Lord Stanley of Derby Court, Ballykisteen was the landlord of this area. He was considered to be a good landlord and paid for the education of his tenants’ children. He introduced a bill to parliament that began the national school system in Ireland. Lord Stanley built a national school for boys. This building is now The Hideout pub. A national school for girls was also built and this was situated in the building that the Quirke family now live in.

In 1851 Lord Stanley paid his teachers, Mrs Byrne £30 p.a. and Peter Fahy, £24 p.a. Large numbers of children attended these schools. In 1841 6,673 people lived in Solohead. By 1861 this number had decreased to 4,271 and by 1871 it had further decreased to 1,874.

Emigration was the primary cause of this rapid depopulation of the parish. This occurred at a time when the average family had twelve to fourteen children.

In 1860 Lord Stanley gave a farm to the parish priest. He converted the RIC barracks at Monard and presented it to the Curate. In 1866 as part of his extensive building programme, he organised and oversaw the construction of the school and the two teacher’s residences at Monard. These were all built using sandstone from Mackey’s quarry at Faugheen.

While Paddy Ryan was working for a Mr. Newport White, he had an accident with a cow, which resulted in him being lame for the rest of his life. As compensation, Newport White paid for the education of Paddy Ryan as a teacher and procured a job for him at Doon National School. When the Christian Brothers came to Doon, Ryan lost his job. Mr. Newport White approached his friend Lord Stanley and Paddy Ryan was then appointed principal of Stanley’s new school in Monard. Michael O Donnell was his assistant. Mrs. Troy, wife of the stationmaster at Limerick Junction, was appointed principal of the girls’ school and Miss Hogan was her assistant.

Children came from far and wide to be taught by Paddy Ryan and many travelled from Tipperary town. He gave free grinds to clerical students during their holidays.

Boys attended Monard school to the age of sixteen or seventeen. Many of these emigrated to the USA and their education stood to them. Mr. Bargary from Oola was Chief of the New York Fire Department and he employed anyone with a reference from Paddy Ryan, as they were able to write reports. Many men from Solohead and Oola procured jobs in the fire department and police in New York as a result.

When Lord Stanley decided to sign the deed of the school and residences over to the parish, Fr. O Dwyer P.P. was summoned to sign the relevant paperwork. As he was in bad health, Paddy Ryan was sent in his place. This then established Paddy Ryan as the owner of the schools and both residences.

At the girls’ school, Mrs. Troy was succeeded as principal by Paddy Ryan’s daughter Mary Anne, followed by Mrs. Neddy Ryan When Paddy Ryan retired, he was succeeded by his son Neddy, followed by Michael Ryan (Miller), then Mrs. Grace, followed by Ms. O Connor who retired in August 2016. Ms.O Dwyer was appointed principal in 2016  took up her position in January 2017. Assistant teachers down through the years included Mr.O Donnell, Miss English, Miss Quinn, Mr.Quirke, Mrs.Maher, Miss Verdon, Mrs. Hogan, Mrs. Duffy, Ms O Shea, Mrs. Heffernan and Miss Fitzgerald.

By the early 1950’s , the schools were in poor repair and needed extensive refurbishment. In order to release appropriate grants, the Department of Education required the parish to possess title to the school. During this time the Community Hall was being built and repairs were being carried out on the church. Fr. O Brien, administrator of the parish (Solohead was the Archbishop’s parish) had begun a major fundraising drive to build the hall and proceed with repairs to the Church and schools. The bill for refurbishment included purchasing title to the schools and residences and goodwill of the Ryan family.

As a result of this refurbishment, toilets were installed in the building and the classrooms were subdivided. The residences were incorporated in the main school building. Ms. O Connor became principal in 1995 and undertook refurbishments in the school. She raised funds and a grant was procured from the Department of Education. Under the direction of the Board of Works all the windows were replaced and the roof was reslated. Many attempts were made through the following years to secure funding for a major refurbishment/extension and this culminated in 2013 with the completion of the school as we know it today.