School: Iorball Sionnaigh (roll number 16923)
- Location:
- Scotstown, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: E. Mac Thaidhg
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0955, Page 288
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- 288
40. The Local Hedge-School.
The only hedge-school now remembered locally was situated near the present Killycarnan N.S.The remnants of this school are still visible,beside the boreen which runs almost along the gable of Killycarnan National School.It is said that the school flourished for a long time,and about 20 years ago the "bosses"(seats for the scholars)were still to be seen.Old people say that slates were dug up in the field since then.
The last schoolmaster who worked there was called Paddy Corrigan.He lived in the neighbouring farmers' houses and according to tradition was a great ladies'man.He was always the most important person at functions such as dances,weddings and wakes.He was very witty ,according to the older people and the ladies vied with each other to see which of them "Master Corrigan "would marry.He chose a girl from the neighbourhood of Killycarnan for his wife and the other girls of the district were so jealous that Paddy and his wife had to flee.He was never heard of more.
He was a strict disciplinarian and administered punishment in the following way.The truant who violated his laws was placed on the back of one of the stronger boys,who paced about the floor,while the teacher performed his duties with a stout birch stick cut out of the adjacent hedge.(continues on next page)
