22. Skehana Hedge School.

Skehana Hedge School.

This article is reproduced from a collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s. This is a contribution by Eileen Laffey as part of St. Joseph’s National School, Ballinruane, submissions. Eileen received this information from her grandfather, Michael Laffey, who was aged 83 years in the mid-1930s.

Eileen writes: “There was an old school in Costello’s house in Skehana in a part something like a barn. My grandfather was taught by an old school master named Kelly. He was a stranger. He was lodging in a little house beside the school. He was paid a penny a week and got presents for Xmas. My grandfather went there and learned to read a little. The children read from books kept in school and wrote on slates in forms. The knelt on the floor to write. He taught reading, writing and arithmetic. The master sat on a high desk. If a boy or girl continued to go to school, they were considered to get a good education there.