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Over 160 guests comprising past pupils of Kilkenny College and local friends from the Abbeyleix area gathered at the home of Aubrey, Patricia and Nuzum family on Saturday 28th August for an evening of “Dinner and Swing in the Courtyard”. The proceeds form the evening was divided equally between the Kilkenny College Development Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland.  To date a total of €14,000 has been raised. The proceedings began with a champagne reception (courtesy Castle Durrow) held in front of the house and hosted by Des and Irene Cole. Following the feast of succulent steak (courtesy Ballon Meats) those present danced the night away to the jazz sound of “The Swingin’ Bluecats” (courtesy “Greentech”). Well done and congatulations to Aubrey and his family for a great night and the fund-raising. Such an event does not happen without much hard work and much thanks to the Committee of the KCK Past Pupils’ Association led by its new President Barry O’Connor. Particular thanks to the many sponsors who helped and provided prizes for the raffle: Shaw’s Department Stores, The Rivercourt Hotel, Tir na nOg Manicure, Ken Black, The Italian Connection, The Halo Restuarant at the Morrison Dublin, Bramley Dept Store, Butlers’ Chocolates, Henry Yates Master Housebuilder, The Bar – Robert Bennett & David Keppel, Hilary Lalor (flowers), golf prizes at Portmarnock and many more. Also hard at work on the evening were Khalehla and Tatiana Nuzum Khalehla providing the deserts and salads, and Tatiana managing the table set-up and food service along with Alex Hamilton, Tanya McGahey, Ruth Lappin, Hannah Douglas, Lynda Condell, Evelyn Kavanagh and Elise Fenart. -----------------------------

“But where is the Big Schoolroom?” This and other similar questions were being bandied about on Friday 19th February when a large gathering of Kilkenny College past pupils met up for the annual get together and dinner. The questions were being provoked by the fact that for the first time, the reception was being held in the “Old College” in John Street and which is now the home of the headquarters for Kilkenny County Council.

In his welcome the Co. Council P.R.O. Mr John Mulholland welcomed the assembled company and stated that on behalf of the Council, he was delighted to have the members of the Past Pupils’ Association to their true “alma mater”, - the first time they had been back to their former haunts. Words of welcome and thanks were also expressed by Mr Paul Cuddihy who, while himself being a Councillor and former Mayor, is also a past pupil of the College and recalled his days in the John Street building which was nearing its end as a place of education. Behind the speakers, photographs of the building in its former days flitted through as a slide show on the screens.

The reception was being held in the palatial surroundings of the council chambers with those present wondering what part of the school this used to be. However it was soon understood that this was the area “filled in” at the rere of the once three-sided or “U” shaped Georgian building, so it had no former connection with the old classrooms. But it was as the guests made there way back down the stairs that they were shown the large window that was once the blue double doored entrance between the “Big Schoolroom” and “Room Two”. The fanlight was clearly recognisible and the past pupils’ present were able to orientate themselves geographically and chronologically! Soon the offices became once again the old classroom, through to the senior room and on to the headmaster’s quarters.

As the guests left the building there was a brief visit to the front door still giving out on to the “lawn” and the “bog”. As pupils rarely used this entrance, full advantage was taken on this particular occasion!

Then the past pupils made the short journey out of the famous gates, still extant, but with a modern barrier, and up John Street to the Rivercourt Hotel for the meal. Appropriately this hotel is built on part of what was once the “Bog”, little did pupils ever think that would be dining so sumptuously on the grounds of the often Nore-logged former sports’ grounds.

Congratulations to the Rivercourt Hotel managed by Mr Kevin Brennan who offered a fine meal to the 80 strong guests who enjoyed the conviviality and friendship of comrades and their partners. Leading the formalities was the President of the Association Ms Valerie Giles who welcomed everyone and “Grace” was said by Ms Valerie Twomey (née Horan). The Guest Speaker was the Very Revd Robert Jones, Dean of Trim, and the report from the School was given Mr Herbie Sharman standing in for Mr Aubrey O’Keeffe.

Among the distinguished guests were the Presidents of the Past Pupil Associations of kindred schools and Mr Eric Rankin President of the A.S.U. The High School was represented by Ms Ann Tector (who was also celebrating her birthday!) and Mr Richard Graves; The Kings’ Hospital by Mr Johnny Honner; Wesley College by Mr Peter Squire; Alexandra College by Ms Lesley Rankin; Mount Temple by Ms Lesley Skoyles; Masonic School by Mr Henry Wright; Sandford Park by Mr Stuart Walker and St Andrew’s College by Mr Nigel Meredith. More digitally shown photographs entertained the guests during the evening. A special greeting was given to Stanley Thompson and Rebecca just recently married.

