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The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
,
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is Queen's University, the institution pioneered Belfast's first programme of collegiate education. Locally referred to as Inst, the modern school educates boys from ages 11 to 18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school occupies an 18-acre site in the centre of the city on which its first buildings were erected.


History


Dissident foundation

William Bruce wrote in 1806 in denunciation of "visionary notions" to establish an academical institution that " is town has from some years been in possession of an excellent plan of school education for which it is indebted to the
Belfast Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (commonly shortened to ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern ...
funded in 1786". What was to become the school was not the first visionary notion of
William Drennan William Drennan (23 May 1754 – 5 February 1820) was an Irish physician and writer who moved the formation in Belfast and Dublin of the Society of United Irishmen. He was the author of the Society's original "test" which, in the cause of ...
to be opposed by Bruce, the principal of the Belfast Academy. In the 1790s, Drennan and his Society of United Irishmen had called for complete and immediate
Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...
and for a radical and democratic reform of the Irish Parliament. For Drennan, the new institution was an expression his resolve, in the wake of the
1798 rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a Irish republicanism, ...
, to "be content to get the substance of reform more slowly" and with "proper preparation of manners or principles"." He was joined by leading Belfast merchants and professional men, including the former United men Robert Simms and Robert Callwell, who had been among the proprietors of the United paper, '' Northern Star;'' the Tennent brothers,
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
who had been a state prisoner, and
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, who as a ship's surgeon had been a sympathetic witness to the 1797 Table Bay naval mutiny; and the botanist
John Templeton Sir John Marks Templeton (29 November 1912 – 8 July 2008) was an American-born British investor, banker, Asset management, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the Mutual fund, mutual fund market and created the Franklin Temp ...
. They seconded Drennan as he persuaded a town meeting in 1807 "to facilitate and render less expensive the means of acquiring education; to give access to the works of literature to the middle and lower classes of society; to make provision for the instruction of both sexes... " The scheme was ambitious, comprising a school department for boys and a collegiate department in which both young men and women could receive lectures and instruction in the natural sciences, classics, modern languages, English literature and medicine. In 1808, it was further proposed that facilities should be provided for professors of divinity responsible to their respective denominations, so that the institution could become a seminary for the training of ministers. As might have been anticipated, the Presbyterian Church, which had no such facility in Ireland (their candidates for ordination had to train in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
), alone took up the offer.
Lord Castlereagh Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh ( ) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Anglo-Irish politician ...
perceived "a deep laid scheme again to bring the Presbyterian Synod within the ranks of democracy". Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) concurred. The entire project was "democratical"—pervaded by "the republican spirit of the Presbyterians". William Bruce and his friends mocked the proposed system of governance, comparing it to revolutionary French constitutions that had excited debate in Belfast in 1790s. It was a "machine", they suggested, "so full of checks that it will not move". The sovereign body of the institution was as an annual general meeting of subscribers. They elected both boards of managers and visitors, but with a complicated system of rotation "to preclude the possibility of the management falling into the hands of a few individuals". The proposal for the institution, nonetheless, received sufficient establishment support to secure a charter in 1810. William Stuart, Anglican primate archbishop of Ireland, enrolled as a first class subscriber, and
George Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall George Augustus Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall KP, PC (Ire) (14 August 1769 – 5 October 1844), styled Viscount Chichester until 1791 and Earl of Belfast from 1791 to 1799, was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and politician. He was born into ...
, the town's landlord, leased the land to the institution and, on 3 July 1810, laid its foundation stone. The eminent English architect
John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...
, who designed the new Bank of England in 1788, prepared drawings free of charge. A total of £25,000 was raised: £5,000 in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
under the patronage of the Governor-General, Earl of Moira, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, the balance largely from Belfast merchants and businessmen able to nominate in return one boy to receive free education. The funds, however, sufficed to erect only one, comparatively plain brown-brick, section of Soane's intended stucco and Doric-column quadrangle. The institution was formally opened on 1 February 1814. In his address at the opening of the grammar school on 1 February 1814, Drennan promised that "the mysterious veil that makes one knowledge for the learned and another for the vulgar... would be torn down". Admission would be "perfectly unbiased by religious distinctions", fees held "as low as possible", and, perhaps most startling for the times, that discipline would rely on "example" rather than on "manual correction of corporal punishment". This may have owed something to the example of an earlier Belfast schoolmaster whose portrait was to hang in the new institution, David Manson. As recounted by Drennan, in his Donegall Street school in 1760s Manson had banished "drudgery and fear" by teaching children on "the principle of amusement".


