Glenstal Abbey School is an all boys independent day and boarding

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

secondary school, located on the grounds of

Glenstal Abbey Glenstal Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation located in Murroe, County Limerick, Ireland. It is dedicated to Saint Joseph and Saint Columba. The current abbot of the monastery is Brendan Cof ...

Murroe Murroe (), officially spelled Moroe, is a village in County Limerick, Ireland. Environs Murroe is located in the north-eastern part of County Limerick, approximately 15 km from Limerick City and close to the County Tipperary border. ...

, County Limerick. It is run by monks of the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

order. The school offers seven-day full boarding, as well as day boarding (Mon-Sat). The school is regularly ranked among the top schools in Ireland.

History

Glenstal is a Norman Revivalist Castle, designed by William Bardwell, an English architect and built by Sir Matthew Barrington in 1839. Sir Charles and Lady Barrington left Ireland permanently in 1925. The castle and estate were purchased shortly after by Monsignor James J. Ryan, retired president of St Patrick’s College, Thurles, for the nominal sum of £2,000. Some months after the purchase, Msgr Ryan wrote to Celestine Golenvaux, the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Maredsous, and invited him to come to Ireland and set up a daughter house in Glenstal and by March 1927, the first two Belgian monks had arrived at Glenstal to establish the new house.Tierney OSB, Mark. "The Origins and Early Days of Glenstal Abbey", ''The Irish Benedictines: A history'', The Columba Press
/ref> In September 1932, the monks opened a Secondary School with Fr Columba Skerret as Headmaster, and with an intake of just seven pupils. The first lay teacher of the school was Mr Vincent Quirke. Like many other religious organisations, Glenstal Abbey was faced with allegations of child abuse. Records indicate four historic allegations against two members of the monastic community relating to abuse at Glenstal Abbey School.They were reported and investigated; in no case were there criminal or civil proceedings. In a 2014 report The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) stated that the Benedictine community handled these accusations well with proper action, including removal from monastic life and treatment.

School life

The school is divided into three houses, Junior House, Inter House and Senior House. Each house has its own

Housemaster {{refimprove, date=September 2018 In British education, a housemaster is a schoolmaster in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school and especially at a public school. The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care o ...

. Each house has

dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

for the boys to sleep in, a common room with a television, the housemaster's office and pantry. Junior House holds the first and second years, Inter House the third and fourth years and Senior House the fifth and sixth years. The

range in size from one bed to about sixteen.

Notable former pupils.

Notable former pupils *

John Blayney John Joseph Blayney (13 March 1925 – 17 June 2018) was an Irish rugby player, barrister and judge who served a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1992 to 1997 and a Judge of the High Court from 1973 to 1992. John Blayney was the son of Alexande ...

, Judge of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Kim Carroll Kim Carroll (born 1970 in Cork, Ireland) is a film score composer and multi-instrumentalist. He attended Glenstal Abbey School where he studied music with pianist/composer Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. After teaching music in Cork, he left for ...

, composer and musician. * Jack Stafford, rugby player. *

John Magnier John Magnier (born 10 February 1948; also known as "The Boss") is an Irish business magnate. He is Ireland's leading thoroughbred stud owner and has extensive business interests outside the horse-breeding industry. Magnier has also been a Senat ...

, businessman and former senator

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

. *Richard Tierney, Chief Executive Officer of St Patrick's festival. * Eamonn Quigley, researcher in medecine. * Tony O'Connor, Judge of the High Court. * Patrick Martyn-Hemphill, 5th Baron Hemphill, former member of the

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, Senior stewart of the Irish National Hunt Society, former chairman of the Galway Race Committee. *

Ian Nagle Ian William Nagle (born 17 October 1988) is a retired Irish rugby union player, who last played for Italian United Rugby Championship side Zebre. Nagle began his career with home province Munster, before stints abroad with English sides Newcast ...

, ruby player * John M. Kelly, former Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism, acting

Minister for Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between coun ...

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and Government Chief Whip. * Francis French, 7th Baron de Freyne, aristocrat and former member of the

. * Peter Cunningham, writer. * Duncan Casey, rugby player. *

Paddy Cosgrave Patrick Cosgrave is an Irish entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Web Summit, an annual technology conference. In 2015 he was listed 18th in the ''Wired UK'' list of the most influential people in Europe in the field of technology. Early life an ...

* Ben Healy, rugby player *

Sean Lucy Sean Lucy (March 12, 1931 – July 25, 2001) was an Irish poet and educator. Biography Lucy was born in Bombay, British India in 1931. His father was an Irish officer in the British army, who resigned his commission in 1935 to resettle the famil ...

, Poet and Professor at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

*Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman

Sports

The main sport in Glenstal is and has always been

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. For all students in first and second year it is mandatory that they play

. Teams are fielded at all ages from U-14 to U-19 and are involved in both friendly and competitive fixtures from late-September until March. The school won the

Munster Schools Senior Cup The Munster Schools Senior Cup or Munster Senior Cup is the under-age rugby union competition for schools affiliated to the Munster Branch of the IRFU. The inaugural Munster Schools Senior Cup took place in 1909 and, since then, Cork city's two ...

, for their first time on 18 March 2018 beating

Christian Brothers College, Cork Christian Brothers College, Cork (CBC Cork, colloquially known as Christians) is a fee-paying school under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust in Cork, Ireland. Their sister school in Dublin is CBC Monkstown. History In the mid ...

, on a scoreline of 18-17.

References

External links

Glenstal Abbey School websiteMonastery websiteThe Glenstal Old Boys Society
{{coord missing, County Limerick Secondary schools in County Limerick Private schools in the Republic of Ireland Catholic boarding schools in Ireland Catholic secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland Benedictine secondary schools 1932 establishments in Ireland Educational institutions established in 1932