Special trip down memory lane as County Derry woman visits her former primary school

A County Derry woman enjoyed a special trip down memory lane last week.

Doyle O’Neill (nee Fitzpatrick) was born in Coleraine in June 1938 and was the youngest of her parents’ Frank and Josephine’s ten children.

However, at the age of only three, Doyle was sent to live with the McKay family in Ballerin as part of the wartime evacuation scheme which saw children living in urban areas moved to rural areas in the 1940s.

Doyle’s family had been friends with the McKays and that was why she was sent to live with them.

While living in Ballerin for several years, she attended St Columba’s Primary School from the age of four.

Last week, Doyle visited the school, which first opened in 1908 and is still in the original building, for the first time in almost 80 years.

She was welcomed to the school by principal, Martina Hughes, who showed her special guest around the old building and the more modern extensions which have been added since Doyle’s time there.

During her visit, Doyle spoke to the pupils about what it was like going to school when she was young.

The pupils were shocked when Doyle, who is now 84, told them about the outside ‘dry toilet’ that she and her classmates had to use in all types of weather.

She also recalled how everyone had to walk to school each day, with some of her friends having to walk several miles in their bare feet.

During her chat with the pupils, she was able to work out their ‘connections’ and found out she had been to school with many of the young people’s grandparents and great-grandparents.

During her visit, Doyle also found her name in St Columba’s 1944 register, which is a precious part of the school’s history.

After living with the McKay family for several years, Doyle returned to her family in Coleraine and attended Loreto College where she was head girl.

However, she never lost her love for Ballerin.

During every school holiday, she came back to stay with Mary (McKay) and her husband Johnny Atkinson.

Mary and Johnny had two daughters, Maura and Eibhlin, who both also attended St Columba’s.

Eibhlin, whose married name is McMullan, joined Doyle on her visit to the school last week and found her own name in the school register from the 1950s.

Doyle said she had really enjoyed her trip to her old school.

“It was so nice to back after all these years,” she said.

“Things have changed a lot since my time at the school. When I was there, there was just one big room with a partition in the middle. Half of the pupils were on one side and the rest on the other.

“It was definitely different times, but I loved going to St Columba’s and I loved living in Ballerin.”

Doyle had nine older brothers and sisters – Peggy, Betty, Mary, Eddie, Tony, Katie, Bridie, Paddy and Anne.

For many years, her parents owned a pub at Newmarket Street in Coleraine.

After marrying Ardmore man, John O’Neill, the couple set up home in Derry and had five children. John passed away in 2014.

Doyle’s unusual name came as a result of her mother’s devotion to a priest called Father Willie Doyle.

Father Doyle was born in Dublin in 1873, the youngest of seven children.

Most of his priesthood was spent on the Jesuit mission team, preaching missions in parishes and giving retreats to religious communities around Ireland. 

In 1915 he was appointed chaplain to the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers and accompanied the regiment into battle during the First World War.

Fr Doyle’s care for others cost him dearly at times. On one occasion, the medical doctor with whom he worked was sick, and there was no dry or warm spot for him to him to sleep in the dugout. Father Doyle lay face down on the ground to allow the doctor to sleep on his back so that at least one of them could get some rest.

He was present at several important battles, including the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Messines Ridge, during which nearly one million pounds of explosives were detonated under the German trenches.

He was awarded the 16th (Irish) Division Parchment of Merit for bravery during a gas attack in April 1916, awarded the Military Cross for his bravery at the Somme, and nominated for both the Distinguished Service Order and Victoria Cross.

Fr Doyle died on August 16, 1917, at the Battle of Passchendaele. At some time in the late afternoon a group of soldiers got into trouble beyond the front line, and Fr Doyle ran to assist them.

It seems that Fr Doyle and the two officers were about to take shelter when they were hit by a German shell and killed. His body was never recovered.

The Father Willie Doyle Association has been set up in recent years to have the Irish priest made a saint.