Presentation Brothers College, Cork
| PBC Cork | |
|---|---|
| File:PBCCorkCrest.gif | |
| Location | |
 | |
Mardyke, Cork Ireland | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Motto | Viriliter Age (Act Manly) |
| Established | 1878 |
| Principal | Michael Hennessy |
| Enrollment | 678 |
| Colors | Mauve, Black and White |
| Website | http://www.pbc-cork.ie/ |
Presentation Brothers College is a Catholic, boys-only, fee-paying college based in Cork, Ireland. It is also known as PBC or Pres, and in Irish as Coláiste na Toirbhirte.
The college's traditional rivals are Christian Brothers College; (As the two main fee paying all-boys schools in Cork, both share similar histories, student bases, and sporting & academic traditions).
History
File:Copy of pbc building 003-1-.jpg
The college was founded by the Presentation Brothers in 1878, in the South Mall. Soon afterwards it moved to the Grand Parade and, in 1887, to the Western Road. In 1985, the college moved to a new building on the Mardyke on the site of the college's rugby facilities; the Western Road premises is now owned and used by UCC. The college has developed new rugby facilities at Dennehy's Cross & uses Shandon Boat Club, for rowing.
The college is also noted for having founded SHARE, a charity for supporting the elderly.
Curriculum
The school offers both the Junior and Leaving Certificate cycles. It has been named the best boys' secondary school outside Dublin by the Irish Examiner. The current Curriculum teaches First Years : Religion ; Irish ; English ; Mathematics ; Latin ; French ; German ; Science ; Business Studies ; History ; Geography ; CSPE(Civic Social Political Education) ; SPHE (Social Personal Health Education) ; Art ; PE (Physical Education). In Second Year, the students choose to drop one of the foreign languages. Unusually for a private school, streaming is not used until Third Year.
Mission
Presentation College is a Catholic school founded by the Presentation Brothers. It is a Christian community of students, staff, parents and management, with a strong tradition of family loyalty. The characteristics of this school community are Respect, Care, Tolerance, Compassion and Justice. The College believes in a positive approach to discipline. Students are guided and encouraged to accept responsibility for their own behaviour.
The College values academic excellence and offers a curriculum which best meets the needs of the students within the context of available resources. Our wish is to enable the release of the God-given talents and potential within each student. We follow a six-year cycle.
The education offered includes the development of confidence and a healthy self-image. Therefore, skills and competencies necessary for life are prompted and actively encouraged, as are sports, culture and leisure-time activities. As a Catholic school and in the Presentation tradition, religious education has a central place in the life of Presentation College.
There is a social dimension to the education offered by the College. We seek to develop in our students an awareness of their social responsibility as Christians which expresses itself in positive action for justice and the poor in our society.
It is hoped that our students will look on their years in Presentation college as happy and fulfilling and continue the strong tradition of loyalty to the College.
Education is what remains when everything has been forgotten, according to Shaw. Our hope is that the young people leaving us at eighteen will be equipped and eager to face the challenges of University education and, later, those of life, with great confidence, and that they would, as a matter of conviction, be upright, honourable, responsible and Christian citizens.
Extra-curricular activities and sport
The college has achieved notable success in competitions in Science and Debating, having the oldest debating society in Cork. In 2004, the Pres team won the first Cork Robotics Competition for Schools, which was launched by the Cork Electronics Industry Association (CEIA) at the National Software Centre in Mahon Point. Many times winner of the national debating championship run by the universities, the Dillon Cup, The Munster Schools Debating Cup and other competitions, Pres also won the 2005 St. Aloysius College First Year competition, and came runner-up in the 2006 Cork City Schools Debating Competition (the most important junior debate competition outside Dublin). [1]
Other sports played at the college include basketball, cricket, GAA and soccer. The school has won the GAA Lord Mayor's Cup five times in the last six years, fielding 19 substitutes in 2006.
The college sport is Rugby. The college has won 27 Munster Schools Senior Cups and has produced 22 Irish Rugby Internationals. In 2007, the school won both the Senior Cup and the Junior Cup (the first time they had won both in the same year since 1995, when Ronan O'Gara was the Senior Captain). Four players have played for the Lions - Tom Kiernan (1962 & 1968), Jerry Walsh (1966), Michael Kiernan (1983), and Ronan O'Gara (2001 & 2005).
PBC has had many students who have been members of the various Cork clubs since 1890, some of whom have won Irish Championships with these clubs but never as Pres College Rowing Club. In 1985 Presentation College Rowing Club was registered officially for the first time with the Irish Amateur Rowing Union and began rowing out of Shandon Boat Club on the Marina. The equipment used was bought second-hand from Dungarvan Rowing Club. In its existence to date the club has been a tenant of both Cork Boat Club and Lee Rowing Club and has recently returned to Shandon Boat Club. Since 1985 many improvements have taken place.
The club now owns 3 Eights, 4 Fours, 3 Pairs and 4 Singles along with a full selection of blades, coaching launches and a boat trailer, totalling over £100,000 in value. Transport to regattas is made easy by the purchase of a 15-seater minibus.
With over 40 pupils in regular training in both the gym and on the water, the Rowing Club provides a valuable outlet for students in the College who may not be interested in rugby but who have a sporting interest. Rowing contributes enormously to the sporting ethos and policy of the College.
Selected alumni
- Cathal Coughlan, singer, songwriter and keyboard player in the bands, Fatima Mansions and Microdisney
- Barry Desmond, former Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare
- Ben Dunne, prominent businessman
- Fergus Finlay, Political Adviser, Author and Journalist
- Gene FitzGerald, former Minister for Labour, Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Finance
- George Hook, television and radio presenter
- Fergal Keane, BBC television journalist/author
- David Marcus, novelist and literary editor
- Cillian Murphy, actor
- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster (Attended as a wartime evacuee)
- Sean O'Faolain, author and Short Story writer
- Ronan O'Gara, Current Irish Rugby Union International and British and Irish Lions team member
- Michael O'Leary, former Tánaiste and former leader of the Irish Labour Party
- Peter Stringer, Current Irish Rugby Union International