Presentation College, Athenry is a voluntary secondary school which is predominantly Catholic in character located in the town of

Athenry Athenry (; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland, which lies east of Galway city. Some of the attractions of the medieval town are its town wall, Athenry Castle, its priory and its 13th-century street-plan. The town is also well known by virt ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is under the

trusteeship Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for 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. CEIST provides the moral and legal framework that enable its schools to offer second level Catholic education in Ire ...

(CEIST).

History

Presentation Convent in Athenry was established by the

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

mother-house. Sisters taught in the old girls' primary school at Abbey Row until, some years later, a new primary school was built on the parish lands at the rear of the convent. In the late 1920s, the Sisters began to provide secondary education for girls in the primary school through development of a secondary top. In 1930, four girls took the Intermediate Certificate examination, fore-runner of the present

Junior Certificate The Junior Cycle () is the first stage of the education programme for post-primary education within the Republic of Ireland. It is overseen by the Department of Education (Ireland), Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculu ...

. By the late 1940s, the school was registered with the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

as a secondary school and the curriculum was extended. There were 74 girls on the rolls in 1949/50. In 1964, the Sisters announced that boys would be admitted to the school from September, and 25 boys joined the 126 girls in the school which was now named Presentation College. By 1968, Sr. Brid Brennan had been appointed principal. With the advent of the Free Education Scheme and free transport in 1967 pupil numbers increased greatly. The co-educational Coolarne school also then amalgamated with Presentation College. By 1970, there were 386 pupils enrolled, and were mainly taught in

pre-fabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. Some research ...

classrooms. During the 1980s, the present school building was completed on what had previously been the football pitch. A gymnasium was provided by local effort. The first lay Principal, Gilbert McCarthy, was appointed and served until his retirement in 2004. On 14 February 2019, the doors to the founding school closed. Later in February 2019, Presentation College Athenry relocated to a new school on a greenfield site at Ballygurrane Athenry.

Curriculum

The school offers both the

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

and

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

cycles and a

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

programme. Presentation College Athenry is involved in a variety of sports, including

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Teachers

* Cathal Moore (b. 1975) - hurler

Alumni

* Frank Burke (b. 1952) - hurler *

Elaine Feeney Elaine Feeney (born 1979) is an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. Her writing focuses on "the central themes of history, national identity, and state institutions, and she examines how these forces structure the everyday lives of Irish wom ...

- poet, novelist, and playwright * Eoin Lawless (b. 2002) - hurler * Seán Loftus (b. 1997) - hurler * Evan Niland (b. 1998) - hurler

References

External links

* {{Official, http://www.presathenry.ie/ Buildings and structures in County Galway Secondary schools in County Galway Educational institutions established in 1908 1908 establishments in Ireland