Farranferris was a secondary school in Cork City, Ireland. It opened in 1887, closed in 2006, and was an important institution in the twentieth century history of the city. History Saint Finbarr’s Seminary At the time of the Penal Laws Irishmen who wanted to study to become priests had to travel overseas and many of them went to France (Cork, for example, had close links with colleges in Bordeaux and Toulouse). French colleges were closed down after the French Revolution and this caused a drop in the supply of priests to Irish parishes. In 1795 St Patrick's College, Maynooth was opened to provide for the education of Catholic priests in Ireland and that same year the Bishop of Cork set up a post-primary preparatory seminary in Ballyvolane House (near present-day Ellis's Yard), it was to prepare boys for Maynooth and other seminary colleges. The residential seminary in Ballyvolane House closed after a short time and in 1813 the Bishop of Cork established Saint Mary's Seminary across the road from the North Cathedral. A recession associated with the Napoleonic Wars closed Saint Mary's after eight years. Cork's next preparatory seminary would be set up by the Vincentians in 1845, it would occupy a building that had previously been the Lord Mayor's Mansion House (now Mercy Hospital) for twelve years before moving to a vacant school building located at Saint Patrick's Place (in the red-brick building where Cork's 96FM is based now). The Patrick's Place building did not have facilities for boarders. In September 1876, the Bishop of Cork took control of the Saint Patrick's Place seminary and renamed it Saint Finbarr's Seminary. The first president of Saint Finbarr's was Fr. J.J. Coughlan. In April 1881 the church acquired Carrollina House in Montenotte so Saint Finbarr's could function as a residential seminary for pupils who wished to become priests (Carrollina, which was situated where the Ardnalee housing estate now stands, was named by John Carroll in 1770s, he was a great grand-nephew of Charles Carroll). At the beginning there were fourteen students in residence in Carrollina. Farranferris The idea for a new purpose built residential seminary school was raised immediately on the founding of Saint Finbarr's. In 1881 a bequest of £1200 from a Miss O’Driscoll set things in motion and from 1883 to 1885 a new college was built at Farranferris on the northside of the city (Farranferris – land of