| Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park | |
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| Motto | "Certa Bonum Certamen" Latin for Fight the Good Fight |
| Established | 1856 |
| Location | Monkstown, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland |
| Students | 525[1] (Senior School) 200 (Junior School) |
| President Principal |
Mr. T. O'Reilly Dr. Gerry Berry (Senior School, Sep 2009) Mr. Dúileach Molloy (Junior School) |
| School Type Ages Staff Religious Order Sports Sister School Colours |
Voluntary fee paying (Senior) Independent Junior School 5-18 45 Teachers, 10 Ancillary (Senior) 8 Teachers, 8 Support (Junior) Christian Brothers Rugby, athletics Christian Brothers College, Cork Red, yellow and black |
| Homepage | cbcmonkstown.ie |
Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park (or C.B.C. Monkstown Park) is a voluntary fee-paying Catholic school and Independent Junior school, founded in 1856 in Monkstown, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland. The school fees are approximately €4,700 per annum. The college arrived at Monkstown Park in 1950 from Eblana Avenue in Dun Laoghaire via a short stint on Tivoli Road. This is the 60th academic year of existence at Monkstown Park, the 154th overall.[2]
The school motto is "Certa Bonum Certamen" or "fight the good fight" and the school colours are red, black and yellow. Monkstown has a sister school in Cork, Christians (CBC Cork) also founded by the Christian Brothers, both schools share the same colours of red, yellow and black and other traditions such as the motto. Recently Monkstown was 'twinned' with St. Patrick's College in Sri Lanka.
The school is to be re-built in the summer of 2009 2010 2011 2012. Dr. Gerry Berry assumed the role of principal in September 2009.
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On 1 January 1856, the Christian Brothers opened a school at Eblana Avenue in Dún Laoghaire (Kingstown as it was known then). The site was provided by Mr Charles Kennedy. Brother Alphonsus Hoope was appointed as superior of the school.
This was just ten years after the Great Famine, and emigration was rife. The school was called St Michaels Christian Brothers School, and initially educated mainly poor boys from the area.[3] Kingstown during the 19th century was rapidly expanding with the harbour town seeing the addition of the piers and the Dublin and Kingstown Railway opening 20 years before the school.
Hoope arranged for two rooms for teaching, which had to be expanded after three weeks to three due to demand. Within two years, a building housing 400 students was built on the site. The school was financed from "voluntary subscriptions, solicited and collected by the Brothers".[4] The Brothers residence of the time was located behind the main school building. There were 6 Brothers living on the school grounds, a building separate from the main school block. The school premises was valued in 1859 at £60.[4]
The Brothers continued to have a major role in the education system when Ireland gained independence. As Catholics became wealthier and put a higher premium on education many would choose such lifestyles and this posed a danger to traditional schools such as the Christian Brothers in Dun Laoghaire. A collegiate section was opened in the early 1930s to cope with the greater demand for Leaving Certificate education. Already the Holy Ghost order, the Jesuits and the Carmelites had opened fee paying schools in Dublin with sports like rugby to the forefront of the ethos. Rugby was made the school sport rather that the more normal Christian Brothers sporting pursuits in Gaelic Games (Gaelic Games was played at the new Eblana secondary school after the splitting of the school, however).
The school at Eblana prospered to an extent that it became impossible to accommodate both primary and secondary departments in the 19th century buildings. A new site was sought for part of the school.
The Brothers sought a site for the new part of the school. Traditions were soon adopted from CBC Cork which had been existence since the early 20th century. In 1949 the Brothers purchased the nearby 22-acre (89,000 m2) estate of Monkstown Park, which had been most recently occupied by the Protestant Corrig School. In order to procure the grounds, the Brothers released lands at Rochestown Avenue to Dun Laoghaire Corporation which had previously been used as the schools playing pitches. Many local people wanted a public park to be maintained at the site.
At that point the school, hitherto known as St. Michael's College, split into public and private schools, with the private part (the new CBC Monkstown, previous Christian Brothers Schools, Dun Laoghaire) moving and the public (the former CBS Eblana in Dun Laoghaire) remaining on the site. The secondary department, with the exception of the commercial stream, moved to the house at Monkstown in 1950, and extended the neo-classical house built by the historian Charles Haliday in 1843.
A past pupils union was established in the early 1950s. The Union helped established a Sociological Centre at the College during this time. In 1956 a special mass was celebrated for the first 100 years of the Dun Laoghaire Christian Brothers, attended by several leading figures in Ireland.
