A GRANDFATHER clock ticks steadily and patiently in a reception room in Knockbeg College. It’s been ticking the time away, year in, year out, since it was brought to the school in 1820.

“It’s very old,” says Mgr Brendan Byrne as we listen to the steady thrum of time passing.

For almost 200 years, the timepiece has remained unchanged, while all around it the school has stretched and grown, adopting and changing to meet contemporary times.

The original Knockbeg House had been added to, with extensions of classrooms and a massive gym at various stages over the past few decades. The original buildings, dating from the 19th century, remained largely untouched until they grew old and rattled with the cold in wintertime.

A change had to be made. A complete renovation was needed; one that would bring the school right up to modern times. In 2017, the board of management got the green light for a complete overhaul of the school, to the tune of €10 million. And while it probably could have been easier to knock the whole thing down and start afresh with an entirely new campus, it was decided to keep the original Knockbeg House and its sister house with its stately façade, as well as a classroom block that was designed by famed architect Sam Stephenson in 1963.

It was up to Bluett and O’Donoghue Architects to retain the elegance of the old school, while also creating a campus that would meet 21st century needs.

Mgr Byrne has been part of Knockbeg life since he was a boy. He came to the school in 1949 as a boarder from Knockananna in Co Wicklow. He then studied for the priesthood in Maynooth College and returned to Knockbeg in 1963 to teach, while he was also rector and school principal until 1989. He’s now a trustee of the esteemed college and is deeply liked and respected by the teachers and staff.

He and principal Michael Carew are justifiably proud of the new school, which is just days away from admitting the boys for the new term.

The first 16 of the 18 rectors in the history of Knockbeg were also the school’s principals, but that changed in 1995. Mr Carew is the third lay principal, being preceded in that position by two past pupils, John Curtis and Cyril Hughes.

Knockbeg is a still diocesan college and is under the patronage of the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.

The school started in the buildings now known as Carlow College back in 1793. Although it was initially a lay college, it was decided to take clerical students, too, and so it became a priest-training college as well as a school for boys. The demand for school places began to outstrip the space that they had in Carlow town, so in 1857 Knockbeg House, just a few miles away in Co Laois, was bought. By 1892, the entire non-clerical staff and students were ensconced in Knockbeg, while Carlow College continued as a seminary.

Enormous changes took place in the early years of the last century, particularly under the rectorship of Fr PJ Doyle. Cricket and rugby were replaced by hurling and Gaelic football, while the Irish language was promoted. Indeed, Knockbeg became a safe house and a meeting place for many rebels during the War of Independence.

Times moved on and a new society in Ireland was created. The introduction of free secondary education and school transport meant that boarding schools were not as popular as before and, in 1985, the school was opened to day boys. By 2011, the days of Knockbeg College being a boarding school were over.

The renovation has shone a light on school’s architectural history. The old boundary walls of the estate have been stripped of ivy, while a disused coach house looks ready to take on any four-legged visitors, thanks to conservation architect Michael O’Boyle. The builders also discovered a series of recesses set deep into one of the walls. They look like little cubbyholes but, in fact, they’re bee boles, created to encourage bees to make their homes there.

Another beautiful historical feature is the college chapel, which has been fully refurbished.

The new extension covers the entire old farmyard area and includes a gym and sports hall, two ASD units that have sensory rooms and gardens, a new canteen, music room and a new three-storey block that overlooks the beautiful River Barrow, where generations of youngsters swam.

Outside, added to the four existing football pitches are four new basketball and tennis courts.

And where generations of boarders once slept under the rafters of Knockbeg House, the dormitories have been turned into classrooms, science labs, a library and a study hall. The corridors are lined with photographs and records of past pupils, a pictorial record of the past 120 years of academic and sporting achievements.

The house has been gracefully restored and the magnificent façade of the front house has been returned to its stately self.

It’s just two days before the class of 2021 begin their new school term. The staff were working away, putting last-minute touches to the classrooms, while parents dropped in to pick up books.

The grandfather clock is still ticking, steady and evenly, as it witnesses a new generation of boys into the Knockbeg fold.

By Elizabeth Lee