Belvedere College SJ Coláiste Beilbhidír | |
---|---|
Location | |
6 Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1, D01 TK25, Ireland | |
Coordinates | 53°21′21″N6°15′43″W / 53.355732°N 6.261936°W |
Information | |
Type | Voluntary |
Motto | Per vias rectas (By straight paths) |
Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic Society of Jesus |
Established | 1832 |
Headmaster | Gerry J. Foley |
Gender | Male |
Number of students | 1,005 |
Colour(s) | Black and white |
Former pupils | Old Belvederians |
Website | www |
Belvedere College S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a fee-paying voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland.
Formally established in 1832 at Hardwicke Street in north inner city Dublin, the school was later moved to Belvedere House in 1841 and it is for this building that the school is named. It remains in the same location as of 2024.
The school has numerous notable alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, business and religion.
Belvedere College also forms the setting for part of James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Belvedere owes its origins to the efforts of John Austin who opened primary and secondary schools at Saul's Court off Fishamble Street in 1750. The Society of Jesus has been active in the area around Hardwicke Street since 1790. They founded St Francis Xavier's College in the disused Poor Clare convent on Hardwicke Street with nine students in 1832, [1] three years after Catholic emancipation. In 1841, the Jesuits purchased Belvedere House on neighbouring Great Denmark Street, which gave the school its name. George Augustus Rochfort (1738–1814), who became the second Earl of Belvedere in 1774, built Belvedere House, whose interior decoration was carried out by Michael Stapleton, a leading stucco craftsman of his time. [2]
Belvedere was caught up in the events of the 1916 Rising, when the British military opened fire at the Jesuit residence. [3] [4] The Jesuits at Belvedere and the neighbouring Gardiner Street Community helped the wounded and distributed food across the locality.
In February 2012 Chinese Politburo member and future paramount leader Xi Jinping visited the college as part of his visit to Ireland for a special reception in the O'Reilly theatre. An annual exchange with a Jesuit school in Hong Kong was the catalyst for this visit. [5]
A school museum and archive were opened in 2002 by former teacher Oliver Murphy, dedicated to the history of the institution and its past pupils. [6] [7] [8]
Belvedere offers the Irish Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate curricula.
The school still offers Latin as both a Junior and Leaving Certificate subject and offers Ancient Greek as a Junior and Leaving Certificate subject when there is sufficient demand. Classical Studies is also offered at Leaving Certificate level.[ citation needed ]
Garret A. FitzGerald, an Old Belvederian and senior faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, has instituted an annual five-week scholarship for two students who excel in Transition Year science. [9]
Belvedere has a 25m 5 lane indoor swimming pool, gym, restaurant and refectory, music suite, learning resource centre, museum, chapel and oratory, 3 hard tennis courts (Cabra Sports Ground), 1 astroturf (Distillery Road) and 5 grass rugby pitches (Cabra Sports Ground), a cricket pitch (Cabra Sports Ground), 1 grass soccer pitch (Cabra Sports Ground), 1 astro 7-a-side football pitch on top of the O'Reilly Theatre and a 60m 8 lane roof-top running track (Kerr Wing).[ citation needed ] The school also has a professional standard 590-seat theatre with a motorised stage and retractable seating, the O'Reilly Theatre, which is used to stage school plays and musicals but has also been used by RTÉ, TV3 and an assortment of dramatic organisations and hosted live audience TV shows such as The Panel and Tonight with Vincent Browne.
The school also has three computer labs, cabled and wireless networking to every classroom, and other IT features including dedicated networks for the library and certain functions.
In 2004, Belvedere opened the Dargan Moloney Science and Technology Block, which has state-of-the-art laboratories, lecture theatres and IT hubs.
