Sullivan, Robert (1800–68), educationist and textbook writer, was born 3 January 1800 at Holywood, Co. Down. His father, Daniel Sullivan, a native of Co. Kerry, was a customs official stationed at Holywood, where he married Mary McClement in 1797; Robert was the second of their seven children – five sons and two daughters. The family lived in somewhat straitened circumstances, especially during the years 1805–11 when his father was press-ganged into the British navy to serve in the Napoleonic wars. Sponsored by a wealthy local landowner, Robert entered the classical school of the RBAI at the age of nineteen. The head of the mathematical school, James Thomson, father of Lord Kelvin (qv), in 1821 obtained for him the position of a private tutor at Tyrell's Pass, Co. Westmeath. This was followed by a spell tutoring at a clergyman's house in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. In 1824 he matriculated at TCD with a view to studying for the bar. He graduated BA in 1829, MA in 1832, and LLD in 1850.
In 1832 Sullivan was one of the four provincial inspectors appointed by the board of commissioners for national education in Ireland, instituted to implement a policy of joint secular and separate religious education for pupils of all denominations. His area of responsibility was his home province of Ulster where the new board faced some of its strongest opposition from presbyterians, who were fearful that the schools might be deprived of the right to read the Bible. Sullivan persuaded them otherwise and, in the Ballymena area alone, he saw ninety-six existing schools come under the control of the board. His efforts during the six years he spent in Ulster were pivotal in establishing national schools throughout the province.
In 1838 he was appointed professor at the training college in Marlborough Street, Dublin, a position that entailed his acting as joint-superintendent of the adjacent central model schools. He lectured in teaching method, English, history, geography, and political economy. His successful mission in Ulster and his commitment to non-sectarian education, based on a distaste for party spirit, predisposed the board to appoint him. He found that much of the prejudice against the national system in Ulster arose because of poor teaching, something which his new position enabled him to address. During his time about half the teachers in the national schools came under his direct influence at the college.
To ensure that there was no taint of controversial matter, whether religious or moral, in the educational material used in its schools, the board encouraged its officials to write textbooks. Sullivan's books usually carried an introductory section directed to teachers that propounded the newest and proven methods of teaching the subjects covered. By this means the latest educational methods, some of which he developed, were spread throughout Ireland and beyond, since the books were in demand in Britain and those parts of the British empire that were establishing their own national systems. In 1868 his books, which went through numerous editions, were selling at a rate of a quarter of a million copies a year, and his best-selling Spelling book superseded reached a total of more than 2 million by 1883; by then it was estimated that the total sales of his books had approached 6.5 million copies. His other well-known books include: Geography generalized, Dictionary of derivations, and Attempt to simplify English grammar. His name also came to be associated with a series of newer textbooks published by the Sullivan brothers, Marcus and John, who were his nephews. These books, in the Sullivan School Series and regularly updated, continued to be sold into the twentieth century.
Sullivan died 11 July 1868 at Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) from a severe stroke, attended by his second wife, whom he had married two years earlier. He had no children by either of his marriages. He was buried at the Old Priory graveyard at Holywood, where a memorial tablet was erected. He left £45,000 in his will, a fortune made largely from the sale of textbooks. Latterly his name is associated with a main thoroughfare, Sullivan Place, facing which is the Holywood Library building erected by his gift. It originally accommodated the Sullivan Lower School (1862) and the Sullivan Upper School (1877). In 1954 the Lower School merged with another to form Holywood Primary School. The Sullivan Upper School, a leading grammar school, moved to its present site in 1940.