History
As the century rolled on, stirring events succeeded one another in the outside world. In 1914, World War 1 broke out. In 1918, the Irish Bishops ordered a Black Fast day for peace. Like the rest of the country, the students of the Green, fasted on dry bread, black tea and fish.. At the end of 1918 the “Black Flu” broke out. It is said that 10 million people died of the Flu. The Green escaped lightly, as only one child died, a day pupil. The house was reeking with eucalyptus oil, which was supposed to prevent infection. The streets of the city were sprayed with Jeyes’ Fluid, and theatres and cinemas were closed. We got home on December 14th, a week early. During the holidays there was a General Election, and great was the jubilation when 73 Sinn Fein candidates were elected. Soon after that, the armed struggle between the Irish Volunteers and the British forces began, and the Black and Tans swept up and down the streets in their Crossley tenders. There was a curfew at night. Relatives of some of the girls were shot by the Black and Tans. There was great grief when Kevin Barry was executed, especially as his sister, Aileen, was then at school in the Green. (She later married The O’Rahilly, a noted National figure at the time). During the Christmas holidays of 1920 came “The Truce”. Alas! After the holidays when we came back, the school was split from top to bottom between Treatyites and Anti-Treatyites, according to the views of the families. On June 29th, 1922, those of us who had stayed on to sit for the Matriculation examinations were awakened by the “Rat-a-Tat” of machine guns. It was the attack on the Four Courts. The Civil War had begun. For a couple of days we braved the dangers of the streets and went to Earlsfort Terrace for the examination. Then we were told that the examinations were suspended for the time being. For the nest week or so ordinary life was suspended also, and we spent a lot of time in the “Lane” waiting to hear a newsboy calling “Stop Press”! Then we would dash out to buy a newspaper and see what was going on. There were no trains, so no one could return home.
After 1922, a new epoch began in Irish Education. The new Free State Government set up a Department of Education, which organised a new system of Secondary Education, with a six-year course of studies and two examinations within that period, the Intermediate Certificate Examination and the Leaving Certificate.
There were other developments, too, at that time. The Loreto Examination system was set up, with set programmes for each Grade and examinations at the end of each year set by examiners for the Loreto schools. It had been found that, having only two examinations during their whole school career, did not encourage application to study among the pupils. The Loreto Games League and the Loreto Debating Society were also founded and gave the girls new and absorbing interests, with Inter – School Debates and Matches throughout the year.