Centenary of St Joseph’s School, Mardyke, Cork

JM Feheney fpm

Introduction

As most of my readers will know, the Lancasterian School (familiarly referred to as the Lancs), precursor of St Joseph’s School, Mardyke, Cork, had a distinguished history. Though there is no need to discuss the history of the Lancs in detail here, any comprehensive consideration of St Joseph’s School needs to take it into account, for that venerable institution not only provides a context within which the achievements of St Joseph’s can be evaluated but it also provided a foundation upon which the pioneers at St Joseph’s could confidently build.[1]

            The Lancasterian School, modelled on the educational plan of Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), was situated at the corner of Washington Street (then known as Great George Street) and Wood Street in 1814. It consisted of one large room, 90 by 60 feet, and was considered to be the largest room in Cork city, some even claiming that it was the largest room ‘in these islands’. Apart from its normal use as a school, this room was much in demand for meetings and banquets, and was known to have seated as many as 600 people at the time. One of the most celebrated banquets ever held there was on the occasion of a reception for Daniel O’Connell by the Cork Repeal Association. One of the Cork newspapers of the period, in the course of a report on the meeting, featured a drawing of O’Connell boarding a coach after the meeting on his way to a welcoming banquet in the Lancasterian School.[2]

In keeping with the Lancasterian system, the Principal of the school sat at a desk on a raised platform, from which he supervised the work of the monitors or pupil teachers. The pupils were organised into groups of 10-12, each group being taught by a pupil teacher. The textbooks of the Irish National School Board, comprising a set of School Readers, ranging from Book 1 (for the most junior pupils) to book 5 (for the most senior pupils), were used in the school. These text books, subsidised by the National Board, so that they cost the pupils only a few pence, were highly regarded by educationalists all over the English speaking world. Moreover, they were the standard School Readers in several British Colonies, including the Caribbean. In addition to the Readers, the National Board also published texts on Arithmetic, Geography and Agriculture. Even today, critics acknowledge that there was a great wealth of English Grammar, Natural History, Political Economy, Geography and Biblical stories in these Readers. The main modern criticism of these Readers is that the vocabulary was challenging, perhaps even too advanced, and, especially in the books for senior students, the standard of English was far higher than that deemed appropriate for primary schools today. This latter characteristic, however, helps to explain why those pupils who were high achievers in the primary schools of those days obtained a very useful and comprehensive education and accumulated a remarkable amount of information. The Irish language, however, was not part of the curriculum of the National Board and this subject did not receive adequate attention until the Irish Free State took over responsibility for public education after 1922.[3]

20^th Century

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, after a critical review of Irish education, the Belmore Commission recommended drastic changes in primary education. The recommendations included an expansion of the curriculum, beyond the three Rs, to include drawing, singing, elementary science, physical education cookery and laundry, all as obligatory subjects. The Commissioners for National Education accepted these recommendations and incorporated them in a new Revised Programme for Primary Schools (1900).[4] Even today, few people would find fault with the programme, but, unfortunately, funds were not made available to equip schools with the additional facilities these subjects would require. A further complication emerged after 1922, when a new national Government decided to place a special emphasis on Irish and Irish culture. This was made very plain by the new executive officer at the Irish Department of Education when he wrote:

In the administration of Irish education, it is the intention of the new government to work with all its might in for the strengthening of the national fibre by giving the language, history, music and tradition of Ireland, their natural place in the life of our schools (Ó Brolcháin)[5]

The new emphasis on Irish from 1922 onwards meant that the curriculum was once more restricted to Irish, English, Mathematics, history and Geography. This was the curriculum in Irish National schools when St Joseph’s School, Mardyke, opened in August, 1913. The school, then ‘state of the art’ was completed at a cost of £5,248, with an additional £1,000 spent in furnishings. This is not to say that any usable equipment in the ‘Lancs’ was not salvaged. Indeed, pupils from that period told the story of the formal transition from the old to the new school. Apparently, in the student march from the ‘Lancs’ to St Joseph’s in August, 1913, every able-bodied pupil was given some article of school equipment to transport. The smaller pupils brought ‘dusters’ and chalk, the bigger pupils, chairs, blackboards and benches. A contemporary account describes the school as follows:

