Pirrie House

WHO WE ARE

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PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT

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NEWS

Pirrie House

When the House system was introduced in 1926, Pirrie was one of the original four Houses. It was named after the shipbuilder, businessman and entrepreneur Lord William James Pirrie.

Born in Quebec, Canada on May 31st 1847, Pirrie rose to the top of the shipbuilding industry. The famous Victorian writer and political activist, William Stead – who himself died on ‘Titanic’ – described him as “the greatest shipbuilder that the world has ever known”, who has “built more ships and bigger ships than any man since the days of Noah”.

Pirrie was educated at R.B.A.I. between 1858 and 1862 when he left and enrolled as an apprentice at Harland and Wolff shipyard at the age of 15. Sir Edward Harland almost immediately saw Pirrie’s potential and took the teenager under his wing: as a result, Pirrie’s rise through the company was meteoric. By the age of 22, he was chief draughtsman; by 27, he was made a partner in the company; and later he became the first chairman of the board. Under his energetic, but often dictatorial, control, the shipyard boomed – and alongside it, so did the city of Belfast. Pirrie was elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1896 and 1897, and played a key role in the drawing up of the plans for the magnificent new City Hall (work began two years later and the building was completed in 1906). He was the first person to be named a Honorary Freeman of the City in 1898; was the first Viscount of Belfast in 1921; and was elected to the Northern Ireland Senate in 1921. A bust of Lord Pirrie was unveiled in the grounds of Belfast City Hall in 2006.

Pirrie and his expanding shipyard embarked on some of their most ambitious projects at the beginning of the 20th century. First came the ‘Laurentic’ in 1908 and then the three sisters ships of the ‘Olympic’ class. However, the shipyard’s crowning achievement was soon followed by its moment of infamy – the sinking of the mighty ‘Titanic’ on April 15th 1912, less than one year after its launch. Pirrie was due to travel aboard the Titanic but illness prevented him from joining the ill-fated passage. In an ironic twist of fate, Pirrie died at sea on June 7th 1924 while on a business trip to South America.

In the early days of the House, boys from East Belfast were allocated to Pirrie House where the House became synonymous with the “hard men from the east” according to former Senior Housemaster and historian Brian Todd. These boys certainly did not know how to give up in House competitions. In more recent years, boys enter the House from various parts of Belfast and beyond but the Pirrie fighting spirit is still alive and well.

Pirrie House Members

Senior Housemaster: Mr DS Scott

Year 8 Tutors: Mrs VH McCord and Mrs KS McClean

Year 9 Tutor: Mr JH Seath

Year 10 Tutor: Miss FM Green

Year 11 Tutor: Mr D McCann

Year 12 Tutor: Mr S Archibald

Year 13 Tutor: Mr ME Titterington

Head of House: Alastair Watt

Deputy Head of House: Harry McAllister

House Secretaries: Ryan Hamilton and Max Willmott

Prefects: Adam Binu (Senior), Xavier Chung, Ben Crawford, Matthew Jamison, Luis Keenan, Harry McAllister, Guy Morrow, Alastair Watt, Max Willmott.

Mentors: Adam Binu, Xavier Chung, Ross Farmer, Ryan Hamilton, Matthew Jamison, Harry McAllister, Alastair Watt.

Valete: Daniel Armstrong, Bradley Baxter, Rudi Crawley, Ryan Ferguson, Bailey Hanna, Toby Hawthorne-Smith, Joshua Holmes, Jamie Magill, Charlie Methven, Adam McCready, Ben McNeish, Luke Nelson, Adrian Olszewski, Nathan Roberts, Adam Russell, Sam Scott, Patrick Woods, Peter Wright, Justin Youle.

13P: Josh Armstrong, Jack Irwin, Shea McManus, Jude Thompson;

12P: Jude Barton, Adam Hollway, Zach Knipe, Theo Madden, Ryan Montgomery, Paul Preston, Aron Reilly;

10P: Joe Sweet

Back Row: Joshua Strain, Hugh Treacy, Henry Tumilty, Zeph Turagabeci, Matthew Walker, Noah Waterworth, Luka Wilkinson

Middle Row: Oliver Manley, Lucas McArthur, Amos McIlveen, Kareem Mohamed Salah Babiker, Cole Robinson, Olly Scott, Loghan Sewell, Sebastian Simpson, Harry Snodden, Joshua Sofley, Henry Spencer

Front Row: Tom Buchanan, Arthur Douglas, Jamie Gamble, Harvey Gordon, Mr Scott, Mrs K McClean, Adam Griffiths, William Jones, Finley King, Max Lonergan

To begin, I would like to extend a warm welcome to those who have just joined Pirrie House, and I wish them all the best at Inst. The aim of our school is to provide an environment where people from all walks of life can have access to a good education and realise their potential, and the members of Pirrie House have shown that this is possible in the past academic year.

