Tourmakeady College

File:Colaiste Mhurie Tourmakeady School.jpg

Colaiste Mhuire.

Tourmakeady College (Irish: Coláiste Mhuire Tuar Mhic Éadaigh) is an Irish-speaking voluntary secondary school in Tourmakeady, County Mayo, Ireland. The school has approximately 180 students.^{[citation needed]}

The school was at the centre of the Gaelic literary revival. In 1905 the Coláiste Chonnacht was founded as a summer school by Conradh na Gaeilge. The principal was Micheal Breathnach, with Maire Ni Tuathail as his assistant. The school became known as Cliabhran Conradh na Gaeilge — the "cradle of the Gaelic League".

Among the people who visited the school was Douglas Hyde, later to become the first President of Ireland. Pádraig Pearse and Éamon de Valera were also frequent visitors. Kuno Meyer, the renowned German Gaelic scholar, Padraig Ó Domhnallain, and other Irish writers also visited the school frequently. Éamon de Valera was later to marry Sinead Flanagan, who had been a teacher at the school.

Coláiste Chonnacht continued as a summer school until the 1960s, when the school was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy, who ran a boarding school for girls. In 1960 de Valera opened an Irish Drama Festival in the village, which ran successfully for a number of years. The Sisters of Mercy left in 1990 due to a drop in the number of vocations.

External links

• Information about Tourmakeady College (in Irish and English)
• Mayo Schools receive $11,500 support from US
• RTE star briefly attended Colaiste Mhuire in the 80s