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About Our School
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Click
here to 'Meet the Children and Teachers 2001 - 2002'
Hello! My name is Donna Sheil and I would like to tell about our school......
Drim National School is situated in the parish of Ballinakill
in the picturesque surroundings of East Galway,
nestling at the foot of the Slieve Aughty Mountains.
At present there are thirty pupils attending the school.
We have two Class Teachers, Miss McMahon and Miss Kerrigan; a shared Learning Support Teacher,
Mrs. Stapleton and a shared Language Resource Teacher, Mrs. McDermott.
Drim N.S. is co-educational and is one of four rural schools in the parish.
The subjects taught include English, Irish, Maths, Religion, S.E.S.E.
(Social, Environmental & Scientific Education which includes History, Geography & Science).
S.P.H.E. (Social, Personal, Health Education) Art, Music, Drama and Physical Education.
Fr. Conroy is the new Parish Priest.
Last year we celebrated the school’s Diamond Jubilee Anniversary.
We invited past pupils and teachers to the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations
at the end of October 2001 and it was a great success.
My mother, my aunties and my brother went to Drim N.S. a number of years ago.
I will be going to Woodford Secondary School in September and I will miss everybody in the school.
I have very happy memories of Drim N.S.
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A Brief History....
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Drim National School was built in 1941 during World War 2.
Back then people were much poorer than now.
There was no electricity or oil heating.
Children brought sticks to light the fire and everybody had to bring sods of turf.
They had bottles of cold tea for lunch break.
They went barefoot to school and most of them would have crossed fields getting to school.
They probably had boots or shoes going to school in the winter.
Life has improved greatly over the years.
Now we have computers, printers, a digital camera, a scanner, televisions, video recorders,
a telephone, a fridge, tape recorders and a photocopier and lots and lots of books in our school.
The local people built the old school in 1917 and paid a local girl, Sarah Keane to teach there.
Following recognition of the school by the Department of Education,
Mrs. Dewane was appointed the first principal of the school.
She taught there from 1918 to 1939.
At first there was only one classroom with a fireplace at each wall.
Later this room was divided into two rooms.
Maggie Hooban, Delia McDonnell, Máire Ní Chearbhaill
and Kathleen Riordan (nee Darmody) taught in the old school.
Past pupils of the school - now in their eighties, remember the overcrowding.
There wasn't enough place for all the children to sit down at the same time.
There were no toilet facilities and water had to carried from a local well each day.
In 1939, Pádraig Horan was appointed as the new principal but he left in October 1941.
James Keane was appointed principal in October 1941 and
taught in the 'new' Drim School until 1951.
He was the first principal of the present school. Other Teachers and
Junior Assistants who taught in the school were as follows:
Mary Anne Madden (nee Keane), John Manning, Patricia Riordan, Junie Lynch, Joe McCarty,
Theresa Walsh and Gerard Cavanagh.
Meet the Children and Teachers 2001 - 2002
