Ligue gaélique
The school was at the centre of the Gaelic literary revival. The Coláiste Chonnacht was founded in 1905 as a summer school by Conradh na Gaeilge. The principal was Micheál Breathnach, with Máire Ní Tuathail as his assistant. The school became known as "Cliabhran Conradh na Gaeilge"—the "cradle of the Gaelic League". Among the people who visited the school were Douglas Hyde (later to become the first President of Ireland), Patrick Pearse, Éamon de Valera, Kuno Meyer (the renowned German Gaelic scholar), Padraig Ó Domhnallain, and other Irish writers visited the school frequently. De Valera was later to marry Sinead Flanagan, who had been a teacher at the school.