Engagement Posts

I started walking to school with my brothers when I was five years old. Bag wobbling around my back, mother nervously waving us off. Down the muddy patch us adventurers traversed, the morning light breaking over the roofs of grey houses in Shamrock Lawn, friends joining as we slowly moved towards school. Talk of homework,… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Richard Hogan

Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, 1950s Clontarf, Dublin Once, when I was very small, my mother bought me a child’s scissors. It was in the shape of a bird with a beak that opened and shut as the blades were opened and closed. Obviously, it was designed to ensure that no serious damage could be done with… Continue reading Snapshots of our Childhood

When we Were Kings and Queens of the Road A “Travel to School” project, Robert Burns and the Museum of Childhood Ireland Músaem Óige na hÉireann Please click ‘Engagement Posts’ below to find all the stories to date or scroll down and find the stories beneath the images. Happy reading: Original artwork by Leanne McDonagh… Continue reading When We Were Kings And Queens of the Road

My very first trips to school, I was lucky enough to live only a fifteen-minute walk from our lady of good counsel Girls National School Woodley Rd, Johnstown, Glenageary. As a young child in primary school, I used to walk with my mum, sister and brother. We would spend our time talking and laughing the… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Laura Connolly

By Allycia Susanti, Museum of Childhood Ireland Although different countries around the world enjoy different flavours, the concept of comfort meals transcends cultures, and so does the concept of unfavoured ones. Although children are known to prefer simple comforting foods, there are many different definitions of ‘simple’ and ‘comforting’ depending on each child or person’s… Continue reading Childhood Meals Around the World: The Good and the Bad

I grew up in a small market town in the Scottish Borders. If you drew a line from Edinburgh to Newcastle roughly half way along you’d find Galashiels, which means, in old Scots, “dwellings by the river Gala.” It sits at the confluence of the Tweed and Gala rivers, not far from Sir Walter Scott’s… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Paul Johnston

Ag dul ar Scoil I went to primary school in Gaelscoil Bhaile Munna in the 2000s. At the time the school was made of prefabs, big green cardboard box looking classrooms. The school was in Coultry, and we lived over at Sillogue, so my Ma used to drop me to school in her car most… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Aaron Sunderland Carey

Going to school in 1960s Cork When I googled the journey from my childhood home at 3, Cornmarket St. to St Aloysius Primary School (St Als) which I attended, the solutions were a 12 and 15 minutes journey. Really! This was not the case when I was a child. Walking on my own using alleyways… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Fion Gunn

Journey to and from School – County Kerry, Ireland, 1950 After finishing some farm chores each morning, I began the journey to school with my big brother at my side, and at seven he was one year older than me. We went to school on foot and our Mum always stood between the two white… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Mary M. Trant

Hello! Welcome to the Community Engagement programme at the Museum of Childhood Ireland, we’re thrilled you stopped by. Here you will find stories, memories and interviews shared by our friends and followers about all things childhood, and growing up in Ireland and amongst the diaspora.  We at the Museum feel that the community should be… Continue reading Community & Diaspora Engagement

Ag éirí gach maidin le breacadh an lae chun an bus a fháil – ní raibh sé éasca! Is as an Lorgain mise ach d’fhreastail mé ar Ghaelscoil i gCathair Ard Mhacha agus ciallaíonn sin gur fhág a bus ag 7:30a.m gach lá. Éiríonn tú cleachta leis, ach mar dhéagóir leisciúil, tá sé dúshlánach!Ar an… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Aoife Ní Chorráin

Tógadh mé i mBáile Átha Cliath agus bhí sé fíor-thábhachtach do mo thuistí go mbeidh Gaeilge agam. Dá bhrí sin, d’fhreastal mé ar Ghaelscoil Scoil Mológa i gCrois Araild ionas go mbeidh mé in ann Gaeilge a labhairt agus mé ar ais ar Oileán Acla. Rothaigh nó shiúl mé ar scoil chuile maidin le mo… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Anna Sutcliffe

Nuair a bhínn ag dul ar scoil sna 2000í agus sna 2010í, bhí sé d’ámháraí an tsaoil agam go raibh mé im chónaí gar don scoil an chuid ba mhó den am. D’fhreastail mé ar Scoil Phádraig Naofa do Bhuachaillí. Ina dhiaidh sin, timpeall an chúinne liom go dtí an De La Salle i mBaile… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Cían Ó Gríofa

When I was going to school in the 2000s and 2010s, I was lucky enough that for most of my time, I lived a 10 minute walk from the school. I went to St. Patrick’s BNS for primary school, and then around the corner from that to De La Salle in Wicklow Town for my… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Cian Griffin