In 1964 a new concert hall and a further extension was opened on the site.
CBC abstained from joining the Free Education Scheme introduced by Donagh O'Malley in 1969, becoming one of the 56 secondary schools (8% of the total) in the country not funded by the Government.[5]
In 1987 the school was further extended with a new administration building including new offices, a cafeteria, staff room and technology department. The latest addition was the Edmund Rice Oratory, which opened in 1994.[3]
In 2000 the college celebrated its Golden Jubilee at Monkstown Park. The school year began with a ceremonial walk from the old Eblana school site to Monkstown Park. Events included a Jubilee Concert and the opening of a wall with the names of all the pupils from the time in Monkstown from 1950 onwards, attended by the President of Ireland.
There are currently plans to rebuild the school on its current site.[6] This caused considerable controversy in 2005 in the national media when it was announced, as CBC would receive a portion of the costs of funding the building despite being a fee-paying school from the Irish state.[7]
In 2007 the Christian Brothers decided to transfer the trusteeship of the school to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust along with 96 other Christian Brothers schools.
In 2009 construction of the new school began, scheduled to be completed in August 2011.
The college is bordered by several historical sites. Carrickbrennan Churchyard is located to the north of the school on the border of the grounds and Monkstown Castle is adjacent to the school. The college is made up of three buildings interconnected. Charles Haliday's house built in 1843 is incorporated into the main school block. The facade of the building long portico of Corinthians columns remains intact and is a protected structure.[8] The tower opposite the main building is also a protected structure. The administrative block was built in 1987 and also contains several classrooms. The Concert hall was built in the early 1960s.
The current re-building will terrace the new building into "the hill" and the current buildings are to be demolished with the protected structures and part of the old house retained as part of the development.
The grounds contain an athletics paddock and three rugby pitches. This includes the infamous gut which partly is a second entrance to the school, since shut.
Part of the schools mission statement is striving for "academic excellence". Boys study for both the Junior Certificate and later the Leaving Certificate. School hours are between 8:45 AM to 4 PM with a half day for sporting activities on Wednesdays at 1 PM. In addition sports activities sometimes take place after 4 PM and optional afternoon and night study is available.
The fourth year (Transition Year) includes courses in academic subjects, as well as such optional subjects and activities as: Japanese, Sailing, Social work, Tourism and First aid. The Comenius project is also offered which is a project linking CBC with other schools around Europe. Transition Year classes won the Comortas Scannan TG4 in 2005 and were finalists in 2006, the 2005 group having their film represent Ireland in Italy in 2005.
Aside from the core languages of English and Irish; Latin, Japanese, French, German and Spanish are taught. In addition to Business Studies for the Junior Cert; Economics, Business and Accounting are offered for the Leaving Cert. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics are taught. Physics, Chemistry and Biology are offered as science subjects. Civics, Geography, History, Technical drawing, Art, Music, Computers and Home Economics are also offered.[9]
The Department of Education has released three subject inspection reports on the school; history, physics and technical drawing. The report on Technical Graphics praised the facilities and quality of the lessons observed. It did encourage however that the subject become a part of the school's Transistion Year programme.[10] The report on history praised the strong take up of the subject for the Leaving Certificate and the quality of teaching.[11][12]
In the 2004 Sunday Times Schools League Table, CBC was listed among the country's top twenty school, while in the Irish Times tables in 2006, the school was the top all boys school in Ireland (3rd overall).[13][14]
The Junior School consists of around 200 boys. There are 8 full-time teachers and one principal. Extra-curricular subjects are also taught such as Computers, French, Physical Education, Speech and Drama, Singing and Musical Appreciation and Arts and Crafts. There is also a part time remedial teacher. Tutors are available to take students studying German and Music and the school runs an activity club on Fridays.
As an Independent school, it operates outside the auspices of the Department of Education, which does not control school hours, curriculum and activities.
Although the Christian Brothers have departed the faculty, Religious Education is still taught. It is offered for the Junior and Leaving Certificates (as an optional subject). Religion is also taken for those who do not choose to learn it as an exam subject in the Senior Cycle.[15]
The Edmund Rice Oratory is one of the school's latest additions. A school chaplain is available to the college.
