An elder-statesman of a Tipperary secondary school marking 125th anniversary

 An exhibition charting the story of the CBS High School Clonmel is currently running at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History in Clonmel.

This year the High School is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the school. The exhibition will remain open until June 7. The following article is included in the exhibition.

Pierce Purcell had no idea where Clonmel was until he arrived for his first day of work at the High School in September 1962 to take up his first teaching post.

He was to spend the rest of his working career in the school seeing great changes in the buildings and the numbers of students over the years.

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“The High School was my first teaching job and my last one,” said Pierce who retired in 2000.
He joined the staff on the same day as Tom Ambrose and their lay teaching colleagues were Paddy O’Hara, Pierce Durong, and Oliver Doyle.

REASONABLE BUNCH
“It was a very small staff but the numbers were beginning to grow. At the time there were Christian Brothers all over the place, they were a reasonable bunch enough. While Bro Finnegan was in charge, the ‘real boss’ was Bro Collins who hated soccer or anything like that,” he said.

“On my first day Bro Collins, who spoke to me in Irish, opened a drawer and took out a leather, and gave it to me. Everybody got one, that was the norm and you were expected to hammer the young lads with it. Most of us never bothered, in general, young lads were very well-behaved. He became very active in the ASTI and in 1973 he was allowed to take a year off work as he became President of the ASTI.

“I think the Brothers were pro-trade union, they didn’t mind me taking up the post as they believed it gave the school a boost,” said Pierce.
He recalls the numbers in the school growing rapidly in the late sixties after the announcement of free secondary education by Donogh O’ Malley and that led to a major expansion of school facilities in the seventies.

TRANSITION YEAR
“When the Brothers left Clonmel I think they accepted that their time was up. Vocations were way down and the socio-political influence of the Catholic church was declining the whole time. I think one of the most important developments over the years was the introduction of Transition Year because it gave young lads a sense of the real world and some idea of what they might like to do after school,” he said.

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“My job in the High School was always interesting and I was very happy to stay there for all of my teaching career. I have nothing but good memories of the High School,” said Pierce.