School: Burrane, Inis (roll number 13738)

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1. Life Sketch of Peter O' Connell

   

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   Peter O'Connell was a famous teacher and scholar whose school was situated in the townland of Moyne in the south of this parish (Killimer) in the year 1820.

   Conceiving the idea of compiling an Irish Dictionary he left his School and journeyed on foot through Munster collecting words and phrases for his project. He finally arrived home and owing to his poverty he failed to publish his life-work. He still continued to write and study in a tumble-down old cabin which was his home and the home of his aged mother in Moyne. The one room in the house - and in which O'Connell wrote and studied boasted of a window with a small pane of glass: It was dark and on dull days the poor man found it difficult to either write or study while owing to his extreme poverty he was unable to buy a lamp or candle which would enable him to work in the evenings during winter. His mother was quite illiterate and could not understand why this son of hers spent all his time at "books and writing" which brought in no money instead of doing some manual labour by which they could at least support themselves. She looked, therefore, with disfavour on O'Connells' literary labours and resolved to cure him of it. Convenient to their old shack they had a small cabbage plot which supplied them with that palatable vegetable. One day she shouted to her son to come out at once and put the neighbour's cows out of the cabbage plot. O'Connell rushed out to find

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Michael Twomey

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Teacher