A school Around the corner
“A school Around the corner”
A story comes to mind that puts reunion in to perspective.
Mick Ansbro, Tommy Kearns and others
During World War II a German widow hid Jewish refugees in her cellar. As her friends discovered the situation they became very concerned for her, and extremely alarmed. You are risking your own well-being they told her. “I know that” she said, then why, they demanded, do you persist in this foolishness. Her answer was stark and to the point, I am doing it she said, “Because the time is now, and I am here.”
Why reunion? Because the time is now, and we are here. Some people will view the reunion as a rite of passage. Others will see it as a painful reminder of time passing on. Another emotional element to consider is the bittersweet nature of the event. You discover people have passed on, whilst others have major upheaval in their lives.
We all received a basic education at Prison School. The subjects we were taught did not prepare us for the outside world, we learned history, mostly about Ireland, not much about the outside world, the two wars, or the holocaust. Irish was the one subject we spent most time on. English was mainly used as the language we spoke in. I believe if as much time was spent on English as Irish a lot of pupils would have benefited from that. A poor grasp of the English language meant it put obstacles in the path of many, when applying for jobs, form filling etc.…
Very little sport took place in our school. As there were no facilities, except an open field. The town schools had excellent facilities, but we had little or no inter action with them.
The Ansbro Boys Tawnaghmore
Corporal punishment was widely used throughout Ireland.
I believe it was a sign of weakness and insecurity from the perspective of the Education department and its teachers. It destroys the spirit of the child who should be nurtured, loved, and cared for.
Boys in particular need sporting activity on a daily basis to use up their pent-up emotions. However, you would have to acknowledge, our teachers were very dedicated and committed.
Irish was probably the most hated subject at school for most children. However, it was very useful for some that stayed in Ireland. It enabled some people that emigrated to have the inner ability to go on and learn other languages. They say the Irish has a broader grammar base than English giving us Irish, a psychological advantage when it comes to speaking a foreign language.
The Irish language gave us our identity, it gave us our faith, and Irish for us was so to speak a mystery. But we learned it blindly like our religion. Irish enabled us to remain different from others. From the English and from the Yanks. They sometimes could not fathom us, and they certainly could not understand our spirit of community the spirit of togetherness, our spirit of generosity, our spirit in our ability to suffer. To offer it up to go to Mass regularly.
I would like to give you an example of Irish spirit. Ireland was in deep recession, much the same as Greece. The Greeks rebelled, rioted, threw stones in the street. The Irish offered it up, and just got on with working their way out of recession. They were used to suffering. They were used to the abstract, like learning Irish.
Jim and Bill Ansbro
In life, I truly believe there are no accidents, everything happens for a reason. That’s why I went abroad, others travelled farther afield, and some remained at home. All this required one thing from us that we learned the lesson and moved on. We the Irish moved on.
A lovely story J F Kennedy often told about his great grand-father Thomas Fitzgerald. When he was, a boy playing in the fields in Ireland, the fields were divided by stone walls, and every attempt to climb the walls was made by Thomas and his friends, to make sure he did, it he threw his cap over the wall. This motivated him to get his cap back, and he succeeded.
Many of us Irish have thrown our cap over the Irish Sea, the Atlantic. We have to throw our cap over many obstacles in life that we encounter; success is facing the challenges and not shirking from them.
A famous last quote from Oscar Wilde, when facing the wall on his death bed in Paris: the wall was, in great need of decoration, he sighed ‘one of us will have to go’ Ireland sent its finest sons and daughters all over the world to bring the good news to the poor. Irish men and women from all walks of life have become great ambassadors to Ireland. The Irish are the first to respond to a crisis anywhere in the world, they know and understand poverty. And the Irish know what poverty is about whether it is hunger or illness. When Meryl Streep went to Africa and saw all the suffering and illness, she famously said in the film Out of Africa “God made the world round so the poverty stricken could not see too far ahead”.
Mother Theresa once said the greatest poverty is loneliness, people desperate for a chat, a friendly smile.
We must above all else, remember those that stayed at home and kept the fires burning, and welcomed us back time and time again. These are the people that made Ireland great. How much they have achieved, in sport, the Arts, technology, and the medical profession.
Going back to the reunion is also a way of saying thank you to them. These were the people that helped us to throw our cap over the wall. The Irish abroad contributed hugely on the world stage, but it is not a one-way system, it is a dual-carriageway, going both ways. The Irish abroad are only as good as what they give back to the Irish at home.
Every corner we turn there is a school, as we are continuously learning. We learn until the school closes, implying our death, your school closes when you are laid to rest. Heavenly school then opens, and we will all be taught in the language of love.
No exams, punishment, just an atmosphere of love.
We should all make plans for that the ultimate reunion also, Then and only then, we can hang up our cap.