The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II, Oxmantown, also called The King's Hospital (KH; ) is a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

independent

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

and

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

situated in

Palmerstown Palmerstown (; officially Palmerston, see #Name origin and spelling, spelling) is a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and suburb in western Dublin, Ireland on the banks of the River Liffey. It forms part of the South Dublin local authorit ...

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

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 on an 80-acre campus beside the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

, called Brooklawn, named after the country houses situated on the site and in which the headmaster and his family reside. The school is also a member of the HMC

Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...

and the BSA. Founded in 1669, it is one of the oldest schools in Ireland and was also known as the Blue Coat School. Although priority is given to those of the main

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

denominations, as a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

school, it is attended by students of other Christian denominations and other faiths. The school's colours are navy and gold. The school crest is three burning castles with the date "1669", almost identical to the crest for Dublin city. The current headmaster is Mark Wallace.

History

Founding

The school was founded in 1669 as The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II and was located in Queen Street, Dublin. King's Hospital was a continuation of the old Free School of Dublin. On 5 May 1674, the school opened with 60 pupils, including 3 girls. During the early seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, it was used as the site of elections to the Irish Parliament's Dublin City constituency. When this was changed to the

Tholsel Tholsel was a name traditionally used for a local municipal and administrative building used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade and other documents in Irish towns and cities. It was at one stage one of the most important secular ...

for the 1713

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

, it led to the Dublin election riot.

New building of 1783

From 1783 to 1971, the school was located in Blackhall Place, Dublin, later the headquarters of the Law Society of Ireland in a building and amongst a street plan that was designed by the architect Thomas Ivory and encompassed much of what was previously the land of Oxmantown Green. The take-over of Morgan's School (1957) contributed to steadily increasing numbers of students, and by 1970, a need for extra space and facilities led to the move from the city centre to a modern purpose-built school set in its own site on the banks of the

in Palmerstown,

Erwin Schrödinger

A 57-year-old manuscript by the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

winning physicist

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

resurfaced at the school in 2012. Entitled "Fragment From An Unpublished Dialogue Of Galileo", it was written for the school's 1955 edition of the annual ''Blue Coat'' magazine to coincide with Schrödinger leaving Dublin to take up his appointment as Chair of Physics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. Schrödinger wrote the manuscript for the school's former English teacher and Editor of the Blue Coat magazine, Ronnie Anderson (now deceased), a friend of Schrödinger when he lived in Dublin. It is now in the possession of King's Hospital alumnus Professor Jonathan Coleman in CRANN at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

Structure

The school is

and caters for some 720 pupils, with 408 day pupils and 292 boarders in 2023/24. The King's Hospital has students from all over Ireland and from overseas. Students from Germany and Spain are the most common international students. The School is divided into five boarding

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

: Bluecoat, Mercer, Grace, Morgan and Ormonde and five-day pupil houses. Each boarding house has its own resident housemaster or

housemistress {{Unreferenced, date=October 2024 In education, a housemaster is a schoolmaster in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school and especially at a public school. The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of board ...

Sport

The school has a gymnasium and sports hall with an advanced fitness centre. The school also has access to a swimming pool, astroturf hockey pitches, rugby pitches and tennis courts. Various sports are played on campus and training is provided by staff. The school has teams for rugby, hockey, cricket, athletics, cross-country, badminton, soccer, basketball and swimming. Rugby has been the most competitive boys sport for many years with the team playing at a high level. They regularly compete in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup reaching the final in 1982 and have won the Vinnie Murray Cup on two occasions in 2006 and 2015. They have also won the Leinster Schools Senior League twice in 1997 and 2004.They have produced two men's senior internationals as well as three Rugby Sevens Olympians.

Notable past pupils

* Jack Boothman - Former President of the GAA (1994 and 1997) * Jonathan Coleman - lecturer in the School of Physics in CRANN at

and the 2011

Science Foundation Ireland Science Foundation Ireland (SFI; ) was a statutory body in Ireland. It was an agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, with responsibility for funding oriented basic and applied research in th ...

'Researcher of the Year' * Harvey du Cros - financier; the founder of the pneumatic tire industry based on the discovery of

John Boyd Dunlop John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish people, Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making Natural rubber, rubber devices, he invented the first practica ...

* Niall Hogan - co-founder of Touchtech Payments, bought by billion-dollar online global payments company Stripe in 2019 * Laura Modi - founder of American infant formula company Bobbie. * Randal Plunkett, 21st Baron of Dunsany - film producer * Charles Tyndall - 13th Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh. * Robert Warke - 18th Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross * John Weir - Loyalist murderer and member of the Glenanne gang;

Politics

* Robert Dowds - former Labour Party TD for the Dublin Mid-West constituency from 2011 to 2016. * Roderic O'Gorman -

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

leader and former Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth *

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024, as Tánaiste from 2020 to 2022, and as leader of Fine Gael from 2017 to 2024. A Teachta Dála, ...

- 14th

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

of Ireland (2017–2020 and 2022–2024)

Music and Arts

* Denise Chaila - Irish and Zambian rapper, singer, poet, grime and hip-hop artist based in Limerick. * John and Edward Grimes - members of the pop duo Jedward * Lisa Hannigan - Irish folk/pop singer famous for her recordings with

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...

* Lara McDonnell - Irish actress * Tom Murphy - Tony Award-winning Irish actor * Andy Orr - member of the pop group Six * Kathryn Thomas - Irish television presenter

Sports

* Grainne Clancy - former Irish international cricketer. * Noel Mahony - first-class cricketer for

and president of the Irish Cricket Union, also taught mathematics at the school. * Angus McKeen - former Leinster and Ireland rugby prop forward * Robin Roe - former captain of the

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Champio ...

. Also capped with the British & Irish Lions and The Barbarians

Olympians

;

* Kathy Baker - Rugby Sevens in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* Natalya Coyle - Modern Pentathlon in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* Ian Fitzpatrick - Rugby Sevens in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* Heike Holstein - Dressage in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

* Erin King - Rugby Sevens in

* Patrick McMillan - Downhill Skiing in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Sara Tracey - Track and Field in 2012, 2016 * Carlos O'Connell - Decathlon in 1988 * Judy Reynolds - Dressage in

* Camilla Speirs - Dressage in

;

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

* Seye Ogunlewe - Sprinter in

Notable headmasters

*1922–1927: John Mason Harden

References

External links

The King's Hospital website

KHPPU - The King's Hospital Past Pupil Union website
{{DEFAULTSORT:King's Hospital, The Secondary schools in South Dublin (county) Educational institutions established in the 1660s Boarding schools in Ireland Private schools in the Republic of Ireland Anglican schools in the Republic of Ireland Bluecoat schools 1669 establishments in the British Empire Baroque architecture in Ireland