Were you a pupil at St Mary’s Place CBS?

By Harry Havelin

One-hundred-and-seventy-years ago, on Monday, September 10, 1855, the Christian Brothers Schools at St. Mary’s Place, off Dorset Street, took in its first pupils.

Just over a year earlier – on Monday, July 31, 1854 – the foundation stone had been laid by Archdeacon John Hamilton, Parish Priest of St. Michan’s Church (Halston Street).

The plot of ground on which the school was built was granted on a 999 years lease from Dublin Corporation . . .

“To build on said premises one or more schools for the purpose of teaching or instructing therein under the care, direction and management of the said Christian Brothers, such poor children as shall from time to time present themselves for that purpose.”

The original St. Mary’s Place school was a single-storey building. However, by the early 1870s the growing number of pupils resulted in the urgent need for a second storey to be added.

The work commenced in August, 1874, the contractor being Michael Meade, who was one of the biggest builders in Dublin at that time.

The cost of construction of the additional classrooms was £1,500.

The work was progressing well, until tragedy struck on Friday, October 2, when part of the ceiling collapsed in on a class of pupils, seriously injuring a young lad named Thomas Fagan (9), who lived in nearby Goldsmith Street.

Several others were less seriously hurt. Young Fagan suffered a fractured skull, from which he died in Jervis Street Hospital on October 26.

The foreman on the site at the time of the accident was a man named James Carey, who later achieved notoriety as an informer on The Invincibles, a militant breakaway from the Fenians, who were responsible for the assassinations of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and the Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, Thomas Henry Burke, on the Main Road of the Phoenix Park on Saturday, May 6, 1882.

Carey had been a member of The Invincibles, but he turned Queen’s Evidence and this resulted in the executions of five men in Kilmainham Jail in May/June, 1883.

As a result of his action, Carey’s life was in grave danger, so he and his family were spirited away by the British authorities to start a new life in a far-away country.

However, his number was well and truly up, and he met a violent end when he was shot dead by a man named Patrick O’Donnell on aboard a ship named the “Melrose” off Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on Sunday, July 29, 1883.

The building in St. Mary’s Place is now the headquarters of Crosscare, the Catholic charity. Its years as a school ended in 1979, after 124 years.

Externally, the building is almost exactly the same as it was after construction of the second storey was completed in 1874, but internally the old classrooms have been converted in modern offices and meeting rooms.

The history of St. Mary’s Place C.B.S. is currently being researched for possible future publication by three former pupils. We would welcome contact from anyone who was a pupil in the school up to our cut-off point (1979).

Any memories they may have of their years in the school, and photographs if possible, would be most welcome.

The email contacts are: Harry Havelin: harhav4@gmail.com Peter Rooney: pvrooney@gmail.com Jim Keenan: keecarto@gmail.com