a teacher at the Christian Brothers' Mill Street school. O’Flaherty had taught James Aloysius Hoare at Mill Street in the 1820s, and it was more than fortuitous that Hoare was appointed as the third Superior General of the order in 1862. The first school opened on 12 April 1864, with O’Flaherty as the first Superior, and the first pupil enrolled was Paul McSwiney, son of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Peter Paul McSwiney. Very quickly the number on roll reached its limit at 600 pupils with 10 Christian Brothers employed teaching them. The school building was extended four times over the next half century culminating with the purchase and demolition of three cottages at Nos. 13–15 Synge Street and extending the school building into the space. In 1931, a gaelscoil was opened in premises at Harcourt Street by brothers from the school community. Called Coláiste Mhuire, the school in 1933 moved to the Gaelic League headquarters on Parnell Square and ceased to be managed from Synge Street. In 1925 the school affiliated to the newly created Irish Free State's Programme for National Schools, and has continued to provide education free of charge since then. The school is known as "Synger" colloquially. The new secondary school has been officially known as St Paul's Secondary School, Heytesbury Street. The present building replaced a row of houses, used for class-rooms, and was opened by the Minister of Education Donogh O'Malley in January 1967, and blessed by John Charles McQuaid. It was extended in the 1980s. School roll Having started with 600 on the roll in 1864, by 1963 the roll had expanded to 1500. A profile in the Irish Times in 1953 described the school as the second largest in the country. The roll size has collapsed in recent years, due to changes in local demographics; in 2010 the school saw its roll fall by 11% over 2004 figures. But it is still seen to be a very viable school, and in 2015 had been part of the Delivering Equality in Schools (DEIS) programme for the past 20 years. Primary schools In 1930 a new primary school was opened at Donore Avenue to the west, under the patronage of the Brothers at Synge Street. This was followed in 1947 by the building of Scoil Iosagáin Primary School, again under Synge Street's patronage, to the south at Aughavanna Road in Dolphin's Barn, and by