7 JUNE 1954
At 8.30am on Monday 7 June 1954 Springtown Camp was alive with hundreds of children all walking towards the Buncrana Road entrance on their way to their new school.
Previously the children attended various schools in Derry , but with this new school now opening all the children of the camp would be transferred to the same school for the very first time.
The children aged from five to fourteen would be going to the three different schools. The boys and girls aged Five to eight would be going to the Infant’s school. The girls aged from nine to fourteen would be going to the girl’s school while the Boys of the same age would be going to the Boy’s school.
There was in all twenty – two classrooms in total
Amazingly of the 345 boys that would be attending the boy’s school 154 of them were from Springtown Camp. In total there was around 282 children from the camp who attended the new school on that opening day.
The Teachers were a mixture of Nuns, Female and Male with the Principals of the Girl’s and Infants School a Nun and the Boy’s School Principal was Mr. Dermott McDermott.
The School’s Teachers on the first opening day included .
Sister M. Stanisclaus [McGurk]
Principal of Infant’s School
Sister M. Aloyoisus.
[ McVeigh]
Vice- Principal of Infant’s School
Sister Mary Augustine
[Mullan ] Principal of Girl’s School
Sister Mary Philomena [Donaghy ] Vice- Principal of Girl’s School
Sister M. Theresa
[ McLaughlin ]
Mrs Martha McGuinness
Miss Mary Catherine Devine
Miss Mary Christina Spellman
Miss Mary Margaret Lagan
Sister Mary Immaculata [Mulholland]
Mrs Margaret Gillen
Mrs L. Casey. [nee Devlin]
Miss Kathleen McGettigan
Miss Aine Friel
Miss M. McCrossan
Mr. Dermott McDermott Principal Boy’s School
Mr. Freddie Campbell
Mr. Neil McMahon
Mr. Patrick Flanagan
Mr. Jim Quinn
Mr. Kieran McFeely
Mr. Michael Quigley
Mr. Jim Ramsey
Mr. Sean Mellon
Each morning at 10.30am we were brought out from class to the corridors where we received a small bottle of milk each. We also got the opportunity to go to the toilet.
There were several different Dinner sittings in the Canteen with 12.50pm being Dinner time for the Boys. The Infants and Girl’s school went slightly earlier. The cost of Dinner in the canteen was 9d about four pence in todays money.
At Christmas time the Christmas Dinner was a little more special, so they increased the cost to one shilling, about five pence in today’s money. Starting time for school was 9.10am. with teaching in class at 9.15sharp. Home time for the Boys and Girls School was 3.10pm, with the infants getting out slightly before 3pm.
First Holy Communion was a very special day for all concerned as all the Boys and Girls were turned out to perfection. The religious side of it was of course, very important, but I think it is fair to say what occupied the minds of the Boys and Girls making it was the fact that we all were given money from our relatives and family friends.
Teacher Patrick Flanagan left Pennyburn to take up as post in Belfast and he was replaced by Mrs Farren a native of Buncrana County Donegal. She was the only female teacher in the Boys school. World famous playwright Brian Friel came to teach in the Boys school in 1958 and remained there for four years. He then left to concentrate on his new career as a playwright. During his stay at school, he proved to be very popular with the pupils, yours truly included. Some newly ‘near’ qualified teachers came to the boy’s school and were supervised in class by our regular teachers. I suppose it was a kind of ‘work experience’ for them. I recall Paul Duffy and a Mr Friel [no relation to Brian Friel] They were young and probably were only several years older than we were. We give them a torrid time, with some of the antics we got up to. However, they soon caught on to us and took no offence at our antics. Both were actually very good teachers and were well respected by all of us.
For P.T. [Physical Training] we used to play ‘Chinese’ football in the assembly hall. We had to sit on the floor and lift ourselves of the floor with our hands without standing up, to kick the ball. It was awkward and sore on the arms and legs, but it was done probably because if we had of been allowed to play ordinary football, the glass doors would not have lasted for long. Basketball was another game that we played.
