Students were not charged tuition, and funding for the school was provided by charitable donations and an annual fundraiser.
[1] In 1840, Brickfields Free School held its last lessons and in September 1841, its pupils and staff moved to a new purpose-built premises at Saint Luke’s Cross.
At the time of its opening Saint Patrick's School had 300 pupils on the books, 174 boys and 126 girls.
[1] In 1863, St. Patrick's Infants' School was opened in a newly built schoolroom, using a donation from the estate of J. Murphy of Clifton, Montenotte.
[1] At the time of the First World War the writer Daniel Corkery was a teacher in Saint Patricks.
His pupils at the school included the sculptor Seamus Murphy and writer Frank O’Connor.
By the late 1930s however the site had become inadequate and it was decided to move to a new purpose-built school that would be built in the fields between the Ballyhooly Road and Gardiners Hill.