There’s no school like the old school

ONE hundred years ago this month, Clare’s only Irish college, Coláiste Eoghain Uí Chomhraidhe, Carrigaholt was established.
Overlooking the Shannon Estuary and with views of Carrigaholt Castle and Kilredaun lighthouse, the distinctly white coated building nestles in a tranquil setting, two miles from Carrigaholt village. The college caters for a maximum of 100 pupils (86 boarders) in the months of June, July and August.
Five teachers and two student teachers are employed for the duration of pupils’ three-weeks stay, while Macdara Tóibín is the Ard Mháistir. He succeeded his father Buadhach Tóibín, who joined the college staff in 1940 and served as Ard Mháistir from 1944 until his death in 1997.
“It’s one of the oldest colleges in the country. I think there was two Irish colleges (Waterford and Cork) founded before it,” Macdara Tóibín told The Clare Champion.
While Carrigaholt or the Loop Head peninsula wasn’t a fully blown Gaeltacht in 1912, Irish was spoken by a sizeable number of local people. 
“I think it would have been classified as a Breac Gaeltacht and there was Gaeilge in the area up until the Second World War. My aunt told me that when she used to come down to visit my dad in the 1940s, he would have spoken Irish with the people living around the college,” Macdara explained.
The college was opened on July 5, 1912, and catered for mostly student teachers in the early years.
“The prime mover was Nellie O’Brien who was a grand-daughter of William Smith O’Brien. She was from Cahermoyle House in Limerick. It was set up under the auspices of Conradh Na Gaeilge but the impetus was from Nellie O’Brien. There was a drive to revive Irish. Colleges had been founded in South Munster and she thought that there should be one in North Munster to serve the interests of people in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary,” Macdara revealed.
“When it was set up originally most of the pupils were teachers. Irish had come into the primary schools but it hadn’t come into the teacher training colleges as a subject. So many primary teachers didn’t have any Irish at all. So it was teachers that used to come here and they had an opportunity to get some kind of a qualification in Irish. In 1926 Irish came into the training colleges so that need was gone. Then the student population in Carrigaholt started to become more broad,” he said.
The college is located in what was once a coastguard station although other sites in Carrigaholt were considered before it was decided to house the Irish college in Kilcredaun.
“Seán Tobin, who was Niall Toibin’s father, was teaching Irish up around Lahinch. Nellie O’Brien got in touch with him and asked him would he come back west. She’d heard of a number of locations that might be suitable. One was Carrigaholt Castle. He came down, looked at them all and he advised her to go for this place. The landlord, James Burton, was apparently quite well disposed to Conradh na Gaeilge and he agreed to sell it,” Macdara stated.
Buadhach Tóibín started his teaching career in Limerick, first arriving in Carrigaholt in 1940.
“My father was what was called a Muinteoir Taisteal in Limerick. He worked with the VEC. His predecessor in the job used to come down to Carrigaholt in the summer time and work. My father applied for a job here and came down working on the summer course. Next thing he got a job with Clare VEC and he was posted to Carrigaholt Vocational School. It had been located in the coláiste and Seán Kelly was the principle. In the late 1930s, when the parochial hall was built, it was moved there,” Macdara recounted.
“He used to spend a lot of his time cycling around putting on night classes. That was the nature of the job at the time. So he was at that for a number of years and then Seán Kelly was promoted. He became principle of the vocational school in Ennis. My father then got the job as principle of the college although the vocational school shut down in those years,” Macdara explained.
Macdara, who lives in the college all year round, had been working away from Carrigaholt but returned to “give a hand for a couple of summers”, as his father grew older.
“Gradually I started doing more and more and I ended up here,” is his explanation as to how he succeeded his father.
The age range of pupils who attend the college is 11 to 14. Aside from speaking as Gaeilge in and out of the classroom, the pupils also play sport and are allowed into Carrigaholt twice during the week. 
“We try to inculcate a positive attitude towards Gaeilge. It tends to come with a lot of baggage and we try to show that it’s a language through which you can enjoy themselves,” he said.
Pupils, Macdara feels, mostly buy into speaking Gaeilge at all times dictum but probably wouldn’t if they could get away with it.
“All in all they do, although if you didn’t make them they wouldn’t. Teachers and staff are amongst them pretty much all the time. What’s different about this place is the age profile. We stop at 14 years of age and I think we’re the only Irish college in the country that does that. The others go to 16 and a lot of them to 18. So it’s kind of a sheltered environment here for younger children,” he suggested.
Pupils from every county in the Republic of Ireland, bar Donegal, have studied in Carrigaholt, although the majority are from Clare and Limerick. The teachers live in the college during the three-week monthly term, while pupils take part in the céilís, which are held seven nights per week.
The Carrigaholt tradition is handed down, with even grand-children of some former pupils often heading to Kilcredaun to improve their Irish. 
Macdara is considering holding some Irish classes in May but not at other times of the year as the building isn’t heated.
“Once you get beyond September you just don’t know what the weather will do and up until May I wouldn’t recommend it,” he laughed.
He hopes that the weather will hold up for the weekend of July 27-29 when Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs Dinny McGinley will be among the guests for the weekend-long celebration of Coláiste Eoghain Uí Chomhraidhe’s centenary.

This was how The Clare Champion reported the opening of Coláiste Eoghain Uí Chomhraidhe, Carraig an Chabhaltaigh in July 1912.

THE opening of the above college on July 5 at Carrigaholt will mark an epoch in the history of the Gaelic League in Thomond.
The committee in charge of the college have left nothing undone to secure that it shall start under the most favourable conditions for its continued success. The course of studies embraces all the more important branches of an up-to-date Irish College curriculum, while the staff includes many well-known Gaels, all of whom possess wide experience in teaching.
The teaching certificate course will be in charge of Tomás O’Nuallain, Tomás O’Haodha and Sean O’Muirthuile.
Irish grammar and composition will be taught by the Rev J O’Donohue, St Flannan’s College, Ennis (head master for first session) and the Rev James Hayes, St Munchin’s College, Limerick (head master for second session), both of whom have been in charge of the Irish studies of their respective colleges for many years.
Courses in old Irish and Latin will be given by Tomás O’Nuallain, MA, who will also deliver lectures on the topography of Clare. A special course in tonic sol-fa singing (through the medium of Irish) will be given by Tomás O’Haodha.
Traditional singing will be taught by Sean O’Muirthuille, GLO, an Oireachtas prize winner.
The college is situated in a district intensively Irish speaking and unrivalled for boating, bathing, fishing, cliff scenery, antiquities, etc. Its situation and its proximity to Kilkee make the college attractive as a holiday centre and during July and August it will be the favourite haunt not only of the student but also many a holidaymaker.