In his role as principal of the Boys’ National School, Castleisland, Michael O’Donohoe appreciated the value of school records. He dedicated a considerable amount of time to copying, by hand, a number of school registers.
An admissions register for Convent Boys’ School Castleisland appears in the collection. It covers the period 1872 to 1951.
Content is organised into columns alphabetically by surname followed by forename; the headings are: Page – Accepted – Class Age – Address – Father – Last School – Struck off.1
Castleisland historian, T M Donovan, reminisced on his education at the Convent School in the early 1870s. He recalled how one fine autumn day, when he was about eight years of age, he decided he would take the day off school:
I was enjoying myself at the New Line bridge when all decent boys and girls were improving their minds in the Boys’ National and Convent Schools close by the old Church when I saw Fr John O’Sullivan turning the corner of the New Line. I made a rapid retreat behind the hedge in the old bohereen bounding the Nun’s field.
As Fr O’Sullivan passed Donovan’s house, Donovan’s mother called from the window that ‘Thady was scheming from school again’. Donovan described what happened next:
Father John went to the Boys’ school, then in the chapel yard, and brought out my cousin, Mike Donovan and put him and Archdeacon O’Connell’s nephew, Mundy Roche, kicking a big bladder in the Archdeacon’s lawn. The fun of the two boys was – according to plan – so boisterous that the schemer in the bohereen heard them at it and advanced as far as the bridge.
Thinking the coast clear, Donovan went to join in the fun:
They put me in charge of the goal – just three paces from the Archdeacon’s door. Just as I gave the bag a tremendous kick I was lifted into the air by my two ears and found myself struggling in the arms of Big Father John … he marched me by the hand and led me through the Convent School to show them all a naughty dirty boy who would not go to school for his mother.
‘To be led through the boys’ school was nothing’, wrote Donovan, ‘but to be made an exhibition of for a hundred grinning girls was a terrible degradation’.
Donovan got two slaps from the Rev Mother and was put in the ‘Black Hole’ under the stairs. The nun’s slap he described as ‘a pure joke’ compared with a master’s slap received later on, and all paled into insignificance to what he got from his father’s cat-o-nine-tails that night before going to bed.2
The Register
Click on the links below to view pages in the register.
IE MOD-17-17.1
Index of surnames, Ahern to Wynn, with guide to page numbers
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.1
Page 1 (of 76) of admissions register, Ahern to Barry
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.2
Page 2 (of 76) of admissions register, Barrett to Boyle
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.3
Page 3 (of 76) of admissions register, Breen to Brien
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.4
Page 4 (of 76) of admissions register, Broderick
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.5
Page 5 (of 76) of admissions register, Brosnan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.6
Page 6 (of 76) of admissions register, Brosnan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.7
Page 7 (of 76) of admissions register, Brosnan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.8
Page 8 (of 76) of admissions register, Browne to Bryant
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.9
Page 9 (of 76) of admissions register, Buckley to Byrne
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.10
Page 10 (of 76) of admissions register, Cahill to Cantillon
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.11
Page 11 (of 76) of admissions register, Carmody to Chuileáin
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.12
Page 12 (of 76) of admissions register, Clifford to Comerford
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.13
Page 13 (of 76) of admissions register, Connell
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.14
Page 14 (of 76) of admissions register, Connor
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.15
Page 15 (of 76) of admissions register, Connor
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.16
Page 16 (of 76) of admissions register, Connor
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.17
Page 17 (of 76) of admissions register, Connor
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.18
Page 18 (of 76) of admissions register, Connor
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.19
Page 19 (of 76) of admissions register, Conway to Cournane
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.20
Page 20 (of 76) of admissions register, Cregan to Cremins
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.21
Page 21 (of 76) of admissions register, Cronin
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.22
Page 22 (of 76) of admissions register, Crowley to Cummins
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.23
Page 23 (of 76) of admissions register, Curran to Curtin
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.24
Page 24 (of 76) of admissions register, Daly to Dee
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.25
Page 25 (of 76) of admissions register, Deignan to Donnell
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.26
Page 26 (of 76) of admissions register, Donoghue to Doody
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.27
Page 27 (of 76) of admissions register, Doolan to Driscoll
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.28
Page 28 (of 76) of admissions register, Droney to Dwyer
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.29
