Is the Irish boarding school becoming a thing of the past?

The announcement by the trustees of Glenstal Abbey last Friday that the boarding school on the grounds of the Co Limerick Benedictine monastery will close in the next two years has sent shock waves across the Irish boarding school sector. With less than 25 such schools still operating in Ireland from a high of approximately 125 in the 1960s, there is a real sense that many Irish boarding schools are struggling to keep their numbers up to meet the high cost of looking after students in five-day or seven-day boarding.“Seven-day boarding for the domestic Irish market is not required by families of students in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th years.

That’s the big change,” says Colm Maloney, president of Cistercian College in Roscrea, Co Offaly. Parents and former pupils of Glenstal Abbey in bid to prevent closure“But there is a lot of interest in five-day boarding and day-boarding with its…