This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2008) |
Cistercian College Roscrea (CCR) Coláiste Cisteirseach Ros Cré | |
---|---|
Location | |
Ireland | |
Information | |
Religious affiliation(s) | (Trappists) |
Established | 1905 |
Principal | Gerard Grealish |
Number of students | 190 |
Vice Principal | Catherine Smyth |
Superior | Dom. Malachy Thompson |
Website | ccr.ie |
Cistercian College, Roscrea or Roscrea College is a private boarding school in Ireland. It is a Roman Catholic seven-day and five-day boarding and day school for boys, founded in 1905. Its pupil population is primarily made up of boarding students with some day students also attending.
Located within the grounds of Mount St. Joseph Abbey in County Offaly, Ireland, 2.5 miles west of Roscrea town, the school is managed by monks of the Trappist branch of the Cistercians. Surrounded by open wooded countryside and thirty acres of grounds and sports fields, it also adjoins the abbey's farm of 360 hectares.
While County Tipperary is in Munster, the school does not play in Munster competitions. This is because the original property and lands are Mount Heaton House (now the guesthouse) and demense in the townland of Ballyskenagh, which is actually in the territory of Ely O'Carroll in County Offaly (formerly Kings County). The house, school, abbey, farm and playing fields are just across the county border from County Tipperary, and so the school plays its sport in Leinster competitions. Roscrea is the nearest large town and so the postal address is Roscrea, County Tipperary. [1]
The school was founded by the Cistercian monks in 1905 as a monastic boarding school for boys and has educated students from all over Ireland and overseas. CCR is one of two monastic schools in Ireland and in 1990 a Board of Governors was appointed by the Abbot to govern the administration of the college.
In the 17th century, Dr Richard Heaton, a Yorkshire-born Church of Ireland clergyman and botanist, mortgaged the land, [2] and his son Edward built the house on the remnants of a castle and renamed it Mount Heaton. [3] In 1877 it was in the ownership of the nationalist and Home Rule-supporting MP, the Catholic Count Arthur John Moore. Moore donated the six hundred-acre property, a mansion and its walled garden to the Cistercians. The Cistercians moved into Roscrea from their abbey at Mount Melleray in February 1878. The church, built using a foundation stone from Roman Catacombs in 1879 was finally completed in 1881.
The college celebrated its centenary year from September 2005 until September 2006, giving rise to many events, visits and talks from notable past students and their connections. The speakers included; President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Dick Spring, Brian Cowen, Mary Hanafin and Charlie McCreevy.
In February 2017 it was announced that the school would cease taking new enrollments due to financial difficulties caused by falling student numbers. However, following a public meeting attended by over 300 people, an action group made up of parents and past pupils was formed. [4] The group was charged with raising funds to supplement the school's finances and developing a long term strategy to make the school self-sustaining again. Progress was made, [5] and on 16 March 2017 it was announced that the school would remain open after funding was secured by past pupils and parents. [6] [7]
Following on from the fundraising, donations from former pupils and financial changes which saved the school from closure, as of 2017 Cistercian College was to offer scholarships to students who excel in a number of academic subjects and sports to cover 50% of school fees. [8] [ needs update ]
The influence of Abbey is an integral part of the college and daily life is influenced by the presence of the few remaining Cistercian monks.[ citation needed ] Though most of the school's current teaching staff are now lay-persons, a tiny number of Cistercian monks and brothers take part in the school's administration and chaplaincy. The college aspires to be a "Christian community of learning, a worshipping community with an awareness of the presence of God in daily life and in the preparation of pupils for adult life".[ citation needed ]
Each year a musical is held, around the time of the mid-term break at Halloween. It is a tradition going back to the founding of the school.[ citation needed ]
The school yearbook is known as The Vexillum. Referred to by the boys as The Vex, it is produced annually towards the summer holidays and is usually distributed on the final evening before the last summer exams. It is compiled by the pupils. It contains reports on sporting and non-sporting events throughout the year, including the hurling and rugby campaigns and 6th year profiles.[ citation needed ]
Pupils have the opportunity to receive coaching and compete in a number of sports. Team games are served by the facilities that include:
The school's sports complex provides indoor facilities for a range of sporting activities.[ citation needed ]
The main sports played are rugby and hurling during the autumn and spring and athletics during the late spring and early summer. The school's sporting colours are black and white. The school has produced professional rugby players, county hurlers and representatives on the Irish athletics team including in hammer and hurdles.[ citation needed ]
On St. Patrick's Day 2015, Cistercian College Roscrea's Senior Cup Team won the school's first ever Leinster Schools' Senior Challenge Cup. Roscrea are one of the oldest participants in the competition, going back to at least 1910, when they played in that years final. The school has a national and international reputation for sporting achievement. [9]
The students have access to a 9-hole golf course. A golf team participates each year in competition.
