Memories of his school days by Local man Willie John Carlin, historian and railway enthusiast who died January 2005 RIP.
Where were you born, Willie John and what school did you go to?
I was born in 1929 – which leaves me over seventy now. I went to a seat of learning called Barrack Street School. When everything around me is so painful and I hear disturbing stories from the world wide news media, I find that if I turn the volume down and just go back to when I went to school in Barrack Street it’s so comforting.
After a number of years there, you were getting ready to go out into the big world. They have a saying now that you’re a ‘young adult’, and to me that must’ve been quite often in my time
, because given what the needs of a house were and large families, I knew lads that were working after school from they were ten or eleven years of age.
Large families were very much part of the ‘Head O’ the Town’, lads had to work because of the needs of the family.
Barrack Street school had just four rooms. I’ve looked back on it and I can’t disagree that the volume of information we were given stands by me yet. I find that about matters relating to world-wide things that are happening.
The three r’s and music were very much in evidence there.
I find that music, even of the standard of ‘La Boheme’’, and the ‘Pirates of Penzance’, and so many other musical pieces that were given to us, still give me pleasure today.
I am often asked, “Where did you learn about music like that?” I am always glad to say I learned about it at Barrack Street School.
In the curriculum that was available you took in so many things. I found that it was very good for me.
I left school when I was thirteen and a half.
I have been 70 years on this green earth and these are the things I cherish being able to recall.
This short interview first appeared in Reflections, A Glimpse of a Bygone Age, Scribblers 2000
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