St. Catherine's Primary School which was also run by the Dominican nuns but closed in 2005. At the rear was located St Rose's High School in the Beechmount district which in 2019 was amalgamated with the Christian Brothers School, Glen Road and Corpus Christi College to form All Saints College / Coláiste na Naomh Uile. There were several boys secondary schools in the area which have gone through a process of merging over the past forty years. St. Thomas’s Boys Secondary School on the Whiterock Road opened in 1957. St. Peter’s Boys Secondary School on Brittons Parade opened in the 1960s. In 1988, both of these schools amalgamated with Gort na Móna Secondary School to become Corpus Christi College which in turn merged (see above). St. Thomas's had a strong literary heritage. For a period, its headteacher was the writer Michael McLaverty. In addition, Seamus Heaney taught here for a while in the 1960s. He references the area in one of his poems: Is there life before death? That's chalked up In Ballymurphy. Competence with pain, Coherent miseries, a bite and a sup, We hug our little destiny again. Brendan Hamill, another writer, who attended the school in the 1960s recalled later: While on teaching practice, Seamus Heaney came to St Thomas’ about October that year (1962). I remember him, his voice grave and resonant, his big, brown shoes, reading from Carrickfergus by Louis MacNeice. He was an enormously decent man with extraordinary antennae. Joe Graham, the writer and historian, was also a student at the school when McLaverty was the headteacher. For several years, after the school closed, this building was used by Belfast Metropolitan College for further education courses. After the new Springvale campus of the college was opened the building was demolished. Coláiste Feirste is an Irish language school situated in the Beechmount district. St. Paul's Primary School is also located in the Beechmount area. There are two Irish language primary schools. These are Gaelscoil na bhFal and Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh. At the higher education level, there is St Mary's University College which is part of Queen's University Belfast. This was established in 1909 as St Mary's Training College to train women as teachers. It amalgamated with St Joseph's Training College (for male trainee teachers) in 1985. Besides teacher training it now offers a range of degree courses. The college has a substantial programme of community