Friends' School, Lisburn

Friends' School, Lisburn is a Quaker voluntary grammar school in the city of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, founded in 1774.

History

Friends’ School Lisburn was founded – as The Ulster Provincial School – on the basis of a bequest in 1764 of a prosperous linen merchant, John Hancock, who left £1,000 for the purchase of land in or near Lisburn on which to build a school for the children of Quakers. 20 acres (8 ha) at Prospect Hill were purchased from the Earl of Hertford. In 1774, the first headmaster, John Gough, took up his post. In 1794 The Ulster Provincial School became the responsibility of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting, the body representing the Religious Society of Friends in Ulster.

Friends' is one of two remaining Quaker schools in Ireland, the other being Newtown School, Waterford. Previously, a Quaker boarding school existed at Ballitore for much of the 18th and 19th centuries.^[1] There are eight in the United Kingdom.

The school has been named by The Sunday Times as Northern Ireland Secondary School of the Year^[2] on three occasions: 2011, 2017 and 2025.

Principals

Composition

The school consists of a fee-paying preparatory department, Prospect House, and a grammar school, the latter of which had, until the early 2000s, a boarding department attracting pupils from abroad (mostly Hong Kong). Friends' now only accepts day pupils, and has had an admissions number of 140 a year, with 5 "collect" groups (6 collect groups as of 2024) in each year contributing to a full enrolment of 970 for the grammar school.^{[citation needed]} However, starting in 2022, a new system was introduced for Year 8 Pupils in which there are now 6 collects with a total of around 160 in the year. ^{[citation needed]}

The original school house is no longer standing, but the date stone from it is displayed in Middle House, a building dating from 1880, which was refurbished in 2015. The latest addition to the school is the East Suite, a teaching building containing Maths and Music classes, which was opened in 2016. It stands in place of the old basketball court, which was previously the location of the swimming pool. The swimming pool was reputed to be the oldest heated pool in Ireland (1901), and used to stand beside Harding House, a temporary teaching building which was demolished to make space for the East Suite. The school has five tennis courts and three rugby pitches. A sports hall was opened in 2000 and two floodlit, sand-dressed hockey pitches were laid in 2013. As well as hosting school fixtures, these pitches are home to South Antrim Hockey Club.

Notable former pupils

• Wallace Arthur, biologist and author
• Michael Dibdin, author^[3]
• Stephen Ferris, rugby player for Ulster, Ireland, British and Irish Lions^[4]
• Keith Getty, musician and hymn writer^[5]
• Bulmer Hobson, leading member of Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Brotherhood^[6]
• Florence Fulton Hobson, first licensed female architect in Ireland ^[7]
• Rikki Keag, Irish badminton player^[8]
• Jimmy Kirkwood, Gold medal winning Olympic hockey player (Team GB, Seoul 1988)^[9][10]
• Robert Moore, first-class cricketer^[11]
• Gareth Murdock, musician and current bass guitarist of Alestorm
• Frank Pantridge , cardiologist, inventor of the portable defibrillator^[12]
• Alastair Ross, former Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2007–2017), former Northern Ireland Executive Office Minister
• Theo Snoddy, art historian^[13]
• Sir William Tyrrell (1885-1968), physician and athlete.^[14]

See also

• List of Friends schools

References

1. ^ Brannigan, Cyril (1985). "Ballitore Quaker School and its unique curriculum, 1726 - 1836". Irish Educational Studies. 5 (2): 302–314. doi:10.1080/0332331850050218. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
2. ^ Ian Kirk-Smith (24 November 2011). "Quaker school best in Northern Ireland". The Friend. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
3. ^ Sylvia Roger (17 September 2003). "Class act". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
4. ^ Niall Crozier (3 June 2014). "Ulster Rugby ace Stephen Ferris could have been one of the world's best". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
5. ^ Alf McCreary (17 September 2003). "Keith Getty: 'I regret that we didn't do more for the innocent unborn children in Northern Ireland who will never see the light'". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
6. ^ Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion, pp. 18-19, Penguin Books, 2005; ISBN 978-0-14-101216-2
7. ^ "Hobson, Florence Fulton | Dictionary of Irish Biography"
8. ^ "Friend's team loses final". Ulster Star. 23 June 1973. p. 42. Retrieved 19 March 2026. – via British Newspaper Archive.
9. ^ "Biography – James William Kirkwood". CricketEurope. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
10. ^ "GB Olympic Champions 1896–2014 – Hockey". gbolympics.co.uk. 19 February 2014. Archived 10 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
11. ^ "Player profile: Robert William Moore". CricketEurope. Retrieved 7 November 2018.^{[dead link]}
12. ^ "Remembering Frank Pantridge, eminent Queen's graduate". Queen's University Belfast. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
13. ^ "Eminent critic and author of classic dictionary of artists". The Irish Times. 21 June 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
14. ^ "Sir William Tyrrell"

External links

• Friends' School Lisburn website