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Born: 08 May 1920, St Patrick’s Road, Drumcondra, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 04 January 1956, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 03 December 1977
Died: 08 December 1993, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the St Joseph’s, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1951

Father was a Civil Servant.

Eldest in a family of six, three boys and three girls.

Early education was at St Pat’s BNS, Drumcoindra and then at Belvedere College SJ.

by 1948 at Australia (ASL) - Regency

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Seán Monahan's family attended St Francis Xavier's Church, Gardiner Street, and he received his secondary education at Belvedere College nearby. On 7 September 1939 he entered the Irish noviciate at St Mary's, Portarlington, and then did juniorate studies in arts, studying English, French, Latin and Irish, at the Irish National University, while living at Rathfarnham. He developed tuberculosis during this time and never completed the course. For the next three years he was an invalid, and the decision was made for him to go to Australia.
At the beginning of 1948 Monahan arrived in Australia and began the three year philosophy course at Loyola College, Watsonia. He was a wonderful companion with his sense of humour, his gift for mimicry and his talent for friendship. He enjoyed participating in the scholastic dramatic performances, particularly the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He produced Iolanthe.
For regency he spent some time at St Louis School, Perth, teaching and working in the boarding house, but he found the heat did not benefit his health, so in 1953 he began theology
studies at Canisius College, Pymble. After ordination in 1956, Monahan became a member of the Australian province. Tertianship followed in 1957 at Sevenhill, SA, under Henry Johnston, his theology rector.
His first priestly appointment was to Corpus Christi College, Werribee, where he was minister, bursar, prefect of liturgy and librarian. In 1958, there were 189 diocesan students; 42 in the first year. Monahan was a good administrator, shrewd, diplomatic, and with a care for detail. His special eye for individuals was much appreciated. He soon became involved in spiritual direction and the students found him a most warm and understanding confessor. He kept contact with many of these men in later years, either as priests or laymen. He was probably one of the best known Jesuits among the Melbourne diocesan priests.
Monahan's special talent for spiritual direction became well known, so he was sent to Loyola College, Watsonia, in 1960, first as socius to the master of novices and later as master of novices. In his first year as master there were 36 novices. Monahan was a most successful and highly acclaimed novice master. Despite his obvious garishness, he understood Australian young people and the contemporary needs of the Church and Society, and initiated many sensible changes into the life of the Jesuit novice. In many ways, he was a significant turning point in the formation of Jesuits in the Australian province, and the last of the Irish novice masters. At the time of his death, 42 of his novices were still members of the Society.
Monahan spent 1971 as spiritual father to Jesuit University scholastics at the Dominican house of studies in Canberra. In 1972 he was recalled to Victoria to become rector of Corpus Christi College, Werribee. It was the last year of the college at that place, the Society handing over its administration to the diocesan clergy.
For the next two years Monahan was spiritual director to the ]suit scholastics at Campion College, and in 1976 he was appointed socius to the provincial and lived at the provincial residence, Hawthorn. Having made his mark as socius, he was given the job, in 1977, of secretary to the South East Asian assistant in Rome, Robert Rush. However, the Roman climate affected his health, and he had difficulty learning Italian, so Paul Gardiner replaced him. He returned to Australia in 1978. At this time the archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Little, asked for him as vicar for religious in the archdiocese.
On his return he took up residence at the provincial house, and was superior from 1979-85, secretary of the province, giving wise advice to the provincial, while continuing his work as spiritual director to many in Melbourne. He was a most hospitable man, and Jesuits enjoyed being invited to Power Street for some Jesuit celebration. During this time his health continued to deteriorate.
In 1993 his health improved a little and Monahan was keen to revisit Ireland. He went and stayed at Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown Park, Dublin, where he received many visitors. He related by mail that he was very happy to be in Dublin. However, his health further declined, his return to Australia was postponed, and he finally died there in December.
Monahan was much loved in the Australian province for his personal humanity and charm, his loving care of others, his encouragement and cheeriness, his sense of fun and wit. He was one of the great storytellers and was a good companion. He loved news, enjoyed being consulted and gave wise advice. Above all he engendered love of, and confidence in, the Society.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 1 1948

Fr. Peyton left for Australia on the “Mauretania” on 31st October in company with Fr. Conway, a member of the Viceprovince. Fr. Kevin Carroll, also a member of the Viceprovince, left Shannon Airport on 3rd November for New York, bound for San Francisco and Sydney. Mr. Monahan left Southampton on the “Queen Mary” on 20th November for New York; he took boat at San Francisco on 12th December for Sydney which he reached on 4th January. He will be doing his first year's philosophy at Loyola, Watsonia in the coming year.

Irish Province News 48th Year No 1 1973

A recent letter from Fr Seán Monahan, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, conveys the new that the Seminary is being replaced; “After just 50 years in Jesuit hands; the diocesan authorities have to find a buyer for a property a bit like Emo. A new Seminary is a building and though scheduled to be ready for the opening of this year on February 26th it will not in fact be ready in time. We have handed over the administration to the diocese but there will be Jesuits on the staff of the new establishment as academic and spiritual directors. It is in this latter capacity that I go there together with the present spiritual director here, Fr Paul Keenan. Altogether there will be five of us working with the same number of diocesan priests for 161 students following an 8 year course”.

◆ Interfuse No 77 : Summer 1994 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995

Obituary
John (Seán) Monahan (1920-1993)

During the six decades of my life, an unbelievable number of people have crossed my path, some friends, others mere acquaintances.

Out of this vast galaxy of people, some have shone like stars to light my way, a select few have been guiding lights that have helped me to believe in myself and to keep on course when I was in danger of losing my way or of being overwhelmed by what confronted me. These latter luminaries have exerted a colossal impact on my life, and I am ever conscious of my debt to them.

On this occasion I want to talk about one that I treasure very specially, one who died on the 8th of December last year after a life of extraordinary dedication to God and to people who needed him. He was John (Seán) Monahan, and I met him first in my last year in the seminary 1958. He had been born in Dublin, Ireland, on 8th May 1920, and had entered the Society of Jesus just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, on 7th September 1939.

Interestingly enough, he had been ordained a priest only two years before our own group, on 6th January 1956. Because of health reasons he was sent to work in Australia where he spent over thirty years; ironically enough, for the latter part of this period he was contending quietly and courageously with a debilitating illness.

I was thinking back, as I was putting these thoughts together, about how we first met, and I can't quite recollect exactly how that meeting took place. What I do recall, however, is the fact that during the space of a few short months we established a bond that was to link us in friendship every since that time.

As I indicated earlier, I saw him as one of those luminaries who exerted a colossal impact on my life. Whether our contacts were frequent or separated by long intervals, those points at which our lives touched each other, either by letter or in person, exerted a considerable influence on me, both as a man and as a priest. All this was so profound and leaves me so indebted to him that I would like to tell you about at least a few of the riches that I derived from my friendship with Father John Monahan.

My first comment might well sound extraordinary, but I believe it to be the truth; in John Monahan I met Jesus. He was a person in whom I perceived, particularly at a time I needed it, that he really cared about me. He was unhurried as he walked with me on my journey.

There was an extraordinary warmth in him. He had a graciousness, a charm that was not artificial but from the heart. It wasn't a performance designed to impress, it was a natural outflow from his personality. Quite obviously, I wasn't the only one to have experienced this Monahan touch. From the testimonies of others ! know that he endeared himself to an incredible number of people, who were, like myself, influenced and enriched by his part in their life.

As I said, he really embodied Jesus for me, and I mean that if I were to meet Jesus, he would act towards me as John did. Related to this Christlikeness, he breathed an extraordinary inner peace. Any contact that transpired between us was characterised by this quality. There was this relaxing, disarming approach that he adopted, and it said to you in unmistakable terms, “Just be at home while you're with me”.

Had I been aware that he was going home to Ireland for a final farewell to his relatives, friends and fellow religious, I would have grasped the opportunity of saying my own good byes. Therefore, regret that I failed to say goodbye to him and to thank him for everything.

In a way, this tribute to him is a public goodbye and thanks to John for all he was for me and did to me. That is not to suggest that I have finished what I want to say about him, because there is one other comment that completes the picture, and it is this.

The most indelible and most lasting impression that I will always carry with me is that he was a great affirmer. How often, when important events occurred in my life and I let him know about them, and sometimes when I omitted to do so, through the mail would come, written in his neat and thorough way, a letter that complimented me on what I had achieved, or encouraged and supported me in what I was about to undertake.

So often in regard to this very programme he was a source of endorsement and positive comment which encouraged me to give of my best. He wouldn't hesitate to provide a suggestion, too, of how this or that might be improved, but there was always a sensitivity and enthusiasm that urged me on.

His was a caring ministry and I know from comments of other priests and people how widespread and powerful was the influence for good in their lives. Which means that the greatest kindness would be for us to emulate him and his Christlike behaviour in our daily lives. That is no easy prospect, to absorb all these great qualities of a genuine loving priest, but it would be worth the effort.

I already miss John very much; I was always aware that he was there, selflessly supporting me in the background through his suffering and by his prayer.

I thank our heavenly Father that in his providence our lives did touch each other and that I am so much the richer for that as I share these thoughts with you now.

So, to fittingly conclude these thoughts about the man who was for me my Christlike Character for 1993, I share with you a text of Scripture that John referred to often and which presumably affected his personal and priestly ministry and sustained it.

It was found highlighted in his Bible, following his death. It comes from Paul's Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses twenty-six to twenty-nine. As I read it, I can perceive John really reaching into the very depths of his being, and opening himself to the power of the Spirit, seeking to be a true priest - a bridge between us and the Father, in and with our Brother, Jesus.

These are the words that animated and challenged John Monahan, Priest and Member of the Society of Jesus, to be Christlike in character:
“...the mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone to make them all perfect in Christ. It is for this I struggle wearily on, helped only by his power driving me irresistibly”.

Christopher Gleeson, Riverview Australia

Born: 22 April 1927, Ballyglass, Kilmovee, Ballaghadereen, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1958, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin
Died: 20 September 2018, Coptic Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Part of the Novitiate, Xavier House, Lusaka, Zambia at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 16 May 1990

Son of Charles Stuart Moore and Marion McGrath. Father was a National Health Insurance official, and the family lived st Saint Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin.

Older of two boys with two sisters.

Early education was at Kilmovee and Glasnevin National Schools he then went to Belvedere College Sj for six years.

by 1960 at Münster, Germany (GER I) making Tertianship
by 1985 at Lusaka, Zambia (ZAM) teaching

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fr-brownes-polymath-partner/

Fr Browne’s Polymath partner
While John Moore was home on leave from Zambia, he talked to Pat Coyle, Director of Communications, about his links with Fr Frank Browne, and about much else in his most unusual life. He was Professor of Botany in UCD during the 70’s. He also became a student and friend of the renowned Jesuit photographer, Fr Frank Browne. John took early retirement from his UCD chair, but the last thing he did was retire. Instead he became a Jesuit missionary and went to Africa, working in Zambia and Malawi. As in previous years, John returned to Ireland this summer to visit his family and Jesuit friends. Whilst here he watched the RTE TV documentary on Fr Browne (see story in this issue) and recalled his own special relationship with the Jesuit who was not only a famous photographer but also a heroic chaplain to Irish volunteers in World War I.
After the documentary was aired, John talked to Pat Coyle of Jesuit Communications about his life and his friendship with Fr Frank. You can listen here to the interview in which he recalls his days in UCD as Professor of Botany and shares with her a letter he’d just received from a student who’d discovered a yellow poppy on a beach in Mayo. The poppy was thought to have been lost to these shores, not having been seen for thirty years – but it’s back! He also speaks about the subsequent rewards and challenges of becoming a missionary in his late 50’s; as well as lecturing in various institutions, he mastered the complexities of the computer age and put those skills to good use. At 87 John is still full of vitality and as the IJN photo shows, he looks like a man in his sixties. There’s a reason for that too; he spoke about what keeps him young in body and soul. He returns to Africa in September, bitten by the missionary bug and refreshed by his holiday home, ready as ever to serve the Lord with a willing heart.

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/death-of-a-botanist/

Death of a botanist
The funeral Mass of Fr John J. Moore SJ took place on Monday 24 September in Kasisi Parish, Lusaka. Fr Moore, who was 91 years old, died on 20 September. Charles Searson SJ was the principal celebrant and homilist at the vigil Mass. Speaking to a packed Church he recounted the key moments of his life and the remarkable contribution he made to the Jesuits and to wider society. (Read his homily notes here).
Fr John was a native of Mayo, born in Kilmovee on 22 April 1927, and his family moved to Dublin when he was ten. He was a student at Belvedere College SJ. He joined the Jesuits in 1945, was ordained a priest in 1958, and took his final vows in 1963.
For more than twenty years Fr John was Professor of Botany in UCD. He was an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy, and an Irish government appointee to the Wildlife Advisory Council. He was awarded the Europapreis für Landespflege prize in 1982 in recognition of his work on Irish vegetation and nature conservation. As Fr Charlie noted, “Right through his academic career in Dublin John showed himself to be an outstanding academic and professor.”
In the 70’s Fr John was rector of the Monkstown community in Dublin and in 1980 he was appointed superior of the Espinal community in Gardiner St, in inner city Dublin. He also was a member of the Teams of Our Lady, a Catholic organisation which supported couples in their married life.
In 1983 Fr John took the surprising step of early retirement in order to join the Jesuit mission in Zambia. Fr Charles also noted that when he first turned up for work in the University of Zambia he showed considerable patience as he had a lengthy wait for an official appointment. But he put his computer skills (honed in 1960’s Dublin) to good use. According to Fr Charles, “there was great demand for his assistance from Ph.D students at the university, who were trying to assemble the fruits of their research.”
Fr John settled well in Zambia but he did return to Ireland from time to time. During a visit in 2016 he gave a lengthy an insightful interview to the Irish Jesuit Mission office which you can read in full here.
He also spoke to Pat Coyle, Director of Irish Jesuit Communications in 2014. In the course of that interview (listen above), Fr John talked about his early Jesuit days as a student and friend of the renowned Jesuit photographer Fr Frank Browne SJ.
Recalling his days as Professor of Botany in University College Dublin he shared a letter he had just received that summer. It was from one of his former students and he had discovered a yellow poppy on a beach in Mayo. The yellow poppy was thought to have been lost to Irish shores, not having been seen for thirty years, but it was back.
Fr John also spoke about the rewards and challenges of becoming a missionary in his late 50’s, and his work as a lecturer in various institutions in Zambia, first teaching biology and later theology.
He was 87 at the time of the interview but was still full of vitality. As the IJN photo shows he looked like a man in his sixties and there was a reason for that which became clear when he talked about what kept him young in body and soul.
The interview took place in August and Fr John returned to Zambia in September bitten by the missionary bug, and refreshed by his holiday back home. He gave four more years of fruitful service before his peaceful death last Thursday. The readings at his vigil Mass, were from Isaiah 6;1-8 ‘Whom shall I send? Who shall be our messenger?’ And Matthew 6:25-33: ‘ Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.’ They were a fitting tribute to his life of service to others, and care for the earth.

◆ Irish Jesuit Missions : https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/211-john-moore-sj-mission-in-zambia

What does it mean for me to be a missionary in Zambia today?
John Moore, SJ
I came to Zambia as a missionary when I was 56, after a very fulfilling time working in the Botany Department at UCD. My “spare-time” activities during that time involved me with married couples, giving retreats and spiritual direction as well as helping in Parishes at the weekends.
When I left Ireland some of my colleagues at the University as well as the more senior students were very surprised at my decision to move to Zambia and some told me bluntly that it was a wrong decision. I was not convinced by their arguments. It seemed to me that I had done sufficient for Ireland during my 23 years at UCD. Besides, after I had spent a few days the previous year as external examiner at the Biology Dept. of the University of Zambia (UNZA), I became very aware of the needs of Zambia, especially in University education.
Since I am now 85 years old, I could hardly be called an active missionary, but I am still convinced that I am in the right place. During my 29 years “on the missions” I have seen a huge change in the Church and among the Jesuits in Zambia. When I came here all the active Jesuits were white – now almost all the Jesuits running the various Jesuit works are native Zambians or Malawians. This gives me enormous satisfaction. Is this not why we came out here? To help in the development of an indigenous church.
So, without falling into the temptation of sitting back in my old-man’s rocking chair in a self-satisfied way, I must admit that I do feel a sense of having cooperated with the Lord in doing my little bit to bring about this change.
2nd April 2012

https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/508-irish-men-behind-the-missions-fr-john-moore-sj

IRISH MEN BEHIND THE MISSIONS: FR JOHN MOORE SJ

The Irish Jesuit Missions continues its series of interviews with Fr John Moore SJ. From ecologist to theologian, Fr John Moore SJ takes us though his life’s story in Ireland and Zambia.
When John Moore entered the Society of Jesus’ noviciate straight from secondary school, it was customary at the time. Like the other young Jesuits who came straight from secondary school, he was assigned to study for a degree in UCD. He did first Arts but switched over to Science the following year. In his final year one of the research projects he undertook was a follow up survey of vegetation in the Dublin Mountains, which had been researched 50 years previously by the famous naturalist, Lloyd Praeger, the results being published in 1905. He was required to re-survey the parts closer to Dublin and write up the results.
After getting his B.Sc. degree he was sent to study philosophy in the Irish midlands. A few days before he left Dublin, the Fr. Provincial (who had been his Master of Novices and knew all about his scientific interests) suggested that he might look around and start work in an informal way on his Ph.D. during his spare time. He was fascinated by the vast areas of Bogland which stretched in all directions and discovered that a local bog had two very rare plants growing on it: one a rare rush never seen in Ireland before, the other one found in only one other place in Ireland. So he decided to work eventually on a Ph.D. thesis on the ‘Bogs of Ireland’.
During the holiday periods he decided to finish the re-survey of the mountain area south of Dublin, covering the whole area of Praeger’s original survey. He wrote up the results during his spare time while studying Theology at Milltown Park. He finished the job before leaving for ‘Tertianship’, the final year of Jesuit formation which focusses on deepening one’s spiritual life. He was sent to Germany for this stage of his formation, so he left the manuscript with the Professor of Botany to see it through the printing process.

Dublin Mountains’ conversations in Germany
While in Germany his paper on the “Resurvey of the Vegetation south of Dublin” appeared in print and his Professor in Dublin sent him a few reprints. These he distributed to some of the ecologists living on the European Mainland. To his surprise, a reply came back immediately from the famed German ecologist, Reinhold Tüxen. He, along with the famous French ecologist Braun-Blanquet, had been invited to Ireland after Europe began to recover from the effects of World War II. They published their results (in German) in 1952 and John had critiqued some of their work in his paper. Tüxen was extremely pleased. He wrote “Although we published our Irish material 10 years previously, nobody seems even to have read it, let alone critiqued it! “Can you visit me before you return?” Tüxen asked. And so began a long and valued relationship of scientific interests with Reinhold Tüxen.
Before John’s ordination, his Provincial casually mentioned to John that UCD (University College Dublin) had requested to have him on its staff after he had finished his Jesuit studies. “I said ‘Yes’ - is that OK for you John?” All he could say was “You are the boss! If you want me to take up the offer, that is OK by me.”
So John taught for 23 years at UCD, Botany Dept., being eventually appointed Professor and Head of Department.

In the 1970’s the Irish Government was sending quite a lot of official aid to Zambia University, financing lecturers from the Irish Universities to give courses at the University of Zambia. Fr Michael J. Kelly, SJ, a good friend of John since the novitiate, was at this time Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University in Lusaka and was much involved in arranging this government aid; he petitioned the Irish Government to finance John to come as External Examiner of the Biology Department. John accepted the offer and was very struck by the difficulties of running a third world University according to First World standards. When his work in the University was finished John stayed on for some time in order to visit the Irish Jesuit Missioners and help in their work.

A ‘road to Damascus’ moment
John returned to UCD in time to organise things for the new academic year. It was while making his annual retreat in the Jesuit retreat-house, Manresa in Dublin that it happened.
John had been 23 years in the Botany Department of UCD. He was unexpectedly overcome with a very strong feeling that he should relocate to Zambia! Having prayed over the matter, he sent a letter to the Provincial requesting to be sent to the Zambian mission. He was quite late going onto the missions at 56 years of age.
The answer he wanted arrived with one condition – that he remain working within third-level education. Fr Michael Kelly SJ (https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/494-a-museum-piece-or-a-hero) set about arranging a position for him at the University of Zambia and John prepared for this new phase in his life. Then with only two days to go before departure, a telegram arrived from Michael: “SOMETHING GONE WRONG WITH JOB. STOP. COME ANYWAY. STOP.”
“What should I do Fr Provincial?”. The Provincial’s consultants had all been very clear in their requirement that John remain at third level teaching. He consulted Bishop Corboy of Monze, Zambia, who was in Dublin at that time for medical treatment. “You can trust Michael Kelly’s good judgement” he advised. And, with that assurance, John set out for Zambia and a new chapter in the book of his life.

Once a professor, always a professor
The search was then on in earnest for a job in Lusaka, but it had to be in third level education. He found out that when he applied for an advertised position in Agricultural Ecology, he didn’t even get an acknowledgement of his applications. Undaunted, he took the bold step of offering himself and his expertise to the Biology Department in Lusaka University. Not as a professor, not as a salaried staff member—but just as a n ordinary demonstrator! During the following year, he was back in the lecture halls and laboratories, giving tutorials and running practical classes.
At that time, a new lecturer had been employed and she was assigned to run a rather difficult course on Ecology, Statistics and Evolution to the final year students. She became ill. So John and two others stepped up to the mark, put a course together and got the students through their exams.
His opportunistic efforts paid off and he was offered a three year professorship contract, ‘once a professor, always a professor’. The contract was duly renewed after three years.

Former biologist turned theologian
At this time, In Malawi, there were big problems at the Diocesan Major Seminary situated at Zomba in southern Malawi. A decision from Rome requested that three Jesuits be sent in from Zambia—a Rector, a spiritual father and a Dean of Studies.
The Provincial Fr Jim McGloin had two well prepared men for the first two jobs, but he had no one who would be able to take on the job of Dean of Studies. He wrote to the Provincials of all the Jesuit provinces who might have a suitable man qualified to teach theology in English, even for a year or two. At that time John was living with the Provincial and each day when John enquired of him how the search was progressing, the reply was negative. John understood the awkward position the Provincial was in, given that the request had come from Rome. But he had a solution.
His contract was up for renewal but a thought persisted. Should he retire from Biology and teach theology, work towards taking up the Dean of Studies position? He shared his thoughts: Jim was delighted! “Do you really mean that?”.“I do!” said John and so it was settled. The two others were already in Zomba and soon he was welcomed as the third man.
A few weeks remained before the next semester and John had to work very hard to prepare to teach Theology of the Sacraments to students. During the following years he also taught Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.
The Jesuit Provincial had signed two 5-year contracts with the Malawian Bishops but then the Jesuit teachers were gradually withdrawn. After two more years, John too was moved on, received by the international education authorities. Back at Ireland’s UCD, 70 was the limit for even the best preserved lecturer to function.

The influence of others
Fr Tommy Byrne SJ was his Master of Novices for two years and then was made Provincial during which time he always took an interest in John and the development of his scientific interests.
Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ and his account of the atom bomb blast at Hiroshima is the passage John likes to recommend to young men wanting to know about the Jesuits. Fr Arrupe had been a medical student before entering the Jesuits and was the master of novices in the novitiate situated on a hill outside Hiroshima far enough from the centre of the city to avoid any deaths from the blast. Since this was the first atomic blast to be exploded over a civilian target, the medical authorities had no idea of what the best treatment was for severe radiation burns. Fr Arrupe set up a clinic in the novitiate to treat the survivors suffering from severe radiation burns but he had no idea on how to treat them. He had just received a consignment of borax for his infirmary. He discovered that it was quite effective in alleviating the effects of bad radiation burns.
Man’s inhumanity to man framed Fr Arrupe’s whole character and was noted by all who met him. When, several years later, Fr Arrupe viewed the film “Hiroshima, mon amour” where the nuclear blast was replicated—a terrible flash, then awful destruction—the memory came back to haunt him and he resolved never to view it again.
The present pope is also a much admired figure. John was inspired when he read about the change that Pope Francis had experienced when he lived in very poor areas of Brazil. Upon his return he was made Bishop of Bueno Aires.

The day the unexpected occurred
Born in Kilmovee, County Mayo in Ireland, John is the eldest of two sons and two daughters. At 10 years of age the family moved to Dublin for his father’s work. He had been separated from them during his primary school years since his mother wasn’t very keen on the local school; so she had sent her son to be educated at the national school where her father was Principal. There the teaching standard was high and in fact, John Mc Grath, his grandfather, was the first Irish National School teacher to receive a University Degree from the Royal University in Dublin.
John’s secondary school years were spent very happily at Belvedere College in Dublin and was his first encounter with the Jesuits, although John didn’t experience any inclination at the time towards becoming a member of the Society of Jesus. There was a connection in the wider family: Fr Jack Kelly SJ was a first cousin.
Then the unexpected occurred when, on John’s first enclosed retreat in 6th year, Fr Eugene Ward SJ gave the retreat to the young men during their last year of college. Fr Ward had returned from the Chinese missions to study theology and be ordained priest, but he had been blocked by World War II from returning as a young priest.
One evening during the retreat, he was reminiscing about his experiences in China and mentioned the enormous opportunities there since the Chinese people were very receptive to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Suddenly, like a flash, John was convinced that the Lord wanted him to be a Jesuit! Next day, determined to rid himself of what he felt to be a silly teenage crush on the Jesuits, he took a long walk in the rain – to no avail. He asked Fr. Ward, the retreat director, what he should do about it. “Ah interesting.” was the only reply he got, and that was all! But John could not shake the thought off. He decided to attended Mass every morning with the intention that the Lord would help him to shake off the idea. It did not work!
Next step was to run this persistent notion past the Prefect of Studies who advised John to speak with the Provincial about it. So far he had kept the idea to himself knowing that once it was shared, it would spread, which it did eventually. He confided his decision to his uncle, Fr Jack Kelly’s father, who scolded him for not informing his parents first. But John’s parents weren’t surprised at his decision to enter the Society of Jesus and were very supportive.

A lifetime’s decision finally made
It was decided—John went to Emo to begin his studies! And so the decision to become a Jesuit was partly influenced by Belvedere College, partly perhaps by his cousin Jack Kelly SJ and certainly by Fr Ward’s quiet evening musings over his experience as a missionary in China.
Ironically, at the beginning of John’s second year at Belvedere, the prefect of studies decided he should be a member of a small class studying classical Greek while the rest of the class were studying Science. His parents requested that he take Science, given his inclination towards the subject, but the Prefect was adamant. It was only a few months before the Leaving Cert Exam that the Prefect allowed him the option of writing the Science exam.; John decided to finish the Greek course. The result was that Science as a subject was not taken by him at secondary school and yet he ended up as a scientist plus theologian! The knowledge of classical Greek became very useful later on in study of Sacred Scripture—to this day, John always reads the New Testament in Greek.
Retirement in Zambia
John is now living a very busy retirement in Zambia in the novitiate for English-speaking young African men wishing to join the Jesuits. He teaches an introduction to the New Testament to novices—a challenge at times, as some hold fundamentalist ideas and expect every word in the New Testament to be ‘gospel truth’ even when taken outside of its context. John divides his time between community work, managing a large library and the Jesuit archives for Zambia.
The Irish Jesuit Missions is grateful to Fr Moore for the time and care given to his interview in July 2016 and for this ensuing article.
Author: Irish Jesuit Missions Communications, 24th November 2016

Born: 15 September 1894, Inglewood, Victoria, Australia
Entered: 27 November 1911, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 06 June 1918

Father a retired Police Constable and with his mother live at “Carmel”, Golf Links Avenue, Oakleigh, Victoria.

Fourth of five boys (2 died in infancy) and he has five sisters.

Early education was at a convent school in and Northcote, in 1908 he went to St Patrick’s College Melbourne for two years.

1911-1913: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg,, Novitiate
1913-1917: Rathfarnham Castle, studying Rhetoric and at UCD
1917-1918: Belvedere College SJ, Regency

Born: 17 August 1932, Cois na hAibhne, Emmet Terrace, Ballina, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1951, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1964, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1967, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 18 November 2016, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

Son of James Moran and Mary McHale. Father died in the year of his birth was a commercial traveller, and his mother remarried becoming Mrs Durcan.

Two step-brothers.

Educated at Convent and National schools locally, at age thirteen he went to Mungret College SJ for five years.

by 1966 at Salamanca, Spain (LEG) making Tertianship
by 1978 at Wilmette IL, USA (CHG) studying
by 1984 at Palo Alto CA, USA (CAL) studying
by 1985 at Barrington IL, USA (CHG) studying
by 1987 at Menlo Park CA, USA (CAL) working
by 1992 at Chicago IL, USA (CHG) working

Early Education at NS Ballina, Co Mayo; Mungret College SJ

1954-1955 Rathfarnham - Studying at UCD
1955-1958 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1958-1961 Crescent - Regency : Teacher
1961-1965 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
1965-1966 Salamanca, Spain - Tertianship at Collegio de San Estanislao
1966-1968 Belvedere - Teacher; Assistant Gamesmaster; Spiritual Father (3rd & 4th Years); “Newsboys Club”
1968-1969 Clongowes - Teacher; Lower Line Prefect; Studying CWC Cert in Education
1969-1974 Belvedere - Teacher; Assistant Gamesmaster; Spiritual Father; Career Guidance (5th & 6th Years)
1974-1976 Leeson St - Principal at University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin
1976-1977 University Hall - Community Minister
1977-1983 Chicago, IL, USA - Studies at Loyola University; St Joseph’s Parish, Wilmette, IL, USA
1982 Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Glenview, IL, USA
1983-1984 Palo Alto, CA, USA - Doctoral Studies at Palo Alto University; St Thomas Aquinas Church
1984-1986 Chicago, IL, USA - Studies at Loyola University; Parish work; Counsellor at St Anne’s Rectory, Barrington
1986-1991 Palo Alto, CA, USA - Post Graduate Training at Palo Alto University; St Raymond Catholic Church; Menlo Park
1988 Research in Family Therapy MRI at Palo Alto University
1987 Our Lady of the Rosary Rectory, Palo Alto
1991-1994 Chicago, IL, USA - Visiting Professor in Psychology at Loyola University; St William’s Church
1992 St Philip the Apostle Rectory, Northfield
1994-2016 Leeson St - Sabbatical (94-95); Lecturer in Education at Trinity College Dublin; Family Apostolate; Writer
1998 Vice-Superior
2002 Principal University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin
2003 Family Therapist
2015 Prays for the Church and the Society at Cherryfield Lodge

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/a-man-for-others/

A man for others
friends, and fellow Jesuits bade him a final farewell at his funeral Mass in Milltown Chapel on Monday 21 November.
Jim had a wide circle of friends associated with the various ventures he undertook as a Jesuit. They were active on Facebook when news of his death broke. Despite some bad health and a twice broken leg, Jim was quite an athlete. He had a passion for rugby, which he taught with gusto to many students down the years in various Jesuit schools. Ivan Morris, one of his former pupils, posted a photo of the rugby team Jim coached, a long time ago. He wrote: “55 years ago these old geezers were quite a decent rugby team! Sadly, our trainer Fr. Jim Moran passed away yesterday. We all owe him a lot. He instilled in us the ability to focus on our goals, gave us just about the right amount of confidence and enough back bone to last a lifetime.”
Similar sentiments have been echoed by many since his death. Preaching at his funeral Mass, his life-long friend Fr John Looby SJ recalled two stories that summed up Jim’s determination and desire to win, even though he would have roundly protested that ‘it wasn’t about the winning’. One concerned the handball games they used to play as novices. John said that although he himself was the better handball player, Jim worked out a strategy and a war of attrition that always resulted in Jim being the victor.
He recalled another occasion when Jim went off to Chicago to study and offered his rugby training services to a Jesuit school there, telling them of his winning accomplishments back in Ireland. His offer however was politely declined and he was told the school was already proficient at winning rugby games. So Jim took himself off to a neighbouring Jewish school where the same offer was gratefully accepted. Some time later his rugby team took on the Jesuit school that had spurned him and won.
Jim had a number of careers in his lifetime – teacher, coach, psychologist, family therapist, and finally lecturer in Trinity College Dublin. Wherever he went he made friends. “He never forgot his friends and I was to learn that his friends never forgot him,” said John, noting that this was especially true of his Jesuit brothers. John learnt in later years that Jim’s father had died before Jim was born, and his stepfather was instrumental in cultivating the talent he had for making lasting friendships. “Providentially his stepfather was a strong influence, setting an example that Jim copied for the remainder of his life. He was given great freedom and he confidently went out to meet new people and allow them into his life.”
The Gospel read at the Mass was that of the Good Samaritan, a fitting one for Jim who was, according to John and indeed all those who knew him well, “a man for others”. He was always quick to offer any help he could to those who crossed his path. Be it the mother in difficulty with her teenage son or the former student who needed some good advice. The music at the funeral was the work of the well known composer and musician Willie Hughes who played and sang in gratitude for the influence Jim had been on his life.
When he returned to Dublin from America in the ’90s, Jim was part of the Leeson St community. They had a large garden at the back-end of the large Georgian house, and Jim spent years lovingly and patiently transforming it. He planted trees and stunning rose bushes, and made arbours and boundaries out of bushes and flowers. It was a labour of love that to this day gives endless pleasure to those who visit the community house in the centre of Dublin.
John concluded by noting that Jim was a person who never saw events in life as mere chance but rather as due to “the providence of a loving God whom he loved and trusted in all his life”.
He served Him well. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 2017

Obituary

Father Jim Moran SJ

An Appreciation by Peter Thompson

dozen of us from the Rhetoric year of 1972, welcomed in by the open door of Belvedere House, manned by the great Mick Hickey, from the year of 1973and, like Ollie Campbell, one of our great Rugby players of that era, a man who had owed the nurturing of his sporting talents to the recently-deceased Jim Moran, in honour and memory of whom we had come to celebrate Mass in the Boys' Chapel. Mick had come a long way, literally, for the occasion, a testimony to Jim, certainly, for he now lives in Delaware, the beautiful peninsular State on the eastern shores of the United States.

I hadn't been in Belvedere at all since leaving the college over 40 years previously. In the Chapel, noticed immediately the absence of confession boxes, a sign (I hope) that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has moved on from its days as “Penance” to a more enlightened interpretation of what it means to feel oneself whole again after a period of mental and emotional stress.

Also different, and a most welcome difference it was too, was Leonard Moloney's model of celebration of the Mass, we old boys gathered around in a semi-circle before a simple altar table, with the Holy Communion administered in both Kinds, after a gentle invitation from Leonard that, if any of us felt awkward about receiving, We come forward anyway for a blessing.
This was an inclusiveness I was delighted to experience, after many years of alienation from the Church, and I for one was grateful indeed for it, for its sensitivity. It expressed for me also that ritual, much criticised today, has at its best a capacity to act as a means, a fuselage, a hull by which eternal truths of love are conveyed from one generation, one time as it were, to the next.
Another sensitivity was shown by the great Ollie, my childhood friend from north county Dublin, who, gentleman that he is and always has been, had gently touched my left elbow earlier in the quadrangle and asked me discreetly if I would do one of the Readings from Scripture - St Paul to the Ephesians, 1 think it was. I deeply appreciated that invitation, which I was happy to accept.

The name Jim Moran may not mean all that much to today's young Belvederians, if anything, but in a darker, much more formal time he was a beacon of warmth to his pupils and schoolboy rugby players, whom he coached to victory in the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup in 1972. It is fitting, in a serendipitous way, that in this year's edition of The Belvederian the present generation of pupils are celebrating yet another victory in that intensely competitive of sporting challenges for Leinster schools.

Jim had had earlier success in the Crescent College (now Comprehensive) in Limerick in 1961 where, as a scholastic, he coached its Junior team to success in the Munster Schools Junior Cup. After Belvedere, both Clongowes and UCD were also to benefit from his striking ability to relate to, and inspire, young people to sporting and perhaps also personal excellence. Jim was the sort of james who became jim, if my readers follow me. From the rural west of Ireland of the now so-remote 1950s, he was bereft of that bourgeois stiffness and aloofness with which, rightly or wrongly, our college was associated in the minds of many Dubliners in the past. He would have strongly approved of the wonderful example which Belvedere has shown to other private schools in recent years by the reservation of 10% of its pupil numbers to boys whose parents, for financial reasons, would never have dreamt of having one of their sons enter the portals of James Joyce's alma mater.

When last I met him, at the most recent 1972 re-union held in Portmarnock in 2012, I, trying my best with the best of intentions, invited him to have tea with me someday in the Shelbourne Hotel, around the corner from where he was then living at the Jesuit house in Lower Leeson St. to my dismay, but not, on reflection, to my surprise, he refused, saying he could not accept the offer, however sincerely made, of such a “luxury” as tea in Dublin's premier hotel. He was instructing me still, teaching again the values which I would like to think we all have in common, however we may express them now.

After Mass, the company - minus Leonard - moved on to the congeniality of the Dergvale Hotel in Gardiner Place, a very different hostelry from the Shelbourne, but a favourite watering hole of us early Seventies OBs, where I found myself in animated conversation with the said Mick Hickey about, of all things, Dublin Gaelic football, of which his distinguished medical brother David, with three Senior All Ireland Medals to his credit, was a great exemplar.

Now maybe Mick was pulling one of my legs, or indeed both of them, but he told me that David had developed a totally new strategy in Gaelic football, which is now used also, I believe, in Rugby. As a corner right forward, he would kick the ball, not towards the net, but into the right corner of the opposition, then race ahead, before the opposing defence had cottoned on. to the move, collect the ball, Garryowen-style, and lope it back into the goal mouth for a fellow teammate to collect and pummel into the net. David, apparently, developed this following on from an idea by his coach, the late Kevin Heffernan.

Mick and I were joined by another distinguished sportsman of our generation, Neil Murphy, formerly President of the Irish Sailing Association and helmsman of a Puppeteer at Howth Yacht Club. In discussing the emollient effects of the Mass we had all just experienced, Neil made a telling remark which has stayed, and will continue to stay with me. “Age gives you perspective”, he said, which I think is a piece of wisdom, deeper, much deeper than it might seem at first glance, which I wish to share particularly with the young Belvederians of today.

The mention of another great football coach brings me back of course to Jim. He lived long enough, as a man for others, always, to live in an age when, in some quarters today, that ideal, that nobility of spirit and of behaviour seems almost reviled. Yet he achieved so much, in obscurity, by practising it. I hope up there on the Fields of Elysium he will forgive me this notoriety I pen in his memory. In the best sense, he was Old School, all right

Born: 22 July 1905, Talbot Street, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 31 August 1923, Tullabeg
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Died: 30 April 1991, Saint Teresa's Hospital, , Hong Kong - Macau-Hong Kong Province (MAC-HK

Part of the Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Hong Kong community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to HK : 03 December 1966

Older Brother of Val Moran (ASL) - RIP 1988

Father ran a drapery business in Talbot Street.

Family of seven boys, of which he is second eldest and four sisters.

Early education after one year spent at a Convent school was at Belvedere College SJ

by 1929 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1932 fifth wave Hong Kong Missioners - Regency
by 1939 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Father John Moran, S.J.
(1905-1991)
R.I.P.

Father John Moran S.J. died in St. Teresa’s Hospital on 30 April 1991 after a short illness.

Father Moran was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 22 July 1905 and educated by the Dominican Sisters and the Jesuits.

He entered the Jesuits in Ireland in 1923 and, after novitiate, university studies and philosophy, volunteered for the mission of the Irish Jesuits in Hong Kong.

He arrived in Hong Kong in the Autumn of 1931 and went to Shiu Hing, then a mission of the Portuguese Jesuits, to learn Cantonese.

The following year he was back in Hong Kong at the South China Regional Seminary in Aberdeen.

He returned to Ireland for his theological studies and was ordained priest there in 1939.

He was back in Hong Kong just before the outbreak of the Japanese war. At first he spent some time in the Aberdeen seminary and then for the rest of the war period moved to the French enclave of Kwong Chau Wan on the south coast. He remembered his years spent there as being some of the best of his life.

Recalled to Hong Kong at the end of war, he was chaplain in the Queen Mary Hospital and then went to Canton.

By the Autumn of 1949, all except four Jesuits withdrew from Canton. Father Moran taught for a while at a feeder school for Wah Yan College in Nelson Street, Kowloon. He then took over editorship of the Far East Messenger, a monthly magazine started by Father Terence Sheridan SJ. It ceased publication in 1953.

In 1952 Father Moran moved to the newly-built Wah Yan College on Waterloo Road. The room he moved into he was to occupy for the next 39 years until his death.

He joined the teaching staff and continued to teach long after his official retirement.

Father Moran is particularly remembered for his gentleness and kindness to all and for the hospitality he extended to visitors.

He spent many hours hearing confessions, being in his confessional at practically every Mass said in St. Ignatius Chapel.

His simplicity of life was legendary among his fellow-Jesuits.

A few years ago he suffered a stroke which severely impaired his memory. A few days before his death he was admitted to St. Teresa’s Hospital with breathing problems.

A funeral Mass, presided over by Cardinal Wu, was celebrated at Wah Yan Kowloon on 6 May.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 10 May 1991

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947

Departures for Mission Fields in 1946 :
4th January : Frs. P. J. O'Brien and Walsh, to North Rhodesia
25th January: Frs. C. Egan, Foley, Garland, Howatson, Morahan, Sheridan, Turner, to Hong Kong
25th July: Fr. Dermot Donnelly, to Calcutta Mission
5th August: Frs, J. Collins, T. FitzGerald, Gallagher, D. Lawler, Moran, J. O'Mara, Pelly, Toner, to Hong Kong Mid-August (from Cairo, where he was demobilised from the Army): Fr. Cronin, to Hong Kong
6th November: Frs. Harris, Jer. McCarthy, H. O'Brien, to Hong Kong

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1991

Obituary

Father John Moran SJ

Fr John Moran SJ died in St Teresa's Hospital, Hong Kong, on 30th April 1991, after a short illness, He was born in Dublin in 1905 and educated by the Dominican Sisters and the Jesuits (at Belvedere). He entered the Jesuits in 1923 and, after novitiate, university studies and philosophy, volunteered for the mission in Hong Kong.

He arrived in Hong Kong in the autumn of 1931 and went to Shiu Hing, then a mission of the Portuguese Jesuits, to learn Cantonese. The following year he was back in Hong Kong at the South China Regional Seminary in Aberdeen.

He returned to Ireland for his theological studies and was ordained priest there in 1939. He was back in Hong Kong just before the outbreak of the Japanese war. At first he spent some time in the Aberdeen seminary and then for the rest of the war period moved to the French enclave of Kwongchauwan) on the south coast. He: remembered his years spent there as being some of the best of his life.

Recalled to Hong Kong at the end of the war, he was chaplain in the Queen Mary Hospital and then went to Canton. By the autumn of 1949, all. except four Jesuits withdrew from Canton. Fr Moran taught for a while at a feeder school for Wah Yan College in Nelson St, Kowloon. He then took over editorship of :The Far East Messenger:, a monthly magazine started by Fr Terence Sheridan SJ. It ceased publication in 1953.

In 1952 he moved to the newly-built Wah Yan College on Waterloo Road. The room he moved into he was to occupy for the next 39 years until his death. He joined the teaching staff and continued to teach long after his official retirement.

John Moran is particularly remembered for his gentleness and kindness to all and for the hospitality he extended to visitors. He spent many hours hearing confessions, being in his confessional at practically every: Mass said in St Ignatius Chapel. His simplicity of life was legendary among his fellow-Jesuits.

A few years ago he suffered a stroke which severely impaired his memory. A few days before his death he was admitted to St Teresa's Hospital with breathing problems. A funeral Mass presided over by Cardinal Wu was celebrated at Wah Yan, Kowloon, on 6th May 1991. May he rest in peace

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, Centenary Edition 1832-1932

Life Among The Chinese : A Letter from John Moran SJ

I’ve been at Canton ever since I came out. The College belongs to the Paris Foreign Missions (Mgr. Fourquet) and is in the same property as the Cathedral, “petit séminaire”, and Bishop's house and orphanage. There are about 400 pupils, twenty per cent of whom are pagans, as are all the masters except one. . The Director of the College is a Catholic Government regulations demand that a Chinese with university degrees be at the head of every college, hence Catholic laymen can do their part for the missions in inscribing themselves as “Director”. We Jesuits teach English and have absolutely nothing to do with the running of the school. The Government unfortunately forbids religious instruction in the schools, so this is a terrible blow because our apostolic work is limited to. chats in private every evening after school hours. Thus we manage to baptise a few pagans every year, but we cannot get into contact with the great majority of the boys at all. The Catholics in two of the three hostels come to Mass daily in our little community chapel, and at present we are trying to organise regular spiritual conferences or catechism classes for them. The third hostel is wholly Catholic consisting of poor boys, admitted at half the regular fee, and these assist regularly at spiritual duties in the Cathedral.

The boys are a decent set, very friendly, and many of them, though pagans, are wonderfully "straight” and good. Indeed when we see evil among these pagans we should rather express surprise at finding the boys so naturally good, than criticise their failings, because they have not the Catholic tradition we have had for centuries, nor have they the same knowledge of sin and punishment that we have. What offers the most insuperable difficulty to conversion is the innate respect for the parents will. Many boys who studied catechism and were ready for baptism as far as knowledge of doctrine was concerned, stated to our Fathers that they could go no further, as their parents had refused permission. And there is no use advising them await their twenty-first birth day, when they can claim independence - in China the father's sway holds good till his death! You see then what difficulties we are up against-till the family stand point is changed, a huge obstacle lies between conversion and the Chinese. Our Chinese professor-a' Catholic, as is his wife “became a father” some weeks ago. The child was a girl - he was delighted - why? Because his father, who is still a pagan, had told him that he would take the child for himself if it turned out to be a boy! Just see to what lengths the father's dominion goes - he could actually claim the grandson and take it from its own father. Of course women are despised - a girl-child is considered a disappointment, perhaps a humiliation, (here, of course, I speak only of the pagans). The one desire the Chinese have is to be made happy by a boy-child who can carry on the name and assure the ancestor-worship. Woman's position in China is gradually being bettered, thanks to foreign ideas, but missioners with whom I've spoken have told me that in the country paganism and superstition have still a fast grip and that woman is just a beast of burden. If you saw the women at work, carrying loads, dragging carts by means of ropes round their arms, it would remind you of slavery as practised in Egypt centuries ago. Even at Hong Kong the ordinary thing is to see women carting gravel, etc., carrying it in two baskets at either end of a bamboo pole resting on the shoulder - the universal means of transport here.
However, in the cities literature, novels, and the cinema are doing much to modernise Chinese youth, though it does not put them on the right tracks either in great part—but certainly the emancipation of children from a too rigid' obedience to parents' wishes, and of young girls from the marriage conventions which relegate them to the state of slaves, is gradually appearing. If Priests could get into direct contact with Chinese youth great good could be done because it is wavering in its old beliefs of ancestor-worship.

Pride in their ancient civilisation is a factor with which we have to reckon too. It's strange to find that Chinese despise foreigners as regards culture. They adınıt that we are far superior to them in material civilisation, namely machinery, etc., but they hold that as regards, literature and philosophy we have far to go before we catch up on them. They even say that we are not yet at their stage of natural evolution, because we have beards, whereas they are very smooth-skinned - the culminating point it would seem in their idea of physical evolution! So where we pride ourselves on our facial appendages and say “We are more man if we own more hair”, they say that we are more barbarian! But their indifference to foreign institutions, their attitude that the foreigner can bring them nothing better than they have al ready, naturally adds one more difficulty to the work of conversion. They have got along for centuries without Christianity - what need have they of it! Won't their own religion suffice? So they argue, and among the cultured class conversions are few. Indeed in the big cities the Chinese going to the Universities frequently see that ancestor-worship and their deities give no consolation and are pure superstition, and become pagans. They practise no religion at all. In the country places among the poor, conversions are more easy to make. Catholic schools out here can do vast good.

Even though they do not convert many boys, they do much to spread the knowledge of the Catholic Church among those who are to hold official positions in the China of to-morrow, and who will be ready to further the interests of the church in their districts.

You asked me about bandits. Well, I am afraid that I have never got an invitation to dinner with them; so that my knowledge of them is very limited. But they exist in small armies of over one thousand strong and swoop down on towns, pillaging and robbing. They are even armed in some districts with machine guns and the most modern rifles, and the military are not too anxious to disturb them when they are not too active. In fact there are only a few divisions of the whole Chinese army which are really feared by the bandits. But I would not blame the military for their policy of “letting sleeping dogs lie”. Just consider the enormous expenses a campaign against a few thousand well armed and well-organised bandits would entail-adding that the latter run off to the mountains where they could defy any army. One bandit chief had four hundred men under him and terrorised the whole district, robbing and looting. He stopped at nothing, and did not hesitate to kill where he could not get what he wanted by other means. He captured a Bishop and a Priest and had decided, I think, to hold them to ransom, till, to his surprise he found the village he and his 400 men were in, surrounded by military. He asked the Bishop to go as mediator to the commandant of the troops, but told the Bishop that if he did not return, he would kill every missioner of the Bishop's order that he would ever lay hands on in the future. Off the Bishop went with the Priest and offered the bandit's terms - which were, I think, giving up their arms and being allowed to pass out uninjured. The commandant refused and swore that not one of the 400 men would escape alive, and when the Bishop wished to return the commandant refused. On the Bishop having urged the point of his having given his word to the bandit chief, the commandant ordered him off - in the other direction, refusing to allow him approach the village. The army covered every exit from the village save one, which led to a hill. They attacked the bandits naturally seeking escape to the hill—but what was their surprise to find that the hill itself was surrounded. Seeing that all possibility of fighting was out of the question, they sent word that they would surrender if they would be allowed to join the commandant's army. “Alright”, said he, “but come down in bands of ten with your arms”. Down they came, surrendered their arms and were promptly tied up into bands of ten. The commandant waited till he had the whole lot, bandit leader and all, transferred them on rafts to the middle of the river and drowned every one of them. Since then, bandits have been quiet in his area!

But the losses they have caused in lives recently are appalling. I saw in to-day's paper that statistics from one district show that in recent Communist raids 260,000 people have been slain and property to the value of £2,350,000 has been destroyed. These Communist raids include, of course, bandit raids, and the figures from twelve other districts are to come in shortly. This will show you how banditry is rampant and how it is causing losses greater than a war. Some of the bandit chiefs are paid for their work. by very rich Chinese who get all that is stolen. It is said that some Chinese make huge sums as bandits and then come and live in Shanghai or Hong Kong as “respectable” citizens and there take in the “tribute” from the bandit chief in their pay.

A Vincentian Bishop who came out on the boat with us and whose vicariate is up north, told me that some of the bandits are “decent sorts” and don't molest the missions, but actually allow the Catholic Priests to go unharmed from place to place. The big prize that the bandits hope to get is the rich Chinese, whom they kidnap and hold to ransom for incredible sums. If the money is refused by the family, they cut off an ear of the kidnapped man and send it to the family with the intimation that they will continue to “dismember” the victim until the money is paid. Kidnapping is very frequent, and is greatly feared by the rich Chinese - so much so that their property is surrounded by huge walls on which police continually walk up and down. And even when these Chinese go out in their sedan chairs they will have their guard with them.

The Chinese seem to love exterior display - rich colouring to strike the eye and loud explosions to deafen the ears! Red is their marriage colour - white their mourning. I assisted recently at the departure of a Catholic funeral from Canton Cathedral. Just before it started off one of the mourners presented me with a handkerchief, with which to wipe the tears from my eyes. He gave one to many bystanders, who wiped their eyes - through pure convention. The coffin is carried on bamboo poles borne by six to ten men, and over it is a light bamboo framework covered with the richest coloured flowers. When I first saw a funeral here I would not believe it to be such, the colouring of the flowers was so rich. In front of the procession went the band, dressed in black hat, light blue jacket with white facings and white trousers - colours that would not be seen in Ireland except on some festive occasion.

As for noise! You have only to assist at a marriage to witness a bombardment! Crackers - or rather squibs are an essential element of their celebrations, whether civic, family, or religious. The well-to-do buy a long string of crackers lying parallel one to the other which is suspended from the fourth or fifth storey of the hotel and hangs down to the ground. When the bride leaves the hotel - or her private house to enter the sedan chair en route to the future husband's house, the lowest cracker is fired. The noise is deafening, it is like the rattle of machine-gun fire, as cracker after cracker takes fire.

According as the string of crackers fires off, it is lowered to the ground so that the exploding cracker is a few feet off the ground. For very big occasions the rich will buy a cracker that will last a quarter of an hour without ceasing fire. It is impossible to make oneself heard when in the neighbourhood, even if one shouted. Two days ago a rumour was spread of a big Chinese victory over the Japanese at Shanghai - to celebrate it crackers were the sole means used. The noise was appalling. The long string of crackers could be heard rattling froin different buildings - young fellows in cars waved flags and threw little packets of crackers which, on exploding, sent twelve smaller crackers bursting in all directions. Boys threw little boxes of squibs from the windows, till the streets were reeking with the fumes of burnt explosive material. That evening they spent over two thousand five hundred pounds on crackers alone. For religious celebrations it is the same. To welcome a bishop or to celebrate ordinations - off go the crackers, to the huge delight of the onlookers. Originally, I think, crackers were used to frighten away evil spirits, but now they have lost this “religious” significance. At Pagan burials, too, crackers are fired in this case the idea is to drive away all evil spirits from the soul of the departed.

There is great work to be done here among the poor country people. The big need, as. it has always been, is for priests. Really one does not realise how badly priests are needed till one comes out to a mission country. We in Ireland are so much in contact with the faith - we breathe it everywhere we go that we cannot imagine a people not having it. Just imagine boys who never heard of God, or of the Redemption, who have not the slightest idea what the soul is and whose one thought of the next life is to ensure for themselves that they will be paid ancestor worship by their children. You can well imagine what a unique gift we bring them when we let them know of the Redemption and lead them to baptism. How often we sing at Benediction “Laudate Eum omnes populi”, and never think that there are “populi” who do not praise Him because they have never heard of Him. The deep meaning of “Thy Kingdom Come” never struck me so forcibly as when I came into a city where there is huge scope for its coming, as it has scarcely begun to come yet.

J MORAN SJ

Born: 08 February 1913, Talbot Street, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 03 September 1930, Emo
Ordained: 06 January 1945, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 15 August 1948
Died: 25 November 1988, Campion College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia- Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Younger Brother of Jack Moran (MAC-HK) - RIP 1991

Father ran a drapery business in Talbot Street and died in 1927

Second youngest of seven boys with four sisters.

Early education after one year spent at a Convent school was at Belvedere College SJ for a year and a half and then at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Tertian Instructor in Philippines

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Val Moran attended Clongowes Wood College, for his secondary education, and was a clever student, regularly taking the prizes in classics. He was also school champion at tennis, captain of cricket and the opening bat, as well as a very useful second-row forward and goal kicker for the first XV rugby. In his last year he took the Union Gold Medal for English essay. He was also prefect of the Sodality and had the most Rabelaisian wit. He was a good mimic of various teachers.
Moran entered the Society at St Mary's Emo, 3 September 1930, and was sent to Australia as a novice because of poor health with tuberculosis. His ecclesiastical studies were all in Australia, and he gained a BA with honours in classics, 1933-35, from The University of Melbourne. Regency was at Riverview, 1936-38, where he taught English, Latin and Greek, and was involved with senior debating and cricket.
Maybe the threat of death from an early age gave him a remarkable freedom and serenity living quietly in the background, always present, emerging only when the moment was ripe, superb in timing, sharp in judgment but not in tone, humorous, eloquent, never using a word more than necessary.
He was a richly talented man, but never proclaimed his gifts ostentatiously. Above all, he was essentially very human and compassionate. He was easy to approach as spiritual father, and always gave wise counsel, while never intruding on one's personal space.
He was expert in the quick and telling comment about people and situations, usually accurate and humorous, but pointed. His teasing of some was always in good fun. His obituaries of Jesuits were a delight to read.
He was an outstanding Church historian, and probably had an unrivalled knowledge of the Society's history and spirituality He was a fine tertian master, not only in information communicated, but also in his spiritual discernment. His homilies at Mass were short and inspiring.
He was arguably die most interesting lecturer scholastics in the Australian province experienced. His lectures were of such fascination that expiry of time was always a cause for genuine regret. During every one he paused for a light comment on some ecclesiastical practice or misdemeanour. Everyone waited for these enlightened words and applauded in an appropriate fashion, but Moran never paused in his presentation.
He had wide appreciation of the Church. He looked for moments of liberty, of opportunity history, pointing out where he felt ecclesiastical dogmatism or fear had prevented the bearing of possible fruit. This was clearly why he was fascinated with Modernism and the 19th century in general.
Despite his illness, which required much rest and care, Moran held many important positions of authority within the province. He was rector of the theologate, Canisius College
Pymble, 1957-62, was a province consultor for some years, assistant tertian master 1969-74, delegate for formation, 1975-76, and province delegate for tertiary education, 1979-80. He wrote an article for Theological Studies, Vol. 40, No.3, 1979, entitled “Lolsy's Theological Development”, and he spent 1981 as a research scholar on Modernism at the Casa Degli Scrittori, Rome. Articles on George Tyrrell appeared in “The Downside Review”, July 1984, entitled “The Breakings of George Tyrrell”, and in July 1985 , “George
Tyrrell: Theological Journalist of Genius”. Other articles he wrote on Tyrrell were, “George Tyrrell at War with the Society of Jesus”, and “Fr Tyrrell and the Censorship of his Writings”. in 1988 he wrote, “The Universal Catechism at Vatican I” for Pacifica Vol. 1.
Moran's contribution to the Society in Australia was considerable and much appreciated, especially by the scholastics with whom he shared his life and scholarship.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Went to Australia mainly for health reasons

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932

Australia :
Fr. N. Hehir and Br. V. Moran (scholastic novice) sailed for Australia towards the end of last year. An interesting experience was waiting for them at Naples, which we tell in Fr. Hehir's own words “We found ourselves booked to take part in a remarkable ceremony at Naples. A printed programme announced that I was to say Mass in the Gesù coram Cardinali. Fortunately the boat was late. The Provincial said the Mass. On arriving, the two of us were led down the Church (in white soutanes) in the middle of a stirring sermon delivered by the Cardinal Archbishop. Then came a sermon by one of the two scholastics who were being farewelled. Then an embarrassing ceremony - a Neapolitan tradition - apparently followed. All the clergy, led by the Cardinal, kissed the feet of the four missionaries. Lunch followed in the novitiate. Finally we were raced back to catch our boat just before sailing hour.

Born: 16 January 1898, Whiterock, Wexford Town, County Wexford
Entered: 05 September 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 29 June 1938, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 10 June 1965, St John’s Hospital, Limerick

Part of the Crescent College, Limerick community at the time of death

Father was a sea-captain and grocer. Family resided at Leinster Terrace, Wexford Town.

Only son living, younger brother Thomas having died in 1905.

Early education at Loreto Convent Wexford, and then at age 11 at St Peter’s College Wexford, and then in 1913 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ (1909-1913). He then went to St Finian’s College, Mullingar in 1917. Later that year he went to Terenure College. He then went to UCD, but failing 1st Arts left. He then went home and did some studies at Mount St Benedict’s, Gorey and also did some teaching there.

by 1927 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1937 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 41st Year No 1 1966
Obituary :
Fr James Albert Morris SJ (1898-1965)
Early in the morning of 10th June 1965 Fr. Morris died rather unexpectedly at St. John's Hospital, Limerick. R.I.P. He had been removed to hospital only the day before. For some weeks he had been suffering from a series of colds and headaches but they were not considered serious until a few days before his death. In fact he taught his Religious Knowledge class up to the previous weekend. However, he never seemed quite the same since he got a fall from his bicycle in August 1964, when he was doing a supply at Wexford. The doctors could not find anything seriously wrong with him, but, very unlike his usual way, he often complained of his health later.
James Albert Morris was born in Wexford on 16th June, 1898. He received some of his primary education from the Loreto Nuns, Mullingar. To the end he remained a great friend of the Loreto Nuns, especially, of course, those in their local Wexford Convent. Indeed, he was disappointed when he came to Limerick in 1962 to find that there was not a Loreto Convent in the locality. For him they ran the best girls' schools. And so very many of them knew him! If one went to give a retreat at a Loreto Convent some nun would always be sure to ask : “How is Fr. Albert?” The Wexford people and priests, nuns, his old pupils, and all in the Society knew him by no other name but Albert. In the Society one often heard of “the two Alberts” - Albert Morris and Albert Cooney, co-novices, together in many houses, and close friends and faithful correspondents during all their years in religion.
From 1913 to 1916 he was a boy in Clongowes. On leaving, thinking of going to U.C.D., he spent a short time at Terenure College, and later with Dom Sweetman, O.S.B., at Gorey. It would seem that he was trying to decide about his vocation during these years. He entered our noviceship at Tullabeg on 5th September, 1923. For his first year Fr. Michael Browne was his Master of Novices. Albert, and he remained so to the end, was nervous when he had to appear in public before Ours, even later to the extent of finding it distressing to say Litanies or give Benediction. There is a story told, characteristic of master and of novice, when Albert had to preach in the refectory. He probably had prepared a sermon that was too short for supper, and when he found himself nearing the end of it, he made many pauses during which he turned round several times to the novices serving at table as if to say : “Why don't you finish up?” Fr. Michael Browne noticed it, realised what was happening, had one of his customary choking fits of laughter and the poor novice had to fill in the time till the end of the meal.
Having finished his noviceship under Fr. Martin Maher and taken his vows he spent a year as a junior at Rathfarnham before going to Vals, France, the House of Philosophy, for the combined Provinces of Toulouse and Champagne. For the rest of his life even in the shortest conversation he used to throw in a French phrase. On his return to Ireland he taught at Belvedere from 1928 to 1932. Then to Milltown Park, where he was ordained on 31st July 1935. Tertianship followed at St. Beuno's, Wales.
His first assignment as a priest was as Sub-Moderator, 1937-39, at the Apostolic School, Mungret. Here he took his last vows on 29th June 1938. We find him back in Belvedere on the teaching staff from 1939 to 1943. Then began the work in which he was engaged almost for the rest of his life,
In 1943 he went to Tullabeg as Assistant Director of the Ricci Mission Unit, later to be known as Irish Jesuit Missions, for our work in what is now Zambia had begun years after the Hong Kong Mission. The stamp bureau was the chief work here and aided by generations of philosophers and his co-assistant director, the late Fr. William Allen, of the Australian Province, he gave most enthusiastic and painstaking service. Nuns and teachers everywhere in Ireland, receptionists in hotels, clerical workers in shops and factories were his clients and he carried on an enormous correspondence. He opened all the parcels of stamps for it was not infrequent that in the middle would be found a box of sweets or some other present for Fr. Albert. He was always a pleasant community man and he was pleased whenever he could come in to recreation to share his stamp bureau presents with his fellow Jesuits.
He remained in Tullabeg until at his own request, he was moved to Emo in 1959, still working for Irish Jesuit Missions. Among the changes that the Visitor, Fr. J. MacMahon, made in 1962 at the Status was the assigning of Fr. Albert to the Crescent, Limerick. Here he combined his interest in foreign mission work and later taught Religious Knowledge in the junior school.
On 12th June His Lordship the Bishop, Dr. H. Murphy, presided at the Office and Requiem Mass in the Sacred Heart Church, Even though it was a Saturday, there was a large attendance of priests present, including the Administrator of Wexford, Very Rev. Fr. T. Murphy, and a companion. Fr. Albert had spent his summers for many years supplying in Wexford and often at Sunshine House, Balbriggan. He was laid to rest in the community cemetery at Mungret. May God reward him and may our missionaries abroad never forget him in their prayers.

Born: 09 October 1882, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
Entered: 07 September 1900, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1916, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1922
Died: 10 March 1966, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare

Father Headmaster of the Model School in Enniskillen until his death in 1893. . Mother died in 1901 (6 months after SJ entry)

Second youngest of a family of thirteen, four brothers and seven sisters still alive. His sisters conduct a Ladies Collegiate School in Enniskillen.

Educated at Model School, Enniskillen and then St Macartan’s Seminary, Monaghan

Chaplain in the First World War.

by 1905 at Kasteel Gemert, Netherlands (TOLO) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1907
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 2/8 Battalion, Sobraon Barracks, Colchester
by 1918 Military Chaplain : 8 Battalion East Lancs, BEF France
by 1919 Military Chaplain : Clipstone Camp, 13 lines, Mansfield, Notts

Morris Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-model-school-jesuit-2/

JESUITICA: Model School Jesuit
The recently published history of the Model School, Enniskillen has quite an Orange flavour – many of the old boys are pictured wearing the Sash. It is a surprise to find a Jesuit
among them, Fr Paddy Morris. His father, Charles, was an independent-minded educator and the first headmaster of the Model School. He built it up against the determined opposition of the local Catholic clergy, who saw it as rivalling the national schools under their control. In 1900 Paddy entered the Jesuits with John Sullivan (also educated in Enniskillen, at Portora), served as a British army chaplain in the First World War, and later spent twelve years in Belvedere, six of them as its Rector, before ending his days, like John Sullivan, serving the People’s Church in Clongowes.

https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/the-last-parting-jesuits-and-armistice/

The last parting: Jesuits and Armistice
At the end of the First World War, Irish Jesuits serving as chaplains had to deal with two main issues: their demobilisation and influenza. Some chaplains asked immediately to be demobbed back to Ireland; others wanted to continue as chaplains. Of the thirty-two Jesuits chaplains in the war, five had died, while sixteen were still serving.
Fr Patrick Morris SJ, who worked at the Clipstone Camp in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, comments: “What havoc the influenza has brought... We had a bad time in camp here... Three of my boys died, but they were well prepared”. He caught the flu himself but “went to bed immediately and nipped it in the bud”.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Patrick Morris entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1900, and after initial studies arrived in Australia and Xavier College in 1907 where he taught senior students, and was assistant prefect of discipline, and looked after the choir and debating.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 41st Year No 3 1966

Clongowes Wood College, Naas
About 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, 10th March, Fr. Morris died peacefully in the college infirmary. He had been in failing health since the beginning of the school year and kept asserting that he felt his strength dwindling. Just after Christmas he got a chill and was confined to bed in his room for some ten days or so. As soon as matron returned at the beginning of the new term he was transferred to the infirmary. The outlook seemed gloomy but bit by bit he recovered his strength and by the beginning of March he was able to sit in his room and to walk about a little. He then fell a victim of the flu and though at one point he appeared to have taken a turn for the better, the improvement did not last. Special nurses were got for him but his position deteriorated rapidly at the end.
On the evening of 11th March the remains were brought to the People's Church where all the Masses on the high altar the following morning were offered for Fr. Morris. On the morning of the 12th the remains were removed to the Boys' Chapel, the boys of the college lining the route. At 10.30 the Office for the Dead was chanted and Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. James Casey. As it was Saturday many of the local clergy found it impossible to attend, but Monsignor Millar came from Newbridge and some priests came from other neighbouring places. There was a large gathering of the local people gathered at the graveside. (A notice on Fr. Morris' life appears at the end of this issue.)
Following Fr. Morris' death many letters of condolence were received. It was obvious that he had been widely known and greatly revered by a big circle of friends. Within the community he continued to the end remarkable for the regularity of his ways, his pleasantness of manner and his high esteem for spiritual things.

Obituary :

Fr Patrick J Morris SJ (1883-1966)

Fr. Morris was born in the town of Enniskillen in the year 1883. He was one of the youngest of a large family-five boys and five girls. His father, Charles Morris, was the first Catholic headmaster of the Enniskillen Model School, whose pupils were 80 per cent Protestant. His father was a great man in the town, and was known as Boss Morris. It was in this school that Patrick got his early education, and he never lost touch with it. He was one of the chief guests of honour when the school celebrated its golden jubilee. We read that he made the outstanding speech of the evening, and got an enthusiastic reception from all the old boys, Catholic and Protestant alike. One of his contemporaries wrote that he had a peculiar spring in his walk which always stood to him when playing football and other games - hardly the activities we associate with the staid Fr. Morris of later years, though indeed he was always a most graceful performer on the ice,
In September 1900 he entered Tullabeg as a novice, having Fr. John Sullivan and Fr. John Hannon as fellow novices. Fr. James Murphy was then at the height of his prowess as Master of Novices, and he gave the novices a very hectic time of it, which was not appreciated by all. Fr. Morris used to tell of the great relief he felt when, on the Feast of St. Stanislaus at the end of the Long Retreat, Fr. Keating the Provincial announced that the novices were about to be orphaned, as their Master of Novices had just been appointed Provincial. The novices had a far quieter life henceforth under the genial guidance of Fr. Michael Browne. Fr. Morris was the last survivor of the little band of novices who entered in 1900. After the two years noviceship, he remained on in Tullabeg for the following year as a junior. In 1904 he went to Gemert for his three years philosophy. While there he mastered the French language and became a fluent speaker, which stood him in good stead in after years.
At the end of his philosophy he set sail for Australia. He was one of a party that was brought out by the Provincial, Fr. Conmee, who was undertaking a visitation of the Australian Mission; and ever afterwards he held Fr. Conmee in the highest veneration. He used to say that he was the outstanding personality on the boat, and was sought after by all the passengers on account of his geniality, learning, and experience of life. Fr. Morris spent his six years in Australia teaching at Xavier College, Kew, where he first showed signs of that pre-eminence as a teacher which he afterwards attained. On his return to Ireland in 1913 he went to Milltown Park to begin his theology. He was ordained there on St. Ignatius Day 1916, and very nearly lived long enough to celebrate the golden jubilee of that day. Soon afterwards he was appointed chaplain in the First World War, and continued in that office for three years. He seldom referred to those harrowing years, but on a long-table day evening one would sometimes be given a glimpse of the sole Irish Padre in the Officers' Mess upholding the honour of the one true Church against all comers, in the days when the ecumenical movement was not as popular as it is now,
In 1919 we find him in Mungret as a teacher. The following year he did his Tertianship in Tullabeg, and at the same time acted as Socius to the Master of Novices. He then returned to Mungret for three years, the first as Sub-Moderator of the Apostolics, and the following two as Minister of the House. He than moved on to Belvedere in 1924 and remained there for 12 years. The first six he taught in the college; and then in February 1931 he was appointed Rector, and held that office until 1936. He than went to Emo where he was Minister and taught the novices. In 1943 he moved on to Clongowes, where he spent the remainder of his life. He took part in the teaching of the boys, and took over the care of the People's Church which he served devotedly until a year or so before his death. It was not until some months before he died that he notably began to fail. He used say that he would welcome death. It came to him finally towards the middle of March, when he passed peacefully away to his reward. .
To sum up Fr. Morris is not an easy task. There were so many facets to his character and work. A good part of his life was spent in teaching. All who came under his charge spoke in the highest terms of his ability in this line. Many have said that he was the best teacher they ever had. He was methodical to a degree, and a master of his subject, whether it be English, Latin or French. He was widely read in these languages, and was blessed with a very retentive memory a source which was often tapped to good purpose by the devotees of the Times Crossword Puzzle! He was specially devoted to Belloc and Chesterton, and knew them thoroughly. When a grammatical question turned up at recreation, he would handle the point with great clarity and exactness. He expected the boys to correspond. Anyone whom he felt was not doing his best would be given very short shrift. All held him however in high regard, and many were the expressions of gratitude to him, expressed by his former pupils at the time of his death.
Of his Rectorship in Belvedere he used to say himself that he had not been a great success. He generally referred to it half-jokingly as “when I sat in the chair of Moses!” He was probably too punctilious and exacting to make a really successful superior. Yet Belvedere made steady progress during his term in office. It was due to his foresight that the fine new playing fields at Cabra were acquired, when the ground had very nearly been disposed of otherwise. He took a personal interest in every sphere of the college activities, the studies, the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the Union, and the games though his intervention here may not always have been wise or tactful. Once he had decided on a course of action, it was very difficult indeed to get him to change his mind. On the other hand, he could be very kind and thoughtful where boys were concerned. On one occasion when some of them arrived at school cold and covered with snow, he at once brought them to the refectory and got them a hot meal before allowing them to go the classroom. He was very loyal to the school and its good name, and would tolerate no conduct that would bring it into disrepute.
Perhaps one may say that his greatest work was done when he had charge of the People's Church in Clongowes. He was devoted to the work, and was ever ready to come down from his room at the top of the Castle to hear a confession at any time of the day or night. His sermons on Sundays were prepared with meticulous care; and his kindness to the sick or those in trouble knew no bounds. As his name became a familiar one in the countryside, many came to consult him and to ask his blessing. They were all received with the greatest of charity. He was frequently called out to visit the sick, often long distances away, and had a special gift of bringing peace and comfort to the dying. One of the local curates drove him the whole way down to Carlow or Kilkenny to bring consolation to his own mother when she was on her deathbed. In earlier days, he rode his bicycle for many miles on these errands of mercy. In the latter days, when people saw he was unable for this exertion, and when motor cars became more common, they came in their cars and carried him off. He was ready to go at any time and any distance. It will be many years before the name of Fr. Morris will be forgotten in County of Kildare. The amazing thing was that he suffered from very bad health himself over a number of years - low blood pressure, asthma, insomnia, and a number of other complications, but his fighting spirit triumphed over them all, so that he was very rarely confined to bed until his last illness. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1966

Obituary

Father Patrick J Morris SJ (Rector 1931-1936)

Father Patrick J Morris SJ, who taught in Belvedere for many years and was also a former Rector of the college, died in March 1966. His former pupils will remember him as a lover of the classics and a truly well-read man. He was a brilliant teacher and imparted to his pupils an appreciation of great literature. An Army Chaplain in France in the 1914-18 war, Father Morris expected a high standard of loyalty and discipline from his boys. Nevertheless he could relax on occasions and his classes laughed with counterfeited glee at his classical or literary quips. In his later years he was magnanimous enough to admit that he had been too demanding during his years at Belvedere.

It was Father Morris who gave Belvedere its ideal - “per vias rectas”. A North of Ireland man, he set a high value on integrity. He had a shrewd and sound judgment and former members of his Sodality of Our Blessed Lady will readily recall the many lectures he gave to the Sodalists in which he enumerated the qualities they should expect in the ideal wife. All this was in the 1930s when student counselling was almost unheard of in Ireland. He always stressed a virile and manly holiness and a true and sincere dedication to Christ the King.

On leaving Belvedere he spent some years at Emo Park before his transfer to Clongowes. There, in failing health, he won acclaim as a devoted and kindly confessor in the people's church and as a Christ-like lover of the sick. In his last years he made no secret of the fact that he longed to die. On 11th March he went to his reward. God rest his soul.

Born: 05 October 1908, Listowel, Co Kerry / Ballysimon, County Limerick
Entered: 01 September 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 07 February 1942, Manresa House, Roehampton, London, England
Died: 07 April 1973, Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Dublin community at the time of death

Youngest of five boys with three sisters.

Early education at the Presentation Convent, Limerick and then the Christian Brothers in Limerick. He then went to Mungret College SJ

Chaplain in the Second World War.

by 1948 at Riverview, Sydney Australia (ASL) teaching
by 1962 at Holy Name Manchester (ANG) working

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Note from Lol Kearns Entry
“While driving in convoy on the first stage of our journey to Brussels, my driver ran the car into a tree north of Magdeburg and my head was banged into the glove compartment in the dashboard. I saw Fr Morrison again at CelIe as he bent over my stretcher and formed the opinion that I should never look the same again.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/into-journal-remembers-jesuit-chaplain/

INTO journal remembers Jesuit chaplain
Irish Jesuit and Second World War chaplain Fr Michael Morrison features in the Irish National Teachers Organisation’s InTouch magazine for the January/February 2019 issue.
Fr Morrison was born in Listowel in County Kerry, was educated by the Jesuits in secondary school, joined the Society and taught at Belvedere College SJ in Dublin. He enlisted as a chaplain with the British army, initially ministering in the Middle East and later transferring to the Derry Regiment of the Lancashire Fusiliers.
He arrived with British and Canadian forces to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Northern Germany in April 1945, which was the first camp to be liberated on the Western Front. At that time, there were 60,000 individuals within the camp with conditions described as ‘hell on earth’ – 13,000 people died from sickness and starvation in the weeks after liberation.
While at Bergen-Belsen, Fr Morrison administered the last rights, held Mass for people of different religions and conducted a joint service over a mass grave with, for example, the Jewish British army chaplain. In a letter home, he wrote: “What we met within the first few days is utterly beyond description”, and it was reported that he spoke very little about what he witnessed in later years. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Morrison lived in his early years at Ballysimon on the outskirts of Limerick city. The Christian Brothers educated him at Sexton Street, and then he went to Mungret from 1922, where he excelled himself at hurling. In his last year at school he was a member of the junior team that won the O'Mara Cup.
He entered the Society at Tullabeg, 1 September 1925, and after his home juniorate at Rathfarnham, studied philosophy at Tullabeg. He did regency at Belvedere and Mungret, 1933-36, teaching mathematics and was involved with sport. He studied theology at Milltown Park, 1936-40, and was at Rathfarnham, 1940-41, for tertianship.
During the Second World War he was a military chaplain with the British Army in Egypt 1941-46, serving with the Eight Army and was present at the fall of Tunis. He was later at Belsen in 1945, working in Camp Number 1, the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were 50,000 people where typhus was raging When Morrison's unit entered the camp between 7.000 and 10,000 people were found dead in the huts and on the ground. The majority of the living were seriously ill. Many thousands died subsequently Morrison anointed about 300 people daily, helped by very few chaplains. He celebrated Mass on 22 April 1945, the first time at the camp. It was a moving experience for those able to attend.
After the war he went to Australia, teaching briefly at St Aloysius' College, and then at Riverview, 1947-48. He finally did parish work at Richmond, 1949-58.
After leaving Australia, he spent several years attached to the Jesuit Holy Name church in Manchester. He returned to Ireland later, and taught at Mungret, and then at Belvedere College as college bursar, 1963-73.
Morrison was a good listener, allowing others to speak. His quiet, matter-of-fact way of viewing things rendered him one of the most factually objective witnesses of the day-to~day circumstances of World War II. His health deteriorated in his latter years after a series of strokes. He was a man of strong principles, loyal to his duties, and, in his sickness, always unwilling to be a burden.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 16th Year No 2 1941
General News :
The Irish Province has to date sent 4 chaplains to England for home or foreign service for the duration of the war. They are Frs. Richard Kennedy, Michael Morrison, Conor Naughton and Cyril Perrott. The first three were doing their 3rd year's probation under Fr. Henry Keane at the Castle, Rathfarnham, while Fr. Perrott was Minister at Mungret College. They left Dublin on the afternoon of 26th May for Belfast en route for London. Fr. Richard Clarke reported a few days later seeing them off safely from Victoria. Both he and Fr. Guilly, Senior Chaplain to British Forces in N. Ireland, had been most helpful and kind in getting them under way.

Irish Province News 17th Year No 1 1942

Chaplains :
Our twelve chaplains are widely scattered, as appears from the following (incomplete) addresses : Frs. Burden, Catterick Camp, Yorks; Donnelly, Gt. Yarmouth, Norfolk; Dowling, Peebles Scotland; Guinane, Aylesbury, Bucks; Hayes, Newark, Notts; Lennon, Clackmannanshire, Scotland; Morrison, Weymouth, Dorset; Murphy, Aldershot, Hants; Naughton, Chichester, Sussex; Perrott, Palmer's Green, London; Shields, Larkhill, Hants.
Fr. Maurice Dowling left Dublin for-Lisburn and active service on 29 December fully recovered from the effects of his accident 18 August.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

Australia :
Frs. Fleming and Mansfield (who is a member of the Australian Vice-Province) were able to leave for Australia via America in July.
Frs. Lennon and Morrison are still awaiting travel facilities.

Irish Province News 48th Year No 3 1973

Obituary :

Fr Michael Morrison (1908-1973)

Fr. Michael Morrison was born in Listowel, Co. Kerry, in October 1908, but in his early years moved to Ballysimon on the outskirts of Limerick city; he was one of three children, another boy, Jim, and a sister, whom their mother, early bereaved of her husband, devotedly brought up.
In Limerick he attended the CBS, Sexton Street, primarily and in 1922 went to Mungret, where because of his skill and vigour in the hurling team he was the object of an amount of hero worship among those who found difficulty in earning a place on one team whereas he, by natural right, had a secure billet on both senior and junior teams. In his last year at school he was a stalwart member of the junior team that won the O'Mara Cup.
He entered the novitiate in 1925 and having negotiated many a “novices' jump” proceeded to Rathfarnham in 1927 where during the next three years he was occupied with the humanities. Through no fault of his he was drafted, to Tullabeg for philosophy in 1930 without having completed his university degree - he had spent a year in the home juniorate, because of pressure for accommodation for an overflowing community in Rathfarnham.
After philosophy he spent two years of regency at Belvedere where again his athletic skill in training teams was in requisition. Apart from this particular expertise he was a good teacher especially with mathematics at which he shone even as a boy. He spent a final year of college in his Mungret Alma Mater.
He began his course in Theology at Milltown in 1936, and was ordained in 1939. In 1941 Monsignor Coughlin, the principal chaplain in the British Army, made a strong appeal to the Irish Jesuits for priests to serve with the troops. Fr Michael was one of the first appointed. Soon he was in Egypt moving back and forth with the fortunes of the army in the desert. He was in the final breakthrough of the Eighth Army and was present at the Fall of Tunis where he met Fr Con Murphy, SJ, who had come the other way with the First Army.
Fr Michael did not cross over to Italy with the Eighth Army, but returned to England with his Units in preparation for the attack on the Northern flank of the German Army.
On the 12th April, 1945, the chief of staff of the First German Parachute Army made contact with the British Eighth Corps to ask for a local armistice. He explained that a terrible situation in the POW., and civilian internment camps had arisen at Belsen. Typhus was raging, and the Germans were unable to handle it. Would the Eighth Corps take over?
A truce was immediately arranged. A neutral area was set out around Belsen. The German SS camp staff were to stay on indefinitely. The Hungarian Guard was also to remain. A section of the Wehrmacht was to guard the area but was to be returned behind the German lines fully armed after six days.
Fr Morrison was with the 32nd Casualty Clearing Unit near Belsen at the time and it immediately moved to the camps. Then began for him a period of great trial and anguish. He was principally occupied in Camp Number 1 - known now to all the world as the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were fifty thousand people. Thirty-nine huts housed the men, forty-one, the women.
When Fr Morrison's unit entered the camp on April 17th, between seven and ten thousand people lay dead in the huts and on the ground, Of the living the majority were in periculo mortis, and many thousands were dying.
The first date for which statistics were available was April 30th, and on that day five hundred and forty eight people died. It was difficult to assess the number of Catholics, but at a guess it was in the region of 30 per cent. In February, 1945, there were 45 priests in the camp but only 10 were alive on April 17th, when Fr. Morrison arrived. Of these 10, only one, a Pole, Fr Kadjiocka, was able to give Fr Morrison any help. Soon afterwards several other chaplains arrived. The number Fr Michael anointed daily during this first period in the camp was about 300. He wrote in a report :

The joy and gratitude shown by the internees at receiving the sacraments more than compensated for the difficulties. (difficulties such an understatement!) of working in the huts. One was conscious too of being a member of a living unified Church and of the bond which held us together. In the camps were Poles, Hungarians, Czecks, Jugoslavs, Greeks, Rumanians, Ukranians, French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, and all were able to partake of the same sacrament.
On Sunday, April 22nd. Mass was celebrated for the first. time in Belsen Camp. There was a torrential downpour that morning and it was suggested that Mass be postponed until some other day, but the congregation would not hear of it ... they were drenched through but that did not diminish the fervour and enthusiasm of their singing.

Fr Michael very seldom spoke of his trials at Belsen and it would be difficult for the boys in his latter days at Belvedere to appreciate that the bowed priest who moved about so haltingly with a stick, and was nevertheless, so ready to speak with everyone, had such a distressing experience in his life.
After demobilisation, Fr Morrison went, lent, to Australia where he taught in Riverview College and served in St. Ignatius' Church, Richmond.
Michael was by disposition inclined to let others talk, it could hardly be said of him, on any occasion that he “took over”. His quiet, matter-of-fact, way of viewing things rendered him possibly the most factually objective witness of the day-to-day circumstances of the war situation summarised above. In later years he was, as noted above, averse to alluding to it and memories of it probably deepened the loneliness that affected him when his health declined.
After his return from Australia he spent several years attached to our Holy Name church in Manchester and on his coming back to Ireland after a short term in Mungret he was assigned as Economus to Belvedere, an office he retained until his health gave way; He retained his interest in games and enjoyed a game of golf.
Sadness visited him in the way of family bereavement. After his mother his sister and brother predeceased him; he retained his interest in their families but with the incapacity induced by several strokes and the consciousness of waging a losing battle a strong philosophy was necessary to buoy him up. This he fortunately possessed and the circumstances of his final seizures was characteristic : on the morning of his death he mentioned casually at breakfast that he had had another slight stroke; superiors were immediately informed but in the meantime he began to make his way, alone, upstairs to his room. The exertion brought on another and fatal attack. He was anointed and brought to Jervis Street Hospital but efforts to revive him were unavailing; he was a man of strong principle withal boyish, loyal to his duties, unwilling to be a burden. May he rest in peace.
His obsequies were carried out at Gardiner Street, April 10th; apart from his immediate relatives and a large number of ours there was a big congregation of Belvederians present and past.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1973

Obituary

Father Michael Morrison SJ (died 7th April, 1973)

Father Michael Morrison came to Belvedere late in life and was, perhaps, not very well known to its present alumni because he was not on the teaching staff. Until he be came ill he was bursar of the college. He was born in Listowel, but he went later with his family to live in Ballysimon, Co Limerick. He attended Mungret College for his secondary schooling. He was a superbly good hurler and had the distinction of being on the Junior team and of being picked for a place on the Senior team at the same time.

Michael entered the Jesuit Novitiate in 1925. Then came his humanity studies at Rathfarnham and his philosophy course at Tullabeg. In 1933 he was appointed as a scholastic to Belvedere and had charge of the Junior Rugby team which reached the final in his second year, but failed to win it. After the match there was quite a controversy about an unusual decision of the referee!

He began his course in Theology at Milltown in 1936, and was ordained in 1939. In 1941 Monsignor Coughlin, the principal chaplain in the British Army, made a strong appeal to the Irish Jesuits for priests to serve with the troops. Father Michael was one of the first appointed. Soon he was in Egypt moving back and forth with the fortunes of the army in the desert. He was in the final breakthrough of the Eighth Army and was present at the fall of Tunis where he met Father Con Murphy SJ, who had come the other way with the First Army.

Father Michael did not cross over to Italy with the Eighth Army, but returned to England with his Units in preparation for the attack on the Northern flank of the German Army.

On the 12th April, 1945, the chief of staff of the First German Parachute Army made contact with the British Eighth Corps to ask: for a local armistice. He explained that a terrible situation in the POW, and civilian internment camps had arisen at Belsen. Typhus was raging, and the Germans were unable to handle it. Would the Eight Corps take over?

A truce was immediately arranged. A neutral area was set out around Belsen. The German SS camp staff were to stay on in definitely. The Hungarian Guard was also to remain. A section of the Wehrmacht was to guard the area but was to be returned behind the German lines fully armed after six days.

Father Morrison was with the 32nd Casualty Clearing Unit near Belsen at the time and it immediately moved to the camps. Then began for him a period of great trial and anguish. He was principally occupied in Camp Number 1 - known now to all the world as the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were fifty thousand people. Thirty-nine huts housed the men forty-one, the women.

When Father Morrison's unit entered the camp on April 17th, between seven and ten thousand people lay dead in the huts and on the ground. Of the living the majority were in periculo mortis, and many thousands were dying.

The first date for which statistics were available was April 30, and on that day five hundred and forty eight people died. It was difficult to assess the number of Catholics, but at a guess it was in the region of 30 per cent. In February 1945 there were 45 priests in the camp but only 10 were alive on April 17th, when Father Morrison arrived. Of these 10, only one, a Pole, Father Kadjiocka, was able to give Father Morrison any help. Soon afterwards several other chaplains arrived. The number Father Michael annointed daily during this first period in the camp was about 300. He wrote in a report:

“The joy and gratitude shown by the internees at receiving the sacraments more than compensated for the difficulties ('difficulties —such an understatement !) of working in the huts. One was con scious too of being a member of a living unified Church and of the bond which held us together. In the camps were Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Jugoslaves, Greeks, Rumanians, Ukranians, French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, and all were able to par take of the same sacrament.
On Sunday, April 22nd Mass was celebrated for the first time in Belsen Camp. There was a torrential downpour that morning and it was suggested that Mass be postponed until some other day, but the congregation would not hear of it ... they were drenched through but that did not diminish the fervour and enthus jasm of their singing”.

Father Michael very seldom spoke of his trials at Belsen and it would be difficult for the boys now at Belvedere to appreciate that the bowed priest who moved about so haltingly with a stick, and was nevertheless, so ready to speak with everyone, had such a distressing experience in his life.

After demobilization, Father Morrison went to Australia where he taught in Riverview College and served in St Ignatius Church, Richmond. He returned to Europe in 1958 and worked for some years Manchester before becoming Bursar at Belvedere.

May he rest in peace.

Born: 22 April 1912, Oaklands Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin
Entered: 03 September 1930, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 21 April 1994, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Gonzaga College community , Dublin at the time of death.

Father was a Manufacturers Agent in Dublin and died in 1930. Family lived at St Michael’s, Upper Drumcondra Road, Drumcondra, supported by private means and the family business now carried out byn his older brother.

Third eldest of four boys, the eldes of which died in 1925.

Early education at a Convent school, at 11 years of age he went to Belvedere College SJ (1923-1930).

◆ Interfuse No 82 : September 1995 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995 & ◆ The Gonzaga Record 1995

Obituary
Fr Donal Mulcahy (1922-1994)

12th April 1922: Born in Dublin
Education: Holy Faith, Glasnevin; Belvedere
3rd Sept. 1930: Entered Society at Emo, Co. Laois
4th Sept. 1932: First Vows at Emo
1932 - 1935: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD, BA
1935 - 1938: Philosophy at Tullabeg, Co. Offaly
1938 - 1941: Belvedere College, Teacher and H.Dip in Ed
1941 - 1945: Theology at Milltown Park
31st July 1944: Ordained a at Milltown Park by J.C. McQuaid
1945 - 1946: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1946 - 1953; Mungret College, Teacher and Spiritual Father to the boys
1953 - 1962: Gardiner Street and teaching Religion at DIT (Bolton Street)
1960 - 1962: Minister, Ministering in the Church
1962 - 1971: Manresa House, Superior
1972 - 1979; Consultor of the Province
1973 - 1977: Dooradoyle, Superior
1977 - 1983: Tullabeg, Superior
1983 - 1993: Gonzaga, Minister, Treasurer
1983-1985: Treasurer, Rathfarnham Castle
1983-1989: Milltown Institute, Financial Director
1993 - 1994: Gonzaga, living in Cherryfield
21st April 1994: Died

A perspicacious man my father would have called him - and Donal was a father to me for over 12 years. Perspicacious means: of quick mental insight, understanding, perceptive, reasoned, comprehending. The reading from the Book of Wisdom rightly celebrates Donal's wise common sense and his quality of judgement - totally caring, totally honest, never judgmental.

It was that wisdom that the boys in Mungret received when he was spiritual father, Latin teacher, Junior Cup Team trainer. The students in Bolton Street enjoyed that same wisdom during his time as chaplain there in the 50's. Those who were Province consultors or house consultors with him over the years experienced and appreciated it. It was this wisdom, deepened with prayer, that he brought to his community building, his genius for home making.

Donal's home making career began here in Gardiner Street in 1960 and it was this trade that he continued to ply as Rector in Manresa from '62, Minister in Crescent from '71, Rector in Dooradoyle, which he built from scratch in '73, Superior in Tullabeg at Rahan from '77 and as minister/bursar in Gonzaga from '83 up to last summer. In all of these places he enhanced the physical surroundings, and community facilities, with an eagle eye to financial rectitude! In so doing he freed his fellow Jesuits for their work, with confidence that there was a warm home to return to and be refreshed humanly and spiritually. The second reading could not be more apt to describe Donal's philosophy and way of life.

Let love be genuine, hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honour, never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, practise hospitality.

Communities in Donal's care lived in that atmosphere. His nephews, nieces and grand-nephews/nieces will attest to his deep interest in their well-being, academic, sporting, career prowess, his shrewd assessments and warm encouragement. We Jesuits received the same concern and help. Truly a man who overcame evil with good.

The loyalty and generosity Donal showed to everyone, high and low, is legendary. The contacts he made through the Garden Fetes in Manresa and Tullabeg, the custom he gave those who were loyal to him, the reliability of his husbandry and hospitality, reminded me of the Gospel scene, where Jesus tantalised his friends only to enrich their understanding and grasp the real meaning of life. Donal lived that hospitality that made people “stay awhile” and break bread with him.

But despite all this, Donal was not perfect, you'll be sorry to hear. And if ever you watched TV with him, it is something to hear you would get..... in the form of quite disconcerting snoring! followed by an awakening and the question...,”Did I miss much” or “tell me what has happened so far!”. I understand such a characteristic was shared with his brothers: I do not know if it is hereditary! But I'm sure his sense of humour is, and his enjoyment of the simple things in life: there was nothing he liked better than a good variety show with wholesome humour. He was even addicted to the Late Late Show, God help us, Glenroe and the Rose of Tralee, the highlight of the year, along with Tops of the Town. He enjoyed a good “who done it” novel, or his fishing when on holidays.

Donal's untiring humanity is borne out in the courage he had in overcoming his speech impediment and the crippling arthritis over so many of his later years. Can any of us remember him complaining, making demands, being inconsiderate of others? The manner of his dying typifies his character, no fuss, minimal disruption, the choir didn't even get a day off school!

Donal's last words to me Thursday evening, about 20 minutes before he died, were, “There's nothing I need and thanks very much for coming” - a typical response from him.

My last words to you, now, Donal are: “Thanks for being there, so many times, for so many of us in our need. You revealed the Lord in the hospitality of the home, in the breaking of the bread for us, may you now be "at home", as he breaks bread with you”.

John Dunne

Born: 18 April 1898, Blarney Street, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 09 October 1916, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1931, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Belvedere College SJ
Died: 21 May 1962, Mungret College, Mungret, County Limerick

Part of the St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

Father was a clerk in a stockbroking firm and died in 1903. His mother now lives at Belgrave Avenue, Wellington Road, Cork, and supported by an older brother who lectures in Mathematics at the Municipal Technical Institute (Cork Institute of Technology).

Educated at the Christian Brothers Primary School at North Monastery and then went to Mungret College SJ after the Intermediate Course.

BA 1st Class at UCD

by 1923 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1933 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 37th Year No 3 1962
St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner St.
The community was profoundly shocked by the news received on the afternoon of Monday, May 21st, of Fr. Tim Mulcahy's sudden death at Mungret. He had given the annual Triduum for the Sick, broadcast by Radio Éireann from the Ignatian chapel, towards the end of April. It was known that recurrent pains in the head had made him consult his doctor, but x-rays and cardiograph examination did not reveal anything more than usually untoward before he went to Mungret on May 14th for the rest which he regarded as his Major Villa. But the last of his typically charming letters, posted on the 21st, had not reached its destination before the fatal thrombosis struck him. One of those letters read "I shall be back on Wednesday". But he was not to return to Gardiner Street. May he rest in peace, in the shade of the ancient Mungret Abbey, near to the remains of those monks of an earlier Ireland whose faith he held so firmly and which he did so much to spread in another age.
Earlier issues of the Province News have recorded the many material benefits which Fr. Mulcahy brought to Gardiner Street while he was Superior here. His charming charity had perhaps too often been taken for granted: but he is lovingly, sorely, missed.
The Bishop of Limerick, Most Rev. Dr. Henry Murphy, presided at the Solemn Office and Requiem Mass for Fr. Mulcahy at the Crescent, on May 23rd. The Mass was sung by Fr. Andrews, Rector, and Frs. Quigley and Guinane were deacon and sub-deacon. Fr. Visitor and Fr. Provincial were present, as well as many of the Gardiner St. community and representatives of most of the Province Houses. The boys of the Crescent walked behind the funeral procession as far as the city boundary, and those of Mungret lined the avenue and cemetery there. The prayers at the graveside at Mungret were recited by Fr. Provincial. The Gardiner St. Sodalities were represented by Mr. John Monahan, President of the Ignatian Sodality, and Mr. L. S. Ó Riordáin, Secretary, and by Mr. A. Ralph, President and five members of the Evening Office Confraternity.

The Sacred Heart College and Church, Limerick

Fr. T. I. Mulcahy, R.I.P.
The community was deeply shocked when the sad news was announced of Fr. Mulcahy's sudden death at Mungret. Everyone, not only in the Crescent community, where he had been Rector, but in the city of Limerick, seemed to look on Fr. Mulcahy as a personal friend, and only the week previously, having finished his retreat, he came in from Mungret to dine with us. Fr. Rector and the community deemed it a signal honour to have the Requiem Mass in the Crescent Church, and the many priests who attended, both from the Society itself and from outside, bore testimony to the great personality of the deceased. Very many Mass Cards, letters and messages of sympathy were sent to the Crescent, and His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin wired: “Rector, Crescent. ... Deepest sympathy on death of Fr. Mulcahy - a worthy priest”. His Lordship the Bishop of Limerick presided at the obsequies and Mgr. Moloney chanted a Lesson in the Office. Together with Very Rev. Fr. Visitor and Fr. Provincial, representatives from almost all our houses were present at the funeral, The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Rector and Frs. Quigley and Guinane were deacon and sub-deacon. Fr. Provincial officiated at the burial in the Mungret cemetery.

