Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana is a co-educational voluntary Catholic secondary school, located in

Buncrana Buncrana ( ; ) is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is beside Lough Swilly on the Inishowen peninsula, northwest of Derry and north of Letterkenny. In the 2016 census, the population was 6,785 making it the second most populous town in Cou ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The school was founded by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

in 1933 and continues to have a Catholic ethos under the trusteeship of the

Catholic Education an Irish Schools Trust Catholic Education, an Irish Schools Trust (CEIST) is the trustee body for 107 Catholic Voluntary Secondary Schools in Ireland. History In Ireland, the majority of secondary schools were established and were controlled by a number of Roman Cathol ...

(CEIST). It had 788 students in 2021. The school's current principal teacher is Rosaleen Grant.

History

Scoil Mhuire was established in 1933 initially as a female post-primary school under the patronage of the Sisters of Mercy. The sisters had already purchased Rockfort House, a large detached country house and land. This house was of early nineteenth-century date that was the seat of the Stewart\Stuart family. This site remains the location of Scoil Mhuire to date. The sisters used Rockfort house both as a convent and as a school. This included a boarding school for students from rural areas considered too far away for daily travel. As both the numbers of pupils and Sisters of Mercy grew, Rockfort House became too small. The decision was made to build a new purpose-built convent. It was designed by Dublin architect Simon Aloysius Leonard. The foundation stone was laid on 2 February 1952, and the sisters moved into the new building on 23 September 1953. The original building, Rockfort House, became the Boarding School. In 1966, the then Minister for Education

Donogh O'Malley Donogh Brendan O'Malley (18 January 1921 – 10 March 1968) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and rugby union player who served as Minister for Education from 1966 to 1968, Minister for Health from 1965 to 1966 and Parliamentary Secretary t ...

, announced that from 1969 all children would be entitled to free education. The decision was therefore made by the Sisters of Mercy for Scoil Mhuire to become co-educational, teaching both girls and boys. With this expansion came the need for a larger school building. The new building was opened in 1973. The school stopped taking in boarders and the original Rockfort House was knocked down to make way for a new extension in the early 1990s. The Sisters of Mercy closed their convent in 2012 and the convent building was subsequently converted to teaching space. In 2020 it was announced by the then Minister for Education,

Joe McHugh Joe McHugh (born 16 July 1971) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Chair of the Committee on European Union Affairs since September 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency since 2016, and previously f ...

, that substantial new building works had been approved by the Department of Education. This will include three science labs with preparation areas, two mainstream classrooms, two special education teaching rooms.

Notable former pupils

Grainne Gallanagh Grainne Gallanagh (; born 22 June 1994) is an Irish model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Ireland 2018 on 2 August 2018. She represented Ireland at Miss Universe 2018, and placed in the Top 20. Early life Gallana ...

, Irish model, Miss Universe Ireland 2018. Participant in ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' 2020. *

Mark Timlin Mark Timlin (born 15 June 1944, in Cheltenham) is a British author best known for his series of novels featuring Nick Sharman, a former Metropolitan Police officer who takes up the profession of private investigator in South London. The Sharma ...

, association footballer with Derry City and

Finn Harps Finn Harps Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Chláirsigh na Finne) are an Irish football club that play in the First Division of the League of Ireland, as of 2023. The club was founded in 1954 and elected to the league in 1969. However, it was te ...

.{{fact, date=April 2021

References

Educational institutions established in 1933 Buncrana Secondary schools in County Donegal Catholic secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland 1933 establishments in Ireland Sisters of Mercy schools