Saint Patrick's B.N.S., Cork.

Over the years there have been many famous people who were taught at St. Patrick's B.N.S. For example Séamus Murphy , Dónal Lenihan and Frank O' Connor and more recently Tomás O' Leary.

Séamus Murphy was born in 1907 near Mallow Co. Cork. A teacher at St. Patrick's B.N.S. called Daniel Corkery gave him his first drawing lessons. He thought that Séamus should enter Crawford school of art. He was a very good sculptor. He sculpted other famous people like Christy Ring and Jack Lynch. He also designed Blackpool church and had a local workshop. He died in 1975. My great grandad was his first cousin.

Pictured is one of Séamus Murphy's sculptures The Onion Seller which is erected in Bishop Lucey Park.

Dónal Lenihan was born in 1959 and lived in Cahergal Gardens. He came to school at Saint Patrick's and later developed a love for rugby when he attended Christian Brothers' College. He made his debut for Ireland against Australia at the age of 22. He was ever present in the Irish team for over a decade which saw two Triple Crowns and three 5 Nations Championships victories. He represented Ireland 52 times. He toured with the Lions and also managed Ireland.

Frank O' Connor was born in 1903. His real name was Michael O' Donovan. He wrote over 150 stories. One book was called An Only Child. He travelled all over the world to tell his stories. He was a member of the I.R.A and spent some time in a prison camp for being involved. He was also managing director of the famous Abbey theatre in Dublin.

By Jack Moore Brennan








Jack is pictured here with our school plaque commemerating Frank O' Connor. It was unveiled by his widow Harriet O' Donovan Sheehy on the 16th of September 2003.
Inscribed- "He looked like a king, felt like a poet, spoke like a god."

Séamus Murphy

Séamus Murphy was a famous sculptor. He attended St Patrick's in 1912 to 1921. He died in 1975. He is buried in Rathcooney cemetery.
Séamus attended St Patrick's and became life-long friends with the teacher Daniel Corkery. Daniel gave him his first drawing lesson and encouraged him to become a sculptor.
Murphy travelled to Paris to complete his study but when he came back he was broke! Eventually he set up his workshop in Blackpool and became one of the most famous sculptors in Ireland.
Soon he became a professor of sculptors. He has art pieces everywhere from London to Paris and even New York! He also designed the church in Blackpool.
A plaque commemorating Séamus Murphy was opened in 2007 in the school garden marking his centenary.

By Ronan Burke
(Ronan is pictured with the Seamus Murphy plaque inscribed-)
"We will go on until we become just a memory for another generation and perhaps they will think of us occasionally, maybe honour us with a little study."

Tomás O' Leary

Tomás O' Leary was born on the 22nd of October 1983, the son of Seanie O' Leary, a hurler with Cork.Tomás is an Irish rugby union player playing in scrum-half position for Ireland, Munster and Dolphin RFC. Tomás played Gaelic football and hurling as a youngster.
Tomás attended our school from 1990-1996 and represented the school's hurling and football teams. He also attended Christian Brothers College known as [CBC] for his second level education. CBC has a rugby tradition and this is where he first started playing rugby. He was recognised as a promising talent and played in the Munster schools' senior cup for the school. During this time he continued to play Hurling and won minor Munster and All-Ireland titles with Cork in 2000 and 2001.
After he completed school he continued with his rugby career instead of playing within the Gaelic Association. He was a member of the winning Irish u-21 rugby world cup squad which is rugby's biggest prize . Munster announced that Tomás would be a member of the squad tor the following year in August 2005.
An injury to Peter Stringer early in the 2005/06 season meant Tomás would make his Heineken cup debut against Sale Sharks, one of England's strongest sides in October 2005. Tomás played a prominent ride in Munster's 2005/06 and in 2007/08 winning Heineken cup campaign and especially in the knockout stages of the 07/08 tournament. In addition to his Munster commitments he was named in the Irish squad to tour in Argentina in the summer of 2007 and made his first test start for Ireland against New Zealand on the 5th of November 2008.
Tomás O' Leary has a great talent and is an excellent player for his country and province and we at Saint Pa's are very proud of him and wish him the best of luck in the future.

By James Foley and Owen Casey

(Tomás is pictured here representing both Munster and Ireland)