These schools, beautifully situated on Mardyke Walk, present a handsome appearance. This attractive building, with its well-lighted, well-ventilated rooms and provided with all the comforts of heating apparatus up to date, had rendered it an ideal place for a school.[6]

The great Cork Man of Letters, Sean O’Faolain, a past pupil of the Lancs, felt much the same and made special mention of the new St Joseph’s School Building:

The Lancs has been replaced, a little out of town, by a fine modern school, all tiles and hardwood floors, and it is beside fields, and below it there are trees through which one sees the flowing river with cows chewing the cud in other fields beyond. In our old place there were just a few ragged trees growing out of gravel and not one blade of grass.[7] (O’Faolain, 1993, 44)

Declan O’Sullivan fpm

The last principal in the ‘Lancs’, Brother Declan O’Sullivan, also had the honour of being the first principal of St Joseph’s School (1913-1914). He belonged to the old tradition, having been born in 1866. He began his teaching career as a pupil teacher in Lisgoold National School. An intelligent and diligent student, he passed the King’s Scholarship, then the entry qualification to Teacher Training College. He then entered St Patrick’s Teacher Training College, Dromcondra, Dublin 9, where he qualified as a National Teacher. He was then appointed principal in Lisgoold National School, a post he held for 15 years before entering the novitiate of the Presentation Brothers, Mount St Joseph, Cork, in 1901. After his profession in 1903, he joined the staff of the Lancasterian School, where he was soon appointed principal. He was a fine Irish scholar, something rare among school principals at the time, and translated the entire Rules and Constitutions of the Presentation Brothers into Irish. The manuscript, however, was never published, but can still be seen in the archives of the Presentation Brothers at Mount St Joseph, Cork.[8]

After one year at St Joseph’s, Brother Declan was transferred to the South Monastery School, Douglas Street, Cork, where he was appointed principal. He was succeeded as principal of St Joseph’s by Brother Justinian O’Sullivan (1914-1916). In 1916, one of the great ‘school men’ of the Presentation Brothers, Brother Bernard Murphy, took over as principal and remained in the post until 1930. During this period the school enjoyed great success. The mark awarded by the visiting school inspectors was ‘Highly Efficient’. There was a general feeling that the best educational traditions of the old Lancs were being maintained. In February, 1917, Dr William Starkie, Resident Commissioner for Education under the National Board, visited St Joseph’s and praised not only the educational standards, but, also, the location and suitability of the new building as a school. [9]

Pupils

For several decades from its opening, St Joseph’s had only 8 teachers, one for each class from infants to 7^th class. The 7^th class was generally known as the Scholarship class, because some pupils remained in school after completing 6^th class to study for competitive examinations. From the 1930s onwards, some pupils were successful in this area. Thus, in 1938, two boys won Cork Corporation scholarships, each valued at £80, and designed to cover tuition fees in secondary school. The same year, another pupil got first place in Ireland in a special examination for ‘messenger boys’, while a fourth pupil won a scholarship to the Gaeltacht, in the course of which he secured first place in Munster. It will be recalled that during this period and up until the advent of ‘free secondary education’ in 1967, all secondary schools in Ireland charged school fees, since, apart from operational expenditure, these schools had to pay part of the salaries of all their teachers. Another great opening for boys in the ‘scholarship’ class was the competitive examination for a position in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, the responsibilities of which are today carried out by An Post. Several pupils of St Joseph’s School embarked on remunerative careers, following success in this examination. The reception area of the school still has photographs on display of some of the pupils who were successful in various competitive examinations in the past.[10]

I have elsewhere written about the catchment area of St Joseph’s School, but I will briefly review this information here. St Joseph’s, like the old Lancs, was intended to serve the needs of the middle parish, now called SS Peter and Paul’s. Readers will recall that up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there were only three parishes in Cork city: the North Parish (its centre being the Cathedral), the South Parish (with its church in Dunbar Street) and the Middle Parish. St Joseph’s, consequently, serving the needs of the Middle Parish, drew pupils from an area, stretching from the North Gate Bridge to the South Gate Bridge and from Patrick Street to the Mardyke. This area included a very populous part, known as the ‘Marsh’, which, in the 1936 census, had a population of 8, 142 people. Today, as we know, this area, apart from some modern flats, with households rarely exceeding two people, has a low population density, with few, if any, of St Joseph’s current pupils coming from there.[11]

