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Born: 15 August 1589, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 13 May 1610, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1621, Louvain, Belgium
Final Vows: 14 July 1633
Died: 13 July 1664, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Had studied Rhetoric before Entry then at Douai and Louvain
1655 In Irish College Rome (Fr Ferri being Rector)
1656-1660 Rector Irish College Rome (Bellarmino and Philip Roche are Consultors)
1662 John Young and William St Leger ask and obtain a papal indulgence for 100 Irish Jesuits (Arch Ir Col Rom XXVI 6)
Taught Humanities, Greek was Preacher, Superior, Master of Novices and Tertian Instructor
He wrote “Relationem de Civitate Corcagie et de Civicate Kilkennie” and “Libros Tres Militia Evangelicae” and “Vitam St Patrick Apostoli” and many other books.
His portrait was published in 1793 by William Richardson, Castle St, Leinster Sq, London

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Robert Yong and Beatrice née Sall or Sallan (Sallanus)
Studied Humanities in Flanders before Ent, and then in the Society two years Philosophy and four years Theology.
1624 Sent to Ireland. He knew Latin, Greek, Irish, English, French and some Italian.
He taught Humanities and Greek for eight years; Preacher and Confessor for thirty years; Director of BVM Sodality twenty years; Superior of various Residences eighteen years; Master of Novices at Kilkenny and Galway five years; Consultor of Mission five years; Vice-Superior of Mission one year. (HIB CAT 1650 - ARSI) also Master of Tertians
He devoted himself to the Irish Mission for thirty years, chiefly in Cork, Waterford and Galway. During the persecution, he frequently went to people’s houses disguised as a miller.
He laid the foundation for the Novitiate at Waterford (should be Kilkenny?). He had to move this Novitiate to Galway, on account of the advance of the rebel Parliamentary forces, and was soon compelled to go with his novices to Europe.
He was then made Rector of the Irish College in Rome, and he was in office for eight years, and died in Rome 13 July 1664 aged 75 (Tanners “Confessors SJ”)
Several of his letters are extant and interesting. Several to Fr General dated Kilkenny, 30 January 1647, 30 June 1648, 31 December 1648, 08 February 1649, 22 June 1649 describe the situation relating to the history of this period. Later there are two letters from Galway to Fr General, 20 April 1650 and 14 August 1650 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).
A Writer; A very holy Priest; He took a Vow to observe the Rules.
Mercure Verdier (Irish Mission Visitor reporting in 1649) described him as “a distinguished Preacher, and remarkable for every species of religious virtue”
Father General ordered his portrait to be taken after death and his panegyric to be preached in the Roman College

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Robert and Beatrice née Sall
Had made his classical education in Flanders before Ent 13 May 1610 Rome
1612-1617 After First Vows, because of ill health, he was sent to Belgium and Courtray (Kortrijk) for Regency where he taught Greek.
1617-1621 He was then sent for Philosophy at Antwerp and Theology at Louvain where he was Ordained 1621.
1621 Sent to Ireland and Cashel, Clonmel and Kilkenny - to the great regret of Lessius who had wanted him appointed as a Chair in Philosophy - where he devoted himself to teaching young people and giving missions.
For many years he was Superior at the Cork Residence
When the Novitiate opened in Kilkenny he was appointed Novice Master
1646-1647 During the inter-regnum that followed the resignation of Robert Nugent as Mission Superior he acted as Vice-Superior of the Irish Mission
1651-1656 When the invasion of Cromwell resulted in the closure of the Novitiate he went back to Rome, initially as Procurator of the Irish Mission (1651) and then sent as Spiritual Father of the Irish College (1652-1656) as well as Tertian Instructor in Romanae Province (ROM)
1656 Rector of Irish College Rome 24 February 1656 where he remained until he died in Office 13 July 1664
He died with the reputation of a Saint. Wonderful stories were told of the favours he received from God in prayer, and information as to his virtues was gathered in Ireland and forwarded to Rome as if it was intended to prepare his cause for beatification.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
John Young (1646-1647)
John Young, son of Robert Young and Beatrice Sall, was born at Cashel on 15th August, 1589. Having finished his classical studies in Flanders, he entered the Novitiate of Sant' Andrea in Rome on 13th May, 1610, but had to return to Belgium two years later on account of ill-health. In Belgium he taught Greek at Courtray, studied philosophy at Antwerp and theology at Louvain and distinguished himself so much that it was with great regret that Fr Leonard Lessius, who hoped to have him appointed to a chair of philosophy, learned that he was ordered to Ireland. Returning home in 1621, he devoted himself to the instruction of youth, and worked as a missioner in Cashel, Clonmel, and Kilkenny, and was for many years Superior of the Cork Residence. He was admitted to the solemn profession of four vows on 14th July, 1633. When the Novitiate was opened at Kilkenny he was appointed Master of Novices, and during the interregnum that followed the resignation of Fr Robert Nugent he acted as Vice-Superior of the Mission (1646-47). When the triumph of the Cromwellian arms dispersed the noviceship he was sent as Procurator of the Mission to Rome (1651). At Rome he was made Consultor and Spiritual Father of the Irish College (1652-56), and Instructor of the Tertians of the Roman Province. He became Rector of the Irish College on 24th February, 1656, and continued in that office till his death on 13th July, 1664. He died with the reputation of a saint. Wonderful stories were told of the favours he received from God in prayer,
and information as to his virtues was gathered in Ireland and forwarded to Rome, as if it was intended to prepare his cause for beatification.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Young 1589-1664
Fr John Yonge or Young was born in Cashel in 1589. He was the son of Robert Yonge and Beatrice Sall, being thus on his mother’s side a relative of the two Jesuits Andrew and James Sall. He became a Jesuit in Rome in 1610.

He was an accomplished linguist, numbering Latin, Greek, Irish, English, French and Italian among his languages. He taught Humanities for eight years and was a preacher and confessor for thirty, Director of the Sodality of Our Lady for twenty, Superior in various houses for eighteen, Master of Novices for five, Consultor of the Mission for five and Vice-Superior of the Mission for one year.

He laboured mainly in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny and Galway. It was he who founded the noviceship in Kilkenny, reporting in 1647 that he had eleven novices, of whom four were priests, six were scholastics and one brother.

He used often penetrate into the houses of Catholics at the height of the persecution disguised as a miller. For him we are indebted for may letters on the state of the Mission. He also wrote a life of St Patrick.

In 1649 he was forced to move the novices to Galway and thence to the continent. He became Rector of the Irish College at Rome for eight years and finally died in 164 with the reputation of a saint and a thaumaturgus.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
YOUNG, JOHN. For thirty years this apostolic man devoted himself to the Irish Mission. The Counties of Cork, Waterford, and Galway, were the principal theatres of his labours. We learn from p.871 of Tanner’s Lives of the Confessors of the Society of Jesus, that this good Father frequently contrived, during the rage of persecution, to penetrate into the houses of the Catholics, in the disguise of a Miller. His spirit of discretion and experience, his eminence as a Preacher, his profound learning, his solid interior virtue, recommended him as the fittest person amongst his Brethren to lay the foundation of the Novitiate at Kilkenny; and no wonder, that under so great a master of Spiritual life, such Ornaments to their Country and Luminaries of Religion as FF. Stephen Rice, William Ryan, &c. &c. should have come forth. Pere Verdier reported him in 1649, to the General of the Order, as “Vir omnium Religiosarum virtutum genere insignis, et concionator egregius”. Obliged by the successful advance of the Parliamentary forces to remove his interesting Establishment from Kilkenny, he conducted it to the Town of Galway; but thence also he was compelled to emigrate with them to the Continent, where he saw himself under the necessity of drafting these dear children in various houses of the Society. Retiring to Rome, he presided over the Irish College there for eight years, and was rewarded with a happy death in that City, on the 13th of July, 1664, aet. 75, as I find it written under his beautifully engraved Portrait. A few original letters of this meritorious and saintly Father are still extant : some Extracts may afford pleasure to the reader.

1. Dated from Kilkenny, the 30th of January, 1647 OS.
   “Our long expected Superior, P. Malone, by the blessing of God, is at last arrived. His coming was indeed welcomed by all; but, above all, by me, who have been sustaining the double burthen of the Novitiate and the Mission. Now, blessed be God, I am relieved of the care of superintending the Mission. With regard to the Novitiate, we have eleven Novices, of whom four are Priests, six are Scholastics, and one a Temporal Coadjutor. Domestic discipline and regular observance proceed in due course, as I flatter myself. I do trust in the Lord, that they will not degenerate from the primitive spirit of our Fathers. They are trained in the simplicity of obedience, in the despising of themselves and the World, in subduing their passions, renouncing self-will, in the practise of poverty, in the candid and unreserved manifestation of Conscience, in inward conversation and familiarity with God : and of these things, praise be to God, they are very capable and most eager. Nothing is omitted which the Rules prescribe for their formation in the spirit of the Society of Jesus”.

The 2nd is dated from Kilkenny, the 30th of June, 1618.
“The letters of your Rev. Paternity, bearing date the 24th of August, 1647, did not reach me until the 23rd of last month. Never since the memory of man have the affairs of this kingdom been in a more turbulent state than at present, by reason of the discord now prevailing between the Supreme Council and the Nuncio”.
He then states that the Supreme Council, in consequence of severe reverses of fortune during the Campaign, and the great want of ways and means, had concluded a Treaty for six months with Inchinquin, the General of the Enemy’s forces : that some of the Conditions were judged unfavourable to Ecclesiastical rights by the Nuncio, who signified his utter disapprobation, and threatened an interdict, unless the Truce was recalled within the space of nine days; that the Supreme Council appealed to the Holy See; but notwithstanding such appeal, the Nuncio had proceeded to carry his threat into execution; and that confusion and the worst species of civil hostilities were engendered between the parties.

In this and other letters, dated from Kilkenny, the 31st of December, 1648, the 8th of February, 1649, the 22nd of June, 1649, he enters into many details relating to the history of this sad and eventful period, and gives proof of his own quiet and meek spirit, of his tender regard for Charity and the interests of Religion.

From Galway the Rev. Father addressed two letters to the Gen. Piccolimini.

The first is dated the 20th of April, 1650 : he remarks on the bright prospect there was for the Irish Mission of the Society in Ireland but seven years ago; what a wide field was opened for extending the glory of God, and procuring the salvation of souls; that several cities had petitioned for Colleges of the Order, and that competent foundations* had been offered and some accepted; that the small number of labourers for such an abundant harvest of souls (for they hardly amounted to sixty for the whole of Ireland, nam vix sexayinta in toto regno fuimus) induced them to apply for powers to admit Novices at home, who being instructed in virtue and afterwards in learning, might succeed us, most of whom are advanced in years, in the work of the Ministry. The necessary permission was obtained; it was confirmed and increased afterwards, and the Novitiate had prosperously maintained its course during the last four years “et Novitiatus hoc quadriennio prosper suum cursum tenuit”. But as nothing is stable in human affairs, during the last year the Establishment was disturbed by the din of arms and by the assault of the Parliamentary forces, insomuch that a transmigration to Galway had become necessary. Every day the political horizon grew darker, and the panic and despair of the confederated Chiefs portended the worst consequences to the Country. He adds, “For the more advanced of our Brethren we are not so concerned; for they are prepared by age and the long exercise of virtues to meet the brunt and storm of Persecution : but for the Juniors, as for so many unfledged young from the hovering Kite, we are all solicitude”. After earnestly consulting Almighty God, and deliberating with the Fathers of Galway and its neighbourhood, he states, that it was unanimously resolved to send the young men abroad as soon as possible, trusting in God and in the accustomed charity of the Society, that provision would be made for them. He finishes by saying, “My bowels are moved with the danger impending on those whom I have begotten in Christ; for, as their Master of Novices, I have brought them forth with the anxiety of a mother. I now commend and commit them to your Rev. Paternity, that they may be distributed and accepted through the Provinces; hear, I implore you, my good Father, this first petition of their very poor Mother; I do not say, my Petition; but of this declining Mission; because Satan waxes fierce and cruel, intent on extinguishing the spark which is left, and on leaving us no name or remainder upon the earth”. (2 Kings, xiv. 70.)

The second letter is dated the 14th of August, 1650. After briefly adverting to the successes of the Puritan Factions, and the atrocities and sacrileges which marked their triumphant progress, he says, that he will take the first safe opportunity of shipping off his dear Novices to the Continent, and conjures the General to exercise his tender charity towards these interesting Exiles.

• Amongst these benefactors (we have already noticed the greatest, Elizabeth Nugent, Countess of Kildare, who died on the 26th of October, 1645) we must particularize Dr. Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath; Mr. Edmund Kirwan and his relation Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala (his Lordship had obtained to be admitted into the Society “pro hora mortis”, and was buried in the Jesuits Church at Rennes); and Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashell, who died in exile at Compostella. The Supreme Council had also engaged in 1645. to erect a new University, to be under the charge of the Jesuits, as also to found a College under the name of Jesus.

Born:1528, Limerick, County Limerick
Entered: c 1550, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 28 June 1578, County Clare

Left Society of Jesus: 1578??

◆ Rev. Edmund Hogan SJ : “Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century” - London : Burns and Oates, Limited, New York, Cincinnati : Chicago, Benzinger Brothers, 1894 : Quarterly Series : Volume Ninety

Father David Woulfe

It is universally acknowledged that “in the sixth and seventh centuries Ireland reached a high degree of learning and culture which were diffused by her innumerable missionaries throughout all Europe”. (1) But only those who are acquainted with the byways of Irish history are aware that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Ireland produced very many remarkable men of world-wide reputation. Perhaps, few Irishmen of our times know even the name of Father Richard Fleming, S.J., who was Chancellor of the University of Pont à-Mousson, and for his extraordinary ability was selected by the Society to replace the celebrated Maldonatus, as professor of theology in the College of Clermont at Paris. Fewer still have heard of the four Waddings of Waterford, all men of distinction of the same period, of the same family and of the same Order, one of whom, Peter, was Chancellor of two German Universities at one and the same time. How many, save the erudite Bishop Reeves and Cardinal Moran, know anything of Stephen White, S.J., so much praised by Ussher and many other competent judges, and styled “Polyhistor”, on account of the vastness of his erudition? It is time to put before our readers, on both sides of the Atlantic, sketches of these and other long forgotten worthies, who by their talent, labours, and virtues shed lustre on the land of their birth. I propose first of all to write of the members of the Society of Jesus; afterwards I shall give biographies of laymen, learned bishops, priests, and members of religious orders, of one of which the Bollandist De Buck significantly says: “The Order of St. Francis has produced a great number of savants and historians ; but has it produced historians more erudite than Wadding, Ward, Fleming, Colgan, and O'Sherrin, all of them Irish Franciscans?” (2)

One of the kindly influences under which Irish intellect and talent were allowed to develope them selves in the sixteenth century was the Apostolic charity of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In the year 1555 he wrote to Cardinal Pole: “There is in the German College one Englishman of good natural ability, and in our Roman College one Irishman of great promise. If your Eminence should think proper to send from those islands some talented youths to either of these Colleges, I entertain a hope that they could soon return home well equipped with learning and virtue, and with a supreme veneration for the Holy See. We have thought it our duty to make this proposal under the impulse of a great desire to be of service to the souls of those kingdoms-a desire which the Divine and Sovereign Charity has communicated to our heart”. On the feast of St. Patrick, 1604, St. Ignatius' successor, Father General Aquaviva, expressed his wish, that “by all means Irishmen should be admitted into the Society, as they seem formed for our Institute by their humility, obedience, charity, and learning, in all which, according to the testimonies that come from all quarters, the Irish very much excel”. Finally, in the year 1652, all the Fathers of the tenth General Congregation assembled at Rome unanimously decreed on the feast of St. Patrick, that every Province of the Society should undertake to have always one Irish Jesuit in training at its own expense for the distinguished Mission of Ireland. (3)

It is remarkable that the year, in which this kindlier influence radiated from the heart of St. Ignatius, was that in which war was first waged against the education of Irishmen. Father FitzSimon, S.J., in his Preface to his Treatise on the Mass, writes in the year 1611: “From about the year 1555, as is well known, these late heresies by force, never by voluntary allowance, oppressed religion in our country, banished teachers, extinguished learning, exiled to foreign countries all instruction, and forced our youth either at home to be ignorant, or abroad in poverty rather to glean ears of learning than with leisure to reap any abundance thereof. Yet such as travelled to foreign countries, notwithstanding all difficulties often attained to singular perfection and reputation of learning in sundry sciences, to principal titles of universities, to high prelacies, of whom some are yet living, some departed in peace. Seventeen years ago, Christopher Cusacke, a man of honourable descent and alliance with the noblest ranks, of great virtue, zeal, and singular sincerity, yet inexperienced in foreign countries, meanly languaged, and meanly furnished for a building to reach this height, began to assemble and maintain our young students in this place of Douay, wherein at this instant I am resident. It cannot be imagined how much since that time the obscurity of our nation's renown hath been diminished, and the glory thereof increased; how much the name of Ireland has become venerable, nay, admirable for peculiar towardness to learning, forwardness to virtue, modesty of conversation, facility to be governed, consent among themselves, and prompt ness to all that might be exacted, yea, or in reason expected, of any of most complete and conform able education or condition. Let none think that any partial affection has had place in this attestation, considering such to be the public and private letters patent and testimonies of princes, prelates, universities, cities and colleges, extant to all men's view ; so that little may rather seem affirmed than their desert duly declared. I omit to speak of other Irish seminaries in Spain of no less commendation, increase and account”. In another book Father FitzSimon thus addresses his Father General, Aquaviva : “I proclaim that I am greatly indebted to you for the immense services rendered to myself and to my country. To us you have been not only a Father General, as you are to all the members of our Society, but you have wished to be our Father Assistant by the special care you have taken of us. With what solicitude have you not rescued us from the greatest difficulties! What shelter and comfort did you not afford us when we were abandoned on every side! With what an open heart you have admitted our candidates; at what expense have you not nursed our sick and infirm, with what wholesome advice you have cheered us while we were fighting the good fight! Under your auspices, in spite of a thousand obstacles, we possess in Spain alone three seminaries, from which the waters of the faith in cessantly flow over to our kingdom and the neigh bouring islands”. (4)

I shall now proceed to lay before the reader some sketches of Irish Jesuits, who distinguished themselves in the first century of the Society of Jesus.

David Woulfe was received into the Society by its holy founder some time between the years 1541 änd 1551. He was born in Limerick, about the year 1520, in which city men of his name held the office of mayor in the sixteenth century, and from which, in 1594, “a hundred tall men went to ye North under the leadinge of David Woulfe, captaine”, to fight for Elizabeth against the formidable O'Neills. Under the leading of David Woulfe, S.J., Ireland successfully resisted the inroads of the heresy of which Elizabeth was the head. He was, says Cardinal Moran, “one of the most remarkable men who, during the first years of Elizabeth's, reign, laboured in our Irish Church to gather together the scattered stones of the sanctuary”. (5) He spent seven years in Rome, where he became a professed Father. What work he was engaged in there I have not been able to ascertain; but before the year 1560 he had been long and much employed in “evangelical expeditions”. In 1557 he was Rector of the College of Modena; in 1559 he was sent to the Valtelline to found a college there, and to perform other duties of the ministry. In 1560, Cardinal Morone, founder of the College of Modena, and Protector of Ireland, seeing that Elizabeth had declared herself in favour of the new heresy, thought it necessary that a pious and prudent man should be sent to Ireland to examine into the state of religion, to confirm laymen and ecclesiastics in the practice of piety and in obedience to the Holy See, and to preserve the Irish people in the profession of the true faith of their fathers. Father Woulfe was considered most fit for such a difficult task; he had all the necessary qualities, he knew his country and countrymen well, and had long practice and much experience in evangelical expeditions.(6) He had already settled the affairs confided to him in the Valtelline, and with Father Possevino was engaged in useful labours at Fossano, when he was called to Rome. The Pope wished to consecrate him a bishop, and send him home with the full powers of an Apostolic Nuncio. But the General, Father Laynez, requested that as a member of the Society he should not be made a bishop, and he suggested that he could thus work more freely, and would give less umbrage to the enemies of the Catholic faith. The Pope consented, but gave him plenary powers, commissioned him to examine what sees were vacant, and to recommend to His Holiness proper persons to fill them. His Superiors charged him to visit the chief Catholics of the kingdom, and specially the four principal Princes, or Lords; to visit all the bishops and the parish priests; and even to risk his life, if necessary, in the discharge of his duties for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. He left Rome on the 11th of August, 1560, with another Irish Jesuit named Edmund.. At Nantes he was taken for a Lutheran, and imprisoned and otherwise harassed for four days; at St. Malo, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his companion, he put his luggage on board a vessel, and journeyed on foot to Bordeaux, and thus his life was spared for the good of his country, as the ship with its crew and cargo was lost. Though dreadful storms were raging at that time and had wrecked many goodly vessels, in spite of the warnings of his friends he sailed from Bordeaux, and reached Cork on January 21, 1561, having been four months on his journey from Rome. When he had secretly made known the object of his mission, crowds of men and women came from all parts, even from a distance of sixty miles, to get his blessing and settle the affairs of their consciences. In accordance with the earnest wish of St. Ignatius, he selected and sent many Irish youths to Rome. In compliance with the mandate of the Pope, he sought out and recommended learned and pious priests to fill the vacant sees; and the names of Richard Creagh of Armagh, Donall MacCongail of Raphoe, Owen O’Hairt of Achonry, Morogh MacBriain of Emly, Conor O’Cervallain, and Nicholas Landes, not to mention others, are a guarantee of the fidelity with which he carried out the orders of the Holy See. He resided for the most part in his native diocese, yet visited Tirone, and Shân the Proud, Prince of Ulster, and traversed the various regions of Ulster and Connacht; but on account of the “wars” and the many dangers of falling into the hands of English agents and spies, he could not enter the precincts of the Pale, and accordingly, in 1561, he delegated his jurisdiction to Father Newman, of the archdiocese of Dublin.

In that very year, Father Woulfe's mission was mentioned by Elizabeth to the Pope's Ambassador as one of her reasons for not sending representatives to the Council of Trent. Her Majesty's priest hunters were on his track, yet he managed to visit the great Irish lords, to ascertain whether the bishops resided in their dioceses and instructed their flocks, to see how the clergy administered the sacraments, to guard the faithful against the contagion of heresy, and to bring heretical ministers back to the fold. He had been charged by the Pope to establish grammar schools, provide Catholic masters for them, and urge parents to send their children to be instructed in literature, and in the knowledge of the saving truths of faith; he was also, if possible, to establish monasteries, hospitals, and places of refuge for the poor, and he was ordered to acquaint the Holy See with the real state of the Irish Church. As Cardinal Moran writes, “the course traced out in these instructions was exactly pursued by Father Woulfe, and his letters clearly demonstrate how indefatigable he was in his labours, and how unceasingly he struggled to restore the Irish Church to its primitive comeliness and fervour”.

The monastic schools had been swept away, and no mere Irishman or Catholic could, without risking liberty or life, teach the rudiments of literature or religion. To meet this want of intellectual culture, the Holy Father, in 1564, empowered Primate Creagh and David Woulfe to erect colleges throughout the kingdom, and to found a University like those of Paris. and Louvain. For this purpose Dr. Creagh had petitioned the Holy See to send Jesuit Fathers into Ireland. (7) However, the Primate and Nuncio were not able to carry out the commands of the Pope, as the agents of England were in sharp pursuit of them. A priest hunter, named Bird, wrote to Lord Burghley: “If the surprising of Creagh and some other Romish Legates of the Irishíry, with some English Jesuits (8) lately arrived, may be an inducement to Her Majesty's gracious favours, I shall, shorten the number of these importunate members, by whom others of their sort may be disordered in England, passing and repassing to and fro”. The Primate and Father Woulfe were captured and imprisoned in Dublin Castle in the year 1567. On the 13th of March of the following year, St. Pius the Fifth wrote to his Nuncio at Madrid : “We have been informed that Our venerable brother, the Archbishop of Armagh, who, as you are aware, is Primate of Ireland, has been cast into prison in the Tower of London, and that Our beloved son David, of the Society of Jesus, is also closely confined in the City of Dublin, and that both of them are treated with the utmost severity. Their sufferings overwhelm Us with affliction, on account of their singular merit and their zeal for the Catholic faith. . . . You will therefore use every endeavour with His Catholic Majesty, and urge and request and solicit in Our name letters from him to his Ambassador and to the Queen, to obtain the liberation of these prisoners”.

The mediation of the King of Spain was without effect, as Dr. Creagh remained a prisoner for life, and Father Woulfe was confined in Dublin Castle for five years. A good deal has been said of the horrors of prison life in modern times; but what are they to life in the cells in which Dr. Creagh and Father Woulfe were buried? Father Houling S.J., in his history of the Irish martyrs of his own time, says that Dr. Creagh was kept in a very dark underground cell of Dublin Castle, into which the light of the sun never penetrated, and in which he was not allowed the light of a candle. In a letter written by Dr. Creagh from the Tower “to the Right Honourable the Lords and others of the Queen's Majesty's Privy Council”,' he thus explains why he made his escape from the Dublin prison : “Which my going away I think no man would wonder that should know well how I was dealt therein withal; first in a hole, where without candle there was no light in the world, and with candle (when I had it) it was so filled with the smoke thereof (chiefly in summer), that, had there not been a little hole in ye next door to draw in breath with my mouth set upon it, I had been soon undone. My dwelling in this Tower the first time for more than a month's space might may-chance make a strong man to wish liberty, if for his life he could ... but foregoing further rehearsal of bearing almost these eight years irons, with one of my legs (as the beholders can judge) lost by the same, of my manifold sickness, colics, ... loss of all my big teeth, save two, and daily sore rheumes and many other like miseries”....

We are not aware that Father Woulfe suffered so much in health as his friend the Primate; but that his cell was not very comfortable we may gather from the fact, that when Bishop Thomas (Leverous of Kildare) had gained access to him, he could not stand the horrible stench of the place, and went away without being able to transact any business. We learn this from a letter written from prison by David Woulfe, a copy of which was discovered by the learned Brother Foley, S.J., among the Roman transcripts of the Public Record Office. (9) Here are a few extracts from this interesting document : “James Fitzmaurice, of the House of Desmond, remains in this country and governs Munster in the fear of God. He is young, a good Catholic, and a valiant captain. He was desirous to enter a religious order, but was prevailed on to remain at home for the good of his native land. Donail Aenoc Senez (O'Connor Sligo?), a great friend of Father Woulfe, was received with much honour by the English Queen, and has returned to Dublin with great power, and has promised to use his influence with the Viceroy to procure Father Woulfe's liberation from prison. This Father has been visited in his cell by Bishop Thomas (Leverous of Kildare); but his lordship, not being able to bear the horrid stench of the place, was obliged to go away without transacting any business. The Primate is kept in irons in an underground, dark, and horrible prison, where no one is allowed to speak to him or to see him except his keeper. He has many sores on his body, and, although not over forty-four years of age, has lost all his teeth. He has been many times brought before the magistrates, but in spite of threats, torrents, and promises of great honours and dignities, he ‘looks on all things as filth, that he may gain Jesus Christ’. All men, and, most of all, his enemies, are much amazed at his extraordinary fortitude and constancy in the Catholic faith. From his boyhood he has despised the pleasures of this world, and has treated his body with great penitential severity. Many things could be said of the integrity and holy life of this great man, but it is not convenient to write them at present : they will be told in their own place and time, as they cannot be concealed, since the Lord has manifested to the world a servant of His who possesses such eminent qualities. This holy prelate, in the presence of Father Woulfe and other persons, foretold to Shân O’Neill the circumstances of his death, specifying the year, month, place, and persons. O'Neill turned the nobles of Tirone against himself by his tyrannous conduct; he was defeated at Cumloch, where he lost six hundred men; on May 9, 1561, he was again vanquished by Hugh O”Donnell, while passing a river near Fearsidmor, where he lost eight thousand men and seventy-four of the noblest and bravest men of Tirone. He then took refuge among the heretics of Scotland, and was barbarously murdered by them. O'Donnell has ravaged the country of O'Connor Sligo, to punish him, whom he claims to be his vassal, for having gone over to the Court of the English Queen”.
Father Woulfe escaped from his loathsome prison in the month of October, 1572, and, accompanied by Sir Rice Corbally and the son of James Fitzmaurice, took refuge in Spain; but before his departure he received the Protestant Bishop of Limerick into the true Church, as appears from a State Paper published some years ago by Lord Emly; it was discovered by Mr. Froude, and transcribed by Dr. Maziere Brady. It runs thus : “I, William Cahessy, priest, some time named Bishop of the diocese of Limerick, yet nothing canonically consecrated, but by the schismatical authority of Edward, King of England, schismatically preferred to the bishopric of Limerick aforesaid, wherein I confess to have offended my Creator. I renounce also, if I might have the same, the bishopric of Limerick, and the charge and administration of the said cure; also other benefits and privileges received from the said Edward, or other heretics and schismatics. And I draw unto the said Holy and Universal Church, and do bow myself unto her laws, and I embrace the Reverend Lord David Woulfe, appointed the Apostolic Messenger for all Ireland from the Most Holy Lord the Pope. And I pray and beseech that, as a lost child, he receive me again into the bosom of the holy mother the Church, and that he will absolve mne from all ecclesiastical sentences, censures, punishments, heresies, rules, and every blot, dispense with me and reconcile me again to the unity of the same Church”.

According to a letter of the filibuster, Sir Peter Carew, to the Privy Council, and another letter in the State Paper Office, “Sir Davy Wolf, an arrant traitor, fled from Dublin, is gone to Spain, and carried with him the son of James Fitzmaurice, accompanied by Sir Rice Corbally”. However, he soon returned to the former field of his labours, landed at Tarbert, and in 1575 was once more engaged in visiting and consoling the Catholics of Ireland. In that year his fellow-citizen and brother Jesuit, Edmund O'Donnell, was hanged, drawn, and quartered for the Faith. Father Woulfe was denied that great happiness, and from that year he begins to fade away from our view. He was in Ireland in 1575, 1576, 1577, and 1578, in which year also he was at Lisbon and at Paris, and seems to have returned to his native land again, as Dr. Lynch, the author of Camorensis Eversus, (10) says, “I have heard that Father Woulfe was a man of extraordinary piety, who fearlessly denounced crime whenever and wherever committed. When the whole country was embroiled in war, he took refuge in the Castle of Clonoan, on the borders of Clare and Galway; but when he heard that its occupants lived by plunder, he scrupled to take any nourishment from them, and soon after grew sick and died”. He died, probably, at the end of 1578 or the beginning of 1579, as he is not mentioned in the detailed correspondence of 1579 or afterwards, during the eventful period of the second Desmond war. The last years of the life of this extraordinary man are involved in an obscurity which I tried to penetrate a quarter of a century ago, by consulting the original documents in Rome. I failed to get at them, on account of circumstances over which neither I nor any one else had control. What a chequered life was that of this most distinguished, perhaps, of all the citizens of Limerick! He first comes into view as Rector of the Jesuit College of Modena, he establishes a College in the Valtelline, declines the dignity of Bishop, and the pomp and circumstance of a nunziatura (11) and through perils on sea and land, journeying through woods and bogs, in a loathsome prison, “through good and ill he was Ireland's still”, and amidst the distracting political issues that tore Ireland piecemeal, he sought nothing but the good of his country, provided her with prelates of the most distinguished merit, and instructed and comforted her faithful people. His is a name of which the citizens of Limerick should be proud, and which the sea-divided Gael would not willingly let die. By Stanihurst, his contemporary, he is called a distinguished divine, and is by him classed among “the learned men and authors of Ireland”. Of the Limerick Woulfes', who now “all, all are gone”, one was bailiff of that city the year Father David went to reside there as Nuncio (as he is always styled by his friend, Primate Creagh); another was mayor in the year of Father David's death; a third, “David Wolfe, gentleman, black hair, middle stature”, was transplanted by the Cromwellians in 1563; and another member of that stock was the famous General Wolfe, who died in the moment of victory at Quebec.

https://www.dib.ie/biography/wolfe-david-a9107

DICTIONARY OF IRISH BIOGRAPHY

Contributed by
Barry, Judy

Wolfe, David (1528–c.1578), leader of the second Jesuit mission to Ireland, was born in Limerick. His command of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese strongly suggests that he was educated on the Continent, but he is first recorded as dean of the diocesan chapter in Limerick. He was received into the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1554 and resigned the deanery in June 1555. On 30 April 1558 Ignatius Loyola appointed him rector of the College of Modena. On 2 August 1560 an effort to revive the morale and discipline of the catholic church in Ireland was initiated with the appointment of Wolfe as papal commissary (the title of nuncio being withheld at the request of his superior, Diego Lainez) with instructions to establish schools, hospitals and places of refuge for the poor where possible, to reform monasteries, and to recommend suitable candidates for bishoprics and deaneries; as a corollary, Irishmen seeking preferment were prohibited from travelling to Rome without his approval. Wolfe arrived in Cork on 20 January 1561 on his way to Limerick, where he intended to establish his base, but was forced into hiding when he learned that the government had ordered his arrest. His initial report of his reception by the laity was optimistic, noting that he had dealt with over a thousand marriage dispensations in the first six months.

The clergy, however, were less responsive. A number of the bishops countered his order to abandon their concubines by challenging his authority as papal commissary and refusing him the right of visitation to their churches. His sole right to sanction visits to Rome in search of promotion was particularly resented, and as early as 12 October 1561 he found it necessary to warn Cardinal Morone (the protector of Ireland in the curia) against Irish clerics who claimed to have no knowledge of Wolfe or his authority in Ireland. Wolfe's powers of recommendation were central to the success of his mission, and the appointments of O'Crean (qv) (Elphin), O'Harte (qv) (Achonry) and MacGongail (Raphoe), all on 28 January 1562, began the process of bringing the church hierarchy in Ireland into the mainstream of Tridentine reform. In the same year, Wolfe sent his reluctant fellow townsman, Richard Creagh (qv) to Rome from which he was to return two years later as archbishop of Armagh with faculties which extended the scope of what now became their joint mission. In the meantime, Wolfe had both recruited seven new candidates for the Jesuits and sent them to various houses on the Continent and, in 1563, drawn up a religious rule of life for a group of Limerick women, who became known as ‘Menabochta' (mna bochta, poor women) and gave rise to scandalous rumours assiduously spread by his episcopal opponents.

Wolfe asked to be recalled in 1563, but the new faculties issued by Pope Paul IV in 1564 prevented Lainez from dealing with his request. Later in the year, however, Wolfe's authority lapsed as a result of the pope's death and it was decided to recall him. It is not known when news of this decision reached Wolfe, but it is clear that he was not in a position to act upon it. In October 1565, the assize judges issued a warrant for his arrest and a reward of £100 was offered for information leading to his capture. He fled across the Shannon and led the life of a penniless fugitive in the neighbourhood of Limerick, his difficulties aggravated by his reluctance to leave Ireland without repaying the substantial debts that he had incurred.

Hearing that Richard Creagh had returned to Ireland after his escape from the Tower of London, Wolfe made his way to Armagh where they met on 6 January 1567. Since Wolfe was no longer a papal commissary, Creagh made him his vicar general and commissioned him to conduct a visitation of the metropolitan sees. At a meeting of the northern bishops, Creagh also secured a condemnation of the rumours concerning Wolfe and the house for women in Limerick. Wolfe's financial circumstances and the restraints on his freedom of movement made it difficult for him to carry out his duties and he decided to ease his position by suing for a pardon from the viceroy.

Using Hugh O'Donnell (qv) as an intermediary he arranged to see the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney (qv), at Carrickfergus. The meeting was friendly and Sidney promised that if Wolfe came to Dublin he would arrange for a pardon to be issued. When Sidney put the matter to the Irish council in Dublin, however, the protestant bishops demanded that before a pardon was granted Wolfe should declare the pope an Antichrist and submit to the queen as supreme head of the church. Wolfe refused these terms and was committed to Dublin castle in October 1567. For a while he attended to the spiritual needs of the other prisoners, but when it became obvious to the authorities that he would not change his views he was put in solitary confinement in an underground cell.

Wolfe escaped in 1572, but it was not till September 1573 that he set sail for Portugal, accompanied, significantly, by the 7-year old son of the rebel James fitz Maurice Fitzgerald (qv), who had submitted earlier in the year. His departure was facilitated by an Irish merchant who agreed to pay his debts on condition of immediate repayment on reaching Lisbon. Lisbon proved to be a troubled refuge. The Jesuit house was unable to provide the large sum required and the Dublin merchant complained publicly of the order's bad faith. More serious were accusations by an Irish student at the University of Coimbra that Wolfe had fathered a child in Ireland, taken bribes, and secured his release from prison by swearing to obey the queen's laws. Most serious was the intervention of the Jesuit general who blocked the payment of the debt, partly to allow the student's charges to be investigated, but largely because he was made aware of the possibility that the money was to be used to buy munitions. It is likely that this was suggested by Wolfe's frame of mind, but it was grounded on the facts that he was known to be writing a book in which he intended to show the king of Spain how to conquer Ireland and that he had met the Spanish ambassador, Juan Borgia, on several occasions with a view to persuading Philip II to support fitz Maurice's son at the Jesuit college in Lisbon.

Wolfe was formally warned by the procurator for the mission in Lisbon that he must not bring disrepute to the society by involving himself in matters of war. Nonetheless, in October 1574 he left Lisbon for Madrid, hoping to persuade Philip II and the papal nuncio to advance money for fitz Maurice's projected invasion of Ireland. He returned in March 1575 to the Jesuit house at Evora, Portugal, where his openly declared intention of collecting arms for fitz Maurice was seen as wholly inappropriate for a priest. The Portuguese provincial ordered that he should be confined to the house, but with the influence of both King Philip and the pope behind him Wolfe was able to free himself and he joined fitz Maurice in Saint-Malo in the summer of 1575. He subsequently visited Spain and went on to Rome, which he left in the company of fitz Maurice in February 1577.

He is said to have left the Jesuits during this period, but as late as June 1578 the general of the order wrote that he would be ‘glad of any employment for old David Wolfe' (CSPI, 1574–85, 136). It is likely that Wolfe died shortly afterwards. He was not among those who accompanied fitz Maurice to Ireland in June 1579 and nothing further is recorded of him.

Sources
Irish Jesuit archives (Leeson St., Dublin), MacErlean transcripts; CSPI, 1509–82; CSP Rome, 1572–8; DNB; Memorials of the Irish province, S.J., i, no. 6 (1903); Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin, SJ, The Jesuit missions to Ireland in the sixteenth century (c.1970; privately published); C. Lennon, An Irish prisoner of conscience (2000); Brendan Bradshaw (ed.), ‘Father Wolfe's description of Limerick city, 1574', North Munster Antiquarian Journal (1975), 47–53

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WOULFE, DAVID, had been Chaplain to James Maurice Desmond de Giraldinis, as I find from that nobleman’s letter, dated from St. Malo, the 31st of January, 1576. The Father had returned to Ireland.

◆ Edmund Hogan SJ, CatChrn
Rector of Modena College;
Nuncio to Ireland;
Prisoner;
Writer;

Classed by Stanihurst among “the learned men and authors of Ireland and as a distinguished divine”.

A man of great reputation for austered sincerity

Had been Chaplain to James Fitzmaurice, of Desmond de Geraldinis, as appears by a letter from that nobleman, dated St Malo 31/01/1576, expressing his gratitude to the Society for having given him the letters of aggregation to the prayers and good works of the Order, through the petition and recomendation of Fr William Good. The Father had returned to Ireland. (Oliver from Stonyhurst MSS)

Examination of Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, prisoner in the Tower of London, printed in Shirley’s original leters and papers respecting the Church in Ireland - London, Rivington, 1851 p171 :
“Touching him whome he calleth the Pope’s Nuncio, doth answer that the said Nuncio came from Rome about four years since August last past (the date is March 16th 1564/5) and hath made his continual abode all the said time in Ireland, called by name David Wolfe, born in Limerick where the examinate also was born. And further he saith that the said David Wolfe hath been about seven years abiding in Rome, and was a Jesuite there professed, and sent from the Pope by obedience into ireland, by commission to see what Bishops did their duties there, and wgat sees were void and ... having asked where the Nuncio doth commonly keep in Ireland, he saith that he doth secretly come to Limerick, and hath been this last summer in Tyrone with Shane O’Neill as he heard, and the letters that he received were delivered unto him in Limerick, in the presence of a Priest called Sir Thomas Molam”.

