Friends' School, Lisburn is a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

voluntary

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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

in the city of

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, founded in 1774.

History

Friends’ School Lisburn was founded – as The Ulster Provincial School – on the basis of a bequest in 1764 of a prosperous linen merchant, John Hancock, who left £1,000 for the purchase of land in or near Lisburn on which to build a school for the children of Quakers. at Prospect Hill were purchased from the

Earl of Hertford Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

. In 1774, the first headmaster, John Gough, took up his post. In 1794 The Ulster Provincial School became the responsibility of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting, the body representing the Religious Society of Friends in

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

. Friends' is one of two remaining

schools in Ireland, the other being Newtown School, Waterford. Previously, a Quaker boarding school existed at Ballitore for much of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are eight in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The school has been named by ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' as Northern Ireland Secondary School of the Year on two occasions: first in 2011 and then in 2017.

Principals

Composition

The school consists of a fee-paying preparatory department, Prospect House, and a grammar school, the latter of which had, until the early 2000s, a boarding department attracting pupils from abroad (mostly

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

). Friends' now only accepts day pupils, and has had an admissions number of 140 a year, with 5 "collect" groups in each year contributing to a full enrolment of 970 for the grammar school. However, starting in 2022, a new system was introduced for Year 8 Pupils in which there are now 6 collects with a total of around 160 in the year. The original school house is no longer standing, but the date stone from it is displayed in Middle House, a building dating from 1880, which was refurbished in 2015. The latest addition to the school is the East Suite, a teaching building containing Maths and Music classes, which was opened in 2016. It stands in place of the old basketball court, which was previously the location of the swimming pool. The swimming pool was reputed to be the oldest heated pool in Ireland (1901), and used to stand beside Harding House, a temporary teaching building which was demolished to make space for the East Suite. The school has five tennis courts and three rugby pitches. A sports hall was opened in 2000 and two floodlit, sand-dressed hockey pitches were laid in 2013. As well as hosting school fixtures, these pitches are home to South Antrim Hockey Club.

Notable former pupils

* Wallace Arthur, biologist and author * Michael Dibdin, author * Stephen Ferris, rugby player for Ulster, Ireland, British and Irish Lions * Keith Getty, musician and hymn writer *

Bulmer Hobson John Bulmer Hobson (14 January 1883 – 8 August 1969) was an Irish republican. He was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916.D.J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty, ''A New D ...

, leading member of

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

and

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 ...

Charles Townshend, ''Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion'', pp. 18-19, Penguin Books, 2005; * Florence Fulton Hobson, first licensed female architect in Ireland * Jimmy Kirkwood, Gold medal winning Olympic hockey player (

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. ...

, Seoul 1988) * Robert Moore, first-class cricketer * Gareth Murdock, musician and current bass guitarist of

Alestorm Alestorm are a Scottish heavy metal band formed in Perth in 2004. Their music is characterised by a pirate theme, and as a result, they have been dubbed a "pirate metal" band by many critics and their fanbase. The group currently consists of ...

* Frank Pantridge , cardiologist, inventor of the portable

defibrillator Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). Defibrillation delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''count ...

* Alastair Ross, former Member of the

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 ...

(2007–2017), former Northern Ireland Executive Office Minister * Theo Snoddy, art historian * Sir William Tyrrell (1885-1968), physician and athlete.

References

External links