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Our Lady Of Lourdes National School


Phone: 01 4541265

goldenbridge convent rollnumber 07546J

      view general school discussions

** goldenbridge-convent-rollnumber-07546J
Lena O´Neill (Dunning) GOLDENBRIDGE CONVENT          
05/07/2009 03:34 PM - (share to everyone)
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I attended Goldebridge Convent School between 1944-l958. My father was baptised in, what was the chapel, just inside the main gate on the right-hand side. In my time it was a classroom. I am disappointed there is no history of Goldenbridge Convent on your website. It was the first Mercy Convent school to have Secondary education, which I attended,but I don´t know the year when it started. St. Michael´s Christian Brothers have the history of Richmond Barracks. I´m sure Goldenbridge Convent history would be just as interesting! Lena O´Neill

Jim O´Connell 05/22/2009 03:20 PM -
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Hello Lena

I lived in Rialto and my mother said she had a cousen who was a preist in Goldenbridge. Did you know a preist called Father Jim. I never knew his surname.

Helen 05/25/2009 09:29 PM -
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Does anyone know how to find the names of those who were sent to goldenbridge Dublin, in 1934-35. Are there any records at all available.

Jan King 06/11/2009 11:56 PM -
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Does anyone know where I can contact Philomena Doyle Who attended Goldenbridge in the 60s

Eileen farnan 06/13/2009 12:50 PM -
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Hi I am looking to hear from anyone who went to Goldenbridge Convent School. Anytime during the 40´s 50.s and the 60s.
Also Basin St/Lane school Dublin

noreen 06/13/2009 09:57 PM -
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hi i am lookng to hear from any one that was in goldenbridge in 1974

Deirdre Hartmann 06/20/2009 09:22 AM -
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Hi , I attended Goldenbridge between 1951 and 1958, Sister Ann was the Principal , and the other sister i think was called sister Garlet....???? My maiden name is Moore.............anybody out there who remembers.................??????

Paula Ryan 06/30/2009 07:30 PM -
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Hi, I attended Goldenbridge primary and secondary school finnishing in 1981. Do I ever remember Sr Ann had 3 older sisters Margaret, Olive and Linda.

08/21/2009 08:49 PM -
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I attended goldenbridge from 1958/1969. My teachers included Sister Kevin Sr. Theresa Margaret, Miss Green, Miss Walsh, Sr Pauline



margaret mary mcgrath( clarke ) 08/22/2009 09:38 PM -
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would love to meet someone who attended goldenbridge convent in 1960 and then St raphaels

Deirdre Corish Finnegan 09/04/2009 12:19 AM -
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I attended Goldenbridge between 1960-69. I remember Sr Anne.Other nuns that taught me were Sr Imaculata Sr Ambrose and St Paul the only teacher I recall was Miss O Neill.I would love to hear from anyone who was in school with me and would love to see any school photos.

geraldine logan(grehan) 10/13/2009 11:51 PM -
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i attended goldenbridge from 1960/1970. i remember sr ann if your skirt or dress was toshort she would pin the evening hearld to it . . ha ha youd have to walk around like that till home time.i remember mis kelly in 4 class mis o neill in 5th and sr silvea i think she never slaped but boy did your legs and feet get numb and your eyes crossed from standing facein the wall all day . ha.ha.im lookin to find photos of first communion and conformation,s. . .i remember sr xxxt she was the anti christ in drag . love to hear from anyone who remembers me im from lally road ballyfermot the posh part .ha.ha...

03/31/2010 10:00 PM -
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hello geraldine, i remember you from lally road.  your brothers pal´ed with my brothers, never knew you went to goldenbridge,  are you still living in julianstown you and yvonne,  i still have the mobile in bettystown.

hope your not a regular in o neills in duleek.  tell all i said hello

 

marian





04/02/2010 07:08 PM -
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Hello, I thought Goldenbridge school was no more. Certainly the convent should be raised to the ground.

Would anyone know Carmel Brennan, her father was the lock man (2 canal locks,) near the iron Bridge. I always thought it was very romantic. Carmel would be in her 70´s as I am, she is probably someone´s grannie. 

We went to Goldenbridge school in it´s grory/(gory,) days. I see from the threads that cruelty was still in practice in the 70´s.    





04/07/2010 08:23 PM -
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I attended the school in the 70´s, remember sr de lourde (very tough) and sr Anne who i am sure was male under that habit. Miss conroy and miss curtain were 2 others i remember. delapidated freezing toilets in the infant wing, and Sr margaret mary leaving the morning milk by the huge radiator to thaw it in winter.the classrooms and corridors were filled with dead stuffed animals. glad my children didn´t have to attend a school like it. i was not surprised with the scandal. we were told never to even look at the orphans as they walked up that avenue at the front of the convent. now i know why 



07/14/2010 02:53 PM -
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Does anyone remember the Edgeworth who went there in the 1950s? I believe my mother was one of them, she sadly died in 1973 but my other aunts are still alive.




