Throughout the nineteenth century the Catholic Church expressed deep opposition to the great increase in state intervention in education internationally and it mounted resistance wherever possible. However, by the 1920s there was only a small number of countries where the Church was satisfied with the school system. Ireland was one such country. In Ireland successive governments between the 1920s and 1960s left management of the schools in the hands of the Church while accepting financial responsibility for their maintenance. This book is concerned with how the Church, operating within such parameters, was able to influence the secondary-school curriculum in order to meet its own interests, namely, the development of a loyal middle class and the production of priests, brothers, and nuns.