Page 29 (of 76) of admissions register, Egan to Finn
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.30
Page 30 (of 76) of admissions register, Fitzgerald to Fleming
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.31
Page 31 (of 76) of admissions register, Flynn to Gallivan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.32
Page 32 (of 76) of admissions register, Geaney to Greaney
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.33
Page 33 (of 76) of admissions register, Griffin to Groves
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.34
Page 34 (of 76) of admissions register, Hallahan to Harrington
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.35
Page 35 (of 76) of admissions register, Harris to Healy
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.36
Page 36 (of 76) of admissions register, Hefferan to Herlihy
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.37
Page 37 (of 76) of admissions register, Hewitt to Hogan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.38
Page 38 (of 76) of admissions register, Horan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.39
Page 39 (of 76) of admissions register, Houlihan to Jones
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.40
Page 40 (of 76) of admissions register, Kavanagh to Kearney
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.41
Page 41 (of 76) of admissions register, Keeffe to Kelly
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.42
Page 42 (of 76) of admissions register, Kennedy to Lacey
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.43
Page 43 (of 76) of admissions register, Laide to Leane
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.44
Page 44 (of 76) of admissions register, Leary to Lucey
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.45
Page 45 (of 76) of admissions register, Lucid to Maher
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.46
Page 46 (of 76) of admissions register, Mahony
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.47
Page 47 (of 76) of admissions register, Mahony to Markey
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.48
Page 48 (of 76) of admissions register, Marshall to McCaughey
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.49
Page 49 (of 76) of admissions register, McCarthy to McDonagh
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.50
Page 50 (of 76) of admissions register, McElligott to McGreevy
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.51
Page 51 (of 76) of admissions register, McKenna to Messerer
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.52
Page 52 (of 76) of admissions register, [Mhaolfhomhair] Millward to Moore
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.53
Page 53 (of 76) of admissions register, Moran to Mullane
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.54
Page 54 (of 76) of admissions register, Murphy
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.55
Page 55 (of 76) of admissions register, [Murphy] McCarthy to Murray
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.56
Page 56 (of 76) of admissions register, Nagle to Noble
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.57
Page 57 (of 76) of admissions register, Nolan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.58
Page 58 (of 76) of admissions register, Parker to Prendergast [includes Poff]
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.59
Page 59 (of 76) of admissions register, Prendiville
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.60
Page 60 (of 76) of admissions register, Prendiville to Quirke
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.61
Page 61 (of 76) of admissions register, Rahilly to Reid
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.62
Page 62 (of 76) of admissions register, Reidy
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.63
Page 63 (of 76) of admissions register, Reidy to Rice
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.64
Page 64 (of 76) of admissions register, Riordan to Roche
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.65
Page 65 (of 76) of admissions register, Rosney to Scannell
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.66
Page 66 (of 76) of admissions register, Scollard to Shanahan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.67
Page 67 (of 76) of admissions register, Shea to Sheehan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.68
Page 68 (of 76) of admissions register, Sheehy to Spillane
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.69
Page 69 (of 76) of admissions register, Spring to Sugrue
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.70
Page 70 (of 76) of admissions register, Sullivan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.71
Page 71 (of 76) of admissions register, Sullivan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.72
Page 72 (of 76) of admissions register, Sullivan
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.73
Page 73 (of 76) of admissions register, Talbot to Twiss
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.74
Page 74 (of 76) of admissions register, Twomey to Wallace
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.75
Page 75 (of 76) of admissions register, Walshe to Williams
IE MOD-17-17.1-17.1.76
Page 76 (of 76) of admissions register, Wilmot to Wynn
_________________ 1 IE MOD/17. The cover of the register is marked: Convent Boys 1872 9 37 39 1873 43 52 54 62 1951 Sept, p324, 1 9 66 69 The figures relate to the page numbers on which the years stated are found. 2 Account from Donovan's essay, 'Old Times in Oilean Ciarraighe, Castleisland Church and Convent', The Kerryman, 5 November 1927.
