Established 1939 Headmaster N/A Website stconleths.ie Phone +353 1 668 0022 Number of students 260 (senior school) | Principal Mr Donal O'Doulaing Staff 20 full-time teachers Motto Fide et Fortitudine Province Leinster Founded 1939 | |
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St. Conleth's College is a fee-paying Catholic school in Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1939, by Bernard Sheppard, who ran the school from 16 Clyde Road until, due to demand, the school was upgraded to the larger premises at 28 Clyde Road.
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St. Conleth's initially opened on the day Germany declared war on Poland. The sons of both the Polish and German ambassadors to Ireland attended St. Conleth's together on that day.
Kevin D. Kelleher (1921 - 2016), former international rugby referee, was the latest headmaster of the school and was for over 46 of his 95 years in the school. Ann Sheppard (the daughter of Bernard Sheppard and step-daughter of Kevin Kelleher) was school principal from 1988–2001 and is now Director of Development within the school, a post that has overseen two major additions to the school. Donal O'Doulaing is the current principal of the secondary school.
Tony Kilcumins is the principal of the junior school, which was recently developed to include junior and senior infants allowing Conlethians to study in St Conleth's from Junior Infants until their Leaving Certificate.
The school was named after St. Conleth, a sixth-century Irish monk who was a moulder of precious metals and whose feast day is the 4th of May. The senior school has about 260 pupils (boys only until 4th year, and co-educational in 5th and 6th year) and a teaching staff of 20. It has grown steadily since it opened its doors and the school building at 28 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is now significantly different from its original state.
The Millennium extension saw the addition of a half court school hall, canteen and additional classrooms as well as a computer lab and resurfacing of playing facilities. In 2009 the school underwent reconstruction again, resulting in an additional floor and re-modelling of the interior.
Academics
The school topped the fee-paying schools league table in 2003. However, St. Conleth's academic excellence is seen more by its ethos, which aims to develop students to the maximum of their potential. Similarly, due to its relatively small size St. Conleth's has suffered recently on league table due to students who have chosen to study abroad being represented as non-achievers.
Subjects offered by the school for the Leaving Certificate include but are not limited to: Maths, English, Irish, French, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business, Economics, Spanish, Geography, Classical Studies, Latin, History, Applied Mathematics and Art.
Sport and debating
Rugby is considered the primary sport of the school and both a junior and senior cup team represent the school in section C.
St. Conleth's has always had a strong debating tradition, which can be seen in the minutes of the school's Literary and Debating Society dating back to the 1940s. Growing on this tradition, the 2000s have seen St Conleth's have no fewer than four Irish Worlds Schools representatives, a decade that culminated in the 2008 victory in the Denny's All Ireland Schools Debating Championship, followed in close succession by victories in the Trinity College Schools Mace and the University College Dublin School's Mace. As of 2010, St. Conleth's has begun hosting an annual Junior Mace Debating competition.