Our School History

In their wisdom, the good brothers decided to put this long standing wrong to right and set up a small school in a premises which they shared with a local hostelry.

However, the brothers found this to be a very unsatisfactory arrangement and having endured two years in this location, decided to build a small school on lands which the Order had purchased at Knockmitten.

The official opening and dedication of the two roomed school took place on the 15th of August 1814 and records show that at that time, over 100 local boys were already attending St Joseph's School for Boys.

Mount St. Joseph, the private boarding school for boys later developed by the Order, stood side by side with the more humble establishment with which it shared its name, on the now derelict site at the top of Monastery Road. It was attended by students from all over the country and abroad and boasted among its many distinguished patrons The Liberator, Daniel O'Connell.

In 1939, the Carmelite Order decided that due to falling numbers, the boarding school was no longer viable and while the entire site was sold on, the Boys' School remained in its original location until 1961 when it was relocated to its present site on Boot Road.

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