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A new exhibition, ‘Lisburn’s Quaker School: 250 Years of Friends’, has been officially opened at the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum.

The free exhibition, which was opened by Councillor Jonathan Craig, Chairman of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s Leisure & Community Wellbeing Committee, marks 250 years since the school was founded at Prospect Hill, Lisburn, in 1774.

Using prints, letters, books, rare artefacts, and loans from Friends’ School and National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI), the exhibition explores the early history of the school and its Quaker roots, as well as life as a student through the centuries.

At the launch the Mayor Councillor Kurtis Dickson, a past pupil, remarked that: “The town of Lisburn, as we know it, is just over 400 years old and it is incredible to think that for over 250 years of that long history, there has been a school on Prospect Hill.

The Mayor, Cllr Curtis Dickson, and the Chair of LCCC’s Leisure & Community Wellbeing Committee Jonathan Craig (centre), photographed with Mr Stephen Moore, Principal of Friends’ School (right) with Angela McCann BEM, Head of Community Service, and Paul Allison, Museum Service Manager (left). Pic credit: LCCC

"The 1798 Rebellion by the United Irishmen, the Famine, the partition of Ireland, and the First and Second World Wars, have all come and gone, yet the school has remained open, educating students for life beyond the gates.”

Councillor Craig, also an alumnus, commended the museum for mounting the exhibition, and commented: “It is incredible to see the reach of the school, and the mark the institution has made on the wider world.

"There are actors, politicians, war-time heroes, musicians and sportsmen who have left the school and achieved great things.”

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Visitors to the exhibition photographed with Mr Arthur Chapman, historian, archivist and former principal of Friends’. Pic credit: LCCC

At the official launch of the exhibition Mr Stephen Moore, Principal of Friends’ School, said: “Founded in 1774 for the children of Quakers, Friends’ has grown from a small school for 30 boys and girls to the school it is today, serving 1200 pupils aged 4-18 from right across the community.

“Although much has changed over the last 250 years, the school still stands on its original site on Prospect Hill and its Quaker values and heritage remain central to its ethos.

“This anniversary year is an opportunity to look back at the history of Friends’ and to reflect on how it has been shaped by events in Lisburn and further afield.”

The exhibition runs until January 31, 2025, Monday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm. Admission is free.

New exhibition celebrates 250 years of Friends' School Lisburn