Founded by Cantillon-Murphy, his wife Grace, and other interested parents, Mater Dei opened in 2020 with 12 students . Today, some 60 students in secondary school, the equivalent of grades 7-12 in the United States, sit in its classrooms, where they receive lessons in the Catholic faith, Irish and the history and literature of Ireland, science and math, and a classical education. Additional students are enrolling in the school’s online and homeschooling courses or ordering it

Catholic education, which has changed over the centuries, must continue to evolve to help young people face the challenges not only of technology but of confusion about the meaning and purpose of life, Pope Leo XIV said.

The Saints and Scholars Foundation President Connie Marshner gave a talk on the importance of parenting, community, education, and the...

In 2023 Fr. Neil O'Donoghue presented on the future of Faith formation in Ireland for the Mater Dei Academy lecture series .

Mater Dei Academy is part of this new era of rebuilding Ireland's Catholic educational legacy. Independent, lay-run, and unapologetically Catholic, Mater Dei offers the Irish a new model of Catholic education in Ireland . It is, in a way, a retrieval of Ireland's educational legacy that made a global impact.

Pádraig Cantillon-Murphy, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Mater Dei Academy, gave a brief interview to Tracy Sabol of EWTN News Nightly on the state of Catholic and classical education in Ireland and the work of The Saints and Scholars Foundation in the United States.

A new movement aims to restore Catholic faith and education in Ireland and eventually Europe, with the creation of the country’s first-ever independent Catholic classical education schools .

4/29/2021 In 1908, Pádraig Pearse founded Scoil Éanna, an independent school in Rathmines in Dublin. The school encapsulated Pearse's...

4/9/2021 A look at the many new in-person, hybrid and online schools remerging from within the Catholic Church .

7/24/2020 Dr. Kozinski is a teacher at both the Angelicum Academy and Divine Mercy University, and author of "Modernity as Apocalypse:...

7/3/2020 Fr. Conor, a Dominican priest and lecturer at the Dominican House of Studies in Dublin, was the second speaker in the Mater Dei Academy lecture series. He spoke on the subject of Irish contributions to the liberal arts .

6/12/2020 As the inaugural speaker in the Mater Dei Academy lecture series, Elisabeth Sullivan of the Institute for Catholic Liberal...

2/27/2020 From America Magazine: "There is a growing conviction among many educators that implementing a classical educational model,...