One of the earliest records of a school in Wicklow is in the Delgany vestry book In 1665 it is noted "pd ye schoolmr, for a quarter 7th December £1 5s 8d, the master was Richard Oard. These schools were esatablished as a result of an education act in 1570 who purpose was to anglicise and civilise the unruly Irish. Their main aim being to produce young people literate enough to understand the scriptures that prompted their establishment. Alongside these schools grew the tradition of the Hedge schools. The fact that education was forbidden to the Catholic, made them convinced that education was a desirable thing to have. The quality of the teachers varied some themselves were barely literate, while others who had trained for the priesthood in Europe. They were paid by the pupils and rarely stayed in one place very long to avoid being captured for running an illegal *hedge row* school. Wicklow County Gaol the building of this place began in 1702 and was completed with a few years, It has been recorded that it cost 2s 6d to supply candles and straw for a party of French Prisoners held within the Gaols walls, The earliest prisoner recorded was one Fr. Owen McFee a Popish priest aged 72 yrs who had been found guilty of saying mass in the county contrary to the law and had been sentenced to transportation to a British Colony in America 1716. Wicklow's first lifeboat station was built in 1857 February 1861 saw a storm of Cyclonic proportion inflict huge casualties on the shipping of the east coast of Ireland The parish church of St Kevin's Killaveny was built between 1841 and 1844 soon after Father Hore ( of the Father Hore Movement) arrived in the parish. Within his parish were two other Churches the Chapel at Crosspatrick ( townland of Bridgeland which was built in 1825 and the chapel at Annacurra The hotel called Woodenbridge on the way to Avoca is reputed to be the second oldest in Ireland Tinakilly house became the home of one of the most famous sons of Wicklow town Captain Robert Halpin whose "Great Eastern" laid the first translantic cable in 1865. Derrybawn house in Laragh was destroyed in 1798 and Inchanappa House now an Equestrian centre was listed as one of the possibles venues the Irish government should use in the "Emergency " of World War Two The Bel Air Hotel Ashford once belonged to Roger Casement. In Avoca and Rathdrum the RIC ( Royal Irish Contabulary ) police station was on the orders of Michael Collins shot up, a man who was to become a much respected legal international diplomat in Ireland , he also met his death in an ambush. Autumn of 1991 it was written More Irish food is eaten in Britain than in Ireland Irish eat more cornflakes than anyone else in the world. ©Cara_Links Researching Co.Wicklow,Wexford. A headstone or two, a dusting of elsewhere A friend is one who accepts your past, loves you as you are, and believes in all of your tomorrow's. ***Please remind me if I have not done that job for you, my intentions are always good, but sometimes time runs out on me, so I leave it up to you to remind me.