The Story of Education in Redwood
Speech by Seamus J. King at the official opening of the new extension to Redwood School by Minister for Education, Ms Norma Foley, T.D. on June 16, 2022
Chairperson, Minister for Education, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a pleasure for me to say a few words on the story of education in Redwood on the occasion of the official opening of this new extension. It brings the Redwood school buildings up to the most modern level and it provides the teachers with all the facilities required to carry out their professional duties to the highest standard. It creates a comfortable environment in which the children can learn in a stress free manner and enjoy their years at school.
How different the facilities are to those I experienced in September 1942, eighty years ago, when I attended this school for the first time! The school was new then, having been built in 1939 but it was primitive in comparison with this splendid structure. The heating system was a small fire in the corner of the room that was fed by the sods of turf the children brought with them to school. On cold days the teacher would bring three or four children at a time to warm their frozen hands over the fire. The toilet facilities were down the yard and were dry closets with no locks on the doors. The play sheds were open to the wind and the rain. Whoever planned it didn’t have any interest in the game of hurling. The playground was between the chapel and the school, each building with large windows, and hurling was disallowed to protect them. We played a game of peg ball. The ball was a bundle of rags sown together and we had lively matches daily as the teachers looked out the windows to make sure we were well-behaved.
Was I happy here? I don’t think the idea of happiness came into it. One accepted that this was what school was about with little tender, loving care. One of the few joys was getting out at 3 o’clock and racing home across the fields, I lived in Ballymacegan and across the fields for two and a half miles was the route. It was glorious in summertime as we fled through the fields, crossed hedges and ditches and even lay on our bellies to drink from a stream as we made our way home.
In the winter of 1947 the fields became so wet, we had to find an alternative way. My father got an ass and cart and it became our school bus during that winter. The ass was useless, it took us ages to travel the four miles by road. I dropped my sisters off at the school gate and took the ass to Jim Sammon’s for untackling. There was one perk involved: I had to leave school fifteen minutes early in the afternoon in order to tackle the ass and have it at the school gate when my sisters came out.
The school in Redwood replaced one located down the road at Kilmurry. This school was built in 1926 and the site appeared to be ideal. It was a piece of land owned by the parish, so there was no cost involved. It was adjacent to the previous school at Redwood Castle so there wouldn’t be any great difficulty for the school children getting there. There was about one acre of land attached to the site and this would provide a playground. However, it was the site of an ancient graveyard and Tom Lambe, who lived nearby, recalls seeing bones being thrown up when the foundations were being dug. The school was occupied for only 13 years and the new one built here. Why it was abandoned is a mystery. One theory was that the light in it was very poor. The windows were small and the school was surrounded by trees, which meant that, in winter particularly, little daylight got into the classrooms, and there was no electric light in the area in the 1920s! Miss Margaret McCormack became principal in Kilmurry in 1930 and transferred here, where she continued until 1952. She purchased the Kilmurry school as her residence after it closed and lived there with he sister, Agnes, who ran a shop.
Kilmurry replaced the earlier school at Redwood Castle. There was a letter to the Education Office (the predecessor to the Department of Education) in Dublin from Rev. James Meagher, P.P. on September 8, 1879, reporting the opening on that day of a new school in Redwood House, which was situated beside Redwood Castle. The letter stated that the school had been ‘so nobly given for that purpose by Mr. Henry Trench of Cangort Park, Roscrea’. The letter continued: ‘I have appointed Miss Winifrid Carroll, former assistant in the female school in Lorrha, as teacher and respectfully request the sanction of the appointment. There is no school within four miles of it. The attendance (today) was over 50.” He looked for a ‘free stock’ (of books) and ‘all the help in your power for the new school.’
As a result of Fr. Meagher’s request for recognition of the new school, the premises had to be inspected and Form A 121 completed. The inspection was carried out on October 8 between 11.40 am and 3 pm. It involved answering a list of 82 queries and this was completed by a Mr. Dugan, District Inspector of National Schools, and returned to the office on October 24, 1879.
The information contained in the document is of great interest at this remove. We are informed that the school was situated in one of 15 rooms of the two-storey Redwood House. It was a large room, 30’ x 18’ by 11’, and was ‘fitted up as a classroom.’ On the privy situation there was one for the girls, but the boys’ wasn’t yet ready. There was a separate play area for the girls.
The school was to be kept in repair with the manager’s and local funds. The schoolmistress occupied two rooms in the house. There was no teacher’s desk on the day of inspection but it was being made by a carpenter.
The teacher, Winifrid Carroll was a Roman Catholic and 22 years of age. She was trained in 1874 and had been assistant in the female school in Lorrha. She was granted a salary of £25 plus whatever would accrue to her from results. The ‘results system’ was as follows. At the end of every school year every pupil in the school, who had attended at least 100 days, was examined individually by the Board’s inspector and was awarded a mark, 1 or 2 denoting a pass, or 0 denoting a failure. Each subject carried its own pass value, which ranged from one shilling for spelling to five shillings for agriculture. Results fees were paid annually in one lump sum.
