History of the School

Coole National school was built in 1956 to replace Gallow National School. The present hall in the church yard was where Gallow National School was located. Gallow National school had two rooms, initially one for boys and one for girls. In 1885 the classes were mixed. From April 1923 onwards the names were entered in the roll book in irish. At recreation times, the children played in the woods which then covered the area of the present graveyard and also in the site where the present school sits. There was a fireplace in each of the two rooms of Gallow N.S. and latrines at the back of the school served as toilet facilities.

Records in the National Archives suggest that Gallow N.S. was established around 1852 and that the school was taken under control of the National Education Board on 29th December 1854. Prior to the establishment of the school in the Church yard a was school located in Garadice, however precisely where nobody knows. Possibly it was in the house called “The Hall”, opposite O’Connor’s house at Garadice cross. The basis for this speculation is the fact that this building was the teacher’s residence in 1908 when Mrs Murrin came to teach in Gallow school.

The following is an extract from an Inspector’s Report of 8th November 1885 on Gallow N.S.

“When I visited Gallow Schools for results last January the average attendance of the male school was 32 and of the females 35. 15 girls and 11 boys were in senior classes. I considered the girls school superior to the boys school and it is certainly much neater, the accounts were better kept and the girls and their room were clean and orderly, while in those points the boys were deficient. There has been no change in teacher in the female department for years but almost every new male teacher had to apply and none were efficient. Both rooms are small not calculated to hold more than 36 pupils each so I do not see how one teacher in the female department could do so unless she had an assistant or experienced mentor. There should be all through the school time either a teacher or assistant in each room. But in Gallow there is neither assistant or monitor nor is there an average for an assistant. In January, the pupils of both schools were deficient in Geography and there was a I recollect no map of the world in either school. The supply of desks too was insufficient and bad especially in the boys school”.