Schools in Athy

On a recent visit to Ardscoil na Tríonóide I was reminded of my old school in St. John’s Lane and how secondary schooling in Ireland has changed in the intervening years. In my secondary school days the entire complement of pupils occupied three classrooms and the teachers comprised two Christian Brothers and two lay teachers. Nowadays the co-ed school caters for 865 pupils, with approximately 60 teachers. Donagh O’Malley’s announcement in September 1966 that the country would have free post primary education from 1967/’68 onwards was perhaps the most significant advancement in relation to Irish education since the founding of the National Educational System in 1831. Other than references to private schools in Athy in the 17th and 18th centuries and to the Charter School in Castledermot little is known of education in south Kildare prior to 1831. Under the provisions of an Act of Parliament of 1537 Church of Ireland clergymen were required to take an oath to teach or cause to be taught English schools within their parishes. There is no record of any Athy rector providing a school in Athy prior to the formation of the Kildare Place Society 1811. In 1817 a school with 22 pupils managed by Rev. Charles Bristow, resident curate of Athy, was opened in part of the Courthouse (now the Town Hall). Pupil numbers attending increased to 66 in 1820 and to 127 three years later. Colonel Fitzgerald of Geraldine House is recorded as having provided at a date unknown in the early years of the 19th century a lime and stone schoolhouse for the children of Athy in the area of the present Catholic Church. This was apparently the first building dedicated to the schooling of Catholic boys and girls where the first teachers were Patrick O’Rourke and Anne Doogan. That Catholic school, known as the Poor School, was supported by local subscriptions and superintended by the local Parish Priest, while the Rev. Bristow’s school, known as the Parish School, was supported by the Kildare Place Society. The primary education system established in 1831 was intended to provide education for children of different religions in the same schools with religious instruction limited to reading of the Bible without comment. This was prompted by Catholic clergy’s dissatisfaction with the Kildare Place Society, which Society when established, was intended to provide elementary education for the poor ‘divested of sectarian distinction’. However, the Catholic clergy claimed the Society was not fit for purpose due to proselytisation claims. Those claims were accepted by the Irish Education Enquiries of 1824/’27 which were conducted by five Commissioners, four of which were Protestants. As a result the Commissioners proposed merging existing schools into an inter denominational state school system to give a national education system under the management of a National Education Board. The national education system of 1831 enjoyed the support of a majority of the Catholic bishops and indeed the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin was one of the seven members of the National Education Board. However, that support was not long lasting and before too long the national education system fell out of favour with the Catholic clergy. In their desire to control the education of young Catholics the Catholic clergy shared the Church of Ireland’s opposition to the non-denominational system of education. This led to the denominational school system we have today. Within three years of the founding of the new national education system Athy had three schools. The former Poor School, now known as the National Day School, had 168 boys and 76 girls attending. The Parochial Day School, previously known as the Parish School, had 84 boys and 60 girls as pupils. An evening school operated by G. Bingham was also recorded in the Commissioners of Education Returns for 1834. The following year the National Day School had separated into a girls school and a boys school. To the school building provided years earlier by Col. Fitzgerald was now added another school building provided by Mrs. Doorley who had a malting business in the town. At the height of the Great Famine records show that what was called the Protestant School, where A. Jackson and M. Shugar taught, was located in Emily Square. It had moved from the Courthouse to the house at the corner of Emily Square and Meeting House Lane, owned in recent years by Jack Deegan. The National School in Stanhope Place had as teachers W. O’Connell and C. Lawler, while Emily Square was the location of a classical and boarding school operated by John Flynn. This was one of the many private schools which had been operating in Athy from as far back as the 1670s. The schools in Athy have grown through various stages over the years to arrive at the impressive primary and secondary educational facilities now located at Rathstewart and the Monasterevin Road. We should never forget the dark days of 200 years ago when the majority of the town’s children did not have the means or the opportunity to attend school. That opportunity would come with the opening of the Model School, the Christian Brothers schools and the Sisters of Mercy schools, all of which were established in the years immediately following the Great Famine.