Accony School

History

Accony School is named after the village of Accony  which is situated about a half mile southwest of it. The name Aghanny appears on Sir William Petty’s map of Mayo in the year 1685. In more recent maps it appears as Aghany (which is now the official name as far as government correspondence is concerned), but it has been spelled Accony by people in the locality for as long as anyone can remember. The nearby river, which divides Accony from Askelane, is called Sicín.

When a survey of Hedge Schools in the parish was carried out by the government in 1835 it mentioned a “wretched one room building, housing 30 scholars” on the site of the present school.  The teacher was a Mr Walter O'Malley who was paid £4 per annum by the villagers. This is the earliest record of the school building in the area; when it was built is unknown. It is almost certainly the same school mentioned in the 1824 report and described as situated in Askelane - technically quite correct, as the school lies within the boundary of the townland of that name.  It was replaced by a larger one room building measuring 34 feet by 18 feet in 1848, at a cost of £118. The teachers were Austin Malley and P. Heraghty. By 1885 Geoffrey Gibbons was Principal; Anthony Gibbons was Monitor; and an application was made for an assistant teacher in July 1887. That application referred to Bridget (Pat Lannon) Prendergast, who was temporary assistant since July 1885.

According to John Lyons' excellent publication 'Louisburgh: A History', there was some very useful information included with the 1887 application. The school was open throughout the year and there were marked differences in attendance between the months of January and June. the following figures are for males only:

1883   January 27.1   June 45.7   November 25.0

1884   January 31.7   June 40.9   November 24.7

At one time there were 106 pupils on the rolls of the “Old School”.  There were two teachers until the mid 1930’s, when Miss Agatha O’Toole, Louisburgh was added to the staff. There were three teachers when the present school opened in 1937: Mr. P Gibbons Lecanvey, Mrs Mary O’Reilly-O’Toole, Carramore and Miss Agatha O’Toole, Louisburgh. The enrolment was probably declining before the third teacher was added (in the 1930’s) and declined steadily during her period there, with the result the school reverted to two teachers in the 1940’s and remained that way until the closure in 1971.

The catchments area of the school consisted of the villages as mentioned in the poem Louisburgh in Co. Mayo  –  “through Askelane, Emlagh, Roonagh and Pulgloss through Accony’s clustered Array” – and  Lower Doughmakeone was also included.

Detail from Petty's Map of 1685

Ordnance Survey 1835

Some of the pupils from outside the area attended Accony School during the second world war years were:  Eleanor and Richard McEvilly, England and Roonagh, Fr. Tony and Nora Burke, England and Pulgloss.  Also Sheila (R.I.P) and Cully (R.I.P) Duffy, Drummin and Roonagh, Paddy O’Malley, Dublin & Roonagh, Fr. Sean & Damien O’Leary, Louisburgh. 

The school was built by P.T. Kelly, Contractor Westport.  Some labour and material (sand and gravel) was supplied voluntarily by local people during its construction. A section of the surrounding wall was knocked by flooding in the late 1940’s.  It was rebuilt by Peter Kilcoyne, Cargganlaun, father of Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, Castlebar Town Council & Richard Prendergast, Accony.  At the beginning of the second world war the plaque on the front of the building bearing the name and location of the school was plastered over. After the war the plaque was restored to its original condition.