Tag Archives: Ireland

Co. Limerick, Disused School Houses

Feohanagh National School, Feohanagh townland, Co. Limerick

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Feohanagh National School, Feohanagh townland, Co. Limerick

(dated 1886)

NGR: 134051, 126163

Feohanagh National School, Co. Limerick

The rural landscape of many parts of Ireland is punctuated by small villages which, for various reasons, have fallen into decline in recent decades. In west Co. Limerick is one such village; ‘Feohanagh’ (the place of the thistles) located 5 miles south-east of the town of Newcastle West on the R522 road to Dromcollogher.

The First Edition 25 inch map (1898-1907) shows that at the turn of the 19thcentury this little hamlet included a smithy, a post office, a terraced street scene, the local church, and a two-roomed school house.  Today, no shops, post office or other services remain open here, though to the north side of the R522 are the remains of the disused two-roomed national school built in A.D. 1886.

Feohanagh National School, Co. Limerick

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Co. Westmeath, Disused School Houses

Tullystown National School, Tullystown Cross, Co. Westmeath

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Tullystown National School, Tullystown Cross, Co. Westmeath

(dated: c.1840)

NGR: 244969, 279596

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In 1837 the travelling antiquarian Samuel Lewis described the topography of Co. Westmeath as ‘diversified by hill and dale, highly picturesque in many parts, and deficient in none of the essentials of rural beauty, but timber’. Travelling north from the boglands of Co. Offaly into Co. Westmeath, there is certainly a notable change in the landscape – the brown watery flat-lands give way to green hillsides and winding roads which navigate the undulating farmland. Docile cattle peer over low stone walls, and traffic is largely agricultural.

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Co. Cork, Disused School Houses

Whiddy Island National School, Trawnahaha townland, Whiddy Island, Co. Cork

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Whiddy Island National School, Trawnahaha townland, Whiddy Island, Co. Cork

(dated 1887)

NGR: 096974, 049791

Whiddy Island NS Co. Cork 1887 Doorway Looking in

Whiddy Island is a small, near-shore island located at the head of Bantry Bay in Co. Cork. Not far from the modern quayside and in the townland of Trawnahaha is a small late 19th-century one-roomed school house overlooking Bantry Bay below. Painted bright blue with a white lime-wash, in recent years the building had been used as a local museum though it has now fallen into a state of disrepair.

Whiddy Island NS Co. Cork 1887 Classroom Interior

Like so many offshore islands in Ireland, the permanent population has dwindled through the 20th century and can no longer support a local national school. John Chambers’ “Islands – Change in Population 1841 – 2011” clearly shows the island’s decline from a peak population of 729 in 1841:

Year Pop ±%
1841 729 –
1851 561 −23.0%
1901 259 −53.8%
1951 104 −59.8%
1996 34 −67.3%
2002 29 −14.7%
2006 22 −24.1%
2011 20 −9.1%

Whiddy Island NS Co. Cork 1887 Doorway

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