This book divides into a number of sections.Section A: The Origins of the Parish, Church and School and Past Pupils Union written by

Des Byrne, John Cullen and Br Paul Hendrick.

Section B: Superiors, Principals and Teachers, written by John Cullen.Section C: The Revolutionary Years, detailing the roles played by past pupils in the 1916

Rising, The Great War and The War of Independence, written by Des Byrne.Section D: Sporting Heritage. The Stories of our sporting past pupils in all areas of

sport, written by Jim Conway and John Cullen.Section E: Music and the Arts. Row pupils have played a role in music and the arts for

over 100 years. This is their story, written by Des Byrne and John Cullen.Section F: Economic, Social, Educational, Religious and Political Development. Here we

present pen pictures of past pupils who have made a name for themselves in various fields, and whose endeavours were recognised as Row Persons of the Year, written by Jim Conway.

Section G: Celebrating 150 Years. Here we report on the events that have taken place in the past year to mark our 150th Anniversary.

Section H: The Current Crop. Here we bring the story right up to date with a focus on today’s pupils.TION

The early records date from the school’s foundation in 1864, and survive in reasonable shape, though not as well preserved as those from the 1870s onwards, which we will come to presently. The school appears to have opened its doors on 17 October, 1864, and the records suggest that 454 pupils were admitted on that day. They were allocated to 4 School Rooms, as follows:-

School Room 1: 135 School Room 3: 103 School Room 4: 130 School Room 5: 86

There appears to have been some testing of proficiency, recorded in the registers, which may have dictated the allocations process. At a time when education was not compulsory, it’s not surprising that there is a great disparity in proficiency at different ages. Therefore, the spread of ages in the same school room is quite large. For example, in School Room 1 in 1864, the age range is 6 to 14, in School Room 3, 6 to 15, School Room 4, 6 to 15, and School Room 5, 7 to 14. The pupils were almost exclusively drawn from the immediate vicinity of the school.

The other striking feature by today’s standards is that enrolment continued after the initial, and vastly the bigger one, on 17 October 1864. For example, School Room 1 had a further 118 enrolments at various stages up to June 1865, at an average monthly rate of nearly 15.There were 454 enrolments on that first day. It would be invidious, therefore, to pick out any pupil as the first pupil of Westland Row CBS, but the honour of being the first on the registers was shared by the following 4 pupils:-

School Room 1: Michael Boylan, age 11, 38 Sandwith St., father’s occupation, Shopkeeper.

School Room 3: James Hynes, age 14, 39 Boyne St., father deceased. School Room 4: Thomas Byrne, age 12, 17 Denzille St., Father’s occupation, Carpenter.

School Room 5: Thomas Farrell, age 13, 10 Stephen’s Lane, Father’s occupation, Carpenter.

An analysis of the parent’s (mostly father’s) occupations would suggest predominantly working class, as suggested in the comparative table for 1864, 1890 and 1920 on page 29.

3.3 The New Irish in the early 1900s

In the school today, the roll books are very reflective of the enormous demographic changes the country has experienced in the past two decades, in particular the wave of immigration. The New Irish families represent a good proportion of the school’s pupil base. But this wasn’t the first time this happened in the school’s distinguished history.

The ethos of Westland Row School was Roman Catholic. But archive records show that the school opened its doors to people of other religions when the occasion demanded.One example of this was mentioned by Br. V.S. Nelson who taught at the school for a number of years from 1901. Fifty years later, he remembered that there had been a group of eight to ten Jewish boys in the school at the turn of the century.

With the help of the search facility linked to our Roll Registers for that period we have identified all ten:-

Joseph Pushinski from 171 Great Britain Street Michael Myerson Maurice Myerson Louis Wigoder Bernard Spiro Samuel Weinstock Benjamin Epstein Simon Clein Bernard Goldberg Bernard Shillman

The Easter Rising

The sons and grandsons of James Walsh were also Row boys. One of them - Rory Dodd - provided this photograph of himself and his brother and grandfather laying a wreath at Arbour Hill during the 1966 Commemorative services.

Rory Dodd is on the left, James Walsh centre and Tony on the right. Two other brothers - Conor and Gavan are also past pupils.

In the circumstances, it is rather remarkable that we have been able to trace eleven perfect matches, in addition to the six who died and who have been dealt with in earlier chapters.

