After 200 years of educating the youth of Ireland the Christian Brothers will be putting down the chalk for the last time this summer, as the school bell rings out on an old Irish tradition.
The formal launch of the Edmund Rice School Trust took place at Dublin Castle on June 1st. The Christian Brothers have handed over its network of 96 schools in the Republic of Ireland to a lay trust. This new trust will assume responsibility for primary and secondary schools, 35,000 students and 2,700 teachers effective from September 1st. It marks the end of an era dating from 1804 to 2008.
Michael Finuchane Principal of O'Connell Schools on the North Circular Road, told the Epoch Times, "the new trust will continue to run the schools according to the ethos of a Catholic education.
"The buildings have already passed over to the stewardship of the trust. There will be eight people on the board including Justice Peter Kelly, Pat diggings, Gerry Bennett and politician Pat Cox.
" I feel it is an admirable thing because the trust was formed on a voluntary basis, maybe in the long term there could be changes like co-ed could be introduced but it would have to be looked at from the broader aspect and other local schools would have to be taken into account."
A school tradition founded on compassion and faith
Founder of Christian Brother schools Edmund Rice was born in 1762 in Callan, Kilkenny, to a farming family.
As a teenager he was apprenticed to an uncle who plied goods to the shipping industry. He married at 24. Three years later his wife Mary Elliot from Waterford died in 1786 from a fall from a horse.
She had been heavily pregnant at the time. Edmund was left to bring up their handicapped daughter alone. By the age of 35 he had become a very wealthy entrepreneur and decided to do something for the Catholic youth of Ireland most of which had no formal education.
He opened schools in Waterford and Dublin. Along with the schools he opened bakeries and sewing factories so that the poor would not only be educated they would be fed and clothed.
At that time the schools were bitterly opposed by an anti-Catholic lobby but he had the support of Daniel O'Connell famous for spearheading the fight for Catholic emancipation and who donated 1500 pounds to the schools.
He also founded a new religious order for men in Ireland and in 1820 the new Christian Brother Congregation was approved by the Pope. To date the Christian Brother and the Presentation Brothers have served in 35 countries across the globe.
Famous past pupils
Some famous past pupils include former president Sean T O Kelly and former Taoiseach Sean Lemass, Tony Gregory TD and film producer and director Jim Sheridan. On a past students website, Trevor Sargent TD said the only vivid memories of my school days are happy ones. Actor David Nolan (Barry from Fair city) said my school in Dublin was in Inchicore it was a 100 years old and the class was mixed if you were bold you got to sit between two girls to us boys then this was the worst punishment imaginable.
Ray Bates consultant to the National Lottery remembers his school days at O'Connell's fondly.
Mr Bates said, "I started in Stanhope street, myself and broadcaster Pat Kenny sat beside each other we were only six years old, then we went on to O'Connell CBS and educated to university level.
"I feel there is a difference between a CBS education and others. Christian Brothers I feel give you a grounding in common sense as well as aspiring to maximise talents in pupils. For instance I had a gift for maths but I also loved music and both of these were recognised by the brothers and maximised to their full potential.
"Paddy Wright past pupil of O'Connell CBS and member of the family fishing business of Howth donated funds to create a scholarship, sadly Paddy died last year But the first Paddy Wright scholarship was won by Bakhodir Khakimov from Ubekistan who has gone on to study at the DIT College of Design.", said Mr Bates.
Ray Bates continued, "The schools have changed greatly since my day especially with all the youngsters coming from other countries but I feel the old traditions that Edmund Rice inspired are still being maintained, mainly a practical system of excellence."
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