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The Americas

In the absence of acceptable third level institutions for Catholics the French Spiritans conducted a very successful Civil Service College and University College at the French College, Blackrock. Very soon Irish personnel were needed to help stall colleges or secondary schools in Trinidad and the USA. The successful High School established in Pittsburgh in 1878 was accorded university status as Duquesne University in 1911. Today it has some 10,000 students on the campus.

In 1863 the Spiritans were requested by the Holy See to open a Catholic high school, St Mary's in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The system launched in Trinidad to enable St Mary's College to benefit from public funding while retaining its internal independence was accepted in Ireland through the influence of the Spiritans and became the basis of the secondary system for years.

Africa

The same system was employed in Mauritius in favour of their pastoral work; in particular Bishop Joseph Shanhan in Nigeria where his approach was to evangelise the parents through the school children. Later very successful secondary schools were launched in Onisha in Nigeria and St. Edwards in Freetown, Sierra Leone, St. Augustine's in the Gambia and St Mary's Nairobi.

Present-day Schools in Ireland

Secondary schools were the main work done by Spiritans in Ireland where they conduct five such schools with a total of ? students. Though mainly for lay students these schools proved a great source of vocations to the priesthood and to the congregation in particular. Today these schools are being conducted through a large lay staff who are committed to maintaining the Spiritan ethos fashioned over the years. Several of the leaders of he national independence movement in Ireland were alumni of Spiritans schools, notably Eamon de Valera, later President, and Thomas McDonagh, poet and a leader of the 1916 Rebellion. The founder of the leading Catholic movement for the laity, the Legion of Mary, is a Spiritan alumnus.

An active interest in the problems and progress of the missions has been encouraged among the students over the years. As early as 1873 the students of Blackrock collected £300 to help restore the mission trade schools destroyed in a hurricane. A souvenir of that gift is a barometer used by Dr. Livingstone who had been helped by the missionaries as he set off in search of the source of the Nile. In modern times alumnus Bob Geldof organised a musical extravaganza on both sides of the Atlantic to raise millions for the famine stricken people of Ethiopia. Africa Concern and other fund-raising activities were also launched by Spiritan alumni in recent years.

Irish Schools & Colleges

Education Worldwide