◆ Henry Foley - Records of the English province of The Society of Jesus Vol VII
WOLFE, or WOULFE, DAVID, Father, of Limerick (Irish); entered the Society about 1550, and died after 1578. (Hogan's list and eulogia Ibernia Ignatiana. He had been Chaplain to James Fitzmaurice, of Desmond de Geraldinis, as appears by a letter from that nobleman, dated St. Malo, January 31, 1576, expressing his gratitude to the Society for having given him letters of aggrega tion to the prayers and good works of the Order, through the petition and recommendation of Father William Good. The Father had returned to Ireland, (Oliver, from Stonyhurst M53:) Examination of Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, prisoner in the Tower, printed in Shirley's original letters and papers respecting the Church in Ireland, London, Rivington, 1851, p. 171. "Touching him whom he calleth the Pope's Nuncio, doth answer that the said Nuncio came from Rome about four years since August last past (the datc is March 16, 1564-5), and hath made his continual abode all the said time in Ireland, called by name David Wolle, born in Limerick, where the examinate also was born. And further he saith that the said David Wolfe hath been about seven years abiding in Rome, and was a Jcsuite there professed, and sent from the Pope by obedience into Ireland, by commission to see what Bishops did their duties there, and what sees were void; and ... having asked where the Nuncio doth commonly keep in Ireland, he saith that he doth secretly come to Limerick, and hath been this last summer in Tyrone with Shanç O'Ncil as he heard, and the letters that he received were delivered unto him in Limerick, in the presence of a Priest called Sir Thomas Molam.' At p. 128 of the same book are faculties granted to Father Newman, Priest, of Dublin, dated Limerick, December 7, 1563, beginning, "David Wolfe, Priest $.j., and Commissarius of Our Most Holy Lord Pius Papa IV., to the most illustrious Princes and the whole Kingdom of Ireland." He had been Rector of the College at Modena, and was once in prison. (Father Hogan's list).

◆ Memorials of the Irish Province SJ June 1902 1.6

A Brief Memoir of Father Alfred Murphy SJ - by Matthew Russell SJ

Father David Wolfe SJ

Seemingly on the Continent, about the end of the year 1578 or beginning of 1579, died Father David Wolfe, a native of Limerick. He may be looked upon as the pioneer Jesuit of the Irish Mission, having been the first member of the Society, after Fathers Brouet and Salmeron, to labour in Ireland. After having spent seven years in Rome, and been Rector of the College of Modena, he was at the instance of Pope Paul IV., who made him Apostolic Nuncio, sent by Father Lainez to Ireland, where he landed at Cork on the 20th January, 1561. On hearing of his arrival vast numbers flocked from places as much as sixty miles distant to receive his ministrations, Cardinal Moran speaks of him as “one of the most remarkable men who, during the first years of Elizabeth's reign, laboured in the Irish Church to gather together the scattered stones of the Sanctuary”. He came to Ireland with plenary powers from the Pope to examine what sees were vacant, and to recommend fitting persons to fill them. Moreover, he was charged to visit the chief Catholics of the kingdom, especially the four principal princes or lords, to visit the bishops and parish priests, to establish grammar schools, provide teachers, found, if possible, monasteries, hospitals, and places of refuge for the poor, and to inform the Holy See of the real condition of the Irish Church. He was also empowered to establish an Irish University in conjunction with the Primate. In 1567 the Primate and Father Wolfe were captured and imprisoned in the Castle of Dublin. In the following year Pope St. Pius V. wrote to his Nuncio in Madrid: “We have been informed that our venerable, brother the Archbishop of Armagh has been cast into prison .... and that our beloved son, David, of the Society of Jesus, is also closely confined in the city of Dublin, and that both of them are treated with the utmost severity. Their sufferings overwhelm us : with affliction, on account of their singular merit, and their zeal for the Catholic faith”. Father Wolfe endured the sufferings of a loathsome prison for five years, after which he made his escape to Spain, accompanied by Sir Rice Corbally. In 1575 he again returned to Ireland, where, for the three following years he laboured among his afflicted countrymen. His portrait is preserved in the Irish College at Salamanca. Father Hogan asserts that he died in the county of Clare in Ireland.

Born: 1575, Clonmel, County Tipperary
Entered: 13 October 1596, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: c 1601, Salamanca, Spain
Final Vows: 06 January 1613, Dilingen, Germany
Died: 23 April 1647, Galway Residence, Galway City, County Galway

Younger Brother of Thomas - RIP 1622; Uncle of Peter White - RIP 1678; Thomas White - Ent 30/09/1612, LEFT 12/11/1618; Cousin of William White - RIP 1625

His name appears on a list of 8 who got a BA from Salamanca University in 1595 and then entered
1597 At Villagarcía College Age 22 Soc 6. Already a BA and studying Theology
1600 At Salamanca studying Theology Age 25 Soc 3
1603 Age 29 Soc 7. Professor of Arts at Salamanca University
1605 Came from CAST to GER SUP
1606-1609 At Ingolstadt lecturing in Theology. Age 32 Soc 10 and a Doctor of Divinity. Confessor and “Oreses Religiosorum in Convictu”
1610-1323 At Dilingen teaching Sacred Scripture “vires mediocres”
1612 Professor of Scholastic Theology at Dillingen and Pres of Casus. Confessor
1623-1627 Went to Pont-á-Mousson (CAMP) - Confessor and Spiritual Father to Germans
1628-1630 At Metz Confessor, Spiritual Father and Prefect of Cases
1630 Came to Irish Mission
Usher praised White in his Collectanea 1621 Tom V & VI)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica”:
c1617 he was in Bavaria
1634 Distinguished Professor of Theology (IER)
The Protestant Archbishop Ussher in “Primordia” p 400 calls him a man of exquisite knowledge in the antiquities, not only of Ireland, but also of other nations.
Robert Nugent, Superior of Irish Mission in a letter from Kilkenny 10 January 1646 to Charles Sangri, speaks of his works which he had sent to censors for examination.
Professor of Theology at Dillingen, Ingolstadt and Pont-à-Mousson etc.; Writer; Antiquarian;
Called a “Polyhistor” by Raderus, Colgan and others on account of his extraordinary learning.
(cf Oliver Stonyhurts MSS; Dean Reeves “Memoir of Stephen White”; de Backer “Biblioth. des Écrivains SJ”; De Buck “Archéologie Irlandaise”)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already graduated with a BA in Arts and in Theology abroad before Ent 13 October 1596 Villagarcía
1598-1601 After First Vows he was sent to Royal College Salamanca for studies and was Ordained there c 1601
1601-1605 Taught Philosophy at Irish College Salamanca
1605-1609 To the disappointment of his Spanish Superiors he was withdrawn by the General from CAST and appointed to a Chair of Theology at the College of Ingolstadt in the Upper German Province (GER SUP). At the end of two years here he was reported to the General as having departed from the ratio studiorum in his teaching. His lectures were represented to the General as “partly temerarious, partly dangerous and in great part to be retracted”,
1609 In September 1609 General ordered that Stephen be dismissed from his post and sent back to Ireland. But his health was never robust and his physician decided against the return journey to the Irish Mission. Later the General was to learn that White had not been so unorthodox, he had merely been expounding the opinions of Vasquez and was not the only Jesuit who approved of that scholar's teaching.
1610-1622 He was sent to the College of Dilingen, and he was not reinstated as a professor of Theology for the next two years. But this temporary disgrace incurred at Ingolstadt proved to be providential. The two years of freedom from the lecture-hall were not spent idly by Stephen. From this time dates his interest in the rich manuscript materials for Irish history and hagiography buried away in German monastic libraries. By Autumn, 1612, he had composed a work on the lives of Irish Saints but the General ordered that the book be submitted to rigid censorship in case it might cause offence to people of other countries. That same Autumn, he resumed his theology lectures in Dilingen, and was congratulated by the General who warned him, however, not to deflect from the 'sententia ordinaria". During these years he was professor, for a time, of Sacred Scripture. He remained in Dilingen as professor of dogmatic theology until 1622
1622-1627 Ever since 1620 White was anxious to leave the Upper German province and in 1622 was allowed to pass to CAMP where he was assigned to the University of Pont-à-Mousson. Although he had been advised in advance that he could not expect a Chair in that University, he taught Theology in fact there over the next three years, although his status might be better described, perhaps, as coach and not professor. But the five years, 1622/27, spent by him at Pont-à-Mousson were mostly taken up with historical research. For within a year of his arrival, 1623, he had ready for the press his celebrated “Apologia pro Hibernia”. But the General stopped the printing of this work at Antwerp.
1627-1630 He was transferred to Metz but held no teaching post there.
1630-1644 The General in response to requests from the Irish Mission allowed White to return to Ireland. Very little is known with certainty about his career on the Irish Mission. There is no mention of his name again in the sources until 1637 when the CATS simply recapitulated his past career but gave no hint of his address or occupation that year. It also said that his was in poor health. That Winter he wrote to the General asking that the Will which he had made at Dilingen before his final profession should be implemented to the benefit of the Irish Mission. His well-known letter to John Colgan O.F.M., 31 January 1640, implies that he had been engaged in research work ever since his return to Ireland and that he had spent the previous decade for the most part at Dublin where he had access to the library or Archbishop James Ussher.
1640 His later years, after the Puritan occupation of Dublin were spent in Galway. Correspondence of 1644 and 1646 indicates that he had a work approved for publication. He died sometime in or after 1646. Stephen White was one of the most remarkable Irish scholars of his time. His ability as philosopher and theologian was widely acknowledged in Spain, Germany and France. But his enduring fame rests upon his pioneering work in unearthing the manuscript treasures that preserved so much of the story of Ireland's past. He transcribed manuscripts for the Bollandists, for John Colgan, for James Ussher. Both the latter acknowledged their indebtedness to him. His magnum opus, the “Apologia pro Hibernia”, did not see the light until two centuries after his death but Lynch had a precis of the work before him when he was writing his “Cambrensis Eversus”.
White was the first Irish writer to voice the national tradition which rejected as spurious the grant of Ireland by Pope Adrian IV to Henry II of England. Though his troubles at Ingolstadt gave him the heaven-sent opportunity of turning to historical research, it is to be noted that his contemporary Irish fellow- Jesuits seem to have had no appreciation whatever of his contributions to Irish historical scholarship. Indeed there is plenty of evidence to hand that he was plagued by members of the Irish Mission with invitations to return during his years at Ingolstadt, Dilingen and Pont-à-Mousson. When he returned to Ireland in 1630 he had very probably little facility in speaking either Irish or English after his forty years abroad. The mission itself was unable to furnish him with the library facilities needed for his research work. Yet taking into account all the successes, misunderstandings and disappointments that mark his career, he will always be regarded as the most eminent Irish Jesuit produced in the Old Society. He died at Galway 23 April 1647.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
White, Stephen
by Terry Clavin

White, Stephen (1574?–1646/7), Jesuit priest, academic, and antiquary, was born in Clonmel, the son of Pierce White. His was a remarkable family, two of his brothers also being priests: James was vicar apostolic of Waterford and Lismore and Thomas White (qv), a Jesuit, was the founder of the first Irish college on the continent. Another brother was deposed as mayor of Clonmel in 1606 for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. He was probably educated in the catholic school at Clonmel before travelling to study at the Irish college at Salamanca founded by his brother about 1590. After graduating BA, he entered the Society of Jesus on 13 October 1596 at Villagarcia. He remained at Salamanca, continuing his studies in theology, and obtained a doctorate of divinity about 1605.

In 1602 he taught a one-year course in humanities at Salamanca, marking the start of a distinguished academic career, and followed this up with a three-year course in mental philosophy. Such was his reputation that he was appointed to the chair of scholastic theology in the University of Ingoldstadt, one of the most distinguished universities in Germany, inaugurating his lectureship on 7 January 1606. In 1609 he went to lecture in the University of Dilingen on the Danube, being first professor of scholastic theology, and librarian of the university, and by 1612 confessor of the religious orders. He remained there for fourteen years, becoming one of the most accomplished theologians in Germany. After departing Dilingen he retired from academic life, being confessor to the Germans at Pont-à-Mousson, Champagne (1623–7), and spiritual father at the college of Metz (1627–9).

After 1611 two factors led him towards the study of Irish history. First, there had been little contact between Ireland and continental Europe since the early middle ages; the little that was known about Ireland tended to be from invariably hostile English sources. Second, Scottish antiquarians, capitalising on the fact that prior to the late middle ages the inhabitants of Ireland had been called Scots, claimed the Irish scholars and missionaries, who were a ubiquitous presence across the continent in the early medieval period, as their own. This opportunistic attempt to deprive Ireland of its saints and scholars, and of its best case for being a civilised Christian nation, did not go unchallenged, not least from White. He was aided in his scholarly labours by his academic contacts. Dilingen received students from abbeys and monasteries all over Germany and beyond, facilitating his access to vast reservoirs of ancient manuscripts relating to Ireland.

White wrote his Apologia pro Hibernia adversus Cambri calumnias between 1611 and 1613, declaring ‘The sole purpose of my writing is to defend the injured reputation of the old Irish whom I, and my fathers, for four hundred years have shared a common fatherland.’ He refuted the allegations of the twelfth-century Welsh author Gerald (qv) of Wales whose Expugnatio Hibernica justified the Norman conquest of Ireland through portraying the natives as barbaric and semi-pagan. The Apologia demolished such allegations but was marred slightly by his highly personalised attacks on Gerald. Although White was of Norman ancestry, he identified with the Gaelic Irish. During his career he wrote many works glorifying Ireland's past and refuting the Scots’ claims. He also transcribed a number of manuscripts on the lives of early Irish saints. However, none of his works was published during his lifetime, partly because of a lack of funds but also because of the politically sensitive nature of the material. A generous scholar, he freely shared his writings and discoveries with his contemporaries; others prospered from his unselfish spadework while he remained in comparative obscurity. His knowledge was such that he was accorded the title of ‘polyhistor’, or walking library.

The Irish Jesuits had frequently requested his transfer to Ireland, and in late 1628 he returned to his homeland, after an absence of thirty-eight years, to teach in a Jesuit college just established in Dublin. However, in January 1629 it was suppressed by the government. He returned to his native diocese of Waterford and Lismore, where the teacher who had lectured in some of Europe's most renowned academic institutions spent his autumn years teaching street children. During the late 1630s he was based in Dublin, and at this time embarked on his most celebrated and remarkable antiquarian collaboration. He several times met James Ussher (qv), Church of Ireland primate of Ireland and one of the most brilliant scholars of his age, who shared White's passion for Irish history. Ussher showed him his library and praised his learning. In return White gave Ussher his manuscripts on the lives of the early Irish saints.

After the start of the 1641 rebellion he fled Dublin to settle in Galway city. By then he was too infirm to carry out any more work or to become involved in the turbulent events of the 1640s. While in Galway he met John Lynch (qv), whose Cambrensis eversus was based on White's Apologia. His most likely date of death is shortly after January 1646 but some accounts have him alive in April 1647.

Burgundian Library, Brussels, xxi, nos. 7658–61; The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, ed. and trans. W. Harris (1745–6), ii, 103; John Lynch, Cambrensis eversus, ed. Matthew Kelly (Dublin Celtic Society, 1848–52), ii, 394; Stephen White, Apologia pro Hibernia adversus Cambri calumnias, ed. Matthew Kelly (1849); William Reeves, ‘Memoir of Stephen White’, RIA Proc., xiii (1861); DNB; Edmund Hogan, ‘Worthies of Waterford and Tipperary’, Waterford ASJ, iii (1897), 119–34; William Burke, History of Clonmel (1983), 457–64

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Stephen White 1576-1646
In the estimation of historians and antiquarians, both Catholic and Protestant, Irish and continental, Fr Stephen White was a scholar of the first order. He was a nan of encyclopaedic knowledge, with a bent for antiquities. His contribution to the Annals of the Four Masters and their invaluable help in their compilation is attested warmly and generously by Michael Colgan, the greatest of them.

Born in Clonmel of a family which gave many illustrious sons to the Jesuits, he joined the Society at Villagarcia in 1596, and having pursued a brilliant course in the various continental colleges, professed Philosophy and Theology for many years in Germany and France.

A long wished for project in education, an Irish University, was started in Back Lane Dublin in 1629. Fr Stephen was sent home to profess in it. Its life span was short. For the next ten years Fr White spent most of his time teaching young boys in Waterford.

On the outbreak of the Confederate War he went to Galway, where he died an old man of 72 in 1646.

His works include : “Apologia pro Hibernia’, “Geste Dei”, “De Sanctis et Antiquitate Hiberniae” together with numerous philosophical and theological tracts. A great deal of these works are lost, indeed were never published through fear of exacerbating the English authorities.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WHITE, STEPHEN. This Irish Father deserves a fuller eulogium than I am able to supply. He was the author of some historical pieces relating to Ireland, in confutation of the assertions of Giraldus Cambrensis. The Rev. John Lynch, who had the custody of this valuable MS mentions it in Chapter I and XIV of his “Cambrensis Evcrsus”, printed in 1662, and expresses his deep regret that a considerable part of it was lost during the Civil Wars. Archbishop Usher, an excellent judge of these matters, in p. 400 of his Primordia, gives F. White the character of being “a man of exquisite knowledge in the Antiquities, not only of Ireland, but also of other nations”. In a letter of F. Robert Nugent, Superior of his brethren in Ireland, and addressed from Kilkenny, the 10th of January, 1646, to F. Charles Sangri, I read what follows.
“I have given the commission to four of our Fathers diligently to examine the works of F. Stephen White, and to forward their judgment to your paternity, conformably to the directions you have recently sent us. His works are various, and as our Fathers live in places very distant from each other, and notwithstanding the most Reverend Bishops, (who are ready to defray the expenses of the printing), as also the supreme Council very earnestly insist, that a certain work of his, “De sanctis et Antiqititate Ibcrniae” be instantly sent to the Press, I find it difficult and next to impossible to resist their reasonable demand, since the Manuscript itself has been perused by several them, and has been pronounced not only worthy of being printed, but highly necessary for the credit and advantage of this Kingdom. Therefore I have written again to the Examiners, that each would privately report their opinion on this work as soon as possible to your Paternity; though all in their letters to me greatly extol it, and declare it most worthy to issue from the Press. But 1 am unwilling to allow any work to be printed that can give just cause of offence to any person : and yet there is less cause of apprehension in this case, as this book merely treats on the Saints and Antiquity of the Kingdom of Ireland”.

Born: 15 March 1875, Madras, India
Entered: 07 September 1892, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1908, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1910, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 28 April 1957, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1896 at Valkenburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
Came to Australia for Regency, 1898
by 1909 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Though born in India, Esmonde White was educated in Ireland. For regency he went to Riverview .There he stayed a relatively brief time, teaching and being assistant prefect of discipline, before departing in the autumn of 1901 for the same position at Xavier until 1905, when he returned to Ireland. From 1909 he was involved in the school ministry in Ireland.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 32nd Year No 3 1957
Obituary :
Fr Esmonde White (1875-1957)
Within a period of twelve months, Rathfarnham has lost four of its older men. Perhaps none of them has left so big a gap as “the quiet man”, Fr. White. Yet so it is; for, shrouded though he was in an almost fantastic silence, Fr. White was always there. Religious duties, meals, recreation, from none of these did he ever absent himself. He could be called bi-lingual inasmuch as his chief contribution to recreation was the statement, in Irish or English, “No doubt at all about it?” Perhaps he was on more familiar terms with the birds, whose calls, especially that of the cuckoo, he could faithfully reproduce. Certain it is that he never said an unkind word. No one who knew Fr. White would infer that this was merely the negative virtue of a very silent man. In the first place, it is certain that he had not always been so silent. In his student days at Valkenburg he had acquired so good a mastery of the language as to merit, in later years, the emphatic comment of a German Jesuit : “That man speaks German well”. Moreover his genial charity showed itself very positively in action, for he loved to see people happy. One who was with him in the colleges remarked: “He was always doing odd jobs for others and made so little compliment about them that, in Belvedere for example, if anyone wanted something in Woolworths, he had only to ask Fr. White, and off he went!”
Fr. White was born on 15th March, 1875 in Madras, India. Educated in Clongowes, he gained his place in the three-quarters on the Senior Cup team, played a useful game of Soccer, and bowled on the Cricket eleven. To the end of his life he bowled, left-arm, silently, at invisible wickets - one of his most characteristic gestures. He entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1892, studied philosophy at Valkenburg, and spent the seven following years in Australia, teaching at Xavier and at Riverview. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1908, did his Tertianship at Tronchienues and spent the remainder of his long life in the class room. All told, he taught for thirty-eight years. He taught at the Crescent from 1910 to 1914, being Prefect of Studies for the two latter years, He was at Belvedere 1915-19, and again from 1923 to 1937, having been in the meantime Minister and Socius at Tullabeg and Prefect of Studies at Galway. Then after a year at Emo and two years at Rathfarnham, as Spiritual Father, he went back to Belvedere, 1941-47, as Sub-Minister. After one year at Milltown Park he came in 1948 to Rathfarnham, where he remained until his death.
With the drawbridge of his interior castle perpetually up, he seemed very happy within, as he tunefully hummed and whistled, to the edification of the brethren without. He loved Belvedere College and when, after a stay of two years in Rathfarnham, he saw his name again on the Belvedere status, he literally danced with joy, at the sober age of sixty-five! While Prefect of Studies in Belvedere Junior House, he combined gentleness with severity in such perfect measure that a past pupil recalls: “He hit very hard with the pandy bat but obviously felt every bit as miserable about it as the unfortunate victim!” The same pupil added, and none of us could deny the tribute: “He was one of Nature's gentlemen!” Those of us who lived with him would suggest that Grace played a bigger part than Nature in making Fr. White one of the kindest of men.
His last illness was short. Some six weeks after leaving Rathfarnham for the Nursing Home, his condition suddenly worsened and he died in the Hospice on 28th April, Before leaving Rathfarnham, he made an interrogation of unusual length: “Two questions are puzzling me”, he said to the indefatigable infirmarian. “First of all, who are you?” When Brother Keogh had identified himself, Fr. White went on: “Secondly, who am I?” With sincerity and truth we can all answer the second question : “One white man!” May he rest in peace!

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Esmonde White SJ 1875-1957
To those who lived in community with him, Fr Esmonde White seemed to be almost shrouded in an fantastic silence. He certainly was a perfect man, according to St James, for he never offended with the tongue, his remarks being confined to “No doubt at all about it”, said either in English or Irish.

Born in Madras, India, in 1975, he was educated at Clongowes, where he acquired a reputation as a left-hand bowler, whence, no doubt, he developed a gesture common with him to the end of his life, bowling left-handed at invisible wickets.

His life as a Jesuit was spent mainly in the Colleges and the classroom, a ministry of 40 years at least. He was mathematical in his observance, never absent from a duty, ever easy to oblige others, the quintessence of kindness, A model of motivated observance, close to God always, he yielded up his spotless soul to God on April 27th 1957. In the words of his obituary “He was a white man”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1957

Obituary

Father Esmonde White SJ

Fr White was born on 15th March, 1875, in Madras, India. Educated in Clongowes, he gained his place as a three-quarter on the Senior Cup team, played a useful game of Soccer, and bowled on the cricket eleven. And anyone who knew him or was taught by him will know that to the very end of his life he was to be seen as he walked along, occasionally bowling, left-arm, an invisible ball at an invisible wicket.

He entered the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg in 1892, studied Philosophy at Valkenburg, and spent the seven following years in Australia. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1908, He taught at the Crescent, Limerick, from 1910 to 1914, being Prefect of Studies for the two latter years. He was. at Belvedere 1915-1919, and again from 1923 to 1937, having been in the meantime Minister and Assistant to the Master of Novices at Tullabeg and Prefect of Studies at St Ignatius College, Galway, Then, after a year at Emo and two years at Rathfarnham as Spiritual Father, he went back to Belvedere from 1941–1947. From then until his death he was at Rathfarnham.

He loved Belvedere and when after a stay at Rathfarnham, he once again was changed to Belvedere we are told that he literally danced for joy, and that at the very sober age of sixty-five! He was Prefect of Studies in the Preparatory School for a period and for all his perpetually good humour knew well how to wield his sceptre of office. His most outstanding characteristic was his fantastic power of silence; he wasted no words. But it was a good-humoured silence, which missed little enough of what was going on and certain it is that his thoughts were always kindly since he never said an unkind word. Those of us who lived with him would suggest that Grace played a bigger part than Nature in making Fr White one of the kindest of men.

◆ The Clongownian, 1957

Obituary

Father Esmonde White SJ

Father Esmonde White was born in Madras, India, eighty-two years ago. Having left Clongowes, he joined the Novitiate at Tullabeg in 1892. He studied philosophy at Valkenburg in Holland and was then sent to the Australian Mission where he was Prefect and Master for six years, first in Kew College, Melbourne, and then at Riverview, Sydney.

He returned to Ireland in 1905 and completed his theological studies at Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1908. He also studied at Tronchiennes, Belgium. He was Master and Prefect of Studies at the Sacred Heart College, Limerick, from 1910 to 1914, and at Belvedere College, Dublin, from 1915 until 1919, when he was appointed Minister and Assistant Master of Novices at Tullabeg.

He was later in charge of studies at St Ignatius' College, Galway. In 1923 he returned to Belvedere, and remained there until 1937, when he was transferred to Rathfarnham Castle. 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 Esmonde White (1875-1957)

Born at Madras, India and educated at Clongowes, entered the Society in 1892. He pursued his higher studies in Valkenburg, Milltown Park and Belgium. He was ordained in 1908. Father White was a member of the Crescent community from 1909 to 1914 during which time he was prefect of studies. Most of his teaching career was spent at Belvedere College.

Born: 16 August 1851, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 06 September 1866, Milltown Park
Ordained: 1883
Final Vows: 22 February 1887
Died: 26 March 1922, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin

Early education at Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying
by 1871 at Maria Laach College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1881 at Oña Spain (ARA) studying
by 1886 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Noviceship at Milltown under Luigi Sturso.
After his Novitiate he was sent to France for Rhetoric and Rome for Philosophy.
He had to leave Rome due to political troubles and finished his Philosophy at Maria Laach.
He was sent first to Clongowes and then as Prefect to Tullabeg for Regency.
He was sent to Oña for Theology.
After Ordination he was sent teaching for several years at Crescent and Galway. He was rector for three years in Galway and then joined the Missionary Staff.
1904 He was sent to Gardiner St and lived there until his happy death 26 March 1922. He was six years Superior there 1912-1919.
He was a very fluent and ready speaker with good knowledge of French, Italian, German and Spanish. He was very kind to the sick and dying

Note from James Redmond Entry :
He studied Rhetoric at St Acheul, Amiens with Michael Weafer, Thomas Finlay and Peter Finlay, Robert Kane and Vincent Byrne, among others.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Michael Weafer 1861-1922
Fr Michael Weafer was born in Galway on August 29th 1861, and he was educated at St Ignatius Galway. He was one of those who made their noviceship under Fr Sturzo at Milltown Park in 1866.

He was present in Rome studying Philosophy during the Revolution of 1870, and with Fr Patrick Keating had to finish his studied at Maria-Laach.
Fr Weafer was Rector of Galway from 1901-1904. The rest of his life was spent mainly in Gardiner Street, of which he was Superior from 1912-1919.
He was a very fluent and ready speaker, with a good knowledge of French, Italian, German and Spanish. He was renowned for his kindness to the sick and dying.
He died on March 25th 1922.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Michael Weafer (1851-1922)

Was born in Galway and entered the Society in 1866. His first association with the Crescent was during his regency, 1878-80. He spent two more year on the teaching staff after his ordination and later completed his higher studies in Belgium. In 1889, the annua mirabilis of the Crescent in the last century, Father Weafer returned as prefect of studies and remained on the Crescent staff until 1900, when he was appointed rector of St Ignatius, Galway. At the end of his rectorship at St Ignatius, Father Weafer was transferred to Gardiner St., Dublin, where he laboured at the church until his death. He was superior of the Gardiner St community from 1912 to 1919.a

Born: 01 November 1829, Trim, County Meath
Entered: 01 February 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: Maynooth - St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare - pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1879
Died: 22 November 1895, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublinn

by 1869 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had been Ordained at Maynooth and was a curate in Mullingar for a number of years before Ent.

1870-1875 He was sent to Galway.
1876-1878 He was sent to Limerick.
1879 He was sent to Gardiner St and remained there until his death 22 November 1895
He was a Minister in some of these Residences and universally loved by all.

The day after his death the Freeman’s Journal wrote :
“He was for a time zealously devoted to the work of the Missions, and afterwards in the capacity of the Spiritual Director of the Sacred Heart Home and Manager of SFX Schools in Lower Dorset St. He gave great service to the cause of the protection and education of the children of the poor. . He was also Spiritual Director of the SVP Conference attached to Gardiner St, and was always foremost in any effort they made for the relief of the destitute and orphaned. Even in the ranks of the gifted Order to which he belonged, his death will create a gap which it will be hard to fill”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Michael Waters 1822-1895
Fr Waters was a native of County Meath, and having been ordained at Maynooth, he worked as a curate in Mullingar for some years. He entered the Society in 1867.
He was stationed first at Galway, then in Limerick, but was at Gardiner Street that his great work was done. As Spiritual Director of the Sacred Heart Home and Manager of St Francis Xavier Schools, he rendered great service to the cause of the children of the poor. He also directed the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which provided another means for him to help his beloved poor.

He died on November 22nd 1895. The Freeman’s Journal on the following day among other tributes, paid him the following “Even in the ranks of the gifted Order to which he belonged, his death will create a gap which it will be hard to fill”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Michael Waters (1829-1895)

A native of Co Meath, was a secular priest of the diocese of Meath when he was admitted to the Society in 1867. He had studied at Maynooth and was a curate for some years at Mullingar when he decided to enter the Jesuit Order. After the completion of his studies in the Society, he was stationed for some years at St Ignatius, Galway. Father Waters's association with the Crescent was short. He spent only two years, 1875-78, in Limerick but his work proved of lasting character. He was appointed to organise the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for women, a work set on sure foundations that has endured and increased in strength throughout the past four score years. His remaining years were spent in Dublin, at Gardiner St, where his work amongst the poor was long remembered.

Born: 01 February 1612, County Donegal
Entered: 06 April 1646, Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny
Ordained: Rome, Italy - pre Entry
Died: 02 November 1663, Galway Residence, Galway, City, County Galway

1649 Given at Galway
1650 Catalogue Taught Humanities, a Confessor and Catechist. Age 38

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities, Phiosophy and a little casuistry before Ent. He knew Latin, English, Irish and Italian.
After First Vows he taught Humanities for three years, and was a Confessor and Catechist (HIB CAT 1650 - ARSI)
He was a Writer, an “egregius et facilis Poeta”, and had taught Humanities, Poetry and Rhetoric.
A singularly good man, stationed in Galway.
Was of the Poet Clan of Tyrconnell, the “Mac an Bhaird”

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied and was Ordained at Irish College Rome. He returned to Ireland 1644 before Ent 06 April 1646 Kilkenny
1648 After First Vows he taught Poetry and Rhetoric class at the Galway School. he himself was a poet. In the Report of Mercure Verdier to the General he describes him as “egregius et facilis poeta”. In the disputes over the censures proclaimed by the Nuncio, Maurice took the Nuncio' s part but, as Verdier reported: “modestly and peaceably”. On the fall of Galway to the Puritans, Father Ward had to leave the city but managed to continue his missionary work nearby until the Restoration. The clergy of his native diocese availed themselves of his good offices in resolving a feud over the episcopal succession.
He died at Galway 02 November 1663

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Maurice Ward 1616-1663
Maurice Ward was a native of Tyrconnell, born in the early 17th century. He studied humanities, philosophy and casuistry in Rome. He entered the Society in Kilkenny in 1646.

In 1646 we find him living as chaplain to Sir Epharaim Brown in his house in Galway. He was very fluent in Irish, English, Latin and Italian. He was a facile poet and writer, though there is no exact account of his writings available.

He died young at Galway in 1663 at the age of 47, having been 17 years a Jesuit.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
WARD, MAURICE. When Pere Verdier visited Galway early in 1649, he found this young Jesuit living as Chaplain in the house of Sir Zepherin Brown, he describes him as “vir insigniter bonus et sincerus, egregius et facilis Pocta”. He died on the 2nd of November, 1663, aetatis 47. Soc. 17.

Born: 02 September 1893, Alexander Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 07 September 1912, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 2 February 1929. Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 12 June 1972, Galway Regional Hospital, Galway

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

Father is an Officer in Customs and Excise, and lives at Iona Road, Drumcondra, Dublin.

Only son with one sister.

aka Ciaran Mac an Bhaird; Kyran Ward

Educated at Christian Brothers School Belfast he then went to O’Connell’s Schools for four years. In 1910 he went to Belvedere College SJ

by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1928 at St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 47th Year No 3 1972

St Ignatius College, Galway
News has just come of Father Ward's death, after a very short illness, in the Regional Hospital, on the morning of June 12th. He was on the threshold of celebrating his 60th year in the Society.
The Concelebrated Requiem Mass on 14th June was in Irish. Fr O'Shea (nephew) was the First Concelebrant, assisted by Fr Provincial and Fr Rector, Fourteen priests took part in the Concelebrated Mass, many of them old friends of Fr Ward from other houses. Ar láimh dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Obituary :
Fr Ciarán Mac an Bháird SJ (1893-1972)
Fr Ward died in Galway Regional Hospital after a brief illness on Monday, the 12th June, in his 79th year.
His father, Timothy, was a Galway man, but Fr Ward was born in Belfast, where he attended St. Patrick's Christian Brothers School. He completed his secondary education at Belvedere College, Dublin, and entered the Noviceship in Rahan, Tullamore, just sixty years ago in the 7th September, 1912.
After his studies in Rathfarnham he went to Jersey for Philosophy. Owing to the war and danger of conscription he was transferred to Milltown Park to complete the last year of Philosophy, after which he taught in Clongowes from 1919 to 1923. He then returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained in 1926. He finished his studies in St Beuno's College, North Wales, and then returned to Clongowes to teach there for three years.
In 1931 he was transferred to the Sacred Heart College, Limerick. He proved himself a very efficient teacher especially in Irish, French and Latin. In addition to this he was Assistant Prefect of Studies, Master of Ceremonies and Minister. As Master of Ceremonies he had charge of the Mass Servers whom he trained with very special care and attention. Many of the congregation commented on the devotion and reverence of the boys under his care.
He was also keenly interested in Drama and produced operettas each year in Irish for Prize Day. He had a special gift of being able to communicate his own personal talent as an actor to the boys he chose for his plays. In addition to all this work he organised each summer groups of boys to spend Irish-speaking holidays in the Kerry Gaeltacht at Ballyferriter and Baile na nGall. In all these activities Fr E Andrews was his ever faithful associate as later in Galway where they again combined energies.
He came to Galway in September 1941 and for 21 years, in addition to full teaching work, he was Adj Pref Studies and Master of Ceremonies in the Church. In this latter work he maintained the high standard of training of Mass Servers which he had reached in the Crescent.
He also continued his former interest in Musical Drama and produced Operettas in Irish each year for prize day. His Drama Groups won many first places at the Féile Drámaíochta in the Taibhdhearc. Many of those dramas he translated from French into Irish.
He carried on Fr Ó Brolcháin's work of training the boys in Irish dancing and his groups won prizes for their four-hand reels,
He was marked down in the Catalogue as “Doc an. 48” and all these years he was completely dedicated to this work. With his great gifts he was a man of singular reserve and self-effacement.
His special interest in promoting the use of Irish as a spoken language in the College had remarkable results and an Inspector from the Department commented on this as a remarkable achievement.
Fr Ward, despite the reserve alluded to, was a very pleasant companion and excellent Community man; a ripe sense of humour enabled him to enter into the cajolery of recreation and with such company as Fr C Perrott, Fr A O'Reilly, Fr Fitzgibbon and Fr Cashman the time passed regularly in even an hilarious fashion. This same bonhomie entered into his dealings with the boys, pupils and altar-servers. He gained their confidence and would recount on occasions quiz-questions and stories he had picked up in their company. He was devoted to his work and could not suffer it to be scamped but even then he would have a laughable encounter to tell about, something he had wormed out of an uncommunicative culprit who was awed by the mock-severity of his teacher's approach.
During the last few years of his life he suffered much from arthritis, but he bore it all in heroic fashion without complaint. Such was his devotion to his work that he won the admiration of parents and boys, who will remember for many years his unselfish devotion to their interests.
The Mayor and Corporation of Galway sent a letter of sympathy to Fr Rector and Community on his death. Ar dheis Dé go raibh & anam.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1972

Obituary

Father Kyran Ward SJ :

The death occured in Galway in mid-June of Father Kyran Ward, S.J., after a short illness,

Father Ward, who was 78, had been a member of the teaching staff of Coláiste Iognáid since 1941 and had continued to teach there right up to his last illness. He was a talented and devoted teacher of Latin and French. In all, he had been teaching for 48 years, at Clongowes Wood College, Cresent College, Limerick, and Galway,

In Limerick and Galway he produced many school operattas and plays. His drama groups carried off many prizes at the Féile Dramaíochta at the Taibhdhearc in Galway. Several plays had been translated into Irish from the French by himself.

Fr Ward had been in Belfast, where he attended St Patrick's Christian Brother School. The family having moved to Dublin, he came to Belvedere, finishing here in 1912. In September of that year he entered the Jesuits at St Stanislaus' College, Rahan, He studies at Rathfarnham Castle from 1914 till 1916 before travelling to Jersey to study philosophy. On completing his course of philosophy at Milltown Park, he taught at Clongowes from 1919 till 1923. He then returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained there in 1926. Fr Ward finished his studies at St Beuno's College, North Wales.

He returned to Clongowes to teach there for three years before being appointed in 1931 to Crescent College, Limerick, where he was Vice-Rector. He remained at the Crescent for ten years before his final appointment to Galway

To his sister, Mrs J B O'Shea; his neice, Mrs Tony Byrne; and his nephew, Fr Maurice O'Shea CC, Artane, Dublin, we offer our sincere sympathy.

Born: 17 February 1911, Rosmuc, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1943, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1946, Broken Hill, Southern Rhodesia
Died: 02 May 1975, Vatican Embassy, Pretoria, South Africa - Zambiae Province (ZAM)

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 03 December 1969

Eldest of two boys with one sister.

Early education at Rosmuc National School he then went to Mungret College SJ.

Tertianship at Rathfarnham

by 1937 at Aberdeen, Hong Kong - Regency
by 1939 at St Aloysius, Sydney, Australia - health
by 1940 in Hong Kong - Regency
by 1946 at Lusaka, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - First Zambian Missioners with Patrick JT O’Brien
by 1947 at Brokenhill, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working
by 1962 at Loyola, Lusaka, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) Sec to Bishop of Lusaka

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
In 1926 and 1927, a team of three boys from Mungret College at Feis Luimnighe (Limerick Festival) swept away the first prizes for Irish conversation and debate. The three boys were native Irish speakers. They were Seamus Thornton from Spiddal who became a Jesuit in California and later suffered imprisonment at the hands of the Chinese communists, Tadhg Manning who became Archbishop of Los Angeles and Paddy Walsh from Rosmuc who joined the Irish Province Jesuits in 1928.

Fr Paddy was born in the heart of Connemara, an Irish speaking part of Ireland and grew up in that Irish traditional way of life, a nationalist, whose house often welcomed Padraic Pearse, the Irish nationalist who gave his life in the final struggle for Irish independence. Fr Paddy came to Northern Rhodesia in 1946 and felt an immediate sympathy with the aspirations of the younger and more educated African nationalists.

