By Brian McDaid
THE ground floor corridors of St Eunan’s College have a terrazzo finish.
They are polished with footsteps of all who have passed over them – day-boys from as near as the Burmah to borders from as far away as Bruckless. Staff members in black flowing teachers’ gowns, to clergy in collars and scholars in blazers and college ties.
One person who has walked along these corridors is Eilish Masterson. She has served the college as school secretary for 45 years of official service. Unofficially, Eilish, from nearby Glencar, will be closer to making the half century working at the school come the Christmas break.
She has parked her car at the front door of St Eunan’s every school day, and always looked forward to going to her work.
Pen and paper days – Eilish Masterson in her office at St Eunan’s College.
But it was another part of the school building that serves up the earliest memories of her time spent working at St Eunan’s. It was back in the 70’s when as a young student of Loreto Convent, Eilish and her sister Jacquline would head down to give their mother Margaret Gallen a hand in the old tuck shop located a floor below the study hall.
The tuck shop is no more, but one of the old familiar litter bins still stands at the doorway of the little shop. Many former students will remember how the Gallen family transported heated apple pies down from their own shop at nearby Wolfe Tone Place to the students for their 11am and lunch time breaks.
Eilish recalls college connections when brave borders broke house curfew to head up to her parents’ family shop.
It was an era when the teaching clergy that lived in the college would go on evening patrol walks around the school grounds and up Glencar.
One such evening a group of young scholars sneaked out only to notice that a few teachers had followed them. Eilish’s quick thinking mother Margaret brought the scholars in through the shop and into the house, sending them out the back door, over the ditch into the nearby Regans Forest. From there, they made their way down the New Line Road, across the football pitch and over the wall and back into the college.
Eilish Masterson with principal Damien McCroary.
Eilish says the staff and students at St Eunan’s College are like a big family, away from her own family in Lifford. Her husband Paddy Masterson runs a plumbing business, son Enda, who went to the college, daughter Louise, who has an opticians in Raphoe and daughter Roisin, who works in IT in Letterkenny.
Eilish has seen many changes from when she started as clerical secretary, interviewed for the post by the principal Fr Austin Laverty back in 1981. In those days everything was done with paper and pen from enrolments to the everyday running of the college.
Over those 45 years she has met and made friendships with all the teachers and staff that worked in the college. She has seen six principals in charge, starting with Fr Austin, Fr Dan Carr, Fr Cathal O’Fearraí, Fr Micheal Carney, to Chris Darby the first lay person to take charge, to the present day principal, Damien McCroary.
Eilish has joined in the celebrations of many of the college’s achievements over the years and also seen the college work as a big family to embrace students and their families in times of sadness.
Eilish will miss her routine of going into work in a place that she really loved.
She says she would like to have seen the extension of the college happening in her time there.
When Eilish started working in the college there were 495 students at the school, including 75 borders. The extension built in 1979 was to accommodate 500 students. Forty-five years on, staff are still working in the exact same size school building and St Eunan’s has nearly 1, 000 students now enrolled.
On Friday, December 19 Eilish will walk the terrazzo floor, passing through the front door and around the forecourt on her way to her office for the last time as one of the longest serving members of staff the college has ever had. She’s looking forward to enjoying a bit of travelling in her retirement, and more importantly, the arrival of her first grandchild in the new year.
