Memories
“Memories”
I wonder if there is a village anywhere in the world with a name such as PRIZON, rather think we are unique- the one and only. I remember some years' back I was at a church gathering, we had a lovely young Irish Priest from Limerick, and he was singing my praises for something or other, and why shouldn't he be, being a fellow Celt. Afterwards being a joker, I said, 'you know Michael I spent the first 18 years of my life in Prizon, actually I was born there'. The poor lad began to look very perplexed and I thought I'd better explain, God knows what he was thinking.
Dear old Prizon School has a lot of memories for me and I am delighted to say most them are very happy ones. They were great days full of innocence and fun and believe it or not we learnt quite a bit. Sure, the stick from behind the blackboard came out now and again, but at times we deserved it. When I look back there are so many memories. I don't think any family was well off, we all lived from week to week, but we had enough food to eat and clothes on our back, and with very loving families we didn't need any more.
When I share with my children what school was like for our generation they don't believe me. But every generation has its own day. There was no central heating or hot running water and school dinners had not been invented. Instead 12 o'clock in Prizon School indicated it was time to get out the cold bottles of tea and 'place them beside the blazing fire so that they would be hot for lunch, now and again however we had to go without, if the bottle exploded.
Eileen Morrison Rushhill outside McCormacks, Balla with Vincent, Brendan, Irene, Bernadette.
Mrs Finan
Teachers in those days had to know how to light a fire as well as 'fire up the pupil’s imagination'. It was only in the last few years of my time in school that we had a shed to sit in, in the playground for lunch. This break time was full of games and fun. The most memorable time for me were the games of football in the playground, anything that looked like a ball would do. When it got muddy we used to play in Reilly field or 'DOYLES' as we used to call him. God Rest his soul. It was nonstop action and many a game was won and lost as we imitated our childhood heroes. There was many a good fight too, but we were always friends again five minutes later.
September was a great month to be back at school, it meant just one thing, Sam Reilly's orchard and apples of all kinds. Do you know hungry young lads couldn't resist an apple? If I remember rightly we took it on turns to escape from the playground. I can recall one day when most of the apples had gone and there were only a few left on the top of the tree, so the lads had to climb high to knock them off.
Nothing put us off, that was until a voice shouted 'STOP' it's the Guards! and believe me you have never seen lads jump from branches and escape through hedges and bushes as quick! Of course, it wasn't the guards at all, just one of the neighbours having a bit of craic. Getting caught would have meant several duck eggs on each hand.
Often an escape from class would be gathering sticks for the fire or helping one of the dads unload a cart of turf, which every family donated for the fire. There was no pampering in PRIZON School, so we created our own games and with the daily changing of rules our day was only made more enjoyable. There were no TV 's, hardly any radios and computers weren't heard of, but the amazing thing was that we were never bored. There are so many stories and memories I could almost go on forever. I often think of the teachers we had - Miss Glynn, Mrs Finan, Mrs Duggan. There were occasional visits from Fr. Killeen, Fr. Cunnane, FR. Fitzsimons and of course there was also Guard Frank Vaughan.
If I had to live my childhood over again, I wouldn't want to change a single bit of it, they really were very happy times.
Miss Glynn
Mrs Duggan