Famous Past Pupils

In 1988 a famous past pupil donated his book to our school. Inside the cover he wrote "Donated to the children of Carramore School by Tom Molloy, a past pupil,1988". The book is called "Reflections in Rhyme, Poetry by Tom Molloy, a Killasser emigrant". There are many poems in the book and some of them tell us about his life in Mayo e.g. "Killasser", "The Fair in Tobercurry", "Davitt from Mayo" and "Ireland the Beautiful".

Tom Molloy was born on the 15th of December 1907 in Cartron, a village in Mayo. He went to the old Carramore school and he was one of the first to start in the new school which was built in 1913. It was not compulsory to go to school at that time so he only went to school when there was nothing to do at home. He left school in 3rd class and went to work for a farmer. He earned a shilling a day and a sixpence on a Sunday. He milked eight cows twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

During Tom Molloy's life he emigrated to a lot of different countries. First he went to England to work but he got poorly paid there. When he was 21 he emigrated to Australia where he spent a few years as a swagman travelling around the country. He worked in the goldmines there until world war two. He joined the army and was posted overseas. In England he married and then he emigrated to Canada. His daughter lives in Toronto.