The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
OPENING A WINDOW TO THE PAST
‘SURREAL’ was the word most thrown around at Knockaderry Farranfore NS last Friday afternoon as former pupils of the school returned to open a time capsule that they and their class teacher – now principal of the school – Áine Daly buried 25 years ago.
The project, known as the ‘2020 Vision Time Capsule Project’, saw the then fifth and sixth class pupils from Knockaderry asked to look back 25 years and gather information on how the environment was in 1970 and see how it had changed between then and 1995. They were then asked to look forward 25 years and to make predictions about life in 2020.
For many of the returning pupils, Friday afternoon was the first time that they had seen each other since the end of their primary school days, but proving that old habits die hard, it didn’t take long for the old bonds and friendships to resurface, laughing and joking about the wonderfully surreal scenario they found themselves in.
For the principal, Áine, the return of the pupils was even more special as, back in 1995, they were the very first class that she had when she joined the school.
Knockaderry was one of only two schools in Kerry to take part in this project, and it was a task they took to with gusto, adding many special items to the time capsule including, to name a few: a letter school from the late parish priest, Fr Michael Murphy; projects on local issues such as Kerry Airport and the train station; letters to their future selves; predictions about what life would be like in 2020; a map of Farranfore; call cards; photos of the class in school from 1996; and old 10p and 20p coins.
After this, the time capsule was taken in February of 1996 and placed in the safe keeping of the Bank of Ireland in Castleisland, who duly kept it under lock and key for a quarter of a century until Friday afternoon, when Fergus Clifford and Teresa McKenna from the bank delivered the capsule safely to the school.
One of the most interesting items from the capsule was a tape cassette on which the voices of the class of 95/96 had recorded messages about their life as it was then and what they thought their life would be like in 25 years’ time.
Some of the predictions made back then by the kids included one who wanted to own houses all over the world.
There were those who dreamt of being millionaires while having a part-time job as a soccer player in the Premier League, while many kids spoke of hoping to have five or six kids by the time they were 36.
Even for me, who was there on the sidelines to report with no connection to the story, I found myself getting caught up in the emotion of the day as these now mid-30s adults – some with their own kids on their laps while others had kids of their own now attending the school – sat listening to their 12-year old selves from 25 years ago: surreal indeed!
As for the day’s VIPs, the former pupils, they were a little at a loss for words after the ceremony as they tried to describe their emotions.
“I found it a bit emotional when the singing and the songs came on from our generation. It was definitely enjoyable but emotional,” said Marie O’Shea, speaking to The Kerryman.
As for Stephen O’Brien, he said that sitting and listening to his young self speaking was a strange experience:
“Yeah, it was surreal to be here. I’d forgotten about the recordings and just to hear your 10/11-yearold self speaking, it was a bit weird.
“We all got letters that we wrote to ourselves and comparing them to what didn’t happen and what did happen 25 years later, it was interesting.
“There were predictions of robots and hover cars so maybe we were thinking another 40 years into the future but overall, it was a very enjoyable experience,” he said.
After receiving a ‘thank you’ bouquet of flowers from her former pupils, Áine told The Kerryman that the whole day was a “wonderful experience”.
“It was tremendous. We were thrilled to see so many of them back, and it was especially nice for me to see them because they were my first class when I started teaching here back in 1995. It was exciting and emotional, and it has been a wonderful day and a very wonderful experience,” she said.