Resistance Writings 1963
In 1963 a school for Travellers was built by the Travelling community and opened on a site on the Ring Road in Ballyfermot.
Scoil Naomh Criostóir was the first Irish named school and the first Co-Educational school in Ballyfermot.
It was the first school to be built in Ireland by the Travelling community and was opened by Republican and Marxist Peadar O'Donnell. He said "The greatest reason for hating poverty is because of what it does to children. It robs them of their rights, particularly true where education is concerned".
The school measured 15ft by 10ft and was furnished with desks, a wood burning stove made from an oil drum and an earthen floor. It provided an educational space for 50 Traveller children. Scoil Naomh Criostóir was an innovation ahead of it's time, for the first time in Ireland, The Montessori method of teaching was here adopted.
Before daylight, in the early days of January 1964, three lorries, 2 squad cars and tractors arrived at the site where the school was located and Traveller families lived. Twenty corporation workers, the police, a sergeant and a housing inspector were set to carry out an eviction of the families from the site.
By mid morning, with a singing and counting class going on in Scoil Naomh Criostóir, workmen ran a chain around the building and began to pull the structure down with the children still inside. Children and teachers were forced to leave.
A short while later all of the families had left the site and moved to another area further up on the Ring Road in Ballyfermot. On returning to the site to salvage school desks and other items from the school, the families found the school and it's contents demolished and on fire.
In early 1965, when the families moved into the site in Cherry Orchard, St Christopher's School 2 was built by The Traveller Community, providing education to 70 children initially. Bewleys Cafe and the Quaker community provided lunch to the children each day. Adult classes were initiated and ran in the evenings and the school was extended in 1965 with scrap that included some of the film set of The Spy that Came in from the Cold, made in Dublin in Spring 1965.
Scoil Naomh Criostóir was the first Irish named school and the first Co-Educational school in Ballyfermot.
It was the first school to be built in Ireland by the Travelling community and was opened by Republican and Marxist Peadar O'Donnell. He said "The greatest reason for hating poverty is because of what it does to children. It robs them of their rights, particularly true where education is concerned".
The school measured 15ft by 10ft and was furnished with desks, a wood burning stove made from an oil drum and an earthen floor. It provided an educational space for 50 Traveller children. Scoil Naomh Criostóir was an innovation ahead of it's time, for the first time in Ireland, The Montessori method of teaching was here adopted.
Before daylight, in the early days of January 1964, three lorries, 2 squad cars and tractors arrived at the site where the school was located and Traveller families lived. Twenty corporation workers, the police, a sergeant and a housing inspector were set to carry out an eviction of the families from the site.
By mid morning, with a singing and counting class going on in Scoil Naomh Criostóir, workmen ran a chain around the building and began to pull the structure down with the children still inside. Children and teachers were forced to leave.
A short while later all of the families had left the site and moved to another area further up on the Ring Road in Ballyfermot. On returning to the site to salvage school desks and other items from the school, the families found the school and it's contents demolished and on fire.
In early 1965, when the families moved into the site in Cherry Orchard, St Christopher's School 2 was built by The Traveller Community, providing education to 70 children initially. Bewleys Cafe and the Quaker community provided lunch to the children each day. Adult classes were initiated and ran in the evenings and the school was extended in 1965 with scrap that included some of the film set of The Spy that Came in from the Cold, made in Dublin in Spring 1965.
Co-archived Sorcha Nic An TSionnaigh