The origins of a Tipperary school that was founded on the basis of opportunity for all
Tipperary Museum of Hidden History exhibition
An exhibition charting the story of the CBS High School Clonmel is currently running at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History in Clonmel.
This year the High School is marking the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the school.
The exhibition will remain open until June 7.
The Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel was founded in 1899/1900 in response to the need for young working-class Catholic boys to obtain secondary education.
The school was established by the Christian Brothers to provide opportunities to young boys and to promote the personal, spiritual, physical, creative, and academic development of its students.
Over the last 125 years school leaders, clerical and lay, have steadfastly protected those objectives ensuring the delivery of a first-class education and opportunity for all in an ever-changing world
The impact made by High School students at local, national, and international levels has been extraordinary.
Clonmel and the surrounding communities in south Tipperary and west Waterford can reflect with great pride on the incredible growth of a school and the values it stands for.
In a caring Christian environment, the High School has greatly enhanced the lives of young men and their families since it was established. Over 700 students now attend the school.
An expansion with an investment of over €8 million is planned ensuring generations of young men to come will continue to receive an education that embraces intellectual achievement, character formation, sport, and social development.
From the autumn of 1898 a small group of leading citizens of Clonmel, acting with the Parish Priest of SS. Peter and Paul’s, the Very Rev. Dean McDonnell, the Christian Brothers community in the town, and the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Most Rev. Dr. Sheehan, initiated the project of providing a Catholic High School for the town and district. On Monday, April 17, 1899 a public meeting was called to inform the public of the plans for the new school.
Mayor Cllr Murphy told the meeting that there were not many towns of such importance as Clonmel that did not possess a suitable high school, and it was a matter of surprise that Clonmel had been left so long unprovided for in this respect.
While the building of the school commenced in November 1899 a preparatory class was already in existence before that date in temporary accommodation in the Brothers Monastery which adjoined the existing primary school and the site for the new High School.
The newly built school was officially opened on August 22, 1900.
When the Christian Brothers opened the High School in Clonmel in 1900 the town was encountering economic problems with poverty and illiteracy commonplace.
In the Census of 1901, a large percentage of the townspeople over the age of 50, could neither read nor write, and in the hinterland, 80 out of 100 people, in the same age group, signed their Census forms with an X.
Prior to the establishment of the High School in Clonmel, there were just two schools where a full-scale secondary education was available, the Grammar School, effectively for Protestant boys, and the Loreto Convent for Catholic girls, in Clonmel.