School History
1849:
The Congregation of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary was founded in Béziers in the south of France.
1870:
As the Congregation grew it included some Irish Sisters and in 1870 the first Convent outside France was opened in Castle Street, Lisburn, by Mother Saint Thomas and a group of Sisters who established a primary school for girls the following year and subsequently a grammar school for girls and a preparatory school for girls and boys.
1947:
The Lisburn schools flourished and in 1947 Mother Saint Clement acquired Rathmore with a view to moving the grammar school there. The Ministry of Education did not immediately approve the move and, instead, in 1949 the Sisters opened a preparatory school for girls and boys in Rathmore House which became known as the Convent as it accommodated the Sisters as well as the pupils.
1953 – 1963:
The Ministry finally approved the establishment of a grammar school at Rathmore. It opened on 1st September 1953 with 36 qualified boarding and day pupils, under the principalship of Mother Saint Brigid Galvin. Numbers increased and in 1955 the school took over huts which had been erected for use as offices by Messrs. Short and Harland during the war. Additional buildings were opened in 1960 and 1961.
1963 – 1990:
Sister Jeanne d’Arc Lynam, later known as Sister Joan became principal in 1963. The school continued to flourish and further new buildings were opened in 1965 and 1973, with additional accommodation being created in the basement of the 1973 building in 1983 and 1990.
The school adapted to the changing needs of the times and in 1971 the preparatory school and boarding department of the grammar school closed while in 1974 the grammar school took in its first boys.
1990 – 2005:
Sister Ursula Canavan became principal in 1990. By then the buildings were inadequate for the delivery of a modern curriculum to the increasing number of pupils on roll. Following a feasibility study the Department of Education in November 1995 approved the acquisition by the school of the Convent building, which would be refurbished for use as classrooms, and the replacement of all the other buildings in order to provide suitable accommodation for an enrolment of 1,260 pupils. The Sisters moved out of the Convent at Christmas 1997 and the school acquired it the following year.
Plans were drawn up for the new school buildings. On 2nd April 2001 the Department gave the go-ahead for work to begin and on 20th May 2002 the contractors arrived on site. In September 2003 the technology suite was opened, followed in January 2004 by the administration block, assembly hall, science labs, sports hall, gym and the refurbished Convent building which housed history, politics and religious education classrooms in addition to the Chapel. The Chapel was re-dedicated by the Most Reverend Patrick Walsh, Bishop of Down and Connor, on 23rd April that year.
By late June 2005 most of the new buildings were complete and the old buildings, which were to be demolished during the summer holidays, were vacated. In late August the new term began in the new buildings which included general classrooms, a lecture/drama theatre, a library, a staffroom, specialist suites for art, business studies, careers, home economics, information technology and music, a canteen and Sixth Form centre. In October new sand carpet football pitches were completed and work on extending the canteen began. By April 2006 the canteen extension, new roadways, bus and car parks were in operation.
A long cherished dream had come true.
