St. Joseph’s Church Carrickmacross
Deus Vobiscum...May God Be With You
Email: josephson80@hotmail.com
St. Joseph’s N.S. is a boys’ primary school which serves the boys in the catchment area of Carrickmacross. It is under the patronage of Most Reverend Dr. Joseph Duffy, Catholic Bishop of Clogher and while it is a Catholic Denominational School it accepts boys of all denominations.
The school is situated on a six and half acre site adjacent to St. Macartan’s Villas. The foundation stone of the present building was laid on the 3rd of August 1938 and it was officially opened in 1939. Since that time there have been three major renovations to the school, 1965 when two additional classrooms were added, 1972 when the general purpose room was built and 1985 when six new classrooms were added. At present we have two extra prefabs to cater for language support and first class.
The Patrician Brothers took over the original boys’ national school in 1902 and continued to run the school until 1994 when they no longer had the manpower to continue. Since then the school has been run by lay teachers under a Board of Management which is under the patronage of the Catholic Bishop of Clogher.
At present there are 9 class teachers in the school, two learning support teachers, two language support teachers, an administrative principal and 246 pupils, all boys. The school aims to encourage the development of the children under its care through the building of self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of achievement.
The site of the school lends itself to the promotion of field games and Gaelic Football, Soccer and Rounders are especially catered for. Indeed most of the Carrick Emmets team that so nearly captured the Senior Championship this year are alumni of the school. The children also take part in a variety of quizzes and are very proud of their record in these.
St. Joseph’s has taken part in two Comenius Projects to date where we had visitors from Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Wales. Teachers from St. Joseph’s have also visited these countries and have exchanged cultural projects and widened their vision of these countries. At present we are about to commence on a third project with schools from Belgium, England and Turkey.
St. Joseph’s has had many famous past pupils in a wide variety of professions. Some of those making the headlines at the moment are the Curran brothers, Richard and Noel who are producers and directors with R.T.E., Ardal O’Hanlon who needs no introduction to television audiences and Frank McNally who regularly contributes to ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ in a most witty and readable manner.
While the education of the boys entrusted to our care is of the utmost importance to us it is superseded by our desire to ensure that St. Joseph’s is a pleasant place of learning. The eight years that the children spend with us are not merely preparatory years for life but a very big slice of that life and, as such, should be enjoyed to the maximum.