For regency, he went to Hong Kong, China, but a spot on his lung sent him to Australia where he recovered in the good climate of the Blue Mountains. Back in Ireland for theology and ordination in 1943, he once again volunteered for the missions, this time to Northern Rhodesia where he came in 1946.

His first assignment was Kabwe as superior and education secretary. Chikuni saw him for two years, 1950 and 1951, and then he went north to Kabwata, Lusaka as parish priest where he constructed its first church. From 1958 to 1969 he was parish priest at Kabwata, secretary to Archbishop Adam, chaplain to the African hospital and part-time secretary to the Papal Nuncio. He became involved in the problems of race relations, an obvious source of prejudice, and he had a hand in setting up an inter-racial club in Lusaka where the rising generation of both Africans and Whites could meet on an equal footing. His own nationalist background led him to participate in their struggle which he embraced with enthusiasm. When many of the leaders were arrested and sent to prison, Fr Paddy was a constant source of strength and encouragement, especially for their bereft families. He administered funds for their support which in large part came from the Labour Party in England. He was a friend of Kenneth Kaunda and looked after his family and drove his wife to Salisbury to visit Kaunda in prison. Within six weeks of Independence, Fr Paddy had his Zambian citizenship and at the first annual awards and decorations, the new President Kaunda conferred on him Officer of the Companion Order of Freedom.

In 1969 Fr Paddy had a heart attack and it was decided that he return to Ireland. As a mark of respect and appreciation, the President and some of the ministers carried the stretcher onto the plane.

Fr Paddy recovered somewhat and returned to Roma parish in 1970 but his health did not improve and it was felt that a lower altitude might improve things, so he went back to Ireland and Gibraltar to work there. The Papal Nuncio in South Africa, Archbishop Polodrini who had been in Lusaka, invited Fr Paddy to be his secretary in Pretoria. He accepted the offer in 1973. 0n 2 May 1975 Fr Paddy died in Pretoria of a heart attack and was buried there, a far cry from Rosmuc.

Fr Paddy was completely dedicated to whatever he did, especially in the African hospital where he ministered and he bitterly complained to the colonial powers about the conditions there. He had a great sense of loyalty to people, to a cause, to the Lusaka mission, to the Archbishop himself and to the welfare of the Zambian people and the country.

At the funeral Mass in Lusaka, attended by President Kaunda and his wife, the Secretary General, the Prime Minister and some Cabinet Ministers, Kaunda spoke movingly of his friend Fr Paddy. He said that he had had a long letter from Fr Paddy saying ‘he was disappointed with me, the Party, Government and people of Zambia because we were allowing classes to spring up within our society. Please, Fr Walsh, trust me as you know me, I will not allow the rich to grow richer and the strong to grow stronger’.

Archbishop Adam wrote about Fr Paddy who had worked as his secretary for eleven years: ‘It was not very easy to know and to understand Fr Walsh well. Only gradually I think I succeeded – sometimes in quite a painful way. But the more I knew him the greater was my affection for him, and the respect for his character and qualities. Apart from his total dedication, I admired his total disregard for himself, his feeling for the underprivileged and his deep feeling for justice’.

Note from Maurice Dowling Entry
After the war, when the Jesuits in Northern Rhodesia were looking for men, two Irish Jesuits volunteered in 1946 (Fr Paddy Walsh and Fr Paddy O'Brien) to be followed by two more in 1947, Maurice and Fr Joe Gill. They came to Chikuni.

Note from Bob Thompson Entry
With Fr Paddy Walsh he became friends with Dr Kenneth Kaunda and other leaders at the Interracial Club. This was all during Federation days.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland :

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-truth-without-fear-or-favour/

A hundred years ago, Paddy Walsh was born in Rosmuc to an Irish-speaking family that frequently welcomed Padraic Pearse as a visitor. Paddy was the first Irish Jesuit missionary to “Northern Rhodesia”. He felt a natural sympathy with the leaders of the struggle for independence. When Kenneth Kaunda (pictured here) was imprisoned by the Colonials, Paddy drove his wife and family 300 miles to visit him in Salisbury gaol. As a citizen of the new Zambia, Paddy was trusted by Kaunda. He upbraided the President for permitting abortion, and for doing too little for the poor. Kaunda revered him, insisted on personally carrying the stretcher when Paddy had to fly to Dublin for a heart operation, and wept as he eulogised Paddy after his death: “This was the one man who would always tell me the truth without fear or favour.”

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 1 1946

Frs. O'Brien and Walsh left Dublin on January 4th on their long journey to North Rhodesia (Brokenhill Mission of the Polish Province Minor). They hope to leave by the "Empress of Scotland" for Durban very soon.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 2 1946

From Rhodesia.
Frs. O'Brien and Walsh reached Rhodesia on February 21st. They were given a great welcome by Mgr. Wolnik. He has his residence at Lusaka and is alone except for one priest, Fr. Stefaniszyn who did his theology at Milltown Park. Lusaka is the capital of Northern Rhodesia and is a small town of the size of Roundwood or Enniskerry.
Fr. O'Brien goes to Chikuni, which is a mission station with a training school for native teachers. Fr. Walsh is appointed to Broken Hill. where he will work with another father. ADDRESSES : Fr. Walsh, P.O. Box 87, Broken Hill, N. Rhodesia; Fr. O'Brien, Chikuni P.O., Chisekesi Siding. N. Rhodesia

Fr. Walsh, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, 16-2-46 :
Fr. O'Brien and I arrived in Durban on February 6th, having come via Port Said and the Suez Canal. The voyage was a tiresome one, as the ship was overcrowded - in our cabin, a two-berth one in normal times, we had thirteen, so you can imagine what it was like coming down through the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa. We had a large contingent of British soldiers as far as Port Said. They got off there to go to Palestine. We had also about six hundred civilians, demobilised service-men, their wives and children. We had ten Christian Brothers, two Salesian priests, two military chaplains (both White Fathers), six Franciscan Missionary Sisters going to a leper colony quite near Bioken Hill, four Assumption Sisters, and two Holy Family Sisters, so we had quite a big Religious community.
Our first stop was Port Said where we got ashore for a few hours. We moved on from there to Suez and anchored in the Bitter Lakes for a day and a half. There we took on three thousand African (native) troops, most of them Basutos. The Basuto soldiers were most edifying. There were several hundred of them at Mass every morning, very many of whom came to Holy Comnunion. They took a very active part in the Mass too - recited the Creed and many other prayers in common, and sang hymns in their native language, and all this on their own initiative. They are certainly a credit to whatever Missionaries brought them the Faith.
Our next stop was Mombasa, Kenya, then on to Durban. The rainy season was in and it rained all the time we were there. We arrived in Joannesburg on Saturday night, February 9th. We broke our journey there, because we were very tired, I had a heavy cold, and there was no chance of saying Mass on the train on Sunday. We were very hospitably received by the Oblate Fathers, as we had been also in Durban. I could not praise their hospitality and kindness to us too highly. Many of them are Irish, some American and South African. We remained in Jo'burg until Monday evening and went on from there to Bulawayo. We had a few hours delay there and went to the Dominican Convent where we were again most kindly received - the Mother Prioress was a Claddagh woman. We were unable to see any of the English Province Jesuits. Salisbury, where Fr. Beisly resides, would have been three hundred miles out of our way. Here at Livingstone we visited the Irish Capuchians. We were both very tired, so we decided to have a few days' rest. We have visited Victoria Falls - they are truly wonderful. The Capuchians have been most kind to us and have brought us around to see all the sights. It is wonderful to see giraffes, zebras and monkeys roaming around. Recently one of the Brothers in our mission was taken off by a lion. We expect to come to Broken Hill on Wednesday night. Most of our luggage has gone on before us in bond. We were able to say Mass nearly every day on the boat, except for a few days when I was laid up with flu. I think we are destined for the ‘Bush’ and not for the towns on the railway. It is very hot here, but a different heat from Hong Kong, very dry and not so oppressive. On the way up here we could have been travelling anywhere in Ireland, but they all say ‘wait till the rainy season is over’.”

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

Rhodesia :
Fr. P. Walsh, P.O. Box 87, Broken Hill, N. Rhodesia, 15-8-46 :
“On the day of my final vows I ought to try to find time to send you a few lines. My heart missed a few boats while I glanced down the Status to see if there was anyone for Rhodesia. Fr. O'Brien and I are very well and both very happy. I met Fr. O'Brien twice since I came out, once when he came to Broken Hill, and again last month when I went to Chikuni to give a retreat to the Notre Dame Sisters who are attached to our mission there. Chikuni is a beautiful mission. The school buildings there are a monument to the hard work done by our lay brothers. The brothers whom I have met out here have struck me immensely. They can do anything, and are ready to do any work. Yet they are wonderfully humble men and all deeply religious. I am well settled in to my work now, You may have heard that I have been appointed Superior of Broken Hill. I am blessed in the small number of my subjects. My main work continues to be parish work among the white population. As well as that I am Principal of a boarding school situated about eight miles outside Broken Hill. We follow the ordinary school curriculum for African schools, and we also have a training-school for vernacular teachers. Most of the work is done by native teachers. I go there about three times a week and teach Religion, English and History One lay-brother lives permanently at the school. He is seventy two years of age but still works on the farm all day. The farm is supposed to produce enough food to support the boys in the school (and sometimes their wives), The hot season is just starting now. It has been very cold for the last month. L. have worn as much clothes here in July and August as ever I wore in the depth of winter at home. Although we do not get any rain during the cold season, still the cold is very penetrating. It will be hot from now till November or December, when the rains come. We were to have Fr. Brown of the English Province here as a Visitor. (He was formerly Mgr. Brown of S. Rhodesia). He had visited a few of our missions and was on his way to Broken Hill when he got a stroke of some kind. He is at present in hospital. One leg is paralysed completely and the other partially. He is 69 years of age, so he will hardly make much of a recovery. It is difficult to find time for letter writing. I seem to be kept going all day, and when night-time comes there is not much energy left”.

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 50th Year No 2 1975

Obituary :

Fr Patrick Walsh (1911-1975)

In 1926 and 1927 a team of three boys representing Mungret at Feis Luimnighe swept away first prizes for Irish conversation and debate. Small wonder, since they were all native speakers. All three of them became missionary priests. Séamus Thornton, SJ suffered imprisonment at the hands of Chinese communists; Tadhg Manning is now Archbishop of Los Angeles, and Paddy Walsh was one of the six boys three “lay” and three “apostolic” - who joined the Irish Province from Mungret on the 1st of September, 1928.
The transfer of the novitiate from Tullabeg to Emo took place about a month before his first vows, Juniorate at Rathfarnham and UCD, and Philosophy in Tullabeg followed the normal pattern, but for regency Paddy went to Hong Kong. Before long, a spot was discovered on his lung and he was sent to the Blue Mountains in Australia, where he felt his isolation from the Society, but where he was cured. Ordination in Milltown (1943) and Tertianship in Rathfarnham completed his course and then, in 1945, an urgent cry for help came from the Polish Province Mission to Northern Rhodesia. Paddy O'Brien and Paddy Walsh were the first two Irish Jesuits to answer. There are about seventy three languages and dialects in that country, so they had to learn the one used by the Tonga people who inhabit the southerly region in which Canisius College, Chikuni, is situated. It was, however, after his transfer to the capital, Lusaka, that the main work of his life began. It entailed learning another language, Nyanja, and plunged him into pastoral work. As Parish Priest of Regiment Church, so called because it lay near a military barracks, and Chaplain to the hospital, he laboured untiringly for the spiritual and temporal well-being of his flock, with whom he identified himself. They were poor, sick and sometimes leprous. Father Paddy’s letters to the Press, exposing their misery and calling for action, made him unpopular with some of the Colonial administrators, but enthroned him in the hearts of his African people.
Their aspiration to political freedom found a ready sympathiser in one whose boyhood home in Rosmuc had frequently received Padraic Pearse as a welcome visitor: Leaders of the Nationalist movement, Harry Nkumbula, Simon Kapapwe and Kenneth Kaunda, were emerging: They trusted Paddy and he stood by them in face of opposition from Colonials. When they were imprisoned, Paddy administered the fund - largely subscribed by the British Labour Party - for the support of their wives and children. It was Paddy who drove Kenneth Kaunda’s wife and family the three hundred miles to visit him in Salisbury gaol.
When independence was won in 1964, Paddy took citizenship in the new Republic of Zambia (named after the Zambezi River) and its first President Kenneth Kaunda conferred the highest civil honour upon him, Commander of the Order of Companions of Freedom. With the destiny of their country in their own hands now, the new rulers of Zambia faced the enormous problems of mass illiteracy, malnutrition and poverty. Using their wealth of copper to enlist aid from abroad and finance huge development plans, they have made gigantic progress.
Paddy continued his priestly work in Lusaka until a heart attack struck him down in 1969. Though the air-journey would be risky, it was necessary to send him home for surgery. President Kaunda and Cabinet Ministers carried the stretcher that bore him to the aeroplane. BOAC had heart specialists ready at Heathrow Airport, who authorised the last stage of the journey to Dublin, Paddy FitzGerald inserted a plastic valve in the heart, with such success that Father Paddy's recovery seemed almost miraculous.
He returned to Zambia, but felt that more could be done for his beloved poor. He was very disappointed, too, by the passing of a law permitting abortion. Maybe, he had a dream of a Zambian utopia, and could not bear to think that it had not been realised. He returned to Ireland; worked for a very short time in Gibraltar, and, finally, went to Pretoria as Secretary to the Papal Nuncio in 1973. There he died suddenly on the 2nd of May, 1975.
It was as impossible for Paddy to dissemble or compromise as it was to spare himself in the pursuit of his ideal. The driving force of his life and of his work for Zambia was his love of Christ. In the retreat that Fr John Sullivan gave us before our first vows in Emo, he said: “Any friend of the poor is a friend of Christ. It is the nature of the case”. Paddy both learned and lived that lesson. An dheis Dé go raibh a anam

Irish Province News 51st Year No 3 1976

Obituary :

Fr Patrick Walsh (1928-1975)

“Fr Paddy Walsh was amazingly and touchingly honoured by the nation when President Kaunda preached a eulogy of him at a funeral Mass on 13th May 1975. The huge Christian love that ‘KK’ displayed in his talk was wonderful to hear. There were few dry eyes in the Church”. (So runs a letter from Fr Lou Haven, S.J., Zambia.)
A Zambian newspaper article (by Times reporter') featuring the event says:
President Kaunda has vowed that he would fight tooth and nail to ensure that the rich did not grow richer and the strong stronger in Zambia. Dr Kaunda broke down and wept when he made the pledge before more than 400 people who packed Lusaka’s Roma cathedral to pay their last respects to missionary Fr Patrick Walsh who died in South Africa. He revealed that Fr Walsh, an old friend of his, had decided to leave Zambia because “we had failed in our efforts to build a classless society”. In an emotion-charged voice, Dr Kaunda told the hushed congregation: “Fr Walsh revealed to me in a long letter that he was disappointed with me, the Party, Government and people of Zambia. He had gone in protest because we were allowing classes to spring up in our society”.
The President, who several times lapsed into long silences, said: “Please, Fr Walsh, trust me as you know me. I will not allow the rich to grow richer and the strong to grow stronger”.
To the Kaundas, Fr Walsh meant “something”. He came to help when the President was in trouble because of his political beliefs. “Fr Walsh looked after my family when I was away from home for long periods due to the nature of my work ... What can I say about such a man? He drove Mrs Kaunda to Salisbury to see mę while I was in prison ... What can I say about such a man?” ... he asked, In 1966, Dr Kaunda decorated him with the rank of Officer of the Companion Order of Freedom. He was a Zambian citizen.
Fr Lou Haven adds: “Paddy had been the support of the President's family when many of his friends deserted him during the struggle for independence. Dr Kaunda often had to be away from his family for long stretches during that time, rousing the people hundreds of miles away to a desire for independence, and sitting in jail, Fr Walsh was father to his whole family for years.'

Fr Walsh arrived in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1946, as one of the first two Irish Jesuits sent out here, the second being Fr PJT O'Brien.
An ardent Irishman, deeply steeped in Irish history and culture, he nevertheless wholeheartedly answered the Lord's call to leave his beloved Ireland and to go to the ends of the earth’ to serve his less fortunate brethren. First, as a scholastic, he was sent to China, but because of his poor health there seemed to be little hope of him every becoming a missionary. He was sent to Australia to recuperate his health, then back to Ireland. There he heard the appeal for help in Zambia, where the mission confided to the Polish Jesuits was in great difficulties as a result of the war and then of the post-war situation in Poland. He offered himself immediately, and was accepted. Arriving here in February, 1946, he gave his all to his newly-found mission, firstly in what was the apostolic prefecture, then the vicariate, and finally the archdiocese of Lusaka. He was appointed superior, first in Kabwe (then Broken Hill), then, after four years, in Chikuni. Finally, he was transferred to Lusaka as parish priest in St Francis Xavier's (“Regiment”, today St Charles Lwanga) church, where he re-roofed the old church and built the first parish-house. In 1958 he became my secretary, acting at the same time as chaplain to what was then called the African hospital, and as parish priest in Kabwata, where he built the first church.
It was not very easy to know and to understand Fr Walsh well. Only gradually I think that I succeeded sometimes in quite a painful way. But the more I knew him, the greater was my affection for him, and the respect for his character and qualities. Apart from his total dedication and the efficiency with which he applied himself to whatever duties were imposed on him, I admired his total disregard for himself. This became so evident to me when I had to supply for him in the hospital during his absence. Only when trying to do what he was doing day after day, week after week, did I realise what a hard task he took on himself as a “part time” occupation. For years he used to get up shortly after 4 a.m. to bring our Lord to the sick and to comfort the suffering. Every evening, once again he used to go to the hospital, to find out new cases and to hear confessions. He took particular care in baptising every child in danger of death.
The second quality which I admired so much in him was his feeling for the underprivileged. On seeing one who was poor or downtrodden, he automatically stood by him, and would not only show his sympathy openly, but would do everything in his power to assist him. It was not just sentiment that made him take such a stand, but a deep feeling for justice, on which he was absolutely uncompromising. I know of one case when, in spite of his sympathy towards the “liberation movements”, he completely broke off relations with one of them: he was convinced that they had committed an act of grave injustice against those whom they were fighting
I think that St Ignatius, who had such a great sense of loyalty, found a worthy son in Fr Walsh. Once he had given his loyalty to people or to a cause, he remained 100 per cent loyal. He gave his loyalty to Zambia and her people: he was absolutely, 100 per cent, loyal to them: some might have reason to say 105 per cent. I think this was typically Irish, in the best sense of the word. He gave his loyalty to the Lusaka mission - he remained absolutely loyal to it. On a more personal level, he gave his loyalty to me as his archbishop, and he was 100 per cent loyal - probably 105 per cent. I must mention yet another of his loyalties: he came here to help the Polish Jesuits in their need, and he was and remained absolutely loyal to them. Being a Polish Jesuit, I can never forget this.
I came to bid farewell to him before his departure from Zambia in 1973. I could not stay until his actual departure from the airport, because it was a Saturday, and I had to be back to say Mass in Mumbwa. He accompanied me to my car, then suddenly took me by the hand. All he could say was a whisper: “Pray for me"...and he nearly ran back to his room.
God called him since to Himself, I lost a loyal friend, and Zambia lost a very loyal son,

• Adam Kozlowiecki, SJ, Chingombe, written on the first anniversary of Paddy's death

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1951

A Letter from Northern Rhodesia

Father Paddy Walsh SJ

My Dear Boys,

As I write these lines, my thoughts go back to my last year in Mungret when I first thought of devoting my life to the work of the African Missions. That was in 1928. But my wish to become a missionary in Africa was not fulfilled for many years afterwards and it was only in February, 1946, that I finally arrived in N Rhodesia. Eighteen years was a long time to have to wait, but I found on my arrival that there was plenty of work still to be done, and that even if God spared me for twenty or thirty years of missionary work, there would still be a lot to be done by those who came after me.

Northern Rhodesia is very much part of the “Dark Continent”. Comparatively few of its one and a half million people are Christians. Our mission covers an area of 65,000 square miles, or twice the size of Ireland. It extends from the great Zambesi river in the south to the borders of the Belgian Congo in the North. The African population numbers about 400,000 souls, and of these scarcely 6 per cent. have neen washed by the cleansing waters of Baptism.

The people of Northern Rhodesia are of the Bantu race, but while they may be classified as one race, they are divided into many distinct tribes, and each tribe has a distinct language of its own. There is, for example, the great Bemba tribe in the North; the language of the Bemba is Ci-Bemba. Then in the south there in the Tonga tribe who speak Ci-Tonga. The diversity of tribes and consequently of languages adds to the Northern Rhodesian Missionaries' difficulties. When he arrives on the mission for the first time he may find himself posted to a mission station among the Bemba, and so he sets himself to learn to the Bemba language. After a few years he may find him self transferred to another district - perhaps among the Tonga people, so once again he has to start to acquire another language,

The Tonga are a large tribe in the Southern Province of N Rhodesia, and it is among them that I am at present working. They are an agricultural people, racy of the soil, attached to their homes, and, unlike many other tribes, they like to remain in their villages, cultivate a littie plot of maize, and rear their cattle. The Ba-Tonga number about 125,000 and of these there are about 12,000 catholics. To preach the Gospel to this number of people, to attend to our 12,000 Christians, to travel over this large extent of country, we have only twelve priests! True it is that here as in most mission fields; “the harvest is great but the labourers are few”.

A large part of our missionary work is done through our village schools. These are staffed by African teachers who are trained at our own Teacher Training School. They teach the children the catechism and prepare them for baptism. When the missionary finds a group of children whom he considers sufficiently instructed, he brings them in to his mission-station and there gives them a few weeks final preparation for the sacrament of baptism. Then comes the inevitable examination, and each child has to be examined separately. We wish to baptise only those who show good promise of persevering as good solid Christians and who will be the foundation of the Catholic Church in N Rhodesia. So there are bound to be some who fail to pass the test, and it requires a hard heart to turn them away and tell them they must come again in a year's time. Many of these boys and girls may have walked a distance of forty miles to come to the mission for instruction and baptism. But I am glad to say that the numbers we have to send away unbaptised are few; the great majority are well instructed by their teachers, and to them we owe a great debt of gratitude for the part they play in helping us to do our missionary work.

The last group we had in here for baptims numbered about three hundred and the majority of them returned to their distant villages as children of God and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. When those children return to their villages they have to try to live a Christian life in the midst of pagan surroundings, live in the same house with fathers and mothers who are pagans, play with children who are pagans, and they are deprived of many of the helps and graces that are the heritage of every Irish boy and girl. For the greater part, in spite of such difficulties they persevere and remain true to their faith, The hope of the future Church of N. Rhodesia lies with them.

Next week I expect a group of boys and girls to come in for instruction and Baptism. They will come from the Zambesi valley, and will be the first group for Baptism from this area . . ... and so the work goes on-founding little Christian groups throughout the part of God's mission field entrusted to us.

Dear Boys, pray that these little groups will grow and flourish, so that before long the whole of this Pagan country may become part of the great Kingdom of Christ.

My special regards to all old Mungret men, and especially to those of the years 1924 1928.

I remain

Yours sincerely in Our Lord,

P J WALSH SJ

Born: 22 June 1826, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Entered: 21 February 1858, St Andrea, Rome, Italy (ROM)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 02 February 1870
Died: 18 October 1912, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 20 April 1870-17 March 1877

by 1859 at Roman College Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was already Ordained a Priest for the Ferns Diocese before Ent. It was said he would have become a Bishop there had he not joined the Society. He had studied under Cardinal Johannes Baptist Franzelin, the Austrian Jesuit Theologian, and whose life he wrote in later years.

He did his Regency at Tullabeg (1861-1863), Galway (1864-1865) Clongowes, being Minister there as well (1866-1869).
1869-1870 Tertianship in Rome
1870-1877 After Tertianship in Rome he was sent to HIB as Provincial.
1877-1883/4 He went to Gardiner St as Superior
1884-1889 Operarius at Gardiner St
1889-1895 He was appointed Rector of the newly opened Milltown Theologate.
He suffered from a lingering illness and died in Gardiner St 18 October 1912

Henry Lynch SJ writes of him :
“Nicholas Walsh did not get the Obituary notice his memory deserved. This was ‘our’ fault, of course. Had he died 10 or 15 years earlier, the papers would have been full of him, but he lived too long and was forgotten. In his day, however, he was really one of our great men in the public eye, though he was never popular with “Ours”, especially in the days of his authority. A certain natural pomposity and autocratic manner accounts for this, though he really was quite simple and good-natured at heart. But in his day he was in the very first rank of Preachers and the Bishops and Priests held him in great estimation. He Preached at the Consecration of Sligo Cathedral in 1874, and at the installation of Dr William Walshe as Archbishop of Dublin. His retreats and Lectures were very fine, impressive and solid, and were very much sought after and appreciated. His speech a the Maynooth Centenary (1896) was said t have been one of the best delivered on that historic occasion. He was a favourite Confessor with men, and even in his declining years heard many in the parlour.
He mellowed much in old age and “Ours” came to know and like him better and even poke fun at him which he took very well. He had many influential friends who helped him in his good works.
When Superior of Gardiner St, he put up those four magnificent pictures of Ignatius in the transept of the Church. When Rector at Milltown he built the fine Collegiate Church there. When he ceased to preach, like Matthew Russell, he took to writing books, and published four - “Life of Franzelin”; “Old and New”; “The Saved and the Lost” and “Woman”. In these four books he gathered and published all the matter of his many famous retreats, Sermons, Lectures, and domestic exhortations. The books had poor sales.
All through his life he enjoyed splendid health and rarely had a pain or ache, not even in his last days. He died of senile decay. During the last 10 years of his life he lived in complete retirement at Gardiner St, except for just one year at Clongowes as Spiritual Father. For the last three or four years he was confined to his room altogether and there were signs of dementia towards the end.
He was a man who always upheld a very high standard of piety and conduct to all, and was, himself, most devout. He died in the end room of Bannon’s corridor, and the Provincial William Delaney and Minister Joseph Wrafter were with him at the end.”

Note from John Bannon Entry :
On the evening of his death the Telegraphy published an article on him headed “A Famous Irish Jesuit - Chaplain in American War” : “The Community of the Jesuit Fathers in Gardiner St have lost within a comparatively short time some of their best known and most distinguished members. They had to deplore the deaths of Nicholas Walsh, John Naughton, John Hughes and Matthew Russell, four men of great eminence and distinction, each in his own sphere, who added lustre to their Order, and whose services to the Church and their country in their varied lines of apostolic activity cannot son be forgotten. And now another name as illustrious is added to the list. The Rev John Bannon....

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Nicholas Walsh 1826-1912
Fr Nicholas Walsh was born in Wexford on June 22nd 1826. He joined the Society as a priest in 1858.

He studied under Cardinal Franzelin whose life he wrote in later years. From his tertianship in Rome he was sent back to Ireland as Provincial, a post he filled for seven years.

He was a magnificent preacher and lecturer, His speech at the Maynooth Centenary in 1896, was adjudged the best delivered on that occasion.

When Rector of Milltown Park in 1889, when that house was opened as a Theologate, he was responsible for the building of the fine collegiate chapel there.

In his retirement in Gardiner Street, he took to his pen and published four books : “The Life of Cardinal Franzelin”; “Old and New”; “The Saved and the Lost” and “Woman”.

He died of a lingering illness in Gardiner Street on October 18th 1912.

Born: 12 November 1912, An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe), County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Mary's Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 30 July 1947, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1950
Died: 29 March 1973, St Ignatius College, Athelstone, Adelaide, Australia

Son of Bartholomew Wallace and Mary Flaherty, farmers. Mother died c 1914.

Youngest in family of six boys and two girls.

Early education was in Carraroe NS. In 1933 he was appointed by the Galway Branch of the Gaelic League as Irish Teacher for their evening classes, which were held at Coláiste Iognáid. He also taught in the Junior school of Coláiste Iognáid.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Martin Wallace was educated at local schools until he was sixteen, and was a teacher of Irish before entering the Society at St Mary's, Emo Park, 7 September 1938. He studied philosophy at Tullabeg, 1940-43, and did regency at Galway, 1943-44. Theology was at Milltown Park, 1944-48, and tertianship at Rathfarnham, 1948-49. He taught Irish, English, mathematics and religion at Galway, 1949-61, and was assistant prefect of studies for the preparatory school, 1954-60.
It is not clear why he came to Australia, but he taught religion, English, and history at St Ignatius' College, Norwood, 1962-66, and then moved to the new school at Athelstone in 1967. He had been offered job in Ireland to teach Irish, but he wanted to remain in Australia. In his earlier days in Australia he was well liked as a warm, cultured and sensitive man with a love of theology, history and the classics. He was a gifted conversationalist.
But he was also a conservative man, fearful of changes in the post~Vatican II Church and Society He was sensitive in personal relationships and not very tolerant of opinions differing from his own. However, the younger boys that he taught appreciated him, affectionately calling him “Skippy”. He had a lively wit, and was kind to his students. He suffered from insomnia for many years and would pass long nights reading the latest theological journals. He rarely left the community grounds, spending his spare time in the garden constructing an extraordinary series of rock gardens, paths and bridges along the creek that bordered the school property at Athelstone. He was at home with nature where he found peace and serenity.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 48th Year No 2 1973
Obituary :
An tAthair Máirtín de Bhailís (Martin Wallace)
Fadó, fadó, as the old tales tell, a young boy served Mass in his home parish of Cillín, An Cheathrú Rua, Conamara. He was one of the best and most reliable servers, so efficient was he, indeed, and so much at home at the altar that many of the local people predicted that he would one day be a priest. That boy was Máirtín de Bhailís or, as he was known to the neighbours, Máirtín Bheartla Tom Rua. In some parts of Ireland where there are many families of the same surname it is customary to identify an individual by adding to his own name the names of his father and grandfather.
Máirtín, was born on November 12th, 1912 and death deprived him of a mother's care at a very early age. His good father brought up the family on very slender resources and Máirtín had an abiding sense of gratitude to him for his fortitude and devotion to duty. His teacher in the primary school, Micheál Ó Nualláin, considered Máirtín to be one of the brightest lads he had ever had in his school. Educational facilities beyond the primary level were non-existent in An Cheathrú Rua at that time; how he would have benefited from the magnificent post-primary schools there today! Máirtin went into Galway to do a commercial course at the Technical School there. He became secretary of the city branch of Conradh na Gaeilge. Fr Andy O’Farrell, who had known Máirtín from the many vacations which he spent in the Gaeltacht, was President of the branch. He invited Máirtín to become a member of the teaching staff of Coláiste Ignaád. It was a wise and fortunate choice, for he proved to be a born teacher. All who were his pupils have nothing but the highest praise for him. A great friend of Máirtín in those days and for the rest of his life was Mgr. Eric Mac Fhinn, still happily with us.
When Máirtín began to think of the priesthood, An tAth, Eric coached him in Latin for Matriculation. Before he entered the Noviceship at Emo on September 7th, 1938, this good friend took him with him on a trip to Rome. This was one of the great joys of his life. After his noviceship, Máirtín went to Tullabeg for Philosophy in 1940. The 1943 Status posted him back to Coláiste lognáid where he taught for one more year before going on to Milltown for Theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 30th, 1947 and said his first Mass at St Andrew’s, Westland Row. On the hill tops round his home parish bonfires blazed a welcome for An t-Ath Máirtín, who was the first priest from the parish within living memory. It was a memorable experience for him and for his family. After Tertianship in Rathfarnham, he was once more posted to Galway as Doc. There he was to remain for over a dozen years until he set sail for Australia.
It was during these years that Máirtín began the work at which he particularly excelled and which gave him immense pleasure translating into Irish selections of the writings of the Fathers. He was a perfectionist and a most painstaking worker in this field. This was well illustrated in a book of his, “Moladh na Maighdine”, which was published by FÁS in 1961 and which proved to be a best seller; it is long since out of print. The work is divided into two main sections. The first, entitled “Moladh na Naomh”, is described by the author as “Tiontú ar na startha is taitneamhaí san Breviarium Romanum i dtaobhi Mháthair Dé”. The second section is called “Moladh Sinsear”, and the author says of this, “Chuir mó a raibh soláimhsithe dtár bprós agus dár bhfilíocht féin i dtaobh Mháthair Dé i dtaca an aistriúcháin”. By doing this, he wished to show how our ancestors thoughts on Our Lady corresponded to those of the saints and theologians of the universal church, Máirtín was working on a translation of the Confessions of St Augustine and had completed a good deal of it when bo found that An tAth Pádraig Ó Fiannachta of Maynooth was doing a similar work. He very generously loaned his version to An tAth Pádraig. The latter states in the foreword of his book, “Mise Agaistin”' that Máirtín's version as of great help to him.
Those who were privileged to know Máirtín de Bhailís will remember him as a man of immense good humour and warm humanity, an excellent companion. It was a delight to hear him speak in the lovely Irish of Cois Fharraige. One felt regret that he had not been assigned to University studies, for he had a great talent for scholarship and would undoubtedly have distnguished himself in this field. It was a great loss to the Province when, in 1961, he set sail for far-off Australia. Due to the onset of a form of arthritis, his medical adviser urged him to seek a drier climate where the condition could be arrested.
For information of Fr Máirtin’s years down under' we are indebted to his Rector at St Ignatius College, Athelstone. Adelaide, Fr P D Hosking. From his arrival in Australia in 1962 until 1966, Máirtín taught at Norwood, Adelaide, and then moved to Athelstone when St Ignatius College transferred its senior school there. He taught at St Ignatius from that time until his death which occurred in an interval between classes on the morning of March 29th. About a year previously he had had a very serious illness and this, no doubt, had taken its toll on the heart. One feels that, had it been left to his own choice, this how he would have wished to go to God-in harness, so to speak.
In the course of a very moving panegyric at the Requiem Mass for Fr Máirtín, The Rector had this to say: “He was essentially a simple man and a gentle man, but with a roguish Irish humour. It is because of such qualities that he won universal love and affection. When he was very ill last year many of the boys showed great concern and frequently asked about his health, There would be few, if any, of his past pupils who would not remember his quick wit, his deep human understanding and his genuine concern for their well-being. He was a man who had won the undivided loyalty and respect of the young
As a simple man he had a great love for nature, and especially for his garden along the banks of the creek at Athelstone. But at the same time he was widely read, and had delved into numerous books on Spirituality, on history and on literature. He revealed this depth of learning by the scope of his conversation. There were few topics about which he could not rightly claim to have genuine knowledge though he did always say that he was no mathematician!
Above all else he was a priest, a spiritual man, a man who loved God deeply and showed this by every aspect of his life. He He had particular devotion to Our Blessed Lady, he wrote one book about her in his native Gaelic, and translated another one .... We pray for Fr Martin today, that God may receive this gentle soul gently and mercifully. We are grateful for the example and for the memory of such a man who meant so much in our lives at St Ignatius College. The whole school family says goodbye to him today with heavy hearts, but knowing that our part of the world is a better place for his having been in it and lived with us”
Solas na bhFlaitheas dá anam uasal!

Born: 18 July 1846, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 11 September 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1879
Final vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 02 January 1918, St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1868 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1873 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1872 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1875 at Antwerp Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1877 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1885 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After his Noviceship he made studies at Laval, did Regency teaching and Prefecting at Tullabeg and Clongowes, and taught English in Antwerp for two years.
1876 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology.
1879-1884 He was sent as Prefect and Minister to Clongowes.
1886 He was sent to Gardiner St as Minister, and then at the urgent request of the then Rector of Clongowes, returned there as Minister. He returned to Gardiner as Minister and remained in that job for some years. Later he was sent to Galway, but returned again to Gardiner St as Minister. This time he was also a very useful Operarius and Prefect of the Church. He was a very forcible Preacher with a fine voice and presence.
1911 He had a stroke, and for six years led a most patient life, edifying everybody. He was very neat about his room and person.
He was one of the best known Jesuits in the Diocese, and greatly esteemed by the Archbishop and the clergy.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Verdon 1846-1918
Fr John Verdon was born at Drogheda on July 18th 1846. He received his early education in our College at Tullabeg. He entered the Society in 1865 at Milltown where he did his noviceship under Fr Sturzo.

His philosophical studies were carried out at Laval, after which he did his Colleges at Tullabeg and Clongowes, and also at Antwerp, where he taught English for some years. Having completed his Theological studies at Innsbruck, he was ordained in 1879.

After his return to Ireland he was a master at Clongowes and then at Gardiner Street. Except for a short spell at Galway, all his priestly life was spent at Gardiner Street, both as Minister and Operarius.

He was one of the best known and esteemed Jesuits of the Dublin diocese, beloved of the people and clergy, from the Archbishop down. As a preacher he was forcible with a fine voice and presence.

In 1911 he had a stroke, and for six years he led a most patient life of suffering, to the great edification of everybody. He died a most peaceful and happy death, surrounded by his brethren, on January 2nd 1918.

◆ The Clongownian, 1918

Obituary

Father John Verdon SJ

An Appreciation by Joseph I Donaghy

It was with feelings of the most poignant regret that old Clon gownians and particularly those of the Amalgamation period - read the announcement in the public press of the death of the late Father John Verdon SJ, at St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street.

This sentiment was not by any means confined to old Jesuit pupils, but was shared, not alone by the Catholic citizens of Dublin, but by everyone in any part of Ireland who had at any time come under the magnetic influ ence of the genial personality of the deceased clergyman.

Father Verdon might have been described as the living exponent of the doctrine of good. hearted cheerfulness. He carried this into everyday life, and won all hearts no less by his spontaneous kindness than by the un affected good humour and bonhomie that formed part of his nature.

Reference has been made to the Amalgamation in 1885-87 of the College of old St Stanislaus' with that of Clongowes Wood, For those who were acquainted with the special circumstances connected with the two colleges - the old time rivalry and the more than keen spirit of emulation or something more that existed between the respective alumni - the experiment was not devoid of anxiety nor unattended with a certain amount of risk.

Happily for all concerned the carrying of it into effect devolved upon a worthy Triumvirate than whom it would not have been possible to find any better suited in every way to the task.

With the late Father John S Conmee as Father Rector, Father H Fegan as Higher Line Prefect, and Father John Verdon as Minister, the success of the undertaking might well have been pronounced a foregone conclusion; and so, with God's blessing, it proved to be beyond the expectation of even the most sanguine.

How ably Father Conmee, of happy memory, discharged his onerous duties as Rector let those attest who still recall his eloquent and impressive sermons - each a literary treat - his genial manner, which added to rather than detracted from the dignity of his bearing, and the highly capable and efficient manner in which he administered the affairs of the College.

As for Father Fegan (whom God preserve), surely no more ideal Higher Line Prefect than he ever held the keys of office, and certainly none more deservedly beloved of his boys. Witness the address with which they presented him on the occasion of his ordination and his reply-in its way, a living classic.

But it is with the third member of this distinguished group that we are presently concerned. To say that Father Verdon was “a born Minister” was to express a truth that everyone realised who came within the radius of his gentle ministration. While he was seldom if ever called upon to “press his bashful charges to their food” (if the paraphrase may be pardoned), he certainly did enjoy “the luxury of doing good” to them in a thousand and one little ways that, highly appreciated as they were at the time, would now seem trivial in the enumeration.

Big-hearted and generous to a degree, he nobly upheld the high traditions of Clongowes hospitality. Anything small or petty was altogether foreign to his nature.

Ever considerate of the feelings of others, he avoided anything that could give offence tu the most susceptible. At the same time, when duty or principle required it, he could express himself in a manner that never failed to carry conviction to the minds of his hearers. Endowed with a keen sense of the ludicrous, his light and playful humour touched nothing which it did not embellish, and none of his sallies ever contained the slightest sting either for those of whom they were spoken or to whom they were uttered.

It is not to be wondered at that his fatherly solicitude for each individual boy made Clongowes in very truth “a home from home”, and gained for Father Verdon - not that he sought popularity - that affection and esteem in which he was universally held.

