Alumni News & Events

Updates, photos and feedback from the latest Alumni events will be posted in this section throughout the year.

Please also review the school calendar

News

It was a thrill last week to welcome David and Susan Synnott. The house we now know as Hillcourt was, as Innismore, the family home of the Synnotts, from the late 19th century until 1919. David and Susan travelled to Dublin from the Channel Islands. They toured the grounds and Hillcourt itself, spotting features which would once have been familiar to the family: the magnificent marble fireplace, the hall friezes, the Synnott ‘S’ carved in the newel post, and the oak-panelled BSR, built as a billiard room by Mary Petronella Synnott in the 1890s. David and Susan Synnott were lively, interesting guests, and we are delighted to have established this connection. They will always be welcome at Rathdown, and we hope to see them here again soon.

Antonia Hart, past pupil, is managing our archive. Our blog on the archive is live now with Explore Your Archive / the Archives and Records Association. You might enjoy taking a read of the attached:

https://www.exploreyourarchive.org/discovering/

We’ve contributed a number of photographs to Europeana, who have been collecting European sports history photographs over the last number of months, aided in Ireland by partners in Trinity, DCU and the Digital Repository of Ireland. Today they have published a story about doing this during the pandemic, and they have used one of our photographs, Glengara Park winning the Schools Lacrosse Shield in 1947, to illustrate it. The shield is on permanent display in the trophy cabinet, and was in the Lexicon this time last year.

Antonia Harte has an article published in The Gloss (Irish Times) 11th November on entrepreneurial women in the 19th & 20th Century - great read and congratulations Antonia! Antonia is not only a past pupil, but also a current parent and Alumni of Rathdown School.

Upcoming Events

Sorry, there are no current diary dates.

PREVIOUS EVENTS

Please see below.

Centenary Gala Dinner 16th November 2019

The Centenary Gala Dinner was a terrific mix of old and new and created a lovely uplifting sense of the Rathdown Community. Our guests from other schools (Alumni Presidents), invited guests from within our local community, alumni and current parents and staff all had a wonderful evening. Our guest speakers, An Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Shay Brennan and Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor both paid huge tribute to the School and its leaders in their speeches. The Centenary Choir welcomed everyone with the School Hymn which was a really memorable treat and a fitting way to commence such a special evening.

Roads to Rathdown School- Launching the Rathdown School Archive Exhibition Monday 11th November - 8th December 2019

The history of Rathdown School is really the history of five schools. Hillcourt (Upper Glenageary Road), the Hall (Belgrave Square, Monkstown), and Park House (Morehampton Road, Donnybrook) came together in 1973 to form Rathdown, and in 1987 a fourth school, Glengara Park (Lower Glenageary Road), also amalgamated with Rathdown. This StoryMap traces the histories of all five schools around our local area of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown and beyond. All these histories converge here, at our beautiful Glenageary campus.

The StoryMap forms the online aspect of the Rathdown School Archive Exhibition, held in the dlr LexIcon. The StoryMap and the archive exhibition itself were produced for the school by Rathdown School Alumni Association.

Hillcourt Day celebrations 2019

The Rathdown School community celebrated Hillcourt Day, to mark 100 years of education and community in Rathdown School and the opening of Hillcourt School in May 1919, one of the original schools on the Rathdown School campus.

On Friday 17th May 2019 a series of special events were held

• The celebrations commenced with a special end of year service in St. Paul’s Church, which was attended by the Junior and Senior School, parents and alumni as well as all invited guests.
• The service was followed by a buffet lunch in the Senior School for all visitors.
• The afternoon was filled with sporting festivities and fun for the Senior School students in the gym while their parents and wider community enjoyed tea and an endless supply of cakes. All kindly provided by the school parents and beautifully served by the PTA. The Junior School girls enjoyed a visiting photo booth and ice cream van.

Annual ASU Golf Outing 2019

A great day's golf from the Rathdown team at the annual ASU golf day in the gorgeous setting of Rathfarnham Golf Club. And special congratulations to the ladies runner-up, Daphne Kaye!

Class of 1998 Reunion Afternoon Tea May 2019

We were delighted to welcome back over the Class of 1998 to reminisce about their time in Rathdown School together. The class enjoyed a tour of the school, afternoon tea together and a trip on the school bus.

Rathdown Alumni Association Afternoon Tea May 2019

We were delighted to welcome back over 100 members for a lovely sociable afternoon. Some of the old girls had travelled great distances to reunite with their old friends for the day.

Many thanks to all who attended and a special word of thanks to our fantastic committee for organising a lovely afternoon.

Rathdown Past pupils hockey blitz March 2019

Many thanks to all the past pupils and students who turned out for a fun Students v Past Pupils hockey match on Saturday 30th March in Rathdown School. The sun shone and fun was had by all.

HILLCOURT ART COMPETITION WINNER

2019 is the 100^th anniversary of Hillcourt School, which started in the building you all know as Hillcourt House. We will be celebrating 100 years of education here at the Rathdown campus with lots of different events. As part of this, the Rathdown Alumni Association held an art competition.

Congratulations to Ava Henson (1G). Ava's beautiful painting of Hillcourt House (above)
was selected as the overall winner. Ava's winning artwork is now available to purchase as a beautiful note-card. Packs of six cards for €5 are available to purchase from the Senior School Front Office.

Rathdown Alumni Association Afternoon Tea May 2018

We were delighted to welcome back over 70 members for a lovely sociable afternoon.

Many thanks to all who attended and a special word of thanks to our fantastic committee for organising a lovely event. We look forward to making this event an annual date in the Alumni Association calendar.