Stable blend of ancient and modern the business of Glenstal

If you're expecting to read about a harsh, parsimonious, monastic regime in a school hooked on tradition, think again. As they celebrate their 75th anniversary, Louise Holdentalks hip-hop classes and crocodile kebabs with the monks and students of Glenstal Abbey

Glenstal Abbey is 400 hundred acres of woodland, farmland, prehistoric forest and rugby fields, dotted with teachers' cottages and giant rhododendrons. At its heart is a 200-year-old mock-Norman house. Frocked and hooded monks file across the courtyard to matins or vespers. The entrance is flanked by Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the lobby bracketed by the giant antlers of Killarney elks, now extinct. Gangs of teenagers with Abercrombie hoodies and bleached-out blonde streaks pass under them on the way to break-dancing class.

In the Barrington Ballroom that Brother Denis Hooper calls his "office", the Glenstal Abbey headmaster is preparing for the 75th anniversary celebrations of a unique school. There are few boarding schools left in Ireland, even fewer that offer seven-day accommodation in a single-sex environment where members of a holy order and teens live their lives in tandem. The partnership works, says Hooper, because of the Benedictine ethos.

"Benedict believed in moderation," says Brother Hooper, who joined the Benedictine Order in his late 20s after a career as a quantity surveyor in Limerick.

"Our school creates a balanced and well-rounded person who learns to operate in a community. We are not as isolated as many people think. When I first came to work at the school 25 years ago there was one public phone and that was the students' only link to the outside world. A lot has changed since then."

The unlikely blend of ancient and modern at Glenstal Abbey is attractive to Irish and international parents. There are 215 boys at Glenstal Abbey, about 10 per cent of whom are international students. "We could fill the school with international students if we wanted, the demand is especially high from China and Germany," says Hooper.

Around 80 per cent of the student body is Catholic, the rest are Church of Ireland. There are 45 monks at the Abbey, 15 of whom work at the school in various capacities. Most of the teachers are lay people.

There's a sense that anything goes here, as long as it doesn't go too far. The boys can learn any instrument they want, play any sport they want and study any subject they choose. By sixth year they are allowed to drink and smoke, although only under the most controlled circumstances. There is no school uniform or regulation hairstyle - any uniformity of appearance is down to the usual teenage fashion lockstep. The menu in the canteen features crocodile kebabs and ostrich steaks. They have sound-proofed bandrooms for rehearsals, hip-hop dance classes and Tae Kwon Do. But every student goes to mass on Sunday and those from first to fourth year attend morning and evening prayers every day. All first and second years study Latin.

Staff and students work closely together at Glenstal, with many teachers living on the school grounds. The whole community eats together every evening and the students call the teachers and brothers by their first names.

According to Hooper, the whole organism of the school is nourished by stability. "The monks take a vow of stability. They pledge their lives to the Abbey. The boys know that whatever happens in the outside world, when they come back here they will find the same faces, the same atmosphere. It's a refuge from the fluctuation of everyday life. They know that in the midst of change they can rely on something remaining constant."

But nowhere is immune from change and tremors will shake the Abbey. The subject of bringing girls to Glenstal is low on the agenda for now, but Hooper suspects it will creep up in the next few years. The Abbey was bequeathed a piece of land three miles away - a potential site for a female residence. The students have mixed feelings about the suggestion.

Fifth-year student James O'Brien Moran doesn't think Glenstal would be Glenstal with girls. "It would change the school. There's no room for more students so the number of boys would have to drop and there wouldn't be enough for some of the sports teams."

Student Joseph Williams agrees that Glenstal, as it stands would have to change if girls were around. "The atmosphere here suits the guys. It's a bit shabby."

The building is under pressure. Built by the Barrington family in the early 1800s, the mock-Norman house shows the wear and tear of 75 years of accommodating 200 teenagers. A massive capital redevelopment is planned that will involve restoring large sections of the original building, developing new facilities and redesigning the facade of an incongruous and unlovely 1960s extension.

Brother Hooper believes that the new buildings will be the outward manifestation of the school's new priorities: ecological sustainability and self-reliance.

"We are currently looking at the practical aspects of installing a geothermal heating system and a wind turbine," he says. "It costs €18,000 a month to heat this school, and most of it is wasted. Once the building is properly insulated and the wind turbine gets going, we will have more than enough energy to run the school. We will have excess to sell."

Expect an injection of Benedictine energy into the national grid.

Meanwhile, Limerick's urban sprawl is starting to encroach on the Abbey's tranquillity. The Barrington family brought trees from all over the world and the growing population of Maloo locals come to stroll among the California redwoods, the monkey-puzzle trees and the prehistoric forests. The planning of Maloo's new housing estates was no more enlightened that most of Ireland's large-scale residential building schemes: there are no public areas for the residents of the new estates and the local GAA grounds have just been sold. The grounds are a huge draw for weekend walkers.

But for now, the residents of Glenstal Abbey continue to enjoy their rarefied acres.

"Guests of the Barringtons always claimed to sleep well here, because the oxygen is so pure," says Brother Hooper, standing under a rhododendron bush in full unseasonal bloom. With clear conscience and pure oxygen the monks and students of Glenstal Abbey sleep soundly until the matin bells.