During the many subsequent years he resided at Gardiner Street he often used the influence he had acquired at Clongowes to bring back to the path of rectitude some wayward student in Dublin, or it might be some more advanced member of society who had fallen away from the teachings of the old Alma Mater. His wide experience of the ways of the world and his deep knowledge of human nature, com bined with his unfailing and resourceful tact, enabled him to heal many a domestic sore and put an end to many a long-standing feud.

In the pulpit he was convincing and eloquent. A master of his subject, he delivered his discourse with a zeal and earnestness and with a degree of histrionic ability that marked him out as a preacher of the first rank. His excellent qualities of head and heart, of intel lect and judgment, combined to make him what in fact he was-a distinguished member of a distinguished Order.

In such a brief sketch as this necessarily is ryuch must remain unisaid, and those who kaew and appreciated his many excellent qualities must each supply for himself what ever he finds missing.

It only remains for the writer to tender his most sincere thanks to the Editor of the “Clongownian” for having afforded him the treasured privilege of placing this humble chaplet of memories - rudely strung together though they be - on the grave of one who in his lifetime did so much to refine, to brighten, and to spiritualise the condition of his fellow men, and who, like a true son of Ignatius, made every word and action at all times and in all places subservient to the greater glory of God.

Born: 14 October 1613, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 23 October 1632, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: c 1638, Bourges, France
Final Vows: 14 October 1652
Died: 14 December 1698, Dublin Residence, Dublin City, County Dublin - Romanae Province

Alias Walterson
Granduncle of Stephen - RIP 1762
Grandnephew of Anglican Bishop Henry Ussher and second cousin of Anglican Primate James Ussher
(Coll HIB ROM XII 36); RIP 14 December 1698 Dublin
Parents William and Mary Kennedy (cf Memoirs of the Usher families” Rev William Wright, Dublin 1689)
Studied Grammar and Humanities in Dublin under Jesuits, and Philosophy at Douai
1636 At Bourges FRA studying Theology
1650 Catalogue Ent 1629 Taught Humanities and Philosophy. Age 37. Came to Mission in 1639 and now teaching Grammar
1655 At Irish College Seville (The Rector is Spanish). Master of Conferences
1666 Consult of Dublin Residence. Preaches often and administers the Sacraments. Imprisoned for 2 months. Exiled to Spain for 4 years. On Mission 27 years.
John Usher writes from Ossuna 09 May 1657 to Fr Young, Rector Irish College Rome and mentions Fr Quin’s imprisonment and desires to be remembered to Br Howyard, Richard Quin etc

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Cousin of Ignatius Gough and of James Ussher’s family
Early education was in Humanities and two years Philosophy before Ent, and then four years Theology in the Society.
Imprisoned and deported for the Catholic faith.
Taught Humanities for four years and Philosophy; Prefect of a Sodality and Prefect of Studies (HIB CATS - ARSI);
1649 At Kilkenny, aged 35 and 18 years in the Society,and was teaching Rhetoric (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
1666 Living at Dublin Residence and a Consultor there, engaged in Preaching and administering the Sacraments.
After two months imprisonment he was deported to Spain for four years (HIB CAT 1666 - ARSI)
Ignorant of Irish language, as were three others of the eleven native Dublin Jesuits of his day

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Walter and Mary née Kenedy. Granduncle of Stephen.
Had received classical education at the Jesuit School Dublin and then Philosophy at Douai before Ent 23 October 1632 Tournai
1634-1638 After First Vows he was sent to Bourges for Theology and was Ordained there c 1638
1638-1654 He was then sent to Ireland and Kilkenny where he taught Humanities. He became a member of a group who defended the “Supreme Council” against the “censures” issued by the Nuncio Rinuccini.
1654-1658 After the fall of Kilkenny he found his way back to Dublin but was arrested and deported, 1654, to Spain. With William Malone he found refuge at the Irish College, Seville where Malone was appointed Rector and Ussher himself, Prefect of Studies. On the death of Malone he was appointed Rector but the local Provincial refused to carry out the orders of the General and intruded a Spaniard in Ussher's place.
1658 Ussher sent back to Ireland and worked in Galway until Restoration, after which he came back to Dublin, and where he held various posts over a long period of time : Socius to the Mission Superior; Consultor of the Mission; Procurator of the Mission. He died in Dublin 07 December 1698 and was buried in St. Catherine's churchyard.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
USHER, JOHN. This Father was living in the early part of 1649, at Kilkenny : he was then 35 years old, of which he had spent 18 years in the Society. He was actually teaching Rhetoric. He was still living in the winter of 1663.

Born: 10 February 1950, Somerville, Newcastle, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1967, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 27 June 1981, Galway Cathedral, Galway
Final Vows: 03 December 1994, Loyola, Eglinton Road, Dublin
Died: 31 January 2020, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

Born in Dublin

Father RIP. Mother - Margaret

Educated at Coláiste Iognáid, Galway City

by 1981 at Fordham NY, USA (NYK) studying
by 1990 at St Joseph’s,Philadelphia PA, USA (MAR) teaching 1 semseter
by 1991 at Austin TX, USA (NOR) making Tertianship

Born: 22 October 1850, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim
Entered: 27 June 1874, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 09 September 1888
Final Vows: 02 February 1892, Dublin
Died: 03 March 1934, Milltown Park, Dublin

Older Brother of Joseph Tunney - RIP 1923

Early education at St Mel’s College, Longford and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1877 at Roehampton, London (ANG) studying
by 1886 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1891 at Drongen (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 3 1934
Milltown Park :
Death took two of our number within a week -
Father Tunney died on the 5rd of March. His death was not unexpected. Some heart attacks in recent weeks had prepared us for it.
Father Healy's death came as a great shock, for though he had long been a sick man, he was optimistic of becoming stronger, and worked away quietly as director of Retreats in the province for most of this year, censoring, and reviewing books. Few suspected how near death was. He was at Father Tunney's office in Gardiner Street the 6th of March. He said Mass as usual on Friday the 9th. While sitting down to lunch about 12,30 he felt ill and was helped to a chair in the Fathers' library. There a slight haemorrhage occurred and he lost consciousness, not before receiving Absolution, He was anointed, then borne to his room where he died at about 1.15. The doctor arrived before he died, but nothing could be done. Father S. MacMahon writes an obituary notice on Father Healy in this number.

Irish Province News 9th Year No 3 1934

Obituary :

Father Hugh Tunney

Some time ago a Father of the New York Province died in America. In the account of his death given in the January number of “Woodstock Letters”' we find the following :
Father will be remembered in the Province for what he was rather than for what he did for us. He held no post of distinction among us , he was neither a great preacher, nor a scholar, he erected no buildings, nor was he successful in soliciting “free-will offerings” from the faithful.
These words describe to the letter Father Hugh Tunney's life in the Society. He has not left behind him the reputation of a brilliant preacher, of a learned scholar, or a successful superior, but he has left what is just as good, or it may be in the sight of God what is better the record of a steady, painstaking, conscientious workman. He was certainly one of those
good and faithful servants that won such high praise, and such glorious reward from the supreme Master and infallible judge of men.
For nineteen years he was prefect or master of elementary classes, for eight years Confessor to the poor who attended the people's chapels in Tullabeg or Clongowes, for thirteen “Conf. ad Jan.” at Milltown. He did his work, year in, year out, with a faithfulness, a constancy, a devotion that won for him the high place in heaven that, please God, he now enjoys.
He was as faithful to his own prayers, and to all the duties of religious life as he was to his unpretending but meritorious work for others.
At recreation he was a gay, and as cheerful as the best of his companions, well able to hold his own against all-comers and many is the story told of some eminent theologian or brilliant scholar coming off very much second best after a harmless, good humoured, bantering passage of arms with Father Hugh.
Father Tunney was born in Carrick on Shannon, 22nd October 1850, and educated at the Seminary, Longford. He began his noviceship at Milltown on 7th June, 1874, made his juniorate at Roehampton, (he was amongst the last of the Irish juniors who regularly went to Roehampton for the juniorate, Fathers Henry and Guinee were with him), philosophy at Milltown theology at Louvain, tertianship at Tronchiennes, the latter ended in 1891.
He did good work in nearly all the Irish houses of the Province. He was in Milltown for twenty-two years, Tullabeg eleven years Belvedere ten, Clongowes four, Mungret and Galway
one each.
For the last eight years of his life broken health compelled him to join the ranks of the “cur vals,” but even then he was not idle. A very short time before his death the infirmarian found him struggling through his breviary, and ventured to make a few friendly suggestions. A pitying smile was all he got, and the struggle continued. It is the man who perseveres to the end that will be saved. And so it was with Father Hugh Tunney. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1934

Obituary

Father Hugo Tunney SJ

Belvederians of thirty years ago will remember a white-haired priest who taught in the “Little House”, as we called it then. Fr Hugo Tunney, with his quiet, pleasant manner, was well liked by the boys, and was a favourite confessor in the old chapel. When he left Belvedere, he took charge of the public church attached to Tullabeg, where he spent several years in the service of the people of the neighbouring countryside. Milltown Park claimed him then, and proved to be his last resort, though the day of his death did not come for many a year, and in the interval he found many opportunities to exercise his zeal still as Confessor, for he was in great demand by the men of the district, who used to flock to Milltown. Park, where at that well-known “side door” they could always find Fr Tunney ready to exercise his ministry, for them.

He kept always a clear memory of the boys of Belvedere whom he had known in earlier years, and all of them will say a prayer for this kindly old man, that his soul may rest in peace.

Born: 26 May 1831, Mullingar, County Westmeath
Entered: 29 September 1849, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 22 September 1861, St Beuno's, St Asaph, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 30 November 1891, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, 31 July 1880-6 May 1883

by 1853 at St Marie, Toulouse (TOLO) for Regency
by 1861 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying Theology
by 1867 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
Provincial 31 July 1880

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Studied for some years at Toulouse.
1854 Sent to Tullabeg for Regency.
1855-1859 Further Regency as a teacher in Clongowes.
1859 he was sent to Paderborn for Theology, but in failing health he came to England and did his studies at St Beuno’s, where he was Ordained by Dr Brown 22 September 1861.
After Ordination he was sent to Clongowes, and later to Limerick.
1866 He was sent to Drongen for Tertianship.
1867 He was appointed Vice-Rector at Galway.
He was then sent to Clongowes as Minister for two years, and then the same for two years at Limerick.
1873-1876 He was at Milltown.
1876-1877 He was Superior at UCD.
1878-1887 he was appointed Rector at Milltown January 1878, and continued living there when he came out of office in 1883.
1887 he was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius and lived there until he died after a very short illness 30 November 1891
He was a man of great literary culture, a good classical scholar and of a very retiring disposition.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father James Tuite (1831-1891)

Born at Mullingar and educated at Clongowes, was admitted into the Society in 1849. He pursued his higher studies at Toulouse, Paderborn and St Beuno's, Wales and was ordained in 1861. Father Tuite was master at the Crescent in the first decade of its foundation, 1864-66, and returned to the teaching staff in 1870. During the last year of his association with the Crescent he devoted himself entirely to church work, 1872-73. He was later rector of Milltown Park and appointed Provincial in 1880. His later years were spent in church work at Gardiner St, Dublin.

Born: 21 April 1863, Munny, County Wexford
Entered: 29 August 1882, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1894
Final vows: 15 August 1900
Died 10 April 1923, St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin

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

Older brother of James Tomkin - Ent RIP 1950; Joseph Tomkin (ORE) - Ent 03/11/1892; RIP 04/10/1936; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

by 1890 at St Joseph's Seminary, Mangalore, Karnataka, India (VEM)
by 1899 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of James Tomkin - RIP 1950; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

After his Novitiate he studied Philosophy an Milltown.
1885 He was sent as Prefect to Clongowes for Regency. He returned to Milltown for a year and then back to Clongowes.
1889 He was sent to teach at the Jesuit College in Mangalore, India (VEM). he spent seven years there until severe illness forced him to come home to Milltown for Theology.
1896 He was sent to Clongowes and the following years he was at Galway as Minister and spent some years there.
1899 He was sent to Drongen for Tertianship at the end of which he was back in Galway as Minister, and also as a Teacher and an excellent Operarius. He distinguished himself as a Preacher, always making great preparations for his sermons.
1909 He became an Assistant Editor of the Irish Messenger, and continued in this for many years.
He died at St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin 10 April 1923

Born: 09 November 1866, Munny, County Wexford
Entered: 07 September 1897, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1906, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1914, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 07 August 1950, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Older brother of Joseph Tomkin (ORE) - RIP 1936; Younger brother of Nicholas A Tomkin - RIP 1923; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

Father who died in 1872 was a farmer.
Third eldest of five boys and one sister

Educated at local NS, then was a farmer until age 27. Then he went to the Camelite College in Clondalkin, then to the Patrician Brothers School Mountrath and finally Mungret College SJ

by 1899 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Younger brother of Nicholas A Tomkin - RIP 1923; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 25th Year No 4 1950
Obituary
Fr. James Tomkin (1866-1897-1950)

Father James Tomkin died in the forenoon of Monday, 7th August, 1950, after an illness of some months. He was in his eighty-fifth year and had been a Jesuit for fifty-three years. His vocation was a late one. Born at Munny, Carnew, Co. Wexford, he forsook farming at the age of twenty-six to study for the priesthood. Even his Jesuit training did not obliterate all traces of his former calling. To the end he retained the slow caution, the shrewdness mingled with simplicity, the occasional quaint turn of speech so characteristic of the Irish farmer. Secondary studies, first at Patrician College, Mountrath, and then at Mungret, cannot have been easy for him, Yet he pursued them with the same dogged perseverance and reasonable degree of success which were remarked in his later Jesuit philosophical and theological courses.
James Tomkin's novice-master from 1897 to 1899 was Father James Murphy, for whom ever afterwards he entertained an admiration amounting to hero-worship. Fr. Murphy, for his part, thought highly of the novice and nine years later, when dying as Rector of Tullabeg, is said to have (uncanonically) appointed Fr, Tomkin his successor. In Stonyhurst, whither F'r. Tomkin went for philosophy after his noticeship, he took part in cricket matches played by the Community against extern teams and earned something of a reputation as a bowler. A year's teaching in Clongowes followed Stonyhurst and then four years' theology in Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1906. It was here that Fr. Tomkin's friendship and reverence for Fr. John Sullivan began. He shared the same room on Villa as Fr. Sullivan and admired his companion's kindness and unselfish ways. The great pre-occupation of Fr. Tomkin's last years was to further the Cause of Beatification of his old friend. He gave evidence at the Tribunal in Gardiner Street and was tireless in spreading devotion to Fr. Sullivan and collecting evidence of possible miracles. In 1907 Fr. Tomkin went to Tullabeg as minister and socius to the master of novices, His kindness soon endeared him to the novices of that generation, while his sagacity as a consultant about vocation became something of a legend. After his tertianship in Tullabeg (1912-1913) he went to Mungret and remained there until 1919, being Moderator of the Apostolic School for most of that time. There followed a further period in Tullabeg (1919-1924) as operarius in the People's Church. In this position he became the trusted friend and spiritual counsellor of scores of young men who were fighting in Ireland's War of Independence and later in the Civil War. He was often sent-for to secret rendezvous in order to give absolution and spiritual consolation to those about to go into battle. The theme of his exhortations on such occasions was twofold : to avoid intoxicating drink, and not to run risk of death while in the state of sin. The succour he gave them in those dark days made Fr. Tomkin's name revered by veterans of the Troubled Times. They came in large numbers to his funeral and had to be dissuaded from firing a volley over his grave. This period in Tullabeg was followed by one in Clongowes as procurator (1924-1928) and a period in Galway as Operarius. In Galway he had charge of the Pioneers. This was a ministry very much to his liking. He was a lifelong advocate of total abstinence, having received his first pledge from the hands of Fr. James Cullen when the founder of the Pioneer's was still a secular priest. In addition to directing the Galway centre, Fr. Tomkin had printed a small pamphlet written by himself and intended to set forth unequivocally the obligations of Pioneers.
In 1937 Fr. Tomkin returned to Tullabeg, where he was destined to spend the remainder of his life. Never a hustler, he yet had a fund of quiet, tenacious energy, and a skill at enlisting the co-operation of suitable adjutants in his various enterprises. These qualities helped him in re-organising and re-vivifying the Men's Sodality at Tullabeg in accordance with Fr, General's and Fr, Provincial's wishes and instructions concerning sodalities. In many ways he was an ideal pastor for the rural congregation which frequents the People's Church. He understood country life and the country people. During his Sunday sermons, as he leaned back against the altar, joined his hands and fixed a steady eye on the congregation, there was profound silence and close attention. He seemed to have more fluency and coherence in his sermons than in his ordinary conversation and his occasional references to current political happenings were much appreciated. At this time he was greatly sought after as a conductor of nuns retreats and as their extraordinary confessor. I think it was his kindness and unhurried patience in the confessional which made him so successful in this ministry. A few years before his death he gave up all active apostolate and seemed to turn more and more to prayer and contemplation. He was a great admirer of St. John of the Cross, whose works he read slowly and meditatively and often quoted. Those who knew him at this time retain as their most abiding impression of him his immense kindness and deep humility. I have never known him say a harsh word to or about anyone. At table his attention to his neighbour's wants could become at times embarrassing. In recreation he came in for more than his share of banter and “leg-pulling”, but never did he display the slightest anger or ill-feeling. He would ward off the shafts with a chuckle or a hearty laugh, or take evasive action with those who sought to trap him into awkward admissions. He had an entertaining way of perpetrating malapropisms of a variety all his own, as when he seriously referred to the doings of disembowelled spirits or observed that there was a peculiar twang on the soup. Fr Tomkin's foibles (for, like all of us, he had his share) were of that happy kind which gave no reasonable cause for annoyance and much for entertainment. His care of his health was exquisite, showing itself in the multitude of ingenious devices and practices with which he strove to ward off the ills which threaten our mortal frame. He was a firm believer in ghosts and was quick to discern diabolical intervention in even the most ordinary happenings. But such little peculiarities are completely overshadowed by his sterling religious virtues, his vivid faith, his edifying observance of religious discipline, his amiable charity and meticulous poverty, above all by his prayer, which towards the close of his life appeared to be almost continuous. He made no secret of the fact that God had specially favoured him, though, like many another adept in the life of prayer, he could give no very coherent account of the divine visitation. Tullabeg will miss his tall, familiar figure, pacing up and down the Spiritual Meadow, well wrapped against the treacherous blasts, and absorbed not, I believe, in idle dreams or memories, but in communing with God and His Saints.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1951

Obituary

Father James Tomkin SJ

Father James Tomkin SJ an eminent spiritual director and Superior of the Apostolic School from 1913 to 1919, died at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, on August 7th last after an illness of some months.

James Tomkin, born at Munny, Co. Wexford, in 1866, was already a practising farmier, and twenty-six years old when he first became conscious of his religious vocation. With the example of St Ignatius, however, to encourage him, he undertook at once secondary and university studies at the Patrician Brothers' School, Mountrath, and Mungret. He left an impression of unbending seriousness and deep maturity on his fellow students in the Lay-school at Mungret. On one occasion he had distinguished himself in a cricket match against the Past by scoring 71 runs. Quite unexcited, however, he retired to a clump of grass, and spent the time poring over Ueberweg's “History of Philosophy”, until it was time to take his place among the fielders. James was in his time Prefect of the Sodality, and played also on the Soccer XI. He obtained his BA degree in the Summer of 1897 (Mungret at that time prepared students for the examinations of the old Royal University). Having graduated successfully, James Tomkin, already thirty-one years old, entered the Jesuit Novitiate at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore, after which he studied philosophy at Stonyhurst, taught for a year at Clongowes and then began theology at Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1906.

In 1912 Father Tomkin joined the staff of Mungret, succeeding Father Cahill, the following year, as Superior of the Apostolic School. Having held this responsible post till 1919, he went back again to the scenes of his noviceship; this time to take charge of the Public Church. During the years that followed (1919-24) he became the trusted friend and spiritual counsellor of many of the young men who were then fighting in Ireland's War of Independence and later in the Civil War. The help he gave them in those days made his name revered by veterans of the troubled times; they came in numbers to his funeral. From Tullabeg, Father Tomkin was changed to Clongowes, and from there to Galway. Finally, in 1937, he returned to Tullabeg, there to spend the remainder of his life. Once again he had charge of the Public Church with the direction of the Men's Sodality, and once again he established himself in the hearts of the people. At this time, also, he was widely sought after as a director of nuns' retreats and as their extraordinary confessor. A few years, however, before his death, being already in his eighties, he was forced to retire altogether from the active apostolate. He then devoted him self entirely to the life of prayer, and those who lived with him can testify abundantly to the simplicity and humility and evident holiness of all his ways. RIP

Born: 01 May 1927, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1959, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 13 February 2013, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Peter Faber, Brookvale Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim community at the time of death.

Son of John Timoney and Katharina Molony. Father was a Staff Officer in the Customs & Excise department.

Third in a family of five, with four sisters.

Early education was in a National School in Galway and then seven years at Coláiste Iognáid.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fr-senan-timoney-rip/

Fr Senan Timoney RIP
Fr Senan Timoney died unexpectedly and quietly on Ash Wednesday. At the age of 85 he could look back on a life in four provinces, having quartered his years neatly between Galway, Limerick, Dublin and the North.
As he had covered Ireland in his residences, he covered many of the Province’s houses and ministries with distinction: formation (Minister of Juniors, Director of Tertians), teaching (of Irish, Maths, French, sociology, religion, rowing), headmastering in Mungret, administering (Rector, Socius to Provincial), spiritual direction, pastoral and retreat work, keeping the accounts for Brian Lennon’s chip shop in Portadown, and accompanying the brethren through it all, a good companion and sought after in every house.
He was a formidable golfer, neat and accurate, with a trim figure which in the last years was wasted to the point of emaciation. On Ash Wednesday five years ago they diagnosed the blood condition which required regular transfusions. He moved from Belfast to Cherryfield, where the staff remember his engagement with life, always interested, ready to talk about the TV programmes he had watched, alert to the sick and the suffering, welcoming his countless friends.
He consciously kept death – and any talk of death – at bay. In the end his family and several Jesuits were round him He was given the ashes, and was alert practically up to the moment when the Lord took him. May God be good to him.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 151 : Spring 2013

Obituary

Fr Senan Timoney (1927-2013)

1 May 1927: Born in Galway.
Early education in National School and St. Ignatius, Galway
7 September 1945: Entered Society at Emo
8 September 1947: First Vows at Emo
1947 - 1950: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1943 - 1946: Tullabeg - studied Philosophy
1953 - 1956: St. Ignatius College, Galway - Regency
1956 - 1960: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31 July 1959: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1960 - 1961: Rathfarnham: Tertianship
1961 - 1962: St. Ignatius College, Galway - Teacher; H. Dip. In Ed,
1962 - 1963: Emo - Socius to Novice Director; Minister
2 February 1963: Final Vows
1963 - 1967: Rathfarnham - Minister of Juniors
1967 - 1974: Mungret College
1967 - 1968: Prefect of Studies
1968 - 1969: Rector; Prefect of Studies
1969 - 1971: Rector
1971 - 1974: Headmaster
1974 - 1983: Crescent College, Dooradoyle – Vice-Superior; Teacher
1981 - 1987: Province Consultor
1983 - 1988: Loyola House:
1983 - 1987: Executive Socius; Superior
1987 - 1988: Sabbatical
1988 - 1992: Portadown - Superior
1992 - 1994: Manresa:
1992 - 1993: Directs Spiritual Exercises; Assistant to Director
1993 - 1994: Rector

1994-2013: Belfast
1994 - 1998: Superior: Tertian Director (1995: 1997-1998); Directed Spiritual Exercises; Spiritual Director; Pastoral Facilitator; Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
1998 - 2000: Superior; Chair JINI; Directed Spiritual Exercises; Spiritual Director; Pastoral Facilitator, Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
1999 - 2007: Province Consultor
2000 - 2003: Minister; Superior's Admonitor; Spiritual Director (SJ); Treasurer
2003 - 2007: Directed Spiritual Exercises; Pastoral Facilitator; Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
2008 - 2011: Spiritual Director
2011 - 2013: Resident in Cherryfield Lodge

Senan died on Ash Wednesday morning. Around him were Caitriona, his niece, Mary Rickard, the Province Health Delegate and Liam O'Connell, Socius to the Provincial. Liam had said in succession prayers for the sick, for the dying and for the dead. Before he did that, Liam took the ashes and marked Senan's forehead with the sign of the cross. So ended Senan's earthly life; nearly 86 years since his birth in Galway and nearly 68 years since his joining the Society of Jesus in Emo, in September 1945.

Senan could look back on a life in four provinces, having quartered his years neatly between Galway, Limerick, Dublin and the North, As he had covered Ireland in his residences, he had covered many of the Province's houses and ministries with distinction: formation (Minister of Juniors, Director of Tertians), teaching (of Irish, Maths, French, sociology, religion, rowing), headmastering, administering (Rector, Socius to Provincial), spiritual direction and retreat work, keeping the accounts for Brian Lennon's chip shop in Portadown, and accompanying the brethren through it all, a good companion and sought after in every house, including his final assignment in Cherryfield. As a friend remarked: There wasn't a mean bone in his body.

Always trim, he was a formidable golfer, neat and accurate. Back in the forties such an omni-competent scholastic would have been marked out for the missions, especially Hong Kong. But in Senan's first year of noviciate the Lord sent him an unexplained fever, had him isolated briefly in Cork Street, and planted in Fr Tommy Byrne, the Novice-Master (Senan belonged to the year of Whole-Byrne novices), the illusion that here was a delicate young man who would not be able for the missions. This was Ireland's gain: Senan was never sick again until a heart attack in 1999 and red-corpuscle trouble ten years later, which necessitated the infusion of two units of blood every fortnight.

What, you may wonder, could raise the temperature of a man as equable and calm as Senan? He had known the Jesuits as a boy, had learned Mass-serving from Fr John Hyde, had seen the mainly Jesuit staff of Coláiste lognáid at close quarters, so he did not expect to be surprised when he joined up and went to Emo. But surprised he was, you might almost say appalled, by one feature of noviciate life. What was that? The discipline and chain? No. The isolation? No. The long hours of prayer? No. It was the silence that bugged him. People were not allowed to talk. “I could not get over it. It was unreal and made no sense to me”.

Senan had this gift of articulating what should have been obvious but was accepted as traditional. As Minister of Juniors in 1963 ("an awful job, like a ganger") he was baffled to find the fathers in Rathfarnham Castle herded into the large parlour at 1.45 after lunch, and tied there in stiff conversation till a nod from the Rector at 2.15. Senan made a move: “Let us go free at two oclock." The benign Fergal McGrath was appalled at the suggestion of such a break from tradition.

Freedom was an important value for a man so often burdened with administrative jobs. When he took over from Paddy Doyle as co instructor of tertians with Ron Darwen, Senan would not accept candidates who were assigned unwillingly to tertianship; they must want to come. His cordial relations with lay teachers were clouded by their union's (ASTI) refusal to admit Religious on the grounds that they would all vote the same way as their superior dictated. “We are not like that”, insisted Senan. “We can and do differ from one another while remaining friends”. And it was a feature of the Crescent Comprehensive where Senan taught for nine years, that Jesuits would, in good, amicable spirit, take opposing sides on issues of policy, to the astonishment of new teachers. He was active in staff meetings which would be held without the presence of the Headmaster, and would brief delegates to convey their motions to the Headmaster or the Board of Management.

One revealing episode showed the difficulty of maintaining this freedom. When Senan was secretary of the Catholic Headmasters' Association, ASTI were threatening to strike over a promise that the Government had made and reneged on. A meeting of the CHA voted to come out in sympathy with ASTI, and Senan passed this reassuring news back to his lay colleagues in Mungret. But no statement emerged from CHA, and Senan smelt a rat. He gathered the requisite ten signatures for calling an extraordinary general meeting, and demanded from the Chairman, his friend Sean Hughes, why no statement had been published. Sean admitted that after the CHA meeting and vote, he had consulted John Charles McQuaid, then Archbishop of Dublin, on the matter and was persuaded by JC to back off from a public pronouncement. The whole business smelled of the secretive and coercive character of the Irish church at its worst.

It would be wrong to picture Senan as a flag-waving revolutionary. Rather he used the existing structures intelligently to make his point without stirring up animosity. In Tullabeg, while enjoying the community life, he valued the stage shows as a way of voicing the frustrations of the brethren. In Crescent he supported the meetings of the staff to improve the school in dialogue with the Headmaster and the Board. In the CHA he used the mechanism of an extraordinary meeting to drag secretive machinations into daylight.

One of the most stressful periods of his life came from being vowed to secrecy. In November 1971, Senan and Paddy Cusack, then Headmaster and Rector of Mungret, were asked to meet in Nenagh for Sunday lunch with the Provincial, Cecil McGarry. Cecil came straight to the point: he was going to close Mungret. Then he stood the pair a good lunch (appropriate for people condemned to execution), and vowed them to secrecy about the plan. For four months Senan woke heavy-hearted to face this cloud, unable to discuss it with anyone. He had to make irrational decisions about the future: he watched the installation of new showers, knowing that in two years' time there would be nobody to use them. He cancelled the entrance exam for the following year for some invented reason. One day in March 1972, the Provincial summoned the staff at 2 p.m., and the school at 2.15, with the news of the planned closure. Despite the heavy hearts, the last two years of Mungret were good years, and those who graduated from the school then have remained exceptionally loyal to their friends and their old teachers. One striking example of this: among the crowds at Senan's funeral was a man whom he had expelled from Mungret. “Best thing ever happened to me. I preferred horses to Homer and was at the races when I should have been in class. Senan and my parents saw that schooling did not suit me. I've done fine without it”.

Senan remembered his next nine years, teaching in Crescent Comprehensive, with particular happiness. With four other teachers (of English, history, geography and science) he experimented in team teaching of first year classes. The team would focus on Lough Gur for three months, then on Ancient Limerick, then on the Burren and Aran Islands, taking the pupils through the history, geography, folklore, music and attractions of each topic. They were delighted to find pupils in turn taking their own families on guided tours of the places they had been immersed in.

After those productive years in education, it was a revelation to move north, first to Portadown, then to Belfast, though he had some of the North in his blood - his father was from Fermanagh. They were troubled years, the Good Friday Agreement still a long way off. When Senan went to Portadown, he found an open house, with neighbours popping in at all times of the day and night, chuffed that the Jesuits considered Churchill Park worth investing in. There were informal visits from staff of the Dublin Department of Foreign Affairs, anxious to suss out from the Jesuits how things were moving. He was appalled at the mistaken policy of sending in British army troops to police the North - they were trained to fight, not to keep the peace. He was impressed by the impact made there by Wee Paddy (Doyle), uhwhom he followed later to Belfast and as Instructor of Tertians.

That tertianship is still an unwritten piece of Province history, Senan was happy with the location of the tertians in small communities, in Derry, Coleraine, Belfast, and a meeting point in Maghera. A large tertianship house, with its own cook and institutional character, can foster dependence. But these tertians, living with two or three others, managing their own budget and diet, working things out for themselves, had a more realistic preparation for the probable shape of their future life as Jesuits.

So much for where Senan lived and what he did. A harder question: what made him the remarkable man he was? Here is Alan McGuckian's reflection:
I did the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life with Senan a few years ago. I remember when we came to the meditation on the incarnation he said with great seriousness; this changes everything. Our faith that the eternal word of God became flesh in Jesus makes everything different, makes everything new.

Those who have known him over the years remember a certain quality of inner freshness and dynamism. Part of that was a gift of nature. Much of it, I maintain, came from his fascination and engagement with Jesus.

Senan's capacity to form relationships was extraordinary. They could be lifelong friendships that were transformative for people – or very short term encounters. In recent years he spent a lot of time around hospitals. He wouldn't be five minutes on a ward when he knew the names of all the nurses and the porters and the cleaners, where they were from and how many children they had and that their brother's mother in law was the sister of the Bishop of Elphin. (I made that up, but you know what I mean.) He loved to get the news about people because he was genuinely interested in them.
Caitriona said to me that one thing she remembered most vividly was that Senan was open and welcoming to everybody. He didn't distinguish between high and low, rich and poor, virtuous and unvirtuous. He took people as he found them. I think that is a gift of grace more than nature. Though it should be said that there were certain kinds of mean-spirited behaviour that he would describe as “lousy behaviour”. Individuals, specified or unspecified, who were guilty of such behaviour, would be termed “lousers”. To be designated as a “louser” was definitely not a good thing!

Senan clung to life with incredible tenacity - but, let it be said, with great patience and dignity. As I watched this I often asked “why?” What was it, I wondered, that he still had to do? What did he still have to learn? What did Senan still have to do? There is one thing that he did in these final months of suffering that means a lot to me personally and I will share it with you.

Over the past 20 years Senan had become a Belfast man. He was the son of an Ulsterman, so returning to the North was really a coming home to his roots. In Belfast he was utterly committed to the life of the community, and worked closely with people in all the churches. He was very committed to the life of the diocese of Down and Connor. There is now a new initiative of pastoral renewal in Down and Connor called The Living Church project, which I myself have the privilege to be involved in. Senan became so excited about the Living Church that he told me very solemnly one day more than a year ago that he had decided that he would offer up whatever he had to suffer for the Living Church. He announced this at a mass he celebrated when he came back for a one-day visit to Belfast.

Those of us who have watched him slowly decline in recent months know that the gradual, irreversible loss of control which was always fought so resolutely had to be a great suffering. One day a few weeks ago when I visited him in St Vincent's, Senan as always wanted to know the news. “How is everyone in Belfast? What about the work?” I told him that the Living Church project was moving forward slowly but surely. "Ah", he said, "I have had a fair bit of pain lately. When I was experiencing a lot of pain, I said to myself, “I know what that is for?” The only time he ever mentioned pain - and that without a trace of self-pity – was to say that he was offering it up, turning it to good use. That goes some way towards answering my question, “what did he still have to do?”

Perhaps that is why he shied away from any talk of death even in the last months, when his body was wasted to the point of emaciation. He came back from death's door so often that the devoted staff in Cherryfield called him Lazarus. He did not know the ground plan of the heavenly mansions, so he did not want to waste energy speculating about them. Instead he remained engaged in life, in his friends, in all the news, to the very end. He would have been delighted to go to the Lord with the ashes still fresh on his forehead. And happy that his prayer was answered: May I be alive when I die. His fellow-Jesuits feel a huge sense of loss for a man who was so central to our corporate life, and such a dearly loved companion.

Interfuse No 152 : Summer 2013

HOW TO FACE DEATH

Dr John Holien

3.3.2013: letter from Dr John Holien and the team in St Vincent's Hospital who looked after Senan Timoney during his last weeks of life; it was addressed to Senan's niece Mrs Hussey

Dear Mrs Hussey,
Firstly let me apologise for the long delay in writing to you to express my sincerest condolences to you and all the family and the Jesuit community on Senan's death. The team and I had become extremely fond of Fr Senan during his time with us, and the dignity, fortitude and patience he displayed right to the end was amazing - he was remarkably brave, determined and single-minded as he battled away, and these no doubt were traits he'd displayed all his life.

The team and I were aware just how hard the last few months had been for you and the members of his community as you all tried to come to terms with what had happened to Fr Senan. Having not had the pleasure of knowing him before he fell ill, I can only imagine what sort of man he was- the glimpses we had in Vincents made us realise we were caring for a person of enormous intellect, a man who'd dedicated his life to the betterment of others, a selfless man who was much loved by all who knew him. We were always struck by how determined he was even when the odds were against him, how hard he worked and never questioned or complained about what happened to him. He seemed to have this amazing gracefulness to just accept it, offer it up and get on with it, like a true Jesuit in every sense.

I can't tell you how sad we are to lose him - people come and go in Vincent's all the time, but Fr Senan was very special to us and we were devastated we could not make him better. The last few weeks in particular were so difficult as the amazing progress he'd made initially began to fade. I'm so sorry his final few days were not spent where we wanted them to be – at home amongst family and friends, reading the Irish Times and talking rugby.

I hope in the weeks and months ahead you can remember him as the man he was before his illness. It was an enormous privilege for us to have looked after him, I'm just so sorry we couldn't do more. I really mean it when I say Fr Senan made a lasting impression on us all, and I'm sure you have many wonderful memories of a very wonderful man to look back on.

With sincerest sympathies,

John Holien and team

Born: 25 April 1918, Bank Place, Mallow, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1949, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1952, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 09 September 1995, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare community at the time of death.

Father was a motor agent and family lived at Shortcastle, Mallow, County Cork

Fifth of six boys with three sisters.

Early education Patrician Monastery in Mallow he then went at age 13 to Clongowes Wood College SJ (1931-1936)

by 1952 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - fourth wave of Zambian Missioners
by 1962 at Loyola, Lusaka, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
‘He was radical, he had vision and he made things happen. He was single-minded and, not least, he was stubborn as a donkey’. These words were spoken by Mr P J Kirby, chairman of Clane Community Council at the graveside of Fr Thompson on 12 September 1995.

Fr Bob was born in Mallow, Co Cork in 1918, went to school with the Patrician Brothers and then on to Clongowes Wood College. He entered the Society at Emo Park in 1936 and after studies and ordination in 1949 and then tertianship, he straightaway went to Northern Rhodesia where he stayed for 12 years. While there at Chikuni, he was involved in general teaching, in teacher training, scouting and teaching of religion. He moved to Lusaka and was editor of a newspaper "The Leader" which advocated independence, was very pro-UNIP and was critical of the colonial government. With Fr Paddy Walsh he became friends with Dr Kenneth Kaunda and other leaders at the Interracial Club. This was all during Federation days. In fact, the then Federal Prime Minister Roy Welensky wrote to Fr Bob's brother who was a doctor in Rhodesia, ‘Tell that Jesuit brother of yours he is causing me a lot of trouble’. At Independence in 1964, Kaunda brought Fr Bob back from Ireland for the occasion.

Fr Bob was very intelligent, had plenty of ideas in a very active mind and would 'take up the cudgels' as it were, for worthy causes. Many did not see eye to eye with him and often it was mutual, yet he got things done and was never shy of speaking out.

When he returned to Ireland in 1963, he was on the Mission circuits for five years, traveling throughout Ireland and then stayed on retreat work at Rathfarnham and Tullabeg for seven years. In 1977, he was transferred to Clongowes Wood College and became assistant curate in the parish of Clane, a nearby village. For ten years he took part in the life of the parish and the local community: primary schools, the restoration of the old Abbey, renovation of Mainham cemetery, projects for tidy towns, negotiation for a site for a new business enterprise centre and a memorial to Fr John Sullivan S.J. ‘He made things happen’. After leaving Clane for Moycullen in Co Galway, he was called back for the unveiling of a plaque at the restored Abbey which read: “This plaque is erected to the tremendous contribution of life in the locality by Rev R Thompson S.J. during the years 1977 to 1987”.

Bob's remark about this tribute was that he was the first Irishman to have a plaque erected to him before he died. A business centre was built and opened in 1996 after Bob's death and is called the Thompson Business and Enterprise Centre.

In 1987 he retired to Moycullen, Co Galway, for the quiet life as assistant curate and a bit of fishing. The word 'retire' does not really apply to him as his active mind soon saw him involved with concern for the environment, the collapse of the sea trout stocks and the rod license dispute, being on the side of the fishermen. He helped in the Church and stayed there for four years up to 1991. He returned to Clongowes and Clane and four years later he died in Dublin on 9 of September 1995.

He was a man of big ideas he had ‘a remarkable ability of having a new idea every day’ yet he never praised himself for his achievements. He was a devoted confessor. There was nothing artificial in his dealings with parishioners and he was always so sympathetic to those going through hard times. He looked after poor people in a sensitive and low key way that protected their dignity. He had an abiding interest in encouraging young people to use their talents and had total confidence in their ability to improve on what the last generation had done. He motivated those around him, especially the young people. Nobody got preferential treatment, least of all those who believed they deserved it!

