Mary Carpenter

Now portrayed as one of Bristol's most revered adopted daughters, she is best remembered as pioneering educational provision for the poor. The Irish about whom she spoke were specifically the city's Irish Catholic poor (Bristol had no problem assimilating propertied Irish Protestants into the civic elite, and there were few affluent Irish Catholics in mid Victorian Bristol).

Carpenter has been characterized as 'highly prejudiced' toward the Irish. Her testimony to the 1861 Commons Select Committee on the Education of Destitute Children is cited as evidence for this. There she is recorded as condemning 'the low Irish' in Bristol's Quayside as 'uncivilized' and as criticizing Catholic authorities for promoting ignorance and sectarianism. It is tempting to discount her opinions and her offensive terminology without further analysis.