Meánscoil Iognáid Rís is a voluntary secondary school under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust ( E.R.S.T). The school, named after the founder of the order Edmund Ignatius Rice, opened its doors in September 1871, a full fifty years before the Irish State was founded. The Moat Hall as it is now known was both monastery and school for the Brothers until 1903, when the monastery on Friary Road was built. For over seventy years both the primary and secondary schools were housed in the hall. In 1954 St. Corban’s primary school was built and four years later the secondary school moved to its present site.

From its foundation, the school was managed by one of the Brothers who held the post of Principal. In 1993 a Board of Management representing, trustees, staff and parents was put in place and the first lay-Principal, Mr Noel Merrick, was appointed. The school remains a CBS with the staff and management committed to the ethos of the Christian Brothers Schools.