Podger and Tony

Not many people know this , but school teachers have a secret benefit-in-kind , especially primary school teachers . Most children remember all their lives , their first teacher . The first person they came to know after their parents and immediate family .
Larkfield School on Clareville Road in Dublin was my primary school , between 'babies's' school and the Primary Cert.
Our Headmaster was Mr. Sheehan , and of course , as all headmasters have , he had a nickname ....Podger . He would stand in the entrace hall , underneath the school clock each morning as we arrived , dressed in a neat three-piece suit , his waistcoat straining against his pot-belly , checking his turnip warch against the school clock for accuracy .
He had neat glasses , a pork-pie hat with front brim turned up slightly , balancing on his heels , ocasionally flexing the bamboo cane behind his back as he rapped out instructions on behaviour and appearance to each of us as we trooped in . He had a tiny trimmed moustache and rolling eyes . For all the world like Agatha Christie's description of her famous detective Hercule Piorot .
It was a well run school and although Podger was easy to characture , he was well respected .
My class teacher was a Mr. Taaffe , nicknamed 'Tony' ( it may have even been his true christian name ). A brilliant teacher , dealing with a class of about 40 ,twelve or thirteen year old boys , and still finding time to encourage youngsters to advance their education to second level ( which was by no means the norm at the time ) and even to consider third level which was unusual at the time except for the very well off .
He ran a 'tight ship'and although corporal punishment was order of the day , he seldon had to use his bamboo cane ' although I clearly remember a daywhen a note was being passed around the class with a rude word on it , the note was unfortunatly in my possession when Tony swooped . Outside , in the corridore , a few serious words of censure from Tony followed by a few 'biffs' from the bamboo cane , I seldom used rude words following that ( however with the chaos in our society at the moment I have started to use those words again ) He used tecniques well ahead of the times to encourage and motivate his pupils and advised myself at the time of the Primary cert to consider teaching as a career ( advice which I did not take , however ).
Tony often charactured Podger , but in very good humour ( Podger's son was actually in the class ).
I remember these men very well and appreciate the interest and guidance they gave all of us .
They are both probably long gone now but men like these have given a legacy to the country that is beyond measure . God Bless them.....

Mrs.English

My Grandparents lived in a small terrace of houses in Terenure and as a child I used to visit them frequently after school . Myself and my brothers played with the children of our neighbours but as the people who lived in the terrace were mostly retired tramdrivers there were very few children of our age .
The elderly couple who lived next door to our grandparents had children of about our age , we were six or seven years old at the time . The couple were Mr. and Mrs. English , he a quiet gentle man but his wife was not so friendly ....in fact we were afraid of Mrs. English .
A very severe woman , with steel-rimmed glasses , brownish hair streaked with grey , tight-lipped , dark eyebrows and a mole on her cheek with hair growing from it .
On the occasions when we called to ask her son to come out to play she usually glowered at us and told us to go away . We were very much afraid of her .
One day on coming home from school , to visit our grandparents , as we approached the steps leading to the terrace , we saw a group of neighbours gathered around someone sitting on the steps . The person sitting there was Mrs. English . She was weeping inconsolably .Her hands were over her face , her hair was in disarray . We could not believe that this woman , of whom were so frightened , was capable of such grief .....
My sister explained to me sometime later , Mrs.English's son had just been taken from her . Mr and Mrs. English used to foster children , I recon from about toddler age to the age of say eight or nine . When the child reached the appropriate age the child was taken from his foster mother and returned to ...the orphanage of possible another foster home .
Mrs. English loved her foster children and her heart was broken when the time came to give him/her up....As far as I know she fostered a number of children and presumably suffered the same trauma when the child was subsequently taken back ...
We , as children , didn't notice that the children were too young to be the elderly couples children . The they were so loved and so well cared for by this wonderful lady and obviously when she saw us it just reminded her that some day she would have to hand over her little ones .
This was over sixty years ago and I still clearly remember that day when I learned that you can't judge a book by its cover....