St. Enda's School

Pearse, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916, had long been critical of the educational system in Ireland, which he believed taught Irish children to be good Englishmen.

With promises from prominent nationalists that as proponents of Irish heritage they would provide whatever limited financial support they could, and, where applicable, enroll their children, Pearse officially opened his school on 8 September 1908, in Cullenswood House, Ranelagh, a suburb of Dublin.

In fact, the school would not have survived the crucial first few years without the devoted aid of his good friend and assistant headmaster Thomas MacDonagh, and the solid dedication of Pearse's brother Willie.

Thrilled with his creation, and concerned that Cullenswood House was not a location that did St. Enda's justice, Pearse found what he believed to be the perfect home for the school.

The substantial extra expenses involved did not deter him, nor was anything likely to, for the Hermitage, in addition to having a pastoral setting, had a connection with Robert Emmet, an Irish martyr and hero of Pearse's.

A lecture tour gave him some good contacts among the exiled Fenians who would prove to play a large part in Ireland's near political future, but the money he raised only kept the school barely in solvency.

As it turned out, a large number of St. Enda's pupils did join the Fianna Éireann, and even the IRB, fifteen of whom later took part in the Easter Rising in 1916.