In the playground we played normal football and it was ‘no holes barred rules’ that was observed. Plenty of sore ankles, legs and arms were the norm, as some limped back to class.
Pennyburn School
On Monday 7 June 1954, St. Patrick's School in the parish of Pennyburn opened its doors for the first time and all the children from Springtown Camp transferred to the new school. At 9.10am when we arrived we were directed to the assembly hall, where we said a prayer. Then one by one our names were called and we were marched to our class in a line of pairs holding hands. Our Teacher was a lovely, humble nun; hands clasped together, she walked in front of us. The natural light that shone through the massive metal-framed windows and the brightness of the multi colours of the walls and ceilings took our breaths away. The teachers seemed more nervous on that the first day than the children. Children from ten different schools throughout the city had enrolled at the new school and the teachers were naturally concerned about how children from so many different schools - and from such a variety of homes- would get along together.
Although the schools were open to the pupils in June, it was not until 8 September that all three schools were formally opened by Bishop Neil Farren, who blessed the three schools, the Infants' School, the Girl's Primary School and the Boy's Primary School. The three schools had a combined total of twenty two classrooms.
It was not until 1 January 1994 that the three schools amalgamated to form the present day Saint Patrick's Primary School.
Many of the pupils went on to great things, with The Most Reverend Dr. Eamon Martin Archbishop of Armagh Primate of All Ireland, the best known.
Regarding the teaching it is probably fair to say that renowned playwright Brian Friel would be the best known. However in my humble opinion the teacher that everyone had the utmost respect for, was the Principal of the Boys School Mr. Dermot McDermott, affectionately known as 'Dickie.' He was certainly hard, but without doubt very fair.
I have included three points of views previously written; One by Dermott McDermott the popular Principle, one by world famous playwright Mr. Brian Friel who was a teacher, and taught me for a while there. Also one from a well known, humble and popular pupil Brendan Kerr from the Collon.
Principal - Dickie McDermott
Monday 7 June 1954- on that day the first pupils were enrolled in St. Patricks’s School, in the parish of Pennyburn.
They came from 10 different schools and, I think it is true to say that they were a complete cross-section of the children of Derry. Of the 345 new arrivals to the boys’ school, 154 were from Springtown Camp.
I remember that first day very clearly. We were all most anxious to get off to a good start.
How would these children from so many different schools and from such a variety of backgrounds get along together? For the first time they saw the inside of the building. Those children looked once and were, I think, dumbfounded. The Pinks, reds, yellows on the ceilings the creams, greens and blues on the walls and doors, and so much light and brightness took away their breath. They passed me that day all eyes and silent. In the hall, I welcomed them, said a prayer and called name after name from the rolls already prepared. They walked with their teachers class-by-class to their classrooms and school worked started. For that smooth beginning a special thanks is due to Corr and McCormack the architects, who designed the building.
It is good to be able to report all the original staff are alive and well. Freddie Campbell and myself have retired, Paddy Flanagan was enticed away to Belfast, Michael Quigley is vice-Principal of St. Joseph’s Secondary School, and the remaining five are still in what was Pennyburn Parish. Kieran McFeely and Jim Ramsey are Principle and Vice-Principle in the Boys’ school. Jim Quinn and Sean Mellon are Principle and Vice-Principle in Steelstown Primary School and Neil McMahon is Principle of Carnhill P.S. Good luck to all of them.
Three people who were very much part of our opening day, are dead- Father J.B. McCauley, Priest in charge, Sister M. Augustine, Principle of the Girls’ school and Willie Doherty, our first caretaker. God rest their kindly souls.
And 25 years ago could anyone imagine how the district was to change?
Springtown Camp has gone and it’s children spread to many corners. No harm! They were good children, but Springtown Camp was not a good place to grow up in.
And how many estates and houses have been built in what once were green fields around St. Patrick’s school. Of the thousands of houses now on each side of the Racecourse road, from the school as far out as Lenamore Gardens, only those in Balmoral Avenue and greenhaw Avenue, Shantallow House,and two adjoining cottages opposite the Health Centre were there before opening day.
