Hedge School

Once there was a hedge school on this corner.The master was Mr Daniel Singleton and he had 40 children in his care, but only in the summer - presumably because conditions would be too tough in the winter, for hedge schools were just what they sounded like - in fields. Due to the oppressive Penal Laws, Catholics were not officially allowed to set up schools so many teachers did so illegally, the open air their classsoom. The education on offer could be pretty sophisticated though and the itinerant masters were often well educated. The hedge-school curriculum included Latin, Greek, Arithmetic, Irish, English, History and Geography. With the coming of the National School movement in the 1830s hedge schools died out though most by then had moved into rudimentary buildings. This little building, now abandoned, was built in the early 1830s to replace the hedge school. It had two rooms and fireplaces and must have seemed the height of luxury. Now it's abandoned, picturesquely situated next to an even more picturesque abandoned church and graveyard.And yes, there was a picturesque and abandoned well behind that!

Another backblip from our North Cork trip. Just before visiting here we left our Airbnb only to find the main gates locked and padlocked with us very definitely on the wrong side. It was lashing but Himself climbed over a wall and went to see if there was any other way we could get out. There was but bold and desperate measures we required. We had to drive over next door's even larger house's lawn to get onto their drive and make our escape! (that's a rather convoluted sentence) Tell tail skid marks revealed that we weren't the only ones to have exited in this way.