St Francis College Rochestown

St. Francis College Rochestown, sometimes known as Rochestown College or abbreviated as Roco, is an all-boys secondary school in Rochestown, Cork, Ireland. The school's foundation dates to 1884 when a friary was formed by the Franciscan Order.

History

In the 1870s the Capuchin order of friars opened a church and monastery on the Rochestown-Monkstown road near Cork city. In the 1880s, a school for novitiates was opened on the site. While this novitiate school was moved to Kilkenny and elsewhere for some decades, in the 1930s the school returned to the Rochestown friary. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, coinciding with a move to free education in the state, the college expanded into the friary itself, and "dormitories were converted into classrooms". The school continues to operate as a voluntary [secondary school] under the trusteeship of the Capuchin Franciscan Order.

Sporting and extra-curricular activities in the school include debating, Gaelic football, hurling, soccer, basketball, badminton, debating and chess.