BSW3 1. Daybreak in Drimarone
Nov 04, 2021, 06:12 PM
Speaker: Dan Gallagher
From the Bluestack Way Part 3 playlist.
Directions
Its three kilometres from the Centre to get back on the Bluestack Way – simply turn right and walk past the church taking the right in the fork in the road. The full wonder of what awaits you will become apparent. In days gone by, you would have seen children walking to school around here carrying not only their school bags, but two pieces of turf – each child was obliged to do so as it was the only means of heating the local school.
School days
The Drimarone area you are walking through had numerous seats of learning over a long time. In 1824 Hedge schools at Ednamock, Selacis and Tullynaha preceded the National schools that followed: Drumnaherk to the south, Lettermore to the west, Letterfad to the north and Ardbane to the north east. Writing in the Drimarone Schools Reunion, editor Peter Campbell opines 'all four schools enjoyed success until the great wisdom of civil servants in Dublin wiped the entire National School system in the area’. Lettermore closed in 1967, Letterfad and Drumnaherk in 1970 and Ardbane in 1972. Campbell notes ‘there have been many changes in the Drimarone area since the National Schools were established; many changes since they were closed.
Gone are storytellers and the rambling, the postmen on bikes and the Post Office; the open houses like Emby Meehan’s where the house phone was available to all comers. In its place we have a phone in every house; electricity for everything and we are even producing our own locally on the Blue Stacks. The rambling has been replaced by TV; cars at every house and two at some and the bicycle is now redundant. Everything has changed but thankfully some things stay the same. Walking the Bluestacks is becoming fashionable again’.
Ask Rosemary or Pauline for a loan of the Drimarone Schools Reunion booklet – it is a wonderful collection of memorabilia from the former pupils of those four National Schools and is full of insight, wit and warmth on their recollections of those days. One section that caught our eye were the reminiscences of Gerry Meehan, known to one and all as the singer ‘Folksy Gerry’:
Gerry had gone to Drumnaherk National School when all around him were going to Letterfad. Years later over a drop of whiskey with his father, he managed to get to the bottom of why this was the case. His ancestors had all gone to Letterfad, but Gerry’s Uncle Packie was a ‘bit mischievous’ and got into trouble with the Headmaster there, Master James Mulhern in the early 1920’s. This became a slight family disagreement with the school and the parents decided to bring the remaining children away from Letterfad.
'Because you normally go to the school of your parents, that is provided you haven’t moved homeplace, I found it amazing that because of some minor incident that occurred years ago, it had the knock-on effect of determining what school myself and my brothers and sisters were to go to, over forty years later and ultimately determine the circle of friends you would hang around with for many years after’.
In our audio piece, Dan Gallagher who went to school on the other side of the mountain recalls his memory of taking the two sods of turf to school and taking the cane.
From the Bluestack Way Part 3 playlist.
Directions
Its three kilometres from the Centre to get back on the Bluestack Way – simply turn right and walk past the church taking the right in the fork in the road. The full wonder of what awaits you will become apparent. In days gone by, you would have seen children walking to school around here carrying not only their school bags, but two pieces of turf – each child was obliged to do so as it was the only means of heating the local school.
School days
The Drimarone area you are walking through had numerous seats of learning over a long time. In 1824 Hedge schools at Ednamock, Selacis and Tullynaha preceded the National schools that followed: Drumnaherk to the south, Lettermore to the west, Letterfad to the north and Ardbane to the north east. Writing in the Drimarone Schools Reunion, editor Peter Campbell opines 'all four schools enjoyed success until the great wisdom of civil servants in Dublin wiped the entire National School system in the area’. Lettermore closed in 1967, Letterfad and Drumnaherk in 1970 and Ardbane in 1972. Campbell notes ‘there have been many changes in the Drimarone area since the National Schools were established; many changes since they were closed.
Gone are storytellers and the rambling, the postmen on bikes and the Post Office; the open houses like Emby Meehan’s where the house phone was available to all comers. In its place we have a phone in every house; electricity for everything and we are even producing our own locally on the Blue Stacks. The rambling has been replaced by TV; cars at every house and two at some and the bicycle is now redundant. Everything has changed but thankfully some things stay the same. Walking the Bluestacks is becoming fashionable again’.
Ask Rosemary or Pauline for a loan of the Drimarone Schools Reunion booklet – it is a wonderful collection of memorabilia from the former pupils of those four National Schools and is full of insight, wit and warmth on their recollections of those days. One section that caught our eye were the reminiscences of Gerry Meehan, known to one and all as the singer ‘Folksy Gerry’:
Gerry had gone to Drumnaherk National School when all around him were going to Letterfad. Years later over a drop of whiskey with his father, he managed to get to the bottom of why this was the case. His ancestors had all gone to Letterfad, but Gerry’s Uncle Packie was a ‘bit mischievous’ and got into trouble with the Headmaster there, Master James Mulhern in the early 1920’s. This became a slight family disagreement with the school and the parents decided to bring the remaining children away from Letterfad.
'Because you normally go to the school of your parents, that is provided you haven’t moved homeplace, I found it amazing that because of some minor incident that occurred years ago, it had the knock-on effect of determining what school myself and my brothers and sisters were to go to, over forty years later and ultimately determine the circle of friends you would hang around with for many years after’.
In our audio piece, Dan Gallagher who went to school on the other side of the mountain recalls his memory of taking the two sods of turf to school and taking the cane.