‘He was single-minded and tireless’.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 86 : July 1996

Obituary

Fr Robert (Bob) Thompson (1918-1995)

25th April 1918: Born at Mallow, Co. Cork
Education; Clongowes Wood College
7th Sept. 1936: Entered Society at Emo
8th Sept. 1938: First Vows at Emo
1938 - 1941: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD
1941 - 1944: Tullabeg, Philosophy
1944 - 1946: Clongowes Wood College, Regency
1946 - 1950; Milltown Park, Theology
31st July 1949; Ordained Priest at Milltown Park
1950 - 1951: Tertianship, Rathfarnham
1951 - 1963: Zambia: Learning the language, Teaching in Chikuni Boarding School, Secretary to Bishops Conference, Teacher of Religion, Scouts Trainer, Minor Seminary teacher, Editor, “The Leader” magazine
2nd Feb. 1952: Final Vows, Chikuni College
1964 - 1969: Crescent College, Limerick, Teacher
1969 - 1970; Tullabeg - Missioner Rathfarnham - Assistant Director, Retreat House
1970 - 1976: Tullabeg - Director of Retreat House
1976 - 1977; Tullabeg - Superior
1977 - 1987: Clongowes - Assistant Curate, Clane Parish
1987 - 1991: Galway - Assistant Curate, Moycullen
1991 - 1995: Clongowes - Coordinator EC Leader Programme, Clane Community Council
9th Sept. 1995: Died unexpectedly at St. Vincent's Private Nursing Home

When leaving Clongowes in his last year Bob Thompson proved himself a very good all rounder, academically as well. Seldom if ever did he praise himself, for example, as a member of the Irish Mission staff doing the length and breadth of Ireland. He was never heard to criticise others on a mission or quietly hint that he was really the number one on the team.

In many ways he was lucky in having Fr. Donal O'Sullivan as Rector of Scholastics in Tullabeg. Bob had little time for piffling matters and could take a hard knock when it was just and due. As a Junior at UCD and Philosopher he had a good sense of humour and greatly benefited from a full house of scholastics. Having six men about the home in Mallow had its own advantage in growth points which no doubt was a definite help in his life.

His years as a young priest in Africa gave him a good deal of experience which he used with amazing courage and which sometimes might have benefited with just that touch of a little prudence and patience. He was always proud of Kenneth Kaunda, especially when Zambia came of age. On the occasion when the country was officially opened, Bob received an invitation here in Ireland to the real opening ceremony out in Zambia, so many miles away. It showed an appreciation and gratitude on the part of the New President of the time when Kaunda, his wife and eight children needed and received practical assistance while he waited in the wings in gaol for many a long day.

When Bob was sent to Tullabeg for a few years, he proved to be a man with big ideas, when finances were a serious matter for the running of retreats. He initiated an annual "Field Day" for Co. Offaly on such a gigantic scale, one wonders now at those vast undertakings. He had a huge army of backers, reminding us of things to come in Clane that was beyond ordinary Jesuit reckoning.

The ten years when Bob acted as assistant curate in Clane parish were blessed for him by having local priests who encouraged him and gave him his head. The seeds that started to grow in Africa now came into fruition due to his intellectual capacity. The next three qualities he had, are seldom seen in the one person, he was radical, he had vision and he made things happen. Not everyone grasped the deep compassion in his make up for those in trouble. They certainly saw how he motivated those around him and especially young people. We were all made aware at some stage that nobody got preferential treatment, least of all those who believed they deserved it! He was single-minded and tireless.

Today we see for ourselves the results of his achievements: the modern primary schools with their lovely run in to the village; the restored Abbey; a work of genuine artistic beauty obviously influenced by expert professional advice; the renovation of Mainham Cemetery, the various tidy town and amenity projects, the memorial to Fr. John Sullivan and finally the site for the new Enterprise Centre.

His health deteriorated for a year or so, prior to his sudden death. This was shown in his step slowing down and the energy slackening. He himself very wisely prepared to hand over to others what needed to be continued and often completed. This is a sign of a real leader who can pass on jobs to others that he would normally do himself. We Jesuits who lived with him admired the way the Lord blessed him with a magnificent base speaking voice, clear diction, so natural in delivery. He was a devoted confessor, nothing artificial in his dealings with parishioners and so sympathetic to those going through hard times. He had a big heart.

His sudden death came as a shock to his family, the Jesuits in Clongowes and to the people of Clane and neighbourhood. Seldom have we seen such a fitting farewell to any Jesuit. The last line was said at his graveside by Mr PJ Kirby in a truly wonderful oration. “The best tribute we can pay Fr. Bob is to try to emulate his example and continue the strong tradition of community and voluntary work. I know the people of Clane will not disappoint him!”

Kieran Hanley SJ

Oration at the graveside of Fr. Bob Thompson S.J. Delivered by Mr. P.J. Kirby, Chairman of Clane Community Council 12th September 1995.

Friends and neighbours,

May I thank Fr. Bob's family and the Jesuit community for providing this opportunity to the people of Clane to honour someone we loved.

I know that some of Fr. Bob's friends from Moycullen are also here today and I hope that what we want to say also reflects how the people of Galway felt about Fr Bob.

Today we are celebrating the life of someone who made an immense contribution to Clane as a priest and a community worker. This happened because Fr. Bob had a number of outstanding personal qualities:

• He had an intellectual capacity second to none
• He was radical
• He had vision
• He made things happen
• He was compassionate
• He motivated those around him
• He was even-handed; nobody got preferential treatment least of all those who believed they deserved it
• He was single-minded and tireless and, not least,
• He was stubborn as a donkey!

These qualities enabled Fr. Bob to achieve things that we can see with our own eyes in Clane today:

• The modern primary schools
• The restored Abbey
• The renovation of Mainham Cemetery
• Various tidy town and amenity projects
• The memorial to Fr. John Sullivan; (I will refer again to this later)
• The site for the new Enterprise Centre

These are all tangible examples of the practical contribution Fr. Bob made to Clane. However, he also made other contributions that were less obvious but are probably of more value than we realise:

1. He looked after poor people (this was done in a sensitive, low-key way that protected the dignity of the people concerned)

2. He had an abiding interest in encouraging young people to use their talents and he had total confidence in their ability to improve on what the last generation had done.

3. He left a legacy of committed community workers to carry on the work; the anticipation of his own departure is always the mark of a great leader.

Each of us will have our own special memories of Fr. Bob. On a personal note, he had a profound influence on my continuing adult education - you could not get this type of learning at any school or university. Some of the community projects I mentioned earlier were concocted late at night in Fr. Bob's house here in Clongowes, very often with spiritual help of the liquid kind.

He had particular insights into the creative and positive use of alcohol. For example, he did not agree with people giving up drink for Lent. I discovered this to my cost one day years ago when he took an abrupt turn in his Fiesta into Manzor's pub car park. The fact that I also came from the Blackwater valley in North Cork did not spare me from a stern lecture on the opportunity for doing good through buying a drink for a friend, a neighbour or a stranger.

I mentioned the memorial to Fr. John Sullivan earlier. Many people in Clane genuinely believe that history has repeated itself. It is remarkable, in the space of two generations, two people of the calibre of Fr. John Sullivan and Fr. Bob Thompson should emerge from the Jesuit order and contribute so much to the welfare of the people of Clane and the surrounding districts. It is a class double act that will be very hard to follow.

Now it's time to say farewell. Someone remarked at the week-end that the last time the people of Clane bid farewell to Fr, Bob he came back! Nothing should be ruled out and I'm sure that he is not gone far away.

The best tribute we can pay Fr. Bob is to try to emulate his example and continue the strong tradition of community and voluntary work. I know the people of Clane will not disappoint him.

◆ The Clongownian, 1996

Obituary

Father Robert Thompson SJ

Bob Thompson was born in Mallow in 1918. After school, he entered the Jesuits at Emo. Having completed his noviceship in 1938, he followed the conventional course of studies - a degree in Arts at UCD, philosophy in Tullabeg and theology in Milltown Park. Bob - spent two years as a scholastic between philosophy and theology - the period known as “regency” - in Clongowes. He was ordained on 31 July 1949 and when he had finished tertianship, back in Rathfarnham Castle, where he had studied for the BA, he was among the first Jesuits to go to what was then Northern Rhodesia in 1951.

Over the next twelve years he studied the language, taught in the boarding school at Chikuni, served as secretary to the Bishops' Conference, taught Religion, trained scouts, taught in the Minor Seminary and edited “The Leader”, a magazine advocating independent statehood for the country. He taught Kenneth Kaunda, later the first president of Zambia, and his influence was something President Kaunda never forgot. Although Bob was by then back in Ireland, the President invited him to attend the celebrations marking Zambian independence.

In 1963, a thorn in the side of the colonial authorities, Bob returned home. After a year in the Crescent as a teacher, he joined the mission staff based at Tullabeg and was responsible for giving parish missions and retreats around the country. He did this for five years.

Then it was back to Rathfarnham Castle once more as Assistant Director of the Retreat House. The following year he returned to Tullabeg to direct the Retreat House there. After six years in this role, and one further memorable year as Superior of the commu nity, he came to Clongowes in 1977.

This marked the beginning of ten very fruitful years, acting as Assistant Curate - and much more! - in Clane Parish. Bob had an enormous impact on the locality, blessed, as Fr Kieran Hanley has written, “by having local priests who encouraged him and gave him his head”. His pressure on the Department of Education to get the new primary schools built is now a matter of legend.

A fuller sense of what Bob achieved in Clane is conveyed by the tribute from Mr P.J. Kirby, printed below.

He took a four year “sabbatical” from Clane and Clongowes from 1987-91, during which he worked in Moycullen, Co. Galway, again as Assistant Curate. A friend, who shared his passion for fishing, wrote of how Bob's enjoyment of this pastime never allowed him to disregard the environment. He worried about the collapse of seatrout stocks in Connemara; “Anyone knowing Fr Bob can be certain that he has already made approaches to St Peter on these serious matters and he would want to know whạt St Peter proposed to do about the situation! Playing the harp would not be his idea of heavenly bliss....”

He returned to Clongowes and resumed his work with the local community, this time promoting the Clane Community Council and coordinating a European Union funded pro gramme in the local area. His death on 9 September 1995 in St Vincent's Hospital, where he had gone for a check-up, came as a complete shock and his dynamic, creative presence is missed by all who knew him.

The boys in Clongowes hardly knew Bob, although they would occasionally have heard his uncompromising sermons at Mass in the People's Church. They were probably surprised at the large numbers who turned out for his funeral and would have been deeply struck - as we all were, not least his Jesuit brethren - by the remarkable tribute paid to him by P.J. Kirby, chairman of the Clane Community.

Born: 06 November 1923, Clonfert Avenue, Portumna, County Galway
Entered: 06 September 1941, Emo
Ordained: 28 July 1955, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 09 January 1982, Hong Kong
Died: 10 October 2006, Wahroonga, NSW, Australia - Sinensis Province (CHN)

Part of the Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney Australia community at the time of death.

Transcribed HIB to HK : 03 December 1966; HK to CHN : 1992

Parents were framers and father fad an auctioneering business.

Youngest of three boys with two sisters.

Early education was at Convent and National schools in Portumna, and he then went to St Joseph’s College, Roscrea for five years.

by 1950 at Hong Kong - Regency

◆ 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 a Jesuit for 65 years, joining the Society in Ireland and coming first to Hong Kong in 1957.

His life in Hong Kong was divided into two phases, firstly working at the retreat House in Cheung Chau for seven years, and then as an English teacher for 25 years at Wah Yan College Kowloon. he published many textbooks on English teaching, composition, writing and colloquial English. He showed great interest in drama and stage production for stage plays, and he was very influential in the Hong Kong Speech Festivals. During his teaching years at Wah Yan College Kowloon, he was active every Sunday in parishes as well as leading Catholic students at Wah Yan to develop in Catholic leadership.

He decided to work in Australia as a pastoral priest when he left Wah Yan Kowloon in 1983 as he reached the retiring age of 60. he continued his missionary work in Australia, being actively involved in the parish at Lavender Bay in Sydney and also at Neutral Bay. he also had outreach work with prostitutes' and drug addicts.

His personal life was simple and ordinary. It was said with a smile, that he was very Irish (with a Galway accent), loyal to his country and its customs, always asserting that he was “not British”! He admired the balance and beauty of Chinese culture and its skills in resolving conflicts, and he made every effort to adapt to Chinese ways.

He wrote a Sonnet about himself :
When I am dead think only this of me,
He was a man, take him for all in all,
Awkward and shy, timid in company
Who never thought of himself as ten feet tall.
Dry wit and puckish slant on life he saved
For those foibles lingered o’er his trail
Oft saw the funny side of fold and misbehaved
In what he said, sometimes beyond the pale.
Of years a scorned and chalk-facing in Hong Kong
The classroom’s daily grind long his chore.
Retired in Austral shores, time seemed for long,
had no regrets, his home for evermore.
At the end of the day let this be said
Tough his sins were as scarlet, what he wrote was red.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Donal Taylor, one of five children, desired to become a priest from an early age, and after an earlier education at the Cistercian College, Roscrea, he entered the Society of Jesus at Emo Park, Ireland, 6 September 1941. He graduated in 1946 with a BA from University College, Dublin. Three years of philosophy studies followed at St Stanislaus' College, Tullabeg. He was assigned to the Hong Kong Mission for regency, 1949-52, during which he learned Chinese for two years and taught in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, for a year. In 1950 the communists detained him and two other Jesuit scholastics for two weeks after they accidentally entered Chinese territory from Macau, and were suspected of being spies as they had a camera. He returned to Ireland for theology 1952-56, and tertianship at Rathfarnham before returning to Hong Kong.
He started his teaching career at Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, 1957-58, but believing that he needed to improve his Chinese he went back to Xavier House, Cheung Chou, where he not only studied Chinese, but was also given charge of the Retreat House as director and minister. During this time he established a successful parish network of retreat promoters.
Taylor's next assignment for nearly twenty years was teaching in Wah Yan College, Kowloon, from 1963, where he was also spiritual father to the junior boys. During this time he had two short breaks, 1967-68, studying “Teaching of English as a Second Language”, and, 1980-81, studying pastoral ministry.
He was a good teacher, serious in class, demanding attention and a high commitment from himself and his students. This often led to frustration and impatience. As spiritual father he
arranged an exhibition on Jesuits and their vocation for the Diocesan Vocation Exhibition organised by the Serra Club. He obtained material from all over the world, with the result that the Jesuit exhibition was the largest and most attractive.
Taylor loved teaching and his students won prizes each year for recitation, poetry reading and drama in the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival. He produced “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and directed “Pygmalion”, which was well acclaimed. To help his students he produced a series of books called “Living English” for the middle school years. He read widely, loved music and was an interesting companion in conversation. He was good at the Chinese language that made him welcome in Chinese company and especially with past students whom he had taught.
He suffered one setback in 1978 when he found it difficult to keep his balance when walking. He underwent an operation in America for inner ear balance malfunction, but afterward had to learn to walk again. As a result of this, and because he had grown tried of teaching, his heart not being in it, he thought it best to change his career, and went to England for a course in pastoral ministry before applying to the Australian province to work in a parish. He was aged 60. During his time in Hong Kong he was experienced as a faithful and committed Jesuit who served others with great generosity and responsibility.
He arrived in Australia and the Lavender Bay parish in November 1983, and found the contrast with his former life startling. No bells or order of time, his time was largely his own. He soon found that he received better feedback in the parish than in the school, and he enjoyed celebrating the sacraments other than the Mass. He had only celebrated two weddings during his time in Hong Kong, and now he had many more, learning that instruction of adults was different from children. People enjoyed his liturgies, and he prepared his Sunday homily with great care believing that it insulted people to preach without preparation. He tried to make his Mass as devotional and sacred as possible. He drew inner strength and fulfilment from his engagement with the people he met, admiring their faith, unselfishness, holiness and forbearance. A special ministry he undertook was to write to priests in prison convicted of sexual abuse. He believed that they needed to be befriended.
Taylor moved to the parish of St Canice's, Elizabeth Bay, 1990-96, as superior, and then St Joseph's, Neutral Bay, 1997-2001, and finally St Mary's, North Sydney, 2002-06.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 133 : Special Issue September 2007

Obituary

Fr Donal Taylor (1923-2006) : China Province

26th November 1923: Born at Portumna, Co. Galway.
6th September 1941: Entered the Society at Emo Park.
8th September 1943: First Vows at Emo
1943 - 1946: Rathfarnham - Studies Arts at UCD.
1946 - 1949: Tullabeg - studied philosophy.
1949 - 1951: Chinese Language Studies in Hong Kong.
1951 - 1952: Regency, teaching in Wah Yan, Hong Kong.
1952 - 1956: Milltown Park – studied theology
28th July, 1955: Ordained at Milltown Park
1956 - 1957: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1957 - 1958: Wah Yan College, Hong Kong - teaching.
1958 - 1962: Cheung Chau, H.K., Language Studies, Retreats.
1962 - 1978: Wah Yan College, Hong Kong - teaching
1979 - 1980: Teaching at Wah Yan College, Kowloon.
1980 - 1981: Studies in London, England
1981 - 1983: Teaching in Wah Yan College, Kowloon
1984 - 2006: Australia - Parish ministry
1984 - 1989: St. Francis Xavier's, Lavender Bay, Sydney.
1990 - 1996: St. Canice's, Elizabeth Bay, Sydney.
1997 - 2001: St. Joseph's Neutral Bay, Sydney
2002 - 2006: St. Mary's, North Sydney
September 2006: Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney
October 10th, 2006: Died at Wahroonga, New South Wales

Homily preached October 16", 2006 by Richard Leonard, S.J. at Requiem Mass, St Mary's Church, North Sydney.

For those of us who knew and loved Fr Donal Taylor, it comes as no surprise to discover that he planned his funeral. Donal liked good order, especially good liturgical order, and he was very clear about what he DIDN'T want.

Donal always thought the postmortem double-guessing about readings, hymns and ministers was to be avoided. Preparing this liturgy was one of the ways he wrestled with his own mortality, and one of the ways he wanted to care for us. Some months ago he asked me to preach. My riding instructions were clear: “Eulogize me, don't canonize me”.

The readings he chose revolve around two themes: love and empathy. In the First Letter of John we are reminded that our love of each other is a response to God's initiative in loving us first. The Gospel, like our processional hymn, applies this idea still more clearly. Jesus tells us that the only law worth worrying about is the law of love, from which should flow at home-ness, joy, friendship and a passion for inission - to go out and bear the fruit of what we have been privileged to receive from Christ. And I know that Donal liked the Letter to the Hebrews not just because it focuses on Christ as priest, but because of the nature of the priesthood described therein: empathetic, tested, hospitable and sacrificial. And in the midst of hearing these words, Donal asks us, who grieve his passing, to sing WITH him, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord”.

Donal's life fell into three uneven chapters, each of them bestowing on him a rich legacy. For most of the first thirty years he was in Ireland. Donal's fierce loyalty for those he loved, his wicked and self-deprecating humour, the tendency to see the world as black or white, his deep love of literature and music, and his culinary palate for meat and potatoes, never left him.

Apart from the gentle lilt of his Galway accent, Donal's Irishness came into its own during the Australian republican debate. He was all for it. When I suggested that he should become an Australian citizen so he could vote in the referendum, he told me that he would first have to swear allegiance to the Queen. By whatever title the House of Windsor went in this country, the monarchy was British, and he was Irish, and that was that until an Australian was elected President.

For over twenty years Donal lived and worked in Hong Kong. It was a demanding mission, and apart from the obvious ways in which he was a foreigner, he never settled as easily nor as well as he had hoped. Still, he loved his students, and appreciated the way some of them stayed in contact with him over the years. He admired the balance and beauty of the best of Chinese culture, and also thought that the saving of face was a generous way to resolve conflict. When I visited him last week in hospital, it was no surprise to see that he been listening to a book in Mandarin.

Then, in 1984, he came to Australia. Moving out of teaching into pastoral ministry, for the next 18 years Donal was on “bay watch”, ministering at Lavender Bay, Elizabeth Bay and Neutral Bay, until coming here to North Sydney in 2002.

I first met Donal when, as a novice, I was sent to Lavender Bay. He seemed crotchety to me, and I was far too confident. So it was with mutual trepidation that we came together again at the end of 1992 at St Canice's.

I was a lot little less sure of myself at Kings Cross, and I noticed that Donal had changed too. With Elizabeth Clarke as the pastoral associate and in community with Frank Brennan and Peter Hosking for all of his time there, Donal was more vulnerable. He could be a difficult man to get to know, but, boy, was it worth it!

I was the luckiest pastoral assistant in Sydney because Donal never said “No” to any of my ideas. He would simply say, “I'd be slow on that one”. One Friday before Trinity Sunday I told Donal that I was going to preach that while Father, Son and Holy Spirit were privileged names for God, they did not exhaust the possibilities, and that God could helpfully be styled as our mother. Doubling-over in the chair he said, “I'd be slow on that one”.

At the Vigil Mass, Con, the most famous homeless person in Kings Cross, was in the front pew. During my advocacy for the maternity of God, Con jumped up and expressed what was probably a majority position in the church, “God's not our mother, Mary's our mother, God's our father”. Turning to Donal, he said, “Father Donal, this young bloke hasn't got a clue”. And marched out of the church. I looked at Donal, and then the congregation and said, “In the Name of the Father...” and sat down. And as I did Donal turned to his unteachable deacon and laughed, “I told you to be slow on that one”. Later, over dinner, he told me to give the same homily at the other Masses, “Because, while it's not my cup of tea, there are people who need to hear that Father is not the only name for God”. What a pastor! What a friend!

As we come to commend our dear brother into the arms of God, we will miss so many things: the limericks and the prose that marked our special days. He thus introduced the last verse he wrote:

“An attempt at a sonnet about myself that ends on a wobbly note”

When I am dead, think only this of me,
He was a man, take him for all in all,
Awkward and shy, timid in company,
Who never thought of self as ten feet tall.
Dry wit and puckish slant on life he saved
For those whose foibles lingered o'er his trail.
Oft saw the funny side of folk and misbehaved
In what he said, sometimes beyond the pale.
Of years a score and more chalk-facing in Hong Kong,
The classroom's daily grind for long his chore.
Retired to Austral shores, time seemed not long,
Had no regrets, his home for evermore.
At the end of the day let this be said
Though his sins were as scarlet, what he wrote was read.

We will also miss the elegant turn of phrase and sharp wit in the Province's Fortnightly Report; and the unfussy friendship, but constant encouragement and care, he lavished upon us. Like the Lord he so faithfully served, Donal was loving and empathetic.

Last Tuesday, on the vigil of the feast of St Canice, he heard the Lord speak into his ear, “Do not be afraid I am with you. I have called you by your name, you are mine. I have called you by your name. You are mine”. And with that Donal went rejoicing to the house of Lord. “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen."

Donal's niece, Mairead, visited him at Easter, 2006. She and her husband, Fintan, came to pay their final respects to him on behalf of his Irish family. Richard extracted a promise from her that she would write something about her uncle. The following, read at the funeral, is taken from her tribute:

Donal was a gentle mannered child and from a young age always wanted to be a priest. well, maybe not always, he thought that he should be a bishop first and was known in the family and by his circle of friends as “the Bishop”, The Taylor's were renowned for the funerals of the family pets, of which there were a number. Donal would not attend these services unless he could be “The Bishop”. These occasions were always a great source of amusement for the neighbours - The Sisters of Mercy! Being a diplomatic individual, Donal would often try to break up a disagreement between his brothers but would invariably come out worse. This was the version that Donal himself would tell but his brother Brendan may tell a different story!! During the month of May Donal would have an altar with candles and it would be his pride and joy, until his older brother John would always blow out the candles and then the prayers were very quickly forgotten,

After 27 years of living and teaching in Hong Kong, Donal decided to retire from teaching and moved to Australia. When asked why he didn't move back to Ireland he simply stated that it was too cold. When his niece was getting married in March of 1996 Donal came home to officiate at the ceremony, but only after he gave his opinion that she should get married in August as it would be warmer!!!

Donal made regular trips to Ireland and England to see his family. He was chief celebrant at his brother John's funeral in 1996 and came home to christen his grandniece Alison in 2001. His most recent trip was in 2005 to celebrate the golden anniversary of his ordination which he celebrated in Milltown with a number of other priests that he had studied with.

Donal was a quiet gentle-spoken man with a good sense of humour and a very loyal friend and relative. He spoke openly about various matters of the church. When he was asked once about the subject of the marital debate for priests his opinion was that it really was not for him as he was very happy to reside at the parochial house but a number of women would not share the same kitchen!!!

Donal was a priest for 51 years, an extremely happy union. He had a very strong faith, which he had grown up with, and, although he never made Bishop, he had a much fulfilled life. He was as happy saying Mass in a crowded church as he was saying it in the dining room of his family home. He was a kind and gentle individual who remembered Birthdays and Christmas and when he came home to Ireland he was great at travelling around and seeing everyone. Donal was a gentle man. It was wonderful to see him at Easter, to see his churches, his home and the chalice that his parents gave him on his ordination. It is truly a beautiful piece with a little bit of Ireland engraved into it. He brought it with him wherever he was based and he told me that it would remain in this church.

He really loved this parish. And let me tell you, why wouldn't he, everyone was so kind to him. But the icing on the cake was that his brother Brendan lived close, although I'm not sure who was looking out for whom. When you remember Donal, remember him with a smile and his gentle voice. For us in Ireland, we will remember him as a brother, brother-in-law, uncle and grand-uncle. Donal is survived by his brother, Brendan, sisters Mary and Eleanor, sister-in-law Eilish, brother-in-law John, niece Mairead, nephew-in law Fintan, grand-niece Alison, and grand-nephews John and Karl.

Born: 29 September 1673, Bodney, Norfolk, England
Entered: 07 September 1691, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1700
Final Vows: 21 March 1704
Died: 05 July 1727, Dublin City, County Dublin - Angliae Province (ANG)

Son of John and Elizabeth (Darell)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of John and his second wife Elizabeth
Early education at St Omer’s College France
1701 At College of the Holy Apostles, Suffolk
1704 St Ignatius College London, until near the time of his death
He died in Dublin 05 July 1727 in the odour of sanctity and was buried, it is believed, at St Michan’s. Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS states “In a letter of the Rv Dean Meyler, 08 June 1832, from 79, Marlborough St, Dublin, that worthy gentleman says ‘Many miracles were performed at the tomb of this Father, and his remains were, in consequence, almost carried away by the people. There is at present, in the possession of one of the Priests of Dublin, a finger belonging to this very holy man, the applications of which has been followed by many extraordinary and rapid cures, some of them even to my knowledge”.
Father R O’Callaghan’s sister was cured by an application of the above relic (Hogan)
Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS also says :
In connection with this family and Father Thomas Tasburgh’s relic, so famous for the miraculous cures effected by its application, Father Edmund Hogan has sent us the following communication
“In the abbey of Ross Co Galway, over the vault of the Lynches of Ballycurrin, is a slab with the inscription : ‘The arms of ye Ancient Family of Tasburg, of Tasburgh, afterwards of St Peter’s Hall, in ye Manor of Southelman, in Suffolok, now of Felzton in said County (Flixton or Feixtown) ....... This Monument was erected by Ellen Lynch, of Lydican, and wife of Peregrine Tasburgh, who died the 5th February, 1710”.
The late Bishop Blake of Dromore, who preached Father Betagh’s panegyric, collected a great number of cases of cures by Father Tasburgh’s relics, and had an intention of publishing a tract on the subject. The celebrated Dr Cahill was to have his leg cut off by Surgeon O’Reilly, he applied Father Tasburgh’s finger to his leg and disappointed the surgeons.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of John and Elizabeth née Darrell
Early education was under the Jesuits at St Omer, France.
After First Vows he followed the usual course of studies in Europe, was Ordained and then returned to work as a priest in England
The circumstances of his arrival in Ireland are simply not known. It may be suggested that he came to for reasons of health or as Chaplain to some Anglo-Irish Catholic household. All that is known with certainty is that he was only a short time in Dublin when he died 05 July 1727
He died with the repute of high sanctity. Nearly a century after his death it was reported that many wonders had taken place at his tomb and that one of his fingers was treasured as a relic by a Dublin priest

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Thomas Tasburh 1673-1727
Fr Tasburg was probably an Englishman, as we find two other Jesuits of the same name listed in the English Catalogues. He is honoured in an Irish Menology, because he was for years attached to the parish of St Michan Dublin, where he died in 1727 on the 6th July, and was buried in the vaults.

Bu the concurrent testimony of many, though not juridically proved, miraculous cures were often effected by the application of his relics. One witness states that Fr Richard O’Callaghan SJ, then living with the family in Church Street, where one of his sisters was for years incurably affected by a spinal disease, he procured a finger of the deceased Fr Tasburg, and with the prescribed prayers applied it to the diseased parts which were immediately cured. The famous Dean Meyler, Parish Priest of St Andrew’s testifies :
“Many miracles were performed at the tomb of this Father, and all his remains were in consequence carried away by the people. There is at present in the possession of one of the priests of Dublin a finger belonging to this very holy man, the application of which has been followed by many extraordinary and rapid cures, some of them to my own knowledge”.

Fr Tasburg was born in 1673 and laboured for some time on the Mission in London before coming to Dublin.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
TASBURGH, THOMAS, joined the Society on the 7th of September, 1691; made a Spiritual Coadjutor on the 21st of March, 1704 : was stationed in London during the early part of the last Century; but for some time before his death resided in Dublin, in great repute for Sanctity. He died in that city on the 5th of July, N.S. 1727, aet. 54. and I think was buried at St. Michan’s. In a letter of the Rev. Mr. Meylor, dated 8th of June, 1832, from 79, Marlborough street, Dublin, that worthy gentleman says, “Many miracles were performed at the tomb of this Father; and its remains were in consequence almost carried away by the people. There is at present, in the possession of one of the Priests in Dublin, a finger belonging to this very holy man, the application of which has been followed by many extraordinary and rapid cures; some of them to my own knowledge.

Born: 04 May 1599, County Meath
Entered: 30 September 1622, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 22 April 1628, Arras, France
Final Vows: 06 July 1629
Died: 09 May 1667, Dublin Residence, Dublin City, County Dublin

Mother was Mary (Margaret) Sedgrave.
Studied Humanities at Lille & Tournai, Philosophy at Douai
1637 Catalogue Good in all. Colericus - fit to teach Humanities
1649 A Talbot at Galway (40 after his name)
1650 Catalogue Came to Mission in 1629. Taught Humanities many years. Prefect of Schools - now Superior of the Residence at Galway Age 52
1666 Catalogue Living in the country near Dublin attending to the wants of the people and some of the gentry. Administering the Sacraments. Is Admonitor and Socius of the Superior. Previously was imprisoned for 3 months. On the Irish Mission 37 years.
John Talbot also died in Dublin 1667

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities and two years Philosophy before Ent, and the four years Theology in the Society. He knew Irish, English, French and Latin.
1628/9 Came to Ireland
1644 In Galway with Stephen White
1650 Superior of a Residence
1659 Deported having been imprisoned twice
1666 Still working in Ireland and living with a nobleman in the country near Dublin, engaged in ministerial functions.
Professor of Humanities for many years and was a Confessor and Prefect of Studies.
He is named in a letter of Nathaniel Hart (Richard Shelton?) Superior of the Irish Mission, to the General 15 June 1659, as being then past 60, in declining health, unable to travel and unfit for the labours of College life. He was then under bail to leave the country, but sureties were willing that he should remain for the recovery of his health. (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS) - who says “I meet with another Nicholas Talbot, in Galway, early in 1649. he is described as being about 40 years of age, possessed of the four Vows, and then teaching Grammar”. Hogan’s list only contains one Nicholas and the two are probably identical.
(cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of William and Maria née Sedgrave
Had already studied Classics and Philosophy under Jesuits and Lille, Tounai and Douai before Ent 30 September 1622 Tournai
1624-1628 After First Vows he was sent to Douai for Theology and was Ordained 22 April 1628 at Arras
1629 Sent to Ireland and the Dublin Residence, where he worked until the Puritan takeover of the city. He left Dublin and for a time was at Kilkea Castles, the former residence of the Countess of Kildare. He eventually went to Galway, where he was teaching at the time of Mercure Verdier’s Visitation of 1648-1649. In his 1649 Report to the General, Verdier reported that Talbot was vehemently in favour of the cessation (and thus opposed to Rinuccini).
After the fall of Galway he continued to work outside the city but was captured, imprisoned (1658) and sentenced to deportation. Because of his precarious health he was respited
1664 He was sent to Dublin as Confessor at the Residence and Socius to the Superior of the Mission, Andrew Fitzbennet Sall. He died there 09 May 1667

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
TALBOT, NICHOLAS. All that I can recover of his history is from a letter of F. Nicholas Hart, addressed on the 15th of June. 1659, to the General Goswin Nickel. It states that F. Nicholas Talbot has not as yet quitted the shores of Ireland : that by reason of his declining strength (for he is past 60) , he appears unequal to the fatigue of travelling, and to the labours of a College life abroad : that his bail, who are answerable to the Government for his departure, are willing that he should remain quietly among his friends and attend to the improvement of his health. F. Hart requests directions how to proceed in this case. N.B. There was another F. Talbot, whom I meet with in the town of Galway, early in 1649 : he is described as being about 40 years old, Professed of the Four Vows, and then teaching Grammar.

Born: 1610, Carton, County Kildare
Entered: 1625 - Lusitanae Province (LUS)
Ordained: 1636, Évora, Portugal
Final Vows: 06 May 1656
Died: 18 November 1667, Dublin Residence, Dublin City, County Dublin

Older brother of Peter Talbot - LEFT 1659 (Archbishop of Dublin 1669; RIP November 15, 1680

Foley’s "Collectanea" :
I think there were three John Talbot SJs as follows :
(1) John Talbot DOB 1609; Ent 1626 Portugal;
(2) John Talbot DOB 1611 Kildare; Ent 1632; Irish Mission 1638 Preacher, Confessor and Professor of Humanities; RIP after 1666
(3) John Talbot DOB 1619; Ent c 1637; - had been at St Alban’s Valladolid before Ent Belgium 1637. Not traced in ANG Catalogues
One of these was a brother of Peter, the two others were probably an uncle and cousin of his

1628 Age 18 Soc 3 studying at Coimbra LUS
1634 At Valladolid
1636 At St Anthony’s College Lisbon
1649 CAT Given at Cork (30 after his name)
1650 CAT Teaching, Confessor and Concinator. Came to Mission in 1639 is Age 39.
1666 CAT Consultor of Mission living at Dublin, Catechising and Administering the Sacraments. On the Mission 26 years
“Peter Walsh said when Fr J Talbot died ‘There is one honest Jesuit’”
“Wilson’s Friar Disciplined” p 93 printed in 1694 says Fr J Talbot had influence with General Preston

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of William 1st Baron of Carton and Alison née Netterville. Brother of Richard, first Duke of Tyrconnell by James II and Viceroy of Ireland. Brother of Dr Peter Talbot, formerly SJ and Archbishop of Dublin. Brother of Robert 2nd Baron of Carton. (HIB Catalogues and Dr Peter Talbot’s “Friar Disciplined”) Cousins of the Netterville’s SJ.
Early years in the Society were at Évora, Portugal, and he studied Theology for three years in the Society. He knew Irish, English, French and Latin.
He taught lower schools for three years and was a Preacher and Confessor for eight years. (HIB CAT 1650 - ARSI)
1666 Consultor of Irish Mission and living in Dublin. He was engaged in administering the Sacraments and had been on the Mission twenty-six years. (HIB CAT 1666 - ARSI)
Esteemed good Preacher; like most of his Irish contemporaries, he spoke Irish, English and one or more of the continental languages.
Dr Peter Talbot in his “Haersis Blackloiana” says “Évora gave many orthodox Theologians to the Catholic faith, and among others, my brother John Talbot, a distinguished defender of the faith”. (cf Foley’s Collectanea, which also states that the HIB CAT 1650 says that he is a native of Kilkenny, born 1611 and Ent 1629)
Dr Peter Talbot in his “Friar Disciplined” says to the famous Peter Walsh “Mr Walsh, Father John Talbot, of whom you said when he died (as if it were a rarity of kind of miracle) ‘There lies a honest Jesuit’ assured me, that, after his brother Sir Robert Talbot Had...”
Dr Peter Talbot in his “Haeresis Blackloiana” p 250 says that he himself had studied in Rome with such gifted Jesuits (orbis miracula) as Tirrell, Maurus, Telin (an Irishman - Teeling?), and the younger Palavicino, and was appointed to teach Philosophy at Évora, which has given so many outstanding Theologians to England and Ireland, and amongst others, Father John Talbot, my brother, a distinguished defender of the Roman Faith”
He is probably the Jesuit named by Mercure Verdiere, Visitor to the Irish Province, in a letter 24 June 1649, as John James Talbot, then thirty years of age, and residing with his mother, “in oedibus nobilium” (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Sir William of Carton and Alison nee Netterville (daughter of John Netterville of Castletown, Co. Meath) Brother of Peter (later Archbishop of Dublin).
1627-1636 After First Vows (unclear if Noviceship was at Lisbon or Coimbra) he was sent for studies to Coimbra and then Évora where he was Ordained 1636
1636-1640 Had been teaching Latin at St Anthony’s, Lisbon, but very keen to be sent to Ireland.
1640-1652 Sent to Ireland where he worked from his mother’s house. He spoke Irish as well as English
1652-1654 Sent back to Europe and was in the company of his brother Peter (later Archbishop of Dublin), who was visiting various European courts to solicit help for Charles II
1655 Sent back to Ireland and he worked initially near Galway and then Dublin alternately, and ended at the Dublin Residence as a Consultor of the Mission (1664), where he died 18 November 1667

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
TALBOT, JOHN JAMES. This Father is mentioned in Pere Verdier’s Report of the 24th of June, 1649, as being 30 years old, of a robust constitution, but living with his mother, “in oedibus nobitium” without office.

N.B. There was another F. Talbot, whom I meet with in the town of Galway, early in 1649 : he is described as being about 40 years old, Professed of the Four Vows, and then teaching Grammar.

Born: 26 July 1847, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 18 January 1868, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1881, St Beuno’s, Wales
Final Vows: 02 February 1888, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 14 April 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

His brother Abraham (later Sir Abraham Sutton) was in the Noviceship for a short time. (Ent 05/07/1869; LEFT 27/12/1871; RIP 1886)

Early education at Queen’s College, Cork (UCC) and Clongowes Wood College SJ then Trinity College, Dublin

by 1870 at Aix-les-Bains France (LUGD) studying
by 1871 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1879 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His brother Abraham (later Sir Abraham Sutton) was in the Noviceship for a short time. (Entered 05 July 1869; left 27 December 1871; RIP 1886) (Mayor of Cork. The Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork was built as his home).

Early Education at Clongowes. Had studied Medicine at Trinity before entered.

He was sent to Stonyhurst for Philosophy and did his Regency as a teacher first in Galway and then Tullabeg.
He was then sent to St Beuno’s for Theology.
After Ordination he made Tertianship at Dromore.
Later he taught Juniors and was a Teacher at Belvedere and Mungret.
1890 He was appointed Rector and Master of Novices at Tullabeg.
After that he was sent as Vice-Rector to Milltown, and then Rector or Vice-Rector at Mungret.
1912 He returned to Tullabeg and did some teaching of Scholastics there. He was in bad health for a number of years and he died there 14 April 1922.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father William Sutton 1847-1922
Fr William Sutton was born in Cork on July 26th 1847. Before entering the Society he studied medicine at Trinity College. Not for long however, for he became a Jesuit in 1868.

He was one of those who made their tertianship in Dromore. He became Master of Novices and Rector at Tullabeg in 1890. He was after Vice-Rector at Milltown and Rector of Mungret.

He had a great interest in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy and collected a fine libraery on this topic, which is still in existence in Mungret.

A man of the deepest spirituality and ascetic character, he was also a great humorist, splendid at recreation, most kindly in disposition and paternal to his brethren as Superior.

He was in bad health for many years and died in Tullabeg on April 14th 1922.