The President read a section of Mr John Mounsey’s memoirs describing what it was like as a pupil in the College in the early 1940s. (His full account maybe found below this report). Valerie contrasted that with the bright modern, comfortable facilities that pupils today enjoy as boarders and day pupils. However the sense of camaraderie comes through in those far-off tough days just as much as today. The same friendships were made in Celbridge as Valerie who had been a pupil there herself recollected.

Valerie congratulated past pupil Mr Brian Thornburgh on his election as Chairman of the Board of Directors and to Mr Aubrey Nuzum and the Revd Canon Patrick Harvey also on their election to the Board. Also to Mr John Shirley and Mr Dougie Gleasure on being founding members of the College Development Foundation.

She thanked Mr Aubrey O’Keeffe and Mr Peter Dukelow for their help and for hosting the earlier Reception in John St. She also paid tribute to Mr Philip Gray who continues to make steady progress and to Mr Aubrey O’Keeffe and Mr Colm Rice who have held the reins so well and now awaiting Mr Ian Coombes to take up position.

The President then introduced Mr Herbie Sharman, former teacher and now school liaison officer to the PPA and Manager of the College website.

Mr Sharman tendered apologies from Mr Aubrey O’Keeffe, Mr Ian Coombes, and Mr Brian Thornburgh. He began with the words of the Most Revd Alan Harper at Prize Day who had bluntly stated that parental choice should continue to be a prime determinant in the provision of education and have the opportunity to choose within their own tradition. Children brought up in rural areas whose parents choose for them an education responsive to a particular ethos should have access to such education equal to that afforded children in the metropolis. Mr Sharman reported on the ongoing struggle about the education cuts taken by Kilkenny College and its sister schools. Meeting are currently taking place with the Department.

There was reference to the outgoing Chairperson Mr Don Brown who had been inspirational in overseeing the development of the new school on its current campus from John St. Mr Brown’s role within the College was now turning to the newly formed Development Foundation which will further develop the campus and buildings especially towards 2038, the 450th anniversary of the College. The Development Foundation has emerged as a concerted effort to concentrate the various groups of stakeholders in the school to coordinate the organisation of private fund-raising now that the public purse has run dry and with a committee comprising of a brace of Board members, two teachers and a pair of past pupils - that of John Shirley and Dougie Gleasure, both of whom the school is delighted to have included. The whole enterprise has been kicked started by a generous anonymous donation and which has also enabled the projected appointment of a development officer and which will liaise closely with the headmaster facilitating the various components involved.

Mr Philip Gray has made great progress during the year with several visits to the College during the year. His attendance at the farewell to the sixth year was poignant and emotional for all concerned. Mr Gray spent much of the Summer in France.

Mr Ian Coombes has been visiting KCK frequently since, is a very experienced leader and well versed in the difficulties of our schools and was one of the leading lights in the most successful conference last October. Mr Sharman paid special tribute to Mr Aubrey O’Keeffe. Aubrey and Colm Rice stepped up to the task magnificently and now both must step down again. His stewardship was an enforced one and to some extent will disappear as a stand-in. Nevertheless his role has been outstanding and should be fully appreciated.

Mr Sharman gave a run down on the College Year and its excellent Leaving Certificate results - 2 with maximum 600 points and 29 with over 500 points.

He also talked on the Careers’ Evening and mentioned the upcoming information evening on grants to be held in April. In the field of Technology the school marches forward with computerised term reports, a revamped website, and the innovative webtext system contacting all parents at the touch of a button. It is suggested that members of the PPA can have similar in order to be informed of key dates.

In conclusion Mr Sharman alluded to the Transition Year, the Music Department, the Revd Susan Green as new chaplain and a round-up of the year’s and current sporting achievements. Past pupils were reminded that they could submit names to the annual memorial taking place the following week. Tributes to those teachers who had recently retired were paid: Ms AJ Murphy, Mr George Coe, Mr Billy Chadwick and Ms Sophie Shirley. Mr Sharman also mentioned that Mr Stan Elliott and Ms Freda Yates could still be seen about the school on occasion.

The President then presented Mr Sharman for the School, a signed Barbarians’ Jersey to be used for fund-raising. It had been originally presented by Ms Gillian Gleasure.

In his address, the special guest Dean Robert Jones spoke entertainingly of his time at Kilkenny College (1967-1974) and explained how he had left but returned some time later to repeat his Leaving Certificate only to find that the College was now inhabited by girls! This prompted his telling the famous tale of God making woman and that he had been making a fine job – until he reached the mouth!

