St. Joseph’s College was founded by the Presentation Sisters in 1955. It is the only all girls’ school in the area, which has six other post-primary schools.
Nano Nagle founded the Presentation Sisters in 1775. Every year, we celebrate Presentation Day on 21st November. The spirit of Nano still lives on in St. Joseph’s College and her compassion for the poor, her generosity and her lack of selfishness is an example which we try to follow.
In 1867, a generous and wealthy local man, by the name of Mr Quigley donated two acres of land, adjoining the parish church, to help the first Presentation Sisters to begin their work in Lucan. Once they had established a primary school in the area, the sisters undertook the task of providing second-level education for girls.
In 1955 the Presentation Sisters began a ‘Secondary Top’ school to provide Secondary Education for girls in the Lucan area. The first Leaving Certificate examinations took place in 1961 with a total of eight students taking the exam.
In 1967, the school became a full secondary school and from then on was known as St. Joseph’s College, named after its first Principal, Sr. Joseph. In 1969, Sr. Joseph, staff and students entered a half-finished building – temporary improvised class rooms – only the special rooms, Science, Art, Geography, Domestic Science, Library and GP area, toilets and cloakroom were included in that 1st Phase. In 1982, the building was finished.
CEIST are now the Trustees of St. Joseph’s College, having taken over from the Presentation Sisters. At the core of the CEIST trust is the importance of the dignity and rights of every person, to empower the most vulnerable in society and to enabling young people to become catalysts for social transformation throughout the world.
Today, St. Joseph’s College has approximately 70 teachers and over 900 students. We were delighted to move into the new phases of our school building in January 2024, with all building phases completed in 2025. We look forward to this exciting new chapter in our school’s history.