◆ The Clongownian, 1922

Obituary

Father William Sutton SJ

The narrative of Fr Sutton's life is simple. Son of a well-known business family in Cork, he was born in 1847. After some years schooling in his native city, he was sent to Clongowes, where he remained for about two years. At Clongowes he was a steady student, but took little interest in the games. When he had finished Rhetoric, he went to Dublin to study medicine. This period of his life appears to have been less satisfactory. He took more interest in amusement than in medicine, and ever afterwards he spoke bitterly of himself as having been supremely idle. Finally, he fell very dangerously ill of typhoid fever, . His life was only saved by the devoted care of a Bon Secour nun. To her he owed more than his life. To her he owed his vocation to religion, and all his life after he entertained for her, not only the warmest gratitude, but also the deepest veneration. In 1868 he entered the Jesuit Noviceship at Milltown Park. He was then a little over twenty years of age. There was some quiet fun amongst the novices when Mr Sutton arrived. He was dressed in the very latest and choicest fashion. One article of his attire especially attracted their attention. It was an overcoat of dark green stuff, then quite in vogue. Soon, however, the brilliant overcoat paid a visit to the dye-works, and returned in very clerical black. After his noviceship, Mr Sutton made his studies of Rhetoric, Philosophy and Theology, almost exclusively in Our English houses of study. He was ordained priest at St Beuno's, North Wales, in 1882. Towards the end of that year he was sent to Mungret College, which was just then opened. After two years' teaching there he was sent to Dromore as Assistant Master of Novices. In 1888 he returned to Mungret as Prefect of Studies and Master. In 1890 he was appointed Master of Novices until 1895, when he was made Rector of Milltown Park and Professor of Theology. This latter position he held for two years, when he was devoted exclusively to his duties as Rector. In 1903 he was sent back to Mungret as Vice-Rector, but this post he had to resign after two years owing to failing health, and he was occupied exclusively in teaching until 1910, when he was sent to Tullabeg. By this time his health had become so broken down that he was unable to undertake active work. Gradually, but very steadily, his infirmities increased, although his courage, resignation and robust cheerfulness, seemed rather to increase than to fail, until after some months of intense suffering he slept in the peace of Christ on the 14th April, 1922, in his 76th year,

It is no easy task to attempt to write a memoir of Fr Sutton. It is not indeed that his life was not one of high distinction and remarkable results. He was a man of great talent, great character, and his work was fruitful in rich and blessed harvest. But, while all this was thoroughly appreciated and honoured by the Jesuits who knew him, his career led him along quiet paths where no great events of public importance startled the attention of the outside world and where no flashes of unwonted splendour or no achievements of historic note dazzled or delighted the mind or soul of the stranger or of the passerby. His was always a student's life. It was also, after his early years spent in learning Literature, Philosophy and Theology, the life of a teacher. He was always a constant and most thoughtful reader, nor was he ever satisfied to live on the capital of knowledge which he had amassed. After that he had been Professor of English and Classic Literature, of Philosophy and Theology, he was a student still. Nor yet again was his labour confined to the limits of human and sacred learning. He entered into the wide and exalted sphere of the science of the soul itself. As Master of Novices for many years he was a devout student of asceticism, and a wise ex pounder of the principles, as well as an experienced guide in the exercises of the science of spiritual life.

In Holy Scripture his favourite study was the Book of Wisdom, which he almost knew by heart, and which he quoted constantly and very appropriately applied. On one occasion a Jesuit Father was passing through Thurles and called on Dr Croke to present his respects. As they were chatting together in the great Archbishop's study, the latter said to him: “Your Father William Sutton has been giving their eight day Retreat to the Nuns next door. Each evening he came in to pay me a visit, and for an hour or two he would sit in that armchair distilling wisdom”.

Amongst profane authors, Father Sutton loved Shakespeare most. He knew innumerable long passages perfectly by heart, and during the long walks which he frequently took while at Mungret, Tullabeg or Milltown Park, he used to brighten and refresh himself by repeating some of them aloud. Yet he was a convinced and redoubtable Baconian. On the occasion of the great Centenary at Stonyhurst, Father Sutton, who was then Rectorat Milltown Park, was a welcome and honoured guest. One day at Recreation a number of eminent English Fathers, devout worshippers of William Shakespeare, knowing that Father Sutton held that Bacon was the real Author of the Plays, subjected himn to a fierce bombardment. An Irish Father present suggested that it was a matter not for eloquent denunciation but for argument. Whether Father Sutton's view was right or wrong, he had so thoroughly mastered both sides of the question that he succeeded in completely silencing the enemies batteries.

There are many who only knew one side of Father Sutton's character. He had an intense and delightful sense of humour. He could be most genial in conversation, and very few could tell a quaint or witty story or bring out the real point of a witticism as well as he could. He was most good humoured, and he had a deep natural fund of sympathy. He was also delightfully and unswervingly straight and just, and a most loyal champion of fair play. But there was another aspect of his character not known to all, even of those friends who had lived long with him. Underneath it all there was a deep, dark and almost constant feeling of depression. He had his dismal moments, and they were both frequent and enduring. He was able, with the aid of a sort of philosophic cynicism, to battle with them but not to brighten them. The only sunshine that brought brightness and joy into his life was his child-like Faith and his “indomitable” trust in the truth and love of the Supernatural. Amongst many articles which he contributed to the Irish Monthly, there was one on “Looking on the Bright Side”. To one very great friend of his who had known himn intimately from boyhood until his death, this essay was sadly amusing. It came to this: “Life at the very best is a bad job. Try to make the best of it”.

Father Sutton was not an orator. He could speak with great emphasis and impressiveness. The intensity of his conviction exercised its magnetism upon his hearers, but his style was rough, frequently out of joint and jerky, It is strange that one who so thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the great Classic and English Authors should not have gained from the reading of them more sense of smoothness, rhythm and beauty. Yet, after all, there is room not merely for varieties, but even for vast differences in style, and what to one may seemn uncouth, ponderous, or even discordant, may by that very fact gain an entry into minds that would be made suspicious, or per haps hostile, if the meaning were clothed in a literary garb of exquisite taste and faultless loveliness.

In spite of the intense pain and unnerving exhaustion from dropsy and heart disease, Father Sutton's death was a very happy one. For months he had looked forward with unclouded calm of mind and deep longing of the soul to his death. It was a sunset which lit up with supernatural radiance and super natural anticipation of the great day to dawn, the long and meritorious life which he was giving through his death-sleep unto God. RIP

Robert Kane SJ

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1922

Obituary

Father William Sutton SJ

Rev W Sutton, a native of Cork, was but a little over twenty years of age, and at the time a medical student in Dublin, when, in 1868, he entered the Society of Jesus. He made most of his studies at St Bueno's Theological Seminary, Wales. Having been ordained priest, he was sent by his superiors to Mungret College in 1882. The College was being opened by the Jesuit Fathers for the first time in the September of that year. Fr Sutton at the time of his death was almost the last survivor of the community that took part in the opening. Only the Rev Joseph de Maistre SJ, now remains of the Mungret community of that year. Fr de Maistre was then a young scholastic, and happily is still alive and working as a priest of the Society of Jesus in Paris. Fr Sutton remained in Mungtet for two years as Master, and Prefect of Studies. In 1884 he went to Dromore, where the Noviceship of the Irish Province then was, to do his third year probation and act as assistant to the Master of Novices. He returned to Mungret in 1888 to resume his former post, which he retained till he was appointed to the important position of Master of Novices at Tullabeg in 1890.

Of the students who were in Mungret under Fr Sutton's direction the greater number are now priests, some working in the diocese of Limerick; many in different dioceses of the United States, while not a few are members of the Society of Jesus, or other religious orders. All probably without exception, would gladly acknowledge the great influence Fr Sutton exercised on their carly formation. As teacher and Prefect of Studies he was exceptionally kind and genial. He rarely if ever exercised or tried to exercise any coercive force. But his great store of common sense, his well-balanced judgment, his pre-eminent sense of justice and fair play, and his love of straight and manly dealing gave him great influence with all those under his care, and tended strongly to evoke and develop these same qualities in them. Above all, his wide and varied culture and his scholarly mind had a deep and lasting influence on his pupils, Several of these have since become distinguished as writers and preachers, and have always been ready to acknowledge their indebtedness to Fr Sutton's early training. He did much to encourage independent literary composition in the students, and owing in no small measure to his kindly encouragement and direction, many of the pupils of those years laid the foundation of literary tastes and conceived intellectual ambitions which in some cases have since borne remarkable fruit.

In the Mungret Annual of Christmas, 1897 (p. 22) occurs an interesting reference to Fr Sutton by one of his pupils. The latter, then a secular priest, working on the American mission, sends to the Mungret Annual for publication a beautiful English translation of Horace's well-known ode, “Exegi Monumentum”, etc., and adds: “This ode always commended itself to me, both for the sentiment and the form ever since the time our attention was called to it by the dear old party. (sit venia nomini) to whose quiet, human and sympathetic treatment of the classics I for one can trace a large share of the happiness of my life”.

During all these years Fr Sutton was a frequent contributor to “The Irish Monthly”. Some of his article were on purely literary subjects. Many were very humorous. Several were more or less the meditations of a philosophic thinker on the problems of life, in culcating a broad, genial and hopeful view of its difficulties. In the “Mungret Annual” of June, 100 (pp. 48-49) (Jubilee Number) are found some interestin extracts from a historical poem* of his on “The Irish Education Question”, in which he humorously depicts Gladstone striving to hew down the “upas tree of British anti-Catholic bigotry”.

In 1895 Fr. Sutton was appointed Rector of Milltown Park and Professor of Dogmatic Theology. The latter function he retained only for a couple of years but he remained Rector of the College till 1903, when he again returned to Mungret as Vice-Rector. It was during his last years in Milltown Park that he began to take an enthusiastic interest in the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy, and contributed several articles to reviews in support of the opinion which identified the writer of the Shakespearian plays with Lord Bacon, the author of the Nouvm Organum. In 1903 Fr. Sutton published on this subject a book called “The Shakespearian Enigma”, which had only a limited success. To the end, however, he remained a convinced Baconian.

In 1905 Fr Sutton, whose health had begun to decline, was relieved of his duties as Vice-Rector when Fr T V Nolan was appointed Rector of the College. But Fr. Sutton remained in Mungret as a member of the College teaching staff till 1910. Being then no longer able to continue his work as master, he was transferred to St Stanislaus' College, Tullabeg. Here he spent the last eleven years of his life, happy and cheerful, remaining to the end a model of religious observance, and always maintaining a lively interest in his literary studies. During these years he continued to contribute to the “Irish Monthly”, “The Irish Ecclesiastical Record”, etc, articles mainly on literary and philosophical or theological subjects.

Fr Sutton was exceptionally interesting in conversation. He was widely read, and had a very retentive and accurate memory. In discussions during recreation with his own community he was looked upon as a kind of Samuel Johnson, whose opinion was constantly asked for and usually carried much weight; but he was entirely free from Johnson's dogmatism. His fund of anecdote was inexhaustible and his sense of humour and power of narrating personal experiences with humorous flavour were remarkable. His views of human life were very consoling and helpful. “God's wonderful plan in the world”, he used to say, “is like a piece of exquisite and perfect embroidery; but often we see only the seamy side of the pattern”. Hisconstant advice was: “Look on the bright side of things”. “It is a great act of charity to others”, he would say, “to look cheerful even when you cannot feel so!” In his spiritual life he had a specially strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and did much to instil the same into those with whose spiritual and religious formation he was entrusted. His humility and obedience were very remarkable, and the candour and honesty of his whole character were quite refreshing.

Fr. Sutton's pupils will sincerely regret his loss, and many others will cherish a respectful and affectionate recollection of him as a kindly, cultured and sympathetic teacher and a very sincere friend,

His happy death, the approach of which he often spoke of with peaceful longing, took place on Holy Saturday, April 15th, 1922, after a painful illness of some months. RIP

Born: 1616, County Limerick
Entered: 22 July 1640, Bordeaux, France (AQUIT) - Aquitainiae Province
Ordained: 1648, Galway
Died: 11 January 1681, La Rochelle, France - Aquitainiae Province

Alias de Stricke

1646 At La Rochelle teaching Grammar
1648 Went to Ireland with Frs Mercurian and Verdier (Fr Verdier returned before 1649, for in this and the following year he taught Theology at Bordeaux)
1651 AQUIT CAT On the Martinique Mission
1666 CAT Is living at Limerick where he revived the Sodailty of BVM. He teaches Humanities, is Preaching, Catechising and administering the Sacraments. Was on the Mission in the Indies 12 years. On Irish Mission 4 years.
1666 Thomas Stritch SJ teaches school
1670 Fr Stritche was in Ireland, Limerick or Ennis (Arch Ir Coll Rome I 85-87)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1648 At Bordeaux
1649 Came to Ireland with Mercure Verdier - Visitor to Irish Mission - and was Ordained by the Nuncio
Twelve years a Missioner in West Indies
1662-1666 In Limerick, Preaching, Catechising, administering the Sacraments and teaching Humanities. (HIB CAT 1666 - ARSI)
He had extraordinary adventures, which are told in Hogan’s “Irish Exiles in St Kitt’s”.

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1647 Teaching at La Rochelle and chosen to accompany Fr Mecure Verdure as Socius and interpreter for his Visitation of the Irish Mission
When the Irish Visitation was finished he returned to France for further studies and then volunteered for the West Indies Mission, where there were thousands of Irish exiles who needed spiritual support.
1650 Arrives in Martinique and went from there to Guadaloupe to work with the Irish, English and negro people
1662 Failing health necessitated return to Europe.
1663-1679 Came to Ireland and worked in Limerick, and then was banished to France at the time of the Titus Oates plot in 1679
1680 Arrived at La Rochelle in poor health and died the following year there

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had made Priestly studies and graduated MA probably at Bordeaux before Ent 1640 Bordeaux
After First Vows he was sent teaching in AQUIT Colleges for six years, and was then designated as a travelling companion for Mercure Verdier on the occasion of his Visitation of the Irish Mission 1648-1649.
After Verdier and Stritch’s arrival in Ireland, John was Ordained Priest by the Nuncio at Galway.
During the Visitation of the Mission he was interpreter for Father Verdier. At the end of the Visitation, he returned with Verdier to France and was assigned to the task of completing his theological studies at Bordeaux.
1650-1662 He had volunteered for the missions and arrived in Martinique in 1650. From there he travelled on to Guadelupe where he worked among the Irish, the English and the negroes until in 1662 failing health forced him to return to Europe
1663-1679 Came to Ireland and worked in Limerick, and then was banished to France at the time of the Titus Oates plot in 1679
1680 Arrived in poor health at La Rochelle and died there the following year 11 January 1681

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Stritch SJ 1616-1681
Fr John Stritch was born in Limerick in 1616. He entered the Society at Bordeaux in 1640.

While teaching at La Rochelle in 1647 he was chosen to act as Socius and interpreter to Fr Mercure Verdier during his Visitation of the Irish Mission.

His studies completed he volunteered for the West Indies Mission. Arriving at St Kitt’s he was welcomed and bless by the Irish slaves there, heard the confessions of 3,000 of them and then passed on disguised as a timber merchant to Mount Serrat where great numbers of Irish were employed as woodcutters. He revealed his real character to the, and he spent the mornings administering the Sactraments, and the day in hewing wood to throw the dust in the eyes of the English. Meanwhile, the heretics, jealous of the religious consolations of the Catholics of St Kitts, transported 150 of them to Crab Island and left them to die of starvation. Fr Stritch got together as many of the Irish in St Kitts as he could, and he passed with them to the French island of Guadeloupe, where he lived a long time with them, now and then going in disguise to help the Irish on the other islands. He converted in his excursions about 80 Protestants a year.

Owing to ill health he retired to Ireland in 1662 and laboured in Limerick where he revived the Sodality of Our Lady.

In 1679 he was banished to France owing to the Titus Oates Plot and he died at La Rochelle in 1681.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
STRICH, JOHN,* quitted Bourdeaux with Pere Verdier, 2nd November, 1648: was obliged to wait at Rochelle for five weeks until a sea-worthy ship could be procured : sailed thence on the 5th of December, and after a rough and stormy voyage reached Galway, on the 28th of December, that year, when I lose sight of him.

Born: 30 January 1906, Moyne Road, Rathmines, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 31 August 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 01 April 1977, Tuam, County Galway

Part of the Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin community at the time of death

Died while giving a Mission in Tuam, Co Galway

Father was a draper

Second child with an older sister.

Early education at a private school in Rathmines then he went to Synge St

by 1929 at Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands (GER I) studying
by 1939 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 52nd Year No 3 1977

Obituary :

Fr Robert L Stevenson (1906-1977)
Father Robert L Stevenson was born in Dublin, June 30th 1906, and after some education privately, went to the Christian Brothers, Synge Street. He entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg on August 31st 1923. Beginning his studies for the BA at Rathfarnham in 1925, he passed through the usual course and was ordained at Milltown Park, June 24th 1937. He had gone to Valkenburg for Philosophy, 1928 1931, and his Tertianship was spent at St Beuno's, 1938-1939. The years 1939-1941 were spent in Galway as Prefect of Studies and teaching, and his work was similar at the Crescent, Limerick, 1941 1946. From 1938 to his death in 1977 he was a missioner, stationed successively at Emo, Belvedere, Tullabeg, Emo and Rathfarnham. His years at Rathfarnham (1969-1977) were brought to a close by his death “in harness” at Tuam, April 1st 1977.

Of his years immediately after the Tertianship we have a clear picture from what Father James Stephenson, The Hall writes:
Bob Steve when I knew him and lived with him in his early years in the Society was what would be called in those days, “a good Community man”. He had a ready wit and was endowed with a felicity of expression and vividness of imagery that was most entertaining and more than usually amusing.
What made him “tick over” was an intense zeal for souls or to put it in modern jargon, his motivation was the betterment of the spiritually" underprivileged". However, after his tertianship, it was some years before he was able to put his ambition into operation. During those early years as a priest he was assigned to administration, and acted for many years as Minister in the Sacred Heart Church, Limerick. It was a post he naturally disliked but he carried on his duties faithfully and effectively. Of course, what made this post tolerable was that he was Prefect of the Church and so had plenty of Church work to do, sermons, confessions, counselling and sodality direction. He was for many years Director of the Ignatian Sodality and a very popular and energetic Director at that. He went to great pains in preparing his talks and sermons, having his eye, I suppose, on the type of work he desired, namely the Mission Staff. This care in preparation of talks and sermons served him in good stead during his life as a Missioner when he had the leisure to write and publish in addition to some pamphlets, a book on the Holy Land and also a biography of a Jesuit he most admired, Father Leonard Shiel.
As a preacher and retreat giver he worked among the Irish in Great Britain. Towards the end of his life he also devoted much of his zeal and energy to mission work in the United States.
It may be of interest to mention in passing that as a scholastic teacher in Belvedere he took a great interest in the Newsboys Club, an interest he translated into practice when making his renunciation before his final vows.
Some years ago he had trouble with his heart and it was that way God took him when giving a mission in Tuam Cathedral. Death came as a thief but it did not find him unprepared. He went to his Maker full of merit and good works. May he rest in peace.

Father Kevin Laheen writes: My first contact with Fr Bob Stevenson was in Belvedere in the thirties when he taught Irish and RK. He was an excellent teacher, had a gift of keeping discipline in a pleasant sort of way, and his ability to impart his knowledge to the boys was something which we, in our youth, could appreciate, and often did publicly admire.
But he did ambition a life of specifically priestly work, as opposed to an administrative job which after all does not call for the sacrament of Holy Orders. Though as Minister in the Crescent he did is job well, his heart was in the pulpit, in the confessional and on the altar.
At length he got the job (as a missioner) for which he was suited, which he loved, and at which there was no way in which it could be said that he was anything but a complete success. An eloquent and - fluent speaker, he could hold an audience in the palm of his hand for anything up to forty minutes, and that in the days when the TV has conditioned people to accept things in capsule form. Although uncompromising in the pulpit in proclaiming the teaching of Christ and the Church (often being accused of being too far right of centre) he could be a most compassionate man when dealing with the weaknesses of those who often lapsed from the strictest following of Christ.
His kindness to women, especially to nuns, was a side of Bob that was not generally known. In the days when the lay sister was regarded as the unpaid servant of the community, Bob was her champion, and I have met many such sisters who have sounded his praises and her own gratitude to him for his understanding sympathy and kindness, to say nothing of his courage in defending these sisters, when to have done so would have risked being “blacked” in the convent where such defence was registered.

In the early forties, just after the war, or even during the last years of it, Fr Leonard Shiel and Father Bob started the mission to the Irish in Britain literally single-handed. Leonard had the ideal that if the Irish brought none of this world's wealth to the land of adoption, they certainly brought their strong Irish faith, and his aim, aided by Father Bob, was to make sure that their faith suffered no injury by the new materialistic surroundings in which they found themselves, so but in addition that these same Irish would be apostles of the faith spreading it among those with whom they lived and worked. An ideal like this took courage. Many a patronising and openly hostile comment was made about this work. But neither of these men could be turned aside from their ideal; and by degrees they were joined by Frs M Bodkin, R Maguire, B Prendergast, B Hogan, T Kilbride and many others, until the thing took on the nature of a crusade. Then the Irish bishops were approached, and nothing happened for some years, Leonard Shiel then approached the English bishops, and at last the two hierarchies got together and other orders came in to help. This work has now virtually passed out of the hands of the Society but its flourishing success, and the immense good it has done, must be ascribed to the inspiration and devotion and zeal of these two men. Without the support of Father Bob I think the scheme would have remained a one man apostolate of Father Shiel. This is a chapter of history that so many younger members of the staff, and indeed of the Province, know nothing about. It took a zeal and single-minded dedication that I have often felt would have cheered the heart of Saint Ignatius. (See, however, Father Bob's book about Fr Leonard Shiel, “Who Travels Alone”, especially Chapters four and five-Ed.).
In the last ten years, Bob was definitely low key, as they would say these days. His preaching was just as eloquent and gripping. His zeal was untiring, but he liked to get back to base a great deal more, and devote so much of his time to writing. He was a man of great linguistic gifts, and apart from having a reading knowledge (and in some cases a speaking knowledge, too) of most European languages, he had also mastered Russian.
I think he was a little worried in recent years about the direction the Society was taking. In his own mind I don't think he was convinced that the balance between the vertical and horizontal approach to the service of God has been found. I also feel that he had some idea that his life was running out, and-looking back over certain things he said to me-I feel he was preparing for the end. Sickness was a thing he never knew nor liked, though to the sick he was devoted and kind. God took him mercifully in the arms of a fellow Jesuit, anointed by another, and receiving expert first aid treatment from the fourth member of the mission team at Tuam.
In the course of his second last mission, in his own native parish of Beechwood Avenue, a lady told me that on many occasions in the course of the mission he said, “Remember, if you knock daily on the Gate of Heaven by saying your daily prayers, when you knock for the last time in death, Our Lord will keep His promise and open for you”. After his devoted life, I have a feeling that the door was always open, awaiting him.

Father Niall O'Neill writes:
Imperial Hotel, Tuam: 1st April 1977:

Supper in the Hotel was at 6 pm. The Missioners Frs Séamus MacAmhlaoibh, Noel Holden and myself - Niall O'Neill - started almost immediately. Fr Bob who had been out of sorts for a day or two came down later and sat with his book at his favourite spot Fr. Seamus MacA gave Fr Bob some notices to be announced at the out-church-Lavally (Leath Bhaile) as we left the dining-room. Bob seemed in good form and gave his usual “OK”.
We went to get ready for confessions in the Cathedral at 7.00 pm, as it was the 1st Friday. Noel went back down to discuss something with Bob at about 6.45. They were talking on the way up the stairs which were very steep, about the closing of the Mission. Noel's room was No.24 at the end of a short corridor at the top of the stairs. At Noel’s room Bob put his hand on the handle of the door and gasped and slumped. Noel caught him and shouted, “Niall, quick, quick”. Séamus and I were together round the corner about 15 feet away; as we arrived Noel was holding Bob in his arms. We brought him to the bed in No 24. Seamus and Noel looked after him spiritually - Absolution and Anointing. While they were doing this I opened collar, thumped his chest and gave artificial respiration (mouth to mouth). A lady came to the top of the stairs and we asked her to ring for a Doctor. Noel said he could feel no pulse. We prayed and gave more resuscitation and respiration. I went for some whiskey and asked at the Desk if they had rung the Doctor - he was on his way. The whiskey wasn't used. I took over the respiration again from Séamus. Noel said, “he's gone”. I went down again and asked at the desk that they would ring Fr Greally, the Administrator. He came on the phone and I told him Bob had had an “attack”. As I was on the phone the Doctor (Cunningham) arrived-it was only 7.05 pm. He confirmed our fears. He left to order the ambulance. Fr Greally arrived at 7.7. We decided that Séamus would go to Lavally. As Noel had had the brunt of the shock he would stay and ring the Provincial and Rathfarnham. 7.10 I went to the Order of Malta Ambulance Unit. As there was to be a Dinner at the Hotel at 7.30 I hurried on the Ambulance, although it was already under way. I went into the Cathedral and started the Rosary for the Mission at 7.20: “This Rosary will be offered for Father Robert Louis Stevenson our Senior Missioner who has been taken ill and has been removed to Hospital”. After the Rosary I found the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Joseph Cunnane in the Sacristy. He presided at my Mass, I preached on the Sacred Heart and after the sermon His Grace came to the Ambo and announced the death of “Fr. Robert Louis Stevenson”. He paid a tremendous tribute to Bob as priest, missioner, fellow-organizer with Father Leonard Shiel of the mission to the emigrants in England, writer and staunch up-holder of the faith.
In the meantime the Ambulance had arrived at the Hotel at 7.25, and took Bob to the “Grove” Hospital in Tuam which is run by the Bon Secours Sisters. They were marvellous. Bob was laid out in a beautiful private room; they provided a lace Alb, White Vestments (The Resurrection), and arranged the room very attractively: the table with Crucifix, lighted candles on one side of the bed, on the other a table with an exquisite vase of freshly cut Daffodils.
At Lavally Seamus announced the sad news, and Mass was said for Bob at 7.30 and 8.00 pm.
Noel had been trying to contact our Dublin Houses, by phone. When Mass and confessions were over Bob and I removed all Bob’s things from his room in the Hotel and returned the key to the desk. We then went to the Hospital, and with Frs Greally and Gleason joined two nuns (Sr. Loreto, Superioress and another), saying the Rosary, and then said another - the Glorious Mysteries - taking a decade each.
Later at the Presbytery the Priests served tea. Noel had failed to contact Fr Meade, who was absent when he rang Rathfarnham. Eglinton Road, when contacted, deferred any decisions until Fr. Meade had been consulted. At 11.10 Fr. Provincial was on the phone, and later Fr Meade rang. Arrangements were made for a funeral from Gardiner St - the remains to arrive on Saturday at 5 pm. It was now 11.30 pm, and undertakers had to be contacted to arrange for a removal from the Hospital at 10.15 next day, Saturday. Mass was arranged for 11 o'clock at the Cathedral, the departure from Tuam to Dublin to be immediately afterwards.
Near 12.00 midnight lots were drawn to choose an undertaker without favouritism. McCormicks were drawn. We went to his house and aroused him from bed. Then back to the Hotel to compose an Obituary Notice for the papers. After 1 o’clock Noel went back to the Undertaker with the Notice, and so to bed at 1.30 am.
April 2nd, Saturday: As I had to preach at the 8 am Mass, and say the 10 o'clock Mass, while Seamus was at Lavally, Noel attended the removal from the Hospital at 10.15. The Archbishop arrived during the Rosary and joined in; he recited the removal prayers, and the coffin was carried out by the Administrator Fr Greally, Fr Concannon CC, Fr Gleason, CC, and the Doctor on duty. The Archbishop, Noel and all the priests walked in the funeral through the town after the hearse. The shops closed and pulled their blinds. There was a huge crowd at the Cathedral. The coffin was placed in front of the High Altar and a concelebrated Mass followed. The Archbishop was the Principal Celebrant, and Fr Holden preached a particularly fine eulogy of 7 minutes, in which he included sincere thanks to the Archbishop, clergy and people for their sincere sympathy. The Galway community was represented by Frs McGrath and J Humphreys, and Brs Crowe and Doyle. After Mass the Archbishop recited all the prayers over the coffin and led us in the “In Paridisum”...as we walked down the aisle of the Cathedral. In his last sermon Bob had said, “I will never see you again ...” and this had made a deep impression on the men. After our unvesting the funeral moved off at about 11.50 am. The hearse was escorted to the boundary of the parish by the Galway Jesuits, and Fr Concannon CC. drove us three missioners in his car.
After early lunch in the Hotel we talked about Bob's favourite prayer which Noel had mentioned in his eulogy, “I'll talk with God”: “There is no death, though eyes grow dim. There is no fear while I'm with Him...”
It seemed fitting that the Archdiocese of Tuam should have been the last place for Bob to preach his last Mission, and begin his New Mission with our departed fellow Jesuits in the Communion of Saints: It had large Irish-speaking areas, and Ballintubber Abbey - “The Church that refused to Die”. The End-of-Mission Confessions began at 1.30 p.m. That evening Noel went to Lavally. Seamus gave a Penitential Service in the Cathedral followed by Mass and Confessions. Next day-Sunday, 3rd we spoke at all the Masses, inviting the congregation to the end-of-Mission ceremonies at 7.30 pm. At concelebrated Mass at 7.30 pm. His Grace, Noel and I were concelebrants. Noel preached. Séamus MacA closed in Lavally. Our supper ended at 10.30, and so to bed at 11.00.
April 4th: Monday. Up at 6.00: After breakfast in the Presbytery I drove the ADM to the funeral in Gardiner Street, where Fr Hanley received us and gave the ADM every hospitality. After the funeral we had dinner in SFX where Fr Greally seemed very pleased.
Introducing the requiem Mass in Gardiner Street Church on the morning of Monday, April 14th, Father Matthew Meade, Superior of Rathfarnham Castle where Father Robert Stevenson was stationed, expressed the sympathy of all present--of his brother Jesuits and all those whom Father Stevenson had helped in so many ways - with Father Stevenson’s sister who was present, having crossed over from Richmond, Surrey. Father Stevenson’s life, said Father Meade, was simply summed up in one word: He was a Missioner. A most gifted and eloquent preacher, he had spent some thirty years preaching the Word of God in many lands. He was a tireless worker. Never, Father Meade said, since he first knew him forty years ago, both as a fellow worker with him on the missions and as Director of the Mission and Retreats Apostolate, had he ever known Father Robert Stevenson to refuse any assignment given to him or to fail to answer any call made upon his services on the grounds of being tired or over-worked or unfit to undertake any work to which he was assigned. The circumstances of his death are proof of this generous spirit. While he was engaged in giving a mission in Tuam Cathedral, he died in the arms of his fellow missioners. It was a glorious ending to a life lived out to the full in god's service,
Some little glimpse of Father Stevenson's spirit is seen in something Father Meade related to the Editor : “I cannot lay my hands upon an edition of the Province News which must have come out in 1965/67 when I wrote notes on the work of the Mission. In one of these editions, I remember, I wrote about an extraordinary achievement of Bob’s, which showed his remarkable versatility. I was asked to supply a priest for a mission: I think it was in Kerry or Co. Cork. There were in this place three workers' camps on some big scheme. One camp was of Germans; another of Irish Speakers, and the third English speaking men and women of the locality. The missioner would have to preach to one section in German; to another in Irish and to the third in English. Bob took on the whole mission by himself and did the whole mission as requested. I think I published a letter from the priest there, giving an account of this remarkable achievement on Bob's part and how well he did it all”.
Father Noel Holden, in whose arms Father Stevenson died in the Hotel where the Missioners were staying while giving a mission in Tuam, said that it was clear that Father Stevenson was unwell for some time before he died. Indeed during lunch on that First Friday (April 1st) the Archbishop of Tuam (Dr. Cunnane) by phone had invited Father Stevenson to stay with the Archbishop for the rest of the Mission. His Grace could see that Father Stevenson was very unwell. At the Requiem Mass in Tuam, the chief concelebrant was His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. At the Mass Father Holden spoke few words. He drew attention to the fact that when Father Bob died the notes were in his pocket for the sermon he was to have preached that day concerning the Sacred Heart. The concluding words of the sermon were to have been: “No stranger of God”. Father Holden reminded his hearers that these words were very true of Father Stevenson himself. His missionary work was the work of a man whose prayer kept him close to God from whom he sought continually for guidance and help in his work for souls.
Fr Holden said that Fr Stevenson had a big 'mail' from people whom he had at some time directed spiritually during his missions. Father Stevenson never preached without having with him a summary of that special sermon: each such occasion, each such congregation, was new, different. And this in spite of the fact that he had so crowded a programme. Fr Holden noted the programme of Fr Stevenson's closing months. In January he had given a mission in Corby, England; from February 6th to 20th he preached at Knock;from February 27th to March 13th his work was in Beechwood Avenue - where he had been born. He died “in harness” in Tuam on April 1st during a Mission which with three other Fathers he had begun on March 20th. He was very proficient in preaching in the three Irish dialects: that of Donegal - whose Hills he loved - of Connaught and of Munster.
Father Holden reminds us that Father Stevenson wrote a lot. He published many Messenger Office Pamphlets. In 1975 he published a book on Father Leonard Shiel entitled “Who Travels Alone”. His foreword ended with the words: “I have chosen to call his memory - WHO TRAVELS ALONE, for I think it sums up a man both restless and still reserved, a riddle to all of us, his friends”. Fr Holden said that the core of this tribute could be applied also to Father Stevenson himself, for his life was one of restless thought and work in his efforts to help souls to God.
Father Holden could also show that Fr Stevenson did not easily relinquish any project he had turned his attention to. Fr Stevenson had visited the Holy Land some years ago. He made many written notes and also took many photos with the intention that his impressions and reflections when published might help others who wished to study and visit Our Lord's “Native Land”. The following summer Father Stevenson was in Los Angeles where he prepared his book for publication; but when back in Ireland he found that the case containing his manuscript notes and diaries had got lost. But he would not allow his spiritually helpful undertaking to be frustrated. Between his missions during the next year he made use of free intervals to recall his impressions of the Holy Land and wrote-from memory therefore-his helpful and successful Book: “Where Christ Walked”.
Father Holden adds the small but significant addition which helped Fr Stevenson very much to understand and attract Christians other than Catholics: Father Stevenson's father was a Scotch Presbyterian. His mother's people were from Graiguenamanagh, which he had visited as late as last May when giving a Mission at nearby Loughlinbridge.

Born: 29 December 1882, Clareville, Tramore, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1898, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1914, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1917, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 06 January 1980, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

Father a doctor, and mother is daughter of the late Thomas Sherlock of Waterford,

One of eight brothers (two deceased) and six sisters (two deceased)

Educated at Christian Brothers School, Tramore and then Mungret College SJ

William was a relative of Patrick Stephenson (RIP 1990) of the Australian province, and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1898.

by 1903 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1905

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William was a relative of Patrick Stephenson of the Australian province, and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1898. After juniorate and philosophy at Jersey, he arrived at Riverview in October 1905. He remained there until early in 1911, teaching, being assistant prefect of discipline, and for a couple of years, junior rowing master. He spent most of the rest of his life working in parish ministry and doing some pamphlet writing in Ireland.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 55th Year No 2 1980

Obituary

Fr William Stephenson (1882-1898-1980)

The memorial card of Fr Willie Stephenson, which has been distributed to the whole Province, gives one a glimpse of the life of the man whose obituary I have been asked to write. He died at night on 6th January 1980 in his 98th year.
At the time of his death he had completed and sent to his printers a revised edition of one of his many booklets, Days with our Lady. Ninety six pages which he wrote in clearest manuscript before having it typed and corrected before sending it first for censorship and then to his printers. He died before the estimate for printing was returned. While engaged in this gigantic task, he was also coping with his usual “fan mail”, his Christmas post, and meeting a continuous stream of visitors.
He had a set routine of life: breakfast, meditation, Mass, divine Office, spiritual reading, recreation. From this routine he never diverged until about the Friday before the Sunday of the Epiphany. Then he was confined to bed and began to go downhill rapidly, but still fighting and believing that he would get back on his feet again to continue his life's work.
Though fighting for life, he had no fear of death and was fully aware that it might be at hand for him. After his doctor had seen him on the Saturday, I approached him and suggested that I would anoint him. He immediately said, “Very well, I was going to ask you yesterday to do it”, and he immediately put out his two hands over the blankets. I had brought the holy oils with me, and without any ordeal I proceeded with the anointing. He thanked me for it and went on without any sign of distress or emotion,
In the same way he regarded the announcement of other people's deaths, no matter how closely related they might have been to him. It was a matter of fact: a fact of life. I accompanied him to visit the remains of his sister at her home not many years ago. He mounted the stairs, went over to the bedside, took a brief glance at the remains, beautifully laid out, and then turned away saying to me, “She's the image of my mother”. There wasn't another word. He came to the church, did not meet many people or look for any sympathy. The words “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” were a reality both for himself and for those near and dear to him.
A letter written to him by a university student in London arrived after his death. It gives a very true picture of a younger Father Willie and shows the influence he had on many young men who had gone away from the Church and from religious practices. The letter begins, “Dearest Willie”, and the writer goes on to say: “My only sadness, my dear Willie, is that I never knew you as an adult. I feel sadness within me that I missed a guiding light in this sea of currents that can sweep one away to shores one did not consciously choose. I feel that you are a true man of God, even though I do not practise the faith. I know that you remember me, but I don't have such a clear picture of you. I remember walking up by Murray’s forge with you one day when I was about seven years old and you were reading your black book. The cuffs of your jacket were thread bare, and you were tall and thin with piercing eyes. I knew that you were a nice man, but I was also frightened of you. I see you now as a light. I know that I am out in the Arctic circle in terms of Catholic faith, but I see your light, Willie: I see it shining out there in the darkness, but it's a long way off”.
Monsignor Tom Cullen, a past pupil of Mungret and taught there by Father Stephenson, also wrote to him: “You are one of the greatest priests I have known in all my life. You are the very best. I remember you in Mungret: you were great to the Apostolics”.
Father Stephenson knew no barriers of class, creed, age or life-style. He was the friend of all and was truly “all things to all men”. In the prime of his life he worked in Galway, and was a “live wire” both in the school and in the church for twenty-five years; his principal work being the Holy Hour and the men’s sodality of our Lady. He spent the last thirty years of his life in the Rathfarnham community. Here he is greatly missed, both as a member of the community and as a confessor ad jan., and by a countless number of clients both young and old who constantly visited him. In the room which he occupied, everything spoke of centuries past. The older and more worn-out his garments became, the more he became attached to them - almost in every sense. He loved his game of cards, and we feel particularly indebted to his young friends in the Society who were so good to him and dropped in occasionally for a game'. .
Finally, of all the places he dwelt in during his long life - Jersey, where he did his philosophy; Sydney, his regency; Galway; Mungret, where he was first as pupil and later as sub mod of the Apostolic School, etc., - Tramore, his native spot, took pride of place. The following letter, signed by Michael Cullen, town clerk, came from Tramore Town Commissioners:
“Dear Father,
At the meeting of the Commissioners on 8th January, a vote of sincere sympathy was adopted to you and the Jesuit order on the regretted death of the late Father William Stephenson, SJ RIP.
Not alone did the Commissioners express their own regret but also the sense of loss of the whole community here who knew, respected and loved Father Stephenson who was born here and always expressed his affection for the town: he was one of our most valuable tourist ambassadors.
He was a personal friend to me and my family, and we were very closely associated with him during his holidays each summer: we shall never forget him.
The County Manager asked to be associated with this expression of sympathy,
May God grant Father Willie eternal rest, and consolation to all who mourn him.'

