Cloondoyle (Clondoyle) National School opened in 1879 and remained in the same building until 1943.
In 1943 the school, renamed Scoil Mhuire 'Cluain Mhuire Dubhghaill' (Pasture of the Dark Foreigner), moved to a new expanded building. It remained there until 1973 when the school closed down and was amalgamated into the Glenamaddy (Gleann na Madadh = valley of the dogs) National School.
Notice the young boys dressed as girls. This was a common custom in Ireland up until 1920-'21. The folk tradition is that this was done in order to protect a male child from being taken by the fairies who would then leave one of their own behind. The fairy though would be a 'changeling' and would physically look and act like the stolen child. This belief gave rise to the term "He's away with the fairies" and may have inspired William Butler Yeats to write the poem 'The Stolen Child'.
It is worth noting that the teachers in this photograph were husband and wife.
In 1932 the new Fianna Fáil government imposed a public service marriage ban whereby women civil servants and national school teachers would lose their jobs on marriage.

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