Kilkenny College to celebrate 50 years of co-education this month

One of Ireland’s oldest schools, Kilkenny College, is celebrating 50 years of co-education this year, with a slice of educational and social history.

This year’s celebration will be the first step towards commemorating the 500th anniversary of the school in 15 years’ time.

Kilkenny College, founded in 1538, was an all-boys school for its first 435 years and in 1973 the school amalgamated with the all-girls Collegiate School in Celbridge.

Kilkenny College is now a thriving boarding and day school under Church of Ireland management catering for 920 students. 
To mark the occasion the school is planning a get together for past students of both Kilkenny College and Collegiate School Celbridge on Saturday, October 21.

There are many family connections, grandmothers who attended Collegiate School in Celbridge and grandfathers who attended Kilkenny College now come back to the school to support their grandchildren in school plays, musical performances or on the playing fields. 

The get together will have a 1973 feel to it. The music department are delving into the charts for musical inspiration. The art department are mounting and exhibition of memorabilia both from the school archives and from items donated from past students. The archive is a treasure trove with one original document dated 1680.

To mark the 1973 amalgamation and also to look towards celebrating the school’s 500th anniversary in 2038, the school has commissioned a short film documenting its social history from the 1973 to the present day. The film will be screened for the first time at the October 21 celebratory get-together. The film company also filmed a time capsule which will be available to view in 2038.

Last February, the school welcomed Emma Raughter as principal. Ms Raughter is the first female principal of the school. She attended Kilkenny College between 1985 and 1991, and her mother attended Collegiate School in Celbridge.