Donabate Historical Society

[Historical Society]

DONABATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Burrow Hedge School
The Mystery of Luffrey's College Solved - Talk by Peadar Bates.
In Parish Hall 8th November @ 8:30 PM. Sharp
Everybody Welcome
A Hedge School in the Burrow, Portrane.

There was a strong oral tradition in the parish that there was a hedge school in the Burrow, Portrane called "Luffrey's College" in the mid 19th century and that the teacher's name was MacKay. No tangible evidence was found of its existance until recent years when research unearthed letters written by the hedge school master himself in which he made references to the existance of this school. Subsequent to MacKay leaving the Burrow he wrote a series of local historical letters to his friend Richard Lynders in Balcarrick. Unfortunately only one of these letters survives.
Mackay, after enjoying what appears to have been good relations with the Donabate clergy, experienced the opposite in Rush where he had his school suppressed. This gave rise to a series of letters to the local clergy, the Archbishop of Dublin and even to the Pope himself. He stood his ground at a time when it was almost unheard of for a Catholic individual of his social class to challenge the hierarchy of the church to which he belonged. In one letter to Cardinal Cullen he wrote:
... Heaven, is it possible that the high and holy dignitaries of the Irish Catholic Church will not order a stop to such destructive proceedings ... our P.P. will have his way to work the ruin of a poor and inoffensive man and his wife.

The talk will also make references to education on Lambay Island, its dwindling population and the concerns of Cecil Baring that the Rush clergy were not catering for the needs of the Catholic population on the island.

There is much more.

Parish Hall Tuesday 8th November @ 8:30 sharp

ADMISSION 3 EUROS