history

The foundations of Technical Education in Ireland lie in the Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) acts of 1889 and 1899 which conferred on local rating authorities the power to levy a rate of up to 2d in £ for the provision of instruction in technical and agricultural subjects. The first of these Acts was not availed of to any significant extent but the 1899 Act which established the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction with an annual endowment of £55,000 to assist approved schemes of technical and agricultural instruction was widely adopted by Local Authorities and the provisions of the Act formed the framework with which the majority of the first schemes of technical and agricultural instruction classes where established.

Wicklow County Council was one of the first councils in the country to avail of the powers conferred by the 1899 Act. By 1905 four whole time technical teachers were already working in the county and a new Technical School – a galvanised structure – was nearing completion at The Mall, Wicklow. In the summer of that year, in order to provide for the more effective administration and promotion of a scheme of technical instruction, the Co. Council took steps to set up in conjunction with Wicklow Urban Council a separate Joint Technical Instruction Committee the membership of which consisted of County and Urban District Councillors and nominees of these councils (similar in fact to the membership of the present-day V.E.C.)

The First meeting of the County Wicklow Joint Technical Instruction Committee was held in The Courthouse, Wicklow, on the 21^st June 1905, the members being:

The 1905 Teaching Staff

Four wholetime teachers were already engaged in conducting classes at centres throughout the county when the new committee took up office and their efforts were being directed by Mr. Richard Wake, a teacher of engineering subjects, who was acting as Principal of the Education Scheme. The other members of the team were, Mr. J.J. Redmond, a teacher of Woodwork and Building, the two domestic science instructors – Misses Alice Farrell and May Murray. Miss Minnie Devenport, an Art and Drawing teacher was added to the staff soon afterwards and part-time teachers, many of whom were National School teachers, were employed as required to augment the services of the whole time teachers.

Mr. Wake was confirmed in the post of Principal by the new Committee at its first meeting. He was also designated Secretary to the Committee, a post which he continued to fill until his departure to take up a War Office appointment in England in February, 1916.

The First School Sessions

At the date of the Joint Technical Committee taking up office in June 1905 work on the new technical school at The Mall, Wicklow, was nearing completion and the building was ready for classes in September of that year. The Committee planned to launch its scheme of classes based in two “permanent” centres – Wicklow and Arklow – and on a number of temporary centres at which ‘short’ six-week courses were to be provided in Village Halls, National Schools, and any other suitable premises that could be rented. Wicklow was well catered for by comparison with the new school at The Mall.

Classes met mainly in the evenings, but sometimes in the afternoons from September to April. Whenever timetabling arrangements permitted, teachers in addition to working the permanent centres also ran classes at nearby rural centres. When the permanent centres closed in April, the entire staff was deployed to run intensive short courses at the more distant rural centres until the end of July. It was common practice for the teacher to run classes at two such centers simultaneously during the summer months.

Educational Program Offered in Wicklow

The following Table, which appear in the Minutes of the VEC Meetings from the period, provide a good indication of the remarkably wide range of subjects taught and the highly commendable degree students’ participation in classes during the four sessions 1904/05 to 1907/08:

The pattern of classes remained largely unchanged throughout the greater portion of the following twenty-five years, well-graded courses in groups of related subjects being provided in evening classes in the permanent centres such as Wicklow, and short courses in mainly practical subjects at rural centres.

Irish Language Classes

As early as 1914, the Committee inaugurated a scheme of classes in Irish for the benefit of National School teachers who wished to become proficient in the language. The classes met on Saturdays at four centres including Wicklow. They were well supported and proved highly successful, very many teachers becoming fluent speakers of their native tongue. Then, in the upsurge of Nationalism that followed the establishment of Saorstat Eireann in 1922, there was a tremendous popular demand for Irish Language classes in every town and village in the county. The County and Urban Council struck a special rate of 1d in £ the proceeds of which were used exclusively for the teaching of the language and the promotion of all aspects of the national culture in the form of music, dancing, feiseanna, games, etc., The committee engaged five additional wholetime teachers, as well as number of part-time staff – recruited mainly from Gaelic League personnel to cater for the demand.