Obituary :

Fr Timothy I Mulcahy (1898-1962)

Born: Cork, 1898; education: C.B.S., Our Lady's Mount, Cork, and Mungret College; entered Society, Tullabeg, 1916; studied, Rathfarnham and U.C.D., 1918-1922, Louvain, 1922-1925; teaching staff, Belvedere, 1925-1928; theology, Milltown Park, 1928-1932; ordination, 1931, and tertianship, St. Beuno's, N. Wales, 1932-1933.
Stationed Irish Messenger Office, Belvedere College, 1933-1947, as National Director, Sodality of Our Lady, Editor Madonna, Irish Monthly and Irish Jesuit Directory. Rector, Sacred Heart College, Crescent, 1947 1950. Superior, St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, 1950-1957. Director, Ignatian Sodality there, 1950-1959. Rector, St. Mary's, Emo, 1959-1961. At Gardiner Street to death (at Mungret College), May 21st, 1962.
On a May afternoon in 1962, while talking to a friend in the parlour of Mungret College, Fr. Tim Mulcahy was struck by the heart-attack which he survived only long enough to receive the Last Sacraments. He had been a boy in the College fifty years before. Fifty years bring big changes and to Mungret not less than elsewhere. Fr. Tim seldom spoke of his schooldays, but through those fifty years he was a constant visitor to his old school, making his annual retreat there and when ill-health came choosing that rather out of the way spot for a brief holiday or an unavoidable rest. He kept his interest in the Past as anyone who saw him welcome successive Mungret Annuals will agree, and though away from home he died among friends who had the best of reason to be proud of a distinguished pupil.
Good noviceships have as little history as happy nations. That to which Fr. Tim came had scarcely been stirred by a ripple of the Easter Rising, known only through letters from home and the very rare newspaper cuttings read aloud by the Socius. It cannot have been difficult in the lull that followed it to forget the outside world. His “angelus” was his life long friend, Fr. Tom Perrott. It was a friendship thirty years' separation by half a world never weakened and one may be forgiven if one imagines they sometimes forgot the custom-book to rendezvous as they had often done as boys under the clock” in their well-loved Cork City, to which each in his own way was to do honour,
The abolition in 1918 of a home juniorate enabled Fr. Tim to catch up, as it were, and more than one generation were his contemporaries. In Rathfarnham Castle he quickly showed what he was always to remain - he was the perfect community man. There was a triumvirate who talked a “little language” (Fr. Tim's stage-name was “factorial five”) and brightened life by their original pranks, for he had and retained a charming playfulness. Alas, Fr. Gallagher, Fr. Little and Fr. Tim are all gone, but they lived to delight in their maturity an extraordinarily wide circle and to win and hold a unique place in the affection of the Province as well as in the hearts of the innumerable souls they helped.
Rathfarnham was already proving old; the honeymoon of Fr. Jimmie Brennan's reign almost over; and Fr. Tim's university career is perhaps chiefly memorable in that he was the last young Jesuit for over ten years to conduct the affairs of the English Society in College, which - founded a decade before by Thomas McDonagh, one of the immortal sixteen of Easter Week, and the brilliant Australian student, Fr. Peterson, happily still with us - had been almost a Jesuit pocket-borough in the days when Violet Connolly, Kate O'Brien, Fr. Paddy O'Connor and Professor Gerard Murphy starred its eager assemblies.
English was Fr. Tim's subject, and though he wrote little he put his training and critical judgment to good use later. But now it was time for Philosophy, in the great university of Louvain, still staggering from the unexpected shock of its demolition in the First World War. It was not in fact a congenial posting and some were to see its influence in deepening the natural intellectual tolerance of his mind into something like indecision in speculative studies. Happily, his “colleges” were spent in Belvedere, the house in which he passed the greatest part of his working life and which he loved and which loved him. Fr. Tim was before all things urbane in the best sense of that word. A city man, the great city school found him reserved, dignified, friendly and wise. His influence would always be the result of personality and not propaganda. Indeed he seldom urged a case, never raised his voice, rarely argued, and held clear, firm, tenacious opinions without dogmatism or contradiction. A born teacher.
Perhaps in Theology at Milltown or Tertianship at Beuno's it is pardonable for a contemporary to remember chiefly the way he sweetened the last years of formation: his conversation round a fire at Glencree, the way he and Fr. Perrott would burst into their own version of the Volga boat-song to carry a weary group up the steep, stony avenue of St. Beuno's.
His work in the Society fell into two parts. For twenty years he was editor of The Irish Monthly and The Madonna. A big school is very much a closed shop, but Belvedere was well aware of what it gained by the presence of Fr. Mulcahy and his friends and co-workers in the Messenger Office, Fr. Scantlebury and Fr. McCarthy. Though his only official contact with the school was as confessor, he became in a very real sense a Belvederian whom even Fr. John Mary O'Connor would have ranked as one hundred per cent.
His editorship of The Irish Monthly was not an altogether happy story. He had not perhaps the genius of its founder, Fr. Matt Russell, to make it a nest of singing birds, but it was in that great tradition he would have liked to work and was fitted to work. Policy in an emergent nation wanted economics, civics and social theory. He did his best but the medium was a poor one. With the sodality it was different. There, too, winds of change were blowing. A long and somewhat inactive tradition had to be remodelled in a society which greeted the “Age of Mary” with fresh enthusiasm and, incidentally, a sheaf of Marian magazines. He was the perfect uncontroversial leader, never disillusioned, never unwilling to be content with less than absolute perfection, if only he could foster genuine holiness under Mary's banner.
It seemed surprising to many who knew him well that his obvious talent and graces for government were not used earlier. But the chance came and in three full, rich years as Superior of the Crescent, in as many in the delicate task of Superior of a noviceship, and above all in a never-to be-forgotten period in Gardiner Street, he did work for God, the country and the Province only he could do.
His Gardiner Street activity will be remembered for three notable elements. He was, as may be imagined, a devoted confessor with devoted penitents. It is a role upon which he would not have tolerated any comments, His predecessor as Superior, Fr. Tyndall, had incorporated in the remarkable celebrations of the Novena of Grace a special feature by which the vast and growing congregations who assembled long before the devotions were led from the pulpit in prayers, hymn-singing and a real effort to bring to the exercises that confidence and fervour which the Novena calls for. Fr. Tyndall carried through his admirable plan so well that many feared an anti-climax when his term of office came to an end. They need not have. Fr. Tim made his own unique personal contact with those great crowds and he will be remembered by them till all the generation is gone, and his is only a legend.
For a long time there the need for a renovation of the church had been admitted, but only piecemeal work was done. Fr. Mulcahy made the Gardiner Street of today, transforming an old and, it must be admitted, rather grimy church, thickly hung with inartistic pictures and meaningless decoration, into a lightsome, joyous church which seemed to blossom into a new and fundamental beauty. To execute the task he called in Michael Scott, whom he had known in Belvedere, and his namesake and co-worker, Patrick Scott. It needed courage to approve a scheme which - apart from the few last-ditch traditionalists who loved every fold of the robes of the Indian and Chinese watchers in the painting of Francis's death-bed-might not be acceptable to the great body of loyal friends who are Gardiner Street's pride and glory. Fr. Tim did not compromise. The great panels of undecorated scarlet damask stood out from white and grey walls which some would have thought more suitable to a garden city than to the faded glories of the north side of Dublin. But they filled the house of God with light and on the side-altars were statues that could not be passed with a casual glance, and if the splendid scagliola pillars of the high altar had to be painted white it was to give its lapis-lazuli tabernacle the true focal value which its Inhabitant deserves, One could stand at the lower rail of Gardiner Street and, asked for an obituary of Fr, Tim, say “Circumspice”. He has another monument to his memory in the new St. Francis Xavier Hall in Sherrard Street, for hardly had he completed the decoration of the church when he was called on to replace Fr. Cullen's famous “Pioneer Hall”, more than worn out by its forty eight years of varied activity. Despite the ill-health which was already making itself felt, he carried the new and more solid hall through its planning and building stages, leaving only the formal opening to his successor.
But a friend cannot leave monuments to speak for Fr. Tim - and how many and how good friends he had! It is sometimes said that a man who has no enemies is a poor creature. Fr. Tim was the living proof of the falsehood of this saying. He had none. His friendship was essentially that of a giver : he asked for nothing but he concealed this, and it was easy to think and indeed perhaps true that the friends meant as much to him as he to them. He fostered friendship with a long memory and a recurrent refreshment of its precious times. Separation was a minimal interference with this intercourse, as we have seen in the case of Fr. Perrott. From Mungret on the last Easter the sick man sent a charming little letter of greeting to a Dublin lady whom he had not met in many years, and by the same post to one of the community he had just left a gay anecdote of his own special brand. It is commonplace to say no one will fill his place, but perhaps it should be added that he filled it so perfectly that he can never lose it,
A handsome tribute to Fr. Mulcahy from His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin:

Archbishop's House,
Dublin 9.
23-5-1962.

My Dear Fr. Provincial,
I am very sorry--but not surprised to learn of Fr. Mulcahy's death, May be rest in peace! He was a great priest. From the year 1941 I. knew his zeal and patience and very courteous charity. I believe that I shall have in him a strong friend before God.
With kind wishes.
I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
+John C. McQuaid

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1963

Obituary

Father Timothy Mulcahy SJ

On a May afternoon in 1962, while talking to a friend in the parlour of Mungret College, Father Tim Mulcahy was struck by the heart-attack which he survived only long enough to receive the Last Sacraments. He had been a boy in the College fifty years before. Fifty years bring big changes and to Mungret not less than elsewhere. Father Tim seldom spoke of his schooldays, but through those fifty years he was a constant visitor to his old school, making his annual retreat there and when ill-health came choosing it for a brief holiday or an unavoidable rest. He kept his interest in the Past as anyone who saw him welcome successive Mungret Annuals will agree, and though away from home he died among friends who had the best of reason to be proud of a
distinguished pupil.

His work in the Society fell into two parts. For twenty years he was editor of “The Irish Monthly” and “The Madonna”. A big school is very much a closed shop, but Belvedere was well aware of what it gained by the presence of Father Mulcahy and his friends and co-workers in the Messenger Office, Father Scantlebury and Father McCarthy. Though his only official contact with the school was as confessor, he became in a very real sense a Belvederian whom even Father John Mary O'Connor would have ranked as one hundred per cent.

His Gardiner Street activity will be remembered for three notable elements. He was, as may be imagined, a devoted confessor with devoted penitents. It is a role upon which he would not have tolerated any comments. His predecessor as Superior, Father Tyndall, had incorporated in the remarkable celebrations of the Novena of Grace a special feature by which the vast and growing congregations who assembled long before the devotions were led from the pulpit in prayers, hymn-singing and a real effort to bring to the exercises that confidence and fervour which the Novena calls for. Father Tyndall carried through his admirable plan so well that many feared an anti-climax when his term of office came to an end. They need not have. Father Tim made his own unique personal contact with those great crowds and he will be remembered by them till all the generation is gone, and his is only a legend.

For a long time there the need for a renovation of the church had been admitted, but only piece meal work was done. Father Mulcahy made the Gardiner Street of today, transforming an old and, it must be admitted, rather grimy church, thickly hung with inartistic pictures and meaning less decoration, into a lightsome, joyous church which seemed to blossom into a new and fundamental beauty. To execute the task he called in Michael Scott, whom he had known in Belvedere, and his namesake and co-worker, Patrick Scott. It needed courage to approve a scheme which apart from the few last-ditch traditionalists who loved every fold of the robes of the Indian and Chinese watchers in the painting of Francis's death-bed-might not be acceptable to the great body of loyal friends who are Gardiner Street's pride and glory. Father Tim did not comprornise. The great panels of undecorated scarlet damask stood out from white and grey walls which some would have thought more suitable to a garden city than to the faded glories of the north side of Dublin. But they filled the house of God with light and on the side-altars were statues that could not be passed with a casual glance, and if the splendid scagliola pillars of the high altas had to be painted white it was to give its lapis-lazuli tabernacle the true focal value which its Inhabitant deserves. One could stand at the lower rail of Gardiner Street and, asked for an obituary of Father Tim, say “Circumspice”. He has another monument to his memory in the new St Francis Xavier Hall in Sherrard Street, for hardly had he completed the decoration of the church when he was called on to replace Father Cullen's famous “Pioneer Hall”, more than worn out by its forty eight years of varied activity. Despite the ill-health which was already making itself felt, be carried the new and more solid ball through its planning and building stages, leaving only the formal opening to his successor.

But a friend cannot leave monuments to speak for Father Tim - and how many and how good friends he bad! It is sometimes said that a man who has no enemies is a poor creature. Father Tim was the living proof of the falsehood of this saying. He had none. His friendship was essentially that of a giver: he asked for nothing but he concealed this, and it was easy to think and indeed perhaps true that the friends meant as much to him as he to them. He fostered friendship with a long memory and a recurrent refreshment of its precious times. Separation was a minimal interference with this intercourse. From Mungret the last Easter the sick man sent a charming little letter of greeting to a Dublin lady whom be had not met in many years, and by the same post to one of the community he had just left a gay anecdote of his own special brand. It is common place to say no one will fill his place, but perhaps it should be added that he filled it so perfectly that he can never lose it.

Born: 18 April 1920, Main Street, Swinford, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1943, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1954, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1981, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 29 May 1986, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Bray, County Wicklow

Part of Gonzaga College SJ community, Ranelagh, Dublin at time of his death.

Father was a doctor and died in 1920. Mother then lived supported by private means.

Only boy with one sister.

Early education was at a National School in Swinford, and then he went to Blackrock College CSSp for four years. He went to Holy Cross College Clonliffe after school and spent five years there, followed by one year at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth getting a BA.

Born: 14 March 1853, Castleknock, County Dublin
Entered: 18 March 1882, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1894, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 14 December 1931, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Glazier and Painter before entry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932
Obituary :
Br Joseph Mulvany
Br. Joseph Mulvany was born near Castleknock on 14 March 1853. While he was a boy, his family moved into Dublin, and he went to school at Richmond St. During his school-days, he was an altar boy in Gardiner St. He began his noviceship at Milltown Park in 1882 and finished it two years later at the newly established house in Dromore, Co. Down. During his life of 49 years in the Society, he discharged, at one time or another, nearly every duty that falls to the lot of a lay-brother. For some years, when stationed at Belvedere, he is entered in the Catalogue “Adj Dir. assoc. S. S. Cor,”. Sacristan seems to have been his speciality, for he held that important position for no less than 38 years. For 26 years he was stationed at Milltown, 8 at Belvedere, 5 at University College, Stephen's Green, 4 at the Crescent, 3 at Clongowes, 2 at Gardiner St,, and 1 at Dromore.
Most people will remember Br. Mulvany as sacristan in Milltown. He did his work in the Chapel with a regularity and fidelity to routine that were characteristic of him. Towards the end of his time, when scholastics who were helping him decorated the altar in some novel way, he would murmur disapprovingly, “more in sorrow than in anger”. It was never
done before Gradually he was relieved entirely of any work, he was becoming so weak. He used to hobble about in the garden, sit in the little kiosk saying his beads. He must have said millions of heads, His fidelity to the spiritual duties used to impress those that lived with him.
For a few weeks before his death, he complained of being very weak, but with a will to live, about which he did not mind being joked, he kept up as much as possible. He was at dinner in the refectory three days before he died. Had he lived for a few months more he would have celebrated his Golden Jubilee in the Society. He died at Milltown on Monday 14 Dec. 1931.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Joseph Mulvany 1853-1931
Br Joseph Mulvany was born at Castleknock on March 14th 1853. His family moved into the city, and so young Joseph was enabled to go to O’Connell’s Schools, and to become an altar boy in Gardiner Street. He entered the Society at Milltown in 1882, and completed his noviceship at Dromore County Down.

His work in the Society was mainly as Sacristan, at which he excelled, holding that post for upward of 38 years, the majority of them at Milltown Park. When he grew too feeble to work, he used hobble around the garden and sit in the kiosk telling his beads. He was never without them, and his litany of rosaries must have run into millions.

He died at Milltown on December 14th 1931 within a few months of his golden jubilee as a Jesuit.

Born: 17 April 1827, Youghal, County Cork
Entered: 05 September 1844, St Acheul, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1856
Final Vows: 02 February 1864
Died: 28 October 1902, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

by 1847 in Namur (BELG) studying
by 1856 Studying at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG)
by 1863 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Clongowes, where he even studied Philosophy under Henry Lynch. Always popular with students and Staff his nickname was “Steamer” largely attributed to his commanding stature and energetic gait, and it was intended as a compliment. Less complimentary was a later nickname of “The Handsome Scholastic” given him by the pupils of Belvedere!

After First Vows he remained in France for some studies.
He made his Theology studies at St Beuno’s, and a year in Dublin at the Theologate at Nth Frederick St which had Michael O’Ferrall as Rector, and William Kelly, Edmund O’Reilly and Daniel Jones as Professors.
He then made his tertianship in Rome.
He worked as a teacher for ten years, 2 at Belvedere and 8 at Clongowes. He was known to be teaching Rhetoric at Clongowes in 1859.
He was also Minister at Belvedere for a period.
1865-1870 He was Rector at Tullabeg. During his term, the tower of the Church was erected.
1870-1876 he was sent to Galway as Vice-Rector, and in 1872-1876 he became Rector.
1876 He was sent to Gardiner St, and remained there until his death. He worked very hard there, and exercised an apostolate of kindness and unwavering perseverance, especially in the Confessional. In the latter stages of his life it was noticed that his health was failing, and he gave great edification in his final illness. When his mind began to wander, he was focused on the work he had given a lot of his life to - and so he was found in the Confessional when the Church was empty, and he was still trying to arrange some convent Retreats for the Fathers. He received the Last Rites from Edward Kelly, who had just returned from the Procurators meeting in Rome. He died a happy death in Gardiner St 28 October 1902. His funeral was one of the first for many years in which he was not the celebrant. It was attended by the Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr Matthew Gaffney the Bishop of Meath, and a large number of Priests and Lay People.
He was a good organiser, and for many years was responsible for coordinating the many Retreats give by Ours in Convents. He required great diplomacy to manage the vagaries of ours and many Mothers Superior. He was a good writer, and this stood him well in the number of letters this task required of him.
He also occasionally contributed some musical verses to the “Irish Monthly”.
He served as Provincial Socius for several years up to 1884, and for six months was Vice-Provincial (1889-1890) while the Provincial Timothy Kenny was on Visitation in Australia.
On one occasion he was invited by a brilliant young Professor, who later became Dean Henry Neville of Cork, and accompanied by Robert Carbery, who was a Prefect of Juniors at Maynooth and a future Jesuit Peter Foley, to dine with the Professors at Maynooth, where he made a great impression on the Juniors there.
His Golden Jubilee was celebrated at Gardiner St, and at this celebration, a member of the community tried to capture his life in verse to the great amusement of the gathering. The poem was entitles “Alfredus Magnus”!
He was a good community man and loved conversation, taking a large - though not too large - share of it himself. He was invariably good-natures, good-humoured, friendly and truly charitable. he like a bit of news or gossip, especially if he was the one telling it.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Alfred Murphy 1827-1902
Fr Alfred Murphy was born in Youghal on April 17th 1827. Educated at Clongowes, he entered the Society in 1844, doing his noviceship and early higher studies in France. He was one of those Jesuits who studied Theology at our house in North Frederick Street Dublin, where Fr Michael O’Ferrall was Rector, and Frs William Kelly, Edmund O’reilly and Daniel Jones were Professors.

In 1870, Fr Murphy, while Rector of Tullabeg, erected the tower on the Church and added the fine wing parallel to the front building. After a term of office as Rector in Galway, he spent the remaining years of his priestly life as an Operarius at Gardiner Street, in the course of which he acted as Socius to the Provincial, and also acted as Vice-Provincial in the absence of Fr Timothy Kenny when he was a Visitor to Australia.

He died a very happy and edifying death on October 28th 1902, in his 75th year.

◆ The Clongownian, 1897

Father Alfred Murphy SJ

The Last of the Munster Geraldines

Delivered by Patrick Mathews of the class of Rhetoric

Mononia, thy plains yet thrill with gladness,
As Minstrels sweep thy harps of fire;
Thy beauties still, though veiled in sadness,
Full many a song of pride inspire.
Thy hills, where Morning sits enthroned,
On mists that wreaths of glory twine,
Thy fairy.lakes with forests crowned,
Where the lingering ray,
Of pensive evening loves to play,
And brighten with hues of purple and gold,
The ballowed slirines and towers of old,
Mononia, ny country ! No land like thine.

So thought when first the Emerald Isle
Beamed on his gaze, the lordly Geraldine ;
His sires had basked in the radiant smile
Of fair Italia ; his Norman lance
Had flashed on the plainis of sunny France,
Yet he loved thee more, fair land of mine!
More true than many a purer vein,
He clung to the home he fought to gain;
His heart its bravest impulse gave,
For the faith and land he died to save;
And thy Minstrel's harp, will ever tell,
As with strings all steeped in sorrow's tears,
It thrills with the voice of byegone years,
How the last brave Desmond fell.

Night veils in storm MacCaura's hills,
And darkly broods o'er wood and glen;
The heaving air with terror thrills,
As sweeps in fury o'er the plain
The wild tempestuous swell. Alone
Mid the tempest's fearful moan,
An aged hero wenda his weary way.
His steps are tottering, his form
Bends in its weakness with the storm;
His hand is raised, his long loose hair,
Streams wild upon the midnight air,
And fiercely round his head the raging whirlwinds play.

Not thus of old when more than King,
The noble Desmond trod in pride,
These his own hills then wont to ring,
With shouts of thousands by his side;
Not thus, when the love of all the land,
Crowned the great Earl with truer praise,
Than kingly despots can command,
Or slave's reluctant homage raise.
But the wayward fate of the sad green Isle,
Had clouded the light of fortune's smile ; .
He scorned to crouch at a tyrant's nod,
And basely live a woman's slave;
His heart refused to forget his God,
And spurn the charms the old religion gave.
For this all mercy is denied
The humbled hero in his woe,
For this fell hate and vengeance guide
O'er the wild waste the ruthless foe,
And all the terrors tempest gives
Are braved while hated Desmond lives,
Save thee, ny Prince, for worse than Nature's wrath,.
Traitors and foes beset thy path;
E'en now shrill sounds the larum cry,
And shouts are heard and lights are seen along the sky.

An hour is past. Yon hut is won,
The last sad refuge from despair,
The storm still shrieks through the forest lone,
And swells upon the troubled air.
But Desmond sunk in calm repose,
In dreams forgets awhile his woes;
Blest sleep of peace that only virtue knows!
But hark! What spirit yoice of wail,
Mingles its moaning with the gale!
Now in plaintive breathings low,
Now swelling dire in notes of woe,
“Sleep on, last hero of a noble line,
Sleep on, while yet you may ;
Ah! soon will change that sleep of thine,
To one that knows not day.
My voice has warned thy Sires in their decline,
'Tis heard in thy decay”.

Hark! that piercing cry,
The murderer's shout, the victim's sigh;
“Spare, oh! spare” he cries in vain,
The noble Desmond never breathes again.
But his spirit all bright with virtue fies,
As angels wreaths of triumph wave,
To that home of the blest beyond the skies,
Where glory enshrines the good and brave.
Weep not for him ; 'tis a noble pride,
For country and creed to bave lived and died.

◆ The Clongownian, 1903

Obituary

Father Alfred Murphy SJ

We regret to announce the death of the Rev Alfred Murphy SJ, who was for many years as boy or master or priest connected with Clongowes and Tullabeg. For a year or so it was noticed that his health was failing, and the end came last October, when he was half way through his 76th year.

Father Murphy was born at Youghal, April 17th, 1827. In his thirteenth year he went to Congowes, 'Where he was always popular, both with his comrades and his masters. His schoolboy nickname of “Steamer: was a very covert compliment to his commanding stature and his energetic gait and deportment. At school, he went through the full course of studies, even the class of Philosophy, under Father Henry Lynch.

In 1844 he left Clongowes and entered the Society of Jesus, beginning his noviceship at St Acheul, near Amiens. In France also he went through some of his highest studies. Returning to Ireland he worked as a master for ten years, two at Belvedere and eight at Clongowes. He certainly had charge of the Rhetoric Class of his Alma Mater in July, 1859 - the only Clongowes Academy Day ever enjoyed by the present chronicler, who also remembers the very favourable impression made by Father Murphy on the Junior students of Maynooth, when he came over a few years earlier to the great Ecclesiastical College to dine with the Professors, on the invitation of the brilliant young Professor, who was afterwards Dean Neville of Cork.

Between 1852 and 1859, Father Murphy had made his Theological studies and became a priest. He studied at St Beuno's in North Wales, and for one year in Dublin, after which he spent a year in Rome. In 1863 he became Minister in Belvedere, from which he was changed after two years to Tullabeg, of which he was Rector till 1870. During his term of office the tower of the People's Church was erected, and the fine wing parallel to the front of the College was added. The same month in which he ceased to be Rector of Tullabeg saw him Rector of St Ignatius College, Galway, which office he filled till March, 1876. From that day till the day of his death he was a member of the Community of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, where his kindness and prudence and unwearying perseverance met with marvellous success.

The Requiem Mass of Fr Murphy's obsequies was the first for many years in St Francis Xavier's of which he was not himself the celebrant. It was attended by the Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr Gaffney, Bishop of Meath, and by a very large number of priests and laity. His remains await the Resurrection beneath the shadow of the noble Celtic Cross that marks the burial-place of the Society of Jesus, in the Cemetery of Glasnevin. RIP

Born: 26 May 1916, Portrane House, Donabate, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1935, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1948, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1951, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 08 December 1979, St Mary’s, Surrenden Road, Brighton, Sussex, England - Zambiae Province (ZAM)

Attachd to St Mary's Catholic Church, Surrenden Road, Preston Park, Brighton, Sussex, England at time of death.
Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 03 December 1969
Brother of John - RIP 1986

Father was Chief Clerk of Grangegorman and Portrane Mental Hospitals and died in February 1923. The family lived at Portrane House, Donabate, County Dublin. Mother was supported by private means and work at the pharmacy in Portrane.

Younger of two boys with one sister.

Early education at Dominican Convent Wicklow and then at Belvedere College SJ.

by 1951 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - third wave of Zambian Missioners
by 1968 at St Paul’s. Mulungushi, Brokenhill, Zambia (POL Mi) teaching
by 1969 at Lusaka (PO Mi) working
by 1975 at Worthing Sussex (ANG) working
by 1976 at Brighton Sussex (ANG) working

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Just at the end of his tertianship, Fr Dermot was selected to go to the then Northern Rhodesia and was one of the nine Irish Jesuits who went there in 1950. The Irish Province had been asked by Fr General to send men to aid their Polish colleagues there. When they arrived, Fr Dermot was based mainly at Fumbo and Chikuni during his first five years. Many were the stories told about his apostolic adventures in the Gwembe valley and along the line of rail during these years. His resourcefulness in coming up with needed articles was also a byword. He seemed to have a ready supply of things required by his brethren. One Father setting out on a visit to a distant outpost in very hot conditions, wished to take some butter and other perishables. Fr Dermot said to him, ‘I think I have a refrigerator bag'. He produced the bag when most of his brethren did not know that such things were obtainable.

The second half of 1956 saw Fr Dermot in Lusaka as Parish Priest of St Ignatius. He immediately launched the building of a long-planned church which involved a great deal of finding both money and material. In doing this, with remarkable success, Fr Dermot acquired a host of friends, acquaintances and some would add with affectionate facetiousness – victims. On one occasion when a motor dealer offered a donation of £10, Dermot intimated that a larger donation would better match the esteem in which the listener was held. After an exchange of pleasantries, the business man said: ‘Just to listen to you, Father, is well worth £25; here is my cheque’.

The new church was blessed in December 1957 and, over the next few years, Dermot added to it with loving care. He also made improvements to the already existing parish hall and, in particular, promoted youth entertainment.

Returning from leave in 1964, he was assigned to Roma township where the cathedral was to be built. While there, he presided over the building of it as well as the Regiment church at Chilenje.

In 1972 Dermot's health began to fail and increasing heart trouble made it advisable for him to live at a lower altitude. While he had been a scholastic at Clongowes doing his regency, diphtheria had broken out. All the community were tested and found to be immune. Dermot, however, went down afterwards with a bad bout of diphtheria. This can affect the heart and it was his heart that went against him at this time. Accordingly he left Zambia in February 1973 and took up parish work at sea level in Brighton, England, where he laboured with his customary zeal and success until his regretted death on 8 of December 1979. His brother John, also a Jesuit, was with him when he died. When John arrived, Dermot was in a coma. John wrote, ‘He (Dermot) did not give any sign of recognition but I had the uncanny feeling that he knew I was there’.

A strict contemporary writing about Dermot, said, ‘Dermot was, and remained so all his life, the kind of person one was glad to meet. It was always good to have him in the company. He had a sense of humour and an original dry verbal wit. After one of his verbal shafts, he would cackle happily. I think he was incapable of an uncharitable remark and he never showed disappointment or bitterness. He was a good community man’. Before he left Zambia, Dermot could become depressed, maybe the result of his health. However when in the parish in Brighton he was most apostolic as witnessed by the parishioners there.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 55th Year No 1 1980
Obituary :
Fr Dermot Murphy (1916-1935-1979)
Dermot Murphy and myself walked up the Emo steps for the first time on the 7th September 1935. In that year we were the only two candidates who had been at school in Belvedere. On that heart freezing day it was a help to see somebody one knew, and Dermot, as usual, was cheerful, which I was not.
Although we came across one another little enough in Belvedere, Dermot was always friendly and cheerful. He was - and remained so all his life - the kind of person one was glad to meet. We were always glad to have Dermot with us walking on the hills from Rathfarnham or in the boats from Tullabeg. There was something gentle and peaceful about him. He had a sense of humour and an original dry verbal wit. After one of his verbal shafts he would cackle happily. I think he was incapable of an uncharitable remark and he never showed disappointment or bitterness. He was a community man; a good guy.
In Clongowes, where we were scholastics together, the community used all be given a test for vulnerability to diphtheria. All were found to be immune. Dermot, however, went down shortly afterwards with a bad bout of diphtheria, and the test, as a result, was abandoned by the medical profession. Diphtheria can affect the heart, and it was his heart that went against Dermot in the last years.
I think I remember him on one of the younger teams in Belvedere but it was golf not rugby that was his game. We always said he was born on a golf course! Playing on the seaside course near his home from an early age, he became one of those players who are marvellously natural and easy.
One day, in half a gale and rain, we were playing Portmarnock, There is one hole in the second nine which used to be almost unplayable in bad weather. From a low tee you looked up at a high sandhill which blotted out the sky. Later they took away part of the sandhill because it was too difficult for the Canada Cup players. Dermot asked “What’s the line?” We pointed to the white stone which was hardly visible. “How far?” We told him. His drive went straight and effortlessly into the wind, rising over the stone, and we found the ball in the middle of the fairway.
That was like the man: in spite of difficulties, assured, straight, undeviating, reaching the desired place which could not even be seen. That is how he was with people. That, I believe, is how he went to God. May the Lord be exceptionally good to him.
J C Kelly SJ

Irish Province News 55th Year No 2 1980
Obituary
Fr Dermot Murphy († 8th December 1979)
A contribution from Zambia
Fr Dermot Murphy joins Frs Brian McMahon and Walter O’Connor, to bring to three the number of the 1950 arrivals on the Mission who have departed this world, Lord rest them. .
Fr Murphy learned chiTonga soon after his arrival in Zambia, and was based mainly at Fumbo and at Chikuni during his first five years in Africa. Many were the stories told about his apostolic adventures in the Gwembe valley and along the line of rail during those years. His resource fulness in coming up with needed articles was also a byword. He seemed to have had a ready reserve supply of things required by his brethren - tools of every kind, apparel for various occasions. The writer, setting out on a visit to a distant outpost in very hot conditions, wished to take some butter and other perishables. Fr Dermot, on hearing of the problem, considered a moment, and said in his unhurried way, “I think I have a refrigerator bag”. And sure enough he had, at a time when most of us did not know that such things were obtainable!
In the second half of 1956 he was posted to Lusaka as parish priest of St Ignatius. He immediately launched the building of the long-planned church. His predecessor, Fr Paddy O’Brien, had left the parish with enough resources to get the work started: but to keep it going a great deal more money and material was needed. These Fr Murphy sought tirelessly, perseveringly and with remarkable success, and in doing so he acquired a host of friends, acquaintances, and - some would add with affectionate facetiousness – victims! On one occasion he is said to have approached a Lusaka motor dealer. The gentleman in question offered a donation of £10, Dermot intimated that only a larger donation would match the esteem in which his listener was held. After an exchange of pleasantries the businessman said, “Just to listen to you, Father, is well worth £25. Here is my cheque”.
To general rejoicing the church was blessed and opened in December 1957. Over the next few years the parish priest added to it with loving care a distinctive side-altar, the sanctuary stained-glass (donated by his aunt, Mrs Scanlon of Killaloe), electronic equipment, etc. He also made improvements to the already existing parish hall, and in particular promoted youth entertainment.
Fr Dermot continued as PP until 1964, when he went on well deserved overseas leave. On his return he was assigned to Roma township, where the cathedral was to be built. While there, he presided over the building of the cathedral, the church of St Charles Lwanga at Chilenje, and the 'Doxiadis' church at the new Kafue industrial centre.
In 1972 his health began to fail, and increasing heart trouble made it advisable for him to live at a lower altitude. Accordingly, he left Zambia in February 1973, and took up parish work at sea-level in Brighton, England, where he laboured with his customary zeal and success until his regretted death.
At the memorial Mass in St Ignatius church, Lusaka (17th December), the main celebrant was Fr Provincial, and about thirty of Dermot's Jesuit brethren concelebrated. Fr Paddy O’Brien in his homily reminded us that while St Ignatius church stood, Fr Dermot Murphy would always have a fitting memorial. Speaking in lighter vein of his priestly commitment, devotion and unction, he recalled the lament of a lady parishioner shortly after his departure from Lusaka: “Who will baptize our children, now that Fr Murphy has gone? The mothers who were accustomed to him do not think that the other priests baptize properly in comparison with him!” Among those at the Mass were several survivors of Lusaka twenty years ago who welcomed the opportunity to pay their last respects to an esteemed and well-beloved Pastor and friend. Among them with his wife was Mr Conor McIntyre the contractor, who gave his services freely for the building of the church in 1956-'57, and who is now Irish Honorary Consul to Zambia.
We in Zambia are grateful to Clongowes for providing Fr Dermot with a Community in Ireland and for welcoming his remains. May he rest in peace!

Born: 08 July 1913, Geraldine Place, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 04 October 1937, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1948, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows 02 February 1951, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 20 January 1994, Beechfield Manor, Dublin

Part of Belvedere College SJ community at time of death.

Father was a Commmercial Traveller.

Eldest of four boys and two girls.

Early education was at a National School in Dublin, and then at the Christian Brothers school in Limerick. (1927-1932). he then went to the De La Salle Training College for National Teachers (1932-1934).

He worked as a teacher in Limerick and Dun Laoghaire for three years.

by 1979 at Coventry England (ANG) working.

Born: 13 September 1814, County Cork
Entered: 24 October 1830, San Andrea - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1843
Final vows: 02 February 1850
Died: 20 April 1898, St Patrick’s College, Melbourne, Australia

by 1841 at Leuven (BELG) studying Theology 1
Early Australian Missioner 1870

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He went through his Novitiate and some of his studies at Rome.
He was then sent for Regency first to Tullabeg and then to Clongowes. He was the first President of the Clongowes Historical Debating Society, and under his guidance, Thomas Francis Meagher learned to be an Orator.
1840 He was sent to Louvain for Theology and finished these studies four years later with a “Grand Act”, in which he defended his theses in front of the Papal Nuncio to Belgium who later became Pope Leo XIII.
1845-1850 He was sent to Clongowes teaching.
1850 He was appointed Rector of Belvedere.
He was then sent to Gardiner St, and without any farewells he sailed for Australia in 1870. He spent all his life there at St Patrick’s, Melbourne, where, as before, he was a great favourite with everyone. He died there 20 April 1898.
He was thought to be a saintly religious, humble, modest and cheerful.

Note from Joseph O’Malley Entry :
1869-1870 He was sent to teach Grammar at Tullabeg, and after his Final Vows 02 February 1870, he was immediately sent to Australia with Frank Murphy

Note from John McInerney Entry :
He went afterwards to St Patrick’s College, Melbourne, and there he had amongst his teachers Fathers William Kelly, Frank Murphy and William Hughes.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Francis Murphy was a student at Clongowes Wood College, and was dux in his final year. He entered the Society in Rome, 24 October 1830, completed philosophy in Rome and returned to Ireland to teach at Tullabeg and Clongowes. He was the first president of the Clongowes historical debating society. He studied theology at Louvain, 1840-44, finishing a brilliant course with the Grand Act, in which he defended his theses in the presence of the Papal Nuncio to Belgium who afterwards became Pope Leo XIII. Tertianship followed.
After five years teaching at Clongowes, he was made rector of Belvedere College until 1858. He then did pastoral work at Gardiner Street until 1870 when he left for Australia.
He had only one work in Australia, as teacher at St Patrick's College, East Melbourne, 1870-98. He was rector, 1871-73, and minister, 1885-87, and for the rest of the time, spiritual father. He taught both senior and junior classes, preached, heard confessions and did the usual parish supplies.
He was considered a scholar and a celebrated preacher. To agree to be sent to Australia at the age of 56 showed much generosity, and to remain in one place for a further 28 years must indicate his value to that ministry.

◆ The Clongownian, 1898

Obituary

Father Francis Murphy SJ

Just as Father Thomas Kelly breathed his last on the morning of April 20th, a cablegram arrived in Dublin announcing the death of another old Clongownian, Father Francis Murphy SJ, in the College of the Society at Melbourne,

Father Kelly had been a distinguished pupil in one of the brilliant classes of rhetoric taught by Father Frank Murphy in Clongowes, and now master and pupil meet together in the mysterious land.

Father Murphy came to Clongowes as a boy about 1825, and after completing the usual course, entered the Society. It is about sixty years ago since, as. a young master, he was the founder and first President of the famous Historical Debating Society, in which, under his guidance, poor Thomas Francis Meagher first learned to be an orator. After his teaching time in Clongowes, Father Murphy was sent to Louvain to read Theology. He ended a long and brilliant course by a Solemn Grand Act, as it is called - a rare distinction even among distinguished students of Theology, among the audience being the present Pope, Leo XIII. Father Murphy returned from Louvain to Clongowes, and remained as Master for some years in the College. It was a revival time in Clongowes and many will remenaber the work done by Father Murphy in the Classes and the Plays, and the strange fascination that he exercised over the scholars. Father Murphy was a ripe classical scholar. In this he resembled his name-sake and cousin, Frank Stack Murphy, who wrote the Greek translation for Father Prout's Reliques. About the yeat 1850 he was removed to Dublin, and after some years teaching in Belvedere College, he began his career of Missionary labour in Gardiner Street. This was a remarkable career. He was a favourite preacher and confessor thirty years ago - some will still remember the box near the door, which the poor loved, but all classes competed for the wise counsel and holy guidance of a kind and earnest Director. He was noted for one characteristic in his priestly labours - a fondness for the sick. His bright and cheerful visits were never forgotten. But he broke up this career at the call of what he thought a high duty. When the Australian Mission was committed to the Irish. Province of the Society, and difficulty was found in supplying subjects for this work, he volunteered for Australia, and set off one morning for his distant Mission without any farewells. Such partings break, the heart. After many years of labour he has now passed away at the great age of 84 years. Many whom he served, as they read these lines, will remember him and pray for him. For those who had the privilege of his intimate friendship, his memory will always live as long as life lasts, undimned by length of years or distance of clime, for he had all the qualities of truest friendship, strange unselfishness, kindly forbearance, and generous devoted feeling.

Born: 30 September 1922, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 07 September 1940, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1954, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 22 April 1977
Died: 12 October 1985, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin - Sinensis Province (CHN)

Part of Loyola community, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia at time of his death.

Transcribed HIB to HK : 03 December 1966

Family lived at Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

One of five boys and three girls.

Early education was at Dominican Convent, Sion Hill, and then at Belvedere College SJ for nine years.

by 1949 at Hong Kong - Regency

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Death of Father Geoffrey Murphy, S.J.
R.I.P.
Father Geoffrey Murphy, the first Jesuit novice master in Malaysia, died of cancer of the liver in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, on 13 October 1985, aged 63. He had gone to Ireland for further diagnosis, but he died within a month of his return.

Father Murphy was born in Ireland in 1922. He worked in Hong Kong as a scholastic form 1949 to 1951 and as a priest from 1956 to 1958 he asked for work in Malaysia and remained there till his last days.

For a long time the Jesuits had very few locally born members in Malaysia. However, when visa restrictions had reduced the expatriate Jesuits to a very small handful the number of local applications began to rise.

Father Murphy, after many years of pastoral and counselling work in Penang, became master of novices for the Jesuit region of Malaysia and Singapore, and moved to Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, where the Jesuits have a thriving parish and a hostel for university students.

A steady stream of candidates passed through Father Murphy’s hands: there are now more Malaysian Jesuits in formation than ordained Jesuits - a decidedly unusual situation in these days of scarce vocations.

Father Murphy had given himself whole-heartedly to the work of formation. His last thoughts and his last words were all about the novices.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 8 November 1985

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :

Note from Tommy Byrne Entry
During his term as Provincial (1947-1963) he sent many Jesuits to Hong Kong, and then in 1951 he started the Irish Jesuit Mission to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). He also saw the needs in Singapore and Malaysia and sent Jesuits to work there - like Kevin O'Dwyer, who built St Ignatius Church in Singapore; Patrick McGovern who built St Francis Xavier Church in Petaling Jaya, and also Liam Egan, Gerard (Geoffrey?) Murphy and Tom Fitzgerald.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948
Frs. Casey G., Grogan and Sullivan leave England for Hong Kong on 2nd July on the ‘Canton’. On the following day Fr. Kevin O'Dwyer hopes to sail with Fr. Albert Cooney from San Francisco on the ‘General Gordon’ for the same destination.
The following will be going to Hong Kong in August : Frs. Joseph Mallin and Merritt, Messrs. James Kelly, McGaley, Michael McLoughlin and Geoffrey Murphy.

Irish Province News 61st Year No 1 1986

Obituary

Fr Geoffrey Murphy (1922-1940-1985) (Macau-Hong Kong)

The following appreciations have been borrowed from Macau-Hongkong Province Letter no. 276, with a few adaptations made.

An appreciation from Hong Kong:

Geoff was born on 30th September 1922 in Bray, Co. Wicklow, and educated in Belvedere College, He entered Emo Park as a novice in 1940, under Fr John Neary as novicemaster. There three years (1942-45) in Rathfarnham, followed where Geoff did an Honours degree in Ancient Classics from UCD; and philosophy in Tullabeg (1945-48).
In 1948, together with Hal McLoughlin, Jimmy Kelly and Frank McGaley, he was selected for the China mission. He spent one year (1948-'9) in Canton at our language school. We had classes at the YMCA in the centre of the city. Geoff made a good fist of the language. He also got on very well with the other students, who were of all kinds: protestant missionaries from Sweden, USA and England, businessmen from various countries, and the rest. Many Chinese students used to come to our house, some for games, some for English, some for instruction. Here again Geoff mixed very easily with them. In 1949, because of the communist army's approach to Canton (which was taken in October that year), the scholastics were ordered back to Hong Kong, The Second year of language study was held in Battery Path, then belonging to the MEP (Paris Foreign Missionaries, now the Victoria district court), Geoff then taught for a year (1950-51) in the Wah Yan afternoon school, being very successful and well-liked
Four years (1951-5) of theology in Milltown Park, Dublin followed. Geoff was ordained a priest on 29th July 1954. He spent his tertianship (1955-56) in Rathfarnham.
On his return to Hong Kong he was assigned to Cheung Chau, as minister, for another year of language study. In 1957 he moved to Wah Yan Kowloon and began teaching in Chu Hai post secondary college. This college had been in Canton before the communists took over: Fr Ned Sullivan († 1980) had taught in it there. Geoff also became editor of Tsing Nin Man Yau, a magazine in English and Chinese aimed at Chinese students and originally established some years before by Fr Terry Sheridan († 1970). In 1958 Geoff was posted to Kuala Lumpur, and for the rest of his life was based in Malaysia. There he faced a new challenge: to build St Francis Xavier's church and the university hostel in Petaling Jaya, near “KL”. He had the help of Fr Paddy McGovern († 1984), had arrived in Kuala Lumpur in 1957. The task was accomplished successfully, and the church and hostel opened in 1961. Geoff became parish and superior of the house (1961-65).
In 1965 he was transferred to Penang, where he was stationed until 1980, first at the Cathedral, then, from 1972, in the centre for university students which he founded at Minden Heights. Incidentally, from 1978 to 1982 he was listed as co-ordinator of the apostolate of Ours in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as being delegate for formation (from 1980) for the same area.
In 1980 he returned to Petaling Jaya as minister and bursar, as well as promoter of vocations in Malaysia. His responsibilities for formation and the promotion of vocations paved the way for his appointment in 1982 as novice master and superior of the new noviciate. (The opening of the Malaysian noviciate was described in a letter from Geoffrey himself, published in the Jesuit IPN, October 1982, pp. 264-'5.)
When Geoff was in Hong Kong in August last year on his way back to Ireland, he came to visit the Wah Yan community. We were shocked at his appearance: he had lost so much weight, so different from the Geoff we knew of old. Still, none of us thought that six weeks later Geoff would be dead.
Since 1958 I rarely met Geoff, but during the years we were together I found him an excellent religious and a very pleasant companion. I always found it easy to talk to him, and he was always even-tempered and good humoured. He was an excellent person to go to for advice, paternal in the good of the word. During all the years of formation, he was beadle in every house he lived in, and always did a fine job. As a priest, he was a superior for many years, had a very pastoral outlook and real concern for both his fellow-Jesuits and those for whom and with whom he worked. It is not surprising who that he was a great success as master of novices and as advisor for many years to the priests in Penang.
So the poem of Geoff's life has been priest finished and its last line written. ...

patience and his ability to listen endlessly to anyone in trouble, occasionally encouraging the flow of conversation with his special trade-mark, “Sure, sure. Sure, sure!”
Once a month Geoffrey and I used to meet in Taiping as we both had diocesan meetings to attend, and in the evening we always had dinner together and long conversations about the problems of the world and maybe especially the diocese. I am wondering now how much all of that was due to his qualities as a listener. Certainly Geoffrey's death has meant the loss not just of an excellent and priest but also of a very close friend. I at least used to complain sometimes that we could never be sure he would turn up on time for an appointment - he once kept me waiting for two hours. You could be sure his explanation would be that he had met someone who wanted to weep on his shoulder. He took it for granted that I, as a priest, would understand that in such a case there was no real need for apology. It always took the wind out of my sails. ...
Geoff's notable calm seemed to be ruffled only when he came across cases of injustice, illness, all cases in fact where the weak and defenceless were involved: his heart was then always engaged.
Not only the Jesuits miss him. In the days after his death I was flooded with telephone calls of sympathy from bishops, priests, sisters, brothers and laypeople. The bishops promised public Masses in their cathedrals (and I believe Bishop Selvanayagam is arranging for a requiem Mass for Geoff in Penang cathedral in November when all the priests of the diocese will be present). Sympathetic messages have been too numerous to quote, except perhaps this one:
“Jeff was such a good man, so full heart, especially to our orphans in Penang and elsewhere, and very understanding of the Sisters who came from their ranks. He was very intimately concerned with the sick - Sr Rosario Lee the doctor, and Sr M. Christine were among those who received special spiritual comfort from him; also Mother Monica before she died. He helped these three cancer cases when they really needed him, and I am sure that from heaven they obtained for him the comfort of not suffering too long from the same sickness as they had”.
In view of the above, it was no surprise that Geoffrey was appointed master of Jesuit novices, the first in the region. His interest always lay in the direction of souls, as many Brothers and
Sisters gratefully acknowledge. Perhaps he was not gifted with eloquence, but his he was not gifted with eloquence, but his spiritual direction was valued, and no one ever felt he had not been given sufficient opportunity to express himself properly.
I have heard that when he was first told of his cancer, his first wish was to return to the noviciate in Malaysia, which of course was forbidden by the doctors. Fr Joe Dargan tells us that it was when he was told that Fr Paul Tan knew of the situation and could cope, that he peacefully awaited his death.
A final word from an elderly Sister:
“He was a holy man: he will look after your problems now he is in heaven, and will also draw novices to you”.

News of the death of Fr Geoff Murphy at St Vincent's hospital, Dublin, on the night of 12th October came as a great shock to his colleagues in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. News of the seriousness of his illness had already been a surprise: before leaving Malaysia for Ireland ... he had been seen by a doctor who'd told him he definitely did not have cancer, and his loss of weight at that time was of attributed to the diet he'd been put on. . It was only at the beginning of October that the final diagnosis of liver cancer was made and Fr Geoff told about it by the doctor who thought he might survive two to three months at that stage. But Geoff was already deteriorating quickly, in no pain but very weak. He was peaceful and calm, worried at first about what might happen his novices in Kuala Lumpur, and very edifying to those who visited him. The Irish Provincial, Fr Joe Dargan, was at his bedside when he died. Geoffrey had just passed his 63rd birthday.
Some 30 Jesuits attended the removal of Fr Geoff's remains from the hospital to St Francis Xavier's church, Gardiner street, ... and 54 concelebrated the requiem the following morning (15th October). Fr Paul Andrews (whose sister is married to a brother of Geoff) was the principal celebrant and gave the homily, in the course of which he said:
“In his last days he talked above all of his novices. Since he started the noviceship he had already seen 8 Malaysians through to their first vows as Jesuits, and our special sympathies go out to the three novices whom he left in September, planning to return to them in late November.
St Ignatius urged us to die well. We can only guess what was in Geoffrey's mind when he started for home last month in a sick state. Did he hanker for the proverbial blessing of bás in Éirinn? - to die on his own soil, close to his own large family of sisters and brothers and cousins and relations? He always managed things well, did complicated jobs unobtrusively and efficiently; and it took some planning and effort to route his journey so that he could greet his two brothers and their families in Canada, and his sister Mary with her family in England. When he landed in Dublin, clearly exhausted and ill, he said happily: “I made it”. He had come half-way around the world to say his good byes. That done, he did not hang on to life but died quickly, his eyes still on the future and the wider world”

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1986

Obituary

Father Geoffrey Murphy SJ (1940)

Some 30 Jesuits attended the removal of Fr Geoff's remains from the hospital to St Francis Xavier's church, Gardiner St., on the Monday evening; and 54 concelebrated the Requiem the following morning, 15th. Fr Paul Andrews (whose sister is married to a brother of Geoff) was the principal celebrant and gave the homily. Among the concelebrants were the Irish provincial and the novice-master, and Frs John Wood and Herbert Dargan, and Missions procurator Fr Vincent Murphy. At the suggestion of the Provincial, the Irish novices played a prominent role in the ceremony, being responsible for the music and carrying the coffin from the church. Fr Geoffrey was laid to rest in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin cemetery.

In “his own” church of St. Francis Xavier in Petaling Jaya, the Mass of the Resurrection for him was marked, in the words of a participant, by “a white display broad in front of the main altar, with one large white flower arrangement at the side. On this board were photos of Fr Murphy taken more recently and a few of the early Petaling Jaya days with SJ confreres of the 60s. In the centre was a huge red heart, fringed with lace, on which was written ‘He is risen indeed, Alleluia’, the theme of the Mass. So, when there was a complete power failure from the 1st Reading until all the ceremony was completed, a very romantic, quiet, peaceful atmosphere prevailed. Fr Paul Tan says the Chinese would have taken it as a sure sign his spirit was with us. All here are still a little shocked by the sudden death...” Another sister writing in condolence from Penang said: “There is grief and shock all over Penang, and his requiem at the Cathedral last Saturday evening was crowded, as well it might be. One lady said to me, ‘I never saw him but I heard how good he was and I felt I should come’.”

In the course of his homily at the funeral Mass Fr Paul Andrews said: “What he did (in the Far East) has become especially clear in the last few days from the chorus of shock and grief in the messages that have come from Malaysia, from friends, students, parishioners, sisters, brothers, fellow Jesuits, and bishops. We get a sense of what Geoffrey meant for them, a man of strength and stability and wisdom, someone you could lean and rely on, a father. Over these 29 years he has been the effective founder of the Jesuit mission in Malaysia, and we can feel with their bereavement and shock, that someone who meant so much to them should have died so suddenly, and so far away .... In his last days he talked ... above all of his novices. Since he started the noviceship he had already seen 8 Malaysians through their first vows as Jesuits, and our special sympathies go out to the three novices whom he left last month, planning to return to them in late November. St Ignatius .... urged us to die well. We can only guess what was in Geoffrey's mind when he started for home last month in a sick state. Did he hanker for the proverbial blessing of ‘bas in Eireann’? - to die on his own soil, close to his own large family of sisters and brothers and cousins and relations ... He always managed things well, did complicated jobs unobtrusively and efficiently; and it took some planning and effort to route his journey so that he could greet his two brothers and their families in Canada, and his sister Mary with her family in England. When he landed in Dublin, clearly exhausted and ill, he said happily: ‘I made it’ ... He had come half way. around the world to say his goodbyes. That done, he did not hang on to life but died quickly, his eyes still on the future and the wider world.”

Born: 13 July 1883, Model School, Castlecomer Road, Kilkenny County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1901, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1916, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 27 February 1920, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 17 May 1955, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05 April 1931

Father was Headmaster of Model School Kilkenny until his death in 1893. Mother died in February 1899.

Has three sisters - two older step sidters and the other much younger than Jerry. Two brothers, one who died very young and the other a step brother.

Educated at St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny

by 1909 at Oxford, England (ANG) studying
by 1911 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1902 at St Mary’s Canterbury, England (FRA) making Tertianship

◆ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University online :
Murphy, Jeremiah Matthias (1883–1955)
by D. J. Mulvaney
D. J. Mulvaney, 'Murphy, Jeremiah Matthias (1883–1955)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murphy-jeremiah-matthias-7706/text13493, published first in hardcopy 1986

Catholic priest; college warden; educationist; schoolteacher

Died : 17 May 1955, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Jeremiah Matthias Murphy (1883-1955), priest and university educationist, was born on 13 July 1883 at Kilkenny, Ireland, son of James Murphy, headmaster, and his wife Mary Kate, née McGrath. His parents died while he was young and he boarded at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny, where, although a moderate scholar, he excelled in classics. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1901, studying at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore. In 1904-07 he attended University College, Dublin, graduating M.A. with first-class honours in classics. In 1908 he undertook non-degree postgraduate studies at Oxford under Gilbert Murray and A. E. Zimmern, whose liberal influence is evident in his rather florid essay, 'Athenian Imperialism', in Studies (1912).

In 1910 and 1913 Murphy taught classics at Clongowes Wood and Belvedere colleges, interspersed with theological studies at Milltown Park, Dublin. After his ordination in 1916 his health failed, although he taught for some time and spent 1919 studying theology at Canterbury, England. Next year he sailed for Melbourne where he was senior classics master at Xavier College in 1920-22, and rector of Newman College in 1923-53. With another Kilkenny Jesuit, W. P. Hackett, he became confidant and adviser to Archbishop Mannix; this influence may explain what was, for his Order, an unusually long rectorship.

Murphy's Newman years were significant for his contribution to better understanding between Catholics and the rest of the community. He was outward looking, insisting that college students participate fully in university life and not adopt utilitarian attitudes to study. He set a personal example, serving long terms on numerous university bodies, including the council, the boards of management of the union and the university press; for years he was a member of the Schools Board and the Council of Public Education. He encouraged graduates to further research, including overseas study, believing that they should become community leaders. Mannix's opposition to the foundation of a Catholic university, a Sydney proposal of the 1940s, must have owed much to Murphy's Melbourne success. He certainly played a major role, in 1950, in establishing the Archbishop Mannix travelling scholarship.

Always prominent in diocesan intellectual life, Murphy was a frequent public preacher and speaker. He served as chaplain to various bodies, including the Newman Society and the National Catholic Girls' Movement; he assisted the establishment of the Catholic Teachers' Association. Although he never adopted an aggressive or ostentatious Catholicism, he was a successful exponent of ideas to the general public. He proved his abilities as a Catholic Evidence lecturer and, from 1932, in Catholic broadcasting. He gave evidence on behalf of the archbishop to the 1941 parliamentary committee on broadcasting.

Murphy raised the academic quality of Newman by developing a tutorial system across many disciplines, tutoring in classics himself and employing others who later became prominent in professional and academic life. Out of this intellectual ferment grew, in the early 1930s, the Campion Society.

Murphy possessed an irrepressible sense of fun, and, despite a misleading manner of appearing impatient and superficial, was a good listener. When needed, his tolerance and wisdom prevailed. His genial smile and his old-world sense of courtesy were surely taxed, however, by the pressures of increased student numbers and changed post-war expectations. Unfortunately he failed to grasp the architectural importance of Walter Burley Griffin's college design, and under his custodianship the fabric deteriorated and disastrous alterations were made to the dome.

Senior university administrators sought his advice, appreciating his shrewd, penetrating and moderate judgements. He also could be consulted regularly in the front row of the Carlton Football Club members' stand. His educational contribution was recognized in 1954, when the university conferred upon him a doctorate of laws and he was appointed C.M.G.

Transferred rather abruptly from the rectorship to semi-retirement at Xavier at the end of 1953, Murphy died on 17 May 1955 and was buried in Kew cemetery. His portrait by William Dargie hangs in Newman College.

Select Bibliography
U. M. L. Bygott, With Pen and Tongue (Melb, 1980)
H. Dow (ed), Memories of Melbourne University (Melb, 1983)
University of Melbourne Gazette, Mar 1954, June 1955
Xavier College, Xaverian, Dec 1955
Murphy papers (Society of Jesus Provincial Archives, Hawthorn, Melbourne)
Irish Provincial Archives, Dublin
private information.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Jeremiah Murphy joined the Jesuits, 7 September 1901, and studied in Ireland and Oxford gaining an MA in classics. He later read a postgraduate course at the University of Oxford. After teaching as a scholastic at Clongowes Wood, he studied philosophy at Stonyhurst, and theology at Milltown Park, Dublin. He was ordained in 1916, taught in Ireland until 1920, and then was sent to Australia.
He taught at Xavier College for a short time, and was then appointed rector of Newman College 1923-53. He was responsible for the building of the chapel. During those years he also lectured in apologetics, tutored in the classics, was a consulter of the vice-province, and member of three university committees, the University Council, Union and Press Boards of Management and the Conservatorium Finance Committee. He was a confidant of Archbishop Mannix.
In recognition of his work for the university he received an honorary MA degree in his earlier days, and, upon his retirement, an honorary LLD, the highest degree within the
university's powers to confer for outstanding public service. The Queen bestowed on him the honour of Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George
(CMG) in 1953. Two years later he died suddenly at Xavier College.
The fact that Murphy was left as rector of the College for 31 years, in spite of the custom of the Society and the prescriptions of Canon Law, is enough to show the extraordinary position he won and held for himself in the university and general educational circles in Melbourne. He played a leading part in the organisation of the National Eucharistic Congress in 1934, and was secretary to the Papal Legate, Cardinal MacRory. He was one of the pioneers and first speakers of the “Catholic Hour” on radio, and also promoted the National Catholic Girls' Movement.
He was removed from Newman College in the end - not before it was time for his own sake - with a brusqueness that perhaps betrayed a feeling of temerity on the part of superiors. He obeyed but with much sadness. He was a man who was on better terms with those outside the Society than with his fellow Jesuits. He had a remarkable presence that in any company could not be ignored. He gave Newman College a corporate identity in the wider life of the university. He worked with the Loreto Sisters in establishing St Mary's Hall.
He was particularly concerned with the place of the Catholic graduate in a non-Catholic world. He encouraged his students to mix with others and to integrate their spiritual life with the academic. He keenly encouraged the students to develop the natural virtues, and to apply their faith to business and professional ethics.
His personality was an enigma. He often masked under the facade of a forced wit what some felt was a deep desire for friendship. Certain artificiality occasionally caused misunderstanding. In his own field he was the most assured of men and among friends of long standing was intimate and unstrained. His judgment was sound. and he was very tolerant. In many inter collegiate affairs he was outspoken and firm in matters of importance. Like Newman, he man who combined intellectual gifts with great human endeavour.

Note from Wilfred Ryan Entry
He, with Jeremiah Murphy and Dominic Kelly, set the tone for Newman College of the future.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 30th Year No 3 1955

Obituary :

Jeremiah Murphy came to Tullabeg from St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny, with a reputation for classics - he had won a medal in the Intermediate. After the noviceship he was sent to University College, then under the control of. Fr. Delaney. In the days of the “old Royal” = the Royal University of Ireland, which was the predecessor of the National University - the Juniors studied in Tullabeg and went to Dublin only for examinations, but a few of the more promising men were sent to University College to attend lectures. Mr. Murphy was one of that select band, and he soon justified the choice. His career was brilliant; he got first-class honours, if not first place, in every grade up to MA, and crowned his course by winning the coveted prize of the Studentship in classics, as a result of which he was sent to Oxford for a post-graduate course in classics. Here he came to know well such men as Gilbert Murray, Percy Gardner, A. Zimmern.
In our own professional studies of philosophy and theology he showed no special aptitude; the classics had claimed and always held the chief place in his interest.
After his tertianship he fell into bad health, suffering from a tedious and depressing complaint; and for a time it looked as if the bright hopes which his university career had excited would fade out. But shortly after he went to Australia his opportunity came. Dr. Mannix had built Newman College, a Resident College for Catholic students attending the University of Melbourne, of which Fr. Albert Power was the first Rector. A few years afterwards Fr. Power was made Rector of the new Diocesan Seminary of the Werribee, and Fr. Murphy succeeded him as Rector of Newman.
At once he found himself in the position and atmosphere for which his career fitted him. He became an important figure in university life. He was a brilliant classical tutor; as priest and superior he came to have a deep influence on the stream of students who passed through Newman. With the officials and professors of the university he soon became a person to be esteemed for his scholarship and to be liked for his character. He was a man of great charm of manner; of an infectious gaiety and an unfailing flow of good spirits. He was a welcome visitor in every gathering; and he gave Newman a high place among the colleges of the university in scholastic results and in games.
The solid proof of his success is the fact that he held the position of Rector of Newman for over thirty years, and that he relinquished it only because of failing health.
Fr. Murphy's career was fruitful of much good for the Church and the Society; and we are all proud of it. But his many friends both in Ireland and Australia will remember the man rather than the scholar or Rector his sense of humour, his irrepressible sense of gaiety, which communicated itself to all who were in his company. To all who knew him he will remain an undimmed memory, RIP

Born: 06 February 1914, North Circular Road, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1945, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1948, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 23 September 1986, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin

Part of St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin.
Brother of Dermot - RIP 1979

Father was Chief Clerk of Grangegorman and Portrane Mental Hospitals and died in February 1923. The family lived at Portrane House, Donabate, County Dublin. Mother was supported by private means and work at the pharmacy in Portrane.

Eldest of three boys with one sister.

Early education was at Belvedere College SJ for nine years.

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Note from Dermot Murphy Entry
His brother John, also a Jesuit, was with him when he died. When John arrived, Dermot was in a coma. John wrote, ‘He (Dermot) did not give any sign of recognition but I had the uncanny feeling that he knew I was there’.

◆ Irish Province News 61st Year No 4 1986 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1987

Obituary

Fr John Murphy (1914-1932-1986)
4th February 1914: born. Schooled at Belvedere. 7th September 1932: entered SJ. 1932-34 Emo, noviciate. 1934-37 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1937-40 Tullabeg, philosophy. 1940-42 Clongowes, regency. 1942-46 Milltown, theology (31st July 1945: ordained a priest). 1946-47 Rathfarnham, tertianship.
1947-50 Clongowes, teaching. 1950-54 Gonzaga, minister, teaching,
1954-58 Gardiner Street, pastoral work. 1958-69 Loyola: 1958-60 mission and retreat staff; 1960-69 promoter, Apostleship of Prayer; 1962-73 promoter, Eucharistic Crusade; 1966-69 Superior. 1969-83 Gardiner Street: 1969-74 Superior; 1970-81 director, SFX social service centre; 1982-86 executive member, Catholic Social Service Conference.
1983-86 Leeson Street chaplain to St Anne's cancer hospital. 23rd September 1986: died.

In attempting to describe Fr John Murphy's life, it's hard to know where exactly to start or what precisely to stress. For one reason he had so many genuine interests, and for another, the Lord blessed him with so many fine gifts. A younger brother of his, Dermot († 1979), also became a Jesuit priest, and worked in Ireland and Zambia before ill-health and doctor's orders forced him to live in a different setting. Their only sister became a Dominican nun and worked in Africa. In later life, when John became chaplain to the Dominican sisters in Eccles street (near Gardiner Street), this family link made his job a labour of love.
John was a Jesuit for 54 years of his life, and before he became one, as a schoolboy in Belvedere was in contact with the Society. We were impressed by his outstanding qualities as a good priest and a marvellous “community man”. As he met all sorts of people, one assumes that many were attracted by his sense of humour and admired his sound judgement and his unique planning ability. His mind seemed permanently working at full stretch, always one if not two steps ahead of every one else's.
John spent nine years teaching at Clongowes and Gonzaga, and an excellent teacher he was. For many more years, as Irish national director of the Apostleship of Prayer's Eucharistic Crusade, he had a wide-ranging influence on young people. All this was grist to his mill, adding to a store of knowledge and experience to be used later.
Perhaps his most fruitful years were the eighteen which he spent at St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, where his various interests were aired and often put into execution. John was indeed a "man for others'. The parish social service centre, a few yards from St Francis Xavier's, was his brain-child, and it brought him into close contact with the Irish Sisters of Charity.
As the years passed, his horizons widened. The Catholic Social Service Conference, with its city-wide organisation, brought him into friendly association with Bishop Kavanagh, and later with Bishop Desmond Williams. For both bishops he had an immense regard, and was glad of support and very proud of their friendship.
Not many people knew of John's great interest in St Vincent's Centre for industrial training, run by the Daughters of Charity. He spent many hours planning and praying for the success of this venture. (More about it in IPN, Oct. 1983, p. 377.) The House-a-marriage (HAM) project, which aims at providing flats for newly-weds, took up much of John's time. He greatly admired that band of businessmen who gave so generously of their time, energy, expertise, advice and enthusiasm in an apostolate so appealing to any christian-minded Dubliner. (More about HAM in his Maker. IPN, Oct. '84, p. 103.)
In 1983 John arranged that he should be chaplain to St Anne's hospital, Northbrook Road, off Leeson park: an institution run by the Daughters of Charity for patients with cancer or skin disorders. He was greatly impressed by the hospital staff and interested in his work as chaplain, which gave him an opportunity of meeting terminally-ill patients. By a strange coincidence he had somehow been attracted for some years to this type of work. Man proposes but God disposes. John gradually learned the truth that his own days were numbered. He acquired the gift of speaking to patients with delicate sympathy and at the same time with strong conviction and sincerity. It's not surprising that he became a founder-member of the Bethany Support Group - an organisation one of whose aims is to help the terminally ill. (More about this in IPN, Apr. '86, p. 250)
In the Gospel, Christ blessed Martha and Mary, so that they became great friends of his. John was blessed with marvellous friends, especially one family who nursed him with loving care both in Galway and in Dublin till shortly before his death: may the good Lord reward them for their kindness.
John loved his fortnight's holiday each summer. Of late years he stayed in their west Cork house, where he relaxed and talked to his heart's content about the things that mattered. One fine sunny day last July, while sailing in Bantry bay off Whiddy island, gazing at sea and mountains, with a smile on his face he said quietly to the present author, “This is like heaven”. He felt drawn nearer to the God he loved and served so well.
There is an old Persian proverb which says that life is summed up in four that words: Men live, men die. Fr John Murphy lived life to the full with enthusiasm, zest and idealism, and - more importantly - was prepared with courage, trust and contentment to meet his Maker.

Born: 23 July 1918, Clontarf Place, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1935, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 17 February 1944

Parents were drapers and family lived at Swanson Terrace, O’Connell Avenue, Limerick City. Father was Thomas, Mother was Ethel (Daly).

Older of two boys with three sisters.

Early education was at both Christian Brothers schools in Sexton Street, Limerick

1935-1937: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1937-1940: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1940-1943: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1943-1944: Belvedere College SJ, Regency

Born: 01 April 1894, Main Street, Ballybay, County Monaghan
Entered: 09 October 1914, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1930, St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 27 July 1971, Mungret College SJ, Limerick

Parents were grocers and his father died in 1895.

Youngest of two sons.

After eight years at a local National School, at 13 years of age he went to St Macartan’s Seminary Monaghan, having win an entrance scholarship (1907-1911). He then went to University in Dublin.

Studied for BA at UCD

Editor of An Timire, 1930-31.

by 1918 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1929 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :

Note from Paddy Finneran Entry
With the encouragement of Michael Murphy he then entered the Novitiate at St Mary’s, Emo under the newly appointed Novice Master John Neary. Michael Murphy followed him to Emo as Spiritual Father, and then onward to Rathfarnham as his Prefect of Studies in the Juniorate.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 46th Year No 4 1971

Obituary :

Fr Michael Murphy SJ (1914-1971)

Fr Michael Murphy was born in Monaghan on April 1st, 1894 and received his secondary education at the diocesan seminary. He then went to Dublin to study engineering in the recently opened UCD. Money was not easily come by and Fr Michael would cycle from Monaghan to Dublin at the beginning of each term and back to Monaghan at the end. For good measure, he had to take his brother in tow as he had not got Fr Michael's reserves of strength. While he was the University, Fr Egan used to admire his steadying influence on the wilder members of the engineering faculty,
Before completing his course in UCD he entered the noviceship at Tullabeg in 1914 shortly after the beginning of World War I, In 1916 after taking his vows he remained on in Tullabeg in the home Junioriate before sitting for his final University examiniation in 1917. Then he went to Stonyhurst for philosophy only to return within a year to Ireland when the Conscription scare blew up and go to Milltown to finish philosophy. He taught in Clongowes from 1920 to 1923 and after theology returned to Clongowes for a year before going to tertianship in St Beuno's. After his tertianship he went to Belvedere as assistant to the editor of the Irish Messenger and the following year became a teacher in Belvedere. He was transferred in 1927 to Mungret as Prefect of studies, a position he held till he was sent in 1935 to Emo as Socius to the Master of novices, Two years later he went to Rathfarnham Castle as Minister of Juniors, remaining thus till 1941. He was next appointed as Prefect of Studies in the Crescent, and from 1941 to 1954 he occupied this position either in the Crescent or in Mungret with a one year break when he went to Belvedere to teach from 1945-46. When Fr. M. Erraught replaced him as Prefect of Studies in 1954 he remained on in Mungret teaching Mathematics till 1956 when he went to Emo Park as Procurator. When Emo was sold in 1969, Fr. Murphy, now an old man, returned to Mungret, his working days over. Two years later, he passed peacefully away in a nursing home close to Mungret College. He died July 27th.
Most of Fr. Murphy's life as a Jesuit was spent in the Colleges either as teacher or as Prefect of Studies. He taught in Belvedere, Clongowes and Mungret, and was Prefect of Studies in the Crescent and for two periods in Mungret. Moreover, he was Prefect of Studies of the Province from the institution of the post for many years.
There is no gain-saying his success as Prefect of Studies. He possessed the capacity for carrying out endlessly tedious chores on the progress of the boys in the school. He was not severe and administered very little corporal punishment, producing results by steady pressure on boys and masters. Mungret in particular had remarkably consistent success in the public examinations under his guidance.
On the occasion of his annual visit to the College as Province Prefect of Studies, the local Prefect of Studies found him understanding and helpful with little taste for dull uniformity. Scholastics were encouraged by him to improve their teaching techniques and prompt assistance given to help them become efficient masters.
In his dealings with the Juniors as their Minister in Rathfarnham he was not a success, but indeed it is hard to see how anyone could be a success if he carried out the instructions he was given. The attitude of those in charge of the Juniors had been one of trust, now it was obviously one of suspicion. Studies do not flourish in such an atmosphere. It was a great relief for Fr Murphy to leave Rathfarnham and go as Prefect of Studies to the Crescent in 1941. The problems he had to deal with in a school were familiar to him and he knew how to deal with them successfully.
Fr Murphy was a Northerner with the faults and virtues of the North. As they say up there he was very “true” and most reliable and conscientious. One could not imagine him shirking a job no matter how demanding or unattractive it was. He possessed a good sense of humour combined with the patience of Job which he practised in dealing with the bores of the Province who were sure of a sympathetic hearing from him. In his habits he was austere and allowed himself little indulgence. Smoking, drinking, novel-reading had no attraction for him and his one form of exercise was cycling.
For Mathematics he had an abiding passion. I do not think he taught any other subject during his many years in the Colleges, but even after his teaching days were over, he spent many a day happily with figures. He was a constant correspondent of Fr R Ingram after the computer was set up in UCD and many an hour of the computer was occupied in testing for him whether this or that formula would always give you a prime number..
The rising generation of Jesuits would describe him as pre Vatican II, the Society will flourish if its younger members give the ungrudging service Fr Murphy did. RIP

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1974

Obituary

Father Michael Murphy SJ

Michael Murphy was born in Monaghan on 1 April 1894 and received his secondary education at the diocesan seminary. He then went to Dublin to study engineering in the recently-opened UCD, cycling from Monaghan at the beginning of each week and back home again for the weekends. Before completing his course at UCD he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg. That was in 1914. He remained in Tullabeg after his first vows in 1916, and in 1917 sat his final university examination. He studied philosophy at Stoneyhurst in England and Milltown Park in Dublin. He was a scholastic in Clongowes from 1920 to 1923, returning that year to Milltown for theology.

His first connection with Mungret was in 1927 when he came as prefect of studies, which post he held until 1935, It is in this capacity (which he held also from the late 1940s until 1954) that he will be best remembered by Mungret past pupils. His little “black book” was the terror of all. It was the one thing he used to get the work done! Boys, under him would do anything rather than have their names entered in that dreaded book. As one Jesuit teacher remarked : “Fr Murphy would come into a ‘rowdy’ class and stand in front of it. While not looking at any particular individual, he was looking straight into each one-one could see all the past ‘sins’ of each boy coming up before the eyes of the offender. Then he would just walk out again”.

Fr Michael's greatest interest in the things of this world was undoubtedly in the area of mathematics. He taught maths in the colleges - whenever he got the chance! - and even after his teaching days, he continued his interest. He was a really enthusiastic teacher, and almost necessarily was thus a very good one.

In 1956 he moved to St Mary's, Emo, then the Jesuit novitiate. Here he had the onerous task of procurator, where his mathematical interests were somewhat concretised. He remained in St Mary's until it was closed down in 1968, when he returned to Mungret. He was now an elderly man, and was suffering quite some discomfort from a skin disease. For two further years he soldiered on, and towards the end of his life he experienced great difficulty in climbing stairways. Indeed, it was on the stairs in Mungret that early in 1970 he suffered a rather bad fall, and this accident was the beginning of the illness which ended his life in July 1971.

Only as recently as 1965 did the writer first meet Fr Michael Murphy. That was in St Mary's, Emo. For one further year, 1970-71, we both lived in Mungret. The man I knew was a very kind and considerate man; a man of obvious deep spirituality; a man who suffered in silence, without wearing that martyred expression. He was a man who was interested in others - the one question always on his lips being a simple, concerned, “Doing well?” Fr. Michael's quiet presence, despite his own personal suffering, was both an influence on the writer and an inspiration to him to endeavour to live out his Jesuit life in the same quiet, concerned, spiritual manner.

Mungret, where Fr Murphy laboured for the Lord, is soon to be very quiet : in that peace and serenity may Fr Michael enjoy the vision and peace of his Lord and Master.

Born: 19 July 1859, Rathmines, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 26 July 1891, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1898, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 09 April 1936, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1905 at St David’s, Mold, Wales (LUGD) studying
by 1897 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 11th Year No 3 1936
Obituary :
Father Thomas Murphy was called to his reward on Holy Thursday just at midnight. He would not have selected another day, for his great devotion was to the Blessed Sacrament. We miss his cheery presence in the Community , and his Sodality working men - proved their affection by walking in his funeral to the number of 400, many losing their day's wages.

Obituary :

Father Thomas Murphy
Fr. Murphy was born in Rathmines, Co. Dublin, on the I9th July, 1859, educated at Tullabeg, and began his novitiate at Milltown Park on the 7th September, 1877. After a year's juniorate he was sent to Belvedere as master, thence, after another year to Clongowes as prefect, where he remained three years. In 1885 he began philosophy at Milltown, but with 1886 came the amalgamation of Clongowes and Tullabeg, and it was considered that Mr. Tom Murphy was just the man to fill the place of lower line prefect during that critical year, and to Clongowes he went. Next year he resumed philosophy, this time at Mold, the French house in England. Philosophy over, 1889 saw him once more a prefect at Clongowes. The following year a novel arrangement was tried at Clongowes, not attempted either before or since The Minister, Fr. Henry Fegan, appears in the catalogue as “Praef gen Mor” and only three prefects are mentioned instead of the customary four, Fr. Murphy was amongst them. For the next two years he was " Praef aul max”.
He began theology at Milltown in 1893, and in 1896 went to Tronchiennes for tertianship. When it was over he began his remarkable missionary career.
1897 - Belvedere, Miss. Exeurr
1898-99 - Gardiner St, Miss. Excurr
1900 - Gardiner St, Minister, etc
1901 - Gardiner St, Miss. Excurr
1902-04 - Tullabeg - Miss. Excurr
1905-16 - Gardiner St - Miss. Excurr
1917-36 - Gardiner St - Oper etc.
He died Thursday, 9th April 1936 at St. Vincent's, Dublin
There is no doubt whatever that Fr. Tom Murphy was amongst the most successful and helpful men that the Irish Province had for a great many years. Yet, as was evident from his early school days, he was not anything like a brilliant scholar. This is said to his great credit, for, though he quite realised it himself, it never deterred him in the very least from throwing himself heart and soul into whatever work he was given to do. The care he brought to the preparation of his, missionary sermons was marvellous and their success fully repaid his strenuous efforts. Perhaps his greatest gift was the power to catch the ear and arrest the attention of the people. He often used their own familiar language, and the gravest charge brought against his preaching was that at times he went too far in this direction and used it a little too much. Be that as it may the fact remains that he won their confidence as few
other men ever did, and worked a world of good amongst them. No wonder that the great big sodality of working men he had conducted for years in Gardiner St. gathered round his coffin and accompanied it to Glasnevin where they said prayers and sang hymns over the grave of their father and their friend.
His Superior in Gardiner St, for many years, Fr. Macardle, has kindly sent us the following :
His habit appears to to adopt and incorporate into his sermons the best passages and thoughts he could find in eminent authors, He had a power of bringing together these thoughts in ordered sequence, and, being gifted with a good voice and presence, he gave out what he had to say with great courage and verve, and succeeded in producing an excellent impression on his audience. He always tried to import something humorous into his remarks and appealed to the human side of those listening. He certainly acquired great influence over his various sodalities, and was held in great veneration and love by them. Outside the pulpit he always interested himself in their welfare and tried to get them work. He had a great power of organisation, and left no stone unturned during the course of a mission to bring about the best possible results.
During his missionary career he was in close touch with Fr Cullen, and adopted his pioneer pledge. Sometimes in delicate circumstances, and before the new idea had taken root, he carried off the people with him by liveliness and humour when the more ponderous eloquence of his chief would have failed. He enjoyed his tour with Fr, Cullen in South Africa. Another big adventure of his was a visit to Canada where he preached a series of sermons in Montreal.
His later years, spent in Gardiner St., were occupied in fostering his sodality of working men. Under his care the numbers gradually increased until there was scarcely room for them in the Church. He preached the Seven Last Words on Good Friday at least six times, and also all the other special sermons that occur during the year. He had charge of “The Bona Mors Confraternity” which he made a huge success, with a membership of over a quarter of a million.
He often gave “The Holy Hour,” when the Church would be overcrowded twice the same day. He had to separate the men and the women.
It is interesting to note that Matt Talbot was a member of Fr. Murphy's sodality. It erected a tombstone over his grave and Fr. Tom kept in close touch with all that has been done to sanctify his memory.
In conclusion it may be said that Fr. Murphy is one who without evidence of that book learning which is so often associated with success, did enormous work for God during his life, and has left after him an enduring memory.
Our veteran and popular missioner, Fr. Michael Garahy, has very kindly sent us an appreciation of Fr. Murphy :
It must be surely 19 years since I worked with Fr. Tom Murphy on the missions. One's impressions of a personality, even so original as Fr. Murphy's, are naturally a little blurred with the passing of the years. None the less certain memories have survived.
What stands out most vividly in my recollection is the intense earnestness of the man. Given a work to do he threw himself with a passionate energy into its accomplishment. This, naturally was most evident in his preaching. Here there was nothing left to chance. I should say that every thought was well weighed and every sentence carefully prepared. Whether he had the gift of improvisation I cannot say. My impression is that he rarely risked it. Some of his sermons were marvellously effective, notably a sermon on drink and one on hell. His instruction on the Ten Commandments was the finest thing I ever heard in that line. His action in the pulpit was, when occasion called for it, intensely dramatic, so much so that I fear he injured his heart in consequence.
He was most faithful to his duty as a confessor, even when the long hours in the confessional told severely on his failing strength.
Taking him all round he was one of the most successful missioners of his time, His memory is revered in every parish in which he worked, and there are few parishes in Ireland in which he did not labour at one time or another.
For a considerable time before Fr, Murphy's death his health was wretched, heart trouble, shingles, etc., yet he never complained sought no exemption, allowed himself but few comforts, and continued to preach almost to the very end. The people did not always hear what he said, but they were delighted to see him in the pulpit. Towards the close of March he caught a bad cold that developed into cardiac asthma. He was taken to St. Vincent's where despite the greatest care, he rapidly got worse and died on Holy Thursday, 9th April.
The coffin was brought to Gardiner St. on Good Friday, where a huge congregation awaited the arrival of the remains. They all marched past the coffin, each person touching it as he passed. He was buried on Holy Saturday. The Office and Requiem took place on the following Tuesday, his nephew, Fr. Curtis, C.C., being Celebrant, the Milltown Park Community did the rest. R.I.P

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Tom Murphy SJ 1859-1936
The name of Fr Tom Murphy was well known and beloved in his day. He was not a highly gifted man, but he had one talent which he developed to its utmost for the greater glory of God. He was first and foremost a preacher and missioner.

He made no secret of the fact that he plagiarised wholesale for matter for his sermons. As he himself used to say “My sermons are a bit of Newman, a soupcon of Lecordaire and a smattering of Murphy”. His sermons on Hell and Drink were especially effective and his instruction on the Ten Commandments was unforgettable. He was proud to have had Mat Talbot in his Sodality in Gardiner Street, and was instrumental in having a tombstone erected over that holy man’s grave.

He died on Holy Thursday April 9th 1936 and the tribute paid by the huge congregation at his obsequies (they all filed past the coffin and touched it in passing) speaks eloquently of the love and veneration the people had for him.

He was 77 at his death.

◆ The Clongownian, 1936

Obituary

Father Thomas Murphy SJ

During 1870, when in his 11th year, Thomas Murphy entered St Stanislaus College and continued as a pupil there until 1877. Two of his brothers, Michael and William Grace, had preceded him at the College and the first-named had vivid recollections of their days at Tullabeg.

Tom's career at school was uneventful. He was fairly good at the games and especially good during the “Stilting” days. When in the Higher Line he was one of the officials in “the Shop” and a great salesman, giving good example himself by his love for toffee. Before leaving Tullabeg he presented him self to his adviser, then Provincial, Father Nicholas Walshe, for admittance into the Society, and was told to wait like another of his companions until his 18th year. Accordingly he presented himself to Father Walshe's successor, Father A Sturzo, and was admitted into the Society of Jesus on the 7th April, 1877. He had four other companions - Mr O'Gorman, who died at Woodstock, the saintly Mr Michael Browne, and two others, Messrs N J Tomkin and C Farley, who survive him.

During his Juniorate he was afflicted with headaches and was sent, in 1880, to Belvedere College. The following year he was on the Clongowes Staff. He was Prefect there for over 12 years. Earnest and vigorous, he was a Prefect with “wrist” - more than he needed at times - some of the Boys of those days thought. In the interval he was sent to Mold, North Wales, for his course of Philosophy. After this he commenced his course of Theology and was ordained in 1891 by Most Rev Dr Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin. 1896-7 was spent in Belgium, and in 1898 he was in full swing at his great work - the work of his life as a most successful Missioner and giver of Retreats. In a word, he was a man of heart and his heart was rightly directed in Mission and Retreat work whether at home in Ireland or in South Africa, whither he went with Father James Cullen, or in Canada where he gave a very successful course of Lenten Lectures in Montreal. He was, for about 21 or 22 years, one of the Missionary Staff and by his example and extraordinary zeal brought it to great perfection.

One of the secrets of his successful work in so many fields was that he always was a boy at heart. There was nothing stand-off about him. Those in his Line as well as the Members of his Sodality later at Gardiner St, the boys to whom he gave Retreats as well as the many priests whom he helped in the Clergy Retreats, all felt his fresh enthusiasın. As the years added themselves to his score, one felt no change in his heart, just as one saw little trace of white in his coal-black hair. Near the end it was characteristic of him to love to talk, not of the recent years and persons, but of the days some 20 years ago. The names of Fathers Conmee, Verdon, Henry Lynch, Bannon and the Kelly trio would crop up in his talk and his anecdotes, as of those he had but just met in the street.

In the popular lectures and addresses which he was often called on to deliver, he showed a true Irish humour. He particu larly excelled in the art of making some absurd statement with a face which pre served solemnity up to the last moment, when a humorous twinkle in the eye and the dawning of a smile on the face would reveal to the audience that they had been “had”. Many will recall the famous statement which he more than once made that his only claim to greatness was that he was the grandnephew of the two Father Murphys who fought at Vinegar Hill.

About 1917 he joined the Staff at St Francis Xavier's, and at once took up the work of the Bona Mors Confraternity. On the death of Father Fottrell he took charge of the Mens' Sodality of the Immaculate Conception and immediately his vital force was visible in results-he had scarcely room enough for his vast audience.

Referring again to his work as Missioner, it is always safe to avoid superlatives in dealing with one we esteem and adrnire. I have no hesitation in saying he stood in the foremost rank of popular preachers. His impassioned eloquence was heard in very many of the pulpits of nearly every diocese in Ireland and he was requested time after time to come and renew the fervour of the people, who were never tired of hearing him. His dramatic power and eloquence had rather the effect of rousing them to enthusiasm.

For years past, but especially from 1932, ill-health dogged him, but he still continued to work in the church and pulpit. Up to the very end-January and February, 1936 - he continued to thrill his hearers of the Sodality and the Bona Mors Confraternity. He knew for a long time that death was knocking at his door daily, hourly, but the thought cast no gloom on his mind. He smiled at the thought of death, not as those who do not believe, but as one who is at home with the thought and to whom death is not an end, but a beginning.

The numbers at his funeral surprised even those who knew how well he had been loved, especially by his Men. Never since the days of the great Father Henry Rorke was such a throng seen. It rivalled even the stream of mourners that followed to the grave that other well-beloved man, Father John Conmee.

To very many within and without the Society, Father Tom Murphy's death leaves a blank that will not soon be filled. RIP

Born: 21 September 1894, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 30 June 1916, ST Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1927, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 02 October 1968, St Camillus' Hospital, Shelbourne Road, Limerick

Part of the Mungret College, Co Limerick community at the time of death

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 44th Year No 1 1969
Obituary :
Br Thomas Murphy SJ (1894-1968)
On Wednesday, October 2nd at about 1.15 p.m. Brother Murphy passed peacefully to his reward. It was a happy and blessed ending to a happy and holy life, but his loss leaves us all poorer. We miss his cheerful, holy and ever helpful presence around the House.
He was a patient of the Regional Hospital, Limerick for some weeks till August when he was transferred to St. Camillus Hospital. In both hospitals the nursing staff were very fond of him. He never gave any trouble and was always good humoured. Thanks be to God he did not seem to have pain at any time. On Wednesday morning the 2nd October he failed rapidly. Fr. Rector returned to him immediately and received his last breath. He was fortified with all the rites of the Church.
The remains were removed to the Boys' Chapel on Thursday evening, The President and Secretary of the Union, other past pupils and teachers from the College were present. It was 2 memorable sight as the hearse and cars moved through the boys drawn up on either side of the avenue. On Friday morning the Chapel was packed to over-flowing with priests, brothers, boys, friends and neighbours. We had past pupils from Limerick, Tipperary and even Australia. It was a most impressive ceremony; sung lauds followed by Concelebrated Requiem Mass and a sermon by Fr. Kerr who was Rector here until July last. It is thought it was the biggest funeral ever seen here; ič is easy to believe it. In many ways it was a very joyous occasion because we all felt that Brother Murphy had gone home to God. His beloved flag was at half mast. In all, over fifty priests and brothers were present including Fr. Vice-Provincial (Fr. Provincial was in Rome his Secretary, Fr. Rectors of Belvedere, Crescent and Clongowes, and priests and brothers from Galway, Tullabeg, Clongowes, Crescent, Rathfarn ham, Milltown Park, Gonzaga, Gardiner St. and Belvedere.
The Brothers of his own Community saw him as “a humble and simple man” who had a great devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary, who was to be found either praying in the Domestic Chapel or going about his work.
May God rest his lovable soul. We all thought as much of him as he did of Mungret. Nobody who heard it will ever forget the beautiful tribute paid by Fr. Kerr when he addressed the congregation after the Gospel. We are very grateful to him for allowing us to reproduce it here :
“It is not customary to have a homily or panegyric preached at the funeral of an Irish Jesuit, but Fr. Rector suggested to me, that when a man has served one house for 48 years as Brother Murphy served Mungret it was only fitting that some tribute should be paid.
In 1962 the then General of the Society of Jesus sent a Visitator to the Irish Province. The Visitor, not knowing any of the men, asked each of us to write a brief account of what we had done in the Society. This is what Brother Murphy wrote: ‘From 1918-1919 I was in Belvedere on the house’ - one sentence ‘From 1919-1920 I was in the Crescent on the house’ - one sentence. ‘Since that time I have been in Mungret’. (And then reading on, one feels that the love and affection of the old man for this College took possession of his pen, for he continued) ‘There I was in charge of the water-supply. I looked after the wells and the pumping system. I attended and operated the electricity generator till the coming of the E.S.B. I attended to the maintenance of the house, the roofs, the chimneys and the heating system.
'All these, your reverence, thank God I was able to do’.
This was Brother Murphy's simple statement of his life's work, but it told little of the man who was one of the best known and best loved Jesuits of the Mungret Community. Each of the past, and I’m glad to see them represented here today - has his own favourite image of Brother Murphy. Some remember him as a young man flitting about the roof-tops, hanging in the most precarious positions, calling cheery greetings to the boys below. Others think of him covered with grime tending the electrical generators or servicing the bunkers. Still others see him as he strode across the Apostolics' field on his way to the pump-house at Cahir, with his little black dog at his heels; and none can forget his smile in the Boys' refectory as he slipped an extra serve to a hungry 3rd Clubber! But all of us remember him as he walked on the stone corridor at eventide telling his Beads or kneeling at the back of the Boys' Chapel during Benediction or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Which of us will ever forget the ritual with which he surrounded the hoisting of the college flag. He used it to honour a visitor, to celebrate a feast or to congratulate the Boys on a victory. That flag flies at half-mast today in his honour, but we can be certain that all the flags of Heaven are unfurled today as they welcome their faithful servant.
Every clerical student who passed through Mungret remembers one thing about Brother Murphy : his extraordinary reverence for the priesthood. Many a young man, wavering in his vocation, depressed and feeling lonely made his way to Brother Murphy to find comfort, solace, guidance and strength. Is it any wonder then that his Christmas mail from America, Australia, England, Africa and China was the wonder of the rest of the community.
How often do I remember being called to the parlour to entertain one of the Past either a priest, or layman with his family! When a brief period had elapsed and the visitor felt that he had fulfilled all the requirements of courtesy or etiquette by talking to Fr. Rector then came the moment of truth : ‘well, Father, what I really called for, was to see Brother Murphy!’
Each year as examination time and ordinations approached in Carlow, All Hallows, Thurles, St. Peters and the other major seminaries, the letters poured into Mungret asking for Brother Murphy's prayers, for all the boys revered him as a saint. The roof-tops were not the only heights he reached. He had attained the closest union with God and he had the ability to communicate his love of Him to others.
I find it difficult today to ask you to pray for Brother Murphy, for all of us know that he already enjoys the Vision of God. He always prayed for and he will continue to pray for all in Mungret, for its priests, its brothers, its scholastics, its students, its day-staff, its farm-staff and domestic staff. So I would ask you now to stand and join with me in the Prayers of the Faithful for the eternal and happy repose of his soul with the God he loved and served so well”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1969

Obituary

Brother Tom Murphy SJ

Br Tom Murphy spent only one year in Belvedere, from 1918 to 1919. It was a year, however, he was never likely to forget for he was in charge of the household staff and found that many young men in trouble with the police demanded sanctuary as national heroes in the houses of religious. The rest of his life in the Society was spent in more peaceful surroundings, forty-eight of them in Mungret College. He was part of the Mungret scene and it will take many years to fill the void his going has created.

Born: 01 August 1917, Hillstreet, Drumsna, County Roscommon
Entered: 14 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1949, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1952, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 25 August 2007, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Coláiste Iognáid, Galway community at the time of death.

Parents were shop keepers. Family lived at Commons Street, North Wall, Dublin.

Second of three boys with six sisters.

Early education was at a National School in Roscommon, and then moving to Dublin at age 7 he went to O’Connells School. (1924-1934) In 1934 he went to St Mel’s College, Longford for two years.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 135 : Spring 2008

Obituary

Fr Bernard (Barney) Murray (1917-2007)

14 August 1917: Born in Hillstreet, Co. Roscommon
14th September 1936: Entered the Society at Emo
15th September 1938: First Vows at Emo
1938 - 1941: Rathfarnham -Studied Arts at UCD
1941 - 1944: Tullabeg - Studied Philosophy
1944 - 1946: Mungret College, Limerick - Regency
1946 - 1950: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31 July 1949: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1950 - 1951: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1951 - 1970: Belvedere College - Minister; Teacher (English, Religious Knowledge - Senior School)
2nd February 1952: Final Vows
1955 - 1962: Teacher in Prep. School
1962 - 1970: Assistant to Prefect of Prep School; Teacher (Religion, Maths and English)
1970 - 2007: St. Ignatius, Galway -
1970 - 1978: Teacher (Art); Ministered in Church
1978 - 1990: Parish Curate
1984 - 2004: Director of Nazareth Fund; St. Vincent de Paul and Legion of Mary
1990 - 1992: Chaplain to Scoil Iognáid
1992 - 2004: Asst. in Church; Asst. Chaplain in Univ. Hosp.
2004 - 2005: Asst. in Church; Director Nazareth Fund
2005 - 2007: Cherryfield - Prayed for Church and Society
25th August 2007: Died at Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Bruce Bradley writes:
Bernard Murray “Barney” as we often referred to him, but Bernard is the name he wished to be known by - was born on August 1, 1917, in Hillstreet, Co. Roscommon, where he spent his early years. While living in Co. Roscommon he attended Kilbride National School. When the family moved to Dublin he was at school with the Christian Brothers, Richmond St., and, as a boarder, at St Mel's, Longford, where he won an All-Ireland Colleges Football medal, of which he was very proud. In later life, he liked to narrate how the medal was lost in the Milltown fire and, long afterwards, he applied to Liam Mulvihill, general secretary of the GAA, and, to his delight, was given a replica. He entered the Society in Emo in September 1936 and was ordained in Milltown Park thirteen years later in 1949.

All his life he worked in, or was associated with, the schools. His regency was in Mungret, 1944-46, and, after tertianship, he was sent to Belvedere, where he was to spend almost twenty years. He taught in both the senior and junior schools and also functioned as minister and as assistant to Junior School prefect of studies, Eddie Murphy. The role of minister included supervision of the boys' dining room at lunchtime and Bernard kept a sharp eye on what happened there. Boys who were showing themselves less than enthused at the somewhat pedestrian fare, or who misbehaved, were apt to find themselves being brought to the phone for a pep talk with their parents at home. For those who were in Belvedere in those years, the friendship between Bernard and the much-respected Fr. Charlie Byrne, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and considerably his senior, was noteworthy and they were often seen walking together in the city after school was over.

After such a long stint in Dublin, the move to Galway in 1970 was a big change but he responded by re-inventing himself as an art teacher, and staying there for the rest of his very long life, until ill-health forced him to move to Cherryfield in his closing years. It was obvious that he was happy in Galway, and someone who knew him said that he felt it was there that he really found himself. He took over Liam Greene's art classes in the lively years of transition at the 'Jes' under the headmastership of Seán O'Connor. It was a completely new world for Bernard but he quickly made himself at home and had the capacity to make others around him feel at home too. He took on the challenge of teaching art with enthusiasm and applied himself to it methodically. His colleagues enjoyed his friendship and were glad to work with him.

From the start he also worked in the church and, in 1978, he was appointed curate, a role he continued to exercise until 1992. He was particularly committed to house visitation, where his capacity to make contact and develop friendships stood him in excellent stead. He became a well-known figure in the parish, much-appreciated for always seeming to have time and an interesting word with the people he met. When he retired as curate he continued to work in the church and began to assist the chaplaincy team at University College Hospital. He continued this latter work for thirteen years. He is fondly remembered for this by patients and the team alike.

Gradually the boundaries of his parish widened and he took up supplying in a parish in California. It was there that he took up oil-painting in his spare time, a pastime he brought back to Galway. Liam Greene, who knew his work, has written of how observant he was and how aware of details. “The subject matter of his painting was often the same – the wild Pacific Ocean, with waves crashing on the rocks'. He would sometimes speak to Liam of 'the delicate moments when he tried to capture the light reflected on the breaking wave and the difficulty of doing so'. His love of the sea expressed itself in a different form in his commitment to regular swimming in Galway, even into old age.

He was chaplain to Scoil Iognáid for several years. He was director of the Nazareth Fund, which raised money to alleviate hardship for people who had known better times financially, and continued this work for twenty years. It continues to flourish. In his latest years, he began to come to Clongowes to supply for the 'incumbent of the People's Church, wholly equal to the demands of rising early, celebrating every day and preaching to the local people, many of whom he came to know, on Sundays. Towards the end he was troubled by increasing deafness and, in 2005, he suffered a stroke, which brought his hospital work to an end. Fr. Bernard Murray was very independent. He had been attending a cardiologist for a weakening heart in early 2005 and was transferred from hospital in Galway to Cherryfield Lodge on 4th March 2005. He made a full physical recovery from the stroke, but had dysphasia (could not be understood when trying to talk) which was very frustrating for him, but he remained very pleasant, gentle and mobile until 20th August, when he got weak and was confined to bed from then onwards. He died peacefully on August 25, 2007, full of good works and days.

For an Old Friend and Fellow Jesuit
That soothing phrase for "death" doth close apply
To dear old Barney Murray here today:
Just at 4.40 p.m., with quiet sigh,
He left us. He had simply "passed away”.

We'll miss his glowing cheeks and charming smile,
Though communication oral was his problem,
He, none the less, could most of us beguile
With 'buzz-buzz' noises Words? He'd simply gobble-em!

His life was colourful and his heart was large,
He painted many pictures in his day.
His “Fund” for poverty he made his special charge,
His paintings to his friends he gave away.

May God reward this “good and faithful servant”
In ways beyond the scope or need for speech.
We follow “Barney” with our prayers fervent,
Assured that he is not beyond our reach.

Thomas MacMahon SJ, Cherryfield Lodge, Sat. 25h August, 07, at 10.10 pm

Born: 23 March 1939, Renvyle, Corrig Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1956, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 25 June 1970, Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1978, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin
Died: 04 October 2022, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Clongowes Wood College SJ community at the time of death

Father was a Civil Servant.

One older sister.

Educated at Christian Brothers primary school in Dun Laoghaire and then at CBC Monkstown for six years.

Born: 31 March 1886, Strokestown, County Roscommon
Entered: 01 February 1905, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1919, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1923, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 27 November 1949, Loyola College, Watsonia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Parents farmers and farming business.

Youngest of three sons.

