Drumconrath and Meath Hill

Drumconrath and Meath Hill
Dr. Plunket found two schoos in the parish at his visitation in 1788. Thirty-six years later, there were four schools. At Ballinavoran, Edward Smith held school in the chapel and had 4 Protestant and 41 Catholic pupils. Years afterwards, one of his pupils — Patrick O’Reilly – himself a schoolmaster — in reminiscent mood wrote:
Ah me! how changed – that straw-clad dome
Was then our rustic college,
Where I from poor Ned Smyth received
My scanty store of knowledge.

At Barley Hill, Margaret Hickey taught 30 pupils. In Drumconrath there were two schools. One of them, a free school, was held in a house given by Francis Singleton, Esq. and was supported by the London Hibernian Society. Its teacher, James Reilly, was a Catholic and he had 22 Protestant and 23 Catholic pupils. The other school was a pay-school and was held in the chapel. It was attended
by 109 children. The parishioners subscribed £5 per annum to Bernard Murray for educating poor Catholic children.

In 1835 there were hedge-schools at Lower Drumgill, Newstone, Ballinavoran, Meath Hill and Barley Hill, in all of which the children were taught the three R s and Catechism.
An application made in 1842 for a neighbouring school states: “There is a hedge school at Drumconrath which is worse than useless.’ A national school with a Protestant teacher was established by Mr. Singleton at Drumconrath in May 1843. Five years later, Fr. O’Brien erected a school adjoining the church and it opened under the Board on 1 February 1848. This school remained in use until a school was erected by Fr. Geraghty in 1911.

A school erected by local subscription was opened at Meath Hill in October 1854. At this time there was a hedge-school at Ballyhoe.
In 1960 Fr. Jennings planned to have a new school built, but it was seven years before his plan came to fruition. The new school was completed by 1969 at a cost of over £50,000 and was regarded as a model of the rural school at the time.
In 1940 Drumconrath school had a total of 109 pupils, by 1955 this number had increased to 166, but had decreased again to 145 by 1975. In 1988 the recorded number of pupils was 200. This number actually represents a new decline, because in 1986 the number was 219. In 1983 the Department of Education approved an extension to the school, but in 1988 one teacher was lost under the new teacher-pupil ratio regulations.