by Daragh Coyle
If the Sisters of Mercy could have foreseen where the humble beginnings of their convent, near what is now St Josephs’ Hospital, they’d have struggled to believe it.
The new St Mary’s Secondary School in Ballina. Picture: John O’Grady
A cornerstone of the Ballina community ever since its foundation in the late 1800s, St Mary’s Secondary School has been providing its students with an education that has been consistently excellent. The recent opening of the €22 million school campus for the present and future students of the school is far and away from where St Mary’s has its roots.
The sisters arrived in Ballina in October 1851, due to the persistence of requests from Rev. P. Malone, who was then administrator for Ballina. They moved around the town for a few years, before eventually setting up the convent on a site at the existing St Joseph’s Hospital in 1867. The humble convent was to become the basis for a school that would expand its capacity over the years and decades.
The history of the school from the 1880s to the early 1900s is threadbare, to say the least, but there is a richness of educational brilliance recorded from then on. With pupil numbers increasing and performances in exams on the rise, the school moved into a new campus which was opened officially in 1939. The number of students attending the school continued to grow, almost doubling from the 1960s to the 1970s (from over 200 to over 400, courtesy of the introduction of free education) before eventually reaching over 500 by the early ‘80s. The immense student growth saw the plans of the assembly hall, which was funded and built practically single-handedly using funds from the convent. The range of subjects was also rapidly expanding as the school began to take advantage of extra teachers – more staff, more subjects.
One of the biggest moments in the school’s history was the £1.5 million extension under the principalship of Sr. Attracta which completely modernised the school. Sr Attracta also saw the school become one of the few selected to participate in transition year, which was introduced in 1986, as well as the installation of a computer room.
That leads us to the modern day, where St Mary’s is recognised as one of the most successful secondary schools in the region. The school is the winner of several prizes in enterprise and mini-company titles, the Taoiseach’s Award for Enterprise, the inaugural Press Pass Awards, and many more. There have also been some exemplary academic achievements. Four JP McManus All Island School Scholarships, along with a Naughton scholarship, an Ad Astra Academy winner and the school is ranked as one of the top ten “feeder schools” to teacher-training colleges. The standard of education at St Mary’s ensures that all who attend will have their future bettered.
Ingrained in the school’s history is the success of the present students and their predecessors, and while they may have moved into the new campus, the ethos and excellence of St Mary’s will remain the same.