St. Patrick’s certainly started something!
It was once our boast that standing in Class 8 , through one window you could see the City stretched out before us and through the other we looked across at the old farm dwellings on the hill, its few trees at one side and the rolling fields of grass or grain stretching far away to the Donegal Hills.
How many reading this can remember the old brown, slow- moving burn at the bottom of the playground? It is closed now and its runs somewhere under the main Carnhill Road adjoining the school.
The three schools started with a total staff of 25. There are now 53 teachers! That has been made possible by the erection of semi-permanent wooden classrooms and many mobiles. These mobiles were very much needed, when erected but they have not improved the appearance of the main buildings.
Of the thousand of boys who have passed through St. Patrick’s one has kept coming to my mind since I started to look back over the past 25 years.
He came to us on 4th October 1954 and left on 9th September 1956, and made in all only 124 attendances. On the day he came he was 12years and 6 months old and had never been to school before! He couldn’t read or write and 2+ 5 meant nothing to him. But he had done many things in his young life and we discovered that if 2+ 5 became 2 shillings + 5 shillings the correct came easily. Money he understood. He was the only child I ever taught whose education was based on his money knowledge. I have not seen him since he left school nor have I heard about him. I wonder where Michael Jackson from Springtown Camp is now.
I hope he is well and prospering. May St. Patrick’s School itself continue to prosper and I hope I will continue to have the pleasure of meeting former pupils- even though to-days fashions sometimes make it difficult to recognize them beneath their beards.
Michael Jackson left Springtown Camp with other friends from the camp, in 1960, to pick potatoes in Scotland. He did not come home from Scotland when the potatoes season was finished. His family and friends had lost contact with him soon after that. His whereabouts has not been known since. Where ever he is we hope he is happy.
Brendan Kerr
It was a sunny June morning when I arrived for my first day at the new St. Patrick's School in Pennyburn in 1954. The teachers spent the morning sorting the children into the proper age and primary categories. I recall two teachers who were that morning- Mr. Jim Quinn and Mr. Freddie Campbell, both of whom taught in Rosemount school which I ad left in the summer.
I had a lady Teacher, Mrs. Farren from Buncrana County Donegal for my first term. Then one day our Principal, aka 'head master' came in to our class and told us we were getting a new teacher, Mr. Sean Mellon- a prospect that none of us relished at the time. As it turned out Mr. Mellon was an excellent teacher. I spent three happy years being taught by Mr. Mellon, Mr. Jim Quinn and Mr. Jim Ramsey. Plus the weekly lessons of singing with Mr. Freddie Campbell, which I really enjoyed. Freddie used to drum into us the easy method of recalling the music notes explaining the spaces F.A.C.E. and the lines are E.G.B.D.F [every good boy deserves favour]. Although our interpretation was somewhat different from Freddie's as we substituted "Fags" for favour." I think it was Christmas of 1955 that the school put on the Nativity play. I myself had a minor part in that- a servant of one of the Three Wise Men. The devoutness of the occasion may have been lacking, but we all agreed the 'craic' was good.
The School's under twelve football team
My fondness memory was of the School's under twelve football team, in which I played with my friends like Willie 'Winkie' McKeever, Danny McCaul, Alex Killen, Pat Doherty and Louis McGrory. We had many happy times then in the league and we managed to bring a little bit of distinction to the school when we finished in the runners-up spot in the league. We did this by beating Park Rangers 3-2 in Meenan Park in the last game of the season. The following Saturday we were told by Mr. Jim Quinn who managed the team to appear at the school fully togged out for the Derry Journal photographer- a happy memory.
I remember school dinners were nine pence [old money] but when I elected to go for my Christmas Dinner it was a shilling.
The most vivid memory of all is that of Dickie, our principle, blowing his whistle at 9.10am every morning. Once the whistle stopped, the cane was produced on the walks for the late- comers- a painful memory. Dickie, though was one of my greatest memories, strict but very fair and a gentleman. When I was leaving St. Patrick's in the Summer of 1957 a few of us spent the last week scrubbing the walls and floors. Our reward was one shilling each. Thus was my departure into the unknown world of St. Columb's College and life in general.