08/02/2010 02:41 PM -
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I attended Goldenbridge secondary school between 1953 and 1958. Sr Ann was the principal and was a formidable woman! I remember Sr Therese Agnes who was very strict but a softy at heart. Sr Redempta (maths) was a strange one to say the least. Sr Finbar taught art which I loved. I can remember the faces of the history teacher and that of the science teacher but not their names. I had Miss McCarthy for Intermediate level (all subjects??) and another Miss McCarthy for maths for a short period. Miss O´Malley taught English. I remember my schooldays being a part of my life spent in constant fear and dread although I always studied and often had to be forced to go to bed at night when other members of the family were already asleep. What a pity not to have lived those years as happy and enthusiastically as youngsters do today! Some years later when I applied to go to University, I had to sit the Leaving Cert in a foreign language as this was not included in the school syllabus. I hope things have changed in Goldenbridge! 



10/28/2010 09:05 PM -
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I too was there till 58 I think and remember all those mentioned.  Dipped out before Leaving much to general uproar.  Sr Anne was my godmother! Wendy Bibby nee Ralli)





10/18/2011 03:15 AM -
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I was incarcerated into Goldenbridge industrial ´school´ for the most part of my formative years during the mid fifties to late sixties. I was never considered worthy enough by the religious to be sent to the national or secondary school that was only a stones throw away. Life was pure hell in the industrial ´school´. 

The latter ´school´ terminology was basically a euphemism for a ´child prison´. 

Children slogged away, morning, noon and night at all types of menial tasks, which included making rosary beads behind the closed prison walls of the industrial ´school´. Where Christine Buckley once said that ´the sun never shone´. 

The children were envious of the ´special´ children chosen by the nuns to go the convent school. It should have been the constitutional right of all children in the industrial ´school´ to be educated. In fact, the ethos of the Sisters of Mercy was to educate the poor. They failed miserably the most defenceless children in their care. 

The children would have benefitted enormously from being educated by the nuns, who acted in loco-parentis, as they had to enter a lonely world after reaching the age of sixteen years. They had no parents or compass to guide them through life. They had to make it on their own at a very young age. It was a big injustice bestowed on them by the religious. 

I have very traumatic memories pertaining to my years spent at Goldenbridge industrial ´school´. 

I cannot understand why it was called an ´orphanage´, when in fact most of the children had either one or both parents still living. However, they weren´t told they had parents. The children mostly did not even know their names, as they were called by numbers. They never knew their ages. There were siblings who never even knew they were siblings until they got their records when the Freedom of Information Act came into being in the 90s, which allowed them to obtain information about their past lives. They were shocked. Such was the cruel system that prevailed in Goldenbridge industrial ´school´. 

Methinks there is some kind of revisionist thinking going on, as there is very little information out there regarding the industrial ´school´, which was knocked to the ground in and around the time of the controversy. I had to point out this fact to the historical heritage folk dealing with Inchicore area. There was so much information about the Sisters of Mercy. It´s all wrong.

I never knew the names of the thirty nuns who resided at the convent during my illegal imprisonment. Children such as myself were classed as the lowest of the low. Those who went to the outside school were allowed to have some contact with the nuns in the convent. Children on the middle rung of the Goldenbridge ladder would also have encountered them, as they were given the honourable task of cleaning and polishing the convent and chapel.

Related: 

 Please take time to read the following article in order to get more insight into Goldenbridge industrial "school". Thanks. Marie-Therese O´Loughlin.

This comment was cross posted here > Goldenbridge school days forum




02/25/2013 03:29 PM -
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I went to Golden Bridge School from 1972 aged 8, to 1975 aged 11. I had come from a London school with my father following the death of my mother. I lived with my granmother who was an emotional abuser and tyrant in Tyrconnel park. Homelife was miserable and attending Golden Bridge was a living nightmare. You could hear a pin drop in the class, everyone was so frightened of all the nuns and teachers. Being slapped around the face and bare legs on a daily basis and having to learn all of the Cathecism parrot fashion. Standing up showing respect to these monsters, in Irish that meant "welcome respected teacher" every time they entered the class-room. Threatened with going to the orphanage across the path, I lived 3 years in Dublin of hell and I´m having psychotherapy as a result of my misfortune. When returning to Dublin a few years ago, I went to revisit the ghost and saw the main pillar of the old gate still standing, most of the buildings pulled down. I wish I could undo all of that religious bullshit brainwashing and slap some of those cruel bitches across the face. Sister Anne was still there when I joined the school. I´m so angry about my time in Dublin. Back living in london now.     



02/25/2013 06:28 PM -
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I remember the sandwiches -bread and butter on mondays, jam on tuesdays, current buns on wednesday, corned beef on thursday and jam again on fridays. I think this has stuck in my head as I was always starving. I think the only nun I thought was nice that I remember was a Sr thomasina whose class I was in, in what was known as the new building, where you had to wear slippers. Before this around 1972/73  I was in a class with a teacher called Catherine either Tiffen or Griffiths, something like this, I just remember she was quite viscious. There was a girl in my class then called Maria Bush, who everyone was envious of because she wore nice clothes every day. And 2 sisters called Lisa and Anne-Marie. anne-Marie died of Leukemia in the same year. I can´t seem to remember many other girls names in my class as there were so many, around 50. I think we believed that st Patricks corridor was haunted. I also remember being told not to look at the orphanage children passing by opposite.   





08/23/2013 02:57 PM -
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11/06/2015 01:20 AM -
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Hello

Does anyone remember a Carmel Fox who attended Golden Bridge probably sometime between 1962 and 1970. Her mother was May Fox and her mother was from Dundalk.   We are wondering is Carmel still alive and if so would love to get in touch with her.   Any help on this much appreciated.






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