St Marys CBGS Belfast

Infobox UK school
name = St. Mary's Christian Brothers Grammar School


motto = "Viriliter age" ("Act manfully")
established = 1866
type = Grammar school
religion = Roman Catholic
location = Belfast, Northern Ireland
enrollment = 1,170
gender = Boys
lower_age = 11
upper_age =
head = Mr. James Sheerin [Takes up position in September 2008 http://www.stmaryscbgs.com/news/view_news_article.asp?id=1395]
city = Belfast
county = County Antrim
country = Northern Ireland
LEA = Belfast ELB
free_label_1 = Religious order
free_1 = Christian Brothers
homepage = http://www.stmaryscbgs.com/home/home.asp

St. Mary's CBGS (Christian Brothers' Grammar School) (in Irish: "Scoil Mhuire na mBráithre") is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

History

The school was formerly run by the Irish Christian Brothers, but as vocations have declined, so the school has become more dominated by lay teachers. Currently no brothers teach at St. Mary's except for Brothers James McKenna and Colm Carlin who provide pastoral and extra-curricular support. The school, however, is still under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers.

The school was founded on Divis St. in 1866, moved to a purpose-built secondary at Barrack Street in 1929, but since 1968 has developed a much larger campus at Glen Road (referred to locally as "School Road" due to the high number of schools situated along it) in West Belfast. In 1998, it completed the move to Glen Road and now has no facility at Barrack Street.

The current principal of the school is jim sherrin .He is the first layperson to hold the post on a permanent basis (although Michael Crilly was acting principal in 1996-1997 and Jim McClean was teacher-in-charge at Barrack Street for a number of years).

Extra-Curricular Activities

St. Mary's has achieved notable success in numerous extra-curricular activities. The school hurling team won six Mageean cup titles in succession in the 1990s. St. Marys also completed an ulster colleges double in 2008 winning both the Mageen cup and for the first time in the schools history the MacLarnon cup after beating st. columbs derry 1-7 to 0-8 in the final at healy park in omagh on st. patricks day. It is the only school in Ireland to have a clean sweep of all Ireland water polo titles at all age groups in consecutive years. Since the lifting of the ban on school representation in soccer competitions in 2002 the school won its first Belfast Cup in 2006 defeating Boys Model and its first NI Cup in 2007 as well as the 2007 Belfast Cup (Year 11). This success was followed up in 2008 as they won the year 9 Belfast Cup as well as an historic double in lifting both the Carnegie Schools Northern Ireland Cup and became the first school in 20 years to retain the Malcolm Brodie Trophy (year 12) with a victory over St. Columbs, Derry. The school also competes in inter-schools competition in trampoline, athletics, handball, golf, gaelic football and basketball.

Away from sport, the school has produced champions in other endeavours. The school runs debating societies in English, Irish and Spanish, and has sent delegates representing Ireland to both the European Youth Parliament and European Youth Commission. The school has excelled in the European and Irish News inter-school quizzes, currently holding both trophies.

Young Enterprise companies at the school have achieved considerable success under Mr Hugh McBarron, having been awarded the title Northern Ireland Company of the Year on four occasions. One such company, Europhoria, were the first to do so and made a record profit. Two Young Enterprise companies from the school have represented the United Kingdom at European level.

The inter-schools quiz team has enjoyed considerable success in recent years and are the holders in perpetuity of the Irish News Ulster Schools Quiz trophy, having won outright in 2001. The school also maintains an orchestra and a recording studio, stages theatrical and musical performances, as well as entering students in art competitions.

The school is heavily involved in projects with communities in Zambia, in particular in Lusaka, Kabweza and Kafue, and pupils and teachers travel to these projects each year. Project Zambia also involves the wider local community, both at parish and other schools' level. Much has been achieved and gained from this endeavour since 2002 and is conducted under the auspices of the Christian Brothers' Immersion Programme.

Notable Alumni

Academic
*Ciarán Carson, Professor & Director, Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, QUB

Arts
*Ronan Bennett, author, screenwriter
*Ciarán Carson, poet; member of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
*Albert Sharpe, actor ( [http://movies.aol.com/celebrity/albert-sharpe/64875/biography] )

Business
*DJ MacRandal, architect
*Ciarán Mackel, architect
*Michael Ryan, Vice-President and Chief Executive, Bombardier NI

Civil
*Dr. Martin McAleese, chartered accountant, dentist; husband of Mary McAleese, President of the Republic of Ireland

Holy Orders
*Right Rev. Monsignor Thomas Bartley, Vicar General of The Diocese of Down and Connor
*His Eminence William Conway, Cardinal
*Most Rev. Patrick Walsh, Former Bishop of Down & Connor
*Most Rev. Dr. Eugene Butler, Former Bishop of Mombasa and Zanzibar

Politics
*Gerry Adams, MP MLA, President of Sinn Féin
*John Cushnahan, MP, TD, MEP
*Joe Devlin, MP
*Francis Hanna, LLB, MP
*Seán MacEntee, TD, former Tánaiste [Tánaiste under Taoiseach Sean Lemass from June 1959 to April 1965 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1naiste)] , Minster for Health, and Minister for Finance. Member of the first Dáil Éireann.

Sport
* Jim Magilton, Footballer (formerly Liverpool, N.I. and Ipswich) and Manager (Ipswich)
* Sean Connor, manager of Sligo Rovers
* Conor McLaughlin, Footballer Preston North End

References

* [http://www.stmaryscbgs.com/ St Mary's CBGS]
* [http://www.projectzambia.com/ Project Zambia]
* [http://www.edmundriceinternational.org/ Edmund Rice International]