Schools Background

The Hedge School

There would have been hedge schools locally.  The teacher was smuggled into the locality and the parents of the children would have given him free lodgings and food during his stay. 

The first schools model was just to have one room with one teacher.  Later the schools were meant to cater for two separate groups of students and had two classrooms with a principal and an assistant teacher.  The state exam, the Primary Certificate, was introduced in 1929.  Its focus was on reading, writing and arithmetic.  With arithmetic, making correct calculations in their heads was the prime goal.    The Primary Certificate ceased in 1967 with the rise in secondary schools.  The secondary schools offered the Group Certificate, the Intermediate Certificate and the Leaving Certificate.

Most schools in the area were controlled by the Roman Catholic diocese of Raphoe.  When the Stanley Act 1831 legislated for the creation of National Schools, the plan was to create schools that for all religious denominations.   However, it came to pass that each Church, Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic granted patronage to schools resulting in denominational schools.  However, this did not stop some Catholics attending Protestant Schools and some Protestants attending Catholic Schools.  The Diocesan Examiner visited Catholic schools once a year to ensure that the children were being taught the catechism properly.  He asked them catechism questions If they couldn't answer their confirmation could be postponed.  Religion was taught a lot in denominational schools.  The school day was started with prayer in the mornings and finished with prayers in the afternoon.

At the time of writing, it is unknown if any local schools participated in the Schools Folklore Scheme of 1938 facilitated by the Department of Irish Folklore.

Toilets were usually a bucket in a shed type structure out the back of the school.  It was the practice for a child to take took sticks and a sod of turf to the school for the fire.

The Local Schools

St Baithin's National School

St Baithin's National School is situated between the old cemetery and the St Johnston and Carrigans Family Resource Centre .  It opened for the first time on Monday 5th of May 1980.  It was then that the pupils of Trentamucklagh National School, Drumucklagh National School (Raphoe), St Baithin's Old School all came together to form one new school.  The Ballylennon and Craighadoes roads were served at the time by McGee's bus which brought the pupils to the school. 

Mr Joe McGinley was the first principal of the school until his retirement in 1983 which was marked by a social function in the Old School Hall.  Ms Mc Ginley, Mrs Molloy, Mr Jim Callaghan, Mrs Ann Gallagher, Mrs Kathleen Burke and Mr Brian Harkin were the teachers at the time.

The next principal of the school was Mr Art McLoone.

In 1997, Mrs Kathleen Burke was the principal of St Baithin's School.  There were 203 children on the rolls at the time. 

Ann Marie Meehan is the current principal at time of writing 2008.

In July 2005, due to the need for more space for the pupils prefabricated rooms were erected next the school.  

The school celebrated its 25th birthday in 2005.  Pupils who had started in the school in 1980 or who transferred from Trentamucklagh School or Drumucklagh School or St Baithin's Old School attended the celebration.  The teachers of those times were also invited.  There was a Mass first in St Baithin's Church to mark the occasion.  Then another celebration, one of the nostalgic past, was held in the school itself and involved displaying old school roll books and also old photographs of children from the various schools.  A social evening with a buffet served in a marquee adjacent was held in the Main Hall of the St Johnston and Carrigans Family Resource Centre.

Scoil an Leinbh Iosa, Coxtown Carrigans

Scoil an Leinbh Iosa or School of the Infant Jesus to translate it from Irish was opened in 1949 when it was blessed by Archdeacon John Deeny Parish Priest of St Johnston and Carrigans.  Committee members for the School at the time were Flora Patton, Nora McGee, Nan Toland, Lizzie Patton, Grace McGee, Mary Dillon, Vera Hagan, Claire McGee, Peg Howard, Maggie Ann Patton, Ruby Houston, Martha McGee, Joe Finegan, Dan Diver, Mrs Finegan, Marjorie Dillon, Peggie McGee, Henry Toland, John McGee, W Crawford, Michael McHugh, John Bond.

In 1997, Scoil an Leanbh Iosa, Coxtown, Carrigans, had 62 on the rolls.  The principal was Mr John O Donnell.

St Johnston National School No 2

This School which is currently the sacristan's house opposite the Roman Catholic Chapel closed to make way for the opening of St Baithin's National School, Blueball in 193

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First exam 17th October 1883

Principal Roger McGinley from 1 - 10 - 1882

Assistant Ellen Mc Ginley

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Exam 1 - 4 - 84

Principal John Ward from 15 - 11 - 83

Assistant Catherine Ward

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Exam 1895 - 53 pupils present

Exam 1896 - 58 pupils present

Exam 1897 - 66 pupils present

"Jnrs - on the floor being 'taught' by other pupils"

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Exam 1900 - 49 pupils (July)

Exam 1901 - 63 pupils

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Exam 1903 - Principal - J Ward

Assistant Mary F Casey

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Exam  1923  Principal Mr JJ Mc Glinchey

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Exam 1928 Principal Mr Francis Cassidy

St Baithin's Old National School, Blueball

St Baithin's National School was opened in 1931.  It served the pupils of the community until its closure in 1980.  After that it became known as the Old School Hall.  It was used for the annual parish bazaar on a Friday and Saturday night in November.  The parish bingo was held there and old time dancing events.  Concerts and plays were occasionally held there too.  The school was no longer used since the Resource Centre was completed.

