It was about this time of year, May 26, 1910 that the foundation stone of St. Mary’s College was laid. It was not, however the first St Mary’s College. Father John Paul O’Toole, born in Galway in 1804, was one of the last priests ordained during the wardenship. He was based in Paris and Rome but was always conscious of his own difficulty in obtaining a food secondary education in Galway, so he decided to return to Galway in 1843 and open a school here. His main difficulty was finding a premises but happily, he managed to secure “West House”, a detached residence with extensive grounds situated on Helen Street. He bought it from John Lushington Reilly, a great benefactor of the town and neighbourhood, especially during the famine of 1822.
Fr O’Toole adapted the building and opened the school on March 1st, 1844 and it flourished from the start. Two years later, the Bishop raised it to the status of Diocesan College However, the success was short-lived. The construction of UCG was underway and it seemed it was only a matter of time before Fr. O’Toole was made a professor there. In anticipation of this, he closed the school in 1849 and the following year, he was appointed Vice=President and a professor in UCG. However, the Bishops regarded the undenominational system of education there as unsafe for Catholics and forbade any priests to work there. So, Fr. O’Toole resigned and went to England to do parish work.
The Galway Express of May 28th, 1910 reported “On Saturday last, one of the largest and most enthusiastic demonstrations ever witnessed in Galway with the laying of a foundation stone for a new Diocesan College”. A procession from Eyre Square to the site was witnessed by thousands and it took a strong police force to keep the route clear, such was the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Work on the building began in September of that year, W.A. Scott was the architect and James Wynne of Dundalk was the builder. The clerk of works was a Galway architect, Allen McDonald. The gymnasium and the Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes were completed in 1915. The shrine (known as The Grotto ) was built to commemorate the first diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. On August 25th, 1912, the solemn blessing of the College took place and on Monday, August 26th, the first students entered. The number of boarders had reached sixty by the end of the term and there were 17 day pupils. Fees were £30 per annum for boarders and £6 for the day boys.
The imposing entrance gate was built and the stony avenue curved up the hill and then divided, the left arm branching to the kitchen yard, the right arm leading directly to the right corner of the main building. One could not drive right up to the fron door; an iron railing at the foot of the terrace saw to that. One left one’s car below the terrace and walked the last hundred yards to the door. The senior pitch was laid in 1929, the filling all coming from the then site of the proposed Cathedral near O’Brien’s Bridge.
In their very first year, the College rugby team won the Connacht Schools Cup and that began a remarkable sporting tradition as they produced many Gaelic and Hurling teams, a lot of inter-county footballers and hurlers and stars of athletics. They also built handball alleys at the back of the school and another smaller pitch. The school also developed a long tradition of producing plays, I nGaeilge agus I mBéarla.
Within a short few years of the opening, they added another storey on to the building and later, a new wing. The prospectus for 1930 listed for parents the main proposals of a comprehensive plan for the moulding of their offspring into objects of pride, joy, awe and wonderment. At that time, there were about 100 boarders.
Since then, the school has grown and changed dramatically. There are no boarders there now. In recent times, it has gone co-educational and amalgamated with what used to be the Mercy Convent and the Presentation schools and is today known as Coláiste Muire Máthair. It has over 1,000 pupils and is under the trusteeship of CEIST, the Catholic Education Irish Schools Trust and the Galway Diocese.
So we have three images from the early days to show you today, the first is a view from the gate showing construction had reached the height of the first floor; the second shows a primitive looking (but effective ) hand-operated crane lifting the very heavy stone blocks up to first-floor level. Both of these images were taken in 1911. The third image is of the oratory which was on the first floor, over the boy’s dining hall. It was taken c.1920