Early education at Mercy Convent Strokestown, then privately until 1900. Then he went to the O’dea Academy in Strokestown for two years and then to Clongowes Wood College SJ.He then went to the Merchant Venturer’s Technical College in Bristol for engineering and then taught for a While at Mungret College SJ.

by 1908 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1909 at Kasteel Gemert, Netherlands (TOLO) studying
by 1910 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1910

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Murray entered the Society at Tullabeg, 1 February 1905, studied philosophy at Stonyhurst and Gemert, 1908-10, did regency at Xavier College, Kew, 1910-16, and theology at Milltown Park, 1916-20. Tertianship was at Tullabeg, 1921-22. After ordination he taught at Clongowes, Mungret, and Belvedere for short periods, before returning to Australia in 1927.
While in Australia he worked in the parishes of Norwood, 1927-30, Sevenhill, 1930-32, Norwood, 1932-33, Richmond, 1933-40, Star of the Sea, Milsons Point, 1940-42, and Richmond, 1942-48. His final years, 1948-49, were at Loyola College, Watsonia.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 25th Year No 1 1950
Obituary
Fr. Michael Murray (1886-1905-1949) – Vice Province of Australia

Fr. Michael Murray, S.J., whose death in Australia occurred on 28th November, was born at Strokestown, Co. Roscommon in 1886. Educated at Clongowes Wood College, he spent a year studying engineering in the Technical College, Bristol, before entering the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus' College. Tullamore in 1905. He pursued his philosophical studies at Stonyhurst and at Gemert, Belgium, after which he went to Australia, where he taught for six years at Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne. He returned to Dublin for his theological course and was ordained priest at Milltown Park in 1919. He made his Tertianship at Tullabeg.
After a period in the Apostolic School, Mungret where he was engaged in training students to the priesthood, Fr. Murray joined the mission staff and conducted missions and retreats for three years in various parts of Ireland. In 1927 he returned to Australia and worked zealously for the remainder of his life as pastor in the Jesuit parish churches at Norwood, South Australia, at St. Aloysius', Sydney and St. Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne. It was in the latter church that Fr. Murray spent most of his years, from 1934 to 1940 and again from 1943 to 1949. Owing to declining health, he had to abandon active work during the past year. He was attached at the time of his death to St. Ignatius House of Higher Studies, Watsonia.
Those who knew Fr. Michael in the noviceship or later as a master in Clongowes or on the mission staff will retain the memory of his unassuming and affectionate disposition and quiet humour. R.I.P.

◆ The Clongownian, 1950

Obituary

Father Michael Murray SJ

Shortly after leaving Clongowes in 1903, Fr Murray entered the novitiate in Tullabeg, and passed on to the usual course of studies. As a scholastic he as a Master at Xavier College, Melbourne for six years, before returning to theology at Milltown Park, Dublin where he was ordained in 1919. After a few years in Ireland, he returned to Australia where he laboured all his life in parishes entrusted to the care of the Jesuits there.

His death occurred on November 27th, 1949. The Most Reverend Dr Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, preaching at the Requiem Mass, spoke of two things which especially distinguished Fr Murray : his utter devotion to the sick, and his marvellous influence with men.

“His life”, His Grace concluded, “was almost wholly spent in the unobstrusive, hidden following of His Master, and it was a life of much labour and great service. His awakening surely was with Christ, and his repose was in peace”.

Born: 29 August 1852, County Limerick
Entered: 07 February 1870, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1889
Final Vows: 02 February 1891
Died: 12 June 1913, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada - Belgicae Province (BELG)

Part of the L’Imaculée Conception, De Lorimier, près Montréal, Canada community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to BELG : 1888

Educated at Belvedere College SJ and St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg and Stonyhurst College SJ, Lancashire

by 1880 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1884 at Oña Spain (CAST) studying
by 1885 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying
by 1888 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1890 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
In India for many years before Canada
1894 St Francis Xavier College, Chowringhee India (BELG) Rector
1896-1904 St Joseph’s, Darjeeling, India (BELG) Parish Priest
1904 St Francis Xavier, Liverpool
1905-1909 Holy Name Manchester ,

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Transcribed into BELG Province 1888, and went to India

◆ The Clongownian, 1914

Obituary

Father Vincent Naish SJ

Advices from Canada in the June of last year brought the unexpected announcement of the death of the above-named distinguished ecclesiastic. Although born and educated in Ireland, the greater part of Father Naish's life was passed in foreign lands. Belvedere and Tullabeg Colleges were accountable for his early education, and in the latter establishment he was fellow student with many men whose public life is familiar to our readers, and among his class-fellows was the late Mr Alfred Blake, of Cork, whose rather sudden death caused such a sensation in the Four Courts two days ago. Father Naish came from an ancient and distinguished stock well known in Co Limerick, of whom the late Lord Chancellor Naish was not the least distinguished member. Early in his career as a Jesuit, after teaching for some six years in Clongowes and Tullabeg, he volunteered for work on the foreign mission, and although Irish by sympathy and every tie, he was attached to the Belgian Province of the Order, and consequently his work lay principally in India, which is one of the mission fields of that province. For several years Father Naish was engaged in that missionary work, and directed with distinguished success the great Catholic College of Calcutta. Later on he was recalled to Europe, and was well known as a preacher of eminence all over the North of England. As a missionary in Canada he laboured among his own countrymen in almost every town of any note from Labrador to Vancouver. He was a man of remarkable presence and of most distinguished gifts, both as a scholar and a preacher, and his loss will be deeply felt by those to whom he gave the unstinted labour of his later and riper years. With his immediate relatives much sympathy is felt, and those with whom his name was familiar thirty years ago will feel a pang of regret as they breathe a prayer for the eternal rest of a friend of very noble and winning character.

“Freeman's Journal” June 19th, 1913.

-oOo-

Rev Vincent Naish SJ, a distinguished Churchman and scholar, passed away at Moncton, NB, shortly after six o'clock last night (June 12th), death ensuing after an illness of three days' duration, Ten days ago the deceased went down to that city in company with Rev Father Gagnieur SJ, to conduct a mission in St Bernard's Church. At the close of the spiritual exercises last Sunday he contracted a severe cold, which later develop into pneumonia. On Monday he was removed to the City Hospital for treatment, but yesterday his condition became such that no hopes could be held out for his recovery. He remained conscious to the end, and was attended in his last moments by Father Gagnieur, as well as by the priests of St Bernard's. During his sojourn in India he made exhaustive studies of the Buddhistic, Islamistic, and other Oriental religions, and became authority on these branches. But it was as a missionary that he excelled. A powerful speaker, lucid of argument, with an eloquent and easy flow of language, backed by a seemingly inexhaustible fund of knowledge of men and things, he had that quality which made him tower far above many engaged in mission work. A man of deep piety and religious conviction, he was an inspiration his fellow members of the Jesuit Order, as well as to all those with whom he came in contact in the course of his missionary labours. Since his arrival in Canada, some six years ago, Father Naish was engaged exclusively in missionary work, and in the course of his activities along this line he has been heard in Catholic pulpits of almost every Canadian city from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

“Montreal Gasette”, June 13th, 1913.

Born: 28 December 1900, Dromod, County Leitrim
Entered: 31 August 1918, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1931, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 25 June 1958, Mungret College, County Limerick

Parents were small farmers.

Eldest of four boys and one girl.

Educated at firstly at Cloonmorris NS for seven years and then remained at home for a year. In February 1915 he went to the Apostolic School at Mungret College SJ

Studied for BA at UCD; Ordained at Milltown Park

Sent early from Regency to Theology due to failing eyesight

by 1933 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 33rd Year No 4 1958

Obituary :
Fr Anthony Naughton (1900-1958)

It is but eight years since our new cemetery was opened, under the shadow of the ancient abbey, and already eight priests are laid to rest there. Of the four of Mungret's Community - all taken from us swiftly and almost without warning - perhaps the last, Fr. Anthony Naughton, will be longest remembered and spoken of by Mungret boys, past and present, Apostolic and Lay, in every part of the world.
Fr. Tony was born in Dromod, Co, Leitrim on the 28th December, 1900. His birthday never passed, unnoticed, it became indeed part of the Christmas festivities. The year of birth, 1900, made it easy for even the poorest calculator to tell his age in any year of the century, and gave the philosophically inclined a chance of questioning which century he really belonged to! At the age of 18 he entered Tullabeg from the Apostolic School. After the noviceship and a year's “Home" Juniorate”, as was the custom, he took his B.A. degree in Rathfarnham in 1924. Three years Philosophy in Milltown brought him to 1927, and after one year's teaching in Belvedere, during which he obtained the Higher Diploma, he was allowed to start Theology, probably owing to some anxiety about his eyesight. He was ordained in Milltown in 1931, and after the final year's Theology made his Tertianship in St. Beuno's in North Wales.
The year 1933 began his connection of twenty-five years with Mungret College. At first, for four years, he was Vice-Superior of the Apostolic School, then on the teaching staff. For two periods, 1937-40 and 1945-9, he was Editor of the Mungret Annual and spared no effort to make it a success. The section on the Past received his most affectionate and accurate attention. Probably no one in our time had such a wide knowledge of Mungret boys, no one was ever more interested in their comings and goings, their sayings and doings. Poor as his eyesight was for many years, it was a joke among the Commurity that nothing could escape his systematic search of the morning - or evening - papers. Many an Editor of the Annual bad reason to be thankful to Fr. Tony for a choice bit of information that no one else could have, or might have troubled to have given him, and often a Superior was grateful to have his attention called to an Old Mungret name in the death column.
It is certain, as has often been said in these last weeks, that “Mungret will not be the same without him”. The Past returning to revisit the College will feel a sense of loss.
Here are a few comments in letters received by Fr. Rector : “I was greatly shocked to learn of the death of Fr. Naughton - you will all miss his familiar wit and good fellowship but he has gone to a far better land”. That from a boy who had left for the holidays only a few days before; and this, from a letter from a recent Past : “I was very deeply grieved to read of the death of poor Fr. Naughton - I shall always treasure the memory of his kindness to me during my days in the College - all, I am sure, will remember him for kindness and good humour”. Best tribute of all is from a Past priest, just become P.P. in an English parish : “I read with regret the report in the Universe of the death of Fr. Anthony Naughton. In company with many hundreds of Mungret men I feel I have suffered a personal loss. “Nobby”, as the boys of my time knew him, was a delightful personality, and was surely one of the best-loved teachers who ever “thundered” in the classrooms of Mungret. He was famous in my time for being audible, not only in his own classroom but in every other classroom at one and the same time. When I grew older and was ordained priest I came to appreciate and respect his saintly qualities. What a gentle and childlike man he really was underneath - Fr. Naughton must have been a delightful community man. I got a glimpse of this once when I called and was entertained to ļuncheon. Afterwards Fr. Naughton and some of the Scholastics and I went off for a swim. “I cherish the memory of that afternoon. Fr. Naughton was the life of the party with his anecdotes, reminiscences and friendly jibes at us all. I said Mass for him here on Sunday and was very glad to be able to ask my people to pray for him and speed his soul to heaven. May he rest in peace”.
The “thunders” of Fr. Naughton had no terrors for even the smallest boy; for all were quick to see the simplicity and kind heart beneath it all. “A wonderful teacher of History and Geography”, one letter says. Yes! he had a wide range, but that was his subject of preference. It was really amazing to see the confidence - boys of all ages and classes had in his ability to tip questions for the Intermediate and Leaving Certificate examinations. Fr. Naughton himself had no illusions about his supposed gift, and could often give the shrewdest opinion as to how a particular boy would do. In the weeks before the examination he would be questioned diligently by even Honour boys of classes not his own; but the final word would be left for the weaker boys an hour before the examination was due to start. Fr. Naughton would appear with his rolled up portable blackboard, full of tips; “and bring all interested into a classroom”. Everything was very short and snappy and to the point. Then half an hour before the examination all would be sent around the track to clear their heads and digest, and talk over the tips among themselves. It was now the time for the Honour boy, perhaps, to come along with his difficulty - the causes of this or the events leading up to that. There on the corridor without any preparation short and definite answers would be given with an exhortation, of course, to “have a good round of the track”. But the most astonishing thing of all was to see the rush for Fr. Naughton after the examination, all the questions “tipped”! Whatever about all this, and Fr, Tony would be the first to smile, it is certain that his results were often high class, and perhaps those of the Intermediate in his last year best of all.
Much could be said about that kindness, so often mentioned in the letters: kindness to those in difficulties; to those needing help most; to foreign students with no English at all. “No boy ever left Mungret with a grudge against Fr, Naughton. · The same kindly, and often quizzical, spirit was well known to the countryside around, chatting and advising on farming, building, health; working too for the poor through the College Vincent de Paul Society of which he was President for endless years.
Much could be written too of things more important than these, of Fr. Naughton as a Community man, rigid, we might say, punctuality for Community duties (expecting the same too from everyone), lively, and good-humouredly provoking at recreation, his interests always centring around Mungret. So the years went on until indeed he became a part of all that Mungret is.
Strange! his friends tell us that he had an idea that 1958 would bring a change of status - the Silver Jubilee year an ancient mansion in the midlands where he would have peace and quiet and perhaps rejuvenation! Yes, the change came a month before the 31st July suddenly. We would have liked to have him for many years - a “Department Pensioner” to enjoy his comments on men and boys and things, but the Lord has changed his status and called him to his “Mansion”. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Anthony Naughton 1900-1958
Fr Tony Naughton spent 1933-1958. 25 years in Mungret. He was part and parcel of the place and affectionately known as “Nobby” to generations of both lay boys and Apostolics.

He was born in Dromod County Leitrim in 1900.

From his early scholastic days he was afflicted with a weakness of the eyes, but in spite of this handicap, he managed to get through his studies, and to acquire a fund of information on all sorts of topics, and on all generations of the past.

He was editor of the “Mungret Annual” for a number of years and also acted as an Assistant in the Apostolic School, but it was as a teacher that he made his mark, in more sense than one, for he had a stentorian voice and could be heard far outside the ambit of his classroom. He had an uncanny knack of spotting questioned for the examinations which he imparted to his class in a short briefing before their ordeal.

He was completely devoted to the College and to the boys in all their activities. Their affection for him, which outlasted school, is sufficient testimony to his inner goodness and worth.

He died rather suddenly after he had retired from teaching, on June 25th 1958.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1959

Obituary

Father Anthony Naughton SJ

We regret to announce the death on June 25th of Father Anthony Naughton.

Father Naughton was born on December 29th, 1900, at Dromod, Co. Leitrim, After leaving Mungret in 1918 he entered the Society of Jesus. He was ordained in 1931. In the year 1933, he began his long connection with Mungret, which was to last for twenty-five years.

For the first four years he was Vice Superior of the Apostolic School, and then on the teaching staff. For two periods, 1937-'40 and 1945-49, he was Editor of the “Mungret Annual”, and spared no effort to make it a success. The section on the Past received his most affectionate and accurate attention,

Father Naughton had an amazing ability for tipping examination questions. Prior to an examination he used to be besieged on the corridor by boys looking for the latest hints.

For many years he was President of the St Vincent de Paul Society and taught the boys to be mindful of those who are forgotten by the world.

Probably no one in our time had such a wide knowledge of Mungret boys, nor was more interested in their comings and goings. He took a deep interest in their careers.

In spite of an apparent gruffness, Father Naughton had a kindly heart. It has been said with truth that Mungret will not be the same without him. The Past returning to Mungret will feel a sense of loss. To his sister and brothers we offer our deep sympathy. RIP

Born: 03 November 1931, Damascus, Syria
Entered: 07 September 1951, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 15 May 1965, Saint Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Final Vows: 03 January 1971, Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Died: 04 October 2018, Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong - Sinensis Province (CHN)

Transcribed HIB to HK: 03 January 1971; HK to CHN : 1992

Father was a business man and died in 1948. Family lived at Nazareth, Thormanby Road, Howth, County Dublin.

Only boy with a younger sister.

Early education was with the Franciscan Nuns, St Jean D’Arc, Damascus. He then went to the Franciscan Brothers, Terra Santa, Jerusalem, Israel. Next he was with the Sisters of Sion, Katamon, Jerusalem, Israel. Next he went to the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1949 he went to the College of Surgeron’s, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin for two years.

by 1961 at Cheung Chau, Hong Kong - Regency studying language
by 1962 at Bellarmine, Baguio City Philippines (ExOr) studying

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
The four members of the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission; Theresa Kung, Father Stephen Tam, Sister Laura Watt and myself, had the opportunity to make a follow up visit to the Studium Biblicum run by the Hong Kong Bible Society on June 12. We had already been able to look at the books of bible stories, which are presented in beautifully printed and strikingly attractive cartoons, but on this occasion, the topic under discussion revolved around what type of cooperation the Studium Biblicum could offer to the commission in terms of enhancing ecumenical relations in the diocese.

Father Placid Wong Kwok-wah spoke of the decades it took the staff at the Studium Biblicum to translate the scriptures into Chinese and the endless hours that went into producing the first, one-volume Catholic Chinese Bible, which was published in 1968. On the wall of the conference room, portraits of seven Franciscans, who had laboured over the production of that historic publication and now have been called to their eternal reward, are hung. Father Placid is the last of the team still alive.

However, he noted that a translation of the bible is never finished and requires constant updates, as in the past decades, there have been changes in both the written and spoken language.

“People just write and speak differently from what they did 50 years ago,” he told the visiting ecumenical commission. He explained the ins and outs of the extensive revision necessary to update the four gospels, as well as the Old Testament, which he described as long and meticulous work, probably taking at least 10 years.

Periodic checking is also necessary and suggested updates are sent to Catholic scholars in Taiwan and more recently in southern China for comment. Material is also sent to the Orthodox authorities for double checking on the accuracy in the translation.

However, even with limited resources in both personnel and computing, efforts still continue to make the Chinese translations faithful to the original texts, as well as comprehensible and acceptable to modern readers. Father Wong also had high praise for the quality of downloading of texts onto MP3, which he described as being common today and acceptable.

For me it was a worthwhile day out, as the last time I was there was to visit Father Theobald Deiderick in 1979!
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 27 June 2010

Wah Yan mourns the death of teacher par excellence

A Jesuit educator par excellence and one of the most endearing figures of the Jesuit Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Father Harold Cosmatos Naylor passed away on October. 4. As a dedicated educator, he has inspired generations of students at the Wah Yan College with his innovative teaching methods.

According to Father Stephen Chow Sau-yan, head of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus in Hong Kong, Father Naylor will be remembered for his commitment to ecological education and Christian Ecumenism. “His creative pedagogy was way ahead of his time. Father Naylor was very committed to a simple lifestyle, caring for the poor, protecting the environment, and fostering Christian ecumenical dialogue,” said Father Chow.

Father Naylor was born in Damascus, Syria on 3 November 1931 and was baptised in the Anglican Church in Jerusalem. After the elementary education in Jerusalem his parents moved to Dublin in 1942. After becoming a Catholic at the age of 18, in 1951 he entered the Society of Jesus in Ireland.

Father Naylor came to Hong Kong in 1960 and studied Cantonese while staying in Cheung Chau for two years. He then moved to the Philippines for his Theology studies at Bellarmine College, Baguio and returned to Hong Kong in 1965 and was ordained a priest on May 15 at St. Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College by Bishop Laurence Bianchi, late Bishop of Hong Kong.

Father Naylor had his illustrious career as an educator and a champion of green movement at the Wah Yan College from 1967 to 2016. In the meantime, in 1968, he co-founded Hong Kong’s first conservation group, together with Lindsay Ride, former vice chancellor the University of Hong Kong, and vice-president of Chung Chi College Robert Rayne. During this period, he also served as a promoter and member of Diocesan Ecumenical Commission, and a chaplain at Kwong Wah Hospital.

His Autobiography, No Regrets ends with these words:

What then could be my last word? It is of gratitude to the students whom I have taught, thanks to the teachers who have put up with me, and indebtedness to Hong Kong, which has given me such a wonderful life.

I have lived in the same room in Wah Yan College for forty years. My fellow Jesuits have been supportive and friendly. I have enjoyed living in the greenery and good air in ten acres of King’s Park. No wonder I have no regrets, but only happiness and joy in my heart.

Then I have to add all those I have known as a priest outside the school, and they are in the hundreds. And all this happens in my adopted home of Hong Kong, so thanks to Hong Kong and all its people who have harboured me and made my life so happy.

A Funeral Mass for Father Naylor was celebrated on October 11 by Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-Cheung, Bishop of Hong Kong at St. Ignatius Chapel, where Father Naylor was ordained a priest 53 years ago.

He had donated his remains to Hong Kong University (HKU) for medical studies. HKU received his remains on October 12.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 14 October 2018

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/harold-naylor-sj-a-wonderful-life-in-hong-kong/

Harold Naylor SJ: A “wonderful life” in Hong Kong
Fr Harold Naylor SJ died peacefully in Hong Kong on 4 October, 2018 at the age of 87. He is the third Irish Jesuit missionary to have passed away this year. His funeral takes place at Saint Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College secondary school in Hong Kong on 11 October, 2018.

Background
Fr Naylor was not born in Ireland; it was his adopted homeland and, he said, “the only place I ever felt welcome and wanted”. He spent the first 19 years of his life in the Middle East, in cities including Damascus, Cairo, and Jerusalem, and attended boarding school in Beirut. He felt out of place in these places, because of his unusual heritage. His mother was from a Greek family who lived in Egypt and his father was an Englishman who arrived in the country as a dispatch rider for the army at the start of World War I. His parents married in 1929. They lived a happy life in the Middle East, but things changed in 1948 when his father died. His mother became engaged to an Irish man who was in the Palestinian police, and when the Jewish state of Israel came into being he brought the family to his homeland, Ireland.

Joining the Society of Jesus
Fr Naylor attended Trinity College Dublin as a medical student but he knew that he wanted a spiritual life, and left after a year. In January 1950 he knocked at the door of the Jesuit Superior at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Dublin and this interview was the first step to join the Jesuits. He was accepted and so began his journey with the Society of Jesus. The Irish Jesuits planned to send many men to develop Jesuit service in what was then known as Northern Rhodesia – Zambia – to expand missionary work. Fr Naylor was excited to become a missionary, but felt that his lifelong delicate constitution prevented him being of best service in the harsh environment of Africa. He was asked to become a missionary to China, and the thought of following Jesuits Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci gave him great joy.
In an interview with Maurice O’Keeffe from Irish Life and Lore, Fr Naylor stated: “So, after a year in college my mother took me away”. “I can see where your heart is. Go ahead,” she said. “And I became a Jesuit... It took me two years to make the decision”. He also spoke about his early days in the Society: “When I joined the Jesuits, I didn’t feel Irish. I’m an Englishman... I was the only foreigner in the Jesuit house.” He commented that many of the Jesuits were pro-nationalist who only spoke in Irish. However, when he got the call later to go to Hong Kong, he was told it was better to be English.

Wah Yan College, Kowloon
He first travelled to Hong Kong in 1960 to begin his mission, and spent an interim four years (1962 – 1967) in the Philippines to better prepare him for his work in China. He recalls these years as among the happiest of his life. He took a post in the Jesuit-run Wah Yan College in Kowloon in 1967, and remained there for more than forty years. Fr Naylor was a year-three English and Biology teacher, but his commitment to the students of the college was in more than just teaching.
In 1968 he took over from fellow Irish Jesuit Fr Joseph Mallin SJ (who died earlier this year) as the Director of the Wah Yan Poor Boys’ Club and was delighted to have the opportunity to help young boys who had no opportunity of schooling. The club members were living in huts or on rooftops. Some of them were apprentices. He attributed the idea behind the club as coming from Belvedere College, where he had studied in Dublin. There was a Newsboys Club for young boys who sold newspapers and were not able to go to school. The club became, after several years, the Wah Yan Childrens’ Club and Fr Naylor remained as Director from 1968 to 1994.
Speaking with The Shield about teaching ethics at Wah Yan College, Fr Naylor noted: “A teacher is to help a person to grow and develop”. It’s not only biological growth. It’s also emotional growth; it’s intellectual growth; it’s imagination growth; and it’s moral growth.
In the South China Morning Post, Civic Party chairman Alan Leong Kah-kit, who studied at Wah Yan College from 1971 to 1978, said Father Naylor was an unconventional teacher who conducted a lot of field trips even in the 1970s. “He was well liked by his students and I am sure he will be remembered as an enlightening mentor to many,” Leong said. The long list of Naylor’s pupils at the college includes Leong, lawmaker James To Kun-sun, Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu and Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung.

Conservancy and ecology
In 1968 Fr Naylor received a letter from Chung Chi College, Hong Kong inviting him to join its prestigious Conservancy Association. Botany and ecology were lifelong interests of his and after joining the association he began the Secondary School Conservancy Clubs and studied Ecology at the University of Hong Kong.
His involvement in ecology attracted the attention of the South China Morning Post and he wrote a column on environmental matters for over two years. Environmental news was a hot topic in the 1970s, and Fr Naylor went on to become a delegate representing Hong Kong at the United Nations Conference on The Human Environment, in Stockholm, June 1972. He had a commitment to what is now known as sustainable living and enjoyed living a simple life. Wah Yan College Kowloon is an ideal of sustainable living and is unusual in having vast areas of greenery in low-density building, where parts of Hong Kong have the highest residential population per square kilometre in the world.
Reflection on his life
In a 2007 interview, Fr Naylor reflected on his decades in Hong Kong and concluded that his life there had been a happy and fulfilling one.
“What then could be my last word? It is of gratitude to the students whom I have taught, thanks to the teachers who have put up with me, and indebtedness to Hong Kong, which has given me such a wonderful life. I have lived in the same room in Wah Yan College for forty years. My fellow Jesuits have been supportive and friendly. I have enjoyed living in the greenery and good air in ten acres of King’s Park. No wonder I have no regrets, but only happiness and joy in my heart. Then I have to add all those I have known as a priest outside the school, and they are in the hundreds. And all this happens in my adopted home of Hong Kong, so thanks to Hong Kong and all its people who have harboured me and made my life so happy.”

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :
He was at school with Ciarán Kane in Belvedere College Dublin, but joined the Society two years after him. He joined after four years of deliberation.

After First Vows he was sent to University College Dublin where he graduated BSc in Natural History, Geology, Botany and Zoology, intending that this would be helpful in understanding the relationship between Christianity and Science.
After this he was sent to study Philosophy for three years, and he was encouraged to consider the issues of handing the faith to non-believers.
He was sent to teach Science at Mungret College SJ Limerick for Regency.
1960 In August he was in Hong Kong and spent two years at Cheung Chau with a private tutor learning Cantonese.
1962-1966 He was in the Philippines at Bellarmine College, Baguio, along with 65 other Jesuits destined for work in China. The College was mandarin speaking, and so he had chosen to go there deliberately with mainland China in mind. By 1964 there were 15 Jesuits who had learned Vietnamese and knew no Chinese, and the young Chinese were gravitating towards Taiwan
1966-1967 He made Tertianship in Dublin
1967 He was back in Hong Kong teaching at Wah Yan College Kowloon, and encouraged to also work with Alumni. He engaged in ecumenical work and was active in the environmental movement. he also spent the weekends on priestly ministries.
1981 He was offered a sabbatical at the age of 50, but he declined it as he was convinced of the value of teaching and wanted to keep his work commitments.
1991 He retired from the salary scale, but he opted to keep teaching, seeing it as the vehicle for his Jesuit life.

Note from Séamus Doris Entry
He was good friends with Harry Naylor, Joe Mallin and Dan Fitzpatrick.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1966

Our Past

Father Harry Naylor SJ

Fr Harry Naylor SJ was ordained by the Bishop of Hong Kong in the chapel of Wah Yan, Kowloon, on 15th May, 1965. He said his first Mass in the chapel of the Hong Kong College.

Fr Naylor was born in Damascus in 1931, of a Greek mother and an Irish father, He finished his secondary education in Dublin, to which his family returned after the war. He then studied medicine, but after two years entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1951. He did a science degree in University College, Dublin, and after a year's teaching in Mungret went to Hong Kong in 1960.
Greetings and all best wishes to Fr Harry from his friends at Mungret.

Born: 20 August 1889, Rathgar Road, Rathgar, Dublin
Entered: 05 October 1908, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1922, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1927, Shiuhing, China
Died: 24 October 1983, Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin at the time of death

Father is a wine merchant and with his mother live at Bayview, Dalkey

Eldest of four sons and three daughters.

He was at a Convent school in Offaly and at age thirteen went to Mount St Mary’s, Derbyshire.

by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1927 first Hong Kong Missioner with George Byrne
by 1950 at St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales (ANG) Tertian Instructor

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
R.I.P.
Father Neary

Only a few septuagenarians and octogenarians in the Hong Kong public can have even faint memories of Father John Neary, who died in Ireland last week, aged 94. He has nevertheless his little niche in our history. He was one of the two Jesuits - Father George Byrne was the other - who came here on 2 December 1926, to start Jesuit work in Hong Kong. Their early decisions have influenced all later Jesuit work here.

He stayed here only five years. In 1931 his health broke down and he had to return to Ireland, where, as Master of Novices or as Instructor of Tertians, he played a large part in the formation of most of the Jesuits now in Hong Kong.

Memory of him lasted long even in this city of short memories. In my earlier years here, I was amazed to find a variety of people still asking for news about him many years after his departure. The late Father Andrew Granelli, P.I.M.E., spoke more and more of Father Neary as his own life neared its end. Their friendship had outlasted forty years of separation.

Father Neary never forgot Hong Kong. When I visited him two years ago he was already 92, but he was full of eager and probing questions about developments here. Streets and buildings and people were still fresh in his memory. He had shortly before been greatly cheered by a visit from Archbishop Tang, whom he remembered as a young Jesuit Student. His thoughts were with us to the end. He deserves a few inches of space in a Hong Kong Catholic Paper.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 4 November 1983

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :
Born in Dublin in 1889, his early education was at Mount Saint Mary’s in England.

In 1926 Fr John Fahy appointed him and George Byrne to respond to the request from Bishop Valtora of Hong Kong for Jesuit help.

He visited the Jesuits in Macau and Shiuhing as well as Shanghai. Their first project was Ricci Hall at Hong Kong University together with work at Canton Cathedral. he held Wah Yan in great esteem.

By 1931 he had health issues. He was sent back to Ireland where he had an outstanding period at Belvedere College SJ, and became Novice Master

Note from Paddy Finneran Entry
With the encouragement of Michael Murphy he then entered the Novitiate at St Mary’s, Emo under the newly appointed Novice Master John Neary.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 2nd Year No 2 1927

Fr Pigot attended the Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo as a delegate representing the Australian Commonwealth Government. He was Secretary to the Seismological Section, and read two important papers. On the journey home he spent some time in hospital in Shanghai, and later touched at Hong Kong where he met Frs. Byrne and Neary.

Irish Province News 59th Year No 1 1984

Obituary

Fr John Neary (1889-1908-1983)

In this age of questionnaires and surveys it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that we might at some time be pondering as to which Irish Jesuit could claim to be most mimicked. I'm pretty sure that one contestant, namely John Neary, would far outstrip the others. He would have a head-start for two reasons: first, his mannerisms were easy to copy even by those not particularly gifted at mimicry; and secondly he guided into the Irish Province of the Society a greater number of candidates than any other known Master of Novices. He held that formative position for eleven years and indeed had contact with novices for a further nine years while he was Spiritual Father in Emo.
Mimicry can be cruel, of course, but it can also be harmless, and in this case I think it was a measure of the affection which he generated. His tones, his manual and facial gestures, his some what quaint turns of phrase, were prime targets for his would be copiers; but there was never any hint of malice or ill-feeling in the imitation. I'm sure he cannot have avoided hearing the echo at odd times: and I'm equally sure that he would not have felt any resentment. He would probably have merely chuckled to himself.
My acquaintance with him (to which this account is naturally restricted; let others tell the rest of the story) was confined to the noviceship period, a brief month or so in the Tertianship, when he filled in for Fr Hugh Kelly and finally the last seven years of his life at Gardiner street and Our Lady's Hospice. Opinions differ as to his value as a Master of Novices. Others are better qualified to judge; I found him kindly and discerning. He could harden and raise his voice at times, he could give virtue', but it was always to those who could take it; it was never crushing or ridiculous, in the full sense. Incidentally, I never did discover whether the “honking” which preceded his appearance around the corner was necessary throat-clearing or an early warning signal – and likewise with the slipper-dragging routine (this certainly was no “pussyfooting”, by any count!).
Though he was a firm believer in de more he used to illustrate the good use of creatures by changing routine to fit in with exceptional weather. During both our years in Emo the lake froze hard (enough to allow horses with padded hooves to pull tree-trunks from one side of the lake to the other) and we were all herded out to learn to skate, willy-nilly. As everyone knows. he had a great interest in bee-keeping, too, but it was only the chosen few, the “discreets”, who were allowed to assist him and involve themselves in this speciality. His appreciation of the health-giving properties of honey (and, later on of half bananas!) was to last to the end of his days. A spoonful, given semi-secretly in his room, was considered an infallible cure for anything from the blues' to a heavy cold.
There was never any doubt about his zeal. Fr Tom Ryan wrote of him: “Zeal for conversion was always characteristic of him. During his theology in Milltown Park he had Protestant converts continually on hand”. Altogether he spent twenty years in Emo and was in Gardiner street for about the same length of time. There he continued, unobtrusively, this work of finding and instructing those who were interested in the faith. I think his special interest in converts and in ecumenism may have stemmed originally from his enormous devotion to Cardinal Newman and his writings. Many were the cuttings from newspapers and the Tablet concerning Newman that he left behind. (He had apparently one of those love-hate relationships with the Tablet - castigating it vigorously for its anti-Irish attitude, yet waiting breathlessly for the next issue. Indeed, one of the few naughty memories about him is the image of the hand appearing suddenly around the reading room door, casting deftly on to the table that missing copy of the Tablet. I think it must have been his greatest crime, the nearest thing to an inordinate attachment!).
He lived a frugal style of life and showed a practical sympathy with the poor, as evidenced by his devotion to an respect for the St Vincent de Paul Society. A little incident he related illustrates this fact, and, as å by-product, his type of humour (faintly wicked at times). On one occasion the conference members he directed were discussing the amount of assistance they should give to what is now called a “single parent” of several children from different stock. He told me that he dissuaded the brothers from providing the double-bed requested by the lady in question!
His greatest achievement of all was, without the slightest shadow of doubt, our mission to China. Fr Ryan wrote: “He may to a very great extent be said to have been the originator of the Irish Province mission to China. It is almost certain that it would not have been undertaken at the time it was, but for him”. Some time before he had to retire to Our Lady's Hospice I thought it would be worthwhile recording his memories of the start of that mission. So I interviewed him in his room, with the aid of a cheap tape-recorder and found him surprisingly co-operative. (He adapted to modern inventions, customs and changes extremely well). It was only afterwards that I discovered a similar account written by him for the 1933 Jesuit Year Book. A comparison of the two versions proved how accurate his memory was. Moreover, after his death I read some of the correspondence he had with Fr Fahy. This not only proved his great power of almost total recall about this period of his life but also revealed his humility while confirming what Fr Ryan wrote. Before that, even from his own account, I had not realised how much he had manoeuvred Fr Fahy into beginning the mission, and how much the Provincial was guided by him. He gave the impression, of course that he was only doing the bidding of his superior!
Although he spent less than five years in Hong Kong, his heart remained there for as long as it beat. As he said himself, he was always interested in the mission and listened avidly to the reports of those who came back home on visits. The ultimate proof of his intense interest was to be given at the very end of his life. During the last few months before he died there were long periods when he obviously thought he was in Hong Kong or that the conversation of his visitors referred to the colony as he knew it
In his notes on the history of the Jesuit Mission in Hong Kong, the late Fr Tom Ryan, one of the earliest superiors of that Mission, wrote at considerable length about Fr Neary and I think he is worth quoting yet again. Many of the qualities he spotted in “Pa Neary” will be easily recognised:
“Fr John Neary, a Dublin man. educated at Mount St Mary's in England, was ... absolutely matter-of fact and down to earth. He was of great precision of thought and speech, and even of movement. He had not much imagination, but he had an excellent sense of humour and had great natural kindness. As he suffered seriously from asthma, he never would have been sent to a foreign mission except for the great interest which he had in missionary work ... He had absolutely no ear for music and could distinguish ‘tones’ with difficulty, so the study for him was doubly hard, but he recognised the difficulty and practised the tones for hours on end every day, to the dismay at first of his teacher, since he compelled him to listen to him until he got them right. The result was that even though there was always something artificial in the way in which he spoke Chinese, his absolute accuracy was commented upon by all”.
He died as he had lived, unobtrusively - almost secretly. For two nights he appeared to be on the point of departure ... but, as usual, he refused to be hurried. His great faith and serene piety were marked by the fact that his lips were moving continuously in prayer. On the second night, before we left the bed side, his nephew, Fr Peter Lemass, recited the prayer for the dying composed by his beloved John Henry Newman. Early next morning, as though in a final demonstration of his sleight of hand, he slipped away in our absence. He could not quite fool the nuns, however. A large group of the community, including their provincial, had gathered around and they were praying with and for him as he breathed his last light breath. It was not, of course, the end for him, but, as more than one Jesuit which many came to see and admire; remarked, it was the end of an era for the Irish Province.
DC

Born: 10 June 1906, St Anthony’s Road, South Circular Road, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 20 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 10 May 1938 (from Milltown Park)

Father worked for Browne & Nolan’s, Nassau Street.

Third eldest of five boys and he has four sisters.

Early education was for three years at a Convent school, and then he went to Synge Street (1914-1923). He then spent a final year at Belvedere College SJ.

1924-1926: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1626-1928: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate
1928-1929: Granada, Spain (BAE) for Philosophy but was unable to continue on account of Latin
1929-1930: Milltown Park, Philosophy
1930-1932: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1932-1935: Mungret College SJ, Regency
1935-1938: Milltown Park, Theology

Born: 21 November 1912, St Anthony’s Road, South Circular Road, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 08 June 1972, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Brother of Tony Nolan - LEFT 1938

Father works for Browne & Nolan’s, Nassau Street.

Youngest of five boys and he has four sisters.

Early education was at Belvedere College SJ where he remained for eight years.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 47th Year No 3 1972
Obituary :
Fr Gerard Nolan SJ (1912-1972)

Gerard Paul Nolan was born on 21st November, 1912, one of the younger members of a fairly large Dublin family. He and the other three boys were educated at Belvedere, and Tony preceded him into the Society, but left shortly before ordination. Two, at least, of his sisters became Loreto nuns.
He came to Emo in 1931 at a time when there were about 50 novices in the house, which had been opened the year before. Fr John Coyne was our master of novices, and Fr Robert Tyndall the socius. The regime then was exacting, but a fair and basically humane one. “Particular friendships” were conventionally taboo, but in fact deep friendships began in Emo and lasted through the forty years since. It did not take long to see that Gerry had a wide, dangerously wide, range of emotions and moods. He had an exhilarating taste for the fantastic and ludicrous, (I suppose we all remember him stalking the puzzled bullocks behind leafy branches during the Long Retreat). He also had a terrible capacity for distress, desperation and suffering.
During his period as a junior in Rathfarnham there began, I think, a certain feeling of frustration that dogged him, and mildly. exasperated his friends, for the rest of his life. He was a perfectionist, he felt that the Society demanded even more than he was capable of, strove to accommodate and yet always believed that he fell short. Being a complicated character he evoked uncertain attitudes in superiors. He often quoted one as asking the question “Is Nolan an angel or a devil?”
A further three years in the rarefied atmosphere of "the Bog" accentuated characteristics bred of an introspective temperament. Yet there were times of expansive freedom -- like the Villas in Roundstone. Times too when Gerry came into his own as an entertainer. No one, rather to Gerry's embarrassment, over forgot his performance as conductor of the fabulous McNamara's band that did the round one Christmas. He had an exquisite stage sense and vein of comedy which could bring the house down when he let himself go. But he was suspicious of his talent and repressed it. He thought that in later life he was appointed director to the Catholic Stage Guild partly as a result of his reputation among his contemporaries as an actor. He deprecated this. During these first eight years in the Society we were fortunate to have benign regimes in Emo, in Rathfarnham and in Tullabeg. Gerry would, perhaps, with his hyper-sensitive nature, have wilted under harsher or cruder treatment at that stage. I did not see him in action during his period in Belvedere as a scholastic or later as a priest. He was an effective teacher with a flair for unearthing and stimulating potential talent in his charges, and, more precious, a capacity to exert influence, not merely pedagogic, that persisted advantageously into adult years. He acted as director of fringe activities such as debating society and musical performances with éclat. After ordination in 1944 and tertianship in Rathfarnham came his second period in Belvedere. By all accounts it was the time when Gerry himself felt he was doing his best work; it gave him at once the opportunity to do well-regulated, exact work, and scope for his generous, enterprising temperament. The adventure of his climb along the foot board of the French train while it swept through the countryside near Paris was one of the episodes that enlivened this period.

Then came his transfer to Gardiner Street and his years as director of the Catholic Stage Guild, and the Theatre and Cinema Workers' Sodality. These were in a way difficult years when an instinctive and withal thoughtful generosity made him most appreciated, but without giving him any sense of achievement along the lines he thought he should be working.
While remaining in Gardiner Street Gerry took up teaching in Bolton Street in 1962. He was well informed in modern “apologetics” and theology and in literature, yet he had here again, to my mind, an excessive diffidence and so his work and its obligations weighed heavily on him. He had a great grasp of life's essential values, a tremendous flow of language; could tell or concoct a story well, and make an exploit out of the humdrum. But most of the time he thought he should be doing something else and doing it perfectly. This inhibited him from retreat giving, lecturing etc., and made even ordinary preaching a discomfort. He was extremely adverse to any theoretical criticism of established structures and over-suspicions of innovation in Church and State. He was a man, then, tumultuously inclined, who ultimately attained an enviable degree of calm and serenity. Always capable of the most lavish and tactful generosity, he had towards the end also become immune to the need for equally generous response. All his life he was the kind of man who would “give you the shirt off his back”, always he remained at his most resourceful in times of crisis. Perhaps, partly as a result of a great deal of suffering from arthritis and other ailments, he developed a spirit that seemed . emancipated from self-interest and requiring no reward. This - I am sure I can say without any improper breach of confidence - became clear to us who did the group course with him in Clongowes last year. He spoke of being “finished” in a cheerfully pessimistic way; he was in fact finished in another sense, he was completed to a rich maturity that came from a penetrating love of Christ and faith in Him and in His people. He had style in everything he did: in the deepest things he had the style of a fully christian man. We in Gardiner Street suddenly lost a loved companion and a stalwart of the community; many other hearts were wrenched at his going. May all his hopes be now fulfilled and may we come to share his life with him again. His obit. Occurred June 8th.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1972
Obituary
Father Gerard Nolan (’31)
Fr Nolan taught in Belvedere for two years as a scholastic and returned as a priest in ‘47 to teach until he moved to Gardiner St in ‘54. The rest of his life was spent doing church work. As the numbers at his funeral made clear he possessed the gift of making friends and of keeping them. During the last two years he had been suffering acutely from arthritis and God alone knows the suffering a visit to the parlour entailed yet he would not disappoint a friend. His death through sudden was a merciful release.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1973
Obituary
Father Gerard Paul Nolan (OB 1925-1931)

Gerry Nolan came to Belvedere, one of a family of several Belvederian brothers, at the age of twelve and after six years in the school entered the Jesuit noviceship at Emo Park: in 1931. His companions here fell into two groups : those who knew him vaguely as a reserved, quiet, polite boy not very prominent in games or studies, and the small number who even then saw something of the richness and depth of his character and his most remarkable artistic, musical and dramatic gifts. Among the latter were a privileged few who were fortunate to win the real friendship of a very affectionate but exceedingly diffident boy, Two in particular became his constant companions and it was not long before the trio was nick-named, by the insensitive schoolboy mob, “He, she and it”. Gerry was the “He” of the little band.

During his schooldays the great era of Gilbert and Sullivan operas began under the direction of Father Mortimer Glynn. Gerry came of a family which possessed very remarkable musical talents and Father Glynn's most exacting standards and constant struggle for perfection appealed to all the perfectionist in him. Thus began a quest for the highest in everything that was to lead to much inspiring work, but which also became a considerable handicap to him. If ever the saying, “Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien” was verified, it was in Gerry's case.

After the usual studies in the Society he returned to Belvedere in 1939 and spent two years as a scholastic here. Next came Theology and the Tertianship and 1946 saw him return for a further nine years of teaching.

These years brought him into contact with many boys and his capacity for friendship widened with the formal relations in class and many informal ones outside. La Fontaine's remark about schoolboys is only too true : “Cet age est sans pitié”. But their merciless characteristics are balanced by an extraordinary perception and recognition of real goodness. Here they had an outstanding example of that before them, and they could also divine his ceaseless industry on their behalf and the deep original sense of humour and the humourous devilment that balanced his diffidence and the moods of black depression that overcame him when he thought he was failing to achieve the impossibly high standards he set for himself. Once again however, these standards were a disadvantage. His Latin classes would have been more successful had he not overwhelmed indifferent pupils with a wealth of detailed erudition that would have stimulated university students. But in teaching English he did communicate to gifted boys his enthusiasm for the best and left a permanent mark upon them.

In 1952 he left Belvedere to become, at the request of the Archbishop, Dr McQuaid, chaplain of the Catholic Stage Guild. Again his diffidence was a handicap, but he made numerous friends and helped many people. To this work was later added that of the Theatre and Cinema Workers' Sodality. After some years in this apostolate he became, while still living in Gardiner St, chaplain and teacher of Religion in the Technical Institution in Bolton St.

The good he did in his life is known to God alone. By pure chance the writer has heard of one or two of his acts of heroic generosity and self-sacrifice. His closer friends are perhaps aware of more. But he did good by stealth and never let his left hand know what his right was doing or about to do. The very antithesis of that obnoxious modern phenomenon, the headline hunter, he was most Christian in this. At his funeral on 10th June, 1972, numerous people unknown to his everyday friends and unknown to each other, were overwhelmed with grief.

Obituaries are always difficult and unsatisfactory. A few bald and conventional paragraphs can never recall a bright and loving spirit. When one comes to a man like Gerry, an amalgam of Jimmy O'Dea and Jack Point, of St Vincent de Paul and St John of the Cross, the task is one of despair. But he was a very holy man, and like all saints, an original. May his noble soul rest in peace with God.

Born: 06 April 1910, Rock View, Hong Kong
Entered: 02 September 1929, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly / St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1943, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Chiesa del Gesú, Rome Italy
Died: 24 December 2006, Casa Di Cura Villa Cherubini, Florence, Italy

Part of the Via Silvia, Florence, Italy community at the time of death

Father was Chief Interpreter for the Supreme Court in Hong Kong and died in 1920. Mother died in 1929.

Second of four boys with three sisters, and the family lives at Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Early education at Presentation Brothers College, Cork and Belvedere College SJ

by 1935 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1948 at Rome, Italy (ROM) - writing
by 1970 at Florence, Italy (ROM) working

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 133 : Special Issue September 2007

Obituary
Fr Henry Nolan (1910-2007) :

6th April 1910: Born in Hong Kong
Early education at Convent of Our Lady of Chartres and Victoria British School, Hong Kong; Presentation College, Cork and Belvedere College
2nd September 1929: Entered the Society at Tullabeg
3rd September 1931: First Vows at Emo
1931 - 1934: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1934 - 1937: Maison Saint Louis, Jersey - Studied Philosophy
1937 - 1940: Belvedere - Teacher (Regency); Studied for H Dip Ed
1940 - 1944: Milltown Park -Studied Theology
29th July 1943: Ordained at Milltown Park
1944 - 1945: Gardiner Street - worked in Church
1945 - 1946: Tertianship at Rathfarnham and Rome
3rd February 1947: Final Vows in Rome
1946 - 1962: Curia, Rome - English Section of Vatican Radio; living at the Curia and subsequently at the House of Writers, where he was Superior. He became ill in 1961 and returned to Dublin to recuperate following surgery.
1962 - 1965: Rathfarnham - Spiritual Director (SJ); Assistant Director of Retreat House; Editor of magazine “Madonna”.
1965 - 1968: Belvedere College - Rector
1968 - 1969: Emo - Minister; Socius to Master of Novices
1969 - 2006: Florence - Pastoral Care of English-speaking Community in Diocese; Spiritual Assistant to groups of Renewal in the Spirit
24 December 2006: Died in a Nursing Home in Florence.

Charles Davy writes:
When Henry Nolan was made an honorary citizen of Florence in an unforgettable ceremony at the city's magnificent Palaccio de Vecchio, some forty members of his extended family travelled out for the occasion. The strong bonds between him and his nephews and nieces and their families can be explained, at least in part, by family bereavements in childhood.

When he was ten his father died. He had been the chief interpreter (Chinese/English) of the Supreme Court in Hong Kong, His widowed mother took the decision to return with her eight children to Cork, the county of her origin, foregoing the offer of free education in England. So it was in Cork he spent his first years in Ireland.

When his oldest brother obtained a place in the Civil Service in Dublin, his mother, wanting to keep the family together, decided they would all move with him. Henry, along with his brothers, was sent to Belvedere. In those years before he went to Emo, tragedy twice struck his family. His younger brother, Desmond, died aged nine, and, not long afterwards, his mother also, following a fall on the stairs of their house. These trials created unshakeable bonds among the seven surviving children.

It was during his Tertianship in Rathfarnham that his life took a different turn with the request of Fr. General to the Provincial for someone to run the English speaking section of Vatican Radio. In the immediate aftermath of the war the Vatican wanted an Irishman rather than an American or an Englishman. Henry was chosen. He was to take up the post immediately without finishing his Tertianship. His first task was to procure an Irish passport! A challenging mission to head off to Rome knowing no Italian, nor anything about radio programmes.

The early months were difficult. He was given no time to go to Italian classes. He had to learn it on the job. Nor was it a consolation to have to attend regular private sessions on the Constitutions from one of the senior Curia fathers to make up for what he missed in Rathfarnham! With time he settled in and grew to love Rome. Ever afterwards he remained both proud and grateful for one aspect of his Vatican radio work: his close relationship with Pope Pius XII.

Whenever the Pope had to speak to an English speaking group, Henry was sent for to go through the text with him. He used say he was one of the few Jesuits to whom a Pope had apologised - for having come late for his appointment! His broadcasting in English of the new dogma of the Assumption in 1954 was an occasion of special joy for him. In those early years he came to know the former chief Rabbi of Rome who, at the end of the war, decided to become a Catholic. For his baptismal name he chose Eugenio, after Eugenio Pacelli! This was out of his esteem for Pius XII from whom he had received such help during the war. The chief Rabbi's conversion, however, had left him penniless. Henry got him to give talks on the psalms on Vatican radio and he was given a part time job in the Vatican library.

This happy period of his life ended in illness, indeed almost in death. He returned to Ireland in 1961 a sick man, but soon recovered his health. He was assigned first as Spiritual Father to the Juniors and then to Belvedere as Rector. This latter role as Rector proved difficult. He was unfamiliar with the Irish school scene and not robust enough to face into leadership of a community which numbered some strong personalities! A former member of that community told me of one incident in the community. One day a certain unwell member of the community was acting in a strange and dangerous manner on the roof. When Henry was told, he answered with, “Keep me informed!”

After three years, relief came with his appointment as Socius to the Novice Master (Joe Dargan) in Emo. For a man born in Hong Kong and who had lived in Rome, Emo must have been a step into another era with few outlets for talents that were yet to be uncovered. In these years, however, formality hid his truer self.

With the closure of Emo in 1968, life began anew with a new mission coming once again from Italy. This time it was from the archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Benelli, asking him to be chaplain to the English speaking community of Florence. Alluding to this moment in later years, he used say, “The Provincial told me I could go for a year, but I stayed for life!”

Florence was to be the soil in which he reaped a harvest working with Irish, English, American, but also English speaking immigrants from other countries. His warmth, goodness and sense of humour consoled many a person in hospital and prison. His work did not go unnoticed by several British Consuls in Florence. It was one such Consul who sought to have his ministry of compassion recognised by the city with the conferral of honorary citizenship of Florence - an honour that had been given to only a small group of distinguished statesmen and others.

Many English speaking immigrants finding themselves in trouble encountered in Henry a compassionate listener. In encountering all shades of human problems he believed in a God ever at work bringing good out of tragedy. When he preached in the Duomo on Sundays it was out of a familiarity with God that had grown in prayer. His work was not limited to his English speaking community. Among his wider pastoral work he was also Diocesan exorcist. In his ministry he received as well as gave. Late in life he had the courage to embrace the charismatic renewal and those spirit-filled groups opened him to a liveliness of the Spirit, bringing a new freedom and joy to his life.

In his last years he had to keep adapting to increasing physical limitations. A critical moment came some years back when he had to leave his community in Via Silvo Spaventa for the diocesan nursing home for retired priests. His Italian Superior and members of the community continued to support him with regular visits and phone calls, as did his many friends, his nephews and nieces and different Irish Provincials who kept in close contact.

Alleluia, was a word he often used to end a conversation, accompanied by a big smile. So much so, when the Cardinal Archbishop of Florence used meet him or ring him, he greeted him with an Alleluia! Back in 1991 I spent a weekend with him in Florence. I recall him telling me that the golden Jubilee of his ordination was coming up in two years time. Then he added, “Of course who knows if I'll be alive, but one way or the other I'll celebrate, either here or with the Lord”, using his finger to indicate above! Henry loved a party. On his visits to Dublin when he stayed in Loyola House there was rarely a day when he didn't have an invitation to visit friends. However, he was sufficiently present in the community to stir a little sibling rivalry in his fellow novice, Séan Hughes, with whom he had also studied in Jersey!

In January last I saw a film called Into Great Silence about a Carthusian monastery in France. At the end, an old blind monk speaks: “Dieu est infiniment bon.... God is infinitely good, and wants nothing but our good. I thank God for my blindness because I know it has been for my good. Why should I be fearful of death when it is this God I am going to meet?”

Henry had a similar sort of faith and he brought this confidence in God to those to whom he ministered in Florence for over thirty years. He had a strong sense that he was under the protection of the Mother of God. He loved to tell how she was present at every significant turning point of his life. Recalling in recent years the devastating experience of losing his mother he wrote, “In prayer, I am sure it was an inspiration, I deliberately asked Our Blessed lady to be my mother”. He liked to recount how that prayer had been heard. In 2001 he wrote to his friends: “I think I am one of the happiest people in the world. Why? Because I know, not just intellectually, but I really am convinced that the Lord loves me; and secondly, I know that I am loved by people like you”.

Born: 25 March 1874, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 23 September 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 July 1907, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1909, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 08 March 1948, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

Educated at belvedere College SJ

by 1895 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1903 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1908 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1948

Obituary

Fr. Patrick Nolan (1874-1891-1948)

Fr. Patrick Nolan, whose tragic death occurred on the 8th March as the result of an accident on Rathgar Road, was born in Dublin in 1874. Educated at Belvedere College, he entered the Society at Tullamore in 1891. He studied philosophy at Valkenburg, Holland and at St. Mary's College, Stonyhurst, and before proceeding to theology, taught at Belvedere and Clongowes for six years. He was ordained a priest at Milltown Park in 1907 and had among his Ordination companions, the late Fathers Willie Doyle and John Sullivan.
Fr. Nolan's life as a priest may be comprised under three main headings : teacher, preacher, confessor and Director of souls.
As a teacher for fifteen years (1910-1925) in St. Ignatius' College, Galway, his principal subject was History and Geography. Many of his old pupils can bear testimony to the skill with which he reconstructed ancient battlefields, mapped out the exact position of the opposing forces and made the dead pages of history live again. His interest in historical research, especially concerning Old Dublin, remained with him during his whole life and there were very few of the ancient streets and landmarks of his native city with which he was not familiar.
During his five years (1925-1930) on the Mission Staff, he was particularly conspicuous for his forceful and telling sermons and, but for a serious breakdown in health, would certainly have continued much longer at the arduous work of conducting Missions and Retreats.
But it is as a Confessor and Director of Souls, especially during his sixteen years (1930-1946) at Gardiner Street, that he will be best remembered. The many regrets expressed on his departure from Gardiner Street some eighteen months ago, and the many messages of sympathy that followed on his untimely death bear witness to the large and devoted clientele which he had established at St. Francis Xavier's. As a confessor, his ‘patient angling for souls’ was reflected in his patient angling for fish on the rare occasions when he found an opportunity to indulge in his favourite hobby. There were very few fish, great or small, in the box or in the lake, that he missed, for he always knew exactly when. to strike. As a Director of souls, too, he was singularly successful and knew the pitfalls to avoid, as well as he knew the rocks and shoals that might wreck an outrigger on Lough Corrib, of which, in his Galway days, he was reckoned one of the best navigators.
Above and beyond all his external work, however, Fr. Nolan was a man of deep religious fervour, known only to his intimate friends, He was never appointed Superior, but the fact that he was asked for by his brethren and appointed to undertake the office of ‘Master of the Villa’ for several consecutive years is sufficient indication of the esteem in which his affability was held by all. Charity and cheerfulness were the outward expression of his inward life, a great forbearance with others and toleration of their opinions and a very deep love of the Society. With such genuine traits of Christian and Religious Perfection, this contemporary of Fr. Willie Doyle and Fr. John Sullivan was well prepared to meet his death and hear from the lips of his Master : ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, as often as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it unto Me’. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Patrick Nolan SJ 1874-1948
Father Patrick Nolan was an expert fisher of souls. From 1930 to 1946 as Confessor in Gardiner Street he plied his skill, and thanks to his zeal and patience he made many a kill of of inconsiderable size.

He was born in Dublin in 1874 and educated at Belvedere and entered the Society in 1891.

He taught for fifteen years in Galway, then spent 5 years on the Mission Staff, and then the rest of his life practically as an Operarius in Gardiner Street.

He met his death tragically, being killed in an accident on March 8th 1948. A truly zealous man with a kindly heart and amusing tongue which won him many friends.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Patrick Nolan (1874-1948)

Born in Dublin and educated at Belvedere College, entered the Society in 1891. He made his higher studies in Valkenburg and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1907. With the exception of his last year, 1923-24, at the Crescent, as master in the colleges, Father Nolan's teaching career since his ordination was passed in Galway. Failing eyesight forced him to relinquish this work to which he brought enthusiasm and zeal. On leaving the Crescent, Father Nolan joined the mission staff for some five years when he was appointed to the church staff at Gardiner St, where he worked zealously for the next sixteen years (1930-46). He retired to Rathfarnham where he continued as a spiritual director to the end. He was killed in a street accident on 8 March, 1948.

Born: 20 January 1919, Upper Cork Street, Mitchelstown, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1955, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 04 January 1995, Mater Hospital, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's community, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin at the time of death.

Father was an Officer in the Irish Army. Family resided at Church Street, Mitchelstown, County Cork

Second of three boys with four sisters.

Early education was three years at Presentation Convent school in Mitchelstown, he then went at age 6 to the Christian Brothers School, Mitchelstown until 1938.

by 1979 at Boston MA, USA (NEN) sabbatical

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 86 : July 1996

Obituary
Fr Seán Noonan (1919-1995)
20th Jan, 1919; Born in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork
Education: CBS Mitchelstown
7th Sept. 1938: Entered Society at Emo, Co. Laois
8th Sept. 1940: First Vows at Emo
1940 - 1943: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD
1943 - 1946: Philosophy at Tullabeg, Co. Offaly
1946 - 1948: Mungret College, Teacher
1948 - 1949: Belvedere College, Teacher
1949 - 1953: Theology at Milltown Park
31st July 1952: Ordained Priest at Milltown Park by Archbishop J.C. McQuaid
1953 - 1954: Tertianship at Rathfarnam
1954 - 1957: Manresa Retreat House, Retreats
1957 - 1958: Clongowes Wood College, Spiritual Father
1958 - 1960: Loyola House, Mission Staff
1960 - 1963; Belvedere College, Mission Staff
1963 - 1965: Emo, Mission Staff
1965 - 1969: Tullabeg, Mission Staff
1969 - 1977: Rathfarnham, Retreat Work
1977 - 1979: Mitchelstown Parish, Supply
1979 - 1980: Boston, Sabbatical
1980 - 1985: Rathfarnham, Assistant Director, Retreats, Spiritual Father
1985 - 1995: Gardiner Street, Assistant in Church, Chaplain
4th Jan. 1995: Died at the Mater Hospital, Dublin

Homily at Funeral Mass, Feast of the Epiphany 1995

Drawn
The Gospel story speaks about the Magi, the wise men who come from the east, and who make their way to Bethlehem. They are guided by the light of a star, and drawn to Jesus who is the light of the world. There is no other way to come to Jesus. We must be drawn to him. No one, Jesus said, can come to me, unless he is drawn by the Father. Somewhere, somewhere in our experience of the world, there is a star, a light drawing us to God, Somewhere in our experience of life, there is a sign, a sign of God's presence drawing us to Jesus.

Searching
The journey of the wise men leads them towards the light. But it leads them also through darkness and danger. Because theirs is the journey of life, a journey of risks and rewards. When they reach Jerusalem, the star disappears. They encounter the person of Herod and the reality of hatred. In the darkness, they are forced to search around to find the way forward. Jesus has a special affection for those who experience the anxiety of searching He sets a high value on those who are prepared to search for Him. To them he makes the promise: Seek and you will find.

Finding
The searching of the wise men is rewarded. The star reappears and leads them to Bethlehem, where they find the child Jesus and his mother Mary. They kneel in worship and offer themselves to him, through their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The sure sign that a person has found Jesus, and come to recognise him as the Son of God, is when love responds to love, when a grateful heart moves us to worship, when our worship of God moves us to give ourselves to others.

Mission
When the wise men find Jesus in Bethlehem, their search is ended, but their journey continues. They leave Bethlehem and return home by another way, to share what they have received, to bring the light of Christ to the lands of the East. To be a light shining in the darkness. This is the meaning of Jesus' life, This is the mission of the Church. This is the vocation of every Christian. Christ can only be the light of the world, if the Church is faithful to its calling, to bring the light of Christ to those who live in darkness, to bring the love of God to those who live in fear.

Rays of Light
This morning we have joined together in the Eucharist, to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, and to commend to God his servant, Fr. Sean Noonan. There is something very fitting about this, because in many ways the light of Christ, shone through the life and ministry of Fr. Seán. Those who knew him could recognise the RAYS of this light. All through his life, be bore a great love and affection for his family and friends. For the greater part of his priestly life, he dedicated himself to his ministry in countless missions and retreats and novenas.

He was always a friendly man, who brought warmth and colour into the lives of others, He was a generous man, who gave freely of what he had received. He was a man of God, who was drawn easily to prayer, and who drew others to prayer.

Companion of Jesus
And, very important for Seán, he was a Jesuit, a companion of Jesus, a son of Ignatius. In his preaching he often told people, that after St. Ignatius was ordained a priest, he spent the following year preparing for his first Mass by praying to Our Lady that she might be pleased to place him with her Son. Let us pray now that Mary will continue to intercede for Fr. Seán that God the Father will place him in the eternal and loving presence of his Son.

Brendan Murray SJ

Born: 01 August 1821, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 14 September 1838, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1855
Final Vows: 02 February 1862
Died: 23 March 1898, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

by 1854 at Laval France (FRA) studying Theology 3
by 1856 at College in Havana Cuba
by 1861 at Tournai Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early in his Scholastic career he was sent to Calcutta (cf ANG Catalogue 1847).
1851 He is in Belgium
1852 He begins four years of Theology at Laval.
1856-1858 He was sent to work in Cuba.
1858-1860 He was sent to Tullabeg teaching Grammar.
1860-1861 He was sent to teach Grammar at Belvedere.
1861-1862 Sent to Drongen for Tertianship.
1862-1869 he returned to teaching at Belvedere, except in 1866-1867 when he was an Operarius at Gardiner St.
1869-1885 He returned to work as an Operarius at Gardiner St. He was also Minister there for twelve years.
1885-1886 He was sent as Minister to Milltown.
1886-1888 He was sent to Galway, first as Operarius, then as Teacher and lastly as Minister.
1888-1890 He was sent as Spiritual Father to Belvedere.
1890 He returned to Gardiner St as Operarius, and remained there until his death 23 March 1898.

He was almost 77 when he died and had spent sixty years in the Society, and twenty-five of those at Gardiner Street.

Born: 14 August 1873, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 06 September 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly (HIB for Neo-Aurelianensis Province - NOR)
Ordained: 29 June 1904
Final Vows: 15 August 1911
Died: 23 July 1965, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL, USA - Neo-Aurelianensis Province - (NOR)

2nd year Novitiate at St Stanislaus, Macon GA, USA (NOR)

Early education at Belvedere College SJ

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 40th Year No 4 1965

News has reached us from Alabama of the death at the age of 91 of Fr. K. A. Nowlan, S.J., O.B. (1883-90). Fr. Nowlan went to the United States in 1891 and in the course of a long life in the class room he taught at four colleges before going to the Jesuit High School, Shreveport, where he spent 35 years teaching before retiring in 1961. In 1960 the “Fr. K. A. Nowlan Trust Fund” - a burse to provide scholarships in perpetuity at the Jesuit High School, was set up by his former students and friends. Fr. Nowlan made local headlines when at the age of 86 he became an American citizen in special naturalization ceremonies in the Federal Court.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1966

Obituary

Father Kevin A Nowlan SJ (OB 1885)

Last July one of Belvedere's oldest alumni - Father Kevin Nowlan SJ, aged 91 years, died at Mobile, Alabama. He had gone to the United States in 1891 and in the course of a long life in the classroom he taught in New Orleans, Mobile Tampa, Florida, Grard Coteau and Shreveport. At Shreveport be was the Grand Old Man of the community - he spent 35 years teaching there. On 6th September 1960 on the occasion of his 70th anniversary as a Jesuit, his former students and old friends founded the Father Kevin A Nowlan Trust Fund. As a result a substantial sum of money was set aside to pro vide scholarships in perpetuity for worthy and needy boys at Shreveport Jesuit College.

Father Nowlan made local newspaper headlines when he became an American citizen on 8th July 1960 in special naturalisation ceremonies in Federal Court under Judge Dawkins. A year later, at the age of 87, failing health occasioned his transfer to Assumption Hall, Mobile. Here he passed to his reward last July. May he rest in peace

Born: 22 October 1909, Dún Bríde, Nashville Park, Howth, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 13 May 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 08 January 1955, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of Coláiste Iognáid community, Galway at time of his death.

Father is a Commissioner for National Education.

Fourth of six boys.

Early education at a Convent school and then at St Pat’s BNS, Drumcondra for nine years.He then went to O’Connell’s School for four years.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 30th Year No 2 1955

Obituary :

Father Pádraic Ó Brolcháin

Fr. Pádraic Ó Brolcháin was born in Dublin on October 22nd, 1909. Educated at O'Connell Schools, he joined the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg on September 1st, 1928, and did his two years of noviceship under Fr. Martin Maher. There followed the usual University studies spent at Rathfarnham Castle and then philosophical studies in Tullabeg. From 1936 to 1938 Mr. Ó Brolcháin taught in Clongowes Wood College, and his third year of “Colleges” was spent at the Crescent. He was pleased in after years to have had the experience of teaching in both boarding and day schools as a scholastic. Many of the experiences of those Clongowes and Crescent days are to be found in an unpublished novel which he wrote later on, as a break during Theology which he studied at Milltown from 1939 to 1943. Ordained in 1942, he did his tertianship at Rathfarnham Castle and from there was appointed Vice-Superior of the Apostolic School at Mungret where he remained until his transfer to Galway in 1948. He was attached to the teaching staff there until his death which took place at St. Vincent's Private Nursing Home, Dublin, on the morning of January 8th last.
It is difficult to summarise a man's life under a single heading, but perhaps it was his courage that distinguished Fr. Ó Brolcháin. A man's organising ability, and Fr. Ó Brolcháin had plenty of it, will avail little if he has not the courage to overcome difficulties and for Fr. Pádraic, difficulties were obstacles to be overcome not yielded to - Plays, dancing, swimming, Tóstal and Connradh na Gaeilge activities - all having a connection with his manifold Gaelic activities for boys, presented each its own crop of difficulties, but it was typical of the man that he overcame them all in his own quiet, diplomatic way. That these spheres of activity all demanded self-sacrificing devotedness was apparent, but Fr. O Brolcháin would be the last to talk about the cost to himself.
To some who may have thought that he organised to an excessive degree, it may come as a surprise that on his own admission, he was not methodical by nature . . . he had taught himself to be so. It was not only in his extra curricular activities that he was systematic; his class-preparation was also meticulous.
Like so many busy men, Fr. Pádraic was most prodigal in giving his time to others and his “tar isteach” was always an invitation to take as much tinę as you wanted. He was always interested in new ideas, always willing to listen and, if he did not agree with you, he would tell you so and leave you none the less satisfied, for you felt you had had a sympathetic listener. In conversation one came to learn also of the Catholicity of his interests and of his literary tastes. His delight indeed, when he took a night off, was to read.
It was easy also to speak to him of things spiritual, for here was a well-ordered mind which had thought the Constitutions and Exercises over for itself. His great belief was in the necessity and supremacy of the interior law of charity and love. It was this interior law which made him such an obliging member of the community, ever ready to help out in any need.
His last year of life saw Fr. Pádraic no less active but he had not been feeling too well, and at the end of August underwent a severe operation whose chances of permanent success he knew to be slight. The month of November he spent in Galway where he was the same affable, approachable person welcomed back now by both boys and community. He could speak of his own sickness with such detachment that one imagined that a third party was being discussed. He left us at the beginning of December to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and Loyola, but he was not destined to recover. On the morning of January 8th he gave his soul back to God.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Pardaig Ó Brolcháin SJ 1909-1955
Fr Padraig Ó Brolcháin was born in Dublin in 1909. His father was an intimate friend and collaborator of Arthur Griffith, and was by him put in charge of the educational policy on the foundation of the Irish Free State. Padraig was educated at O'Connells Schools and entered the Society in 1928.

He was a dedicated soul, dedicated to God, to the Society and to all things Irish. He was a man of tremendous enthusiasm, of great organising ability and of great courage and pertinacity in carrying out his ideas.He had a keen zest in the outdoor life, and the duty of it all was that he died so young, before all his plans and ideas reached full fruition.

He was an effective and zealous spiritual father to the boys in Mungret for some years after his tertianship, but bis best work was done in Galway, where his zeal and keenness on physical fitness found permanent expression is his swimming club for boys.

He touched everything, even writing, being a fairly steady contributor to the Timire and Madonna, and leaving behind him an unpublished novel on school-life in one of our Colleges.

Being informed that he had cancer, he accepted his fate with the same cheerfulness which he had gone through life. His last act was to go to Lourdes to seek a cure, if it were God’s will, but He called him home instead on January 8th 1955 at the early age of 46.

Ár dheis laimh Dé go faibh a anam!

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Pádraig Ó Brolcháin (1909-1955)

Was born in Dublin and educated in O'Connell's Schools. He spent one year of his regency at the Crescent, 1938-39. After the completion of his studies - he was ordained in 1942 at Milltown Park - Father O'Brolchain was appointed vice-superior of the Apostolic School, Mungret College. In 1948 he was transferred to Galway. His appointment to Galway was a source of deep pleasure for him, for it brought him to the heart of a Gaelic speaking area. Throughout his too short career in the Society, his enthusiasm for the Irish language, which he spoke from his tenderest years, was almost infectious. Yet, his enthusiasm was never aggressive. Urbanity was of the essence of the man. In Galway, his work for the language was self-sacrificing and cheerful. But as in the earlier days at Clongowes, the Crescent or Mungret, so in the later years at St. Ignatius', he was not merely their teacher, but guide, philosopher and friend for the boys with whom he came in contact.

Born: 02 May 1930, Oulton Road, Clontarf, Dublin City County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1948, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1962, Milltown Park, Dublin
FInal Vows: 02 February 1965, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 10 January 2021, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Coláiste Iognáid community at the time of death

Son of Éamonn Ó Dubhsláine and Eibhlín Nic Mhaicín. Father was a Secondary School teacher.

Older of two boys with six sisters.

Early education was at the Model School, Marlborough Street, Dublin, for five years, he then went to Belvedere College SJ for seven years.

Born: 2nd May 1930, Dublin City
Raised: Clontarf, Dublin
Early Education at Scoil Cholmcille, Marlborough Street, Dublin; Belvedere College SJ
7th September 1948 Entered Society at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
8th September 1950 First Vows at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
1950-1953 Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1953-1956 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1956-1959 Crescent College SJ - Regency : Teacher
1959-1963 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
31st July 1962 Ordained at Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin
1963-1964 Rathfarnham - Tertianship
1964-2021 Coláiste Iognáid, Galway - Teacher; Studying H Dip in Education at UCG; Gamesmaster
2nd February 1965 Final Vows at Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway
1974 Vice Principal at Garmscoil Éinne, Cill Ronáin, Arainn, Co na Gaillimhe (Aran Vocational School)
1988 Lives at Trí Coinnle, Cill Mhuirbhígh, Inis Mór, Árainn, Co na Gaillimhe
1995 Seirbhís Eaglasta agus Gaeltachta, Oileáin Árann
1997 Church Service and Work in Connemara Gaeltacht; Director
1999 Berkeley, CA, USA - Sabbatical at JSTB (till Dec 2000)
2001 Áras Ronán; Inis Mór, Árainn, Co Na Gaillimhe : Gaeltacht Apostolate; Writer; Co-operating with FÁS; Editor of “An Timire”; Intercom
2010 Gaeltacht Apostolate, Inis Mór, Arainn; Writer
2016 Gaeltacht Apostolate; Writer at Cherryfield Lodge
2017 Prays for the Church and Society at Cherryfield Lodge

Obituary
Connla Ó Dúlaine 2 May 1930 – 10 January 2021

In reading this sketch of the life of a remarkable man, the reader may like to keep in mind a question: If he hadn’t joined the Jesuits, what might he have done?!

An Mac Leinn
Connla was born on 2 May 1930 in Dublin and raised in Clontarf. His early education was at Scoil Cholmcille, Marlborough Street, Dublin, then Belvedere College SJ from 1941-48. On the 7th September 1948 he entered the Society at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois and took first vows two years later.
From 1950-1953 he lived in Rathfarnham Castle, studying Arts at UCD. From 1953-1956 he studied Philosophy in Tullabeg. His regency, 1956-1959, was spent at Crescent College, Limerick, after which he went to Milltown Park for four years of Theology. On 31st July 1962 he was ordained in Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin and from 1963-1964 was at Rathfarnham, making Tertianship.
From 1964 till his death he was attached to the Jesuit Community at Coláiste Iognáid, Galway. He was firstly a teacher and Games-master, and received his H Dip in Education at UCG in 1966. He taught Religion, French and Irish. He could speak German and Spanish and make his way through Greek and Latin. On 2nd February 1965 he made his final Vows at Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway.

An Muinteoir
I first made Connla’s acquaintance when I was a regent in Colaiste Iognaid 1962-65, and a friendship was established which survived, not without stresses, till his death at the age of 91.
A vivid memory: for reasons known only to his Superior and to God, he was Games Master: I was his Assistant, and when the School Sports were looming he assigned me the task of seeing to the practical details of the day, while he would prepare an artistic brochure, listing events and entrants. On the day I had an early lunch and was busy on the field with a small army of volunteers, but with a few minutes to go before the first event, there was no sign of Connla. I went off to search him out and found him in his room, absorbed in the works of Pearse and searching for a suitable quotation to adorn the Sports Brochure. We started late!
He had the capacity to become absorbed in the particular, sometimes at the expense of the general. This generated a certain level of frustration in the practically-minded. ‘Where’s Connla?’ was a recurring question. Driving with him was not an experience for the faint of heart: I recall coming back from a match with him: he was giving tongue on some matter of great importance, with his foot on the accelerator to match his passion. In the distance I could see the lights of a level crossing and begged him to slow down but he didn’t hear me: we came to a shuddering halt a few yards short of the barrier, and once the train had passed he was off again on a rhetorical flight. Another incident is recounted: driving on Inis Mor late at night with a companion, he suddenly turned off the headlights and proceeded in the dark. He explained that there was a car just coming down the hill from Dun Eochaill, and since Connla’s dip lights didn’t work he had turned off his headlights so as not to blind the other driver. Divine providence took over and all ended well.
A past pupil of his in the 1960s tells below of Connla bringing a group of students to see a film directed by Fellini, a man unafraid to use unusual techniques to bring audiences out of the closed circuits of their minds. Just before the film began, Connla stood up to explain to the audience what Fellini was trying to do, while his students melted away in embarrassment! Another story tells how he bought a piano in Prospect Hill in Galway, loaded it onto a horse and cart and drove slowly through the town, accompanied by a few students. As it came through the city Connla sat at the piano and played, to the delight of onlookers.

An tOileanach
In 1974 when Colaiste Iognaid ceased to be as an A-school, where all teaching had been through Irish, he asked to retire, and obtained the post of Vice Principal at Gairmscoil Éinne, Cill Ronáin, Arainn, Co na Gaillimhe (Aran Vocational School). From 1988 he lived at Trí Coinnle, Cill Mhuirbhígh, Inis Mór. From 1995 he undertook Seirbhís Eaglasta (Church Services) on the island and in the Gaeltacht: this work was deeply appreciated by the Archdiocese of Tuam. He was appointed Director of FAS (Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta), Director of Oiliúint Bhaile (Home Schooling) and editor of An Timire, to which he was a regular contributor from 1954 onwards, with more than 60 articles to his name in all. His command of his native tongue was excellent, and his writing bright and imaginative.
Connla brought a world vision to all his work and lived an energetic life, very much associated with Galway, the Connemara Gaeltacht, the Aran Islands and the apostolate of the Irish language. He had wide-ranging interests, loved books and good conversation. He was blessed to the end with a fine memory, and his eyes would sparkle as he regaled listeners with stories from the past – mainly positive memories, it must be noted. He was larger than life, and he liked fun and laughter.
He cared deeply about other people, especially about those who were not well off. Shortly after he got the new house in Kilmurvey, a member of his community went from Galway to help him paint some rooms and put putty on the window frames. Connla couldn’t decide on colours, so his helper was idle and asked him one evening if he had a television. He said he had had one, but there was a lady nearby who was lonely and unwell, so he had given her his TV. When a drama group from Cois-Fharraige came to the island to stage a play, Connla put them all up in his house, about 20 of them: they slept on the floor or wherever they could find a space. Feile na nGael!
From 1999 till December 2000 he enjoyed a Sabbatical at JSTB, Berkeley, CA, USA, after which he returned to live in Áras Ronán, Inis Mór, Árainn. Having retired from teaching, he continued his Gaeltacht Apostolate, was a writer for Intercom, collaborated with FÁS and continued as Editor of An Timire. They were happy years. He became one of the island’s most colourful characters and his love of all things Irish found full expression. His hospitality was legendary, but the unwary visitor could be shocked by the state of the interior, especially the kitchen and the mysteries lurking within the fridge.

Fear Fise is Cultuir
His room in Cherryfield was an archaeologist’s dream: a profusion of books, papers, snacks, letters, bric-a-brac. He couldn’t refuse a new book. Two months before he died, I asked him would he like to have a copy of O Mianain’s Focloir Bearla-Gaeilge which had just been published. I got an enthusiastic Yes, and brought it to the door of a Cherryfield where Covid restrictions were in place. It arrived safely in his room, but he hadn’t the energy to take it out of its packaging and now I have it myself--a precious memento of Connla’s high mental acumen and deep love of the Irish language.
As a Gaelgeoir he suffered the lifelong frustration of finding that many of those around him did not share his passion and enthusiasm for Irish. In his earlier years this could lead to edgy exchanges, but later his endurance grew into mellowness, and I always found him willing to shift into English as my need required.
He spoke his mind, was strong and forthright in his interchanges, but—to my memory-- in ways that were tinged with humour. He didn’t store up resentment. At Mass one morning in Cherryfield when the celebrant’s volume was low, he called out from the back of the Chapel, ‘Can’t hear you!’ ‘There’s something wrong with the mic’ said the celebrant. ‘Something wrong with you!’ retorted Connla, to general merriment. Thoreau’s remark comes to mind: ‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away’. There were surely people who were bruised by his robust style, but he didn’t intend to hurt, and was sometimes puzzled at reactions to his exuberant initiatives.
Connla lived a very full and varied life. Full of energy, he had a world vision, and was never limited by local circumstances. He was a man of inspiration and spontaneity, unafraid to lead or to do whatever he thought of at each moment.
Bhi an-shuim ag Connla sa litriocht, sa cheol, i dteangacha eagsula, i scannain – go hairithe on Fhrainc agus on Iodail: bhi suim aige i ngach rud! Thug se daltai ar fud na tire ina ghluaistean bheag, agus thug se iad go Paras sa bhFrainc. Bhi se i gconai ag iarraidh fis nua a chur os comhair daoine, agus ni raibh teorann ar bith lena smaointe fein. Mhair se blianta fada leis fein, in a aonair, ach choinnigh se i gconai a shuim iontach i gcursai an tsaoil. Sagart ab ea e, agus fuinneamh agus saol Iosa a bhi i gconai i gceist aige.
Poet Mary Oliver has the line: ‘I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.’ Connla didn’t just ‘visit’ the world; he inhabited it fully and helped to co-create it. With Mary Oliver he would have added: ‘When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement… taking the world into my arms.’ A large part of his vision was the belief that the fullness and joy of life could be lived and expressed through the medium of the Irish language and Irish culture. When he moved to Inis Mor, where he spent more than 40 years, he still tried to bring a world-wide vision to his students, and succeeded very well.
Connla was open to all cultures: he loved opera from the Met, film, art. A past pupil tells that when teaching Irish in Second Year he brought in a tape recorder and the class listened and analysed the poetry of Ezra Pound reading his own poems in English. Connla loved culture in all its forms and felt very strongly that all culture and modern life could be appreciated and explored through the medium of Irish and Gaelic culture. He lived for the future and was not embedded in the past.

Leirmheas iar-scolaire
Féach cuid a scríobh Bernie Ó Conaill, iar-phríomhoide i gColáiste Iognáid is iar-scoláire de chuid Chonnla:
Fear mór a bhi i gConnla Ó Duláine SJ riamh, fear mór ar gach uile bhealach, mórchríoch le glór álainn, tuiscint leathan aige ar chultúr is ar ealáion an domhain, agus ar shaíocht, ar stair is ar chultúr na hÉireann ar fad. Cairde aige i ngach cuid den tír.

Ba Gael láidir dúthrachtach é le léargas caitliceach ar an saol, a d’fhág oscailte é don domhain agus cultúr nua a bhí ag oscailt sa tír ag an am. Mhúin Connla go dúthrachtach ó thaobh cúrsaí agus curacalam sa rang ach bhí tionchar neamhgnách speisialta aige taobh amuigh den seomra ranga.

Bhí léargas agus fís ag Connla faoi chúrsaí cultúrtha. Roinn sé an suim a bhí aige sa cheol, sna scannáin agus cúrsaí polaitíochta go fiail lena chuid ranganna. Ba mhaith a chuaigh Bob Dylan i bhfeidhm ar mo rang féin nuair a chuir Connla faoi dhraíocht muid le ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’. Ní féidir liom an t-amhrán céanna a chlos inniu gan cuimhneamh ar Chonnla ag tabhairt an draíocht isteach agus leadrán an lá scoile a bhaint dínn.

Ba fhear speisialta é Connla agus a bhealach féin aige le deighleáil leis an saol. Chuaigh sé ag dráma sa Taibhdhearc oíche amháin agus ní shásódh tada ina dhiadh sin é ach triail a bhaint as an mbialann Síneach nua sa mbaile mór. D’ith sé béile blasta agus bhí go maith go ndeachaigh sé chun íoc as an mbeatha. Chuardaigh sé a phócaí ,wallet, chuile áit beo ach ní raibh scriút aige. Thug bean an tí faoi deara mí-chompord an tsagairt. ‘Are you alright, Father?’ a d’fhiafraigh sí . ‘ I wonder would you mind taking these stamps in payment for that lovely meal?’ a d’fhreagair Connla uirthi.
B’shoin Connla!

Ní raibh fhios ag a chuid scoláirí cá dtreoródh sé iad, bíodh sé le Truffaut, Dylan nó le ceol an Riadaigh. Bhí sé Gaelach go smior ach oscailte don saol nua a bhí ag teacht chun cinn sa tír.
Thug sé slua beag againn chuig an scannan Satyricon ag Fellini lá sna laethanta saoire. Bhí an gnáth slua codlatach tagtha isteach sa Town Hall tráthnóna Luan; corrdhuine ag caitheamh agus an pictiúrlann beag leath lán. Gan choinne ar bith sheas an t-Íosánach suas agus thug sé cur síos ar shaothar Fellini. D’fheicfeá cloigne a chuid scoláirí ag imeacht síos sna suíocháin le teann náire.

Ní dhearna Connla dhá leath dhá dhícheall riamh. Bhí sé dílis mar shagart, mar Íosánach, mar chara agus mar mhúinteoir. D’oscail sé súile a chuid scoláirí agus speáin sé an domhan mór dóibh. Chloisfeá an racht mór gáirí aige i bhfad uait.
B’shoin Connla.

Cherryfield
In 2016 he retired to Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin, to pray for the Society and the Church, but he kept contact with his sisters, the wider family and a host of friends. Very much at peace with himself, he relaxed after supper on Sunday evening, January 10, 2021, and very peacefully went to God, after 58 years of priestly service. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin on 13 January. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only a tiny number of his wide range of friends could attend his funeral.
The years in Cherryfield were hard for a free spirit such as his. He loved to be unfettered and unrestricted, but he bore his confinement bravely, and his coffee table after Mass in Cherryfield was always well-attended and conversation never dull. To relieve the monotony of his days we at Leeson St used invite him to celebrate feast-days with us. He blossomed in fresh company, told his stories to a new audience, and on the journey home always expressed an immense gratitude for being remembered.
The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, conveyed his deepest sympathy on Connla’s death. He wrote: ‘Many years ago I visited Connla in hospital, and given how seriously ill he was, I never expected that he would be discharged. But happily he was, and went on to provide sterling service to his beloved people of Inis Mor. We regarded him as one of our own and a true and loyal friend.’
He is survived by his four sisters who stayed close to him over the years and brought him much-appreciated comfort in the final stage of his long life.
A frequent visitor to Cherryfield wrote the following tribute:
‘Connla is a person I will never forget. There is so much to say about him even after a short acquaintance. To me he epitomised everything that is wonderful about a long life and particularly a long Jesuit life well lived. He was kind, funny, erudite, hospitable and full of life. He was generous with his time and I and others learned so much just sitting at his feet. I wish I had met him earlier in both of our lives: to have known him at all was a gift beyond price.’

Ta laoch ar lar. Connla is sadly missed in Cherryfield, but he believed deeply in eternal life, and now that he is at table with the God of Surprises I imagine that the conversation is hilarious. Blessed are those who mourn, we are told, for they shall laugh. Connla brought many a smile to those around him in this life, and now his merriment rings out among those who like himself are gathered to enjoy the great festival.
Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal!
Brian Grogan SJ

Born: 01 August 1915, Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin City, County Dublinn
Entered: 07 September 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1948, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1951, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 21 July 2001, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death.

Father is a manager of a business firm in Dublin.

One older brother and one younger sister.

Early education was at a Convent school and a National school and then at 13 he went to Belvedere College SJ (1928-1933)

by 1944 at St Mary’s College, Aberystwyth, Wales (ANG) studying
Editor of An Timire, 1971-1997.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Ó Laoghaire, Diarmuid
by Brian Mac Cuarta

Ó Laoghaire, Diarmuid (1915–2001), writer and lecturer on Celtic spirituality, and Irish-language enthusiast, was born 1 August 1915 in Dublin, one of three children of Michael O'Leary from Doneraile, Co. Cork, and Mary O'Leary (née Flood), from Co. Meath; his father was manager of McBirney's department store on Aston Quay, Dublin. Brought up in Glasnevin and educated at Holy Faith convent school and Belvedere College (where he acquired a lifelong interest in cricket), he joined the Jesuits on leaving school in 1933.

Under the influence of his Irish teacher at Belvedere, the layman Tadhg Ó Murchadha, Diarmuid's interest in the language developed. He took Celtic studies at UCD, gaining an MA (1939) for a thesis on ‘Eochair-sgiath an Aifrinn’, a text on the mass by the seventeenth-century priest Geoffrey Keating (qv). He was awarded the NUI travelling studentship in Celtic studies. Because of the war, the British Museum manuscripts had been moved to Aberystwyth, Wales; at the suggestion of Robin Flower (qv), it was there that Ó Laoghaire pursued further research. Ordained in 1948, in the 1950s he was responsible for the Jesuit students in Rathfarnham Castle, while engaged in research, writing, and work with the Irish-language community. Prefect of studies at Belvedere (1960–62), he taught Irish at Gonzaga (1962–77), and thereafter was a member of the Jesuit community, Milltown Park. He was awarded an NUI Ph.D. from UCD in 1967 for a thesis on the lives of the saints, in Irish, in the medieval period. This research led to scholarly publications in Celtica, xxi (1990), 487–522, and a critical edition of ‘The Liber Flavus Fergusiorum infancy narrative’ (M. McNamara et al., Apocrypha Hiberniae (Turnhout, 2001), 142–245).

As well as speaking immaculate Irish, and fluent in French and Breton, he was well known throughout Wales, for he talked regularly on Welsh radio, and appeared on Welsh television. He translated a collection of short stories from the best modern Welsh authors into Irish (Glór ár nGaolta: Rogha scéalta na linne seo ón mBreatnais (1992)). For his abilities in Welsh he was made a member of the Gorsedd of bards in the Eisteddfod, the Welsh cultural festival; he preached in Welsh on occasions. His wide knowledge both of the spiritual texts and of the history and contemporary situation of the Celtic languages made him a respected authority on the Christian heritage of the Celtic world. On this topic he lectured in Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Dublin, and elsewhere. His Milltown Institute colleagues honoured him with a Festschrift (Mac Conmara agus Ní Thiarnaigh (eag.), Cothú an Dúchais (1997)), which included contributions from scholars in Wales, France, and Ireland. His academic, linguistic, and cultural interests were deeply integrated into his personal faith and his sense of mission as member of an apostolic order.

He was dedicated to exploring and fostering the link between Christian faith and Gaelic culture. Along with his more strictly scholarly interests, he devoted much time and energy to supporting and enriching the faith of the Irish-speaking community. This project was greatly energised by the change from Latin to the vernacular in the liturgy of the catholic church after the second Vatican council (1962–5). He rendered long and faithful service to a wide variety of groups, including Cumann na Sagart, Conradh na Gaeilge, An tOireachtas, Pobal an Aifrinn, An Chuallacht, Scoil Ghaelach Bhrí Chualann, and especially An Réalt, the Irish-language section of the Legion of Mary. In recognition of his services to Irish-language groups he was awarded Gradam an Phiarsaigh (the Pearse award) in 1992.

As editor of FÁS (Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta, publisher of religious material in Irish), and through translations and other writings, Ó Laoghaire was one of those who ensured that a relatively varied spiritual and liturgical literature is available in Irish. Long a contributor, he was editor of An Timire (1972–97), the Irish-language devotional magazine founded by the Jesuits in 1911. A major contribution to the study of popular spirituality was his collection of prayers from the Gaelic oral tradition of Ireland and Scotland, Ár bPaidreacha Dúchais (1975), a book which has run into four editions. He died 21 July 2001 in Dublin. A catalogued bibliography of his books and pamphlets is in Milltown Park Library, Dublin.

R. Ó Glaisne, ‘Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire’, M. Mac Conmara agus E. Ní Thiarnaigh (eag.), Cothú an Dúchais (1997), 11–51

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 51st Year No 4 1976

Gonzaga
Many will have seen on the front page of the Universe (August 13th) the large photo of Fr D Ó Laoghaire swathed in the green robes of a Welsh Bard: he had recently been honoured by initiation into the Gorsedd of Bards during the National Eisteddfod of Wales at Cardigan, which he was also at tending as official delegate of the Oireachtas. An article by Nodlaig McCarthy in The Irish Times (August 24th) describes the event and expresses surprise that while “the fact that the honour was given in the 800th anniversary year to an Irish Catholic (sic) Jesuit aroused considerable media interest on the other side ... the only picture to appear in an Irish daily paper after the event was one of the Welsh rugby player, Gareth Edwards, who was also honoured on this occasion”. Fr Ó Laoghaire set off on August 28th to attend the Oireachtas Festival at Cois Fharraige, Connemara.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 112 : Special Edition 2002

Obituary

Fr Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire (1915-2001)

1st Aug. 1915: Born in Dublin
Early education in Holy Faith, Glasnevin, and Belvedere College.
7th Sept. 1933: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Sept. 1935: First Vows at Emo
1935 - 1939: Rathfarnham - Arts (Celtic Studies) at UCD
1939 - 1942: Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1942 - 1945: Alberystwyth - Doctorate in Celtic Studies (Ph.D. UCD 1967)
1945 - 1949: Milltown Park - Studying Theology
28th July 1948: Ordained at Milltown Park
1949 - 1950: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1950 - 1960: Rathfarnham Castle - Minister of Juniors.
2nd Feb. 1951: Final Vows at Milltown Park
1960 - 1962: Belvedere College - Prefect of Studies.
1962 - 1977: Gonzaga College - Teacher; Writer; studying Celtic Literature and Spirituality
1977 - 2001: Milltown Park - Visiting Lecturer at Institute; Editor An Timire; Studying Celtic Literature and Spirituality
1997 - 2001: Cherryfield Lodge - Studying Celtic Literature & Spirituality; Praying for Church and the Society
21st July 2001: Died in St. Vincent's Private Hospital, Dublin.

In 1997, Fr. Diarmuid's mobility was decreasing, and, as he needed assistance to walk, he took up residence in Cherryfield, where, even though wheelchair-bound, he was able to continue his many works dealing with Celtic literature and Spirituality. For as long as possible, he went to Milltown weekly for lunch. He passed away peacefully as he approached his 86th birthday.

Stephen Redmond writes....
I first got to know Diarmuid when I went to Milltown for Theology in 1947, in our “pilgrimage” to seven altars of repose on Holy Thursday in the pre-liturgical reform tradition, and as a guest at his first (or second?) Mass in the Holy Faith Convent in Finglas, and at the reception in his uncle's rambling “period house” nearby.

Many years later, we met again in Gonzaga, where he gently and devotedly represented an cultúr Gaelach (something far more than grammar and a few texts) to the boys. And, to their bafflement and delight, he revealed himself as a star batsman in “the English game”. I suspect that he counted the runs as Gaeilge.

Behind the gentleness and civility there was a passion for an Gaeleachas; he saw it as, in large measure, a vehicle, an expression of the faith. I think that, while he may have had reservations about the post-Vatican 2 liturgy, he was happy that it allowed him to celebrate Mass in the language of Ó Rathaille, Ó Clery, Keating, Ó Donnell, and Ó Brolcháin. He lived just long enough to see some resurgence of Gaeleachas in the religious celebrations for the millennium.

In 1966, Nelson's Pillar was very professionally and 'neatly' blown up. It was thought that Breton nationalists were involved. The Gonzaga community enjoyably indulged the rumour that Diarmuid knew them, or knew of them, from his pan-Celtic interests. Was it possible that our quiet scholar had such revolutionary contacts? For a while we looked at him as, I imagine, English Jesuits looked at Henry Garnet at the time of the Gunpowder Plot.

In 1968, I provided a mild sensation myself, by getting a song with an Irish lyric (Gleann na Smól) as far as the final of the National Song Contest. I like to think that Diarmuid was pleased that such a song came from a confrere of his. Did I show the text to him? My memory stickers. I do recall bringing him subsequent efforts produced with much page-flipping of Dinneen's Dictionary, since my Irish was not that good. He would shake his head sadly over this word or that ("Sorry, obsolete since the 17th century!"), or unpedantically concede me poetic licence.

He had a great sense of humour, at times directed against himself. For instance, the story about his visit to the doctor prior to his joining the Society, when the doctor asked him euphemistically had he passed water recently, and he replied that he had just passed over the canal. No great lover of British influence in Ireland, he must have enjoyed the irony of being a one-night guest of his Britannic Majesty's police in an Oxford air-raid shelter during the war, when he couldn't get into Campion Hall.

His most influential publication was his remarkable anthology, Ár bPaidreacha Dúchais. His introduction to this is a striking testimony to his Gaeleachas-articulated faith; one might call it a spiritual testament. When I asked his permission regarding publication by Veritas of my translations of fifty Dúchas prayers (Prayers of Two Peoples), he was graciousness itself. My last conversation with him was on the phone in connection with my hope that Veritas would publish sixty more of the prayers in translation. If they do, the book will be dedicated i gcuimhne dil chara agus sár-saoi an Ghaelachais.

Let me conclude by quoting one of his past pupils, Simon White, in a letter of condolence to Paul Andrews:

“My grasp of Irish was not good. I was aware of his efforts to help me....I never remember him being cross with me and he always displayed kindness....I count myself very privileged to have been able to share, as an altar boy, many early morning Masses alone with him. This was very special. He was one of nature's purest gentlemen. He had such a kind smiling way about him. Finding you were on the roster to serve his Mass guaranteed you a happy week.

He spoke Irish to all the other boys who could banter with him, and they enjoyed it...I was eternally grateful that he always spoke to me in English and made me feel at ease. His humour was, like himself, gentle and as sharp as steel....basically he was a lovely, lovely, man...I have never been able to satisfactorily unravel the meaning of the expression, Go neirí an bóthar leat. But I think it is a fond farewell one can wish him with confidence - that the road leads somewhere very special”.

-oOo-

Brian Mac Cuarta wrote in An Timire.... : Translation by Brian Grogan

Diarmuid O Laoghaire SJ died on July 21. He was a writer and lecturer on Irish spirituality, and active in the world of Irish for almost seventy years. Born in Dublin, he received his primary education in the Holy Faith School in Glasnevin and then in Scoil Phadraig, Drumcondra. He admits that he had no interest in or respect for Irish before his sixth year in Belvedere. He had an abiding memory of a moment in fifth class in Scoil Phadraig, when his teacher, Mr O Sithigh, son of the renowned footballer John Joe Sheehy, tired of young Diarmuid’s indifference, said jokingly, “O'Leary, you'll be the Professor of Irish in Trinity College some day if you're not careful!”

Everything changed when he met with a Belvedere teacher named Tadhg Ó Murchadha, who awoke in his heart a love for Irish language and culture which lasted till the day he died. Influenced by his teacher he founded a Cumann Gaelach in Belvedere. He entered the Jesuits in 1933 and was awarded an MA in Celtic Studies in UCD in 1939. His thesis emerged from a text on the Mass by Séathrún Céitinn (c1580-c1644), and won him an NUI Travelling Scholarship. Because of the Second World War the British Museum’s Celtic manuscripts were moved to the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, and on the advice of Robin Flower Diarmuid went there to study the lives of medieval saints written in Irish. He won his PhD in UCD in 1967. Many were his scholarly writings, and Celtic scholars from far and near knew and appreciated him.

He always said that Fr Donnchadh Ó Floinn influenced his thought deeply. Fr Donnchadh gave priority to faith over language but acknowledged the depth of faith in the minds of Irish speakers. This insight encouraged Diarmuid and gave focus to his life and work.

Diarmuid was one of a very few who were proficient in Irish, Welsh and Breton. He regularly attended the Welsh Eisteddfodd (Assembly), and was honored with the award of Draoi (Druid). He was interviewed often on Welsh TV. He lectured on Irish spirituality in Milltown Institute in Dublin and was Editor of An Timire from 1977-1998, and of FÁS - Foilseacháin Ábhar Spioradálta: in this post he edited many spiritual books. He gathered many popular prayers into Ar bPaidreacha Dúchais, which went into four editions. The devotion of our ancestors to the Mass is revealed in his pamphlet Our Mass Our Life.

Diarmuid was a member of the group who helped to advance Irish liturgy after the Second Vatican Council (1965). He played an active part in the life of Irish speakers as a member of organizations which included Cumann na Sagart, Conradh na Gaeilge, An Réalt, Cuallacht Mhuire, Pobal an Aifrinn. He regularly served on the Oireachtas, on the Irish-speaking pilgrimage to Knock, and on other Gaelic events. In his latter years he used go on vacation to Gort a'Choirce, in Donegal.

