'Unapologetically Catholic' parent-run private school is seeking move to Cork's Pope's Quay

Mater Dei Academy hopes to counteract the "ongoing de-Christianization of Ireland" and "rapidly declining academic standards"

The Dominican Centre, Popes Quay

A STAUNCHLY Catholic independent parent-run private school, the first of its kind in Ireland, is hoping to move into the Dominican Centre on Pope’s Quay, according to a planning application lodged with Cork City Council by the Dominican Order.

The Mater Dei Academy, based on an “unapologetically Catholic” education model, has been operating out of a premises on Ferry Lane, near St Mary’s Church, for the past year, but is hoping to move to the Dominican Pastoral Centre, near St Mary's Dominican Church and Priory, on the corner of Mulgrave Road and Pope’s Quay.

A letter from the chair of the board of Trustees of the Academy, Pádraig Cantillon-Murphy, in support of the ‘change of use’ planning application, says the school was founded in 2020 “to provide Catholic education in the classical tradition to girls and boys in Munster”. Last year, 12 pupils enrolled, and 20 were expected to enrol this year. The Academy was set up by Mr Cantillon-Murphy and his wife Grace, with the support of the local Dominican community, according to The Saints and Scholars Foundation, an organisation with an address in the US, with links to the Academy. The Foundation was set up in response to the “ongoing de-Christianization of Ireland” and its stated mission is the restoration of Catholic Education in Ireland, through “independent, lay-controlled Catholic schools that are faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church”.

The Foundation’s president is Connie Marshner, a right-wing religious American political activist and commentator, involved in the ‘70s in a campaign to successfully block the introduction of school textbooks considered antithetical to religion and patriotism.

Mater Dei Academy says on its website that it is “the beating heart for a new missionary pulse which seeks to revitalise Irish and European society with the values and traditions of our Catholic forefathers”. It adds that Ireland has undergone "unprecedented constitutional and social change" over the past decade with an impact on state-funded Catholic education and "rapidly declining academic standards". In response to this "crisis" Mater Dei Academy "is the new paradigm for independent, Catholic, second level education in Ireland", it says.

Each school day begins and ends with the students singing the Divine Office, "one of the oldest forms of communal prayer in the Church".

Popes Quay /Mulgrave Road area of the city. 

The school, which doesn’t charge fees for students resident in Ireland, is currently second-level, but the planning application is for both a private primary and secondary school, run by “a mix of volunteer and full-time dedicated staff”. It operates as a non-recognised school under Section 14 (1) of the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 and as such, receives no funding from the Irish state. Its website says it's a registered charity in Ireland, supported by benefactors and donors.

According to Mr Cantillon-Murphy, it aims to enrol 60 pupils by 2026, from 35 families. It is also offering a homeschooling programme for primary school age children under its Mater Dei Education programme. It offers to place international students attending the Cork Academy with carefully selected “friendly local Catholic families”. 

The Prior of St Mary’s, Fr Maurice Colgan, told the Irish Examiner that two parties were interested in using the centre, which he said is currently underutilised during daytime hours.

While the planning application identifies one party as Mater Dei Academy, there is no mention of a second party. Fr Colgan said it was a parent group “in embryonic stage”.

“They are the two options we are looking at, it’s a toss up between them,” he said.

He said even if they were granted planning for a change of use to a school, they may or may not go ahead with it. If a school was to go ahead, he said the Dominicans would not be involved as “we wouldn’t have the manpower or the energy”.

Fr Colgan said the centre was built in the ‘80s and they were looking for opportunities to make more use of it. The Dominican Centre is currently used as a chapel, Mass Office, pastoral centre and for various counselling and rehabilitation groups. The groups would be facilitated outside school hours if change of use is granted, while the chapel, office and pastoral element would no longer operate out of the premises.

Cork City Council is due to decide on the application by October 14.