School: St Peter's, Phibsboro

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   “In 1907 a weekly Irish class taught by Eamonn Ó Tuathail...”

   

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   namely the Broomfield district, lies along both sides of the main Dublin to Derry road which was one of the main traffic arteries of the old stage-coach days. Irish would naturally disappear quickly in the Broomfield district on this account. Again there was always a kind of social barrier between the two districts, Broomfield and Aghnafarcon. In the former land was fairly fertile and farmers were more prosperous, while in the latter the land was, and is poor and stony. (The stone fences even of to-day are a striking feature of the locality). Broomfield folk tended to look down on Aghnafarcon folk and consequently cases of intermarriage between the two peoples were rare. The Aghnafarcon people were forced to live within themselves and marry within themselves, and naturally the preservation of the native tongue was secured in what one might call a cultural social and economic isolation.

   In olden times Aghnafarcon folk moved and had their being in their own district and were far removed from all sources of English influence, the church the Big House (McCardles Bailiffs of the Bath Estate) and Police Barracks. The national school was their sole medium of contact with the English world.

   Again, other districts in the Parish suffered heavily in the time of Estate Clearances. Aghnafarcon with its poor + rocky soil was, so to speak, the Iar Connaught of Donaghmoyne.

   
   Seamus Breathnach
   15.10.36

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. genre
      1. glossaries (~227)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Séamus Breathnach

   Gender

   Male