St. Brendan’s Hall

St Brendan's School, Wolfe Tone Square, Bantry, Co. Cork

+353 (0)27 54700

St. Brendan's National School was given its present name in October 1999. Until then the school was known as Bantry No. 3 N.S. On the 3rd of October 1999 The Right Reverend W. Paul Colton, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, rededicated the Parish Church in Bantry to St. Brendan the Navigator. The school was renamed on the same day and took the name of the Saint as its own. Much better that No. 3 I'm sure you'll agree! The school itself was built in 1853 at the expense of Richard White, Earl of Bantry. It opened as a school on 29th January 1855 and opened as a National School on 1st May 1871. The Parochial Hall was added in 1938. The school was a one-teacher school for many years, until the construction of the Gulf Oil Terminal on Whiddy Island, in Bantry Bay, when a temporary assistant was appointed in 1967. The school reverted to its one-teacher status in 1971. Since 1974 it has been a two-teacher school. Until recently the school was vested in local trustees and the patron was Egerton Shelswell-White of Bantry House. The school is now under the patronage of The Right Reverend W. Paul Colton.