of three lives" (a lease that continues as long as all three of the leaseholders survive.) In 1907 the school merged with the Church of Ireland school in Durrus. Only 4 of the 30 pupils were Methodist. Church Society schools Schools at Knockroe, Gearhies and Gortalassa employed Irish-speaking teachers including Seamus O'Suilleabhain of the Ui Shuilleabhain Fachdnaidh at Bonane near Kenmare. It is believed that the Irish Society was active in this regard. Secondary school The Mercy Order started a school for girls in 1863, initially on a National School Curriculum. The curriculum later expanded to include bookkeeping, agriculture, horticulture, mechanical drawing, dressmaking and cookery. Art, craft and design vocal, choral and instrumental music and song were included. Children were prepared for civil service exams and trained as monitors who would teach in the National Schools. The Intermediate Course started in 1911 and in 1927 a Secondary "top" was attached to the National School. In 1878 the two schools became distinct and the convent school was the only one in the area to provide full-time second level education. In the absence of transport the secondary school was of limited use to children in outlying areas such as Durrus. Recreation Patterns In the 18th and early 19th century "patterns" at holy wells or at Gougan Barra were very popular. In theory these were religious, but in practice they were a form of recreation. In 1813, folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker (1798–1854) attended a pattern at Gougan Barra on St.John's Eve. Large crowds gathered along the lakeshore and in and around the chapels. Penitents inside were on their knees, some with arms uplifted praying aloud others counting rosary beads or using a small pebble or cutting notches on a stick to indicate the number of prayers to be repeated. A rusty piece of iron was passed from one pilgrim to the next and placed on the head three times, accompanied by a prayer. A man belonging to a mendicant order scratched the wall of the well with a piece of slate, following the imprint of the cross. The pieces of slate were sold to pilgrims afterwards as relics. Inside the door of the well seven or eight people were in the water exhibiting their sores. Outside little bottles of glass water were sold and applied to an infected part. Women waited with naked infants to dip them into the well waters. Tented merchants