Founding Organization

Edmund Rice [5]

Oatlands College is a Voluntary Secondary School founded officially in 1951 in Stillorgan Dublin (1). It is of Roman Catholic Denomination and the founding brothers were Edmund Rice order Christian Brothers. The Congregation of Christian brothers are an organization founded by Edmund Rice and primarily known for work they carry out in evangelisation  and educating of young men around the world. Christian Brother schools can be found everywhere around the world across five continents Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas and Oceania. These school’s have been responsible for the education of millions and millions of students since the founding of the first school in Waterford in 1802. Edmund Rice was a wealthy merchant from Waterford City in Ireland, he was an extremely successful business man but on the death of his wife Mary Elliot in January 1789, this devout Roman Catholic dedicated his life to the education of less fortunate children. The bravery shown by Edmund Rice to set up schools was incredible, during this period of history as Irish Roman Catholics were extremely oppressed by British Rule and the Penal Laws.

Edmund Rice saw it as his life’s work to educate the less fortunate and provide these children with an escape from their current life through education, in this Edmund Rice was inspired by Nano Nagle. During his life Edmund Rice founded more schools but it was after his passing that the number of schools really began to increase. The Congregation of Christian Brothers continued to carry out the work inspired by Edmund Rice’s vision as they continued to found schools all around the world to educate young men in religion and education. Meanwhile Nano Nagle and her sisters of the order of Presentation focused on the education of young ladies.

The Christian Brothers founded Oatlands College in 1951 due to the growing population in the local area with no other schools available to educate the young men of the area. During this time period there were houses and housing estates also being developed so the population was only going to continue to increase. Brothers of the order taught in the school for many years, living in the convent that can still be found on the school grounds. There are no longer any brothers working in the school but the school still follows the mission statement and ethos laid out by these founder members.The mission statement of Oatlands College is as follows “Oatlands College is an Edmund Rice school community composed of students, teachers and other staff, parents and management under the Trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust [ERST]. The central purpose of this community is the religious, moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and social education of the students.

Inspired by the vision of Edmund Rice, as set out in the religious and educational philosophy of the ERST Charter, the school seeks to create an atmosphere of Christian care and concern in which students can grow to maturity.” (Oatlands College website (3))

Since the beginning, Oatlands college has lived up to its Mission Statement and educated young men in all of the fields laid out in the mission statement. This has lead to an extremely organic and original school with a very special ethos which will be discussed on the Ethos page of this website.