The start of wholetime day classes

The introduction of wholetime day classes for boys and girls who had left the primary schools at the age of 14 years did not begin until the late 1930s, and it came about almost by stealth. Arklow was the first school in the county to have such a class. Courses began in Wicklow the following year and included Bookkeeping, Commercial Correspondence, Business Methods, Commercial Arithmetic, Shorthand, Typewriting, English and Irish. Anticipating the powers to be conferred for the organisation of day classes under the newly-enacted Vocational Act of 1930, one of the last acts of the Joint Technical Instruction Committee before it went out of office was to approve in the summer of 1930 a comprehensive scheme of day classes at Wicklow for the 1930/31 school year:-

Day Commercial Course: Two-year course; 5 days per week; 10a.m. –4p.m.; Bookkeeping, Commercial Arithmetic, Commercial Correspondence, Economic History, Economic Geography, Shorthand, Typing, Irish, English.

Day Trade Preparatory: Two-year course; times as above, Woodwork, Metalwork, Mechanical Drawing, Mathematics, Mechanics, Irish and English.

Ships Cooks: A course designed to train boys in simple cookery. Classes met on 2-3 days per week.

Establishment of County Wicklow Vocational Education Committee

The Oireachtas, following the issue of the report of the Commission on Technical education 1926, enacted the Vocational Education Act 1930. Most of the recommendations contained in the commission’s Report were adopted by the government and were embodied in the Act. The Act itself is considered to be one of the most flexible pieces of legislation ever enacted, conferring on Vocational Education Committees wide discretionary powers to engage in a very wide spectrum of educational activities relating to the specific needs of their own particular administrative areas.

One of the most immediate and obvious effects of the Act was the official recognition of wholetime day courses for young persons of post-primary age. Section 30 of the Act imposed on the new committees two main duties, viz:

‘It shall be the duty of every Vocational Education Committee; (a) to establish and maintain in accordance with this Act a suitable system of continuation education in its area, and to provide for the progressive development of such system; and provide for the progressive development of such system; and (b) to supply or aid the supply in accordance with this Act of technical education in its area’.

The Act defined ‘continuation education’ in very explicit terms: ‘for the purposes of this Act the expression ‘continuation education’ means education to continue and supplement education provided in elementary schools and includes general and practical training in preparation for employment in trades, manufactures, agriculture, commerce, and other industrial pursuits, and also general and practical training for improvement of young persons in the early stages of such employment’.

Broadly speaking, more or less similar duties were imposed upon committees in relation to ‘technical education’ which was defined as ‘education pertaining to trades, manufactures, commerce, and other industrial pursuits (including the occupations of girls and women connected within the household) and in subjects bearing thereon or relating thereto and includes education in science and art, and also includes physical training’.

Within the terms of these broad mandates, and armed with the borrowing and other powers conferred upon them by the Act, the first Vocational Education Committee embarked upon the task of building schools, establishing continuation courses, and strengthening the existing schemes of technical education.

The First County Wicklow Vocational Education Committee

The Act prescribed how membership of the County Vocational Education Committee was to be constituted, viz:

In selecting the non-councillor members, the Act prescribed those local authorities;

‘shall have regard to the interest and experience in education of the persons proposed to be elected and to any recommendations made by bodies (including associations or bodies of employers or of employees) interested in manufactures or trades in the area…’

The first meeting of the County Wicklow V.E.C. was convened by Mr. PT Healy, Secretary of Wicklow County Council, and was held in the Technical School, The Mall, Wicklow, at 2pm. on Tuesday, 28^th October 1930. Very Rev. Fr. Michael Behan, P.P. was elected Chairperson of the new Committee and Rev. Canon A. D. Moore, M.A., its Vice-chairperson. Mr. Herbert Pointing, Principal/ Secretary to the former Committee, was confirmed in the newly created post of Chief Executive Officer.

Mindful of the obligation placed upon it by the Act, the new committee considered that if adequate systems of technical and continuation education were to be developed in its area, priority should be given to the provision of suitable school buildings to house the classes.