            The nature of Mardyke Walk has also changed considerably since St Joseph’s School opened in 1913. At that time, there was no entry to vehicular traffic from the east, the only access being the road opposite UCC gates. At Mardyke Lodge, located beside the present UCC Granary Theatre, there was a barrier, permitting entry only to pedestrians and cyclists. All along the northern side of Mardyke Walk, on the edge of the ‘Dyke Stream’ (no longer there) was a famous row of Elm Trees. These trees feature in the famous Cork anthem, ‘The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee’, the lyrics by an unknown Cork poet, and the music by James C Shanahan. Readers will remember the well-known lines, ‘My heart was as light as the fair wind that blows, down the Mardyke through each Elm tree’. These Elm trees also feature in one of Sean O’Faolain’s early short stories, ‘Talking Trees’, subsequently re-issued in the volume, Talking Trees and Other Stories (Penguin, 1973). Incidentally, the ‘Dyke Stream’ was covered over when Mardyke Walk was transformed into a main thoroughfare for traffic into Cork City from the West and the Elm trees were cut down by the Cork Corporation when they fell victim to Dutch elm disease in the 1970s. The ambiance of St Joseph’s School in 1913, therefore, was much different to what it is today. In 1913, it was located in a quiet, picturesque suburban area, with no through traffic for vehicles and most pupils walking to and from school.

Teachers

In the early days, St Joseph’s School was staffed by Presentation Brothers, aided by two lay teachers, Mr Robert Tanner and Mr Sean Coughlan. Mr Tanner lived in Bandon and motored to school every morning in a small Ford car. Taking up driving comparatively late in life, Mr Tanner was an extra cautious driver, who drove slowly, while hunched over the steering wheel, gripping it tightly. He was well-known to fellow motorists coming from the Bandon direction because almost all of them would overtake him along the road. Mr Coughlan was a tall well-built man, who had won the grade, ‘Highly Efficient’ for his excellent teaching in the course of repeated school inspections. In the late 1940s, he was appointed principal of Kilbrittain National School. In addition to the Brother Principal (see the list below), the staff usually included two trained and experienced Presentation Brothers, together with another two Brothers, who were untrained, but who were permitted to teach for up to five years before attending Teacher Training College. These untrained teachers had their Leaving Certificate, with Honours in Irish, and sometimes with the Bilingual Teaching Certificate as well, and were classed as Junior Assistant Master (JAM for short). The arrangement permitting JAMs to teach in a National School continued until 1966, when the grade was abolished. After that, all teachers had to have a full Teaching Diploma before they could get an appointment in a National School.

            It is now generally forgotten that St Joseph’s had a ‘Secondary Top’ in operation in the late 1940s.[12] It will be recalled that these ‘Secondary Tops’ involved primary school teachers teaching students the secondary school programme leading to the Intermediate Certificate, and, in some cases the Leaving Certificate. This arrangement meant additional work for the teachers, because the teaching was now focussed on covering an examination syllabus and there was not a single free period throughout the entire school day. Moreover, there was additional and more advanced homework from the pupils to be marked, as well as prior preparation of more advanced material to be taught. Moreover, there was no additional pay for the teachers thus involved and, in practice, only the younger, more energetic and more ambitious teachers undertook this challenge. However, it was through the ‘Secondary Top’ avenue that several of our present well-known secondary schools came into existence. These include Coláiste Chríost Rí, Turners’ Cross; Presentation College (now St Brendan’s Community School), Birr; North Presentation Secondary School, Cork; Deerpark Secondary School, Cork (as part of Sullivan’s Quay CBS). One of the founders of the St Joseph’s ‘Secondary Top’, Brother Cronan Loughrey, is still with us. Another, Brother Bartholomew Browne (1920-2002), subsequently principal of Presentation College, Cork, is now deceased. The project was hampered, however, from lack of students wishing to remain on in school and the experiment was terminated in the early 1950s. In those days, there was great demand for messenger boys, since most of the large stores needed them to deliver goods.