"Wars of independence"

When in the following year, 1815, the collegiate department enrolled its first students, it became the university college to be established in the British Isles since
Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...
was founded at the end of the sixteenth century. It soon ran into controversy. At a St. Patrick's Day dinner in 1816, chaired by Dr. Robert Tennent, board members did not disguise their broader political sympathies. They led one another, and staff, in a series of radical toasts: to the French and South American Revolutions, to Catholic Emancipation and a "Radical Reform of the Representation of the People in Parliament", and, perhaps most controversially, to "the exiles of Erin" under "the wing of the republican eagle" in the United States. Despite the resignation of all the board members present, the government seized upon the incident to attach conditions the annual £1,500 it had granted, reluctantly, for the college's seminary.Whelan (2020), pp. 170-171 Inst historian, James Jamieson, is convinced that "what the government really wanted was to do away with the collegiate status of Inst and so prevent the establishment of a native seminary for the Presbyterian ministry where a culture opposed to passive acceptance of the ideas of privilege and class distinction might be imbibed". Tory critics of the institution might also have been noted that in 1815 a list of books prepared for the literary department included works by the English radicals
John Horne Tooke John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parl ...
, William Godwin,
Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
and
Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister Life Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the disse ...
. But, perhaps convinced that in the face of the "Catholic democracy" conjured by the great "Emancipator"
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
the republican spirit of Ulster Presbyterianism was sufficiently cooled, by 1831 government had not only restored the grant;
King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...
bestowed upon the Institution the title "Royal". Yet further controversy followed. Conservative Presbyterian clergy, led by Henry Cooke, believed the teaching staff combined theological laxity—their refusal to subscribe to
Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" ...
with its reference to the Pope as the "
Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
", and affirmation of the Holy Trinity—with political error. Staff did not hide their support for the disestablishment of the
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
(privileged in relation to Presbyterians but, in Cooke's view, a bulwark of the Protestant interest in Ireland). Cooke did not succeed in removing either of the principal objects of his ire: those he accused of anti-trinitarian " Arian" or " Socinian" heresy, Henry Montgomery, head of the English department, and the junior William Bruce (who had departed from his father's orthodoxy), Professor of Latin and Greek. The Board refused an inquisition into their religious orthodoxy. But while Inst may have won what Jamieson called its "wars of independence",Jamieson (1959), pp. 36-58 the dispute contributed to the establishment in 1853 of Assembly College, a seminary under the direct control of the
Presbyterian Synod Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or ...
, and to the government passing over the institution in establishing a Queens College (the later Queens University). Inst had upheld its principles but at the cost of its collegiate status and the associated government grant. On 1 November 1855, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the
Earl of Carlisle Earl of Carlisle is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England. History The first creation came in 1322, when Andrew Harclay, 1st Baron Harclay, was made Earl of Carlisle. He had already been summoned to Parliamen ...
, unveiled a statue in front of the institution on College Square East of the popular Frederick Richard, Earl of Belfast, son of the Marquis of Donegall, patron of, among other causes in Belfast, the Working Class Association for the Promotion of General Improvement. After Henry Cooke died in 1868, significance was attached to his bronze likeness displacing that of the young liberal aristocrat, and that it should stand with its back to the institution Cooke distrusted. Owing to the initiative of Dr. James MacDonnell ("the unchallenged doyen of Belfast medicine"). from 1835, the Collegiate Department had provided
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
with its first medical school in Ulster. It had its own teaching hospital, the Royal Institution Hospital in Barrack Street, sometimes known as the College Hospital. In 1847 the school and college building themselves served as a fever hospital. In Belfast,
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
, a deadly companion of the hunger driving country people into the town, struck one in every five residents. Inst continued to provide college education until Queens College Belfast opened in October 1849. When it was found that the new college had made no provision for anatomical and dissecting rooms, Inst continued to provide the necessary accommodation in its old medical department until 1862. The Collegiate Department was to leave the town an important enlightenment legacy in the
Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society The Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society was founded in 1821 to promote the scientific study of animals, plants, fossils, rocks and minerals. The Society was founded by George Crawford Hyndman, James Lawson Drummond, James Grim ...
. Formed by staff and scholars in 1821, the society is the origin of both the
Botanical Gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
and what is now the Ulster Museum.


