This paper gives an overview of the educational climate in which schools established by Catholic teaching orders of women were founded, and then moves to a close examination of the unusual position of "convent" schools that applied to join the non-denominational National System. In an attempt to provide a particularly close analysis of this peculiar position, the paper is based on detailed research into the archives and relavent manuscripts of the Presentation convents that affiliated their schools with the National System. The Presentation Order was founded to supply the spiritual and temporal educational needs of the children of the poor. It had been developing its network of schools for over 50 years by the time the National School System was established in 1831. Contrary to Caitriona Clear's (1987) view of the limited agency of women religious in nineteenth-century Ireland, this paper finds that many Presentation Sisters worked strategically within the existing educational system. As a consequence of their work, they found ways to negotiate a place for their convent schools within a "non-denominational" state system of education. This paper expands the research done by Mary Peckham Magray (1998), which illustrated ways in which many women religious were involved in the management of hospitals and educational institutions. However, Magray did not look specifically at convents within the state system, and in this respect it can be said that this paper contributes specific data to the ever-growing body of research on women religious and the role of convent schools. (Contains 32 footnotes.)