Neha Patil (Editor)

The King's Hospital

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Coordinates
  
53.359414,-6.386061

Gender
  
male and female

Principal
  
Mr John Rafter

Colors
  
Yellow, Navy blue

Established
  
1669

Phone
  
+353 1 643 6500

Province
  
Leinster

The King's Hospital

Motto
  
A School And A Way Of Life

Chairman
  
Mr Kenneth Peare (Chairman of the Board Of Management)

Number of students
  
700 (approximately 2/3 are boarders).

Address
  
Brooklawn, Dublin 20, Ireland

Similar
  
Castlekn College, Mount Sackville Secondar, Belvedere College, Loreto College, Liffey Valley - Kings Ho

Profiles

The king s hospital dublin


The King's Hospital is a Church of Ireland co-educational independent boarding and day school situated in Palmerstown, Dublin, Ireland. It is located on an 80-acre campus beside the River Liffey, called Brooklawn, named after the country houses situated on the site and in which the headmaster and their family resides.

Contents

Founded in 1669, it is one of the oldest schools in Ireland and was also known as the Blue Coat School. Although priority is given to those of the main Protestant tradition, as a Christian school, it is attended by students of other denominations and faiths. The school's colours are navy and gold. The school crest is three burning castles with the date "1669", almost identical to the crest for Dublin city. The current headmaster is John Rafter.

Founding

The school was founded in 1669 as The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II and was located in Queen Street, Dublin. King's Hospital was a continuation of the old Free School of Dublin. On 5 May 1674, the school opened with 60 pupils, including 3 girls. From 1783 to 1971, the school was located in Blackhall Place, Dublin, currently the headquarters of the Law Society of Ireland.

Morgan's takeover

The take-over of Morgan’s School (1957) contributed to steadily increasing numbers of students, and by 1970, a need for extra space and facilities led to the move from the city centre to a modern purpose-built school set in its own 100-acre (400,000 m2) site on the banks of the River Liffey in Palmerstown, County Dublin.

Erwin Schrödinger

A 57-year-old manuscript by renowned Nobel Prize in Physics winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger recently resurfaced at the school. Entitled "Fragment From An Unpublished Dialogue Of Galileo", it was written for the School's 1955 edition of the annual Blue Coat magazine to coincide with Schrödinger leaving Dublin to take up his appointment as Chair of Physics at the University of Vienna. Schrödinger wrote the manuscript for the school's former English teacher and Editor of the Blue Coat magazine, Ronnie Anderson (now deceased), a friend of Schrödinger when he lived in Dublin. It is now in the possession of Professor Jonathan Coleman in CRANN at Trinity College, Dublin.

Charter Day

The annual calendar includes a number of special days and events forming part of the school tradition. One of these is Charter Day, when the Headmaster or Headmistress delivers an annual address to the school, and academic prizes are presented, commemorating the granting of the School's Charter in 1671.

Other traditions

Sports Day, Harvest Festival, Carol Service and Confirmation are other significant occasions, to which parents and past pupils are welcome. There is an open invitation on Sundays to attend worship according to the rites of the Church of Ireland. Morning assembly is compulsory for all pupils, and Sunday service is compulsory for boarders.

Co-educational

The school is co-educational and caters for some 700 pupils, roughly half day pupils and half boarders. The King’s Hospital has students from all over Ireland and from overseas. Students from Germany and Spain are the most common international students.

Houses

The School is divided into five boarding houses: Bluecoat, Mercer, Grace, Morgan and Ormonde and five day pupil houses. Each boarding house has its own resident housemaster or housemistress.

Sport

The King’s Hospital's 80-acre campus provides facilities such as:

- Modern Sports Hall & Gymnasium (with fully computerised fitness centre)

- 25-metre indoor heated swimming pool

- floodlit, artificial grass hockey pitch

- rugby pitches

- all-weather hockey pitches

- tennis courts

The School provides coaching and training in the following on the campus: rugby, hockey, cricket, athletics, cross-country, badminton, tennis, soccer, canoeing, basketball, swimming. Off-site, the School offers opportunities to participate in: rowing.

Notable past pupils

  • Jack Boothman - President of the GAA (1994 and 1997);
  • Professor Jonathan Coleman (physicist), lecturer in the School of Physics in CRANN at Trinity College Dublin and the 2011 Science Foundation Ireland 'Researcher of the Year'
  • Natalya Coyle is an Irish athlete who competed for Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics London 2012 where she finished 9th in the modern pentathlon.
  • Jonathan Fildes - renowned motor racing driver;
  • John and Edward Grimes - members of the pop duo Jedward
  • Lisa Hannigan - Irish folk/pop singer famous for her recordings with Damien Rice
  • Heike Holstein - is the most successful ever dressage rider based in Ireland and was a three times competitor equestrianism at the Olympics in Equestrian at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Individual dressage Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
  • Hazel Luckwill - Music Therapist and noted musician;
  • Angus McKeen - Former Leinster and Ireland rugby prop forward;
  • Tom Murphy - Tony Award-winning Irish actor;
  • Robin Roe - captain of the Ireland national rugby union team. Also capped with The Lions and The Barbarians;
  • Camilla Speirs - competed in equestrianism for Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics London 2012 Summer Olympics;
  • Kathryn Thomas - Irish television presenter;
  • Leo Varadkar - TD and Minister for Social Protection;
  • Robert Alexander Warke (born 1930), Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross;
  • John Weir - Loyalist murderer and member of the Glenanne gang;
  • Notable headmasters

  • 1922-1927: John Mason Harden
  • References

    The King's Hospital Wikipedia