Dominican College is a Catholic grammar all-girls school in Fortwilliam Park, north

Belfast, Northern Ireland Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

History

The school was established in 1930 by the Dominican Sisters. It was initially established as a Catholic commercial college for Belfast, alongside a second-level school. In 2006, the management of the school passed from the Dominican Sisters to lay management. The school is now under the trusteeship of the Cabra Dominican Sisters, with a board of governors whose membership also includes parents, a teacher and appointees of the Education Authority. In 2005 it underwent a major £13.1 million redevelopment. The school chapel has been listed as a building of special architectural merit. In 2017, the total student population was just over 1000, a quarter of it the sixth form.

Academics

In 2019 the school was ranked 5th out of 159 secondary schools in Northern Ireland with 91.7% of its A-level students who sat the exams in 2017/18 being awarded three A*-C grades. In 2018 it was ranked joint ninth in Northern Ireland for its GCSE performance with 99.3% of its entrants receiving five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including the core subjects English and Maths.

Facilities

The modernist design of the chapel, which was built in 1964, was influenced by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

's chapel at Ronchamp in France.

Alumnae

* Eileen Bell CBE (born 1943) – politician,

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

(MLA) for North Down from 1998 to 2007 * Marianne Elliott OBE (born 1948) – academic historian. * Medbh McGuckian (born 1950) – poet * Katie Melua (born 1984) – Georgian-born popular singer * Nuala McAllister (born 1989) – politician;

(MLA) for North Belfast from 2022

References

External links