Williamstown Castle

Vorlage:For Vorlage:IrishSchoolInfoBox Blackrock College (Vorlage:Lang-ga) is a private Catholic voluntary fee-paying secondary school for boys, located in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland.

History

The college was founded by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost in 1860,the first of the Order's five schools in Ireland. The founder is listed as Fr Pere Jules Leman, a french missionary with the Holy Ghost Order. It was originally set up as training college for the civil service.

Campus

The College, set in 227,000 m² (56 acres) of grounds, lies 6 kilometres from the city centre of Dublin, just in from the sea. It accommodates approximately 1000 day and boarding students (with a majority of day students).

Status and operation

Blackrock is now run by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost in close co-operation with a dedicated group of lay personnel . The annual fees for first year students in 2005 were €4,550 for day boys, €12,250 for boarders and €13,450 for overseas borders less than schools such as The Kings Hospital and St Columba's College.

The College and its sister schools in Ireland are today held in trust by the Des Places Educational Association , which, as the College's Patron, aims to maintain the Spiritan ethos in all five schools – Blackrock, Rockwell, St. Mary's, St. Michael's and Templeogue – conducted by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in Ireland.

Academics

The curriculum offered is broad, covering all common subjects in the State Examinations including Latin, German, Art, Materials Technology, Chemistry and Economics. Leaving Cert scores tend to be high, with 20% of students scoring 500 points or more. Inspections by the Department of Education found exemplary standards of teaching and learning. [1].

Extra-curricular activities

Sport

Sport is viewed as an integral part of a boy's education and each pupil is expected to participate in some activity. The principal sport in the college is rugby, with Blackrock having held the Leinster Schools Senior Cup 66 times. It has also won the Leinster Schools Junior Cup 45 times. . Blackrock are known throughout the country and internationally as the best rugby schools in the country and in Europe. The U15 team in October 2007 beat a touring Wellington College side beating them 21-17. This Wellington side then went on to win the Daily Mail tournament in the UK making them, effectively, the best side in the UK. Recently Gaelic Games have been played again, with the college fielding a successful under-16 team. Past pupil Mark Vaughan is a forward on the Dublin Gaelic football team. The school also plays other sports including table tennis, soccer, swimming, basketball, tennis, golf, athletics, cycling and squash. Cricket, Judo and water polo are also played for recreation.

Culture

The school produces the annual Leman Festival Concert (presented by staff and students in the National Concert Hall in Dublin), regular choral and orchestral concerts and several annual dramatic productions.[2]

Each year an opera production is staged in conjunction with Mount Anville, a nearby girls' school.

The college also has a debating society, whose members have competed at national and international levels.[3] One of the college Alumni, Shane Murphy (now a Senior Counsel), won the 1985 World University Debating Championship at McGill University, representing the Honourable Society of the King's Inns.,

A transition year program to set up and maintain a radio station, broadcasting to the surrounding south Dublin area, is undertaken annually. It is the only such project in the country. All of the administrative work, promotion and content-creation is the labour of transition year students. The station also allows programming submissions from other schools to be broadcast.

Social work

The spiritual and missionary aspect of the school has been maintained, despite the worldwide decline of new clerics in the Catholic Church. Many charitable causes are supported by the students; most notably the Transition year organises the annual St. Patrick's Day Badge appeal which raises large sums of money throughout Ireland for the Irish charities GOAL and Aidlink. The St. Patrick's Day project is estimated to have raised over € 5,000,000 for charity, raising over € 220,000 in 2005 alone.

The school also has a longstanding relationship with The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, contributing large sums of money raised through various projects. For example, the proceeds of the annual sale of Christmas Trees in the college are donated. In 2007, the Christmas Tree project raised € 93,000 and the total amount raised for the Society in that year is estimated to be in excess of € 150,000.

The College supports humanitarian projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through the college's cycling club, the Willow Wheelers. In 2006, their annual sponsored 160 km (100 mi) cycle raised in excess of € 60,000. The club also annually sends a group of self-funded volunteers to help with humanitarian projects in Africa, most commonly: establishing clean water supplies for villages and constructing schoolhouses/infirmaries or similar institutions.

