School: Ballymore (B.) (roll number 7443)
- Location:
- Ballymore, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: P.J. Cooney
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0743, Page 237
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
- In Doniel there lived about the year 1800 a man named Dempsey. He had a son Peter Dempsey who was a smart intelligent young man. He took a notion to go to Munster as a poor Scholar. After six years he returned to his native place.It's then he got the idea to start a school. He went around to the neighbours to get pupils to attend. Every one that had children were very glad of the opportunity to educate them, but where was the school room to be got. James O'Loughlin gave his large barn. This man was the grandfather of the present James O'Loughlin of Lower Rathskeagh. Immediately he had the Roll Books filled. Among them was one who will be the hero of this story. The school opened in the month of May 1829. At this time the priests knew that these schools were the best safe guard of the Faith of the people. They blessed the children, teachers and the stables they taught in. They also told them to open the School every day, with the prayer "Direct we we beseech Thee"Demsey's school was a success beyond all expectations. He turned out the finest of scholars. Larry Dillon was an exception(continues on next page)