My walk to school. My walk was about twenty minutes from Valley Park in Finglas, to St. Dominics in Cabra. I usually walked with my sisters, but there was every possibility that we would meet others walking the same walk. The route has changed quite a lot over time. For the first couple of years,… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Alison Finn

In 1981, I was ten years old, attending 4th class at Sacred Heart Primary School in Killinarden. My walk to school was never speedy, as I was a bit of a daydreamer, never scurrying out the door or calling for friends because I was happy enough on my own. I was kept company by the… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Gary Doyle

Siblings Darrell, Oein and Trina Oein De Bhardúin – A Christmas Memory Listen here: The story I am going to tell is one of my most vivid memories of Christmas. I grew up near Tirboy on the hinterland of a place called Cluain Tuatha …. Beside this was a hill called ‘Tinkers Hill’, near a… Continue reading Oein De Bhardúin’s Story

My school journey My school journey from the age of four to eighteen, through primary and secondary was overall mostly positive. I would split my school journey into two parts, the time I grew up in a domestic abuse home until I was fourteen, and the four years after. I grew up in a small… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Latisha McCrudden

Sophie Grenham’s Journey to School I had two childhoods. One was chiefly from infancy to my early teens in Hong Kong and the remainder was spent in my family’s native Dublin. Hong Kong, when I think of it, feels like a dream, as I’ve been in Ireland for so long. This thrumming, chaotic island in… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Sophie Grenham

Maggie’s Birthday Bus Growing up in a rural area on the Westmeath/Meath border, I was no stranger to a school bus. The bus acted as the bookends to my day, and was the social highlight of every schooling stage from four to eighteen. The very political hierarchy of seat selection, the sharing of snacks, the… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Chloe Browne

Journey to School My father, who was never quite sure of dates, always being far too busy, told me I started school in September 1952. Because of that I’ve always believed that in January 1955 – when a most important event in my life occurred – I was in first class at the Brothers, taught… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Leo Cullen

Growing up in mid-Cork, we were lucky to live close to Kilmurry National School which was about a mile away. It was a four roomed school with four teachers. Two for boys and two for girls. Blackboards and chalk were the only learning tools and for the first few years I used a pen and… Continue reading When We Were Kings And Queens of the Road: Bridget Goulding

My first walks were to and from Crane Infant School and Crane Junior School, Norman Avenue, Hanworth, Middlesex 1957- 1963. I must have started at Crane Infant School in 1957, but I don’t remember my exact age.I have no memory of the walk to school when I was an infant. Any memories I have about… Continue reading When We Were Kings And Queens of the Road: Katy Cox

To School through the Fields Going and coming from school was so varied, interesting and often challenging that it made school itself almost fade into the background. I did not venture on that school journey until I was seven years old, as the safari across a dozen fields of hills and hollows was deemed to… Continue reading When We Were Kings And Queens of the Road: Alice Taylor

My most memorable journey to school was when I was six years of age. Walking to Stanhope Street primary school I  encountered herds of cattle! It wasn’t a rural area, Stanhope Street is in Stoneybatter near Dublin’s city centre.  The reason why was because of the cattle market in Prussia Street, which was on my… Continue reading When We Were Kings And Queens of the Road: Aidan Herdman

I was born in a small Korean town WangQing in China 1981, all my family are Korean by blood but we were born and raised in China.  The school was located about 2 km from our home, a small house with many neighbors and none of us locked the door. It was a very safe… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Jin Yong

I never thought I would say it but I miss my school days when the only thing you had to worry about was not missing Dallas on the telly because ’Who shot JR?’ I tell my children that I was walking a full mile and a bit to school on my own from the age… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Angeline Ball

I can confirm that the distance from our home to Kiltullagh NS is exactly three miles. I know this because I have travelled that road thousands of times, and as an adventurous child I couldn’t wait to make that journey by whatever means possible. My first attempt now forms part of our family’s history. It… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Ciaran Cannon TD

I grew up in Limerick and am the eldest of four. When I was 7 years old, I went to Mary Queen of Ireland primary school in Caherdavin, a suburb in Limerick. Walks were only 10-15 minutes to and from school, and initially my mom walked me to school until I was old enough to… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Vicky Twomey-Lee

Endless rows of houses with glowing hallway lights pass us by as the sun has not yet risen over Dublin. As I look up into the black and purple sky, I can see the heavy rain clouds are swirling and the wind makes a fuss and tries to push us back the way we came.… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Mike Murray

Austin Comerton was born in Ballinasloe Co. Galway in 1953: After completing secondary school, he worked at the Bank of Ireland before going into business in his mid twenties. He emigrated to Canada in 1988 with his wife and two daughters.He worked in the Office Furniture industry for a number of years before moving to… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Austin Comerton

