placenamesForth
Fotharta
One school’s building history records the transition from local endowment to separate national schools and a coeducational replacement.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Fotharta · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Forth · English · main form
Place & story
A school on Ballon Hill
Robert Marshall built a school on Ballon Hill in 1809. It was a slated stone-and-lime building, with rooms for the teacher at its ends. A phase began with applications to join the national-school system: the boys’ application was made in July 1832 and the girls’ in April 1837. Separate male and female sections were established in 1852. [2]
Two buildings and altered labels
A grant for a new boys’ school was sanctioned in 1891, and the girls’ section followed in 1896. Granite was used for the school and the nearby teacher’s residence. Boys and girls subsequently exchanged buildings to accommodate changing numbers. The school account explains that lettering over the entrances was altered accordingly, leaving the words identifying the male and female schools off centre. [2]
A coeducational replacement
The older buildings were vacated when a new coeducational school opened in 1969. Grants transferred to the new Saint Peter’s and Saint Paul’s National School on 18 March that year. The former school later became an enterprise centre. Another extension, completed in May 2008, added four classrooms, offices and an assembly hall; it was officially opened in February 2009. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Forth. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- About: History of School and Accommodation · Ballon National School
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.