Meán Scoil Mhuire (Our Lady's School) is an all-girls secondary school in

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

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 ...

History

Meán Scoil Mhuire 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 ...

who came to Longford from Mother House in

Baggot Street, Dublin Baggot Street () is a street in Dublin, Ireland. Location The street runs from Merrion Row (near St. Stephen's Green) to the northwestern end of Pembroke Road. It crosses the Grand Canal near Haddington Road. It is divided into two sections: ...

in April 1861. They first lived in Keon's Terrace and taught young children in the ground floor room of the old St. Micheal's Boys’ School. Older girls who wanted to continue their education did so in the Senior Girls’ Academy at the back of St. Mel's Cathedral where the sisters taught them sewing, mathematics,

religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to te ...

, English,

book-keeping Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. Tr ...

, cookery, French and music. The new convent was completed in 1874, and the nuns moved from Keon's Terrace on 24 October. The secondary school, named "Our Lady’s School" was built in 1874, and by 1883 the pupils were sitting examinations. The boarding pupils lived in part of the convent. On

Easter Sunday Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

1880, Bishop Woodlock laid the foundation stone of the

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

which opened to pupils in 1886. Around this time, a chapel was added to the convent. In 1915, German and Latin were added to the curriculum. In 1935, a new building was erected. This consisted of three classrooms, separated by folding doors which doubled as a study hall in evenings, plus a science room and cookery kitchen. Around this time the school became an "A" school, i.e. all subjects were taught through Irish, and it changed its name from "Our Lady’s School" to "Meán Scoil Mhuire". It remained an all Irish school until the late 1960s. In September 1957, the sisters purchased a bus which was used to transport pupils from North Longford. It was probably the first free

transport system A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...

for students in Ireland. In 1958, the primary school transferred to the new building which was built on the playing fields near the Dublin Road and the old primary school was renovated to accommodate ever increasing numbers in the secondary school. The North East Wing was added to provide dormitories, a

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

and a kitchen. The

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

could accommodate 120 and the school could hold approximately 300. The new boarding school opened in September 1960. The introduction of

free education Free education is education funded through government spending or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. Many models of free higher education have been proposed. Primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is fr ...

at the end of the 1960s brought about an increase in the number of pupils continuing their education through secondary school, and Longford was no exception. The foundation of the present senior building was laid in 1975 on the site of the 1935 building, and this was opened by the Minister of Education in September 1977. The number of pupils continued to rise until all dormitories were converted into classrooms and the boarding school closed in 1986. A further two classroom extension was blessed and opened by Bishop C. O'Reilly on 9 April 1997.

Curriculum

The subjects offered on the Junior Cycle (1st - 3rd year) include: Art,

Business Studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, a ...

, Civil, Social and Political Education, Computers, English, French, Geography, History,

Home Economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

, Irish, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education, Religious Education, Science, Spanish and Social, Personal and

Health Education Health education is a profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health, as well as sexual and r ...

. The subjects offered on the Senior Cycle (4th - 5th year) include: Accounting, Art, Biology, Business Studies, Career Guidance, Chemistry, Computers, English, French, Geography, History, Home Economics, Agricultural Science, Irish, Mathematics, Politics & Society, Music, Physical Education, Physics, Religious Education, and Spanish.

Transition year Transition Year (TY) ( ga, Idirbhliain) is an optional one-year school programme that can be taken in the year after the Junior Certificate in Ireland. However, depending on school population and funding it may not be available, and in other sch ...

is optional and open for application to all 3rd year students.

References

External links

School website
{{coord missing, County Longford Secondary schools in County Longford