A Brief History:

St. Brogan's is a constituent College of Co. Cork V.E.C. The college ethos is enshrined in caring for all of the community within St. Brogan's. All students are cherished equally and encouraged to make a positive contribution to their school, teachers, visitors and their peers. It is expected that all students will acquire a sense of pride of place within the school and that their individual and collective contribution is recognised and valued at all times.In 1901 the Rural District Council for the Bandon area set up a committee to consider the development of technical education in the region and a report was sent to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. The first school was founded soon afterwards.

The Government of the Irish Free State passed the Vocational Education Act in 1922 which changed the name of the school from Bandon Technical School to Bandon Vocational School. The school was to be run under the direction of the Cork County Vocational Education Committee.

In 1934 a new school was opened on Kilbrogan Hill which catered for 60 students, boys and girls. There was a staff cohort of six.
Both boys and girls studied Irish, English, Singing and Religion. In addition, the boys studied Maths, Metalwork, Woodwork, Mechanical Drawing and Rural Science while the girls curriculum included Domestic Economy, Book-keeping, Shorthand and Typewriting.

In 1964 three new rooms were added to the school to cater for Typing, Commerce and Engineering. The 1960s saw many changes to education both locally and nationally. The Intermediate and Leaving Certificate programmes were introduced with students taking these examinations for the first time in 1968. By the late 1970s the school had proved too small for the numbers who wished to enrol. A new principal took over in 1979. The following year a new state-of-the art school was opened on the present site. By this time the school’s enrolment had already passed the 500 mark. The school was renamed St. Brogan’s College to reflect the changing curriculum and status of the school. Pressure of space again manifested itself early in the 1990s and two further rooms were added.

A change of principal in 1996 heralded a new era for the school. A new P.E. Hall was added to the campus and refurbishment work was completed on the library and practical rooms. The secretarial and IT rooms were also revamped and fitted out with the latest IT hardware.

In the new millennium, new initiatives led to the introduction of the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (2001), the School Completion Programme (2002) and the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme (2003).

Past pupils of St. Brogan’s College follow successful career paths in business, commerce, trades, industry, enterprise, government services, farming, the church, and the professions.

Today, St. Brogan’s College continues to manage and fuse both the practical and the academic disciplines very successfully. It is proud of its past, celebrates its uniqueness and looks forward to the future with confidence.

The provision of technical education in Bandon became a reality in 1902 when it was proposed to hold classes in the Town Hall and the Grand Jury Room of the Courthouse. However, neither venue became available and the first classes were held in the Auction Mart premises.

By 1906 the classes were held somewhere in the North Main Street and enrolment stood at eighty-one. When Saor Stát Éireann (The Irish Free State) was established in 1922 the technical school became a vocational school under the auspices of the County Vocational Education Committee. St. Brogan’s College remains happily under the wing of the same body which has twenty-two schools under its control today.

A new school was built and opened on Kilbrogan Hill in 1934 with Patrick J. Horgan as principal. The school was co-educational and non-denominational. An extension, comprising rooms for typing, commerce and metalwork, was added in 1964. Pádraig Uasal Ó Gallchóir was appointed principal in 1967 and he oversaw the introduction of the Intermediate and the Leaving Certificate programmes to the school curriculum. The introduction of free education gave an immediate boost to numbers attending the school and boys and girls enjoyed a combination of practical and academic subjects, as they do today.

Barra Ó Briain became principal in 1979 and a year later another new school on the Macroom Road was blessed by the late Dr. Michael Murphy, Bishop of Cork and Ross, and officially opened by the then Minister for Labour, Mr. Gene Fitzgerald, T.D. Within a short space of time the enrolment of the school passed the five-hundred mark. Two new classrooms were added, Rang Iosaif, the special class, became an integral part of the school sometime later and during his tenure, the Outdoor Pursuits Centre, Kinsale became part of the St. Brogan’s College campus.
Upon the appointment of Mr. O’Brien as CEO of County Cork Vocational Education Committee in 1996, Ms. Eileen Corkery was appointed principal. Since her appointment a new P.E. Hall has been built and new programmes, such as the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) and the School Completion Programme (SCP) have been introduced successfully.

St. Brogan’s College is a mixed, non-denominational school serving a large catchment area comprising Bandon, Ballineen, Enniskeane, Castletownkenneigh, Castlelack, Dunderrow, Newcestown, Kilbrittain, Innishannon, Ballinhassig, The Half Way, Ballinspittle, Ballinadee, Crookstown, Kilmurry, Crossbarry, Killeady, Knockavilla, Timoleague, Courtmacsherry, etc.