Coláiste Íde, Co. Louth: The first Irish Language Summer College for Children, 1919

The first Irish College opened in Ballingeary, Co. Cork on the 4th of July 1904, and by 1907 there were seven Colleges established spanning the four provinces: in Cork, Waterford, Mayo, Donegal, and winter Colleges in Belfast and Dublin. These Colleges, however, were a far cry from the Colleges we are familiar with today, as they focused on teacher-training and providing third-level certification to adults in the Irish language and adjacent subjects. Just how, then, did these Colleges become the youth-focused institutions we know today? That story begins with the establishment of Coláiste Íde in 1919.