County Louth Archaeological and History Society

Dundalk Grammar School: The First 250 Years (1739-1989) by C. Tempest McCreaReview by: H. O'S.Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1988), p.456Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729662 .

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456 County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal

DUNDALK GRAMMAR SCHOOL : THE FIRST 250 YEARS (1739-1989). By C. Tempest McCrea. Pp xi + 37 -1- 22 pp photographs. Dundalk : Dundalgan Press (W. Tempest) Ltd. 1989. ?5.00 (nardback); ?3.00 (softback).

This book is a compact history of the evolution of a Dundalk educational institution, now known as the Grammar

School, from a most inauspicious beginning to what is now a jewel in the crown of the second-level educational services

in the town and district. It covers a time-span of 250 years during which the school underwent metamorphosis, not once

but many times, brought about by the readiness of those responsible for its management to adapt to the changing social

and economic circumstances of a town which was itself in the forefront of industrial development in this island.

Founded first as a charity school in 1726 by Mrs Anne Hamilton, whose name is still commemorated in the street

where it was first established, it was connected to the Charter school system in 1735 and in the early nineteeth century with the Incorporated Society for Promoting Protestant Schools in Ireland. Until 1835 it was a boarding school providing

elementary education for mainly Catholic orphan girls, but within the ethos of the Protestant Established Church. As

such it was not to survive the educational controversies and reforms of the early decades of that century. Following an

initiative taken by the Rev Elias Thackeray, vicar of Dundalk, it was reorganised in 1835 as a day and boarding school for

Protestant boys under the name of the Dundalk Educational Institution. Mr McCrea's book gives a full account, warts

and all, of the activities of the old Charter school, which having stood in Anne Street until 1817, was then moved to the

present site on the south side of the town.

Mr McCrea correctly identifies the Rev Elias Thackeray as the man responsible for the transformation from

Charter school to Educational Institution and who by the time of his death in 1854 had secured its foundation as an

integral part of the educational services of the town. From this period onwards. except for the interruption during the

Great War of 1914-18, it was to grow and prosper. As McCrea points out Thackeray was a man of strong conviction,

outspoken and oftentimes controversial. However the Dundalk Democrat, never known to mince words, said of

Thackeray, having noted with extreme regret the death of "this good man", that "during the many years he lived in

Dundalk he had enjoyed the respect and esteem of all who knew his amiable qualities and benevolent disposition. In

dispensing charity to the poor he knew no distinction of creed and he has died regretted by men of all religious

persuasions". The final metamorphosis took place in the years following the end of the Great War when the school, having been

closed for some years, reopened as a co-educational day school, under the name of the Dundalk Grammar School. In

time boarding facilities were provided and incremental additions made to the syllabus as the school adapted to the

general improvements in second-level education. So successful has it been that the attendance has doubled in the last

seven years. Mr McCrea's felicitous and admirably brief history of the Grammar School is an important contribution to

the knowledge of our educational heritage and should have a permanent place on the bookshelf of all those interested in

that heritage. Published by Dundalgan Press in hardback and paperback, it is modestly priced by a company which has

always excelled in the quality of its publications.

H. O'S.

TO CROSS THE RAGING MAIN. By Maynard H. Mires, M.D. Pp ii + 43. Georgetown, Delaware : Rogers

Graphics. 1988. Paperback. Dr Mires' book contains both the genealogy and important dates and events which surrounded the Bingham family

from whom his wife Ruth descends, from the arrival of the family in Ireland in the sixteenth century until the present time. In the opening chapter he deals with the arrival of Sir Richard Bingham from Dorset in England to the west of

Ireland in the mid-sixteenth century to take up his appointment as military governor of Connaught. It was Sir Richard

who established the Bingham family seat at Castlebar in County Mayo at that time.

His rule as military governor of the province was so merciless that his ferocity became a legend. Among other

things, he ordered the execution of more than 1,000 Spanish soldiers, shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland at the time of

the Spanish Armada in 1588 and it is not surprising to find that yet again one of his descendants Major Charles Bingham, who headed the army, was killed at the battle of Aughrim in 1691 in defence of the prince of Orange.

The rise to political influence by the Bingham family is emphasised by Dr Mires. He states that the family vault in

Castlebar churchyard contains the remains of many notable members of the family including that of Sir Henry Bingham, first baronet, who died in July 1714. It is also noteworthy that Sir Charles Bingham, who was raised to the peerage in

1795 and created first earl of Lucan, descends from the same family. Many members of the Bingham family were

parliamentary representatives for County Mayo in the eighteenth century. The Binghams, like many of the Anglo-Irish families of the eighteenth century, extended their family branches to

various parts of the country in pursuit of fortune as a result of the enormous growth in agriculture together with the

industrial revolution which took place in Ireland at that time. By the mid-century the Binghams had established

themselves in Counties Sligo, Dublin and Louth. Dr Mires states that George Bingham, second son of the fourth

baronet, took up residence in Coll?n in the 1740s, at the same time that Anthony Foster, the renowned agriculturalist, had established himself there. It is from this Bingham line that all the County Louth Binghams descend.

In the late eighteenth century the Binghams became prominent merchants in Coll?n and in the early nineteenth

century branches of the family extended to Churchtown, Charlestown, Corballis, Dundalk and Ardee, where some of

them became extensive farmers and others entered the blacksmith's trade, which remained in the family for over three

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