Timothy Murphy and myself had cause to collaborate on a project before Christmas and as we were winding up our work on that, he kept the conversation going with this gem of a picture from the boys national school classes six and seven from 1959.
The photograph would, most likely, have been taken by one of the travelling photographers of the time with the big, wooden tripod mounted box cameras behind which they would disappear under a black cape in order to compose the picture in the viewfinder.
Where St. Patrick’s is Now
It was taken where St. Patrick’s Secondary School is now.
I remember lining up with my classmates for one such photographer when we were in second class and our teacher Miss. Bridget Cronin posed with us.
She quickly lost her patience and her temper with the unfortunate photographer as he was slightly the worse for wear and had clearly enjoyed a visit to one or two of the town’s pubs before heading for College Road.
Lost his Lens Cap
He lost the lens cap off the camera a couple of times and, while we thought it was great fun to see him chasing it around the yard, Miss Cronin’s fuse was lit and burning rapidly after the second time and they had a right cut off each other.
Timothy’s Note
Timothy’s note, which accompanied the school photograph here explains where it came from:
“While on the subject of old photographs find attached a copy of a school class photograph that was passed on to me a few weeks ago.
“It came from Maurice Brosnan, formally College Road, Michael’s brother, via Kieran Fleming to me.
“Asked to assist with naming the boys in the photo. Between everybody we were to name them all. Thought you might be interested,” said Timothy.
Now, while I have all the names to go with it I thought I’d let the historians out there place as many faces as they can for the rest of the day.
I’ll add the names in the morning.
You can contact The Maine Valley Post on…Anyone in The Maine Valley Post catchment area who would like to send us news and captioned photographs for inclusion can send them to: jreidy@mainevalleypost.com Queries about advertising and any other matters regarding The Maine Valley Post can also be sent to that address or just ring: 087 23 59 467.
