Glenstal Abbey School

Glenstal Abbey School is an all boys independent day and boarding Catholic secondary school, located on the grounds of Glenstal Abbey in Murroe, County Limerick. It is run by monks of the Benedictine order. The school offers seven-day full boarding, as well as day boarding (Mon-Sat). The school is regularly ranked among the top schools in Ireland. History Glenstal is a Norman Revivalist Castle, designed by William Bardwell, an English architect and built by Sir Matthew Barrington in 1839. Sir Charles and Lady Barrington left Ireland permanently in 1925. The castle and estate were purchased shortly after by Monsignor James J. Ryan, retired president of St Patrick’s College, Thurles, for the nominal sum of £2,000. Some months after the purchase, Msgr Ryan wrote to Celestine Golenvaux, the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Maredsous, and invited him to come to Ireland and set up a daughter house in Glenstal and by March 1927, the first two Belgian monks had arrived at Glenstal to establish the new house. In September 1932, the monks opened a Secondary School with Fr Columba Skerret as Headmaster, and with an intake of just seven pupils. The first lay teacher of the school was Mr Vincent Quirke.