General Information about St John's NS., Cratloe.
St John's is a Catholic cooeducational primary school. The catchment area is the parish of Cratloe which is located in the south east of County Clare. There were a number of 'hedge schools' in the area in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The first permanent school was built in 1849 and is now the local Community Hall. Another, four teacher, school was built in 1965. It became clear in the seventies that this site was too small to cater for the growing school population and the present school was built in 1980. The 1965-80 school is now the local shopping centre. The present school has eight permanent classrooms and is now too small to cater for all the pupils in the parish. A prefab was added in 2001 and another in 2002. A few smaller prefabs are used as resource rooms and Principals Office. We are actively seeking extra permanent classrooms and ancillary buildings from the Dept of ed and Science. It is a tediously slow process. Up to the 1960's Cratloe was a quiet rural parish. It has since however grown rapidly because of its convenient and scenic location between Limerick City and Shannon Airport. At present 275 pupils attend the school and this number is growing all the time.

General Background

The practice of formal education through schools began in the earliest civilisations in places such as Egypt, Greece and Rome. As societies became more complex and organised, it became necessary to formally educate the young people to ensure continuity. The model of the skilled craftsman passing the trade on to an apprentice is evident from the earliest times. The crafts and trades, however, tended to be jealously guarded by families and groups, and education was not available to everybody.

The Missionary zeal of the Churches ensured the spread of formal schools. The arrival of Missionaries in Ireland, notably Saint Patrick, marked the beginning of the so-called “Golden Ages”. Monasteries, which became centres of learning, flourished all over Ireland, and the country became known as the “Island of Saints and Scholars”. In old Irish civilisation the poets and learned men enjoyed positions of privilege and status under the patronage of the powerful Chieftains. The poets had to undergo a rigorous training period, which lasted for up to seven years. Not surprisingly, the Bardic schools of poetry, which existed between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, produced poetry of the highest standard in terms of complexity and scholarship. With the collapse of the old Gaelic Order after 1600, the monasteries and the schools of poetry went into decline. Only the wealthy could afford to send their children abroad for their education. In Cratloe, the McNamara family of Ballintlea Castle were wealthy enough to send Donnchadh Ruadh to Rome in 1733.

The poorer people, in their desire for learning, turned to the Hedge Schools. Pupils paid the teacher a fee, which varied according to the subject. For example, Spelling cost 1/8d per quarter, Reading was 2/-, Arithmetic was 4/4d, and Latin cost 11/-. Classes were usually held in a cabin or church as the Penal Laws declined. In 1825, Patrick Hamilton taught at Ballyliddane, Thomas Burke in Cratloe, and Michael McCarthy in Ballybroughan. In 1837, which was before the Famine, 120 pupils attended four private schools in Cratloe.

Daniel O’Connell, “The Liberator”, who is said to have spoken in Cratloe during his successful election campaign in Clare, finally won Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The famous “Stanley Letter” heralded the establishment of the Education Board in 1832. Cratloe’s first school was established in 1849 after a number of applications were submitted to the Board of Education by the admirable Fr John Burke. It is interesting to note that there were over two hundred pupils in the parish at that time. The Great Famine however was to have a devastating effect on Cratloe and numbers rapidly declined until the trend was reversed in the 1960's.

Many teachers have given sterling service in the school for the past 155 years.

The following is a list of teachers who have taught in the Cratloe schools down through the years:-
1879 Richard Walshe Principal
1881 James Browne Monitor
1881 Mick Gleeson Monitor
1881 Pat Frost Monitor
1885 Mick Gleeson Monitor
1888 Patrick Gleeson Monitor
1888 Pat Ross Monitor
1893 Patrick Moriarty Monitor
1909 Thomas Delaney Assistant
1911 John Haugh Assistant
1913 Alice Conba Assistant
1914 Michael Honan Assistant
1914 Katie Frost Assistant
1916 Daniel Gallagher Assistant
1920 Jane Dalton Assistant
1920 Claire O’Donnell Assistant
1923 Miss Sutton Assistant
1926 Eilis Woods Assistant
1930 Mary Setright (McNamara) Assistant
1923 - 1964 Sean Walsh Principal
1934 Margaret Walsh Assistant
1947 Kate Moriarty Assistant
1960’s Dan Liddy Principal
1960’s Gerard Quinn Assistant
1970’s Patsy Nealon Assistant
1970’s Catherine Woods Assistant
1970s Anne Crowe
1970s Marian Garry (O’Shaugnessy)
1970s Hilda McHugh
1980s Brian Nolan
1980s Neasa Keogh
1980s Geraldine Power
1990s Terry Lynch (Sp. Class)
1990 Kathleen O Donoghue (Remedial Teacher)

2000-06 Marea O Callaghan ( Sp Class)

Jody O’Connor is school Principal since 1987 and the school is presently staffed by:
Dympna Maguire, Mary Farrell, Bernadette Kennedy, Noelle Gleeson, Jo O Brien, Claire Fitzgibbon, Siobhan Archer, Kate Kennedy, Mike Sheedy, Gerardine Brennan. Temporary teachers: Sinead Keenan and Aaron Carroll.
LS/RT teachers are Kim Ruane and Catherine Vaughan. Shared Learning . Temporary Reasource Teacher for Travellers is David Horan. Special Needs Assistants are Stella McDonagh, Siobhán Flannery and Dympna Kearney, Maeve McDonnell.

The school secretary is Sandra O’Gorman and is employed in the school since 1994. Jackie O Gorman is Caretaker. Peg Quain is the Cleaner with Marion Prior helping out as part time cleaner.