Coláiste Éanna is a Catholic Secondary School for boys, founded by the Christian Brothers in 1967, to serve the needs of Ballyroan and adjacent parishes. Brother John Mahady (RIP) was chosen to be the first teacher and Principal of Coláiste Éanna and the school opened to receive 27 first year students on Friday 8th September 1967.
The then new school consisted of two classrooms, only one of which was in use. Brother Mahady taught R.E., Irish, English, History, Geography, Latin, Arithmetic, Chemistry, Physics and Music, while Brother James P. Maxwell taught French at 9.00am each morning, after which he returned to his own school. A lay Principal was first appointed in 1986 and the school has been administered by a Board of Management ever since. The Christian Brothers, though no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the school remain its Trustees.
From its humble beginnings Coláiste Éanna has flourished to gain a national reputation for academic excellence and athletic prowess. The upper echelons of Irish commercial, professional, administrative and athletic communities are laced with past pupils of the school.
The school has continued to develop from those humble beginnings in 1967 and in June 2007 took possession of a newly-built sports hall and school extension, the most recent of many developments. A prayer room was blessed and officially opened in September of that year. Today there are 47 teachers employed in the school and they cater for the needs of over 620 students.
The educational mission of the Congregation of Christian Brothers is rooted in the vision of its founder, Blessed Edmund Rice. He sought to respond with compassion to the injustices that existed in the Ireland of his time by establishing schools dedicated to the process of liberation – a liberation from political oppression, religious discrimination, poverty and ignorance. Christian Brother Schools were founded to foster the full range of human talents and to enable young people play a meaningful role in society.
These principles continue to inform the educational, social and spiritual mission of the school.