Marian College is a Marist

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Ballsbridge Ballsbridge () (from historic Ball's Bridge) is an affluent neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The area is largely north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city. Th ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland that was established in 1954.

History

In the early 1950s, the then Archbishop of Dublin, Dr

John Charles McQuaid John Charles McQuaid, C.S.Sp. (28 July 1895 – 7 April 1973), was the Catholic Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin between December 1940 and January 1972. He was known for the unusual amount of influence he had over successive governme ...

, had invited the Marist Brothers to open a school in the Sandymount-Ballsbridge area. This was in response to the opening of a co-educational school,

Sandymount High School Sandymount High School was a coeducational secondary school on Herbert Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4 which operated for over 50 years before closing in 1999. History Sandymount High School was founded in 1947 and was initially controversial becau ...

. Co-education was anathema to Archbishop McQuaid, so he wanted to provide a

option beside it. The Marists found a site at Riverside House on the banks of the River Dodder and on 8 September 1954 the first pupils entered the Brothers’ house to begin their secondary schooling. Until 1999, Sandymount High School was next door to Marian College. For the first 34 years, the College was run by a succession of Marist Brothers. In later years, lay involvement in the management and organisation of the College has grown.

Academics

The school was ranked tenth in Ireland in terms of the number of students who progressed to third level and by the types of institutions to which the students progressed.

Sport

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 ...

is one of the school's main sports. The college fields teams in both the JCT/SCT competitions and reached the JCT final of the Cup Shield in 2008. The JCT won the Cup Shield in 1968. Water-polo is the school's most successful sport, the college having won numerous Leinster titles over the past 10 years. In 2010 the senior

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

team won both the Dublin and Leinster schools championships. Marian won a Leinster basketball title in 1989-90, coached by Meany and Nesbitt. The College also won national soccer cup, captained by Graham Kavanagh. Marian won the bike polo all Ireland championship in 2010.

Notable alumni

* Declan Hughes, author and playwright * Adrian Kennedy, FM Radio presenter *

Diarmuid Martin Diarmuid Martin (born 8 April 1945) is the retired Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. Martin was ordained a priest in 1969 and represented the Holy See at major United Nations International Conferences before becoming th ...

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

(2004 - ) *

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...

(Irish Rugby League International) * Kevin O'Brien and Niall O'Brien, brothers on the Irish international cricket team. *

Noel Pearson Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

, film and theatre producer and impresario

References

{{Marist Schools Secondary schools in Dublin (city) Marist Brothers schools Ballsbridge Sandymount Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in Ireland