zeiss batis

SCULPTURE AT ENTRANCE TO ST KILIAN’S GERMAN SCHOOL ON ROEBUCK ROAD

The photograph is a bit confusing because a row of black and orange bollards can be seen through part of the sculpture … I am assuming that the sculpture is a representation of the saint.

St Kilian’s German School (Deutsche Schule Dublin – DSD) is an independent German international school in Dublin, Ireland.

Kilian, also spelled Killian (or alternatively Irish: Cillian; Latin: Kilianus), was an Irish missionary bishop and the Apostle of Franconia (Franconia is nowadays the northern part of Bavaria), where he began his labours towards the end of the 7th century. His feast day is 8 July.

St Kilian’s is legally a single organisation, with a primary school, offering kindergarten (junior infants) and vorschule (senior infants) and main primary school (1st to 6th classes), and a secondary school. It is open to students from ages 4 to 18.

German is taught from the start, but is not required for entry. In primary school, where relevant, input from the school programme of the German state of Baden-Württemberg is used. Depending on development of German language skills, pupils may have the option to pursue a German curriculum stream from 4th class. The school provides German language education beyond the level required by the Irish German curriculum, enabling pupils to take the German Sprachdiplom exams and qualify with the linguistic level required to enter German universities.

Some classes in the Junior Cycle (1st to 3rd years) are shared with the Lycée Français d’Irlande.

St Kilian’s was founded in the early 1950s, developing from the work of a Dublin charity, the Save the German Children Society, founded in 1945.

Since 2002, St Kilian’s has shared sites with Lycée Française d’Irlande, the combined campus known as the “Eurocampus”.

The secondary school has a typical rate of progression to third-level of 90-100%. In 2020 this reduced to 63%, following significant reduction in teacher-assigned grades, with even native German language speakers being graded H3 instead of school-assessed H1. The school and 9 pupils pursued High Court actions over this.

OPERATION SHAMROCK

Operation Shamrock was a scheme bringing refugee children from mainland Europe to Ireland in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was organised by the Irish Red Cross, and involved about 500 children, mostly from Germany, who stayed for three years before returning home.

Irish assistance to Germany reinforced in Britain the perception, fostered by wartime neutrality, that Ireland was pro-Nazi. Conversely, West Germany in the 1950s had gratitude for Ireland’s postwar relief aid, and ties grew between the countries. In January 1956 a memorial fountain sculpted by Joseph Wackerle and commissioned by the German Gratitude Fund was unveiled in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, by the West German ambassador.

In 1961, the German war cemetery was opened near St Kevin’s Hostel, Glencree, for graves of German aviators killed in Ireland during the war. In 1974, the hostel became the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, which played a role in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s.

German-language courses provided for refugees in Dublin led to the foundation of St Kilian’s German School.

In March 1997, a reunion of over 300 foster-children and families was held at the German embassy in Dublin, attended by Presidents Mary Robinson of Ireland and Roman Herzog of Germany.

As part of The Gathering Ireland 2013, 21 refugee children from Germany, France and Austria returned to Glencree.