St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon

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Saint Patrick's Academy (Acadamh Naomh Pádraig), a voluntary grammar school in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, was formed on September 1, 2003 when the two single-sex Saint Patrick's Academies, which coexisted on the same site as two distinct and separate institutions, were merged as one.

Founded in 1891, St. Patrick's Academy was, for its first three years, a boys' school. From September 1894, the Sisters of Mercy undertook the teaching of students in preparation for the Intermediate board's examination. The Girls' Academy was based in a single room in the newly-built Mercy Convent on Northland Row.

Both schools moved to new premises on Killyman Road in September 1901; the Academy building was to be the home of the school for the next seventy years. The Boys' Academy was always led by the clergymen appointed by the Tyrone Roman Catholic Board of Education, while the Girls' Academy was led by a senior member of the Sisters of Mercy.

The Academy eventually outgrew its home on the Killyman Road. In 1975, the two schools moved to a new building on the Killymeal Road. Although housed in the same building, the Boys' Academy and Girls' Academy were two distinct and separate institutions. The phenomenal growth in the student numbers and need to provide the very best educational provision has resulted in the formal amalgamation of the Boys' and Girls' Academies with effect from 2003.

As of 2007, the co-educational Academy and its some 1600-1800 students are housed in one main building and a number of separate mobile structures belonging to the former Saint Patrick's Boys' and Saint Patrick's Girls' Academies. Saint Patrick's Academy's present grounds are to be demolished and a new school is to be built on the playing fields behind it. Saint Patrick's College, Dungannon is also to have it's school built beside Saint Patrick's Academy, fascillitating the sharing of some ammenities. The estimated date for the completion of this project is 2010.

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