Competition in Print, 1759–1800

While Ireland’s system might have been more informal than England’s, educators operated as if some kind of system did exist. Given independent schools’ entrepreneurial nature, economic competition mediated largely through print culture shaped the way these schools operated and how they marketed themselves to discerning parents. Late eighteenth-century newspapers reveal an increasingly competitive marketplace for all kinds of educational options below the collegiate level for those who intended to go on to university as well as for those who did not. This competition, as opposed to ancient school charters or government regulations, determined the success or failure of schools within this system.