Bob Geldof, initiator of the Band Aid and Live Aid movements for famine relief in the 1980s, was a student at the college. Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, the Catholic lay movement, is also a past pupil.

Facilities

There are extensive sporting and teaching facilities. The campus is Vorlage:Convert and contains eleven rugby pitches, a cricket lawn, an athletics track, an indoor swimming pool, a gym and indoor halls. Apart from classrooms and study halls, there are nine science laboratories, a woodwork room, a multimedia LCVP room and a home economics kitchen to facilitate teaching. The Boarding school is in Williamstown Castle, containing twin rooms for boarders. There is also a refectory, chapel, lecture halls and stage which hosts student run dramatic productions.

The current refurbishment programme will signicantly extend and modernise teaching facilities.

Associated primary schools

Willow Park School, a private primary school that acts as the College's principal feeder, is also run by the Order and is situated on the same campus. Until the early 1970s, St. Michael's College in Ballsbridge was also a feeder school for Blackrock College, but St Michael's now has classes up to the Leaving Certificate.

Alumni

There is an active association for alumni.

Notable alumni

Literary

• Flann O'Brien
• Pádraic Ó Conaire
• Liam O'Flaherty
• Tim Pat Coogan

Journalism

• Paddy Murray Journalist, Editor, Sunday Tribune 2002-2005
• Rory Carroll Journalist, kidnap victim, The Guardian

Business

• David J. O'Reilly Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation.
• Lochlann Quinn, Former Chairman of AIB, Co-Founder of Glendimplex Group
• Michael O'Rourke Founder of Setanta Television
• Leonard Ryan Founder of Setanta Television
• Dr. Eddie O'Conner Founder and CEO of Airtricity
• Ronan Dunne CEO of O2 UK

Politics and government

• Éamon de Valera (3rd President of Ireland, 1st Taoiseach of Ireland)
• Ruairí Quinn TD, former Minister for Finance, 1994-1997, former leader of the Labour Party.
• Barry Andrews TD for Dun Laoghaire
• Rory O'Hanlon TD for Cavan Monaghan, and a former Ceann Comhairle
• Niall O'Brolchain Councillor and former mayor for Galway South Ward.
• James McNeill Governor-General of the Irish Free State 1927-1932
• Art O'Connor Secretary for Agriculture 1921-1922

Legal

• The Honorable Mr. Justice Ronan Keane, Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
• Dermot Gleeson Former Attorney General, Current Chairman of AIB
• The Honorable Mr. Justice Michael Moriarty, Current High Court Judge
• The Honorable Mr. Justice Paul Gilligan, Current High Court Judge
• The Honorable Mr. Justice John Quirke, Current High Court Judge

Humanitarian

• Bob Geldof
• Frank Duff
• Niall O'Brien

Academic

• James Macmahon
• David McWilliams
• Bryan Patrick Beirne
• Alfred O'Rahilly

Arts

• Paul Costelloe
• Ronan Murray
• Pauric Sweeney Fashion Designer

Clergy

• John Cardinal D'Alton
• John Charles McQuaid
• Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick

Sport

• Brian O'Driscoll
• Niall Killcullen
• Nicholas Roche
• Morgan Crowe
• Niall Brophy
• Leo Cullen
• Shane Byrne
• Victor Costello
• Hugo MacNeill
• Fergus Slattery
• Brendan Mullins
• Neil Francis
• Alain Rolland
• Luke Fitzgerald
• Alan McKenna
• Mark Vaughan
• Bob Casey
• Cillian Willis
• Joey O'Meara Dual International - Hockey and Cricket
• John O'Leary Ryder Cup Golfer (and consequently a major loss to Irish Rugby as a wing threequarter)

Entertainment

• Ryan Tubridy
• Des Bishop
• Ardal O'Hanlon
• Dave Fanning
• Craig Doyle
• David McSavage*
• John Coughlan*
• Matthew Bennett
• Frank Kelly

External links

• Blackrock College - official website
• Willow Park School - official website
• Past Pupil's Union
• GOAL-Aidlink Badge Project
• Ex-Rock Boys Net - Unofficial past pupils' site