Summerhill College
The College of the Immaculate Conception was founded by the then Bishop of Elphin, Dr Gillooly in Summerhill, Athlone in 1857. It was transferred to Sligo in 1880 and provided with temporary accommodation in Quay Street, pending the building of a new school.
This, the present college, was formally opened in 1892. Popularly, the college has always remained known as "Summerhill". For many decades the College catered for both boarders and dayboys and operated essentially as a junior seminary for the diocese of Elphin. With the introduction of Free Education in 1967, there followed an explosion in student and staff numbers. The number of dayboys soon exceeded the number of boarders and thus a new dynamic resulted.