This unit has examined the history of a school, or schools within the area.
Sources Included:
(1) School registers from your local school give each pupil's name, their father's name and occupation, what age they were when they entered school.
(2) Census returns of 1901 and 1911
(3) Textbooks from parents and grandparents
(4) Government reports on education and schools. The NationalSchool system was set up in Ireland in 1831. Many government reports were commissioned from about 1825 when the system was being planned.
(5) Local newspapers for advertising, and reports of major events in the area
In late August, near the beginning of each school year, the large department stores advertised their 'Back to school' clothes in the newspapers.
(6) School photographs showing classes and school buildings
(7) Local histories about the area, histories of local churches or parishes will include information on the school and teachers
(8) Oral history
Speak to men, woment, family and neighbours who went to school in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc. and see what things were the same, and what things have changed.
Ask about games played at school or on the way to and from school
(9) Samuel Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland, London, 1837.
Samuel Lewis's A topographical dictionary was published in two volumes, with a third volume of maps. It was published before the famine which makes it very interesting as it shows what the country was like then. It is arranged in alphabetical order by civil or Church of Ireland parish. It gives a detailed description of each parish in the country, giving its size and telling us how many people lived there. It gives a short history of the place and tells us about the churches and schools and about the big houses where the gentry lived.
(10) Barony map.
Memorial atlas of Ireland showing provinces, counties, baronies, parishes, etc., Philadelphia, L.J. Richards and Company, 1901.
This series of colour maps shows all the baronies and parishes in Ireland, each county has a separate map. The parish of Raheny is in the barony of Coolock.
(11) Directories
The Dublin street directories give the names of people who lived on each street or road in the city and county of Dublin. The directories come out every year so if you changed address your name would be given at your new address. They began to publish street directories in 1834 and you can see the directory for the current year at your local library. Only one or two names in the family are usually given, the children are not listed. People use the older directories to find the address of their families who lived long ago, for example you could find out where your grandparents lived when they were young, and you can find out who their neighbours were.
Pigot's Directories from the 1820s and Slater's Directories from 1846, 1856, 1870, 1881 and 1894 give names of people in the major towns in Ireland. Local directories were published in the 19th century, such as Bassett's Directories for Kilkenny, Wexford, Louth, and Guy's Directories for Cork.