Miss-Delectable
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Belfast Telegraph
My husband Henry and I are delighted to be back in Belfast," Rachel Pollard told the big crowd during the 100th anniversary celebrations in Wilton House.
By Bob McCullough, Deaf Talkabout
24 November 2006
My husband Henry and I are delighted to be back in Belfast," Rachel Pollard told the big crowd during the 100th anniversary celebrations in Wilton House. " We live just a few miles outside Dublin in Dun Laoghaire, but after many years of continuing friendship, Belfast is our second home and I'd like to thank the RNID for inviting me here to talk about The Avenue, my book on Ireland's first school for deaf children.
"The birth of the idea, I am pleased to tell you, took place in Belfast about seven years ago. A former pupil of Claremont, Edward McAuley, approached me and asked if a reunion of former pupils could be organised. This simple request led to extensive research lasting over five years and I discovered stories of courageous and intelligent Irish deaf people from the 19th and 20th centuries waiting to be uncovered. I soon realised there was no record of Ireland's first deaf school - hence this book.
"It all began in 1812 when a student doctor from Cork went to Edinburgh and London to finish his medical studies and gradually became aware of the lack of any schools for the deaf in Ireland. After selecting a 10-year-old deaf boy, Thomas Collins, Dr Orpen gave a demonstration of educating the deaf at the Rotunda in Dublin, and in May 1816, after raising funds at that demonstration, a school was set up, with six deaf boys, in two rooms in a prison at Smithfield, in the capital.
"In 1819 the number of applications increased, including girls for the first time, and the school moved to a large house called 'Claremont', in Glasnevin, two miles north of Dublin - hence the name: The Claremont Institution."
Rachel told us that parents of deaf children in the North found it expensive to send them to Dublin for their education and there was also some dissatisfaction with Claremont for having a monopoly of deaf education, so in 1931 the Ulster Society for the Education of Deaf, Dumb and Blind was founded, first as a day school and when the numbers increased it became the Ulster Institute and moved to the Lisburn Road in Belfast.
Hundreds of Northern Ireland youngsters attended that school until it was knocked down to build part of Belfast City Hospital and pupils and teachers moved to a new site at Jordanstown.
The platform at Wilton House was shared with Professor Michael Schwartz, a deaf academic from the USA who had been invited to deliver the Francis Maginn inaugural lecture, in honour of the man from Cork who became the first ever deaf superintendent at the Belfast Institute and is still highly regarded for the pioneering work he did during the early days of the 20th century.
Rachel agreed that Maginn was, and still is, the most celebrated deaf person in Ireland, but her studies had shown her that several of the old boys of Claremont had been just as famous, especially Robert Lyons, a contemporary of Maginn who unfortunately died young, before his potential could be realised.
"Robert Lyons was loved and respected by all deaf," she said. "My research shows that his funeral was one of the largest in the country for years.
"What would have happened if Lyons had not died? He might have become one of the greatest deaf role models. Even more famous and popular than Maginn!"
Belfast City Hall is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and Rachel told us about another connection with Claremont. In the year 1899 an unemployed deaf man, and former pupil of the school, walked all the way from Dublin with his wife and six children and Francis Maginn got him a job as a stonemason on the new City Hall, then taking shape.
"Whenever you look at the dome of that majestic building remember the man from Claremont who walked 100 miles for a job," she said.
My husband Henry and I are delighted to be back in Belfast," Rachel Pollard told the big crowd during the 100th anniversary celebrations in Wilton House.
By Bob McCullough, Deaf Talkabout
24 November 2006
My husband Henry and I are delighted to be back in Belfast," Rachel Pollard told the big crowd during the 100th anniversary celebrations in Wilton House. " We live just a few miles outside Dublin in Dun Laoghaire, but after many years of continuing friendship, Belfast is our second home and I'd like to thank the RNID for inviting me here to talk about The Avenue, my book on Ireland's first school for deaf children.
"The birth of the idea, I am pleased to tell you, took place in Belfast about seven years ago. A former pupil of Claremont, Edward McAuley, approached me and asked if a reunion of former pupils could be organised. This simple request led to extensive research lasting over five years and I discovered stories of courageous and intelligent Irish deaf people from the 19th and 20th centuries waiting to be uncovered. I soon realised there was no record of Ireland's first deaf school - hence this book.
"It all began in 1812 when a student doctor from Cork went to Edinburgh and London to finish his medical studies and gradually became aware of the lack of any schools for the deaf in Ireland. After selecting a 10-year-old deaf boy, Thomas Collins, Dr Orpen gave a demonstration of educating the deaf at the Rotunda in Dublin, and in May 1816, after raising funds at that demonstration, a school was set up, with six deaf boys, in two rooms in a prison at Smithfield, in the capital.
"In 1819 the number of applications increased, including girls for the first time, and the school moved to a large house called 'Claremont', in Glasnevin, two miles north of Dublin - hence the name: The Claremont Institution."
Rachel told us that parents of deaf children in the North found it expensive to send them to Dublin for their education and there was also some dissatisfaction with Claremont for having a monopoly of deaf education, so in 1931 the Ulster Society for the Education of Deaf, Dumb and Blind was founded, first as a day school and when the numbers increased it became the Ulster Institute and moved to the Lisburn Road in Belfast.
Hundreds of Northern Ireland youngsters attended that school until it was knocked down to build part of Belfast City Hospital and pupils and teachers moved to a new site at Jordanstown.
The platform at Wilton House was shared with Professor Michael Schwartz, a deaf academic from the USA who had been invited to deliver the Francis Maginn inaugural lecture, in honour of the man from Cork who became the first ever deaf superintendent at the Belfast Institute and is still highly regarded for the pioneering work he did during the early days of the 20th century.
Rachel agreed that Maginn was, and still is, the most celebrated deaf person in Ireland, but her studies had shown her that several of the old boys of Claremont had been just as famous, especially Robert Lyons, a contemporary of Maginn who unfortunately died young, before his potential could be realised.
"Robert Lyons was loved and respected by all deaf," she said. "My research shows that his funeral was one of the largest in the country for years.
"What would have happened if Lyons had not died? He might have become one of the greatest deaf role models. Even more famous and popular than Maginn!"
Belfast City Hall is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and Rachel told us about another connection with Claremont. In the year 1899 an unemployed deaf man, and former pupil of the school, walked all the way from Dublin with his wife and six children and Francis Maginn got him a job as a stonemason on the new City Hall, then taking shape.
"Whenever you look at the dome of that majestic building remember the man from Claremont who walked 100 miles for a job," she said.