Blackrock College

Blackrock College is a fee-paying Catholic secondary school for boys aged 13–18, located in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. The College was founded by French missionaries in 1860, to act as a school and civil service training centre. Set in 0.25km2 of grounds, it has a sporting tradition. The College, 7km from Dublin city centre is just in from the sea, and is self-contained, with a large boarding school and teaching facilities. Now run by a lay foundation in trust, it maintains academic standards and requires all pupils to participate in non-academic activities. The missionary tradition continues with charity programmes, especially at Christmas. It accommodates approximately 1,100 day and boarding students.HistoryThe college was founded by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost in 1860, the first of the Order's five schools in Ireland. The founder is listed as Fr (Père) Jules Leman, a French missionary with the Holy Ghost Order. Leman had a dual aim, namely to train personnel for missionary service in the Third World and provide a first class Catholic education for Irish boys. It was originally known as the French College by the locals. A successful civil service training and university department (where students were examined and had degrees conferred by the Royal University of Ireland) were run for over forty years, until University College Dublin grew, and the school focused more on the second level curriculum. Although never a seminary, some ordinations have taken place in Blackrock. The first ordination at Blackrock College was on 22 April 1900 when Mgr. Emile Allgeyer CSSp (a former student in Blackrock and first to be made a bishop), ordained Joseph Shanahan (who later became a bishop) and has a House named after him within the school.