MY SCHOOL DAYS

By Con Dunne

I entered the doors of Canovee National School for the first time in June, 1954. Thirty summers later I look back at the people I encountered in what we call the happiest years of our lives. Recollections of that first day have long since slipped my memory but I'm sure the friendly welcome I got from Mrs. Charlie eased my introduction to the strange looking classroom. Mrs. Charlie must have been everybody's favourite teacher, she had a great way with children and was one of the longest-serving teachers in the school. She is the only surviving teacher of my time.

 

During those early years our class included some who were with us for just a short while. Dan Curtin emigrated to England with his parents. The Burns Brothers, Tony and Patsy, whose father was with Fossett's Circus stayed in Carrig for a few years. Sometimes at school they performed tricks for us, somersaults etc, I remember at the church gate one Sunday morning their father balanced a ladder on his chin while Patsy climbed to the top. He performed other feats at local gatherings including balancing the car wheel and lying on the bed of nails. Patsy was in the army when be paid a visit to the village some years ago. Jerry Lucey, Larch Hill, now farming at Sleaveen, Macroom, moved to Macroom National School.

 

Today's classroom with nature table, Library, Wall charts, etc, is a far cry from our day when plasticine was the only diversion from the school books. Across the wall from us Dan Looney was busy building his house and on at least two occasions, when the going got rough, I sought refuge in the building site. These were exciting times in the district with the dam nearing completion and the rural electrification scheme lighting up homes all over. Starting second class we turned our backs on Mrs. Charlie and faced the fireplace and Mrs O' -- known to

others as Miss Mac, or Mrs. Pat. She was of course Mrs. Joan O'Sullivan, Classis. From there we changed rooms and came under the Principal Dick Young; best known of all teachers.

 

I wonder have the games changed? We played hunt, guns and "Fox" which often led us far away from the school, I recall on one occasion bearing the bell ring from the lower end of Murray's lane - can't remember if the stick was waiting. Marbles were played at times and of course football and hurling. Apart from a few runs in Finnegan's stubble and Harry Browne's field the school yard (then divided) was our pitch. As the church was being repaired at the time Mass and Confession were held in the school. The latter meant an extended game of hurling and on one such occasion memory recalls feeling very proud returning to the classroom with a split lip after saving a certain goal from one of the sixth class boys - none other than Johnny Dunlea.

 

Another episode from the hurling was when Con O'Sullivan, sporting a new "pot stick " or "furze root" as we called the improvised coman, connected with the ball and like a bullet from a rifle skimmed the chapel wall and broke a pane of glass in the porch window.

 

Of the boys in my class, Derry. Harrington is farming and runs the thriving Leeside Nurseries in Killinardrish, John Collins (of Shandangan) is married and has a pub, shop and post office in Kilmichael and Noel Dunne who teaches at De La Salle, Macroom, has just returned with his wife and family to a new house on the home farm in Mahalougb. The girls outnumbered us two to one, three came from Forest Townland, Theresa Murray, who spent some time abroad but is now married in Coachford as Mrs. Newstead, Nora Healy now Mrs Jim O'Flynn lives in Kilcrea and Nora Casey, whose family has since left the area is now Mrs. Joe 0 Sullivan, Carrigaline. Nell Cantillon is married to Declan Murphy in her home townland of Roovesbeg. There were two Murphy girls, Ann from Mahalough, and Ursula, Lehena, now Mrs. Pomeroy living in Millstreet. From Curragh, in the eastern side of the district we had Alice Desmond who became Mrs. Skehan and now resides in the United States, Ann Lyons travelled west when she married Con Cotter of Ballingeary, while Dora Buckley, Shandangan, the baby of our class became Mrs Myers and resides in Dooniskey.

 

The renovations to the church also meant Sunday Mass in the school and this was very special to us. An annual event which created great excitement to us as children was the Dramatic Society play presented during Lent. When the stage was erected at the church, it gave budding young actors and actresses an opportunity to display their talents and if a script was found lying about it was soon turned into a lunchtime theatre. Some of us returned to the school in later years to fulfill childhood dreams by performing in Concert and dramatic productions.

The picture that runs through my mind while reminiscing on my school days is of a school not nearly as well kept as it is now, and the Master with his spectacles and chalk in hand, of bench desks with ink wells and initials etched with penknife, the maps on the wall and the big open fire.

Though the special sound of children learning has faded from my Alma Mater it still serves the community well.

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Con Dunne