Reunion Day Arrives

Well, here it is "The Big Day," Saturday, 18 July. 

We didn't know how it would all be arranged, but we shouldn't have worried since the committee had lined up everything well. Traffic control, a shuttle bus (for old people like me with a cane), parking attendants and even an ambulance on the standby.

We got to park right here alongside of Clew Bay, just below the school:

We were on time, but the wise ones had come even earlier and parked in two fields above and below the school. Here is the crowd gathering in the schoolyard. They had a large tent set up for the attendees, a small tent for the priests to say Mass and another small tent for the children's choir. Well over three hundred people were said to have come. A lot of proud local people and a few "out-of-towners," like us from England, Boston, California, Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Before the program started, everyone was invited to take a tour of the school. We entered through the "boys' door." One of the 90-year old, former students explained that students would line up before school was to start along the south side of the school building, boys facing east, girls facing west, then in they would go through their separate doors.

The school was solidly built and is still well maintained. It is a private residence now, but you can still see that it was three large classrooms and auxiliary rooms as originally used. It's hard to get the size perspective, but it had thick stone walls and large timber framing.

They even had set out a few remembrances of "school days." Below is a one of the still-working, turf fireplaces that would heat each room, and alongside the fire were the bottles of tea and milk the students brought from home that was kept warm by the stove until lunch time.

We met a lot of very nice people as we toured. And they all said we were in the right place when we said we were looking for our Prendergast family line. There were many Prendergasts there, but none could recall the line back to the 1820's, 30's and 40's.

From the school tour, we hurried over to the big tent to look for a place to sit and then met Maura and John Kerrigan's daughter, as seen below, who was selling the reunion's commemorative booklet. Maura and John were two of the committee members who have been planning this event for an entire year.

They probably only got a good half of the people under the cover of the tent. The rest were already to handle the brief, off-and-on showers with their umbrellas in the great out-of-doors.

Below is a photo of the children's choir that sang during the Mass. And just beyond the man in the blue shirt are three of the five priests who had attended this school as children and were very proud to come back and concelebrate Mass. (The fourth priest was back in Dublin to have the funeral service for a brother-in-law who had passed away earlier in the week and the fifth priest was allowed to "sit this one out" since he had already had two Masses and two Baptisms earlier in the day.) Father Pat O'Malley was the main celebrant and he was also a great supporter of the reunion planners. He urged everyone to keep up the connection that had been created by the Accony School Reunion website at http://www.acconyschool.com/ .  (Sue took a lot of the photos you will see on that website.)

(Take a look there yourself and find out more about the history of the school and about the people and places in this area.)

The Mass was well done with many of the committee members taking part in the readings for the service. Gifts of remembrance of the past were presented and three of the men in their 90's who had attended the school were recognized.

As soon as Mass was over, they put out the tables and loaded them with sandwiches, sweets and tea. Just on the far side of the table in the photo below, in suit and tie and glasses is Pat Prendergast who was the master of ceremonies and chairman of the reunion committee. He is about to lead me on to see the man working on the Prendergast family history.

And there below is the man himself in the center, John Gibbons, a retired schoolteacher who is still discovering more and more about the family line. As recently as earlier in the week, he confirmed the locations of the three, main Prendergast families' homes and discovered a fourth Prendergast on the landlord's listings. Needless to say, the search goes on to flesh out the specific details of the family line. And John's niece, Deirdre, is the one who is working on putting all the facts that John is gathering onto a genealogy computer program.

And just as things are wrapping up, who should we run into but Margaret herself, looking younger and healthier each year that we've visited her. Her son, Tommie, didn't care to sit through the program, but she said she was thrilled to be able to meet so many people that she hadn't seen in ages.

Well, that was the first half of the Accony School Reunion, but the party continues as we move on to The Derrylahan's banquet room in the nearby town of Louisburgh for the evening's meal and entertainment.