Moving from Upper to Lower Dripsey towards Cork near Griffin’s Garden Centre is Dripsey National. Schools are great sources of information in particular the way a school collects records, photos of its students and roll books. At this juncture in particular I wish to point to the work of the School Folklore Collection compiled in 1938. 

In 1930 the government grant-aided the foundation of the Irish Folklore Institute. A Rockefeller foundation grant of £500 provided further financial help and within five years the institute had built up a collection of over 100 manuscript volumes. In 1935, the government, again for a term of 5 years, set up the Irish Folklore Commission with the primary job of collecting material. The Irish Commission drew on the experience of Sweden who were to the fore with the most up-to-date methods of collection.

In 1937-38, with the help of the Department of Education, a collection of folklore was initiated throughout the National Schools of the 26 counties. Teachers and children alike were asked to approach their traditions as if “it is the first time and perhaps the last time they will be recorded”. Children were encouraged to speak to the oldest living member of their family and their community. The work was supervised by teachers, written up in copybooks and submitted to the Folklore Commission. The net result - 4,574 official notebooks were returned to the Commission. This fascinating archive is now in the custody of the Department of Irish Folklore at UCD, and a microfilm copy of the County Cork material has been available for consultation at the Reference Department in Cork County Library for several years. The collection is known as the Schools’ Manuscripts Folklore Collection.

Noah Sisk, who was 13, interviewed the local postmaster, Mortimer Kelleher who noted a school from the 1800s in the area. It was situated mid way between Upper and Lower Dripsey in the field near a Mrs. Morrissey. The school became a ruin eventually amongst other houses located in an area known as Blackpool, a sort of settlement associated with the Dripsey Paper Mills. It is said that in the school in Blackpool there was a teacher by the name of Mr. O’Reilly known by the nickname of German taught there. Those children whom he taught used to write with pencils. The teacher also used to visit houses outside school hours to give private tuition. Mr. O’Reilly was paid every three months and his salary was three or four shillings. He lived in his own house. A second teacher Mr. Cronin is also noted in Noah Sisk’s notes.