Brian Friel
One's life in retrospect seems to be defined by precise contours and primary colours; all Summers were
arcadian, all Winters were artic, pleasures were unqualified, disappointments were total. This remaking I imagine, is a conscious and deliberate attempt to invest mediocrity with passion and drama.
So that when I look back on my three years in St. Patrick's Boys School, I suspect it cannot have been as rich and as fulfilling a period in my life as I seem to to remember. Yet I do remember those years with great delight and with great affection; and even if the interval years has blurred the contours and muted the colours, there lives in the memory a residue of certainty that has resisted the erosion of time.
I am certain, for example, that Dermot McDermott, the principal there then, was the most gentlemanly principal of his time in Derry. I had come to Pennyburn from a school where I was instructed and I am ashamed to say, has subscribed to the belief- that the function of education was to train boys to leap through examination hoops. I pursued that task with vigour for seven years.
I believed I was doing a good job. Then I moved to St. Patrick's. and that transfer was both a liberation and an epiphany. Because without speaking a word Dermot McDermott revealed to me in the most delicate and most sensitive and most courteous way that what I had been involved in previously had nothing at all to do with education; that education was indeed one of the finest of fine arts; that it was possible, as are all arts, only in conditions of trust and love and dedication; that the 'leading out' of young children was a tenuous and sacral task that became gross the moment it was touched with repression; that his own natural courtesy- almost-a chivalry- generated the necessary atmosphere in which true education was possible. So that when I remember those years with Dermot, I know for sure that he rescued me from a kind of ignorance and that it was my privilege to work with a man whose delicacy of spirit was intuitive and unique.
Dermot McDermott Principal with Mr. Brian Friel and his class
I am often asked by interviewers did I miss teaching when I left it for less respectable pursuits; and my answer is that I did. For many many years, I missed the company of my colleagues- Kieran McFeely, Jim Quinn, Jim Ramsey, Michael Quigley, Neil McMahon, Fred Campbell and Sean Mellon. I missed the gentle assurances of that community and the precise, measurable satisfaction it afforded.
But most of all I missed that perilous encounter between pupil and teacher, when the spirit quivers in the
balance, when minute and momentous accomplishments can be achieved or lost, when permanent pigmentation is possible.
So I welcome this opportunity to salute Dermot McDermott who led me out and St. Patrick's Boys' School where I experienced my first real encounters with creativity.
At the opening of the Infants school, the teachers were, Principal was Sister M. Stanisclaus [family name McGurk,] V. P was Sister M. Aloysius, [Family name McVeigh,] Sister M. Teresa McLaughlin, Mrs Martha McGuinness, Miss Mary Catherine Devine, Miss Mary Christina Spellman, Miss Mary Margaret Lagan.
The Infant girls school on opening day June 1954
The Nuns at the Infants school were very gentle and kind and really put the children at ease. They could spot a mile away if a child was shy, lonely or struggling, as it was a new experience for them at school and being away from home for the first time.
The Infant Boys School on opening day June 1954
Mr. Dermot McDermott known to the pupils as Dickie, was Principle, the other teachers were, Kieran
McFeely, Neil McMahon, Michael Quigley, Jim Ramsey, Sean Mellon, Jim Flanagan, Jim Quinn, Freddie Campbell and Brian Friel. One lady teacher taught for the first couple of years, Mrs. Farren, from I think, Buncrana, County Donegal.
The Girls' school also had its fair compliment of girls from the camp. The Principal was Sister Mary Augustine [family name Mullan], Vice-principal was Sister Mary Philomena Donaghy, Sister Mary Immaculata Mulholland, Margaret Gillen, Patsy Casey [nee Devlin] Kathleen McGettigan, Aine Friel, and Marie McCrossan.