The school has a wide range of charitable activities. Some students travel with the annual Dublin Diocesan, Meath Diocesan and Oblate Pilgrimages to Lourdes, France, to assist the elderly and the disabled. Belvedere's St Vincent de Paul Society is one of the largest among secondary schools in Ireland, organising activities such as old-folks events and a weekly soup run in inner city Dublin.[ citation needed ] Beginning in 1981, some students have undertaken a charity walk from Dublin to Galway each summer to raise funds for Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, St Francis Hospice, and The Temple Street Children's University Hospital, located very near the school. The "block-pull", as it is known, has raised over €70,000 in a single event. [10]
An annual charitable fundraising event held by the college is the "Belvedere Sleep-Out", which takes place from 22 to 24 December each year. Students "go homeless" on Dublin's O'Connell Street for three days and two nights. [11] The Sleep-Out is run primarily by students from the college, with the assistance of a number of teachers and past pupils, to raise funds for Focus Ireland, The Home Again Society, and Father Peter McVerry's Society for homeless boys. The students fast for 24 hours during the Sleep-Out. The culmination is Christmas Eve midnight mass in the college chapel. In 2015, the event raised over €189,000 over the Christmas period for the charities. [12] This record was broken in 2016, when the event raised €225,021 for the charities. [13] However, in 2022, the Belvedere College Sleepout became a huge national story and was promoted across multiple platforms and set a new All Time record of over €304,000. [14]
Belvedere has the most Royal College of Science Cup (Overall best school in track and field) wins at the Irish Schools Athletics Championships. Belvedere won 15 consecutive Royal College of Science Cup awards between 1999 and 2014. [15]
Field sports are a traditional strength of the school. In October 2013 Belvedere held the all-Ireland schools senior track and field trophy, having won the title in the previous seven years. It also held numerous other titles at provincial levels. [16]
Belvedere has won 35 Leinster Senior Cricket Schools Cup titles, as of 2016. [17]
The school has a strong rugby union football tradition. In 2005, for the first time in the school's history, it won both the Leinster Junior Cup and the Leinster Schools Senior Cup. [18] In 2024 Belvedere, with twelve titles, stood second in the Leinster Senior Cup roll of honour, behind Blackrock College (71). [19]
Drama productions form an integral part of Belvedere's year. [20] Each academic year, there are four performances: a Junior Musical, a Senior Musical, a Drama Society production, and a First Year Play. Productions have included Les Misérables (school edition) in 2004, and the stage adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials in 2007. Other productions of note include Bugsy Malone , The Adventures of Roderick Random , David Copperfield , Aladdin , Jesus Christ Superstar , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , The Wind in the Willows , Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , Treasure Island , The Lord of the Rings , Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , The Addams Family , West Side Story and The Pirates of Penzance .
In 2016, an original play entitled Children of the Rising was staged at the school. The play was written by a member of staff and was nominated for a Bord Gáis Energy Student Theatre Award for Best Overall Play. [21] The play was based on the book Children of The Rising by Joe Duffy.
The school has debating societies in the English, Irish, Spanish, German, and French languages. Belvedere has won the all-Ireland schools debating competition (2005 among other years), the Denny Leinster Schools Senior Debating Championship in 2010, the L&H society Leinster Junior debating competition, and also the Alliance Française debating championship and Leinster Irish debating final.[ citation needed ]
Belvedere was successful in the last series of Blackboard Jungle, a popular television programme on RTÉ.[ citation needed ]
The school's longstanding Concert Choir hosts the Annual Christmas Carol Service in December, and the Annual Musical Evening in May. The choir have undertaken recordings in RTÉ, and has been successful at both the Feis Ceoil and the Wesley Feis. The college orchestra has won events at both the Wesley Feis and the Feis Ceoil.
The school has an active urban farm, growing vegetables and housing bees. The farm won the Global High Schools Europe Category at the Zayed Future Energy Prize in 2017.[ citation needed ]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2020) |
Belvedere College is run by the Jesuit order. Most of the school's teaching staff are laypersons, although a number of Jesuit priests and brothers assist with administration and chaplaincy.
The school motto is Per Vias Rectas – "By Straight Paths" – and the college aspires to produce "Men for Others". Students often write "AMDG" for Ad maiorem Dei gloriam , "For the greater glory of God", the motto of the Society of Jesus, on the top left of pages of their copybooks. They formerly also wrote "LDSetBVM" or Laus Deo Semper et Beatae Virgini Mariae ("Praise to God forever and to the Blessed Virgin Mary") on the bottom right of the same page.
The students are assigned to one of six lines or houses, mainly named after Jesuits who were either famous or had an association with Belvedere: Loyola, Xavier, Aylmer, Kenney, Finlay and Scully (previously named Dempsey after George Dempsey). Years are named after the progression in the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum : Elements, Rudiments, Grammar, Syntax, Poetry, and Rhetoric. Each form except Rhetoric has a captain and vice-captain.
The school's yearbook is The Belvederian. The term "Belvederian" is also sometimes used to refer to current students and "Old Belvederian" (OB) for alumni. Old Belvederians normally refer to their graduation by using "OB" followed by their final year in the college, for example, "OB 1984".
Belvedere College is the backdrop for some of James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . It is a semi-autobiographical piece of work and the teacher, Mr Tate, was based on Joyce's own English teacher, George Dempsey. In the book, Joyce mentions his involvement in the College Opera which continues today. [22] [23] In 1884, James Aloysius Cullen was appointed spiritual father at Belvedere, a position he retained for twenty years while also engaged in other ministry. Cullen was the founder and director of the Sodality of Our Lady at the college, which duties included counselling students. In 1896, James Joyce was elected Student Prefect of the Society. According to Neil R. Davison, the sermons in Chapter III of A Portrait of the Artist are modelled on those given by Cullen during a retreat held in 1897. [24]
Alumni and teachers played major roles in modern Irish literature (James Joyce, Austin Clarke, the foundation of Ireland's National Theatre), [25] [26] [27] the standardisation of the Irish language (de Bhaldraithe), as well as the Irish independence movement – both the 1916 Rising (Joseph Mary Plunkett, Éamon de Valera) and the Irish War of Independence (Éamon de Valera, Cathal Brugha, Kevin Barry). The school's notable alumni and former faculty include two Taoisigh (Irish prime minister), one Ceann Comhairle (Speaker of the Lower House of the Irish Parliament), several cabinet ministers, one Blessed, one Cardinal, one Archbishop, one signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, two Supreme Court Justices, one Olympic medallist, thirty Irish international rugby players and numerous notable figures in the world of the arts, academia and business.
