VIDEO: Time capsule offers children glimpse of the past

As time capsules go, 15 years is not long below ground. But already-dated currency, technology, and books amazed children who were not even born when their school preserved some of its history at the turn of the millenium.

Building work at Glenville National School meant today’s pupils got a flavour of school life in 2000 a little earlier than planned. The paint-tub was buried in front of the school that opened in 1953 but which is now overcrowded and soon to be demolished.

For most of the 180 pupils — and members of the community 20km north of Cork city — a floppy disk drawn from the capsule brought the biggest laugh and, for some, confusion.

“Our friend’s dad has one at home. I think,” declared one enthusiastic boy, a little confused by the square blue gadget.

As explained by fifth-class pupil Lara Hegarty, much smaller devices like USB keys now hold around two million times more information than the 800kb capacity of early floppy disks.

A barely-working computer unearthed separately by principal Mike O’Donnell declared the disk unreadable. But foresight 15 years ago meant the capsule also held a print-out of the contents — the names of all pupils in 2000, when enrolment was only half what it is today.

The youngest pupils then were twins Grace and Robert Kelleher, now both first-year Arts students at University College Cork, who helped remove the time-capsule from its temporary resting place. They were joined by retired parish priest Fr Denis Cashman, who had blessed a miraculous medal placed inside to keep the contents safe.

Another sign of how much changes in such little time was a geography book removed by Jessica O’Leary. “Look at the atlas, the countries that make up Europe are now very different to that in 2000. And look at how the border of Yugoslavia has changed,” she explained, after a little prior research.

She and her sixth-class pupils might get to spend a few weeks in the eight-classroom school, being built at the end of a campaign that started around the same time the capsule last saw daylight.

“It wasn’t done without prayer, holy and some unholy,” recalled Fr Cashman.

For younger pupils who will have a bit longer in the new facilities, the shaking of coins inside the capsule prompted a chorus of ‘Money’. But handling the old ‘pounds and pence’ left them a little confused about how many sweets they could buy — then or now — with their little fistfuls of coppers.

They will also get to help choose what goes back into the time capsule when it is reburied — the hope being that it stays covered for the intended 50-plus years next time around.