Ballapousta National School

Ballapousta National School History 1823-2007

A school was first founded at Ballapousta in 1823, some years before Catholic Emancipation. The school was funded by John Taaffe of Smarmore Castle, a local Catholic landlord. It was built on the site where the 'old school' currently stands beside St. Catherine's Church, Ballapousta [photo opposite]. Interestingly enough there is no townland called 'Ballapousta'. The school is correctly named as being in the townland of 'Drakestown'.The name Ballapousta appears in the Ardee Parish registers from their commencement in 1763. The early forms of the name were Ballpuste, Ballapuste and Bailapuste. About 135 years ago it was written as Ballapouch and that pronounciation was used up to 90 years ago.

In October 1823, John Taaffe applied to the Kildare Place Society for funds to help him with the building of the school, which cost £130 and he was awarded a grant of £40 towards the construction costs. The Ordinance Survey map of 1835-1836 shows a school on the grounds of the Catholic Chapel at Drakestown.

The first master was John O'Neill who trained at the society's headquarters in Kildare Street. He completed his training in August and the school then opened. There were two rooms 16 ft. x 16 ft. and there were 46 children on the roll. A second untrained teacher, Rose O'Neill, was employed. The O'Neills lived in free accommodation and also had a free garden.

The Kildare Society was a body set up to provide a system of primary education for the poor in Ireland. It trained teachers, published books and contributed to the financial upkeep of schools. The Society contributed £59-10-oo per year towards the upkeep, furnishings and books for Ballapousta's first school.

The school was one of only four 'Chapel Schools' in the county, i.e. schools set up by the local landlord on church property to educate the local children. The Kildare Society funded the school from 1823 to 1828 when all links were severed by George Taaffe. The school was affiliated to the National Board of Education on December 23rd, 1836, the first school in the parish to do so. Mr. Edward Matthews was the first teacher in the parish to be recognised by the Board of Education.The school was a mixed school from its beginnings. In 1842 the school, called Drakestown School, was refurbished and extended with the construction of a second large room. This work was funded by local contributions

In 1883, the school was divided into seperate boys' and girls' schools with seperate playgrounds for boys and girls.. On February 1st, 1895, the school was declared a mixed one by the Department, because of a ffall in numbers, however in March that year it was again seperated into two schools. The two schools were amalgameted in April 1915 and once again became a mixed school.

In 1963 the 'old school' was abandoned and a new Boyd-Barrett three room school was constructed on the present site. In 1995 a three classroom plus GP room were added. In June 2007 three temporary prefabs were added pending the Department's finalisation of the rebuild/refurbishment of the school to a 12 classroom school.

The Old School beside St. Catherine's Church, Ballapousta