At A2 Level, 14P achieved excellent results with Senior Prefect Joshua Holmes achieving an A*AA profile. Peter Wright attained an A*ABB profile while Luke Nelson attained AAB. Ryan Ferguson, Toby Hawthorne-Smith, Jamie Magill, Adam McCready, Sam Scott, and Patrick Woods performed very well. I wish the leavers all the best as they move on to third level studies or to work. 13P also received a pleasing set of AS Level results with Harry McAllister and Guy Morrow performing best with AAA profiles. At GCSE, 12P performed well with Zach Smith top scoring with an outstanding 40 points. Theo Wilson and Reuben Edmondson also performed impressively. Congratulations to all the pupils who sat public examinations last year.

Pirrie House dropped slightly to joint fourth place alongside Jones House in the House Championship which was disappointing. However, there were highlights such as our continued dominance in the pool with another McKee Cup swimming success. Our teams competed very well to finish in second place overall in the Sheldon Cup for Junior Cross-Country, Junior Sports Day, and in the Larmor Cup for Rowing.

In 14P, Head of House Ryan Ferguson helped the senior swimming team to win their event. Joshua Holmes won the senior indoor rowing event. In 13P, Guy Morrow was the best placed finisher from Year 13 in the senior cross-country race. Josh Bickerstaffe, Ryan Hamilton, and Gannon Robertson helped the House to become House swimming champions. Gannon carried his strong form outside school to win a silver medal in the 1,500m freestyle event at the Irish National Swimming Championships. Alastair Watt helped the 1st XI cricket team to win the Schools Cup and represented NCU at Under-17 level in an interprovincial series.

In 12P, Josh Dean, Bruce Macdonald, Niall McNarry, Zach Smith, and Theo Wilson won the Year 12 Swimming Competition which helped the House to win the McKee Cup. In Rugby, Reuben Edmondson captained Ulster Rugby at Under-17 level while Andrew Purcell played for Ulster Under-18s. Caleb De Silva played for NCU at Under-17 level while Bruce Macdonald was a member of the Ulster Under-18 Golf Team. Ruairi Harris won his category at the Belfast Sprints Rowing Regatta. In 11P, Sam Holmes won the javelin competition at Junior Sports Day while Ross Montgomery won the 200m race. Sam along with Zane Cunningham, Noah Lorimer, and Toby Lyons won the 4 × 400m relay race.

10P won their cross-country race. Dylan Gray showed his athletic talent by winning the shot, 100m and 200m at Junior Sports Day. He represented Ulster Rugby and the NCU at Under-15 level. Aaditya Sign represented Ireland at Under-15 level in table tennis at the Home Nations Tournament. Alfie Lonergan finished fourth in the All-Ireland Interclub Golf Finals. In 9P, Brolyn O’Doherty won the Triple Jump at Junior Sports Day while Ryan Anderson, Amos Binu, Lewis Buchanan, Brolyn O’Doherty, Jude Robinson, and Ayaan Shaikh won the Year 9 basketball competition. Lewis Buchanan represented Ulster Hockey at Under-13 level. 8P won their cross-country race. Carter Gray won the 100m and 200m races at Junior Sports Day. Enzo Gowdy, Connor McMath, Joshua Nelson, Evan O’Neill, and Jonny Wright won the Year 8 swimming competition, helping the House to win the McKee Cup. Nicholas Keane was selected for the high-performance Ulster Tennis team while Enzo Gowdy performed at the Holywood Music Festival.

In the past academic year, Pirrie House was represented at Pupil Council meetings by Nathan McCorry and Harris Lundy (8P), Ralph McMichael and Daniel McBride (9P), Oliver Redmond (10P), Daniel McAllister and Harry Grain (11P), Logan Burgess and Reuben Edmondson (12P), Adam Binu and Alastair Watt (13P), Justin Youle and Adam McCready (14P). Pupil Council representatives are an essential part of our school in ensuring that pupils feel represented and that they have a voice. For this, I would like to thank all representatives for stepping up to the role. At the end of year Rewards Assembly, The Pirrie Cup for Leadership was presented jointly to Deputy Head of School Patrick Woods and Deputy Head of House Luke Nelson; and the Todd Cup for Best Contribution to the House was presented jointly to Jamie Magill and Niall McNarry. House Contribution Certificates were awarded to Harris Lundy (8P), Amos Binu, Lewis Buchanan, and Daniel McBride (9P), Oliver Redmond (10P), Sam Holmes (11P), Andrew Purcell (12P), Guy Morrow (13P), Ryan Ferguson and Joshua Holmes (14P). The House continued to think of others, donating £108.41 to UNICEF’s excellent work in Gaza during the current conflict there.

I would like to thank everyone across Pirrie House, both pupils and teachers, for their continuous efforts in providing a positive environment for the pupils to enjoy and to excel in.

Ryan Hamilton and Max Willmott (House Secretaries)