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.

 Museum’s tribute to carpenters of another era for Heritage Week

Seamus Lawlor has unveiled a new monument on the grounds of his acclaimed Nore View Folk Museum in Bennettsbridge to coincide with Heritage Week. It honours the carpenters of another era in the locality and every other part of Ireland whose skills were vital to our quality of life as a nation. In good times and bad, the carpenter was always in demand, the curator told a contingent of visitors from Australia on Monday. He added: “Whether in war or peace, boom times or economic downturn, the carpenter can’t be done without.” 

The monument, on a beautifully crafted plinth, is topped with a steel display case fronted by quarter inch thick glass which contains a selection of vintage carpenter’s tools.

Seamus produced a two hundred year old bow saw at the unveiling. He said it reminded him of a legend associated with the Holy family that was current in his childhood: It stated that Saint Joseph, one of the most famous of all carpenters, one day noticed the infant Jesus playing with a piece of broken steel which he was rubbing against a stone. It gradually assumed a jagged edge. The future Saviour of Mankind then proceeded to cut a sliver of wood in half with it, thus inventing the saw.

Joseph, according to the legend, immediately recognized the significance of this and spread the word and before long all the carpenters in the Holy Land were happily sawing timber for fires and building.

Whatever about the accuracy of this legend, Seamus paid a warm tribute to all those skilled craftspeople, whether practical carpenters or artists, who have been “knocking on wood” since the dawn of time. He especially hailed those in his own locality who had served the community with their craft. He recounted how the first carts in the district had wooden wheels, these in time being reinforced with steel rims by the blacksmiths. He also emphasized that Bennettsbridge carpenters had a proud record in wisely utilising wood from trees felled in sustainable forests.

Seamus says everyone is welcome to view the monument, along with the 12,000 other exhibits at the museum, which continues to attract visitors from across the globe.

Though the monument was designed by Seamus himself, print and sign work was by Derek Maher of Dublin Road, Kilkenny, Pre-Cast Concrete supplied the plinth, and Stephen Fitzpatrick of Bennettsbridge engineered the monument impeccably into place with his forklift.

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            Seamus with a two hundred year old bow saw and a picture of Saint Joseph,
                                                      the most famous carpenter of all

Renowned Cannon Hill in Bennettsbridge, on which the almost equally famed Nore Folk Museum stands, was “occupied” by the military last week!

On Thursday, a group of cadets visited the museum to acquaint themselves with its fascinating collection of antique household items, old farm machinery, and war memorabilia.

Curator Seamus Lawlor guided them around the collection of more than 12,000 exhibits, drawing sighs of admiration and exasperation from the enthralled future defenders of the nation.  Outside the museum, they toured Cannon Hill, treading over ground where once rested and dined no less a man than Oliver Cromwell, the feared Lord Protector of England who stopped off in Bennettsbridge on his way to capture Kilkenny City in March 1650.

The cadets were shown a patch of earth upon which the man Irish people have always loved to hate is believed to have actually sat down and enjoyed a few sandwiches and a drop of tea with his troops when he took a break from his long cross country march towards the former Confederate capital.

On Friday, a senior Army Officer stationed at the Curragh called in. Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Ryan complimented Seamus on his collection, extending an invitation to him to visit the highly rated museum at the Curragh.

Seamus proudly showed the Defence Forces officer a set of cannons outside the museum entrance, all pointing towards Kilkenny in remembrance of Cromwell’s overnight stay on the spot. The Lieutenant Colonel thanked Seamus for taking him back to ages long past, to the long forgotten era of the horse-drawn plough, the sword and musket, of the threshing engine, hurling without helmets, dentistry without anaesthetic, smoke filled pubs (there’s a replica of such a pub in the museum) and primitive household appliances like a manually operated vacuum cleaner.

Seamus said he was delighted to have soldiers again visiting Cannon Hill. “Friendly ones this time”, he hastened to add!

  A monument created to the blacksmiths of the Bennettsbridge district.