Elite schools provided Catholic officer class

YOUR three-part feature on the Battle of the Somme gave insights into the Irish role in World War I.

Allan Prosser’s questions and answers (Irish Examiner, June 28) referred to the relatively low numbers of Roman Catholics from Ireland who were commissioned as officers in the British army.

It is necessary to point out, however, that leading schools — especially Clongowes, Belvedere, Castleknock and CBC Cork — educated the upwardly mobile Roman Catholic middle class which provided many officers for the army.