GERRY SMYTH, TRIM, BORN 1907

Gerry Smyth was recorded at St. Elizabeth’s Nursing Home, Athboy. He was born and reared in Stackallen, Slane in 1907, and his earliest memories include hearing talk of the sinking of the Titanic and the 1916 Rebellion. Gerry qualified as a teacher in 1928 and was appointed principal at Dunshaughlin National School in 1932 where he remained until he retired in 1972. Subjects discussed in this recording are the primary curriculum and the teaching methods, the change in the teaching language for some subjects from English to Irish, his support for Michael Collins and the Blueshirts, the Folklore Commission’s Schools Folklore Project in the late 1930s, his membership of the Local Security Force during The Emergency and the major improvements in the lives of the population due to the arrival of electricity, the telephone and tarred roads. He is a founder member of Muintir na Tire and a member of the Knights of Columbanus.