Launch of a ‘A HISTORY OF ST PETER’S NS’ Drogheda
When Richard Gerrard takes on a task, he takes it on with full steam. And that’s why his latest creation is another masterpiece of detail, stories and prose.
To many passing by Bolton Street on a market Saturday the imposing red-brick building close to the Boyne Shopping Centre car park is but a school.
But its history is a remarkable one, now told in ‘ A History of St Peter’s NS’ – including the wider Church of Ireland community in Drogheda.
Both facets of Drogheda’s past are intermingled in building and creed, and Ricky has set out their story in a superb way.
The book was launched before a full house in St Peter’s Church of Ireland last Saturday, attended by the likes of Mayor Kevin Callan, Oliver Tully, chairman of Louth County Council, politicians, both local and national and many familiar faces from within all sectors of the local community.
The book itself is a stunner – nearly 450 pages, crammed with every detail and picture one could imagine.
But as with all publications, touched by Ricky’s pen, it features people and their stories.
Lorna Cooper is in there, Rea Mcgowan and All-ireland winner Alf Monk. Sarah Warner, David Hepburn, Hazel Spearman, Fergus Mccullough, Joan Huber, Bob Webb in sunny Australia and Alice Smyth are just some of those who share their recollections of past days.
TK Whitaker, who lived in Paradise Cottage at one stage (what a name!) is also featured.
The names just ring out from page to page, the Withrington connection and the ‘Blood of the Boyne’ apples, Jim Walker pictured on his bike in the school play in 1957, Bea Orpen’s painting of the Blue School – where it all began – and the links to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Sunday School on Mary Street and the days when bazaars were truly majestic occasions.
Rev Michael Graham, speaking at the launch, described it as a ‘work of love’ with many hands coming together to produce it, Daphne Graham spending days in the National Library in the initial stages.
Bryan Collins, the present day principal, spoke of how he discovered the old school rolls in a press one day and flicked through the names and occupations, turnkey to herdsman, and how a big Jewish community in Drogheda attended the school in the early 1900s.
Mayor Callan was also rich in his praise of the publication, another appropriate arrival in this the 600th anniversary of the unification of the town.
– HUBERT MURPHY in Drogheda Independent