Edmund Rice

150th Anniversary Yearbook

Plot

Edmund Rice will always have a special place in the history of Irish popular education. He it was who first provided an alternative to Protestant proselytizing schools for poor Catholic boys in Ireland _ boys whose parents could not afford the fees at the pay schools of the period.

When Daniel O'Connell called Edmund , "the father of the monks of the west", he could, equally, and, perhaps, with even more justification, be called the father of popular education for boys in Ireland.

150 years after Edmund's passing in 1844 , members of his extended spiritual family joined together to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his death. From the outset, it was decided that the year-long celebrations in 1994 would include local as well as national events. This was underlined in the aims of the central committee , one of which was, "TO share more fully the spiritual and cultural heritage of Edmund Rice with parents, students, teachers and other colleagues".

The celebrations for the Edmund Rice 150th Anniversary covered a very wide spectrum: civic receptions, liturgical celebration, conferences, lectures, special projects , school competition and exhibitions, publications sporting events, concerts, tree plantings, official openings and closings.

The Yearbook is an attempt to capture fir posterity sine if the significant events, as well as some of the precious moments , of the 150th Anniversary celebrations. Inevitably these latter serve to keep before our eye the inspiring example of great benefactor of the poor , and great Irishman, who is scheduled to beatified in Autumn 1996.