Ag dul chun scoile ar an mbus i mBaile Átha Cliath sna 1960í Bhí mé 14 bliain d’aois nuair a d’athraigh mo mhodh taistil chun scoile ó rothar go bus. Chuir an turas bus laethúil ó Chluain Dolcáin go Baile Átha Cliath ar bhealach mo leasa agus m’aimhleasa in éineacht mé. Bhí deis agam gach… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Cathal Mac Coille

Cycling to school in Clondalkin in the 1960s, and a Garda warning I was ten when I became the proud owner of the bike of my dreams. The fact that it was secondhand didn’t matter, its gleaming red frame and mudguards made a perfect birthday present. The short slope in the back garden of our… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Cathal Mac Coille

I was born in Halifax, Yorkshire in 1956. Our house was across the road from the city graveyard, surrounded by high stone walls. On the other side of the graveyard was our primary school, Caddy Field.​I was strongly gender non-conforming from a very early age. I refused to grow my hair or wear girls’ clothes.… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Kate Thompson

At eight a.m. I could hear my mother shouting my name up the stairs to the third floor where I lay in bed fast asleep. The call would be for my brothers Paddy and Seamus as well, and of course my sisters Breda and Bernie, who were on a lower floor. Everyone would move before… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Pierce Turner

My journey to primary school was an interesting one that often started long before the 9am school time. Both my parents worked and so I was dropped at a neighbours house at 7am and waited there until we went to school at 9am. Although this was back in the 1980s my resounding memory is how… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Colman Noctor

As a young girl in secondary school, I used to walk for 30 minutes every morning at 7am to school, and another 30 minute walk back home at 4pm. It never felt like a 30 minute walk because many other children in my neighbourhood also attended the same school. We would all wait for each… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Catherine Agada Joseph

Across the Greens of a Concrete Suburb Walking to and from school as a child in the late 1980s and early 1990s was always about a succession of shortcuts. This journey began by crossing the park behind Super Valu in Deansgrange, a place of spring chestnut trees, winter frost, and autumn swallows. Then, up Kill… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Una Mullally

My earliest memory of my journey to school involved catching the bus – usually an 11 or a 16 – on Drumcondra Road to get to the Dominican Convent in Eccles Street, now long demolished and replaced with much of the Mater Hospital. In those days there was a stable yard close to the back… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Tom Doorley

I got a lift to and from school everyday with my mam.On the way to school we would chat and listen to 98fm (I loved Dermot & Dave). On the way home my friend Tadhg would come with us because his house was on the way. Tadhg and I used to ramble on about whatever… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Karl Doyle

Mairéad Ní Nuadháin agus Edward Hiney  Nuair a thosaigh na buachaillí ag freastal ar scoil na mbuachaillí, fuaireadar deis páirt a ghlacadh sa bhanna ceoil máirseála. Ghlacadar páirt i mórshiúil, in fleadhanna ceoil, in ocáidí poiblí agus in aon ócáid eile a bhí ar siúl sa cheantar. Dá mbeidis ag cleachtadh amuigh sa chlós agus… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Mairéad Ní Nuadháin

Going to School in Ballaghaderreen the ‘Back Way.’ I don’t remember my first day at school but photographic evidence exists. Pat O’Connor, the local pharmacist, who was also a photographer took a picture of myself and Edward Hiney. I don’t know who owned the schoolbag but we seem to have had just one, that we… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Mairéad Ní Nuadháin

Cycling, I can do it as long as I can remember. First a small bike, with two support wheels to help me balance. I can’t remember how long it took me to learn how to cycle, but in real terms it can’t have been very long. Maybe a few weeks. Then came primary school, Bloemcampschool… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Adriaan Palm

Downtown Cork city is like being centre stage in a West End musical. It’s an animated warren of shops and arcades, inhabited by every class of shopkeeper, hawker and market trader you could imagine. It’s a city of characters and chancers, and a wander through the streets is an education in itself. It’s true to… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Cónal Creedon

My earliest memories as a child going to junior school was that we lived in the town, and my father used to drop us down in the morning. We had a Ford Escort van.   I come from a Mincéir / Irish Traveller Family, and my father was a Tinsmith who made and mended pots and… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Nora Corcoran

1974. I’m six and I walk to school alone, like all the other kids in the estate. P1s are allowed to be walked there by their mummies, but they’re only babies. P2s and over would die of shame. There’s a boy in P4 and he lets his mummy walk with him and hold his hand.… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Sheena Wilkinson

