Synge Street CBS

History

The first school on Synge Street was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1864. The school officially opened April 12, 1864 and first pupil enrolled was Paul McSwiney, son of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Peter Paul McSwiney. Very quickly the number on roll reached its limit at 600 pupils with 10 Christian Brothers employed teaching them. The school building was extended four times over the next half century culminating with the purchase and demolition of 3 cottages at Nos. 13-15 Synge Street and extending the school building into the space.

In 1930 a new primary school was opened at Donore Avenue to the west, under the patronage of the Brothers at Synge Street. This was followed in 1947 by the building of Scoil Iosagáin Primary School, again under Synge Street's patronage, to the south at Aughavanna Road in Dolphin's Barn, and by the opening in 1954 of the new Sancta Maria CBS primary to the north of the current school on Synge Street.

The new secondary school is officially known as St Paul's Secondary School, Heytesbury Street. The present building replaced a row of houses, used for class-rooms, and was opened in the late 1960s: it was extended in the 1980s.

The school is known as "Synger" colloquially.

Sports

The school has produced many great soccer, gaelic football, hurling and judo teams. It won its first soccer trophy - the Leinster Junior School's Cup - in 1977, and until recently had a very strong under 18's soccer team winning Leinster Trophies and representing the school in many tournaments including the Schools World Cup in Israel, which Synge Street represented Ireland in 1993. They finished the competition in sixth place and took the fair play award. On the way to the Leinster trophy, the school beat other Dublin schools such as Drimnagh Castle. They then went on to win an all Ireland competition before representing Ireland in the school's world cup in 1993. The school has a very strong soccer tradition producing many great players including Ireland international, Andy Reid and Drogheda United, former Celtic goalkeeper Paul Skinner, Wolves Player Mark Sammon Billy Whelan one of the Busby Babes who died in the Munich air disaster and Tommy Hamilton, the Irish international and Shamrock Rovers stalwart.

Gaelic Football

Until 1999, past pupils of the school played together in a unique club - Synge Street Past Pupils GFC. The club would only register players who had formerly been pupils at the school. In 1999 the club merged with Templeogue GFC to form Templeogue Synge Street GFC.

Hurling

Kevin's Hurling club, also based in Dolphin's Barn, is independent of the school, being originally set up for Saint Kevin's Parish. But its association with the school goes back to the turn of the 20th century. In 1934 Sylvestor Muldowney a past pupil of the school became one of the few Dublin natives to represent his county in an All-Ireland hurling final.

Young Scientists

The school has one of the best success rates in the Young Scientist competition and their main science teacher Jim Cooke is considered one of the best science teachers in Ireland, receiving many awards in his field. The school has won the overall contest of the Esat Young Scientist competition on three occasions, the only school to ever do so.

The first outright winner was Ronan Larkin in 2004 which then paved the way into a remarkable decade of success.

This was followed in 2012 when Leaving Cert Students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly won the overall prize and represented Ireland in the EU’s Young Scientist competition in September 2012 in Bratislava, where they awarded 1st place in Physics and joint overall first place.

The last overall winner from the school was Somalia-born Abdusalam Abubakar, a 3rd year student, who became one of the youngest winners of the BT Young Scientist of the Year Award in 2007 and later went on to win the European Union Contest for Young Scientists for his project, which was entitled An Extension of Wiener’s Attack on RSA. In 2009, Andrei Triffo took Individual Honours winning the Intel Travel Award, the fourth for Synge Street in the last 5 years. As well as Andrei, a group consisting of locals: Gary Carr, Graham McGrath and Darragh Moriarty also claimed a prize in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Intermediate category.

In 2017, the school won 3 awards, including both 1st and 2nd Place in the Junior Group category, where Carl Jones and Keiron O’Neill won with a project on Generalisations of Feynman's Triangle Theorem.

Synge Street has now won 9 of the last 10 Intel Travel Awards, the winner of which represent Ireland at the World Science Fair in the USA. In fact, it is therefore a far better Award to win than the Overall, given the winners of the Overall only go to the European Science Fair.

The first ever Young Scientist Exhibition was held in the Mansion House, Dublin in 1965: 230 students participated and 5,000 people attended. One of the co-founders was Fr. Tom Burke who was himself a past pupil, from the class of 1941.

Honours List

Notable teaching staff

Other notable past teachers of the school include Francis MacManus, three of whose pupils James Plunkett, Pearse Hutchinson and John Jordan, went on to be famous writers. Former TD Tony Gregory taught at the school in the 1960s and 70s. Pat McQuaid taught PE there in the 70s and 80s.

Media and the arts

Politics and public service

Sport

Motto

The school motto is "Viriliter Age" (translated "Act Manly") and is a standard used by many Christian Brothers' schools throughout the world.

Popular culture

John Carney, a past pupil of Synge Street, has set his 2016 feature film Sing Street in and around the school. The film's protagonist, Conor, attends the school, forming a band with schoolmates and coming into conflict with the school's fictional headteacher. The film's production notes make clear that the school and persons portrayed in the film are very different from the school as it is today.