St Mary's College, Dundalk

Chapel serving the college

St Mary's College was the first organization in the Society of Mary in Ireland and the first secondary school for boys in Dundalk. Founded in 1861,[1] 26 pupils enrolled on the first day.

The location for the new school was "Church-Hill House" which was purchased in 1859. The priest responsible for the initial preparations of the new school was Fr Crouzet, a French marist priest.

At that time, the college consisted of a primary and secondary School for boys, which catered for both boarding and day pupils but many changes have taken place through the years. In 1983, the boarding section of the college was closed, followed in 1987 by the closure of the primary school. In 1989, the first lay principal was appointed and in 1990, the college opened[2] its doors to girls.

Since its opening, there have been many extensions to the original Church-Hill House and additions to the buildings to meet the changing needs of the students.

In 2011, the college celebrated its 150th[3] anniversary where each student was presented with a special commemorative badge and a prayer book.

On 22 April 2016 the Marist celebrated the end of a long awaited new school. This historic day marks the end of a building used for many decades.

• Sir Denis Henry, 1st Baronet – first Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, a Barrister (Queen's Counsel), Solicitor-General for Ireland, Attorney General for Ireland, and Bencher of the Honorable Society of King's Inns.
• Dermot Ahern – Politician and Government Minister
• David Kennedy – Marist Father
• Larry Goodman – Businessman
• Fred Halliday – Writer
• Joseph Finnegan – Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland and President of the Irish High Court
• Brendan McGahon – Politician
• Neil Gallagher – Sportsman

The school has come under fire several times in recent years due to their morals, particularly surrounding school rules, as they constantly try to meet up with the Catholic Church's standards. The majority of students feel mistreated and dismayed that these strict rules are still upheld in today's ever changing society, despite the fact that the school tries to promote equality amongst students, and a comfortable learning environment.

Religion is still compulsory due to the school's predominant Catholic population and historic beliefs, although at the same time the school claims to be "Educate Together" and many other religions are present in the school, for example Islam and Judaism, not to mention Atheism which of course must also be respected.

Skirts remain compulsory for female students, and prohibited for male students. Other items such as nail polish, earrings, even dyed or short hair, are not allowed for male students, but exceptions are made for females. Male students MUST shave any facial hair for an unknown reason.

Another dispute over the school uniform came in 2021 with the release of the new school tracksuit bottoms. Students could no longer wear their own plain black tracksuit bottoms, but instead were made pay €30 euro each for new crested bottoms. If a student fails to wear the new tracksuit bottoms into class, and instead wears plain black bottoms, or any other pair, they will be refused the opportunity to take part in PE and be reported to management, possibly receiving a negative note home. This is similar to the policy with the school jackets. Students and teachers alike agree the ludicrousy of this situation.

Students have also complained that a certain group of students seem to always get away with wearing their own clothes, whilst others will always be told off, even if it is a one time offence.

At the start of the 2021/22 school year, a new rule was introduced. Due to an incident involving 1 or more students, all male students were prohibited from using the toilet facilities during class times, and the facilities would be locked. This was later changed so students would need to write a note describing the reason they needed to use the toilet and showing the teacher. This caused huge uproar not only for its plain denial of a basic human right and oppression of a group of people based on a single person's actions, but also the fact that female students received no punishment, another prime example of the Marist's long maintained sexism, towards both genders. Mr. Craven came out with an apology days later, but notably only apologised to the female students, implying that every male student was to blame for this incident.

All of these issues have been brought up on the Student Council for many years, but many people have since realised that the Council is simply a false position of power and that management, specifically Craven, have the final say in everything regarding the wellbeing of students, even if it is not the right solution

• St Mary's College, Dublin