IT can count bona fide Hollywood stars among its alumni – and it has even had a movie moment itself.
Lourdes Secondary featured in the 2010 film Neds, directed and written by former pupil Peter Mullan.
The Braveheart, Trainspotting and Harry Potter actor has said in the past that lessons learned at the school helped him to become the man he is.
Mullan, who wrote The Magdalene Sisters, said in an interview with The Herald in 2018: “I’m not Catholic now and I’m not particularly religious now…having said that, there was a values system that even as a young kid I always appreciated.”
The star, who was in Glasgow to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Drama from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, added: “I liked the idea of the collective and more than anything I liked the idea that it is better to give than receive.
“That always struck me as a good philosophy because it was just and it seemed fair. I’ll always appreciate having learned that from school.”
The school was established in 1956, with the main building designed by Thomas Smith Cordiner. An extension was added in the 1970s.
Pupils from Lourdes have often featured in the Glasgow Times over the decades. In 2023, they scooped the top prize in a competition aimed at tackling marine litter in the River Clyde.
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The pupils won the Best Investigation prize in the STEM the Flow Engineering Challenge
Teacher Gary Marshall was “delighted” with the students. He said: “They put in so much hard work and have shown ingenuity and passion.”
In 2004, pupils from Lourdes Secondary School in Cardonald set up their own film company in a project to develop their business skills.
Louise McKenna, 16, Paul Hogan, 17, Paul Brooks, 16, Laura Breaden, 15 and Alex Craig 16 are pictured celebrating the initiative.
Lourdes Secondary pupil Mark McGettigan hit the headlines when he helped uncover three long-lost medieval gravestones during a community archaeology dig in Glasgow.
The then 14-year-old, volunteering along with his mother, Sandra was helping the Stones and Bones dig at Govan Old Parish Church.
Professor Stephen Driscoll, the University of Glasgow’s Professor of Historical Archaeology and part of The Govan Heritage Trust, said Mark’s find was “the most exciting discovery we have had at Govan in the last 20 years”.
It’s not just Lourdes Secondary pupils who have made the news over the years.
In 2009, dinner ladies from Lourdes secondary school had a special night out at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, watching…. Dinner Ladies.
Pictured are Sandra Whiteside, Helen Black, Linda Hughes, Anne Docherty and Janet Watt.
Bluebells star Robert Hodgens attended Lourdes Secondary, as did former Motherwell and Celtic striker Tommy Coyne.
Tommy, who was raised in Govan, also played for Clydebank, Dundee United and Dundee and he was top goalscorer of the Scottish Premier Division three times,
The striker played international football for the Republic of Ireland, qualifying due to his Irish ancestry.
Another famous ex-pupil is David O’Hara is best known for playing Stephen, the Irishman who joins forces with William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) in the 1995 movie Braveheart.
He is also an accomplished Shakespearean actor, having performed in a variety of productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Born in Pollok, the son of a retired labourer, his mother sadly died when he was a child.
A YOPs scheme at Glasgow Arts Centre led him to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and roles in Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy and the BBC's The Monocled Mutineer followed.
In an interview with our sister newspaper The Herald in 1992, he said acting “did everything for me.”
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