Mission Statement

Mercy Mouthawk Voluntary Catholic Secondary School is a witnessing community which fosters:

• The full potential of all staff and student.
• A positive partnership between all members of the school and wider community.
• The highest standard of teaching, learning and performance.

School History

Mercy Mounthawk is an amalgamation of two mercy Schools: St John’s Balloonagh and St. Mary’s Moyderwell. As with any institutions that have been around for a while – both secondary top schools were established in 1925 – there is a time to reshape to meet the needs of a changed society and this came by way of an amalgamation in 2001. Mercy Secondary School Mounthawk was established as a school of 1170 students, serving almost ½ the second level student population of Tralee. So we are a new school – or at least a school with new premises and facilities for this new century – with strong roots in the educational history of Tralee.

Catherine McAuley founded the Religious Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in 1831.

Her strong faith in God nurtured by reflection on the Gospels, her deep and personal awareness of the needs of poor people in Dublin in the nineteenth century and her loyalty to the Catholic Church led her to give her life in service to others.

In her educational endeavours Catherine McAuley sought:

• To bring freedom and a better quality of life to those who were poor.
• To regenerate Irish society by preparing young people for responsible adult living.
• To lead all in her care to a deeper faith in Jesus Christ

The focus of her attention was those who were poor, uneducated and without opportunity, her approach was collaborative and she sought to influence those at the centre of wealth and power to share in her efforts.
‘She connected the rich to the poor, the educated and skilled to the uninstructed, the influential to those perceived as of no consequence, the powerful to the weak’.