decades:
The Hedge Schools - Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area
Due to lack of education and the difficulty for such individuals to eventually gain any significant property the poor of the country were caught in a seemingly never ending state of poverty that lasted over generations. Once born into poverty one would find it extremely difficult to escape the influences that perpetuated in every day life that forced one to struggle their entire lives. e
Emigration was a way out of such a life to those of the mental and physical and financial capacity to accept the challenge and leave their homeland.
In the case of Thomas Donahue and his wife Mary just what circumstances they experienced we cannot document but it is easy to surmise that they both most likely came from the class of people that were caught in the struggle that was most certainly passed on to them from their parents, also raised in poverty at some level. That to me is the most likely cause of the lack of education for these two ancestors.
Mary McKeough Donahue
About 1825-1900
Mary Donahue hinted at the above scenarios in a sworn affidavit late in her life as she was attempting to claim her right to a veterans widow pension following the death of her husband. Thomas was on a meager Mexican War veteran's pension at the time of his death which suddenly left Mary with no income and only her children to support her, one, Alice, 21 years of age, still at home tending to her mother’s daily needs. The following is an extract from one affidavit in March of 1899 and it tends to paint a picture of her early life that leads me to believe that she indeed was of a poor class of Irish citizens:
“That this affiant claimant never made a claim for pension other than those described above- had no reason to do so, so long as her late husband was alive.
That she thinks it almost impossible to furnish the date of her birth because she was born in Ireland 74 years ago, and that at the time of her birth and a number of years thereafter there were no schools there [unreadable] and were unable to get any kind of an education, but so soon as about old enough had to work, and learn to work was the only education they were able to get.
That her parents died when she was not quite six years old, was taken to an uncle who raised her and her uncle and his folks spoke no other language than regular Irish.”
All this really does not confirm any definite circumstances of Thomas and Mary during their upbringing in Ireland but it certainly allows me to connect what is known of Irish history and the probable culture they endured as they were growing up. They must have experienced prejudices and poverty that none of their descendants have had to endure.
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