A NEW ERA will begin at two long-established Catholic schools in Co Tipperary, when two Limerick men take up new positions later this year. Neither belongs to a religious order, so it will be a double first when the new academic year opens at Rockwell College, outside Cashel, and at the Cistercian College, Roscrea.

Patrick O'Sullivan, from Limerick city, is the new lay principal of elegant Rockwell. "It's a school that fosters a great relationship between laity and religious, between parents and students," he says. Rockwell was founded in 1864 by the Holy Ghost Fathers.

O'Sullivan has been principal of Carrick-on-Suir CBS for the past three years. "I will be very sad to leave," he says. Previously, he taught at Thurles CBS for 19 years. He is a graduate of UCC.

His new posting will, he says, "be a new challenge. It's a very different set up, a boarding school with a long tradition and a heavy emphasis on extra-curricular areas." O'Sullivan says that the college's motto - Constancy in the midst of inevitable change - is interesting in light of current changes in schools.

As the control of religious schools passes into lay hands, he says, there is "a great fear that the spiritual ethos will be undermined". However, he points to the concern of the teaching staff that "the religious values and educational values of caring for young people remain constant".

Further north, Patrick Cronin, also from Limerick, takes over as president of the Cistercian College, Roscrea, in succession to Father Kevin Daly, at the beginning of the new academic year. Being president means that Cronin is the new chief executive officer with responsibility for all aspects of management of the school, which was founded in 1905.

Cronin, also a UCC graduate, is currently head of Queen Elizabeth School in Corby, Northamptonshire, a post which he has held since 1989. Before that he spent six years as head of St Alban's Catholic High School in Ipswich, Suffolk.