Blackboard jumble blast from the past

Workers preparing to install new interactive white boards at St Mary’s Primary School on St Mary’s Road in Edenderry last Friday uncovered an unintentional time capsule of sorts.

Taking down a board to make way for a new one in what’s now the senior infants’ classroom, the workers uncovered what’s thought to be a blackboard from the 1950s complete with a paragraph written as Gaeilge.

Written in chalk in old Irish, with dots instead of the letter 'h’, the message was almost as clear when it was discovered as it no doubt was when originally written.

“I was born in Ireland in the year 1949,” the message begins. “My father was a very strong man,” its second line reads, before a third describing a mother as being small and either “wirey” or “biddable”, depending on the translation.

The message concludes by explaining that the student went to school every day when they were young, but that they didn’t like it.

The reason behind the dislike isn’t absolutely clear as just two letters of the final word can be made out, but current principal of St Mary’s, Declan Downey, hasn’t ruled out that - with corporal punishment not banned at the time - it’s because the teacher always slapped or hit the student (bualadh).

Now Declan says he’s hoping to have the old blackboard that’s approximately eight foot long and two foot high framed and put on display in the school that now caters for over 450 students and is 103 years old.

If that happens it will create a nice contrast to the present day school, which just last year was given a 'Digital School of Distinction’ award.