Commemorations of St. Joseph's Boys and Girls' Schools

Kingscourt Boys’ and Girls’ National Schools-

The Beginning -1859

The Stanley Act of 1831 established primary education or National education as it was called, on a statutory basis. It was to be a centralised system, directed by the Board of Education, with the actual provision of the school site and building, hiring of teachers and management of the school on a day to day basis, being the responsibility of local management. Up to this time all schools were fee paying and there were also many travelling teachers who used barns and sheds for schools and who were paid by their pupils. Peter Galligan was most  notable as a travelling teacher in Kingscourt.

 After 1831, schools applied to join the National Education Board. This happened on a gradual basis and separate applications are to be found in the National Archives in Dublin, from Kingscourt Boys’ and Girls’ schools in 1859 by Rev. Fr. Peter O’ Reilly P.P.  He was also responsible for the building of our present church in 1872. The school at the time was in good repair and made of stone and lime with a slated roof. The school was situated in the village of Kingscourt near the church but not on church grounds. The remaining apse of the church at this time stands at the entrance to our present church on Church Street. There is local evidence that the site of this school was on the grounds of the present grotto. 

 

The Principal in the Boys’ School when opened as a National School in 1859  was Master James Corrigan. Anne Smyth was Principal in the Girls’ School. Boys under six attended the girl’s school and were only enrolled in the Boys’ school when they reached the age of six. A large blackboard and slates and chalk were the class resources and the National Education Board provided the textbooks. The following are a list of rules devised for teachers in 1879 and give us an insight into the pressures of being a teacher in the nineteenth century.

 

Rules for teachers in 1879

1.     Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys before beginning work

2.     Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and scuttle of coal for the days sessions

3.     Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the children.

4.     Men teachers may take one evening a week for courting purposes or two evenings to attend church regularly

5.     After ten hours in school, you may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

6.     Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7.     Every Teacher should lay aside, from each pay, a goodly sum for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

8.    Any teacher who smokes, used liquor in any form, frequents pool and public halls, or gets shaved in a barber’s shop, will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honestly.

                        

MATT TALBOT SCHOOL 1898-1953

The schoolhouse had fallen into disrepair and Rev. J. Flood built a new school at the Matt Talbot Hall in 1898. It opened as Kingscourt Boys’ and Girls’ National School on 11th January 1899. There were two rooms for the Boys who were divided into two grouping the seniors and the juniors. There were a further two rooms for the girls who were also divided into two groupings. The principal in the Boys’ school was James Brady who retired in 1918 and Master Walsh replaced him as principal. Master Walsh trained in St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College in Drumcondra in Dublin in 1910-1912. Mary Seagraves was the assistant teacher in the Boys’ School from 1917.She was trained in 1902-1903 in De La Salle. She married John O’ Reilly and she continued to teach in the Boys’ School until 1935 when she retired. Mary’s daughter Rose Burns remembers her mother cycling from Kingscourt to Kells and back in 1923 to attend a course the teaching of Irish which was a subject that was only brought into the curriculum in the 1920’s.

Helena Farrelly replaced Mary Seagraves in 1935 and Helena taught in the Boys’ school until 1960. Kingscourt Boy’s and Girls’ Schools in the Matt Talbot  closed in 1953 as a new school, our present school was built and opened on the Dublin Rd under the new name of St. Joseph’s Boys’ and St. Joseph’s Girls’ National Schools.The old school was converted into a hall by Rev, M. Marry P.P. and was renamed the Matt Talbot Hall.

 

St. Joseph’s Boys’ National School and St. Joseph’s Girls’ National School move to the Dublin Road in 1953

 

Due to the increase in the number of pupils in the school a new school was built in 1953 on the Dublin Rd. This school had three classrooms for boys and three classrooms for girls.

 

The opening of this school is recorded in “Dún- a' Rí“ written by Fr. Marry,  where it states

“One of Dún-a-Rí’s most progressive steps was made in April 1953 with the opening of a new  €20,000 national school, built entirely from locally manufactured brick, at Mount St. Joseph. It accommodates 260 pupils. As the school was named St. Joseph’s National Boys’ and Girls’ Schools, a seven foot statue depicting St. Joseph feeding the birds with the Christ Child in his arms was erected over the front entrance of the school. The sculptor was the famous Gary Trimble  who is renowned for painting portraits of past presidents".

 

Opening of Extension to  St. Joseph’s Boys’ National School and St. Joseph’s Girls’ National School in 1984

 

At the years passed the population grew around Kingscourt and the pupil-teacher ratio was reduced. There were no classrooms for the new teachers who joined the staff. They were teaching in prefabs in the yard and the in the band room in St. Mary’s Hall. In 1984 the school was extended and ten classrooms with two internal toilets in each room were added. There was a General purpose room between the two schools. There were seven teachers teaching in the Girls’ school and the same in the boys school.

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  Mr. Tom Fitzpatrick Ceann Comhairle officially opened the new extension on the 25th June 1984. The Most Rev. Dr. Smith, Bishop of Meath, blessed the School.

L-R:  Representative of Board of Works, Fr. John Moorhead, Department Official, Inspector Cooke, Mrs Mc Ginley Principal G.N.S, Tom Fitzpatrick-Ceann Comhairle, Archdeacon Corrigan, Rev. Bishop Smith, Eugene Caffrey Architect, Peter Corrigan Principal B.N.S., Mons. James Mackin, Seán Doherty, Fr P.J. Regan, Fr Teehan P.P., Mon, Shortall, Fr. Phonsie Mackin, Fr. Paddy O’ Reilly R.I.P., Fr. E. Butle

 

 Pupils receive communion for Rev. Bishop Smith under the direction of Mrs. Mc Govern at the opening of the extension in 1984

 

  

Amalgamation of St. Joseph’s Boys’ and Girls’ National School

 

On the 1st September 2003 St. Joseph's Girls' National School and St. Joseph's Boys' National School amalgamated having been two separate schools since their inception in 1859. This marked a historic occasion in the history of primary education in Kingscourt. Our amalgamation has been a wonderful success for our pupils, parents, teachers and management.

To celebrate all the past pupils, teachers and managers of both schools since 1859, we launched our book "Schooldays in Kingscourt Town 1859-2004".