First generations

Among the early graduates of the Institution was William Tennent's nephew,
Robert Tennent Robert Tennent FRSE (1815-15 December 1890) was an early Scottish photographer and major landowner in Australia. Life He was born in Edinburgh in 1813 the son of Margaret Rodger Lyon (1794-1867) and Patrick Tennant Writer to the Signet, WS (1782 ...
, who in 1820s was a member of John Stuart Mill's London Debating Society. Together with his friend James Emerson (Belfast Academy), he joined
Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
in the Greek War of Independence. On return to Belfast they stood against one another in the 1832 election, Tennent the Whig losing to Emerson, the
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
, a result that marked the ebb-tide of political liberalism in Belfast. In mid century, General Certificates from the Collegiate Department were common to several Presbyterian ministers who, in the wake of the Great Famine, became passionately involved in the tenants rights movement. Cooke denounced them for undermining, not only property, but also the
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
by sharing platforms with Catholics intent on restoring a parliament in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
. His worst fears were realised in David Bell who, forced to resign his ministry and despairing of constitutional methods, was sworn into
Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...
by
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa ( ga, Diarmaid Ó Donnabháin Rosa; baptised 4 September 1831, died 29 June 1915)Con O'Callaghan Reenascreena Community Online (dead link archived at archive.org, 29 September 2014) was an Irish Fenian leader and member ...
. Several campaigning newspaper editors were also students of the Institution: James Simms, editor of the ''
Northern Whig The ''Northern Whig'' (from 1919 the ''Northern Whig and Belfast Post'') was a daily regional newspaper in Ireland which was first published in 1824 in Belfast when it was founded by Francis Dalzell Finlay. It was published twice weekly, Monday ...
''; James MacNeight, editor of the ''Londonderry Standard'' and of the Belfast-based ''Banner of Ulster''; and Charles Gavan Duffy, of the
Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
paper, ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
''. Duffy, a Roman Catholic from Monaghan, enrolled in the collegiate school of logic, rhetoric and ''belles-lettres'' in the early 1840s. Duffy was also to contribute to the Belfast-based ''Northern Herald'', edited between 1834 and 1835 by the "Old Instonian"
Thomas O'Hagan Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan, KP, PC (Ire), QC (29 May 18121 February 1885), was an Irish lawyer and judge. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1868 to 1874 and again from 1880 to 1881. Background and education O'Hagan was bor ...
. O'Hagan would go on to become the first Catholic Lord Chancellor of Ireland (1868–1874 and 1880–1881).


