Our school has stood at the top of the steep hill of Ballyhack since 1959. The school was run by nuns from the Saint Louis convent in Ramsgrange. About eighty children attended the school back then. It has always been a mixed school.
The “new” school had three classrooms – each one had lovely wooden floors and wooden furniture. Two children sat in each desk and all the desks had a sloped surface with a little slot to hold the pencil. Each desk had two inkwells with sliding metal covers. Each classroom had lovely tall windows that faced towards the south east. During school hours the classrooms enjoyed the natural sunlight streamed in the tall windows. The children learned the usual subjects of the time but also enjoyed cookery lessons and the school band.
The children could now enjoy the spacious play area around the school. On a clear day they could see as far north as Mount Leinster and as far south as Hook Head. They could still see the boats sailing up and down the river.
Best of all they could play on the concrete yard and in the lovely big field at the back of the school. On a wet day they could shelter under what the nuns called “the verandad.” Smaller children sometimes pronounced it as “the grandad.”
Nowadays the children and staff enjoy a spacious modern, bright and comfortable school with two lovely new classrooms.
The “old” school can still be seen at the bottom of the hill situated beside the castle. It took three years to build and was opened in 1894. This was a two-storey building – the senior classes were taught upstairs and the junior classes were taught downstairs.
The “old” school was also run by the Sisters of Saint Louis. At first the nuns walked from Ramsgrange every day. However, after a couple of years a lady bought them a pony and trap. When they arrived at school some of the older boys would unhitch the pony from the trap. On stormy wet days the nuns sometimes got drenched by the spray coming over the wall the while travelling along the Arthurstown/Ballyhack road.
The children got one break and played out on the road. They enjoyed games like skipping, tig and hide-and-seek and running up the hill. They also played in a field up on the church road. They used a muddy track to get up to it. When the bell rang for classes they hurried back down the slippery track back to school. They enjoyed cool drinks of water from the village pump and then marched back to school. In colder weather the nuns provided the children with a cup of cocoa. Not everyone liked school but by all accounts the children got a very good education.
This “old” school replaced a previous one in the village because that building was in very bad repair. That building is gone but has been replaced by a dwelling house.
We celebrated the 100th anniversary of Ballyhack School in 1994. A booklet was produced and lots of former pupils and teachers contributed memories, photographs and other interesting pieces of information about the story of the schools of Ballyhack