CARNAUN NATIONAL SCHOOL
A TIME AND PLACE FOR MIRTH AND MISCHIEF by John Corbett The book takes a light hearted look at rural Ireland and introduces modern readers to colourful characters and events of former times. The introduction sets the scene, socially, historically and geographically. Chapter One: entitled Pastors, Preachers and Playboy's gives some strange examples of priestly and lay conduct at the beginning of the century. Chapter Two: The Curious Capers of a Country Curate continues the theme of clerical participation i rustic affairs and highlights the hilarious escapades of one particular clergyman. Chapter Three: Tom, the Country Playboy is an account of the antics of a character called Cormican. Chapter Four: Visiting Time at Corbetts looks at visiting, dancing and various other pastimes. Chapter Five: Fun and Frolics with Dennis Flynn describes more hilarious episodes. Chapter Six: The Men from Connemara concerns travelling spalpeens in general and deals with one particular spalpen who was linguistically challenged and who bequeathed several side splitting idioms to posterity. Chapter Seven: Sparkling Stories from Pat concentrates on the storytelling of local seanachai, Pat Kenny. Chapter Eight: St. Kerrill's Holy Vows And Some Unholy Rows deals with an ancient monk who settled in the West many centuries ago. Chapter Nine: And Bartley Beats the Devil is a selection of stories dealing with an extraordinary man who outwitted most of his contemporaries. Chapter Ten: Lydon at Large is about a troubadour who harboured very strange ambitions. Chapter Eleven: Tom McDonagh's Life of Leisure contains a description of a "lazybones" who converted "swinging the lead" to a fine art. Chapter Twelve: The happy Wanderer tells of a spalpeen who returned from exile to participate in one of the most unusual wedding ever. Chapter Thirteen: The Old Bog Road looks back at the time when the Board of Works employed large numbers of countrymen to build roads for transporting turf to various areas. Chapter Fourteen: Hammering the Anvil at Pat and Larry's Forge is yet another entertaining piece describing the behaviour of the famous Walsh brothers. Chapter Fifteen: contains a selection of local songs and ballads. The final section consists of old photographs and historical documents. Most of the material is based on fact and is quite amusing. Cartoons, photos and poems are used to enhance the various topics. Photocopies of letters which passed between Padraigh Pearse and a local scholar are included. Finally there are photos of War of Independence, medals and a King V medal which were awarded to some of the characters who feature in the book. SCOIL NÁISIÚNTA CARNÁIN  BAILE
ÁTHA 'N RÍ |