School: The Downs (roll number 8875)
- Location:
- Na Dúnta, Co. na hIarmhí
- Teacher: S. Molloy
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0730, Page 136
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On this page
- Hedge Schools
Long ago the children had not comfortable schools as we have now.
They were taught in the shade of a hedge and the schools were called hedge schools.
In cold and rainy days they had to seek shelter in a barn or uninhabited farmhouse.
The masters were called hedge schoolmasters.
The books were also expensive and scarce and quite different to ours as they were all manuscript and had to be preserved from one generation to another.
There were no Irish books or Grammars like now.
It was easier to learn at that time than it is to learn now. They learned to add numbers on a slate and they wrote with a slate pencil.
Long ago there were no writing pens and they had to write with the quil of a goose feather.
Some hedgemasters taugh the children against a wall or out in some big field.
Mary McCormack(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Mary Mc Cormack
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Na Dúnta, Co. na hIarmhí
- Informant
- Mrs Mc Cormack
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 43
- Address
- Na Dúnta, Co. na hIarmhí