Girls from Pennyburn School
The school was known far and wide as simply 'Pennyburn' school, probably because it was in the parish of Pennyburn. Two shops one at the gate of the school and Barney Norrby's bigger shop at the Collon were always packed before school, as we got in our supply of sweets for the day. Most of the children from the camp took the shorter, albeit mucky route down the line of the old disused railway. It was the favourite route if anyone was thinking of dobbing school, which a few boy done on the odd occasion. I have to admit I have never heard of any girls dobbing school.
Girls from the school year circa 1974
The school was alway to the fore in the Derry Feis as they turned out winners year after year and it was pleasing to see the Springtown Camp lads always featuring in the choirs. Freddie Campbell or Michael Quigley were normally the teachers involved as both had a good ear for music.
Feis winners in 1958 with teacher Freddie Campbell
The school was always producing top class shows at Christmas time and the cast were from all areas. They were well supported by the parents with full houses most nights. These shows afforded a great opportunity for the school to enhance community spirit, and the teaching staff were not slow to recognise this. The pupils selected to perform were from different classes and ages and more importantly from various backgrounds. There was a closeness between the cast as new friendships were forged. Fun and laughter was in the air at rehearsals and new friendships were forged. It was a win win situation for the school, for the teaching staff, for the pupils and for the families.
The Pearl in the Ocean one of the successful shows produced by the school staff
The School was one of the largest in Derry, and the teaching staff remained largely unchanged for many years, especially the boys school. I can't recall too many changes at all, during my time at the boys school apart from Mrs Farren leaving earlier on and the arrival of Mr. Brian Friel. One teacher who was ever present all through my years was the Principal Dickie McDermott and I believe it's fair to say we were not too unhappy with that. He was without doubt, the most popular and understanding teacher at St. Patrick's Boys School, I have never heard anyone make a bad comment about him my entire time at school. It is a remarkable fact that out of the 354 boys who attended Pennyburn, 154 were from Springtown Camp.
There is at least 13 boys in this photograph that were from Springtown Camp in the above image sadly a few of them no longer with us. The Girls and Boys from the camp were a massive part of pennyburn school down through the years. Some have fond memories of their time at school and others do not, just I suppose as everywhere else. One thing is certain, on that Monday morning on 7 June 1954 St. Patrick's Infants, Girls and Boys schools didn't know what hit them, when the school children of Springtown Camp made their appearance, and said, hello!
Images of different sections of St. Patrick's Primary School Pennyburn
Three Springtown lads in Scotland picking spuds
Michael Jackson (centre) - Stanley Colby (left) - Willie Divin (right)
The foot paths of the Buncrana Road , Messines Park and the Racecourse Road were crowded with lines of us all walking to school.
The shops of Barney Norrby at the Collon and the shop at the School gate were both packed on school days with children stocking up on sweets.
As we entered the school grounds we were ushered into a big hall and from there on our names being called we lined up and paraded down to our classroom. Mixed feelings of excitement and fear would I suspect have been the overall feelings of us, the first timers.
Remember back then, the cane was in use frequently. Thinking back to some of the punishment we all received from time to time, it would be fair to say that by today’s standards some of the teachers would have been up before the judge in Bishop Street Courthouse.
Did the cane do us any harm? Well, that depends on your point of view. My own personal opinion, I don’t think it improved our ability to be taught any better, and if truth be told it left a feeling of resentment which we carried with us for many years after our school days.
The last few months before we were due to leave school went in at snails’ pace, but cometh the day when we would leave our school days behind us, was a bit strange to be honest. We were being set ‘Free’ to go out into the big world, where we would have to make our own way through life.
Looking back on our days at Pennyburn School, I would have to say, they were not too bad at all. Certainly, on a few days, we felt the wrath of an angry teacher standing with his bamboo cane at the ready. Action that would now surely attract a custodial sentence in a court of law. But that was the way it was, way back then.
For most of us from the camp, our educational expectations were put on the back burner of our minds. The reason being, we were all to well aware, that circumstances in out huts, focused our young minds of the necessity to quickly attain employment. As it was now our turn to provide support and increase our family income.
I think we all managed to do just that.