He told of Sundays when he was invited out to one of his pal’s neighbouring house and where he was exceedingly well fed! Other stories included torn floral shirts, men and their dogs, journeys to Archer’s Field and broken staff noses! It was indeed a hard life but bonding there certainly was and Dean Robert was delighted to be back on this occasion to meet some of his former classmates and find out all the different walks of life that had been taken. He himself had gone into the ministry and spent some 20 years in the North before returning to Trim and he was delighted to have his daughter as a pupil in the excellent modern school that is now Kilkenny College.

The President concluded the formal part of the evening by mentioning the various College events at which she had been present. There was also the annual sports’ service, the evening for the retiring staff and the Christmas Newsletter sponsored by the College along with the novel “postits”. The PPA also contributed to the splendidly produced 6th Year Yearbook.

Finally Valerie reminded everyone of forthcoming dates for their diaries: Sunday 21st March, this year’s Sports’ Service in Christ Church Cathedral with Mr Jimmy Magee as speaker on Motor Neuron Disease and also not to forget the Golf Outing on Thursday 29th May in Coollattin and with that she wished everyone a pleasant time for the remainder of the evening.

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JOHN MOUNSEY went to Kilkenny College from 1941 – 45. He has recently been in contact and has sent an account of life in the College while he was there.

Currently he lives in England and has mentioned a number of names, many of whom have now passed away.

He visited Des Harris in 2002 in Vancouver. He recalls Dermot Shankey, the Headmaster's son who was a year behind him. He knew that WR Collier Bertie and WR Tector (Bill) had died. He was particularly close to Bill as he used to be his doubles’ partner at table tennis in Mountjoy. They had one table tennis table and the pair that won stayed on the table until they were beaten.

Often it was through exhaustion that they had to stop.

In his senior years at Kilkenny they were allowed to go out on walks on Sundays. Bill and he used to take off their Eton collars and wear their raincoats and go to watch Kilkenny Hurling team play. He does not know if they were allowed to do this or not. Bill and he had a shilling each way on Caughoo which won the Grand National at 100- 1 . We were the richest boys in Mountjoy that term.

John only visits Ireland occasionally and has been to visit the new Kilkenny College, but not to Mountjoy School since it moved to Clontarf.

He knows J H Stanley (Jack), who was a year junior to him and who won several rugby caps for Ireland around 1947- 49.

In addition to Des Harris, Jack Stanley and Dermot Shankey, he remembers Brian Shankey, Charlie Rafter, Victor Collier, John Pennefeather and his younger brother, who were English, Johnny Brown from Carlow and Edmund Hilton, who was the best games’ player in our year. He came from Thurles and went back to his father’s farm after his 4 years at Kilkenny. Victor Collier was Bertie Collier’s older brother but was a year behind them. There was also Charlie Rafter and his special friend was Dick Purcell, who came from Avoca and won a vicarship to Trinity.

He would be very grateful for any information on the past pupils if they are still around.

Here is his account:

 

My name is John Mounsey and I am 81 years old. I attended Kilkenny College from 1941 to 1945 and Mountjoy School from1945 to 1947. This note is to let pupils and past pupils learn what it was like at the school during the war years.

Like nearly all my contemporaries, I won a scholarship, and one’s fees were calculated on one’s father’s income as my father was out of work before and at the start of the war my fees were very small. The worst part was paying for the uniform and the other clothes we had to take with us in a wooden box, which we had to keep at the bottom of our beds. We wore Eton suits and collars and wore mortarboards on our heads. I believe that the uniform and the rest of the clothes cost £60, which was a lot of money and more than my annual fee.

There were about 60 pupils in the school, all boys and apart from one were boarders. We were divided into 4 classes of 15. Years 1 and 2 slept

in dormitories in a house across the road in John Street. There was no hot water and in frosty nights in winter we used to fill our bowls with water at night and break the ice in the morning. We had to share bowls in John Street so there was a rush to use the bowl first. Later in the main school there was a washroom with a lot of bowls in rows but again no hot water.

