MASTER MC DONAGH
By Michael O Hanlon
Master Mc Donagh was a much loved teacher. He taught in Murlog school from1920-1948. He lived in Derry and travelled to school on the train. The children walked with him every day which was unusual in those days as children did not talk to a teacher.
I remember he used to do what he called ‘sums’ around the class. He would put 3d on the mantelpiece and then question us all until the last one left win the prize. I there were two winners we got one and a half pence each which was substantial amount in terms of what could be purchased.
One day the Master asked if anyone knew any songs. Gladys Sherrin (Melaugh) sang ‘An Irish Soldier Boy’ for the class.
We’d never heard anyone do that before.
John Sweeney and I used to gather sticks from under the hedges for lighting the fire. Every week he appointed two boys to brush the classroom after school and they were paid 3d at the end of the week.
One day he noticed I was limping. I had a boil on my hip. The next day he brought ointment and told me to tell my mother that this would clear my hip in no time, which it did.
Master McDonough had his lunch of a can of tea and bread and jam delivered from Hunters. This family lived in a cottage near McKenna’s. He would check to see who had no lunch and share with these pupils and give them tea from the tin.
Master McDonough was forced to retire in 1948; something to do with records not being kept correctly. The people were angry at the time of his departing. He lived in a flat in Derry after that and a pupil who visited him reported that he was broken-hearted.
What a lovely tribute to a much loved teacher.
Michael O Hanlon in his stories which were first printed in Murlog School Centenary Book 1909-2009, goes on to relate about learning poetry in Miss Mc Donagh’s class and the dire consequences of some of his classmates like Joe Porter and Bobby Mc Laughlin who refused to take the 6 slaps doles out to them.
One day he schemed school decided to go ‘boating’ down the Burndale Dale with Tommy Gallagher from Ballindrait in a leaky boat and had to be rescued by Bobby McLaughlin and Sammy Kennedy.
Brilliant story.
But better was to come when he related about when he was a musician and was playing a gig in Chicago.
One day, many years later, when I became a musician I was playing on tour in Chicago an American soldier came up to me in the street and said he thought he recognised my face. I had been playing the previous night at an Irish dance and assumed that he might have seen me there. He told me he hadn’t but then said, “Do you remember the day we were nearly drowned in the Burndale?” It was the same Tommy Gallagher who was doing his national service in the American army compulsory at the time if you were living in America.
What a story! Two Murlog scholars, who took their learning with them, went their separate ways and years later met up in the windy city of Chicago.
I hope you enjoyed reading these short stories as much as I did.
Another story next week – real or fiction – set around Murlog School.
If you have a positive/humorous/funny tale about Murlog School email me at hillgem@hotmail.com
GC Hill 2020
Gemma Hill Writeyou Writeme 