Sunday, January 16, 2011

Cork to honour Christian Brother who founded vocational education in Ireland

The people of Cork will this week honour the Christian Brother who has been dubbed the father of vocational education in Ireland.  

A spectacular laser show will take place in the Cork City skies to honour Brother James Burke with the event running in tandem with Cork City's North Monastery School's 200th anniversary celebrations. 

Brother Burke was born in Limerick in 1833 and entered the Christian Brothers at the age of 18.  

In 1852 he took up a teaching post at North Monastery in Cork City and while there made it a scientific centre of excellence. 

The laser show will be a modern re-enactment of a stunning 1877 light show that he created to demonstrate the potential of electricity.  

His creation saw him connection a battery of 120 callan cells to a massive lamp he mounted to the front wall of the monastery and then he flashed beams of light into the sky.  

His work was used to celebrate the jubilee of Pope Pius IX and took place two years before Thomas Edison was credited with having invented the light bulb. 

Brother Burke's discoveries were generally credited with pioneering vocational and practical education in Ireland and later subjects such as physics, astronomy, navigation and trigonometry were introduced to the Post Primary curriculum. 

He later became principal of the famous Cork school and rugby nursery Christian Brothers College and in 1902, he was appointed as the first President of the Cork Science Association. 

He died in 1904 after been knocked down by a horse while crossing Patrick Street. 

Brother Burke was accorded a public funeral with a procession through the streets of Cork.  

He is buried at the cemetery at North Monastery. 

In 1913, an extension to the school was named in his honour.  

More information on the event can be found at www.northmonppu.com

SIC: CIN/IE