New chapter for Sunday’s Well historic school
By Geraldine Fitzgerald
Sunday’s Well GNS will soon see the sun set on part of its history as it amalgamates in September with Sunday’s Well Boys school, under the new name Strawberry Hill.
Witness to some of the nationally significant episodes in Ireland’s history, Sunday’s Well GNS came into being in 1835, a decade before the onset of the Famine.
It was one of the first national schools to be built in Ireland following the passing of the National Schools Act in 1831, as evidenced by the school’s incredibly old roll number, dating from the period.
The school said it would love to hear from past students about their experiences in the school and how those students are getting on now!
The school is looking for photos, especially from multiple generations of pupils as well as stories and videos. These and queries can be sent to jnolan@sundayswellgirls.ie.
History
Quarrying for the Cork City Gaol and the road leading to it yielded surplus stone, left lying in a nearby field. It was donated to Sunday Well’s Schools, causing the school to acquire the moniker ‘The Gaol School’.
The school, its teachers, parents and pupils, were affected by the terrible national tragedy that was the Great Famine (1845-50) and the terrible period of emigration which followed it. The opening of UCC in 1849 provided a ray of light in the darkness, and indeed UCC has been a destination for many pupils. The school building was refurbished in 1875 and again in 1903, before the onset of World War One posed another tragic disruption.
Many of the girls’ fathers would have fought in the war and perhaps been killed or returned shellshocked or maimed. The Spanish Flu followed in 1919, and records show that the school was closed for a period, as the country experienced lockdown similar to what we have had to endure recently during the pandemic of Covid 19.
Many of the pupils’ relatives would have been active during the War of Independence in 1921 and the Civil War that followed. During 1935, on its 100th birthday, the school underwent a complete renovation.
Open fires within its walls were replaced with electricity in the late 1970s, and in 1978 the community raised funds to build a new school building, moving from Strawberry Hill to the former grounds of the Good Shepard Convent on Blarney Road.
September will witness the amalgamation of Sunday’s Well Girls’ and Boys’ schools, under the new name of Strawberry Hill in a nod to the original site.
Many current pupils are descendants of girls who attended many decades, or even centuries, ago. This intergenerational richness informs Strawberry Hill’s new beginning, rooted in 186 years of tradition with a new dawn of excitement and excellence on the horizon.