St Mary’s Secondary School, Charleville

The Secondary School In 1840 a pension school (fee paying) was opened in a room in the convent. In 1894 the school moved to two new class rooms which were built on the fever hospital grounds. One classroom in the Fever Hospital building was used by the secondary school for the teaching of Science until 1922 when a new Science room was built-one of the first in the country. In 1965 the secondary school renovated the old Fever Hospital building and used it again for classrooms. It was called the Mannix Block after Archbishop Mannix who was a native of Charleville. Between 1970 and 1975 two new blocks were added to the already existing school buildings as an assembly hall and lunch room.  As a result of free education and free transport the number of students increased steadily and also the number of prefabs being erected. In 1992 negotiations for a new school were initiated with the Dept. of Education as conditions in the school were both cramped and primitive. In 1989 permission for a new extension was sanctioned. Work began October 26^th 1998. On 17th November 2000 the official opening of the new extension took place. St Mary’s Secondary school is a voluntary, single sex, girls’ school, which is now run under the trusteeship of CEIST. It has a current enrolment of 380 approx. students from Charleville town and a rural hinterland comprised of North Cork and West Limerick.  The Sisters of Mercy no longer work in the school, a lay principal was appointed in 2003 and in 2006 the last Sister of Mercy on the sta