Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana

Scoil Mhuire was established in 1933 as a female post-primary school under the patronage of the Sisters of Mercy. The sisters had already purchased Rockfort House, a large detached country house and land. This house was of early nineteenth-century date that was the seat of the Stewart\Stuart family. This site remains the location of Scoil Mhuire to date.

The sisters used Rockfort house both as a convent and as a school. This included a boarding school for students from rural areas considered too far away for daily travel. As both the numbers of pupils and Sisters of Mercy grew, Rockfort House became too small. The decision was made to build a new purpose-built convent. It was designed by Dublin architect Simon Aloysius Leonard [3]. The foundation stone was laid on 2 February 1952, and the sisters moved into the new building on 23 September 1953. The original building, Rockfort House, became the Boarding School.

In 1966, the then Minister for Education Donogh O'Malley, announced that from 1969 all children would be entitled to free education. The decision was therefore made by the Sisters of Mercy for Scoil Mhuire to become co-educational, teaching both girls and boys [4]. With this expansion came the need for a larger school building. The new building was opened in 1973. The school stopped taking in boarders and the original Rockfort House was knocked down to make way for a new extension in the early 1990s.

The Sisters of Mercy closed their convent in 2012 and the convent building was subsequently converted to teaching space.

Arts & Media

• John Maguire (Irish journalist), Director of International Relations and Cooperation of France Médias Monde.
• Ciarán Tourish, Musician and former member of Altan (band).

Sport

• Mark Timlin (footballer), played for Derry City and currently Finn Harps.