Last three pupils leave as village school closes doors

By Jimmy Woulfe Mid-West Correspondent

Thursday, September 09, 2010

A SCHOOL principal today begins a sad and lonely task in the Co Limerick hamlet of Ballyorgan which nestles in the Ballyhouras mountains.

The last three pupils in the village school have moved to nearby parishes and Mary Kelly faces two empty classrooms.

Today, she will turn the key on the door for the last time.

Over the past nine years, Mrs Kelly has watched the school numbers dwindle reducing it to a one teacher school two years ago.

Then there were eight in class. And three months ago just three pupils, two girls and one boy, left for the summer break for the last time.

With no students enrolling, the school had to close.

Mrs Kelly was yesterday gathering all the old roll books for the archives and completing the necessary paper work before turning the door key for the last time.

The school opened in 1941.

Fr Timothy O’Leary, parish priest of Ballyorgan and Glenroe, spoke of the sadness which the school closure brought.

"It’s a terrible loss to Ballyorgan as the school gave an energy to the locality with children playing in the street and in the fields. The children built up relationships there and there was a great bonding given that it was a small school. They played sport together and the school was paramount to childhood friendships. It is a big blow. There is a great sense of loss."

One of the more noted past pupils is Dr Alan Mee, who said: "It’s the end of an era, the closing of the national school. There were up to 40 attending the school when I was a pupil in the 1960s and early 70s."

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, September 09, 2010