Gift of time: Stephen Moore on Friends’ School Lisburn

21 Mar 2024 | by Stephen Moore

‘This heritage is a gift.’

'In a society which remains divided even twenty-five years after the Good Friday Agreement, the school’s Quaker ethos has ensured that it has broad appeal.' | Photo: Friends’ School Lisburn

Friends’ School Lisburn is one of two Quaker schools on the island of Ireland, and the only one in the North. At the time of its foundation in 1774, Ulster Friends played a prominent role in society, not least in the thriving linen industry on which the town’s prosperity was built; it is unsurprising that they wanted to set up a school for their children. John Gough, a Quaker from Kendal, was the first headmaster, and although he had only thirty-five girls and boys in his care, his textbooks in English grammar and arithmetic ensured that his influence extended to other schools across Ireland and in Britain.

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