Ballymena Academy is a mixed gender, voluntary grammar school in the market town of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1828 as a small provincial school for children in the town and surrounding agricultural hinterland. Admissions The school currently has approximately 1300 pupils and 128 members of staff. The school has of mature grounds situated on the Galgorm Road, just west of the town centre. The school motto is Tenax Propositi meaning Steadfast in Purpose. Following the August 2014 retirement of J. R. Hassard (announced on 19 November 2013), the appointment of Stephen Black (former headmaster at Antrim Grammar School) was announced on 7 March 2013; he became headmaster on 1 September 2014. Notable former pupils John Alderdice, Baron Alderdice, Liberal Democrat peer, first Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly Kirsty Barr, Olympic Trap Shooter, Commonwealth Silver Medallist, World and European Silver Medallist, Olympian for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics William Booth CVO, chaplain Darwin Caldwell FREng, academic and expert in robotics who is Founding Director of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, Italy, where he is also the Director of the Dept. of Advanced Robotics. Roger Casement, British diplomat and early human rights campaigner for the Congolese, later helped organise the Irish Volunteers and executed in 1916 under the Treason Act. The Ulster GAA grounds Casement Park is named after him. Barry Cowan, journalist and broadcaster with BBC Northern Ireland George Dawson, DUP MLA from 2003 to 2007 for East Antrim George Alexander Duncan (1902–2005), (first) professor of political economy, Trinity College, Dublin and advocate of Austrian economics Steven Davis, Aston Villa, Glasgow Rangers, Southampton and Northern Ireland footballer Lucy Evangelista, Miss Northern Ireland 2005, placed in top ten at Miss World. Edgar Graham, Northern Irish Unionist political figure, assassinated by the IRA in 1983 at the age of 29 George Boyle Hanna, Northern Irish Unionist politician and minister Air Vice-Marshal William Harbison CB CBE DFC, station commander from 1963 to 1965 of RAF Leuchars David Humphreys, Irish rugby union star Peter Johnston, Controller of BBC Northern Ireland (November 2006–present) Alan Jones, architect, professor at Queen's University Belfast and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 2019–21. Mark Logan, Conservative MP (2019-) Luke Marshall, is an Irish professional rugby union player, who currently plays for the Ulster Ravens James McAteer, Astrophysicist and author Commandant Vonla McBride - head