The Patrician Secondary School began on 26th August, 1958 with 27 students, using the present Primary School premises beside the Parish Church. On the 8th September, 1960 Mgr. Miller opened and blessed the Secondary School at Charlotte Street and 48 pupils attended. Brother Silverius, Principal, Brother Maurice, Mr Michael MacDermott and Mr PJ Kennedy were the first teachers in the school.

During the 1960’s this school flourished and expanded until it was no longer able to accommodate the number of boys seeking admission.

In 1969 the site of our present school was purchased and the following year the new Patrician Secondary School was opened with Brother Joseph as Principal.

History of the Patrician Brothers

Daniel Delany was born in Paddock, a small village in central Ireland, in 1747. His parents were relatively well-to-do but when his father died Mrs Elizabeth Delany agreed to have young Daniel spend the rest of his childhood with his two aunts in the nearby village of Mountrath. It was here that Daniel received his elementary education. It was here too that the parish priest, Father Denis Lawlor, influenced Daniel's decision to enter the priesthood.

The public practice of the Catholic Faith in Ireland was outlawed by British Law during these times. Therefore, Daniel was smuggled out of Ireland to France in order to receive his priestly education. After excelling in his studies, Daniel was ordained a priest in 1770. He then spent some six years as a lecturer at St. Omer, France, until his return to Ireland in 1776.

On his returned to his native land he found that the condition of the Catholics had worsened considerably during his absence. Poverty and hunger had turned the country into a land of misery and lawlessness. Drunkeness, fighting, and the lack of religious observance in a Catholic country helped him to decide to return to France. Only the pleas of his mother kept him in his native Ireland.

Father Delany took up his duties as assistant priest in the parish of Tullow. A small village 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Dublin. His work with the people of Tullow made him realise that the cause of much of the evil of the day was the lack of education among the people. Determined that the Irish Catholics deserved better, he started Sunday schools for the children of his parish. In these classes, Father Delany taught the children Catholic doctrine.

Naturally Father Delany needed help to get his catechetical program properly established. Therefore he gathered around him the better educated adults of nearby townships to be catechists. However, he could never rely on having the necessary number of teachers for this task. This was a problem that he solved only in the latter years of his life.

In 1783, at the young age of thirty-six, Father Delany was consecrated a Bishop, and three years later he became the Bishop of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. As Bishop, Daniel Delany did much to better the conditions under which the people of his diocese lived.

After organising many public religious functions which were still illegal under British law. Bishop Delany finally took steps to secure for his Sunday schools a reliable source of catechists: he founded two religious congregations. On February 1st, 1807, he received the first women to start the Sisters of Saint Brigid (Brigidines). A year later on February 2nd, he received four men to start the Brother of Saint Patrick (Patricians).

For the remaining six years of his life, Bishop Delany helped the Sisters and Brothers in the education of the young of his diocese. He helped them to live the religious life, frequently said Mass for them, and spent many hours in conversation with them. Bishop Delany died in 1814. (House where Bishop Delany grew up.)

The First Brothers

During morning Mass on February 2, 1808, Bishop Daniel Delany gathered four men at Tullow in the remote diocese of Kildare-Leighlin in Ireland to form the first community of the Brothers of Saint Patrick. (Photo is not of these four  men.)

They were a school master who had worked in Tullow for a number of years and three local tradesmen and labourers, one of whom had dome experience with the Trappist monks in England. They supported Bishop Delany in his wish to provide religious, moral and literary education to children at a time when the British penal code prohibited the public expression of the Catholic faith and when Ireland was gripped by general poverty and lawlessness.

The group of men quickly grew to 12. However, this project soon failed and the Brothers were sent to work "to thresh corn, dig potatoes or to quarry stones." The plight of the Brothers became so desperate that Bishop Delany offered the Brothers the freedom to disband, "but they decided to cling together" and to continue Bishop Delany's purposes for the Brothers of Saint Patrick: to lead each of the Brothers to follow Christ; to help in the work of the parish; to be catechists for the Sunday schools; and to provide religious, moral and literary education of children in day schools.

On February 2nd, 1810, four Brothers established a combmaking, weaving and teaching school in Mountrath, whilst another Brothers remained at Tullow.

Nearing his death, Bishop Delany asked both the Patrician Brothers and the Brigidine Sisters (whom he had founded in 1807) "to love God and live together in peace and charity". Both communities remained under Bishops Delany's care until his death on July 9, 1814.

Today, the Patrician Brothers have placed greater emphasis on their community living by reasserting Bishop Delany's drive to "lead one another to follow Christ more closely."

In recent congregational gatherings a commitment to vibrant community living as well as to address some of the critical needs of society have been undertaken.

Education is the main means in which the Brothers proclaim their love of Christ to people. However, a number of Brothers are involved in chaplaincy, parish ministry, and adult education. In all ministries in which they are involved, the Brothers are guided by St Patrick's spirit to find "Christ in the heart of all people."

The Story of the Sash

In 1868 when the Papal States were invaded a group of Irish volunteers went to defend the town of Pio Nono, but sheer force of number told and the town fell. One of these volunteers, John Howlin of Wexford, who had experienced the Pio Nono battlefield and a French prison camp, heard of the Patrician Brothers when he returned to Ireland. He needed no coaxing to enrol under their flag of Saint Patrick. 
When he entered the congregation he took the name Aloysius.

In February of 1883 Brother Aloysius was in Rome on behalf of the Brothers working towards gaining recognition of the Brothers as a Religious Congregation. He was able to obtain a private audience with Pope Leo XIII who had been the Archbishop of Perugia under whom Aloysius had served as an Irish volunteer. During this audience Aloysius asked the Pope if the Brothers could have permission to wear a green sash as a part of their religious habit in honour of Saint Patrick. Pope Leo granted the petition.

It wasn't until more than five years later on the 15th August, 1888, that the Brothers wore the sash for the very first time.

This distinctive badge of the Patrician Brothers is thus a souvenir, perhaps the only permanent one, of the gallant Irish swords taken up in defence of the Pope's temporal power.

The Crest

The international crest of the Patrician Brothers has fairly self-explanatory symbolism. Starting from the top we have rays of like coming from the cross of Christ as Jesus is the light of and for the world. The bishop's mitre alludes to our founder Bishop Daniel Delany, but it also reflects the special respect the Brothers have for the priesthood. The heart points to the love that God has for us by sending us His only Son to suffer and to die for us and that we are also called to love others and to live with them in peace and harmony. The harp reminds us of our Irish heritage as do the shamrocks to the left and right of the shield. The Bible reminds us that it is the Good News which must be at the centre of our apostolic and religious lives. The shield of the crest which contains the mitre, heart, harp, and Bible, brings to mind the famous prayer "The Breastplate of St Patrick". This prayer, like a shield and like a plate of armour which protects the breast, can protect us from the harms of the world by celebrating that Christ is with us in our daily lives. The old motto "Pro Deo et Patria" is ancient Latin and translates to "For God and Country" we give our lives and service. This motto has now changed to the above.