A much-loved motherly figure to thousands of boys at Tipperary secondary school

An exhibition charting the story of the CBS High School Clonmel was 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 following article was included in the exhibition.

“Hey Phyllis, I’d love a curry chip,” is very often how a much-loved figure in the High School is greeted on the streets of Clonmel and even further afield.

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Phyllis Dempsey has been a motherly figure to thousands of boys who have entered the school since she started to work there forty-three years ago.

The tea lady, cooking, and cleaning roles Phyllis has taken on over that time go nowhere close to covering the intrinsic value Phyllis has been to the school and the lives of the students.

Her curry chip rolls special was legendary and former students who fondly remember her meals and her kindness by saying hello to her in such a unique way is a great tribute to the affection and respect so many former students hold her in.
“I love them all to bits, they are so kind and caring, all 700 of them,” said Phyllis who is very much part of the fabric of the High School.

“I love when lads that are long gone from the school tell me they would love a curry chip when I meet them up the town.
It happens outside of Clonmel as well. I remember being at the bus station in Cork and I heard two lads shout ‘Phyllis, I’d love a curry chip’ at me. The curry chip was very popular with the lads, the messier it was, the more they liked it,” said Phyllis.

Phyllis spent a lot of her day cooking for the boys prior to the arrival of Covid but now suppliers look after that and Phyllis just gives the boys tea before their after school study and she cleans the corridors during the day.

“They are all very friendly as they go from one class to another. They would mostly be talking about their girlfriends, or sports, or what they would be doing after school. Years ago you would hear them use the nicknames of the teachers but nicknames seem to have gone out of fashion now. They would often show me pictures of their girlfriends and ask me what I thought.

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“They are all like my children, it is one big family in here. I am in my comfort zone here. It is my second home” said Phyllis who has eight grandchildren and is now a great grandmother.