Description of the Hibernian School, Phoenix Park (1835)

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Hibernian Hospital**

hibernian.gif (23141 bytes)In our description of the Phoenix Park in a former number, we slightly noticed this interesting institution.

The building is situated in the Phoenix Park, about three miles from the Castle of Dublin. The front consists of a centre and two wings, 300 feet in length, and three stories high. The centre contains the boys’ school and dormitories; the eastern wing commodious apartments for the commandant, adjutant, and chaplain and in the western, the females are accommodated.

There is a fine area, in front of the School, near 400** **feet long, by about 200 in breadth, in which the boys play or parade in wet weather; and the dormitories are spacious, neat, and well ventilated.

Contiguous to the central building, the head usher (who is called serjeant-major,) and the assistant ushers, have convenient apartments. There are also extensive work-rooms for the children, who are instructed in tailoring and shoemaking.

The female part of the establishment is equally well arranged. The chapel, where the Lord Lieutenant’s family generally attend during their residence in the Park, is neat and convenient.

A farm of 19 acres is attached to the school, which is cultivated by the boys, with the assistance of a gardener and two or three labourers. They are kept alternately at labour and instruction ; the latter being administered by the chaplain, who has the government of the school, and who frequently lectures on the Holy Scriptures.

The females are taught every thing suitable for their sex and condition. At 14 the males are apprenticed, generally, to handicraft trades, and the females to mantua-makers, milliners, ribbon-weavers, glovers, &c.

The children admissible to this school must be between the ages of seven and 12. A preference is given to orphans, or those whose father, have been killed, or died on foreign service.

The annual average expense of each child is about £14, and the establishment is supported by Parliamentary grants and casual donations. Health and vigour particularly mark the children of this school, which is, no doubt, in a great measure attributable to the salubrity of its situation, and the active exercises in which they are engaged.

To give them a taste for a military life, the classes are called companies, and the boys are encouraged in running, leaping, and other feats of agility.

This institution was first opened in 1761, during the administration of Lord Townshend, and, with the additional buildings since erected, is capable of containing about 600 children.

Dublin Penny Journal, Vol. IV, No. 181. December 19, 1835.

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