Horse riding is also undertaken in the college as well as show jumping, where students have represented the country at international competitions.[ citation needed ]
Irish, English and German-language debating teams compete each year from Cistercian College. They have won several competitions, including the all-Ireland debating competition Comórtas a Phiarsaigh in 2010 and the GDI All-Ireland German Debating Competition in 2013 and 2019. [10] [11] [12] In-house public speaking competitions take place each year, with the Silver Medal being awarded to the winner from Third Year, and the Gold Medal to the winner from Sixth Year.[ citation needed ]
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.
Roscrea is a market town in County Tipperary, Ireland. In 2022 it had a population of 5,542. Roscrea is one of the oldest towns in Ireland, having developed around the 7th century monastery of Saint Crónán of Roscrea, parts of which remain preserved today. The town is in a civil parish of the same name.
Blackrock College is a voluntary day and boarding Catholic secondary school for boys aged 13–18, in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by French missionary Jules Leman in 1860 as a school and later became also a civil service training centre.
Newbridge College, the Dominican College Newbridge, is a co-educational private fee-paying voluntary secondary school in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, run by the Roman Catholic Dominican Order. The Dominican Friars founded Newbridge Dominican College in 1852 as a boarding school for boys. Today, still run by the Dominican Fathers, Newbridge College is a mixed day school with a student population of almost 1,000 pupils. It is also the home of a resident Community of Dominican Friars - the Priory and Church being centred between the two wings of the College buildings.
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.
Mount St. Joseph Abbey is an abbey of the Trappist branch of the Cistercians located in County Offaly, near Roscrea, County Tipperary in Ireland.
The Leinster Schools Junior Challenge Cup is an under-age rugby union competition for schools affiliated to the Leinster Branch of the IRFU.
Roscrea GAA is a Tipperary GAA club which is located in County Tipperary, Ireland. Both hurling and Gaelic football are played in the "North Tipperary" divisional competitions. The club is centred on the town of Roscrea. The club's colours are red and white and they play at Páirc Naomh Cronáin. This was the venue for the 1949 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final.
St. Joseph's Patrician College, often known as "The Bish", is a secondary school in the West Ireland city of Galway. Founded by the Patrician Brothers, a religious order, it has approximately 800 students on roll and, in recent years, has had success in a wide range of sporting activities including soccer, rugby, basketball, rowing, Gaelic games, athletics, and table tennis.
Our Lady's Secondary School, Templemore, is a second-level school in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland. The school's motto means "mercy". It is under the ethos of the Catholic Church and is located in the ecclesiastical parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea.
St Mary's Knockbeg College is a Roman Catholic, all-boys secondary school located on the Laois/Carlow border in Ireland, approximately 3 km from both Carlow town and Graiguecullen, County Laois. A former seminary school for the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, it was founded in 1793. Exclusively a boarding school until the 1980s, it now accommodates only day-pupils; the boarding school having closed down in June 2011. Knockbeg College celebrated its bicentenary in 1993.
Edward Michael Joseph "Ned" Byrne is a former Irish Gaelic footballer and rugby player. He played hurling with his local club James Stephens and the Kilkenny senior inter-county team in the 1970s, and between 1977 and 1978 represented Ireland at rugby union.
Shinrone is a village in County Offaly, Ireland. It is in the southernmost part of the county, situated very close to the border with County Tipperary. It lies at the junction of the R491 regional road between Nenagh and Roscrea with the R492 to Sharavogue. At the 2016 census, the village population was 645. The village is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.
Mount Melleray Abbey is a Trappist monastery in Ireland, founded in 1833. It is situated on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, near Cappoquin, Diocese of Waterford. It is famous in literature due to Seán Ó Ríordáin's poem Cnoc Mellerí in Eireaball Spideoige (1952). It will close in January, 2025.
Roscrea RFC is an Irish Rugby union club based in Roscrea, County Tipperary, playing in Division 3 of the Leinster League. The club colours are maroon and white.
Thomas Augustine "Gus" Martin was an Irish academic, Anglo-Irish scholar, teacher, writer, politician, broadcaster and literary critic. During his career he was professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin (UCD), chairman of the board of the Abbey Theatre, and a member of Seanad Éireann from 1973 to 1981.
Sligo Grammar School is a private fee-paying co-educational boarding school located on The Mall in Sligo. The school has approximately 450 students of which approximately 100 are boarders. It offers the traditional Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate courses along with Transition Year, which is compulsory. It is under Church of Ireland management.
Conor Finn is a rugby union player from Ireland. He most recently played professionally for the Irish provincial team Connacht Rugby in the Pro12. Finn plays both as a centre and on the wing.
Seán O'Brien is a professional rugby union player from Ireland. He plays as a lock and across the back row. O'Brien currently plays for Irish provincial side Connacht in the Pro14, after being promoted from the academy ahead of the 2015–16 season.
Gerard Culliton was an Irish international rugby union player. A native of Clonaslee in County Laois, he won 19 caps for Ireland, playing in four different positions.