The idea of this page is to give you all the information on the day in the life of a student in the Oranmore Boys National School. School starts off at 8.55 when we actually go into school but it starts for me, David Williams at around 7.45am when I get up and have my breakfast then wait for the bus until around 8.15 when I get my lift to school. Then I wait for my friends to come. My schoolwork starts with a spelling test in both English and Irish. Tables and verbs are included on times coming up to big tests. We then go over our homework from the previous day.

By David.

Mc Donaghs Pub, Oranmore Co. Galway.

This pub was built in 1709. It is one of the oldest public houses in Ireland. A family called Cunniffe originally owned it. My grandmother bought it for the princely sum of twelve hundred pounds. Nowadays, it would be worth about one quarter of a million pounds. Until 1965, beer and Guinness used to be bottled on the premises. Because there was no central heating long ago, the walls of the pub were unusually thick. Last year, we thatched the pub with reed thatch. Before that, we used straw thatch, which need frequent repairs. The pub is world famous. It was featured in an article on a Chinese newspaper last year. It also appeared as part of an advertisement for an American beer company on American television. The American Broadcasting Corporation and a German film company also used it in making a film. It also features in the poster titled " Pubs and shops of Ireland". The price of a pint was ten pence in 1960. Today, the pint costs one pound and eight pence. Hopefully, MacDonaghs will survive to see the twenty-first century.

An extract taken from ….

By Stephen and Conner.

"What’s that big ruin of a house near the boat club out there?’ –a question I am often asked in Galway when it comes to Maree. Simple to answer, that it was the local landlord’s house, now lying derelict for many years. Beyond that point, people quickly loose interest. Perhaps reputation for cherishing our past is largely undeserved when one gets down to the small print. But in Maree the "Big house" is still a fact of life – often mentioned when one speaks to the older people, and why not, since it played such an important part in the lives of generations of their ancestors. The Blakes came to Ardfry in 1612, when King James 1^st made a grant of land to one Robert Blake, a Galway merchant , descended from Richard "Blake" Caddell.

Robert Blake, a Galway merchant, descended from Richard "Blake" Caddell, thirteenth-century ancestor of the Blake "tribe" of Galway and Mayo. This Robert Blake had a son, Richard who became mayor of Galway, and was knighted in 1627.

To be continued……

The well

Ireland is rather famous for its wells, which are very numerous. Some of them are called holy wells. While wells are useful things to have near at hand, they are not always treated with the care they deserve. Yet even where a piped water supply may be available at a comparatively low cost, some still prefer the old way and the social advantages of a daily visit to the well. After all one cannot be expected to remain indoors all day. But when a piped water supply is laid one seek elsewhere for an excuse to get out from behind the domestic curtain. A dissertation on well in general is not intended. But it is not out of place to reflect that, apart from their domestic, hygienic and social importance, they also furnish evidence of the impression they make on the minds of the users by having town-lands named after them.

PLACENAMES

Frenchfort house

The Grealish family told me of how the original house was haunted. Before the house was knocked, there was a fire left burning during the night. Often the front door bell rang at night and when it was answered, nobody was in sight. To this day the Grealish family have a sword which belonged to either a previous owner or visitor to Frenchfort House. It is thought to have belonged to Harding or Nelson and dated 1625. A full cabinet of books belonging to the original Frenchfort House lies untouched and unharmed with time. Some of the latter date back as far as 1885 with the French’s name of the house inscribed onto the books.

The Grealish family also mentioned that if there was anyone laid out in the house, all the mirrors and pictures in that particular room were covered and the room was darkened. They did this because they believed that when the soul left the body, the force would crack the windows and mirrors.

Mr. Grealish also told me about a particular curse that was put on the Blake Family many years ago. Some local woman had a tenement out on the land belonging to the Blakes. Her husband had died when her child was young and so she found it difficult to pay the rent on the land. She approached the Blakes asking them if her son could work for them in payment for the rent she owed them. In return she would also get a little plot for herself just to grow vegetables. They agreed to this. But the labour became very hard and the boy could not cope. Soon afterwards, he died of a disease caused by hard work and malnutrition. Because of this, she cursed the Blake Family so that each and everyone of them would die soon afterwards. They did.

Mr. Grealish also showed me a coin which displayed Nelson’s ship. A famous picture of Nelson’s ship stands admirably on a wall. It was built in 1789, launched in the 1790’s and wrecked at Blackpool on June 16th, 1897.

LOVELY ORANNMORE

There is a local tradition that a monastery once existed in Ballynamannagh. All that remain visible today at this particular site are a heap of stones, which were once part of the foundation and a lower portion of the south-end. It is thought to have once belonged to an Annaghdown Monastery in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Some locals say that a children's burial ground is also situated here. Four sisters founded the Presentation Convent, Oranmore,to find yet another home for Nano Nangle's daughters, in the poor but picturesquely-situated n village. This was all funded by a man whose lifelong wish it was to found a convent of the order in which his two sisters were already members. The only accommodation available in Oranmore at that time was a hotel, was suitably altered to provide for the necessary accommodation of the sisters Catherine Martyn, Teresa Donnellan, Rose Magee and Joseph Oliver. This hotel was sited at the present residence of the Kelly and Healy families.