c. 25) established industrial schools (Irish: scoileanna saothair) to care for "neglected, orphaned and abandoned children".

Their philosophy differed in that they believed that an education was not enough: these children needed to be removed from the harmful environment of the street, trained to be industrious, and given a trade they could practise.

During the day there were set times for religion and moral guidance, formal schooling, doing housework, eating, and learning trades, with three intervals for play.

The boys' trades were gardening, tailoring, and shoemaking; the girls learned housework and washing, knitting, and sewing.

c. 48) gave magistrates the power to sentence homeless children between the ages of 7 and 14, who were brought before the courts for vagrancy to a spell in an industrial school.

In 1861, a further act strengthened the powers of the magistrate "to include: It was not until 1875 that it became compulsory to register births, and vagrants often genuinely did not know their age.

The first institution to be certified under the act was the Park Row Industrial School, Bristol founded by Mary Carpenter in 1858.