Séan Moynihan, Past Pupil and Teacher

I WAS a pupil from 1958 to 1963 and I taught there from 1970 to 2009. I fondly recall the late Con Enright from Lisbeg who was the first geography teacher I had. Tom Baker from Listowel is another former teacher of mine that I recall vividly. I later worked with many of the people who had taught me and I remember this felt very strange at first.

All the times SamMaguire came to the school – during my time as pupil and teacher – is particularly memorable. I think 17 times in total the cup came to the school when I was there which must be a record. As a boy, I came to the Green from a small, rural National School in Camp and there was no one else from my primary school at the Green and this felt a little daunting for a time. The Green was quite a big school even then and you had two big fields on either side where football was played.

I suppose the big changes in my time was the removal of the corporal punishment and the foreign students who started coming to the school. I don’t think the differences in teaching were vastly different from when I was a pupil to when I became a teacher. Perhaps mobile phones, which caused some problems with discipline; but aside from that it was the same.

When I was a pupil the Christian Brothers were in the majority and they did all the school work and in later years this work gradually became part of the teacher’s role. The Brothers were fantastic and even though they’ve had some bad press in recent years, my experience of them was always positive. They would be there at 8am and still be there until the last pupil left at 5pm. They also taught full hours from 9am until 4pm with no class off. I couldn’t speak highly enough of them and all they did for the school through the years.