A short history of The High School 1870-1973

The High School, 40 Harcourt Street, Dublin, was founded on October 1, 1870, by the Governors of The Erasmus Smith Schools, as a school to prepare boys for business and the professions.  At that time, the great foundation to which The High School was destined to belong was already two hundred years old and controlled four Grammar schools and over 150 primary schools.  Established in the middle of the seventeenth century by Erasmus Smith to educate the children of his tenants and other poor scholars, the foundation had an income of over £8,000 per annum by 1870, a considerable sum in those days.

The entrance to Harcourt Street

The English or Intermediate section of the new school offered courses in English, Arithmetic, Book-keeping and Writing.  In addition, a series of optional courses in Latin, Greek, Natural Sciences, French, German, advanced Mathematics and Drawing were available.  The school year was divided into four terms which began in October, January, April and August.  Each day began at 9.30 a.m. with Prayers conducted by the Headmaster and school ended at 3.00 p.m.

The clockroom, Harcourt Street

During break the boys were allowed to go into the pleasure grounds which adjoined the school and in January 1872 the Standing Committee agreed to allow them to walk on the grass, but ordered that the junior masters were to supervise the boys during lunch break!

Harcourt Street and the Pleasure Grounds

The school has always welcomed pupils from many religious persuasions and those of no religion.  One of the more amusing accounts of the religious breakdown at the school was given by William Wilkins, Headmaster, in a letter to the Board in 1886, 209 Church of Ireland, 41 Presbyterians, 8 Plymouth Brethren, 5 Methodists, 3 ‘Separatists’, 3 Baptists, 3 Jews, 2 Roman Catholics, 2 Moravians and 1 Congregationalist.  He remarked that ‘the Presbyterian boys have always been the intellectual cream of the school’.  Today, the population of the school contains almost every religion, denomination, faith system and philosophy which exists in Ireland.  Religious harmony has been a hallmark of the school since its foundation.

The introduction of physical drill in 1882 with the appointment of a drill-sergeant augmented the educational provision of the school but also created the position of “Sarge” which has lasted to the present day, as the Sergeant was also to oversee the buildings, fires, etc., to supervise playtime and to open and close the school.  The present caretaker and coordinator of school maintenance is still known as “Sarge”.

Gymnastics 1897

Although it had a precarious beginning, with only 123 pupils in 1871 instead of the anticipated 300, the school was later to thrive.  The High School moved from Harcourt Street to Danum, Rathgar in 1971 and amalgamated with The Diocesan School for Girls in 1974, thereby becoming co-educational.  The Diocesan School was the older of the two new partners, having been founded in 1849.  A major building programme for the new millennium was begun in 2000 and is ongoing.  The school now caters for approximately 800 pupils.

Junior school boys late 1950s

Danum had been bought by Ernest Bewley in 1904 and he had built a house and farm buildings there for the famous café-owning family.  The name Danum came with the Bewleys from their former home near Doncaster in England.  The Trust purchased Danum as early as 1955 and the years prior to the move saw the development of the playing fields and the planning of the new school.  When it became urgent to move in the late 1960s, the government refused to pay for the new school (except for a small grant of £20,000) so it was built almost entirely from the resources of the Trust and the sale of Harcourt Street.  An extension was built in the same manner at the time of the amalgamation, from the proceeds of the sale of the Diocesan School for Girls, again without government assistance.  It is only in recent years that the government has given any substantial assistance with new buildings to the school.

Danum - the Bewley home

The following have served as Headmasters of The High School:

• Rev Dr Samuel Cresswell, 1870-1879

• Mr William Wilkins, 1879-1908  

• Mr John Thompson, 1908-1927

• Mr John Bennett, 1927-1951

• Dr Ralph Reynolds, 1951-1970

• Mr Allan Brook, 1971-1994

• Mr Brian Duffy, 1994-

W.B. Yeats remains the best known past pupil of the school.  He entered the school in 1881 after his family had returned to Dublin from London. Yeats found the school rather different from the one he had attended in London: ‘Here….nobody gave any thought to decorum….on the other hand there was no bullying, and I had no thought that boys could work so hard.  Cricket and football, the collecting of moths and butterflies, though not forbidden, were discouraged.’ (W.B. Yeats Autobiographies p. 56)

Yeats was mainly interested in natural history, and it may seem surprising, given his later career and global success, that he was weak at English literature.  He had a difficulty with spelling but his contemporaries noted the quality of his essays when they were read aloud.  He received a prize in English in 1883 and seems to have begun writing poetry at about that time.  In 1937, he allowed The Erasmian to publish a hitherto unpublished poem entitled What Then?

What Then?

His chosen comrades thought at school

He must grow a famous man;

He thought the same and lived by rule,

All his twenties crammed with toil:

What then, sang Plato's ghost, what then?

Everything he wrote was read,

After certain years he won

Sufficient money for his need,

Friends that have been friends indeed:

What then, sang Plato's ghost, what then?

All his happier dreams came true —

A small old house, wife, daughter, son,

Grounds where plum and cabbage grew,

Poets and Wits about him drew:

What then, sang Plato's ghost, what then?

The work is done, grown old he thought,

According to my boyish plan;

Let the fools rage, I swerved in nought,

Something to perfection brought:

What then, sang Plato's ghost, what then?

The first issue of The Erasmian had appeared in May 1899 and it has been published annually ever since, with only a few interruptions.

The school has had a distinguished sporting history, although no provision had been made for sport when the school was founded.  Cricket is first mentioned in 1875 and there were three teams by the turn of the century.  In 1915 the 1^st XI won the Leinster cup for the first time. They won it again in 1950 and in 1966.

Cricket cup winning team 1950

Drill began in 1880 and in the same year there is a record of a football and hurley club with 75 members.  Hurley was not hurling and was in fact a forerunner of hockey which took over from it at the school as the nineteenth century drew to a close.  The Irish Hockey Union was founded in 1893 largely by staff and boys from The High School and The King’s Hospital.  However, rugby became the most popular sport and eventually the sole winter sport at that time. The High School reached the final of the Leinster senior cup in 1898 for the first time, again in 1915 and 1963 and won the cup in 1973.

Hockey team 1896

Rugby 1st XV cup winning team 1973

Other sports in the school at times included handball, swimming, athletics, cross country, tennis, cycling, boxing, table tennis, badminton, canoeing, climbing, soccer, caving and hillwalking.

Boxing team 1934-35

 Bibliography:  “Faithful to our Trust” by W.J.R. Wallace, published 2004 by Columba Press, available to purchase from the archivist at The High School.