ST ENDA'S SCHOOL

St Enda''s, or in Gaelic Scoil Eanna, was a very influential boys school which taught through the medium of Irish. It was the 'baby' of Pádraig Pearce. When the gates opened in 1908 its headmaster and founder, Pádraig Pearce declared that the school would be an 'educational adventure' for nationalists boys. Pádraig had a great desire to create a modern schooling system which taught Irish scholarly traditions of the early Celtic Church coupled with a heroic warrior culture of pagan Celtic Ireland! The idea was to produce boys well schooled in all Irelands ancient traditions and educated to serve their country in a life of public service and citizenship. High ideals indeed! In fact, Lord Alfred Douglas actually praised 'the whole beauty of the educational system of Pádraig H. Pearce' and further stated (quoting from William Bulfin) that 'St Enda's was the most important thing in the interest of Gaelic nationality that had been done since the founding of the Gaelic League'...something else that the McGinleys were heavily involved in.

St Enda's, in effect was to be a radical experiment in education, totally free from Anglo influences and control, the first time that the Irish could have such an opportunity for hundreds of years. It is a known fact that the scholarly Cú Uladh/Peter Toner McGinley supplied ten of his children for the opening of this esteemed school. The role of the McGinleys in the early history of Irelands first 'All Irish' school cannot be underestimated. Pearce held figures like St Colm Cille and Cú Chulainn as examples of the Christian and pagan systems that could be mixed together for a better future. Dramatic plays and productions were staged to 'capture the imagination' of the boys such as 'Iosagan' (1909), 'The Coming of Fionn' (1910), 'The Passion' (1911), An Rí (The King) (1912), and The Master (1915). In the play Iosagan, the 'Holy Child' was played by Adhamhnan Mag Fhionnghaile/Eunan McGinley who later died in the War of Independance. According to Pearce, the play Iosagan stood for 'the spirituality of Ireland'.

Many children from eminent nationalist families attended the school in the coming years. Most of the leaders of Irish and Celtic Revivalism taught, lectured or were schooled at some point at St Enda's. The school had admirers far and wide. Among those who supported the school or gave their backing to it included W.B. Yeats, Douglas Hide, Roger Casement, Eamonn De Valera, Countess Markievicz, Sean O'Casey, and even Sir Robert Baden Powell, the founder of the English Boy Scout movement. Ironically he took his inspiration for the scout movement from the Irish Fianna Og organisation, an anti English and strongly Irish Republican youth group!

St Enda's school played an important part in Ireland history. Of the fourteen men executed in 1916 (for their involvement in the Easter Rising), five of them had taught at the school, Pádraig Pearce, William Pearce, Joseph Plunkett, Thomas McDonagh and Con Colbert. At the GPO, over thirty St Enda's boys, past and present, took part in the battle for independance. These included two McGinleys, sons of Cú Uladh.

The truly revolutionary ideals and aims of St Enda's can only really be understood against a backdrop of oppressive colonial rule, with its anglicised educational system and anti Irish mentality. The previous century had seen the era of Irelands 'hedge schools' when any form of non-English controlled education was unheard of, and not allowed. Generations of Irelands young were not allowed to have even basic education caused by the Penal Laws.

St Enda's from the beginning was a centre for idealists and radicals and patriots. The cause for Irish freedom was growing and Ireland's idealistic youth were ready. During the latter part of 1915 and early 1916, a group of past pupils, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, were busy constructing home-made bombs in the basement of St Enda's under the strict supervision of Peter Slattery the chemistry teacher! This group of ten past pupils (Joe Sweeney, Frank Burke, Eamonn Bulfin, Desmond Ryan, Fintan Murphy, Brian Joyce, John Kilgallon, David Sears, Eunan McGinley and his brother Conor McGinley) worked on improving these devices. They made canister grenades and moulded buckshot. The two McGinley brothers used these home-made weapons against the English while in the GPO. It is known that Eunan McGinley was the youngest fighter in the GPO aged only sixteen. His brother Conor later became a prominent architect while another brother Diarmuid was a president of Conradh na Gaeilge/The Gaelic League. Cú Uladh McGinley played an important part, behind the scenes, helping to raise funds on a continuing basis to help the school.

It was another McGinley from Gola Island off the Donegal coast who played a major part in smuggling into Ireland a large amount of weapons that were to be used in the Easter Rising of 1916. Patrick McGinley took part in the 'Howth Gun Running' and it is known that the weapons were stored, in the hallway in large trunks, at St Enda's school.

A school for girls called St Ita's was set up as a sister school to St Enda's but was not as successful as St Enda's. Many of Irelands eminent and prominent women went to St Ita's such as Maire Bulfin, Kitty Kiernan and Eveline McGinley (a daughter of Cú Uladh). In 1917 Louise Gavan Duffy took over the running of the school and changed the name to Scoil Bhríde.