SGOIL ÉANNA
St. Enda'S School, Rathfarnham, a detailed Prospectus, in Irish and with English on facing pages, setting out the school's staff and programme for 1910-11, following its move to...

SGOIL ÉANNA
St. Enda'S School, Rathfarnham, a detailed Prospectus, in Irish and with English on facing pages, setting out the school's staff and programme for 1910-11, following its move to Rathfarnham. Dublin: Dollard, n.d. [1910], small quarto, 16 unnumbered pages, printed stapled wrappers, in fine condition.

The very inspiring staff listed includes William and Padraic Pearse, Padraic Colum (English Literature); the extern lecturers includes W.B. Yeats, Douglas Hyde, Agnes O'Farrelly, Mary Hayden and Eoin MacNeill. St. Enda's School, or Scoil Éanna, was a Secondary school for boys set up in 1908 in Ranelagh, Dublin by Irish nationalist Patrick Pearse. He had long been critical of the educational system in Ireland, which he believed taught Irish children to be good Englishmen. He had for years been committed to the preservation of the Irish language, mostly through the Gaelic League, and was dearly concerned about the language's future.

 

Pearse was not a practical businessman, but he was never one to let lack of finances get in the way of his plans. With promises from prominent nationalists as proponents of Irish heritage that they would give him whatever limited financial support they could, and, when applicable, would enrol their children in his school, Pearse established his school, which officially opened on September 8, 1908, in Cullenswood House, Ranelagh, a suburb of Dublin.

 

The school proved a successful experiment, but was never to fully escape the shadow of looming financial woes. In fact, the school would not have survived the crucial first few years without the devoted aid of his good friend and assistant headmaster Thomas MacDonagh, and the solid dedication of Pearse's brother Willie.

 

The Hermitage, while perfect for Pearse's idyllic image of what he had hoped to achieve, predictably proved to be a financial disaster.

 

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