Virtually all the children paid fees but the manager had the right to absolve some children from paying. As well as her salary Miss Carroll’s free residence was worth the equivalent of £5 and school fees amounted to £12.
The school day commenced at 9.30 and finished at 3.30 in the summer and 3 pm in the winter. Religious instruction was given for 3 to 31/2 hours per week in the summer and 21/2 to 3 in the winter.
School inspections were regular and thorough. A report from November 1882 was anything but favourable. Class 1 with 8 pupils was weak at tables. Class 2 with 10 present was weak at reading. Class 3 with 10 present was weak at grammar and geography. Class 4 with 8 present was middling at reading, poor at spelling and grammar, and defective at maths, Classes 5 & 6 with 8 present were poor in deduction and bad at grammar. He believed the pupils were prone to copy from one another and this would account for the low proficiency in arithmetic. The girls worked without thimbles in needlework.
While the school at Redwood Castle was the first official primary school in the area, the boys and girls of Redwood did have schooling before its establishment in 1879. Hedge schools, as they were called, were in existence before that.
Timothy Sullivan of Lordspark contributed the following to the Folklore Commission in the nineteen-thirties. According to him an old hedge school existed in Redwood parish at one time. The hedge master’s name was Brian Carroll and he was a native of the parish. The hedge school was conducted in the open air during fine weather and in Carroll’s house on wet days. An old iron seat marks the spot where the master sat. It is at the back of Tom Quinlan’s old house and in the field beside Redwood Church. Slates and slate pencils were used. English reading, writing and arithmetic were taught. School was taught at night for the men, and during the day the boys and girls attended. Sometimes the master travelled around and taught in the farmers’ houses. He was lodged free and given compensation sometimes. When out of doors the children sat around the master on large stones or on blocks of wood. A big slate served as a blackboard. The teacher remained about three years in a place.
The hedge master received 10 shillings a quarter for his work. Those who could not afford to pay him in money gave him potatoes, and other kinds of food. Also, they sent him turf.
Probably the high point of learning in Redwood was in the seventeenth century. The MacEgan family were well known around Ireland for their knowledge of the Brehon Law, an indigenous form of laws, which governed Ireland until the introduction of English Law in the seventeenth century . The Brehons were the upholders of this ancient law and settled disputes between the Irish clans. The MacEgans were one of only seven Irish families to practise the ancient Brehon Law and were the chief advisors of many Irish Lords and chieftains.
There are many famous books associated with the MacEgans. For instance, the Leabhar Breac contains the geneology and origins of the MacEgan family. Other books, such as The Black Book of the MacEgans, the Red Book of the MacEgans and the Spectacled Book of the MacEgans, have been lost over the centuries.
The MacEgans set up a school of law and Irish history in Redwood together with a house of hospitality for scribes, poets and musicians, which attracted many scholars to the area. The family had a sister academy at Ballymacegan.
There is a suggestion that Ballymacegan was the place where the monks transcribed ecclesiastical texts and the Redwood school was for the secular Brehon Laws.
The importance of these places of learning can be grasped by the visit to the place from one of the greatest scholars of the age.
When Brother Michael O Clery, one of the famous Four Masters who compiled the Annals of Ireland, wrote the last words of the Annals on August 10, 1636, it was the completion of four and a half years work, which had begun on January 22, 1632. The intention was to send the work to Louvain for printing.
Before this could be done Brother Michael had to seek approbation for his work both from learned Irish historians, whose views would inspire confidence, and from some of the Irish hierarchy, whose imprimatur would be a guarantee of orthodoxy.
The historians chosen included Flann Mac Egan of Ballymacegan in Tipperary and Connor Mac Bruaidedha of Thomond.
This fact establishes an important link between the Annals and the Parish of Lorrha and Dorrha, and Brother O’Clery had also spent some time with Flann Mac Egan during his research work for the Annals.
Before the beginning of November 1636, Brother Michael travelled to Ballymacegan to receive the approbation of Flann Mac Egan. The old historian was glowing in his approbation. He had already censored and approved two previous works of Brother Michael’s, the Reimh Rioghraidhe and the Martyrology. For the Annals he judged it likewise to be the best book of its kind he had ever seen, although he had seen many. He stated:
‘Whereas the poor friar, Michael O’Clery came to show me this book, I, Flann, son of Cairbre Mac Aedhagain, of Baile-mhic-Aedhagain, in the County of Toibrat-Arann, do testify that though many were the books of history of the old books of Ireland which I saw . . . , I have not seen among them all any book of better order, more general, more copious, or more to be approved of, as a history and annals, than this book. I think also that no intelligent person whatever, of the laity or clergy, or of the professions, who shall read it, can possibly find fault with it.’
The bishops also, who included Malachy O Queally of Tuam, Boetius MacEgan of Elphin, Ross Mac Geoghegan of Kildare and Thomas Fleming the Archbishop of Dublin, gave their approbation.
This concludes my short overview of learning and education in the Redwood area. It may be a small part of the parish, of the county and the wider world but it is a place to be proud of, an area where the things of the mind were always to the fore and where this extension to the school will carry on that tradition and protect it for posterity.