About St. Mochta’s National School

St. Mochta

St. Mochta’s National School is located in St. Mochta’s Roman Catholic Parish of Porterstown / Clonsilla.

St. Mochta was born in the year 445 and died circa 535. St. Mochta’s Feast Day is August 19th. St. Mochta was the last survivor of St. Patrick’s disciples and the first Abbot of Louth. He founded a church at Coolmine called “The White Church of St. Machutus”. This church served as the parish church for the neighbouring area but it had disappeared entirely by 1490. The present Church of St. Mochta’s in Porterstown was built in 1890.

Our History

1854

  • The original school building still stands on the banks of the Royal Canal. It is a very tall distinctive, three storey building and was officially opened on the 16th January 1854.

1963

  • The original school was replaced by a three-classroom Boyd Barrett building fronting the Clonsilla Road. This school came to be known locally as “The White School”.

1986

  • The next move was to an eight classroom new school in 1986 which became a sixteen classroom school in 2000. This building fronted the Porterstown Road and in time due to the growing population in Dublin 15 became a 32 classroom school made up of 16 classes in pre-fab structures.

2017-2019

  • A new state of the art building project for St. Mochta’s began in 2017 which incorporated the original “White School” into the new building structure. The final phase of this school building was completed in 2019 and is a huge credit to all who have been involved in its design and construction. The original “White School” was renovated and is now the Administrative Area of the new building. The new school now incorporates colourful bright classrooms, excellent IT resources, a servery, a library and a hall for indoor activities and four ball court outside. St. Mochta’s continues to work in partnership with pupils, parents and the whole community of Clonsilla.

Motto

The school crest shows a Willow Tree, Cluain Saileach – The Meadow of the Willow Tree. A new willow tree was planted outside the pupil entrance in October 2020.

The school motto ‘Ag Críost an Síol’ is the first line of the poem, ‘To Christ belongs the seed’ or ‘All life comes from God’ and embodies the Catholic ethos of the school.