Schools in the Churchtown Area

There is a Primary School in the village and three Secondary Schools in the nearby towns of Buttevant, Charleville and Doneraile.

Colaiste Pobail Naomh Mhuire

This excellent secondary school is located just 4 miles from the village and their is a free school bus service from Churchtown. You can telephone the school for further information at 022 23 733.

Nagle Rice Secondary School

Another excellent secondary school located in Doneraile. You can ring this school at 022 24500. Public transport is available from Churchtown to Nagle Rice but it is not free.

Convent of Mercy, Charleville.

Another excellent secondary school located seven miles from Churchtown. Students must arrange their own transport to thsi school.

Churchtown National School

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The History of Formal Ediucation in Churchtown

This information is sourced from The Annals of Churchtown published by the Churchtown Village Renewal Trust in December 2005.

A charity school was endowed in Churchtown in 1702 by Sir John Perceval, 5th Baronet and 1st Earl of Egmont. It had as its objective the instruction of scholars in the Protestant faith. The dissolution of the school in 1720 was largely brought about by the reluctance of parents to 'bind' the children to the Master of the school rather than to tradesmen. A later grammar school at Burton was also a failure. In the years 1826-27, Churchtown 'Brewhenny' is shown as having three teachers: Margaret Chinnery, John Cullen and John Roche. A fourth teacher, Denis Sheehan, operated at Burton Park. All four are noted as being of the Roman Catholic faith.

The Second Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction (1835)lists Churchtown as having two 'day schools', both of which were maintained through payment of pupils. David Murphy taught arithmetic, grammar, reading and writing to his 47 male and 22 female scholars, while John Cullen had a roll of 38 male and 12 female scholars. His curriculum was arithmetic, bookkeeping, grammar, mathematics, reading and writing. The location of either school is not given; it does, however, note that both teachers were of the Roman Catholic faith. The original Churchtown National School on Kerry Lane was built of Windmill stone by Sir Edward Tierney and completed in 1847. An imposing cut-stone two-storey building, it was intended to accommodate up to 300 pupils, but the highest number achieved, from available records, was 198 in the 1928-29 school year. (This old school is now the Community Centre.) Griffith's Valuation (1851) indicates that William Lee was then Principal and that the annual rent of £8 0s 0d due to Sir Edward Tierney was declared 'exempt'.

Miss O'Neill was head teacher from the 1860s and she was assisted by Miss Maher. Teachers from 1886 were John O'Callaghan, NT, Headmaster (boys) and Mrs Ellen O'Keeffe, NT (girls) and they were still listed as teaching in 1896. John O'Callaghan lived in a thatched cottage near Ballyhoura and walked the six miles to and from Churchtown each day. Recognised as a brilliant teacher and linguist, he was an exacting taskmaster and demanded the highest standards of his pupils. His methods were described as 'severe' by his 'scholars' - one of whom was Denny 'Booney' O'Sullivan. Pupils were afforded the minimum of breaks (as little as ten minutes for lunch). 'John O', who never ate lunch, rarely dismissed school before half-past four and kept a supply of candles for winter evenings. Thomas Tierney was Principal from 8th June 1903 until he retired on 30th June 1941. Born the son of a tailor at Dunbarry, he was always referred to as the 'The Master'. Mr Tierney had a jug of warm 'milk' delivered each school day from his home in the village by a Senior boy. The jug was covered with a white cloth

from which an aroma of something far stronger than milk exuded. Mr Tierney's assistants were William J. Ryan (to 31st December 1910), Jeremiah Coughlan (to 30th September 1922) and Richard Motherway (to 17th October 1926). Mr Tierney never taught Irish and when the subject was
placed on the curriculum following Ireland's independence, it became the responsibility of his assistant, Richard Motherway (who had joined on 1st October 1922). Mr Motherway had a large motorcycle and the pupils gained much enjoyment from its noisy arrival and departure. County Limerick man Thomas Wall, who replaced Mr Motherway on 1st April 1927, became Principal on 1st July 1941. He married his assistant, Miss Margaret O'Callaghan, and she taught Senior girls until the school became a mixed one in about 1946. Nora Herlihy was assistant teacher in the girls' school from 1st July 1919 to 23rd January 1922. Mr Tierney's sister, Katie, collapsed and died while teaching at the school. A Miss Noonan from the village was also an assistant teacher for some years.

