Scoil Náisiunta Cluain Aodha agus Carrachaín

le Proinsias Ní Allmburaín

The foundation stone of Clooney N.S. was laid in the year 1900 and it opened its door to pupils on the 18^th February. My mother, Nora O'Halloran, nee O'Donoghue, often recalled the day the school moved from the old school at Carrahan, to the new school. The children carried the books and portable furniture. She must have been a responsible seven-year-old as she was allowed to carry the clock!

The structure of the old school still stands at Carrahan Bridge. This building was a church up to the year 1820 when a church was built by Fr. Dan Corbett at Clooney. It would appear that there was a National School in the locality, from the passing of the National Schools Act in 1831, and education was highly prized, as the children continued to be enroled up to the age of at least sixteen, sometimes older. It is not easy to say at what age children commenced their education, as their names were not registered in the School Register until they were in first class. It is evident from that Register that children were transferred from the Infant Register to the School Register, but no trace of the Infant Register remains. The oldest register, used in Carrahan School, and now preserved in Clooney N.S. is the girls register which goes back to the year 1869. It is clear from this register that the names entered on 4^th January 1869 were transferred from another register. Herewith is a copy of the names registered throughout the year 1869. It is interesting to study, to see whether one hundred and twenty five years on, these families occupy the same townlands.

The last two columns are interesting as they show the variations in attendance from 66 days by Mgt. Grady, to 190 days by Margaret Henchy. It is clear from the last column that many children stayed in the National School, right up to their late teens. The attendance record for this period shows many days when there were only six or seven children present, and the reason "wet morning" was often written in. The occupation of the parents shows the social changes that have taken place in the locality. Most were farmers but the father of Mary James of Carrahan was a "Captain of Mine"; the father of Honoria Kelly of Clooney was a Steward; Margaret Colley's father was a thatcher who lived in Corbally; Cecelia Bassil's father was a labourer, Margaret Moroney, who came all the way from Quin had a father who was a carpenter, Ena Flynn's father was a Constable at Carrahan; the father of Mary Cusack who lived at Knockanoura was a herdsman; Helena Power's father was a shopkeeper in Maghera. There was also a policeman, a weaver, a coachman and a smith.

The attendance record for Carrahan school is evidence of the large population in Clooney in the last quarter of the 19^th century. In the year 1879 there were one hundred and two boys attending Carrahan School. It is hard to imagine how such large numbers could be accommodated and taught in a school which was smaller than the two-room Clooney School which replaced it. Those were the days when half the children sat writing at the desks while the others stood in a semi-circle round the teacher. The remains of such a semi-circle, outlined in brass studs could be seen in Clooney school, up to the time the boarded floor was replaced by a concrete - carpeted floor about 15 years ago. 

On the 18^th Feb., 1901, when the new school opened, it was actually two schools - a boys' school, roll number 15279 and a girls' school 15280. This continued up to about the year 1928. Even in the playground a six-foot high wall separated the boys from the girls. There was a Master and a Monitress in the boys' classroom, and a Mistress and Monitress teaching the girls. It would appear that the teachers were parishioners, a tradition that continues to the present day.

On that opening day, Feb. 18^th 1901 one new pupil was enroled, namely Katie Scully of Cranagher whose father was a policeman who had recently transferred from Newcastle, Co. Limerick.

The attendance record for the early years of this century, shows a decline in attendance, compared with the c.19^th:

This trend continued right up to the 1920’s, but the number of boys enroled was much lower

One can only wonder at the huge increase in enrolment in 1914.
By the end of the 1930’s and the early 40’s there was a great decline in population. The amalgamated boys’, girls’ schools had total enrolment as shown in:

By the end of the forties the number of pupils had declined to less than twenty and on the death of Michael Clune, Principal, in 1948, the school became a one-teacher school. By 1957, the number enrolled had risen to thirty six, a figure which warranted the appointment of an assistant teacher. Enrolment peaked at sixty-six in the mid-sixties, then declined again to reach a low of twenty seven in the early eighties, barely maintaining its two teacher status. A peak of sixty five was reached again in 1991, which resulted in Clooney N.S. becoming a three teacher school in 1992.

School holidays were much shorter long ago - only three weeks in Summer. By the end of the thirties there were five weeks holiday, which continued up to the end of the 1940’s. In 1943 another type of "holiday" or school closing was introduced - one week in June for working in the bogs, and a further week in early July, also for the bog. In these war years we were depending on native fuel.
There was a very broad curriculum in the early years of the 20^th century. As well as the 3-Rs girls learned cookery and laundry, while boys studied rural science. It seems amazing now that cookery was taught without any facilities other than an open fire in a grate. Water was several hundred yards away in a well.

This is a list of the equipment supplied to schools who taught laundry:
3 large baths; 1 boiler; 1 blanket; 1 sheet; 2 iron stands; 5 flat irons; 1 glossing iron. I remember the baths used in the late 1940’s to hold turf, while the glossing iron kept a cupboard door shut. Do you remember them?
By the year 1920 the Irish language had been introduced as an "optional extra". A page from the Special Roll Book survives and shows that the following opted to learn Irish: Patrick Naughton, James Naughton, John Daffy, Wm. MacInerney, John Mack, James Meade, Tom Henchy and John McGrath. Some time later Irish became a compulsory subject and this resulted in pushing out cookery, laundry and Rural Science, as Irish was given 3-4 hours per week on the timetable. In 1971 the "New Curriculum" was implemented in Clooney N.S. restoring as new and innovative, under the name Environmental Studies, the subjects which had been taught at the beginning of the century and lost along the way.

The school in 1900 was built on a piece of land measuring less than half an acre. Each of two original classrooms measures 30ft. x 20ft. x 12ft. high. So not even the colour of the walls changed. The 'original' dark red of the wainscoting was maintained up to the early sixties when the school got its first face-lift - by painting. Electricity was installed in the late fifties or early sixties - with the coming of Rural Electrification, - a single 100 watt bulb and a single socket in each classroom. But electricity made it possible to install storage heating and lay on water and outdoor flush toilets in the seventies. The eighties saw a reconstruction, ceilings were lowered, new concrete floors and carpet laid, windows and doors were replaced, and interior and exterior walls were plastered, thereby removing the wainscoting. The old 12 foot desks went in the sixities, replaced by dual desks, which were in turn replaced by tables and chairs when the carpeted floors were laid. The school year 1991-1992 saw major improvements. Indoor toilets and a staffroom were built, double glazed windows were installed, the entire school was re-roofed, oil-fired central-heating was installed, and the school was re-wired for a modern electric system. The following school year saw the building of a third classroom and improvements in the playground.

The school has responded to the social needs and changes in its catchment area. Chronologically it is almost a century old. But it is not old. It has renewed itself in every decade in the past half century, and is as strong and vibrant as the present generation of children housed therein.

Clare County Library wishes to thank Clare Local Studies Project for preparation of text for this publication.

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