The limits of non-denominationalism

Drennan was adamant that the admission of scholars should be "perfectly unbiased by religious distinctions".Whelan (2020), pp. 170-171 Yet when O'Hagan was at Inst in the 1820s, the Oxford ''Dictionary of National Biography'' records him as being the school's only Catholic pupil. In the 1830s Henry Cooke and other leading Protestant evangelicals had been instrumental in defeating the prospects for integrated education. When the
Dublin Castle administration 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 ...
sought to provide Ireland, "in advance of anything available at that time in England", a system of grant-aided non-denominational education. Cooke, at once scented danger in the freedom that would have been granted priests to enter schools and instruct their "own" students in religion. The concept of educating Catholics and Protestants together was dealt a further blow when in the 1840s the Catholic bishops objected to the "Godless" Queen's Colleges, loudly seconded—despite the pleas of Duffy's fellow
Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
er, Thomas Davis that "the reasons for separate education are reasons for separate life"—by
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
. When in 1849 a Queen's College (now Queen's University) opened in Belfast, the Collegiate Department closed. Inst continued as a school for boys, with both day and boarding pupils. There was no standard course as such. Boys’ parents paid only for the subjects their sons took. Mathematics, English and writing were the most popular subjects, classics and French less so. The three hundred boys attending were largely, but not exclusively, Presbyterian in what remained a largely Presbyterian town. Those taking the Anglican communion (in the established
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
), had, from the seventeenth century, attended The Royal School, Armagh and Portora Royal School, and in Belfast favoured the older Belfast—now also "Royal"—Academy. From 1774 the
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
had had Friends' School, Lisburn; and from 1865
Wesleyans Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
attended
Methodist College Belfast God with us , established = 1865 , type = Voluntary grammar , religion = Interdenominational , principal = Jenny Lendrum , chair_label = Chairwoman , chair = Revd. Dr Janet Unsworth , founder ...
. Co-educational "Methody" was to emerge in the 20th century as Inst's closest rival and competitor. The dramatist and novelist F. Frankfort Moore, attending Inst in the 1860s, recalls "not half a dozen Roman Catholic boys". St Malachy's Catholic diocesan college had opened its doors in 1833.


Industry and empire

A study sample of 96 members of the Belfast's mid-nineteenth-century civic elite—leading figures in trade, industry and the professions—found a plurality, a third, had attended Inst. The school clearly held "a proud place in Belfast society". In industrial Belfast, the path to civic prominence did necessarily lead through further education. In the 1860s two boys left the school, age 15, to begin apprenticeships in Belfast's engineering giant,
Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
. William Pirrie rose to become the shipbuilder's chairman, and
Alexander Carlisle Alexander Montgomery Carlisle, PC (8 July 1854 – 6 March 1926) brother-in-law to Viscount Pirrie, was one of the men involved with designing the s in the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. His main area of responsibility was the ships' s ...
the yard manager. In 1889, they were joined by another Instonian,
Thomas Andrews Thomas Andrews Jr. (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912) was a British businessman and shipbuilder. He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. He was the nava ...
, who became head of the draughting department. All the were involved in the design and construction of what in their day were the largest ships afloat, the ''Oceanic II'' in 1899, and ''Olympic'' in 1911 and its sister ship the ''Titanic'', with which Andrews went down on its lll-fated maiden voyage in 1912. Beginning in the 1840s, the
Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
examination (administered in its last years by the Collegiate Department) opened the imperial service to Irish school graduates, both Catholic and Protestant. Service in India and in the broader
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
was a common career path for Instonians over the coming century. Having applied to the Indian Civil Service at the end of this era in 1940,
Noel Larmour Sir Edward Noel "Nick" Larmour (25 December 1916 in Belfast, Ireland – 21 August 1999 in Belfast) was an Irish cricketer and British diplomat. Cricket A right-handed batsman, he played five times for the Ireland cricket team in 1938. He made ...
(1934) had the task, and beginning with
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
, of helping wind up the Empire in several of its territories. Over 700 old boys of the school served in the various theatres of the
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. 132 of them died.