The Zambian Immersion Project is a senior cycle project where pupils fund raise and travel to Zambia and help in charity work.[16] Others complete An Gaisce (Presidents Award) and the Edmund Rice awards which contain significant social work.[15]
The Junior School's 6th class raise money annually for the Chernobyl Children's Project (with their charity Children Helping Children), and culminate their fund raising in a business exhibition at the end of every year. In 2007 they raised €42,000 for the project.[17] In 2008 the school started a new charity: the Edmund Rice's Children's Fund. This encourages a whole school approach.[18]
CBC has the distinction of being the first school to ever perform in the national Theatre of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre in 1958. Class V performed Patrick Pearse's Íosagán[19] under the directorship of Thomas MacAnna, a future Tony Award winner, who was the drama and elocution teacher in the school at the time. MacAnna also produced the early Gilbert and Sullivan opera performances at the school.
The annual school musical, a collaboration with the nearby girls school Loreto College, Foxrock has been a huge success. It has been running for 21 years and each respective transition year pupils participate, providing the student wishes to participate.[20]
A fifth-year drama is also produced.
In 2011, CBC became the first school in the history of Leinster Schools' Debating Championships to win both the Individual and Team prizes, thus the school were Leinster's sole representatives at the All Ireland Schools' Debating Championship (Individual: Austin Conlon, Team: Kevin Dooney and Michael Barton). Conlon went on to win the Individual prize at the All Ireland Schools' Debating Championship at University College Cork whilst the Team of Dooney and Barton finished as runners up.[21] Another team from CBC, Stephen Stack and Hugh Guidera, also represented Ireland at the Schools debating competition organised by the Oxford Union at Oxford University.[22]
From the beginning, Rugby Union has been the main competitive team sport of the school. Rugby was played at the old Monkstown Park School (Corrig School) who won the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup twice in the early 1900s.
The school's rugby team initially was CBC Dún Laoighaire before the move to the new school in Monkstown. CBC Monkstown won the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup in 1976 and reached the final in 1984.[23] The school won the League Cup at Junior Level in 1998 and 2004, reaching the final in 1997/98, 2000/01, 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2010/2011. The Senior Cup team played in the Senior league final in 2001, 2003, and 2008, winning the latter. On the five occasions the Senior team have played in the Vincent Murray Cup they won in 2003, 2005 and 2007 whilst losing the final in 2006 and 2010. CBC won the Powerade Leinster 'School of the Year' award in 2008.[24]
CBC has produced a number of provincial and international rugby players including Paddy O'Donoghue (rugby) and Pat Casey. Other rugby figures include the former President of the IRFU, John Lyons and the former international referee Donal Courtney.
In 2008 the school undertook a tour of Argentina and Uruguay playing games against a number of teams including Newman Club (rugby), a Christian Brothers school in Buenos Aires.[25] Previous tours include Australia in 2001 and South Africa in 2005.
The school is also involved in Athletics and Cross Country competitions. The school consistently produces medalists at All Ireland, Leinster, East Leinster and Edmund Rice Games level, both individual and at team level. The school has an athletics pavilion with a triple and high jump tack, a pole vault track, a discus facility and a hammer net.
The Endall Gym has been extensively renovated in recent years and is a central location of sport and fitness in the school. Indoor rowing is also popular in itself and as a training method for rugby in the school's gym which has six rowing machines. CBC is the All Ireland Indoor rowing champion and sends participants to the British Indoor Rowing Championships.
Other sports taken include: Golf, Figure Skating, Swimming, Tennis, Sailing, Orienteering, scrabble, horse-riding, squash and Badminton.
Golf is played in Leopardstown Golf Course and the school enters teams every year at provincial level.
The school has two tennis courts (neither of which have nets or chalk outlines) but in recent years the school has used Monkstown Tennis Club opposite the school. The school tennis team reached the Semi Finals of the Leinster Championships in 2009.
Swimming is undertaken at Monkstown Blue Pool.
The school uses the facilities at Dun Laoghaire for sailing which is a part of the Transition year programme. The school came third in the Leinster Schools Sailing Championships in 2009.
An effort in start a cricket team in Monkstown in the early 1950s proved to be difficult. Although playing rugby was deemed as "maverick" for a Christian Brothers school, the playing of cricket was unpalatable to a number of Christian Brothers. The efforts to start a cricket team was chronicled on the March 27 edition of RTÉ's Sunday Miscellany as "Cricket in the Borough" by past pupil Louis Brennan.[26]
The Past Pupils Union of the Christian Brothers College, Monkstown and Dun Laoighaire has been active since the mid 1950s. The CBC Monkstown PPU hosts several annual events.
Notable past pupils from the Dun Laoghaire and Monkstown schools include:
Arts and Entertainment
Humanitarian
Sport
Politics, legal and diplomats
Business
Academia and Journalistic
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