The first year boys had to “fag” for the 4th year boys and were called “grabbers”. Some of them were badly treated but my senior treated me very well even though he could be hard on others. He was a Beamish from Cork

And I believe he became Church of Ireland minister. Everyday we had lessons from 9 to 3 and then we went in a crocodile to play either rugby or hockey in the winter and cricket in the summer at the playing fields which were about a mile away. Because of the small numbers, we were not able to beat the large Roman Catholic colleges at rugby, but always gave a good account of ourselves. In hockey, we were the prime under 14 and under 16 teams in Eire. Our under 14s used to play the Kilkenny ladies many times a year and beat them by large scores even though they were at that time one of the foremost ladies teams in Eire. This was about our only contact with the opposite sex once we went through the gates at the start of term. The Headmaster’s daughter was Maeve Shankey, who later became famous as an international hockey player and also competed in athletics in the Olympics. She was at Alexandra College and used to play hockey with us on her Cork and used to play hockey with us on her half term. We did not have a half term break. Sports clothes were not on the laundry menu. So we wore the same shorts, shirts and socks every weekday for a full term. As the rugby pitch was covered in cowpats, I do not know what we smelled like. We had a scout troop and the troop had a boat which we paddled unsupervised in the river. One of the boys, when pushing the boat off, put his foot on its side and some of us went in the water.

None of us could swim but it was near the bank and no one was in trouble. I do not know what Health and Safety would make of this nowadays. As a sequel, I do not remember what I did if anything to dry my scout uniform out and it literally disintegrated. I wonder what the quality of the water in the river was like. That was the end of my scouting career as I could not afford a new uniform. When we were picked to play against another school, which was mostly at rugby because the hockey playing schools were in Dublin, we used to wash our rugby shirts in cold water without soap powders. My favourite away school was Newbridge, which was a very high church Roman Catholic school, because the food there was magnificent.

After tea we studied from 6.30 to 9.3o. In the last half hour we were allowed to read books. With so much study we had almost a 100% pass record in the Intermediate Certificate. Certainly nearly everybody obtained over 8o% in most subjects. Once a week on a roster system we had a hot bath in the main building. The prefect allowed us 6 inches of hot water carefully measured with a ruler. As normal there was no heating, so in the winter we were in and out like a shot, unless the prefect made us wash properly.

Our reputation for games and education was unbeatable. But, on looking back, our living conditions were deplorable. Rationing was very tight; 2oz. butter, 1/2 oz. tea and 1lb of sugar per week. We used to collect 1/2 lb of sugar in jam jars from the Tuck Shop every week. The dining hall had five long tables, four used by pupils and one in the middle used by the staff.

Every morning we had porridge, a cup of weak tea and chunks of dry bread. As there was no butter or jam, we used to spread some of the sugar on the bread to make it more palatable. Once a shop nearby stocked beetroot jam and some pupils resorted to spreading toothpaste on the bread. To make matters worse, the staff had a fry every morning and the smell of bacon and eggs drifted over to our tables. As I remember we had a decent lunch but on five days of each week, our evening meal consisted of weak tea and dry bread.

On Tuesdays, we had jam tart dished out by the junior prefect who sat at the bottom of the table and on Thursdays we had sausages and mash. Some of the pupils used to get food parcels from home (just like prisoners of war) but by this time my parents were living in Northern Ireland and could not send me any food. One member of our class, Johnny Brown, used to get a lot of food every week which he generously used to share with us. His parents had a drapery shop in Carlow.

One of the things we used to do was to try and catch any disease such as measles, mumps and chicken pox because you had good food and a rest in the medical ward. Obviously we survived, and I always look back with pleasure at my Kilkenny College days. When I went on to Mountjoy, the discipline was much easier and the food much better.

After I left Mountjoy I joined the RAF in March 1948 and became a radar technician. Before I joined the RAF, I had never heard of radar. 1 did 20 years in| the RAF, a career I would recommend to anybody. My Kilkenny College education and sport stood me in good stead. On the sports side, the peak of my career was playing hockey for the RAF against Berlin in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. It was the first Anglo German fixture after the war and it was a very diplomatic 2 all draw. I most played rugby for various RAF station teams and for the local civilian teams. For the last three years of my playing career I was captain of Weston-super-Mare United retiring when I was 39. I also played squash and golf. I stopped playing squash when I was 63 and I am still playing golf.

On the academic side, the RAF provided and encouraged further education. I became a bit of a training specialist and was responsible for liaison with the manufacturers to set up courses on new radar systems being introduced into the service. This included servicing and programming computers from 1963 until I left the left the service in 1968. Through day and evening study and a course at the RAF technical college, I eventually became a M.I.E.E. These qualifications stood me in good stead when I left the RAF and when I joined industry I mostly worked on system design on computers and defense electronic systems for Marconi or British Aerospace.

I made several mistakes in my career, but do not regret any part of my schooling or career. I always had a good time.

John Mounsey