Drawing of the book cover Water Under the Railway Bridge by Bill Gerty

11 The People of Killyran

CHAPTER 11

THE PEOPLE OF KILLYRAN

Killyran is an area of land going up from the station in one direction about three quarters of a mile and about half a mile towards Boley in the other direction. The Boley road continuing further for just over one mile, another road running into Killyran came from the main road via Killawilly, this road joined the Ballyconnell and Ballymagovern road. The people of Killyran were all farmers and Church of Ireland, the people of Boley and Killawilly were also farmers but a mixture of Church of Ireland and Catholic.
At the end of Killyran lane on the right side of the road Mr and Mrs Gott lived with their family, Gladys, George, Daisy, Jeannie, Vincent and Anne, across from them Mr and Mrs McCaul lived with their family Victor and Dolly, also living with them was a John William McCaul. Coming back down the lane Mrs. Graham and with her family Arthur, Lily (who was married to my Uncle Frank), Minnie and George. Next farm down the lane was Jimmy Downey who lived with a woman called Jeanne Wallace, behind their farm lived another Downey family, Mr and Mrs and Tommy and Pheobie.
We now come along to the Taylor family Mr and Mrs along with Willie, Ivy and Ida. Coming down the hill from there and just across the field lived Mr and Mrs Crawford with Harold, Wilson, Marion and Cecil. Next door was farmer William Goodwin who lived there with his two sisters Annie and Sarah. We now have come as far as the Station.
There were many more friends of ours who lived out the Boley Road and the Killywilly Road and they will come to light later on in this book.
Killyran school had some memories for me and I enjoyed most of my stay there. Miss Stafford was our teacher and although she had a variety of canes most of us were not too much afraid of her. I'm sure when we got caned we got it for doing something wrong. She taught all the classes from infants, second year, third year to fourth year when we went into Seniors up to fifth, sixth and last year seventh. The school was just one room, young ones at the front and older ones at the back, so when you went up a year you just moved backwards to another desk. The only subjects taught were English, Irish, Maths, Geography, History and one half hour devoted each day to religion. The only sports we had was our own games we made up in the playground. School started at nine o'clock and finished at three, lunch was from twelve till one and there were no breaks morning or afternoon. We had two weeks holiday at Easter, two weeks at Christmas and seven weeks in the summer. There was no gas, electricity or running water.

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The People of Killyran

 

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D. McCauls

J. Gott

A.Graham

Strattons

J. Downey

A. Crawford

T. Downey

Killyran Hall

W.Goodwin

Wm. Taylor

Killyran Station

R. Fee - Later B. White

Killyran School

 

 

Killyran Map

 

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Killyran school

John Gerty Cottage

D. McGovern

D. Gibson

   Gibson

T. Downey

A. Crawford

  Cottage

P. McKiernan

P. Smith

Road Bridge over River

Road Bridge over Railway

Old Fairy House

Oliver Goodwins

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Extract from School Roll Book 1882

Extract from School Roll Book 1882

We had an open fire at the younger ones end of the room and each family was expected to supply a cart load of turf each Autumn. We had a toilet each for the boys and the girls and as these were only cleaned out once a year few people ever used them. The teacher lived in a two roomed flat next to the school, she had a little Ford car in a garage opposite. As this car rarely started we were expected to give her a push with it after school to get it going. On one Sunday in each month a church service was held in the school after Sunday school, which was taken every Sunday. This was taken by Willie Crawford. The only function held in the school was a lantern slide show done by some missionary, usually about some­where like Greenland. It was quite boring but we usually went just for something to do.

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