Boys were taught on the ground floor and the girls on the upper. Pupils entered through separate doors on either side of the building. There were three stone steps leading to the girls' entrance into the schoolyard; a door at the rear of the building afforded entrance to a wooden stairway at the top of which was a door on the rig ht, leading to their classrooms. The boys' entrance was on level ground and they entered their classrooms through a door on the side of the building. The front of the building was enclosed by a walled green, while a high wall separated the schoolyards. Toilets were located in the schoolyards. Coal was stored under the stairs inside the boys' classroom in an area referred to as the 'Black Hole'.

The school participated in the 1937 Scéim na Scoile organised by the Irish Folklore Commission [see The Annals for far more information on this initiative] when its pupils added to the invaluable store of customs and folklore collected on a nationwide basis by the schoolchildren of Ireland. Mr Tierney oversaw the boys' contribution and Mrs Margaret Wall worked with the girls. Two girls researched material and recorded parish events for the project - Eilibhís Noonan, daughter of Mrs Noonan, an assistant teacher who taught at Churchtown before moving to Liscarroll following the death of her husband, and Bridget Browne, sister of John Browne, Ballinguile. As pupil numbers declined, the teaching complement was reduced to three.

Mrs Hayes, a teaching assistant, was employed for some time prior to 1947 and Mr Cronin from Castletownroche was a relief teacher for a period in the mid-1940s. Mrs Hayes was a popular figure and for several years after her departure she received Christmas cards from her Churchtown pupils to her home at Knockglass, Aghina, County Cork. She responded to each with a Brian O'Higgins' Christmas card. A realignment of teaching responsibilities followed upon the school becoming 'mixed', when Miss Sheila Weldon taught Junior Infants and First class, Mr Wall taught Second to Fourth classes and Mrs Wall taught the Senior grades. Mr Wall retired on 30th December 1962 and he was followed as Principal by Patrick Collins (Pádraig Ó Coileáin). Colette Collins worked in the school for 31 years, from 1st September 1967 until 31st August 1998. Pádraig Ó Coileáin retired on 31st August 1971.

Pat Fennessy, who became Principal on 1st September 1971, had as assistants Colette Collins and Angela O'Regan. On 21st June 2002, Angela O'Regan retired from Churchtown National School after 45 years service to the youth of Churchtown. Fr Stephen Cummins celebrated a special Mass to mark the occasion and the Board of Management held a dinner in Angela's honour the previous night in Capard Lodge, Charleville. Marie Withers, who joined as an assistant on 1st September 2002, remained in that position at the end of 2005.The numbers on the rolls have shown a dramatic decline: from a zenith of 198 in the school year 1928-29 to a nadir of 37 in 1998-99. As a consequence, the teaching complement was further reduced - to two. Gerard Linehan succeeded Pat Fennessy as Principal on 2nd September 1998 and he, in turn, was succeeded by Dónal O'Shea on 3rd February 2004. Education Minister, Micheál Martin, TD, visited the school on 17th September 1999 to join in the celebrations as St Mary's National School proudly celebrated over 150 years of education in Churchtown. A special lunch of the Board of Management and the Minister took place in the Windmill Restaurant in Boss Murphy's on the same day.

The attendance records up to the 1918-19 school years do not give a breakdown of girls/boys.

The following is an extract from a poem written by Dónal O'Sullivan, a pupil at the school during the 1920s and '30s:

My School

Oh Churchtown, Alma Mater!
What memories we recall,
Of days we spent in learning
Within your hallowed walls.
Our Master was Tom Tierney
And a strict man was he;
If you didn't have your homework done,
He'd have you 'cross his knee.
His able assistant was another Tom
The name of Wall it be
The man who taught us all our songs
As well as our A-B-C.

A 50th anniversary grant of IR£1,000 and a computer and printer, valued at IR£1,069, was presented by the Churchtown Village Renewal Trust to the school in 1997.

Also see Churchtown National School web site at www.churchtnsmallow.org

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Click here to read about a School Re-Union that took place on 23rd August 2006.