New Technical School in Wicklow

The galvanised structure which was erected as a Technical School at The Mall, Wicklow, in 1905 was intended as a temporary building only, but it was not until the late 1940’s that any serious efforts were made to secure a more suitable structure. Wm. Clarke had carried out an extension and some improvements to the basement area of the school in 1930, but little else was done to the building after that. The old Library and Social Welfare Office were located above the school. The school’s Staff consisted of Mr. Coughlin, Mr. McNamara (father of Wm. McNamara –who would later become principal of the Vocational School ), Mr. McGuinness and Mr. O’Connell.

Sites offered at Friars’ Hill, Territ Lane (now St. Manntan Rd.) and Brickfield Lane/ Station Rd. were inspected at various times and negotiations conducted with their respective owners. At one stage the committee considered building on the site of the Old Goal, but the County Council was unwilling to dispose of all the ground that the Committee wished to acquire and the idea was abandoned.

In October 1950 the Committee eventually succeeded in purchasing a site of 3 acres 2 roods 33 perches form Mrs. Catherine Doyle for the sum of £1500 and the planning of a new school was commenced.

Tenders for the erection of a seven-classroom school, to include the Committee’s administrative Offices, designed by local architect Mr. John P. Butler, were considered at the meeting held on 13^th January, 1953. Twelve tenders were received. The contract was awarded to Mr. Bernard Hannon, Clontarf, Dublin, whose tender of £23,695 was the lowest received. Building operations commenced in March 1954 and were completed in the record time of eight months. Classes moved into occupation on 18^th January 1954. The official opening took place on 11^th February, the building being blessed by the His Grace, The Most Rev. Dr. J.C. McQuaid, and opened by Mr. Sean Moylan, T.D., the then Minister for Education. Mr A. J. Crotty was C.E.O. and Principal of the school at this time.

Mr. A.J. Crotty would later lament that because of the short-sighted view taken by the Department at the time, efforts made to extend the Wicklow site by the purchase of the adjoining rectory field in 1973 failed. The Department considered the price of £40,000 asked for the property too high. The field was eventually sold to Quinnsworth now Tesco Ireland, and the Community College is now ‘landlocked’ on its present site with limited recreational facilities. Since then the school did get a new block to the rear of the 1953 building and was opened by the then Minister for Education Mrs. M. O’Rourke in 1987. The school also changed its name from Wicklow Vocational School to the Abbey Community College.

Group Certificate to Leaving Certificate

Prior to 1966 Vocational Education consisted of a two-year course that culminated in the Group Certificate Examination. This form of education prepared students for the various trades and services. In Co. Wicklow, Baltinglass was an exception as it educated students to a Group Certificate Level but still enabled them to continue onto third level education in College of Technology, Kevin St. 1966 was a watershed for the Vocational Education system; it was the first year of the Intermediate Certificate Course and the start of various new curricula. The first Intermediate Examination was held in 1969 and was very successful and the first Leaving Certificate Students sat their exams in 1971.

The Handball Alleys

With little space available for recreation, students tended to play handball against any available surface. There was a narrow lawn running parallel to the woodwork and metalwork rooms and with the permission of the then principal, Mr. T. Murphy and the CEO, a committee was formed to provide a more appropriate playing surface. All interested students had to donate some money to the fund –with 1^st year students giving 1s per week for 5 weeks through to 5^th years contributing 1s. Using picks and shovels the students together with L. Ryan (Woodwork & M. Drawing) and later with a JCB (provided by local builder Ned Keane) cleared a suitable site. The ball alleys were always a popular construction and that project benefited the school until their demolition to make way for the new extension in 1987. New alleys were constructed as part of the new building and Handball remains one the most popular sports played in the college.