The modern school

Until the end of the nineteenth century, Inst did not have a principal or a headmaster. The academic and administrative direction of the school had remained in the hands of a group of senior teachers (the headmasters) who sat on the board of masters. The first principal, Robert Dods, headmaster of modern languages, was appointed in 1898. Since then Inst has had eight principals, R. M. Jones (1898–1925), G. Garrod (1925–1939), J. C. A. Brierley (1939–1940), J. H. Grummitt (1940–1959), S. V. Peskett (1959–1978), T. J. Garrett (1978–1990), R. M. Ridley (1990–2006). The current principal, J. A. Williamson was appointed in January 2007 and is the first female to hold the post. At the end of the nineteenth century, improving transport services into Belfast and, more importantly, the need to provide additional classroom space to accommodate the greatly increasing numbers of pupils seeking enrolment persuaded the governors to end boarding. Since 1902 the school has been for day pupils only. Between 1864 and 1898 Inst had a small preparatory school on the main site in College Square, situated in the North Wing. In 1917, the board of governors opened a new preparatory school, with a small boarding department, Inchmarlo, in south Belfast, in Marlborough Park North. In 1935, Inchmarlo transferred from Marlborough Park to its present site at Mount Randal in Cranmore Park. The preparatory school is an integral part of The Royal Belfast Academical Institution. In the 1920s, in the period of Geoffrey Garrod's principalship, the house system was founded, and a school uniform, including the ubiquitous yellow and black quartered cap, was worn for the first time. In the Second World War, 106 Old Instonians fell in the conflict. During the war, younger pupils attended branch schools at The Royal School, Dungannon, and at the house known as Fairy Hill in Osborne Gardens. Air-raid shelters were built on the rear quad and a barrage balloon was anchored to the middle of the front lawn. The serious civil disorder affecting Belfast in the 1970s and 1980s was a considerable challenge to Inst as a city centre school. The Europa, close to the school, was reputedly "the most bombed hotel in the world", having been hit 36 times. Inst had regular bomb alerts, causing the entire school to evacuate and assemble on the front lawn, but in the course of
the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
not one day of school was lost. Since the 1980s, Inst has benefited from a number of major infrastructure investments: the Jack McDowell Pavilion at Osborne Park, the purpose-built sixth form centre, a multi-function sports centre and fitness suite, the Christ Church Centre of Excellence, the new pavilion at Bladon Park, a water-based synthetic hockey pitch at Shaw's Bridge and the Centre of Innovation in the technology department. Inst currently has over one thousand pupils on the main site and over two hundred pupils in the preparatory department, Inchmarlo. About 150 new pupils enter every year.


Curriculum

For the first three years, boys normally follow a common curriculum: in the fourth year the curriculum is still general but certain options are introduced, and at the end of the fifth, boys sit the examination for the Northern Ireland GCSE. Subjects studied at AS/A2 level in the sixth form include English, modern history, geography, economics, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Latin, physical education, business studies, technology, mathematics, further mathematics, physics, politics, chemistry, biology, music and art.


Houses


Sports and societies

There are numerous clubs and societies, a school orchestra, choir and band, a contingent of the Combined Cadet Force, Scouts and Explorer Scouts (74th) and a community service group.


Sport

The school offers a wide selection of sports, with
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 it ...
being the most dominant. Inst have won the
Ulster Schools Cup The Ulster Schools' Challenge Cup is an annual competition involving schools affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The Schools' Cup has the distinction of being the world's second-oldest rugby competition, having bee ...
outright 32 times along with 4 shared titles, winning the cup most recently in 2017 against Methodist College Belfast. Rugby and hockey are played in the winter; athletics, cricket (played at Osborne Park) and lawn tennis occupy the summer months; badminton, fencing, rowing, squash and swimming (including water polo and life-saving) take place throughout the year. Teams representing the school take part not only in matches and activities within the province, but also in events open to all schools in the United Kingdom. The school hockey teams have achieved many successes. The 1st XI consistently feature in the finals of all three competitions they enter (The Irish Schools Tournament, The McCullough Cup and the Burney Cup). In 2016 four Instonians played Olympic hockey, three for Ireland and one for Great Britain. In recent times other school sports have also been more frequently making headlines. Inst is one of only four schools in Northern Ireland to participate in
competitive rowing Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is d ...
. In 2005 the first ever Inst crew travelled to the Henley Royal Regatta in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It regularly participates in various regattas throughout Ireland and abroad. In swimming the school teams regularly go to competitions within Ireland and abroad. In 2005, 3 of the team qualified for the Irish International Schools Squad. In the same year the senior team came 3rd in the Bath Cup competition held in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Recently the team picked up a number of medals in the Irish Schools, held in the NAC in Dublin on the 4 February 2006. Again one swimmer qualified for the International Schools Squad, while the senior relay team became Irish champions in both the medley and freestyle relays, breaking both Irish Schools records in the process. On 12 May 2006 the senior team again won the Bath Cup competition, in a new record time. In February 2007, the team again performed well in the Irish Schools, gaining numerous medals and retaining both senior relay titles. The team narrowly missed out on the 2007 Bath Cup title, being beaten by 0.4 seconds in a thrilling race which was down to the wire. However, the team did shave a huge 3 seconds off the record that they themselves had set the year before, and also took the Otter title and record for the 4x50 medley relay. In March 2008, they won the Bath Cup again, in a new record time. They also broke the Otter Medley title, with two members winning both titles for a second time.
Water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...
teams have competed in various events and tours, the most recent to the Netherlands in 2006. In January 2007 the team came runners-up in the Irish Schools Water Polo Championships. Numerous players have gone on to gain representative and international honours. Football is played at Inst with 3 senior teams regularly competing in league and cup competitions, although it is not played below fifth form. The school hosts a number of students who represent their country in various sports. Also since 2010 the swimming team has won the Bath Cup three times, the Otter Medley Cup twice and the Otter Challenge Cup four times, the most recent being winning all three trophies in 2017.


