Subfonds X/H/ARM - Saint Patrick's College Armagh

St Patrick’s College, Armagh, was founded in 1938 by Archbishop William Crolly. In 1866, the Vincentians took over the administration of the diocesan seminary in Armagh. The official administration by the Vincentians began on 1 September of that year. As early as 1854, letters were exchanged between Fr Philip Dowley CM, who was the Vincentian Provincial/Visitor at the time, and Archbishop Joseph Dixon on the possibility of a Vincentian administration, but this was postponed because there were not enough Vincentian priests to be sent there at that time. In 1861, the Superior-General, Jean-Baptiste Étienne CM, gave his sanction for the Vincentians to run the seminary. It was a second level (minor) seminary and became well known for its emphasis on education in the Classics.
In 1988, the College was amalgamated with another secondary school in the area: that in Greenpark which was run by the Christian Brothers as a grammar school. According to a paper by Kieran Magovern CM from 1989, it was realised from about 1984 that it was not economically or in any other way sensible to have two secondary schools so close together, when the number of students was diminishing. Kieran Magovern CM, as president of St Patrick’s College, therefore started the process of withdrawing the Vincentians from St Patrick’s College, Armagh, the completion of which was in 1988, the 150th year of the anniversary of the College.