            Though I expect that a complete list of the teachers who have taught at St Joseph’s School during the past century will be on display at the school during the centenary year, I would like to mention a few here. Many of the Presentation Brothers who were on the teaching staff at one time or another are deceased.  Apart from those Brothers who held the post of principal, and are listed below, the following come to mind: Brothers Finian Forde (1930-1971); Claver Flood; Matthew Feheney; Vianney O’Mahony; Gilbert Quirke (1923-2005), Macartan Sheehy (1914-1979), Bartholomew Browne (1920-2002), Albeus Aherne (1939-1973); Henry Allen (1922-1994); Colman McGuiness (1922-1986).  Among the first women to take up teaching appointments at St Joseph’s were Mrs Ita Floyd, Mrs Kathleen Lowry, Mrs Bríd Desmond and Mrs Betty O’Driscoll. Among the caretakers in the distant and not so distant past have been Mrs O’Dwyer; Mrs McCarthy; Mrs Herlihy; Mrs Kelly and, the seemingly ageless, Mrs Mary Blake.

Trusteeship

From its opening in 1913, St Joseph’s School was the property, as well as the legal and moral responsibility of the Presentation Brothers. This changed however with the establishment of the Presentation Brothers School Trust (hereafter abbreviated to PBST) in 2009. Eight schools, hitherto in the ownership of the Presentation Brothers (Presentation College, Bray; Presentation College, Cork; Bunscoil Chríost Rí, Cork; Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cork; Coláiste Muire, Cobh; St Joseph’s School, Mardyke, Cork; Greenmount National School, Cork), were formally transferred to the ownership of PBST. This means that now and in the future PBST is the body responsible for all matters dealing with St Joseph’s School, though it delegates some of its responsibilities to the Board of Management. PBST came into being after much discussion and discernment with interested parties and it is committed to upholding and promoting the ethos that inspired the founders of St Joseph’s School and other Presentation schools. PBST reminds its partners that, ‘The Presentation Brothers ethos and the continuation of the Presentation story will rest with committed people who embrace their role as witnesses to the Catholic faith and guardians of the distinctive Presentation identity. It then goes on to identify its core values:

 A Presentation Brothers school has four core elements that capture best its contribution to Catholic education:

 A genuine and tangible spirit of respect and caring for each member of the school community;

 A comprehensive and holistic education;

 A vibrant experience of community and partnership;

 A deep commitment to Gospel values as lived in the Edmund Rice tradition[13]

The president of PBST is Mr Jack O’Sullivan, while the Chief Executive Officer is Mr Paul Scanlan. The offices of PBST are at Glasthule, Dunlaoghaire, Co. Dublin.

The Centenary

The Board of Management, principal, and parents of St Joseph’s School are already planning their centenary celebrations, to run during the 2013-2014 school year. They are fortunate in having many interested parents and past pupils who wish to be involved in the celebrations. In the area of photographs alone, they have assembled a valuable archive of pictures covering several decades, but particularly recent years. The school has its own website (www.st-josephs-ns.org), with many items of historical interest. This collection will be augmented as the year progresses. And who knows but the President of Ireland may be among the distinguished visitors to pay a visit!

Principals of St Joseph’s School

1913-1914: Declan O’Sullivan fpm

1914-1916: Justinian O’Sullivan fpm

1916-1932: Bernard Murphy fpm

1932-1935: Alphonso Mitchell fpm

1935-1936: Eugene Dower fpm

1936-1937: Gilbert Boyle fpm

1937-1944: Alphonso Mitchell fpm

1944-1950: Albertus O’Sullivan fpm

1951-1955: Cronan Loughrey fpm

1955-1956: Paschal Glynn fpm

1956-1960: Nilus O’Regan fpm

1960-1962: Cyprian Dunlea fpm

1962-1965: Angelus Fitzpatrick fpm

1965-1966 Neri O’Sullivan fpm

1966-1969: Cathal Lynch fpm

1969-1976: Fabian O’Donohue fpm

1976-1977: Celsus O’Mahony fpm

1977-1979: Benildus Fenton fpm

1979-1989: Angelus Fitzpatrick fpm

1989-2004: Ciarán Black

2004-         : Damien Keane