In1997 when he could no longer walk without help, he had to go to Cherryfield Lodge, where he continued to work until his sight failed him. It was heart-breaking for a man so at home in books to be able to read no longer, but he bore this loss gracefully and patiently. In his final year he tried to write a small prayer: It was illegible, but illustrates how he was thinking: ‘The prayer of a good Christian on their death-bed’.

-oOo-

Brian also wrote for the Irish Times of August 8th, 2001....

Writer and lecturer on Celtic spirituality and Irish language enthusiast, Father Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire died on July 21s aged 85. Born in Dublin on August 15, 1915, he was one of three children of Michael O'Leary, from Doneraile, Co. Cork, and his wife Mary (née Flood), from Co. Meath; his father was manager of McBimney's department store in Dublin, Brought up in Glasnevin, he was educated at Holy Faith Convent School and Belvedere Coilege, where he played cricket and acquired a life-long interest in the game.

Under the influence of his Irish teacher at Belvedere, Tadhg Ó Murchadha, his interest in the language developed. He took Celtic Studies at UCD, gaining an MA in 1939 for his thesis on a religious text by the 17th century author, Geoffery Keating, research which has been incorporated into the standard biography of Keating. He was awarded the NUI Travelling Studentship in Celtic Studies and subsequently pursued further research at Aberystwyth, where the British Library manuscripts had been moved because of the war.

He joined the Jesuits in 1933 and was ordained in 1948. During the 1950s he was responsible for the Jesuit students in Rathfarnham Castle, while still engaged in research, writing, and work with the Irish-language community. He was prefect of studies at Belvedere from 1960-62, and taught Irish at Gonzaga from 1962-77. Thereafter he was a member of the Jesuit community, Milltown Park. He was awarded a PhD from UCD in 1967 for a thesis in Irish on the lives of the saints in the medieval period, a topic which exposed him to the Irish contribution to Christianity in Europe at that time.

As well as speaking Irish, he was fluent in French and Breton, and was well known throughout Wales, where he talked regularly on radio, and appeared on television. He also preached in Welsh on occasions. He translated a collection of short stories from some of the best modern Welsh authors into Irish. For his contributions in Welsh he was made a member of Gorsedd, or bard, in the Eisteddfod, an honour which is bestowed on merit. As a lecturer both in Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Dublin, and in many other settings, he shared his gifts with others. His Milltown Institute colleagues honoured him with a Festschrift, Cothú an Dúchais (1997), which included contributions from scholars in Wales, France and Ireland.

A gentle, gracious and convivial man, Father Ó Laoghaire preferred to speak in Irish, but changed without demur to English as the company required. He could be droll, enjoying a story told against himself, together with his friend and confrère Father Séamus MacAmhlaoibh he used travel the country to Irish-language gatherings. He was dedicated to exploring and fostering the link between religious faith and Gaelic culture. Along with his more strictly scholarly interests, he devoted much time and energy to supporting and enriching the faith of the Irish-speaking community. This project was greatly energised by the change from Latin to the vernacular in the liturgy of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

He gave long service to a wide variety of groups, including Cumann na Sagart, Conradh na Gaeilge, An tOireachtas , Pobal an Aifrinn, An Chuallacht, Scoil Ghaelach Bhrí Chualann, and especially An Réalt, the Irish-language section of the Legion of Mary. In recognition of his services to Irish language groups he was awarded Gradam an Phiarsaigh in 1992. As editor of Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta and through translations and other writings, he was one of those who ensured that a relatively varied spiritual and liturgical literature of Catholic provenance is available in Irish.

Long time a contributor to An Timire (the Irish-language devotional magazine founded by the Jesuits in 1911), he was also editor from 1972-1997. His collection of prayers from the Gaelic oral tradition of Ireland and Scotland, Ár bPaidreacha Dúchais (1975), was a major contribution to the study of popular spirituality. The book has run into four editions. His last scholarly publication, a critical edition of an apocryphal life of Mary from an Irish 15th century text, will be published in Belgium in the Corpus Christianorum series.

Born: 23 May 1907, Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 20 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 08 September 1942, Wah Yan College, Hong Kong
Died: 07 March 1976, St Francis Xavier Church, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Older Brother of John (Jack) O’Brien - Ent 01/09/1927; LEFT 18 June 1935

Father owned a House Agency and Auctioneers, and was then involved in the Hotel business (Jury’s & North Star). Family resided at Claremount, Waterloo Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin

Eldest of two boys and a girl.

Early education was at a Convent school and then at Synge Street for three years. He then went to Belvedere College SJ (1922-1924)

by 1929 at Eegenhoven, Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1932 fifth wave Hong Kong Missioners - Regency
by 1939 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1960 at St Francis Xavier, Phoenix AZ (CAL) working

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Father Harry O’Brien, S.J.
R.I.P.

Prefect of Studies at Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, before and after World War II and at St. Louis Gonzaga, Macau, during the war, died at Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A., on 7 March 1976, aged 68.

Note from Timothy Doody Entry
Another passage in this book also describes Mr. Doody busy amid shelling and bombing. During a lull in his billeting work he found a new apostolate. Two priests were sheltered in the M.E.P. Procure on Battery Path. Mr. Doody took up his position outside the Procure and boldly enquired of all who passed if they were Catholics, and, if they were, did they wish to go to confession. The results were almost startling. The most unexpected persons turned out to be Catholics, from bright young things to old China hands, and after the first start of surprise at the question in the open street in staid, pleasure-loving Hong Kong, they generally took the turn indicated by Mr. Doody and found Father Grogan of Father Fitzgerald of Father O’Brien ready to meet them inside.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

Leeson St :
We were very glad to have several members of the Hong Kong mission with us for some time: Frs. P. Joy, T. Fitzgerald, and H. O'Brien, while Fr. George Byrne has joined us as one of the community.

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947

Departures for Mission Fields in 1946 :
4th January : Frs. P. J. O'Brien and Walsh, to North Rhodesia
25th January: Frs. C. Egan, Foley, Garland, Howatson, Morahan, Sheridan, Turner, to Hong Kong
25th July: Fr. Dermot Donnelly, to Calcutta Mission
5th August: Frs, J. Collins, T. FitzGerald, Gallagher, D. Lawler, Moran, J. O'Mara, Pelly, Toner, to Hong Kong Mid-August (from Cairo, where he was demobilised from the Army): Fr. Cronin, to Hong Kong
6th November: Frs. Harris, Jer. McCarthy, H. O'Brien, to Hong Kong

Irish Province News 51st Year No 3 1976

Obituary :

Fr Harry O’Brien (1924-1976)

Harry O’Brien had the misfortune of spending most of his life too far away from those who knew him best. He went to Hong Kong as a scholastic, was not very successful at learning Chinese, but held posts which for a scholastic of those days were of high importance. He was prefect of studies, gamesmaster, editor of a monthly called The Rock, and in whatever spare time he had he gave instruction. Many of those he instructed are today well known Catholics in Hong Kong.
This work was really too much for him, and going back to Ireland for theology, he acknowledged that he was very tired. He was ordained in Dublin, and did his tertianship in St Beuno’s in north Wales. Even at that time, he was in pain from the incipient arthritis which was later to cripple him - and open the door to a new life in a new land,
After tertianship, Harry returned to Hong Kong, and was again appointed prefect of studies at our big day-school in Hong Kong, Wah Yan College. (This is the name given by the founder of the school, a Catholic layman, who chose part of the name of his native village and part of his own Chinese name for the school, which he later handed over to Ours.) This time Harry worked for about three years in Wah Yan.
Then came the Pacific war and the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, 8th December, 1941. During the fortnight's siege of the colony, the Jesuits who were then in Hong Kong helped to find food and shelter for the thousands of homeless who crossed from the mainland of Kowloon at the approach of the Japanese army. This was dangerous work, because the island of Hong Kong was shelled from about eight in the morning until light failed. The nights were mostly quiet. On one occasion Harry had to bring families from the dangerous houses at sea-level facing the harbour and the Japanese guns, to the quieter, safer heights of the Peak, a fashionable district about 1800 feet above the sea, and at the time considered a “good” address. He risked his life, because the road to the Peak was a carpet of bursting shells. When the British surrendered, on Christmas day, 1941, English, Americans, and those whom the Japanese called “enemy aliens” were imprisoned until the end of the war.
The city emptied. Chinese returned to their villages, Portuguese, Indians, Irish and a few Chinese took refuge in Macau, the small Portuguese enclave on the China coast about forty miles west of Hong Kong. The Portuguese organised centres for the refugees from Hong Kong: large houses, a few small hotels and some Vacant government offices. In these centres the refugees found shelter, a minimum of food-mostly rice. But there was no school, and these young people from Hong Kong had nothing to do all day but roam the streets, and at night, sit at the doors and look at the moon.
The Portuguese governor of Macau and the British consul first got the idea of a school for the refugees, and they approached Fr Paddy Joy, then Superior of the Mission. The Portuguese government agreed to give a house, books, and a small salary to the staff. Harry was made prefect of studies and superior of the Jesuit community of five. He called the school Gonzaga College, or Luís Gonzaga College, as it is still known by its past pupils. Scholarly by nature and discipline, Harry directed this school through the turmoil of the war years, with an authority which inspired respect, and a kindness which made him loved. During these years in Macau, Gonzaga College had in all about 200 students. Of this number, eight are now doctors, seven are professors in American and Canadian universities: one is a lecturer in marine biology in the University of Hawaii, and three are architects: which is not a bad record for any school.
But these three years of war broke Harry - physically. He returned to Hong Kong again as prefect of studies in Wah Yan College. He was in constant pain, and arthritis was crippling him. But none knew of his pain - except his “doctor”, as he used to call the chiropractor whom he visited daily. He wasn't getting better, so the Superior of the Mission, Fr Tom Ryan, did the big thing and the wise thing. He sent him to the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The doctors there said that Harry could not return to Hong Kong or to the humid Irish climate. Fr Ryan arranged for him to go to the dry, desert climate of Arizona, and there in the small oasis of Phoenix, Harry worked for twenty six years.
In Phoenįx, Arizona, the Jesuits of the California Province have a large day-school (Brophy), much like Belvedere. Harry taught there for a while. But it was in the parish church of St Francis Xavier that he did the work by which he will be remembered. He had that rare and precious gift of putting everyone at their ease. Maybe this was due to his obvious holiness, or to his kindness, or to his sense of humour, or to a combination of all three. Whatever it was, the people of Phoenix - a shrewd and candid cross-section of America-loved and respected him. They showed this when he died. But they also showed it in a very practical way when he celebrated his golden jubilee in the Society two years ago, in 1974. The parishioners gave him a cheque for US $14,000. Part of this was used to remodel the kitchen of the presbytery, and on the wall is a brass plate which reads: “On the occasion of the 50th year in the Society of Jesus of Father Henry ‘Harry’ O'Brien, this room was remodelled”.
He got on equally well with the community. He was spiritual father, an authority on canon law and marriage cases, and a wise and kind confessor. After the evening visit to the blessed Sacrament, he would slip into the confessional near the domestic chapel.
He was never prominent in conversation, and whether right or wrong in his opinion, he was too clear-headed to be unjust. He spoke seldom, but when he did speak, he was worth listening to. He had a quiet, well-honed wit. But it wasn't barbed: it never hurt.
The stained-glass windows in the church of St Francis Xavier, Phoenix, were designed by Harry. Few of his contemporaries - in Ireland anyhow - knew that he was an artist of quality, with a nice feeling for colour and proportion, and more than an amateur knowledge of technique, especially of oil-painting. One of his portraits of a former superior of the parish - hangs in the community library. But he never took painting seriously. He told this writer that he didn't know enough about painting to be really good, and know too much to be really bad. For him, it was a supremely relaxing hobby, and nothing more.
Harry never returned to Hong Kong. He was invited, but he felt that he had not the strength for the journey, or the courage to face anew so much that was old. He was in poor health for months, and last September, 1975, cancer of one lung was discovered. The treatment - deep-ray therapy - was painful and unavailing. Harry died on 7th March, 1976.
Fifty priests from the diocese concelebrated the requiem Mass. Bishop McCarthy was represented by his vicar-general, and him self came later to pay his respects. Harry rested for a day in the church to which he had given his best years, the coffin bathed in the desert light from the windows which he designed. He was a holy priest, a loyal Jesuit, and a good friend. May he rest in peace.

Another Jesuit writes of Harry as follows:
When I arrived in Phoenix in December 1959 Harry O’Brien was already a living legend. His white hair and his frail figure gave him the appearance of a much older man, especially to the children of the parish, all of whom knew him well.
Harry had only been ten years in Phoenix then, but that was a long time, a lot longer than most other people. He had come to an area that was open country. Brophy College Prep, the Jesuit High School, was out in the fields north of town. Its beautiful mission chapel was the parish church. The parish priests lived in a converted garage, cooled in the 100 degree summer heat by an electric fan. They served a parish with no northern boundary.
Yet such was the population explosion in Phoenix in those days that during Harry's first decade in Arizona, St Francis Xavier parish built a new million-dollar church, a parochial school with 1,000 pupils, a girls' high school with 500 girls, a convent and a rectory with accommodation for a dozen priests. The whole surrounding area for miles and miles became one of the best residential areas in Arizona.
Because so many of the people were newcomers, and because Fr O’Brien had preceded most of them, and because he looked venerable, he was revered as the old parish priest who was there longer than anyone could remember.
Harry deserved the reverence. He was a true spiritual father to the parish, constantly absorbed in every aspect of parish life. He was the earnest preacher and the patient listener, especially in the confessional. He visited the school every day walking from class to class asking a few questions and answering the many that were put to him. He organised and taught an enquiry class for adults, that ran a course of twenty weeks or so and was immediately followed by another. He handled most of the cases for the marriage tribunal, always a tedious and time-consuming chore. And he visited the old folks and the sick in their homes. A lot of his “spare” time was spent in the parlour.
This list of tasks may seem routine. But in St Francis Xavier parish they were not routine. Harry did them all, and for the most part alone. The list is probably not complete, but hopefully it portrays the picture of an indefatigable man, a man consumed with zeal for the interests of God and of his people.
Since he touched so many lives so intimately, it is not surprising that his death, although not totally unexpected, was followed by outpourings of sorrow and even of disbelief. It is a beautiful tribute to this great priest that grown men were not ashamed to weep openly as the church of St Francis Xavier was filled to capacity on two successive evenings, for the rosary and for the Mass of the Resurrection.

At the requiem Mass for Harry O’Brien, it was Fr John E Hopkins (Calif.), who has completed fourteen years in Phoenix, who delivered the homily. He mentioned the constant arthritic pain from which Harry suffered, and went on:
“In his 68 years Fr. O'Brien spent over 34 as a priest, 26 of those years with us. In 1974 when he celebrated his 50 years in the Order, he asked me to preach a sermon at the Brophy chapel on the priesthood, because it meant so much to him. We can recall, those of us who heard him preach, the razor-like sharpness of his mind, the clarity of his ideas and his scholarly approach to the subject at hand. His interest in the Church was whetted by the decrees of Vatican II, and he was an avid reader and promoter of all the new ideas which came from the Council, to make the faith more meaningful to the people of the Church he loved
Like Xavier, who taught little children the truths of the faith and baptised countless people, Fr Harry taught the children in our parochial school for many years, and this work was his joy. His work of teaching was not limited to youngsters but like Xavier he taught adults as well in our religious Inquiry Forum, and like Xavier baptised countless adults”.

There is much about Fr Harry's China days in Fr Thomas F Ryan’s book “Jesuits under fire”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1976

Obituary

Father Henry O’Brien SJ (1924)

Fr Henry O'Brien died in Phoenix Arizona this year. Fr Albert Cooney SJ, who was with Fr Harry during the Japanese attack on Hong Kong in 1941, and also in Arizona, has this to say:

“Harry was worshipped in our church of St Francis Xavier in Phoenix, and 100 priests and the vicar general concelebrated the requiem mass”.

The following sermon was preached by Fr. John Hopkins SJ :

“True doctrine was in his mouth, and no dishonesty was found upon his lips; He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and turned many away from evil. For the lips of the priest are to keep knowledge, and instruction is to be sought from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts”. Malachy 2:6-7

Reverend Fathers, dear sisters, relatives and friends of Father Henry O'Brien:

We recall in a Jesuit Church each year at this time, some aspects of the life of St Francis Xavier because this is the time of the Novena of Grace. How frequently we are reminded of St Ignatius asking Xavier “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?”

I am sure, that, my friend and your friend, Harry, heard these words many times in his youth and decided to enter the Society of Jesus and become a priest in order to serve God. We, who have known him here in Phoenix, have come to appreciate the spirit that was instilled into him in his early years. I am quite certain that his mother's sister, who is also his Godmother, and with us here tonight, will remember these moments in his early life.

We know and believe that a priesthood filled with years of assistance to others in instruction, in kindness in the confessional, in caring for the sick and the dying, in baptizing, marrying and counselling people, is the ideal of every priest, but a priesthood filled with these things and also with constant arthritic pain is not what would be considered an ideal life, yet, we who knew him, knew that this was his lot . . , something he accepted from the hand of God for the good of souls.

The love for the Society of Jesus as part of the universal Church should be the love that inspires all Jesuit priests. Like Xavier who thirsted for souls, so should we, and this is the love that sent Father O'Brien around the world in search of souls.

He entered the Society in Ireland, made his philosophy studies in Louvain, France, taught as a young scholastic in Hong Kong, studied theology in Milltown Park, Ireland ... tertianship in Wales, then back to Hong Kong for priestly work as a teacher, headmaster and prisoner of the Japanese until he came to us here at St. Francis Xavier Church as a gentle, kind, considerate, prayerful model of priestly life.

As Xavier travelled for many years, so did he always with the Ignatian idea of what more can I do for God? As Xavier went from the Indies to Japan and desired to go to China, so did he travel along almost the same route, but instead of Japan, he landed in Hong Kong.

In his 68 years Father O'Brien spend over 34 as a priest, 26 of these years with us. When he celebrated his 50 years in the Order in 1974 he asked me to preach a sermon at the Brophy Chapel on the priesthood, because it meant so much to him. We can recall, those of us who heard him preach, the razor-like sharpness of his mind, the clarity of his ideas and the scholarly approach to the subject at hand. His interest in the Church was whetted by the decrees of Vatican II and he was an avid reader and promoter of all the new ideas which came from the Council to make the faith more meaningful to the people of the Church he loved.

Like Xavier who taught little children the truths of the faith and baptized countless people, Father Harry taught the children in our parochial school for many years, and this work was his joy. His work of teaching was not limited to youngsters but like Xavier he taught adults as well in our religious Inquiry Forum, and like Xavier baptized countless adults.

St Francis Xavier wrote to Ignatius with news of his progress and eagerly awaited news from Europe. He was a missionary, who had left home, but he was very happy with news from home.
When Xavier was alive there was no such thing as radio or TV sets such as we have now, so it was by letter that he was kept aware of what was going on in the Society. Father O'Brien kept up to date on news from home by radio, TV and newspapers ... because even though he was an American citizen, part of his interest was still in Ireland, and the politics of that country, the Northern Ireland conflict, and the way his country was treated by the English nation. He also had a loving concern for his brother and sister and their families in Dublin. They will miss him as we will here.

The people of the world who do not know God may spend themselves in seeking temporal goods which death snatches away from them. We know that the privilege of the priest is that his labor and the goods he gathers by this labor lasts for all eternity. The hundred-fold and everlasting were promised to the apostles and their successors. The fruit of the labors of a priest is entirely spiritual and lasts for all eternity.

We know that the fruits of the labor of Xavier lasted through 200 years of persecution in Japan. The faith he inspired in the lives of the people was handed down from generation to generation. It is still there. The love of Christ was kept alive. The work of the missionary is recorded in heaven.

We here at St Francis Xavier Parish will remember Xavier's love for souls each time we enter the Church ... and we will also be reminded of the artistic talent of Father O'Brien when we look at the stained glass windows designed by him. We, who knew him well, know what enjoyment he received from his work as an artist, as well as a priest.

As long as this Church stands his talent will be recognized ... and when the years take their toll of this building, the faith that inspired the people who were touched by his generosity and kindness will last as did the faith of Xavier's converts.

To paraphrase St. Paul: “Father O'Brien you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech”

May you rest in peace!

Born: 22 June 1873, Castlebar, County Mayo
Entered: 14 September 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 1905, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 12 January 1920, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

Early education at Carmelite College, Dominic Street, Dublin, Belvedere College SJ, Blackrock College and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1899 at Enghien, Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1900 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1901 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was the son of a well known MP, JFX O’Brien, who had been sentenced as a member of the IRB to be hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the 1867 Rising. (He had also been an Assistant Surgeon for the Confederate Army at New Orleans during the Civil War, and he also later became President of the IRB 1882-1891, and MP for South Mayo 1885-1895 and for Cork City 1895-1906)

Early education was at French College, Blackrock and Clongowes Wood College SJ.

After his Novitiate he was sent for Regency to Mungret as Prefect and Clongowes as Teacher. He also studied Philosophy at Louvain.
1903 he began the long course in Theology and was Ordained in Dublin 1905, and Tertianship at Tullabeg.
1915-1917 He was Minister at Rathfarnham.
1919 He was Spiritual Father and Editor of “Irish Monthly”.
Early in his career he was affected by headaches, suffering much through his religious life. he died peacefully at Rathfarnham 12 January 1920.
He was very talented and had a good knowledge of Irish.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John FX O’Brien 1873-1920
Fr John FX O’Brien was toe son of a well known Member of Parliament JX O’Brien who had been sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the ’67 Rising.

He was born in Castlebar County Mayo, on June 22nd 1873, and was educated at Blackrock College and Clongowes. He entered the Society in 1889.

He was Minister in Rathfarnham from 1915-1917. In 1919 he became Spiritual Father and editor of the Irish Monthly. From early on in his career he suffered from headaches and endured much pain during his religious life. He was very talented and very proficient in Irish.

His death took place peacefully at Rathfarnham on January 12th 1920.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1920

Obituary

Father John FX O’Brien SJ

Fr JFX O’Brien, whose death took place in January last, was born in Castlebar on June 22nd, 1873. His father took part in the ‘67 Rising, and had the unique distinction of being the last man ever sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, the sentence, however, being commuted. Fr O’Brien's mother was a sister of Fr O'Malley, of Castlebar, who played such a prominent part in the affair of Captain Boycott. By a whimsical freak of Fate, the son of such a fighting strain found himself at Belvedere the class-fellow of two future pillars of the law, Mr Sergeant Sullivan, KC, and Mr Dudley White, KC.

Fr O'Brien's life-history was an uneventful one. Full of talents and energy he was dogged from his earliest days as a Jesuit by persistent ill-health. His success as a teacher at Clongowes and in his studies at Enghien, Louvain, and Milltown Park, gave just a glimpse of what he might have been if stronger.

The tradition of active patriotism received from his parents was faithfully carried on by him - his unremitting advocacy of Irish manufactures was a proof of this well known to those who lived with him and he crowned a life of martyrdom through ill-health by a death of saintly resignation. RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1920

Obituary

Father John FX O’Brien SJ

An appreciation by a past pupil

Looking back upon the years that were spent at Clongowes, one thinks of the many friends & that one made among the Jesuits of the school community as belonging to two different categories. There were those whom we regarded as our most intimate friends in the school, sharing our interests and our hopes with a closeness and warmth of sympathy that we scarcely find even among the boys of our own age. To some extent we have drifted since beyond their horizon, and their lavish sympathy and devotion is being spent upon the younger generations that have our places. And there were those who, while we were at Clongowes, seemed somewhat remote and austere, in spite of all their unfailing kindness and patience, as masters or Prefects. We regarded them with a certain feeling of awe and veneration, and it was not until the closing terms of our school days that we came to know them better and to realise the inspiration and encouragement that they had to give us.

Fr J F X O'Brien - was one of the latter kind. That he was a saint as well as an intensely human and kindly man we all knew at once from the time of our earliest acquaintance with him; but his friends were generally to be found among the older boys at Clongowes. He made an admirable President of the Higher Line Debate, and his formal dignity of manner as well as his profound interest in Irish history set a high standard at all the de bates over which he presided, and produced a spirit of emulation. But Clongowes is no more bounded by the limits of the college grounds, nor even by the age limits of those who are at school there from year to year, than Ireland is bounded by the shores of the Irish coastline. There is a greater Clongowes that stretches pretty nearly to every corner of the earth, and for both scholars and Jesuits alike the few years that ate spent at Clongowes are, in a sense, little more than the process of graduations into a wider community of Clongownians past and present.

In a very special sense, Father O'Brien life proved that he was intended for a wider scope than the school itself could offer him, It was only after he had left Clongowes that we got to know him as he really was-a deep and widely-read scholar, inspired by passionate religious and patriotic convictions, who gave to those who knew him a more actual sense of the apostolate of literary work in Ireland than they could have gained from any other man living.

The mantle of Father Matthew Russell could not have fallen upon more worthy or more devoted shoulders than Father O'Brien's when he assumed the Editorship of the “Irish Monthly”. He put his best energies into it prodigally, and determined to make it a vital and progressive magazine of modern Irish thought. “All that I can do”, he said to me once,”is to edit it to suit my own taste, and then I know that at least one of its readers will have nothing to complain of”. His personal sincerity and quiet, deliberate enthusiasm were evident in every number that he produced. But it was not in the literary merit of the magazine alone that he kept alive the traditions of Mathew Russell. No other editor that I have ever met gave quite the same generous encouragement to young writers as he did. He probably did not know how immensely big a thing it was for a young student in University College to be able to feel that there was one quarter in which any attempt at literary work, no matter how foolish or incompetent, would meet with patient and sympathetic consideration, provided only that it was sincere, He not only encouraged young writers by reading and accepting their articles, but he used to exceed his ordinary standards of payment simply to give confidence to those who were beginning.

I shall never forget the occasions when I was able to visit him at Rathfarnham Castle and we used to walk around the grounds together. His health was miserably bad and often caused him prolonged and intense pain. But he never complained nor showed any signs of the nervous exasperation that must have tormented him. I remember standing with him one bright sunny day in June, while we looked towards the wonderful purple slopes of the Dublin mountains under a brilliant sky, and I asked him if he could come for a walk up to them some afternoon. “It is a great many months since I was able to walk so far as that”, he replied sadly. The distance was, I suppose, about five miles in all.

The war placed many long miles of distance between us, and I never saw him again before the news of his death reached me this winter. He has been taken away from his friends and from all of us who owed him untold gratitude, and we can never thank him now as we would have wished to do. It is good to think that he has been released from his long physical sufferings. To the illustrious company of great sons of Clongowes whom he has now followed to their rest he can carry a message that the old traditions have been maintained unbroken.

Born: 31 January 1910, Suffolk Street, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died 18 July 1983, Riverside Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin City, County Dublin

Left Society of Jesus: 18 June 1935

Father, Henry Joseph owned a House Agency and Auctioneers, and later involved in the Hotel business (Jury’s & North Star). Mother was Mary Josephine (Byrne). Family resided at Claremount, Waterloo Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin

Younger of two boys (older brother being in the Society) and one sister.

Early education was at a Holy Faith Convent, and then at Synge Street. Finally he spent six years at Belvedere College SJ.

1927-1929: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1929-1932: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1932-1933: Vals, France (TOL) studying Philosophy
1933-1935: Belvedere College SJ, Regency

https://www.dib.ie/biography/obrien-john-joseph-jack-a6477

O'Brien, John Joseph (Jack)
Contributed by
Murphy, Angela
O'Brien, John Joseph (Jack) (1910–83), businessman, was born 31 January 1910, second son of Henry Joseph O'Brien, hotel proprietor and house agent of Waterloo Rd, Dublin, and his wife Mary Josephine (née Byrne). Educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, he took a keen interest in rugby, tennis and, in particular, public speaking. Graduating BA from UCD, he enrolled at King's Inns in 1938 and qualified as a barrister in 1941. He rose to prominence within the business community when in 1937 he became secretary of a Dublin-based employers’ organisation, the Federated Employers, which had its origins in the labour disputes of 1913. O'Brien was ‘the driving force of the organization’ (McGuire, unpublished memoir, 74). It was O'Brien who envisaged unifying employers’ bodies throughout Ireland into one national organisation, which could match the professionalism of the trade unions in the arts of industrial relations and bargaining skills. With the support of their council, O'Brien and Edward McGuire (qv), president of the Federated Employers, set about forming a national body which would be manned by a staff of full-time professionals. The result was the foundation in 1942 of the Federated Union of Employers, with O'Brien as its general secretary (later redesignated as director general in 1951); he held this position until his retirement in 1960. During this time, he led negotiations with the ITUC on unofficial disputes and wage agreements.

His international career began in 1945 when he was elected adviser to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). During 1947–60 he held the position of employers’ delegate to the ILO. Moreover, in 1954 he became the first Irishman to hold a seat on the ILO's governing body, a seat that he held for two consecutive terms. His international prestige as a renowned public speaker grew, and in 1960 he was elected president of the International Organisation of Employers and vice-chairman of the International Labour Office. In 1958 he became a director of the Shannon Estuary Co. He still maintained a pivotal role within the commercial sector after he retired. His chief business interests lay in the hotel and tourism trade, and in 1960 he became chairman of Jury's Hotels Ltd. In the same year he was elected vice-president of the Dublin chamber of commerce, and the following year he became its president.

He always maintained an association with Belvedere College; in 1935 he was made honorary secretary of Old Belvedere Rugby Club and subsequently became its president (1953–6). He was also elected president of the College Union in 1966. A very dapper man, he always ran the FUE with great style; his renditions of ‘How can you buy Killarney’ and ‘Frankie and Johnnie were lovers’ were a feature at many annual dinners. The delivery of Trinity cigarettes from Fox's to the FUE every Friday was also an example of his style. He lived most of his life at 15 Riverside Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin, with his wife Claire, their daughter, and their four sons until his death on 18 July 1983.

Sources
Ir. Times, 8 Dec. 1959, 19 July 1983; Brian Hillery and Patrick Lynch, Ireland in the International Labour Organisation ([1969]); Ir. Independent, 19 July 1983; Belvederian Yearbook 1984; Basil Chubb (ed.), FIE: Federation of Irish Employers 1942–1992 (1992) (photo); Kenneth Ferguson, King's Inns barristers 1868–2004 (2005); E. A. McGuire, unpublished memoir (private possession)

Born: 01 January 1839, Clare Island, County Mayo
Entered: 30 December 1864, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1875
Died: 20 March 1915, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Novitiate under Luigi Sturzo and remained at Milltown as a cook for a while afterwards.
1868 He was sent to Tullabeg as cook, where he did excellent work under Father William Delany, who was 10 years Rector there.
He was then moved to Belvedere for a while, and after a short interval at Gardiner St, he went to UCD, where he worked for a long period. He died leaving a fine record of work at Leeson St 20 March 1915

It may not be out of place to mention that Edmund Hogan stated that the Italian Fathers told James Butler, of Clongowes fame, in 1805, that an Irish Jesuit Synnott was the last to leave off the Jesuit habit worn at the time of the Suppression in 1773 - “Go and tell His Holiness that it was an Irishman was the last member to put aside the habit”. So, Brother O’Brien was the last Brother to put aside the tall-hat in 1892 in obedience to the order of the Provincial Timothy Kenny.

Note from Michael O’Reilly Entry :
Towards the end of his life he was sent to Leeson St, and just before his death to Milltown, where he died 16 September 1915 - six months after John O’Brien.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - DOB 12 March 1840 Killaloe, Co Clare; Ent 04 January 1865; Cooper before entry

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Brother John O’Brien SJ 1840-1915
Br John O’Brien was born in Killaloe on March 12th 1840. He did his noviceship in Milltown Park under Fr Sturzo in 1865.

He was faithful and efficient as a cook in many of our houses, notably in Tullabeg, where Fr Delaney was Rector for 10 years. He was then moved to Belvedere and finally to University College, where he worked a for a long period. He died on March 20th 1915, leaving a fine record of useful and hidden labour.

It may not be out of place to record here a fact stated by Fr Hogan, that the Italian Fathers told Fr James Butler, of Clongowes fame, that an Irish Jesuit names Synott, was the last to leave off the Jesuit habit worn at the time of the Suppression 1773 : “Go and tell His Holiness that it was an Irishman was the last member to lay aside the habit”. So, Br O’Brien was that last Irish Brother to lay aside the tall-hat, in obedience to Fr Timothy Kenny, Provincial of Ireland from 1888 to 1894.

Born: 11 October 1956, Oughterard, County Galway
Entered: 04 October 1975, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Ordained: 20 June 1987, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin
Final Vows: 24 January 1996, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 07 January 2018, Gonzaga College SJ, Ranelagh, Dublin

Parents: Francis X O’Brien & Bridget E Newell

Family lived at San Martin, College Road, Galway City

Educated at Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway

by 1980 at Osterley, London (BRI) working
by 1981 at Manresa, Birmingham, England (BRI) studying)
BY 1988 at Cambridge MA, USA (NEN) studying

1977-1979 John Sullivan House, Monkstown - Studying Philosophy at Milltown Institute
1979-1980 Isleworth, London, UK - Residential Care work at Lillie Road Centre
1980-1982 Manresa House, Harbourne, Birmingham, UK - Studying Youth and Community Work at Westhill College
1982-1984 Coláiste Iognáid, Galway - Regency : Teacher
1984-1986 Luís Espinal - Studying Theology at Milltown Institute
1986-1987 Rutilio Grande - Studying Theology at Milltown Institute
1987-1988 Avon St, Cambridge, MA, USA - Studying Theology at Weston School of Theology
1988-1993 Coláiste Iognáid, Galway - Teacher; Chaplain; Subminister; Pastoral Care Co-ordinator; Studying H Dip in Education at UCG (88-89)
1989 President “An Club Rámhaoicht”
1993-1994 Belfast - Tertianship
1994-2001 Belvedere College SJ - Minister; Chaplain; Pastoral Care; Teacher; Social Integration Committee; Cherryfield Board
1995 Vocations Promotion Team
1996 Vice-Principal Junior School
1998 Pastoral Care Co-ordinator
2001-2018 Gonzaga College SJ - Minister; Teacher; College Spiritual Father

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/god-love-kennedys-mantra/

‘God is love’ – Kennedy’s mantra
The Funeral Mass of Kennedy O’Brien SJ took place at the Church of the Holy Name, Ranelagh, on Saturday 13 January before a packed congregation, with crowds outside in the cold. A native of Galway, Kennedy (aged 61) devoted his Jesuit life to teaching.
Mourners at the Mass included a large number of students from Gonzaga College SJ, where the Kennedy taught English and served as chaplain and retreat leader. The College choir provided the music, and a number of students removed the pall from the coffin. Irish Provincial, Leonard Moloney SJ, was the main celebrant.
At the end of a traumatic week for Gonzaga (with the deaths of both Kennedy and his fellow-Jesuit Joe Brennan, who had taught in the college for many years), Principal Mr Damon McCaul spoke at the Mass. “For me personally, he [Kennedy] was a friend, a confidant, a sounding board. What I really appreciated – and Kennedy was good at this – was being told when he thought things could be done better, or differently. In that, Kennedy was the embodiment of Magis [the Jesuit principle of more or greater]... a half job was never enough.”
With good humour, Mr McCaul reminded the congregation of Kennedy’s initial reluctance to come to Gonzaga. He taught in his alma mater, Coláiste Iognáid, in Galway and in Belvedere College in Dublin beforehand. However, he said of Kennedy: “He went where the need was greatest; he threw all of himself into Gonzaga, to such an extent that he loved it in spite of himself”. He then expressed his gratitude for the care and support the school had been given in recent days. Mr McCaul finished by asking the Gonzaga students to join him in reciting Kennedy’s favourite Gospel message, one he used to repeat at every College Mass: “God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him or her”. Kennedy had a wide range of hobbies and interests, including heraldry, gardening, rowing, cricket and the poetry of G M Hopkins. His popularity and regard as a priest was attested to by the number of weddings, baptisms and funerals at which he was asked to officiate. He was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery following the Funeral Mass.

https://www.circ.ie/articles/7

Kennedy O'Brien S.J.
Jan 08, 2018

Fr Kennedy O Brien S.J. former highly successful Jes Rower, coach, mentor and Club President passed away peacefully on Sunday night / Monday morning.

Kennedy, who was part of the very successful 1974 crew, later went on to coach many crews and took on the role of club organiser for many years, while he taught at the Jes. He was at the club in recent times to bless our new eight in 2016. Kennedy had been teaching in Gonzaga College in Dublin.

Kennedy is a brother of Redmond and our sympathies are with Kennedy's brothers and sister, their families and the wider Jesuit community.

The funeral arrangements are as follows:
Removal on Friday, 12th January, to Gonzaga College Chapel arriving at 5pm.
Requiem Mass at 10am on Saturday 13th January in Church of the Holy Name, Beechwood Avenue, Ranelagh to Glasnevin Cemetery.

Tea and coffee etc. will be provided for mourners immediately after the Mass in the College Dining Hall at 11.

It is advisable to attend the church early possible on Saturday morning.

May he rest in peace.

Born: 21 May 1924, Marlborough Street, Derry, County Derry
Entered: 28 September 1943, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 11 September 1945

“Louie”

Father was Director of the Municipal School of Music in Dublin and family resided at Merrion Road, Dublin.

Fourth of seven boys with two sisters.

Early education at Derry and Dublin Convent schools he then went to the Christian Brothers school in Westland Row, and then to Belvedere College SJ for six years.

LEFT 16 October 1943; Re-entered; LEFT again 11 September 1945

Born: 30 June 1920, Marlborough Street, Derry, County Derry
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1954, Milltown Park, Dublin
First Final Vows: 02 February 1957, Belvedere College SJ
Died: 29 October 1994, Calvary Hospital, Adelaide, Australia (priest of Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide)

Left Society of Jesus: 1993 for Adelaide Diocese

Older brother of Louis J O'Brien - LEFT 11 September 1945 and Vincent A O'Brien - LEFT 27 February 1948

Father was the Cathedral Organist and Professor of Music at the Diocesan College Derry, and then became the Director of The Municipal School of Music, Chatham Row, Dublin, and organist at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street. Family moved in 1930 to Merrion Road, Dublin.

Oldest of seven boys and two girls.

Early education was at a Convent school in Derry and then at St Columb’s College Derry. When they came to Dublin he went to Blackrock College CSSp,. On the advice of Father Kirwan SJ he then went to Belvedere College SJ in 1937.

1966/1967 Corpus Christi, Australia
by 1985 working in Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, Australia

Born: 02 September 1921, Marlborough Street, Derry, County Derry
Entered: 07 September 1940, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 27 February 1948

Father, Joseph, was the Cathedral Organist and Professor of Music at the Diocesan College Derry, and then became the Director of The Municipal School of Music, Chatham Row, Dublin, and organist at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street. Mother was May (Byrne)Family moved in 1930 to Merrion Road, Dublin.

Second eldest of seven boys and two girls.

Early education was at various schools and then at Belvedere College SJ for six years

Baptised at St Eugene’s Cathedral, Derry 03/09/1921
Confirmed at Church of the Assumption, Booterstown by Dr Byrne of Dublin, 22/03/1932

1940-1942: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1942-1945: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1945-1948: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy

Address 2000: Newlands Crescent, Portstewart, County Derry

?????

https://rip.ie/death-notice/dr-vincent-obrien-derry-portstewart-160420

Born: 07 August 1906, Waterford, County Waterford
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1944, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: June 1978, South Avenue, Mount Merrion, Dublin, County Dublin

Left Society of Jesus: 13 December 1968

Father (Thomas) was in police and later a clerk. Family lived at St Teresa’s Road, Glasnevin. Mother was Katherine (Carey).

Early education at O’Connells School, Dublin

Confirmed at the Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow, 12/11/1916

1924-1926: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1926-1930: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1930-1933: Mungret College SJ, Regency
1933-1934: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1935-1936: Mungret Colklege SJ, Regency
1936-1937: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1937-1940: Milltown Park, Theology
1941-1942: Rathfarnham Castle, Tertianship
1942-1945: Mungret College SJ, teaching
1945-1962: Belvedere College SJ, Teaching
1962-1967: Sacred Heart College Crescent SJ, Teaching
1967-1968: Sir William Collins Secondary School, Edgeware London (ANG) working for Westminster Diocese project in County Schools at the invitation of Cardinal Heenan. Address Hartland Drive, Broadfields, Edgeware, London. Attached to the Stamford Hill Jesuit community, London

New address on leaving, Thornton Drive, Chislehurst, Kent, England.

Information saying that he had married Christmas 1968, and was teaching at Centro Linguistico Italo-Americano, Via Stoppani, Bergamo, Italy, but that their address was still st Thornton Drive, Chislehurst.

Later address (1971) Rebmatt, Oberwiel, Zug, Switzerland.
(1975), South Avenue, Mount Merrion, Dublin

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1978

Obituary

Father Tom O’Callaghan

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. Tom was rarely still in life. He rarely spoke sotto voce. Pacing, pacing, up and down outside the rail in Donnybrook, chain-smoking cigarettes and matches; intense and often very individual instructions to the team at half time... Did Tom ever sit behind the wheel of a car? Little things like traffic jams and speed limits must have sent up his blood pressure if he did. An unbroken Arab horse and a wilderness would have suited him better.

Apart from being a trainer of distinction, Tom was thought to be an outstanding mathematician when we were boys. Whether the latter is true it is impossible to discover now. Boys like to invest their teachers with what they take to be Einsteinian qualities. He was certainly a very intelligent man but he was unable to take his degree. At different stages during his university studies, usually around examination time, he had to sit near the door of the refectory in Rathfarnham Castle. This was because he would suddenly, through nervousness, find himself unable to swallow, and have to run choking from the room. He could talk very interestingly on any subject, even though he might naturally gravitate to discussing rugby. He liked to consult encyclopaedias in the middle of an argument to show he was correct on a point of historical or literary fact.

Fr Tom had very many devoted friends among the Past, but, almost certainly, some who bore a grudge as well. He seemed to work off his frustrations in sarcasm against “enemies”, and, whom he took to be fools, he did not suffer gladly. The result was that those who were on the outside could not see how the devotion of the others arose. Happily the mystery of life is deep and complicated enough to encompass different types. Tom was either a stone in your shoe or a stone in your oyster; he could not be ignored.

For almost twenty years, 1946-1962, Fr Tom O'Callaghan SJ, was teacher, trainer, sometime assistant disciplinarian in Belvedere. He was moved by the Canonical Visitor to Crescent College Limerick. From what we hear, things were not the same there. He was approaching sixty years of age and his once dominant personality was losing its force. He did not have a reputation he could call on, as the pupils of Crescent had not heard of him before. In a few years he was teaching in a school in London and while there he met his future wife. At what stage he decided to leave the priesthood it is impossible to say.

When they returned to Dublin he took up teaching for a while in St. Conleth's. This did not last very long as his health was disintegrating. During a long and sporadic illness his wife took devoted care of him. He died in June of this year aged 72 years. RIP.

Every Christian life is a sad life. Every Christian life is a failure. A web of disappointments and of goals unachieved. We cannot say, and it is futile to guess, whether some things might have been better if some other things had been otherwise ... We do not know. That is all we can say. We offer our sympathy to his wife, Barbara, May the Lord look mercifully on all of us, and on the soul of Fr. Tom O'Callaghan, one-time Jesuit, sacerdos in aeter num.

BK, SJ

Born: 10 December 1910, Bohernagore, Ardpatrick, County Limerick
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1943, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1946, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 27 July 1969, James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Abbotstown, Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Dublin community at the time of death

Parrents were farmers and resides at Hotel, Kilfinane, County Limerick supported by private means.

Second of three boys with three sisters.

Early education at Ardpatrick National School for six years he then went to Mungret College SJ

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 44th Year No 4 1969

Belvedere College
On July 26th we were saddened to hear of the death of Fr. Alf O'Connell. For the past few years he had been going down hill steadily but his death took us all by surprise. During the latter months he was able only with difficulty to get around the house, his arthritis and other complications getting steadily worse. Two days before he died it was thought imperative that he should have oxygen and he was transferred to Blanchardstown Hospital on Thursday 24th; he survived only two days, dying on the 26th. It is no exaggeration to say that his name was synonymous with Belvedere as far as the Old Boys were concerned and he thought nothing too much trouble whether it was fixing them up in jobs, arranging retreats for them or attending their social functions. He was an encyclopaedia on their doings and many an editor of The Belvederian got invaluable help from him in compiling notes on the past. Though it was in the midst of holidays a big representative gathering of the past managed to be present at his Requiem Mass and funeral. We shall miss him in the community and class room, R.I.P.

Obituary :

Fr Alphonsus O’Connell SJ (1910-1969)

Fr. “Alf” as he was familiarly known, was born December 10th, 1910 in Kilfinane, Co. Limerick. After his secondary education at Mungret he entered the Society in Tullabeg, September ist, 1928 and saw the end of Tullabeg as a novitiate and the start of Emo. After his degree in U.C.D. and philosophate in Tullabeg he spent three years teaching in Galway. On July 29th, 1943 he was ordained in Milltown and after Tertianship in Rathfarnham he spent the rest of his life in Belvedere.
An able and intelligent man, he had a wide range of interests which he pursued during the different stages of his career. At the university he studied Archaeology and contributed a section to a life of St. Carthage. He produced the boys' plays in Galway and during his long term at Belvedere he was always on call to make up the boys for the College opera. He contributed a number of poems to various magazines in his early life. For many years he was director and confessor at the Morning Star Hostel, assisted in the running of St. Stanislaus' Boys' Club and had many a tale of the Irish courses at Gibstown. In his youth he was a fine athlete excelling in hurling and rugby. In later life he suffered so much from arthritis one tended to overlook his former prowess. Up to practically the end of his life he was in charge of rugby and cricket teams in the school. He graced many a school pavilion, trudged up and down the touch-line, umpired even when he had to use his hunting stick. He was extremely popular with his opposite number in other schools, They admired his devotion and enthusiasm and many a time quoted him as an example.
He was a first-class teacher and went to great pains to make up his course, for, in his time, he taught many subjects, Whatever he did he did well. He boasted in his own quiet way of the different subjects he had taught.
He had an extremely retentive memory, looked simple but was as sharp as a knife. Always ready to help, he never refused an appeal. Teachers, games' masters, the past, the boys knew this and appreciated it. Year after year, he filled our Retreat Houses with the past and always had his red note-book available with a surplus of names. In fact the past were never quite sure whether Fr. Alf of "Jeff" as he was affectionately known to them, came to games to cheer them on or to seek retreatants. But they did know he was interested in them. Many a Belvederian owes his present position to Fr. Alf's unflagging interest. Editors of the Belvederian readily availed themselves of his wide knowledge of the Past.
He was a good Religious in an unostentatious way and showed his love of God in his love of others - kindly, generous and a good companion. A good community man, filled with a sense of humour, he told many a story against himself. He suffered much and few of us realised that, as he said, he was working on borrowed time. We feel that Fr. Alf who never refused a call to help will not forget us now that his physical pains and distress are over, May his soul rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1970

Obituary

Father Alphonsus O’Connell SJ

Sunday, July 27th, was a clear, bright day at Cabra Oval. Our cricket season was going well and the morale of our players was high, We were enjoying ourselves.

Suddenly, the enjoyment, the bright skies and the high morale were all overshadowed in our minds. Fr O'Connell had died at 5 am on that morning and we had just heard the very sad news. Little was said; the feelings of shock, of loss and of sadness were clear. We had lost a great friend.

Fr O'Connell came to Belvedere College in August 1946. He had been to school in Mungret in Limerick and worked as a scholastic in St Ignatius College in Galway where he obtained his HDip. From the moment he came to Belvedere his life's interest centred mainly around Belvederians and Old Belvederians. It is an understatement to say that everyone connected with sport in Belvedere and many not directly involved in Belvederian activities knew and respected him. It is unnecessary to recall the devotion and enthusiasm of Fr O'Connell for his “seconds”, for these are already well known to us.

What is perhaps not so well known is the great human personality which was behind the kind and unassuming exterior which presented to the outside world. He was kind, humble and always cheerful. He was a simple man without a trace of vanity and although he had a very heavy work load at all times he seemed to have plenty of time to listen all who approached him for help with their problems.

Few of us who attended Belvedere Colege and particularly those of us who played on his cricket or rugby teams, will forget the fantastic kindness and interest he displayed in each student in his care. His anxiety to involve as many as possible in his organised activities was typified by his appointing the writer “permanent substitute linesman” on the Second A Rugby XV. His memory for faces and facts about Old Belvederians was extraordinary and his meticulous recordings in his multiplicity of notebooks of academic achievement, business promotions, weekend retreats, marriages or deaths were the subject of many a good joke.

Fr O'Connell was a natural priest, for such was his great humanity that although his deep, simple piety was evident, one forgot he was a priest. In religious discussion with members of the St Stanislaus Boys Club, of which he was holiday spiritual director for twelve years, he was tolerant and open-minded but quietly firm. From all of these boys he earned respect and affecticion as he did in his tremendous work with the “Morning Star”. He had the great gift of winning the loyalty and confidence of people whether they were students in Belveder the less fortunate members of Dublin society for whom his devotion and work was a splendid example.

His simple and ever cheerful manner made association with him a pleasure. The fund of jokes, very often stories against himself seemed limitless. How he enjoyed telling of his difficulty in confusing a student, so he could discipline him, when the particular student labelled a parallelogram J, E F and F; or by his calling a boy by his older brother’s Christian name and getting the reply “Yes Mutt?” His most relaxing and pleasing personality ensured that “Jeff” was popular and welcome person at all social events.

We will miss Fr O’Connell greatly - his optimism and very positive views on life and on the development of our club contributed greatly to the establishment of solid foundations for us and for all organisations with which he was associated. The best tribute to his memory is to carry on his work in the many fields where he laboured.

Ár dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam.

Tim Sheehy

Born: 19 February 1923, Mill Street, Westport, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1942, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1956, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1959, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 18 October 2004, Crossna, County Roscommon - Nazareth House, Sligo - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Part of the Coláiste Iognáid Galway community at the time of death.

Father was an agricultural instructor.

One older sister.

Early education at the Christian Brothers school in Westport for seven years he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 03 December 1969

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Fr Denis O'Connell (known to all as 'Dinny') was born in Westport, Co Mayo. After primary school, he went to Clongowes Wood College, run by the Jesuits, until he finished his secondary education. The attraction to religious life was already there for he went to the Cistercians for a short time but turned back to the Jesuits he knew from school, and entered the novitiate at Emo Park in 1942. He followed the normal course of studies of university, philosophy, regency at Belvedere and on to theology at Milltown Park Dublin, where he was ordained priest on 31st July 1956.

He came out to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1958 and went to Chikuni to learn CiTonga, the language of the people. After a year at Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College he came to Monze (1962/63) where he worked in the parish. Pastoral work was to be his vocation for the rest of his life. A big step from here took him to the large urban parish of St Ignatius in Lusaka where he worked for six years (1964–1970). Nakambala on the Sugar Estate in Mazabuka held Dinny for eight years, again working with the people.

During that time he oversaw the building of Christ the King church, the second church on the estate along with St Paul's.
After thirty years of fruitful, patient work in Zambia, he returned to Ireland to continue his pastoral work, first in the archdiocese of Dublin for three years and then in the west at Clarinbridge and Lisdoonvarna in the diocese of Galway where he did pastoral work and chaplaincy. After nine years at this he went north to Sligo to Nazareth House as assistant hospital chaplain. He returned to Galway from Sligo on the 18 October 2004, staying with a priest friend at Crossna, Co Roscommon on the way, but died peacefully in his sleep while staying there.

These are the facts of Dinny's life, a pastoral priest at all times. What of the man himself? Outwardly he was a very laid-back person, easy going in the sense that very little disturbed him much. Always associated with him was his pipe and his hand basket in which he carried the essentials for his pastoral work as he moved around. The pipe brings to mind a story about him while he was on a sabbatical in the United States. A quiet evening smoke in the room where he was a guest activated the sprinklers in the ceiling and drenched the room.

As a pastoral worker and chaplain, he was most faithful to the work at hand, proceeding quietly and with no fuss, almost unnoticed. He had an easy way of talking to the elders, putting them at their ease, whether visiting their homes or attending at their bedside in hospital. He loved to walk on his own by the sea if it was nearby or along a river bank and for him this was also a time of prayer. He loved a good chat with friends once he had the pipe lit and glowing.

He was not adverse to recounting stories or events about himself. One that springs to mind is the time when he was traveling to Lusaka with a Jesuit colleague, a colleague who would quickly speak of spiritual matters. ‘Dinny’, the colleague said, ‘I admire you’. ‘Huh! why's that?’ said Dinny. ‘Well’ was the reply ‘you are a man of few talents but you use them to the best of your ability’. Dinny's talent was the quiet, unobtrusive ability to get his pastoral or chaplaincy work done and his easy manner with people.

Before he died, Dinny donated his body to the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway for medical research. After the evening service in St Ignatius Church, the body was taken away so that at the Mass for Dinny on the following morning in Dublin, his body was not present.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 123 : Special Issue February 2005

Obituary

Fr Denis (Dinny) O’Connell (1923-2004) : Zambia Malawi Province

Feb. 19th 1923: Born in Westport, Co. Mayo
Early education at CBS, Westport, and Clongowes Wood College
Sept. 7th 1942: Entered the Society at Emo Park
Sept. 8th 1944: First Vows
1944 - 1947: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1947 - 1950: Tullabeg - Studied Philosophy
1950 - 1953: Belvedere College - Teacher
1953 - 1957: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
July 31st 1956: Ordained at Milltown Park
1957 - 1958: Rathfarnham - Tertianship
1958 - 1959: Chikuni - Studying local language; Spiritual Director
Feb. 2nd 1959: Final Vows at Chikuni Mission
1959 - 1960: Teacher Training College Chisekesi – Teacher; Spiritual Director
1960 - 1963: Sacred Heart, Monze - Prefect of Church
1963 - 1964: Sacred Heart, Monze - Mission Bursar; Prefect of Church
1964 - 1970: St. Ignatius Church Lusaka, - parish priest
Dec. 31st 1969: Transcribed to Zambia / Malawi Province
1970 - 1971: Chikuni, Canisius community - studying Chitonga
1971 - 1973: St. Mary's, Monze, - parish priest, minister
1973 - 1974: Chikuni, Canisius community - PP Fumbo
1974 - 1975: Ireland
1975 - 1980: Mazabuka, Nakambala- assistant PP
1980 - 1983: Mazabuka, Nakambala- superior, PP
1983 - 1984: Toronto-sabbatical
1984 - 1987: Kalomo - PP
1987 - 1988: Loyola House, Dublin - pastoral work
1988 - 1990: Arklow, Co Wicklow - pastoral work
1990 - 1991: Galway - pastoral work in Galway Archd.
1991 - 1993: Lisdoonvarna, Stella Maris Convent chaplain
1993 - 1999: Galway - assistant director of Mission Office.
1999 - 2003: Sligo, Nazareth House -asst. hosp. chaplain
2003 - 2004: Galway - Assist in church
Oct. 18th 2004: Died in Co. Roscommon

On October 9th Denis left Galway to visit friends in Sligo. He planned to be away for about a week. On Monday 18th he left a message for John O'Keeffe to say that he was with friends near Lough Key and that he planned to return to Galway on Wednesday 20th. On the evening of the 18th a message was received in Galway from the PP of Crossna, Co. Roscommon, to say that Denis did not come to tea as expected and that on going to his room he found him dead. He had gone to take a siesta.

Tom McGivern writes in the ZAM Province News Oct. 2004:

Dennis O'Connell (known to all as “Dinny”) was born in the west of Ireland, in Westport, County Mayo, on 19 February 1923. After primary school, he went to Clongowes Wood College run by the Jesuits, until he finished his secondary education. After school he tried a vocation with the Cistercians for a short time but turned back to the Jesuits whom he knew from school....He came out to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1958 to Chikuni where he studied Chitonga. After a year at Charles Lwanga Teachers' Training College, he went to Monze (1962-63) where he worked in the parish. Pastoral work was to be his vocation for the rest of his life. From Monze he took a big step to the large urban parish of St. Ignatius in Lusaka where he was parish priest for six years (1964-1970).

After Lusaka he moved again to the South where he worked for a while out of Chikuni and later in Monze. Then, for eight years (1975-1983) he worked at Nakambala in Mazabuka. During that time he oversaw the building of Christ the King church, the second church on the Sugar Estate after St. Paul's. His final years in Zambia were spent as parish priest in Kalomo (1984-1987). After thirty years of fruitful, patient work in Zambia, he returned to Ireland to continue his pastoral work. First he worked in the Archdiocese of Dublin for three years and then went to the West to the Diocese of Galway. There he did pastoral work and chaplaincy in Clarinbridge and Lisdoonvarna. After nine years at this he moved north to Sligo to Nazareth House as assistant hospital chaplain. In the latter part of last year he moved back to the Jesuit community in Galway where he was assisting in the church. Returning to Galway from a visit to Sligo on 18 October, he stayed with a priest friend at Crossna, County Roscommon. He died peacefully in his sleep while staying there.

These are the facts of Dinny's life. What of the man himself? Outwardly, he was a very laid-back person, easy going in the sense that very little disturbed him much. Always associated with him was his pipe and his hand basket in which he carried the essentials for his pastoral work as he moved around. The pipe brings to mind a story about him while he was on his sabbatical in the States. A quiet evening smoke in his room above the Downtown Chapel in Portland, Oregon, where he was a guest, activated the smoke detector in the ceiling and set off the sprinkler system, drenching the room.
As a pastoral worker and chaplain, he was most faithful to the work at hand, quietly, no fuss, almost unnoticed. He had an easy way of talking with elders, putting them at their ease, whether visiting their homes or attending their bedside in hospital. He loved to walk on his own by the sea or along a river bank. For him it was a time of prayer. He loved a good chat with friends once he had the pipe lit and glowing.

He was not adverse to recounting stories about himself. One that springs to mind was a time when he was traveling to Lusaka with a Jesuit companion, a companion who would quickly speak of spiritual matters. “Dinny”, the Jesuit said, “I admire you”. “Huh! Why's that?” asked Dinny. “Well”, was the reply. “You are a man of few talents, but you use them to the best of your ability!”
Dinny's talent was his easy, welcoming manner with people and his quiet, unobtrusive pastoral ability.

◆ The Clongownian, 2005

Obituary

Father Denis O’Connell SJ

On October 9th Denis left Galway to visit friends in Sligo. He planned to be away for about a week. On Monday 18th he left a message for John O'Keeffe to say that he was with friends near Lough Key and that he planned to return to Galway on Wednesday 20th. On the evening of the 18th a message was received in Galway from the PP of Crossna, Co Roscommon, to say that Denis did not come to tea as expected and that on going to his room he found him dead. He had gone to take a siesta.

Dennis O'Connell (known to all as “Dinny”) was born in the west of Ireland, in Westport, County Mayo, on 19 February 1923. After primary school, he went to Clongowes Wood College run by the Jesuits, until he finished his secondary education. After school he tried a vocation with the Cistercians for a short time but turned back to the Jesuits whom he knew from school. He came out to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1958 to Chikuni where he studied Chitonga. After a year at Charles Lwanga Teachers Training College, he went to Monze (1962-63). where he worked in the parish. Pastoral work was to be his vocation for the rest of his life. From Monze he took a big step to the large urban parish of St Ignatius in Lusaka where he was parish priest for six years (1964-1970).

After Lusaka he moved again to the South where he worked for a while out of Chikuni and later in Monze. Then, for eight years (1975-1983) he worked at Nakambala in Mazabuka. During that time he oversaw the building of Christ the King church, the second church on the Sugar Estate after St Paul's. His final years in Zambia were spent as parish priest in Kalomo (1984-1987). After thirty years of fruitful, patient work in Zambia, he returned to Ireland to continue his pastoral work. First he worked in the Archdiocese of Dublin for three years and then went to the West to the Diocese of Galway. There he did pastoral work and chaplaincy in Clarinbridge and Lisdoonvarna. After nine years at this he moved north to Sligo to Nazareth House as assistant hospital chaplain. In the latter part of last year he moved back to the Jesuit community in Galway where he was assisting in the church. Returning to Galway from a visit to Sligo on 18 October, he stayed with a priest friend at Crossna, County Roscommon. He died peacefully in his sleep while staying there.

These are the facts of Dinny's life. What of the man himself? Outwardly, he was a very laid-back person; easy going in the sense that very little disturbed him much. Always associated with him were his pipe and his hand basket in which he carried the essentials for his pastoral work as he moved around. The pipe brings to mind a story about him while he was on his sabbatical in the States. A quiet evening smoke in his room above the Downtown Chapel in Portland, Oregon, where he was a guest, activated the smoke detector in the ceiling and sec off the sprinkler system, drenching the room.

As a pastoral worker and chaplain, he was most faithful to the work at hand, quietly, no fuss, almost unnoticed. He had an easy way of talking with elders, putting them at their ease, whether visiting their homes or attending their bedside in hospital. He loved to walk on his own by the sea or along a riverbank. For him it was a time of prayer. He loved a good chat with friends once he had the pipe lit and glowing. Dinny's talent was · his easy, welcoming manner with people and his quiet, unobtrusive pastoral ability.

TMCG

Born: 02 July 1937, Shortcastle, Mallow, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1955, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 10 July 1969, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 17 September 1975, Mukasa, Choma, Zambia
Died : 17 November 2020, John Chula House, Lusaka, Zambia - Zambiae-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Transcribed HIB to ZAM, 17 September 1975

Father was a doctor.

Younger of two boys with two sisters.

Early education at a private school, then five years at the Patrician Brotthers, Mallow, he then went to Clongowes Wood College SJ for five years.

1955-1957 St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
1957-1960 Rathfarnham Castle - Studying
1960-1962 St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg - studying Philosophy
1962-1963 Loyola, Spain - studying Philosophy
1963-1965 Chivuna, Monze, Zambia - Regency, studying language, then teaching at Canisius College, Chikuni
1965-1966 Belvedere - Regency, teaching
1966-1970 Milltown Park - studying Theology
1970-1974 Canisius College, Chikuni - teaching
1974-1975 Mpima Seminary, Kabwe, Zambia - teaching
1975-1989 Mukasa Secondary School, Choma, Zambia
1989-1992 Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia - Maintenance
1992-2004 St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia
2004-2005 Jesuit Community, Claver House, LeConte, Berkeley CA, USA - sabbatical
2005-2018 Mukasa Jesuit Community, Choma, Zambia
2018-2019 Lusaka House, Lusaka, Zambia
2019-2020 Luwisha House, Lusaka, Zambia - John Chula House

Born: 07 September 1920, Iveragh, Athenry, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 08 September 1951, Heythrop College, Oxford, England
Final Vows: 02 February 1956, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 11 February 1997, St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin

Part of the Manresa, Dollymount, Dublin community at the time of death.

Father was an Inspector of National Schools, and this meant changing address many times, living in Cork and Waterford before living at Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin.

Eldest of two sisters and one brother.

Early education was with the Sisters of Charity Convent in Waterford, then at CBC Cork and then PBC Cork. On moving to Dublin he went toBelvedere College SJ for two years.

by 1949 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying
by 1963 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying
by 1972 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 92 : August 1996

Obituary

Fr Patrick (Paddy) O’Connell (1920-1997)

7th Sept. 1920: Born in Galway.
Early education: Presentation Brothers, Cork and Belvedere College
7th Sept. 1938: Entered the Society at Emo
1940 - 1944: Rathfarnham, studied Classics at UCD
1944 - 1947: Tullabeg, studied Philosophy
1947 - 1948: Belvedere College, Regency
1948 - 1952: Heythrop College, studied Theology
8th Sept. 1951: Ordained at Heythrop College
1952 - 1953: Rathfarnham, Tertianship
1953 - 1955: Gonzaga College, teaching
1955 - 1961: Milltown Park, teaching Dogma and Church History
1961 - 1963: Rome, Oriental Inst., Study : Oriental Church History
1963 - 1967; Milltown Park, Prof. Fundamental Theology
1967 - 1970: Rome, Gregorian - (Apr - Oct)
1970 - 1971: Sabbatical year
1971 - 1972: Milltown Park (Sem 1), Rome (Sem 2)
1973 - 1974: Rome: Dean, Faculty of Oriental Theology and Superior of the Community
1974 - 1984: Leeson St. - Editor of “Studies”
1984 - 1997: Manresa: Curate, St. Gabriel's Parish

Fr. Paddy O'Connell was born in Galway on the 7th September 1920. His father, who was from Kerry, was a school inspector. He began his schooling with the Presentation Brothers, Cork and finished in Belvedere College. In 1938 on his eighteenth birthday he joined the Jesuits. After two years noviceship in Emo, near Portarlington, his long years of study began. Four years at UCD obtaining an MA in Latin and Greek, three years philosophy in Rahan, Co. Offaly and four years theology in England where he was ordained in 1951. In the early sixties he obtained a doctorate in Theology in Rome.

Fr. Paddy was at home among books of all kinds, but they were not his only love. He was keen on sport and current affairs. He was very much himself in the company of young people; what interested them interested him. For a number of years while teaching theology in Milltown Park he was the rugby trainer of Presentation College, Bray. Apart from teaching in the Milltown Institute, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology, he also taught briefly in Belvedere and Gonzaga in Dublin and at the Oriental Institute in Rome where he was Rector in 1973-74. In the ten years before coming to St. Gabriel's he was editor of the Jesuit Review Studies. Up until recently he acted as censor of several Jesuit magazines. He learned to read quickly!

When Fr. Paddy was appointed to St. Gabriel's he lived for a while in Manresa before he had a house in the parish. However, he always remained a member of the Manresa community and had his dinner there a few days a week.

Of all the jobs he had as a priest the one that made him happiest was his time in St. Gabriel's. There is no giving without receiving. As he gave himself tirelessly to young and old, Fr. Paddy received encouragement and support for his life as a Jesuit priest. His Jesuit brothers wish to thank all of you in the parish who helped him find happiness in serving in the parish in his final twelve years.

His younger brother John was priest of the Dublin diocese and died ten years ago while parish priest of Brackenstown. Fr. Paddy is survived by his sisters, Nora in England and Maureen in Canada, and his many nieces and nephews and their families.

Ar dheis Dé ar a anam.

Charlie Davy

-oOo-

It is not a case of what can one say about Fr. O'Connell, rather one wonders what can one leave out when writing about him. He was such a “Complete Human Being” in every sense of the word and a wonderful Priest. He truly lived his vocation and gave 200% all of the time, never thinking of himself.

Academically he had reached great heights yet he was a very humble man. He loved his work in this parish and he loved the people and was always concerned for them. He took unto himself a lot of the worries and problems of those he served.

There was another side to Fr. O'Connnell. Yes he always had a smile and a greeting whenever he met you, he was most gracious. Then he would start joking and pulling the leg and all in good fun; he was the best of company. One of his favourite television programmes was Taggart, and when Taggart actor Mark McManus died, Fr. O'Connell celebrated a Mass for him. This was his way of saying “Thank You” for the hours of pleasure and relaxation he had received.

There are so many wonderful memories of Fr. O'Connell, but the one I will hold onto is seeing him on a sunny morning sitting on the concrete parapet under the portico outside the sacristy, the jacket open, a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other and delighted to chat to anyone who happened to come along.

We have lost a good friend and a wonderful character but as followers of Christ we must rejoice for him now and thank the good Lord for giving us the privilege of knowing him. He died on the feast of our Lady of Lourdes. May he rest in peace.

Focus 2000 Group

-oOo-

Fr. Paddy has been our much loved Spiritual Director almost since he came to the Parish more than 12 years ago. During all that time members of the branch and all parishioners who wished to attend, had the spiritual benefit of the Mass which he offered and a short talk before the monthly meetings he attended.

At the monthly meetings we had the benefit of his advice, encouragement and help in the recruitment of new members for whom he was always on the look-out, all of which has helped to ensure that our branch remains vibrant.

Over the years he arranged a number of Sunday "Afternoons of Prayer" at the Little Sisters of the Poor Church in Sybil Hill and in the Parish Church. His care for the problems of members, especially sick members, was much appreciated.

Ar dheis De go raibh a ainm dilis.

St. Joseph's Young Priest Society

-oOo-

For several years now Fr. O'Connell has been holding a Bible Class on Tuesday nights and all who attended feel so privileged to have participated.
The members of this group wish to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work and preparation he put into it each week and how much we have all learned. It was all very informal but he made all
the readings come to life for us.

Not only will we miss our Bible studies but we will miss the grand finale of each session when he celebrated Mass for us and then provided a couple of large pavlovas with the tea!

Bible Study Group

-oOo-

The people of Dollymount Grove are grieving the loss of a Neighbour and Friend as well as their priest. Fr. O'Connell was a familiar sight driving in and out, doing a wide U-turn to park in his usual spot, and God help anyone who got in the way! He was always ready to stop for à chat and knew everyone he met, down to their dislikes and failings, which he worked on to his advantage. But he also knew their good points and never missed an opportunity to offer praise and encouragement.

He was keen on gardening - especially watching other people - and was always quick to point out the weeds. He loved children and they returned his affection. He could not pass the boys playing football on the road without joining in, and indeed sadly he was seen out with then just a few short weeks ago.

Fr. O'Connell was welcomed in every house and brought consolation and comfort to the elderly and the lonely. He was new to parish work when he came to St. Gabriel's in 1983 and frequently became distressed after being with people in their last hours. He never lost this emotion and could empathise with those in grief and sorrow. But he did not dwell on sadness for long and used his ability and will to force a smile and lift a heart in even the darkest situations

Auaimhneas siorai ar a anam uasal.

Dollymount Grove

-oOo-

Fr. O'Connell was one of us yet he was also a man apart. His deep knowledge of theology was coupled with a childlike innocence of expression. He brought the comfort of Christ to many, particularly those he visited at home. His rare gift of heart-warming laughter brightened our days.

No trained journalist could have lowered barriers of reserve more quickly. He became both friend and pastor. When our family suffered a bereavement Fr. O'Connell suffered too. Yet he made us aware that death is a new beginning, that there is joy in Heaven, Fr. O'Connell was the epitome of Christianity. He was Christlike.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

A Personal Tribute

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1997

Obituary

Father Patrick O’Connell SJ (OB 1938)

Paddy O'Connell arrived in Belvedere in September 1938 [1936]. He had just finished his Inter Cert in another school, and joined us with the reputation of what we schoolboys called a “swot”. This meant that he would spend most of his time with his head in the books, and would consequently be somewhat anti-social. It was not long before we discovered how wrong we were. In no time he had got involved in all the extra-curricular activities, such as the Debating Society, the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Mission Society, and, of course, the rugby. He even made an abortive attempt to start a chess club. In about one month he must have learned the names of every boy in the school and he was so involved that one could have got the impression that he was a Belvederian of long standing. It was well known that he was a great reader and that he borrowed books from a number of city libraries. This fact tempted one of the boys to ask, “Paddy, is it true that you read four books before breakfast every morning?” With that O'Connell glint in the eye that we all came to know so well as time passed, he replied, “No. It is not true. I can only manage to read three”. I was told that on another occasion, when the same question was asked, Paddy replied, “Did you say read or write?” We all grew to like him as time passed, and when he pushed Gerry Victory into second place in his first house exam, we all believed that Paddy had achieved the impossible.

He was a lover of sport, and while rugby was new to him, he threw himself into the game with a gusto that was well-intentioned if some what lacking in finesse. He was a danger in the lineout, for as a schoolboy, he was a big boned second row forward, all elbows and knees, and one of his own team was just as likely to get a black eye as was one of the opponents. Coming off the field in Roscrea, I asked Seamus Henry, who was to captain the Senior team that won the Cup that year, what he thought of Paddy's performance in the lineout. He replied, briefly but tellingly, “Very effective, if somewhat unusual”. He carried his love of rugby right through his life and coached many school teams, even when much involved in the academic life later on. Although gifted in many ways, he had no musical ability, even if he had a great love for it. He never made the school opera, but displayed a knowledge of Gilbert and Sullivan lore that put us budding thespians to shame.

In September 1938, six Belvederians arrived in the Jesuit novitiate in Emo, with two or more of our year to follow at a later date. It was like Belvedere being moved to the midlands. At school, Paddy had distinguished himself in Fr Charlie Byrne's Latin and Greek classes. We were not surprised when the Master of Novices asked Paddy to help some of the other novices whose training in the classics had been some what limited. During our time in Emo, Paddy told me that he envied his brother, John, who was a student in Clonliffe College and who eventually became a priest in the Dublin dioceşes. John would have ample scope to do what Paddy called “specifically priestly work” in a parish, while he, as a Jesuit, might have limited opportunities to do so. During the last assignment of his life, his hopes of doing this type of pastoral work were granted.

As a Jesuit, he held many important positions. His love of books made him an automatic choice for the post of Librarian in Jesuit communities. He was the editor of the Jesuit quarterly, Studies, and lectured in Milltown Park and Heythrop College, the Irish and English Jesuit theologates. While resident in Dublin, between his many postings abroad, he was of immense help to the victims of alcoholism. His final assignment outside the country saw him occupy the position of Rector of the Oriental Institute in Rome.

His love of rugby brought him into contact with many schools, some run by Jesuits and some by other orders. While engaged in the study of theology at Heythrop before ordination, he did a little bit of coaching in his spare time, and even turned out and played with the local club, a thing that would not have been tolerated in Ireland at the time. But in spite of these contacts, he never lost his love for Belvedere. During the last decade of his life, when he was a curate in the parish of St Gabriel, Dollymount, he came in contact with many of his past pupils who lived in the area. They still regarded him as their old master and were grateful that he was always available to listen to their problems and rejoice in their successes. These were the happiest years of his life and the close proximity of his fellow Jesuits in Manresa House was a special bonus that added much to that happiness.

Paddy was always an optimist, and when I visited him in hospital three days before his death, he assured me that he would be back working in the parish in about two weeks. But that was not to be. His death came as a great shock to his many friends, and to the parishioners of St Gabriel's. One of them, Raymond O’Driscoll, penned a tribute to him in verse, two lines. of which I will quote, for they epitomise the Paddy we all knew so well, and now so sadly miss. May he rest in peace.

"For thirteen years he served us; his labours never ceased,
A humble man, a learned man, a dedicated priest.”

KAL SJ

Born: 12 April 1879, Parnell Square, Dublin
Entered: 05 January 1898, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 27 July 1913, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1916, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 25 June 1958, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

Father was a wine merchant and Bacon maker, RIP 1892. He had eight sisters (three of whom were step-sisters, one step-sister deceased and two sisters deceased very young). Three brothers (one deceased in infancy). As father died intestate all children were made wards of chancery.

Originally required a dispensation for entry due to a finger malformation.

Early education at Belvedere College SJ & Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1902 at Pressburg Hungary (Bratlslava, Slovakia) (ASR) studying
by 1911 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ Irish Province News 33rd Year No 4 1958 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1959

Obituary :
Fr John M O'Connor (1879-1958)
The death of Fr. John Mary O'Connor has taken from us one of the heroic-sized figures of the Province. He was one around whom a legend was bound to grow. His emphatic way of speaking, his oft-repeated “Do you follow?”, his delight in purple ink, his championing of unusual causes, his infinite capacity for interviewing were all peculiarities that lent themselves to many a tale. Born in 1879, the youngest son of his father, Fr. John seems to have been his father's chosen companion in his childhood. Those were the exciting years of the Home Rule Party with Parnell at its head and Mr. O'Connor as Lord Mayor of Dublin playing his part in the politics of the day. Hence would seem to spring Fr. O'Connor's life-long interest in debating which he put to good use in Clongowes, Belvedere and University Hall. His parents lived on Parnell Square, or Rutland Square as it was then called, and sent him to school to Belvedere which was so close to home. However, it was found difficult to control the activities of John outside school and he was transferred to Clongowes to encourage him to study. There he remained till he passed the First Arts examination of the old Royal University, so that he did study even if his out-of-class activities grey greater than ever.
When he finally left Clongowes, he wished to join the Society but found two obstacles confronting him, he was a ward in Chancery and he had lost an index-finger. Ways and means were discovered for surmounting both these impediments and he entered the noviceship in 1898. At the end of his noviceship and juniorate in Tullabeg, he went to Pressburg for philosophy and then began his magisterium in Clongowes. After a few years as Line Prefect, he was sent to Belvedere where he spent the remaining years of his teaching. He studied theology first in Louvain, where Fr. General was then attending the University, and later in Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1913. His tertianship was made in Tullabeg and after it he went in 1915 to Clongowes as Higher Line Prefect. In 1921, he returned to Belvedere as Prefect of Games, a post he held until 1930 when he was appointed for the first time as Head of University Hall. He was made Rector of Belvedere in 1936 and when he had finished his term of office in 1942, he returned to University Hall. During this second period in the Hall, a nervous breakdown slowly developed from which he was never to fully recover. He spent a short time in Milltown Park before returning to Belvedere in 1947 to which house he was attached till his death in June, 1958.
As will be noted, Fr. O'Connor's work was for the most part with boys and adolescents for both of whom he possessed traits of character which gave him a marked ascendancy over them. His interest in sport and gifts as a trainer appealed to the athletic and his supreme conviction of the importance of everything he was doing attracted to him adolescents uncertain of themselves. There was, of course, much more than this to his influence over young people. Probably his greatest single asset was his interest in everybody. He could not pass a long railway journey, he could not stay for a short time in a hotel without falling into conversation with his neighbour and getting to know him. This was far from the countryman's spirit of inquisitiveness but marked a very genuine interest in his fellowmen. When boys and University students met him, it was a revelation to many of them that a priest could take the interest in them that Fr, O'Connor obviously did. Hence sprang their devotion to him and their habit of making him the confidant of their ambitions and disappointments. When University College Rugby Club required a trainer, they paid him a remarkable tribute by turning to him in their need and asking him to undertake the difficult task. Mr. Sarsfield Hogan's eulogy of him at a recent meeting of the L.B.I.R.F.U. is a fair indication of the success he made of it. The students had many a story to tell about him but there was no mockery behind the stories, they told them about one for whom they had the highest regard. The gold chalice presented to him when he became Rector of Belvedere was a touching tribute from so notoriously impecunious a body of young men.
Fr. O'Connor was not a person who liked to take his ease - those who went on villa with him often found to their dismay that he fitted a minor mission into tho holiday. Safety first was never his motto, nor is it a Jesuit motto. He undertook many things, some of which were a great success, others the reverse, but the balance was very much in his favour.
Probably his years in Clongowes would appear to many as the least successful, for apart from founding one of the Debating Societies as a Scholastic, he was responsible for no permanent change there. However his influence with the boys was beyond denial and their devotion to him then and afterwards.
His association with Belvedere was very long and Belvedere has much to thank him for. As & scholastic he founded the Rhetoric Debating Society in 1908 and organised the Swimming Gala so well that it was the chief event of the season of the Leinster Swimming World, he was also instrumental in having the Sports Ground at Jones's Road purchased. When he returned as a priest in 1921 he revived the Debating Society, set the College in the front ranks of the Leinster schools for Rugby and Cricket and just before his appointment to University Hall founded a commercial school. Then as Rector be galvanised into new life the Union, founded the Musical Society and got the Old Boys' Rugby Club admitted to Senior ranks, as one of his helpers amongst the Past said at the time rather ruefully, “Being an O.B, is a full-time occupation. nowadays”. No Old Belvederian was allowed to hide his light under a bushel, and heaven and earth was canvassed for the beatification of Dom Columba Marmion. As regards the school itself, he revived the study of German, inaugurated the Philosophy year, the annual mothers' meeting and the interviewing by the Rector of all boys in the final school-year. Even on his return to Belvedere in broken health, he showed he had lost none of his interest in the College. School matches had to be played over again. in his room and changes in the school order of time brought to his notice.
Some think that Fr. O'Connor's finest work was done in University Hall. It was certainly a most difficult assignment. He had to deal with some sixty young men with no great spirit of reverence and very resentful of any attempt to drive them. Yet in a remarkably short space of time, he had established over them an ascendancy which none would have expected. He attributed his success to the prayers he had offered up in so many convents for his charges. On the natural level, the transformation was due to his energetic interest in every aspect of student life. He put before them an ideal to which they promptly responded. They should be leaders in every department of student life. They should be on the College teams, they should be prominent in the Debating Societies and Honours men in the different University faculties. When the students saw that he believed in what he preached and that University Hall was no place for idlers, they came to realise that he had the right scale of values and adopted it themselves. There resulted that high regard for the Hall which still holds in College circles and that brilliant series of results obtained by Hall students which is not likely to be ever surpassed. Fr. O'Connor left the Hall a house of which University College and the Province itself might well be proud. The work Fr. O'Connor himself preferred was that of guiding souls, He was in constant demand by young men and women who wished for advice on the question of vocation. Moreover he never missed an opportunity of giving a retreat. He had not a very attractive style as a lecturer but retreatants forgot that once they had been to confession to him and experienced his great patience and devotion. His sympathy was genuine and souls in, distress were sure of a kindly hearing. The many nuns at his funeral in Gardiner St. reminded us that his constant labours for them were sincerely appreciated. When his crippling illness made it impossible for him to continue his apostolate of the spoken word he turned to that of the written word. His correspondence directed to the four quarters of the globe was voluminous. Old boys of Belvedere and Clongowes, past students of University Hall, Jesuits who had lived with him and were now continents away, former servants, people he had met on holidays, nuns turned to him in their trouble and were sure of an answer to any petition for help. Those who doubt the value of all this letter-writing should have heard the appreciative comments of the people to whom he wrote. When he grew very ill and was no longer able to write, letters were received from his correspondents saying how much they missed hearing from him.
Fr. O'Connor was a very good “Community man”. He enjoyed the give and take of Community life and a Community was happier for his presence. He was guide, philosopher and friend to many generations of scholastics and put at their disposal his great experience as Games master and President of Debates. When he was present, recreations were seldom dull, often uproarious and, for most of us, great fun. As was said at the beginning of this article, Fr. O'Connor is a fit subject for a legend, but if it is to reflect the truth in any way it must pay tribute to his essential kindliness, essential zeal, and his fidelity to the motto of every Jesuit-Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
There was nothing small about him and his reward must surely be correspondingly great.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Mary O'Connor 1879-1958
Fr John Mary O’Connor was one of those Jesuits around whom legends grow. His emphatic way of speaking, his oft-repeated :do you follow me?”, his delight in purple ink, his championing of unusual causes, his infinite capacity for interviewing, were all peculiarities that lent themselves to many a tale.

Born in Dublin in 1879 at Parnell Square, his father was an active Irish Party man and Lord Mayor of Dublin in his day. John was educated at Belvedere and Clongowes. When he wished to enter the Society, he had two obstacles in his way, he was a Ward in Chancery, and he had lost an index finger.. He loved to tell the story of how his mother took him to the Pope, Leo XIII, and personally got a dispensation from the Second impediment.

The two outstanding purple patches in his life as a Jesuit, besides the purple ink, were his period as First prefect in Clongowes, and secondly his reign as Rector in Belvedere. He had a rare gift of direction of young men and boys, and his prowess in the athletic field lent him no small influence with them. Some think that Fr O’Connor’s finest work was done at University Hall as Principal. It is certainly a most difficult assignment, and the fact that so notoriously impecunious a body as University students presented him with a gold chalice on his appointment to Belvedere as Rector, is no small tribute to his power of striking enthusiasm out of young men with no great spirit of reverence, and resentful of any attempt to drive them.

Fr O’Connor undertook many projects, some of which were a great success, others the reverse, but the balance was much in his favour. Safety first was never his motto.
However, his favourite work was the direction of souls, and when ill health prevented him from active work, he took to the pen, and purple ink, with even more energy than usual.
He was an excellent community man. Recreation was never dull in his presence. In a word, there was nothing small about John Mary O’Connor, and for his good heart alone and his sympathy, he surely went straight to heaven when he died on June 25th 1958.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1948

Editorial

Father John Mary O'Connor SJ

This year was to have seen the celebration of the Jubilee of a figure well known and well loved by many generations of Belvederians, Fr John O'Connor. Unfortunately, sickness has precluded the possibility of any functions so far, but we may not let this number of the Magazine pass without some mention of all that Belvedere owes to him.

The narrow limits of the Editorial page do not allow us to say all that rises to the mind at the mention of Fr O'Connor, but the mere reference to the many spheres in which he has won the indebtedness of many generations of Belvederians will recall to those concerned a long vista of devoted work, unfailing interest and ever-ready help.

We must content ourselves with but a few of the host of activities to which he lent his aid. Unknown now within our walls is a Commercial School : Fr O'Connor started one and ran it for some years before he left us for University Hall. Back numbers of the Annual illustrate the grave and worthy students. As Rector he sped upon its way the Old Belvedere Musical and Dramatic Society. Many had grave doubts as to the practical possibility of such a step - he had none. His trust and confidence have been amply justified. As Rector, too, he urged on the emergence of the Old Belvedere Rugby Football Club into Senior Ranks. He looked after them, trained them, and the record of seven years of success is linked up with his name, and influence. To his originality and initiative as Rector is due the grandly successful reorganisation of the College Union on its present Vocational basis, which has resulted in the renewed vitality, Apostolic enterprise and social development of that Body.

In former days the College Rugby Teams were weak owing to the small numbers from which they might be drawn. Nowadays, the selectors are not so straitened, but even before the College Roll numbered its present hundreds Fr O'Connor, by training and tactics, had won the Senior Schools' Cup, and by setting this high standard he raised the level of the College achievement to the position it has held with varying success ever since; but he was not alone a first class Rugby coach, for he promoted all the College games, Cricket, Swimming and Tennis at which he himself was a fine exponent.

Finally, not a few must thank him for his encouragement to the Debating Societies. Always a strong believer in their advantages for later life, he once staged a full dress Debate in the Preparatory School, while he followed and guided the proceedings of the Senior Societies with unfailing attention.

And so we might go on, but space forbids. These few lines take no account of what is most important - his work and influence as a Priest of God - his Apostolic care and guidance in the ways of God of countless people, both within and without the College precincts, but that we may leave to Him who alone can assess its magnitude and lasting worth. Brief and inadequate as these lines are to fill the Portrait of the man we speak of, they may suffice to arouse a host of grateful and multitudinous memories in those who worked with him. and under him. Providence was surely kind in sending him back to us in Belvedere in the year of his Jubilee. He is with us again, not only to recall his long and busy years at Belvedere but to assist us with his counsel and his wisdom in the Spiritual Welfare of the boys. We can only hope that in due course he may come back and resume for many years the valued place that is his amongst us.

◆ The Clongownian, 1959

Obituary

Father John M O’Connor SJ

After two years at Belvedere John O'Connor entered Clongowes at the age of twelve, his advance in studies thereafter being solid rather than spectacular and he is remembered as making his mark in debate and for his prowess as a tennis player. He entered the novitiate early in 1898 and returned as a Scholastic to take over the Lower Line from 1904 to 1906. But it is as Prefect of the Higher Line (1915-1921), subsequent to his Ordination in 1913, that his name will be linked with the school in a notable way for the impress made by his personality on its way of life and on the many boys committed to his charge. Always a man of decided views, which found ready utterance, and lofty ideals anent the upbringing of youth, he set himself from the start to mould the upright and useful citizen of the future and the leader, even, of his community. To be sure his ideas, as is the lot of pioneers, did not win too ready acceptance above or below, but “John M” (to his familiars) was never the man then or after to be lightly swayed from his chosen line of country, and it may be conceded that tact did not always coruscate in his galaxy of virtues, The Saturday Declamation, carefully planned and never omitted, was his instrument of uplift, and how effective it could be was proven when, one evening just before tea, the entire indoor staff staged a lightning strike. Almost unprompted the boys buckled to and served at table, washed up afterwards and for most of the week cheerfully per formed every chore about the house even to the sweeping of the galleries and classrooms! “Correctness” was at a premium but did not preclude high spirits, as witness the famous Hunt incident (too long to be told) with its aftermath of comedy and high tragedy. But perhaps it is as Rugby coach that Father O'Connor is best remembered and that not only for skills he imparted but also for his fostering of self-reliance, keenness and true sportsmanship, all of which paid ample dividends. Under him, tennis enjoyed a boom as never before, largely as a social asset for after life, while at the same time cricket was fully accorded its traditional pride of place as the Clongowes summer game. Always he looked ahead and was never niggardly of advice to his Higher Liners about the problems that awaited them - he even once (or was it oftener?) devoted a Declamation on how to make a proposal of marriage, blending the ingredients of tenderness and firmness in just proportion! Little wonder, then, that so many of his boys kept in touch with him in after years, indeed his was a voluminous correspondence to almost the end.

In 1931 he became for six years Principal. of University Hostel, Dublin, to which exacting post he returned immediately after his Rectorship of Belvedere (1937-43) for a further three as Principal, and on both establishments he left an abiding mark all his own.

Earnestness was, I think, the keynote of his character and of all he undertook, and yet he could be, and often was, the best of company and his, too, was the gift of truly Jovian laughter. Even during the illness that overtook him in the closing years of his life he was prodigal of himself and of his time to the many Old Boys of his who sought him out, as did his brother Jesuits, either for his kindly counsel, the warmth of his handclasp, or just to while away an agreeable hour or two - so prodigal indeed that he was seldom known to terminate a session of his own accord and clocks night chime and bells ring unheeded by his visitors, so stimulating was his talk.

He died peacefully in Dublin, on the 25th of June, 1958, in his 80th year, and in the press of mourners about his graveside, “revolving many memories”, there were surely not a few who felt their world to be the poorer for the passing of a personality so vital and so kind. May he rest in peace.

MG

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 2002
Farewell Companions : Dermot S Harte
Fr John Mary O’Connor SJ

Amongst the Great Belvederians the name of John Mary O'Connor (”Mr. Belvedere”), must loom large! He was Rector during most of my schooldays and he became a cherished friend to me and to my family. Known as “Bloody Bill” to generations of boys who entered and exited the College portals, it was not unusual to see a wedding announcement that read, “The ceremony was conducted by Fr O'Connor SJ”.

A keen fly-fisherman, I revelled in his company on various lakes around Ireland where fish abounded and, occasionally, were known to have been caught. We fished Lough Conn one summer and the only trout that was caught on the day was caught by me. l really looked forward to a feast of nice plump brown trout. However, as I was returning to Dublin the following morning, I was directed to which house I was to deliver my catch. Even Haffner's sausages didn't quite make up for my loss, but like so many other events in life, I survived!

But he had one “vice” that really was a very small one! I am convinced that he really believed the quotation that “No Salvation exists outside Belvedere”. He would defend to the death the life of any Belvederian; he would find jobs for them where no jobs existed; he would extricate them from trouble when it was impossible to do so; he would bail them out in the event that they needed to be bailed; he would pacify their irate bank managers when this was necessary; he would marry them and bury them because he loved them all - and they in return loved him. He was an expert in pursuing with dogged determination any and all matters on their behalf if he were requested to do so, and was quite capable of harassing and hassling people until they did what he required. I often thought that his 'victims' might have done what he wanted simply to get him out of their hair! But he will always be remembered by generations as a dear, dear man.
In his always kindly mind he nominated various friends for various personal tasks but he did it with such style, diplomacy and grace that I don't suppose anyone ever said “No”.

In later years he nominated me as his personal chauffeur when he was returning to Dublin from his yearly retreat that usually took place in some remote part of the country. But he gave much more than he asked and our journeys from even the remotest parts were carefully organised by him well in advance! He would arrange lunch here, and tea there, and I must have got to know scores of nuns in Ireland! When Our Lady's Hospital in Drogheda was damaged by fire he summoned me to drive him to Co Louth so that he could offer his sympathy and help to his close friend, Mother Mary Martin. These were spectacularly happy and memorable times and I enjoyed every second.

But there is a story told about him and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid that I am assured is absolutely true! It seems that he was dining with John Charles when a slight argument developed as to which Order - the Holy Ghosts or the Jesuits - was greater in the sight of God. With no resolution in sight it was decided that a telegram must be immediately sent to Heaven. This was done and the reply was eagerly awaited. Sometime within the hour a telegram was delivered from God! It read, “There is absolutely no difference between the Holy Ghosts and the Jesuits. Signed: Jesus Christ, SJ”. As is said in all the best US law dramas, “I rest my case!”

I visited this remarkable and dear friend when I was home on leave sometime towards the end of the Fifties. His health was declining and he was confined to his room. For a man of such inexhaustible energy this would not have been easy. He was weak but he was fairly happy and when I left him he gave me a small crucifix. In 1958 he was called 'home' and I have no doubt that he is still sorting out other people's problems whilst maintaining that Belvederians are the Chosen People!

Who knows, he may be right!

Born: 26 May 1932, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1964, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1968, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 02 January 1997, Dublin

Part of the Coláiste Iognáid, Galway community at the time of death.

by 1971 at Loyola Chicago, USA (CHG) studying
by 1985 at University of Warwick, England (ANG) studying

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 92 : August 1996

Obituary

An t-Ath Seán B. Ó Conchúir (1932-1997)

26th May 1932: Born in Dublin
Early education; St. Mary's, Athlone and St. Ignatius, Galway
7th Sept. 1950: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Sept. 1952: First Vows at Emo
1952 - 1955: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD
1955 - 1958: Tullabeg, Studying Philosophy
1958 - 1959: Belvedere: Regency
1959 - 1961: St. Ignatius, Galway, Regency
1961 - 1965: Milltown Park, Studying Theology
31st July 1964: Ordained Priest at Milltown Park
1965 - 1966: Rathfarnham, Tertianship
1966 - 1968: St. Ignatius, Galway: Teacher and MA studies
1968 - 1970: St. Ignatius, Galway: Prefect of Studies
1970 - 1973: Chicago: Doctoral studies in Education
1973 - 1977: Crescent Residence: Director, Research Project at Shannon
1977 - 1978: Crescent Residence : Lecturer in Education at New University of Ulster
1978 - 1980: Galway: University of Ulster work and Pre school project in Irish, Connemara
1980 - 1984: Resident in Connemara: Irish Project work
1984 - 1986: Warwick University Studies
1986 - 1991: Galway: Studies in Lifestart, Gaeltacht Project
1991 - 1997: Carraroe: Director of Lifestart Project and Researcher

There’s a photo in the house of Seán’s sister Mairin, deceased, in Cork, showing four army officers. They are Seán’s grandfather, father and two brothers of his father. One of them, Uncle Patrick, was a member of Michael Collins’ ‘Twelve Apostles’. The four of them played their part in the War of Independence. Sean’s mother (Mary Harper before marriage) was a member of Cumann na mBan (Fellowship of Women) and while still a child was involved in the Easter Rebellion. Sean’s pedigree, therefore, was not so different from that of the Basque, Ignatius of Loyola; a pedigree that begot loyalty, magnanimity, a large and generous heart ready for great deeds and exploits. The Son of God chose someone of that caliber – Thomas the Zealot, and perhaps also two others – James and John, the Sons of Thunder. Would you not think that Jesus has a special feel for someone who is ready to risk their life for a cause? He himself was facing into such a future: ‘I give my life for my sheep.’

That is what I say of Seán O Conchuir of the Society of Jesus; he never slackened, when younger and also in his thirty-two years of priesthood. Always he was searching for what was ‘greater’ and ‘more perfect’ until his strength, health and his very life were spent ‘for the sheep’, and especially for the sheep in the flock of his Lord and Master. In all that work, his soldier-like qualities were patience, gentleness, love, humility and humor, a humor that he could turn on himself with a delightful explosive laugh.

Seán was committed to education (was it not so with Christ?) on every level –primary, secondary and university. He educated himself through diligent study: an MA in the sixties, a doctorate in the eighties. Curriculum development, use of statistics, evaluation of teaching programmes and progression, and of the work of students or trainee teachers; psychology and child-development—he gained a mastery and reputation in all these disciplines.

His achievement, whether in founding ‘Home Education’ and the ‘Life-start Foundation’ -- his most outstanding and effective projects--is all the more remarkable when one considers that he was struck down with rheumatic fever as a child, and was a weak boy who was wheeled along the Prom at Salthill, swathed in blankets. Thus he remained until his early teens, so he could not participate in football or rowing in Colaiste Iognaid. But he began to swim and this improved his health, as did life-saving, which was being taught by Jimmy Cranny and Des Kenny. At the end of secondary school he was strong enough to join the FCA and wear a soldier’s uniform in 1949, the year when the Republic was again proclaimed. In autumn of the following year he and Padraic Mac Donnchadha joined the Jesuit Order in Emo, Portarlington.

Seán was born in Dublin: his father, Ceannphor (Commandant) Sean Ó Conchúir, was ADC to President Sean de hIde.

The family spent a while in Athlone and the father then transferred to the Cead Cath (First Battalion), which was fully Irish, in Galway. Little Seán was sent to Scoil Fhursa, managed by Bean a’Bhreathnaigh. Scoil Fhursa and later Colaiste Iognaid planted in him a love and appreciation for Irish music, dancing and song, which lasted until the end of his life. If you heard him rendering ‘An Bhinsin Luachra’ or ‘Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor’ you would understand that love and appreciation.

The experience that Seán gained of the arts of music and acting through the Feis Cheoil, and later through the Colaiste Iognaid choir, was only an extension of his family’s gifts. There is a dynamism in the family always to celebrate life, especially through close association with nature and the practice of the arts – do you remember Seán performing a solo ballet in Tullabeg? You can see this love of life in the lives and families of his three sisters too – Mairin (the bright light of God be on her), Dairine and Grainne. A permanent feature of the home life of the O’Connors were the Sing Songs. Everyone had their own song or recitation. Any Jesuit who participated in these evenings in the O’Connor home in Galway between 1966 and 1972 will look back on them with appreciation and gratitude, and will especially remember the party-piece which Sean composed and rendered with a strong Claddagh accent. Seán’s creativity blossomed: he produced plays, composed prose pieces, and wrote poetry. One of his philosophy companions in Tullabeg baptized him as ‘The Bard’.

Frequently you would notice that Seán was absorbed in deep thought. He had a great gift of focusing entirely on a person (he was an excellent listener, full of respect for the speaker whether man, woman or child), or on an object or on scenery. To the end of his life every aspect of nature gave him joy, gladness and pleasure. Wild flowers by the roadside or the bare tops of the Beanna Beola or Snowdon would give wings to his heart. Seán steadily cultivated the spirit of the Contemplatio of the Exercises of Ignatius, especially in his final years in Connemara from 1980 onward. ‘To recognize God in all things… working on my behalf’. When I study his beautiful photos of Connemara and its flora, my heart shakes with wonder: he is a man spell-bound by the beauty of creation, a silent beauty which speaks to him of the eternal and mysterious beauty of God. And in his commitment to his calling as a wise man, a teacher and a priest, whose task was to break open and divide this bread of beauty, he spoke of it in images which would take the eye out of your head. He conveyed it to the children of ‘Home Education’ in the form of jigsaws, and in the form of poems for the grown-ups.

Lord, we live out of death;
therefore I say to the animals: ‘You who were tame and gentle
In the meadows yesterday,
You nourish what is beautiful and pure
In me today.’

And I say to the fish:
‘You who were free in the water a short while ago,
You now feed the freedom and agility of my body’.

And I say to the harvest:
'The music you played to the sun in autumn
I sense now as a poem
In the cold winter of life’.

And I say to Christ:
‘The pinnacle of goodness died in your body
But now you clothe the heavens
With white flowers’.

‘And you, Host of Christ on my lips
You are the wine of blood and the seed of flesh,
You are the honey of Easter, you are the sap of youthfulness
You are the flowering branch within me
Which does not wither.’

The beauty of that poem is awesome: it leaves me rooted to the spot. God reveals his secrets to children. I believe that in all his high learning and deep study Seán kept safe within himself the heart and pure mind of a child. It was this that gave him wonderful insight into the essential stages of a child’s development. This is why the programme ‘Home Education’ satisfies the need of children from Connemara to Ballymun, from Wexford to Derry, from Barcelona to Belfast’s Shankill.

