Quakers and Education

The first Quaker school in Mountmellick opened in January 1786. Jonathan Pim, John Helton, John Gatchell and Mungo Bewley, the forefathers of Quaker Education in the town, built the boarding school to provide education for poor Quaker families.

Boys and girls were taught separately, using two separate curricula. Boys learned writing, arithmetic, catechism and also farm skills. The girl’s subjects, initially included knitting, sewing, domestic skills to train them for domestic service. However, by the 1850’s the girls had a broader curriculum geared at producing young ladies and subjects included French and German language, art, "fancy" needlework and decorum. These were supplemented by lessons in etiquette, which was taught in the garden.

In a government report in 1858, the school "deserved the utmost praise and was the most credible managed school of its kind in Ireland".

By 1885, however, it was decided to teach the boys and girls in separate schools. The boys were sent to Newtown, Waterford, which remains a Quaker school to this day. The girl’s school remained in Mountmellick until 1921 when the school was sold to the Catholic Order of Presentation Sisters. Education has continued on the site and the present day Mountmellick Community School opened in 1991.

In 1824 three privately owned Quaker Schools were recorded in Mountmellick and these were the only private Quakers schools in Co. Laois.