Music

The music separtment is overseen by Philip Bolton, Musical groups include the choir, which won the UTV Choir of the Year competition in 1999, the orchestra, the jazz band led by past pupil David Howell, and the string group. Other notable figures in the music department are: * Ann Reid, a violin performer and concert pianist, who tutors both of these instruments in the school; and * Antoinette McMichael, part-time teacher at Inchmarlo Preparatory school. She is the director of music in the preparatory department. The music performed is of all varieties and styles. Among public performances and television recordings, the music department have two major concerts a year in November and March, along with the annual
Carol Service Most churches in the United Kingdom and Ireland hold carol services in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The service usually consists of hymns about Christmas and readings from the gospels telling the Christmas story. Many candles are lit around ...
. In 2010, the Easter concert took place on 29 April in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, to mark the 200th anniversary of the school. In the bicentenary year, Philip Bolton chose to compose a new arrangement of the school song which was much more instrumental.


Scouting

The school sponsors 74th Belfast (RBAI) Scout Group which opened on 12 February 1926. The first Group Scoutmaster was William (Billy) Greer who led the group for 38 years. One of the first patrol leaders, Wilfred M Brennan, became Chief Commissioner for Northern Ireland. In 1929, the group was so large it contained three troops. War time saw a former assistant scoutmaster, John Haire, killed when his Hurricane fighter was shot down on May 6, 1940. His family donated an annual prize for scouting activity. By 1945, 205 out of 430 former members had served in the armed forces or in the merchant navy. A memorial cairn was built on Bessy Bell near Baronscourt in
County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
to commemorate the 18 old boys who were killed in the warr. There is a memorial plaque in Baronscourt Parish Church. In 1940, JH Grummit became school principal and later became the group's first county commissioner. In 1947, three Sea Scout Patrols were formed. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme was started in the early 1960s. Ronnie Hiscocks led the group from 1965 to 1992. September 1970 saw the formation of the new venture unit for boys aged 16 and older. In 1987, the 100th Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award was presented to a member of 74th with many of these scouts going on to claim the Queen's Scout Award. The sea and land sections combined in 1971. That same year saw the group travelled to the continent for the first time, to
Kandersteg Kandersteg is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located along the valley of the River Kander, west of the Jungfrau massif. It is noted for its spectacular mountai ...
in Switzerland. In 1992, Martin Keane took over the group and the boys got to experience Martin's love for mountaineering at home and abroad. 1995 saw a long record of consecutive summer camps come to an end. In 1997, David Scott became the group's fourth leader. 2005 saw the group travel outside Europe for the first time, to Canada. In 2008, the group partnered with Habitat for Humanity NI to go to Argentina to build homes for the poor. Trips to Mozambique, Cambodia and Ethiopia followed. In 2011, a number of scouts met Prince Edward and Scott became Belfast County Commissioner. In 2012, a contingent of Scouts attended President Obama's visit to Belfast's Waterfront Hall. 2015 saw the group become a registered charity. 2016 saw a number of 90th anniversary celebrations. The group continued to maintain high participation with 85 young people in the scout troop (ages 10.5 to 14), the explorer unit (14 to 18) and the scout network (18 to 25) in 2017.


