My earliest recollections of school days are during the late 1920's and 1930's, when I attended Rateen National School. I understand that the ground was given in the late 1800's to the then authorities by Miss Lucy Mayne of Sedborough, Rateen, on a 50 year lease.

Rateen School was an old stone building with a stone wall surrounding the playground, adjacent to a lake. Entrance to the class-room was through a stone hall-way where we hung our hats and coats. Being only five years old, I have little recall of school other than a feeling of impending doom. High windows on either side of the classroom gave only a view of the sky and none of the surrounding countryside. The back wall was covered with maps of the world. Heat was by means of a turf fire. I believe our parents supplied the turf.

As infants we used slates and chalk to learn to write and do sums. We were regularly beaten as a punishment for mistakes, and I withstood this regime for two years before I rebelled. During this two-year period, I was away from school and in hospital for a period recovering from peritonitis. I also remember to this day the anguish I suffered when my younger sister, who was left handed, was slapped regularly for disobeying the rule to write with the right hand. This was despite the fact that my mother bought her a pretty bangle to wear on the right wrist to remind her of the rule. Other children as well as myself were beaten with a rod cut from the hedge, when we missed a spelling or got a sum wrong. I grew to loathe the indignity that we all suffered.

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