When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Dr Martina Devlin

Photo: Steve Humphreys

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

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

Photo credit: Glyn Jones

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

Berní Ní Conghalaigh, Cleimintín

Cleimintīn ( Clementina ) by A. E. W. Mason Published 1934 Publisher: Oifig Díolta Foillseachain Rialtais Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, d’aistrigh The book was a prize awarded to Berní Ní Conghalaigh ( Bernie Connolly) at Laurel Hill Day School, Limerick, in 1946. Berní added her own illustrations on the inside front and inside back cover too!… Continue reading Berní Ní Conghalaigh, Cleimintín

When We Were Kings and Queens of the Road: Mary M. Trant

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