BY JOHN FITZGERALD
(Part one)
The late Jimmy Hennessy was just four days from celebrating his 93rd birthday in April 2003 when I interviewed him about his long and varied career. I’d like to pass on some of the rare gems I collected on that trip to his home in Borris, County Carlow. He was helping his daughter Meave in the garden when I arrived and had many a story to tell.
Jimmy, whose family lived in Bridge Street, Callan, was educated at the local CBS, left school in 1928 and worked in the Co-op Creamery from 1929 to 1933. Shortly after leaving the Co-op, he also said goodbye to Callan. He was a great grand-nephew of the famed Father Tom O’ Shea, a co-founder of the Tenant Protection League.
I’ll return to his remarkable career and adventures in a future article, but for now I want to relate an incident from Jimmy’s youth- he was fifteen years old at the time- that etched itself into his memory and influenced the course of his life.
He told me of his school days in Callan and recalled a teacher at the CBS who had a sadistic attachment to the use of sticks and leathers. A pupil didn’t need to misbehave or even to lag behind in class to merit a “clout” from the man they called “The Bulldog.”
He was a powerfully built man who kept an assortment of “weapons” displayed on his table at the top of the classroom: Bamboo sticks, and the all-conquering leather. The first leather, he reminded pupils, was fashioned from the carcass of a cow that lay in the stable at Bethlehem.
When a hapless lad incurred his displeasure, he would grab the weapon of his choice and descend on the target desk like the Wrath of God, laying into the miscreant. If The Bulldog was sitting when a pupil got on the wrong side of him, he might throw a wooden duster at the lad. If it missed, and hit the wrong pupil, there were no apologies.
A Little Conundrum
One memorable Friday morning (for Jimmy), The Bulldog strutted into the classroom and informed the boys that he had “a little conundrum” for them. It might prove too challenging for their “dimwit birdbrains”, he cautioned, but they would have the entire weekend to solve it. With a wicked grin, he turned to the blackboard and chalked out his conundrum. It elicited a collective sigh from the lads.
Even Jimmy, who was the class wizard at maths, thought The Bulldog had him in a corner this time, and indeed the teacher cast a smug glance in his direction, as if to say, Jimmy thought, “You won’t sail through this one, Hennessy!”
Jimmy spent hours on Saturday trying to solve the problem…to no avail. But in the early hours of Sunday morning, he awoke in great excitement: He had dreamt the solution! He wrote it down in his copybook by candlelight.
The dreaded Monday morning came. Terrified pupils filed into The Bulldog’s classroom. The teacher had a strange look of satisfaction, Jimmy noticed. “Well”, the big man thundered, “hand me those copies and we’ll see who has brains and who hasn’t.”
After examining all the copies, The Bulldog began calling the boys who had got the solution wrong. It seemed to Jimmy that the whole class was in trouble. One after another, the pupils were called up to be slapped, some with the leather, others with the bamboo.
Jimmy was the last to be called. “Hennessy”, the Bulldog intoned, “do you think you are better than anyone else in this class?” “No Sir”, Jimmy replied, standing up behind his desk.
“And did you get any help with this problem?” “No Sir, the answer came to me in a dream, Sir”, Jimmy retorted nervously.
“Oh it came to you in a dream, did it? The dreamer Hennessy has it all revealed to him in a vision. Come up to the blackboard, Hennessy, and leave your copy on your desk. Write out the solution and let the lads see how brilliant you are.”
Jimmy did as instructed. His solution was the correct one, and he thought his teacher, for once, would have some words of praise. But The Bulldog stopped smiling and turned red in the face. Whipping out the leather, he started beating Jimmy over the head. Then he threw away the leather and used his fists, punching Jimmy in the ribs.
“You’re no better than anyone else, Hennessy, get back down to your desk. I’ll have no swelled heads in this class, do you hear that Hennessy?”
To be continued…
