“We read real books, right from the age of four up to 17. We also read history books. But it always seemed to me that history books were written by people who were trying to explain some enormous mess that we’d all got into but were never going to be able to explain. Whereas novelists… Continue reading Remembering Jennifer Johnston: A Voice That Bridged Generations
Tag: school
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Alan Lambert
The early morning walks to school that I experienced in the late 1970s have never really receded into the past, as they are revived every time I connect with any part of the Metals, the lanes that run parallel to the railway lines from Dalkey to Dun Laoghaire. As we lived near Sallynoggin, at the… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Alan Lambert
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Martina Devlin
FINDERS, KEEPERS – Martina Devlin I learned about the concept of turning in lost property as a result of my walk home from school one day. It was a mystifying notion – instinctively, my acquisitive little brain preferred the ‘finders, keepers’ version. Our family lived close to Loreto Convent Primary School in Omagh, at that time based in a clattery old building on top of a hill, while our house was at the bottom. The school journey… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Martina Devlin
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Peter Keane
Reminiscences of my daily schooldays journey Back in the day (the late 1950’s, many moons ago), I lived on Oliver Plunkett Avenue, Monkstown Farm. I attended pre-primary school in Convent Road and CBS Primary and Secondary on Eblana Avenue, Dun Laoghaire. Every schoolday I walked to Dun Laoghaire with my sisters, and walked back home… Continue reading When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Peter Keane
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Richard Hogan
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
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Laura Connolly
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
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Paul Johnston
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
Rebecca’s Bus Ticket
Rebecca Cassidy, known as Rea My name is Rebecca. I was born in 1936. I lived in a small village in Co.Kildare, about 10 miles from Dublin city. There was a bus to Dublin every hour, with a few more in the mornings and evenings for people who worked in the city. I was the… Continue reading Rebecca’s Bus Ticket
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Aaron Sunderland Carey
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
When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Fion Gunn
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