Portora Royal School
54°21′04″N 7°39′18″W / 54.351°N 7.655°W
| Portora Royal School | |
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| Address | |
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1 Lough Shore Road, BT74 7HA | |
| Information | |
| Type | Grammar school, Public School |
| Motto | Omnes Honorate |
| Established | 1618 |
| Founder | James I |
| Status | Closed |
| Closed | 28 June 2016 |
| Chairman | John McDowell |
| Last principal | J.N. Morton |
| Last vice principal | Trevor Smith |
| Chaplain | Kenny Hall |
| Enrolment | 491 (2013/14) |
| Houses | Ulster, Munster, Connaught, Leinster |
| Colour(s) | Black and gold |
| Nickname | Wasps |
| Affiliations | HMC |
| Website | www |
Portora Royal School located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was one of the 'free schools' founded by the royal charter in 1608, by James I, making it one of the oldest schools in Ireland at the time of its closure.[1][2][self-published source][3] Originally called Enniskillen Royal School, the school was established some ten years after the Royal Decree, in 1618, 15 miles outside Enniskillen at Ballybalfour under the direction of Sir William Cole, before moving to Enniskillen in 1661. It was not until 1778 that the school moved to its final location on Portora Hill, Enniskillen, where the nucleus of the later all boys school was built.[4] The school admitted a mixture of boarders and day pupils for much of its history, but became a day school in the 1990s.
On 28 June 2016, Portora Royal School closed. Portora Royal School amalgamated with Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School which launched the mixed Enniskillen Royal Grammar School on 1 September 2016, which is partially based on the original site of Portora Hill and the site of Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School.
Notable headmasters
[edit]- 1795–??:Joseph Stock (1740–1813), later Bishop of Killala and Achonry and afterwards Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.
- 1935–1945: I. M. B. Stuart, Ireland rugby footballer.[5]
Old Portorans
[edit]- Desmond Arthur, early 20th century pilot
- Samuel Beckett, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature[6] and the only winner of the Nobel Prize to have played first-class cricket.
- James David Bourchier, journalist and Bulgarian confidant[7]
- Denis Parsons Burkitt, surgeon.
- Sir Andrew Clarke, Governor of the Straits Settlements
- Edward Cooney, Cooneyite founder[6]
- Lord Nigel Dodds, politician – member of the UK House of Lords
- Charles Duff, writer and polyglot
- Gordon Dunne, MLA[8][circular reference]
- Cyril Falls, World War 1 military historian.
- Ken Fleming, civil engineer and foundations specialist
- James Gamble, founder of Procter & Gamble.
- Neil Hannon, singer and songwriter, founder of pop band The Divine Comedy
- William Hearn, legal academic.
- George Hegarty, World War 1 flying ace.
- Christopher Johnstone, Art museum director and author
- Michael Jackson, Church of Ireland Lord Archbishop of Dublin (and formerly Lord Bishop of Clogher)
- Sir Jim Kilfedder, former Unionist MP [9]
- Dickie Lloyd, cricketer and rugby union player.
- Henry Francis Lyte, Anglican minister and Hymn writer [10]
- Billy McComb, world famed entertainer and magician
- J. J. McCoy (rugby union), Ireland international rugby player[11]
- Leo McKinstry, journalist and author
- Donald Burgess McNeill, physics academic, transport author, keen rower, and first Esquire Bedale of Southampton University
- Sir Roy McNulty, businessman.
- Vivian Mercier, literary critic
- E. Charles Nelson, botanist.
- Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
- John Sullivan - Jesuit priest.[12]
- Sir Charles Tegart, Commissioner of the Indian Police and Palestine fort builder.
- Emily Valentine - 1st known woman to play rugby
- Brian Goold-Verschoyle - British Communist, Spanish Civil War veteran, died a victim of Stalin's Great Purge in a Soviet gulag.
- Leslie Waddington, art dealer[13]
- Peter Webb, cricketer and business executive
- Harry West, politician (Ulster Unionist Party leader and Stormont Minister)
- Oscar Wilde, playwright[6]
- H.M. French, artist and latinist [14]
Oscar Wilde
[edit]Former pupil Oscar Wilde won a scholarship to Trinity College Dublin, and his name appears on the school's Honours board. There is also an Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque on the school building commemorating him.[15]
Wilde's name was painted over in 1895 following his imprisonment for homosexuality, which was criminalised in the United Kingdom. Additionally, initials he had carved into the window casement of a classroom as a student there were removed. His name was later reinstated on the Honours board.[16]
Formation of Enniskillen Royal Grammar School
[edit]A proposal by the Department of Education to merge Portora Royal School with the Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School to form Enniskillen Royal Grammar School was approved by the Minister of Education, John O'Dowd, in June 2015 but the matter was taken to the High Court in October 2015 due to much local opposition. The High Court bid to stop the amalgamation of the two Enniskillen grammar schools failed.[17]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Andrew Gibson (1 November 2009). Samuel Beckett. Reaktion Books. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-86189-713-8.
- ^ Desmond Keenan (7 February 2013). Ireland 1603-1702, Society and History. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 367–. ISBN 978-1-4797-7921-5.
- ^ John P. Wilson (16 December 2013). The Routledge Encyclopaedia of UK Education, Training and Employment: From the Earliest Statutes to the Present Day. Routledge. pp. 257–. ISBN 978-1-317-79652-7.
- ^ "Portora Royal". www.portoraroyal.co.uk.
- ^ STUART, Ian Malcolm Bowen in Who Was Who (A. & C. Black), online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 18 February 2014 (subscription site)
- ^ a b c Robinson, James. 2005. Pentecostal Origins: Early Pentecostalism in Ireland in the Context of the British Isles: Studies in Evangelical History and Thought. Milton Keynes, United Kingdom: Paternoster, pp. 34–35.. ISBN 978-1-84227-329-6
- ^ James Quinn. 2009. Bourchier, James David. In James McGuire, James Quinn (ed.), Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63331-4
- ^ Gordon Dunne
- ^ Patrick Maume. 2011. Kilfedder, Sir James. In James McGuire, James Quinn (ed.), Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63331-4
- ^ Patrick M. Geoghegan. 2009. Lyte, Henry Francis. In James McGuire, James Quinn (ed.), Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63331-4
- ^ "GAA: Jimmy was the real McCoy". Belfasttelegraph.co.uk. 28 March 2004.
- ^ Loobey, John. (2017). Blessed John Sullivan: A Man Sent By God. Dublin: Messenger Publications. ISBN 978-1910248-40-9.
- ^ "Leslie WADDINGTON". Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
- ^ Smith, William (1855). A Smaller Latin-English Dictionary. London: William Clowes and sons. pp. i–ii.
- ^ "Oscar Wilde blue plaque in Enniskillen". Blue Plaque Places. Archived from the original on 16 October 2017.
- ^ Ellmann, Richard (1988). Oscar Wilde. Vintage Books. p. 26. ISBN 9780394759845.
- ^ "Bid to stop schools' amalgamation fails". BBC News. 3 February 2016.
External links
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