Paddy Crosbie

Paddy Crosbie (1 October 1913 – 2 September 1982) was the Irish creator of the radio and television programmes The School Around The Corner and Back To School.

Crosbie was born in Dublin, Ireland on 1 October 1913 at 12A Bridewell Lane, which was one of the houses converted from the old Smithfield Bridewell shortly before the First World War. His parents were Martin Crosbie and Lily Corcoran.

He attended infant school in Stanhope Street and on 23 August 1920 he entered St. Paul's Christian Brothers' School, North Brunswick Street, known to Dubliners as "Brunner". He would eventually spend 57 years in this school as pupil and teacher. Crosbie subsequently studied at St. Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra and University College, Dublin.

Crosbie was only four weeks in Brunner when the sound of shots put a stop to lessons for a short time. It was the day when a youth name Kevin Barry had been captured by the British after an ambush. Two soldiers were killed. Five weeks later on 1 November, he stood outside Mountjoy Jail with his mother and his older brother Martin Crosbie, awaiting the notice of his execution.

He was a keen sportsman in his youth, and won a special medal when defeating Austin Clarke, the all-Ireland singles handball champion. He played steady hurling for the Dublin club Eoghan ruadh, and created a Dublin Tennis League record by never losing a singles set between 1938 and 1950.

Crosbie composed songs (most remembered would be the theme song for "School Around The Corner), comic rhyme and scripts for stage and television. He wrote two books Tales from the School Around the Corner in 1979 and Your Dinner's Poured Out in 1981.

His interest in the entertainment world began in the early nineteen forties when he used to write scripts for the amateur shows put on by a Dublin tennis club. It was Mike Nolan the well known comedian, of the forties and fifties, who introduced him to the powers-that-were and soon he was writing scripts for stars like Noel Purcell and the Happy Gang in Dublin's Capitol Theatre and the Theatre Royal .

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