Meath Protestant Industrial School was an industrial school for protestant boys, in Blackrock, Dublin, founded in 1871. It was originally situated Elm cliff, near the station, on land leased by the Earl of Meath and other benevolent members of society, it then moved in 1877 to Avondale House off Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin.Chapter 6 Blackrock Area Plan Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown Co. Council. While it was a reform school,Committal of Alexander Jennings to Meath Industrial School, question by Captain Craig Down East House of Commons, 04 May 1908 vol 187 cc1626-7, Hansard. it also took in boys who were found destitute or begging.
Protestant (Church of Ireland) religious instruction was provided to the boys in the institution, alongside school subjects, the boys were taught vocational skills, like shoemaking, tailoring and watchmaking.Meath Industrial School
The Earl of Meath also supported and gave his name to the Meath Protestant Female Industrial School in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Meath Protestan Female Industrial School www.childrenshomes.org.uk Edward Cecil Guinness donated £60 in order to purchase musical instruments and form a school band, and a brass band was set up under a Mr. Johnson as the conductor.
In 1885 when the Kerry Home Industrial School for Protestant Boys closed,Kerry Home Industrial School www.childrenshomes.org.uk boys were transferred to the Meath Industrial School and it was expanded to facilitate them.
In 1886 the school sent three boys to Canada.'The golden bridge : young immigrants to Canada, 1833-1939' by Marjorie Kohli, P. 385, Natural Heritage Books, Toronto, 2003.
In 1917 boys were transferred to another protestant school, Balmoral Industrial School, Belfast, when it was commandeered by the war officeTreating the traumatised Shell-shocked veterans in the Irish Free State by Eoin Kinsella, RTE, www.rte.ie and the building was used as a military Hospital (Blackrock Military Orthopaedic Hospital).Blackrock Meath Boys Industrial School www.childrenshomes.org.uk
Records of the school are held in the Church of Ireland Representative Body.
The writer James Stephens was committed to the school for begging as a child.James Stephens Life, Irish Literature, www.ricorso.net
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