St. Patrick's College, Thurles

Einhard

Hey all,

Am helping my younger sister with her CAO application, and she's decided on Irish and Religion Teaching in St. Pat's in Thurles as her first choice. Fairly sensible on the face of it, as it's a good match for what she wants to do as a career, but I'm slightly concerned about the college itself. I had never heard of it until she brought it up, and she doesn't have much info on it either. On top of that, there's not a lot of objective info on it on the internet, no student reviews etc. So, does anyone have any experience of the place? What's the standard of education like? How is the college viewed by boards of management? And also, what's Thurles like as a place to live? I know a decent social life is important (probably too important!) for students, and I don't want her enjoy the course, but be fed up with Thurles within a few months.

Anyhoo, any feedback appreciated!

miss5

Last year at school we had a student religion teacher who went to Thurles
and he had very positive reviews of the place, He was one of three teachers
from that college working there so it appears to have good employment
prospects although have heard because it's so small the social aspects are
not wonderful.

Sigma Force

I live just outside of Thurles town.
I don't know much about the college itself, lovely old building though.
Thurles itself is pretty lively but she really needs to make some pals, if she knows anyone else going to the same place than grand but if not she should be able to make new friends through college and perhaps getting involved with something within the community.

Right beside the college there is the leisure center and pool, the train station is just up the road and there are trains going constantly to dub and cork plus a good bus service so if she doesn't drive and wants to head back home it's easy to get out of Thurles (I always said that's the only good point about the place lol) but it's actually not a bad place it grows on you.

There's not much trouble in the town, obviously if you stay out till 2am you get the usual crowds coming out of the nightclubs but there's always cops around then and it's a pretty safe town.

There's also the source arts center right beside the college as well where there are lots of plays and events held plus the library with internet access.

There's plenty of shops and supermarkets and resteraunts, if she's into nature there is cabra wetlands a couple of miles out of town.

The college is also directly opposite the cathedral and if she's going to be renting in town rents are pretty reasonable.

There's a new nightclub just opened as well HQ think a lot of students head there, there's a ton of pubs as well.

There are tons of things she can get involved in as well plenty of stuff to keep busy with.

In general in Thurles the standard of education is very high, there's also Tipp institute which is a small but user friendly but growing all the time.

So if she's not into the nightlife there's lots of local charities (incl. animal ones) she can get involved with.

The Thurles folk are in general a pretty friendly and sociable bunch, the town has grown hugely in the past 10 odd years but still has that thing where everyone knows everyones buisness lol.

Einhard

Thanks for the replies. She put St. Pat's down as second choice in the end. I think the fact that there was more people in her 6th year classes than there are across all the courses in Pat's made her think again. Plus the fact that, coming from asmall town, she wanted a bit of the Big Smoke living!!