St. Matthew's Primary School continues to serve the residents of Belfast's Short Strand area. During the Second World War, it functioned as a separate establishment for girls and boys. This was common in most Public Elementary Schools of the time.
In 1939, when the Second World War began, the Principal of St. Matthew’s Boys’ School was Mr. Charles Kerr. By 1943, Mr. Michael McDonnell had taken over the role.
Between these times, on 4th July 1940, the Belfast News-Letter listed St. Matthew’s Boys’ School as an evacuation point. From there, on 8th July 1940, unregistered children would gather to join others in evacuating the city. By this stage of the war, authorities had designated St. Matthew’s Boys’ School as an Air Raid Precautions of A.R.P. Post. On 9th May 1940, A.R.P. Warden James Patrick Quinn was the target of a vicious assault by a gang of armed men.
This was an attempt to evacuate many children from East Belfast as the threat of an aerial attack from the Luftwaffe increased. The fall of France had left Northern Ireland within range of enemy bombers. The Belfast Blitz would take place less than a year later in April and May 1941.