St Columb's College

St Coumbs Crest

St. Columb's College is the equivalent of a Roman Catholic high school in Derry City, Northern Ireland. High schools are known as colleges in Europe, including in Britain and Ireland. Its alumni include Brian Friel, Phil Coulter, Seamus Heaney, John Hume, Mark Durkan, writer Seamus Deane,manager Martin O'Neill, Derry City FC physio Colm O'Neil, journalist Eamonn McCann and overhead and free kick specialist John Fullerton.

In 1546, a year that proved crucial in the history of the Church, the Council of Trent obliged every Diocese to establish a seminary for the education of students for the priesthood, but two hundred years and more were to pass before such a provision could be implemented in the Diocese of Derry. And it was a remote country area, at Clady on the banks of the Finn in Urney parish, towards the end of the eighteenth century that Dr. Philip McDavitte, Bishop from 1761 to 1797, set up such a school. There in a thatched cottage and with the intermittent help of other priests, he put as many as a dozen seminarians at a time through quite a detailed course in Philosophy and Theology and provided not only for his own diocese but for Raphoe as well.

After his death the college transferred to Derry to a house adjoining that of the then parish-priest, Father Charles O'Donnell, in Ferguson's Lane. It had three full-time professors and offered complete courses, both classical and theological. Some of the Derry priests ordained in the early nineteenth century received all their education here. But its fortunes fluctuated, because it was too small, it was difficult to get suitable teachers, and the accommodation was inadequate; for a time it actually closed. Dr. Peter McLaughlin, who had earlier taught in Ferguson's Lane, was appointed Bishop in 1820 and he made it a prime aim of his episcopacy to re-organise the seminary. With his encouragement it prospered and Dr. Maginn, his successor, moved it in 1847 to substantial premises, which had formerly been the County Inn in Pump Street. The Sisters of Mercy were given the building for their first convent in Derry in 1848 and bishop and students moved to the Brow-of-the-Hill. His premature death in the following year and the terrible aftermath of the Famine proved too much and the seminary closed.

The establishment of St. Columb's College on the Bishop Street site in 1879 was the successful culmination of these repeated efforts to provide advanced education in Derry. The frequent changes in location, indicative of the inadequacy of the earlier building, came to an end with the purchase of the Casino in Bishop Street, a choice happy in itself because this was the very ground of the Columban monastic foundation. In the hundred years that have passed St. Columb's grew from fifty to nearly eighteen hundred students. As well as supplying priests to serve the Diocese of Derry, it sent [[missionaries all over the world, having had a particularly close connection with Maynooth Mission to China and St. Patrick's Kiltegan. St. Columb's, too, has sent her students to many of the Religious Orders and Congregations. The aims of the College widened too, because although it remained primarily for those aspiring to the Priesthood, it also accepted students whose intentions were for secular careers.

Changing times and increasing numbers have meant that the vast proportion of the boys now find their vocation in the professions, in industry and commerce. Yet the motto still remains, "Quaerite Primum Regnum Dei", "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God" and it was always be the hope of the college that they will excel in whatever field they work, diligent in their own profession but always mindful that there is something greater in store for themselves and those with which they are associated.

The school is one of the few institutions that can claim two Nobel laureates amongst its alumni:

• Seamus Heaney - Nobel Literature Prize, 1995
• John Hume - Nobel Peace Prize, 1998

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St Columbs college official site