Michael Hurley gave heartfelt witness to the reputation Seán had achieved within the various strata of the Six Counties: ‘He made it easier for us to encounter one another and forge bonds of friendship’. His close friends Dolores McGuinness and Aine Downey in Derry put it incisively: ‘There was never anyone like Sean who could move among people without causing them nervousness or fear. He was full of respect for everyone, and he listened to them with total attention.’

In his final days, on his bed of sickness and weakness, I was frequently at his side. The only syllable he could articulate was his heavy breathing, regular and low. But throughout that time he made a living prayer of his hands which were stretched out before him on the bed-clothes: thumbs joined and fingers clasped, as if he had the Body of Christ within his fingers, and Seán steadily gazing on it with the eyes of his soul, constantly focussed on it, endlessly adoring: ‘I adore you, O spirit of fruitfulness, O beautiful One of the heavenly rampart’-- a quotation from ‘Adoramus Te, Christe’ by Daibhi O Bruadair (1625 – 1698): Sean learnt it at the feet of Professor Gerard Murphy in UCD. It was he who opened up for Sean the enchanting treasury of Irish literature and folklore.

And with Gregorian chant as a lullaby, to the very end he made that mysterious sign of his priesthood and his life; offering – as a child shyly offers his little fists to its mother—his labours, sweat, joys, troubles, failures, retraining, petitions, despair, despondency, love, integrity and the achievements of the years.

May the two hands of the Child Jesus enfold you forever, Seán, while He merrily teaches you the beautiful ‘Home Education’ of his own hearth and household.

Translation Brian Grogan SJ

Interfuse No 98 : Autumn 1998

VISIONARY, YES, POLITICIAN, NO

Conall Ó Cuinn

I missed Seán O'Connor's funeral. But this article is not an obituary. It's a reflection about Seán's short time as headmaster of Coláiste Iognáid in Galway for just two academic years, 1968 and 1969, the period immediately following the Prague Spring and the Paris Student Revolution. It corresponded to my own 4th and 5th Form as a student there. I write as someone who was greatly influenced by Seán's vision for education, a catalytic factor in my joining the Society. I supported him in as much as any 4th or 5th Form student was capable of supporting a headmaster.

In Seán's time I was also privileged to be a member of the first elected school council, which, like the Sunningdale Parliament, was quickly dissolved from above after a very short life, I served as a prefect in 5th year, trying to implement what I understood as Seán's vision of pupils being creative participants in their own education. I was on the editorial team of the student newspaper whose last edition never reached the newsstands, having been confiscated by the authorities. We did manage to spirit a few copies away before the police came knocking at the door and Patrick Hume tells me there is a copy in the archives. Shortly after Paddy Tyrrell took over from Seán in 1970, I was appointed School Captain, and so had a lot of contact with staff.

In many ways, even at that time, I had “insider” knowledge of what was going on above and around me (sources remaining anonymous). However, I am aware now that I didn't really understand the complexity of what was happening politically, or how delicate and fragile the whole situation was. So naive was I, that I was greatly surprised when Seán finished as headmaster after only two years. As captain of the school, I had a lot to do with his successor, Paddy Tyrrell. Like for others enthused by Seán's vision, his removal and replacement appeared to me to be a Margaret Thatcher-style takeover intent on reversing the new social order (others would say social disorder).

I now understand better what a very difficult assignment Paddy Tyrrell had been given. Seán and he were contemporaries and friends during formation. I now appreciate how Paddy managed to preserve many of the positive elements of what we might call the O'Connor revolution. For example, neither corporal punishment nor the 11-plus type streaming into A and B classes were reintroduced. The new pupil oriented attitude continued. People remained more important than system. And further developments took place under Paddy's leadership.

Seán, like Padraig Pearse, was a great visionary, but a poor politician. Seán's studies on education had been about the Pearse educational experiment at Coláiste Eanna. Only later in both cases did their vision begin to flower into political reality. In the immediate, however, Seán failed to win over the four very difficult constituencies which he needed to engage in order to succeed. These consisted of the Jesuit Community, the Lay Staff, the Parents, and the boys (especially the senior classes).

Many of the senior boys used the elimination of corporal punishment as an excuse for license, which initially gave the school a certain chaotic appearance. In his first year, Seán had welcomed a large group of repeat, but disgruntled, 6th years back to school. In general, they proved to be a very disruptive force among the senior boys and Seán's first academic year ended with a riot on the school pitch during the taking of the school photo. This resulted in all 6th years being sent home a full week before schedule, an act just short of expulsion. While the 4th and 6th year battled it out before the assembled school, with Fr. Jack Hutchinson trying to appease both sides, the lay teachers were gathered in the corner of the field to discuss whether they should go on strike. It appeared that the educational revolution had degenerated into chaos.

Owing to the suddenness of Seán's reforms, teachers had suddenly found themselves, without any real training, invited to abandon more formal teaching methods in the junior forms. Classwork was to be organised around projects whereby the teacher's role was to serve the intellectual curiosity of the pupil by providing resources and advice about topics of the pupil's interest. With no corporal punishment as the usual backup control and with little or no focus on public examinations, some of the teachers quickly found themselves bewildered and longing for the good old days of law and order.

The Jesuit staff and community lived with two unresolved tensions. Jesuits in general were divided in their reception of the new orientations of GC31, and in Galway there was the additional division between the “Gaeilgeoirs” and the “Non-Gaeilgeoirs”. Skills of community dialogue were in their rudimentary stages. Communication still tended to move vertically between the individual and the Rector. Despite the many meetings, so difficult for those not used to them, much of the political communication was beamed from one group to the other via the Rector. Our subsequent growth in ability to dialogue can now be seen more clearly when we contrast the serene atmosphere of today's province meetings to those very first acrimonious meetings of the late 60's and early 70's.

Finally, the parents, despite the importation of some high level lecturers of Lonergan leanings from Milltown Park, found it difficult to form a vision beyond the newly introduced points system for entry to University, a system necessitated by the increased number seeking university places following the introduction of free secondary education and university grants. Many parents feared the project/pupil orientated method adopted for the 1st years would spread to all classes prompting visions of their off-spring failing to progress to third-level education. The parents, like the Jesuits, were divided into two camps. The “Jes” parents saw the school as a mini-Clongowes without the boarding fees, and the “Coláiste lognáid” parents wanted an all-Irish education. I believe this division of parental motivation is one reason why Coláiste lognáid in my time never won a football match because the pool of best players was always divided between Gaelic and Rugby which was played in a club independent of the school. With divisions like this it was difficult to work with the parents as a single group. In general, however, the parents were not convinced by what they saw as a Galway version of the Paris Revolution with its sit-ins and teach-ins which were already being picked up in the Irish universities. Our having a silhouette of Che Guevara, with a clenched fist, on the cover page of the banned magazine certainly would not have helped Seán with the parents had it been circulated!

Changing metaphors, Seán was seen as the Dubcec who had gone a step too far. The hot line to the Rector and to Eglinton Road was often engaged for long periods. Both Rector and Provincial were, as far as I understand, ideologically in tune with Seán. However, they could not ignore the persistence of representation from the unconvinced part of the Jesuit Community, and many of the lay-staff and parents. Enrolment was beginning to drop too. Seán's term would have to end prematurely, without time for the fruits to show themselves. The tanks rolled in. At least it seemed like that at the time.

It was not that Seán did not know how important it was to share his vision with the four constituencies. It seems to me, however, that he confused explanation with acceptance. He made great efforts to explain ... all those meetings after school, which went on late into the night. One man, I heard, who did not see the point of all these meetings, obediently attended but spent the time correcting his copy books. However, acceptance comes ultimately with understanding. Seán may not have realised that many of the players were not convinced enough to have a team that could pull together. In fact, the team pulled apart.

Seán himself had come back to Galway after many years of openness to new ideas, both in Dublin and in the US. A small number appreciated or understood all three strands of his vision: Gaelic, child-orientated education, and Vatican II reflected institutionally in the documents of GC31. Some accepted one, or even two of these strands. But with pressure to maintain the status quo, only a few could back Seán in all three strands. Those who were still uncomfortable on any of these three areas found themselves unable to throw themselves into the project. Intellectually, emotionally, or professionally many of the teachers were ill-equipped to deal with the changes. They reacted in different ways, some by withdrawing, some with belligerent opposition to that part which seemed to be “non-sense”, some with quiet passive resistance. Weakened by this, the rope was not strong enough to carry the experiment, unraveled, and eventually snapped.

Politically, Seán might have had a better chance of succeeding if he had taken more time to introduce his changes in a slower fashion. On the other hand, the changes were the result of an intellectual and spiritual paradigm shift: none of the individual changes he introduced would on their own have made any sense without the others, Seán had not had the backup benefits of today's Ignatian colloquium, a systematic way of engaging lay-teachers and parents, and even students, in our vision. (I regard myself as having been introduced to the Jesuit educational vision through “colloquy”). It was out of experiences such as the “Galway experiment”, that the need for such methods developed.

Finally, it seems to me that Seán did have the prophet's self immolating tendency, which we see in Pearse. Say what needs to be said, even if they don't understand. Do what needs to be done, even if they don't follow. Die on the pyre of truth, for the phoenix will rise from the ashes.

But the line between prophetic word/action and railroading is often difficult to distinguish, especially when viewed from the outside. There were 'in' and 'out' groups. Invitation and command were then often perceived, and intended, as synonyms. So there might not have been the freedom to really talk through apprehensions in order to include other wisdoms in the vision. Seán may have interpreted silence as consent, and genuine opposition as belligerence.

This article is one attempt to understand what was happening in Galway at that time. I hope it can be part of the healing process which Seán is now intimately involved with in his new position in the Communion of Saints. His vision was a major stepping stone in my own journey into the Society. It has touched many people and continues to grow and develop in them. As the woman said of her husband who had walked out on her some years previously, “he was doing the best he could”: all were doing the best they could under the circumstances.

There may still be some lessons to learn from this particular phase of the history of the Irish Province. We form one Body, where each person's contribution is vital, and no one can be left out without all suffering their absence. The spirit runs, but must carry the often, as yet, unfit body. Vision must patiently wait for the slow inertia-laden swing of tradition and habit. The body lives in and needs time.

The Galway experiment was about adapting to cultural change. Genuine dialogue and inculturation are an essential part of the quality of our apostolic living and working together, not just tools of the trade or means to an end. They are movements in the continuing act of incarnation, of the Word being made flesh, of t”he entire creation ..groaning in one great act of giving birth...all of us who possess the first fruits of the Spirit we too groan inwardly ... we too must be content to hope to be saved ... something we must wait for with patience” (Rm 8:22-25).

Seán, continue to pray for us, the pilgrim Society on earth as we continue to grow/groan “till fully grown into the Body of Christ”.

Born: 15 August 1858, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Entered: 12 November 1883, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1898, St Mary’s, Miller Street, Sydney, Australia
Died: 01 March 1930, St Aloysius College, Milson’s Point, Sydney, Australia

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Came to Australia 1892

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Robert O'Dempsey was educated at Clongowes, 1871-77, and did ecclesiastical studies in Rome. He entered the Society as a priest at Milltown Park, 12 November 1883. He taught at Belvedere 1886-89, Clongowes, 1889-90, and Mungret, 1890-91, before a year of theology at Milltown.
O'Dempsey was sent to Australia in 1892, and taught for a few years at St Aloysius' College Bourke Street, at Xavier College, 1895-97, Riverview, 1897-98, and St Patrick's College, 1900-01.
He became engaged in parish ministry at Richmond, 1901-03, Hawthorn, 1903-12, Lavender Bay, 1912-22, as first parish priest, and Norwood, 1922-23, He was superior for that year. Later he went to St Aloysius' College, as spiritual father and director of sodalities.
O'Dempsey was a friend of the Sydney archbishop and Monsignor O'Haran. He had a remarkable knowledge of Latin and Greek, and was a notable cricketer. As a pastor he was most devoted, regularly visiting the sick and members of die parish, showing much gentleness and sympathy. He was recognised as a lovable priest.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 1st Year No 2 1926
Residence. SS. CORDIS, SYDNEY :
In 1878 Archbishop Vaughan handed over the Parish of North Shore to the Society. The church was exceedingly small, had very little church furniture and the Fathers were obliged to hire a Presbytery at 16s. a week. The Residence S.S. Cordis completed by Fr D Connell in 1923. The parish now numbers some 3,000 souls. It has two splendid primary schools, with an attendance of about 740 children. These schools. the Brothers' residence and the hall capable of holding 1,000 people, owe their existence to the energy of Fr Corish. In 1924 there were 45,000 Confessions heard, and about 50,000 Communions given. Attached to the church are two Sodalities, a Catholic club, a debating club, an athletic club a tennis club, and a branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 3 1930
Obituary :
Fr Robert O’Dempsey
On the 15th August 1858 Fr.O’Dempsey was born in Enniscorthy. He was educated at Clongowes, and entered the Society at Milltown as a priest, on the 12th Nov. 1883. The second year's novitiate was made at Dromore. From 1885 to 1891 he was prefect or master at either Clongowes, Belvedere or Mungret, then repeated theology at Milltown, and in 1892 went to Australia. For the next nine years his time was divided between the Colleges of St. Aloysius Kew, Riverview and St. Patrick's. 1901 brought a change, he became Operarius, spending two years at St. Ignatius, ten at Hawthorn, ten at Lavender Bay, one at Norwood, where he was Superior and Consultor of the Mission. 1923 saw him Spiritual Father at St. Aloysius' where he remained until his happy death on Saturday, March 1st 1930.
The following sketch of his work and character, by one who knew him well, will show what manner of man Fr O’Dempsey was :
“During the last years of his life Fr O'Dempsey was in charge of the Star of the Sea Church, Milson's Point, Sydney. He did not spare himself, even when old age and ill-health had wasted his body. 6.30 found him, every morning in his confessional. He said Mass at seven and returned to hear confessions until breakfast. He spent at least four hours every day visiting his district. Daily he taught catechism in the state school. Wednesday evening he gave to the St. Vincent de Paul. On all Thursdays he had evening devotions. On Saturdays confessions from 4-6 and 7-9. Sunday was a particularly heavy day. Mass and short sermon at seven, Sermon at ten, Sunday school at three, and devotions at 7.30. A hard week for an old man, and yet what struck one was his unchanging light-hearted and good humour. He had a fluent knowledge of Italian and heard a large number of confessions in that language .
He was an eloquent and forceful preacher, and, even to the end, spared no pains in preparing his sermons.
He was a wonderful man in a community. Never was he out of sorts in recreation, and his humour and great fund of stories made the hour after dinner a real relaxation. His deeply spiritual life and sound judgment fitted him perfectly for the position of Spiritual Father, which he held during his residence at St. Aloysius' College, to which the Star of the Sea is attached. He will be greatly missed.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1930

Obituary

Father Robert O’Dempsey SJ

The death on the 1st of March of this year of Rev Father O'Dempsey SJ, removed a very lovable priest, whose years of active ministry in several Australian States were many and distinguished. Father O'Dempsey was born in Wexford 72 years ago, and among the friends of his youth were his Grace the Archbishop, and Right Rev Monsignor O'Haran.

He made his secondary studies at the Jesuit College, Clongowes Wood, and later went to Rome for his ecclesiastical studies. On completion of studies in Rome, Father O'Dempsey returned to his native diocese, in whose service he did not remain long, for in 1883 we find his name in the roll of Jesuit novices at Milltown Park, near Dublin. Eight years later, Australia welcomed him.

Xavier and St. Patrick's Colleges, Mel bourne, were his earliest appointments. He was Superior at Norwood, South Australia, and for a period attached to the staff of Riverview College. He was the first.parish priest of Lavender Bay, and for the past eight years had been in charge of Star of the Sea Church, at Milson's Point.

In scholarship, Father O'Dempsey was remarkable for his knowledge of Latin and Greek and in the sporting field was known as a cricketer of outstanding merit.

But long after Father O'Dempsey's ability in learning or sport have been forgotten his devotion to duty will be remembered. Though advanced in years and suffering from bad health, he never failed to visit regularly the sick of the district under his care. Frequently, in the heat of summer, when stronger men would have found exertion make a de mand on their strength, Father O'Dempsey would be seen, on foot, on his round of visits. And those whom he visited speak feelingly of his gentleness and sympathy. A practical illustration of how he was appreciated was to be seen in the crowded congregation which filled the church at the Requiem Mass at Lavender Bay.

◆ The Clongownian, 1930

Obituary

Father Robert O’Dempsey SJ

We are indebted to an old Editor of “The Clongownian”, Fr Corr, for the following notice of Fr Robert O’Dempsey SJ, which appeared in the “Sydney Catholic Press”.

The death on March 1, at North Sydney, of the Rev Father R O'Dempsey SJ, has removed a very lovable Priest, whose years of active ministry. in several Australian States were many and distinguished. Father O'Dempsey was born in Wexford, 72 years ago, and among the friends of his youth were His Grace Archbishop Kelly and Right Rev Mgr O'Hagan. He made his secondary studies at the Jesuit College, Clongowes Wood, and thereafter proceeded to Rome for his ecclesiastical course. It took him but a short time after his return to the Ferns Diocese, for which he was ordained, to decide that his vocation lay in community life. He chose the Jesuit Order, which he entered in 1883. Eight years later Australia claimed him.

“Xavier and St Patrick's Colleges, Melbourne, were fortunate in securing his services as a teacher; he also occupied the position of Superior at Norwood, (South Australia), and later again did yeoman work at Riverview. He was the first Parish Priest of Lavender Bay, and for the past eight years had been in charge of the Star of the Sea Church, Milson's Point. In scholarship he was especially remarkable for his knowledge of Latin and Greek; and the sports field knew him as a very capable and enthusiastic cricketer. His knowledge of Gregorian Chant was considerable.

Jovial of disposition, he was, therefore, an agreeable companion in any community, and the Fathers will miss the brightness he shed around him. RIP

Born: 23 July 1893, Parkton House, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Entered: 19 September 1916, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1928, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1931, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 01 February 1972, Ballingarry, Mullingar, County Westmeath

Part of the Tullabeg, Co Offaly community at the time of death

Father was a solicitor and died in 1912. His mother is now supported by her solicitor eldest son.

Youngest of four boys with seven sisters. (One married sister with a son of 13 has been deserted and is now supported also by eldest son).

Early education at a convent school for about four years and then at the Christian Brothers Enniscorthy. He then went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

Originally entered 07 September 1911, but after six months the Novice Master advised him to leave. So he went to work in March 1912, and was apprenticed to Messers Tood Burns and Company, drapers, and after three years apprenticeship was employed by them as an assistant.

In 1916 he applied to the Provincial for readmission and returned to Tullabeg on 19 September 1916.

by 1930 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

Seems he Entered 07 September 1911 then left in 1912 and then reentered in 19 September 1916

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 47th Year No 2 1972

Obituary :

Fr Robert O’Dempsey SJ (1893-1972)

Father Robert O'Dempsey was one of a family who for generations, from their big house on the outskirts of Enniscorthy, had played a prominent part in the life of Wexford, giving a series of professional men, teachers and religious to the county-men and women of more than ordinary ability and a tradition of selfless service. As a boy at Clongowes Father Robert held his own in a Rhetoric, which included the genius of Father Paul Healy and Ray OʻKelly, and the outstanding abilities of Gilbert Laithwaite, Tom Finlay and Father Paul O'Dea. True, from the first his outlook was not merely serious but tense, and sometimes meticulous. Probably modern Psychologists may register a doubt of the idea of a religious vocation with a long tradition of long and detailed training for such a character. That Father Robert's first attempt to be thus dedicated, resulted in real nervous tension would seem to confirm such an attitude. He had to leave the Noviceship with no prospect of return. Rejecting the professional studies to which other members of the family had devoted themselves, he chose to become an apprentice in Todd Burns Drapery business, explaining later that he wanted constant contact with people to counteract his tendency to introspection. He wanted also a way of life he would not find it a wrench to abandon, should he be re-established for a fresh start. He was, after an interval, and went back to begin all over again the trial of the Noviceship and this time to succeed.
The years in Dublin were happy ones, and they enabled him later, to bring practical experience to his aid in renewing the Clongowes Social Study Club, which had fallen on evil days. Indeed throughout his life he held and fostered principles of social justice only gradually coming to be accepted. These early delays precluded the academic opportunities of his brilliant contemporaries; but an exceptionally strong interest in mathematics and mechanical things - he was something of an expert in his hobby of railway development - enabled him to teach with great success in Clongowes and Belvedere for many years. When in 1962 with the closing of Tullabeg he closed his text books for the last time, it gave him real pleasure to know that one of his last students could write from Chantilly that, though his new professor had a world reputation “he's not a patch on Father Bob O'Dempsey”.
One of the last generation of pre-motor car men, Father O'Dempsey had a taste for long walks, often solitary, and observation that distinguished such men as Lloyd Praeger; he was seldom happier than when on a long tramp, as one who climbed Mweelrea and Errigal with him can testify. On one of the Wexford Villas of the early twenties, he and six companions rode from Gorey to the foot of Mount Leinster and climbing it, from that eminence surveyed the county he loved. That the local paper next day described him as the Leader of the Party of which in fact he was the Junior wasn't surprising, but the other members all surviving may recollect his amusing and delighted disclaimer, which the local journalism rejected.
For such a man the routine of a College like Belvedere, with not a blade of grass in its field of vision, and endless drab streets for “Morning Supplies" was not an ideal setting; nonetheless for many years he took not only his full share of class work, but also helped with Debates and other activities, notably in the staging of the most memorable of the Operas, which Father Glynn and Father Byrne produced.
Father O'Dempsey kept a small carefully selected stock of tools, and was always ready to put his skill with them to helpful use. He had an independent mind with an abiding hate of fashionable cant or meaningless cliché. A loyal old Clongownian, he abhorred all that goes with the “Old Tie” tradition. A true Patriot, he detested the “stage” Irishman and all that smacked of Jingoism. In the days when Telefis Eireann - then known as Radio Baile Atha Cliath poured out a succession of sentimental ballads he liked to refer to the Corporation as Radio Bla Bla! He insisted on the 'O' in O‘Dempsey, and was indeed as far removed as it is possible to imagine from the “Eloquent Dempsey”. In short absolute sincerity was his abiding gift.
It was perhaps unfortunate that for an interval in his latter years at Belvedere, the assignment to Bolton Street Technical School was less congenial, provoking stresses which happily, were dissipated by his term of teaching mathematics to the Philosophers at Tullabeg until the dispersal of the faculty there. The concluding years in Tullabeg left him somewhat forlorn, this occupation gone. As time passed he gave up the long cycle rides and even reading be came a burden.
It is a pity he does not seem ever to have put together, much less put in print, his knowledge of the history of the Wexford Rising, which was more detailed and accurate than that of many professional Historians. (His Grandfather had in fact been “out” in the ‘98 Rising). He was neither romantic nor dramatic in his approach, indeed he was almost mathematical in his pre-occupation with facts and the objectivity with which he assessed them was remarkable.
It was sheer strength of character that enabled his long life to be a story of severe mental trials, valiantly encountered, and a noble service done for God and his fellow men.

◆ The Clongownian, 1972

Obituary

Father Robert O’Dempsey SJ

Robert O'Dempsey was born in 1893 at Parkton House, Enniscorthy. His father was a well known solicitor in that town, Robert was one of a large family, four brothers and seven sisters. His early education was with the Christian Brothers, Enniscorthy, for five years, and in 1907 he came to Clongowes, where his three elder brothers had preceded him. He showed considerable ability while at school, and won prizes in the Junior, Middle and Senior Grades of the Intermediate examinations.

On leaving Clongowes in 1911, Robert O'Dempsey entered the noviciate of the Society of Jesus, but broke down in health and was obliged to leave. He went into business in Messrs Todd Burns in Dublin, but always retained the hope of following his vocation to the priesthood, In 1916, his health being restored, his hope was realised, and he was again received into the Society of Jesus. He studied philosophy and theology at Milltown Park and was ordained in 1928. Before his ordination he taught for two years at Clongowes, and after it for thirteen years at the Crescent, Belvedere and Mungret. From 1943 to 1952 he was assistant to the editor of the “Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart”. He then went to Tullabeg, where from 1953 to 1962 he taught mathematical physics and chemistry to the Jesuit students, and after that acted as bursar until his health broke down a few years before his death in 1972,

Father O'Dempsey's life was in one sense uneventful, but in another it was truly remarkable. From his youth, he was periodically affected by nervous trouble, but he courageously overcame it again and again, and thus led a full, active and useful life. When in the colleges, though not a particularly good teacher, he was most devoted and hard working, and was a great “general utility” man, ready to help in the organisation of debates, plays, concerts and games. The work he had to do in the Messenger office was largely routine and not particularly interesting, but he carried it out with great fidelity and accuracy. When appointed to teach maths physics and chemistry in Tullabeg, forty years had elapsed since as a boy, he had distinguished himself in these subjects, and he applied himself courageously to the task of renewing his acquaintance with them.

His Jesuit colleagues remember him as a loyal friend, always ready to help, and as an inspiring example of fortitude in the face of constant adversity.

Born: 09 November 1939, Queen Street, Derry, County Derry, Northern Ireland
Entered: 06 September 1957, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 20 June 1971, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 19 October 1977, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 14 February 2020, Swords, County Dublin (a Romanian Orthodox priest)

Left Society of Jesus: 1986

Father was a doctor and ophtalmologist.

Only child.

Educated at St Eugene’s elementary school in Derry and then he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ for six years.

by 1963 at Chantilly France (GAL S) studying
by 1973 at St Louis MO, USA (MIS) studying

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/funeral-held-of-pioneering-irish-romanian-orthodox-priest-fr-godfrey-o-donnell-1.4176696

The funeral Mass of Fr Godfrey O'Donnell (80) the only Irishman to be ordained a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland, took place on Monday at St Columba's Church, Blakestown Way, in West Dublin. A total of 28 Romanian Orthodox priests from Europe and Ireland took part in the Mass.

From Derry, Fr O’Donnell died peacefully at his home in Swords last Friday. A Jesuit priest for 28 years, Fr Godfrey left the Catholic priesthood to marry Ruth in 1985, but had grown increasingly drawn to the Orthodox Church.

He was ordained a Romanian Orthodox priest in February 2004 by His Eminence the Metropolitan Iosif in a six-hour service at the chapel in Dublin's Belvedere College.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the other Orthodox churches, in Ireland, the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, and from the Romanian Embassy in Ireland.

As he explained at the 2004 ordination, “I had to make a choice to let go of my Catholic heritage and to embrace Orthodoxy. It has been a great gift this last four years. I have met so many extraordinary people, very gifted people, great Christians who have also had to give up a lot to come to a strange country like Ireland.”

In 2000, he was instrumental in establishing the first Romanian Orthodox parish in Dublin, based at Leeson Park. It followed contact in 1999 with Paris-based Metropolitan Iosif of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Western and Southern Europe.

Fr O’Donnell had been Orthodox representative to the Irish Council of Churches and the Irish Inter Church Meeting, and was chairman of the Dublin Council of Churches for a period. In 2008 he was elected President of the Irish Council of Churches.

In November 2013 he was awarded the accolade of ‘Stavrophore’ by the Romanian Orthodox Church. ‘Stavrophore’ is derived from the Greek stavrophoros, meaning ‘cross–bearer’. It is the highest award bestowed upon married priests in the Romanian Orthodox tradition.

It conferred on Fr O’Donnell the the right to wear a cross in recognition of his work to firmly establish the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland and of his long service to the Romanian Orthodox community.

Survived by Ruth, burial took place on Monday afternoon at Dardistown cemetery in north Co Dublin.

https://dublin.anglican.org/news/2020/02/17/archbishop-pays-tribute-to-fr

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Fr Godfrey O’Donnell, Romanian Orthodox priest and ecumenist, who died at his home in Swords on Friday February 14.

In 2004 Fr Godfrey became the first Irish–born person to be ordained as a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Derry man had been a Jesuit priest but left the priesthood in 1985. He felt increasingly drawn to the Orthodox Church and was instrumental in establishing the Romanian Orthodox parish in Dublin in 2000. His work for the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland was honoured in 2013 when he was awarded the accolade of Stavrophore, the highest award given to married priests in that tradition.

Known for his active ecumenism, he represented the Romanian Orthodox Church on both the of Dublin Council of Churches and the Irish Council of Churches. He was chair of Dublin Council of Churches and became the first representative of the Orthodox traditions to hold the role of president of the Irish Council of Churches from 2012 to 2014.

Paying tribute to Fr Godfrey, Archbishop Michael Jackson recalled a priest of tremendous vitality. “All of us who knew Godfrey recognised his faithfulness to God and rejoiced in his tireless and joyful presentation of the Romanian Orthodox tradition within Irish Christianity. He was always ready and willing to participate in the promotion of a better understanding of faiths and advocate for ecumenism through the Dublin Council of Churches. The sympathies and prayers of all of us in the United Dioceses lie with his wife, Ruth, and the Romanian Orthodox community,” he said

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_O%27Donnell

Fr. Godfrey O'Donnell (1939[1] – 14 February 2020) was a priest from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

From County Londonderry, O'Donnell, was a Jesuit priest for 28 years,[2] who left the order in 1985 to marry Ruth.[3]

Godfrey and his wife Ruth became involved in the Greek Rite church in Arbour Hill in Dublin, and joined the Romanian Orthodox church in 1999.

O'Donnell was asked by the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Joseph, based in Paris, to help secure a Romanian Orthodox priest for their community in Ireland.[3] In 2000 Godfrey was instrumental in the establishment of Romanian Orthodox services in Dublin, which began in the Chapel in Belvedere College in 2001.[4] In 2004 O'Donnell became the first Irish-born person to be ordained a Romanian Orthodox priest.[5] He was ordained in the Jesuit Chapel of Belvedere College, where Romanian Orthodox services were held each weekend.

Fr. O'Donnell ministered from The Romanian Orthodox Church based at Christ Church Leeson Park.

O'Donnell was elected President of the Irish Council of Churches in 2008. In 2013 O'Donnell was awarded the accolade of 'Stavrophore' by the Romanian Orthodox Church.[6]

O'Donnell served as head of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland, and attended ecumenical and inter-faith, state services such as the National Day of Commemoration in this capacity.

He died at his home in Swords, Dublin, Ireland, on 14 February 2020, aged 80.[7][8]

Born: 28 January 1908, De Courcey Square, Glasnevin, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 21 September 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1938, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1941, St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin
Died: 11 June 1991, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson St, Dublin

Father was Overseer in the GPO and then Senior Inspector at the Department of Agriculture. Parents originally from County Derry.

Third eldest of a family of thirteen, seven boys and six girls (2 deceased in infancy)

Early education at Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin for five years he then went to Belvedere College SJ at the age of 12.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1991

Obituary

Father Kevin O’Donnell SJ

Kevin O'Donnell was born in Dublin 83 years ago. He was one of a family of fourteen, of whom Molly, Una, Maeve, Loyola and Desmond survive. He was educated in the Holy Faith, Glasnevin and then at Belvedere College. He entered the Jesuits in 1925 a year after his brother Tom, with whom he was ordained in 1938 and beside whom he was to be buried in Clongowes.

Kevin never lapsed into sterile anecdotage but, from what he said about his student days in the Society, they were happy. His stories about those days were amusing and frequently mischievous. Two come to my mind. He recounted that he found his father was more vulnerable in his office than elsewhere so, when he was short a shilling or a cigarette as a young scholastic, he would call into his father's office and found, as he said, that the visit was usually productive. Shortly after he moved from Milltown, which he liked, to Tullabeg, which he did not, he was accosted by the Rector, Stephen Bartley, who remarked that he was looking glum. “I am”, replied Kevin. “Why so?” asked the Rector. “I have not had a cigarette for a month”, Kevin complained. The Rector then gave him five and thereby won a friend for life. Kevin was incapable of forgetting a favour. It was one of his most endearing qualities.

He was not an academic but had a reputation for being a person of sound and shrewd judgement and an excellent companion. He had a beautiful singing voice and he often recalled the great privilege he had of singing at the Eucharistic Congress.

After he was ordained and had completed his studies he spent the thirteen years from 1940 to 1953 in Clongowes with one year in Mungret. In Clongowes he acquired a fearsome reputation as a disciplinarian. Many a middle-aged bottom tingles to this day at the mention of his name. Such was his reputation that when we were scholastics in the mid-1950s in Tullabeg, we received with muted enthusiasm the news that he was to be our Superior during the holidays. However, while clearly not a man to be trifled with, he was companionable, good-humoured, kind, but above all generous.

He was determined that we were to have a great holiday which was to be a loss-making venture: not a penny was to go back to Tullabeg. I treasure one image from those days. It was the custom that half way through the holiday a van would trundle from Tullabeg with provisions for the holiday-makers. Kevin was profoundly suspicious of the quality of provisions from such a source. He stood by majestically, as the van was unloaded, keeping a beady eye on its contents. When he spied rhubarb, he at once called out, “Take it back to Tullabeg, Fr Hanley, I do not eat weeds”.

Fearsome disciplinarian he may have been, but it was during his years in Clongowes that many of his very many friendships were formed. Not a few of those friendships had a common characteristic. Kevin extended his hand in friendship, when friendship was badly needed. In his friendships there was never a jot of self seeking. He was loyal and generous and evoked loyalty and generosity in others. But having given his friendship altruistically, he was always deeply appreciative of any favour his friends did him, never calling to mind what he did for them. He constantly expressed his admiration of the kindness and generosity of others while being almost dismissive of his own.

No reference to his time in Clongowes could omit the fact that he won quite a reputation as a rugby coach. His teams won the Junior Cup four times in eight years. The fact that Clongowes has not won the Schools' Junior Cup since he left puts this feat into perspective.

From 1953 to 1970 he gave missions and retreats in Ireland and England, with one spell as Minister in Loyola House. During these years he made the acquaintance of many diocesan priests of whom he retained the happiest of memories and for whom he had the highest regard. In 1970 he went to Galway as a Bursar and if he ever referred to his work there, characteristically he never failed to praise the Provincial Bursar, John Guiney, for his kindness and help during those years.

Had Kevin walked under a bus in 1975, we would have had much to say about the good religious, the zealouspriest, the excellent companion, the loyal friend and generous man. He did not walk under a bus but he did walk under the eye of the then Provincial, Fr Paddy Doyle, who sent him as Bursar and Minister to the house of scholastics in Monkstown. He was an unlikely choice for the position, a somewhat Edwardian figure of 67 among bejeaned and bearded young religious, whose formation and style of life differed so much from the formation that he himself had experienced. It was in fact a wise decision with great significance for Kevin and the scholastics who passed through Sullivan House during those fourteen years.

These were his golden years. It was not that Kevin changed. He did not become a trendy 67 year-old dressed in technicolour with a shaggy beard. He remained loyal to his Anthony Eden hat, his rolled umbrella and a sombre shade of black. Nor did the new style of religious formation captivate him. As he said himself, : some of the new ways he understood and approved of, some he understood and disapproved of, while others left him perplexed. In his early days in Monkstown, if the behaviour of the young religious puzzled him at times, he would say to himself that if John Moore and Des O'Grady, men whom he held in the highest esteem, approved, then he could go along with it.

That he developed an extraordinary relationship with the young scholastics is beyond doubt. One, no longer a young scholastic, put it to me, Kevin remained himself, he let us remain ourselves. We appreciated his friendship, his support, his kindness and the interest he took in us. We loved and revered him”. Kevin certainly : had the ability to see a person's strong points,
concentrate on these and then judge them on their strengths. In this way he was enormously supportive of those about him.

His influence on the young was immense, riot just because he was a kind and understanding elderly man but because he embodied, albeit in hiş oldfashioned way, the ideals to which the young students aspired. Etched in his life were the faith, priestly zeal and contentment in the religious life and these ideals were etched in a humane, joyful and totally unpretentious way.

Another of the students, now a priest, said simply, “Kevin was a holy, saintly man”. True, but it was a holiness in a somewhat worldly guise. Kevin liked a good time and good fun, he had a discerning palate, he was not innocent of an affluent style of life, he did not lack wealthy generous friends. The last photo taken of him a matter of weeks before his death shows him sitting in a magnificent chair, smiling beatifically, surrounded by beautiful furniture and, beside him on a rosewood table, a glass of wine. But where the service of God; the needs of the apostolate, the demands of charity or the requirements of religious life were concerned, he could cast aside easily the good things of time because he was attached absolutely to the things that are eternal. Possessions and the good things he so greatly enjoyed did not possess him. He had great freedom, but as we know, such freedom does not come cheaply. It is the fruit of prayer and self denial over many years in response to grace. No wonder he was such an influence on the young scholastics, no wonder he won their affection, devotion and reverence.

And so to the end. He came to Leeson Street two years ago. His presence was a blessing on us individually and collectively. To the end he lived in the present and looked to the future, was positive and enthusiastic about developments in the house, was a wise and supportive advisor and good fun. He declined rapidly over the past ten months. His hearing deteriorated to the point where he could not attend recreation, his sight" failed and he could no longer keep the books or even read, the painful disease of the hip greatly restricted his mobility, He bore all with remarkable serenity and peace without a touch of self-pity. His conversation was full of gratitude to God for the blessings of his life, for the good times he had and for the generosity and kindness of friends. He retained his humour, his gracious concern for others and his appreciation of the good things on offer. I had a day out with him a few weeks before he died when he was in a lot of pain and could move only with difficulty. We went out to Bray where he showed me the family house of which he had such happy memories, to Greystones where he spent much of the school holidays, and to the Vico where he loved to go from Sullivan House. His entertaining conversation exuded a sense of peace with himself and the world and a deep appreciation of his blessings and the goodness of others. At the end of the day, I suggested a place for dinner and backed my suggestion with lengthy references to the suitability of the carpark, the convenience of the diningroom and so on. Kevin listened and then looked at me and asked, “But what is the food like?" and his face cracked into a wide grin.

During the last months of his life Kevin was a walking illustration of a prayer from the Spiritual Exercises that he must have prayed so often during his life in the Society: “Take , Lord, into your possession my complete freedom of action, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all that I have, all that I own; it is your gift to me, I now return it to You. It is all Your's, to be used simply as You wish. Give me Your love and Your grace; it is all I need”. . May the Lord richly bless him and console his family and friends in their loss.

Noel Barber SJ

◆ The Clongownian, 1992

Obituary
Father Kevin O’Donnell SJ
(Born in Dublin in 1908, educated at the Holy Faith, Glasnevin and then at Belvedere College. He entered the Jesuits in 1925 and was ordained in 1938. He spent from 1940 to
1953 at Clongowes and from 1953 to 1970 he gave missions and retreats in Ireland and England. In 1970 he was made Bursar in Galway and in 1975 he was moved to the House of scholastics in Monkstown as Bursar. He moved to Leeson Street in 1989 and he died in 1991.)

An Appreciation

Clongowes Wood College, September 1950, I became “one of my boys” - little did I suspect then it would be the beginning of a forty year association with Fr Kevin, as he became to the family.

During his time in Clongowes he was a frequent visitor, always welcome, to our dining table in Fitzwilliam Square being a family of boys an unexpected visitor never overextended the resources of the household

He became a truly great friend with a rare gift for giving one to whom he was talking the feeling that they were important to him and the subject matter invariably of great concern to him. This attribute was warmly regarded by those who knew him well. His move to Rathfarnham Castle facilitated his ability to visit his friends. We shared many merry evenings with a good dinner - a glass of “Paddy” and lively conversation. On festive occasions his recitations came to the fore – the one I recall best was “The Persian Kitten”.

His stays in Manresa, Monkstown and latterly Leeson Street, proved no barrier to his continuing friendships, being involved in nearly all of our Christenings, Marriages and Deaths. His advices to parents over the years were much respected. He played many games of Scrabble with considerable banter in which he gave at least as much as he received.

New Year, during his time in Leeson Street, was the time for the family Mass. Three generations participated - usually followed by an excellent evening usually now of reminiscences rather than current affairs - interspersed with periods of relaxation to classical music on the stereo.

In the fifties in Clongowes he was always fair and impartial in his dealings with boys. These talents brought at least two Junior Cup wins to the College. Latterly he disclosed in a family environment a warmth of caring concern for each and every one together with a great sense of humour.

Our quality of life is the poorer for his passing – May God smile with him.

PM

Born: 04 February 1906, De Courcey Square, Glasnevin, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1938, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1941, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 30 March 1983, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of Clongowes Wood College community, County Kildare at time of his death.

Father was Overseer in the GPO and then Senior Inspector at the Department of Agriculture. Parents originally from County Derry.

Second eldest of a family of thirteen (2 deceased in infancy) and the eldest of seven boys, with six girls.

Early education at Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin for five years he then went to Belvedere College SJ at the age of 12. He was then moved to Castleknock College.

by 1929 at San Ignacio, Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain (ARA) studying
by 1946 at St Xavier’s, Bombay (ARA) teaching
by 1954 at Rome, Italy (ROM) - writing
by 1963 at Rome, Italy (ROM) Vatican Radio

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 1 1946

Fr. Thomas O'Donnell left Liverpool on the Mauretania for Bombay on Saturday, October 20th, He arrived in Bombay on November 3rd. He writes :
“In the science faculty here (St. Xavier's College) one of the many departments is devoted to cinematography and sound. It has its own private cinema-theatre. I am lecturing on Roman History to a B.A. honours group, two lectures a week. I am taking charge of the College sodality, and am already booked for two sermons, one on St. Francis Xavier in the College, and the other on St. John Berchmans in our church here”.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 2 1946

IN ALIIS PROVINCIIS DEGENTES :

India :
Fr. T. O'Donnell gave the Lenten Sermons in St. Peter's Church. Bandra, Bombay, on “Christ Crucified in the World To-day."

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1984
Obituary
Father Tom O’Donnell SJ
Fr Tom O'Donnell SJ, whose voice we heard for many years from Radio Vatican, died on 30th March 1983. For two years on and off Tom had been unwell and had spent quite a while in hospital on two or three occasions. But, when on the last visit it was at length discovered he had a tumour on the liver and cancer in a lung, we knew that Tom's. time was limited, and thank God, we were right. For we feared he might have to suffer great pain before his death for a fairly long period. But, his time was indeed limited and he faded away to a quiet and painless death.

De mortuis nihil nisi bonum means that we should pass over in silence the faults and emphasise only the virtues of the dead; well for me, who knew Tom pretty intimately for 58 years, I am glad to be able to say with sincerity that his death was the moment of truth, the moment when Tom's great virtues caused his failings to disappear or rather appear as the petty faults what enhanced rather than diminished his really exceptional virtues.

The first of his virtues was his charity in word and deed. He spoke no uncharitable word. There was no bitterness in his make-up. He felt kindly to all his brethern, and was always ready to oblige. I would like to emphasise this last quality. He had it to a quite exceptional degree, ready to put himself to great trouble at any time to relieve someone of a burdensome task or procure something in town for : someone, the procuring of which involved strenuous leg work.

As a priest he taught for some years in Rathmines Technical School as well as sharing in the teaching of the Juniors in Rathfarnham. From there he was sent to teach at our High School in Bombay from where he had to return after two years with severe stomach ulcers, and enter St Vincent's hospital immediately to undergo a major operation, involving the loss of half his stomach. Following the sudden death of one of the Clongowes community, he was called upon to fill the vacancy for half a year. After this he went to Emo as minister for a year and thence to Milltown to profess Church History for eight years. If one were cynical, one could say that superiors were using his humility and sincere spirit of obedience to plug holes they found difficult to fill.

His next appointment was a novel one - for the majority of us, ancients - and indeed an exciting, if exacting task. ie, news editor and broadcaster in English at Vatican Radio, and finally beggar-in-chief in the USA and Australia to raise funds for a more powerful Vatican Radio. After fifteen years on this last task, his health again began to give trouble and he had to return home. After a year giving retreats in Manresa, he came to Ciongowes where he spent fifteen years doing once again a variety of tasks, none of great note till his death.

I said earlier on that Tom's faults - for he had a few - rather enhanced that detracted from the solid virtues of the man, He was somewhat vain - a fault innocent indeed but one that laid him open to much leg pulling by brethern, but he never resented or showed anger to the jokers and was all the more liked by them. Of pride, that really nasty vice, Tom bad not a particle. He had, I might say, a child-like reverence for those in authority in the Church and in the Society, a virtue so unIrish that it too gave many a good natured laugh to us, his friends, who were very Irish in this matter. Before finishing I must remind his friends and inform the rest that Tom was above all a man of deep faith and trust in God, and a fruit and proof of this was the great patience he showed in his many illnesses and operations, and never so much as in his last illness; and in each hospital he was respected and loved by his nurses for his patience, of course, but especially for his gratitude to them all for their services to him. Rest in peace.

◆ The Clongownian, 1983 & ◆ Irish Province News 58th Year No 3 1983
Obituary

Father Tom O’Donnell SJ

Fr Tom O'Donnell died on the 30th of March. For two years, on and off, he had been unwell and had spent quite an amount of time in hospital on two or three occasions, But, when on the last visit it was discovered that he had a tumour on the liver and cancer in a lung, we knew that Fr Tom's time was limited, mercifully-so as over a fairly long period we feared he might have to suffer great pain before his death. But his time was indeed limited and he faded away to a quiet and painless death.

“De mortibus nihil nisi bonum”, meaning that we should pass over in silence the faults and stress only the virtues of the dead. For me, as someone who knew Fr Tom pretty intimately over fifty-eight years, I am glad to be able to say with sincerity that his death was the moment of truth; the moment when his great virtues and qualities appeared.

The first of his virtues was his charity in word and deed. He spoke no uncharitable word. There was no bitterness in his make-up. He felt kindly to all his brethren and was always ready to oblige. He was obliging to a quite exceptional degree, ready to put himself to great trouble at any time to relieve some one of a burdensome task or procure 'some thing in Dublin for someone, the procuring of which involved a lot of leg work. Fr Tom was also an obedient man. If one scans briefly his career in the Jesuit Order, those of us who know what a trial it can be to have to change course even once, can realize what a humble and truly obedient soul Fr Tom was for he had to change direction often. As a priest he taught for some years in Rathmines technical school as well as sharing in the teaching of Jesuit students in Rathfarnham. From there he was sent to teach at our High School in Bombay from where he had to return after two years with severe stomach ulcers and enter Vincent's Hospital immediately to undergo a major operation, involving the loss of half his stomach. He came to Clongowes then where he spent the first half of the year as study prefect and the second half as prefect of studies in place of Fr Charles Barrett who had died suddenly at a cup match. From Clongowes he went to Emo as minister for a year and thence to Milltown to profess Church History for eight years. His next appointment was a novel and indeed an exciting, if exacting task. He was appointed news editor and broadcaster in English on Vatican radio and finally beggar-in-chief in the USA and Australia to raise funds for a more powerful Vatican radio transmitter. After 15 years at this last task, his health again began to give trouble and he had to return home. After a year giving retreats in Manresa House, in Dollymount, he came to Clongowes where he spent the next 15 years doing a variety of tasks, including editing the Clongownian.

Of Fr Tom's faults - for he had a few - it can be said that these rather enhanced than detracted from the solid virtues of the man. He was somewhat vain - a fault innocent indeed but one that laid him open to much leg pulling by his brethren. But he never resented or showed anger at the teasing and was consequently all the more liked. Of pride, that really nasty vice, Fr Tom had not a particle.

He had, I might say, a child-like reverence for those in authority in the Church and in the Society of Jesus - a virtue so unIrish that it too gave many a good natured laugh to his friends, who were very Irish in this matter.

Above all, Fr Tom was a man of deep faith and trust in God and a proof of this was the great patience he showed in his many illnesses and operations, and never so much as in his last illness where he displayed great patience and especially gratitude to all those who served him.

May he rest in peace.

Gerard O'Beirne SJ

Born: 17 March 1930, Iona Crescent, Glasnevin, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 08 October 1947, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1961, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1965, Rome, Italy
Died: 11 November 2020, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Left Society of Jesus: 10 December 1976

Father, Cornelius, was a Land Commission Inspector. Mother was Agnes (Monks). Family lived at Seatown Place, Dundalk, County Louth for a period until Conn was aged 5.

Third of four boys with two sisters.

Early education was at St Pat’s, Drumcondra, he then went to Cistercian College Roscrea for one year. Then he went to Coláiste Mhuire, Parnell Square, Dublin. In his Leaving Cert he got a Dublin Corporation scholarship and a new Government scholarship for University at UCG.

1947-1949: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1949-1953: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD (BA)
1953-1956: Berchmanskolleg, Pullach, Germany (GER S) studying Philosophy
1956-1958: Belvedere College SJ, Regency
1958-1962: Milltown Park, Theology
1962-1963: Sentmaringer Münster, Germany (GER I) making Tertianship
1963-1965: Collegio Bellarmino, Rome, Philosophy at the Gregorian University
1965-1966: St Louis MO, USA (MAR) teaching Philosophy
1966-1976: Milltown Park, Lecturing in Philosophy
1973-1974 at Regis Toronto, Canada (CAN S) sabbatical and Berchmanskolleg, Kauylbachstr, Munich & Copenhagen, Denmark

In April 1976 asked for a short “leave of absence” with a view to asking to be laicised and dispensed from Vows. Granted 10/12/1976

Address on leaving, Sandymount Green, Dublin, then Clifton House, Monkstown Road, County Dublin and then Ennafort Park, Raheny, then St Mary’s Road, Ballsbridge, and then Clifton House, Monkstown again. In 1977 he was working with Gaeltarra Eireann and living at Dangan Lower, Galway. Married Pat (Paddy) Stokes, an Australian, in December 1977. They emigrated to Australia in 1979, and worked at St Aloysius College, Sydney. Taught in Belvedere Junior School, 1999-2000 and then returned to Australia where he worked at St Ignaius College, Riverview, Sydney.

Address 2000 & 1991: Carabella Street, Kirribilli, New South Wales, Australia

https://lonergan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Shane-Hogan-Conn-ODonovan-Eulogy.pdf

A eulogy for Cornelius Patrick O’Donovan (17 March 1930 - 11 November 2020)
Shane Hogan, former Headmaster, St.Ignatius College, Riverview
21 November 2020

We are here to celebrate the precious life of Cornelius Patrick O’Donovan’s, or ‘Conn’ as he was more affectionally known.

Conn was an immensely special person to a great number of people from vast walks of life. From a young Irish lad in a big catholic family to a dynamic Jesuit, his adventurous and influential life in Australia is one worth remembering and celebrating. I pray these words are befitting of Conn and the extraordinary legacy that lives on in his family and friends.

In 2003 I was given a book by Daven Day SJ when he was Provincial. Its title was Heroic Leadership. It was an attempt by the author, an ex-Jesuit, to explain why the Jesuits had survived for the past 450 years while empires and successful corporations have fallen by the way side in that time. He put it down to 4 characteristics that he believes have served the Jesuits over that time: self-awareness, heroic deeds, ingenuity, and love.

Does each of these principals not sum up and epitomise this beautiful man’s character and personality and explain how he had such an impact on each person’s life that he touched.

Conn was born on 17 March 1930 in Dublin. The keen-eyed among you will have noticed the significance of this date – it is surprising he was not called Patrick Cornelius! As the second born male, Irish tradition states that he would be named after his paternal
grandfather and father.

His father was the Land Commissioner Inspector at this time but was famously behind the barricades at the Dublin General Post Office, shoulder to shoulder with Collins, Clarke, Connelly and McDermott, in the Easter Rising of 1916. Conn was very proud of this fact.

Conn had his Secondary education at Roscrea College, Tipperary for one year, and spent the remainder at Colaiste Mhuire, Dublin – an Irish-speaking Christian Brothers School. He entered the Society of Jesus on 8 October 1947, joining the Jesuit Novitiate at Emo, near Portarlington, where he spent two years of spiritual formation. In the Novitiate he was encouraged to read widely and to develop an interest in music and the arts, a passion he maintained throughout his life.

Following his time in the Jesuit Novitiate he travelled to Rathfarnham Castle where he studied for four years at the University College Dublin. An exemplary student, Conn pursued a demanding course, taking four subjects in Science and Mathematics. While he certainly could have obtained an impressive degree in Science, Conn’s heart remained in the realm of the humanities, and at the end of his first year, he switched to a degree in Latin and Irish. He would, of course, obtain First Class Honours. From here, Conn travelled to Germany to study Philosophy and upon commencement, greatly impressed the demanding German Jesuit professors, who promptly marked him as someone set to become a specialist in Philosophy.

Conn spent the next two years teaching and perfecting his craft at Belvedere College, Dublin, where his interest and ability in sports came to the fore. He was an excellent teacher, popular with the students and possessed an effortless and kindly control in the classroom and on the playing field. He then moved to Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy for four years of Theological Studies. It was Milltown that had a decisive impact on Conn, in large part due to his association with Philip McShane, with whom he forged a personal and intellectual friendship, one that would influence not only the other, but a whole generation of students of Philosophy at the Milltown Institute. His interest in philosophy deepened and matured over these years and the expectations of his German philosophy professors were further realised. After his final year of formation - his tertianship - Conn attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he obtained a Doctorate in Philosophy which he promptly put to use at the Jesuit St. Louis University in Missouri.

Conn returned home to Ireland where he taught Philosophy for 10 years. As ever, he was popular with colleagues and students, being urbane and gracious as he was. With his Milltown friend, Philip McShane, the pair established a philosophy course grounded in the teachings of the Canadian Jesuit Philosopher, Bernard Lonergan. This decision, however, was not without controversy and painful conflict. The modernisation of religious life was under heavy scrutiny at the time of the change, following the second Vatican Council. Although unknown, many believe that this series of conflicts in the 1960s were what caused Conn to leave the Priesthood and the Jesuits. Conn and the Jesuits remained passionately and eternally in a “benign and mutually appreciative relationship”.

Conn met the love of his life, Paddy, sometime after leaving the Jesuits. Paddy was an Australian nurse whom Conn met while she was travelling through Ireland. Conn was besotted with Paddy. Anything that she wanted, Conn was prepared to deliver. The two
become inseparable and shared many crazy adventures. His immense love for Paddy endured until her passing in 2003. A beautiful send-off was held for Paddy at St Canisius in Potts Point, arranged by Conn’s dear friend, Steve Sinn.

Conn arrived on the doorsteps of St Aloysius College in January 1980. He was looking for a job, as were a number of others who have been part of Jesuit education in Australia for the past 40 years. The first time I met him, Conn was sitting outside Father Bruce’s office waiting to go in and get our classes for the year. At Aloysius, Conn was an immediately hit with staff and students (and Jesuits). He played staff football on a Friday afternoon for many years. I did not realise how old he was at this time, probably 50 or close to it, he was easily one of the best players on the field – a great goalkeeper. Off the field, Conn could also hold his own with a drink.

Conn was an exceptional Latin teacher, Latin being one of eight languages Conn had been taught or taught himself to speak. He was also an exceptional Year Coordinator, earning the love of his students whom he loved in return. One of the reasons for this mutual respect was due to the fact that Conn could not bring himself to use the strap as punishment. He opted instead for a slower, arguably more cruel method, to talk them to death! If this did not work, he would refer them to his assistant, Neil Mushan, to sort out matters more… directly.This discipline method did not work when Helen Ephrums became his new assistant, as she also loved the boys to death.

Conn’s time at Aloysius is wonderfully remembered in comedian Ahn Do’s popular novel, The Happiest Refugee, where Conn’s passion and commitment to fair play saw him rest Ahn late in a Basketball game when Ahn was desperately trying to get to 30 points to win a new pair of basketball boots. When Conn was informed of his accidental actions, he was reported to have said, “Jaysus! Why didn’t you tell me earlier you daft eediot! Ahn, next time out, you’re on!” I can hear him saying it! With his right hand on his forehead.

When I first knew Conn, he was living at St Ignatius’ College in the old Infirmary. After that, he resided at Pearl Beach and travelled each day to St Aloysius is his green Morris Minor. He also for a time lived in a plush flat in Bellevue Hill, however the only piece of property he owned in his life, was an old church in the country which he used as a holiday house. Finally, Conn moved to Riverview and lived in a cottage by First Field for many years, a very happy place with classical music always drifting in the air as you approached.

On his departure from St Aloysius in the mid ‘90s, Conn travelled home to Ireland for a number of years. Paddy had convinced him she wanted to go home to Ireland to live and do a cooking course in France. Ever supportive of her dreams and true to his enduring love, whatever Paddy wanted, Conn was always prepared to deliver. While in Ireland, Conn taught at the Jesuit Belvedere College, Dublin, but both he and Paddy soon realised that with the Celtic Tiger enveloping the nation, Ireland was not the place and home they thought it to be.

Conn returned to Australia, commencing at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, where he would join a number of us who had left Aloysius to start anew. After Paddy died, I asked Conn to come and live at Riverview. With this, a new amazing stage in his life began: that of a Jesuit, mystic and gypsy. Conn did possibly his best and most influential work while at Riverview. As mentor and confidante to the Headmaster, as well as Latin teacher, Conn spent many an afternoon wasting his time on Jennie Hickey and I - who never completed her homework and was inattentive at times - as he tried to get us through the Year 7 syllabus … year after year.

Conn’s impact on the formation of young Ignatian men and on those he worked with can be summed up by the outpouring of emotional responses on social media on hearing the news of his passing. Among the many moving tributes, here are two such examples of the widespread and lasting influence of Conn’s character.

A wonderful person and a great and enthusiastic 4th XI soccer coach! Profound intellect, humility, insight, depth of faith, simplicity of life, ease of finding joy… Conn’s gift for critical, honest thinking and seeking after truth made a big impact on me and many. I am moved to gratitude for his life. May Conn rest in peace. – James O’Brien
A dear friend and teacher who helped educate the whole person - a wonderful teacher of Ancient Greek who, in the course of teaching the subject, taught you also a good deal of literature - particularly the Irish poets - Latin, Gaelic, German, Philosophy and Theology. A great football coach who insisted on character and fair, firm play. But more, just a caring shepherd of people on their way into broader life. My favourite lessons in Greek were when he would turn up with a poem of Seamus Heaney’s,

because the story of the Trojan wars was also the story of all human struggles. Requiescat in pace, Conn. – Dominic Kelly

At this point, can I especially thank, from all of Conn’s friends and family, the care and love shared by the dozen or so girlfriends who spoilt him and gave him a graceful entry to heaven over the past months and were true friends to the end, especially you Christine, you have been an angel by his side.

In the Book of Isiah there is the story of the passing of a close friend of Cicero and when his wife asks him why do you weep so?

“The earth is poorer” said Cicero. “It has lost a good man, and we cannot afford it”

The earth will be a poorer place without Conn, at a time when good men are hard to find. Conn touched each and every one of us and has left us with memories we will cherish forever. Conn loved his Irish heritage, and in particular Irish poets. Conn and Paddy attached this poem to a birthday card they sent me in 2002. When you read it, hear Conn’s words in your head and heart.

https://lonergan.org.au/conn-odonovan-2/

27 November 2020

In Memory of Cornelius Patrick O’Donovan (17 March 1930 – 11 November 2020)

Our colleague and friend, Conn O’Donovan, was a regular attendee, participant and presenter at our biennial Australian Lonergan Workshop. He had a particular expertise and interest in the philosophy of learning.

He will remembered as a passionate and compassionate man, a lover of his wife Paddy, a scholar and a teacher,. He will also be remembered for this love of music and Lindt 85% dark chocolate.

His funeral service can be viewed (until 20th May 2021) at: https://www.FuneralVideo.com.au/CorneliusODonovan. A hard copy of the eulogy by Shane Hogan, former headmaster at St.Ignatius College, Riverview is available to download here. This includes a little of life-story.

In Lonergan circles, he will be remembered an educator, a reformer of philosophy and theology courses and a translator and interpreter of one of Lonergan’s important contributions to theology.

Educator

Throughout his life, Conn was an educator at various institutions – Belvedere College, Dublin; St.Louis University, Missouri; and Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy.

Over the past 40 years, Conn taught at St.Aloysius College, Milson’s Point and St.Ignatius College, Riverview (in Sydney, Australia). He is particularly noted for his course on “Wonder about Wonder: an introduction to philosophy” which aimed to have students grasp their own native wonder.

Reformer

In the early 1960s, Conn worked closely with Phil McShane and others in reforming philosophy and theology courses at the Jesuit Milltown Institute, Dublin. In a 2003 article in the Journal of Macrodynamic Analysis reflecting on the first forty years of Phil McShane, Conn recalled the challenge and the difficulties they faced:

There was considerable discontent, and even cynicism, among those Jesuit students, whether Lonergan inspired or not, who looked on theology as something more than just a canonical prerequisite for ordination, or who had already achieved considerable success in some other field. Many of them simply went along with the system, mastering the matter presented and producing it, on request, at examination time; others registered a kind of protest by pursuing private interests as much as possible; those inspired by Lonergan tended increasingly to raise questions in class in a manner that challenged their professors’ authority, at times, unfortunately, with a crude appeal to the authority of Lonergan. We did not know then that we were living through the final years of a system that Lonergan later described as hopelessly antiquated but not yet demolished, that what was happening at Milltown was happening all over the world, and that the upheaval that was soon to come would affect much more than the traditional seminary courses in philosophy and theology.

Translator and interpreter

In the early 1970s, Conn undertook the long and arduous task of translating, from Latin into English, the first part of the first volume of Bernard Lonergan’s De Deo Trino. It was published in 1976 by Darton Longman & Todd as The Way to Nicea: The Dialectical Development of Trinitarian Theology and examined the dialectical process by which the dogma of the Trinity developed in the first four centuries. The Way to Nicea was the first translation of Lonergan’s Latin writings to be published.

Lonergan was always reluctant to have any of his Latin texts translated because he wrote them in Latin for a very specific audience, I.e., the students from 17 nations at the Gregorian, as well the Holy Office who had to approve all texts used at pontifical universities. He said that he would have written it “differently” in English or French.
Having read Conn’s translation of the first part of de Deo Trino he thought it excellent and agreed to have it published as The Way to Nicea.The book includes an important introduction by Conn in which he sets out to:

survey the content and indicate the structure of the whole two-volume work [De Deo Trino] of which the part translated constitutes one sixth,
Give an account of Lonergan’s academic courses on the Trinity, from 1945 to 1964, with some references to other work in progress at the time of these courses,
Give a brief history of Lonergan’s writings on the Trinity during his years in Rome culminating in the 1964 De Deo Trino,
Discuss the importance for Lonergan of trinitarian theology as the area in which (mainly) he worked out his method in theology
Comment on Lonergan’s enduring involvement with and contribution to trinitarian theology as a topic of the greatest importance within theology
Suggest some reasons why Lonergan has been so far unwilling to release for publication in translation any more than this one part of De Deo Trino and why he has released even as much as he has
Make a few comments on the tasks of translation itself.

Born: 31 October 1921, Sunday’s Well, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1954, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, Della Strada, Dooradoyle, Limerick
Died: 14 September 1999, Toulouse, France

Working at St Thérèse en Corbières, Lagrasse, France at the time of death.

Father was a Civil Servant. Family lived at Rock Lodge, Blackrock Road, Cork City supported by a shop.

Third in a family of two sisters and three boys.

Early education at CBC Cork for nine year, and at 16 went to Mungret College SJ for two.

by 1971 at Paris, France (GAL) studying
by 1988 at Garancières, Île-de-France, France (GAL) working
by 1994 at Lagrasse, France (GAL) working

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 105 : Special Edition 2000

Obituary

Fr Barry O’Dowling (1921-1999)

1921, Oct 31: Born in Cork
Early education: Christian Brothers' College Cork and Mungret College
1939, Sept 7: Entered the Society at Emo
1941, Sept 6: First vows at Emo
1941 - 1944 Studied Arts at U.C.D.
1944 - 1947 Tullabeg, studying philosophy
1947 - 1951 Belvedere - Regency, H.Dip in Education
1951 - 1955 Milltown Park, studying philosophy
1954, July 29 Ordained priest at Milltown Park
1955 - 1956 Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1956 - 1958 St. Ignatius, Galway, Minister
1958 - 1970 Crescent College, Teacher
1970 - 1971 Paris, Studying Catechetics & French
1971 - 1987 Crescent College Comprehensive, Teacher
1987 - 1989 Versailles, Parish work
1989 - 1993 Clongowes, Teacher
1993 - 1999 France, Parish work

In his last year, Barry experienced health problems. During the spring and summer he received post-operative radiation treatment for cancer. In his last week he felt very weak and was taken to hospital in Toulouse where he died peacefully on Tuesday morning, September 14th.

Liam O'Connell preached at a special mass in Limerick after Barry's burial in France ...

When Fr. Barry O'Dowling died, the Bishop of Carcassone described him as a great priest and peacemaker, and as a most discrete person. Because of this discretion, because of Barry's efforts to be totally private, it is difficult to give an outline of his life. And yet it can help our prayer and thanksgiving, and I will attempt to do so.

Barry O'Dowling was born in Cork on October 31st 1921, one of four children, Ciaran, Deirdre, Barry and Aidan. He received his early education at C.B.C. and in Mungret College, which he attended with his brother Aidan. In 1939, at the start of the war, he joined the Jesuit noviceship at Emo, near Portlaoise. Fr. Sean O Duibhir and Fr, Bill McKenna who are on the altar with us today joined on the same day, and celebrated 60 years as Jesuits on 7th of this month. Barry followed the usual Jesuit course of studies, studying Arts at UCD, Philosophy at Tullabeg near Tullamore and Theology at Milltown Park. He had the usual break in his studies when he taught from 1947 until 1951 at Belvedere, and Fr. Hugh Duffy who is also with us today remembers how Barry was his water polo trainer at that time.

After ordination in 1954, Barry worked in St. Ignatius Galway as Minister, or Assistant Superior for two years, and then in 1958 began his long association with the Crescent, which lasted for 20 years until 1987. At a time when authority was strong, and arguments from authority were accepted in our homes, in our schools, and in our churches, Barry used a different approach in the teaching of Religion. He would introduce a question, and often not tell his students what his position was so that the questioning could go on. One student got his own back, after he was fed up with arguments with Marx and Feurbach and Camus. This student wrote in a student magazine that Fr. O'Dowling was considering joining the Catholic Church. But to this day his past pupils appreciate that they had the right to express their own views and to speak their minds, and they received approval and support for doing this. His colleagues on the teaching staff still remember the great theology lectures he organised for the staff in the late 1970's.

I will only refer to the other qualities Barry brought to the school:
As a teacher of English, Barry had a skill in teaching students to write well. This was achieved through the quality of his regular marking of students' English essays. Despite the right to free speech, there was an orderly atmosphere in the classroom, and speaking out of order could be met with an exclusion order - expressed in one word - “out”. While he did not like large groups, Barry had a great gift for conversation, wide ranging, long conversations, and some of these were fondly recalled over the last few days. Barry was an unlikely impressario, but in the 1960's he organised a theatre group from past pupils, and he once had to rearrange a production at the last minute, because the theatre owners did not approve of Tennessee Williams. He also organised youth discos, until they became too successful, and too large.

In 1987 when the time came to retire from Crescent, Barry feared that there might be speeches and presents, so he obtained permission to slip quietly away, the day before the end of term. This was not because he did not care. With his family or with his friends or with his God, while he cared deeply, he did not always want what was most important to him to be dealt with in public.

Starting in the 1960's, during school holidays Barry used to recharge his batteries in France, as often as he could. There he enjoyed the beauty of the French language, the energy and style of the church, and the friendship of French Jesuits, priests and other acquaintances. He needed this French dimension in his life, and it helped him to live fully and to breathe.

After retirement Barry worked for two years in a parish outside Paris, near Garancière. Then he returned to some teaching of English classes at Clongowes. He enjoyed his new life of teaching and gardening and reading, and could have been very happy at Clongowes till the Lord called him. But he never sold his French car, a sign that he still felt the pull of missionary work.

Then in 1993 at the age of 72 Barry accepted a new challenge, and went to work in Lagrasse in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The Bishop of Carcasonne found it difficult to get priests to work in this mountainy place. The region of the Corbieres has 22 villages in a large area, but only 2000 people living in them. Many of these isolated villages have long since lost their shops and post offices, and when the tourists go home, there are often as few as 10 or 20 people, mostly old people, left behind. Some people from northern Europe have settled in the area, and are finding it difficult to be accepted. Barry recently conducted a small survey among the people of this region, and he learned that their greatest problem was loneliness. Barry ministered to them, travelling 25,000 kilometres a year on tiny mountain roads, to help keep the small churches and their small communities alive.

At the Mass in Lagrasse last Sunday, the church was full of the people of the surrounding 21 villages, from Albieres, and Auriac and Davejan and Dernicueillette and Felines Termenes, and Laviers, and Lanet and Lanroqe de Fa and Maisons and Messac and Mouthournet and Montgaillard and Montjoi and Paliarac and Ribaute and Salza and St. Martin des Puits and St. Pierre des Champs and Termenes and Vignevielle and Villerouge Termenes and La Grasse. Tears were shed by the old inhabitants and by newcomers to the area, for the man who was willing to live in simplicity and in loneliness himself, as a man of the Gospel.

At the end of the Mass Madame Pla spoke about Barry, and I would love to have the text of what she said. She spoke of the Barry we see in the photograph that is displayed in the church, as he prepared to bless the vines from the top of a mountain. She spoke of the rocky hilly area, with tiny congregations, and how Barry was welcomed into that area by everybody, believers and non-believers. In an area where people were suspicious of each other and of outsiders, he was accepted and loved as everybody's priest.

Barry's death was sudden in the end, but he had been preparing for a long time. When his own mother died, he told the Jesuit Community at Dooradoyle, in an unusual moment of self-revelation, since my mother's death heaven and earth have been drawn closer together, this is an extraordinary time. When Charlie Davy's mother died, Barry told Charlie that he loved the part of the Mass where we remember the dead. In his recent homilies in Lagrasse Barry returned again and again to the faithfulness of God. During the summer in Toulouse, while he received radiation treatment, Barry read the books of the Jesuit theologian, Varillon, and discussed them with the Superior of the community. He was especially moved by the book entitled The Humility of God. On the Sunday before he died Barry asked his Jesuit colleague Père Daniel, to read the readings for the day, the 24th Sunday of the year, and then he asked for communion.

Today we pray that Barry enjoys eternal communion with God, and that after all the open ended discussions without answers, that Barry enjoys what eye has not seen and ear has not heard.

Liam O'Connell SJ

◆ The Clongownian, 2000

Obituary

Father Barry O’Dowling SJ
Fr Barry O'Dowling, who had spent much of his working life as a Jesuit teaching in Crescent College Comprehensive, came to Clongowes in 1989. By then he had retired from teaching and had just done a two-year stint in a parish near Versailles in France. As he had suffered a heart-attack, the solitary life of a curé in rural France was no longer appropriate. He taught English with us for four years on a part-time basis until he felt well enough to resume pastoral work in 1993. This time he went much further south to Lagrasse, a depopulated region of scattered mountain villages with a low level of religious practice, in which there were twenty-one churches in the parish. He served his people with fidelity and characteristic good humour, while living in poverty in a rambling, ramshackle presbytery beside the church in Lagrasse. His health had been declining for some time before he died on 14 September 1999, at the age of 77, in Toulouse, where he now lies buried. At a memorial Mass in Lagrasse the Sunday after, when the church was filled with parishioners from the different villages in his care, one of them, speaking for others, said: “Il nous a fait tant de bien”.

The local paper, Midi Libre, published the following touching appreciation a week after his death :

Nous apprenons avec tristesse le décès du Père Barry O'Dowling, hospitalisé mercredi dernier dans un établissement de soins à Toulouse. Curé de Lagrasse depuis plus de six ans, il avait en plus la charge du secteur paroissial du Termenès Orbieu.

Nous nous étions habitués à sa haute silhouette coiffée de son éternelle casquette, arpentant les rues du village. Très affable, un mot gentil à tous, il aimait se mettre à l'écoute des Lagrassiens ainsi que des personnes qu'il était appelé à rencontrer dans le secteur. Au village il connaissait tout le monde et chacun, pratiquant ou non, appréciait son ouverture d'esprit et sa tolérance. Les fidèles ont eu l'occasion d'apprécier ses homélies particulièrement profondes et tournées vers la vie quotidienne de ses paroissiens.

L'abbé Barry était Jésuite, et comme un grand nombre de ses collègues, il a pratiqué l'enseignement dans son pays d'Irlande qu'il aimait bien. Il ne manquait jamais les matchs France-Irlande. On lui posait quelquefois la question: “Vous soutenez évidemment l'Irlandé?' et il n'hésitait de répondre: Ah non! Que le meilleur gagne!” Après s'être dévoué à l'enseignement, il a voulu se mettre au service de la pastorale. C'est ainsi qu'il a servi à son arrivée en France, dans la région parisienne. Le tumulte de la ville ne lui convenait pas. Il a demandé à exercer dans la France profonde: “Donnez-moi le secteur le plus reculé de France”. Il faut croire qu'à Lagrasse il avait enfin trouvé le calme qu'il cherchait, puisqu'il avait souhaité rester dans ces Corbières sauvages tant qu'il pourrait exercer. Il a servi Dieu et l'Église jusqu'à l'extrême limite de ses forces.

Souhaitons à cet homme juste qu'il ait retrouvé la plénitude qu'il recherchait. Pour ses paroissiens, c'est le Père spirituel qui les a quittés et pour nous tous c'est un ami qui n'a fait que passer.

Born: 24 September 1860, Barronstown, County Tipperary
Entered: 01 October 1880, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1895, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1899, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 29 October 1925, Burke Hall, Kew, Melbourne, Australia

Older brother of Thomas (Toddy) - RIP 1942

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1897 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
Came to Australia 1901

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Tullabeg. The distinguished William Delaney was Rector there at that time, and James proved himself distinguished while there, in the classroom and on the playground. he ended his days there as Captain of the College.

After his Novitiate he was immediately sent to Belvedere for Regency. A year later he went to Milltown for Philosophy. He returned to Regency, this time for six years at Clongowes, where he earned a reputation as a brilliant teacher.
He then went to Milltown again for Theology, was Ordained there in 1895 and then went to Drongen for Tertianship.
After Tertianship he returned to Clongowes teaching.
1901 He was sent to Australia and was immediately appointed Prefect of Studies at Riverview.
1904 He was sent to Xavier College Kew.
1906 He was sent to the Richmond Parish.
1908 He was appointed Rector of Cavier College Kew. and remained in that post until 1917. During his tenure Xavier took its place in the first rank of Australian schools.
1918 He was asked to play a leading role in the founding of Newman College.
He was then sent teaching at St Aloysius College Sydney, before becoming the first Superior at Studley Hall (later Burke Hall), a position he held until his death there 29/10/1925

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
When the Irish provincial, John Conmee, came to Australia in 1908, he was not happy with conditions at Xavier College. “It is from almost all aspects, a failure - enormous debt (£30,000), fails miserably and increasingly at exams, fails in all athletic contests ...”. He believed that the college needed an educational rector who would improve the college intellectually and spiritually and remove the debt. James O’Dwyer was appointed rector in May 1908.
He entered the Society at Milltown Park, 1 October 1880. His Jesuit training was at Milltown Park for both philosophy and theology, and tertianship was at Tronchiennes, Belgium. During regency he taught physics and mathematics at Belvedere College, 1883-86, and Latin, Greek, and mathematics at Clongowes College, 1886-92.
O’Dwyer first appointment in Australia was as prefect of studies at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, 1901-04, but it seems that, as he did not continue the policy of previous prefects
of studies, he did not win the approval of the rector, Thomas Gartlan. O’Dwyer certainly did not approve of student absenteeism for sporting functions without his approval. Both rector and prefect of studies were strong, determined men - O’Dwyer was transferred to Xavier College.
It was during his term as rector of Xavier College, 1908-18, that his best work in Australia was achieved. He became one of the few Jesuit educationalists in the history of the Australian Province. At Xavier College he improved the school numerically, financially and educationally. At a time when science was unpopular as a school subject, he elevated its status. He built the laboratory, introduced electric light, enlarged the cricket oval, improved the Rowing Club and laid down the tennis courts. He also re-introduced secular masters after an absence of fifteen years and began the St Vincent de Paul Society in 1909. He also taught English literature and history, and encouraged a professional attitude to the teaching of religious knowledge.
O’Dwyer was one of the strongest of the rectors of Xavier College with extraordinary energy and force of character. He was most outspoken on every issue, showing a wide vision of life and detailed his educational philosophy more clearly than his predecessors. He stressed that “the aim and ideal of our education is to turn out cultured Christian gentlemen”. This was the Jesuit ideal for three centuries, and it was best achieved by following centuries of tradition, while taking care to keep in touch with the improvements of the physical sciences. More than many rectors, O’Dwyer believed that Jesuit traditions and the British Public School image had much in common, and the Public Schools of Victoria were continuing this great tradition of turning out men of character much needed for the future of Australia.
In his many addresses to parents and students, O’Dwyer stressed that hard work and character formation were more important than success in examinations or gaining prizes. He wanted his students to rise above their environment. with minds trained in wisdom. True education for him involved the soul, the life of the spirit, which produced truth, reverence, modesty and holiness. Christ was presented as the moral motive for Christians, and the syllabus used in education ought to be the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. The importance of religious education was continually stressed.
At a time when religious rituals were exactly prescribed, such as the custom of daily Mass for boarders, O'Dwyer questioned whether this enforced practice did not turn the boys against religion. It took another 50 years before compulsory Mass ceased. He was also a champion of pedagogical excellence. He constantly mentioned the poor quality teaching among Jesuits in Australia, and asked Irish superiors to send good teachers, especially in mathematics and science. Very little change occurred. He wanted Jesuit scholastics to be trained in pedagogy for teaching, but superiors held to the old belief that Jesuit formation was sufficient for all Society ministries.
Apart from his work within the colleges, O’Dwyer was also influential within the wider community In Victoria he was the Catholic representative on the Board of Registration, and was sought after for sermons and lectures. He gave the Cathedral Hall Winter Lectures in Melbourne one year, and regularly spent his holidays giving retreats.
In addition, he was not slow to comment on the education system in Victoria, all the time advocating an academic environment that would assist students to progress easily to the university.
The strong leadership that O’Dwyer exercised showed him to be a man of great zeal and enthusiasm, inspiring confidence and trust in others. He was extremely loyal to colleagues, boys and the Church. He was not given to praising people to their face, choosing rather to express his appreciation of them to others. He wasted no time on compliments. He was never familiar and not easy to know well, but was admired for his personal strength of character.
O’Dwyer was very British in outlook and spoke eloquently about the importance of the Empire and patriotism. During the Great War, he proclaimed the privilege of lighting for the
rights of King and country Vice-royalty were always welcome at Xavier College during his term of office. He strongly supported the Public School spirit at the College, a spirit that, in England he believed, had produced the best leaders in the Empire.
After his term of office as rector of Xavier College, he was given charge of preparing for the opening of Newman College at The University of Melbourne, a task he performed with
distinction. He must also be credited for the real work in founding the preparatory school to Xavier College, Burke Hall, and was appointed its first headmaster, 1921-25 . He died in office much mourned by the Melbourne Catholic community for his dedicated service to the Church and education.
It took time to know O’Dwyer as a person. He was reserved to a degree, even shy, and though he would let you know what he thought, he scarcely ever let you know what he felt. He could appear largely unemotional and lacking the finer sensibilities, keeping these emotions and feelings to himself. He was a man of action, and was impatient of delays. Yet, at the same time, he had no time for censorious criticism. If he had a complaint against anyone, that person alone heard about it. He was strong, sincere, and straight. These qualities earned the respect of his colleagues, and they seemed to treat him the same way.

Note from Toddy O’Dwyer Entry
Brother, Sir Michael, assassinated by a fanatical Indian student, Udharn Singh, 13 March 1940, in Caxton Hall, London, for the massacre at Amritsar, 13 April 1919, while he was Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab. Over 379 protesters were killed and 1,200 wounded. The “Massacre” was officially condemned, and many Indians considered Michael a tyrant.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 1st Year No 1 1925
Studley Hall (Burke Hall) : The success of this school is mainly due to the late Father James O'Dwyer, who died on October 29th R.I.P.. His death is a big loss to Dudley and to the Mission, to which he rendered invaluable assistance.

Irish Province News 1st Year No 2 1926

Obituary :
Fr James O’Dwyer
Fr James O'Dwyer died on Thursday, 29th October, 1925. His loss was severely felt, not only by the Society in Australia, but by his brother priests and by all those who are engaged in the great work of education. The crowded congregation assembled in St. Patrick's Cathedral, where the solemn office and High Mass were celebrated on the Saturday after his death gave eloquent testimony of the high opinion in which he was held by the general public. Some of the leading Protestants of Melbourne took part in this tribute to his memory.

Fr. O'Dwyer was born in Co. Tipperary in 1860. At the age of sixteen he went to Tullabeg, then a flourishing College with Fr. Wm. Delany as Rector. Young O'Dwyer was equally distinguished in the class-room and on the play-ground, and ended his school days as Captain of the College. He entered the Society in 1880, and immediately after the Noviceship was sent to Belvedere as Master. After a year he returned to Milltown for Philosophy. At the end of the third year he was appointed to Clongowes, where, during six years, he earned the very highest reputation as a brilliant master. He made his Theology at Milltown, ordained in 18957 went to Tronchiennes for Tertianship, and when the year was over he again found himself a master at Clongowes. He remained there until 1901, when he sailed for Australia. He at once became Prefect of Studies at Riverview and held that office until 1904, when he was transferred to Kew. Two years later he had his first experience of Parish work at Richmond. It did not last long, for in 1908 he was appointed Rector of Kew. During his rectorship, which lasted until 1917, Kew took its place in the very first rank of Australian schools a position it still occupies. To play a leading part in the starting of Newman College in I9I89 was Fr. O'Dwyer's next work. For the two following years he was engaged in teaching at St Aloysius' College, Sydney, and then became the first Superior of Studley Hall. Except for one year, when ill health incapacitated him for active work, he held that position until 1925 when God called him to receive the reward of his great labours.
Fr. O'Dwyer was not only a great schoolman, but as a preacher and lecturer he held a very high place. He was also much sought after by religious Communities, and by the secular
clergy to conduct their retreats.
At the High Mass and Office at St. Patrick’s, on the Saturday after Fr. O'Dwyer's death, His Lordship, the Bishop of Sandhurst, the Right Rev. Dr. MacCarthy, presided.

Irish Province News 1st Year No 3 1926

At Kew, Dr, Mannix paid the following tribute to Fr James O’Dwyer “I was very sorry to hear of the death of my dear friend Fr O’Dwyer desire to-night to sympathize with the Jesuit Fathers, and to assure them that I should like to be allowed to share the loss they feel. Fr O'Dwyer was a man in a thousand. He was one of the greatest educational experts in Australia. The debt that Victoria owes to Fr O'Dwyer will never be paid - but his work still remains.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father James O’Dwyer 1860-1925
Born in Tipperary on September 24th 1860, James O’Dwyer went to Tullabeg at the age of sixteen. It was then a flourishing College with Fr Delaney as Rector. Young O’Dwyer was equally outstanding in classroom and on playing field, and ended his schooldays as Captain of Tullabeg. He entered the Society in 1880.

He made his name as a brilliant Master in Clongowes, where he spent six years as a scholastic. After his ordination in Milltown and his Tertianship, he returned to Clongowes until 1901 when he sailed for Australia. He at once became Prefect of Studies at Riverview.

In 1908 he was appointed Rector of Kew, a post he held until 1917. During his Rectorship, Kew took its place in the very first rank of Australian schools. He played a leading part in the starting of Newman College in 1918, and he became the first Rector of Studley Hall, a position he held until his death.

Fr O’Dwyer was not only a great schoolman, but as a preacher and lecturer he held a very high place. He was much sought after by the clergy for their retreats.

He died on October 28th 1925.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1925

Obituary

Father James O’Dwyer SJ

Born, 24th September, 1860: died 29th October, 1925)

The Editor asks me for some notes on the more intimate side of Father James O'Dwyer, omitting, as he suggests, all reference to the positions of trust he filled, the important works he accomplished, the brilliant and intellecu tual quialiies of his sermons and public lectures and so on. I daresay the Editor fixed on me for this task because inore than any other I was in daily and close association with Father O'Dwyer during the whole ten years of his rector at at Xavier.

Few, if any of his fellow-workers had better opportunities than myself of kriowing him; and yet, I inust confess, it took timne to know him intimately. He was reserved to a degree, even shy, and though he would let you know what he thought, he scarcely ever let you know what he felt. The impression produced on me for some time - even for some years - was that he was largely unemotional and lacked the finer sensibilities. I look back now on that impression with surprise. As intimate association with him increased I saw that earlier impressions had to be corrected. He was, in fact, a man of deep feeling and of a sensitiveness that few, I think, suspected. But he was wonderfully silent about what he felt: as a rule, you had to find it out by casual indications or rare and unguarded admissions, For instance, it came to me as a surprise to learn some years after the occurrences that matters, concerning which I had regarded him at the time as “thick-skinned” and insensible, had caused him many a sleepless night,

If I were asked to me what seemed to me to be his most striking characteristic - a dangerous, and, perhaps, illusory thing to attempt - I would select his loyalty. Whether it was really his most prominent characteristic or not, at all events it was sufficiently noteworthy to call for attention, and, to me at least, it was always touching. He was extraordinarily loyal both to his colleagues and to the boys under his charge, while his loyalty to the Catholic Church was the overmastering passion of his life.

Looking back over ten years of close collaboration with him at Xavier, I can not recall a single occasion on which he expressed to myself a word of formal approval of my own work, I am inclined to think that somewhat similar was the experience of all my co-workers. He wasted no time on compliinents. You felt his approval rather by his decisions and you appreciated it all the more. But in speaking to you of his colleagues who were not present, his appreciation of their work was most heartening. He referred to them in the most enthusiastic terms. No one could be warmer in his recognition of their work. He was utterly sincere, straightforward, and manly. In his presence you might be reminded with a certain abruptness of some omission, or something that should be “done at once” - a favourite expression of his - or of something that should have been done long ago; but though he wasted no compliments on you, you could be absolutely certain that behind your back no one ever heard of anything but appreciation of your work. You knew it because that was his invariable practice regarding every one of his community. He wanted to get things done, to see things moving, and he was certainly impatient of delays; but he had no time for censorious criticism. If he had any fault to find, he kept it to himself or reserved it for the person corcerned. He was a strong, sincere, and loyal man, and the better you knew him the more you admired him.

Equally notable was his loyalty to the boys. He was enthusiastic about thenı; keenly alive to their fine points; and scrupulously careful about their reputations. He took, I fancy, a kind of sacramental view of their faults and never discussed them. You certainly heard him.say a good deal about the fine qualities of the boys, but never a word about their misdemeanours. No doubt, in the Study Hall at assembly he came down forcibly on publicly known breaches of college law - as boys of his time will remember - and even decreed vigorous correction at times; but no one resented that - not even the culprits themselves - though they must have found it unpleasant at the time, the boys felt it was all in the game, and the public spirit of the school was solidly behind the Rector. The boys really like a good lead, and they felt they got it from Father O'Dwyer.

I was after somewhat surprised to note how completely the boys understood him. Undoubtedly he was often abrupt and impetuous, and even seemed to me at times to be a trifling harsh in his manner; but if there was any apparent harshness, the boys never seemed to notice it in the least. They never held off from him; they were frank, straightforward, and trusting in their whole attitude towards their Rector. They understood him; they appreciated the interest he took in thern; they admired his manliness and his high principles; and they were proud of him as a leader. More, they felt he was a friend and loved and trusted him as such.

His loyalty to the Church was inspiring. It had the breadth, the depth, and the strength which became one who was at once a scholar and an enthusiast. To him the Catholic Church could never be regarded as something about which, in any circumstances, we may be shamefaced or apologetic. To him, the Faith was the one thing that really matters in this world, not only for the individual, but also for nations, empires, and civilizations. As he was a close and deep student of history, he was conpetent to appeal on behalf of the Church to the Nineteen Great Witnesses - the Nineteen Centuries which have rolled over the shifting destinies of the nations, and which, as they look down the long avenues of history strewn with the wreckage of human institutions, pass this solemn judgment: “One institution stands through all the changes; one in stitution was built by the hands of God and will not pass away; one institution outlasts the long-drawn ravings and the futile prophecies of hostile criticisin is generation succeeds generation”. Father O'Dwyer's loyalty was founded upon the deep and profound study of history and of philosophy and theology, and he gave to his convictions a depth and breadth which could only come from religion, backed up by culture.

A French writer has said that fame is the privilege of being known to those who know you not. Another defined popularity as the esteein of men who take us for something altogether different from what we really are. Fame or popularity of that kind may be treated with indifference or contempt. Far different fron that was the genuine esteem in which Father O'Dwyer was held by those who really knew him. The more intimately people knew and understood him, the more they esteemed him. He had the love and esteem of those who came in close contact with him, and understood his aims and his work. He was not a man who invited familiarity, From his aggressive pushfulness, his initiative, his energy and his impatience with shilly-shallying, he was a man with whom it might be said no one was really familiar. Even the people who were most friendly with him felt slightly restrained by something in him. Yet, as I have said before, the boys felt that he was their true and real friend and, feeling that, loved and trusted him. In Newman College, among the students, Father O'Dwyer was quite at home. He was as much at his ease with the University students as he had been with the Xavier College boys. Laer, when he was appointed head-master of the Xavier Preparatory School, some might have wondered how he would get on with the children, many of whom were practically babies fresh froin the nursery. Well, I think that in many ways the part of his life that he would have chosen, if asked, as the happiest time of his life, was while he was in charge of Studley Hall, Here he plotted and planned and kept things moving as he had done at the College and was the happiest of men in the midst of the young life of the Preparatory School. Here, as at Xavier, he won the trust of children - that hardest of all things to capture. It seems to me that no greater tribute could be paid to Father O'Dwyer's qualities than that given by the spontaneous trust in him alike by men, boys and little children.

Furthermore, no class of men or women were more loyal, more respectful, or more affectionate to Father O'Dwyer than those who served under him in the capacity of servants. He gained their respect and affection by his ready sympathy, by his appreciation of their work, and by the tactfulness and kindly courtesy of the true Christian gentleman.

Of that last and greatest loyalty of his life-his religious obedience I would not speak for very sacredness. Yet was it, I think, the beacon light of his life. In his own handwriting he wrote on the fly leaf of the Boys' Rules of Xavier College these beautiful words:

“True guidance in return for loving obedience (did they but know it) is the prime need of man” and...
“Great souls are always loyally submissive reverent to what is set over them; only small, mean souls are other wise”."
How truly was his own life an exemplification of those words,
May he rest in peace.

Eustace Boylan SJ

A LITTLE POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATION

The Editor of the “Xaverian” has ever felt that justice should be done to the Editor of the “Xaverian” for 1918 - the year that Father O'Dwyer ceased to be Rector of Xavier and this all the more because in righting the living he is but paying tribute to the humility of the dead. In December, 1918, when the changes of Rector had been officially announced and Father Jerernialı Sullivan succeeded Father James O'Dwyer as Rector of Xavier, the Editor drew up a simple, honest, sincere, plain and unflattering account of the stewardship of Father O'Dwyer and to it added in a poor broken way, a word of appreciation of his work and worth. Out of respect for his old Superior and never dreaming the upshot, he imprudently asked Father James to read the proof sheet and give his permission for its production. He did the former willingly enough, and expressed his gratitude but to the latter gave a refusal so decisive and so earnest that compliance had to be. Accordingly the “Xaverian” went out minus the precious manuscript. Then came the storm of criticism foreseen and predicted by the poor Editor as he argued and argued - but all to no effect - With Father O’Dwyer...... of the Leaving Classes who apprecraitopn, perhaps, more than as boys — the love of literature and grasp of religious truth which his teaching instilled.
Far deeper, however, than these benefits (great as they are) will be found, in the hearts of the boys, the grateful thought and remembrance of Father O'Dwyer's personal kindness to them. The memory of this will live on when many another golden text - be it of Science or Scripture - has been forgotten, and will teach the Xavier boy both how to live and how to die. Rumour runs that Father O'Dwyer leaves Xavier for higher - if not better things - for the Rectorship of Newman College. We know not. But, whether Rector of Newman College or of no College, “the School, both old and new, will not forget” his kinduess to it, nor fail to pray that he who blessed so much may, in ......

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1925

Obituary

Father James O’Dwyer

Within the last few weeks there passed to his eternal reward a great educationalist in the person of Fr J O'Dwyer, brother of our late rector, Fr T O'Dwyer, and formerly sometime prefect of studies in this College. He had been rector of Xavier College, Melbourne, and was the first rector of Newman College, Melbourne University. He was largely in strumental in putting that institution on its firm bass, and must be credited with what has been recently described by an independent observer, as its phenomenal success. “Here, as there, Fr O'Dwyer was always : tireless worker, with complete forgetfulness of self, and unbounded zeal for the work he had in hand. At the time of his decease he filled the post of headmaster of Studley Hall, the preparatory school of Xavier College, which establishment also has attained, under his wise rule, to immediate and conspicuous success. A crowded attendance of clergy and laity on the occasion of the requiem in S Patrick's Cathedral, gave testimony of widespread appreciation for his splendid. works, and general regret at his demise.
RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1926

Obituary

Father James O’Dwyer SJ

James O’Dwyer SJ had had the most intimate connections with Clongowes, for after a brilliant school career at Tullabeg that had been made by Father Delany he came as a scholastic to teach Rhetoric here, numbering Father Rector among his pupils. He is one of the small band whose teaching has survived to be a tradition and a model. Intensely intellectual, he was full of an almost missionary zeal for imparting knowledge, and his method was quite as much inspiration as exposition. He was that rare thing, a practical enthusiast who was fully qualified and a master of his own work. Going as a priest to Australia, he continued his educational work in a wider field, was ten years Rector of Xavier College at a time when its career was one of rapidly growing success, and then for many years the first Superior of Studley Hall, its preparatory school. His charming and original character, with its strongly-felt ideals and strongly-expressed opinions, could not fail to make many friends and perhaps a few. enemies, a per sonality to be followed and opposed. He fought with conspicuous skill, vigour and success in the battle for Catholic Education in a Protestant country.

◆ The Clongownian, 1931

Appreciation

Father James O’Dwyer SJ

(OT 1876-1880 ; Master at Clongowes 1887-1892 and 1897-1901; first Rector of Newman College in the University of Melbourne, Rector of Xavier College and of Burke Hail, Melbourne).

By Fr George O'Neill SJ

“The Clongopwnian owes a debt of commemoration to the late Fr James O'Dwyer; but it is not easy to pay that debt satisfactorily. For, though Fr O'Dwyer died as recently as 1925, he is to Clongowes of to-day a man of a past generation; and “the generations” are still as “hungry” as when the poet so described them - “ever wearying of the old and wolfing down the new”. So long ago as 1901, Fr James was led by the call of duty very far away from Tullabeg and Clongowes, and, once he reached his new world he became absorbed in the task he set before him, and cut off with, perhaps, excessive completeness his links with the old country. A student at Tullabeg from 1876 to 1880, a master at Clongowes from 1887 to 1892 and again from 1897 to 1901, he will have left vivid memories of what he was as a schoolboy and a Jesuit among a fairly “old guard” of Clongownians and a much smaller remnant of the men of St Stanislaus. By such as these, at all events, whatever their numbers, we have no doubt that an appreciation of him, however imperfect, will be welcomed; while, perhaps, a chance perusal of it will catch the attention and even appeal to the soul of some younger readers, and as for the antipodes we have no doubt that when “The Clongownian” of 1931 'arrives out there, it will gain a living and warm reception for anything it has to say in reverent commemoration of Fr O'Dwyer a man in whom hundreds of Australians have recognised and still recognise one of the most successful educators of youth that have ever appeared in their country.

Fr O'Dwyer made himself, indeed, an Australian with the Australians. He was, none the less, a true son of Irish soil. Sprung from a family settled immemorially in the “Golden Vein” country, near Tipperary, he and his brothers grew up a large and gifted circle. One, by sheer force of ability rose to a place among the highest in the difficult field of Indian Government, and, as Sir Michael O'Dwyer, confronted its problems with energy and ability; another, now Fr Thomas O'Dwyer SJ, as Vice-Rector of St Patrick's College, Melbourne, Rector of Riverview College, Sydney, and in other capacities also served well the Society to which he and his brother James gave them selves in their early days.

Provincialism or narrow nationalism of any sort was no part of Fr James's mind or character. For that he was too much of an enlightened Catholic and too much of a man of culture. These characteristics were justly dwelt upon by the preacher at his funeral service, Fr Eustace Boylan SJ, who thus spoke :

“The most prominent characteristic of Fr O'Dwyer's life was a passionate loyalty to the Catholic Church. This gave unity to all his efforts in study, in teaching, and in preaching. He regarded the Church as the only thing that really mattered in the world - the great rock, marking out the true goal of human progress. His loyalty was founded on a deep study of history, philosophy and theology, which gave his mind a depth and breadth that could result only from religion backed up by culture. In the battle for progress and improvement, his one central idea was the progress of the Church to the greater glory of God”.

It is a panegyric such as might have been spoken concerning some canonised son of St Ignatius. And, while it was true in a generous measure of Fr James, he possessed, furthermore, the strength of will and character that could make his ideals active forces in all manner of surroundings, as well as the spirit of self-sacrifice that does not count the cost to self. As teacher, preacher, Rector, and much else - especially from the time of his ordination as priest in 1895 to his last illness in 1925 - he wore himself out by hard and incessant labour. His strenuousness, combined with his ability, “made him a prince of teachers”. There was no room for slovenliness or slackness in his conception of a well-ordered life, and those he train d had to “take it or leave it” on that understanding. Utterly straightforward himself, so un relentingly expected truth from others. Here came in the inevitable touch of human imperfection. His forcefulness in the moulding of his pupils, while it had, on the whole, a desirable result, was sometimes, felt to be a little exaggerated and oppressive. So too in his judgments of character and his views on things in general, though you could not call him narrow, yet there was certainly a tendency to be one-sided, to see things too absolutely in black and white. He was not readily indulgent to views and tendencies, or sympathetic in judging characters, that were unlike his own. In his later years, however, this inborn positiveness appeared tempered and softened. It must, at all times, have given him occasion for meritorious self-repression; for never did it interfere with his obedience as a religious, never with his exercises of charity, and seldom with his capacity for team-work in any good cause. You might find it hard to draw him into a hive of action; but, once you got him in, you could count infallibly on his loyal co-operation.

He might have gained, doubtless, something in breadth of view had he been favoured with a course of studies less locally confined. His long years at Tullabeg and at Milltown Park might possibly have narrowed, not expanded, a mindless bent on self-improvement than his was; but he was a keen learner, He ranged as widely in general studies and reading as opportunity permitted, and, like Coleridge's hermit, receptive of lights from every quarter:

“He loved to talk with mariners.
That come from a far countree”.

Just before entering the Jesuit novitiate he had been given a useful glimpse of many lands in a tour which he took with a school fellow under the capable guidance of Fr Conmee, and ever after he guarded as gold the reminiscences of those weeks, especially of his Italian experiences. After his ordination in 1895 he was sent for the customary ten months of recollection to Tronchiennes in Belgium, and there he valued and utilised his opportunities of exchanging ideas with men of many nationalities and temperaments.

