I offer you a warm welcome to our new school community at Coláiste Abhainn Rí. I invite you to have a look through our website which we hope to develop and grow as we prepare to open our doors in September 2022. While our school may be new, it is grounded in a long and distinguished history here in Callan.
Coláiste Abhainn Rí will be a co-educational post primary school, located on the site of St. Brigid’s College. The state of the art facilities already in existence will be supplemented with a new extension, which will enhance the experience of teachers and students alike, as we begin a new journey with the town of Callan. As a Catholic school, immersed in the traditions of the Christian Brothers and Mercy Sisters, the education provided at Coláiste Abhainn Rí, will be underpinned by the Gospel values of respect and care, as we look to develop the whole student. We will offer a broad and balanced curriculum, which will look to meet the needs of a diverse cohort of students in a safe, supportive and nurturing learning environment.
Our new amalgamated school will bring together two strong educational traditions that have served the people of Callan and its surrounding hinterland for over a century. The Sisters of Mercy came to Callan from Athy in December 1872, and took up residence in Callan Lodge, later named St. Mary’s Convent. Callan Lodge was vacated in September 1881 when the new Convent, St. Mary’s, was opened and blessed. However, it did not remain empty for long as in 1884 the Sisters opened St. Brigid’s Missionary School. In 1949, the “Secondary Top” class in St. Marys’ National School, amalgamated with St. Brigid’s Missionary School classes and thus began the provision of second level education on the site.
Callan, being the home of Blessed Edmund Rice, established the Community of the Christian Brothers on the 12th September 1868. One-hundred and fifteen years later the school at Coláiste Éamann Rís, in 1983. Carrying on the traditions of the Christian Brothers, the school looked to educate boys in the area of Callan and prepare them for the changing world, building leaders of the future.
In September 2019, the steering committee was established to begin the process of amalgamating the two schools. This decision was taken to preserve the traditions that made them special to so many people but to also cater for a changing economic and educational climate in the country. The new school will be a co-educational institution that will look to bring the best of the two traditions, Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers, together while writing a new chapter in the history of education in Callan and its surrounding hinterland.
I thank you for considering Coláiste Abhainn Rí as you decide where your child will begin the journey into second level.
Anthony Leahy
Principal