No account of the life of Fr William Stephenson would be complete without putting on record his vast contribution to the Province through his writings published by the Irish Messenger Office. In all, he had fourteen booklets published, many of which went into several editions. His great work, however, was the Child of Mary Prayer Book, which has seen forty editions, twelve of which he edited (1930-1975). He not only edited and compiled these booklets, but in many cases - especially in his latter years - contributed substantially towards the printing. His object in devoting his time and energy to this work was to do good and to help the seminary fund for the education of Jesuits.
He was always interested in finding and helping candidates for the priesthood, and kept up contact with them and with their families all through life. With youth of all kinds he had a special charism and could make instant contact with them when much younger men would be utterly inadequate. About six years ago, when he was ninety-two, an incident occurred which brought this home to me. I was called to the parlour to meet four youths. They had finished school and were just “browned off”, as they put it. Obviously I was not their man: after all I was over sixty. They asked me if there was any younger man they could talk to. I made an arrangement with them for the following day. They were satisfied, and as I was showing them out I saw the Old Man in the distance. He was coming up the avenue with a bundle of sticks for his fire under his arm.
I pointed him out to the youths and told them that only a few days previously he had celebrated his sixtieth year in the priesthood and was ninety-two years of age. I told them to stop him and congratulate him. Soon I saw a huddle down the avenue. He had his arms on their shoulders and was in deep conversation with them. I did not wait. Next morning I asked him “How did you get on with those lads you met on the avenue last evening?” “Great lads”, he said. He had all their names; knew where they lived and where they had been at school. “They are all going to Mass and holy Communion this morning”, he added. “How did this happen?” I asked him. “I asked them were they saying their prayers (no!); were they going to Mass (no!). I brought them in behind the laurel bushes and heard their confessions. They are going to Mass and holy Communion this morning, and tonight they are coming up to me for a game of Switch.
Fr Stephenson's life was not without its trials. He went through some very rough times and was let down by some who were his friends and to help whom he had gone to endless trouble. One of these robbed him of all his savings. But he had a maxim which he frequently repeated: “let nothing disturb thee”. This may be more easily said than done. He did it. He could shut out from his mind anything that was beyond his power to remedy and never refer to it once it was over. This gave him constant serenity of mind and the power to help troubled souls. He radiated peace and cheerfulness and optimism. This was the Great Old Man - the true man of God. RIP

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1949

Our Past

Father William Stephenson SJ

Father William Stephenson SJ (95-98), celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit last year. Father William came here as a small boy and was the youngest of that group of novices to join the Society of Jesus in 1898. A mature boy he plumbed the depths of spiritual wisdom under the direction of Fr James Murphy, the famous novice master, He went to Jersey for his philosophy where he acquired a great facility in the happy French idiom. Repairing to Australia for his regency, there, he spent three years having a magnetic influence for good over the boys who were under his charge. He returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained there in 1915. His next appointment was to the Crescent College, and Mungret was privileged to have him on the staff the following year. He was responsible under God for the vocations of many of our Past. In 1920 he was transferred to St Ignatius, Galway, where he remained for 25 years. During that quarter of a century he built up a great Men's Sodality-one of the finest in Ireland. The memory of his fruitful work in Galway occasioned a striking presentation of a gift of a chalice from those whom he had guided so zealously. His name is familiar as an author of spiritual works. Innumerable pamphlets, prayer-books and leaflets by his hand grace the book-stalls of our churches. We congratulate him on his more recent book “Christ Our Light”, a review of which we publish in this issue. Fr Stephenson is now a member of the Community at Manresa, Clontarf - the retreat house for workmen. We offer him wealth of blessings.

Born: 18 March 1962, Churchtown, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 25 September 1980, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 18 August 2019, Galway Cheshire Homes, Merlin Park Lane, Curraghagrean, Galway City, County Galway (Roscahill, County Galway)

Left Society of Jesus: 1986

Address 2000 & 1991: The Manse, Hollymount, Claremorris, County Mayo & Lower Churchtown Road, Churchtown, Dublin City, County Dublin

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/frank-stapleton-obituary-pioneering-irish-film-maker-1.4002362

Frank Stapleton
Born: March 18th, 1962
Died: August 18th, 2019

Frank Stapleton, prolific writer and talented film director has died following a long illness. Stapleton was a leading light in Irish filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s before his career was cut short by the onset of multiple sclerosis.

The Whole World in His Hands, an award winning documentary filmed 10 years after Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979, Dr Brown Also Spoke, a polemic documentary with Dr Noel Browne (Minister for Health from 1948-1951) and Michael D Higgins and The Fifth Province (1997) were his best known films.

The Fifth Province which was about a frustrated writer living the rain-soaked Midlands, won Best First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh and the Audience Prize at the Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal. Stapleton worked with Michael D Higgins on a number of film proposals and his film crew made a documentary with Higgins at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro called, 12 Days to Save the World.

Frank Stapleton grew up in Churchtown, Dublin with one older and one younger brother. He attended Belvedere College, Dublin from the age of eight to eighteen where his friends included Fintan Connolly who also went on to become a filmmaker. Reminiscing about their school days, Connolly said that Frank had a strong interest in photography and social justice and was “fizzing with ideas”.

With fellow Belvedere students, Stapleton and Connolly pushed a bed from Dublin to Cork and later the same year, a telephone box from Knock to Cork to raise money for Concern. They made their first documentary, No School is an Island while still at Belvedere College.

After school, Stapleton joined the Society of Jesus and lived in Manresa House, Clontarf where he completed his 2 year novitiate. He then moved to a Jesuit residence in Monkstown in 1982 while studying English and Philosophy at University College Dublin. In 1984, he made his first film, A Second of June, a drama documentary inspired by Ulysses about a day in the life of two ordinary Dubliners when Ronald Regan visited Ireland. After graduating from UCD in 1985, Frank lived for a time in one of the Ballymun Towers while working on social projects with Peter McVerry and other members of the Jesuit community.

To broaden his horizons, he moved to London. Around this time, he also left the Jesuits and immersed himself instead in contemporary film and the psychoanalysis of R D Laing. In 1989, he founded Ocean Films with producer, Catherine Tiernan and over the following decade, they made many documentaries and dramas together.

“Frank had an uninhibited imagination, huge energy and motivation to bring his ideas to the screen and to make dreams a reality,” says Tiernan. “In the beginning, we went abroad to seek commissions as RTÉ had not yet opened up to independent production. There was no TV3 or TG4 and the Irish Film Board had yet to be re-activated. The Whole World In His Hands - which was funded by Channel 4 - was among the first Irish independent documentaries to be screened on RTÉ.”

In 1999, Stapleton married Katharine West and the couple bought a Presbyterian manse and church in Hollymount, County Mayo with the intention of restoring it to provide them both with living and working accommodation. However, a year later, Stapleton was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and then in 2001, with multiple sclerosis which quickly limited his ability to write and direct films. Their daughter, Alice Mimosa was born in 2002 and for a number of years, Frank was a wonderful home-based father to her while Katharine, a ceramic artist, lectured at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology.

In 2004, the family moved to Roscahill, County Galway where they had great support from the local community. With Galway based poet, Mary Dempsey as his scribe, Stapleton completed an MA in Film Studies at the Huston Film School at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in 2006. In 2008, his condition had deteriorated to the extent that he needed to move to supported accommodation in the Cheshire Home in Galway, returning home at weekends and during the holidays.

In 2012, the Galway Film Fleadh showed five of Stapleton’s films in a retrospective of his work. In the catalogue for the festival, Tony Tracy, from the Huston School of Film at NUIG, wrote that Stapleton was part of a vanguard of Irish film directors who attempted to launch a career in the 1980s. “Like others from that period, his work was defined by daring and determination, balanced between an ambition to create a personal cinema and the need to make a living.” Tracy said that Stapleton had a commitment to exploring the condition of Irishness that is imaginative, engaged and wide-ranging. His six-part series, Irish Dreamtime (2000) explored concepts of Irish heritage at the turn of the millennium.

In a tribute piece, the Irish Film Institute archivist, Sunniva O’Flynn said that much of Stapleton’s work was “distinguished by a delightful air of whimsy tethered to a foundation of deep erudition. He was a man of endless intellect, kindness, compassion and fun who bore his long illness with great fortitude and dignity.”

Frank Stapleton is survived by his wife Katharine, daughter Alice Mimosa, his mother Catherine, brothers John and Colum.

https://ifi.ie/frank-stapleton-a-tribute/
The staff and board of IFI have learnt with great sadness of the passing of film director Frank Stapleton.

Frank was an enormously talented writer, director and producer, a leading light of the Irish filmmaking world in the 1980s and 1990s before his career was cut short by the onset of multiple sclerosis. He established Ocean Films with producer and great friend Catherine Tiernan and together they made a series of memorable documentaries. Frank directed Irish Dreamtime, a series about Irish identity and heritage; Dr Browne also Spoke, a biographical film about Noel Browne; and The Whole World in his Hands, a film about Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979.

His Poorhouse was, for many years, one of very few dramas set during the famine. A Second of June a Ulyssean meander through Dublin on the day of Ronald Reagan’s visit was a documentary/drama hybrid which perfectly captured the texture of 1980s Dublin. Frank’s surrealist feature The Fifth Province about a frustrated writer living in the rain-soaked midlands was a fitting vehicle for his colourful story-telling and his wry sense of humour. His work was the subject of a retrospective at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2012.

Much of Frank’s work was distinguished by a delightful air of whimsy tethered to a foundation of deep erudition. He was a man of endless intellect, kindness, compassion and fun who bore his long illness with great fortitude and dignity.

We extend our deepest condolences to Frank’s family and many friends.

https://ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Frank-Stapleton-by-Tony-Tracy.pdf
Tony Tracy
from Flynn & Tracy, Historical Dictionary of Irish Cinema, 2nd Ed. (Rowan and Littlefield, 2019)

STAPLETON, FRANK (1962–). It is easy to forget just how difficult it was for the first wave of Irish directors who attempted to launch a career in the 1980s. Frank Stapleton was part of that vanguard. Like others from the period, his work is defined by daring and determination: balanced between an ambition to create a personal cinema and the need to make a living. At first glance, his oeuvre seems characterized by an eclecticism of topics and formats, but on closer consideration, continuities can be traced through a portfolio of creative documentaries, TV drama, short-film and feature film output, and a TV documentary series. Across these works, we encounter an intellect that is both limpid and ludic, a visual sense that is ambitious and original, and a commitment to exploring the condition of Irishness that is imaginative, engaged, and wide ranging.

A native of Churchtown in Dublin’s southern suburbs, he attended the distinguished Belvedere College, where, like the impressionable James Joyce before him, he came under the spell of the Jesuitical mind-set. However, unlike Stephen Daedalus, he did not initially choose an artistic vocation over a priestly calling and spent several years studying within the Society of Jesus. While still appending an “SJ” to his director credit, Frank commenced a career in film, directing the subversive and inventive A Second of June (1984), a contemporary drama-documentary inspired by Ulysses focusing on a day in the life of two ordinary Dubliners against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 visit to Ireland. Two years later, Frank finally uttered “non servium” and left the Jesuits. After a few years in London (where he developed an interest in R. D. Laing’s psychoanalytical techniques), he returned to Dublin and formed Ocean Films with producer Catherine Tiernan in 1989.

The absence at that point of either a film board or state funding structures for independently produced television saw Ocean Films apply for funding wherever it could. Its first success was a prestigious but controversial com- mission—The Whole World in His Hands—a documentary about what Ire- land had become in the 10 years since the visit of Pope John Paul II made for U.K.broadcaster Channel 4. Several similarly polemic documentaries fol- lowed, including two with Noel Browne (Requiem for a Civilisation [1991] and Dr. Browne Also Spoke [1992]) and two in collaboration with Michael D. Higgins just before he became Ireland’s first minister for arts, culture, and the Gaeltacht.

Moving away from documentary and able to secure funding from Radio Telefís Éireann, Frank directed the short film Poorhouse (1996), an evoca- tive adaptation of a Michael Harding story setduring the Famine that featured strong central performances and memorable visuals. Its success paved the way for what proved to be the creative high point of Frank’s career as a filmmaker, The Fifth Province (1997), an artfully realized, unclassifiable feature from a script that Frank cowrote with the late Pat Sheeran and Nina Witoszek (aka Nina FitzPatrick). Attracted by its startling originality, it was British Screen (Simon Perry) that first offered funding to the project, with the Irish Film Board subsequently contributing to its production. Evocative- ly shot by celebrated French
cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer (who contributed a European sensibility to the film’s quirky tone), the film is set in the Irish Midlands and is a worthy cinematic successor to the surrealistic perspective of that liminal zone inaugurated by Flann O’Brien. Once again, it offered an alternative view of Ireland and its culture, challenging official or sanctioned narratives (notably in an amusing but pointed scene about what makes a successful Irish screenplay), and centers on a maverick and dreamer in the figure of Timmy Sugrue (Brian F. O’Byrne).

The Fifth Province was well received at film festivals (winning Best First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh [Festival] and the Audience Prize at the Fantasporto Festival) but didn’t manage to find a distributor outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland, perhaps because it was not perceived as “Irish” enough. In its aftermath, Frank worked on a range of documentary series before the onset of multiple sclerosis prematurely ended his career. These included Irish Dreamtime (2000), an ambitious six-part series exploring con- cepts of Irish heritage at the turn of the millennium. Each, in different ways, continued the work of his fiction and nonfiction films in seeking to interrogate and articulate the distinctive qualities of the Irish condition at a specific moment in time with a bias
toward the marginal, the excluded, and the unorthodox.

Born: 1599, County Kilkenny
Entered: 08 October 1621, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 20 March 1627, Cambrai, France
Final vows: 15 August 1635
Died: 09 June 1665, Irish College, Santiago de Compostella, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Alias Salinger
Superior of Mission 29 June 1652-December 1652 and 16 July 1661-09 June 1665

Mother was Margaret Duingyn (Duigin?)
Studied Humanities at home and at Antwerp, Philosophy at Douai, was MA
1625 in 1st year Theology at Douai
1637 ROM Catalogue Good in all, fit to teach Humanities
1649 In Kilkenny (50 after his name)
1650 Catalogue DOB 1697. A Confessor and Director of Sodality BVM. Prefect of Residence many years and Consultor of Mission. Age 53, Superior of Kilkenny Residence and of Seminary at Compostella for 6 years
1654 Exiled from Clonmel
1655 Rector of Irish Seminary St Iago CAST
1658 At Compostella Age 57 Soc 36. A Superior at various times in Ireland. Rector and Provincial in Ireland. Rector Irish College. Taught Grammar.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities, two years Philosophy and four years Theology in Sicily before Ent. Knew French, English, Irish and Latin.
Taught Humanities for many years; Was Confessor and Director of BVM Sodality; Superior of Residences and Consultor of Irish Mission for many years.
1650 Superior at Kilkenny College, and then moved to Galway when Kilkenny was captured.
1651 He was obliged to flee Ireland, escaped to Spain and succeeded John Lombard as Rector at Compostella, and he died there 09 June 1665 aged 66
He wrote the life of Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Walsh. 4to Antwerp 1655 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
Writer; Prisoner; Exiled with great cruelty; Professor of Humanities; Rector of Compostella Residence; Superior of the Irish Mission; Of great gentleness and prudence; Educated in Sicily and Belgium (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan :
Son of Thomas and Margaret née Duigan
Early education was at Antwerp. He also graduated MA and D Phil at Douai before Ent 08 October 1621 Tournai
1623-1627 After First Vows he was sent a year of Regency at Douai and then stayed there for Theology, and was Ordained at Cambrai 20 March 1627
1628 Sent to Ireland and Kilkenny, and was later Superior at the Kilkenny Residence, and then Rector of the College. He identified himself with the small group of Ormondist partisans in the Kilkenny community whose approval of the Supreme Council's defiance of Rinuccini was reported to Rome and caused the General to send Mercure Verdier on Visitation to the Irish Mission.
1652 Superior of the Mission on 29 June 1652, but six months later was deported to Spain. He arrived in San Sebastián and was then sent to the Irish College Santiago, where he continued as Superior of the Irish Mission until 27 June 1654.
1654-1661 Rector of Irish College Santiago an Office he held for seven years
1661 Reappointed Superior of the Irish Mission 16 July 1661 but ill health prevented him from returning to Ireland. This meant there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission - William in Spain, and Richard Shelton in Ireland. He died at Santiago 09 June 1665

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
St Leger, William
by Terry Clavin

St Leger, William (1599–1665), Jesuit, was born in Co. Kilkenny in September 1599, the son of Thomas St Leger and his wife Margaret Duignan. He left Ireland to study classics at Antwerp and philosophy at Douai and graduated MA and D.Phil. On 8 October 1621 he entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. Ordained a priest at Cambrai on 20 March 1627, he was professed of the four vows of his order on 15 August 1635. In 1628 he had returned to Ireland, where he taught at Kilkenny city. Following the 1641 rebellion and the establishment in 1642 of the Catholic Confederation of Ireland, St Leger was prominent as a supporter of an alliance with the protestant royalists led by James Butler (qv), earl of Ormond. Nonetheless, in 1646 St Leger supported the decision by GianBattista Rinuccini (qv), papal nuncio to Ireland, to excommunicate those who adhered to the peace between the supreme council of the confederation and Ormond.

However, when Rinuccini excommunicated the supporters of the supreme council's cessation with the protestant forces in Munster in the summer of 1648, St Leger strongly opposed him. Rinuccini was particularly bitter over the refusal of St Leger, and the Jesuit order in general, to back him in 1648. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–52), St Leger was appointed superior of the Irish Jesuits on 29 June 1652, but he was obliged to flee to Spain in January 1653 after the authorities banished all catholic clergy from Ireland upon pain of death. He settled in Spain, where he became rector of the Irish college at Compostela. In 1655 he published a life of Thomas Walsh (qv), archbishop of Cashel during the confederate period. This work was criticised by Rinuccini's supporters for failing to mention the controversies of 1648 and St Leger's own role in them. In 1661 he was re-appointed head of the Jesuit mission in Ireland but ill health prevented him from returning home to assume this position. He died 9 June 1665 at Compostela.

Comment. Rinucc., vi, 188; Edmund Hogan, Chronological catalogue of the Irish members of the Society of Jesus (n.d.), 30; The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, ed. and trans. W. Harris (1764), ii, 144; Gilbert, Contemp. hist., i, 277; Gilbert, Ir. confed., vi, 69, 277, 314; Michael J. Hynes, The mission of Rinuccini (1932), 131, 265; ODNB

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
William St Leger (1652-1654)
William St Leger, son of Thomas St Leger, or Salinger, and Margaret Duigin, was born in the county of Kilkenny in September, 1599. He went to Belgium in 1617; studied rhetoric at Antwerp and philosophy at Douay, where he gained the degrees of Licentiate and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. He entered the Novitiate of the Society at Tournay on 8th October, 1621. After teaching grammar a year at Douay, he studied theology there for four years, and was ordained on 20th March, 1627, at Cambray. He returned to Ireland in 1628, and was usually stationed at Kilkenny, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 5th August, 1639. He was Superior of the Kilkenny Residence and Director of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for many years. Then he became Rector of the College at Kilkenny, Consultor of the Mssion, and, finally, on 29th June, 1652, Superior of the Mission. When on 6th January, 1653, an edict banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days was published, Fr St Leger was lying ill in a friend's house at Kilkenny, but his weakness won him no respite. He had to be carried on a stretcher for twenty Irish miles to a seaport, where he was put on board a ship bound for San Sebastian, where he arrived before 26th April, 1653. After some time he took up his residence at the Irish College of Santiago. He continued Superior of the Mission, though resident in Spain, until 27th June, 1654, when he became Rector of the Irish College of Santiago, a position he held for the next seven years.

William St Leger (1661-1663)
Fr William St Leger (for whom vide supra 1652-54) was appointed Superior of the Irish Mission on 16th July, 1661, but was prevented by ill-health from returning, so that for the next two years there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission, one in Spain, Fr William St Leger, and one in Ireland, Fr Richard Shelton. Fr St Leger died at the Irish College of Santiago on 9th June, 1665. He was an accomplished Latinist, and to his pen we are indebted for many treatises which throw light on the state of the Catholic religion in general, and on the history of the activities of the Society of Jesus in Ireland in particular, from the earliest times down to the year 1662.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father William St Leger 1599-1665
William St Leger was born in Kilkenny in 1599.

Having joined the Society at Tournai he returned to Ireland after his ordination in 1628. He was a fluent speaker of English, Latin and Irish and taught classics for many years. He became Superior of the Kilkenny Residence, Director of the Sodality, Consultor of the Mission, and finally Superior in 1652. His zeal for souls made him a special object of hatred for the Puritans.

When an edict was published in 1653 banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days. Fr William was lying ill at a friends house, He was transported on a stretcher to the nearest seaport and put on a ship bound for San Sebastian. He made port in April, having been at sea since January. He took up residence at the Irish College Santiago, where he became Rector for seven years.

In 1661 he was again appointed Superior of the Irish Mission, but through ill health never returned to Ireland. For two years there were two Superiors, Fr St Leger in Spain and Fr Richard Shelton in Ireland. The difficulty was resolved by Fr St Leger’s death at Santiago on June 9th 1665.

We are indebted to him for many treatises on the State of the Catholic Religion and of the Society of Jesus in Ireland at that period. He is also the author of a life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel who died in Compostella.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ST. LEGER, WILLIAM. The 1st time that I meet with him is in a letter written by him from his native place, Kilkenny, on the 3rd of January, 1646-7, wherein he speaks in the highest terms of the merits of Peter Francis Scarampi, the Oratorian, and Envoy of the Holy See to the Irish Nation. Pere Verdier found him two years later superior of the College at Kilkenny. When that City was taken, he removed to Galway. In 1651, the success of the Puritan faction compelled him to seek safety in flight. Retiring to Compostella, he ended his days in peace, on the 9th of June, 1665, aet. 66. We have from his pen the Life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Caascll, 4to. Antwerp, 1655, who died at Compostella.

Born: 1683, County Galway
Entered: 10/11/1699, Goa, India - Goana Province (GOA)
Ordained: 1708,
Final Vows: 15/08/1717
Died: 02 December 1721, Mysuru, Karnataka, India - Goana Province (GOA)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1708-1711 After finished studies and ordination he taught at Daman College, Daman and Diu, India for a few years.
1711 Then sent as a missioner to Mysore (Mysuru), Karnataka, India where he died 10 years later

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Francis Skerret 1683-1721
Fr Francis Skerret was born in Galway in 1683 and entered the Society at Goa in India in 1699.

After his studies he was ordained in 1908, and taught for a few years at the College of Daman. He was then sent as a missioner to Mysore, where he died in 1721 after two years evangelising the Indians.

Born: 18 July 1898, Altmore, Pomeroy, County Tyrone
Entered: 15 September 1919, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1930, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 07 February 1986, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

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

Parents were farmers.

Eldest of two - sister and brothers.

Education at St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon (1911-1913) and then at Blackrock College CSSp in Dublin. He then went to the National University for three years obtaining a BA.

Chaplain in the Second World War.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 16th Year No 4 1941

General :
Seven more chaplains to the forces in England were appointed in July : Frs Burden, Donnelly, J Hayes, Lennon and C Murphy, who left on 1st September to report in Northern Ireland, and Fr Guinane who left on 9th September.
Fr. M. Dowling owing to the serious accident he unfortunately met when travelling by bus from Limerick to Dublin in August will not be able to report for active duty for some weeks to come. He is, as reported by Fr. Lennon of the Scottish Command in Midlothian expected in that area.
Of the chaplains who left us on 26th May last, at least three have been back already on leave. Fr. Hayes reports from Redcar Yorkshire that he is completely at home and experiences no sense of strangeness. Fr. Murphy is working' with the Second Lancashire Fusiliers and reports having met Fr. Shields when passing through Salisbury - the latter is very satisfied and is doing well. Fr. Burden reports from Catterick Camp, Yorks, that he is living with Fr. Burrows, S.J., and has a Church of his own, “so I am a sort of PP”.
Fr. Lennon was impressed very much by the kindness already shown him on all hands at Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh and in his Parish. He has found the officers in the different camps very kind and pleased that he had come. This brigade has been without a R.C. Chaplain for many months and has never yet had any R.C. Chaplain for any decent length of time. I am a brigade-chaplain like Fr Kennedy and Fr. Naughton down south. He says Mass on weekdays in a local Church served by our Fathers from Dalkeith but only open on Sundays. This is the first time the Catholics have had Mass in week-days

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 61st Year No 2 1986

Obituary

Fr Daniel Shields (1898-1919-1986)

18th July 1898: born. 15th September 1919: entered SJ. 1919-21 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1921-24 Milltown, philosophy. 1924-27 Clongowes, regency. 1927-31 Milltown, theology (31st July 1930: ordained a priest). 1931-32 Clongowes, teaching. 1932-33 St Beuno's, tertianship.
1933-37 Mungret, teaching, 1937-41 Clongowes, ditto. 1941-46 chaplain to British army. 1946-47 Clongowes, teaching. 1947-52 Galway, retreat-giving. 1952-55 Leeson St, teaching in Kevin street technical school. 1955-57 Gardiner St, church work and director of “Penny Dinners” (the direction of which he retained till the end). 1957-60 Loyola, Superior, 1961-86 Gardiner St, church work: besides the “Penny dinners” he was associated with “Catholic Stage Guild”. 7th February 1986: died.
On his army chaplaincy see his article “Fading memories” in Interfuse no. 41 (February 1986), pp. 35-38.

◆ Interfuse

Obituary

Fr Daniel Shields (1898-1919-1986)

18th July 1898: born. 15th September 1919: entered SJ. 1919-21 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1921-24 Milltown, philosophy. 1924-27 Clongowes, regency. 1927-31 Milltown, theology (31st July 1930: ordained a priest). 1931-32 Clongowes, teaching. 1932-33 St Beuno's, tertianship.
1933-37 Mungret, teaching, 1937-41 Clongowes, ditto. 1941-46 chaplain to British army. 1946-47 Clongowes, teaching. 1947-52 Galway, retreat-giving. 1952-55 Leeson St, teaching in Kevin street technical school. 1955-57 Gardiner St, church work and director of “Penny Dinners” (the direction of which he retained till the end). 1957-60 Loyola, Superior, 1961-86 Gardiner St, church work: besides the “Penny dinners” he was associated with “Catholic Stage Guild”. 7th February 1986: died.
On his army chaplaincy see his article “Fading memories” in Interfuse no. 41 (February 1986), pp. 35-38.

Born: 01 February 1611, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 28 February 1629, Back Lane, Dublin
Ordained: 1637, Messina, Sicily, Italy
Final Vows: 01 October 1652
Died: 27 July 1671, Dublin City, County Dublin

Alias Nathaniel Hart

Superior of the Mission, 09 February 1658-1663

Sometimes went under the name “Tobias Walker and Nathaniel Hart and also Capitaneus” (HIV III pp 460-464)
Studied Philosophy 3 years and Theology 4 in Society
1633 At Douai studying Philosophy
1636 Not in CAT
1642 Prefect of Irish College Rome (Fr Malone was Rector) Was also Minister and Operarius
1649 Marked at Waterford (1629 after his name)
1650 Catalogue DOB 1607. Came to the Mission 1641. Confessor and Preacher. Age 43. Prof 4 Vows
1666 Catalogue Is dwelling near Dublin. On the Mission 22 years. Consultor of the Mission. Engaged in administering the Sacraments and refuting heretics. After 17 weeks imprisonment he was banished for 6 years.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Two Entries plus one “Nathaniel Hart”
Knew English, Italian and Latin; Four years Theology in the Society; Taught Humanities; Distinguished Preacher and Confessor
1641 Sent to Ireland (HIB Catalogue 1650 - ARSI)
1666 In Dublin and engaged in missionary duties and in controversial disputations with heretics.
After being imprisoned for 17 weeks, he was deported for six years (HIB Catalogue 1666 - ARSI)
Robert Nugent in a letter dated Wexford 28/02/1643 states that he was daily expecting him from France.
Mercure Verdier the Visitor to the Irish Mission names him in his Report to the General 24 June 1649
He had been stationed at Waterford where he had great repute as a Preacher and teacher; A good Controversialist.
He accompanied the Countess of Beerhaven to Spain, and was then about forty years of age, and had spent twenty in the Society;
He died 1671 in Dublin, deserving well of the Society and elsewhere (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS who calls him Robert)
A Belgian Catalogue mentions him as Richard Shelton arriving at the Professed House, Antwerp 12 September 1656, and leaving 24 April 1657

Nathaniel Hart Entry
Ent pre 1649; RIP post 1659
1659 Superior of Mission and wrote a letter to the General 15 June 1659
Probably identical with Mathias O’Heartegan (corrected in pencil beside to “Richard Shelton”) who had good reason to disguise his name.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already studied Humanities and begun Philosophy before Ent 28 February 1629 Back Lane, Dublin
1631-1637 After First Vows he was sent to Douai for Philosophy and then to Messina in Sicily for Theology where he was Ordained 1637
1637-1641 He made Tertianship and he was sent as Minister and Operarius at Castrogiovanni and Messina.
1641-1644 He was actually sent to Ireland in 1641, but on his way he was kept for a year as Prefect of Studies at the Irish College Rome
1644-1646 Sent to Ireland and firstly to Galway where he taught Humanities
1646 He was sent as Chaplain to Countess Bearhaven on her journey to Spain
When he returned to Ireland he was first sent to Waterford and by 1650 to Dublin
1655 He was was betrayed and arrested in 1655 and deported to the Barbados. There he was not allowed to land there but sent back to Europe. He eventually landed at Antwerp in October, 1656
1657 In spite of his penalties threatened against priests who should care to come back after deportation, he returned to Ireland when appointed as substitute for the Mission Superior Thomas Quin, who had been arrested. He was himself arrested again on his way through England but succeeded in reaching Ireland in the summer of 1657
1658 He was formally appointed Superior of the Mission, 09 February 1658, His term of Office should have ended in 1661 but the newly-designated Superior did not come, and so he continued in office until 1663
He died in Dublin 27 July 1671
He wrote an account of the labours of the Society in Ireland during the thirteen years of the Cromwellian tyranny.
He stoutly opposed Peter Walsh's Loyal Remonstrance.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
Richard Shelton (1657-1663)
Richard Shelton was born in Dublin on 1st February, 1611. His early studies, as far as logic, were made at our Dublin College, and on 28th February, 1629, he entered the Society in the Novitiate of Dublin, recently established. When the heretics suppressed the Jesuit houses and confiscated them to enrich Trinity College, Richard Shelton had to seek his education abroad. He finished his philosophy at Douay, and then was sent to the Province of Sicily. There he studied theology for four years at Palermo, made his tertianship at Trapani, acted as Minister of the College of Enna, or Castro Giovanni, and as Confessor at the Professed House of Messina. In September, 1641, he left Sicily for Ireland. On his way he spent a year at the Irish College, Rome, as Prefect of Studies, under Fr William Malone as Rector. In Ireland he was stationed at Galway (1644-46), teaching, preaching, and confessing. He went as chaplain to the Irish soldiers that accompanied the Countess of Berehaven on her return to Spain, When he came back he was stationed first at Waterford, and then, at the end of 1650, in Dublin, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 1st October, 1652. He was betrayed in the summer of 1655, and condemned to transportation to the Barbadoes, but before this sentence was carried out he was put on board a ship for Antwerp, and landed there in October, 1656. In spite of the penalties threatened against exiled priests who returned, Fr Shelton did not hesitate a moment when he was ordered to go and act as substitute for Fr Thomas Quin, Superior of the Mission, who had been arrested. He himself was arrested when passing through England, but succeeded in reaching Ireland in the summer of 1657. From being Vice-Superior he was formally appointed Superior of the Mission on 9th February, 1658. His term of office should have come to an end in 1661, but as the new intended Superior never came he continued as Superior till 1663. He wrote an account of the labours of the Society in Ireland during the thirteen years of Cromwellian tyranny. He also distinguished himself by his opposition to the Schismatical Remonstrance of the friar, Peter Walsh, OSF. Fr Shelton died at Dublin on 27th July, 1671.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Richard Shelton 1611-1671
Richard Shelton was born in Dublin in1611 and received his early education as far as Logic in our school in Dublin. Furthermore he entered the novitiate in Dublin.

On the closing of our houses he went to the continent to complete his studies. He left Sicily in 1641 to return to Ireland, but spent a year en route as Prefect of Studies in the Irish College Rome under the Rectorship of Fr William Malone.

Arriving in Ireland he went to Galway for two years teaching and preaching. When the Countess of Berehaven retired to the continent, he accompanied her as Chaplain to Spain. On his return he was stationed at Waterford, then in Dublin, where in 1655 he was arrested and sentenced to the Barbadoes. However, the sentence was not carried out, but Fr Richard was banished to Antwerp. In spite of the penalties threatened him, he returned to once again to act as Superior for Fr Thomas Quin who had been arrested. He himself was full Superior of the Mission 1658-1993.

In correspondence he went by the pseudonym Nathanial Hart.

To his we are indebted for an account of the labours of the Society in Ireland during Cromwellian times.

He passed to his reward on July 27th 1671.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HART, NATHANIEL. All that I know of him is from his own brief letter, dated the 15th of June, 1659, which shews that he was then Superior of his brethren in Ireland.

SHELTON, RICHARD. In a letter of Father Robert Nugent, dated Waterford the 28th of February, 1643, he says “I daily expect Father Shelton from France”. From Pere Verdier s Report of the 24th of June, 1649, I collect that he had been stationed at Waterford, where he was in great repute as a Preacher; that he had then quitted for Spain, to accompany the Countess of Beerhaven thither; that he was about 40 years of age, of which he had spent 20 in the Society. He died in Dublin, as I find in Father Stephen Rice s Annual Letters, during the year 1671. “in Missions et alibi de Societate bene meritus”.

Born: 07 May 1922, Menlough, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 07 October 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1955, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 20 January 1968, Mater Hospital, Dublin

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

Father was an Inspector at the Department of Agriculture.

Third in a family of two boys and two girls (1 deceased)

Early education was at St Joseph’s College (Garbally) Ballinasloe

He then went to UCG to study Engineering, graduating BE in 1942 and BSc in 1943. After qualifying he worked in Dublin and County Wicklow as a Civil Engineer.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ : Admissions 1859-1948 - B.E and BSc at UCG before entry

In 1968 the galloping cancer which killed 46-year-old Tom Scully SJ must have been nourished by the tension in which he lived: between the demands of full-time science teaching in Belvedere, demands that were sharpened by an exigent headmaster, and the needs of the poor which Tom saw outside his door. When he died, the flats which he had funded and planned for the aged poor and for newly weds, were given his name. They have served their purpose for forty years, and now, they are being tossed with a view to replacement. https://www.jesuit.ie/news/father-scully-house-comes-down/

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 43rd Year No 2 1968
Belvedere College
On January 20th, Fr. Tom Scully who had been in the Mater Hospital for about three weeks, passed quietly away. For the previous fortnight he had suffered a great deal but remained ever cheerful at all times. Right up to the end he showed an active interest in all college affairs. The day before he died a group of the boys (from one of the three St. Vincent de Paul Conferences which he directed) visited him and he wished to know whether certain cases had been visited during his absence. On the same day he spoke to Fr. Rector in a moving way of his appreciation of the charity and kindness of the community to him and stressed how much he was indebted to them. His passing will leave a great void to be filled not only in the various activities in which he immersed himself in the College, but also in his St. Anne's Housing Aid Society which was his brain-child and of which he was the mentor in all its developments, material and financial.
January 23rd. Requiem Mass for Fr. Scully at which practically all the school participated. It was one of the largest funerals from Gardiner St. for some time with representatives from all walks of life. Various tributes to him appeared in the Press, all written in the same key - “to the memory of a kind and gentle Priest”. It is only since his death that we realise what a prodigious amount of work he fitted into his already overcrowded daily schedule. R.I.P.

Obituary :

Fr Thomas Scully SJ (1922-1968)

A writer of obituaries is often faced with the task of reconciling kindness with the truth. In writing of Tom Scully no such problem arises. To say that he was an exemplary religious, loved by his family and his friends, popular in Belvedere both among the community and the boys, cherished by those who shared his social work is not a kindly half truth, masking the darker side of his character. There simply was no dark side to Tom's character. Doubtless being human, he had his faults but they were mere trifling imperfections that flesh and blood must live with and accept.
Tom was born in Menlough, Co. Galway in May 1922. He attended the local National School and then spent a very happy period in secondary school at St. Joseph's, Ballinasloe. He was immensely proud of being educated at St. Joseph's, now called Garbally Park, and often remarked on the happy casualness of school life there in the golden thirties.
At U.C.G. he took, without undue effort his B.Sc, as well as a degree in civil engineering. He enjoyed the University, especially its social life, picking up at this time the bad habit of being a very good card player.
After leaving the University, he spent some time as an engineer in the Board of Works, before being appointed an Assistant County Surveyor for Co. Wicklow.
He entered the Society in October 1945, taking in his stride the traditional noviceship regime, which is now in process of being changed. In Tullabeg he enjoyed life greatly, philosophy, his new companions, card playing, talking, walking, boating, designing and building a swimming pool, in fact the lot! He was by temperament a Celt, but of the cheerful variety, full of fire and fun, quick and clever in everything, a strong personality with a most unCeltlike ability to control his moods. In this, he was helped by his temperament which was basically optimistic and cheerful.
He spent two years in the Crescent as a scholastic. He found teaching no problem, enjoyed the boys and in a different sort of way, the community. He had some good stories about those days, featuring the escapades of a bizarre contemporary, still alive, but alas no longer with us.
In Milltown he worked conscientiously, passed all the exams, accepted all the doctrines, had no doubts as far as one could see, played his game of bridge once a week and above all remained the same, vivacious, lively and reliable. He was, perhaps, by nature a conservative. He respected and admired the religious traditions of his country and in a sense it could be said that his piety was more Irish than Jesuit, more redolent of Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg than Farm Street or, dare we say it, Milltown Park.
He spent almost his last ten years in Belvedere as science master and had become one of the pillars of that great college. He taught his classes with great care and was respected by all his students. One of the greatest signs of his interest in teaching was the way in which he successfully obtained his H.Dip. in Ed. only two years ago. Some years previous to that he went to America for a summer-course in the teaching of science. The tidiness of the physics laboratory and his care of its instruments were other indications of his deep love for this work. His devotion to the school was very real, he liked both the community and the boys and greatly admired the past pupils, especially those in the Vincent de Paul Society and the Newsboys Club. He showed many of the signs of that devotion, varying from a certain deep contentment in his surroundings to a shared sympathy in all the joys and sorrows of the school. His intelligence, however, tempered the narrowing effects of devotion and he retained to the end a genuine interest not only in the other schools of the Society but in all the problems peculiar to Irish education.
His life work was in a sense crowned by his activities in the Catholic Housing Association. This group was founded by a number of Catholic laymen in order to provide homes for the aged poor of Dublin. Tom was invited to join the group as chaplain. In a short time he found himself playing a very important part in running the new organisation. Every spare moment was devoted to it, and he loved the work. In fact towards the end his greatest interest was in this problem of housing the poor and the old of Dublin. He felt deeply that a Christian country should above all else, aid its elderly impoverished citizens, whose misery we see all around us in the Ireland of today. Tom did not want to die. He had too many interests, too many friends, too much work on hand, to wish to leave this world. But when he was told the truth, he did not seem to mind. I think he had long suspected it and had already turned his mind away from this life and its seismic disturbances to the contemplation of eternity. It was in this spirit that he died, an outstanding Christian and a great priest.
His funeral was immense, a tribute from the good people of Dublin to an exceptionally good man. Those, whom he knew well, will never forget him. May he rest in peace.

