From the archives: School closure, nurses lose patience and turfless villages in Mayo
By Tom Gillespie
FIFTY-six years ago the main heading in The Connaught Telegraph of March 24, 1970, read: 'Wedding bells shuts school'.
The report read: Ireland’s tiniest school was doomed the day Kathleen McDonnell decided to get married.
For 22-year-old Kathleen was the only teacher in the one-room school in Inishlyre island in Clew Bay, off the Mayo coast. Nobody else would take the job.
And yesterday, as she set out for the mainland for the last time, she left behind on the shore her four little pupils waving goodbye.
Now the children will have to cross to Westport every Monday for schooling and return to the island on Friday.
Miss McDonnell, of Thomastown, Hollymount, who will marry farmer Michael Prendergast on April 18, 1970, said: “I am naturally delighted about getting married but I was very lonely leaving the children, particularly when the school is closing down.”
The 100-year-old school was to close in 1958. But when parents on the island protested about the dangers of boat crossings to the school on Culeen Island - three miles away - the government decided to leave the school open even though the minimum of eight pupils was not available.
Ship’s pilot Tommy Gibbons, who lives on the island and who renovated the school which had originally been built by his grandfather, said: “We have nothing on the island - no church, no shops. Nothing except the school and that was my personal property.
“The departure of Miss McDonnell means that the school will now close. It is useless to fight its retention.
“Most of the islanders have left to settle on the mainland and the children will have to go there now to be educated. Their boarding will be paid for by the government and that solves a huge problem.”
The island, one of 365 in Clew Bay, once had a population of 200. Now (1970) only 17 people live there.
The four children attending the school were Mr. Gibbons’ children, Irene and Tommy, and their first cousins, Geraldine and Pauline.
Ironically the island will soon have its first communications with the mainland.
Elwin Dunkerly, a farmer and artist, who lives at Carraholly, Westport, has succeeded in raising £100 in voluntary subscriptions to have a telephone installed on the island.
It will be ready next month and waiting to receive the first call will be Mr. Gibbons’ step-mother, 96-year-old Mrs. Mary Gibbons.
Mr. Dunkerly said: “I hope the communications link will compensate in some way for the closure of the school.”
Today the population of Inishlyre is just a mere three souls.
NURSES LOSING PATIENCE
And beside that story on the front page of The Connaught Telegraph was a story with the heading: 'When a nurse’s patience begins to wear thin'.
It read: Patience is a virtue in a nurse. But 20 of them are rapidly running out of it because they see too little of their husbands.
The nurses, all of whom are married, answered a call 18 months ago to start working again because of an acute shortage of staff at Mayo County Hospital in Castlebar.
This solved the hospital’s problem - but posed problems for the nurses instead.
For they complain that have to work four nights in a row each week - and so rarely see their husbands and families.
Said Mr. Jack Heneghan, Ballinrobe, a member of Mayo County Council: “Several young married nurses have complained to me that they have been left on night duty since they went back to the hospital.
“The results is that they seldom see their husbands and families. They are fed up having to go to work shortly after their husbands get home - and it’s not fair on the menfolk either.”
BURNING QUESTION
And another article on the front page carried the heading ‘A burning question’. And it read: A group of housewives have been landed with a burning question - how to keep two ‘shivering’ villages warm.
For the old people in the neighbouring villages of Lahardane and Bofeenaun (combined population of 250) can’t get fuel for their fires.
There’s no one to cut peat for the old folk - even though 6,000 acres of bog are on their doorsteps.
Most of the villages’ young men have emigrated because there are no jobs at home.
The Irish Sugar Company - who hire out turf-cutting machines in the west of Ireland - say they can’t take on any more jobs.
But last night the 20 housewives - members of the Lahardane branch of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) - threatened to take the matter up with the government.
Mrs. Marcella Gibbons, association president, said: “Most of the villages are of old people who are too feeble to cut turf any more.
“These are poor people living on tiny farms and they cannot afford to buy enough turf to keep a fire going all the time.
“The collect sticks and brambles from the roadsides and fields but they never have a cheerful fire to keep them warm.
“It is pitiful to see them huddle over a few coals. Indeed many of them have fallen ill because of the cold.”
Mrs. Gibbons added: “We were turned down by the Sugar Company when we asked them to machine-cut turf for the old people two years ago.
“Last year we again applied and were told the bog was suitable for cutting by machine. But now we learn that the company cannot cut the turf this year and they say that the prospects for next year are not good. It is a shame to allow old people to suffer like this.
“If the company don’t change their mind we intend having the matter raised at government level. If they did cut the turf, we would organise local children to save it and transport it to the old folk.”
Farmer Frank Mangan (65) said: “Since my son emigrated to England, my wife and I have not been able to get anyone to cut turf for us. So we have to collect sticks from the roadside to try to keep a little warmth in our house.”
Parish priest Very Rev. Patrick Barrett said: “I am going to contact the Sugar Company’s head office in Dublin because the situation here has reached a critical stage.”
Dáil Deputy Thomas O’Hara said: “If the company do not reconsider their decision immediately, I intend raising the matter in the Dáil.”