The Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh (known locally as CBS Omagh, Omagh CBS, or the Brothers) is a boys

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city Belfast is 68 m ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retain ...

, Northern Ireland. It is the largest grammar school in Omagh. It is under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (NI).

History

The school was founded on 14 January 1861, on Mount St. Columba. The building has since gone into other use as a retreat. A primary school, Holy Trinity (previously St Colmcille), has been the school there since. Its original headmaster was Brother John Redmond. On its first day of activity one hundred and twenty boys, all aged between five and fifteen, showed up. In 1902 an extension, a second floor to the school and a third to the brothers' house, was added. This came at the time a considerable cost of £1,200 partly financed by an £800 loan from past pupils. Operations of the school were moved to old Church, Brook Street while construction was under way. Once finished the renovations provided the school with three more rooms; one for Manual Instruction, a sixty student accommodating classroom and a room with all the necessities for Practical and Experimental Science. The school moved to is present site on Kevlin Road in 1967. In 1993, after the resignation of Brother McCrohan, the school appointed its first non-clerical headmaster, Roddy Tierney, a former pupil of the school and a teacher in the school. The Principal is Foncy McConnell who was appointed in March 2016, having been acting Principal for the previous year, and previously Vice Principal, having taught in the school since 1987. Like Tierney he is a former pupil of Omagh CBS. It is planned that by 2026, the school will relocate with five other schools to a shared campus. The other schools are

Loreto Grammar School, Omagh Loreto Grammar School is a convent grammar school for girls in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The teaching age range is 11–18 It is a Roman Catholic school, founded in 1855, and is now under the trusteeship of the Loreto Education Tr ...

, Omagh High School, Sacred Heart College, Omagh and Omagh Academy which will join Arvalee Special School. This Strule Shared Education Campus is the largest ever school-building project in Northern Ireland.

Academics

The school's focus is academic, offering compulsory subjects of English Literature, English Language, Science, and Mathematics until

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private s ...

. The School also focuses on the teachings of the Catholic faith, making Religious Studies compulsory at GCSE, and as a subsidiary weekly lesson during

A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

years. In 2018, 94.2% of its entrants achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including the core subjects English and Maths. In 2019 the school was ranked 18th out of 159 secondary schools in Northern Ireland with 86.7% of its A-level students who sat the exams in 2017/18 being awarded three A*-C grades.

Sports

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

, the school has won the MacRory Cup (the highest level for Ulster schools) in 1974, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2023 and the All Ireland

Hogan Cup The Hogan Cup ( ga, Corn Uí Ógáin), also known as the All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior A Football Championship, is the top level Gaelic football championship for secondary schools (sometimes referred to as colleges) in Ireland. The com ...

in 2007. and many other under-age level competitions for example Omagh CBS won the Rannafast Cup in 2009 and 2012 and the McCormick cup in 2008, 2009 and 2011

Notable former pupils

Brian D'Arcy Brian D'Arcy CP OBE (born 1 June 1945) is an Irish Passionist priest based in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. A writer, newspaper columnist, broadcaster and preacher. He is the author of several books of trite musings including ...

(born 1945)—priest, writer and broadcaster *

Mickey Harte Mickey Harte (born 1952) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player. He has been manager of the Louth county team since 2020. Harte managed the Tyrone county team from 2002 until his resignation in 2020, at which time he was the ...

(born 1952)—

manager * Aaron McCormack (born 1971)—business executive * Barry McElduff (born 1962)—

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

* Joe McMahon (born 1983)—

er *

Gerard McSorley Gerard McSorley (Irish: Gearóid Mac Somhairle; born 1 January 1950) is an Irish theatre, television and film actor. Early life He was born in the County Tyrone town of Omagh and, after attending a Christian Brothers school in his hometown, h ...

(born 1950)—actor *

Stephen O'Neill Stephen O'Neill (born 19 November 1980) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer from Strabane, Northern Ireland, who played at senior level for the Tyrone county team. He won three All-Ireland Senior Football Championship medals, two Under 21 ...

(born 1980)—

er *

Phil Taggart Philip Taggart (born 10 June 1986) is a Northern Irish DJ and radio presenter on BBC Radio Ulster. Early life Philly Taggart was born in Derry but was raised in Drumragh, a townland on the outskirts of Omagh in County Tyrone. He attended ...

(born 1986)—DJ and radio presenter

References

External links