Thus formed, he. could not fail to make his mark, or rather a deep impression, when, in 1901 he entered upon the business of his best years - his teaching and leadership among the Catholic schools of Australia. His capacity and adaptability were proved in University; secondary and primary scholastic business; and whether his work lay in the newly (and daringly) started Newman College of Melbourne University, or in Xavier Public School, or in its preparatory school, Burke Hall, he never failed to rise to the height of his task. That task - as he conceived it - was that of an educationalist and an apostle. Ready, apparently, for any work, he changed easily from readiness into enthusiasm. One of his colleagues wrote on the occasion of his death :

“One thing especially impressed me in his life, and that was the way in which he ever thoroughly settled down in every place to which he has been sent, and joyfully and whole-heartedly carried out any and every kind of work he has been given to do”.

The Council of Public Education, the Association of Registered Teachers of Victoria, the head-masters. of public schools and the heads of the University colleges of Melbourne placed on record their sense of regret at the death of Fr O'Dwyer and their deep appreciation of his value as a thinker and worker in educational matters. “The Council”, wrote one of these bodies, “deplored the death of one who had given so freely of his ability to further the cause of education”. Regrets were widely expressed that he had shortened so valuable a career by reckless expenditure of his strength and indifference to health and rest.

These personages and committees were in the main non-Catholic. They, as well as other non-Catholics, had been deeply impressed not only by the abilities but also by the moral and priestly qualities of their deceased colleague. Nevertheless it is rather to Catholic sources we must look for evidence as to the internal spirit that underlay Fr, James's unremitting activities. When we turn to such witnesses we may particularly notice the tributes they have paid to his practice of the gentler virtues - those that were least congruous to his natural temperament. It was not, for example, his zeal or his forcefulness that Fr Lockington SJ, selected for praise in his condolences on his death. He wrote :

“He has done rare work for the Church and the Society and will be greatly missed by all of us. The outstanding feature in his character - one in which he was a model for all of us - was his invariable charity towards everyone. He had at times men under him who must have tried him sorely, yet,-always the good word!”

Mother MacRory, religious of the Sacred Heart, sister of His Eminence Cardinal MacRory and Superior of Sancta Sophia College in the University of Sydney, gave this testimony :
·
“I am sure Christ, our Lord received with a benign countenance one who had so often and so beautifully spoken about Him. Dear Father James seened to have a special gift of inspiring personal love for Our Lord. He is a great loss; but he has done a great work, and it will endure”.

It was indeed true, as the last writer's words remind us, that, quite apart from his educational activities, whereby not merely had hundreds of his pupils been formed into excellent Christians but also a numerous élite had been led into the ways of perfection. Fr O'Dwyer's labours and success as a conductor of retreats, as a preacher and a confessor, would alone have entitled him to grateful and reverent memory. But on these aspects of his life-work we cannot now further dwell.

Our final quotation concerning him shall be a tribute paid to his memory by a man of letters, Mr T J Cleary, who thus refers to Fr James's co-operation with him in various services rendered to the cause of Catholic literature in Australia :

“Your very able brother was a kind and good friend to me while I was editor of ‘The Austral Light’. We edited together Archbishop Carr's Lectures and Replies, and the manner in which he smoothed over the harsh words exchanged was almost a revelation. When he had finished; the note of controversy had departed and the Lectures as now published leave no indication that they emanated from a controversy with Dr R . By his death, too, we lose the greatest gentleman among the clerics since Dr. Carr's death”.

Fr O'Dwyer's funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on November 25th, 1925, presided over by the Bishop of Sandhurst, gave impressive testimony to the esteem in which he was held and the regret occasioned by his loss. Since then nothing has been done to perpetuate his name; but so he himself would have wished it. He had laboured for nearly forty-five years, indifferent to praises, testimonials or titles. His ambitions were fixed on successes and rewards that do not fade away with time, and much that he achieved will remain even on earth as of permanent value.

Born: 25 June 1914, Wyndom Park, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 07 September 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1951, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 07 April 1992, Università Gregoriana, Rome, Italy

Father was a tobacco merchant and family lived at Riversdale, Lower Drumcondra Road, Drumcondra, Dublin City.

Eldest of two boys and four girls.

Early education was at Dominican Covvent school Eccles Street, Dublin and then at O’Connells school for five years. In 1927 he went to Belvedere College SJ until 1932.

by 1948 at Rome, Italy (ROM) - studying

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 72 : Easter 1993

HOMILY : for Fr Frank O’Farrell

Peter Henrici

Tim Healy has provided this translation, from Inaugurazione dell'Anno Accademico 1992 1993 of the Gregorian University. The text is based on the funeral homily - given by Fr Peter Henrici SJ, dean of philosophy - for Fr Frank O'Farrell (1914-1992).

Early on the morning of 7th April the Lord called to Himself Father Frank O'Farrell after a long and painful illness borne with serenity and with the sense of humour which characterised him all his life.

Born on 25th June in Bray, near Dublin, Frank O'Farrell had four sisters (one a twin) and one brother, Patrick, a parish priest in the Dublin diocese, who died two years before him. After secondary school with the Jesuits in Belvedere College, Dublin, he entered the novitiate at St Mary's, Emo, on 7th September 1933. There followed three years studying literature at University College Dublin Che always delighted in quoting Shakespeare), three years of philosophy at St Stanislaus' College, Tullabeg, followed immediately by four years of theology at Milltown Park, Dublin. Then came a year's Tertianship at Namur, and a year and a half teaching ontology and natural theology at Tullabeg, where he was to return to teach rational psychology after his doctorate. His doctoral studies were at the Gregorian, from 1947 to 1949, culminating in a thesis on “The Objectivity of the Judgement according to St Thomas Aquinas”. As early as 1952 he was recalled to the Gregorian, first to teach the then obligatory course on The Texts of St Thomas, and in 1954 to succeed Fr Paolo Dezza in the chair of metaphysics - a post he held until he became emeritus and even later.

But this very regular academic curriculum tells us next to nothing of the person of Fr O'Farrell or of his work. True, he was a teacher by vocation - so much so that even as emeritus he was keen to continue teaching, first in Sardinia and then in Scotland. But, more than a teacher, he was a true master who did not merely pass on ideas but wished to introduce his students to the rigours of metaphysical thought and to a love of truth and of the great Masters. A master himself, he appreciated the value of the Masters, and held them in veneration: first St Thomas, then Heidegger, Aristotle and Kant. He would have liked (and in this he was not altogether wrong, though it would probably be impossible to put into practice) that the second cycle of philosophy be devoted solely to interpreting the great texts of the philosophical tradition. These texts he himself interpreted with analytic precision - and with a delightful disregard for historical research - in his seminars, starting in the 1950s at the German College and then at the Gregorian. The fruit of these seminars are numerous articles in Gregorianum and two volumes Per leggere le Critiche di Kant - a third volume on the Critique of Judgment is ready for publication. But before these volumes, his teaching-notes on Ontology should be mentioned. These went through many editions both in Latin and Italian, and they present a Thomistic metaphysics largely reinterpreted and updated in the line of J. Maréchal and A. Marc.

Like a good master, Fr O'Farrell also knew the Augustinian truth that the master does not have to teach directly, but that he is merely the admonitor of the Interior Master. Accordingly, in his lectures, the metaphysical truths were hidden under countless stories of Bartolomeo and of the dog Fido and his many relatives, and it greatly amused him that his notes on the blackboard were so unreadable. When warned that the students had difficulty understanding his lectures, his usual reply was: “It has to be that way - they can't understand anything at the start. But you'll see, towards Easter they'll begin to understand”.

Towards Easter we too began to understand something of this life, at once open and hidden. The life of someone who already in '63 had been close to death and who since then had to accept limits on his health, but in a way that no one would notice. A most regular life, punctuated by regular “calls from the Lord”, ie. trips to the country or the seaside - which in turn were often spiritual conversations - or by equally regular courses of spiritual exercises. A life whose depths were hidden, and - who knows - perhaps also its sufferings, under a sense of humour which could at times be Saucy. On one of the last pages of his teaching-notes on natural theology, which he had wanted to prepare for his lectures in Scotland, Fr O'Farrell quotes Victor White: “One may imagine those who have reached their last end in God, looking back and seeing their lives by comparison with eternity, their sufferings by comparison with the possession of God. They can only smile to think that their sufferings, whatever they were, ever seemed important”.

Born: 14 February 1816, County Longford
Entered: 25 April 1835, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: by 1851
Final vows: 15 August 1857
Died 12 May 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin

by 1844 in Nice (LUGD) studying philosophy
by 1847 in Rome Studying
by 1857 in Rome Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1865 in San Francisco College CA, USA (TAUR) teaching

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He received a great part of his early and Priestly education before Ent. he was received into the Society by Peter Kenney 25 April 1835.

1847 he was studying Theology at Rome, and he was considered a rival to the great Passaglia.
1851-1856 He was sent Teaching Classics at Belvedere, and was also a Professor and Examiner at the Catholic University.
1856-1857 He was sent to St Eusebia’s in Rome for Tertianship.
1857-1861 He was made Superior of the new Theologate at 28 Nth Frederick St, but as this house only lasted one year, he was made Rector of Belvedere in August 1858, and held that post until 1861.
1861-1864 he was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius.
1864 He was sent to Santa Clara to preside over the English Department at the College there.
1868 He was appointed Socius to the Visitor in California.
1869 He returned to Ireland and was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius. He remained at Gardiner St until within a few months before his death, when he moved to Milltown and died there 12 May 1877.
He was eminent in Theology, Literature and Science. He had a reputation as a poet, his most famous piece was entitled “The Triumph of the Just”. A man of extensive knowledge, he was held in high esteem by the learned.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Michael O’Ferrall SJ 1816-1877
Fr Michael O’Ferrall was born in Longford on Feb 14th 1816. He had received a great part of his education before he was received into the Society by Fr Peter Kenney in 1835.

He studied Theology in Rome in 1847 where he was considered a rival of the great Passaglia. He was Professor and examiner in the Catholic University, and then in 1857 he became Superior of the new Theologate at 28 Great Frederick Street. This house only lasted a year and he then became Rector of Belvedere until 1861.

He was sent to California in 1864 where he presided over the English Department at Santa Clara College. He then became Socius to the Visitor in California in 1868.

Returning to Ireland he was stationed at Gardiner Street until a few months before his death, which took place at Milltown Park on May 12th 1877.

He was eminent in Theology, Literature and Science and was a poet of no mean order, his finest piece being “The Triumph of the Just”.

Born: 09 March 1901, Castle D’Arcy, Lahinch, County Clare
Entered: 04 October 1917, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 27 August 1929, Valkenburg, Netherlands
Died: 31 December 1972, Little Flower Haven, La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa, CA, USA

Left Society of Jesus: 12 December 1932 (from Clongowes - Prefect)

Consecrated Bishop of Juneau, Alaska, USA 03 October 1951 to 19 June 1968

Parents lived at 10, Effra Road, Rathgar, Dublin, supported by land, and two older brothers.

Fifth of six sons and he has three sisters.

Educated at Dominican Convent Dun Laoghaire, he then went to Belvedere College SJ.

1917-1919: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1919-1920: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Juniorate
1920-1921: Clongowes Wood College SJ. Regency
1921-1924: Milltown Park, Philosophy
1924-1926: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Regency
1926-1930: Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying Theology
1930-1932: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Teaching
by 1932 at Petworth Sussex (ANG) health

went to Alasks, 1933; appointed Bishop of Juneau, Alaska 03/10/1951 - 19/06/1958

Died at Little Flower Haven, La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa, CA, USA a Retirement home run by the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. Buried at Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery, East Klatt Road Anchorage, AK USA

Irish Province News 48th Year No 1 1973

Obituary :

Bishop Dermot O’Flanagan (1901-1972)

Perigrinare Pro Christo
The phrase describes what through the ages has been the most distinctive feature of Irish Catholicism.

One bright June morning just fifty years ago eight young men manning, not an outrigger but a weathered fishing boat, dropped with the tide down Killary Fjord, not as yet seeking the ocean, but trailing a line for that most unsporting of fish - the mackerel, and making for a little beach at the foot of Mweelrea and the last swim and the last picnic of a good holiday, They came from all over the four provinces and half a dozen schools - ‘Rock, BCD, CBS, CWC, and Mungret, but they had been working together for two or three busy years and were a close-knit group - “A Band of Brothers”.

Very soon they would separate never to foregather again this side of the grave. On that June day in 1923, it is unlikely that any of them had a notion how wide their dispersal would be: Maurice Dowling to Zambia, Tom Perrot to Perth, D. Donnelly to Hong Kong and India, Tom Johnston to New Zealand and Quensland, Jim Brennan to Rhodesia, two would settle in Ireland but not before they had reached Capetown and Japan, one, Dermot Flanagan, would go further to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and to San Diego on the border of Mexico, His death then in California is mourned by old friends and companions in the four other Continents, for Bishop O'Flanagan was a friend and companion not likely to be forgotten, loyal, hard-working, cheerful, simple, enterprising, sanguine and unsefish.

What might be called the Belvedere Families have in successive generations played an important part in the school's life and work. Four, five or more boys, long-service pupils, follow one another in an unbroken line, and for a decade or more make their own special impression on school life, so that their contemporaries recognise those years as almost proprietory, belonging to them much as historians may write of the Tudor, Stuart or Georgian epochs. Such families were the Gaffneys, the Troddyns, the Quinns and not least the O'Flanagans - Cyril, Aiden, Louis, Paul, Dermot and Frank, following one another so that the school in their period never lacked one of the O'Flanagans to maintain tradition. It cannot have been without significance that this period covered the false dawn of Home Rule, the Anglo-Irish literary revival, the great strikes, the first World War, the 1916 Rising and its aftermath,

In 1917 Dermot entered the Irish Noviceship, taking his Vows in 1919. Ill health prevented him starting the usual studies and instead he joined the Clongowes Community; after an interval, however, he was to complete his Philosophy in Milltown Park, returning to Clongowes in 1923, to prefect and teach. His Theological studies were made at Valkenburg, where he was Ordained in 1929, Again ill health led to a postponement of Tertianship, and he returned to Clongowes as Higher Line Prefect. During a serious epidemic in the summer of 1933, he added to his work - first the duties of Minister, and then on the eve of the Intermediate Examinations those of Prefect of Studies. It was too much and the breakdown which might have been expected followed,
After a short rest in the “Sleeping Beauty” woods of Emo, a complete change of work and surroundings were decided on, and he volunteered for work in a parish in Alaska.

A couple of years later he became P.P, of Anchorage, where he built the parish church and remained until his consecration in 1951 as first Bishop of Juneau,

The Alaska to which he went was still to some degree that which European legend of the Gold Rush made popular. There were pioneering trips by dog sleigh to remote Eskimo country, but in Dermot's lifetime the territory became the 50th State of the United States, and its treasures in oil and meal hurried it along the road to modernization.

la 1969 in his 68th year he resigned his Bishopric, leaving the country which owed so much to half his lifetime of apostolic labour. In San Diego despite his failing health he continued to accomplish much pastoral work, until at last the ill health which had overshadowed all his manhood could no longer be resisted.

In San Diego seven Bishops including his Metropolitan Dr Tadhg Manning concelebrated his Requiem Mass. The remains were then flown to a similar Memorial Service in Anchorage, and fittingly laid to rest there in the Church, of which it may truly be said he was the Founder.

In that far off summer of 1923, Dermot and a companion cycled from Leenane through the Erriff Valley and climbed Croagh Patrick from the steep eastern side on a sweltering day

There was no one on the summit and after a brief visit to the little chapel, which, surprisingly, was open, they remained admir ing the view of the Islands of Clew Bay when they perceived three people, who had ascended by the pilgrims way; a woman on that torrid day dressed in a black skirt which almost touched the ground, was accomplished by her two sons, a very young man and a boy of 12. While they were in the chapel the Jesuits planned to photo the little group when they emerged, Soon they were joined by the young people but there was no sign of the mother. Perhaps thinking of the long way home to Louisbourg and the Delphi Valley, they questioned the younger boy. “Does your mother often stay long in the Church?” “Oh! Yes, often”. "Yes,, but what is she praying for?" "How would I know?" "Well, I know, I'm sure she is asking God for a vocation for the Priesthood for you.'
Almost in the shadow of Croagh Patrick lies the parish in which that boy worked in God's Service for many years, subsequently, while on the far side of the continent across the Atlantic which lay at his door, laboured the Priest and Bishop who had foreseen the youngsters Vocation,

To Bishop Dermot's brothers and sister we offer our sincere sympathy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dermot_O%27Flanagan

Robert Dermot O'Flanagan (March 9, 1901 – December 31, 1972) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Juneau in Alaska from 1951 to 1968.

Biography
Early life
Robert O'Flanagan was born on March 9, 1901, in Lahinch, County Clare in Ireland. In 1908, he entered Belvedere College in Dublin.[1] After graduating in 1971, he entered St Stanislaus College, a Jesuit novitiate in Tullabeg, County Offaly. In 1920, the Jesuits sent O'Flanagan to the Netherlands to study at Ignatius College in Valkenburg.[2][3]

Priesthood
O'Flanagan was ordained to the priesthood for the Jesuit Order by Bishop Laurentius Schrijnen in Valkenburg on August 27, 1929.[4] Returning to Ireland, he taught at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare from 1930 to 1932.[1] In 1932, dissatisfied with the Jesuit Order, he decided to leave it. At a eucharistic conference in Dublin, O'Flanagan met Reverend Patrick J. O'Reilly, a missionary from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. After speaking with O'Reilly, he decided to go to Alaska on a three-month mission. [3]

Arriving in Juneau, Alaska, in January 1933, O'Flanagan was assigned by Bishop Joseph Crimont as a pastor of a parish in Seward, Alaska, to fill in for a priest on leave. Arriving in Seward, he received a warm welcome from both Catholic and non-Catholic residents. Their hospitality encouraged him to stay in Alaska permanently.[2] Later in 1933, O'Flanagan was assisting Reverend Dane, the pastor at Holy Family Parish in Anchorage. Dane wanted to take a medical leave and asked O'Flanagan to substitute at Holy Family. O'Flanagan would remain at Holy Family until 1951, eventually becoming pastor there. For 18 years, he would travel once a month to Seward, 120 miles from Anchorage, to minister to the parish there. [1][3]

In 1936, O'Flanagan headed a civic group to establish a new hospital in Anchorage. The existing hospital, built by Alaska Railroad in 1915 primarily for its employees, was reaching its limits due to the increased population of the city. After obtaining local funding, O'Flanagan persuaded the Catholic Sisters of Providence to staff and operate the new hospital for the general public. Providence Hospital opened on June 29, 1939.[3] O'Flanagan became a member of the operating committee for the first USO center in Anchorage. On November 30, 1943, O'Flanagan became a naturalized American citizen.[3]

Bishop of Juneau
On July 9, 1951, O'Flanagan was appointed the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Juneau by Pope Pius XII.[4] He received his episcopal consecration on October 3, 1951, from Bishop Francis Gleeson, with Bishops Charles White and Joseph Dougherty serving as co-consecrators.[4] O'Flanagan attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome between 1962 and 1965.

O'Flanagan's early resignation as bishop of the Diocese of Juneau due to poor health was accepted by Pope Paul VI on June 19, 1968.[4] He soon left Juneau to live at a Catholic retirement home in La Mesa, California. Dermot O'Flanagan died in La Mesa on December 31, 1972.[3]

(1) Curtis, Georgina Pell (1961). The American Catholic Who's Who. Vol. XIV. Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Walter Romig.

(2) Bagoy, John. "Fr. Demont O'Flanagan and Holy Family Church". Holy Family Cathedral History. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009.

(3) “O'Flanagan, Father Robert Dermot | Alaska History”. www.alaskahistory.org. Retrieved 5 May 2022.

(4) "Bishop Robert Dermot O'Flanagan". Catholic-Hierarchy.org.

https://www.alaskahistory.org/biographies/oflanagan-father-robert-dermot/

O'Flanagan, Father Robert Dermot

1901-1972 | Catholic Priest of Holy Family Church, Anchorage (1933-1951), and Bishop of the Diocese of Juneau (1951-1968)

The Path to Priesthood
Robert Dermot O’Flanagan was born on March 9, 1901, at Castle D’Arcy, Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland. He always used only Dermot as a first name.

After early schooling at Belvedere College, Dublin, a preparatory school for boys in Ireland, from 1908-1917, Father O’Flanagan entered a Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, County Offaly, Ireland, remaining there for three years. He did his theological studies at St. Ignatius College, Valkenburg, Limburg, Holland, and was ordained as a Jesuit priest there in 1929. From 1930 to 1932, he taught at a Jesuit secondary school for boys, Clongowes Wood College, in County Kildare.1

The year 1932 was a turning point in Father O’Flanagan’s life. In June, he left the Society of Jesus Jesuits, but remained a priest. He attended a Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. Among those attending was Father Patrick J. O’Reilly, S.J., a veteran missionary of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. As a result of hearing O’Reilly, Father O’Flanagan volunteered for service in Alaska. He was sent to America on the S.S. Manhattan, arriving in New York on December 15, 1932.

In January 1933, Father O’Flanagan arrived in Juneau. He was met by Joseph R. Crimont, S.J., Vicar Apostolic of Alaska, who assigned him a temporary mission, the parish of Seward. He was warmly welcomed by the people of Seward and wrote back to Bishop Crimont: “. . . people were falling over themselves trying to help me and make me feel welcome at home—the non-Catholics as much as the Catholics. It was worthwhile leaving Ireland for that alone.”2

After a short time in Seward, Father O’Flanagan was sent to Anchorage and appointed as pastor of Holy Family Parish in July 1933.3 He was sent to relieve the ailing pastor of Holy Family Parish, Father Godfrey Dane, for a “temporary stint,” but the appointment became permanent. O’Flanagan served as priest for both Anchorage and Seward for eighteen years. Once a month he would travel to Seward to care for the parishioners there, then return to his duties in Anchorage.

Father Louis L. Renner, S.J., in Alaskana Catholica: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska (2005), said this of Father O’Flanagan: “It did not take Father O’Flanagan long to become a well-known figure in Anchorage. His reserve, soft-spoken words, and beguiling Irish ways opened doors and hearts to him and to his message. Frequently he visited the sick in the Railroad Hospital. On a winter day, a common sight was that of Father ‘O’ shoveling snow off the rectory porch or church sidewalks. He tended the church and rectory furnaces, and his dusty coveralls became him no less than did his black cassock.”4

Parishioners recalled Father O’Flanagan was the most remembered of all priests in early Anchorage. His first altar servers were John Bagoy and Gene Pastro. Bagoy said he was known for “his thick Irish brogue and his outgoing personality.”5 Bagoy said that the “ladies of the parish were worried about him not getting enough to eat or eating the right food.”6 His diet seemed to consist of coffee and sweet rolls. They devised a system whereby he ate dinner with various members of the church on successive nights.

Establishment of Providence Hospital (1939)
Father O’Flanagan participated in local activities. He broached the subject of a new community hospital in Anchorage to Bishop Joseph R. Crimont, S.J., Vicar Apostolic of Alaska, and to the Sisters of Providence. In the summer of 1936, O’Flanagan became the leading member of a group of individuals with an interest in health care who actively lobbied the Sisters of Providence to establish a Sisters’ hospital in Anchorage. In the spring and summer of 1937, prominent citizens of Anchorage joined Father O’Flanagan’s lobbying effort, including Austin E. “Cap” Lathrop and physicians I.S. Egan, Howard G. Romig, Joseph R. Romig, and August S. Walkowski.7

In 1915, the Alaska Engineering Commission had made Anchorage their construction headquarters for the Alaska Railroad and had funded several new facilities, including the railroad hospital. The two-story, fifty-bed hospital opened on December 1, 1916. The Alaska Railroad hospital was “a severely plain, white frame building, with a simple pitched roof, perched between A and B Streets on a steep slope overlooking Ship Creek.”8 Although the hospital initially provided satisfactory services, as the Anchorage community expanded, it failed to keep pace with the growing needs of local residents.9 Colonel Otto Ohlson, General Manager of the Alaska Railroad, as part of his attempts to reduce the railroad’s deficit, made it more difficult for the local community to use the railroad hospital. In 1934, he began negotiations with the Sisters of Providence about operating a hospital in Anchorage and taking over the railroad’s patients.10 On June 26, 1935, an editorial in the Anchorage Daily Times stated: “The Anchorage hospital is overflowing with patients. A much larger hospital with more conveniences is sorely needed.”11

There was widespread public support for the establishment of a Sisters of Providence hospital in Anchorage. In 1937, the Catholic Sisters of Providence accepted the responsibility of building a new hospital. The Ninth and L Street Providence Hospital was formally opened under Sister Stanislaus of Jesus, the first Superior for the Sisters of Providence, in Anchorage, on June 29, 1939.12 Through Father O’Flanagan’s efforts and those of others, Anchorage and its hospital were better prepared for an era of sustained growth that would transform the community into Alaska’s largest city and commercial center.

The former “L” Street Providence Hospital building still stands at its original location and is used by the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services. With the city population increasing rapidly, and with the closure of the Alaska Railroad hospital, even the new hospital quickly proved inadequate. Forty-five acres of land for a much larger, modern hospital was acquired near Goose Lake in 1955. The new Providence Hospital was opened in October 1962.13

United Service Organization (USO)
Father O’Flanagan served on the first Committee of Management for Anchorage’s first United Service Organization (USO) headquarters, which was located in a large log cabin at the corner of 5th Avenue and G Street. Opened on September 1, 1941, the Anchorage USO was a welcome place for military service members and their guests, and offered recreational activities, entertainment, socializing, and educational and spiritual services. Through the efforts of the Anchorage civilian population, local military authorities, and the New York USO, a larger, better equipped building was completed in February 1942. The large log structure, capable of holding five hundred people, was on a site leased from the Anchorage Post of the American Legion.14 In addition to becoming firmly involved in Anchorage’s community life through good works, Father O’Flanagan became a U.S. citizen on November 30, 1943.15

Holy Family Church
When Father O’Flanagan arrived in Anchorage, the Holy Family Church was a small wooden structure with a rectory. Father O’Flanagan began raising funds for a new building but it was a slow process during the Great Depression. In the mid-1930s, there was already talk about replacing the small, wooden church. World War II halted O’Flanagan’s drive to build a new, more substantial structure, to accommodate the increasing numbers attending. After the war, a drive to build the church was renewed and construction proceeded slowly as funds were raised. In 1946, construction began on the present church, Holy Family Cathedral (formerly, Holy Family Church), located on the corner of 5th Avenue and H Street. On December 14, 1947, the unfinished basement was ready enough for O’Flanagain to accommodate over two hundred people for the first mass. The one-story church, ornamented with geometric lines, has a square two-story bell tower at the front corner. The church was designed by Seattle architect Augustine A. Porreca in the Romanesque Revival style. In October 1948, the white cement exterior of the building was completed. The parish was able to use the main church, but the interior was not completed until 1952. In 1968, Holy Family Church was recognized as an archdiocesan cathedral.16

Becomes First Bishop of Juneau (1951)
On June 28, 1951, Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Juneau.17 The Catholic Church recognized that the expanding population of Alaska warranted creating a bishop’s post in the Territory. Father O’Flanagan was ordained and installed as the first bishop of the Diocese of Juneau. He was consecrated as bishop in Anchorage on October 4, 1951, and formally installed on October 7, 1951 in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He celebrated his first mass as bishop in Juneau on October 7, 1951.

Upon his departure from Anchorage, the Anchorage Daily Times editorialized: “His friendliness and humility won him an immediate spot in the hearts of all people. He extended his three-month visit until it ran into years. His flock prospered and grew under his leadership. The magnificent new Church of the Holy Family will ever be a monument in concrete to the inspiration and spiritual leadership he gave.”18

The new Diocese of Juneau was comprised of 70,800 square miles and included southcentral and southeastern Alaska. The remainder of Alaska continued to be administered as a Vicariate Apostolic in the newly created Archdiocese of Seattle. By 1961, the Diocese of Juneau consisted of eleven parishes, fifteen missions, four schools, and four hospitals. There were ten diocesan priests and five Jesuit missionaries to serve the estimated 20,000 Catholics. 19

Bishop O’Flanagan witnessed Governor Mike Stepovich’s swearing in at Fairbanks on June 8, 1957,20 and officiated at Representative Anthony J. “Tony” Dimond’s funeral in Anchorage on June 1, 1953.21 He visited many of the military installations throughout the state and accompanied various Catholic dignitaries on their tours of Alaska.

Bishop O’Flanagan traveled outside of Alaska to various Catholic gatherings. On July 15, 1959, he had an audience in Rome with Pope John XXIII.22 In September 1964 it was announced that he would attend the Vatican Ecumenical Council called by Pope Paul VI.23 In 1960, O’Flanagan gave the baccalaureate sermon at Carroll College in Montana and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the college.24

In August 1968, O’Flanagan retired as bishop for reasons of health. He retired to a Catholic retirement home in La Mesa, California, where he died on December 31, 1972.25 He was buried in the Catholic plot of Anchorage’s Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery.

Louis Renner SJ, Oregon Province Archivist, 08 April 2003

O’FLANAGAN, Bishop Robert Dermot
Robert Dermot O'Flanagan (he always used only Dermot as a first name) was born on March 9, 1901, at Castle D'Arcy, Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland. He had five brothers and three sisters. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, from 1908-17. On October 4, 1917, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, County Offaly. After completing his two-year noviceship, he spent an additional year at Tullabeg, studying the classics and humanities. He then taught, for a year, at the Jesuit school at Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare. His philosophical studies he made at Milltown Park, Dublin, from 1921-24. He then taught again, for two years, at Clongowes. From 1926-30, he made his theological studies at St. Ignatius College, Valkenburg, Limburg, Holland. There he was ordained a priest, on August 27, 1929. After completing another year of theology, Father O'Flanagan returned to Ireland, where he again taught at Clongowes, for two years. The year 1932 marked a turning point in his life. In June of that year, he left the Society of Jesus. His reasons for doing so will never be known, because the relevant documents were destroyed by his Father Rector, "in 1940 or 1941, when it seemed a war-related invasion of Ireland was imminent."

Just during this crucial year in his life, 1932, a Eucharistic Congress was being held in Dublin. Among those attending, it was Father Patrick J. O'Reilly, S.J., veteran missionary of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. After hearing Father O'Reilly talk about Alaska, Father O'Flanagan concluded that it was there that his future lay.

In January, 1933, Father O'Flanagan arrived in Juneau. There he met Joseph R. Crimont, S.J., Vicar Apostolic of Alaska at the time, who assigned him, for the time being, to Seward. Father O'Flanagan was warmly welcomed by the people of Seward, so much so that he wrote back to Bishop Crimont, "people were falling over themselves trying to help me and make me feel at home-the non-Catholics as much as the Catholics. It was worthwhile leaving Ireland for that alone."

After a short time in Seward, Father O'Flanagan found himself at Holy Family parish in Anchorage, relieving there the pastor of Holy Family parish for a "temporary stint"--which was to last 18 years, and make him "the best remembered of all the priests in the early history of Anchorage."

It did not take Father O'Flanagan long to become a well-known figure in Anchorage. His reserve, soft-spoken words, and beguiling Irish ways opened doors and hearts to him and to his message. Frequently he visited the sick in Anchorage's Railroad Hospital. On a winter day, a common sight was that of Father "O" shoveling snow off the rectory porch or church sidewalks. He tended the church and rectory furnaces, and his dusty coveralls became him no less than did his black cassock.

Parishioners remembered him as "a most frugal man, who did his own housekeeping and janitorial work," and as "an ordinary man, who did good for everybody." They were worried, however, that "he didn't eat right." He seemed to live on coffee and sweet rolls.

Father O'Flanagan was, at heart, a pastoral man. In addition to tending to his Holy Family flock, he, on the third Sunday of each month-or on other occasions, when there was special need-traveled by train back to Seward to care for the small Catholic community there.

Built in 1915, the original Holy Family church was, by the mid-1930s, beginning to show its age. It was difficult to heat. There was little about the place as such that would draw people to it. This concerned Father O'Flanagan, and he gave thought to replacing the church. However, money for a new church was still, owing to the recent depression, hard to come by. Meanwhile, he broached the subject of a hospital in Anchorage to Bishop Crimont and the Sisters of Providence. The new Providence Hospital in Anchorage opened on June 29, 1939. It was not until almost a decade later that he saw the completion of the new Holy Family church. On December 14, 1947, he was able to offer Mass for the first time in the basement of the long- awaited church; and, in October, 1948, he saw the completion of the new church.

On November 30, 1943, Father O'Flanagan became a U.S. Citizen.

Momentous news was heard in Southcentral Alaska on the evening of July 18, 1951. On that evening, it was announced that a new diocese had been created in Alaska, the Diocese of Juneau - officially established as of June 23, 1951- and that, on July 9th, Father O'Flanagan had been appointed its first bishop.

In Holy Family church, Anchorage, on October 3, 1951, Father Dermot O'Flanagan, in solemn ceremonies, was consecrated a bishop by Francis D. Gleeson, S.J., Vicar Apostolic of Alaska at the time. Charles D. White, Bishop of Spokane, and Joseph P. Dougherty, Bishop of Yakima, were co-consecrators. Thomas A. Connolly, Archbishop of Seattle, delivered the sermon. Bishop O'Flanagan was the first priest to be consecrated a bishop in Alaska. For his motto he took Ut Omnes Unum Sint, “that all might be one.”

After his consecration, The Anchorage Daily Times editorialized: "Bishop O'Flanagan can be remembered by many local residents as a young man who came here fresh from Ireland. His friendliness and humility won him an immediate spot in the hearts of all the people. He extended his three-month visit until it ran into years. His flock prospered and grew under his leadership. The magnificent new Church of the Holy Family will ever be a monument in concrete to the inspiration and spiritual leadership he gave."

With mixed feelings, Bishop O'Flanagan, after 18 years in Anchorage, his "home," left it for Juneau. There, in the small, wooden Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary- now elevated to cathedral status - he was formally installed as the first Bishop of Juneau, on October 7, 1951.

In November, 1960, Father Segundo Llorente, S.J., was elected by write-in vote - with the approval of Bishop Gleeson - to serve in Alaska's newly formed House of Representatives. This meant, of course, that, when the House was in session, he would have to reside in Juneau. Bishop O'Flanagan, according to Father Llorente, "panicked" at the thought of a priest's being in politics, and, in an official letter, informed him that he was not to be seen in the cathedral, nor in the rectory with other priests, and that he had no faculties to hear confessions, and that he could say only a private Mass in the hospital chapel early in the morning. This Father Llorente did, every morning at 7.00.

The letter in question, according to Father Llorente, was not wholly of Bishop O'Flanagan's inspiration. In keeping with his nobility of character and humility, Bishop O'Flanagan, in a letter to Bishop Gleeson, dated March 6, 1961, wrote: "Father Segundo Llorente appears to be doing very well. He is highly spoken of in town, is conducting himself in an excellent manner, and it looks as proof that my fears about his coming to the Legislature were not too solidly founded. I am most happy to know that I was mistaken."

By 1963, twelve years after Bishop O'Flanagan had become Ordinary of the Diocese of Juneau, the diocese comprising, at the time, 70, 800 square miles - numbered some 20,000 Catholics in a total population of some 145,000. They were organized into 11 parishes and 12 missions, served by 26 priests. There were two high schools, one elementary school, and four general hospitals under Catholic auspices. Bishop O'Flanagan was happy and proud to be playing a major role in the growth of the Church in Alaska.

In 1968, however, Bishop O'Flanagan, reasoning that it was "time for a younger man to take over," resigned as Ordinary of the Diocese of Juneau, effective as of June 19. By this time, he had been in Alaska 35 years. He left it for a warmer climate, that of San Diego, California. At Little Flower Haven - a retirement home run by the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in La Mesa, California, he died, on December 31, 1972. With the end of his life, a major chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Alaska came to an end. Bishop Dermot O'Flanagan lies buried in the Catholic plot of Anchorage's Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery.

By way of a brief epilogue, the last word here regarding Bishop Dermot O'Flanagan is left to Sister Margaret Cantwell, S.S.A.-foremost historian of the Catholic Church in Alaska--who wrote: "Bishop O'Flanagan, the first big name in Anchorage's ecclesiastical history, seems to have the mystery of Ireland about him-with 'little people,' (in this case 'little things'), coloring and molding his life. There is much antithesis in his life also. Although I did not get to know him well, I knew (wondered about) some mystery causing his reticence in later life-so antithetical to his friendliness among the people in early Anchorage. There is his 'unknown' about leaving the Jesuits. There is his 'chance meeting' with Fr. O'Reilly. There is his separation from the Jesuits but yet, his long 'connection' with the Jesuits in building up the Church in Alaska. And there is his death in California, and his burial in Anchorage, not Juneau

Born: 10 April 1898, Castle D’Arcy, Lahinch, County Clare
Entered: 31 August 1915, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1930, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 23 September 1974, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Brother of Bishop Dermot R O'Flanagan who Entered the Irish Province in 1917 and LEFT as a priest in 1932. He then went to Alaska in 1933 and was appointed first Bishop of Juneau, Alsaka 9th July 1951

Father was manager of Morgan Mooney’s Chemical Works. When he retired he went to live at Old Court, Borrisokane, County Tipperary, where he was a gentleman farmer, and now his parents live at 10, Effra Road, Rathgar, Dublin.

Fourth of six sons and he has three sisters.

Educated at Belvedere College SJ (1907-1915)

by 1922 at Valkenburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying
by 1924 in Australia - Regency
by 1933 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Already with a BSc, Paul O'Flannagan arrived in Australia as a regent at Riverview, 1923, teaching, organising cadets and directing debating. In 1926-27 he was first division prefect, and looked after rowing before returning to Ireland for theology He later returned to Australia, working with Victor Turner, 1949-50, in the Australian Mission team.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948

Frs. Kennedy G., O'Flanagan and Saul leave for Australia on 9th July.

Irish Province News 49th Year No 4 1974

Obituary :
Fr Paul O'Flanagan (1898-1974)
The recollection evoked by the sad, sudden demise of Fr Paul O'Flanagan on September 23rd, of the severe heart seizure and consequent sickliness he had been visited by eight or nine years since, and before his advent to Gardiner Street, reconciled some what for his loss - his death might have been anticipated by years and yet during the years in Gardiner Street he undertook and fulfilled the chores thrust upon him with admirable regularity and efficiency. A comment, attributed to Fr P O'Mara in his latter days when age compelled him to seek Fr O’Flanagan's aid in running his Ladies' Sodality : “Don’t deprive me of my friends” was not totally whimsical ... Fr Paul did make a notable success of the succession
He was approachable, punctual, unassuming; popular with the house staff (competent critics), and among the Community and with externs a counsellor confidently consulted.
The obsequies took place on Wednesday, September 25th. Fr David Murtagh, CC, a nephew of Fr Paul’s was principal celebrant assisted by Fr Provincial and upwards of twenty others, Ours and externs, familiar friends. Fr Murtagh again later officiated at the graveside.
We offer sympathy to Mr Frank O'Flanagan and Mrs Murtagh, the surviving members of Fr Paul’s family....and their families.

We offer an appreciation by one long associate with the deceased :
I first met Fr Paul O'Flanagan a few months after his ordination; and I spoke to him for the last time about a day and a half before he died. We chatted for over an hour.
In the intervening years, time had lined his face and flecked his hair with grey. In my view, however, though greatly matured by the experiences of a very active life and a good deal of suffering in his latter years, I found him the very same Paul I had known in the far-off days. His conversation was refreshingly youthful, and he was as mentally alert as ever-optimistic, full of humour and boyish mischief. The idea that he was so soon to die never crossed my mind; I wonder, if it did his?
Paul was born in Lahinch in 1898, went to school in Belvedere College and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg in 1915. Having gained his BSc degree in University College, Dublin, and studied philosophy with the German Jesuits in Valkenburg, Holland, he was sent to Riverview College, Sydney, to teach. Returning to Milltown Park for theology, he was ordained in 1930.
Most of his life as a priest was spent on the mission-staff, and it was there I came to know him, both as a colleague and as a friend. In the work we did together, he appeared to me to have preserved his boyhood ideal of what a Jesuit should be, and I never detected any trace of - as it is now the fashion to call it! - “crisis of identity”! He was possessed of all the natural qualities that go to the making of a good Jesuit, holding the Society in high esteem and regarding it with affection. He was interested in its welfare and in that of our Province; as also in the success of his Jesuit friends. As a community man, he was unrivalled. He brought joy to all his work, and shared it with the members of the house to which he happened to be attached. His pleasures were simple a game of bridge, which he took seriously; a day's golf or a session of story-swopping. When in the mood, he was a delicious raconteur, notably about his adventures under the Southern Cross, about Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne or Archbishop Kelly of Sydney. His warmth of character won him many friends, both inside and outside the Society. Amongst the laity, he was the special friend of the men. On missions they would call him on the telephone, wishing to enjoy again his warm, human companionship. Some were past pupils, some school friends, and others, men to whom he had lent a helping, priestly hand.
Paul was an outstandingly good, even exemplary priest, and he distinguished himself over many years as an excellent missioner and retreat-master. All through his life he preserved his youthful, high ideal of the priesthood, and in his last years he edified us all by his incredible bravery, as he fought for health and life. I cannot speak for others, but I never heard a word of complaint or self pity escape his lips. Practising what he had preached so often, he took his suffering tanquam de manu Dei, as indeed he took every thing in life.
From glimpses I had of him on missions, I guess he must have helped thousands yearly, both by his advice and by example: But he never spoke of this work, his cases or of those who had come to him. In this he showed no sign of self-glorification or self seeking; certainly no trace of worldly ambition. He was always ready with prompt obedience, whatever the task or office assigned him. And, as already mentioned, in the allotted work he made himself happy, and by so doing, contributed greatly to the happiness of all concerned.
It would be an incomplete and phoney picture of Paul, if I did not refer - I hope, gently and with kindly intent?....to his likeable foible! He was pre-possessed about his BSc degree, and sometimes referred to himself as a “scientist”! However, he was open to a bit of leg-pulling on the subject, provided it came from the right quarter! He was proud of Bishop Dermot, his brother, and one might sometimes lead him on, to discourse on Dermot's successes. He was most vulnerable, however, on the subject of Australia. This was a favourite theme of his conversation, for, besides his years teaching in Riverview, he had done a two-year stint as a missioner there. Right to the end, he never lost his interest in the Aussies, more especially in their cricket. When a Test Match was in progress, he would listen assiduously to the ball-by-ball account on the radio, and was ever ready to explain the intricacies of the game and the prospects of an Australian victory to any interested party. Some of the boys who had been introduced to cricket by him, later won places on Test teams, and he could often be drawn on this subject. If I remember rightly, one of their number was the well-known and very successful player, Fingleton. It has been suggested to me that Sir Don Bradman was another; but there, I am open to correction!
Paul was ever one of Belvedere's most loyal past pupils. Even to the last days of his life, he was proud of the college and took keen interest in its successes in studies or at games; in Old Belvederians, the Newsboys' Club, as it formerly was, but more especially in the Old Belvedere Rugby Football Club. . If an acquaintance were to judge merely by Paul’s manner, he might conclude, that he never faced a crisis in his life. I am sure such a conclusion would be incorrect, since most of us do. But he never lost his cool in any circumstance that I saw, and appeared calm and unperturbed at all times - the completely unflappable man!
He showed little of his real self, either to the outside world or to his fellow Jesuits. I have, however, reason to believe, that underneath, he was possessed of a very strong, deep faith, and a great reverence for the things of God, Reserved and silent regarding his interior life with God, I strongly suspect him to have been as truly a pious man as he was a sincere and staunch friend.
As one who worked side by side with him on many occasions, I am happy to be able to bear witness, and pay tribute to his gracious charity, his kindness and thoughtfulness. He was generous in praising and encouraging others, and his memories of any mission concerned either its success, or the amusing incidents which cropped up from time to time. As we sat together thirty-six hours before his death, a smile often played about his lips, as he recounted the pleasant happenings of a mission in Mullingar Cathedral, in which he and I were engaged, just over thirty years back. That is my last memory and picture of him,
It is sometimes said, that every human life is like an Unfinished Symphony; to this statement, I am afraid, I cannot subscribe. Colleagues of mine who worked for God all the days of their lives, and aspired to union with Christ through his grace, seemed in their latter years, to be anything but the Unfinished Symphony. If I may say so, each life-work appeared perfectly rounded off, ending in a rising crescendo of faith, trust, joy, hope and expectation of life eternal. For these men we have prayed, that that crescendo would end in a paean of glory with the Risen Christ. In their number we, Paul’s friends and colleagues, would wish to include him by heartfelt and earnest prayer. I should like to think, that no one who ever met him would wish otherwise, and that without exception they would gladly join us as we pray: Solus na Soillse agus radharc na Tríonóide dá anam!

Born: 18 April 1907, Wellpark Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 05 December 1927

Family lived at Home Farm Road, Drumcondra, Dublin, with his father, Daniel, being a Civil Servant.

Eldest of eight with five boys and three girls.

Early education was at a private school, and then in 1913 he went to Kilcoole Preparatory College, and then went to St Pat’s BNS, Drumcondra. he then went to Belvedere College in 1920 for one year and then to O’Connells School

1924-1926: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1926-1927: Ratfarnham Castle, Juniorate

Born: 13 August 1919, Griffith Avenue, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1953, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1956, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 23 April 1998, St Joseph’s, Shankill, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death.

Brother of John O'Holohan - RIP 2018

Born at Holles Street Dublin

Brother of John O’Holohan - RIP 2018

Son of Patrick O’Holohan and Winifred Byrne. Father was a Civil Servant

Second of eight boys (1 deceased) with three sisters. Family lived at Bantry Road, Drumcondra, Dublin

Early education was at preparatory schools in Dublin and then he went to Presentation College Bray (1928-1931). He then went to O’Connells School and finally to Belvedere College SJ (1934-1938)

Born: 31 March 1923, Drumcondra, Dublin
Entered: 06 September 1941, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1955, Milltown Park , Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1959, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 19 April 2018, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

Brother of Colm O’Holohan - RIP 1998

Son of Patrick O’Holohan and Winifred Byrne. Father was a Civil Servant

Fourth of eight boys (1 deceased) with three sisters.

Early education was at a Convent school in Bray and then one in Dublin and then he went to Presentation College Bray (1928-1931). He then went to a Christian Brothers school in Dublin. He then went to to Belvedere College SJ (1934-1941)

by 1958 at Gandia, Valencia, Spain (TARR) making Tertianship
by 1994 at Orlando FL, USA (NOR) working
by 2001 at Simpsonville SC, USA (NOR) working
by 2004 at Lancaster SC, USA (NOR) working

Early education at Loreto Convent Bray, CBS St. Canice's NCR; Belvedere College SJ

1943-1946 Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1946-1949 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1949-1952 Belvedere College SJ - Regency : Teacher; Studying H Dip in Education at UCD (49-50)
1952-1956 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
1956-1957 St Mary’s, Emo - Assistant Socius; Bursar; Teacher; Confessor;
1957-1958 Gandia, Valencia, Spain - Tertianship in Palacio del Santo Duque
1958-1960 Mungret College SJ - Teacher
1960-1965 Belvedere College SJ - Teacher; Directs Conf VdP; Editor of “Belvederian”
1965-1966 Chivuna Mission, Zambia - Studying CiTonga
1966-1978 Chisekesi, Zambia - Teacher ; Spiritual Father; St John Berchmans Sodality; Editor “Canisian” at Canisius College, Chikuni
1969 Transcribed to Zambia Province [ZAM] (03/12/1969)
1978-1981 Mazabuka, Zambia - Teacher and Spiritual Father at St Edmund’s Secondary School
1981-1982 Sabbatical
1982-1986 Zomba, Malawi - Acting Rector; Professor of Moral Theology; Directs Pastoral Ministry at St Peter’s Major Seminary
1986-1987 Luwisha House, Lusaka, Zambia - Teacher at Juniorate; Writer, Director National Apostleship of Prayer, Edits Newsletter
1987-1988 Spokane, WA, USA - Pastor at The Ministry Institute
1988-1992 DeLand, FL, USA - Assistant Pastor at St Peter's Catholic Church
1992-2000 Orlando, FL, USA - Assistant Pastor at Holy Family Catholic Church
1992 Transcribed to Irish Province [HIB] (24/11/1992)
2000-2003 Simpsonville, SC, USA - Associate Pastor at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Church
2003-2009 Lancaster, SC, USA - Pastor at St Catherine Catholic Church
2007 Pastor at St Joseph Parish, Chester, SC; Pastor at St Michael’s, Great Falls, SC
2009-2018 Gardiner St - Writer; Chaplain St Monica’s; Locum in Mater Hospital; People’s Church in Clongowes
2014 Prays for the Church and the Society at Cherryfield Lodge

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/remembering-john-oholohan-sj/

Remembering John O’Holohan SJ
Fr John O’Holohan SJ died peacefully at Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin on 19 April 2018 aged 95 years. Prayers were said at Cherryfield Lodge on 22 April, and his funeral Mass took place at Milltown Park Chapel on 23 April, followed by burial at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Born in 1923, John grew up in Drumcondra, Dublin and was educated at Belvedere College SJ in Dublin City. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois in 1941. He studied arts at UCD and philosophy at Tullabeg, County Offaly. He did his regency as a teacher in Belvedere while also studying for the Higher Diploma in Education at UCD. He was ordained in 1955 after further studies in theology at Milltown Park, Dublin. John continued to teach in Jesuit schools in Ireland and did his tertianship in Spain.
In 1965, John went to the missions in Zambia. There, he learned the Chitonga language, taught in schools, and ministered as Spiritual Father among other roles. He was transcribed to the Zambia Province in 1969. He continued to mission in Zambia except for a period as a key formator in St Peter’s Major Seminary in Malawi from 1982-1986. He was the national director of the Apostleship of Prayer in Zambia from 1986- 1987.
In his later years, John worked in pastoral ministry in the United States from 1987-2009. First in Washington state as pastor, then in Florida as assistant pastor, and later as associate pastor and pastor in South Carolina. In the meantime, he was transcribed to the Irish Province again. He returned to Ireland as a member of the Gardiner Street Community in Dublin where he was a writer among other positions. Notably, John celebrated his 90th birthday in 2013, and he finished the day by watching reports of the election of Pope Francis.
He moved to Cherryfield Lodge nursing home in 2014 where his family visited him very often, and he was most appreciative of the care he received there. John died peacefully on the evening of 19 April in the loving care of the staff at Cherryfield. He is deeply regretted by his sisters Dympna Cunningham and Nesta Tuomey, his brother-in-law Larry, his nephews, nieces and extended family, his Jesuit Community and by many friends in the United States.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

The Early Years – in appreciation of my brother John Terry O’Holohan SJ by Nesta Tuomey
As I often told you your influence on me when I was growing up gave me my strong faith in Jesus Christ and your loving chats about God and the saints so interesting and inspiring, they led me to know and want to love Him from an early age. When you took my sister and myself on walks in the Botanic Garden I particularly remember your stories about Wopsy, the little angel, who was always getting into trouble but when he saw the error of his ways he was penitent and tried to do better. He was the role model for me when I was as young as five or six and I loved hearing about him and all the adventures he had. When you were appointed to Belvedere College you would often bring the boys’ essays home with you and allow us to read them, even, at times, to allot marks in order of excellence. All very exciting and heady stuff for ones as young as we were then. Of course, you would put your own marks on the actual copies but it taught us literary appreciation and perception. I remember being intrigued by the letters A.M.D.G. written at the top of each copybook page. When I asked, you explained what the letters stood for – Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which was the Latin motto for the Society of Jesus founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola and meant ‘To the greater glory of God’. We enthusiastically imitated the Belvedere boys and put A.M.D.G. at the top of our exercise copies until the Sacred Heart nuns at our school in Leeson Street gently bid us to desist.
Undoubtedly, you passed on to us your own fervour and love of St. Ignatius and when you were ordained you chose to spend your Tertianship at Valencia in Spain, despite the rigorous regime this would entail. When you returned to Ireland after a year away, you could speak Spanish and loved to tell us of St. Ignatius and how he came from a very wealthy family and what a proud aristocratic man he was. How when his leg was severely injured by a cannon ball at the Battle of Pamplona he courageously endured the agony of having it broken again and set without benefit of anaesthetic, rather than endure the mortification of walking for the rest of his life with a limp. During his long convalescence, as his leg slowly healed, he underwent a religious conversion. The only books available to him were the lives of the saints but, before long, he found them very much to his taste, and was inspired by the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who showed their burning love in their unconditional service of God. Giving up his great wealth, he resolved to live a life of poverty and sacrifice, doing everything to the greater glory of God, later founding the Society of Jesus. I read the books you gave me including the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and learned discernment and how to make the right decisions but that was not until I had reached a more mature age.
Back in my childhood I very much liked hearing of St. Ignatius’s life and generosity and how when St. Francis Xavier was very strict on new novices and inclined to send them away from the seminary St. Ignatius always gave them a second chance and took them in again by the back door. That was the saint for me, I decided, he was just like Jesus Christ compassionate and ready to forgive and I found myself very much drawn to the order you had chosen to join. From what you told me I was aware that at the age of seven you knew that you wanted to become a priest and it was through your influence on your pupils at Belvedere that a great many joined the Jesuits and were ordained priests. I was no saint myself and in those early years when I used to complain about having to set the Sunday lunch table while my older sister sat listening to you, you told us the story of Mary and Martha, pointing out that in listening to Jesus and letting her sister cook and set tables ‘Mary had chosen the better part’, as indeed she had. But I could never really like Mary or Martha and would have much preferred to be sitting comfortably listening to your stories myself, particularly, when you had such a wonderful way of engaging our interest. You often told us the Bible was the most exciting book ever written, certainly it was the most blood thirsty too. The stories of David and Jonathan’s great friendship and Saul’s jealousy came alive when you told them, making me long to read them for myself.
You were always very generous with your time and I particularly loved the way you would keep front seats for us at the Belvedere College operas. How we loved Gilbert and Sullivan and came to know all the songs. I can still see you young and vigorous, your soutane flying out behind you, as you came smiling towards us. There were our ‘Lemmo’ parties when you financed a bottle of fizzy lemonade and the luxury of Mikado biscuits with jam and marshmallow topping. You would play cards with us, simple games of ‘Snap’ or ‘Beggar My Neighbour’ and there would be a sweet as the winner’s prize. My mother used to laugh and say you could see no wrong in us, I suspect she would have liked us to be more like model children but was forced to put up with the reality.
On looking back, it was on our walks as children and later when you came to spend your leave from Africa with myself, my husband and children, becoming their friend as you had become mine, that our friendship blossomed and grew. I am so thankful you entered into our lives from the beginning enriching them by your affectionate presence, always stirring us gently to an awareness of Jesus and telling us how important it was to put him first in our lives. Somehow you always saw the best in us no matter what and by your unstinting friendship and wise counselling helped us to become more worthy, less selfish, less self- orientated. Undoubtedly, you helped and guided so many others while abroad on the missions in Africa and during your time spent in America as a Jesuit priest. By your ministry you have touched so many lives. At 86 you returned home to Ireland, having been pastor to three parishes in South Carolina, where you had a driver who brought you to the distant towns to say the weekend masses. You took on so much having always expressed the desire to ‘work while there was work to be done’, always of the mind that you would go anywhere a priest was needed; in your eighties even offering your services on an American troop ship. When the officer with a smile in his voice asked, ‘Do you mind my asking, Father, how old you are?’ you told him your age, adding ‘Well, even if I can’t go on board I can set up a confessional on the dock,’ adding the sobering observation, ‘Many of those young soldiers will never come back from Afghanistan and it may be the only time they will have an opportunity to confess before death.’
With your passing, I feel as though I have lost my best friend but believe and take consolation from the fact you have gone to a better place and you are now with Jesus whom you served so faithfully and for so long. With all my love and thanks until we meet again.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1966

First Impressions of Zambia : Father John O’Holohan SJ (OB 1941)

Lusaka - The Capital
The darkness was falling as we landed at Lusaka airport. I was surprised at the modern and efficient aspect of the streets and traffic arrangements. The people were the main interest. There was great variety of colours, black, brown, and white. The bulk of business seemed to be run by Europeans and Indians. Lusaka has a population of 118,800 of whom 13,800 are non-Africans. It seemed to me like a large country town in Ireland, but it, is growing steadily in population and popularity. I stayed at the parish church of St Ignatius which was built by Father Dermot Murphy (OB 1933), now Father Minister in Canisius College. The PP is Father Denis O'Connell SJ, who taught as a scholastic in Belvedere from 1950 to 1953. On Sunday I said the 10.00 am Mass and preached at four Masses.

I left Lusaka next day with Father Arthur Clarke SJ, the Rector of Canisius College, to drive south to the Chikuni Mission Headquarters. As we drove on in the brilliant sunshine between acres and acres of bush country which covers so much of central Africa, and glimpsed the round huts of the Africans between the trees, I realised that I was now really in the heart of Africa. From the moment I stepped onto African soil I noticed a change of atmosphere, the tempo of life seemed slower, outside the city the clock went back hundreds of years. The heart-throb of Africa beat slowly and steadily like drums at evening.

Chivuna Mission Station
The main road south is a very good one most of the way. Sometimes it degenerates into a narrow strip of tarmac so that it is necessary to shift onto the clay surface when passing cars. This can be quite dangerous, clouds of dust rendering visibility almost nil. About 27 miles on we passed over the great Kafue river where I saw my first hippos, ten of them were wallowing in the warm water near the bridge. After 50 miles more we stopped at Mazabuka to call to see to ever cheerful Father Tom O'Meara, SJ from Mallow. Our next brief stop was at the bishop's house in Monze, 120 miles from Lusaka. There we turned off the main road to drive west over the dirt road to Chivuna 27 miles in the bush. As the swift Africa twilight merged into darkness we reached the mission station situated on a slight elvation. The Superior, Father Bernard Collins SJ, gave us a hearty welcome. He knows Belvedere well; he taught there both as scholastic and a priest. In fact he taught me Greek for the Intermediate Cert in 1939 . Now I was coming back to sit in a desk before him in Central Africa and study Citonga, one of the thirty different Bantu dialects in use in Zambia. Of all the languages I have studied there is only one which bore any resemblance to Tonga, and that Hebrew. Fortunately the letters used are the same as in English, but the whole structure and syntax of the language is different. Most languages vary their tenses and cases, modulating their terminations; Tonga do the reverse, it changes its prefixes and makes the noun, adjective and verb undergo complicated changes to preserve this kind of agreement. Some words evoke memories of English, either by chance or because they are from the English. Some examples interesting words are: mutwe - head, bong - brains, impongo - goat, taata - father; baama - mother, muntu - man, bantu - me The Ave Maria begins: “Wabonwa Mari ozwide luse, Mwami nkwali kuli nduwe ..

Each day we rose at 5.00 am - 5.30 to 7.00 was spent in prayers and celebrating Mass. Classes began at 8.00 and ended at 10.00 am The rest of the day was spent most in private study varied by sessions with a African tutor. The usual course is one year - I was trying to do it in three months - was very painful, and I felt a new sympathy for my pupils in Latin and Greek in Belvedere.

Life in the Bush
When I was told I was going to spend three months in the bush I was prepared for very primitive conditions. At Chivuna I found a well-built house with running water, gauze over the windows and electricity from 6.00 to 9.30 p.m. nightly. The last convenience was due to the presence of a large educational settlement beside us. The Irish Sisters of Charity run very efficiently a large secondary and primary school for girls. They had a machine generating electricity and we shared its light. Beside the convent there is a clinic run by the Sisters which rivals seriously the reputation of any local medicine-men. Zambia is ful of strange contrasts; it is straddling two worlds. In the cities you are in the twentieth century; in the bush you seem to be almost in the stone age. Only a hundred yards from my room there were people living in a manner that was ancient when Caesar invaded Britain. They live in round huts made of bricks, mud or straw. Their staple food is maize seasoned with meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, according as fortune favours them.

One day at the building site near us I saw a devoted wife bringing dinner to her husband at midday: she had two dishes perched on her head and when she presented them to him she did so on her bended knees. There is no doubt who is the official master in the home. In the African tradition the woman is held to be inferior to the man, and virtually his slave. All this is changing now with the rapid improvement of living conditions and education in Zambia. When a girl is through a secondary school she is able to secure personal independence. Boy or girl finishing secondary school has great opportunities for good positions in the country. Even if a boy fails his exams he can still get a job.

Many European teachers have come out to Zambia on a contract to teach for two years. They are doing great work. Many more are needed. Zambia is about nine times the size of Ireland, but its population is less than four million. It is a wealthy country and is spending great sums on education. For five years all education, books, etc, are free. The great need is for teachers, The Government is pouring twenty million pounds into new schools, hospitals and administration centres, and building contractors are so overloaded that they cannot begin to meet the demand for private housing. The new buildings in Chivuna are being built by the Irish firm of Sisk. Signs of progress are everywhere. Africans driving ox carts are passed in a cloud of dust by Africans speeding by in Chevrolets. Near prirnitive huts you see fine modern bungalows springing up. At night I heard the drums beating in the darkness and distance; near the parish church I saw workmen sitting around a fire with a transistor blaring out the top ten. People come to the clinic for treatment for all sorts of ailments; some still consult local quacks and are much influenced by them. Sometimes the sick person comes to the doctor to try to have the medicine-man's failure remedied. One day a youth of 19 came in to the clinic, “I am bewitched”, he said. The Sister laughed at his fears, took his temperature; he seemed in perfect health. He insisted he was going to die. His friends came in and added helpfully “Yes, he is going to die, he is bewitched”. True enough later the healthy young man died. His friends came and took the body away. It is very hard to explain such things.

I have made many forays into the bush in a Landrover to bring people to hospital, sometimes it has been at night alone with a rather formidable looking African complete with club, as a guide. Always I have found them gentle and courteous. Up to very recent times the Tonga people were shamefully neglected. They are fast becoming the complete controllers of their own destinies. They are fortunate in having such a remarkable man as President Kaunda as their leader. He is a man of Christian principles, moderate and idealistic. He welcomes help from Europeans; the white missionary is welcome and respected. There is a great chance for the Catholic Church here.

Born: 25 April 1927, Castlereagh, County Roscommon
Entered: 07 September 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1959, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, John Austin House, Dublin
Died: 13 October 2011, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death.

Older brother of Fergus

Son of Fergus Thomas O’Keefe and Hilda Galwey Foley. Father was a Bank Manager.

Born in Dublin but living in Castlereagh.

Father was a Bank Manager, and family was living at Bank of Ireland House, Callan, County Kilkenny.

Elder of two boys with one sister.

Early education at a Convent and National School in Arklow, County Wicklow, he went then to the Christian Brothers school in Callan for two years. Next he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ for three years.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fr-edmund-okeefe-rip/

Fr Edmund O'Keefe RIP
Fr Edmund (Ned) O’Keefe died peacefully in St Vincent’s Hospital on 13th October, at the age of 84. We offer sincere condolences to his younger brothers Fergus SJ and Niall, and to his wider family. Though born in Castlereagh, Ned lived and worked mainly in the Dublin area, teaching for many years in the colleges of technology. He spent himself especially on two causes, devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the canonisation of Fr John Sullivan. He worked on the staff of the Sacred Heart Messenger, and produced a Novena to the Sacred Heart for radio. He gave similar energy to the Cause of Fr Sullivan, and produced a CD on John’s life. He spent the last year of his life in fragile health in Cherryfield, but remained to the end an active and engaged member of the Milltown Park community.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 147 : Spring 2012

Obituary

Fr T Edmund (Ned) O’Keefe (1927-2011)

25 April 1927: Born in Dublin.
Early education at Templerainey National School, CBS Secondary, Callan and Clongowes
7 September 1945: Entered the Society at Emo
8 September 1947: First Vows at Emo
1947 - 1950: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1950 - 1953: Tullabeg - Studied Philosophy
1953 - 1956: Clongowes - "Gallery Prefect"; Teacher (History and Geography)
1956 - 1960: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31st July 1959: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1960 - 1961: Tertianship at St. Beuno's
1961 - 1962: Clongowes -- Third Line Prefect; Teacher (History, Geography and RK)
5 November 1977: Final Vows
1962 - 1963: College of Industrial Relations - Teaching in Rathmines College of Commerce (and and 3rd level)
1963 - 1966: Emo - Minister; Socius to Novice Director
1966 - 1974: SFX, Gardiner Street - Assisted in the Church; Chaplain to Kevin Street College of Technology
1974 - 1979: Austin House - Head Chaplain at Kevin Street DIT and Lecturer in Bioethics
1979 - 1980: Leeson Street - Head Chaplain at Kevin Street DIT
1980 - 1982: SFX Gardiner Street - Assistant Director of Pioneers; Assisted in Church
1982 - 1984: Campion House - Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer and the Messenger
1984 - 1996: Austin House - Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer and the Messenger
1992 - 1996: Sabbatical (to January 1993); John Sullivan Cross Apostolate
1996 - 2003: Belvedere College - Assistant Vice-Postulator of John Sullivan SJ Cause
2003 - 2011: Milltown Park - Assisted in Community; Assistant Vice-Postulator of John Sullivan SJ Cause
2010: Milltown Park - Residing at Cherryfield Lodge - praying for the Church and the Society
13th October 2011: Died Cherryfield

Fr. O'Keefe was admitted to Cherryfield Lodge in September 2009 following surgery. He improved fairly rapidly and was happy to stay on in our Nursing Home. He deteriorated over the last six months and was transferred to St. Vincent's Hospital after suffering a stroke three weeks ago. In the last week, it was clear that he was not going to recover. Family members and Jesuits kept an eye on him and prayed at his bedside up to the end. He died peacefully in hospital on the morning of 13th October 2011. May he rest in the Peace of Christ

Obituary : Paul Andrews
Ned was what he liked to be called, although he had lived through many changes: Edmund from birth, then Brother O'Keefe in the noviciate, and Mr O'Keefe in Rathfarnham, and Nedser in Tullabeg. He had grown accustomed to changes as he moved with his parents from one bank house to another: Castlerea, Sligo, Arklow, Callan. For six years, until the arrival of Fergus, and later Mary and Niall, Ned was an only child, but he showed an older brother's sense of responsibility.

Of his various homes, he would look back on the seven years in Arklow, from the age of 6 to 13, as the idyllic years: a little town where there were friends and fishermen, a reasonable school, a beach, a harbour for messing about in boats, Jack Tyrrell's boatyard, and the chance to ride a pony and join the hunt. The move to Callan and the CBS was hard. Ned found himself among Kilkenny farmers' sons, but was clueless about hurling, and living in the Bank House was seen as a wealthy outsider. It was a relief to move to Clongowes at fifteen, and to make new friends. He became a Pioneer and remained one all his life. He joined the Sodality and the FCA, and absorbed some memories of Fr John Sullivan, who was to be very important in his priestly life. He received his first Communion on the Feast of Saint Aloysius, 1934, and that was the name he took at Confirmation. His godmother gave him a statue of Aloysius, which graced the mantelpiece of his bedroom. So Ned moved like Aloysius into the Company of Jesus, and went to Emo in 1945. In giving his life to God he had a powerful model in his mother's cousin, Edel Quinn.

There was one special feature in his years of Jesuit formation. He did his tertianship in St Beuno's under Fr Paul Kennedy, an experience he always treasured. After it he was delighted to be appointed to Clongowes as Third Line Prefect, a job he loved. But only a year later Visitor McMahon scattered a large part of the Clongowes community, and Ned found himself a chaplain and teacher in the Colleges of Technology, first in Rathmines, later as Head Chaplain in Kevin Street. Not the easiest of assignments, but Ned brought a special strength to it. Unusually for a priest, he joined the Teachers' Union of Ireland, so that he could speak for those who needed a spokesman. He contributed much to the chaplain's role, lectured well on Bioethics, and created a Social Action group among the students. One summer he brought a group of building apprentices to work on a building project of the Kiltegan Fathers in the desert of Turkhana, Kenya, to show them a poverty more profound than anything in Dublin.

In his early fifties Ned moved to a new ministry: he spent eight years promoting the Sacred Heart Messenger and the Apostleship of Prayer, mostly in the West of Ireland. He claimed to have brought them into every school in County Clare, and reached a still wider audience when he collaborated with Stephen Redmond to produce a Novena to the Sacred Heart for local radio.

In 1992 Ned took up the apostolate of Fr John Sullivan's Cross, and was Assistant Vice-Postulator of Fr John's cause. He produced two videos, with great help from the Kairos group of SVD priests in Maynooth; they are still in use today. These interests stayed with him to the end of his days, when he lived in Milltown Park and finally in Cherryfield.

How will we remember Ned? As a devoted Jesuit, hard on himself, but with a kind and compassionate spirit - he would always speak up for those he felt were hard done by. A contemporary called him “one of the kindest Jesuits I have ever known”. He was a gentleman, with impeccable manners and easy social graces, a stickler for propriety, with total integrity; the soul of discretion, never gossiping about community life, telling no tales out of school; a man who worried, and tried to anticipate problems – the boot of his car held equipment to face almost any emergency from the Arctic to the Tropics. His nephews and nieces remember his sense of fun, the twinkle in his eye, and the educational tours he would give them as children. He was devoted to, and immensely proud of his extended family, and grieved over the loss of his only sister Mary, who herself had buried both her husband. Hugh and one of her children. Her son John McGeogh was to die in a rafting accident in Austria in 1999.

Ned faced the diminutions of age with courage: the loss of his car - a hard blow – and reduction to a walking frame, then a wheelchair, and finally a mandatory escort whenever he went outside the house. But to the end he was a real presence, felt both at community meetings in Milltown, and at the prayers of the faithful at Cherryfield Mass. May the Lord be good to his gentle soul.

Born: 05 May 1929, Kill, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1953, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1965, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 18 August 2013, Mercy Retirement Center in Oakland, CA, USA

Left Society of Jesus: 03 October 1968

Parents William and Eileen (O’Toole) were National Teachers. Family lived at St Alphonsus' Road, Drumcondra. Mother died in 1968

Oldest of two boys with three sisters.

Early education at Clogh NS, County Kilkenny and then with the Christian Brothers in Carlow.

After school he went into Pharmacy for 5.5 years, qualifying as an Assistant in 1953.

Baptised at St Patrick’s, Clogh, County Kilkenny, 05/05/1929
Confirmed at St Patrick’s, Clogh, County Kilkenny, by Dr Collier of Ossory, 14/04/1941

Left 05/10/1968, entered Capuchin’s and took vows in 04/10/1969. Known as “Father James”.

1953-1955: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1955-1959: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1959-1961: Belvedere College SJ, Regency
1961-1962: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Regency
1962-1966: Milltown Park, Theology
1966-1967: Rathfarnham Castle, Tertianship
1967-1968: St Mary’s, Choma, Zambia
1968: On supply at the Jesuit Church of Sacred Heart, Lauriston Street, Edinburgh, and then came to Manresa House Dollymount.

After leaving and taking Vows in the Capuchins, he had worked at St Brendan’s Hospital and was living and working at St Mary of the Angels, Church Street.

Address 2000: Old Mission Santa Ines, Mission Drive, Solvang, CA, USA

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/edward-o-keefe-obituary?id=9716767

Edward O'Keefe Obituary
Fr Edward O'Keefe
Was born on May 5, 1929 in Kill, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of William O'Keefe and Eileen O'Toole. He entered the Jesuit Order and made first profession at Emo, Port Arlington, Ireland in 1955. He was ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin in 1965 and was sent to the Jesuit Mission at Zambia Africa in 1967. His first contact with the Capuchins came on the banks of the Zambezi River in Central Africa. He was welcomed by the Capuchins and had frequent contact with them during the year. As a result he felt drawn to join the Capuchins; and so he did in the following year of 1968. He returned to Ireland and made his novitiate year. In 1969 he was solemnly professed and remained in Ireland as a Chaplain and ministering in giving parish missions and retreats.

In 1974 he came to Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame, CA as associate pastor.

From 1974 to 1981 he was assigned as a hospital chaplain in Fresno, CA. He also was actively involved in Marriage and Engaged Encounter retreats and the Focolare movement.

In 1981 he was associate pastor in Hermiston, Oregon.

In 1985 to 1987 he was associate pastor at St Francis Parish in Los Angeles and from 1988 to 1991 was associate pastor at St Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend, OR.

From 1991 to 1998 he was Pastor at St Lawrence of Brindisi Parish Watts, Los Angeles

1999 to 2000 he was associate pastor at Old Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, CA.

In 2000, he once again felt called to go out into the mission field. This time he went to our Mexico mission in Monterrey as guardian of the student community.

In 2010, it became obvious that Fr Ed was rapidly declining in health with Alzheimer's disease and he retired to Mercy Care and Retirement Center in Oakland, CA. After ministering so many years in so many different places Fr. Ed could no longer minister to others but in his silent prayer.

In June of 2013 Fr. Ed began to lose weight and in August he could barely eat anything. Fr. Ed died at 12:10 pm in the afternoon of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother at Mercy Retirement Center in Oakland, CA. He was 84 years old.

He is survived by his sister Noreen O'Keefe and his brother Gerard O'Keefe and his sister Frances Glavin.

His funeral arrangements are as follows: Rosary at 7:30 pm at Old Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, CA on August 18, 2013 and Funeral Mass at 11 am also at Old Mission Santa Ines on August 19, 2013. Burial following the Mass at San Lorenzo Friary in Santa Ynez, CA.

Born: 26 May 1876, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1892, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 01 August 1909, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1911, Mungrtet College SJ, Limerick
Died: 22 July 1950, Pembroke Nursing Home, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner St, Dublin community at the time of death

Educated at Belvedere College SJ

by 1897 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1910 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1927 at Liverpool, Lancashire (ANG) working

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 25th Year No 4 1950

Obituary

Fr. Augustine O’Kelly (1876-1892-1950)

Father Augustine O'Kelly, or as he was known to his many friends, Fr. "Gus” O'Kelly, died peacefully at the Pembroke Nursing Home on Sunday, July 23rd, 1950. He was born in Dublin on 16th May, 1876 and belonged to a well-known city family. After completing his education at Belvedere College he entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on the 7th of September, 1892. He spent many successful years in the Colleges in Clongowes and in Mungret. He was given charge of the Apostolic students in Mungret and many of those who were under him still remember him and speak of him with great reverence and affection.
After finishing in the Irish colleges he spent some years in parochial work in Liverpool and in Preston. This part of his life was characterised by great zeal and devotion, especially among the poorer classes. His success in instructing converts was remarkable, and this was largely due to his painstaking efforts. He was also interested in the many problems affecting married life and several invalid marriages were set right as the result of his efforts.
He returned to Ireland about a dozen years ago and the remaining years of his life were spent in zealous work in St. Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin, For a few years before his death, he was the victim of blood pressure and heart trouble. He went to Rathfarnham Castle for a short holiday in the middle of July of the present year. While there he had a heart seizure and had to be removed to the Pembroke Nursing Home. A stroke followed a few days later and this was the immediate cause of his death. During his illness he showed great edification to his nurses and to the Doctor who attended him,
The outstanding features of his life were that he was a very saintly man and an excellent religious. All through his life everyone regarded him as a very holy man of God, and as a man who loved his rule and practised it as perfectly as possible. The boys in the Colleges had this opinion of him. The people with whom he came in contact during his missionary career thought the same of him, and above all his religious brethren of the Society looked up to him as a great example of holiness and religious observance. He practised self-denial very intensely. For instance, during the later years of his life he had no fire in his room, even in the depths of winter. He ate no meat and he scarcely ever indulged in food which was specially pleasing to the palate. But his self-denial was not repellant, because he was the soul of kindness and good nature. Even when he was suffering he was always friendly and in good humour. This was especially manifest during the last years of his life when he suffered considerably. He was eagerly sought as a confessor both by externs and by his own brethren in religion. He was always faithful and punctual in his confessional and his penitents could rely on his being present at his post. He had a great sense of humour and enjoyed telling and listening to amusing stories, especially those of the sensational kind. He was a great lover of holy poverty and certainly felt at times some of its effects. His obedience was sometimes amusing to his brethren - for instance, he had his bag always packed so that he could leave any house where he was stationed at a moment's notice. He was a model of all the religious virtues and without any ostentation. Like His Divine Master he effaced himself in all things,
The news of his death was received with genuine sorrow by the many friends he had made in Gardiner Street, and elsewhere. He leaves a gap and will be sadly missed. May he rest in peace!

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Austin O’Kelly (1876-1950)

Was born in Dublin and received his education at Belvedere College. He entered the Society in 1892 and pursued his higher studies at the French scholasticate in Jersey and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1909. He was a member of the teaching staff at the Crescent from 1923-25. Shortly afterwards he went over to England to work in the Jesuit churches at Preston and Liverpool. His chosen apostolate was amongst the poorer classes. Before the outbreak of the last war he was recalled to Dublin and continued his apostolate amongst the poor near Gardiner St Church.

Born: 18 March 1896, Baltinglass, County Wicklow
Entered: 13 August 1913, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1927, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1930, Chiesa del Gesù, Rome Italy
Died: 22 July 1968, Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road, Galway

Father was a shopkeeper and died in 1914 (during novitiate) and mother died in 1911.

Youngest of four sons (1 deceased) and has six sisters, three of whom are nuns (French Sisters of Charity; Good Shepherds; Little Sisters of the Assumption). Eldest brother is a doctor at Mount Street Dublin.

Early education at a day school near his home in 1908 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

Studied for BSc at UCD

by 1929 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1930 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-jesuits-name-bugs/

JESUITICA: The flies of Ireland
Only one Irish Provincial has had a genus of flies called after him. In 1937 Fr Larry Kieran welcomed Fr Hermann Schmitz, a German Jesuit, to Ireland, and he stayed here for about four years, teaching in Tullabeg and doing prodigious research on Irish Phoridae, or flies. He increased the known list of Irish Phoridae by more than 100 species, and immortalised Fr Larry by calling a genus after him: Kierania grata. Frs Leo Morahan and Paddy O’Kelly were similarly honoured, Leo with a genus: Morahanian pellinta, and Paddy with a species, Okellyi. Hermann served Irish entomologists by scientifically rearranging and updating the specimens of Phoridae in our National Museum. He died in Germany exactly fifty years ago.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 43rd Year No 4 1968

St. Ignatius College, Galway
Our Community has seen sad days since the last issue of “Province News”. Fathers O'Connor, Hutchinson and Brennan had severe heart attacks which necessitated for each a long stay in hospital. Father Andrews, on his return from Spain, was very ill and went into hospital. And Father Butler is in hospital after an appendix operation.
The saddest news of all, however, was the death of two members of our community, Father P. O'Kelly and Brother Foley. Father Kelly's death was sudden and unexpected. On Monday, 22nd July, when he did not turn up for the 6.50 a.m. Mass, Brother Bonfield went to his room and found him dead in his chair. A note in the “History of the House”, in his own hand, dated the 22nd July, leads to the conclusion that he died in the early hours of that morning. On Sunday 21st he seemed to be in the best of form, had his usual swim (or swims), his usual trips on the bike, and in the evening took the Bona Mors Devotions. Little knowing that the prayers were for himself he said the usual three Hail Marys for the person in the congregation who was next to die. His death has left an unfillable gap in the Community. “We shall not see his like again”. But it was surely the death Father Paddy would have chosen for himself - a labourer in the Lord's vineyard, working on and on, right up to the eleventh hour. Messages of sympathy poured in from all sides, among them, one from His Lordship the Bishop, and one from the County Council. All day long, for two days, the doorbell kept ringing as Mass Cards were handed in and the pile grew steadily.
When Brother Foley's death came so soon after Father O'Kelly's funeral and the church bell tolled again, people showed deep sympathy for the community. Mass cards piled up again, a sign that, in spite of his enforced retirement, over the years, his old friends had not forgotten him.
Both funerals were large and impressive. The town's people were there in great numbers to pay their last tribute, and Fathers and Brothers from all over the Province came to be present at the last sad rites. Many of Father O'Kelly's and Brother Foley's relatives were at the Mass and at the graveside. Fr. G. Perrott (Rector at the time) came all the way from Achill to say the Requiem
Mass for Father O'Kelly and was present at both funerals. Fr. V. McLaughlin was Celebrant at the Mass for Brother Foley. Reciting the last prayers at the burial of Father O'Kelly was Rev. Father Provincial, Father Barry and at Brother Foley's burial the prayers were said by Father C. McGarry, Father Barry's successor as Provincial. Ar laimh dheis De go raibh a n-anama.

Obituary :

Fr Patrick H O’Kelly SJ (1896-1968)

Fr. Patrick O'Kelly was born in 1896 at Baltinglass. He was the son of Mr. E. P. O'Kelly, M.P. for Wicklow, and was one of a family of nine, of whom four, himself and three sisters, entered religion.
He went from the local National School to Clongowes in 1908 and spent five years there. Though he did not achieve any very notable distinction, he was above average in all departments of school life. He was awarded a book prize in the mathematical group in all the grades of the Intermediate examinations, Junior, Middle and Senior. He was useful at all games, but the only athletic achievement of his which is on record is second place in the Lower Line walking race at the Easter sports of 1911. Strange to say, this minor event is engraved on the memory of the writer after all these years. The race took place most unsuitably immediately after a “full feed”, and Paddy's superhuman efforts had catastrophic after-effects. Paddy entered the novitiate at Tullabeg in 1913, took his vows in 1915 and spent four years in the juniorate at Rathfarnham. His mental powers developed greatly at this period and, with that remarkable power of application and exactness of mind which characterised him in after life, he had no difficulty in getting his Honours B.Sc. in mathematics and mathematical physics. Whilst in Rathfarnham, he had a very severe attack of rheumatic fever, as a result of which the doctors declared that he would never be able to play any game again, and that it would be dangerous for him even to walk upstairs quickly. Never was medical prophesy so completely off the mark.
At Milltown Park in 1919-21, he showed a decided aptitude for philosophy, clearness and exactness being his characteristics. A minor memory recalls the troubled times in which we then lived. In one of the Christmas plays, Fr. Paddy took the part of a sergeant of the R.I.C., complete with dark green uniform and bristling moustache. Just before the curtain went up, he remembered that he had left some essential property in his room, and dashed up the stairs to get it. On the way he encountered the late Father Patrick Gannon, who nearly had a heart attack at meeting what he took to be a Black and Tan engaged on a raid.
Then followed three years at Belvedere, where, in spite of the doctors' forebodings, he took an active part in organising the games, theology at Milltown, with ordination in 1927, tertianship at St. Beuno's, and a biennium in philosophy in Rome, 1929-31, his last vows being pronounced in the Church of the Gesù.
In 1931 he was appointed professor of Ontology at Tullabeg, which post he filled until 1937, being also Minister from 1932 to 1935. As a professor, if not very inspiring, he was most painstaking and thorough. He was a devoted, one might say almost fanatical follower of the doctrines of Suarez, and found himself ploughing a lone furrow, as his brilliant colleagues, Fathers Joseph Canavan, Arthur Little and Edward Coyne, were equally ardent Thomists and had secured the intellectual allegiance of the majority of the philosophers.
A curious incident must have seemed to Father Paddy to be almost a heaven-sent approval of his loyalty to Suarez. Browsing one day in a Dublin secondhand bookshop, he found an ancient copy of one of Suarez' works. Examining the fly-leaf, he found it inscribed to a certain person “from his friend Francisco Suarez”. The price of the volume was only a few shillings, but Father Paddy found that he had not even this amount in his pocket. He hurried to the nearest Jesuit house, borrowed the money and secured his prize. Experts afterwards confirmed that the signature was really that of the great theologian whose theories Father Paddy had so stubbornly defended.
During his years in Tullabeg, Fr. Paddy had ample opportunity for the pursuit of botany and entomology, subjects which, ever since the juniorate, had occupied his spare moments. Though he never had any formal training in either, he pursued them not as a mere hobby, but in the thorough way in which he did everything, and his knowledge was wide and exact.
In 1937, Fr. O'Kelly was transferred to St. Ignatius', Galway, and here began the most active and successful period of his life, which was to last for thirty-one years. He was at the height of his powers, and well equipped for all the varied tasks he found at his disposal, Of no man could it be more truly said that he was paratus ad omnia. He was a full-time teacher, mostly of mathematics, also of French, English and Religious Knowledge. But at the same time he was a full-time operarius in the church, and also exercised a most devoted ministry to the sick and suffering.
His energy soon became legendary. His bicycle stood at the door, always ready for action, and he thought nothing of starting off immediately after a full day's class to ride twenty or thirty miles to visit some invalid. When he went to give retreats during the summer, he usually performed the whole, or at least a large part of the journey by bicycle. His spare time was occupied by other activities, gardening, botanising, and painting, for the last of which he had a considerable, though untrained talent. Even his recreations were of a strenuous kind. When he played a round of golf, he was as much interested in the speed with which he completed it as in his score, and he was one of those hardy wights, the all-the-year round swimmers.
His best friends would not deny that there was a certain degree of exaggeration in this boundless activity, and that his zeal some times led to friction when he crossed the path of others, but none could but admire his utter devotion to his priestly duties, and his readiness to take on the most difficult tasks. He soon won the admiration and affection of the people of Galway, and there must have been countless souls who were enabled by his ministrations to face sickness and death with courage and hope, and not a few whom he helped to return to the fold from which they had strayed, Through the years his energy seemed undiminished. In the last year of his life, he again took on full teaching, which for a short time he had curtailed, and he was, just before his death, actually preparing to assume a new task, the teaching of biology through Irish, and was making, with his usual thoroughness, a study of the required vocabulary of technical terms. It had often been feared that his relentless activity must be putting a strain on his constitution, but there was no outward sign of this, and on the Sunday before his death, he had carried out all his usual work in the church. As he would have wished, he died in harness. He always went to bed at a late hour so as to be ready to answer a sick call. Death came while he was thus on duty. He was found on the morning of Monday, 22nd July, seated at his table, with the decrees of the Vatican Council, which he had evidently been studying, open before him.
Every section of the population of Galway, clerical and lay, was represented in the immense congregation which thronged the church for his funeral. Many tributes were paid to him in the local press and in letters of condolence sent to the community. Perhaps more eloquent than any of these was a remark made shortly before his death by a poor man. “Sure, he'd jump into the canal to save a soul”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1969

Obituary

Father Patrick H O’Kelly SJ

Fr O'Kelly who was found dead seated at his table in St Ignatius College, Galway on July 22nd, 1968, was a priest who never spared himself in the service of others. Very gifted intellectually, he was a superb field. worker in all branches of the natural sciences From 1921 to 1924 he taught Honours Mathematics at the top of the school in Belvedere winning from his admiring pupils “mantissa” as a nickname. He never lost his interest in things Belvederian.

◆ The Clongownian, 1969

Obituary

Father Patrick H O’Kelly SJ

Patrick O'Kelly was born in 1896 at Baltinglass. He was the son of Mr E P O'Kelly, MP for West Wicklow and younger brother of the late Professor W D O'Kelly who has also passed away. Paddy came to Clongowes in 1908 and spent five years here. Even though he did not achieve any notable distinction, he was above average in all departments of school life. He shone at mathematics and won a book prize in this group in all the grades of the intermediate examinations, Junior, Middle and Senior. He was useful at games, especially at athletics and in the Clongownian of 1913 there is a photo of Paddy winning the Higher Line 440 yards race in the Easter Sports. Upon leaving Clongowes in 1913, Paddy entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, took his vows in 1915 and spent four years at University studies in Rathfarnham Castle. It was here that he showed his real mental calibre as well as that remarkable power of application and exactness of mind which ever characterised him in after life. He had no difficulty in getting his Honours BSc in mathematics and mathematical phycics.

In Milltown Park during the years 1919-21 he showed a decided aptitude for Philosophy as he was endowed with a high degree of clearness and exactness. Paddy spent three years teaching in Belvedere College before going for his theological studies to Milltown Park. He was ordained in 1927. He completed his formation as a Jesuit with a spiritual year (Tertianship) at St Beuno's College, Wales, and was then sent to the Gregorian University, Rome for special studies in Philosophy.

On his return to Ireland in 1931 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy and filled this post until 1937. He was then transferred to St Ignatius College, Galway, where he once again taught his favourite subject mathematics, but he was also a very competent teacher of French and English. It was here. in Galway that his energy became legendary, and his charity all-embracing. After a full day's class he thought nothing of cycling twenty miles to visit some poor invalid.

He won the admiration and affection of the people of Galway by his utter devotion to his priestly duties and there must have been countless souls who were enabled by his ministrations to face sickness and death with courage and hope.

Fr Paddy's death was the one he would have wished for, death whilst on duty. He was found on the morning of Monday, July 22, seated at his desk with the degrees of the Vatican Council open before him. He had evidently been studying them when God called him to his reward. To all Fr, Paddy's relatives and friends we offer our sincere sympathy.

Born: 18 December 1914, Rock Villas, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 07 September 1934, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1949, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1952
Died: 04 March 1968, Gonzaga College, Ranelagh, Dublin

Father is a building contractor.

Eldest of three boys (second is with the Salesians in Macclesfield) with two sisters.

Early education for fifteen years was at local National school and then he went to Mungret College SJ. In 1930 he entered the Apostolic school at Mungret (1930-1934)

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 43rd Year No 3 1968

Gonzaga College
Fr. John O'Leary, on medical advice, entered hospital on the evening of Saturday, 2nd March, but neither he nor we were unduly concerned for the state of his health : he himself had talked about a weak heart muscle and the need to lie up for a couple of weeks. Consequently we were very shocked on the following morning to learn that he had suffered a coronary and been anointed. Matters seemed to have improved somewhat by that Sunday evening, but another attack ensued during the night and he died about 4 a.m. on Monday. The remains were received at Gongaza chapel on Monday evening and solemn requiem Mass celebrated there on Wednesday, 6th March. The numbers that attended both the reception and the Mass bore eloquent testimony to the great esteem in which he was held and to his tremendous capacity for making friends. May he rest in peace.

Irish Province News 43rd Year No 4 1968
Obituary :

Fr John O’Leary SJ (1914-1968)

Father John O'Leary was born in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, on the 18th December 1914. One might say of him that he was a pure product of the Irish Province of the Society. From the time he entered Mungret College as a boy, all his studies and all his experience of life were confined to Ireland. His career in the Province can be summarised thus. Noviceship at Emo 1934-36; University studies in Rathfarnham 1936-39; Philosophy in Tullabeg 1939-42; Regency at Mungret 1943-46; Theology at Milltown Park 1946-50; Tertianship at Rathfarnham 1950-51; Clongowes 1951-61; Belvedere 1962-63; Gonzaga 1963-68
Father John was an uncomplicated character. An enduring and endearing trait was a certain “pietas” if one understands by this, a loyalty to places where one has lived and worked. It is a good quality. It was strong enough in him to make him vulnerable to some leg-pulling. One could easily get a ‘rise' out of him by some adverse remark on any house where he had worked. Father was no academic. He was an extrovert, with no inclinations towards intellectual theories or controversies. This has its advantages since everything appears much simpler than it really is. Of late years he was upset by the unrest and questioning in the Church and in the Society. This simplicity of outlook also made him somewhat of a “laudator temporis acti”. Indeed, a good deal of his conversation was about the good old days as a scholastic. It never seemed to dawn on him that in the remembrance of other people, they were very bad old days. As a boy in school he distinguished himself both at Hurling and Rugby, and even in the incomprehensive art of Cricket. And he retained a trim athletic figure to the end. It is notorious that schoolboys have a deadly accuracy in the nicknames they sometimes give to their masters or prefects. At Clongowes they called him “Ever-Ready”. And as far as outward activity was concerned, it gave the essence of Father John. He was always on the spot when something happened. It was an invaluable quality in a prefect, or a Minister, as far as the boys were concerned. Possibly not equally appreciated where the Community is concerned. But it made him invaluable especially in games and school activities.
He got on very well with the parents of our boys. He was always “there”. Partly from tradition, and partly from false spiritual direction in regard to “externs”, it must be admitted that many Irish Jesuits rather tend to avoid the casual visitor. He, or she, is the responsibility of the Minister or the Rector. Father John's inclination was in the opposite direction, and his instinct in this was right. The parents appreciated it. He was willing to talk, even by the hour, about the doings of “little John” or “little Alexander”. What this meant to the parents came as a revelation to the community at Gonzaga when he died. Amongst the very large gathering of parents who came to the College for his obsequies there was real genuine grief. There is surely a lesson in it for all of us who are engaged in teaching in the Colleges. During his years at Gonzaga he also organised the swimming classes. It took a lot of patience and a lot of trouble, since the boys had to be organised for transport to the Iveagh Baths. One can get very tired of that sort of thing. But once again Father John was always there, always ready. The school misses him sorely.
He is gone now to his reward. He will be understood and appreciated by the Marthas of God's Kingdom; those invaluable people without whose incessant activities there would be no dinner for the Marys.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1968

Obituary

Father John C O’Leary SJ

The Rev John C O'Leary SJ, who died in a Dublin nursing home, was born in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, in 1914 and received his secondary education at Mungret College, Limerick. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1934, did his clerical studies in Jesuit houses in Ireland and was ordained to the priesthood at Milltown Park in 1949.

He had taught at Mungret College for three years before ordination. Subsequently he was stationed at Clongowes Wood College for ten years (1951-1962), at Belvedere College for one year and at Gonzaga College for nearly five years (1963-68), where he functioned as teacher, prefect and vice rector.

Irish Independent

Born: 19 March 1869, Ranelagh,Dublin
Entered: 30 October 1886, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 27 July 1902, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1906, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 16 April 1939, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg & Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1891 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1905 at St David’s, Mold, Wales (FRA) making Tertianship

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
O'Leary, William J.
by David Murphy

O'Leary, William J. (1869–1939), Jesuit priest and scientist, was born 19 March 1869 in Dublin, son of Dr William H. O'Leary (qv), MP for Drogheda 1874–80, surgeon, and professor of anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Rosina O'Leary (née Rogers). Educated at St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, King's Co. (Offaly), and Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1886, completing his noviciate at Dromore, Co. Down. He studied philosophy and astronomy at Louvain and theology in Dublin, and then taught science at Clongowes. In 1908 he travelled to Strasbourg and studied seismology under Prof. Meinka, and on his return to Ireland he set up a meteorological and seismological observatory at Mungret College, Co. Limerick, remaining as its director until 1915. At the request of a joint committee of the British Association and the Royal Meteorological Society, he carried out a series of upper-air investigations using sounding balloons (1911–14). This was the most westerly series of observations taken in Europe, and the results of O'Leary's research were published in the journals of both societies. By 1911 he had also completed a new seismograph, and this instrument was later praised by the astrophysicist and cosmologist, (Edward) Arthur Milne (1896–1950).

In 1915 he moved to the Jesuit community at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, and founded a seismological observatory there. He constructed his own seismograph, which had a moving mass of one-and-a-half tons. This instrument was still giving excellent service in the 1940s. He had also become aware of the need for extremely accurate timing in seismology and, turning his attention to chronometry, developed a free-pendulum clock which he patented in 1918.

In 1929 he went to Australia, where he became director of the observatory at Riverview College, New South Wales. In conjunction with the Lembang observatory in Java, he began a programme of photographic research on variable stars. He discovered several new variable stars, and the results of his research were published in the journals of the Riverview and Lembang observatories and also in the Astronomische Nachrichten. An accomplished and humorous speaker, he was extremely popular as a lecturer at scientific and public meetings. He supervised (1933–4) the construction of one of his free-pendulum clocks for Georgetown University. The clock was built by E. Esdaile & Sons in Sydney and shipped to Washington DC in August 1934, and O'Leary visited Georgetown in 1938. He was a leading member of several scientific societies, including the RIA (elected 1919), the Royal Society of New South Wales, the Société Astronomique de France, and the Seismological Society of America. He was also a member of the Australian National Committee on Astronomy and was elected (January 1938) a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

He collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing golf (16 April 1939), and was buried at the Gore Hill cemetery, Sydney. There is a collection of his papers in the Irish Jesuit archives in Dublin, including seismological journals that he kept while at Rathfarnham. In February 1959 Georgetown University donated to the Smithsonian Institution its O'Leary free-pendulum clock and the collection of letters relating to its construction.

Fr William J. O'Leary, SJ, files in Irish Jesuit Archives, Dublin; The Catholic Press, 20 April 1939; Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 100, no. 4, February 1940; Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, vol. 28, no. 240, February 1986, 44–51

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-earth-shakers-2/

JESUITICA: Earth-shakers
In the days when Rathfarnham Castle was still a residence for Jesuit university students, there was a seismograph (pictured here) housed in a small building off the drive. It was the creation of Fr William O’Leary, a Jesuit scientist with an avid interest in pendulums, who had already constructed a seismograph in Mungret in 1909. He had to keep air currents and spiders at bay, since their delicate vibrations could simulate the effect of major earthquakes on the sensitive instrument. He had dreadful luck in September 1923 when his seismograph was temporarily out of order during a catastrophic (over 100,000 dead) earthquake in Japan. But his pioneering work introduced generations of Jesuit students to the rigorous measurement and technical skill required in scientific research.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William O'Leary was educated at Tullabeg and Clongowes; his father was a surgeon and a Member of Parliament. While at Tullabeg he developed an interest in science. He entered the Society at Dromore, 30 October 1886, did his juniorate at Tullabeg, 1888-90, studied philosophy at Louvain, 1890-93, where he did much experimental work with the inverted pendulum. He later taught mathematics and physics at Clongowes, 1893-99, studied theology at Milltown Park, 1899-03, and finished his studies with tertianship at Mold, Wales, 1904-05. In 1900 he published a textbook on mechanics.
In an obituary notice in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 100, No. 4,” 1940, it said that O'Leary's “mind ran on original lines. He was never content with stereotyped textbook solutions, he had to work out each problem for himself from first principles. In this way he was able to study many questions from a fresh angle and to develop original lines of research various branches of science. Combined with this was a highly developed inventive talent and the ability to design new instruments and the skill to construct them”.
After studies, O'Leary taught physics, chemistry and mathematics, and was assistant prefect of studies at Mungret, 1905-15, as well as director of the seismological and meteorological observatory At the request of a Joint Committee of the British Association and the Royal Meteorological Society he carried out a series of upper-air investigations by means of sounding balloons. These were the farthest west observations had been made in Europe at the time.
One problem in seismometry was to obtain an instrument with a fairly long period and consequent high sensitivity O'Leary provided a satisfactory solution by constructing a two
component horizontal seismometer with trifilar suspension. One of these instruments was completed in Mungret in 1911. Later, he lectured in mathematics to the juniors at Rathfarnham, 1915-18, and started seismological observatory His “O’Leary Seismograph” was at that time the first and only one in the world. He also worked with Professor John Milne at the Shide Observatory in the Isle of Wight, and from whom he acquired the Milne-Shaw seismograph for his own seismography station at Rathfarnham. With these two seismographs, O'Leary was able to supply earthquake information to the whole country. The need for accurate timing in seismology turned O'Leary's attention to chronometry He saw that the secret of precision timing was to be sought in a free pendulum. He was one of true pioneers in the development of the free-pendulum clock in 1918.
O’Leary was minister, procurator and teacher at Belvedere, 1918-19, and then lectured mathematics and physics to the philosophers at Milltown Park, 1919-29.
He was was appointed to the Riverview observatory in July 1929. Besides introducing various improvements in the seismological department, he initiated a programme of photographic research on variable stars in collaboration with the Boscha Observatory, Lembang. He also invented and built a blink comparator, which proved successful in searching for new variable stars. He discovered many new variable stars and published several papers on variables in “Publications” of the Riverview and Ban Len Observatories and in the “Astronomisrlne Nachrichten”. Other inventions included a recording anemometer and a petrol gas plant.
Scientists and the general public appreciated O’Leary's lectures on astronomy and seismology His light and humorous touch combined with his clarity of exposition to render topics intelligible and interesting. Together with his scientific work, he found time to do good work as a priest. Many found him a wise counselor, and a humble and lovable priest and colleague. He was a little man, happy, charming, and quite unassuming in spite of his deep knowledge and high reputation.
He remained at Riverview until his death in 1939, directing the observatory until 1937 when Daniel O'Connell became director. The end of his life occurred when he collapsed and died on the golf course just after driving off. The suddenness of his death was a shock to the community, but he had had a heart condition for some time. This did not prevent him from planning fresh research and for new instruments. The day before he died he discovered a number of new variable stars with his newly completed comparator, and that night worked at the telescope taking star photographs. O'Leary was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Society of NSW, the Société Astronomique de France, the Seismological Society of America, Past President of the NSW Branch of the British Astronomical Association, and a fellow of the Australian National Committee on Astronomy.

