History of Carriglea N.S.
The original school was situated about half a mile from the present site in the house now occupied by Eugene and Angela Whelan. It was known for years as “The old schoolhouse”.
They converted it into a comfortable modern home and later built an extension onto it. In 1934 the school moved to its present site. It was then a 2 teacher school. It had 2 entrances, one for boys and one for girls. There was also a dividing wall down the field separating girls from boys. The toilet was outside in a shed at the end of the field.
Thankfully before I came, indoor toilets were installed. Miss Clancy was the Principal and Anne Dalton the assistant teacher (that was how the second and subsequent teachers were known). When Miss Clancy retired Anne Dalton took over as Principal and Moyra Baumann became assistant. Later when Anne retired Moyra took over as Principal and Christine Dwyer became her assistant in 1973.
The school had remained unchanged for many years. There was a ditch across the front and a big iron gate with a stile at the side. It was in the late 80’s that the first improvements were made. The wall at the back was buried and the children all used the same entrance. The toilets were upgraded, new windows were installed and a new entrance was built at the front. The biggest improvement was the pre-fab (orange one) which meant that the younger classes moved out and 3rd – 6th classes were kept in the main building. The partition which had separated the two classrooms was removed, it is now being put to good use down in Bushy Park.
In 1998 Moyra retired and Moira Flanagan was appointed. The following year it became a three teacher school when Michele Dwyer was appointed. Michele was housed in another pre-fab which was to the right of the school but eventually when that pre-fab was replaced it was moved to the other side where it still remains. When we were granted a Learning Support teacher this created another post which was filled by Gillian McNamara.
A few years ago, maybe 2005, a massive fundraising drive got underway and we availed of the Small Schools Initiative Fund to build our new school this was officially opened in May 2008 by Sean Haughey T.D.
In 2008 Christine Dwyer retired and Jillian Hayes was appointed Principal.The following year we were allocated another teacher and Mairead Walsh became a permanent member of the teaching staff. In 2011 we were very unhappy to lose Ms. Walsh and  we are currently a four teacher school. We were very fortunate to be sanctioned SNAs along the way and Elaine O`Dea and Kate Kelleher became part of our school community.