Debating

The school's debating society, more properly known as the Royal Academical Debating Society, is the oldest continuously extant body of its kind in Ireland and is currently overseen by Lynn Gordon and Chris Leathley. The society meets regularly at both junior and senior level and aims to develop initiative, confidence, and an appreciation of the culture of both debate and civilised argument. Two internal competitions are run within Inst. There is an inter-souse debating competition (current champions are Larmor), and the Gawin Orr Public Speaking Competition which are both held annually. The society also holds an annual dinner at which members celebrate past successes and wish leaving members well. The inaugural RBAI Invitational Debating Tournament was held in 2007 and has continued on an annual basis since then. Inst have won this tournament on three occasions (2007, 2009 & 2010) whilst St Malachy's were the victors in 2008. In 2008, an Inst team won the first Debating Matters Competition to be held in Northern Ireland and the following year, Michael Frazer won Best Individual Speaker. School debating teams have recently been some of the most successful in the province, reaching the final of the Northern Ireland Schools Debating Championship on five occasions (1998, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2014), and have won the competition twice, defeating Thornhill College, Derry in 2007 and
Bangor Grammar School (Maintain justice) , established = 1856 , type = Voluntary grammar school , religious_affiliation = Interdenominational , head_label = Principal , head = E P Huddleson , r_head_label = Chaplains , r_head = Nig ...
in 2011 in the final at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Royal Belfast Academical Institution has successfully competed in many European debating competitions. In 2009, the Inst team won the NI European Youth Parliament Competition and went on to represent Northern Ireland in the UK finals held in Durham. In March 2010, Inst also participated in the All-Ireland European Council Debates held annually at Dublin Castle. Representing Germany, the RBAI team were awarded 2nd place out of the 28 teams from across Ireland who competed, with RBAI also winning the TE Utley Memorial Award with an essay on the future of Britain in geopolitics. Inst also regularly participate in the European Council Debates held in Stormont.


Combined Cadet Force

The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is overseen by Major Wallace having both RAF and Army sections. The Army section is the current holder of the Northern Ireland Cadet Military skills trophy for Team and individual skills.


Old Instonians

The school has an "old boys" club known casually as Instonians and formally as the Belfast Old Instonians Association (BOIA). At present the rugby, golf and cricket sections of the club are open for all to join, whilst the hockey club is still open to past members of the school only. Originally set up as an “old boys” only club, the sports club was opened up to the public in response to the notable flow of Instonians to
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for further education, many of whom did not return to Northern Ireland. This led to fears that the club would die out as current members grew older but were replaced by less and less 'new blood', owing to the dwindling number of Instonians choosing to remain in Northern Ireland. The association also functions as a means for ex-pupils to find old school friends, or get in contact with other Old Instonians in their area if they move abroad. The association provides this by producing a directory of all members on a regular basis. There are annual Instonians dinners held by the association, in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, which aim to further the feeling of brotherhood in the shared experiences of the school's sons.


Inchmarlo

Royal Belfast Academical Institution has a preparatory department called Inchmarlo, founded in 1907 and now set in a site on Cranmore Park, off the Malone Road in South Belfast. Inchmarlo House was the former home of Sir William Crawford, a director of the York Street Flax Spinning Mill. It employs 11 full-time staff and caters for boys aged between 4 and 11 whose standard uniform consists of traditional school-caps, shorts, knee-high socks, school-blazers and leather satchels. It constantly attains impressive results in the ' Eleven-plus' examination with 75% of pupils gaining an 'A' grade. Of those, approximately 99% (around 40) transfer to the main school every year. The headmistress of Inchmarlo Preparatory School is Andrea Morwood.


Alumni


References


Reference bibliography

* * ()


Further reading

* * *


External links


Royal Belfast Academical Institution

Instonians
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1810 Grammar schools in Belfast Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Boys' schools in Northern Ireland Grade A listed buildings 1810 establishments in Ireland Preparatory schools in Northern Ireland Protestant schools in Northern Ireland