A
week in Munlaugh School
by
Gary Bischoff
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1978, and the family of Margaret Donohoe Bischoff came
to Ireland on a holiday and for the wedding of her brother
Eamon Donohoe. Marge and her husband, Gary (me) and our
two children, Cathie and Gary who were 9 and 8 years of
age at the time. A friend of the family, Rachel was also
with us. Because of the timing of the wedding we needed
to take the children out of school in America a week before
school ended. The children of course were delighted. When
we arrived in Keenaugh, after a few days in Dublin, Marge
went to the school to talk to Master Maguire about having
the three Yankees go to the Munlough School for the last
week, since the Irish school year ended a fortnight later
than the American schools. |
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Master Maguire agreed, and the arrangements were made.
We walked the children to school that first day and they
were introduced to the rest of the students, and sat in
on the classes for the last week of school. We live in
Saugerties, NY and all the schools in our area were centralized
in the 1950s. This was a unique opportunity for our children
to experience education the way it was in what we called
neighborhood schools, usually one or two rooms.
Master Maguire and I had a conversation, and I agreed
to come in each afternoon and teach the older children.
I loved talking to the students, and we talked about America,
American history, and even a little mathematics. One of
the highlights, particularly for the boys was baseball.
I made a diagram of a baseball field on the blackboard
and explained the complicated rules to an eager audience.
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The classes ended in a baseball game in the schoolyard
using hurling equipment for bats and balls. It was great
fun, with lots of excitement. The lads took to the game
with great skill and enthusiasm, with one problem. In
their eagerness to get around the bases, all hits were
stretched from singles to doubles, to triples and eventually
to homeruns. The laughter, shouts and energy of the Munlough
students are a fond memory for me to this day.
Turnabout is fair play. They taught me about the game
of hurling, and we also played a game. I took home a souvenir
from that game, a chipped tooth.
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In
conclusion, this was a great opportunity for our children and
for me to get an up close personal look at the Irish education
system. We are very indebted to Master Maguire for being so
gracious and generous to take on the additional responsibility
and work of three additional children in school. In our opinion,
this was a very visionary, farsighted act, which clearly shows
his passion and love of education. Tis a pity, that in our modern
world this probably couldn’t happen.
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