one of many animators in the Folk Park who gave us an insight in to the history of Belvoir National School which is replicated at the Folk Park. She is the school mistress.
Saturday Chronicle 17th August 2024 as broadcast live from Bunratty Folk park and presented by Daragh Leamy. Outside broadcast in association with Michael Long Construction. Message or what’s app the studio on 089 2582647 or email sbcrstudio@gmail.com
Now as part of our broadcast this morning from Bon Rati Castle and Folk Park, we're delighted to be joined by one of many animators here in the park Wendy Dryne and Wendy is the teacher in the schoolhouse and the schoolhouse is a replica taken from Belvoir National School near Six Mile Bridge. Wendy, a very good morning to you. Good morning, Dara. Thanks for having me. It's lovely to have you here today. Can you tell us first of all what is it like to work here in Bon Rati and explain a little bit more about the role of an animator? Okay, so an animator, it's nothing to do with cartoonyne, which is what I've never heard about the job but actually it's kind of with like acting and history telling and explaining the history of the building that I'm representing which in my case is the school. So I play the role of the village school mistress although there was a master at the time that I'm actually portraying but it's great fun and we do a lot of history talks and we do you know things like just talking with all the visitors to the park and we do music and dancing and singing and whatever else is required. And I've noticed here and I've noticed here working here myself alongside you as well. The school is one of those buildings in particular in the folk village that's that's quite popular because it relates to everybody doesn't it? Everybody went to school. Yes, absolutely. So the little kids loved it because they want to go to school. The older kids like it or hated they like coming in and having a bit of fun and drawing on the slate board and things like that and then of course the older people love to come and reminisce about their days and usually it's very interesting Dara when people come in I can gauge within a few seconds whether they loved school or did not enjoy their experience at school. You can see it on their faces right away. So can you tell us a bit about the importance to the local area of 600 of the school? Yeah, so basically this school is quite famous because it was the very original the very first original model agricultural school in Ireland. And so its importance was that it was the first school to include girls at a later stage in the curriculum as well to be studying in a formal setting and it was the first school to be inter-denominational so all the children from the local community were invited to come to school within within kind of like a nine mile walking radius. That was really the cutoff point but both religions cast the work in Protestant and we didn't have any Buddhist or Hindus living around this house in 1835 which is the year the school was built. So but regardless of social status or religion all the children were invited. And it was on a landlord's estate which was another thing to mention and David Wilson was the landlord at the time. Can you tell us a little bit about him in particular? Yes, Mr. David Wilson was a very unique individual for that period in history in 1835. He inherited his estate in Belivoir which is just six months outside of Kilkishin or Kilkishin village near Six Mile Bridge. He inherited from his father in 1823. So he he was he was different to many of the landlords of the of that era. He was very compassionate. He knew all his tenants by name and he wanted to raise up a whole new generation. He were literate on like their parents the tenants he worked on his farm. So he invited everyone to come to the school and he did a lot of things for the tenants. For example he even petitioned in the British Parliament at the time to try and get rid of a law where illiterate tenants had been forced to sign a lifelong lease that they would pay an exorbitant rent to their landlord till the day they died. And he petitioned against that and he himself tore up those agreements and lowered the rent. Things like that and his tenants really loved him. So yeah it was his idea to to fund the school. Now at the time we were under British rule in 1830. So education commissioners were involved in the city as well but but he was the guy who funded it and you know organized it together on his land. So can we talk about the the the curriculum itself subjects why subjects what what what was taught? I mean we noticed here that girls and boys were separated so I'm assuming they weren't taught the same thing. No there's a bit we're a bit different now. When the school actually originally started in 1824 it was in a stone that cottage and that was boys only at the beginning because it was it was a model agricultural school and the boys were all taught agriculture horticulture and animal husbandry which the girls were not and the girls joined in a bit later. So the present building is dated 1835 and you're right the girls had one classroom the boys had another and the reason for that is not what people expect. It wasn't really sex related it was more to do with the fact that that Mr. Wilson organized for ladies in the village to come in in the morning and teach classes like sewing, dressmaking, embroidery, lace making so that the girls would have a career option when they would leave school rather than just being a skull remade and during that class of course you can't have little boys and scissors and needles together with their sisters. Yes. So for that reason the boys were put into the other classroom and they taught them Latin the master would have taught them Latin in order for them to have the option of going into the priesthood as another job option. Absolutely and corporal punishment was unfortunately very much a part of school life at the time was it? Well this is really interesting these these model agriculture skills this one being the first one in Belvoir and they had certain distinctives and one of them was no corporal punishment. Oh now that's an usual I taught this yeah okay no he was very against that and actually we can read a lot of the documents relating to the school and Mr. Wilson and what happened at the time and he I read for a first-hand account of what he said he chose the first teacher because he was a man of stable character and cam was probably unusual at the time very unusual yes because we know from later stories of even our grandparents aged that they were often lacked and all but were other schools leaving inside Belvoir other schools I'm assuming still have corporal punishment is that what you're saying? I guess so yes I haven't done a lot of research on all the schools at the time but certainly they wouldn't be known the same base no in the model agricultural school's corporal punishment was not allowed okay yeah so what actually happened to school in the end? So the school ceased to open for a little while he died in 1864 Mr. Wilson and so the school stopped operating in 1866 for a few years and even before that in 1857 58 it was closed for two years because he went into financial ruin actually after the famine really he did so much to help his tenants that he himself and his family suffered and he did go into kind of ruin but it did reopen again for a time and but it amalgamated in 1866 with another local school and became Belvoir National School as opposed to model agricultural school and then at that time yes the amalgamation happened and it just became a more ordinary school without the agricultural aspect and recently I was told and that you went to visit Belvoir National School the original building it still stands today which is which is great to see on like so many schools unfortunately that haven't had that opportunity to be renovated and tell us about your experience visiting the actual school yes yes so sorry just to recap it did close then officially in 1840 late 1840s early 1850s sometime around then but yes so it fell into despair for many years and then in recent times a family called the OD family renovated it so about 20 years ago or so and they did a lot of renovations extensive renovations that had fallen into ruin really they had to basically rebuild part of the roof and renovate inside although they did keep the original fireplaces which is lovely to see yes yeah yeah yeah and when you when you see the school now it's sitting up on a hill just six miles outside Kilka Shen and it's beautiful it looks identical it's just they've painted a bluey grey color but you can still recognize it's it's very it was quite emotional actually visiting it and the family were very very friendly and told us a lot about the renovations and they've come to obviously see the school here in Bonrati I'm assuming as well yeah and not this summer but I haven't seen them here but they've been before yes excellent excellent well Wendy thanks a million for for chatting to me here today it was a pleasure talking to you very interesting chat and so for the moment Wendy Dryden and many thanks for joining us
