A Brief History of St. Patrick’s National School.

Baile Mhic Thorcaill derives its name from Turchil, Viking King of Dublin, whose sons owned the lands of this area. These lands later formed part of a grant to Strongbow. The strongest influence in more recent history came from the nearby Powerscourt Demesne.

The road past the school was built around the year 1800 as part of the Military Road built by the British from Rathfarnham and Enniskerry to Glencree and then to Glenmalure in an effort to capture Michael Dwyer. The engineer in charge of construction was a Capt. Taylor, one of whose descendants lives locally and members of whose family have attended the school.

The earliest known reference to a school in the area is 1826, but no trace of that school exists. It is not clear whether that school became a National School but there was a National School established by 1834, (Cuttlesstown), Roll No. 1119.* In 1861 an application was made for Cuttlestown Evening School.
The following is an extract from The Salary Book, September 1837, (National Archives)

Roll No. 1119*
School Cuttlestown
Rate of Salary 10 (£)
Teacher John Byrne
Correspondent Rev. J. Hannon
Post Town Enniskerry

By 1840 the Rate of Salary had become 12 and the correspondent the famous Rev. T. O’Dwyer.

In 1854 a new two room school with teacher’s residence upstairs was built beside Curtlestown Church. The building exists today as a private residence and was in use as a school and teacher’s residence until the present school was built in 1960. The present school in not in Curtlestown, but in Annacrevy, but the Curtlestown address was retained officially.

The current school register has been in use since 1913 and since then 507 boys and 429 girls have been registered.

Enrollment in 1960 was 35 pupils and the 2 classrooms were designed to hold 28 pupils each. The same rooms are used today for Resource /Learning Support activities and to accommodate a staff room. They would no longer be considered adequate to accommodate a class by today’s standards.

In 1984 the school was extended to accommodate another teacher and a General Purposes room was also added.

A full time Learning Support/Resource teacher was appointed to the school in 2006. A portion of the General Purpose room was sectioned off to accommodate withdrawal of pupils for Learning Support and the Modern language class.
With the completion of the two new classrooms in 2009, this area became a dedicated library.
* Please note this is not the current roll number.