Alexandra College is a fee-charging, single-sex girls' school located in Milltown, Dublin, Ireland, operating under a Church of Ireland ethos. It serves girls from ages 3 to 18 as boarding or day pupils. The school is one of the most prestigious in Ireland and consistently achieves far above the national average of points in the Leaving Cert exams. Alexandra College has a liberal ethos and encourages its pupils to be independent, confident young women. The school excels in the areas of sport, drama, music, languages and academics and has a superb art department that encourages innovation and creativity. Founded in 1866, Alexandra College played a seminal role in the education of women and girls to second level. It was the first school ever in Ireland to fulfil this role. The first female third level graduates ever in the country were graduates of Alexandra College: Isabella Mulvany (1854-1934) sat the first TCD examination for women. Alice Oldham (1850-1907) was among the first nine women to matriculate in 1882 at the Royal University of Ireland (RUI) established in 1880 and in 1889 she became one of the first female lecturers in the college; she was also the first president of the Irish Association of Women Graduates (1902). Katherine Preston (1868-1951) graduated with an M.A. in modern languages from the RUI. As well as having this important role in educating women, Alexandra College's graduates were central figures in the emerging State of Ireland at the beginning of the 20th Century: women such as Grace Gifford and her sisters. Sydney Madge Czira (Gifford) (1889-1974) began buying radical nationalist newspapers while still a pupil at Alexandra and contributed articles to Arthur Griffiths's Sinn Féin. In 1911 she became a member of Sinn Fein's executive.Helen Ruth Donnelly, Nellie Gifford (1880 – 1971). Helen Ruth Donnelly, Nellie Gifford (1880 – 1971) was a strong supporter of Larkin and the labour movement during the 1913 lockout, she also admired James Connelly and was a founder member of the Irish Citizen Army. She was the only one of the Gifford sisters actively to participate in the rising and was one of the 12 women who were denied release from jail in May 1916. Katie Gifford Wilson (1875 – 1957), a fluent linguist worked closely with Michael Collins on the first Dáil loan. Many other Alexandra College graduates made significant contributions to the emerging Ireland of the twentieth century in the fields of the literature, the visual arts, music, the language movement - luminaries such as Violet Florence Martin ('Martin Ross ') (1862-1915) became famous for the novels she wrote jointly with Edith Somerville (both Alexandra graduates, Lil Nic Dhonnchadha (1891-1984), Irish language scholar and language activist, was one of the first ten women to enter TCD as undergraduates from Alexandra College, Bea Orpen (1913-80), painter and art teacher, won first prize in decorative composition in 1936 at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, Mary Swanzy (1882-1978), landscape and genre painter, went to Paris in 1905 and was heavily influenced by the avant-garde movement, Edith Best (1865-1950) was a founding member of the Feis Ceoil, Florence Culwick (1877 – 1929) re-established a choral society founded by her father, and Shelah Richards (1903-85), actress and director, joined the Abbey players and established herself as a leading actress in Seán O'Casey’s plays. Our graduates continue to set the world alight today and we are proud of all their achievements.
