St. Enda's School - Later Years and Closure

Later Years and Closure

Pearse was a person who would show extreme dedication to a project once it caught his interest. Unfortunately this left him unable to fully devote himself to multiple tasks. His involvement in the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and his active participation in the Irish Republican Brotherhood shortly thereafter, left St. Enda's with a less devoted master than it had previously. Pearse's radical politics also made even some moderate supporters question what their children might be exposed to, and some, notably Eoin MacNeill, removed their children from Pearse's influence. As it turned out, an inordinate number of St. Enda's pupils did join the Fianna Éireann, and even the IRB, fifteen of whom later took part in the Easter Rising in 1916.

Following the execution of the Pearse brothers after the rising, their mother reopened St. Enda's back at Cullenwood House, which the closure of St. Ita's had vacated. Frank Burke, an ex-pupil who had served in the Rising, was headmaster. The school returned to the Hermitage in 1919. The international fame the rising had given Pearse and his martyrdom made raising funds easier than before, and the following year Mrs. Pearse had raised enough to buy the property Pearse could never afford in his lifetime. However, without the leadership of either of the Pearse brothers, St. Enda's could not last, and it eventually closed its doors for good in 1935. Today the Hermitage stands as the Pearse Museum, dedicated to the memory of the school's founder.

Further Reading:

Sisson, Elaine. Pearse's Patriots: St Enda's and the Cult of Boyhood. (Cork, Cork University Press, 2004. repr. 2005)