About St. Lorcan's
History of St. Lorcan's B.N.S.
St. Lorcan’s Boys’ National School is an all boys primary school situated in Palmerstown. The current enrolment is 365 and there are 21 teachers on staff. St. Lorcan's Boys' National School was formerly known as St. Philomena's School.
Our Recent History!
1966 - Present Date
Our Ancient History! 1890s to 1966
Prior to the construction of the present buildings the boys' school was formerly located in the south corridor of the present girls' school from 1959 - 1966.
With the increase in school going population in the late 1950s it became necessary to form a separate boys' and separate girls' school and a corridor for each school was located in the new building - the present girls' school.
This building was formally opened and blessed in 1961. Numbers increased and it became necessary to erect three double prefabs on the present car park at the girls' school and three senior classes of boys moved back to the old school in the village also. This proved to be an unacceptable situation for parents, teachers and pupils and the ten new permanent rooms, a staff room, office and staff toilets were erected which allowed the boys to vacate the girls' school, the prefabs and the old school in the village. The Assembly Hall was built with the extension.
Numbers continued to increase in the late 1960s and it became necessary to erect 2 double prefabs and two senior classes were accommodated in the old village school again until a further six classrooms, and new spacious staff room was completed in 1973. We then had 16 permanent classrooms and 4 classes in prefabs. The Boys' school was never formally opened as it was considered to be merely an extension of the present girls' school.
Over the years, refurbishment became necessary and the following works were carried out, grant aided by the Department of Education & Science. All windows were replaced, all new doors fitted, tarmac surface on all play areas, boiler house rewired, new heating system installed in the extension, new boiler and burner fitted in 1990, new lighting in the 1966 extension, separate heating system for the Assembly Hall, and the pupils toilets upgraded.
In December 1999 the then Minister for Education and Science, Mícheál Martin T.D., visited both schools and officially launched I.T.2000.
In November 1998 when President Mary McAleese visited our parish to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of the opening of the Church, she was presented with a record of information of our school and a Guard of Honour was formed for her Excellency by the pupils from the senior classes.
We celebrated our 50th birthday in 2016. We had a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop Martin. Minister Frances Fitzgerald was in attendance with many other special guests. We had a reception afterwards in our school hall.
Previous to 1966, that there was one co-educational primary school located in Palmerstown Village at the bottom of Kennelsfort Road, where the Parish Centre is now located. Records in the National Archives show that a school was in operation there from the 1890s.
A story from our past:
There were only two teachers in the school both of which were from the Castleknock area. Every morning they would walk from Castleknock down as far as the River Liffey where they would hop into their boat and row across the River Liffey to Mill Lane, tie up their boat and walk up Mill Lane to the school. Every evening they would row across the River Liffey again, back to Castleknock. Times sure have changed!