Emma Moriarty [grandniece of seamus] along with her friends, Katelyn and Alannah O'Brien, dressed for the occasion, to show the old prams and dolls, from the museum.

Friends of Seamus being entertained by one of the many stories, that Pat Shortis has to share, while Nationwide was recording in the museum.

Pat Shortis (93) and Jim Cody (85) provide plenty of entertainment on the day of the filming of Nationwide.

                                                 

Seamus Barry and John Kavanagh were two of the characters, taking part in the filming at the museum

 Danny Webster from Urlingford provided the  lovely accordion playing as part of the entertainment , when Nationwide was been filmed at the museum.

The Nore Folk museum played host on Sunday to the South East Honda Fifty
 Club from Wexford and several of their impeccably preserved vintage bikes.
 Ten members of the Club set off for the renowned museum in scenic
 Bennettsbridge after enjoying a hearty breakfast at Doyle’s pub in Bagnelstown.

 Bikes that once were commonplace on our roads but have almost disappeared from twenty first century Ireland made a heart-stopping comeback as they rolled up Cannon Hill and through the open gateway into the grounds of the museum.

 The bikes were in good company there…resting alongside 1930's iron wheeled
 tractors, 1950's phone booths, 19th century open fireplaces, cannons from the
 days of Cromwell,  agricultural implements, and assorted other relics of an
 Ireland lost in the mists of time. And these were just the items on show
 OUTSIDE the museum.
 Inside, the Honda Fifty Club visitors felt drawn to ancient petrol pumps of the kind that might once have kept the Honda's tanked up. The replica 1920's pub also fixated them, with its atmospheric insight into pre-smoking ban days and a time when even Honda Fifties had not been heard of.

 Pat Leacy on behalf of the Club said he had never in his life seen a museum
 like it. He enthused: “We were simply amazed and dumbstruck at the scope
 and nature of Seamus’s collection.

Honda 50 Club
members Bernard Bryon
 and Brendan Morgan posing in the replica 1920s “pub” at the museum.

"We all have our memories of growing up in Ireland and to see items which were an integral feature of our daily lives all those years ago was a unique experience. 

Seamus is such a mine of information and knowledge about all aspects of Irish life and antiquities.
We were transported to another world, a different Ireland, when we listened to his stories and anecdotes concerning the exhibits.

"The museum is more than a collection. It’s a receptacle of memories and
treasures…an absolutely wonderful resource. We all agreed that this was the best place
we had visited in the course of our many bike tours and we intend to return later
in the year. And Seamus welcomed us like kings. He’s a one man tourist board and I can’t
speak highly enough of him.”

The curator laid on a special treat for the bikers. Tables with attached
parasols were laid in the grounds of the museum and the visitors had
themselves a pleasant snack with Seamus in the shadow of the Blackstairs
Mountains.

A new exhibit at the Nore Folk Museum is expected to provoke considerable local interest....and will take people of all ages down memory lane to the best (or maybe not so happy) years of their lives.

Curator Seamus Lawlor has acquired the roll book of Danesfort National School covering the years 1913 to 1920. It is in excellent condition, having been lovingly preserved for decades by the O’ Shea family in Danesfort, who have now kindly donated it to the museum.

The school itself was a two room building located beside Saint Michael’s Church in the village. It was built in 1836 and continued to meet the educational needs of the district until its closure in 1988, when the present school replaced it following a brilliantly organised and well supported community fund raising initiative.

Seamus showed me the pages of the roll book, where appear the names of local children, all of whom, he remarked sadly, have since passed to their eternal reward. Included among the entries    are Seamus’s own parents, James Lawlor and Bridget Corcoran.  The attendance records for all the children recorded, as well as other information and comments pencilled in by the teachers are clearly legible. Also listed are the teachers of the period: Annie Wall and Brigid M. Hogan.

Seamus expects a flood of inquiries about the roll book once it goes on public display at the museum from this week. 

 He explained: “The descendents of the people who attended the school and whose names appear in the roll book can be found not just in the Dansfort area, but naturally, all over Ireland and beyond our shores because of course a percentage of the school-goers or their offspring would have emigrated. I plan to have information on the roll book publicised on the internet with this in mind.

“This is a precious resource. Each name recorded is a treasure, a human being who once trod this earth and walked miles through hail rain and snow, in all seasons, in many cases barefoot, to avail of an education that in those days was never taken for granted. The period covered...1913 to 1920, was a tumultuous one in Ireland. It took in World War One, the 1916 rising, and the war of independence.

“The parents of the children who attended Danesfort national school would have been affected to a greater or lesser extent by those national upheavals. The children’s lives, though, would have been dominated by their daily trek to the school and their learning experience.

“And learning didn’t come easy to those good people. Corporal punishment was in vogue back then and it hung like a cloud over any boy or girl who arrived late for school or fell behind in class. The rod was applied liberally and none of the children ever forgot the sting of it in later years. Thankfully, they all benefited from their lessons and went on to become the backbone of the thriving Danesfort community.  People are invited to view the roll book at the museum.

 

Seamus showing an old writing slate that was once used in classroms all over Ireland.