Growth in Enrolments 1950-1980

1950/51	90
1951/52	93
1952/53	87
1953/54	97
1954/55	128
1955/56	119
1956/57	97
1957/58	80
1958/59	73
1959/60	114
1960/61	150
1961/62	139
1962/63	146
1963/64	154
1964/65	168
1965/66	187
1966/67	189
1967/68	201
1968/69	211
1969/70	244
1970/71	273
1971/72	273
1972/73	284
1973/74	330
1974/75	309
1975/76	358
1976/77	356
1977/78	357
1978/79	349
1979/80	350

New Extention is Officially Opened

A New Extension was officially opened by the then Minister for Education, Mrs. Mary O'Rourke T.D. in 1989. The New Building, by which it is still known, was blessd by Most Rev. D.A.R. Caird, Lord Archbishop of Dublin and Most Rev. Donal Murray, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin. Mr. Paudge Brennan, Chairman of Co. Wicklow VEC, Mr. Michael S. Breathnach, CEO and the College Principal, Mr. Hugh O'Brien, spoke briefly.

Succession of Principal/ Secretaries

The Secretaries to the Co. Wicklow Joint Technical Committee and, later, the Chief Executive Officers of the Co. Wicklow Vocational Education Committees acted as Principals of the School until the first School Principal was formally appointed in 1964.

Mr. Richard Wake, Engineering Teacher, served from the establishment of the committee in 1905 to February 1916 when he was granted leave of absence for war duty in England. He did not return to the service of the committee after the end of the war, resigning his post in January 1919.

Mr. A.J. Smyth, Woodwork Teacher, served as Acting Principal/Secretary from February 1916 to October 1918 when he left to take up post of Principal/ Secretary to Co. Kildare Joint Technical Instruction Committee.

Mr. Florence F. McCarthy, Woodwork Teacher, succeeded Mr. Smyth in November 1918 as Acting Principal/ Secretary. He was confirmed in the post in January 1919 following the resignation of Mr. Wake, and he served until August 1928, when he left to take up the corresponding post under the North Wicklow Technical Instruction Committee. Due to a delay in the appointment of his successor (the post for the first time was being filled on the recommendation of the newly established Local Appointments Commission), Mr. McCarthy’s services were shared between the County Committee and the North Wicklow Committee during 1927/28

Mr. Patrick J. Murray, Commercial Teacher, served as Acting principal/ Secretary from September 1928 to may 1929.

Mr. Herbert Painting, Woodwork Teacher was the candidate recommended for appointment by the Local Appointments Commission. The Committee refused to accept the recommendation on the grounds that Mr. Painting was over the prescribed age of 40 years, and did hat have knowledge of Irish. A long drawn out dispute developed between the Committee and the Department on the issue. The Department eventually cut off the payment of grants and the Committee was compelled to accept Mr. Painting. He was appointed in February 1929, and took up duty on 1^st June of that year and served until 7^th January 1951.

Mr. Thomas Murphy, became the first principal who was not was not serving as CEO of the VEC

With an increasing numbers of students attending the school, there was a need for a Vice-Principal to which Mr. Wm. McNamara was first appointed and he would subsequently be appointed Principal and on his retirement Mr. H. O’Brien held the position. On the retirement of Micheal Breathneach as CEO and with the amalgamation of County Wicklow and Bray VEC, Mr. Seamus Renolds became CEO and Mr. O’Brien assistant CEO. Mr. E. Fogerty became Principal of the Abbey Community College and was later appointed Education Officer for Co. Wicklow VEC but was killed tragically in 2001. At present Mr. Tommy Tyrell is Principal of the Abbey Community College and Mr. A. Bolger is Vice Principal.

The information in this article includes edited extracts from a report presented to Co. Wicklow Vocational Education Committee at its meeting on 16th December 1980 by A.J. Crotty CEO and information provided by Mr. L. Ryan, Ms. C. O'Connell, Ms. E. Belton and Mr. P. Maher. I greatly appreciate their contributions.

A Brief History of the Abbey Community College

School Catchment Area:

The catchment area for students who attend the college stretches from Newtown/Newcastle in the North to Brittas Bay in the south and extends to Barndarrig, Glenealy and part of the Roundwood Parish.

The Abbey Community College - A Brief History

The Beginning