The arts
Irish history, politics
Legal
Irish language
Science and academia
Religion
| Rugby
Other sports
Olympians
Gaelic sports
Business and professional
Broadcasting
Peers
Other
|
Coláiste Iognáid SJ, a bilingual secondary school, is located on Sea Road in Galway, Ireland. It was founded in 1645 and has had numerous locations over the years before its current home. The college is a co-educational, non-fee-paying secondary school and one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland. There are approximately 600 pupils in the school.
Clongowes Wood College SJ is a Catholic voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814. It features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. One of five Jesuit secondary schools in Ireland, it had 450 students in 2019.
Gonzaga College SJ is a voluntary Catholic boys' secondary school in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1950, Gonzaga College is under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus, one of five Jesuit secondary schools in Ireland. The curriculum is traditional, with a broad general programme of subjects including Latin and Greek at Junior Cycle and eight subjects being studied in Senior Cycle for the Leaving Certificate.
The Leinster Schools Senior Challenge Cup is the premier rugby union competition for secondary schools affiliated to the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), and was first held in 1887.
Crescent College Comprehensive SJ, formerly known as the College of the Sacred Heart, is a Catholic secondary school located on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of parkland at Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland. The college is one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland.
Terenure College is a Carmelite-run secondary school located in the suburb of Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1860 and had an associated primary school until 2017. It is one of the "big six" Leinster Schools Rugby-playing institutions, winning the Leinster Schools Senior Cup 10 times. 80% of the students who sat the Leaving Certificate in 2007 accepted a place in an Irish university.
Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park is a private fee-paying Catholic school and Independent Junior school, founded in 1856 in Monkstown, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland. The college arrived at Monkstown Park in 1950 from Eblana Avenue in Dún Laoghaire via a short stint on Tivoli Road. As of September 2022, it was in its 73rd academic year of existence at Monkstown Park, the 165th overall.
The Leinster Senior Cup is a major rugby competition in Ireland, involving all senior rugby clubs in Leinster, i.e., clubs from Leinster competing in the All-Ireland League. From 2006 until 2016 it was known as the Leinster Senior League Cup during the period when the Leinster Senior League had been discontinued, but reverted to its traditional name for the 2016–17 season upon the revival of the Senior League. From 2011 to 2016 only the top senior teams competed and those in the lower divisions of the All-Ireland League competed for the Leinster Senior League Shield.
Old Belvedere R.F.C. is a senior Irish rugby union club based on Anglesea Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland. Old Belvedere was originally founded in 1918–19 by former pupils of Belvedere College. Old Belvedere enters senior men's teams in the All-Ireland League, the Leinster Senior League and the Leinster Senior Cup. In 2010–11 they were All-Ireland League champions. Between 1940 and 1946 the club won the Leinster Senior Cup seven times in a row. This remains a competition record. Old Belvedere also enters men's and women's teams in various senior, junior and youth leagues.
Alexandra College is a fee-charging boarding and day school for girls located in Milltown, Dublin, Ireland. The school operates under a Church of Ireland ethos.
National College of Ireland (NCI) is a not-for-profit, state-aided third-level education institution in Dublin. It was founded in 1951 as a joint venture between the Jesuits in Ireland and Irish trade unions, and was originally named the Catholic Workers College, Dublin. It is now an independent higher education institution, offering full and part-time courses from undergraduate to postgraduate level, in the areas of business, computing, psychology and education.
Donnybrook Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as Energia Park, is a rugby union stadium in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland. The stadium has a capacity of 6,000, including a 2,500 seat covered grandstand which was completed in early 2008.
Catholic University School(C.U.S.) is a private (voluntary) secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1867 by Bartholomew Woodlock as a preparatory school for the Catholic University of Ireland, the predecessor to University College Dublin, that was founded by St. John Henry Newman in 1854.
The Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy was a Jesuit-run institution of higher education and research, located in Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland.
Jordi Murphy is a former Irish international rugby player. He played for provincial and United Rugby Championship side Ulster as a loose forward, and played for the Ireland national rugby union team.
Old Belvedere Cricket Club was a cricket club in Dublin, Ireland, that played in the Leinster Senior League. The club was founded in 1950 and promoted to the Senior League in 1957. The club ceased to exist in 2012 when it withdrew from the league.
George Joseph Morgan was an Irish international rugby union player who represented Ireland on 19 occasions and was also a member of the 1938 British Lions tour to South Africa. At club level, he played for both Clontarf RFC and Old Belvedere RFC, as well as playing at inter-provincial level for Leinster Rugby and guest appearances for the Barbarians. He played in the scrum-half position.
University College Dublin is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest university and among Europe's most prestigious.
The Laois county football team represents Laois in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Laois GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.
The Westmeath county football team represents Westmeath in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Westmeath GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.