The eleven “definites” are set out in the table below.

Surname First Name DoB Battalion/Com. Location

Fitzgerald James 1894 3B Bolands/Mount St.

Fitzgerald Leo 1896 3B Bolands

Fitzgerald Theobald 1898 Fianna Éireann Bolands

Fitzgerald Thomas 1883 3B Bolands

Fitzgerald William 1900 3B Bolands

Fullam Thomas 1894 3B Bolands

Lyons George A ? 3B Bolands

Merriman Michael 1990 3B Bolands

Walsh James 1899 3B Clanwilliam House

Walsh Thomas 1894 3B Clanwilliam House

Williams Henry ? 2D O’Connell St./Various

4.10 Leaving their Mark

At the time of the Rising, street names in the parish had a very clear provenance. Cumberland Street, where the school is located, was named for Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland. Boyne Street at, right-angles with Cumberland Street, was named to commemorate the Battle of The Boyne.

In subsequent decades many place names were changed or introduced afresh. A surprising number of these commemorate “Row” boys. Pearse Street is the most obvious example, along with Pearse Square, Station and House. Great Clarence Street became Macken Street to honour Peadar. Malone Gardens, off Bath Avenue was named for Michael, and in the 1960s, Leo Fitzgerald House was built at the junction of Erne Street and Hogan’s Place.

I wonder if any other school can boast a comparable record?

Sporting Memories

Billy Morton with Herb Elliot and Ronnie Delany, 6 August 1958

Billy was more than just an athlete and club administrator. In 1952, he was manager of the Irish Olympics team at the games in Helsinki. He was probably the most important figure ever in athletics in Ireland. The Stadium was re-named John F Kennedy Stadium in 1960, but, following Billy’s untimely death in December 1969, the stadium was re-named Morton Stadium. An annual mile event – the Morton Mile - also celebrates his magnificent achievements. Nice legacy for the “Row” boy.

Dublin All-Ireland Football Champions 1942

Tommy McCann, Sean Healy, Paddy Henry, Tommy Banks, Colm Boland, Charlie Kelly, Paddy 'Beefy' Kennedy, Brendan Quinn, Joe Delaney, Matt Fletcher, Mick Richardson, Bobby Beggs, Frank Ryan.

Our next major success at senior level for past pupils was when Gerry Davey and Chris Kane played on the 1963 All Ireland winning Dublin football team. Gerry was a member of the Class of 1962 and he went straight into the Dublin Senior Football team on leaving school. Dublin won a very exciting All Ireland in 1963 and Gerry played a key role especially against Down in the semi-final and Galway in the final, scoring the vital goal from his left corner forward position. Chris was at right corner back on the Dublin team that year.

Chris Kane and Gerry Davey with the Sam Maguire Cup

Chris was a member of that great Westland Row CBS team that won the Leinster Schools Senior Championship in 1958. More about that below.

The nucleus of that same team was to achieve even greater success in 1965. They won the Dublin CBS Senior Football League, and, for good measure, the Leinster Colleges Division B Conlon Cup, thus repeating the success of the 1958 team, pictured earlier. They played St Peters, Wexford in the final, and the match ended in a draw – Westland Row 2-4, St Peters 0-10. St Peters refused to play extra time, and the match and Championship were awarded to Westland Row CBS.

Dublin Senior Schools and Leinster Colleges Champions 1965

Standing: Con Kelly, Seán Ryan, Dermot Kelleher, Noel Kelly, Ben Conlon, Brendan Hudson, Christy Kelly, Liam Colgan, Frank Carton

Seated: Eoin O’Sullivan, Tony Johnston, Eugene Davey, Paul Kelly, Liam Hooten, Joss Hogan, Joe Ennis, Joe O’Regan

D5 Snooker

Westland Row CBS has been promoting snooker since the late 1990s. The school’s most famous player is Ken Doherty, pictured below, who to this day is the only professional player from the Republic of Ireland to win the coveted World Professional Championship in 1997 beating Stephen Hendry in the final, adding this to his World U21 Title and World Amateur Title, the only player ever to win all three.

Ken made his breakthrough when he won World Amateur Championship in 1989 and, of course, we have the iconic photo from 1997 when he conquered the World of Snooker.