Note from Daniel O’Connell Entry
At this time he came under the influence of William O'Leary, the Irish Jesuit astronomer and seismologist, who at that time was director of Rathfarnham Castle Observatory in Dublin. While at the Riverview Observatory, working under William O'Leary.........

Note from Edward Pigot Entry
His extremely high standards of scientific accuracy and integrity made it difficult for him to find an assistant he could work with, or who could work with him. George Downey, Robert McCarthy, and Wilfred Ryan, all failed to satisfy. However, when he met the young scholastic Daniel O'Connell he found a man after his own heart. When he found death approaching he was afraid, not of death, but because O’Connell was still only a theologian and not ready to take over the observatory. Happily, the Irish province was willing to release his other great friend, William O'Leary to fill the gap.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 1st Year No 2 1926

SCIENTIFIC WORK AND INVENTIONS - Fr William O'Leary :
1909 Seismological observatory established at Mungret
1910 New type of seismograph invented and constructed at Mungret; A meteorological station in connection with the Meteorological Office established at Mungret; A complete set of recording instruments was installed; New type of anemometer, recording average and wind direction, invented and erected.
1912 The systematic investigation, by sounding balloons of the upper atmosphere over Ireland was begun. This important work was entrusted to Mungret by a joint committee of the Royal Meteorological Society and the British Association, as representing the International Upper Air Investigation Society, with headquarters at Strasburg. Mungret was the only Irish station entrusted with this work; The Erin Petrol Gas Generator invented by Messrs Maguire & Gatchell took over the construction of those machines, and erected a large number of them throughout Ireland.
1916 The Rathfarnham Seismological Station was established. The instrument, of the Mungret type, but of an improved design, was constructed at Rathfarnham.
1918 Precision clock invented, embodying the principle of a free pendulum. A model of a “Vertical Component” Seismograph invented some 3 years previously, was exhibited at the British Association Meeting at Edinburgh.

Irish Province News 9th Year No 1 1934
An Australian contemporary gives the following welcome news :
The Rev William O'Leary, SJ., Director of Riverview Observatory has been elected President of the New South Wales branch of the British Astronomical Association. in succession to Mr. W. F. Gale. Father O'Leary is a famous scientist, with a special knowledge of earthquakes. He studied astronomy in Louvain, Belgium, and succeeded the late Father Pigot to the charge of Riverview Observatory in July, 1929. Formerly he was Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the Jesuit College, Milltown Park, Dublin.

Irish Province News 12th Year No 2 1937

Rathfarnham :
Seismological Station : A change was made in the method of recording un the O'Leary seismograph. The records are now made on smoked paper by a stylus which gives a very clear, delicate trace. This method replaces the former ink inscriptions and is calculated to give much greater sensitivity, The improvement was carried out at the suggestion of Father O'Leary, Director of Riverview College Observatory, who sent all the necessary detail of construction. On January 7th the first big earthquake of the year was recorded and the success of the new method was assured.

Irish Province News 14th Year No 3 1939
Obituary :
Father William O’Leary
Born, Dublin, 19th March , Educated Tullabeg, Clongowes
1886 Entered, Dromore, 30th October
1887 Dromore, Novice
1888-89 Tullabeg, Junior
1890-1892 Louvain, Philosophy
1893-1898 Clongowes, Doc
1899-1902 1899-1902 Milltown, Theology
1903 Clongowes, Doc
1904 Mold, Tertian
1905-07 Mungret, Doc. Adj. Praef. stud, Cons. dom.
1908-09 Mungret, Doc. Doc. Praes. Sod. B.V.M., Cons. dom.
1910-12 Mungret, Doc. Doc. Praes. Sod. B.V.M., Cons. dom.; Dir obser, seismol, et meteorology
1913-14 Munget, Doc an 17, Praes. Sod. SS Angel; Dir obser, seismol, et meteorology
1915 Rathfarnham, Lect. Math., Conf. N.N. ; Cons. dom. an 1
1916 Rathfarnham, Praef Spir, Lect. Math.; Cons. dom an 2.; seismol
1917 Rathfarnham, Praef Spir, Lect. Math.; Cons. dom an 3.; Dir obser
1918 Belvedere, Minister. Doc..' Cons. dom.
1919-23 Milltown, Lect. Math. et Phys. , Conf. dom.
1924 Milltown, Lect. Math. et Phys.; Conf. N.N.
1925-26 Milltown, Lect. Math. et Phys.; Praef ton; Theol et Phil
19277-28 Milltown, Lect. Math. et Phys.; Praef ton; Theol et Phil; Conf. dom.
1929 Australia, Riverview, Dir obser, seismol; Astron meteor
1930-37 Australia, Riverview, Dir obser, seismol; Astron meteor; Conf dom
1938-1939 Australia, Riverview, Adj Dir Spec; Dir sect seismol; Conf dom

Father O'Leary died in Australia, Sunday, April 16th, 1939
Father O'Leary was born in Dublin, 1869. His father William O'Leary, well known for his medical ability, and for time a Home Rule M.P. in the party of Isaac Butt. Father O'Leary was educated at Tullabeg and Clongowes. He was best known as a teacher of physics and astronomy in the Colleges and Scholasticates, and for his work on seismology. His scientific work tends to make us forget his other gifts as a preacher and Retreat-giver, in which he was remarkably successful. As student at Louvain he developed an interest in pendulums, which was the basis of his seismological activities. A full account of his work in that department has been given in the “Irish Jesuit Directory” for 1938. A visit to Prof. J, Milne's observatory at Shide, Isle of Wight, was the occasion of his applying his knowledge of pendulums to the construction of his first instrument at Mungret. During the following years he constructed and equipped a really good seismological and meteorological station there, which he left behind him as a monument to his energy and activity when he was transferred
to Rathfarnham. Here, with characteristic perseverance, he continued his work, and set about designing and constructing the instrument now in use at Rathfarnharn, in conjunction with a standard Milne-Shaw seismograph added to the Observatory in 1932. This instrument was not meant to replace the “O'Leary Seismograph”, but to give greater accuracy in the recording of earthquakes. The horizontal pendulum of the latter has a mass of 1 lb. , the O'Leary pendulum has a mass of 1.5 tons. This is the only instrument of its kind in existence, and gives an exceedingly large and clear record.
An essential element in the recording of earthquakes is a very accurate clock, which enables the exact time to be recorded on the chart. Father O'Leary designed such a clock, which includes features of great novelty. In connection with this instrument Father O'Leary paid a visit to the United States. The clock has been described by the director of a well-known observatory as “a piece of first-class and most original work”. It is of interest to put on record that Father O'Leary not only designed both clock and seismograph, but made almost every part of each, and erected them himself. In addition to these instruments he designed a system of supplying petrol-gas for laboratories far from a supply of coal gas. This apparatus had a considerable success, and for some years was on the market, until trade difficulties stopped the sale. In addition to the records of his observations, Father O'Leary wrote a text-book on mechanics.
When Father Pigot died in Australia, in 1929, then a portion of the Irish Province, Father O'Leary was chosen to succeed him as director of the Riverview College Observatory, which included astronomy, seismology and meteorology, where his knowledge and experience enabled him to do much valuable work.
His death came suddenly and unexpectedly, as he had been working in the observatory only the night before. The Australian and home newspapers contained most appreciative notices of his work. An indication of the esteem in which he was held may be gathered from the Press account of his funeral. Archbishop Gilroy presided at the Mass, at which were present Archbishop Duhig and Bishops Coleman, Dwyer and Henscke, together with some 200 priests and many representatives of Catholic schools. The laity included many distinguished scientists and representative men, such as the Attorney-General, etc. Father O'Leary was an F.R.A.S., and past-President of the British Astronomical Association.
Those who knew Father O'Leary will miss him not only as a worker, but still more for his great charm and his many gifts, which made him an excellent community man and endeared him to all by his cheerful companionship and great sense of humour. He was noted for his punctilious observance of all his spiritual duties, and died as he had lived, working for God. RIP
The following came from an Irish priest :
"During the last few weeks I have felt that I would like to write and offer to you and your distinguished Order my sympathy on the death of Father O'Leary. Many, I am sure, have written many others, too, better equipped than I, shall write about him but as a humble priest, I would like to add my humble tribute to the memory of a saintly priest and a learned Jesuit.
When I took up the paper a few weeks ago and read the cabled account of his death, I could read no further. I was truly grieved, for I felt I had lost a great friend, a friend who was, I thought, in perfect health, when I met him only a few months ago. Our friendship began ten years ago on the emigrant ship that was relentlessly taking both of us to Australia. He, fairly advanced in years, I, a young priest just ordained. He, the eminent scientist and inventor, on his way to take up one of the highest and most important positions in Australia, I an obscure priest, to take up duty as a curate in some parish in the Diocese of Sydney. None of us young priests realised that we were travelling with such a distinguished man. There was nothing that led us even to suspect it. He moved among us, spoke freely to us offered us his sympathy for he knew our hearts were full. His heart, too, was full, for he felt then that he would never see again his beloved Ireland. I often thought it was a pity that he should have to leave Ireland at his time of life, for he loved Ireland with a love that was passionate, yet tender. Whenever I visited him at Riverview, that College so beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking Sydney's wondrous harbour, his thoughts ever wandered back to Ireland. Like every exile. as he wrote himself, he hankered for the green hills of holy Ireland. Others shall appraise his work as a scientist and astronomer - to me he was always the humble, sympathetic, priestly friend. With his passing I have lost a great friend, and Australia has most certainly lost an able and scholarly Jesuit, and saintly priest.
I am sure that his soul passed through Ireland on its way to Eternity. May he rest in peace".

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father William O’Leary SJ 1869-1939
The name of Fr William O’Leary will go down in the Province as the founder of the seismograph at Rathfarnham Castle. He was also the inventor an ingenious clock and numerous other scientific devices, as well as author of a textbook on mechanics. But these achievements as a scientific inventor were hardly half the man.

He had a remarkable oratorical ability, and many a priest of the Province will recall his elocution classes … “O Mary, call the cattle home, call the cattle home across the sands of Dee”. He was a preacher and retreat giver of no mean order,

In 1939 he was appointed to the Directorship of the Observatory at Riverview, Australia. His end came suddenly on April 16th 1939, but found him not unprepared, for he was a religious of punctilious observance and scrupulous even to a fault in the matter of poverty.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 109 : Summer/Autumn 2001

LEST HE BE FORGOTTEN : FR WILLIAM O’LEARY

Kevin A Laheen

There is a rumour doing the rounds in Rathfarnham at present that the building that once housed the seismograph will shortly be used as a snack-bar and tea room. Just in case there may be some truth in this rumour it would seem opportune to recall the name of Fr William O'Leary, SJ whose pioneer work in recording earthquakes won international acclaim for the seismograph station at Rathfarnham Castle.

Willie O'Leary was born in Dublin on 19 March 1869. The O'Leary family lived in Ranelagh. His father was a distinguished doctor, a Member of Parliament, and a personal friend of Isaac Butt. Willie spent the early years of his schooling in Tullabeg and then moved off to Clongowes when the two colleges were amalgamated in 1886. After his novitiate in Dromore he moved, back to Tullabeg to begin his Juniorate studies. In Tullabeg he manifested a great interest in and aptitude for science. It was during his philosophy years at Louvain that he did some experimental work on the inverted pendulum. This was the beginning of a lifelong work in the study of seismology which won for him an eminence in that science and in meteorology, and also, to a lesser degree, in astronomy.

During his years in Mungret College, 1905-15, his theories about earthquakes began to take practical shape. He built a house of solid stone some distance from the main building and in it he continued his study and experiments. His work during those years is well documented in the MUNGRET ANNUAL. However, it was in Rathfarnham Castle during the years 1915 17 that he built his own seismograph and the clock that recorded the time at which an earthquake took place. The famous “O'Leary Seismograph” was the only one of its kind in the world at that time and widespread interest in it was evident in international science circles.

He was on personal friendly terms with Professor John Milne, whose observatory in Shide, the Isle of Wight, he had visited on more than one occasion. Through this contact he acquired the Milne-Shaw seismograph for the station in Rathfarnham Castle. This instrument was not a substitute for Fr O'Leary's one, but both worked in tandem, recording the same earthquake though by different methods. The O'Leary seismograph recorded the quakes on a sheet of smoked paper on a large revolving drum, while the Milne-Shaw instrument recorded them by photography. It was interesting to watch the white lines being traced on the smoked paper as the drum revolved slowly while every minute the two glass pen nibs gave a tiny kick to the right in order to record the time.

Fr O'Leary's work received widespread notice in scientific publications. He was a Feilow of the Royal College of Science, and also a President of the British Astronomical Association. His reputation was so outstanding that when Fr Edward Pigot, SJ died in Australia in 1929, Fr O'Leary was requested to take his place as Director of the Observatory at Riverview College - “one of the highest and most important positions in Australia”. It was there during his early sixties that his work was highly appreciated and where at the same time he had an opportunity to further his own knowledge of astronomy.

Research and experimental work such as was done by Father O'Leary, is a very lonely occupation, and few people outside the researcher's field will manifest much interest. Fr O'Leary was fortunate in the fact that Fr Thomas V Nolan, SJ who was his Rector in Mungret College, appreciated his work and gave him every encouragement and support. Later Fr Nolan was appointed Provincial and in that office continued his sponsorship of Fr O'Leary's work. Providence was again on Fr Willie's side when they were both assigned to Rathfarnham Castle, Fr Nolan being the Rector and again continued to support him, especially in the erection of the seismograph station. He also encouraged Fr Willie to maintain his friendship with Professor Milne and to visit him at his observatory at Shide. Without this support one might be justified in asking if Fr O'Leary's experiments would ever have bome the fruit they eventually did.

In addition to his eminent place in the international community of scientists he was also a gifted preacher. He was much in demand as a retreat director, and was especially skilled in directing retreats to the clergy. His contemporaries found him a most affable companion who gladly shared his knowledge with anyone who manifested even the slightest interest in it. He died in Australia in 1939 in his seventieth year. Present at his funeral two archbishops, three bishops, over two hundred priests, and representatives from various branches of science. A priest who first met him on the ship en route for Australia, on hearing of his death, wrote, “In his passing I have lost a great friend, and Australia has certainly lost an able and scholarly Jesuit and a saintly priest”.

Should the building, which housed his seismograph station in Rathfarnham, ever become a snack-bar, it would certainly be appropriate to have a plaque or other memorial put up there. This would record the significant contribution to science that was made in that building, and would prevent the name and work of this great Jesuit from being forgotten.

I feel it is appropriate to conclude with a personal memory. One morning, midway through the Second World War, Dick MacCarthy and I were working in the seismograph station. Suddenly I noticed that the glass pens on the great revolving drum began to register a quivering motion. I called Dick and, in a matter of seconds, the pens went off in a swaying motion from left to right. We both realised that we were witnessing the great O'Leary seismograph recording an earthquake. Before the pens settled down, Dick had calculated that the epicentre of the earthquake was in the Pacific Ocean. In those days the house telephone was definitely off limits for all of us except Dick, who was allowed to use it for business connected with the station. He telephoned the Dublin newspapers with the news. An hour or so later we both cycled to the university for the morning lectures. Standing at the gates of the building was a newsboy crying out the greatest piece of misinformation ever heard, “Stop press! Stop press! Earthquake at Rathfarnham Castle!” We both had a laugh, and Dick said, “I bet the Rector will blame the pair of us for that”.

During the days of the war when news of any sort was censored and generous blackouts were imposed on any type of information, we were a real sensation among our fellow students for bearing the first bit of uncensored news to reach Dublin that day. Dick, who remained a close friend of mine all his life, died in Hong Kong a couple of years ago.

◆ The Clongownian, 1939

Obituary

Father William J O’Leary SJ

Father O’Leary was born in Dublin on March 19th, 1869. His father was Dr W O'Leary, a well-known doctor and a Home Rule MP in Isaac Butt's party. Father O'Leary was educated at Tullabeg (1880), but came to Clongowes at the amalgamation for a few months in the summer of 1886 to prepare for the “Autumn Matric”. He was a master at Clongowes 1893-'98, and again in 1903; after his ordination. Practically his whole life was occupied in the teaching of science and mathematics at Clongowes and Mungret, and in the Scholasticates of Rathfarnham and Milltown Park. During his philosophical studies at Louvain he became interested in pendulums, and did some very interesting experiments with compound pendulums, obtaining some beautiful curve records. This interest seems to have been the occasion of his interest in seismology later on. A visit to the observatory of Prof J Milne FRS., at Shide IOW., was the beginning of his work in that departinent. At Mungret he created a seismological and meteorological station which he fitted up with instruments of his own design. During this time he also made observations on high-altitude conditions by means of balloons. He was transferred to Rathfarnham in 1915, where he still further improved his apparatus, Here he designed and constructed one of the instruments still in use in the present station. This instrument is the only one of its kind in existence and gives a very open record. It is of the inverted pendulum type, and the “bob” weighs 1.5 tons! It was designed, constructed all except the “bob” and erected by Father O'Leary himself, who, in addition to his other gifts, was a skilled mechanic. Later on he was professor of Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy to the Jesuit philosophers at Milltown Park.

On the death of Father Pigot SJ, Director of the seismological and astronomical observatory of Riverview College, Sydney, he was appointed as his successor, and went to Australia in 1929. His previous studies and practical experience had fitted him for this position, and enabled him to do splendid work in his new post. Here, in addition to seismology, his work included such branches of astronomy as observations on solar radiation, and on variable stars. It is to be hoped that a full account of his work in Australia will be given us. As an inventor he also designed a method of supplying laboratories not in possession of coal gas, with petrol gas, both for illumination and heating. He published a text-book on mechanics, but, with the exception of the records of his observation, does not seem to have written anything else. Reference must be especially made to an accurate clock which he designed and constructed on principles first applied by him, which was for use in connection with his seismograph. Such a clock is an essential element in the recording of earthquakes, for it is necessary that a mark be made on the chart very accurately every minute. His clock combined the properties of extreme accuracy with the means of recording the minutes on the chart. Referring to this clock, Father D O'Connell SJ, the present director of the Riverview observatory, says that it is a most excellent and original piece of work. Except in the patent specification, the details have never been published. It is to be hoped that this will be included in an account of his scientific work.

But it would be a mistake to allow the record of his work as a scientist to render us oblivious of his other and far inore important qualities. All who knew Father O'Leary as a friend and companion need no reminder of his wonderful charm and gifts of character which made him popular with all. A great love of his country, and a strong sense of humour were characteristic of him. He has a fine voice, and as a preacher he was no less in demand than as a lecturer and giver of retreats. His friends have lost one who will not easily be replaced.

Himself the most unassuming of men, he was honoured by his scientific brethren, no less than he was loved by his brethren in religion. He was a member of the British Association, and more than once was special preacher at their meetings; he was also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Past President of the NSW branch of the British Astronomical Association.

His death came suddenly. He had been suffering from his heart, but this did not interfere with his work, and he had been working in the observatory only the night before. An indication of the esteem in which he was held in Australia may be gathered from the press account of his funeral. Archbishop Gilroy presided at the Requiem Mass, at which assisted Archbishop Duhig, and Bishops Coleman, Dwyer and Henscke. In addition, there were 200 of the clergy, as well as representatives of the Catholic educational establishments. A large number of distinguished laymen were also present, including the Attorney-General, members of the University and the president of Astronomical Society and Government Astronomer. RIP

H V Gill SJ

-oOo-

The following appreciation is from the pen of one who for many years taught in the same college as Father Willy :

For many years after his ordination, Father O'Leary taught in Mungret, and for a considerable portion of that period acted as Prefect of Studies. A splendid master, be had the gift of imparting knowledge clearly and of getting the boys thoroughly interested in their work. His subjects were Science, Mathematics and Latin. His lessons in Geometry were particularly fascinating - his own consummate skill in the use of instruments and the beautifully accurate figures which graced his blackboard made his pupils quite enthusiastic in their efforts to imitate and emulate him. He made the dry bones of that subject live -no easy task where boys are concerned.

He was highly popular with all the boys, though he never showed any undue leniency. He was strict, but not severe, just and impartial. All these features were prominent in another sphere of school life; Father O'Leary possessed histrionic talent in a high degree. His production, in conjunction with the late Father Willie Doyle, of the “Mikado” inaugurated the revival of theatricals in Clongowes. In Mungret he staged the “Private Secretary”, a very successful performance, one of many similar triumphs.

In the spiritual sphere he did untold good. He was director of the sodalities, a superb preacher, being a first class orator. Only those who lived with him could appreciate to the full the power of his example. He was popular, as we have said, but he used this as a powerful influence for good.

Boys are proverbially prone to hero worship, and this small, though tremendously strong, straightforward, cheerful and great hearted priest won their affection and admiration. They appreciated his great qualities in life, and we trust they will not forget him in death. Requiescat.

John Casey SJ

-oOo-

Father H V Gill has mentioned above that Father O'Leary had a great love for his country; here is an extract from a letter of Father Willy's to a friend in Ireland, written for the New Year :--

“Dear Ireland, how I wish I could see you again. I am too old to fall in love with strange lands and I love you alone. May God bless every tree and every blade of grass in you, may God bless every mother's son in you, and may God keep the Old Faith in you”.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1937

Obituary

Father William O’Leary SJ

The death of Father O'Leary in Australia will be deeply regretted by many of his past pupils. An old Mungret boy of Father O'Leary's time there writes to the Editor :

“I was at Mungret for five years, and during all that time Father O'Leary was a master there. He taught us Latin, Religious Knowledge, Mathematics and Science. But he taught us many others things besides these. I don't think there was any master of my time there the boys thought more of, or who had more influence with them. For all his lack of inches - he only looked about 5ft. 4ins, in spite of the black hair brushed straight up from his forehead - he was a most virile personality. I will always carry with me as one of the clearest memories of Mungret the picture of Father O'Leary pacing up and down the stone corridor as we went on our way to Mass, wearing his biretta and with his head sunk on his chest for all the world like Napoleon”.

For a man of his intellectual attainments allied as they were in him with a natural agility of mind and speed of accomplishment - it must have been a heart-breaking task to expound the elements of euclid to a junior grade class not specially gifted above their fellows. Only once in my time did I ever see it overcome him, and that was an occasion that none who saw will ever forget. One day in dealing with a boy whom the Lord never meant to learn euclid, he allowed himself to be betrayed into one or two natural expressions of impatience - just so much and no more. It made no impression on us nor on the boy concerned - we were I fear a thick-skinned lot - but next day when the class began, Father O'Leary called out the boy and apologised to him coram publico in terms which penetrated to our subconscious preceptions far deeper than any sermon. Talking of sermons reminds me that he was the boys' favourite preacher and confessor. He had a deep musical voice and a gift of oratory and also an ability to teach elocution which were all his own. I don't know if elocution is still taught in the schools or if it has been crowded out by the modern programme : to judge by the sort of thing one hears in “talks” from Radio Éireann even from possessors of University Degrees - the art of speaking and reading aloud is a lost one. Anyone who ever was in Father O'Leary's class or in one of his plays learned how to open his mouth and sound his consonants. He used to teach us Byron's poem about the Assyrian coming down like a wolf on the fold - I have every word of it yet - and when you came to the line ‘With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail’ - woe betide you if you put a ‘Jew sitting on the poor man's brow’.

Science was, of course, his first love, but even that gave way before his love for Ireland. To hear him speak of Irish history or to listen to him sing ‘The West's Awake’, as we so often did was to know that the fire that burned in the breast of his distinguished father burned just as fiercely in his own. He must have known when he left Ireland in 1929 that the chances of his ever seeing home again were very small how hard that thought must have been those of us who knew him can well realise. He went like so many other Irishmen - and Mungret men have gone - where duty called him, and if he rests at last far from his own land that he loved so well, there lie around him the bones of many of his kith and kin to foregather at the resurrection. All the boys of his time in Mungret will join with me in a prayer for one than whom no one stood higher in our affections as a priest, a master, or a friend”.

D Gleeson

Born: 28 November 1869, Kilmallock, Co Limerick/Charleville, County Cork
Entered: 14 September 1888, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 02 August 1903, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1905
Died: 24 April 1930, University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin

Older brother of Francis O'Mahony - RIP 1893 a Novice

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Chaplain in the First World War.

by 1892 at Exaeten College, Limburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1904 at Linz, Austria (AUS) making Tertianship
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 43rd General Hospital, Salonica, Greece
by 1918 Military Chaplain : SS Egypt, c/o GPO London
by 1919 Military Chaplain : PL of C, Haifa, Palestine, EEF

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of Francis O'Mahony - RIP 1893 a Novice

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 5th Year No 4 1930
Obituary :
Fr Jerome O'Mahony
Fr. O’Mahony was born in Charleville, Co. Cork, 28 Nov. 1869, educated at Tullabeg, and entered the noviceship at Tullabeg (which had just become the novitiate of the province) 14 Sept. 1888. Here he remained for three years, the last of them as Junior, and then went to Exaeten for philosophy. In 1892 he was sent to Clongowes, where he was prefect for two
years, then a year at Belvedere, followed by five years at Mungret, four as master and one as prefect. In all, regency for eight years. After three years theology at Milltown he travelled to Linz for the tertianship.
In 1904, he was back in Mungret as prefect, a year in Galway came next, and then Mungret once more, prefect for five years. The Crescent had him as Minister and master from 1911 to 1913. In the latter years he was transferred to Milltown, where he had charge of the Retreat House for three years.
The great war was raging in 1916 and Fr O'Mahony became a Military Chaplain. His first post was in Salonika, where he was stationed in the General Hospital. Next year he was Chaplain on board the SS Egypt, and in 1918 we find him at Haifa, Palestine.
The war over, he returned to the Crescent, where, for two years, he was again Minister and master. Then a year in Milltown in charge of the Retreat House, and another in Galway, “Doc. Oper”. In all, Fr O’Mahony put in 20 years teaching. The last change came in1923 when he joined the Leeson St staff as prefect of University Hall. There he remained for seven years, until his death on Thursday 24 April 1930.
Fr O'Mahony's was the second very sudden death that took place in the province during the year. In the morning he complained of being unwell, told the servant that he was not to be disturbed during the day and went to his room. As he did not appear at dinner people began to he anxious. One of the Fathers went to look for him, entered his room and found him lying on the bed, dead. He was at once anointed by Fr. Superior.
Fr O’Mahony's life was very like the lives of the vast majority of Jesuits all the world over. It was a life of steady, constant, hard work. Hidden work. Nothing striking about it to attract attention. It is one more example of the cog in the wheel, hidden in the body of the machine, working away unnoticed, but, at the same time, helping to keep the machine in motion and produce, it may be, very brilliant results. Such a life did Fr O’Mahony lead to the very end. In recent years we often heard about high class lectures, on practical moral questions of the present day, read in University Hall by distinguished men, clerical and lay ; and about the brilliant discussions that followed each of them, in which some of the leading men in Dublin took part. But we never heard a single word of Fr O’Mahony's connection with these brilliant gatherings. Yet this is what the “National Student” has to say on the subject : “Those who were present at these gatherings will remember how much of their success was due to the patient, persevering manner in which Fr. O’Mahony succeeded in inducing several of the speakers, not only to be present, but even - still more reluctantly - to contribute personally to a discussion that owed its value to its representative character. And the same quiet perseverance was often successful in bringing more than one distinguished lecturer to speak to the students in a smaller gathering at University Hall”. His life effort was, to a great extent, unnoticed by human eye, and what now matters to Fr O'Mahony - nothing at all. But that effort was constantly observed by another eye, from which nothing can be concealed, and that now matters, and for a very long time to come will matter a very great deal indeed. RIP.

◆ The Clongownian, 1930

Obituary
Father Jerome O’Mahony SJ

The tragically sudden death of Fr O'Mahony in University Hall, Dublin, on April the 24th, removed from active life one who was intimately connected with Clongownians of many generations. Jerome O'Mahony came to Clongowes from Tullabeg in the Amalgamation year, 1886, joining the class of Poetry. Passing Matriculation he spent his last year in the 1st Arts class. As a boy he took little part in games, but was very prominent on the social side, being an excellent musician. In his, earlier career as a Jesuit he spent a few years on the staff of Clongowes. After ordination he filled various parts in different homes in Ireland until the European War broke out when he joined up as a Chaplain and was attached to the 10th Irish Division - seeing service in many lands, mostly in the East. He was in India, Egypt, Palestine and the Balkans, and after the war he used to give very interesting lectures on his experiences. The seven last years of his life were spent in University Hall, Dublin, devoting his time and his energies to the welfare of the students. He was always' particularly interested in Clongownians, ever ready to help them in every possible way and various Editors of “The Clongownian” have been greatly indebted to him for items concerning “The Past”. The esteem in which he was held was shown by the large and representative gathering that attended his funeral, The students of University Hall walked in procession after the hearse across the city and carried the coffin into arid out of the church. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1930

Obituary

Father Jerome C O’Mahony SJ

Few men have had such a long connection with Mungret as had Fr O'Mahony.

He was a young man when he first joined the staff, about thirty-five years ago; and except for absences for studies for the priesthood he was Prefect of the boys till 1911. He spent some time then as Minister at the Crescent College, Limerick, and during the war went as a Chaplain. The greater part of his time as Chaplain was spent in the East.

He had an opportunity of seeing the Holy Land, and made good use of it. He came back with an interesting collection of pictures, and lectured to the boys in Mungret on the scenes he had visited.

Having spent some time as Director of Retreats at Milltown Park, Fr O'Mahony was given charge of the University Hall, Dublin, Here he spent the last seven years, and died on April 24th last.

There was no retirement from his duties, or prolonged illness before his death; and so, though his health was not the best. for some time, his death was quite sudden.

Fr O'Mahony was very active, during his time at University Hall, in arranging lectures and social functions for the students. He was a splendid organiser and his interest in students was very great.

He numbered among his friends many Mungret students. He was on the look-out for Mungret men, and was always anxious to be of service to them. Indeed, his kindly genial manner made him very easily approach able by everyone. He seemed to take pleasure in being asked to do a favour.

Fr O'Mahony was not himself educated this College, but he will be glad that the boys who knew him here have been asked to pray for him. The message of his death will recall many scenes and incidents in the Cricket fields or corridor or black walk, and prayer will be offered for a friend who has passed out of sight - that he may rest in peace

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Jerome O’Mahony (1869-1930)

Was born at Charleville, Co. Cork and educated at Tullabeg College. He left Tullabeg in 1886, the year it was closed as a college, and entered there when it had become the novitiate the autumn of the same year. He made his higher studies at Exaeten, Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1903, and Linz. He joined the Crescent community in 1911 when he was appointed minister and remained here for two years. From 1913 to 1916 he was in charge of the retreat house at Milltown Park. He became a military chaplain in 1916 and saw service at Salonika and the near east. In 1919 he returned as minister to the Crescent and stayed until 1921. The last seven years of his life were spent as Warden of University Hall, Dublin, where he died suddenly on 24 April, 1930.

Born: 04 March 1906, Randolf Crescent, Maida Vale, London, England
Entered: 14 August 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 August 1935, Leuven, Belgium
Final Vows: 15 August 1941, Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Died: 11 February 1977, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death

Father was Managing Director of the O’Mara O’Shea Company, and on retirement went to live at Glenmore, Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Younger of two boys with two sisters.

Educated at Hodder, Stonyhurst from the age of 6, and then went to Stonyhurst College for one year. The family moved to Ireland and he went to Belvedere College SJ

Cousin of Patrick (Pom) O'Mara - RIP 1969

Entered Tullabeg 31 August 1922; LEFT 1923 and Re-entered 1924 at Tullabeg;

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - LEFT twice on account of health having entered 31 August 1922. Finally Reentered 14 August 1924

by 1933 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1937 at Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) making Tertianship
by 1938 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 1 1931
Brussels Congress :
Fr. Rector (John Coyne) and Fr. J. O'Meara (Louvain) represented the College at the First International Gongress of Catholic Secondary Education, held at Brussels July 28 . August 2. Fr, O'Meara read a paper on State Aid in Irish Secondary Education. Our Irish Jesuit Colleges were well represented in the Exhibition organised by Fr. Corcoran S. J.

Irish Province News 8th Year No 4 1933

Father T. Corcoran's labours in connection with the examinations for the Higher Diploma had scarcely concluded when he had to betake himself to Holland to preside at the second International Congress of Catholic Secondary Education. The meetings of the Congress took place at the Hague each day from 31st .July to 5th August.
Their Excellencies, the Bishops of Holland, were patrons of the Congress, which was attended by some 350 delegates representing the leading Catholic countries. Among the delegates were about 45 members of the Society from lands outside Holland. Prominent among the visitors were the Provincial of the Paris Province, with various Rectors and Prefects of Studies from our French Colleges. Père Yoes de la Brière, the Rectors of Brussels, Namur, Liege and other Belgian Colleges, Fathers Errandonea, Herrera and others from Spain,the French Oratorian Sabatier and various distinguished lay-men from Germany and Italy.
Cardinal Pacelli, in the name of the Holy Father, sent a long and cordial telegram of good wishes to the Congress , also the Nuncio Apostolic in Holland, who was prevented by serious illness from attending in person.
In the absence of the Nuncio the final allocation was delivered by the Bishop of Haarlem, after the Rector Magnificus of the University of Nijmegen and Father Corcoran, as President of the Congress had already spoken. Mr. J. O'Meara from Louvain Messrs. B. Lawler and C. Lonergan from Valkenburg acted as assistants to Father Corcoran at the Hague.
A splendid paper on “The Present Condition of Secondary Education in Ireland” was read by Dr. John McQuaid, the President of Blackrock College. All accounts agree in stating that the Congress was a brilliant success.
As the proceedings at the Hague coincided with the Biennial Conference of the World Federation of Education Associations, Father Corcoran was unable to be present at the functions in Dublin, but an important paper from his pen was read by Mrs McCarville, Lecturer in English in University College, Dublin. This paper expounded the Catholic philosophy of Education.

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947
Frs. Bourke and John O'Meara returned from Hong Kong on 25th November for a reşt. Fr. Joseph O'Mara, who had returned to the Mission some time ago after a stay in Ireland, was forced by ill-health to come back to the Province. He reached Dublin on 13th January, and is now teaching philosophy at Tullabeg.

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947

Departures for Mission Fields in 1946 :
4th January : Frs. P. J. O'Brien and Walsh, to North Rhodesia
25th January: Frs. C. Egan, Foley, Garland, Howatson, Morahan, Sheridan, Turner, to Hong Kong
25th July: Fr. Dermot Donnelly, to Calcutta Mission
5th August: Frs, J. Collins, T. FitzGerald, Gallagher, D. Lawler, Moran, J. O'Mara, Pelly, Toner, to Hong Kong Mid-August (from Cairo, where he was demobilised from the Army): Fr. Cronin, to Hong Kong
6th November: Frs. Harris, Jer. McCarthy, H. O'Brien, to Hong Kong

Irish Province News 52nd Year No 2 1977

Milltown Park
Since the last issue of the Province News, the community has been saddened by the loss of Father Joe O’Mara. He entered St Vincent's Hospital on Thursday 27th January, and passed away just after midnight on the morning of Friday 11th February. His unfailing cheerfulness and buoyancy to the end were a great example to us all. Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam!

Obituary :

Fr Joseph O’Mara (1906-1977)

One Wednesday morning in late January this year, Joe O’Mara gave a lecture in Milltown Park on Immanuel Kant. He was to have followed up with lectures on Maurice Blondel and J P Sartre. On the same Wednesday evening he went to St Vincent's, Elm Park, for what had become his habitual check-up and clean-up: a recurrent necessity because of his grievous emphysema and painful difficulty with breathing. That same evening he suffered what seems to have been a severe brain haemorrhage and his heart stopped beating.
There were many of us who wished he had been struck down before going to hospital. Joe would most likely have died quickly and been spared the long days in intensive care whose loneliness not even the traditionally splendid Vincent’s nursing could eliminate. We suffered with him. We did not want Joe to suffer any more. He was a man we cared for deeply: a man whose death makes a great gap in life. He was, in short, well loved.
We were happy for him then when he died on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was a Friday. Joe said, in his last days, that his parents had died on a Friday and he thought he just might do likewise. Is it necessary to say that, in Vincent’s, he was beloved by nurses and patients, that he entrusted himself completely to his doctors and that he never complained? He died at ten past midnight: causing the minimum of inconvenience to those who were with him. The Lord allowed him to be a gentleman to the last. He was nearly seventy-one years of age.
A potted biography of Joe O'Mara tells us only very little about the man. However, it tells us something :
He went to school at Hodder, Stonyhurst and Belvedere. I remember someone pointing out to me once how remarkable Joe was in that, coming from a background of considerable wealth, his personal religious poverty was so simple and natural. For example he never possessed anything better than a battered set of unmatched golf clubs. I do not remember seeing him with even one precious keepsake from his family. Yet he was a devoted family man.
Give or take a month or so, Joe made two noviceships because of ill-health. I was not aware that, between the two periods in Tullabeg, he took First Science in UCD. Joe would usually be taken as a professional philosopher with a literary and artistic turn. This he was. The early injection of science however explains certain qualities and dimensions in his later philosophy. After the double noviceship there was latin, french and history in UCD. Then came the usual three year Milltown - Tullabeg philosophy. There was of course no LPH. or Bacc Phil in those days; only ens ut sic. However, putting aside the latin nonsense (Joe O’Mara spoke latin very well) and remembering the precious third year, it was perhaps as good an introduction to philosophy as has ever been devised. Then Joe went to Louvain.
There have been many great periods in the splendid history of Louvain. Joe was there in a great one (1932-37). He was in time to fall under the influence of Joseph Maréchal. Even those who only met Maréchal through his books and (like Bernard Longergan) through hearsay can never escape from the experience. Joe O’Mara sat under Maréchal and always spoke of that period as an awakening to a new understanding of reality. From Maréchal came Joe’s lifelong interest in and dedication to the philosophies of Kant and Blondel. Thence too came the natural facility with which he seized on the key-ideas of Bernard Lonergan and found himself at home. Because of the Maréchallien liberation from prejudice and conventional stagnation, Joe could give hearty approval to the reform of thought and practice in Vatican II and as well (though he sometimes pulled a wry face as we all do) to the many attempts in recent years to rethink Jesuit spirituality for our day. Louvain taught minds to be clear and open.
After tertianship in St. Beuno's came Hong Kong. It was Hong Kong at war and eventually occupied by the Japanese (1938-46). I wish I knew about this period because I am sure there are stories to be told. Joe however (at least to me) spoke hardly at all about war time Hong Kong. I must leave it then and the story of philosophy taught at the Regional Seminary to someone better qualified.
Joe came back from the East in bad health. Some thought he was finished. However, it was then began his sixteen years in Tullabeg as professor of philosophy and as rector for the last three years. Joe always spoke of these years as very happy ones. But the cross was on the way and I use the word 'cross deliberately having examined my conscience to see if the word here is free from the pious naivety that uses “cross” for every insignificant pain or ache. Indeed it was the cross that came and Joe was to be asked to suffer deeply because his faith in obedience was absolute.
In 1962, Fr Jack McMahon, the Visitor from the USA, closed the philosophate in Tullabeg. It had been thirty years in existence and was a pontifical faculty. Personally my own relations with Fr McMahon were good: I liked the man. Nevertheless it is as well to recall that he was known far and wide as “Jack-the-Knife” even by people who had never heard of Brecht. I have no reason to believe that the severing of philosophy from Tullabeg was performed very gently. Surgery was relatively rough in those days. Joe O'Mara, the rector, was the one who had to resist, suffer and obey. There was no better man. I was in Tullabeg shortly after the mortal decision had been taken and Joe was, to all appearances, his usual gentlemanly, warmhearted, smiling self. Real suffering is too sacred a thing to flaunt.
There followed for Joe a short period of oscillation. He started the retreat house in Tullabeg. He came to the CIR. He was in the Milltown retreat house. But soon (’68) he came to Milltown and found his place in the faculty of philosophy. Here, I think in great happiness, he spent the rest of his life. He was in on the early days of the Milltown Institute, on the successful end of the long labours to have pontifical faculties extended, on the aborted affair with the NCEA, which died at the stroke of a ministerial pen. He was dean of philosophy from 1970-72 and became senior professor. His subjects were mostly the history of philosophy and his favourite moderns: Kant, Hegel, Blondel, Bergson, Sartre.
Something must be said of Joe as a writer. He wrote I think too little. This is a fault common to Irish Jesuits which is not entirely due to laziness or inability. We seem, for example, (and Joe was no exception) to be more concerned about pedagogy then about print.
Among his papers was a slim folder containing three articles from Studies: “Kierkegaard revealed” (Dec. 1949), “Death and the existententialist” Dec. 1950) and “The meaning and value of existentialism” (March 1951), In Ireland these articles were more than a little ahead of their time. The article on death begins with the sentence “There is an irrational quality about death which is frightening”. Also in the folder there are a public lecture “Existentialism and the christian vision” (undated) and an inaugural lecture for the Milltown Institute called “Maurice Blondel: christian philosopher?” (1973). Were these his favourites? Perhaps. I rather think however that they were kept because they were useful in seminars and in class. Joe was not one to cling to splendid relics of his past without good additional reasons. These few pieces are enough to show that Joe knew about English prose. They are elegant, polished, witty, interesting and strong. The style is the man.
Joe could handle language; as his ordinary conversation showed. His precise enunciation was part of his personality: the result of long training and practice; born of a desire (as politeness ever is) to make no unnecessary difficulties for his audience. After his first stroke he was concerned, “I hope” he said “my speech is sufficiently distinct”. Every final p and t was still clear as a whip-crack.
It could be forgotten that Joe O’Mara was a musician and the son of a distinguished musician, Joe told me once that his father had thought highly of his voice but would never entertain for a moment the idea of allowing his son to expose himself to the jungle of professional singing. What the O’Mara Opera Company lost anyone who heard Joe sing in his heyday at a Milltown ordination will know. His pure, true, powerful and trained tenor voice was professional: a sound to be heard. Joe’s musical knowledge and culture was wider than singing and opera. He knew a great deal about classical and modern concert music. When, once or twice a season, he used the community tickets for an RTESO concert (usually in the company of Jim FitzGerald or Billy Kelly) it was clear from his subsequent remarks that he not merely appreciated the music and the performance but that he knew the music intimately. He had a deadly ear for false notes!
It was in these last eight years, working in the Milltown Institute, that I came to know Joe O'Mara well. I consider it a privilege and a grace to have been able to do so.
It is good then to read some of the many tributes that have been paid to him. We read of his eloquence in the pulpit, his zeal as a missionary, his kindness and understanding. That good friend of the Jesuits, Mary Purcell, sent a card:
“He was a real Jesuit - first things first always - and it was a pleasure to hear him preach on special occasions in Gardiner Street, he came across as utterly sincere and dedicated”.
The spontaneous quiet grief of some lay-friends at his funeral was very moving.
Joe could relax. He had the great selfless sense of humour: a wit, a tough reasonableness, that was always kind. As long as he could play he was a great believer in golf at which he was “useful” or a little better. He loved TV. He loved the cinema too and rejoiced that his old-age card let him in at reduced price. He was a bridge player when Jesuits used to play bridge. But perhaps above all he was a wizard at crosswords. While Joe was alive the Times daily crossword was always removed from the paper with collaboration from Brendan Lawler. That was understood. Joe worked a puzzle at lightning speed and even understood and solved Ximenes. He was no highbrow, someone said. That is true. Neither however was he that other sad thing (using Virginia Woolf's terminology) a middlebrow. He was an authentic man who knew what he liked to do and did it when possible: whether it was Beethoven's string quartet in C sharp minor or the currently popular TV comic. Above all I think he liked the Sunday evening 'crack in Milltown with the community. Fortified by a glass and a half but no more) of whiskey he was very content to listen and radiate friendship.
But there was a depth in this pleasant, indeed delightful, man. It was a depth I have found in those Jesuits I have most admired: Eddie Coyle, Arthur Little, Paddy Joy, Morty Glynn - to mention a few and omit many. “A real Jesuit” Mary Purcell wrote. Joe was a rounded man, a balanced man; not following the new because it was novel nor clinging to the old because it was there; not exaggerating piety to a ludicrous degree like one of Moliére's faux dévots, not thinking for a moment that his direct apostolate of retreat-giving brought him nearer to God than teaching or administration. Joe was a free man. He understood that Ignatian indifference is the capacity to love everything. As Chesterton said of Francis of Assisi, he had left everything and returned to love everything. Like Teilhard de Chardin, he could have dedicated a book “To those who love the world”. Joe is my idea of a holy man.
I am convinced he was a man of deep, silent, personal prayer. This was evident in the quality of his stillness at concelebrated Mass. deep prayer is the only final explanation of his continued success with priests at Pia Unio meetings, of the continuous demands made on him by sisters and brothers. He had no difficulty in dealing with contemplatives: he gave retreats to Cistercians and often to Carmelite sisters. I am sure he was contemplative in action. The great Lord God had given him the kind of contemplative apostolic prayer Ignatius wished for Jesuits: the kind of constant prayer that genuine work does not interrupt. One could talk to Joe about this but it was best done tête-at-tête or with one or two people. He was more reticent in public. So were all the great ones. While dying, his prayers were vocal and very simple. His devotion to Gerard Manley Hopkins's “O God, I love thee, I love thee” - is known. Shortly before his last illness, he drew my attention to a poem in volume 2 of the new breviary (p. 625) which he said he always used at night prayer or compline: it was John Donne's “Hymn to God the Father” which begins “Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun ...”
His complete forgetfulness of self was perhaps his great virtue: the source of his charm, affability, peace, generosity. If he could, he would have been present at all the exhausting meetings we have – out of respect for whoever called the meeting. Ambition for him was confined to becoming a better christian. He never seemed to feel slighted or ignored. He would heartily support shared prayer meetings or penance services to help the brethren even though these techniques were of small importance to him personally. He might not attend but he would defend vigorously the right to pray like this.
Some modern questions “are you lonely?”, “are you fulfilled?” “are you satisfied with community conditions and life?”) had little or no meaning for Joe. For him the only question was “am I doing with all my heart the main job I have been given on the status?” Because for Joe, as for us all, that is the nearest approximation we shall ever arrive at to knowing what is the will of God.
I must finish with a word about his loyalty to the Society of Jesus. It was absolute. The only times I have seen him angry was when rather reactionary Jesuits criticized in public a brother Jesuit (or Jesuit institution) who was taking the dangerous but necessary risk of trying to push Catholic thought and practice forward. The fact that some of the critics were rather ill-informed was of no importance to Joe. This was just something not to be done ever. “I love the Society” he said dying “and I love the brethren”. At that moment the Society for him meant, in the first place, Milltown Park. After Milltown, it meant the whole Province and Jesuits everywhere. This was the theme of his last homily on the feast of the Epiphany this year. We are grateful
Joe's last semiconscious words were 'I shall not surrender'. It is impossible to guess what he was referring to but, as an expression of a general sentiment, it is – one may say - satisfactory.
The Lord has given him rest beside the quiet waters of life. May we be like him when our time comes.
J C Kelly SJ

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1977

Obituary

Father Joseph O’Mara SJ (1922)

From a contemporary of schooldays:

Joe entered Belvedere College in 1918 at the age of 12. In a very short time he won fame as an outstanding rugby player. In the season 1920/21 he was selected Captain of the JCT. He played centre three-quarter and was reckoned a fearless player. In that season he scored 100 tries, playing in 24 matches, winning 22, losing 1 and drawing 1. This was surely a great achievement. “Omega”, who that season was the team's trainer, described Joe as fast, fearless and every inch a footballer. Great things were expected of him in the future as a three quarter. He was also Captain of the junior cricket team that same season.

Joe was a most popular boy and liked by everybody. He had no time for boys who would not train and put their heart and soul into a game. On one occasion in a rugby game when his team was down at half time one of his players came up to and said “Joe, we're bet”. On the spot Joe said to him “Leave the field at once”! This was typical of Joe. Both on and off the field the boys had great admiration and respect for Joe for they knew that they had a dedicated Captain and one who was considerate of others and an example of a thorough sportsman.

He also had a delightful voice and the college choir benefited greatly by having him a member of it. In this same year he was admitted a member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. That day was a holiday for those received and a very happy day too. After the ceremonies were over, which included a special breakfast, Joe and a few of his close companions decided to go to the top of Nelson Pillar to get a birds view of the city.

In class Joe was above average in ability. He was always full of fun and good humour and because of that was on occasions called to order by his master for talking to fellow colleagues when in the eyes of the master, he should have been studying. From a student at Tullabeg:

All students, at any level, first second or third, will invariably build up caricatures of their teachers. Teachers, to a greater or lesser extent, will adapt themselves to fit this groove...possibly for some kind of self protection in predicability. Fr Joe was “Pater Formalis”. Everything had to be correct and formal, crystal articulation, the dramatic, even staged, pause. However he did not always have to hide behind these traits. We would sometimes see the flash of brilliance in a chance remark or the simplicity with which he would sing the Prologue to I Pagliacci, or Danny Boy (bilingually), or remove his gown to act the matador to someone else's bull ... very well too; he amazingly acquired in an instant a spanish face without benefit of costume or make up. These were the less formal times, when it was accepted that you could let your hair down to amuse your students, which was the real Fr Joe O'Mara? Both probably. For he was a very shy man, and complicated. He did not easily reveal what he felt, least, perhaps, he should be indulging in self pity, and he had none of that.

His breakdown in health in Hong Kong must have altered his life very greatly, not only because he ceased to be a missionary but also because he could not give himself to study with the same verve as before. We students of Philosophy felt that he had gone stale; if he saw fresh mountains to conquer he turned the other way and preferred to think of the good old days in Louvain when he was at the height of his powers. However he did not complain. He had a job and he held it down.

A bigger crisis came in the sixties, a few years after he was made Rector at Tullabeg. St Stanislaus College was a large, rambling, stone flagged, high-windowed, underheated and decaying building, where we studied Philosophy. The almost universal experience of Irish Jesuits who studied there was that it was the happiest house along the trail to ordination. We complained of course, for we were young and knew everything and the earth was our periwinkle, but in contrast to the scramble of university days it was a wonderful time of peace and companionship. As soon as Fr Joe became Rector he set about relieving the harshness of the domestic scene. Why was there not better heat in the Philosophers wing? Because, he was told, you couldn't get more heat out of that bunker. A new one was needed. The man in charge of the bunker was taken aback the next morning to find Fr Rector down in the coal dust stoking the furnace! He painted the walls, he bought tintawn carpeting for the stones, he encouraged music by making the music room more comfortable, he bought pictures to break up the bare expanses of wall. Tullabeg “never had it so good”. Then came the Visitor from the USA. He thought Tullabeg was primitive and should be closed. Some would say that the mistake in this step is still in evidence, but at the time it was not possible to get much comment out of Fr Joe. He had been caught holding the can, in fact he thought he had been doing a good job of cleaning up the can, and he had, but rough justice dictated that Fr O'Mara's philosophate was not fit for the training of Jesuits

Surgery was relatively rough in those days. Joe O'Mara, the Rector, was the one who had to resist, suffer and obey. There was no better man. I was in Tullabeg shortly after the mortal decision had been taken and Joe was, to all appearances, his usual, gentlemanly, warmhearted, smiling self. Real suffering is too sacred a thing to flaunt.

J C Kelly SJ

-oOo-

Extracts from a tribute by a Milltown '77 Jesuit:

One Wednesday morning in late January this year, Joe O'Mara Gave a lecture in Milltown Park on Immanuel Kant. He was to have followed up with lectures on Maurice Blondel and J.P. Sartre. On the same Wednesday evening he went to St Vincent's Elm Park, for what had become his habitual check-up and clean-up: a recurrent necessity because of his grevious emphysema and painful difficulty with breathing. That same evening he suffered what seems to have been a severe brain haemorrhage and his heart stopped beating.

There were many of us who wished he had been struck down before going to hospital. Joe would most likely have died quickly and been spared the longdays in intensive care whose loneliness not even the traditionally splendid Vincent's nursing could eliminate. We did not want Joe to suffer any more. He was a man we cared for deeply: a man whose death makes a great gap in life. He was, in short, well loved.

While dying, his prayers were vocal and very simple. His devotion to Gerard Manley Hopkins's “O God, I love thee, I love thee” is known. Shortly before his last illness, he drew my attention to a poem in volume 2 of the new breviary (p. 625) which he said he always used at night prayer or compline: it was John Donne's “Hymn to God the Father” which begins... “Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun....”

Joe's last semiconscious words were “I shall not surrender”. It is impossible to guess what he was referring to but, as an expression of a general sentiment, it is - one may say - satisfactory.

The Lord has given him rest beside the quiet waters of life. May we be like him when our time comes.

Born: 27 February 1921, Arlington Street, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 14 September 1943, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1981
Died: 09 November 1986, St Mary’s Parish, Emmitsburg, Maryland, USA

Father was a railway guard.

Youngest of three boys with one sister.

Early education at a local primary school and then he went to the Christian Brothers Technical school in Belfast for three years. He then went for a year and a half to St Mary’s Christian Brothers school in Belfast. whilst there he sat a Civil Service exam, being offered three posts and accepting one as a Post Office Clerk and Telegraphist at Belfast GPO. He then transferred to Ballymena GPO, and whilst there studied for matriculation.

by 1974 at Emmitsburgh MD, USA (NEB) working

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Post office Official before entry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 62nd Year No 1 1987

Obituary

Fr Bernard O’Neill (1921-1943-1986)

22nd February 1921: born in Belfast. Schooled at St Mary's secondary school (CBS) and for three years at a Belfast technical institution. For three years he was a postal clerk in London.
14th September 1943: entered SJ. 1943-45 Emo, noviciate. 1945-48 Rathfarnham, juniorate (BA course at UCD). 1948-51 Tullabeg, philosophy. 1951-53 Clongowes, regency. 1953-57 Milltown, theology. 1957-60 Belvedere, teaching. 28th July 1960: ordained a priest. 1960-61 Clongowes, prefect of Lower Line. 1961-62 Rathfarnham, tertianship.
1962-73 Gardiner street: 1962-4 at Jesuit Missions office: 1964-72 bursar, adj. dir, SFX Hall, pastoral work.
1973-86 Mount St Mary's seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland, USA: adj, rector. 9th November 1986: died.

Irish Province News 62nd Year No 3 1987

Obituary

Fr Bernard O’Neill (1921-1943-1986)
(† 9th November 1986)

“True joy is a sure sign of the presence of God” These words of the French philosopher, Léon Bloy, ring so true in the life of Father Barney O'Neill. An Irish-born Jesuit, Barney brought joy into the lives of everyone he met, and during his lifetime he met many people. There was always a smile wherever he went. He was a master story-teller and knew every new joke before anyone else. Above all, he was an excellent priest, an insightful spiritual director and good friend. He knew what priesthood was about.
He was born in Belfast in 1921 and was ordained for the Society of Jesus in 1960 in Dublin, He taught and did parish work in Ireland and England before coming to the United States. In 1973 he came to Mount St Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, as dean of men and Director of Field Education.
As any priest or seminarian who knew him found, there was never a dull moment when Barney was around. He had a mask, puppet, or joke for every occasion. His humor could touch the heart of anyone, especially if they were hurting. He also had a special gift of being able to size up a situation and offer a solution to it. Bishop Harry Flynn, former rector of the Mount, recalled a time when he was faced with a difficult situation. Fr Barney came into his office and said to him, “In Ireland we have a saying about problems like this. You look it straight in the eye and then you walk around it”.
Fr Barney's life was always deeply rooted in prayer and the Eucharist. He prayed constantly, while walking, running, with the community, even in the car. He never learned to drive, so the seminarians would take him to the air- port or train station so he could get to his destination. As you'd be driving along he'd say, "Can I hit you with some Day time Prayer,' or 'Can I give you a bit of the rosary?'.
Barney had a special affinity to the ‘unimportant, especially the poor, dis advantaged, the homeless. He saw Christ in everyone and everyone was important. If he knew a seminarian was far from home and could get home only for Christmas, he would make sure he would not feel left out. He would take him to a restaurant for a good meal, later would pick up the tab for a movie and on the way home would stick a $20 bill in his pocket and say, 'Go out this week on me.'
As dean of men, the seminarians always felt welcome at his door whenever they had a problem. He did whatever he could and always listened compassionately. Even in his last days on earth, he continued to give of himself and bear witness to Christ.
He was diagnosed as having cancer on 6th October, 1986 and died just a month later, As the cancer spread he was increasingly confined to bed. Wishing to be part of the community, the seminarians carried him on a chair wherever he wanted to go. The Thursday before he died he met with the entire seminary community. As he was brought in we rose to our feet in applause for the priest we loved so much. Though very weak, he soon had us laughing and smiling as he sang his favourite song, “New York, New York”. God was to let us have him only three more days.
He died the way he lived, at peace with himself and with his God. He will be remembered for his kindness, his generosity, his simplicity of life and above all his unfailing humor. He taught us much by the way he lived, but he taught us even more by the way he died.
As the weeks pass, we spend less time talking about Father Barney, yet he is closer than ever. He instilled in us a spirit of joy that will remain forever. We thank God for the many blessings we have received from his faithful servant and we confidently pray that he may now enjoy his heavenly reward.
Kenneth Borowiak

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 49 : September 1987
In Memory of Barney O’Neill
Albert Ledoux

The move from Gardiner Street to the United States must have been a difficult one for our late lamented Barney. Yet he managed to retain his sense of humour, as this tribute tells us.

First of all, let me introduce myself as a member of the deacon class at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. Barney O'Neill was a personal friend of mine. Here are a few, brief glimpses of his last few months among us.

My association with Barney began in August of 1982. It's traditional at the seminary to hold welcoming parties for the new man. Usually 50 - 55 men are involved: all of first theology as well as the pre-theologians and transfers. It is also customary to entertain the entire house at these parties, which are held in the basement recreation room amid ample quantities of beer, lemonade, crackers, cheese, etc. This was probably where I got my first memory of Barney. Several faculty took their turn entertaining the new men. Barney's version of the entertainment was a stand-up comedy routine, some singing (favourite song: “New York, New York”) interspersed with some of his famous jokes. Some of these jokes tended to be real 'groaners', a fact which only served to make Barney more delightful.

Whether his listeners laughed or groaned at his jokes, Barney was there to entertain them. He didn't mind making himself vulnerable, open to rejection, even on as simplistic a level as telling funny stories at a party. It was this vulnerability that characterized his dealings with the seminarians in general. His unpretentiousness was almost legendary. This was rendered all the more noteworthy when compared to the attitude of certain other faculty who, shall we say, have a much loftier notion of themselves than would reasonably be necessary.

I had the opportunity to work with Barney three times on the assigning of rooms to seminarians. This ordeal takes place twice a year, once in September and once again in January after a number of the deacons return to their dioceses for a semester of parish work. All seminarians concerned are expected to submit a piece of paper with room preferences. The pieces of paper are then drawn at random, and a precedence list is drawn up. I remember spending hours with Barney in his room, pouring over diagrams of the seminary, trying to fit each seminarian into one of his room choices. This was where I came to appreciate the extreme difficulty that Barney experienced in saying “NO” to people. Wherever Barney felt there was a need, he was first to offer help. Certain older seminarians were sure to find an appreciative ear in requesting particular rooms on lower floors or in more remote corners of the building. One of Barney's mottoes was obviously that it was preferable to err on the side of charity than to judge too hastily.

I returned to the seminary a few days early last August in order to help with seminarian orientation for the new men. Since there were only two seminarians in the building at the time, and since Barney needed some sort of transportation to the hospital the next morning, he approached me for the favour. He said it was a matter of “some blood work” that needed to be done. The mention of blood work sounded rather serious, but the next morning he explained that the doctors merely wanted to check the uric acid content of his blood. He had been experiencing a certain difficulty in walking which the doctors were tempted to attribute to gout. I drove him to the hospital, waited for his tests to finish, and drove him back to Mount Saint Mary's. Barney was not one to waste time in the car. He graciously offered to read his divine office aloud so that may time in the car would not be entirely “wasted”.

Well, the tests came back negative, to the stupefaction of the doctors. He was then given some pain medicine and told to ease up on his activities. The doctors suspected by now that the problem had to do with muscular strain.

Yet the problem refused to go away. During the ensuing weeks, when ideally the pain should have subsided, it only got worse. Barney took to hobbling around the corridors and to climbing the stairs with great difficulty. (He lived on the third floor above the ground in a building without elevators). We heard no complaints. If anyone asked, Barney would explain that he was feeling some discomfort. Very few people knew to what extent Barney was feeling pain.

The first clue that the problem was not trivial came in early October when Barney was hospitalized for a week. All manner of tests were run on him. The conclusion was that he had cancer, although for the time being it was not known where the cancer was principally located. Hence treatment could not be started. When it was established that he had lung cancer and that the cancer in his bones was a side-effect therefrom, the condition was too far advanced to merit therapy. This was when Barney decided to return to the seminary to die among those with whom he had lived, worked and prayed.

The Rector announced the news to the seminary community one evening at the weekly Rector's conference. Still, in this day and age, we have become accustomed to people living for years with their cancer. When we heard the news, the doctors had not yet concluded that treatment would be fruitless. That judgement would come the following week. There was a general feeling of dismay among the seminarians, but certainly not one of gloom, for we were all anticipating a successful treatment.

One of the seminarians set up a rotating schedule whereby twenty-one other seminarians took their turns bringing Barney his meals. It was principally through these seminarians that the remaining 140 of us found out details about Barney's condition. A few days after Barney's last diagno affixed a note to Barney's door advising all those without official business to kindly keep their distance. Barney was fading fast.

Three days before Barney died, I asked one of the fellows on the meal list if he would mind terribly if I brought Barney his supper. I had a few things to tell him before it was too late... When I knocked on Barney's door that evening, I found him sitting at an angle in his hospital bed. It took him several minutes to get his bearings, for he had been sleeping. It became apparent that Barney was becoming disorientated since his train of thought would trail off, and he tended to make illogical connections when he spoke.

Still, his spirits were good. He had been receiving visitors constantly for the last few days. He had been on the phone several times with friends and relatives in Britain and Ireland. Apart from the lapses in conversation, he seemed alert. In short, his condition did not seen as serious as I had thought.

When I returned with his supper, thinly sliced roast beef and potatoes with some tea to wash it down, Barney wasn't alone in his room. A seminarian who worked as a male nurse prior to coming here was there in the room with him. This fellow would get Barney up in the morning, bathe him if necessary, see to it that he took his medicine, and the like. I never did get the chance to tell him what I had on my mind, namely that he had been one of the finest Christian models to which I had been exposed at the seminary, and that I was grateful for his being there.

Coincidentally, this was also the night when Barney wished to attend (what turned out to be) his last Rector's conference. He had already attended Mass in our large lecture hall the previous Monday, a Mass which he himself used to say for seminarians whose apostolic duties conflicted with the community Mass on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Anyway, he was hoisted into a chair and carried down to that Mass by four seminarians.

After the gospel was read, the celebrant asked Barney if he had anything to say. Barney, true to form, then attempted to turn a gloomy situation into a happy one. He noted that in the gospel passage the crippled and the beggars were the ones ultimately invited to the wedding feast. “I want the word to go out!” he exclaimed, “I am a cripple! And I want to know what's been happening to all these party invitation I'm supposed to be getting?!”

He did strike a more serious note at the end of the Mass, however. He was heading to the hospital for his last round of tests, and just wished to express how much it meant for him to be spending these days and weeks among the seminarians, those who had meant a great deal to him during the past several years. Here the customary happy face disappeared for a moment as he choked back a sob.

That Thursday he was back in the lecture hall, having been carried down from the third floor by some seminarians. Another faculty member gave the talk, after which Barney, still seated in his wheelchair, took the microphone. He expressed his sentiments to the community, giving no indication with his manner of speaking that things were as far advanced as they were. A fellow at the piano struck up the chords to "New York, New York". We all joined in on what was universally perceived to be Barney's theme song. Barney was at Benediction that evening. He spent Friday and Saturday receiving visitors and giving other cancer patients courage over the telephone.

Friday morning, I summoned up my courage to ignore the Rector's "No visitors" sign on Barney's door and intruded to ask if he might like some of the Lourdes water that I had in my room. I brought him some after class, cautioning him at the time that the water had been all bottled up for over a year, ever since I collected it myself at Lourdes. I told him that I wouldn't recommend it for internal use. At that, with the customary gleam in his eye, he removed the cap and took a hefty swallow. Upon looking up he explained that he had been into the baths at Lourdes on several occasions, upon none of which the waters had looked as clear as did the heavenly elixír which he now held in his hands.

Ken Borowaik and I stayed with him for a good half hour, during which Barney spoke a near-monologue on his family in Europe, especially his nephew who resides in Italy with his wife and children. I found myself wondering if the kinder thing would be to excuse myself or to just allow him to continue talking. I eventually left the room to allow Barney to rest.

Sunday, as I'm sure you already know, Barney had the opportunity to say his last Mass. This took place during the afternoon. That night, after Benediction, the seminarian ex-nurse of whom I already spoke, went into Barney's room to make him comfortable for the night. That's when it was discovered that he had died. Several days earlier, the Rector had arranged to have an electrical speaker installed in Barney's room that would relay the sound of all our chapel exercises. It is reasonable to suppose that Barney died while listening to solemn Benediction.

At about 10.40 that night, various seminarians ran about the building knocking on doors, spreading the news that Barney had died and asking everyone to assemble in the chapel to recite a rosary for Barney's happy repose.

The next afternoon, Barney's remains were brought back to lie in state in the seminary chapel. His coffin was of oak, in a rich brown shade. The lid was entirely removed to reveal Barney vested in an off-white chasuble with gold trim. For the first time since I met him Barney looked his age. In his last two months of life Barney seemed to have aged fifteen years. After his death, the fact of his being sixty-five years old was greeted with near-universal astonishment. He had always been the picture of vitality. Yet now he looked very old.

The funeral was set for Wednesday morning in the college chapel, about a hundred yards away from the seminary and of more ample proportion than our seminary chapel which can only seat 160 people comfortably. We had two questions: where Barney would be buried and whether or not his family would come from Ireland. The first matter was resolved quickly. The afternoon of the day he died, Barney had told the Rector that he wished to be buried in Mount Saint Mary's cemetery. Later on Monday we were told that his sister, Lily, and her husband would be arriving from Ireland on Tuesday. A niece from Toronto would also attend the funeral.

And so, Barney lay in state for two days in the seminary chapel. Our regular chapel exercises took on a decidedly different air as we meditated upon Barney's life and death and upon the transitory nature of our own lives as well.

The two days prior to Barney's funeral were marked by rather dreary weather. The air turned unseasonably cold; it rained or drizzled constantly. The morning of the funeral, however, the gloom was gone. The temperature was barely above freezing, yet the sky was a clear blue. After the funeral director prepared Barney's coffin for removal, the 165 seminarians led the funeral cortege down the driveway to the college chapel. We were followed by 75 priests, a number of officials from the college, as well as a good representation of local people. Marching two-by-two, the procession covered the entire distance between the seminary and large chapel.

The Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, former Rector of the seminary, and recently-named auxiliary bishop of Lafayette, Louisiana, was the main celebrant. A choir of twenty-odd seminarians provided the music. Several selections were worked into the Mass that were based on Irish folk tunes or which incorporated passages from the Spiritual Exercises. I myself sang the “Pie Jesu” from the “Faure Requiem”, a beautiful piece of music in my opinion, and one which I wanted to sing for Barney.

Over and over again reference was made to Barney's over-riding kindness and cheerful disposition, his ability to walk into the gloomiest setting, the most contentious of environments, and leave everyone smiling after a few minutes. The bishop tied it all together with Barney's vision of the priesthood, with Barney's own personal way of spreading the love of Christ among those who needed it the most.

After the funeral Mass, most of the participants gathered in the cemetery behind the seminary. The seminary building is located at the precise spot where à 1,500 foot high mountain meets the coastal plain. Our founder, an exiled French priest by the name of John Dubois, built his first church on the mountain side in 1806. Adjacent to the church was the cemetery. The church is gone but the cemetery remains, holding several hundred graves and dating back to the second decade of the 19th century. Barney's remains were placed in the faculty plot, which is composed of the graves of about a dozen former Rectors, spiritual directors, and the like. The faculty plot is located at the base of the cemetery which measures about 100 x 300 yards and stretches back into an oak forest at about a twenty degree incline.

A canopy covered the grave, near which chairs had been set up for Lily, her husband and the niece from Toronto. Bishop Flynn read the final prayers of commendation, after which he bent down to offer his condolences to the family. The mourners then began walking down the hill toward this parking lot. This was when a sole instrumentalist, placed further up the cemetery behind a small mausoleum, began playing Barney's theme song. The Rector had thought that Barney, who had spent so much time making people smile while he was living, would have wanted people to smile while remembering him in death. So the instrumentalist played “New York, New York” very quietly and slowly. And as each of the mourners realized what was being played, a smile spread across their lips. And so, by a fortunate musical association, Barney made everyone smile once again.

Before leaving the cemetery, I offered two roses to Lily, telling her to give them to her mother. (I am also the seminary gardener and can cut flowers with impunity). These happened to be the last two roses in bloom on the seminary property before the arrival of heavy frost. Lily expressed some doubt as to whether she could bring such things through British customs. The niece suggested that the flowers be pressed, however, at which point the ban on live plants would no longer hold. Lily and her husband remained in Emmitsburg until the next morning. They visited Barney's old rooms to retrieve anything that might be of sentimental value. They fastened upon a few photographs and souvenir pebbles that Barney had picked up somewhere or other. This was all they took.

Born: 16 April 1863, Dungannon, County Tyrone
Entered: 07 September 1880, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1895, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1898, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 19 July 1947, Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

Educated at CUS Dublin, St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1890 at Prague Residence, Czech Republic (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1891 at Paris France (FRA) studying
by 1897 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University online :
O'Neill, George (1863–1947)
by J. Eddy
J. Eddy, 'O'Neill, George (1863–1947)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oneill-george-7909/text13757, published first in hardcopy 1988

biographer; Catholic priest; linguist; religious writer; theological college teacher

Died : 19 July 1947
George O'Neill (1863-1947), Jesuit priest, academic and author, was born on 16 April 1863 at Dungannon, Tyrone, Ireland, son of George F. O'Neill, inspector of schools, and his wife Mary Teresa, née McDermott. He was educated at the Catholic University School in Dublin and at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, and entered the Jesuit novitiate in September 1880 at Milltown Park. In 1880-89 he taught at Belvedere and Clongowes Wood colleges, studied at Milltown Park and took his B.A. with first-class honours in classics from the Royal University of Ireland. He spent a postgraduate year in Prague in 1890, followed by a year in Paris. On his return to Ireland he took his M.A. with first-class honours in modern languages at the Royal University.

From 1891 O'Neill pursued philosophical and theological studies at Milltown Park and was ordained priest in 1895. In 1897, after completing his tertianship at Tronchiennes, Belgium, he was appointed to the staff of University College, St Stephen's Green, an independent Jesuit college which prepared its students for the examinations of the Royal University. Fr O'Neill was prefect of the library and church, choirmaster, and taught ancient and modern languages until 1901, when he became a fellow of the Royal University, while continuing to teach at St Stephen's Green as professor of English literature, in succession to Thomas Arnold. In 1909 when the Royal University was replaced by the National University of Ireland, O'Neill became a founding fellow and was nominated the first professor of English language and philosophy in 1910. He held this post until his departure at the age of 60 for Australia. One of his pupils was the young James Joyce.

O'Neill was sent to the Australian Jesuit Mission in 1923 at his own request, influenced by a period of ill health and a sense of dissatisfaction at the approach of retirement. Archbishop Mannix was keen to obtain distinguished staff for his new seminary, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, Victoria, and O'Neill became professor of modern languages (1923-45) and of church history (1932-45), and lectured and wrote in theology, history, literature and aesthetics. In 1945 when his eyesight and health were failing, he retired to Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney. He died on 19 July 1947 and was buried in Gore Hill cemetery.

A somewhat reticent and scholarly figure, O'Neill was nevertheless warm, frank, cultured and friendly, respected for his good critical judgement, his moral qualities of courage and sympathy for others, and his spiritual outlook. He was a precocious linguist, being thoroughly at home in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German and Italian, a fine pianist and occasional composer, an omnivorous reader and, though not a great supporter of the Irish revival, was a correspondent of Canon Sheehan, Lady Gregory and Louise Guiney. Among his publications were studies of Shakespeare and of English poetry, a history of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, scripture and poetry anthologies, a Newman reader, and a study of Job. He served as editorial consultant and wrote for a number of scholarly journals, including the Lyceum and the New Ireland Review, and contributed over thirty articles to the Jesuit publication Studies. His best writing is to be found in the Life of the Reverend Julian Edmund Tenison Woods (1929) and Life of Mother Mary of the Cross, 1842-1909 (1931).

Select Bibliography:
U. M. L. Bygott, With Pen and Tongue (Melb, 1980)
Irish Province News, 5, no 3, July 1947, p 238
Society of Jesus, Irish Jesuit Archives, Dublin and Australian Province Archives, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
George O’Neill came to Australia in 1923, when he was over 60. It might have been thought that at this age, his value to the Society in Australia would not be very great, but the work he did in the 22 years he spent at Corpus Christi College was of greater value for the glory of God than anything he had done in his earlier life.
Before his arrival in Australia, O’Neill had been engaged in university work in Dublin for years, first with the Royal University of Ireland and then with the National University. This assignment began in 1897, when he was appointed to University College, where he prepared students for the Royal examinations, lecturing in modern and ancient languages. University College was a relic of the abortive attempt to establish a Catholic university in Newman's time. It was handed over to the Society by the Irish bishops, and became a kind of hostel for students preparing for the Royal Examinations. O’Neill was a fellow of the Royal University of Ireland. He set and corrected examinations and received a modest salary.
O’Neill went to school at St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, (later amalgamated with Clongowes), and gave evidence of the ability, so strikingly manifested later. He entered the noviceship at Milltown Park, Dublin, 7 September 1880. After this he was sent for a year to teach in Belvedere College, Dublin, and then returned to Milltown Park for a year's
philosophy. He was at the same time doing his university course by taking the examination of the Royal University of Ireland. He was given a year free of teaching at University
College, 1884-85, to prepare for his BA exams, and it was during this year that he lived with Gerard Manley Hopkins, who had been elected a Fellow of the Royal University at the
beginning of 1884 and was resident at University College.
After obtaining his degree, O'Neill did two more years teaching at Belvedere, where Albert Power was a pupil at the time, and a year at Clongowes. He was then given two years on the continent, one in Prague and one in Paris, preparing for his MA examinations in modern languages, which he took in 1891 with first class honours. Then he did a second year of philosophy (seven years after completing his first year) at Milltown Park, and went straight to theology in the same place.
He was ordained in 1895, at the age of 32, and did his tertianship at Tronchiennes. In 1897 he was appointed to University College and took up the work that was to occupy him until he left for Australia in 1923 at his own request, influenced by a period of ill health and a sense of dissatisfaction at the approach of retirement. In 1909, when the National University of Ireland replaced the Royal University O’Neill became a founding fellow and was nominated the first professor of English language and philosophy in 1910. One of his pupils was a young James Joyce. He later joined the community at Lower Lesson Street, not far from the university. He was a precocious linguist, being master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and German. He was an omnivorous reader, particluarly in English literature. He regularly contributed critical English articles in “Studies”.
When he reached Melbourne, it was a question whether he would go to Newman or to Werribee, and Werribee was chosen. He was to spend just over 22 years there, and his courses
exceeded all expectations. He professed modern languages, 1923-45, and church history, 1932-45. and lectured and wrote in theology, history, literature and aesthetics. He had never been a real teacher, being too academic for the average student, though the specially gifted could obtain much from him. But his simplicity of character, his edifying religious life, and general culture, had a great influence on generations of students, even if he did not teach them much.
Even in Ireland O'Neill was noted for care of the young and being kind to them. He loved having the students around him at Werribee, and regretted their departure for vacations
Though he had very considerable musical gifts, possessing a sense of absolute pitch and being competent player of the piano, he was not a real pianist, being rather hard and mechanical, and he had very poor handwriting.
O'Neill wrote a number of books and articles. in Ireland he had published a small volume “Lectures on Poetry”, and two books on the Shakespeare-Bacon question, “Could Bacon Have Written the Plays?” and “The Clouds around Shakespeare”. He continued his writing in Australia. Though always a good writer, he never succeeded in becoming a popular one. His book on the Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay, “Golden Years on the Paraguay”, deserved more popularity than it attained. The two books that made most impact on the Australian public were his life of Saint Mother Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) and his life of Julian Tenison Woods. The latter was written first. It was not popular with the Black Josephite Sisters, for in matters of controversy concerning their origins, he came down too heavily on one side.
He wrote a history of the Australian Mission, but it was never published. It was very good concerning the early years, but it was somewhat superficial in the treatment of the more
contemporary period. He could hardly be regarded as an unbiased historian, since he tended to be influenced unduly by his likes and dislikes. He never maintained a sufficiently detached outlook. He went to immense trouble in gathering material on the origins of the Josephite Sisters, particularly from surviving associates of Mother Mary and Father Woods, but his judgment on the facts could not always be firmly relied upon.
O'Neill put a great deal of work into his translation of Job, in which he received much help from Albert Power. It is greatly to his credit that he was always ready to help other writers. He had, for example, done a good deal of work on Caroline Chisholm, and helped Margaret Kiddie with her biography.
O'Neill was an extraordinary combination of genius, honesty and simplicity. He was child-like in many ways, always, for example, ready to experiment with strange combinations of dishes at meals. Though kind and even-tempered as a rule, he could become annoyed at times over what other people would regard as of no importance. Although a somewhat reticent and scholarly figure, he was nevertheless warm, frank, cultured and friendly, respected for his good critical judgment, his moral qualities of courage and sympathy for others, and for his spiritual outlook.
When his eyesight became so bad that he could no longer carry on his work at Werribee, he retired at the end of 1945 to Canisius College, Pymble, where he remained for the last year and a half of his life. As he could no longer read himself, the scholastics were very good to him by acting as readers, even if there was not always perfect agreement on both sides about the type of book to be read. He always enjoyed hearing his own creations. Towards the end he wanted to die. The Australian province should not easily forget the generous and notable service he gave in the autumn of his life.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 1 1934
Leeson St :
Monday, November 20th, was a red-letter day in the history of Leeson street, for it witnessed the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the House's foundation. In November, 1833. the Community came into being at 86 St Stephen's Green, where it remained until 1909, when the building was handed over to the newly constituted National University. The Community, however, survived intact and migrated to a nearby house in Lesson Street, where it renewed its youth in intimate relationship with the Dublin College of the University.
Its history falls this into two almost equal periods, different, indeed, in many ways, yet essentially one, since the energies of the Community during each period have been devoted to the same purpose, the furtherance of Catholic University Education in Ireland.
A precious link between the two eras is Father Tom Finlay, who was a member of the Community in 1883, and ever since has maintained his connection with it. His presence on Monday evening, restored to his old health after a severe illness was a source of particular pleasure to the whole gathering. It was also gratifying to see among the visitors Father Henry Browne, who had crossed from England at much personal inconvenience to take part in the celebration. Not only was Father Browne a valued member of the Community for over thirty years, but he acquired additional merit by putting on record, in collaboration with Father McKenna, in that bulky volume with the modest title " A Page of Irish History," the work achieved by the House during the first heroic age of its existence. It was a pleasure, too, to see hale and well among those present Father Joseph Darlington, guide, philosopher and friend to so many students during the two periods. Father George O'Neill, who for many years was a distinguished member of the Community, could not, alas. be expected to make the long journey from his newer field of fruitful labor in Werribee, Australia.
Father Superior, in an exceptionally happy speech, described the part played by the Community, especially in its earlier days of struggle, in the intellectual life of the country. The venerable Fathers who toiled so unselfishly in the old house in St. Stephens Green had exalted the prestige of the Society throughout Ireland. Father Finlay, in reply, recalled the names of the giants of those early days, Father Delany, Father Gerald Hopkins, Mr. Curtis and others. Father Darlington stressed the abiding influence of Newman, felt not merely in the schools of art and science, but in the famous Cecilia Street Medial School. Father Henry Browne spoke movingly of the faith, courage and vision displayed by the leaders of the Province in 1883, when they took on their shoulders such a heavy burden. It was a far cry from that day in 1883, when the Province had next to no resources, to our own day, when some sixty of our juniors are to be found, as a matter of course preparing for degrees in a National University. The progress of the Province during these fifty years excited feelings of
admiration and of profound gratitude , and much of that progress was perhaps due to the decision, valiantly taken in 1883 1883, which had raised the work of the Province to a higher plane.

Irish Province News 18th Year No 2 1943
Australian Vice-Province
From a letter of Fr. George O'Neill, Werribee, Melbourne. dated 29th November, 1942 :
This Vice-Province never before got such a painful shock as it has received in the absolutely sudden death of Fr. Thomas O'Dwyer (Rector of St Patrick's College Melbourne) On last Thursday I was chatting with him and he seemed alright. This morning (Saturday) he was laid in earth amid deep and widespread mourning, the grief of his Community at St. Patrick's being specially notable. He had been doing all his work up to the last. It would appear, however, that two or three months ago. he had consulted a. doctor and had been warned that he was not quite safe in the matter of blood pressure. On Wednesday night he was phoned to by the Mercy Nuns at Nicholson St where he acted as daily chaplain, asking him to say Mass early for them as the Coadjutor Archbishop was to say Mass there at 7.l5 or 7.30. He agreed. and made the early start next morning. The time came for his breakfast in the Convent parlour while the Archbishop was finishing Mass, but when the lay-sister came in after a time she found Fr. O'Dwyer lying on the ground and vomiting. He tried to reassure her, but she ran to the Rev. Mother and they phoned for a doctor who came at once. He saw that the situation was serious and that the last Sacraments should be given. Then the Cathedral (not far off) was called up and presently the Adm. came along with the Holy Oils. The Archbishop, who had meantime finished his Mass, came on the scene and anointed Fr. O'Dwyer, having previously given him absolution for which he was still conscious. The Provincial (from Hawthorn) also arrived. Then an ambulance was got and took the dying man to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died at 9.30 am. We are accustomed here to funerals rapidly carried out, so it was not strange that all was over in the following forenoon. Some 100 priests were present , an immense crowd of boys and girls, and of the ordinary faithful, and the two archbishops. Dr. Mannix spoke some happy words with much feeling.

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 3 1947
Obituary :
Fr. George O’Neill (1863-1880-1947)
Not many of Ours have brilliantly distinguished themselves in two far separate provinces of the Society. Fr. George O'Neill did so not merely by his literary and linguistic attainments but by his moral qualities of courage, friendliness, and spiritual outlook. Fame came to him in spite of his reserved and shy character. Indeed those who knew him but slightly never realised the warmth of his character. And even those who knew him well are amazed when they sum up the total record of his quiet achievements and recognise the importance of the role he played. Very few men of such eminence have been so averse from publicity. His earlier life can be briefly summarised. He was born at Dungannon, the son of a well-known Irish, barrister. After his schooldays in Belvedere, where for one year he was also Prefect of Studies. He then taught for one year in Clongowes. While he was in Belvedere he took his B.A, degree in Classics in the Royal University, but he showed such remarkable talent for modern languages that he was set aside to specialise in them. From 1889 to 1891 he spent one year at the University of Prague and another at the University of Paris and took his M.A. in modern languages with first-class honours. He then went through his philosophy and theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1895. Fr, O'Neill was a fast worker, but that is not the explanation of how he contrived to complete his whole studies for the priesthood, philosophy and theology, between 1891 and 1896. He seems to have done one year of his philosophy immediately after his noviceship. He went to Tronchiennes for his tertianship in 1897. In 1895 began the series of mishaps that eventually led him into the wrong chair in the National University. In that year he competed with Miss Mary Hayden for a Fellowship that was to lead to a Professorship. He was regarded as Miss Hayden's superior, despite her impressive accomplishments, but he came up for examination so tired and distraught with the preparations for his ordination that she won by the narrowest margin. Yet, though she won the Fellowship, she was debarred from becoming Professor as the old Royal University did not admit women professors. Fr. O'Neill therefore taught modern languages in the University until 1901, when on the death of Thomas Arnold he was made a Fellow and raised to Arnold's former chair of English Literature. However be lost this chair in 1909 on the foundation of the National University. Robert Donovan, who had deserved well of the Irish Party by his leading articles in the Freeman's Journal, had to be appointed to a chair. Unfortunately, knowing but one language, he was only qualified to fill the chair of English Literature. So a chair of English Language, now abolished, was created for Fr. O'Neill from which he also taught part of the English Literature course. It was just because he was not really the dry and unimaginative pedagogue that his somewhat prim manner suggested that he was dissatisfied with this arrangement.
As a lecturer he was well worth hearing, for everything that he said was the result of long and able critical meditation. Though always respectful of the opinions of others his own were very firm and not easily shaken. His lectures would doubtless have been more stimulating to young people had not his habit of reticence induced him to state briefly or not at all his reasons for his critical verdicts. But those verdicts were sound and, if one attends less to the notes than to the selections in his Five Centuries of English Poetry, one discovers a cultured and personal taste in the anthologist. His lecture on a poem by Donne would sound like a series of remarks overheard on a poem that he was reading for the first time. Similarly his judgments, on the work of young authors, though always kind, read like criticisms of well-known writers. Praise or condemnation were both downright, though he loved to praise and hated to condemn. The truth is that in judging a poem he took no account whatever of the reputation of the author or of his presence.
This critical integrity, merely a sign of the love of truth, required both the self-confidence that comes of clarity of mind and moral courage. Anyone who has tried to tell an artist that his work is bad knows the courage that he needs, and Fr. O'Neill had nothing of the brutality that makes such plain speaking easy. It was this courage that made him willing to champion unpopular courses. He was a Baconian, openly professed, and wrote two books on the controversy : ‘Could Bacon Have Written The Plays’? and ‘The Clouds Around Shakespeare’. He was an active helper in all university projects. One of his few opportunities for apostolic work was when he became for a year or two Director of the University Sodality. He was also invaluable as a contributor and editorial consultor to the three periodicals for the University reading public - the Lyceum, the New Ireland Review, and Studies. He was never editor himself. This unselfish man had a gift far rarer and fairer than that of initiating good works, a gift for serving energetically the good works initiated by others. He also founded a musical society in the Royal University and rather inadequately called it the ‘Choral Union’. But this leads to the consideration of another gift of his.
Fr. O'Neill was a noted pianist and something of a composer. Be cause, like the poet Grey, he ‘never spoke out’, his playing was not so eloquent as he could have made it. But his brilliant technique and general musical ‘usefulness’ were never in doubt. He was in great request as examiner at the Feis or in Clongowes. He was also frequently invited to accompany singers in public. He was the friend of the late Arthur Darley and many other of the finest musicians of this country. Both as performer and promoter he played a prominent part in the musical life of the city, in which he has no successor,

In 1923 Fr. O'Neill startled the Province by asking to be sent to the Australian Mission, as it was then. Several motives, ill-health and dissatisfaction with his chair at the University among them, have been said to account for his request. But (to give a personal opinion) his chief motive was his approaching compulsory retirement from his chair. To be a professional idler such as most retired gentlemen are expected to be was distasteful to him. And he needed to retire before he was too old to go to Australia. Moreover Dr. Mannix was anxious to get distinguished professors for his new seminary in Werribee. Fr. O'Neil answered the call and was allowed to go.
On the boat out to Australia he was still his mildly cheerful and companionable self. He was always ready to give a piano recital to the old ladies. And, notwithstanding the prestige that members like Fr. H. Johnson and Fr. W. Owens gave to our party, Fr. O'Neill was our star in the eyes of the passengers. But he cut his ties with Dublin slowly and one by one. Even in the Bay of Biscay he was still acting as a member of the Editorial Board of Studies, for he revised and passed a poem by one of his companions and sent it to the Editor.
In Werribee he held the posts of Professor of Church History and of Modern Languages until a few years before his death. He also, needless to say, directed the choir and promoted concerts and plays among the students. He read papers and spoke before various Catholic societies in Melbourne.
But his career in Australia is chiefly notable as the time when he produced his finest books. In Dublin besides the works already noted, several anthologies and books of selections, and innumerable articles and pamphlets, his chief work had been Essays on Poetry and a biography of Blessed Mary of the Angels. But in Australia he discovered his power for historical narrative. He became deeply interested in the beginnings of the Church in Australia and produced two fascinating biographies of that period, one on Fr. Julian Tenison Woods, the other on Mary McKillop, Mother Mary of the Cross. In these works all his deepest loyalties gave more than usual fire to his writing. And a later work on the Jesuit Reductions of South America, ‘Golden Years on the Paraguay’, is worthy to stand beside them. Up to the end he was filled with projects for new books. He thought that he could prove that all the Scholastics had been wrong in their doctrines on Beauty. Perhaps his intention to publish this thesis was evidence of failing powers. But he never admitted old age as a valid reason for ceasing to work, When a few years ago he was relieved, of most of his duties he could not, or would not, understand the reason of his superiors. But the truth that the shadows were gathering figuratively must have been forced upon his attention when they began to gather literally. More than a year before his death he became blind or almost blind. One can give him the only praise that, after all, any man can deserve : he found a great work to do for God and did it.

The following is taken from an appreciation which appeared in The Dungannon Observer of July 26th :
“The news was received in Dungannon and Clonoe districts with the deepest feelings of regret of the recent death of Rev. George O'Neill, S.J., the noted author and essayist and former Fellow of the Royal University and Professor of English at University College, Dublin. Son of the late Mr. George F. O'Neill, Inspector of National Schools, Fr. O'Neill was born in County Antrim in 1863, but at an early age came to reside in Dungannon, to which his father was transferred. His father's family came from Clonoe district, and for both Dungannon and Clonoe the late priest had always a warm spot in his heart. When the Convent of Mercy in Dungannon celebrated its golden Jubilee two years ago, Fr. O'Neill wrote a poem in honour of the occasion. The late Cardinal MacRory was a close friend of Fr. O'Neill, and the Cardinal was highly appreciative of his spiritual writings. When the Cardinal visited Australia for the Eucharistic Congress in 1929, he made a journey to Werribee College to see Fr. O'Neill, who was then ill. By the marriage of his sister to the late Dr. Conor Maguire of Claremorris, Fr. O'Neill was the uncle of the Chief Justice Conor Maguire. He was also related through marriage to Most Rev. Dr. Dr. D'Alton, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.
Fr. O'Neill died on July 19th.
May he rest in peace”

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 4 1947

On 28 July a special Mass was celebrated at Gardiner Street for the late Fr. George O'Neill (Viceprovince), an obituary notice of whom appeared in our last issue; in addition to the Chief Justice, Mr. Conor Maguire, a nephew, and other relatives, His Excellency Sean T. O'Kelly and Mr. McEntee, Minister were present.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father George O’Neill 1864-1947
Not many of ours have distinguished themselves so brillinatly in two different sections of the Society, poles apart from each other. Fr George O’Neill was in that category, being renowned both in Ireland and Australia.

Born in Dungannon in 1863, he was educated at Belvedere College. He displayed a remarkable talent for modern languages and literature, and he was outstanding in his degree examinations. He became Professor of English literature at the Royal University in 1901, succeeding Thomas Arnold. It was during this period that he produced his book so well known to students of English “Five Centuries of English Literature”. He was a keen advocate of Bacon as the author of Shakespeare’s plays and published two works on that subject “Coiuld Bacon have written the Plays?” and “The Clouds around Shakespeare”.

In 1923 Fr O’Neill volunteered for the Australian Mission. This was just the beginning of another illustrious career, more remarkable when one recalls that he was 60 years of age at the time.The 24 years he spent in Australia added to his fame as a writer, lecturer and musician, for he had considerable also in music, being something of a composer himself. His finest books were written in Australia : “The Life of Father Julian Tenison Woods”; “Mother Mary of the Cross”; and “Golden Years in the Paraquay”.

He died on July 19th 1947, 84 years of age, ending a life of continual service of God, right up to the end, and leaving behind him works that will ever keep his memory green.

◆ The Clongownian, 1948

Obituary

Father George O’Neill SJ

Not many Jesuits have brilliantly distinguished themselves in two far separate provinces of the Society. Fr George O'Neill did so not merely by his literary and linguistic achievements but by his moral qualities of courage, friendliness and spiritual outlook. Fame came to him in spite of a reserved and shy character. Even those who knew him well are amazed when they sum up the total record of his quiet achievements and recognise the importance of the role he played. Very few men of such eminence have been so averse from publicity.

His early life can be briefly summarised. He came to Tullabeg, a small boy of eleven, in 1874 and quickly showed the promise of those talents he was to develop in later life. When he left in 1880 he had gained ninth place in Ireland in the Senior Grade examination, third place in English and first place with medal in Modern Languages. Even at school he was a noted pianist and he afterwards became some thing of a composer. Because, like the poet Grey he “never spoke out”, his playing was not so eloquent as he could have made it; but his brilliant technique and general musical “usefulness" were never in doubt. He was in great demand as an examiner at the Feis or in Clongowes. He was also frequently invited to accompany singers in public. He was the friend of the late Arthur Darley and many others of the finest musicians in the country. Both as performer and promoter he played a prominent part in the musical life of Dublin.

He took his BA degree in classics at the Royal University but he showed such remarkable talent for modern languages that he was set aside to specialise in them. He spent a year at the University of Prague, another at the University of Paris and took his MA in modern languages with first class honours.

In the Royal University he was Professor, first of Modern Languages, then of English Literature. On the foundation of the National University he became Professor of English Language. As a lecturer he was well worth hearing, for everything he said was the result of long and able critical meditation. Though always re spectful of the opinions of others his own were very firm and not easily shaken. In judging a poem he took no account of the reputation of the author - or his presence. With him praise and condemnation were both downright, though he loved to praise and hated to condemn. This critical integrity, a sign of the love of truth, required both the self-confidence that comes of clarity of mind and moral courage. It was this courage that made him willing to champion unpopular causes. He was a Baconian openly professed and wrote two books on the con troversy : “Could Bacon Have Written The Plays?” and “The Clouds Around Shakespeare”.

He was an active helper in all University projects. He was for a year or two Director of the University Sodality. He was also invaluable as a contributor and editorial consultor to the three periodicals for the University reading public, the “Lyceum”, the “New Ireland Review”, and “Studies”. He was never editor himself. This unselfish man had a gift far rarer and fairer than that of initiating good works, a gift for serving the good works initiated by others.

In Australia Fr O'Neill held the posts of Professor of Church History and of Modern Languages at Werribee, the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, until a few years before his death. He read many papers and spoke before various Catholic Societies and acquired a great reputation as a scholar. But his career in Australia is chiefly notable as the time when he produced his finest books. In Dublin he had published several anthologies and innumerable articles and pamphlets, and a biography of “Blessed Mary of the Angels”. But in Australia he discovered his power for historical narrative. He became deeply interested in the beginnings of the Church in Australia and produced two fascinating biographies of that period, one on Fr Julian Tenison Woods, the other on Mary McKillop, Mother Mary of the Cross. In these books all his deepest loyalties gave more than usual fire to his writing. And a later work on the Jesuit Reductions of South America, “Golden Years on the Paraguay”, is worthy to stand beside them.

Up to the end he was filled with projects for new books, but the shadows were slowly gathering and for over a year before the end he became blind or almost blind. The long life of work was drawing to a close and when he went to God it could be said of him, and indeed, it is the only praise any man can deserve; he found a great work to do for God and did it.

Born: 11 June 1905, Margaret Place, North Circular Road, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 31 August 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 01 July 1934, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the St Stanislaus College community, Tullabeg, County Offaly at the time of death.

Father was a commercial traveller with Parkes & Co, Coombe, Dublin.

Third of four boys with five girls.

Early education at a Convent school in Dublin and then he went to O’Connells School, at the end of which he achieved a University Scholarship from the City of Dublin.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 4 1934
Obituary :

Mr Ignatius O’Neill
Mr. M. McCarthy -
On the 2nd July Mr. Ignatius O'Neill died at St. Vincent's Hospital. He had come up from Tullabeg with the intention of undergoing an operation if it were considered necessary by the doctors. Then he was to use the summer vacation to fit himself to begin theology at Milltown in the autumn. In spite of his weak state, and the pain he suffered, the operation appeared successful, but suddenly his heart gave way under the strain. Early on Monday morning he began to sink rapidly, dying about four o’clock that evening.

Mr. O' Neill was born on the 11th June, 1905, and was educated at the O'Connell Schools, Dublin. He entered the Society in 1923 at Tullabeg, studied at Rathfarnham for three years and then, owing to the state of his health, was sent to Belvedere. Here he had to spend two long periods in hospital. He was liked by the boys and the Community, and was very capable at his work. In 1931 he went to philosophy in Tullabeg, where his health seemed to improve. Then, when he had finished the third year, the end came with tragic suddenness.
The illness of which he died had, all his time in the Society , caused him trouble, the extent of which one could not easily guess by just living with him. For this was most characteristic of him that he was always of an even, pleasant temperament. Though living under difficulties which would have upset most, he lived with that unconscious simplicity and courage which does the right thing without having to think very much about what it is, or urge itself in the doing. His religious life was unobtrusive, natural, and deep. One of his superiors said of him that this extended to those simple devotions and observances which can go easily out of a scholastics life under pressure of study or class work, and which are the result of an unaffected piety of mind. The manner in which he bore his ill-health was typical of all this. He finished up his school life in 1923 by winning a triple scholarship, yet at the University he did not do at all as well as this gave one reason to expect. However, he neither complained nor explained. He had done what he could under the disadvantage of health, and he left it at that. In fact he never complained at all of the suffering that was to bring him to an early death. One knew that he was delicate and under the care of doctors, but how much pain or weariness he felt can only be judged from his premature death. No one could estimate it from his own account, for he give no account of it. Nor could anyone estimate it from his behaviour towards others
In community life he was always kind end pleasant, with that kindness of heart which thinks no evil and feels no bitterness.
He died as any one of us would wish to die, in peace in spite of his pain and completely resigned to God's choice. He seemed to be disturbed by the suffering his death would cause his family and not at all by what it meant to himself. “You should be smoking,” he said to his brother, “there are some cigarettes in the drawer.” This incident is typical of all his life - pleasant kindness to others. silence about himself. This was his outstanding characteristic, and for this he is remembered with affection by those who knew him.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Scholastic Ignatius O’Neill 1905-1934
The early and unexpected death of Mr Ignatius O’Neill came as a shock to his Jesuit contemporaries and friends. He was only 29 years of age, and he had managed. in spite of poor health, to go through the ordinary stages of training up to Theology.

An operation was advised, more to improve his health than to avert serious development. As an operation it was successful, but it proved too much for his heart, and he died on July 2nd 1934.

