School: Castletowngeoghegan (B.) (roll number 2092)

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1. Old Schools

   

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   Our own school is a very old one, for it is now standing for almost one hundred years and no improvement has been made on it since it was built. The earliest teacher was a Mr. Bannon, a native of this place. The next teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Maloney and their descendants are in this district yet.
   There was an old school in Mr. Clavin's field of Ballinamill, Streamstown, Mr. Garland was the teacher there. He was grandfather of the present teacher who is teaching at Streamstown.
   There was a Hedge-school in the Tripper Carey's field of Dromore. The teacher was Laurence Carey. He was not a stranger, because he lived near that place. The children used to pay him a couple of pence every week. Some of them used to give him food as payment. The teacher did not teach Irish in the school. He taught them English reading and a little spelling. They used to write on slates with chalk. The school was built of scraws with sticks across the roof. On the sticks, there were scraws and straw. The fire was made in the middle of the floor and there was a hole in the roof to let out the smoke. The boys used to sit on stones around the fire. The fire was made of sticks which were collected by the children. Each boy had to collect a bundle of sticks in the evenings and in that way they had a good fire for the day in the school. The boys used to go to

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. schools (~4,094)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Francis Duffy

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   J. Galvin

   Address

   Kippinduff, Co. Westmeath