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Down Memory Lane
Reflecting on my time spent in Scoil Padraig one of the memories that stands out from the rest is the building of the school gym. It was a huge undertaking at the time and lots of fundraising events took place. One that we got involved in as pupils was the weekly Scoil Padraig draw. Tickets were 10p each and if you sold a book of twelve you only had to give back £1 so you made a princely profit of 20p for yourself! There were even bigger incentives for us to sell. You see every week each boy who had sold a full book had their name put into a weekly draw, which took place on the veranda on Fridays. Bro. Columban was in charge and if you were lucky enough to have your name drawn by him you won a football. This draw went on for about 12 weeks every year and if you sold a book of tickets every week for the 12-week duration you qualified for a trip to the Savoy Cinema! Now this was not any routine Matinee. The Savoy Cinema was open exclusively to the Scoil Padraig elite ticket sellers on a school day around lunch time. We were summoned from our desks and two by two we were marched up Pound Street to the Savoy to have our very own private viewing. Needless to say some boys made a couple of pounds a week they sold so many tickets. One name comes to mind - Francis O'Dowd. He always sold the most. But he had an advantage on the rest of us because his family owned a pub! The gym was built in the 70's during my school days in Scoil Padraig so as pupils we felt we were doing our bit to help. And now - thirty years on, the gym has seen so many come and go. A wonderful facility that provided training ground for so many young people and some famous Gaelic, Basketball and Soccer heroes. It still does. Now I am a proud parent, and my son is going to the school where I have many happy memories and is using the gym that I used and played a part in it's building. And it all started for just 10p!
TOM TIGHE
Scoil Padraig 1970-1975
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