As a college, St. Brendan’s has a long tradition in the provision of educational excellence for the young men of Killarney and its hinterland. Situated in its own beautifully appointed gardens, on the doorstep of the Killarney National Park, with buildings of architectural significance, emblematic of our rich educational past, now being refurbished and revitalised with cutting edge educational technology and with a vibrant, energetic staff committed to the provision of a dynamic education, St. Brendan’s is poised to offer your son a rich and rewarding holistic educational experience. A document in the College records states that when St. Brendan’s Diocesan Seminary was founded in 1860 it“…replaced and in part absorbed the old Killarney Seminary (Theo.) [i.e. Bishop Sugrues’s 1804-1822 College Street seminary] the Ardfert Classical School and other relics of pre-Emancipation days.” It should not be forgotten that the seventy pupils who entered the new Seminary in 1860 were not just post- Catholic Emancipation children: most were born just before or during the Great Famine. They were fortunate to be children of the middle classes: shopkeepers, farmers and teachers, and so escaped the worst effects of the hunger, disease and emigration that caused such havoc all around them.