He was always of an even and pleasant temperament, and he went through his years in the Society with an unconscious simplicity and courage, which does the right thing without having to think very much about what it is or the urge itself in the doing. Such a character with such equanimity gave promise of great work for God, by He thought otherwise. “For My Ways are not your ways, nor your thoughts my thoughts”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1935

Obituary

Ignatius O’Neill SJ

Any of our present and not a few of our past will remember Mr O'Neill, who was on the teaching staff, in Belvedere but a few years ago. It is with deep regret that we publish the news of his death, after a brief illness. Educated at O'Connell Schools, Mr O'Neill entered the Society of Jesus in 1923. He spent three years at Rathfarnham Castle, and then joined the Community at Belvedere. His health always gave cause for anxiety, but the cheerful manner in which he endured the difficulties which this brought was a source of great edification to all. At Belvedere he was noted for his gentleness and serenity, and for this will lie be remembered. We offer our sincere sympathy to his family.

Born: 17 June 1906, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 31 August 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 21 July 1936

1922-1924: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1924-1927: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate UCD
1927-1930 at Berchmanskolleg, Pullach, Germany (GER S) studying Philosophy
1930-1933: Belvedere College SJ, Regency
1933-1936: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Regency

Address following departure: Alexandra Terrace, Novara Road, Bray, County Wicllow

Born: 19 November 1823, Mitchelstown, County Cork
Entered: 12 February 1850, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1852
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 06 June 1882, Belvedere College SJ, Great Denmark Street, Dublin

by 1858 at Mongré France (LUGD) studying Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had made all his Priestly studies before Ent.

He must have been Ordained at the end of his Novitiate, as he was a Priest on his first assignment.
1853-1855 Sent to Clongowes teaching Rudiments.
1855-1857 Sent to Tullabeg
1857 He was sent to Belvedere, where he spent twenty-five years teaching.
The whole of his Jesuit life was involved in teaching. He was a most successful Teacher, very kindly in his ways, and he won the affection and esteem of his pupils, who went back to see him time and again.
His death was sudden. Brother George Sillery, on calling him in the morning, found him very ill, as he had been bleeding during the night. The doctor was unable to stop the bleeding, and so he failed and died at Belvedere 06 June 1882.

Born: 23 February 1926, Kamaduru, North Circular Road, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1944, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1959, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1962, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 19 November 2009, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death.
Buried Mungret, Limerick.

Father was an accountant.

Older of two boys with three sisters.

Educated at a Convent school for three years and then he went to Crescent College SJ for nine years.

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 142 : Spring 2010
Obituary

Fr Niall O’Neill (1926-2009)

23rd February 1926: Born in Limerick
Early education at Crescent College
7th September 1944: Entered the Society at Emo
8th September 1946: First Vows at Emo
1946 - 1950: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1950 - 1953: Tullabeg - Studied Philosophy
1953 - 1956: Belvedere - Teacher
1956 - 1960: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31st July 1959: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1960 - 1961: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1961 - 1962: Clongowes- Lower Line Prefect; Teacher
2nd February 1962: Final Vows
1962 - 1967: Crescent College, Limerick - Spiritual Director (pupils); Confessor; Teacher
1967 - 1973: Tullabeg - Missions / Retreat Staff
1973 - 1989: Sacred Heart Church, Limerick
1973 - 1984: Missions / Retreat staff
1984 - 1989: Missions / Retreat staff; Promoted the Apostleship of Prayer and the Messenger
1989 - 2000: Tory Island - Parish Curate
2000 - 2001: Gort an Choirce - LeitirCeanainn, Dun na nGall
2001 - 2006: Gallen Priory Nursing and Retirement Home, Ferbane - Residential Chaplain
2006 - 2009: Della Strada, Limerick - Prayed for Church and Society
19th November, 2009: Died in Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Liam O'Connell writes:
Niall O'Neill grew up on the North Circular Road, Limerick. His family was important to Niall, and he remained close to his brother and three sisters. His father, Dick, died in his 40's, and a photograph from the ordination day of Niall and his mother, whom the family called Mater, had pride of place in Niall's room. All of his family shared a devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, and a commitment to the care of the sick, and over the years their annual pilgrimages there also became a family reunion.

Niall took great pleasure in the achievements of his nieces and nephews, and they in turn were great at keeping in touch with him. He introduced them to music at an early age, buying guitars and a set of uileann pipes for them. They were most grateful to him for this, and many of them followed musical careers.

In 1944, during the World War, Niall left the Crescent and began his life as a Jesuit, when he went to Emo. Years later when Emo closed, Niall salvaged the bell from there, called the Challenger, and he used it to summon people to Mass on Tory Island. After studies in UCD and in Tullabeg, Niall taught as a scholastic in Belvedere where he also ran the Field Club, and he became a lifelong friend and supporter of the Belvedere Youth Club. In later years he went as chaplain with them on their annual seaside camp in County Meath.

During the years of study Niall belonged to a great group of Jesuit companions. These included Tom McGivern and Gerry Keane, who later worked in Zambia and Singapore, but they still remained his steadfast friends. Contemporaries enjoyed Niall's personal qualities, his rugged determination, his patriotism, his good humour, his talent as a musician, as a sportsman, as an actor, and as one of the authors of the pantomimes and reviews they produced regularly. In these they poked gentle fun at everybody and everything, and they maintained a sense of balance and good humour at a time of Spartan living conditions.

As a schoolboy Niall and a friend cycled from Limerick to Portlaoise on a bird watching expedition, to see the first collared doves in Ireland, and as a Jesuit this love of nature continued to enrich his life. Years later he attracted hundreds of 'twitchers' to Tory, by alerting the BBC to the presence on the island of a bird rarely seen in Europe. He amassed a specialised collection of Irish bird books, and even when in Cherryfield be sent for his binoculars so that he could continue to be close to the natural world.

After Tertianship Niall became Lower Liner Prefect at Clongowes. Then in 1962 he went to Limerick, to Crescent College as a teacher and Spiritual Father. In 1967 he joined the Retreat and Parish Mission staff. This new work brought him to every diocese in Ireland, giving parish missions that lasted up to two weeks at a time, and he worked closely with Seán Noonan and Kevin Laheen and Noel Holden. Niall had a great love of the lore of country places, and took many fine slide photographs of the places he visited.

For much of this time Niall continued to live in the Crescent, until he went in 1989 to live as the resident priest in Tory Island off the Donegal coast. He described this as the happiest period of his life, and he adapted his Munster Irish to Caighdeán Cuige Ulaidh. At this time he began to say the Divine Office and Mass in Irish, a practice he continued till the end. On Tory he also visited the sick, worked as a peacemaker, welcomed visitors, and brought encouragement and friendship to many, especially the housebound. He also had time to fish for his supper, and to wander in all weathers all over the island. In recent years he used to look at his collection of videos of life on Tory. These included pictures of the Ferry journey to Tory, programmes about Tory recorded from TG4, homemade videos that recorded the island way of life, and some great Atlantic storms.

We also have some beautiful photographs of Niall from Tory; processing outside the church with altar servers, with their vestments blowing in the wind; bounding over rocky outcrops with two beautiful dogs; ringing the bell for Mass, and smiling with delight as he greeted friends. In recent Niall used to receive a large post every day, and the Donegal postmarks on many of these letters were a sign of strong and lasting friendships formed on Tory.

In the year 2000 Niall had a stroke, and had to leave his beloved Tory. He always was a determined person, and entered into his rehabilitation programme with great resolve. He lived for a year in Cherryfield and then in Gort an Choirce, Letterkenny, before becoming Resident Chaplain, in Gallen Priory Nursing and Retirement Home, Ferbane, Co. Offaly. Gallen Priory is the site of a 5th century hermitage of Saint Canoc, on the River Brosna, and it is one of the oldest Christian sites in Ireland. Niall loved his time here, and became great friends with the sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny who lived there, and with the staff and the patients of the Priory. Again Niall was a constant friend the these people visited him often in Limerick for his last three years.

And every morning he spent two hours in his own little sanctuary, down by a bend in the River Brosna. Here he built a shaded seat at the base of an ivy clad tree, and trained the ivy so that it formed a canopy that gave shelter from the wind and rain. He prayed here, surrounded by a beauty that only comes slowly to those who know how to sit and wait. Here among the wildlife, including all the songbirds and otters and kingfishers, and other rare species he said his prayers. Ignatius of Loyola asks us to consider how God works and labours for us in all things created on the face of the earth. On this bend on the River Brosna, where the sky is constantly changing, Niall made time for God, and allowed God to touch his heart. Here he was like the person in Coleridge's poem:
“He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all...”
In 2006 Niall had to move again, because of ill health, this time back to Limerick, to Della Strada, Dooradoyle. He became a regular patient and visitor to Ward 2C in the Regional Hospital. Here he established a strong friendship with the nurses and doctors.

Niall was blessed by their professional and personal care, and by their friendship. Later Niall was to receive the same loving care at the Jesuit nursing home, at Cherryfield Lodge in Dublin.
Niall was stubborn and determined, and during national elections his trenchant views might not have been shared by many of his colleagues. But everybody who got to know him learned to have enormous respect for his integrity and his faithfulness to the Gospel, and they were grateful for the prayerful support we received from him. He had a public disagreement with another Jesuit colleague about Tory Island affairs, but in his final months Niall used this colleague's mortuary card as a bookmark and he became reconciled with him through in prayer.

People were struck by Niall's happiness. His faith and his Jesuit vocation brought him great joy, deep down contentment, the sort of joy that is bigger than any of life's difficulties. This was true especially in the last three years, when he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, which at first made speech difficult, and then impossible. However Niall never seemed to be wrapped up in himself. He was a great host to visitors to Della Strada, and even in illness he became their willing chauffeur. And whenever colleagues and friends faced a difficulty, they valued his prayers and his support.
During these three years of sickness, Niall spent much of this time praying, in the chapel with the curtains to the outside world drawn back, to let the world of nature in. God works and labours for us in all things created on the face of the earth. Every morning he put an apple on the ground outside the window of his room, to feed two blackbirds who became his companions. Then for much of the day he put a cushion on his lap, used his bad hand to steady a writing pad, and he proceeded to write long letters to his friends.

Niall O'Neill was closely connected to God, to God's creation and to his family and his Jesuit friends in the Lord. And that's not taken away by death. That faithful life and prayerful support is stronger than death, and we continue to be enriched by his faith and his hope and his love.

Born: 29 April 1909, O’Brien Street, Kanturk, County Cork
Entered: 20 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 13 May 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 05 December 1975, Kilcroney, County Wicklow

Part of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin at time of his death.

Parents - Michael O’Reilly and Catherine (née Donegan)

Younger of two sons.

Early education at Convent of Mercy Kanturk, and then the Boys National Shool also in Kanturk. In 1923 he went to Mungret College SJ

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 51st Year No 1 1976

Gardiner Street
Towards the end of October, Fr Michael O'Reilly suffered a stroke. He spent some weeks as a patient at the Bon Secours hospital, Glasnevin, and made marked progress. Afterwards he went to stay at the St John of God convalescent home, Kilcroney, Bray. It was there that the Lord called him to Himself on 5th December: may He reward him! He is very much missed by both the Sisters and the patients at St Joseph's, Portland row, where he had been a most dependable and devoted chaplain for the past few years.

Obituary :

Fr Michael O’Reilly (1909-1975)

Michael O’Reilly had just entered his 50th year in the Society when his death occurred on 5th December 1975. He was always somewhat over-intense in his application of the Rules of the Society, of the Church and of his own life. As a result he broke down in his university studies and again in philosophy. To his credit he came back to both, after an interval, and completed them. With these interruptions he arrived at Milltown Park for theology three years behind his contemporaries.
He passed a rather quiet type of life: never spoke about him self or his relatives, never got involved in arguments. He did have very strong views about the Society and the Church, and his loyalty to both was unquestionable. Many modern tendencies in the Society and the Church gave him anxious moments, and it might have been better if he had expressed his feelings more openly instead of keeping them within himself.
The closing years of his life brought a good deal of satisfaction and contentment to him, for he became chaplain to Portland Row convent and found work for which he was ideally suited. That he was a success was witnessed by the many tributes paid to him and by the praise expressed by the parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes church, under whose jurisdiction he worked.
He was a dedicated Jesuit and an exemplary religious.

Irish Province News 51st Year No 2 1976

Gardiner Street
On Friday, 5th December, 1975, at 10 am, Fr Michael O’Reilly died quietly and peacefully at St John of God's convalescent home, Kilcroney, Bray. He had been moved there the previous Friday from the Bon Secours hospital, Glasnevin. The Mass for Fr Michael was concelebrated here on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and among the concelebrants from various houses were three of his fellow-novices - Frs Johnny McAvoy, Paddy Kennedy and Michael Connolly. Fr Dermot O'Connor directed the choir, and the large congregation was a tribute to the esteem in which Fr O'Reilly was held by the people of the locality, many of whom had experienced his gentle compassion in their trials.

Obituary :

Fr Michael O’Reilly (1909-1975)

More about Father Michael O'Reilly (died 5th December 1975)

An tAthair Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin has sent us this tribute to his memory:
Michael might have become a valued schoolmaster in the Society's best traditions or indeed a professor in either the profane or sacred sciences, for which he was amply fitted by his high intelligence. The man however was a perfectionist, and during his scholasticate, that was his undoing. In his juniorate he was strongly influenced by Fr Michael Browne, the saintly
spiritual father at Rathfarnham, and by the rather overpowering Rector, Fr John Keane.
Michael admired, somewhat uncritically it should be said, the versatility of Fr John Keane for whom he entertained a lifelong veneration, Wiser (but less intelligent) juniors could smile indulgently at Fr Keane when he recounted how he read a whole book of the Aeneid or Odyssey as he wheeled his bicycle up the long hill by Rockbrook and Killakee towards the Featherbed. Unfortunately, Michael took too seriously the quixotic rector's literary enthusiasms and autobiographical asides. During his first Christmas vacation at Mungret in his regency, he read the complete Anabasis, having during the previous months taught himself Greek grammar: but I prefer to pass over in silence other such hardships as he inflicted on his tired head,
In spite of a “broken head”, Michael could relax and did so whenever he mastered his natural shyness. He had a delightful sense of humour. A ridiculous coincidence of circumstances could arouse his mirth and then his laughter was somewhat evocative of Fr Michael Browne's. Once during our years as regents together we went for a summer course in Irish to Ring, There for the first time perhaps I really came to appreciate his sense of fun. Of two very incompetent professors, he could mimic to the life the fuddy-duddy attempts of one to impart a knowledge of phonetics, and reproduce the falsetto declamations of the other who professed to read Irish poetry de la bonne façon.
He was a tower of strength to his contemporaries in times of illness or death, and he had the capacity of pronouncing a solid judgment when his advice was sought. He had the common touch - a trait not so well known to some who were repelled by his apparent aloofness. In the late 1940’s, for instance, when he was conducting a retreat at Castleblayney he paid a visit to my old home some two miles away from the convent. A couple of times along the road he had to make enquiries as to which way to take when he was passing the two crossroads between the convent and my mother's house. As chance had it, he fell in with a couple of the local “characters”. His exchanges with these latter were were eventually repeated to my mother, who was congratulated on the order of affable priests her own son had joined! For long after, the characters', since called to their reward, made kindly enquiries for Fr Michael.
Undoubtedly many modern tendencies in the Society and the Church gave him anxious moments. But it should be stressed, in justice to his memory, that he was no “hard-liner”. He was too faithful and intelligent a son of Holy Church to blame Vatican II. His constant complaint - and he spoke frankly to me on the subject - was the massive ignorance of too many Catholics and priests of what Vatican II was really all about. For Michael the trouble was that journalists and travelling theologians (the “two thousand-dollars-a-lecture men”) got a noisy publicity-start of Vatican II, that set them off on a rip-roaring trail of disturbance and confusion. He had a point.
I am sure his spell in purgatory must have been one of the shortest known to the welcoming angels of paradise. When I received the news of his death, my first instinct was to pray to him.

Born: 16 April 1897, Clonmel, County Tipperary
Entered: 31 August 1914, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1927, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1930, St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 02 August 1954, Dublin

Part of Crescent College community, Limerick at time of his death.

Father was a Senior Inspector of National Schools, and now resides with his mother at Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, Dublin.

Eldest son of four boys (1 deceased) and nine girls.

Early education at a Convent school and at a Christian Brothers school in Dublin, he then went to the Christian Brothers School in Derry, and again at the Christian Brothers School in Armagh. At 11 years of age he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1923 in Australia - Regency at Xavier College, Kew and St Patrick’s College, Melbourne
by 1929 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Francis O'Riordan arrived at Xavier College for regency in 1923, but moved to St Patrick's College in 1924. He was also assistant prefect of studies.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 29th Year No 4 1954
Obituary:
Father Francis O’Riordan

Father O'Riordan was born in Clonmel on April 16th, 1897, son of the late Jeremiah O'Riordan, Senior Inspector of National Schools. He was educated at Clongowes and with seven school companions, entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg in August, 1914. After philosophy in Milltown Park, he went to Australia for his regency, and taught for three years at Kew College and St. Patrick's, Melbourne. He went to Milltown for theology and was ordained in 1927. He was at St. Beuno's for his Tertianship and then took up teaching at Belvedere where he remained until 1945. In this year signs of nervous trouble appeared and he was transferred to Clongowes, but as his health showed further deterioration, he was changed to the Crescent in the following year. The nervous breakdown, however, was not prevented and the remaining years of his life were spent under a mental cloud. A few months before he died, he was removed for a serious operation to a Dublin nursing home. This change seemed to improve him mentally very much and he appreciated the devoted attention he received. However, the expected improvement in his general health did not take place and he passed peacefully away on the morning of August 2nd, 1954, after receiving the last sacraments. His nurses spoke in admiration of the patience with which he endured discomfort and pain of the last weeks of his life and of the general air of peace and tranquility of soul.
Father O'Riordan was a great loss to the Colleges, for besides being an excellent teacher of elementary Mathematics he was in many respects an ideal Prefect of Junior boys. To maintain a high standard of discipline, he did not require to punish much as he exercised by his mere presence wonderful control. It was striking to note how the noise of the playground sank to a murmur when he appeared on the playground steps and just gazed around the quadrangle, or how the crookedest “crocodile” became a straight line when he “took the salute”. He liked these dramatic appearances and the boys liked them also. A very amusing photograph in the 1948 Belvederian entitled “The Courtmartial” which shows Fr. O'Riordan with hands in gown addressing a group of young culprits catches admirably the relations that existed between him and the boys.
Those who lived with him in the same Community will remember how he enlivened the after-dinner recreations by his exhortations to “relax”, his calculation of “boy-hours” and his production of a referee's whistle when he thought the rules of debate were being broken. May God be good to him.

◆ The Clongownian, 1955

Obituary

Father Francis O’Riordan SJ

In 1908 two very small boys came to Clongowes and were of course placed in the Third Line. The elder, Jack, was a bright eyed, bright-tongued little spark of a boy, very quick in class and no less quick on the football field, so that he was, despite his size, the popular hero of many a Line match. The younger was a very different character ; not shy but reticent, not unfriendly but obstinate, and sometimes “difficult”. He had a will of iron. During his last years he never went to “shop”, and no persuading could induce him to share one's supplies of “shop” or hamper, no matter how abundant these might happen to be. Yet he had no streak of meanness, and in later life would often come forward to help out a brother in need. He had very high and somewhat individual standards of conduct. I can still remember the cold contempt with which he tamed a rather loose talker at our refectory table. But he was no “goody-goody” and some of my happiest, recollections of Clongowes are walks with him and one or two companions under the great beeches of Straffan, walks all the pleasanter because stolen from the monotony of play-day. cricket in the Lower Line. In his last year in the Lower Line he suffered a tragic experience. His charming brother took ill, lingered a few days of torrid fever and delirium, and despite the devoted care of Miss Elison and the prayers of Fr. Sullivan with whom he had been a special favourite, died in the infirmary at Clongowes. Naturally, one saw little of Frank in those days of strain and anxiety for he was with his grief-stricken parents. But when he came back to us he was in some strange way changed. Characteristically, I think he never spoke of Jack, but the bond had been a close one and more than ever Frank walked alone.

In August 1914 he went to the noviceship in Tullabeg with six other Clongownians and five more aspirants. Henceforth he was one of “The Twelve” as they liked to nick-name themselves, feeling in a special way the bond of their Apostolic Call. The Jesuit noviceship is, or ought to be, always a hidden and monotonous life, and it was specially so in his time under the guidance of Fr Maher. Of those days only one incident remains in memory. It was with surprise but acquiescence that one heard the most brilliant and not the least spiritual of The Twelve pronounce : “If there is one of us who could be a saint, it is Brother O’Riordan!”

After the normal studies of a Jesuit, and three years' teaching in Melbourne, Fr O'Riordan was posted to Belvedere, where he may be said to have spent all his working life as a priest. A good teacher, it was as Prefect of Studies and Discipline in the Junior House that he made his mark and left a valuable legacy to the Province. One of a long and truly Irish and Catholic family, his own home training must have shown him the happy combination of discipline with affection. He had no trace of sentimentality. He had no favourites. He expected a great deal of even small boys, but he never drove or terrorised. Without any strain or nonsense, he established a tradition of good work and perfect manners in his small kingdom. It was noticeable that when his boys came to the big school and its easier ways, they did not degenerate. On the contrary, four or five years later it was no surprise to find Fr. Frank's prefects and captains guiding the school. He was like most great school masters, something of a figure of mystery to his boys. They stood in awe, not fear, of him, and they were proud of him, knowing he was proud of them and always ready to be their champion.

Above all things he was a most loyal superior to his staff, most of them young men beginning their teaching careers. He way always ready to guide and support them, and they knew and testified to the pains he took to help them to help their boys.

It is curiously difficult now to go back to the mentality of the early war years. The grim feeling of living on the edge of a volcano, the depression of the foot and mouth disease, and the gradual sacrifice of many of the ordinary amenities of life which had to be made with no wave of patriotic feeling to soften the blow all this hit Fr Frank hard.

He had always lived intensely and to some degree solitarily. To the ordinary strain of war time was added failing health. His chief, indeed almost his only recreation had been a game of golf, a social rather than an athletic pursuit. Now with the disappearance of cars that ceased. Problems of food and transport for his boys were real, and bit by bit the times oppressed him. It was only at the end of the war that this mental balance gave way, all the more completely and finally as he strove almost feverishly and even imprudently to resist any such assault. He spent some years in a mental home, able between more severe attacks to preserve a calm and patience by his private reading and his private prayers, but altogether withdrawn from his former friends and interests. Then mercifully a severe illness, not to be expected, supervened. He was taken to a nursing home for treatment and for some months displayed all his old dogged courage and patience. And there, with very devoted nursing, his mind seemed to recover its old peace and content. He expressed his deep gratitude for all that was done for him, and passed away, armed by all the rites of the Church, to a reward that must have been all the greater for its strange delay.

MB

Born: 25 April 1928, Kildare Town, County Kildare
Entered: 24/ March 1952, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 26 December 2011, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

by 1958 at Rome, Italy (ROM) working
by 1963 at Tullabeg making Tertianship

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 147 : Spring 2012

Obituary

Br Joseph (Joe) Osborne (1928-2011)

25 April 1928: Born in Co. Kildare.
Early education in CBS, Naas and Blackrock College, Dublin
1946 - 1952: Worked as jockey and horse trainer
28 March 1952: Entered the Society at Emo
29 March 1954: First Vows at Emo
1954 - 1957: Milltown Park - in charge of house and staff
1957 - 1958: Rome SJ Curia - Secretarial work
1958 - 1961: Crescent College, Limerick - Sacristan
1961 - 1966: SFX, Gardiner Street - In charge of staff
During 1962: Tullabeg - Tertianship
3rd February 1963: Final Vows St. Ignatius, Leeson Street
1966 - 1967: Galway - In charge of staff, Sacristan
1967 - 1968: Clongowes - In charge of staff
1968 - 1970: Manresa - In charge of staff; Sacristan
1970 - 1974: Crescent College, Limerick - In charge of staff: Infirmarian
1974 - 1980: John Austin House - Minister
1980 - 1982: St. Ignatius, Galway - Sacristan; Infirmarian
1982 - 1983: Belvedere College - CLC
1983 - 2011: Leeson Street - CLC
1991 - 2003: Subminister; Sacristan; CLC
2003 - 2010: Sacristan
2010 - 2011: Residing in Cherryfield
26 December 2011: Died Cherryfield

Br Osborne went to Cherryfield in 2010 when his health began to fail. He settled down well but broke his hip in a fall shortly before Christmas. He returned to Cherryfield for Christmas but got pneumonia and died on December 26th 2011, aged 83 years, in St Vincent's Hospital. May he rest in the Peace of Christ

Obituary : Paul Andrews
More than most Jesuits, Joe Osborne had to be seen in the context of his birthplace, Craddoxtown in County Kildare, where the rich soil builds the bones of great race-horses, especially hunters. Joe's father, also Joe, was a well-known and successful trainer who had won at Cheltenham, Punchestown, Naas, Leopardstown and elsewhere. As Gerry Cullen, Joe's brother-in-law put it, Joe Senior (schooled in Clongowes) was the one who must be obeyed. Joe's mother, Helen Cunningham, was a delightful lady whose brother, Professor John F. Cunningham, was a prominent gynaecologist. There were priests in her family. Joe's sister Vera married Liam Cosgrave, a former Taoiseach and good horseman.

Joe moved from primary and secondary school in Naas to Blackrock College for a couple of years, then returned to the horses. Bonnie Flanagan dedicated her book Stillorgan Again but Different to Joe. One photo shows him leading the field at Leopardstown. I quote from the “Any list of famous jockeys who rode in Leopardstown would be incomplete without the name of Joe Osborne, son of the trainer of that name, of Craddoxtown House, Co Kildare. Friend and colleague of such legendary figures as Pat Taaffe and Martin Moloney, Joe astonished the Jockey Club by his decision in 1951 to embark upon the religious life. He never rode again. Pat Taaffe said of him: 'Joe had more wins than I, but he gave it all up to enter the Jesuit Order”.

He joined the SJs at 24, having consulted his brother Paddy on the matter of what he felt was his vocation. He had made a brilliant success of his first career, but felt there was more to life than steering horses over the jumps in Punchestown. He told Paddy he was not content with his present life, and that he felt this deep call to something else. Paddy diplomatically wished him well in whichever career he chose. There were family connections with Jesuits and CWC, so the Jesuits were his choice.

He could have been a priest but preferred to become a brother. On his 70th birthday his friends put together an album on his life: “From Saddle to Sanctuary” which delighted Joe, and spoke eloquently of the affection in which he was held. You could see there the handsome young horseman, with a taste also for tennis, swimming, dancing and cards (he only played if money, not matches, were involved). In the Jesuits he gave up the saddle, but not dancing. Light-footed, with endless energy and a strong sense of rhythm, he was a superb ballroom dancer, and indulged this talent whenever the opportunity arose.

He worked in ten Jesuit Houses in Ireland, and for a short spell at our Generalate in Rome. His ministry included: Secretarial work, Charge of Staff, Infirmarian, Minister, Sacristan, CLC office work for 20 yrs. All ordinary jobs, and all done with great grace.

Brian Grogan, Joe's superior at the end, has his own treasured memories:

Visiting him in Cherryfield, I found a man lying on his back, with the TV on, rosary in his hands. I finally asked him would he like us to fix the Telly to the ceiling. What occupied his mind in his waking hours he did not say, Memories? There are the Secret Scriptures of each of us. I asked him once was he looking ahead to better things. “Begobs, yes, that's what matters!” “Joe, you'll be 7 lengths clear!” “That'll be great!” That was the beginning and end of our discussion on matters eternal! Later I discovered that Joe rarely if ever spoke about God; he lived his relationship with God, and felt that was enough.

His smile: It is there in the earliest photos, and shone out at the end. His habitually worried look would yield immediately to a great welcoming smile when you met him. There was a twinkle in his eyes. Perhaps there was little conversation but he communicated gratitude and joy that you had come along.

“He was the best of the best” – so said one of the Cherryfield staff. By which she meant his endless courtesy and appreciation of whatever was done for him. He was never demanding. Never a harsh word. 'A man of low maintenance was my term for him and he enjoyed it. As the nurse said: he did not have the illusion that he was living in the Four Seasons Hotel, he was grateful for whatever could be done for him. Now Ignatius considered ingratitude the greatest sin of all. Not to be grateful, he felt, was to miss the point of life completely. Why? Because life is a gift: people are gifts; all that is done for me is gift. Joe got full marks here, and I'm sure Ignatius must have embraced him with joy. No doubt Joe bad learnt this courtesy at home first!

Once Joe opened the door for a visitor and brought him to the parlour. The visitor remarked to the Jesuit whom he had come to see: “I have never been so graciously received as by that man! Who is he?' He had a deep sense of respect for others. He thought of them as better than himself. He saw around him “The image of God, multiplied but not monotonous” as GKC said of Francis of Assisi.

Joe would wish to apologise for any way in which he offended anyone. In tum we ask his forgiveness for any way in which we offended him. He was a loving and sensitive man. It appears that a well-intentioned but insensitive interaction with a Superior a number of years ago hurt him and diminished the joy of his later years. I know personally that Joe was a forgiving man. When he was in Vincent's, recuperating from his hip surgery two weeks ago, a nurse rang me to say that he would neither eat nor drink, nor do his physiotherapy. I went in and spoke to him on the merits of exercise if he was to get on his feet again. I obviously went on a trifle too strongly, as I discovered only later. The night before he died I asked his forgiveness for pushing him. “There's no need to worry about that now he said -- they were the last words I had with him."

His last years in Cherryfield were uneventful until a week before he died, when he broke a hip. He was discharged from hospital just before Christmas, developed pneumonia on the morning of 26h and became unconscious. He died peacefully on the evening of St Stephen's Day. A friend remembers: “I never heard him speak critically of anyone. His life seemed to be one of faith and hope and charity. He never discussed religion; he lived it. Joe, you have truly won the race that matters.'

Born: 27 March 1963, Bridge Street, Ballylongford, County Kerry
Entered: 26 September 1985, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 04h October 2022, Clonard Village, Wexford Town, County Wexford

Left Society of Jesus: 1998

Educated at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Regency at Belvedere College SJ

by 1993 at Cambridge MA, USA (NEN) studying

Address 2000: Farmhill Road, Goatstown, Dublin City

https://rip.ie/death-notice/david-osullivan-wexford-wexford-town-491641

The death has occurred of

David O'Sullivan
Clonard Village, Wexford Town, Wexford / Ballylongford, Kerry
David passed away peacefully at home, after a long illness borne with dignity and bravery in the loving care of his family and the Wexford Palliative Care Team. Beloved and devoted husband of Anne and loving father to Catherine and son-in-law to May, special brother to Tice, Mary-Rose and Paul, and beloved of brother-in-law of Steve, Niamh and Nancy, Billy, Caitriona and John. Beloved uncle to Hannah, Sarah, Evanne, Emelyn, Andrew, Cian, Tara, Barry, David, Eimer, Claire, Ciara, Henry, Hugh & Guy. Deeply regretted by his colleagues and pupils at Presentation Secondary School Wexford and his wider family circle and many friends.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Reposing at Macken's Funeral Home, Distillery Road, Wexford (Y35 T1K2), on Thursday (6th October) from 4pm leaving for the church at 6:30pm. Requiem Mass on Friday (7th October) in The Church of the Annunciation, Clonard, Wexford (Y35 YV0F) at 10am, with burial afterwards in Enniscorthy cemetery.

Date Published:
Tuesday 4th October 2022

Date of Death:
Tuesday 4th October 2022

Born: 17 May 1913, Inchicore, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 October 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 18 May 1996, Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown, Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Dublin community at the time of death.

Born at Holles Street Maternity Hospital, Dublin.

Father was a doctor

Eldest of three boys and one girl.

Early education was at a private school and then at age 9 he went to Belvedere College SJ.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/evening-prayer-chad-and-belvedere/

Evening Prayer: Chad and Belvedere
Fr Gerry Clarke, a member of the Rapid Response Unit of the Jesuit Refugee Service, has just been appointed National Director of the JRS in Chad, where he has been working for some month. When we asked him what it was like, he gave an atmospheric reply:

..........I turn into the gates of the Catholic Mission. The last basketball players drift past me in groups of chatter and exhaustion; some wash the dust off and drink long draughts from the water jars at the gates of the residence, like Greek warriors after battle or the games. I’m hoping that the electricity will be running to give me light for my own shower. Did I remember to fill the water buckets? And in the near quiet of my room broken only by the whirr of the fan above my head, I retreat into the sanctuary of mosquito net and head-torch and recall a moment in Belvedere College community where I spent two years during Jesuit formation. Fr. FX O’Sullivan sits quietly before the Blessed Sacrament. The feeble light of four o’clock on a December afternoon barely penetrates the darkened chapel. He doesn’t stir but sits silently as my eyes and ears adapt to this place of prayer. In the yard outside the voices of the last schoolboys rise and fall indistinctly; not a disturbance, more a confirmation of the outside and the inside, the inner and the outer. By his reverence and stillness Fr. FX is my leader in prayer, and we enter into a communion of silence, of listening and learning from which both of us depart more quietly than we came.

◆ Interfuse No 92 : August 1996 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1996

Obituary
Fr F X O’Sullivan (1913-1996)

17th May 1913: Born in Dublin
Educated at Belvedere College
7th Oct. 1931: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Oct. 1933: First Vows at Emo
1933 - 1935: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD.
1935 - 1938: Tullabeg, Study of Philosophy
1938 - 1941: Mungret College, Regency
1941 - 1945: Milltown Park, Theology
31st July 1944: Ordained Priest at Milltown Park
1945 - 1946: Rathfarnham, Tertianship
1946 - 1994: Belvedere - Teacher, Spiritual Director in Junior School
1994 - 1996: Pastoral care of Staff in Junior School

Fr. F.X. O'Sullivan was the Great Old Man of Belvedere. A doctor's son and close neighbour of the late Dr. Dermot Ryan, Archbishop of Dublin, Frank was born and reared in Inchicore. He was educated at Belvedere College and except for his years of study as a Jesuit and a short spell in Mungret College, he spent all of his teaching life in the Junior School in his old school. Mindful of the words of Jesus, “suffer little children to come unto me”.

F.X. ensured that all the thousands of young Belvederians entrusted to his care knew who their true friends were. His great devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Virgin was crystal clear to all who had the privilege of being taught by him. Every boy was cared for individually and his ability to quietly expose, praise and develop their latent talents endeared him to all, but particularly to the shy and diffident young pupils. The super academic teenage sophisticates were expertly taught the virtue of humility and the art of tactfully and charitably assisting the slower learners among their peers. Many of his pupils owe a keen interest in reading to him as he was an assiduous reader. For many years he stocked the Junior School Library with the type of books that even the most reluctant readers could not resist.

My first clear recollection of Fr. F.X. O'Sullivan was during one of his lively geography classes in Rudiments, when he engaged us in naming all the stations on the railway line from Dublin to Cork. “At least one of you know, what's at Limerick Junction. Isn't that so Eddie?”

That remark started our favourite subject of conversation, which brightened many days for both of us over the next fifty years. It was a great boost for me, a raw recruit to this very big city centre school, to realise that even Jesuits could be interested in horses.

He taught us the importance of accepting God's will in everything and doing the very ordinary daily assignments extraordinarily well. His pupils in the 40's and 50's will always remember with joy his many visits to Dublin factories, when, every Wednesday he brought them to visit them. His meticulous preparation and organisation of educational tours to Shannon, Cobh, Armagh and other such places ensured his pupils full enjoyment of these never to be forgotten days. Mindful of the importance of having happy staff colleagues he was warm in his welcome for new members of staff and deeply appreciated their friendship and loyalty and attended all their social functions.

In addition to teaching, he was confessor to the Christian Brothers in Marino and for many years in O'Connells' schools where his kindness and understanding were treasured. For some thirty years he took a supply in Worthing for approximately three months. He endeared himself to both the parishioners and clergy in Worthing and always availed of generous offers to visit Plumpton, Fortwell and Glorious Goodwood! Away from the crowds on the beach near Worthing he daringly wore his “sin suit”, as he called the jeans he purchased much to the wonder of many who admired this gentle conservative. Working in Worthing he developed an understanding of family difficulties which helped him in his counselling ministry to past pupils who frequently sought his advice and prayers in their hour of need.

God gave him excellent health and up to his illness some years ago he seemed to have the gift of perpetual youth. Always an avid walker even in old age, he thoroughly enjoyed his “canters” in Dun Laoghaire, the Phoenix Park and Dollymount. He had great taste for good music and frequently visited the theatre. Early lunches on Saturday graciously supplied by his great friend Br. Pat McNamara, SJ, enabled him for many years to attend “devotions” as he jocosely described his visits to Naas, the Curragh, Punchestown, Fairyhouse and Kilbeggin. Fifty years in the Society of Jesus called for something very special and we were happy to bring him on a never to be forgotten visit to Cheltenham. The opportunity to meet top trainers and racing personalities, from both sides of the pond, was way beyond his wildest dreams. God was good to his faithful servant!

Though very friendly to everyone F.X. would not allow anyone to encroach on his privacy. He always needed his own space and particularly his long prayerful sessions where he remembered all of us daily. Death came peacefully after some two years of constant illness very patiently and courageously borne. It was terrible to see the once so agile F.X, an invalid. He was heroic in his illness. A true Jesuit, he welcomed worthwhile changes in both the Society of Jesus and the Church which he judged would help to get more people nearer to the God he loved so well.

To his brother David and sister-in-law Paddy we extend our deepest sympathy on the loss of a loyal and devoted teacher for over fifty years.

ТVМ/ЕН

Born: 26 December 1886, Arbour Hill, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1903, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1919, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows 02 February 1923, Leuven, Belgium

Left Society of Jesus: 10 February 1926

Older Brother of William (Gerry) Owens - RIP 1963

Father was a house proprietor and house agent, and the live at Ardeevin, Drumcondra, Dublin

One of a family of ten, of which he is the fourth of six boys and sixth in the family, and two girls. (One boy and one girl also died very young.)

Early education at Drumcondra NS and then at Belvedere College SJ.

by 1915 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1922 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1923 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1912 in Australia - Regency at Xavier College, Melbourne

Born: 01 November 1888, Ardeevin, Drumcondra, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1905, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1921, St George's Cathedral, London, England
Final Vows: 01 February 1924, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia
Died: 07 August 1963, St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Brother of Gerald - Left 1926

Came to Australia for Regency 1910
by 1913 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1919 at St Mary’s, Kurseong, West Bengal, India (BELG) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William Owens, affectionately known as “Gerry” was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, and entered the Society at Tullabeg, 7 September 1905. He remained there for his juniorate 1907-10, and prepared for his university exams at Milltown Park, 1910-11. He taught at Galway, 1911-12, before philosophy studies at Stonyhurst, 1912-14. He taught students for the public examinations at Xavier College, Melbourne, 1914-18, before theology studies at Kurseong, India, Milltown Park and St Beuno's, Wales, 1918-22. Tertianship followed at Tullabeg, 1922-23.
Owens returned to Xavier College in 1923, and remained there teaching until his death in 1963. During these years he was also consultor, 1931-62, prefect of studies, 1934-41, in charge of senior debating, 1926-42, and worked with Old Xaverians. He was spiritual father and still teaching at the time of his death.
He was an institution at Xavier College, independent minded and a real individual. He was much appreciated as an eloquent teacher of modern history Latin and Greek. He taught with great ease and distinction, treating his students as adults, and helping many to gain high honours and distinctions each year. He was a teacher whose great command of English, Greek and Latin inspired many boys to a love of learning, wide reading, and quiet discipline. He gave students the sense that secular interests could coexist happily with faith. His style of life, prayer and scholarship was inspiring.
He was a man of mature judgment, where he himself was not involved, and could be charming. He had a nervous disposition that caused ill health, and he was painfully reserved. He read widely and was an authority on the classics, English and French literature, and all modern political movements. He had many friends and was very loyal and generous to them. He always seemed to be on hand for direction and consultation.
In his early days at Xavier he was a keen tennis player and a good left-hand bowler. For over 50 years he was a first class golfer and played regularly at Kew, even taking a day off school every week to play. He was a good example of a healthy mind and a healthy body.
Though he looked very frail he really had a strong physique. He survived a serious heart attack some years before his death but recovered very quickly He had a second heart attack two years before he died. Again he recovered quickly and was back at work, but this time he had to relinquish golf.
He was a popular retreat-giver, and much in demand. For years he gave retreats in convents throughout Victoria.
He suffered a severe blow in 1926 when his younger brother Gerald left the Society. Gerald had just completed a biennium in moral theology and had been appointed to Werribee, but does not seem to have arrived. He went to the USA and married.

◆ Irish Province News 39th Year No 1 1964 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1964

Obituary :

Fr William Owens SJ

Fr. William Owens was one of a large group of Belvederians who entered the Society at Tullabeg in the early 1900s.
Taking his vows in 1907 he studied up to Second Arts under the old Royal University - and when that institution was replaced by U.C.D. he went to Dublin to attend lectures for his degree in Classics.
He taught for one year at St. Ignatius College, Galway, and then went to Stonyhurst for philosophy. He was then sent to the Australian mission and taught at Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne. Owing to shipping difficulties this was 1914-during World War I he was unable to return to Dublin for his theology but made his first year at Kurseong, India. At the end of the year, however, it was possible for him to return to Dublin and Milltown Park for the remainder of his theology.
Fr. Owens was ordained at St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, in 1920, and did his tertianship at Tullabeg under Fr. Joseph Wellesby.
Having completed his tertianship Fr. Owens returned to Australia where he was to spend the remainder of his life teaching at Xavier College - except for a term spent at Riverview College, Sydney.
He excelled as a teacher of Modern History and the Ancient Classics - and was well versed in English and French Literature. Year after year his pupils took high honours and distinctions and left school well prepared for their courses in the universities. With a rare capacity for friendship, he commanded great influence among the many generations of boys who passed through his hands; loyal and generous he was always ready with counsel and directions and kept in close contact with them in after life.
Though frail and delicate looking, Fr. Owens was really a very strong man. In his early years he was a keen tennis-player, a good left-hand bowler, and he played golf regularly on the Kew links where for many years he was a well-known figure. He survived two heart attacks in later life—but they did not prevent him continuing to teach.
Fr. Owens was an excellent religious - rose early and said Mass with great devotion. He was a very popular retreat giver and was in great demand among religious throughout Victoria in that capacity.
He was faithful to the class-room to the last - on the 7th August, 1963 he took his morning classes as usual though he had a very heavy cold. At 7p.m. he went to St. Vincent's Hospital where he received the Sacrament of the Sick and died an hour later, May he rest in peace.

Born: 16 July 1877, Khishagur, Bengal, India
Entered: 01 March 1895, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained: 26 July 1910, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1923, Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England
Died: 30 November 1948, Petworth, Sussex, England - Australiae Province (ASL)

Chaplain in the First World War.

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1902 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1908 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1911 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1912 at St Wilfred's, Preston (ANG)
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 3rd Cavalry Field Ambulance and Brigade, BEF France
by 1918 Military Chaplain : No 2 Cavalry Field Ambulance, BEF France
by 1921 at St Luigi, Birkirkara, Malta (SIC) teaching
by 1922 at St Aloysius College, Oxford, England (ANG) working
by 1923 at St Wilfred’s Preston England (ANG) working

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-answering-back-2/

JESUITICA: Answering back
Do Jesuits ever answer back? Our archives hold an exchange between Fr Bernard Page SJ, an army chaplain, and his Provincial, T.V.Nolan, who had passed on a complaint from an Irish officer that Fr Page was neglecting the care of his troops. Bernard replied: “Frankly, your note has greatly pained me. It appears to me hasty, unjust and unkind: hasty because you did not obtain full knowledge of the facts; unjust because you apparently condemn me unheard; unkind because you do not give me credit for doing my best.” After an emollient reply from the Provincial, Bernard softens: “You don’t know what long horseback rides, days and nights in rain and snow, little or no sleep and continual ‘iron rations’ can do to make one tired and not too good-tempered.”

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Bernard Page was born in India where his father was a judge, but from the age of seven lived in Glenorchy in Tasmania, from where he was sent to Xavier College as a boarder. In 1895 he entered the novitiate at Loyola Greenwich under Aloysius Sturzo. In mid-1898 he went to Xavier College as hall prefect and teacher, and appears to have been the founding editor of the Xaverian. By 1900 he ran the debating and drama, Page was a careful and competent photographer, and the photographic record of his time at Xavier is amongst the most valuable photos of the whole Irish Mission. He travelled to Europe, did philosophy at Valkenburg and was sent back to teaching at Clongowes and Belvedere, 1904-07. After tertianship Page served at Preston in England until 1914, and during that time requested a transfer to the English province, which was apparently refused. War chaplaincy followed, including a trip to the forces in Murmansk. He worked in a parish in Oxford, 1921-22, and from then until 1947 he served at St Walburge's parish in Preston. Page never considered himself Australian but maintained an interest in the work of the Society in Australia, and kept up contacts from his Xavier days.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 24th Year No 1 1949

Obituary

Fr. Bernard Fullerton Page (1877-1895-1948) – Vice Province of Australia

Many members of our Province will remember well Fr. Page, who died recently in England, who belonged to the Vice-Province of Australia, was born at Khishagur, Bengal, India on 16th July, 1877 and began his noviceship at Sydney on 1st March, 1895. There also he did his juniorate but for pbilosophy went to Valkenburg. He began his theology at Louvain but completed the course at Milltown Park where he was ordained priest on 26th July, 1910. After finishing his tertianship, he joined the staff at St. Ignatius, Preston and was an army chaplain during the 1914-1918 war. After demobilisation, he was at St. Aloysius, Oxford in 1921 and in 1922 went to St. Walburge's, Preston where he remained until ill health compelled him to retire to Petworth in March, 1948. He was the editor of the Walburgian and was able to boast that even under war-time conditions, publication was never delayed. He was also the author of a Life of St. Walburge, “Our Story : The History of St. Walburge's Parish”, “The Sacristan's Handbook”, and “Priest's Pocket Ritual”. R.I.P.

Born: 26 May 1895, Albert Place, Fermoy, County Cork
Entered: 31 August 1914, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 16 April 1927, Institute Catholique, Paris, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 21 May 1972, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Father was a master painter and died in 1901. Mother died in December 1911.

Youngest of 6 sons and one daughter.

Educated at a Convent school and then at the Christian Brothers, Fermoy. In 1912 he went to the Apostolic School at Mungret College SJ

by 1918 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1925 at Hastings, Sussex, England (LUGD) studying
by 1927 at Paray-le-Monial France (LUGD) studying
by 1930-1931 at St Beuno’s, Wales for Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 2nd Year No 3 1927

Fr Paye was ordained on Holy Saturday. He had been ordained Deacon in Paris by His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop.

Irish Province News 47th Year No 2 1972

Obituary :

Fr Frederick Paye SJ (1895-1972)

On August 31st, 1914, when World War I was not a month old, a little cavalcade of sidecars making its way in the warm late evening sunlight from Tullamore, jogged up the curved avenue where green beeches were already beginning to emulate their copper rivals and deposited a dozen aspiring Novices on the shallow stone steps of Tullabeg, to be greeted by the Novice Master - Father Martin Maher and his versatile Socius - Father Charles Mulcahy. The first car carried Fred Paye, one of four Mungret boys who together with one from Castleknock, and seven from Clongowes comprised the largest single influx to date of man power to swell the growing Irish Province.
Fred Paye hailed from Fermoy and was a junior member of a family of seven, six boys and one sister; he was bereaved of his father practically in infancy and in early boyhood lost his mother, the duties of paterfamilies devolving on the eldest brother, William, After elementary school in his native town, when Fred gave evidence of a vocation, William gladly seconded his inclination and on completing the Intermediate course at Mungret, Fred was accepted for Tullabeg.
Not surprisingly the group came to be nicknamed, at least among themselves, “The Twelve Apostles”, or for short “The Twelve”.
Which of them thought out the idea that two of the number should, on the “free Communion” days of the week, offer their Communions for the perseverance of the group is a matter of conjecture. It was a plan which incurred the unqualified condemnation of the Socius; “forcing God's Hand” he declared it, but in the event seven of the twelve have, please God, joined the Jesuits Triumphant, and five pensioners may be found in the ranks of the Society of Jesus Militant.
In 1914 no one talked of A.B's or X.Y's image, but there was a G.I. Noviceship text book, which contained an ideal of the Model Novice called Imago boni Novitii; Brother Paye strove earnestly to approximate to the ideal. One not surprising result of this was a long reign as Beadle, and the opportunity to guide in some measure the “A B’s” of whom he was a more than competent “Leading Hand”. The metaphor would not have pleased him. He was already a fair Irish scholar and a Gaelic enthusiast, deriving some of his competence from Fr P O'Leary's living language at Castlelyons. If he was no man's enemy he had little love of the English, believing perhaps like St. Joan of Arc “God loves them in their own country”. It was an era of resurgence and for him the Easter Week Rising, the first news of which reached the Novices playing cricket, presented a challenge to which he made a generous and constant response.
Noviceship was followed by a year of Home Juniorate; a year very much of high thinking and plain living. No one who spent Christmas to Easter of 1917 on the frozen central plain of Ireland is likely to forget it. The canal was frozen for a long period and deep snow covered the ground, practically, for several months; the only available fuel was damp turf in a small smouldering stove lit during night recreation which was the sole source of heat in St. Mary's dormitory. To this was added a spartan regime entailed by the sacrifices expected during the doldrums of the war. On the intellectual front, however, the young men profited by the splendid teaching of Mr Harry Johnston in Greek, Latin and English, the quaintly couched presentation of natural philosophy of Fr Willie Byrne - all braced by Father Charles Mulcahy's resourceful pedagogy. In the group which included Eddie Coyne, Arthur Little and Joe Carbury, it could not be said of Fred Paye that he merely met the scholars; he was a solid, serious, methodical student; as a group they were closely knit, cheerful and even exciting. After the Juniorate philosophy, and philosophy meant the Seminary at Stonyhurst. To join an English Province House at a time when memories of 1916 were all too fresh, and when Ludendorff's last stand heightened the tension the prospect for one of Fred Paye's outlook was not delectable. The threat of conscription in 1918 eased the situation in bringing the Irish contingent back in 1918 to Milltown Park and Minor Orders; the Status gave Mr a teaching appointment in Belvedere, where he saw the Anglo-Irish war come to a close. Two years later in 1922, he was transferred to Clongowes, a long regency being still common. There, as Lower Line Prefect, he had to succeed such energetic characters as Father Corboy and Father McGlade. He coached or had coached rugby and cricket, organised debates and plays and lectures and controlled effortlessly and without severity the least controllable of the line. As a teacher, now and later, his absolute sense of justice, his undemonstrative manner, his decisive competence and industry made him trusted and effective - as was remarked a “hustler”. At his funeral one of his Galway boys to was to proclaim he “owed his vocation to Father Paye”. He was not alone in this.
In his nearer approach to the priesthood Mr Paye was fortunate in his Professors for he did his theology in Ore Place, Hastings, where the most distinguished of the French Jesuits, dispossessed by their own Government and living as refugees in England, maintained the highest theological traditions. Afterwards he went to Paray-le-Monial for his Tertianship.
In 1930 he returned to Ireland and for the next quarter of a century he taught in the Colleges. An enthusiastic Irish scholar, he was too clear-headed not to realise that the revival would constitute a long haul; boys at Mungret and in Galway, during the periods when Fr Paye was attached to those houses, later recalled him as a quietly dominating personality in the classroom.
He is perhaps most happily remembered in these years by his services as Villa Master of Jesuit Irish Villas in Ballyferriter, and his devotion to Ballingeary. But it was in the last years of his life that he really came into his own. An old friend of his, Father T. Mulcahy had the prescience to realise what he might do as a “Churchman”, and for seventeen years he was attached to Gardiner Street.
He had a wonderful charisma for dealing with the “hard case”. Gentleness, firmness and confidence all played a part in making him “the sinners' friend”, as His Master had been called.
His services were given most generously and freely, and very soon many - not least the Brothers of the Morning Star, came to count on his help. It is, of course, work which shuns publicity, and only in death can be paid to him the tribute of praise and gratitude he never sought.
His fidelity to the duties of Gardiner Street was admirable; his box, one of the busiest in the church, was invariably occupied as assigned hours; his preaching, 'as of one having authority', thought
fully prepared, logically constructed and deliberately enunciated bore in upon bis hearers the conclusiveness of his message. As a Director of the Cuallacht Mo Bhí - the Irish speaking St. Vincent de Paul Conference - the same loyalty was manifest; possibly most impressive, the punctuality with which he visited with Holy Communion clients, bedridden, some for months, some continuously for years.
We offer our sympathy to his nieces in Cork who so kindly provided some details of family background. Fr Paye, whose day of death was May 21st, survived his sister and all his brothers. May they all rest in peace.

Born: 29 March 1911, Brighton Road, Rathgar, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 12 November 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 06 January 1945, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 02 February 1948, Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia
Died: 27 July 1955, Crescent College, Limerick

Father was a Civil servant.

Only boy with one sister.

Early education Dominican Convent Wicklow and then at Clongowes Wood College SJ. In 1928 he went to Trinity College Dublin where he studies experimental science and obtaining a BSc.

by 1939 at Loyola Hong Kong - studying
by 1948 at Australia (ASL)

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Cyril Peyton entered the Society at Emo Park, Ireland, 12 November 1932, was a junior at Rathfarnham, philosopher at Tullabeg, and then went to Hong Kong, 1938, to study Chinese. He went to Australia and Canisius College, Pyrnble, for theology, 1941-44, and then returned to Ireland where he did tertianship at Rathfarnharn, 1946-47.
He returned to Australia and the parish of Hawthorn in 1948, did pastoral work residing at St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, 1949, spent a few years teaching at Riverview and then returned to Ireland in 1953. He was stationed at the Crescent, Limerick, and died when he took some medicine, intended for external application, internally.
Peyton was a,very eccentric person, though this was not obvious in his outward appearance or behaviour. When at Riverview he seemed to be altogether erratic and unreliable. He was a man who found ordinary living difficult.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 1 1946

Frs. John Carroll, Kevin O'Dwyer and Cyril Peyton, of the Hong Kong Mission, who completed their theology at Pymble recently, left, Sydney on December 9th on the Aquitania for England via the Cape. They hope to be home by the end of January. They are accompanied by Fr.. Vincent Conway, an old Mungret boy, member of the Vice Province. All four will make their tertianship in Rathfarnham next autumn.

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 1 1948

Fr. Peyton left for Australia on the “Mauretania” on 31st October in company with Fr. Conway, a member of the Viceprovince. Fr. Kevin Carroll, also a member of the Viceprovince, left Shannon Airport on 3rd November for New York, bound for San Francisco and Sydney. Mr. Monahan left Southampton on the “Queen Mary” on 20th November for New York; he took boat at San Francisco on 12th December for Sydney which he reached on 4th January. He will be doing his first year's philosophy at Loyola, Watsonia in the coming year.

Irish Province News 30th Year No 4 1955

Obituary :

Father Cyril Peyton 1911-1955

Cyril Peyton was born in Dublin on 29th March, 1911. He was an only son and had only one sister, whom he predeceased. He spent six years at the Dominican Preparatory School, Wicklow, before going to Clongowes, where he remained for five years. In 1928 he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where for two years he studied Experimental Science and where he obtained Honours in all his exams,
He entered the Society on 12th November, 1932. He finished his Science Degree in Rathfarnham in two years and after two years Philosophy he was sent on the Chinese Mission. While he was in Hong Kong, war broke out, so that he went to Australia for Theology and Ordination. Returning to Ireland after the war, he spent some time in Belvedere before Tertianship, after which he returned to Australia to labour as operarius and master in Melbourne and Sydney. He came back to Ireland in 1952, and was assigned to the teaching staff of the Crescent, where he remained till his untimely death on 27th July, 1955, at the age of 44.
On the Sunday morning on which he was taken ill, Fr. Peyton had said the seven o'clock Mass in the Church. After his thanksgiving he came to the refectory as usual to tell the servant that he would be back in ten minutes for his breakfast. He did not come back until half an hour later, when he told some of the Fathers that he was feeling very ill. They helped him back to his room, and summoned the doctor and Fr. Minister. He was anointed before being brought to hospital, where in spite of every medical attention he died on Wednesday, fortified by the rites of the Church. From what Fr. Peyton told the doctor and Fr. Minister, it is clear that a tragic mistake had caused his death. Instead of his morning dose of salts he had selected from the many powders on his shelf an irritant disinfectant powder, which quickly caused the uncontrollable haemorrhages from which he died.
Fr. Peyton's death came as a great shock to his community. For though he never was one to shine in community life, he was always kindly, quiet and reserved, considerate and sympathetic to those in difficulties. Always most regular in his observance, he was an early riser, and was frequently to be seen in the chapel at odd moments during the day. He was zealous for the honour of Our Lady and was very devoted to Our Lady of Fatima. Up to his death he was chaplain to a Praesidium of the Legion of Mary. Ever eager to do spiritual work, he was ready at any time to hear confessions in the church. In his work in the classroom, he was patient and kind, well liked and respected by the boys.
Fr. Peyton was a fine athlete, and an expert at tennis and golf. Golf was his chief recreation, and we may quote from the Limerick Leader to show how he was appreciated by his fellow golfers :
“Fr. Peyton was an enthusiastic member of the Limerick Golf Club, with whose members he was highly popular and respected, for his courteous, gentle and amiable disposition. No more pleasant partner nor opponent could be found, and he brought all the great characteristics that were his in private life on to the course. His company was eagerly sought and time passed speedily and pleasantly during a game with Fr. Peyton. His absence will long be felt by those fortunate to have known him”.
One of the priests of St. Munchin's College said that there was no member of the Crescent community so well known and liked in St. Munchin's as Fr. Peyton. Indeed it was only after his death that one realised how many friends he had made during his few years in Limerick. And we may add that many of his friends were poor and simple people. One poor man and his wife said that they would pray for him to the end of their days, for his great kindness to them for the last few years.
Fr. Peyton's funeral was attended by great crowds of both clergy and laity, and by most of the boys of the College. He was laid to rest in Mungret by the old Abbey of St. Nessan. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Clongownian, 1956

Obituary

Father Cyril Peyton SJ

Cyril Peyton came to Clongowes in 1923, from the Dominican Preparatory School, Wicklow. He spent five years in Clongowes, before going to Trinity College, Dublin, in 1928. There he studied Experimental Science, obtaining Honours in all his examinations.

He entered the Society of Jesus in November, 1932, and after having finished his Science Degree and done two years Philosophy, he went on the Chinese Mission. While he was in Hong Kong, war broke out, so that he went to Australia for Theology and Ordination. Returning to Ireland after the war, he spent some time in Belvedere and later went back to Australia to labour as master in Melbourne and Sydney. He came home in 1952 and was assigned to the teaching staff of the Crescent, where he remained until his untimely death on 27th July, 1955, at the age of forty-four.

Fr Peyton's death came as a great shock to his community. For though he was never one to shine in community life, he was always kindly, quiet and reserved, considerate and sympathetic to those in difficulties. He was an early riser and was frequently to be seen in the chapel at odd moments during the day. He was zealous for the honour of Our Lady and was very devoted to Our Lady of Fatima. Up to his death he was chaplain to a Praesidium of the Legion of Mary. Ever eager to do spiritual work, he was ready at any time to hear confessions in the church. In his work in the classroom he was patient and kind, well liked and respected by the boys. Fr Peyton was a fine athlete, and an expert at tennis and golf. Golf was his chief recreation, and we may quote from the Limerick Leader to show how he was appreciated by his many friends.

“Fr Peyton was an enthusiastic member of the Limerick Golf Club, with whose members he was highly popular and respected, for his courteous, gentle and amiable disposition. No more pleasant partner or opponent could be found, and he brought all the great characteristics that were his in private life on to the course. His company was eagerly sought and time passed speedily and pleasantly during a game with Fr Peyton. His absence will long be felt by those fortunate to have known him”.

One of the priests of St Munchin's College said that there was no member of the Crescent Community so well known and liked in St. Munchin's as Fr Peyton. Indeed, it was only after his death that one realised how many friends he had made during his short time in Limerick. And we may add that many of his friends were poor and simple people, One poor man and his wife said that they would pray for him to the end of their days, for this great kindness to them for the last few years.

Fr Peyton's funeral was attended by great crowds of both clergy and laity, and by most of the boys of the College. He was laid to rest in Mungret by the old Abbey of St Nessan. May he rest in peace.

Born: 27 December 1854, Johnstown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 30 December 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 23 May 1880, St Patrick’s College, Carlow
Final Vows: 15 August 1906, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 28 February 1932, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Older Brother of Bishop Patrick Phelan of Sale, Australia (02/01/1856-05/01/1925)

Educated at St Patrick’s College, Thurles and St Patrick’s College, Carlow

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Phelan was ordained in Ireland for the Australian church in 1880, and worked in Goulburn, 1880-93. Phelan joined the Society in December 1893, and later worked in Ireland. He never served in Australia as a Jesuit.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 3 1932
Obituary :

Fr Michael Phelan

Father Phelan's very sudden but not unexpected death took place at Gardiner Street on Sunday, 28th February. For some time previously he had been suffering from a bad form of heart trouble, and there was always grave danger that the final call might come at any moment. On Sunday morning he had just finished Mass and was resting himself. With startling suddenness he fell off the chair on which he sat, and lay motionless on the ground, Extreme Unction was at once administered, but from the moment of the fall he never gave the least sign that he was still in life.
Father Phelan was born at Johnstown, Co, Kilkenny, 7th December, 1854. He studied for the priesthood at the Thurles and Carlow Seminaries, and was ordained for the Australian
Mission in 1880. For thirteen years he worked in Australia where. for a short time, he was President of the Goulbourne Diocesan Seminary, He returned to Ireland in 1893, and on
the both December, in that same year, began his noviceship in Tullabeg.
Noviceship over, some time was spent in Milltown Park repeating theology, and 1896 saw him attached to the missionary staff. Galway was his residence for one year, the Crescent for six years.
In 1903 he began a year's teaching in Belvedere, followed by another in Clongowes, at the end of which the missionary staff again claimed him. Once more he lived for a year in Galway, for nine years at the Crescent, and for four in Gardiner Street. In 1919 he joined the staff in Gardiner Street, and remained there until his death in 1932.
As will be seen from the above, Father Phelan spent nearly all his time as a Jesuit in Ireland at missionary work - 21 years on the mission staff, 13 as operarius at Gardiner Street, and
during that time justly won for himself the reputation of a great preacher. Critics, to be sure, will always abound, and these people found fault with his language as being a little too florid and with his metaphors as not being always correct. These are comparatively small matters, and the outstanding fact remains that wherever Father Phelan went, in the days of his prime, he drew immense congregations, and made a deep and lasting impression. On every one of them by the soundness of his doctrine and his very earnest action in the pulpit.
His sermons, full of excellent theological matter, were prepared with extraordinary care. One famous series “The Marks of the True Church” was a brilliant and accurate summary of the treatise on “The True Church,” by the famous Maynooth Professor, Dr. Patrick Murray. Father Phelan was so often asked to give the Lenten Lectures in Gardiner Street, and that his reputation as a preacher went as far as Canada and New York, whither he was invited to preach and give lectures.
A number of pious booklets, too, as well as many articles, are due to his untiring energy - “Straight Path”, “Dust to Glory”, “The Young Priest's Keepsake”.
In spite of his success as an orator, and the praise showered on him in his best days, Father Phelan remained a simple, and even child-like religious to the day of his death. To say there was a scintilla of that ugly thing called “side” about him would be, to those that knew him, ludicrous and grotesque. He was just as approachable and as easy to get on with, as a good matured and lively school-boy. An excellent religious, there was nothing visible about his holiness of that stern asceticism that sometimes frightens, and may even repel, He was ever simple, natural full of good nature, friendly to all with whom he came in contact whether they were members of the Society or the many friends whom he made outside it.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Michael Phelan SJ 1854-1932
Fr Michael Phelan was one of our most famous pulpit orators.

Born in Johnstown County Kilkenny on December 7th 1854, he studied for the priesthood at Thurles and Carlow Seminaries. He then laboured as a priest for thirteen years in Australia, where he was for a time, President of Golbourn Diocesan Seminary, and where his brother was Bishop of Sale. Returning to Ireland in 1893, he entered the noviceship at Tullabeg.

His life as a Jesuit was devoted to missionary work, and he was 21 years on the Mission staff, and 13 as Operarius at Gardiner Street. He was often called on to give the Lenten Lectures, a genre he specialised in. His reputation was so widespread that he was invited to lecture in Canada and the United States.

His publications include “Dust to Glory”, “The Straight Path” and “The Young Priest’s Keepsake”.

He died with startling suddenness after celebrating Mass, on Sunday February 28th 1932. With him ended the line of great oratorical preachers and formal elaborate and ornate orators.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Michael Phelan (1854-1932)

Was born at Johnstown, Co Kilkenny and studied at St Patrick's, Thurles, and St Patrick's, Carlow, where he was ordained in 1880 for the Australian mission. He remained on the mission thirteen years and had been sometime President of the Goulbourne diocesan seminary. He entered the Society in 1893. Most of his life in the Society was devoted to mission work. He first joined the Crescent community in 1897 and remained in Limerick until 1903. He was again stationed at the Crescent from 1906 until 1915. His later years were spent in the Gardiner St community. Father Phelan enjoyed a well deserved reputation as a preacher and lecturer not only in Ireland but in places so far away as Canada and the USA, where he had been invited to conduct missions and courses of lectures. He was also the author of some spiritual books that had a wide popularity in their time.

Born: 19 April 1866, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny
Entered: 01 June 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 1901
Final vows: 15 August 1903
Died: 18 November 1932, Dublin

Part of the Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare community at the time of death.

Older brother of Laurence Potter - RIP 1934

First World War Chaplain.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Medical student before entry

by 1893 at Enghien Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1898 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1902 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 7th Yorkshire Regiment, France
by 1918 Military Chaplain : 37 London Road Chelmsford
by 1919 Military Chaplain : 21 Wellington Esplanade, Lowestoft

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 8th Year No 1 1933
Obituary :
Fr Henry Potter
Father H. Potter died in Dublin, Friday, I8th November, 1932.
He was born in Kilkenny 19th April, 1866, educated at Christian schools, Diocesan College, and Castleknock, and began his noviceship at Dromore, Is June, 1885. Two years juniorate followed, the first in Milltown Park, the second in Tullabeg (the noviceship was changed from Dromore to Tullabeg in 1888).
At the end of the two years Father Potter was sent to Clongowes, where he remained for three years as master or prefect, and then to Enghien for philosophy. His course was
interrupted when he had done two years, and in 1894 we find him in Mungret when he put in three more years as prefect before resuming philosophy at Stonyhurst. Theology at Milltown immediately followed, and then tertianship at Tronchiennes.
When the tertianship was over in 1902 he began his long career as Minister - Clongowes, Belvedere, Gardiner St., Crescent - until in 1911 he was back in Belvedere as master. He spent three years in the classroom, when once more the ministership claimed him, by way of variety, at Leeson St. This brought him to the memorable year 1914, when Father Potter donned the uniform as Military Chaplain. He saw service both in France and England, and in 1919 was back in Gardiner St. as Oper. A year in Milltown, Director of Retreats, stood between him and his special vocation, in 1923 he was minister in Galway. He held the position until 1928, and was thus minister for fifteen years, and in six different homes. For the next three years he had charge of the small study in Clongowes, a year's quiet teaching followed, and then came the end.
On the evening of Monday 14th November he was brought to Dublin in great pain. All the ordinary remedies for lumbago were tried without result, and a growth of some kind, pressing on a nerve centre, was suspected Next day he was very much distressed, and a minor operation was performed to try and give him relief, His heart was in a very bad state, and the doctors advised the Last Sacraments, which were immediately administered. That night he had two very severe haemorrhages, which left him very weak. On Thursday blood transfusion was tried, but did no good, and on Friday morning he collapsed. When asked if there was much pain his only answer was that he was “offering it all up.” He was quite conscious to the very end, and got absolution several times. He joined in the prayers for the dying, and his last act immediately before expiring was to kiss the crucifix, and whisper the Holy Name.
This very happy death was the crown of a holy life. Father Potter did not belong to the class of men whose goodness attracts attention and is freely spoken about, but the goodness was there. And, now that he is gone, stories are being told of his visits to the Blessed Sacrament, especially when few people were about, of his devout prayers, and, especially, of his devotion to the Stations of the Cross, He was charitable, the character of the neighbour was safe in his hands. And he was charitable when charity was difficult, when something was said that invited a sharp retort, that retort was never forthcoming, He was an excellent community man, and will be sadly missed. It can be said of him with truth that he was the life and soul of recreation, was full of fun, and had as keen an eye as most people for what was comical or ludicrous in his surroundings. He was very approachable, and with boys a prime favourite. As soon as he appeared a knot of them quickly gathered round him, and soon fun of some kind or other was in progress. And this was true of all classes of boys, our own College boys or the little lads that come to serve Mass in our Church. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Henry Potter 1866-1932
Henry Potter died in Dublin on November 18th 1932, He was a native of Kilkenny, being born there on April 19th 1866. Having been educated at Castleknock College he entered the Society at Dromore in 1885.

He spent most of his life as Minister in our houses. In 1914 he became a Chaplain in the Great War, and he served all through it until 1919.

He was a man of deep piety practised in secret. After his death, people spoke of his quiet nocturnal visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and his great devotion to0 the Stations of the Cross.

In his last agony, he remained conscious to the end, joining in the prayers for the dying. His last act was to kiss the crucifix and murmur the Holy Name.

◆ The Clongownian, 1933

Obituary

Father Henry Potter SJ

Though Clongowes cannot lay claim to Father Potter as one of her own Past, some of us can well remember him when he came as far back as to take over the Third Line. He had just finished his Rhetoric as a young Jesuit. So that it was in Clongowes that he began and ended his working life. In the middle of this long span he was Minister here.

He always felt very much at home here, for he was at his best with the boys: one is almost tempted to say: with the little lads. So that there was a strange fittingness in the fact that the Third Line Prefect of 1891 was the Small Study Prefect of 1931. The comic touch of incongruity, apparent only, would often make one smile when one caught sight of him in the centre of a group of Elementarians as they gathered for class at 9.30. He, seemingly grave but thoroughly enjoying the way in which they would solemnly discuss the amazing theories he would propound just to draw them out. In him a cloak of gravity covered a puckish fancy, a fact which explains his general popularity.

Though he was suffering a good deal, it was only on Monday morning, 14th November, that he failed to go down to his small boys. He left that day for a Dublin Nursing Home and died on the following Friday.

We inay be sure that he was sustained in the pains and sufferings of the last year of his life by his devotion to the Stationis of the Cross, a characteristic of his personal life. He is much missed in Clongowes. In the Community recreations his passing away has left a great blank. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Commnnity

Father Henry Potter (1866-1932)

Was born in Kilkenny and received his early education at St Kieran's and Castleknock College. He entered the Society in 1885 and pursued his higher studies at Enghien and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1901. Father Potter spent two years at the Crescent 1909-11 when he held the position of minister of the house and prefect of the church. At the beginning of the first world war, he volunteered as chaplain and served in England and France. In the years following the war he was sometime director of retreats at Milltown Park and served some seven years as minister at Clongowes. His remaining years were spent in Clongowes.

Born: 24 December 1872, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny
Entered: 12 November 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 July 1907, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1910, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 30 November 1934, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Younger brother of Henry Potter - RIP 1932

Early education at Christian Brothers, Kilkenny and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1894 at Exaeten College Limburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1895 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1909 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 1st Year No 4 1926

College of the Sacred Heart Limerick : On May 16th, Fr McCurtin's appointment as Rector was announced. On the same day, his predecessor, Fr L. Potter, took up his new duties as Superior of the Apostolic School. During his seven years' rectorship the Church was considerably extended, a new organ gallery erected, and a new organ installed. A beautiful new Shrine in honour of the Sacred Heart was added, and a marble flooring to the Sanctuary laid down.

Irish Province News 10th Year No 2 1935

Obituary :

Father Laurence Potter

From Father C. Byrne
Father Laurence Potter was born in Kilkenny, 24th December, 1872. He was educated at Clongowes. In 1890 he entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg, and on taking his first Vows went to Milltown for one year as a Junior. He studied Philosophy at Exaeten for one year and at Valkenburg for two. Returning to Ireland he spent three years at Clongowes, three as Master and two as Lower Line Prefect. He was then changed to Mungret, but at the end of the year was brought back to Clongowes for two more years as Higher Line Prefect. He thus spent eight years in the Colleges, an experience not uncommon in those days. In 1904 he began his four years Theology at Milltown, and then went to Tertianship at Tronchiennes.
Soon after his return from Belgium he underwent two serious operations that made the rest of his life one round of suffering. So well did he conceal it that few knew through what an agony he was passing.
'We next find him at Belvedere for two years, the second one as Minister, then Clongowes as Minister for eight years. During that period the Centenary of the College was celebrated, and his good humour, energy, attention to details during the countless difficulties of that big celebration were simply amazing.
In 1919 he became Rector of the Crescent, and for seven and a half years there was a repetition of his Centenary energy. His first act was to have the playground concreted. The next, to build the beautiful shrine of the Sacred Heart, with its marble walls and brass gates. The faithful were so impressed that they subscribed the entire cost, and it amounted to £2,000. And in addition, they made a number of nary beautiful and costly presents , enough to mention a crucifix, candlesticks, charts,all of solid silver, for the altar.
His next effort was the removal of those dark passages at the end of the church, familiarly known as the “Catacombs” The magnitude of this undertaking may be gathered from the fact that the walls that had to be removed were the main walls that supported the organ gallery and part of the house. The result was that the Nave of the church was as lengthened by about one third. A handsome wooden partition with glass panels now forms the porch.
He also widened the side passages by recessing the confessionals into the walls, had the sanctuary floor laid down at a cost of £800, and made a number of other improvements that space prevents our detailing. The Electric lighting of the house should not be passed over.
All this involved immense expense which Father Potter faced with great courage. He set in action ever so many ways of collecting money, in which he got invaluable help from Father W. P. O'Reilly. The people, on their side, behaved splendidly, so that the big work was done without serious financial trouble. This was all the more remarkable because at the sane time Father R. Dillon-Kelly and his choir were making strenuous efforts collecting funds to put up a new organ. Complete success crowned their efforts, but at a cost of nearly £3,500.
Father Potter went through all this work although he was a decidedly sick man. Yet he never complained. His friends wondered at his fortitude, but could do nothing, for every suggestion of rest would be smilingly brushed aside. That smile was constant. He was always bright and gay, and most easy of approach. One who lived with him in Clongowes for five years and in Limerick for six, and who had much to do with him, testifies that never, even once, did he experience anything from him but the greatest courtesy. Father Potter was certainly built of sterner stuff than most ordinary mortals, otherwise he could not have gone through all these years, doing the work he did so cheerfully, without giving quarter to his ailing body.
His departure from Limerick, in 1926, was universally regretted. He spent one year in Rathfarnham as Minister, and was then sent to Gardiner Street, still as Minister. Here he worked till his death, seven years later. As in Clongowes they had their Centenary Celebrations while he was Minister, so in Gardiner Street they had similar celebrations, and not long after came the Eucharistic Congress. Both these events called forth yet again all his old time energy and attention to details.
His health was gradually getting worse, still he took on, in addition to his ordinary work, the management of the Penny Dinners for the Poor. He built a new hall fitted with all modern improvements for cooking.
At last he grew so ill that he was relieved of his duties as Minister. He did not survive long. He suffered greatly towards the end, and passing away on the 30th November, was buried on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, Patron of the Church.
Father Potter had great gifts of body and mind. His power of endurance was wonderful, his mind was always active. His practical judgment was sound and shrewd. As already stated, he was always bright and cheerful, and he never seemed to lose his peace of mind. This was very much in evidence in the Black and Tan days, when Limerick was in a ferment. In spite of night patrols, masked raiders, etc., he never lost his equanimity. His cheerful outlook and helpful encouragement gave great support to his community. The example of his constant work was an inspiration. Hard on himself, he was never hard onI others, and towards the sick he was always most attentive, sparing no expense or trouble in their behalf. His tender charity towards the poor was on a par with his energy towards every work to which he put his hand.
The crowds of all classes that attended his funeral gave ample proof, fi such were needed, of the degree to which he had endeared himself to those with whom he had come in contact in the course of his varied and active life.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Laurence Potter 1872-1945
Fr Laurence Potter was born in Kilkenny in 1872, was educated at Clongowes, and entered the Society at 18 years of age. He is a brother of Fr Henry, also a Jesuit.

Fr Larry was the Rector responsible for the beautifying and enlargement of our Church at the Crescent Limerick. He built the beautiful shrine to the Sacred Heart, he removed the catacombs at the end of the Church, thereby lengthening the nave by a third. All these improvements entailed endless worried, both financial and otherwise. Yet he invariably retained his equanimity, in spite of a life of suffering following two serious operations in his early life.

His period of office in Limerick coincided with “the troubled times”, a time which called for great tact and courage in a Rector. Transferred to Gardiner Street, he had charge of the “Penny Dinners” and built a new hall for this purpose in Cumberland Street.

In spite of ill health, he was outstanding in physical and moral courage, which was rooted in a deep and manly spirituality. He died a happy death on November 30th 1935.

◆ The Clongownian, 1935
Obituary
Father Laurence Potter SJ

I first met the late Father Potter when I went to Clongowes as a very small boy, over twenty years ago. It was my first time away from home, and my father had accompanied me to see me safely installed. We were shown into the Reception Room, while the butler departed to announce our arrival. For me the moment was one of trepidation. I was embarking on a new life - under the care no longer of my father and mother, but of strangers. What would those strangers be like? You can judge with what tremulous interest I awaited my first encounter with one of them. A small, grey-haired man, turning slightly bald, came into the room. He introduced him self as “that much harried man - the Minister”. It was Father Potter. I confess he did not seem to show any signs of the “harrying” of which he complained. Never have I met a merrier, more amusing companion. In a short time my father and he were laughing and yarning like old friends, while I felt all my shyness dis appearing completely.

When evening came and with it the dread moment when I parted from my father, I had one consoling thought - “If they are all like Father Potter, things won't be too bad”. What greater tribute could one of “those old Jesuits of Clongowes” receive from the heart of a very lonely, small, new boy?

Those first impressions that I formed of Father Potter I never had occasion to revise in all the years that have passed since. For two years and a half I remained under his care as Minister. For a Minister it was an eventful period. Into it was crowded the last two years of the Great War. The submarine campaign was at its height, and food, even at Clongowes, with its magnificent resources, was difficult to obtain. We boys thought little of it at the time, but looking back now I can see what an anxious time it must have been for the man who had. charge of the food and the health of the House.

Into that period also came another epoch-making event-epoch-making for the boys at any rate. We came down from the Study Hall one night - I think it was in the Spring of 1918 - to find that the Refectory servants had declared a lightning strike. It was a situation full of unpleasant potentialities. How it might have developed with a less popular Minister it is hard, at this stage, to say. But Father Potter was the friend of the boys to an extent that neither he nor the strikers realised. The Captains of the House went to him and spontaneously offered him the services of the boys in any way he saw fit to make use of them. From that moment out squads of boys washed up, cleared tables, re-set them again and generally aided the Community to “carry on”. The difficulties were tided over and eventually disappeared.

Finally, into those years came the most tremendous event of all as well for the peril of the visitation as for the burden it placed on Father Potter. This was the terrible influenza epidemic of 1918. In Clongowes 170 of the boys - not to mention the Community, the staff, and the nurses - who went down as quickly as they arrived - developed it. The grand total, I believe, was over two hundred. The Infirmary, the Gymnasium, the two Third Line Dormitories, and the Lower Line Dormitory were all full of patients. 170 sick boys had to be nursed, and more troublesome still - to be minded during convalescence. One hundred and seventy “sets” of parents notified of the progress of the only patient that mattered to them and this in a House with a depleted staff, with nurses almost impossible to obtain, and doctors worked off their legs.

One man did not develop influenza because, as he said laughingly, “he had not time”. That was Father Potter. The main brunt of that battle with sickness and death fell on him. Even to our eyes, and the eyes of boys are not very observant of these matters, Father Potter visibly aged during those days. Indeed he seemed to get smaller and much more grey, not merely as to his hair, but even his face. Physically he wilted, but his good spirits never faltered. His cheery presence in the dormitories was the most longed-for sight throughout the day. It is, perhaps, not the least tribute to him that out of all the cases at Clongowes - Over three hundred all told - only one proved fatal. To those who remember the severity of that epidemic this may seem nothing short of a miracle.

At the close of the War many changes took place, and amongst them was the transfer of Father Potter to the Crescent. I can still recall the utter consternation with which we boys heard the news. We were losing an old and valued friend, and what does not always happen with schoolboys, we knew and appreciated the fact. The night before he left, the Captain of the House made a speech in the Refectory. Three cheers were called for him and three more - such cheers! Father Potter ran out very much overcome with emotion and as the Refectory door closed behind him, there ended for ever Father Potter's official connection with Clongowes.

From time to time we saw him again; but only on flying visits. From the Crescent he went to Gardiner Street, where, after leaving Clongowes, I often saw him and talked over old times. He preserved for all the boys he knew at Clongowes the kindliest feelings. He was always delighted to hear of them or receive a visit from them. And, when he was laid to rest in November last, many generations of Clongownians mourned the death of a sincere friend.

Genial, merry, a good raconteur, a keen fisherman, Father Potter's dominant characteristic was his serenity. No matter how grave the situation, he always faced it with a smile. He was a man like Tennyson's Ulysses, of whom it could truly be said that he “ever with a frolic welcome took the thunder and the sunshine”. But his serenity was not the outcome of any pagan philosophy, but of a deep-seated faith and profound trust in that God to Whose service he had dedicated his life. RIP

D Murtagh

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Laurence Potter (1872-1934)

A brother of Father Henry (supra) was educated in Clongowes and entered the Society in 1890. He pursued his higher studies at Exaeten, Valkenburg and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1907. Until his arrival at the Crescent in 1919 (January), Father Potter had served some nine years as minister between Belvedere and Clongowes. Appointed rector, Father Potter set himself to work on carrying out long needed improvements to the church and school: the erection of the Sacred Heart shrine, the lengthening of the nave of the church; the installation of the new organ to mention but a few of his schemes brought to a successful conclusion. Father Potter left Limerick, universally regretted, in 1926. His tenure of office marked the inception of the “modern” Crescent. With the exception of one year at Rathfarnham, 1926-27, the last years of his life were passed at Gardiner St.

Born: 12 November 1870, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 13 August 1887, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 29 July 1906, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1909, Milltown, Park, Dublin
Died: 12 October 1948, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Educated at Belvedere College SJ

2nd year Novitiate at Tullabeg;
by 1894 at Cannes France (LUGD) health
Came to Australia for Regency 1896
by 1902 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Albert Power came from a pious Catholic family, uninterested in politics. Their life centred the Jesuit church in Gardiner Street, and the Jesuits educated Power at Belvedere College. Albert's vocation was believed to be a great blessing by the whole family.
He entered the Society, 13 August 1887, First at Dromore, and then moved to Tullabeg under John Colman. He studied for his humanities degree as a junior at Tullabeg and Milltown Park, Dublin. His health was not good, and he was sent to Australia, 1895-1901, to teach the classics at Riverview. He was prefect of studies from 1899-1901. He returned to Europe and Valkenburg, for philosophy, and to Milltown Park for theology, 1903-07. He lectured in dogma and scripture, and held the office of prefect of studies and rector at Milltown Park, 1907-18. He was a consultor of the province from 1914-18.
Power returned to Australia to become the first rector of Newman College, Melbourne University, where he tutored in history and English. He was appointed the first rector of the diocesan seminary, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, as well as being consultor of the mission in 1923. He taught Latin, Greek, history, elocution, and Hebrew, as well as scripture at various times, and was much sought after by nuns for spiritual direction, which was “wise, firm and sure”. He had a special liking for Our Lady's Nurses at Coogee, founded by Eileen O'Connor, a good and holy lady.
Power had much Irish piety, but was not good in the apologetics of dealing with non-Catholics. He was a clear teacher, but not an original thinker. He had great devotion to God, the Church, the Society and to all in trouble. His published works included: “Six World Problems” (NY: Postet, 1927); “Our Lady’s Titles” (NY: Postet, 1928); “Plain Reasons for Being a Catholic: (NY: Postet, 1929), and many ACTS pamphlets, including “The Sanity of Catholicism” and “Do Catholics Think for Themselves?”. He retired to Xavier College in 1945 and remained there until his death.
Power was a very small man, and called 'the mighty atom' because of his abundant energy and ceaseless activity. He was first and foremost a devout Irish Catholic and all his later learning did nothing but reinforce the faith he had learned from his mother. But the intensity of his faith and devotion appealed enormously to the devout and to struggling souls, and he had a very wide spiritual clientele, especially among women.
He was also a genuine classical scholar and a first class teacher, much appreciated at Riverview by staff and students. He deepened his knowledge of scripture and was able to expound it better than most people. He was not particularly contemporary with theology, but in Latin, Greek or Hebrew, he was an expert. While his sympathies were somewhat narrow, and he found it hard to understand different personalities, he was a highly respected priest.
From external appearances, Power was a very successful Jesuit, projecting confidence and friendliness. His diaries, however, revealed an inner struggle to become the kind of person he believed that God and the Society of Jesus expected him to be. He typified most Jesuits who seemed to experience a continual tension between their individual personality and the expectations of formal authority.
But being a Jesuit for Power was not all romance and adventure to the ends of the earth. It also meant some internal changes in the person. Through socialisation processes in the Society, he believed that to be a good Jesuit he should avoid the things of the “world”. For him this meant obedience to the rules of the Society avoiding material and secular distractions, such as visiting “externs”, or interest in the political or social questions of his time. In the diaries he expressed the struggle within him to be such a person. In particular he recognised a tension in his life between fear and love, believing that love, confidence and hope were better motives for the Christian life than fear.
While respecting and admiring men who preached an austere life with much mortification and self-denial, he was never comfortable with that more traditional spirituality which had frequently caused him tension and “nerves”. Power suffered from scruples, and he needed to be encouraged in his convictions about a more joyful spirituality. However, he was sufficiency clear-minded to observe that too much self-introspection inflamed the scrupulous conscience and led to depression. He would prefer to convince himself that somehow his personal problems would be resolved once he became close to God.
He enjoyed meditating on the life of Christ, entering well into St Ignatius' use of the senses as the retreatant contemplated Christ in his humanity Power was more comfortable relating to a loving and caring Christ. In his diaries, sermons and lectures, he expressed a spirituality that accepted the whole human person, intellectual and affective.
Power's spirituality reflected much of the emotion of the French spiritual writers whom he claimed to value and whom he read at various stages through his life. St Francis de Sales was a good counter balance to Michael Browne's severe spirituality He read de Maumigny, de Ravignan, Lallemant, and St Therese. All these authors wrote about the importance of human emotions in the spiritual life. Human and consoling thoughts of joy and hope were needed in a soul that was torn by self-doubt and anxiety,
Power regularly expressed recognition of the movement of strong spirits within him, especially guilt, but as he grew in understanding of himself and learnt how to discern these spirits, he could offer himself sound advice, but he was not always able to put it into practice. He also worried about not possessing many human qualities. He wanted to be more patient, amiable, large-minded, more generous and self-sacrificing, courteous, and tolerant.
Despite his weaknesses, through direction and resection, Power seemed to grow in his spiritual life, becoming less introspective, more controlled and happy with his life. Learning to live with tensions, and working hard through teaching, writing, spiritual direction, and retreats, towards the end of his active life, he found the confidence to record :
“ I find it hard to resist a cry for help from someone i distress (of body or soul). And I think I can say - honestly- that during the past twenty years I have rarely (if ever) refused help when I could give it......”
Living in an age that generally promoted a severe spirituality Power exemplified those Jesuits who experienced tension when presented with an exclusively austere spirituality and he came to prefer a more fully human integration - a balance paradoxically more natural and instinctive to the older Irish traditions in which he had his roots.

Note from the Joseph A Brennan Entry
He was also chosen to superintend the foundation of Corpus Christi College, Werribee, whilst awaiting the arrival of the Rector, Albert Power.

Note from William McEntegart Entry
He arrived in 1926 and went to Corpus Christi College, Werribee, to teach philosophy. But it was not long before he clashed with the rector, Albert Power. McEntegart was a genial, easy-going man. Albert Power a small, intense, hard-drivlng and rather narrow man. The latter persuaded himself the former was having a bad influence on the students, and had him moved to Riverview in 1927. He had McEntegart's final vows postponed, despite clearance from the English province. After this treatment, McEntegart naturally desired to return to his own province, and left Australia in February 1929.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 24th Year No 1 1949
Obituary
Fr. Albert Power (1870-1887-1948) – Vice Province of Australia
A native of Dublin Fr. Power was educated at Belvedere College, and entered the Society at Dromore in 1887 at the age of 17. After a brilliant course at the old Royal University of Ireland, he taught at Riverview College, Sydney, and later studied philosophy at Valkenburg, Holland, and theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1906. He joined the professorial staff at Milltown Park, first as Professor of Dogmatic Theology and later of Sacred Scripture, and was Dean of Studies and Rector from 1910-18.
In the latter year Archbishop Mannix founded Newman College at the University of Melbourne and entrusted it to the Fathers of the Society. Father Power led a band of pioneer teachers to Newman and was its first Rector. From 1923-30 he was Rector of the new Regional Seminary, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, and continued until 1945 on its teaching staff. He was also for most of this period Spiritual Director of the seminarians, so that for nearly a quarter of a century he played a distinguished part in the training of the secular priesthood of the Archdiocese. In 1947 when celebrating at Xavier College, Kew, the 60th anniversary of his entrance into the Society he was honoured by the largest gathering of his former priest-students ever to assemble in Melbourne.
Father Power was a popular lecturer in the Catholic Hour broad cast from Melbourne. His books include “Plain Reasons for Being a Catholic”, “The Catholic Church and Her Critics”, and “Six World Problems”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1949

Obituary

Father Albert Power SJ (1870-1948)

Fr Power was born in Dublin on November 12th, 1870 and died in Melbourne on October 12th, 1948. He had thus nearly eighty years on earth. Of these, forty-two were spent in Ireland, thirty-six in Australia, and in both he had accomplished so much that it was a constant source of wonder to those who lived near him not only that one small head could carry all he knew, but that one small frail body could perform all it was called upon to do. He worked smoothly, tirelessly, unobtrusively, but efficiently. It is, indeed, difficult to write about him without seeming to exaggerate, and no one would depreciate this more than himself, for he was naturally shy and retiring, as well as genuinely humble. Born in an intensely pious home he went early to Belvedere. Without the physique, aptitude or inclination for games he must have lived a little apart from the hurly-burly of a great school and concentrated all his energies on acquiring knowledge and holiness.

At the age of seventeen he entered the Noviceship and glided into the current of the new life so smoothly that it will have held less trials for him than for most. Certainly he took the Ignatian mould to perfection. Throughout his whole life he exemplified the “Book of the Exercises” as well as he was later to preach it to others. After the Noviceship he studied for the old Royal University and taking the Classical Course, he won all possible distinctions until he ended with first place in MA. Of the Classics he always remained a lover and a master. They were to serve him well in his sacred studies. He became in time something of a polymath. In his lectures he would often turn aside into very out-of-the-way paths of learning. This was not to the taste of all listeners, but for others it was a source of delight. He was never the dry-as-dust specialist.

In Philosophy and Theology he had the same success as at the University. So that it was only natural he should gravitate to Milltown Park at the end of his course, where he remained as Professor (a part of the time as Rector) until in 1918, he was invited to return to Australia, where he had spent six years as a scholastic teaching Classics. This time he went in the higher capacity of Professor of Theology and first Rector of Werribee College, near Melbourne, which Dr. Mannix had founded as a higher Seminary for the Archdiocese of Melbourne and its suffragan Sees. It was here his greatest work was done and here his last thirty- years were spent.

Dr Mannix had practically commandeered. him from Milltown Park. The Irish Province felt the sacrifice but made it whole-heartedly for such an important end. The personal victim felt it keenly; for he had thrown deep roots into the subsoil of ecclesiastical life in his native land and had made innumerable friends. He was human enough for all his exalted virtue, to feel the wrench acutely. But there was no hesitation. The call was too clear to leave a doubt about God's will. And that was for him always the thing that really mattered.

As a reward for his sacrifice Fr Power found a wider field for his talents, his zeal, his restless pursuit of the greater glory of God than he would have found at home. He was able to contribute to the growth and development of the young Australian Church, already so glorious and destined perhaps to far greater glory, in the days to come, by helping in the formation of its young clergy, and incidentally, by the spiritual direction of many of its nuns, No one was more in demand for their retreats or as extraordinary confessor.

But if Dr Mannix commandeered him in life he seems to have done so even more imperiously in death. He robbed the Jesuits of the handful of clay to give it what one might call an ecclesi- . astical state funeral. The Archbishop himself presided at the solemn requiem in St Patrick's Cathedral, three hundred and fifty clerics from all over the continent chanted in the stalls and Rev James Murtagh paid tribute to the dead Jesuit's services in a panegyric at once generous and palpably sincere. He résumés all in the words : “Fr. Albert Power was surely one of the mnost saintly, scholarly and influential priests Australia has ever known”.

Before quitting Ireland he had gone far towards establishing for himself a hardly less honourable reputation in the Irish Church, where he had already won the titles of “Albertus Magnus”, and “The Mighty Atom”. There was a spiritual dynamism about him which really did suggest what we now know as atomic energy. But it was harnessed not to the chariot of Mars but to the Ark of Salvation - which makes a difference!

It is to be hoped that both in Australia and Ireland the memory of him will long remain to be an inspiration in the spiritual warfare we are all committed to, the principles of which he taught and practised so long and so well.

Born: 11 May 1907, Glenfield House, Kilmallock, County Limerick
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 28 December 1995, St John of God’s, Stillorgan, Dublin

Part of the Loyola, Eglinton Road, Dublin community at the time of death.

Parents were farmers and resided at Ballyhaught, Kilmallock, County Limerick

Eldest of six boys with five sisters.

Early education until 12 was in the local National School and then he went to at Mungret College SJ for five years.

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 86 : July 1996

Obituary
Fr Patrick (Paddy) Power (1907-1995)
11th May 1907; Born, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick
Early education: Mungret College, Limerick
1st Sept. 1924: Entered the Society at Tullabeg
2nd Sept. 1926: First vows at Tullabeg
1926 - 1928: Rathfarnham, Home Juniorate
1928 - 1931: Milltown/Tullabeg, Philosophy
1931 - 1934: Clongowes Wood College, Prefect and Teacher
1934 - 1938: Milltown Park Theology
24th June 1937: Ordained priest at Milltown Park
1938 - 1939: St. Beuno's, Tertianship
1939 - 1941: Belvedere, Teaching, Games, Choir
2nd Feb. 1940: Final Vows, Belvedere College
1941 - 1944: Mungret College, Study Hall Prefect
1944 - 1960: Clongowes: Teaching junior classes
1960 - 1963: In poor health

During his first years at St. John of God's Hospital, Fr. Power came regularly by bus to visit Loyola House and would also look up old friends. He came to all celebration meals. În latter years he would be collected by car, but with failing health these visits tapered off. Loyola Community and his own family kept in close contact and celebrated birthdays with him. He continued to concelebrate Mass daily to the end, and loved to use his wonderful singing voice at Mass.

He died unexpectedly on 28th December 1995

Fr. Paddy Power died unexpectedly at St. John of God's Hospital, Stillorgan, on 28th December 1995, having had, on his own affirmation, a great Christmas. On two or three occasions over the long years of Paddy's illness, his general health had given serious cause for concern, but, on each occasion, he recovered, and, in spite of all his sufferings, lived a long life in the Society. He had celebrated in 1994 his seventieth year in the Society, and outlived most of his contemporaries. His long life was surely a tribute to the care he received under the supervision of the Brothers of St. John of God. Several members of his family had died at a much earlier age, so family longevity was not the reason for his long life.

Paddy's parents must have been very religious people: how else can you explain the six religious vocations in the family - Paddy's vocation, two brothers Augustinian Fathers, two sisters members of the Institute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Mount Anville), and one sister a member of the Good Shepherd Congregation. Paddy always had a deep affection for the members of his family, an affection reciprocated by them. This also must be said for his love for the Society. His fifteen years in formation and twenty years of active ministry had left him many friends, and to the end, he could recall persons and names with great zest and interest. He always much appreciated visits from members of the Society. His memories of earlier days in the Society, and of those he lived with or worked with, or other happenings, were quite remarkable.

By any standard, Father Paddy had an exceptional life in the Society - some may spend their lives as missionaries in far-off places, or teaching in Colleges, or Houses of Formation, or in Administration, but Paddy, after his formation, spent well over half his priestly life in hospital. And yet who can say his life was less productive or precious in God's eyes for all those years he was institutionalised in Hospital? It was a source of great consolation to Paddy (which he often spoke of) when more than one Provincial stressed for him the fruitfulness of his suffering.

Of the seventy years Paddy spent in the Society, the usual fifteen preceded the end of tertianship, a further twenty years or so were spent in : Belvedere (two years), Mungret (three years) and about fifteen years in Clongowes preceding his fairly continuous illness which began in 1960, while still in Clongowes. The psychic disorders which plagued him for the rest of his life (thirty-five years) rendered active ministry impossible.

During his long years of illness, his beautiful tenor voice always stood him in good stead, and helped to attract affirmation and acclaim for his notable talent, which he gently welcomed. Many felt that if he had been properly trained, he could have had an outstanding reputation as a singer. He took a great interest in sport, a throwback to his early years in Mungret as a boy, when he showed considerable hurling skill.

When you went to visit Paddy, it was impossible to give him any news as his sister Vera or some other member of family would have been to visit him and have given him all the latest! His birthdays were celebrated in the hospital with members of his own family and a Jesuit or two from Loyola House present who enjoyed tea and some of the delicious birthday cake. He celebrated Mass daily up to the end, and birthday Masses were special, with a St. John of God Brother and the nurses making a great fuss of him, and dressing him up specially for the occasion.

No one would choose to spend his life in the Society as Paddy did - yet to the end he remained gentle, docile and accepting of his lot. He did not complain. At times, particularly in the earlier and intermediate years of his illness, it was distressing to visit him and find him at that time in the depths of depression. However, people often remarked in latter years how resigned and even cheerful he was, with a sense of great gratitude to God for the enduring love and friendship of his family and Jesuit friends.

Now, he is in a better place where there is no more suffering. He fought the good fight, treasured his priesthood, and kept the faith until the end which came rather unexpectedly on the 28th December 1995. May he rest in Peace!

John Guiney SJ

◆ The Clongownian, 1996

Obituary
Father Patrick Power SJ

Fr Patrick Power SJ, who died in Dublin after many years fighting depressive illness on 28 December 1995, was Third Line Prefect for two of the three years he spent here as a scholastic (1931-34). After ordination he returned to teach in 1944, after a three year spell in charge of the study hall in Mungret. His Prefect of Studies there for the three years was Fr James Casey, his fellow-novice, and they moved together to Clongowes. His fellow-novices at Tullabeg had also included Fr Gerry O'Beirne, Fr Charlie O'Conor and Fr Tom O'Donnell, like Fr Casey all very familiar figures in Clongowes in later years.

Fr Power spent some fifteen years on the Clongowes staff teaching religion, mathematics, Latin and English in the junior classes. By 1960, ill-health made it too hard for him to continue and, in 1963, he moved to Eglinton Road. Much of his subsequent life was spent in hospital. He bore his long years of suffering with great fortitude. He concelebrated Mass daily until the end, taking the opportunity to use his beautiful tenor voice, for which he was renowned, when he could. After a final Christmas, which he had particularly enjoyed, he died unexpectedly just before the New Year.