As I got older, I didn’t mind walking to or from school. I lived in Ennis town in County Clare and getting from place to place by foot wasn’t difficult, the only thing that could make it less enjoyable was the harsh winter weather. Once I got past the front of our house, the route… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Zainab Boladale

I started school, aged four, a month or so before my fifth birthday. It must have been after Easter as the blossoms were on the few trees that dotted Ayres Road Old Trafford. I walked to school from that day until the day I finished at my catholic Grammar school age 18. Each walk to… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Terry Christian

The Secondary School Years 2010-2016. The secondary school years. 6:45am, my dad knocks on the door and comes into my room as another day begins. He utters a friendly yet firm good morning greeting as I slowly regain awareness of my existence. Dad walks over to my bedside radio and turns on Today FM as… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Daniel Airey

“We never knew when daddy would come to pick us up from school with the horse and sulky cart but when he did there was fierce excitement for the journey home.  I remember getting to the gates of the school and looking to spot the big blue HiAce van and trying to identify if it… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Leanne McDonagh

Cycling to School through Droves of Cattle and Sheep As the first son of William and Maura McDonald, I grew up in Glenmore Road, a little cul-de-sac between Old Cabra Road and Blackhorse Avenue in what came to be known as Dublin 7. The house had been built in 1948, the year of my parents’… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Frank McDonald

Three o’clock and school was over. We slid out from behind our old wooden desks, the ones with the sloping desktop and the old inkwell holders, and darted out the door, making a beeline for the old shed where our bikes were stored.  It was early June and at 10 years old I was in… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Robert Burns

St Wolstan’s, Cill Droichid, Co Cill Dara, 1990s. A Herdman Tionscadal “Taisteal chun na Scoile” le Robert Burns. Tá áthas orainn ag Músaem na hÓige Éireann ár dtionscadal is nuaí a chur i láthair. Is é an feachtas nua spreagúil seo ná coincheap Robert Burns. Is innealtóir sibhialta agus stiúrthóir é Robert ar Chomhairle Contae… Continue reading Nuair a Bhíomar inár Ríthe agus Banríona ar an mBóthar: Réamhrá

A “Travel to School” project from Robert Burns and the Museum of Childhood Ireland Museum of Childhood Ireland are thrilled to introduce our new project in collaboration with Robert Burns. Robert is a civil engineer and director of Fingal County Council. He grew up in the Monaghan countryside in the 70s and 80s, moving to… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Introduction

Childhood Around the World is a new three part series compiled by Edgar Debel as part of a recent internship. We will be posting the three parts of this series here in the coming weeks. In this instalment, Edgar speaks with his roommate from Brazil, about his experiences growing up in the city of Cascavel.… Continue reading Childhood Around the World: Part One

Childhood Around the World is a three part series compiled by EdgarDebel as part of a recent internship. In this instalment, Edgar speaks with his friend Sophie, from Germany. “Our second childhood story comes from a person I know really well, my best friend Sophie. Sophie, as me, comes from Germany and was born in… Continue reading Childhood Around the World: Part Two

Childhood Around the World is a three part series compiled by Edgar Debel as part of a recent internship. In this final instalment, Edgar speaks with his roommate Maribelle, from the Netherlands. “My final interview I had was with Maribelle, who was born in the Netherlands in 1999, and who was one of my room-mates… Continue reading Childhood Around the World: Part Three

This week, we’ve had a fantastic story sent in by one of our followers about growing up in Donnycarney in the 1940s and 1950s. Read the full excerpt below! “We were all poor in Donnycarney so there was little competition to wear the latest fashions. It was a wonderful place to be reared, there was… Continue reading Community Memories: Growing up in Donnycarney

Marie Farrell has sent us her stories from her schooldays in Newtown/Dunlecky NS in Carlow, and a miniature of the school that she attended which has been made by her nephew Thomas Murray Miniatures. Thank you Marie, for reaching out! “My schooldays in Newtown/ Dunleckney NS back in the late 1950s and the early 1960s… Continue reading Community Memories: Marie Farrell

This month we’ve been asking you about your memories of school and schooldays – in the spirit of September’s topic “Back to School at the Museum of Childhood Ireland.” Today we share a post sent in to us by Bernie Carroll who fondly remembers her time at National and Secondary school in the 60’s and… Continue reading Community Memories: Bernie Carroll

It’s almost time to pack up your pencil cases and return once more to school… Our entire childhoods are bookended by the years we spend in schooling. From four to sixteen, eighteen, and indeed into our twenties should we attend university, school is a hugely integral part of daily life. For some, our schooldays are… Continue reading Back to School at the Museum of Childhood Ireland