Sandymount High School was a coeducational secondary school on Herbert Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4 which operated for over 50 years before closing in 1999.

History

Sandymount High School was founded in 1947 and was initially controversial because, as a non-denominational school, it wasn't owned by a church but by the Cannon family,[1] who also provided the two headmasters the school had: father and son Patrick and Conall Cannon. Patrick's wife Eileen Cannon also served as headmistress.

The school's student body included those from a local council estate called Beech Hill, the offspring of parents disenchanted with denominational/same sex schools, students on the Malahide/Howth to Bray rail corridor and foreign nationals who paid tuition fees.

While the school had a gym — basically exercise classes — for Intermediate Certificate students, it had no compulsory sports or sports team for a period. Otherwise rugby union was the main school sport for both Intermediate and Leaving Certificate male students during the early 1960s.

A rival school opened next door several years later: Marian College, run by the Catholic Church. It was originally intended to be co-educational and named Riverside College, but both the name and its co-educational character were changed at the insistence of John Charles McQuaid as he disliked the influence of Sandymount High.[2]

The school was closed in 1999 and the land sold for development.[3] The site now contains a gated community called Cannon Place.

Alumni

Notable former pupils include Fionnula Flanagan,[4] Charlie Bird,[5] Eamonn Dunphy,[6] Dervla Kirwan and Ronnie Delaney.

References

  1. ↑ Murray, Peter (2010). "Educational Developmentalists Divided? Patrick Cannon, Patrick Hillery and the Economics of Education in the Early 1960s" (PDF). The Economic and Social Review. 41: 6.
  2. ↑ John Charles McQuaid: ruler of Catholic Ireland, John Cooney, p.295
  3. ↑ Parliamentary Debates, 26 April 2006 - the school is listed as one that closed since 1996
  4. ↑ Fionnula Flanagan, the Lisa Richards Agency
  5. ↑ Press Release Archive, University College Dublin, retrieved 21 July 2009
  6. ↑ McCarthy, Mary (7 May 2020). "This Working Life: 'I was too shouty on The Dunphy Show but my podcast absorbs me now'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 21 January 2021.

53°20′01″N 6°13′32″W / 53.3335°N 6.2255°W / 53.3335; -6.2255


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