The school was sold in 2005 by the Roman Catholic parish.  The sales price was 70,000 Euro.  The expenses of sale were 1,267.65 Euro.  The Department of Education and Science recouped 23,125.00 Euro.

The school was demolished in May 2008.

St Johnston No 1 School

This school was opened in 1909.  It was a National School and can be seen next the Presbyterian Church in St Johnston.  Today it is used for Masonic meetings.  

John Bartley Shannon, Church Lane, St Johnston, died 2005, was the best known Principal of the School.

The school closed in 1975 and Mr Shannon took up a teaching post in Monreagh National School and many of his students went there as well.

Monreagh National School

Monreagh National School was built in 1852 .   It was opened November, 28 1852.  Back then it was all one room.  An extension was made in 1907.   Then in 1931, a house for the teacher was built on to the school.  This was later demolished.   The school serves children mainly of a Presbyterian background. 

The current school, and the old school and the Church itself are not in Monreagh.  They are in the townland of Tonagh.  The original Presbyterian Meeting House, the term Church was forbidden by Penal law, was built in Monreagh.  This led to the current Church and the schools being referred to as being in Monreagh.

Mr Henry Allen was paid an annual salary of £22 in 1854.  The Inspector was Christopher Graham. 

Teachers:

The school once had a big black stove for heating.

The school closed down in 2011. A new school was built a short distance away.  Mrs Buchanan laid the first block for the new school on the 23 November 2010.

A booklet complied by Josephine Duncan was launched in St Johnston and Carrigans Family Resource Centre by Joe Mahon on 30 September 2011.  The booklet is called Memories of Monreagh National School 1853 to 2011.

Castletown National School

Killea Parish School

Killea Parish School was built from funds bequeathed by Colonel Robertson which was willed in 1790.  The Schoolmaster used to have living quarters above the school.  The School closed in 1949 for grants were cut off due to the small number of pupils.  The Roman Catholic children at the time started leaving the school and going to Coxtown School.  The School was renovated in 1985 and then in 2005 and is now Killea Parish Hall.

Craighadoes School

On the 24 April 1810, it was decided to allocate sixteen guineas to build a school at Craighadoes. 

However, it seems this money may not have been used for it seems that there was no school in Craighadoes until 1834.

In 1836, 2 November, Reverend Edward Bowen was permitted to use the schoolhouse as a Church.  It doubled as a school and a Church.

It was used for worship only from 1850 and it was converted into the present chapel of ease in 1869.  A new school was built behind this chapel and it was opened on December 1st 1869.  David Johnston was the first teacher.

On 7 July 1895, the School Inspector recorded that the school had no globe and the floor was in a bad state of repair.

In the early 1900's the school was found to be in bad repair and didn't even have a clock.  Corporal punishment was recorded and was limited to using a light rod.  Using it too much was seen as a bad sign. 

On 1929, the first day of August, Miss Marion Clarke was the teacher at the school.  She taught there until 1933.

In 1890 the school had fifty pupils and in 1960 it had twenty-seven.  When it closed on 30th June 1969 there were only three.  They were Sidney, Valerie and Michael Pearson. 

Miss Ruby Clarke taught at the school from 1941 to 1952.  Mrs Isobel Galbraith took over until the school closed.

Ballylennon School

Between Ballylennon Presbyterian Church and Drumucklagh National School there is a house that used to be Ballylennon School. The School has been closed for several years.  It was then used as residence of the Presbyterian Church caretaker, called the Sexton.  Maggie Bradley was the last Sexton to live in the house.

Taughboyne School

Money and funding was raised to set up a School at Taughboyne near the Church in 1824.  The Teacher's Residence was built beside the school.  It was demolished and replaced by the current house in 1907.   In 1917, because of declining attendance at the school, it was supposed that it would be best to amalgamate Taughboyne with Monreagh School.  Miss Dickson the teacher didn't get paid and so in January 1919 the school closed. 

SAMPLE OF WHAT THE SCHOOL REGISTERS USED LOCALLY WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE IN THE 1880'S

APPENDIX: DRUMUCKLAGH

Drumucklagh School was attended by children from the St Johnston region and Raphoe and others.

This is a list of National Schools at which the children attended before Drummucklagh N.S. opened in 1909: Craigadoes, Drumbeg, Castletown, Ballyholey, Boyagh, Cloughfin, Drummoughill, Brow of the Hill Derry, Raphoe Boys, St. Johnston.

Booklist

In the Footsteps of St Baithin, A History of the Parishes of Taughboyne with Craighadooish, All Saints, Newtowncunningham, Christ Church, Burt and Killea, Carrigans by Canon DWT Crooks MA BD, published by Donegal Democrat Ltd, Ballyshannon 1992

The Laggan and Its People, by S M Campbell,  Donegal Democrat Ltd, Ballyshannon

Memories of Monreagh National School, Josephine Duncan, 2011

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