Search Results for 'head teacher'

Seán Duignan, the Irish journalist, newsreader, and political aide and writer, recalls that his time at the Jes, the longest established school in Galway, was generally happy. It was an all-male school then, and had a rowing team that did the school proud.

In the early years of the 20th century the Irish language increasingly was associated with poverty and backwardness. In the national school system, which was established in 1831, children had been beaten with what became known as a ‘tally stick’ if they were caught speaking Irish. Apparently every time a child was heard speaking Irish, a notch was cut on the stick, and the poor child received the same number of blows.

I have recently returned from a month’s teaching in Kitgum, Northern Uganda and experienced, first hand, the results of a 20 year rebel war. I met, face to face, and spoke to young men who had been abducted as boys by the rebel army, which rampaged through every village in the area until two years ago.