The Boys of St. Columb's tells the story of the first generation of children to receive free secondary education as a result of the ground-breaking 1947 Education Act in Northern Ireland. This film tells the story of how the political and historical conditions of Northern Ireland altered as a result of the mass education of its population, culminating in the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s which drew its inspiration from the USA. The film uses St. Columb's school in Derry, an excellent example of a school that underwent the shift from the day post-war years into the more liberal 1960s, as a lens to understand the effect of the 1947 legislation.

St. Columb's in Derry boasts two Nobel Prize winners – John Hume and Seamus Heaney. Seamus Deane, who has a long-standing association with Notre Dame University both in a publishing and a teaching capacity, is also one of the film's participants. I also interviewed many other writers, musicians and journalists of this generation including James Sharkey, Phil Coulter, Eamonn McCann and Paul Brady. Bishop Edward Daly, who was a curate in Derry's Bogside during the 1960's, was also a participant. 

Maurice’s book, The Boys of St. Columb’s, received The Irish Times’ Book of the Day on May 31st. The book accompanies the documentary and can be purchased from The Liffey Press.

The Boys of St. Columb’s documentary can be purchased from lovefilm.com.

For UK readers, The Boys of St. Columb’s can be rented from The Guardian’s Sofa Cinema.

The Boys of St Columb’s was written and co-produced by Maurice Fitzpatrick. It was directed by Tom Collins and was funded RTE, BBC NI, BCI and NIS.

Maurice Fitzpatrick can be contacted at creeney@gmail.com