The Church Street Schools
A letter from the Lord lieutenant , Lord Stanley, to the Duke of Leinster in 1831 contained the principal ideas for what was to be the New National School System. The ideas had been discussed for many years. Instructions from the Commissioners of Education were posted to with the instructions, was duly complete and returned.
It was proposed to erect the school house in the town of Skerries. A suitable plot of ground had been obtained from Thomas Gowan with a ease of 72 years and at a rent of £1 per annum. The trustees of the school were Fr Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, Rev. Michael Murray P.P. of Skerries and Thomas Lynch of Skerries. An estimate for the building was £216-15s2d. This was revised in October 1833 to £217-7s-1d.
The school opened on the 30th March 1835. Its construction had been funded partly by a grant from the National fund and partly by local subscription. The average weekly attendance was 60 males and 80 females. The teaching staff was comprised of three men and three women. School began at 9 a.m. and finished at 4 p.m. six days a week. It was intended to set apart Thursday in each week for Religious Instruction. It wasn’t a mixed school but two separate schools. The girls occupied the upper storey, the boys the lower storey. There were 142 pupils on roll with an average daily attendance of 93.
The master’s name was Thomas Menton. He hd been educated at the Model School, Richmond Street, North Circular Rd., and was paid £30 per annum. The mistress, Anne Walsh (who became Anne Menton in the same year 1835) was paid £25 per annum. The salaries were derived from the weekly payments of the children and from subscriptions.
In 1879 the accommodation was insufficient. There were 220 girls on roll with floor space for only 130. The building of the new premises on the Dublin Road, did not take place until 1913.
St. Patrick’s Boys’ and Girls’ School
St Patrick’s National Schools for Males and Females were founded in 1913 under one roof in the new purpose built school house on the Dublin Road. For more than seventy years some 2000 local children received their primary education there.
The plot of land originally belonged to the Holmpatrick Estate, and the lease, dated 25th March 1908, was drawn up between the Right Honourable Hans Wellesley, Baron of Holmpatrick, of the one part and Reverand Thomas Canon Dolan, Parish Priest of Skerries of the other part. The term of the lease was 900 years at tan annual rent of £2. That Baron Holmpatrick favoured the building of a Schoolhouse is clear from the provision in the lease that the annual rent would increase to £5 in the event that a school was not built.
In November 1912, a further lease was drawn up involving the Archbishop of Dublin, the Trustees of St. Patrick’s N
ational School premises and the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland. In this lease the costs for buildings and furnishings were estimated at £2123.10s.5d. In all, six classrooms of similar size were provided, three in the right hand section m two in the boys’ or left hand section and one middle room, which served alternatively as a cookery room, a science room and a classroom for the infants in the Boys’ school. The Principal in those early years was Michael Hogan who taught the senior classes.
A system of ‘monitors’ or trainee teachers operated in those early years and the candidate for the post have a written undertaking to become a National School teacher. The salary for a monitor amounted to just over £3 per quarter, while that for a principate was the sum of £34.15s per quarter.
When the new schools opened their doors for the first time on 17th August 1914, there was 133 girls on the roll of the Girls’ school, of whom 112 were present on that day. On the boys’ side 124 names appear on the roll, while 92 were present.
By 1970, the school population once again outgrew its premises as the numbers swelled. The boys moved to their new premises in January 1973, leaving the girls the run of the old school building for a time until their own new school was ready.
The New St. Patrick’s Boys’ School
Just as the original National School on Church Street had become too small in its day, so too, by 1970, the Dublin Road School had become inadequate for the growing population of Skerries.
The “new” St. Patrick’s Boys’ School, built on what had been Pat Phelan’s field and bordered to the North by the lane formerly known as “the Rope Walk”, opened after the Christmas holidays on Monday, January 8th 1973. When the school opened its doors the following day to receive the pupils there were 317 boys on roll and the teaching staff on the day consisted of Mr. Jack Doyle (Principal), Mrs. Kay Coleman(Vice Principal), Mrs. Alice Tiernana, Mr. Joe Costello, Mr Brendan Grey and Mr. John Harte(Assistant Teachers), Mrs. Mary Gilbride and Mr. John Murphy (Temporary Teachers). They occupied 8 of the 10 new classrooms.
As Skerries continued to expand rapidly, so also did the numbers attending school and this was reflected in the appointment of additional staff. By summer 1980 the total numbers on roll had increased 495 pupils giving a complement of 16 teachers in September. In August if that year the Principal, Mr. Jack Doyle, retired. He was succeeded by Mr. Kevin Murray.
St. Patrick’s Senior School
By 1984 a new Co-Educational Secondary School had opened in Skerries and, with an ever increasing pupil population, it was decided to introduce co-education into St. Patrick’s Boys’ and Girls’ schools, with the Boys’ School becoming the Senior School and the Girls’ School becoming the Junior School. A referendum on the issue was held among the parents of both schools and over 80% of those who voted were in favour of this development.
On June 30th, 1984 St. Patrick’s Boys’ School went on holidays with 401 boys on roll and on September 10th the school re-opened as St. Patrick’s Senior Co-Educational School, with 204 Boys and 177 Girls on roll from 3rd to 6th class.
On January 8th 1998, 25 years after the opening of the “new” St. Patrick’s Boys’ School, 84 years after the opening of the original St. Patrick’s on the Dublin Road and 163 years after the introduction of the National Primary Education for Boys and Girls in the Church Street premises, there was 150 girls and 180 boys enrolled in St. Patrick’s Senior School.
New Extension to the Senior School
In 2022 work was completed on four new classrooms and 3 new SET rooms at the back of the Senior School. Work is scheduled for 2025 to begin construction of the last two SET rooms required for students. These works are scheduled for the front of the building.
Currently St. Patrick’s Senior School has 170 boys and 170 girls, 340 students in total. There are currently 23 Teachers, 1 Secretary and 1 Caretaker.
Oisin McGinty
Principal
01.09.2025