Village school celebrates 100 years of vital role in community

A VIBRANT East Cork village is celebrating a remarkable achievement this weekend after its local school reached its centenary year.

For exactly 100 years Scoil Réalt na Mara in Ballycotton has been teaching around 100 children each year from the surrounding area.

Despite the threat of cutbacks in the education system, and suggestions some rural schools may be closed or merged, the vital East Cork facility is in high demand.

And with three current students, including 10-year-old Eanna Lynch, being able to trace their family history back five generations in the same school, Réalt na Mara principal Derry Keogh is convinced the school will still be standing at the start of the next century.

“There is so much history here, you can feel everywhere,” the 57-year-old explained.

“The school itself has been standing here for exactly 100 years, although there were two previous locations going back to 1848.

“There are families who can trace themselves back to that opening here, who all went to same school.

“The lighthouse keepers used to bring their children over in a boat in the mornings at the early part of the century before there were houses built for them in the village, and in the 1960s children had to find wood for the fire.

“In the cold days some of those past pupils who are still around remember being asked to come up to the front of the class to get warm and then change seats with someone further back.

“This school is like a history of Ireland,” he added.

Among the events planned for the Scoil Réalt na Mara celebrations this weekend are a photographic exhibition at the school highlighting the changes in the community over the past century.

Last night a centenary mass supported by eight priests – including a former pupil of the school – took place, while a commemorative book is also available in Midleton, and Liam Russell’s book store in Cork city.