The Development of Accounting in Ireland - The accounts of Maynooth College 1795 - 1832

This paper adds to the knowledge of accounting in Ireland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Using original archival research, the development of Irish accounting practice is examined by reference to the accounts of Maynooth College during the period 1795 - 1832. The accounting system used in preparing the college's accounts was that of charge/discharge. This was a system of accounting which relied on single entry of transactions and dated from the Middle Ages. The main purpose of the accounting system was to assist the Trustees in making grant applications to Parliament and to prove their stewardship of the funds entrusted to them.