Belfast Boys' Model School

During its long history, the Belfast Model School has been located on three sites: Building of the Belfast District Model School began in Divis Street in 1854, on a 100-acre tract of land leased by the Commissioners of Education in Ireland, and the school was opened on 19 May 1857. It was to be a model for all other schools in the district, and the thirteenth of its kind. On 22 December 1879, John Perry, president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, highlighted the Belfast Model as an example to be followed in a proposed reform of technical education in England. During riots and arson attacks surrounding the consideration of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in May 1922, the Divis Street…