Slievereagh/St.Michael’s National School, Slievereagh townland, Ballyvourney, Co. Cork
(dated: Late 19th Century)
ING: 118123, 078939
The ruins of Slieveragh/St. Michael’s National School can be spotted when driving from Killarney to Cork on the N22 – situated about 2.5 km before the village of Ballyvourney in Co. Cork. The school house is located just north of a re-aligned stretch of roadway, away from the modern carriageway. From the roadside, this detached, four-bay, two-roomed school building stands in open rough grazing, grey and weather-beaten, with boarded up windows and a collapsing roof.
Nature is creeping in through every available opening, with nesting birds now being the main occupants of the collapsing structure. Most notable in the hallway, are the heavily corroded numbered cast-iron coat hooks and fine tiled floor. From the hall, two small classrooms can be accessed with matching fireplaces in each. Inside the few remaining school desks have collapsed through the remnants of the suspended timber floor.
If you or someone you know attended this national school, please do get in touch and share any stories, anecdotes, photographs, or any other memories you may have.
Disused School Houses - Home Page 
My Grandfather was from Slievereagh, Ballyvourney, born in 1899. So it is likely he attended school here.
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Hi Nora, thank you for this information and for checking out the blog – I think its quite possible that he did, although i don’t have a firm date for the construction of this school
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Hi Enda, my great grand uncle Timothy Dinneen was from Slievereagh, he died in 1934 and his death cert said he was a national school teacher, maybe here I don’t know. Any records found for the school?
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Hi Maria, I commented below but am still currently researching my family history and either my Grandfather Denis Joseph Buckley or Great Grandfather Timothy Buckley (Tadgh OBuacalla) would have been teacher at this school before your Grand Uncle and I can confirm I have spoken with a past pupil Sean Murphy of Slievereagh, Ballyvourney, yesterday who confirmed that a Tadgh Dinneen was teacher for him after Tadgh OBuacallw when he attended this school as a child in about 1940. This school is currently under renovation and will be a historical monument on its site along the new bypass which is being built to Kerry.
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Hi Enda, my grandmother and her two sisters and four brothers all attended this school. She was born in 1899 and they lived in Derrynasaggart. Her name was Margaret (Peig) Lynch and her parents were John D & Anne Lynch. Any idea when the school opened and when it closed as my mother’s uncle and his family also lived on the family farm in Derrynasaggart and if it was still open in the 1940s, it is most likely the school that they attended too.
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Hi Enda, my great grandfather Timothy Buckley was born in Slievereagh 1872 and most likely attended this school. Also his father before him Cornelius and his son Denis J (my grandfather). Who later became a school principle himself at Kilmaine NS, Mayo.
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Appreciate you blogging thiis
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