St Patrick's College, Bearnageeha was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

secondary school for boys aged between 11-19 situated on the

Antrim Road The Antrim Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road (Northern Ireland), A6 road, a traffic rout ...

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 Kingd ...

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. North ...

. The college's catchment area encompassed the

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Ardoyne Ardoyne () is a working class and mainly Catholic and Irish republican district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during The Troubles. Foundation The village of Ardoyne was founded in ...

, the Antrim Road and various other areas of North Belfast. In 2006, St Patrick's celebrated its golden jubilee. St Patrick's was the first Catholic secondary school in Belfast to offer

A-Levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

. The school was amalgamated in 2017 with Little Flower Catholic School to form Blessed Trinity College after all legal appeals to the amalgamation were exhausted.

History

St Patrick's College opened its doors for the first time on 31 August 1955. The school was constructed at a cost of approximately £250,000 and offered places to 450 young men, the school was built on the Antrim Road and has the address number "619". The school inherited its subtitle, "Bearnageeha" from Bearnageeha House, the mansion around which the College is built. The name "Bearnageeha" is phonetically derived from the Gaelic phrase "''bearna gaoithe''", meaning "the windy gap". While little evidence survives as to why Bearnageeha House received its name, it has been suggested that it was related to its isolated location within the original Fortwilliam Estate; surrounded by the Belfast hills.

Headmasters and headmistress

Sports

The school offered sports including football,

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

, soccer, handball,

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

cross country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

. The sports department made use of local leisure centres, Mallusk Playing Fields, Cliftonville Playing Fields, Barnett's Park, Cavehill Country Park and the Antrim Forum Athletics Track, along with the school's own sports fields and synthetic grass sports facility. In 2016 the college opened a new gym facility, it included male and female changing rooms and a fitness suite. In Gaelic Games, the college joined the ranks of the Ulster Colleges’ in the later part of the 1990s, competing in all age groups in Gaelic football and hurling. St. Patrick's has won a number of Ulster Colleges’ titles in both Gaelic football and hurling. The students that represented the College on the GAA front were drawn mainly from the three local clubs in north Belfast: Pearse's, Ardoyne Kickhams and St Enda's, Glengormley. In football, all students who represented the school played in two competitions: the Belfast Schools Cup and Northern Ireland Schools Cup. Many past students played football at amateur, semi-pro and Irish League levels, while others played in England, including

Tony Kane Anthony Michael Kane (born 29 August 1987) is a Northern Irish former footballer Kane was best known for his time at Ballymena United where he made over 250 appearances for the Sky Blues. As an international, Kane has represented both the Re ...

and Martin Donnelly. In Cross Country, utilising the nearby Cavehill Country Park for preparation, St Patrick's students competed on an annual basis in the B District Championships; usually held at Ormeau Park or at Queen's University's complex at ‘The Dub’. Students regularly qualifed for the Ulster Championships, the most recent achievement being a silver medal, which won by John McKeown in

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the midlands region with 14,607 inhabitants at the 2016 census. The town retained ...

, County Offaly. For many years the College Golf Team participated in the Golfing Union of Ireland's inter-school competitions at Under 14 and Under 18 levels. The competitions are played over 18 holes under both stroke and match play conditions. The college participated in the GUI Winter League Ulster section.

Houses

The college operates a house system, which was inaugurated in 1998 during the Headmastership of PJ O'Grady. It was at this time that the first three houses were created; Trinity (year 8), Saul (year 9) and Slemish (year 10). Each house has a designated colour and students wear their house badge on their school blazers. Each class in the Junior School has a rotating position of Prefect and Captain. Both Prefect and Captain wear a badge to show their position within their group

Former students

Martin Dillon Martin Dillon (born 2 June 1949) is an Irish author, journalist, and broadcaster. He has won international acclaim for his investigative reporting and non-fiction works on The Troubles, including his bestselling trilogy, ''The Shankill Butcher ...

(born 1949) - author, journalist, and broadcaster. *

Sam Millar Sam Millar (born 1955) is a crime writer and playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Millar was also a member of the Irish Republican Army from around the age of 15 after first seeing the events of Bloody Sunday and then, a few days after Bl ...

(born 1955) - crime writer and playwright *

Ryan Burnett Ryan Burnett (born 21 May 1992) is a Northern Irish former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2019. He was a unified bantamweight world champion, having held the WBA (Unified) and IBF titles between 2017 and 2018. At regional level h ...

(born 1992) - boxer

Former staff

Tony McAuley Tony McAuley (24 October 1939 – 7 June 2003) was a Northern Irish broadcaster, producer and musician. Biography Early life and education McAuley was born Anthony on 24 October 1939 to a chemist from Cookstown, County Tyrone. Tony was the nep ...

(1939-2003) - broadcaster, producer and musician. * Eamonn O'Kane (1945-2004) - trade unionist *

Hugh Niblock Hugh Niblock (September 1949 – 18 February 2022) was a Gaelic footballer who played for the Magherafelt and St Gall's clubs and at senior level for the Derry county team. He usually lined out as a forward. Career Niblock first played Gaeli ...

(1949-2022) -

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's College, Belfast Educational institutions established in 1956 Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland Secondary schools in Belfast Boys' schools in Northern Ireland 1956 establishments in Northern Ireland Defunct Catholic schools in Northern Ireland