School: Lismacaffry
- Location:
- Lismacaffry, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Ml. Ó Gamhna
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0739, Page 216
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- Long ago in my great grandfather's time there was no such thing as the National Schools that we have nowadays. There was no compulsary Education then and any one who had a wish to learn went to those wandering schoolmasters who taught on the hill-tops or at the back of a ditch and which were then known as the hedge-school masters.
This happened in the days of the penal laws when the Irish people were forbidden by the English to educate their children with a catholic teacher or to educate their children abroad. Anyone who wished to educate their children had to send them to those hedge-schools, where they were taught reading and writing, sums and Irish and they turned to to be poets and scholars.
One of the masters name was Master Owen McLoughlin he used to teach day and night and he taught in a field at the back of a ditch in Kilmore, where it is now called the Parson's Turn. He also(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Christy Newman
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 57
- Address
- Coolnagun, Co. Westmeath
