Irish Institute
The Irish Institute is a Catholic private school in Greater Mexico City. Operated by the Legionaries of Christ, the grounds, located in Naucalpan, State of Mexico, have separate areas for boys and girls, plus a third one for the coed preschool. The school levels in total range from preschool to bachillerato, equivalent to the American K-12. The Irish Institute is also present in other cities of Mexico, including: Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey.
History
The Legionaries of Christ set up the Irish Institute in 1965 as a way to offer a bilingual Catholic education in Spanish and English. The school is taught by members of the Legionaires and includes English speaking Catholic priests being assigned to the Institute.Students
Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, the authors of the 2004 book Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II, said that the students came from the "superrich of Mexico City". Paul Lennon, a former member of the Legionaries quoted in the book, wrote that "The family names were like a Who's Who of Mexican people." Historically many students arrived in cars driven by bodyguards for protection against kidnapping. Every December, the school holds a traditional pilgrimage walk to the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Basilica of [Our Lady of Guadalupe].The students of Irish Institute have a rivalry with Cumbres Institute, which is also run by the Legionaries of Christ. In 2017, Irish Institute students and their bodyguards crashed a Cumbres Institute end of term graduation party after a video mocking the school was made, requiring intervention from the Mexico City Police and the Mexico City government.