Clare Museum | Músaem an Chláir

This copybook was used from September 1909 to April 1910. The name on the label is Mary Curry, and the label includes the name of the college, Mary Immaculate Training College, Limerick, which was founded in 1898 for the education of primary school teachers. Mary was not the first scholar in the Curry family, as she was related to Eugene O’Curry, who started out his career as a school teacher. Later on, his knowledge of early Irish manuscripts earned him a place working on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1839 and in 1854 he took up the chair of Irish History and Archaeology when the Catholic University was set up in Dublin.

Used for the subject of Science the copybook consists of 27 numbered “Lessons” which are dated and corrected. An examiner’s stamp at the end of lesson 27 reads: N.E.I. Examined, W. Mayhowe Heller, Head Organiser, Elementary Science. An interesting aspect of the science lessons is the inclusion in some of “Weather Notes” where she documents the weather conditions for the previous week. One of these entries, for December 2 1909 records the occurrence in Limerick of a severe storm which lasted several hours. The next day she notes that the newspapers carried reports of the storm which was centred over Ireland and caused much damage including the sinking of a number of vessels. One of these was the “Ellan Vannin”, a passage steamer crossing from the Isle of Man to Liverpool. It foundered off the Mersey Bar and all on board were lost. The name “Ellan Vannin” is Manx Gaelic for the Isle of Man