Generation game at Feakle school

The Harringtons have, between them, given 111 years of service to Feakle National School over an uninterrupted period from 1934 to 2010. This August, however, marks the end of that era when current principal Ted Harrington retires.

Ted Harrington’s father, Sean, took up as principal in the school in 1934 and his wife, Ciss, held a teaching position there from 1940. She took over from Sean as principal following his death in 1975. Their son, Ted then took over as principal and has been there ever since.
Similar to the Harrington name, the Nelson family have also remained a constant at Feakle National School, with five generations passing through the education system there.
In fact, four generations of that family were taught by one or other of the Harringtons and all of them were present in Feakle National School on Thursday last as four-year-old Tiernan O’Donoghue enrolled.
Tiernan was joined by his mother Mandy, his granny, Frances (a past pupil of the school), his second-cousin Adam, who is currently in fifth class and his great-grandfathers, Tom Nelson and John Joe McMahon, also past pupils.
Sitting around a pot of tea in the newly refurbished schoolhouse, the four generations recalled their individual experiences of school.
Tom Nelson remembers his first year at school in Feakle in 1933, where he attended the old schoolhouse in the village.
“My first teacher was a Ms Spain. The old school was very cold. It had an open fire. Before I started school the girls were on the top floor and the boys were on the bottom. But it was later amalgamated. The classes were made up from those in the parish, there were no buses drawing them in like there is now. You walked to school,” he said.
Tom recalls when Feakle won senior championships in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1944 and remembers people said they wouldn’t have won those championships but for Sean Harrington. “Everyone obeyed him, he was well respected,” he said.
Principal Ted Harrington then produced the roll book from Tom’s days at the school. The school principal had documented, with skilful penmanship and ‘as Gaeilge’, when Tom had started, when he finished, how many days he had attended school and noted that after Tom left school he went “ag obair ar fheirm a athar” (working on his father’s farm).
Ted explained that this was typical of the day and looking at the roll, it transpired that most if not all of the boys in Tom’s class went working after school, be it at home or on the farm.
Tom recalls starting work in November 1946, where he worked on the road into Coolreagh Bog, earning six shillings a day, 10 shillings when he would use his horse and cart to transport stones in for the road.
“We had to be there at 8 o’clock in the morning and if we were there at 10 past we’d be docked a quarter of an hour. When the stones would have to be taken to the bog road, I had a horse and cart and you had 10 bob a day for that. What I made I spent. You were expected to go into the farm at that time but what you made on a farm wouldn’t keep you. At that time the only thing that you would have to pay out for was the tea and sugar, you had everything else yourself and you had eggs you could sell,” he recalled.
Going back the years in the roll book, Tom and Frances searched for other relatives who attended Feakle National School and in 1900 found another Thomas Nelson, Tom’s father. “It’s so nice to see it on the register,” Tom revealed.
Ted explained that the attendance at that time was reflective of the times that were in it, with the boys mainly attending school for half the days and then for the other half they were out on the farm working.
Tom’s daughter Frances still has a clear recollection of principal Sean Harrington and her days in Feakle National School in the late 1960s early ’70s.
“I remember school vaguely, even though for me it wasn’t too long ago. I started school in the old school house, although this one was open at the time. We were in the old school first and then we came down here but I don’t know how long we were in the old school. I was taught by the Sean and Ciss. I left then in 1972 and Ted started in 1973, so there would have been three in our family taught by Ted and then the rest by Sean. I remember Mr Harrington as being strict but fair. I wouldn’t say we were afraid of him, well I suppose we were a little bit afraid of him because everyone was afraid of teachers at that time. He used to have this black thorn stick that he used to swirl around in his hand the whole time. I remember in the back of the room we had this blank map that used to fill the whole wall. We used to know all the rivers and the towns. He used to point the rivers out with the stick and ask us what the rivers were and we would have to know them all, even though it was totally blank. I owe a lot to the education I got in Feakle. It would have had a great reputation, for Irish in particular,” Frances remembered.
Her father agreed. “They used to come from other parishes to school here.
It did have a good reputation for Irish. I still have to make things up in Irish, the sums especially. I remember Frances going to school, all of the children walked to school and I remember Frances wasn’t great to get up in the morning. We had eight in the family and when there were all gone to school you couldn’t get over the quiet,” he commented. Young Tiernan is looking forward to big school and enjoyed his initiation day, having met his new classmates and teacher Zita McMahon.
For Ted, having gone to school in Feakle, it was the times that were in it and not so much the calling that brought him home to Feakle to earn his living.
“At that time for me it was either go into the civil service or teaching. Times were different then. For instance, when I came back to Feakle in 1973, there was no running water, no indoor toilets. Even when you would call into houses at that time I remember there were no concrete floors, just the earthen floors. I came into the school automatically because my father had died. I came back home from Dublin half reluctant having to leave the bright lights of the big city but I have to say I’ve never been so happy as I have been here. My mother died two years later to the day. Both were teaching at the school at the time of their deaths,” he concluded.
Counting up the years of service to the children of Feakle since 1934, Ted reveals the three built up 111 years service. However, on August 31,
Ted Harrington will retire and replacing him is Michelle O’Loughlin from Ennistymon, who will be coming to the school from Thurles CBS.