JOHNNY CAREY

One of the greatest footballers ever to play for Manchester United and Ireland, Johnny (or Jackie) Carey was born in Dublin on 23 February 1919. Johnny was playing for St. James’s Gate when he was signed for a fee of £200 by Manchester United in 1936. He made his debut at Old Trafford in 1937 and helped United to get back to the first division. He won his first international cap when he played at inside left for Ireland against Norway in Dublin in 1937. The game ended in a 3-3 draw and Carey played well.

WatersportsThe teams achieved notable successes in the Leinster Schools Championship in 1963/64. They won 8 medals in the Cuffe Cup. Liam Mortimer won the Freestyle and the Butterfly, creating Leinster records in both disciplines. Paul Byrne did likewise in the Breaststroke. Liam and Paul took first place in the under 16 Life Saving Championship for Leinster, Munster and Connacht. And, for good measure, the Water Polo team of Dermot Byrne, Kevin Page, Breffni Byrne, Liam Mortimer, Paul Byrne and Dermot Kelleher won the Leinster Championship, beating High School in the final. The photograph below shows the 1963/64 swimming teams with their haul of medals.

E5 The Concert Band of the 1970s

A prescient review by a charming and irksome critic

Charles Acton was the music critic of The Irish Times for 31 years until his retirement in 1987. He was revered and feared in equal measure. The reasons for this were captured rather well in a piece written by Arminta Wallace in that paper in June 2010.

The title of the article captures the man’s character, described as,” our charming and irksome critic”. In it, she points out that “A decade after his death, Charles Acton is remembered in certain musical circles for delivering ferocious reviews of the wrecking ball variety.” He raised hackles to the extent that some musicians would refuse to play if he was present at their recitals.

And yet, he must have known his stuff. He was one of only two critics from outside the UK who gained admission to The Critics Circle; the other being Clive Barnes of The New York Times.

A piece Acton wrote in The Irish Times in April 1976 captures the man’s style very well. His wrecking ball is directed at The Westland Row Accordion Band which operated in the 1950s and 1960s. As a former member of that band I will, I hope, be forgiven for flinching a little at his comments - not so much for myself but for talented musicians like Chris Keneavy and Ian McGarry. Chris has had a highly successful fifty year career as a jazz pianist and can count among his accomplishments a stint as accompanist to the great Perry Como. He is also the father of Cormac, one of our most talented jazz musicians of the present day - look him up on You Tube. Ian McGarry went on to be the drummer with two of Ireland’s best bands of the sixties – Bluesville with Ian Whitcomb and Peter Adler and The Action with Adler and Colm CT Wilkinson. Subsequently, he had a very successful career in RTÉ as a producer of musical programmes including the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest. PATRICK BERGIN

Emmet was not the only member of the Bergin family to attend the Row and move on to a career as an actor.

His younger brother Patrick became the first Irish actor to appear in a movie with a 100 million dollar budget when he starred as the menacing husband of Julia Robert’s character in the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy. Newsweek magazine tipped him as the next Seán Connery at that time

He went on to appear in approximately 40 movies and TV productions including the role of Robin Hood, opposite Uma Thurman, Kevin O’Donnell in Patriot Games and the Glasgow gangster Arthur Thompson in The Wee Man (2015).

1983 – Shay Healy

Shay was born in 1943 and lived in Sandymount with his parents and five siblings. His parents were musical and Shay actually performed a self-penned piece on Radio Éireann at the age of 15.

On leaving “the Row” in 1961, Shay tried his hand at song writing and performed his own work entitled songs of social significance. Later, he wrote comedy songs for Billy Connolly including the The Shitkickers Waltz and The Country and Western Supersong.Shay achieved his greatest success as a songwriter with What’s Another Year, sung by Johnny Logan, which won the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest. The song proved a great hit over the next fifteen years.

Shay went on to achieve many more successes with his song writing, including another Eurovision winner with Johnny Logan singing Hold Me Now in 1987. He had a lot of success on TV especially with his own production company which made a series of television documentaries. His 1995 documentary on Phil Lynott The Rocker was broadcast on RTE 2 and BBC 2 and released as a DVD. Many successes followed, including a successful novel The Stunt in 1992. Shay’s memoir On The Road was published in 2005.