There were good teachers there,
but one vicious man called Brother Kelly. Some lads got there because their parents paid the fees: some gained a scholarship. A few of them learned to regret it.
There were heavy iron railings
surrounding the school and passers-by could look in and see Kelly lashing the
late-comers, many of them with not a shoe to their foot, with his thick black strap. Locals, and women on their way to the mill in Dromalane - or to the pawn shops - would cat-call
through the railings over the brutal slapping on frosty winter mornings.
Anyway,
it came time for Jimmy (Kirk) Ruddy to find work. His mother sought a job for him as a
message-boy pushing one of those shop bikes with the basket in front. Indeed she successfully arranged such a job
for him in Paddy Crilly's butcher's shop in Sugar Island, dependent only upon a suitable reference from his
school.
Therein
lay the problem.
Kirk
had never been to school.
Kirk’s
Mum walked down the Linenhall Block 5 to number 50 where Dickie Rodgers’s
parents then resided. (They later moved to number 10).
‘Could
our Jimmy go to school tomorrow with your Dickie?’
It
was arranged. Young Dickie was asked
advice as to what young Jimmy would require. Never one to miss such an opportunity, Dickie soon produced a list
(jotter, pen, pencil etc.) that would require Mrs Ruddy to part with 1/- , or
twelve pence, a sizable sum in those days. Another Square lad, Paddy Ruddy (no relation) made up the threesome that
set off the following morning on Kirk’s first venture to school.
First
port of call was O’Hagan’s sweetie shop on Hill Street just across from the Town
Hall. You could get a halfpenny twist of
sweets then and each boy purchased his treat with Kirk’s money. Next stop was Joe Pagney’s Fish & Chip
shop on Lower Hill Street
(where Dirty Dicks’ was in later years). Pagneys was frying from early morning. Three separate pennyworths of chips was ordered and soon consumed.
Eventually
– if somewhat late – the scholars made it through the school gates. Kelly was waiting.
‘Where
do you think you’re going, Rodgers, at this time of the morning?’
Dickie
got a few heavy slaps. In his turn, the
same fate awaited Paddy.
‘And
who are you? And what time do you think
this is?’
Kelly addressed Kirk, holding
up his wrist to reveal his expensive watch.
Before
he could explain that he’d never been to school and didn’t know how to read the
clock, Kirk was reeling across the playground at the blow from the back of
Kelly’s hand!
He
scarpered off home as fast as his legs could carry him.
And
that was the end of Kirk Ruddy’s schooling!
Needless
to say, there was never any reference produced!