An Appreciation

The following is part of an appreciation of Fr. Scully by one of the officials of the Catholic Housing Aid Society. Fr. Scully was the chaplain of this Society and often acted as its spokesman and advocate of its cause.
“He loved the poor. It was through his association with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul that he came to realise their many needs. It can truly be said that he was one of the first to pull back the curtain in Dublin City on the appalling conditions of cold, hunger and loneliness in which a large number of old people were forced to live. The lowliest were his friends, because he did not forget that the most humble piece of human flotsam is the dignified possessor of an immortal soul. He had a special gift for using all of his time. If it was even a half hour between classes in Belvedere, he used to drop in with equal facility on a leader of industry or an old person in a tenement. If it was the former, he might come away a little richer for the Catholic Housing Aid Society, or if the latter 10/- (very often his last 10/-) poorer. His dedication was to the aged poor of Dublin. He gave them everything he had, including his heart through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and through our Catholic Housing Aid Society.
When we set out to collect £120,000 in the daring social experiment of building a block of flats for the old and the young (St. Anne's Court in Gardiner St.) we had little money and few helpers. However in just close on three years we had collected over £60,000 from rich and poor-company directors, trade unionists, workers in factories and in business houses and even the widow's mite. As well as that we had arranged for £33,000 in grants and received promises of another £15,000. It was a long, hard road. Fr. Scully spent every Wednesday afternoon (his half-day from classes) begging here and there. He went to the leaders of Unions and Industry and into the factories and workshops of the workers in his quest for funds. He was always happy to speak to factory workers. He called them the salt of the earth. He always stressed that his scheme was non-sectarian and many of his biggest subscriptions came from Protestants. In doing all his great charitable work he shunned publicity with the result that it was only the few he had around him who knew the colossal amount of work he put into his task. To the members of the Catholic Housing Aid Society he was a lovable leader. He never drove anyone to do anything; you were attracted towards him and felt that you had to do it. Just before he died this gentle and lovable Jesuit in a message to the members of the Catholic Housing Aid Society told them that this year would be a crucial one for the Society and he asked them to redouble their efforts to gather in the balance of the money. The members have already set about the task because they feel that the success of the venture will be a fitting tribute to the unselfish and inspiring work of Fr. Scully for the lonely and necessitous aged. It was a privilege and joy to have helped him and those who knew him will always remember him. Let our continuing work insure that his memory is perpetuated in the only memorial he would wish for a home for his poorer brothers and sisters. We are all sorry he did not live to see his dream take shape in bricks and mortar. We shall miss him on this earth, but it is good to know we have such a friend in Heaven."
J. Macs.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1968

Obituary

Father Thomas J Scully SJ (Master in Belvedere 1957-1968

Father Thomas Scully was born in Menlough, Co Galway, in May 1922. He was educated at St Joseph's, Ballinasloe and later went to University College, Galway, where he obtained the BE degree (Civil) in 1942 and the BSc degree in the following year. After graduation he worked for some time as an engineer in the Board of Works and later obtained appointment as Assistant County Surveyor for Co Wicklow.

He entered the Society of Jesus on 7th October 1945 and studied Philosophy at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, for three years, after which he spent two years teaching in Crescent College, Limerick. He then went for his theological studies to Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1955. He spent the last 11 years of his life as a science teacher in Belvedere College. During that period (in 1964) he attended a Physics course at the Rutgers University summer session in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. This seven week course was sponsored by the American National Science Foundation.

In Belvedere Fr Scully was regarded as a very competent teacher. He had the gift of winning the confidence and loyalty of his pupils. Never robust - he was not an active games man - he was nevertheless a staunch supporter of the School Teams in their annual Cup-winning quests. He appreciated the finer points of Rugby and never failed to appear at the Schools Cup matches. But it is perhaps for his work in the social field that he will be most remembered. In the school he had the direction of the two Conferences of the St Vincent de Paul Society and the enthusiasm he inspired among the members was apparent to all. He was also the Director of one of the Old Belvedere Conferences of the Vincent de Paul Society. He was not content with interesting the boys of Belvedere in the plight of the poor under his inspiration a wide circle outside the College came to share in his Christlike attitude to the suffering, for whom, as he himself put it : “Pity is not enough”.

For some years the plight of the aged poor of Dublin, living on their own, had come very much to his notice. With the help of the boys in the school conferences he did what he could to help with this problem in the locality. Much more important, however, was the fact that he initiated some surveys of the conditions in which old people are living on their own in Dublin and published a number of articles calling attention to their plight. Thus it was that at an early stage he became associated with the Catholic Housing Aid Society which is planning a number of flats to accommodate some of the aged poor, as well as newly-wed couples. Fr Tom devoted a great deal of the time and energy of his last years to this work. The importance of what he was trying to do was recognised by the Lord Mayor when he dedicated this year's annual Lord Mayor's Ball (on St Patrick's Day) to the memory of Father Scully and appealed for support so that the proceeds might be greater than usual and could be used for the projects of the CHAS. After his death, the Lord Mayor, in a letter to his sister, paid tribute to Fr Tom's work for the aged poor of the city.

We have already mentioned his writings on social questions which aroused a good deal of interest; for instance his advice was asked and generously given to the Limerick Housing Aid organisation and to the Methodist work on the same line in Dublin. But Father Scully over the years produced a number of other items which were published, both of a spiritual and engineering nature. First we should mention his booklet on “The Mass in Your Life” and the series of articles which he contributed in 1963 to the Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart on “The Devotional Life of the Soul”. In the now defunct publication “The Irish Monthly” there appeared under his name (in 1949) articles on such diverse topics as “Peat Electrical stations”, “Arterial Drainage”, “The Tennessee Valley Authority” and “New Land for Old”. He was certainly a man who made the most possible use of his talents and energies in good causes but particularly in the field of social problems.

So far this tribute has been mainly factual and may have given little impression of Father Scully the man. To say that he was a gay companion and an edifying religious may sound trite, but it was true - as those who lived with him can testify. He was generous, sympathetic and interested in the work and problems of everyone, and this despite his own very busy life and the many cares that burdened him increasingly. It was perhaps only at the end that we really appreciated his qualities and the amount of work that he had been doing.

Fr Tom became ill last summer, and serious illness was diagnosed. Those who were close to him knew that it was very probable that he had not long to live. Still, he went back to the classroom and continued to work with increasing fervour for the aged poor. Just before Christmas he became ill again and died most peacefully after some weeks in the Mater Nursing Home. But during those weeks, in spite of devoted nursing, he suffered very greatly and those who visited him will not forget the example of fortitude that he gave and his continued interest, up to the day before his death, both in the affairs of the school and in the social work to which he was so deeply committed.

Father Tom died on Saturday, January 20th 1968. The removal took place on the following Monday at 5.15 to the Church of St. Francis Xavier and the remains were preceeded and followed by a large attendance on foot. They included many of the old people for whom he had worked so hard. Among the attendance was the late Minister for Education, Mr. Donogh O'Malley, an old friend from University days in Galway.

There was a very large attendance at the Office and Requiem in St. Francis Xavier's on Tuesday at 10.45, and at the funeral which followed to the Jesuit Cemetery in Glasnevin. Some of the Belvedere boys who had been in the Vincent de Paul Conference carried the coffin from the hearse to the mortuary chapel and many of the school lined the path to the grave.

Our sympathies go to Father Tom's sister and brother Sr Colombière, Presentation Convent, Galway, and Dr Eamonn Scully, Moycullen, Co. Galway.

Born: 26 February 1918, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1937, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final vows: 15 August 1948, Belvedere College SJ
Died: 31 May 1998, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

by 1979 at Lahore, Pakistan (MIS PAK) working

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 101 : Special Edition 1999

Obituary

Br Patrick Ryan (1918-1988)

26th Feb. 1918: Born in Dublin.
Pre-entry experience: He did a commerce course in the Technical School, Parnell Square.
He was employed as a clerk for 4 years.
7th Sep. 1937: Entered the Society at Emo.
8th Sep 1939: First vows at Emo.
1940 - 1941: Galway, Cook
1941 - 1945: Clongowes Wood College, Cook.
1945 - 1958: Belvedere, Sacristan
1948: Tertianship at Tullabeg,
He took Final Vows on 15th Aug. 1948, at Belvedere.
1958 - 1977: Gardiner Street Church, Sacristan (Assistant sacristan/Parish work since 1975)
1977 - 1978: Milltown Park, Sacristan
1978 - 1980: Pakistan, Administration, Loyola Hall.
1980 - 1993: Milltown Park, sacristan.
After that, he helped with administration: post, papers, etc.

In latter years, Pat went across to Cherryfield Lodge for an occasional rest and nursing care. He loved the place, and the nurses were very fond of him. His last stay lasted six weeks during which he showed signs that old age was catching up on him. Even when his voice went, he could converse in a whisper till the end. He died perfectly resigned and at peace on Sunday morning 31st May 1998.

Homily at the funeral Mass of Br. Pat Ryan, SJ
Pat Ryan died peacefully at Cherryfield Lodge early on the morning of May 31st, 1998 - the Feast of Pentecost. Today we gather to give thanks to God for Pat Ryan's life, and to pray that he will now enjoy God's presence for ever. Pat dedicated his life to the Lord in the Society and worked in a number of Jesuit apostolates with great dedication and fidelity - the longest of these were in Gardiner Street, where he was Sacristan for eighteen years.

Our readings today speak to us about the Christian vision that inspired Pat's life over eighty years. Brother Patrick Joseph Ryan was born on the 26th February 1918. He attended the Local National School in Phibsboro, and followed this with a commerce course at a technical school. Pat then worked for four years as a clerk before entering the Society of Jesus in 1937. His work in the Society began with some assignments that he did not like very much. He served as an assistant cook in two of our Colleges and then from 1945-1958 he was in Belvedere College as a sacristan and general houseman. From 1958 to 1977 he was a sacristan in our large public Church here, St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street. From 1975 to 1977 he trained in a new sacristan and worked as a member of the newly established parish team. In 1978 he was appointed to replace the Sacristan at Milltown Park and also to work in the Library. Providence had its own special plans for Pat at that time and I will return to that a little later!

As Pat came in recent weeks to recognize that he was nearing the end of his life, he expressed in a very peaceful and serene way his gratitude to God, to his family and relatives, to his many friends in the Society of Jesus and outside for the many blessings he had received during the course of his life. For many of us here in the Jesuit Community at Milltown Park, Pat's great appreciation for his vocation to the Jesuit way of life will be linked with a memorable celebration we had at Milltown last September as we celebrated Pat's sixtieth anniversary as a Jesuit.

Pat's faith was nourished in his family, where he received a strong sense of Christian values. This led him to join the Society of Jesus in 1937. His first assignment was as a cook in Galway - a job he didn't like too much! Pat spent long periods after this in three communities: Belvedere, Gardiner Street and Milltown. Since 1980 he has been a member of the community at Milltown, spending short times at Cherryfield Lodge when he needed some quiet and some nursing.

Pat spent two years in Lahore, Pakistan from 1978 to 1980. He enjoyed the completely different perspective on life that this stay in Lahore gave him. He wrote in a letter; “There is no other way to describe it all only that it is a completely different world out here. In six weeks here I have heard and seen things I never really knew existed. I went into a Mosque the other day and saw the Muslims at Prayer. Very devout. Indeed, I had to take off my shoes and I was provided with a very small hat to wear. If some of my fellow Irish Jesuits had seen me they would have wondered what had happened to ultra conservative Pat Ryan ... The one thing I must admit I do find hard here is the loss of the companionship of my fellow Irish Jesuits. Unfortunately I was spoiled by the friendship of the young men at Milltown during my very happy stay there. However it is a small price to pay for the opportunity to giving testimony to my belief in God and I am happy to do so”.

In his eighteen years as sacristan here in Gardiner Street, Pat worked very hard in the Parish and in the Church. In his own quiet and efficient way Pat lived out his Jesuit vocation in a life of service inspired by his love for Jesus Christ, his Lord and Master. In Milltown Pat was able to continue that life of generous service. In recent years, he knew the limits that his health put on his activities. But he paced himself well - like any good Everton player!

In the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, we are invited in the Contemplation to Achieve the Love of God, to grow in our awareness of the way God is present in all life and is giving Himself to us. Pat's life showed that sense of God's presence and he learned to find God in all things. One of the places that Pat found God was in his great love of soccer. He was a great Everton fan, with Everton colors proudly displayed on his door! That simple enjoyment of soccer, that sense of fun about life, that ability to joke with his community and friends were great gifts he brought to us all.

Pat died early on the morning of the Feast of Pentecost, at 12:20 am. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes as a gift to the Christian community. In Pat's life we have glimpsed what the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, self-control. Pat's faithfulness, his gift of “keeping going” (to use a phrase which Séamus Heaney uses to describe his brother going through the ordinary activities of the day) have been an inspiration to us - a breath of the Spirit. We now give Pat back to God who has given him to us. We return him to God with a profound sense of gratitude.

Frank Sammon

Born: 20 October 1819, Kilmacduagh, County Galway
Entered: 10 September 1844, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 15 August 1860
Died: 25 November 1865, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 18 December 1834, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 12 September 1853, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1869
Final Vows: 02 February 1872
Died: 27 May 1907, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Cousin of Andrew J Rorke - RIP 1913

He taught with great success at Clongowes and Galway. He was Minister at both Galway and UCD, and then for many years Minister and procurator at Gardiner St, where he died 27 May 1907.
He was a learned man, but somewhat peculiar, especially in his last years.

Note from Joseph O’Malley Entry :
1859 he was sent to Tullabeg as Lower Line Prefect with Andrew H Rorke as Higher Line.

Born: 13 July 1825, Newry, County Down
Entered: 13 November 1850, St Acheul, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1848 - Maynooth College, County Kildare - pre entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1865
Died: 10 December 1907, Mungret College, County Limerick

by 1855 in Istanbul?
by 1864 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship
by 1899 at Villa Saint-Joseph, Cannes, France (LUGD)

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied at Maynooth and was Ordained 1848 for his native Diocese of Dromore before Ent.

A Few years after his Novitiate he went with Fr Patrick J Duffy as a Chaplain in the Crimean War, where he worked for more than a year in the hospitals of Scutari Hospital (of Florence Nightingale Fame in the Istanbul Region) and other Military stations.
On his return to Ireland he worked for many years as a Missioner, and became well known in almost every diocese and district in the country. Few men were better known as a Spiritual Director in religious communities through Ireland as well as the clergy of many Dioceses.
He was Superior in turn of the Galway and Limerick houses, and was known for extraordinary zeal and devotion to the Sacred Heart. he shared this devotion with one to Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph.
1880 While Rector in Limerick, he founded the Apostolic School, and when Mungret was given to the Jesuits, and the AS moved there, he became its first Rector. He considered the founding of the AS as the greatest work of his life. He travelled to the US in 1884/5 to get funds for the AS so that he could set up a more permanent financial foundation for it.
1887 He began the second phase of his life as a Missioner in Ireland, and continued this even when he was appointed Superior at Gardiner St.
1897 By now he was compelled to give up active work due to ill health and he spent some years in the South of France.
1901 He was sent back to Mungret and spent the last six years of his life there as Spiritual Father and Confessor to the Community and students. During these years he had the great consolation of seeing the growth of the College, and always spoke of those Priests, former students, working in all quarters of the world, as his children.

His last days were happy ones “How good God is to me and how happy I am to be here”, were almost the last words he spoke when he was in the full of his health. It was a massive stroke which brought about his death on 10 December 1907 at Mungret, and he was buried in the College Cemetery, following a funeral procession which was led by the younger students walking in twos, followed by the clergy, the the coffin borne by senior students and then the mourners, of whom there were many. Afterwards many stories were shared by his former students in Mungret and the Crescent, as well as many who had come to know him through his Missionary work. General Sir William Butler (who had been educated at Tullabeg), who had visited Father William three days before and listened carefully to him as he spoke about his time in the Crimea, and Sir William thought of him a a soldier of the truest type :
“he said to me some memorable things in that first and last interview I had with him on December 9th. Amongst other things he said ‘In the hospital near Scutari I suppose more that 1,000 poor soldiers from the Crimea were prepared for death by me. Some were able only to utter an ejaculatory prayer, some of them had known little of their faith before this time, but I have never doubted for one moment that every one of those poor souls went straight to Heaven. And when I go and meet them in Heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there. I pray our Lord that he may take me at any moment. I am quite willing to go, but I say that I am ready to stay too, if he has any more work for me to do here’. It is an intense satisfaction to me that it was given to me to see this grand veteran on this, his last full day of his long and wonderful life - all his faculties perfect”.

Note from Patrick Hughes Entry :
1888 He was appointed Rector of Galway, and continued his involvement in the Mission Staff. On Father Ronan’s retirement, he was appointed Superior of the Mission Staff.

Note from Christopher Coffey Entry :
He died peacefully 29 March 1911, and after the Requiem Mass he was brought to the small cemetery and buried between Brothers Franye and MacEvoy, and close to the grave of William Ronan.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Ronan, William
by David Murphy

Ronan, William (1825–1907), Jesuit priest and Crimean war chaplain, was born 13 July 1825 in the parish of Clonduff, near Newry, Co. Down, son of Patrick Ronan, farmer. His mother's maiden name was Rooney. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and was ordained priest in 1848, entering the Society of Jesus in November 1850. Completing his noviciate at Dromore, Co. Down, he studied philosophy at Saint-Acheul, near Amiens, France, and went to Laval (November 1852) to study theology. In 1854 he joined the Jesuit community at St Francis Xavier's in Gardiner St., Dublin. At the end of 1854 he was appointed to serve as a chaplain with the army in the Crimea. This was the first occasion since the reign of James II (qv) that catholic chaplains had been given official status in the British army, and Ronan (along with fellow Jesuit Patrick Duffy and some Irish diocesan priests) travelled to the Crimea at the end of 1854. Specifically instructed to look after the welfare of the Irish Sisters of Mercy working in the hospital at Scutari, he arrived in January 1855 and immediately clashed with Florence Nightingale, who was in charge of the hospital. He disagreed with the way the Irish nuns were employed and also found them living in unsuitable conditions. Following negotiations with Nightingale, the conditions for the Irish nuns improved. He outlined his initial impressions of the Scutari hospital in a letter (preserved in the Dublin Diocesan Archive) to his superior in Dublin, Fr Robert Curtis, SJ. While in the Crimea he occasionally found some Irish secular priests to be hostile towards the Jesuits and experienced particular difficulties with one priest, Fr Michael Cuffe.

Returning to Ireland at the end of 1855 in bad health, he initially worked as a missioner. A noted preacher and retreat-giver, he toured the towns and cities of Ireland before being appointed superior of the Galway Jesuit community. He took his final vows in February 1865. In 1880 he became rector of Limerick and founded the Irish Apostolic School, which transferred (1882) to Mungret College. He then travelled to the USA on a fund-raising tour and raised over £10,000 (1884). In 1887 he worked as a missioner again before joining (1893) the Gardiner St. community, of which he was made superior in July 1895. His later years were overshadowed by controversy, as he was accused of an improper relationship with a wealthy widow, Mrs Doyle. He denied these accusations but spent some time abroad, living first in Jersey and then in the south of France. In 1901 he returned to Mungret and remained at the college until his death. On 9 December 1907 he was visited by Gen. the Rt Hon. Sir William Butler (qv), who was recording the accounts of men who had served in various military campaigns of the nineteenth century, including the Crimean war. At the end of his interview, Ronan remarked ‘I pray hard that He may take me at any moment. I am quite willing to go but I say that I am ready to stay too, if He has any more work for me to do here’ (cited in Murphy, War Correspondent, 45). The next day, 10 December 1907, he suffered a stroke and died. He was buried in the college cemetery at Mungret.

There is a substantial collection of his papers in the Irish Jesuit archives in Dublin. There are further letters in the papers of Cardinal Paul Cullen (qv) in the Dublin diocesan archives.

Fr William Ronan, SJ, files in Irish Jesuit Archives, Dublin; Freeman's Journal, 12 Dec. 1907; Evelyn Bolster, The Irish Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean war (1964); Louis McRedmond, To the greater glory: a history of the Irish Jesuits (1991); Tom Johnstone and James Hagerty, The cross on the sword: catholic chaplains in the forces (1996); David Murphy, ‘Irish Jesuit chaplains in the Crimean war’, War Correspondent, xvii, no. 1 (Apr. 1999), 42–6; id., Ireland and the Crimean war (2002); Thomas J. Morrissey, William Ronan, SJ: war chaplain, missioner, founder of Mungret College (2002)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father William Ronan 1825-1907
Fr William Ronan was born on July 13th 1825 in County Down. He was ordained priest in Maynooth for his native diocese of Dromore. After two years as a secular priest he entered the Society in the Crimean War, where he laboured for more than a year in the hospitals of Scutari, where, as he afterwards recounted to a famous friend he met there, Sir William Butler, “more than 1,000 soldiers were prepared for death by me”.

On his return to Ireland he worked on the Mission Staff, and he was a much sought after giver of retreats to religious and diocesan clergy. He was Superior in turn at Galway and the Crescent. It was while he was Rector of the Crescent that he founded the Apostolic School, first at the Crescent, and then with the help of Lord Ely and the Abbé Heretier, in Mungret, where he became the first Rector. He went to the United States in 1884 to collect funds for the new College.

After another period on the Mission Staff and a period as Superior at Gardiner Street, owing to ill health he had to spend some years in the South of France. In 1901 he returned to Mungret, where he spent the last six years of his busy and extraordinarily fruitful life.

He was a man of remarkable zeal and fervent piety, outstanding for his devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to which devotion he attributed the great success of all his undertakings.

On the last day of his life, chatting to his old friend Sir William Butler, and referring to the soldiers he had anointed in the Crimean War, he said “I have never doubted for one moment, that every one of these poor souls went straight to heaven, and when I go and meet them in heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there”.

Death came on him unexpectedly at six o’clock on the evening of Tuesday December 10th 1907, after he had spent an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, as had been his custom for many years. He survived a heart attack long enough to receive the Last Rites, and was buried in a spot chosen by himself years before, facing the window of the College Chapel.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1908

In Memoriam : Rev Father Ronan SJ (1825-1907)

by Thomas Cassidy (Matriculation Class)

We saw a flower in bloom one summer day,
The glowing dawn imbued its petals sweet,
But when the night came on it passed away
And fell a faded cluster at my feet.

We saw another power in bloom full bright,
And in its day its sweetness far it shed;
But then, when o'er it fell the robe of night,
A crown of splendour settled on its head.

O God; we missed him, but he'was Thine own,
A benefactor and a friend to all;
And called by Thee he fled unto Thy Throne
To answer sweetly to Thy loving call.

He was a man of constant mind and strong,
Of powerful frame, more powerful still in prayer;
Throughout his life, and that had been full long,
He breathed heavenly sweetness everywhere.

And Mungret stands his living monument,
Looks o'er his grave and guards his memory,
Prays for him e'er, and thanks the hand he lent,
To breathe in her a soul so heavenly.

List, sainted Father, to thy children dear,
Who in thy widowed habitation dwell:
We pray thee, in our need be evěr: near
Far from us drive the tempting powers of hell.

That on that day, sweet saint, when nations rise.
To bliss eternal, or to lasting woe, .
We may with thee ascend unto the skies,
And bless the days you spent with us below.

-oOo-

Obituary

Rev William Ronan SJ (1825-1907) : Founder of The Apostolic School and Mungret College

In the afternoon of Tuesday, December 10th, 1907, while the boys were at supper, a rumour reached both their refectories that Father Ronan had been taken suddenly ill, The Apostolics soon learned the whole truth and knew that he whom they looked upon as a father, and whom all the boys in the College had learned long ago to revere as saint, had gone to the reward for which he had laboured so long.

Full particulars, however, were not known till about two hours later when all the boys had assembled in the College chapel for night prayers and the spiritual director of the pupils detailed to them the circumstances of Father Ronan's unexpected, but singularly happy death. The boys listened with awestruck and eager attention,

Fr. Ronan was apparently in his usual vigorous health a few hours before. Some of the boys had seen him come to the chapel about 5 p.m., as he was accustomed to do every evening, to spend an hour in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. He returned towards his room about 6 p.m. He spoke for a short time to a father of the community a little while later on, and after leaving the room of the latter seems to have been struck with a sudden fit of apoplexy in the cloister... leading to his own room, Here he was found a short time after 6 p.m., prostrate and speechless, but still breathing, 'The Father Rector was immediately summoned and, assisted by several of the community, administered Extreme Unction. The dying man gave no further sign of consciousness, and calmly breathed his last while the prayers for the dying were being recited by those present.

The boys were profoundly impressed by the story; and the lessons of Father Ronan's life his singleness of purpose, his zeal for the Master's glory, his union with God-now came home to all most strikingly, as it was so clear that these were the only things that retained their value when the Almighty Master sent the final unexpected summons. And while all joined in performing the Stations of the Cross for the repose of the good father's soul, the prayer uppermost in their hearts was “may I, too, die the death of the just, and let my last end be like to his”.

Father Ronan had attained the ripe age of 82 years. He was in the sixtieth year of his priesthood, and the 58th of his life in the Society of Jesus. He was born July 13th, 1825, in Co. Down. He read his ecclesiastical course in Maynooth, where, in the year 1848, he was ordained priest for his native diocese of Dromore. After about two years work as a secular priest he entered the Society of Jesus in 1850. A few years after his novitiate he went with the Rev Fr Duffy SJ, as chaplain to the British forces in the Crimean War, where he worked for more than a year in the hospitals at Scutari and other military stations. After returning to Ireland he laboured for many years as a missioner, and became well known in almost every diocese and district of the country. His untiring zeal, his spirit of prayer, and his power of work, secured extraordinary fruit to his missionary labours; and ill very many parts of the country his name is even still held in benediction. Few men were better known for more prized as a spiritual director of religious communities of both sexes throughout Ireland, and of the clergy in very many dioceses. He resided in turn in the Jesuit houses in Galway and Limerick; in the latter of which he was Superior; and here, too, his zeal, his spirit of prayer, and his extraordinary devotion to the Sacred Heart brought manifest blessings on his work.

He also had a wonderful devotion to, and confidence in the Blessed Mother of God, under the invocation of Our Lady of Lourdes, a devotion which he constantly preached and recommended; and he himself always attributed the temporal success and prosperity which were never wanting to any of his undertakings to his confidence in St. Joseph.

In 1880, while Rector of the Crescent College, Limerick, Father Ronan founded the Irish Apostolic School; and when Mungret College was handed over to the charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, and the Apostolic School transferred thither in 1882, he was first rector of Mungret. A full account of these events has already been given in the Jubilee Number of the “Mungret Annual”, July, 1907. The founding of the Apostolic School he always regarded as the great work of his life, and one which he said God enabled him to accomplish, as the result of twenty years of constant effort and prayer for its realisation.

Up to that required to found the Apostolic School on some the United States, in order to procure the funds.

In 1884 and 1885, Father Ronan travelled in the United States, in order to procure the funds required to found the Apostolic School on some kind of permanent financial basis. Up to that time he had depended solely on the support and alms of the clergy and faithful throughout Ireland.

In 1887, he began the second period of his career as a missioner in Ireland, continuing to do great work in this capacity, even after he became Superior of St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin, in the middle nineties. In 1897, however, being now in the seventy-second year of his age, he was compelled to give up active work, and he spent the following years in the South of France.

In 1901, Fr. Ronan returned once more to Mungret, after an absence of fourteen years, and there he spent the last six very happy years of his busy and extraordinarily fruitful life. During that time the greater part of each day was spent in prayer. He still continued, however, in his capacity of spiritual father of the house, and confessor of very many of the pupils of the College, to do remarkable work for the great cause of the salvation of souls, to which his life was devoted with such extraordinary singleness. Not the least fruit of his spiritual direction of the pupils during this time was the practice of daily Communion, which, owing to his special encouragement, became common in the College, and practically universal among the Apostolic students.

During the last years of his life he had the consolation of seeing the growth and progress of the College and the Apostolic School, which, under God, owed their existence to him, and he always spoke of the priests educated in the Apostolic School and now labouring in the ministry in all quarters of the world, as his children.

Few men are privileged to live and die a life of such quiet but unvarying success as Father Ronan; and to the lot of very few, indeed, will fall such consolation as he must have enjoyed a few months before his death, when the College which he looked on as his own child, and in which he lived as a beloved and revered father, celebrated her silver jubilee. Although his. death was unexpected, the great wish of his closing years was granted: that he should celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, which he had never once voluntarily omitted during the three score years of his priestly life, on the morning he was to meet his Maker.

Fr Ronan was not a man of exceptional intellectual powers, but he possessed what is infinitely more valuable in the race of life : indomitable strength of will, a power of perseverance in the teeth of all difficulties, and a cheerful courage that bore him up and inspired a certainty of success even when affairs looked most unpromising. He had a clear idea of his purpose and object, and went straight and frankly for it without recking of minor obstacles. He had a wonderful faith in the all-ruling Providence of God, and calmly received all eventualities, whether apparently favourable or otherwise, as the outcome of the eternal decree which is formed by infinite Wisdom solely for our good. Hence, he never gave evidence of despondency or doubt, and his cheerful spirit, which he preserved to the day of his death, reacted on all around him.

Though a man of stern, determined, fearless : character, who flinched before no opposition, and knew not what it is to yield or compromise: where principle or what he considered the glory of God or the advancement of God's work was involved, he was in social relations singularly : amiable, and forgiving and considerate. Even to the last he was unusually free from the idiosyncrasies that often accompany old age, and was constantly bantered on his youthfulness of heart, He never denied that he was in a way the spoiled child of God's goodness, for he enjoyed life thoroughly, he said, and expected nevertheless to get off with little or no Purgatory after death. Even when he was over eighty years of age, none enjoyed a joke more or bore with better grace the turning of the tables against himself, or told a good story with richer humour, or contributed a more considerable share to the general social cheerfulness which he loved.

His spiritual life and his ascetical teaching bore the impress of his natural character. It was founded above all on the virtue of hope ; and he always insisted on prayer and union with God as the one means to do successful work in God's service.

When congratulated on all hands, as he was during the Jubilee celebrations in September, it seemed most striking to all how little he was moved or affected by congratulation or praise. His invariable reply was: “Thank God! It is all His work; I really had very little to do with it”.

A striking trait in Fr. Ronan's character was his singular loyalty to the claims of friendship. He had many friends, and his friendships seemed all.to be lifelong. In that matter he was always most sincere and earnest, and no trouble or in convenience seemed worthy of regard when it was a question of doing a service to a friend. .

“How good God is to me! how happy I am here!” were almost the last words he was heard to utter, while apparently in his usual vigorous health, and before he had yet felt the approach of the apoplectic stroke. which terminated his earthly career on the evening of December 10th.

The body of the deceased father was laid out in his room; and during Wednesday, December 11th, the pupils of both sections of the College visited the room to look on the venerated re mains, and to say a prayer beside the bier.

On the morning of December 12th he was borne to his quiet resting place in the College Cemetery, and laid in the spot--which he himself had carefully chosen long before - facing the window of the College Chapel, where the Blessed Sacrament is, which had been to him the great support and consolation of his life!

After the Solemn Requiem Office and Mass, which began before 11 am, in the College Chapel, the procession proceeded to the cemetery. The pupils of the College went first, marching two and two, and reciting aloud the Rosary ; next came the clergy in choral dress; after these the coffin was borne along on the shoulders of the senior students, and was followed by the mourners, who were present in considerable numbers.

Among those latter were some elderly men who retained vivid recollections of the missions preached by Father Ronan half a century ago; some others had been boys in Crescent College, Limerick, a quarter of a century later, when he was Rector and Spiritual Father of the pupils. A goodly number of the pupils of the Crescent College had come in a body to show their appreciation of the old Rector of their College; and General Sir William Butler was there to do honour, as he said to the saintly old veteran of the Crimea, whom he looked upon as a soldier of the highest and truest type.

Sir William had listened with intense interest three short days before in Mungret to Father Ronan, who then seemed quite hale and vigorous, as the latter recounted anecdotes of his life as Military Chaplain in the Crimea, and of his travels in the United States.

One statement which Father Ronan always insisted upon, when speaking of his work in the Crimea, and which he then repeated to General Butler, is interesting, and so characteristic of the man that we give it here. We quote from General Butler's account of their interview:

He said to me some memorable things on that first and last interview I had with him, on December 9th. Amongst other things he said:

“In the hospital near Scutari I suppose more than one thousand poor soldiers from the Crimea were prepared for death by me. Some of them were able only to utter an ejaculatory prayer some of them had known little of their faith before that time, but I have never for one moment doubted that every one of those poor souls went straight to Heaven; and when I go”, he added, smiling, “and meet them in Heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there”; and again, “I pray our Lord that He may take me at any moment; I am quite willing to go - but I say, too, that I am ready to stay, if He has any more work for me to do here”.”

Sir William adds : “It is an intense satisfaction to me that it was given me to see this grand veteran on the last full day of his long and wonderful life - all his faculties perfect”. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Ronan (1825-1907)

A native of Co. Down was educated for the diocese of Dromore and ordained at Maynooth in 1848. Two years afterwards he entered the Society. He served as chaplain in the Crimean war. He became rector of Sacred Heart College in 1872 and occupied that post until 1882. During his rectorship, the St Joseph transept of the church was built and the three altars of the sanctuary consecrated. In 1880 he founded at the Crescent an Apostolic School or the education of boys who wished to serve in the missions. This school was transferred to Mungret in 1882 when the Jesuits acquired the property of the Mungret Agricultural School. Father Ronan spent two years in the USA, where he was able to collect enough money for the building of the Apostolic School wing. He spent some years on the mission staff and was for some years in Gardiner St, where he became superior. His last years were spent at Mungret College which will always be associated with his name.

Born: 11 August 1822, Ballysampson, Tagoat, County Wexford
Entered: 02 December 1859, Beaumont, England (ANG)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1873
Died: 15 February 1909, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

by 1877 in Maryland (MAR) working

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He spent most of his life in the Society, which he entered as a Priest, as an Operarius in Limerick and Galway. He was sent to America to collect alms for the Church in Galway. He was sent to Belvedere for a short time, but returned to Galway, and died there, 15 February 1909

Paraphrase of excerpts from an Obituary Notice for Richard Rochford :
“...... Though he had reached a green old age, his death was sudden and unexpected. A man of uncommonly hale constitution, he continued until within a fortnight of his peaceful passing away to celebrate daily Mass, and to follow with edifying punctuality all the duties of community life. After saying Mass on the Feast of the Purification, he began to complain of a slight cold. He was advised by doctors to stay in bed for a few days, but up to the day before nobody suspected he was close to death. On that day before the doctor who noticed an alarming symptom, decided that the Last Rites should be administered. The following evening, having just received a final absolution he calmly passed away.
Born in Wexford in 1822. His early education was received as far apart as Washington, USA and Clongowes. He then went to Maynooth where he was Ordained for his local Diocese of Ferns. As a Priest he taught at St Peter’s College Wexford.
He then Entered the Society of Jesus 02 December 1859, and after First Vows divided his time between Crescent and Coláiste Iognáid. In both cities he was beloved by all who knew him. He was not a man of strikingly brilliant talent, but he did possess a simple faith and tender piety. He was unworldly, and utterly sincere in all his dealings, both with God and man. Whether in sermon or ordinary conversation, every word he spoke was with utter conviction. His sermons were more often very direct and about practice rather than belief.
He had a great love for his native land of Wexford. He loved a good joke, but two topics were excluded - Religion and Patriotism.
He was a man free from doubt in his faith, and he was heard declare that the was not conscious of holding the Articles of Catholic Belief with any more freedom from doubt than he was conscious of holding the principles of Irish Nationality and her right to make her own laws.
During his early life in America he seems to have been filled with a love of free institutions, and this remained with him to the end. In the 1870’s it was his privilege to visit America once more, where he collected the money that paid for the beautiful High Altar, in many-coloured marble, which adorns St Ignatius’ Church, and on which his requiem Mass was performed in front of a large congregation.”

At one time he had very strong political views.

◆ The Clongownian, 1909

Obituary

Father Richard Rochford SJ

The hand of death has been laid frequently last 2 year on that section of old Clongownians who had devoted their lives to furthering the cause of Christ in the ranks of the Society. A veteran amongst these was Father Rochford. A brief account of a his career will reveal the story of a simple life, where love of country and love of God were strongly intertwined,

Father Rochford was born in the County Wexford in the year 1822, so that on the 11`th of August, 1908, he completed his tale of 86 years. As a boy, Richard Rochford received his early education in two Jesuit colleges, so far apart geographically as Washington, in the United States of America, and Clongowes Wood, Co. Kildare. His ecclesiastical studies he made at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where, in due course, he was ordained priest for his native diocese of Ferns. As priest, he was for a time Professor at St Peter's College, Wexford.

On the 2nd of December, 1859, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate. His noviceship ended, he divided his years between Sacred Heart College, Limerick, and St Ignatius College, Galway. In both cities he was beloved of all who knew him. He was not a man of strikingly brilliant talents, but he was possessed of a simple faith and tender piety. He was utterly unworldly and sincere; sincere in all his dealings - in his dealings with God and man. Whether in ordinary conversation or in his sermons, every word he uttered had in it a ring of honest conviction. Of his sermons, we may say that were never abstruse or recondite. They had to do with practice more than with belief. In them he spoke right at his hearers, expounding their obligations to God with an earneştness that always went home. Even the shortest biographical notice should say a word about Father Rochford's love for his native land. He was ever ready to enjoy a joke, but not on every subject. Two topics he always rigidly excluded from the domain of banter, religion and patriotism. His simple faith in the truths of religion knew neither doubt nor difficulty; and not once, or twice; or thrice, but often and often he has been heard to declare that he was not conscious of holding the Articles of Catholic Belief with any more freedom from doubt than he was conscious of holding the principles of Irish nationality, and her rights to make her own laws. During his early life in America he seems to have been filled with a love of free institutions, which remained with him to the end.

In the early seventies of last century it was his privilege to visit America once more, where he collected the money that paid for the beautiful High Altar, in many coloured marble, which adorns St Ignatius' Church, and on which the Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was offered in the presence of a large congregation.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959
Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community

Father Richard Rochford (1822-1909)

A native of Wexford, emigrated in his youth to New Orleans where his elder brother had acquired wealth. Some years later, feeling he had a call for the priesthood, he returned to Ireland and pursued his ecclesiastical studies for the diocese of Ferns, at Maynooth College. He entered the Society as a priest, in his thirty-eighth year. Father Rochford spent many years on the teaching staff of Crescent College - 1864-65, 1884-99 and again in the church from 1900 to 1902. His later years were spent at St Ignatius, Galway.

Born: 21 November 1869, Rye Hill, Monivea, Athenry, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 30 July 1905, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1908, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 12 December 1953, Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, Durham and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1893 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1900 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1907 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 2nd Year No 4 1927
Clongowes :
Fr. G. Roche has been appointed Rector of Clongowes. The College is not absolutely new to him. He was there for six years as a boy. As a Jesuit he was gallery prefect, third line prefect, lower line prefect for four years, and higher line prefect for nine. He put in the rest of his time as minister and prefect of discipline at University Hall, and as Rector of Mungret.

Irish Province News 29th Year No 2 1954
Obituary :
Father George R Roche
George Philip Redington Roche was the sixth of the eight children of Thomas Redington Roche J.P. and Jane Redington Roche, and was born on Nov. 21st, 1869, at Rye Hill, Monivea, Athenry, Co. Galway. This property had belonged to his grandmother, Eleanor Redington, whose family originally came from Mayo, and whose husband was Stephen Roche of Cork. George Roche's mother, before her marriage, was a Miss Cliffe, of Bellevue, Macmine, Co. Wexford. She belonged to one of those prominent High Church Protestant families whose conversion to the Catholic Church caused such a sensation just a hundred years ago. The most notable of these were the Rams of Ramşfort, and an interesting account of their conversion and also of that of the Cliffes was published by Burns & Oates in 1901 under the title. Some Notable Conversions in the County of Wexford. The author was Rev. Francis J. Kirk, an Oblate of St. Charles, formerly Protestant Rector of Gorey. The book contains a long letter from Jane Redington Roche describing the almost simultaneous though independent conversion of all the members of her family and their reception into the Church in Paris by Père de Ravignan in 1856. Mrs. Roche was a most fervent Catholic and a woman of strong character. She was noted for her imperturbable calm, a characteristic which her son inherited.
At the age of about ten George Roche was sent to school at Oscott. After two years the school was closed to lay pupils and he went for another two to Ushaw, but in 1883 was transferred to Clongowes together with his elder brother Charles, who as a young man went out to the Gold Coast and died there in 1897. The records state that George commenced his studies in Third of Grammar, his Professor being Mr. Richard Campbell.
There is little information available about his school days. A master with whom he was particularly friendly was Fr. James Colgan, who frequently visited his home and is thought to have influenced his vocation. He manifested an early enthusiasm for his favourite sport of cricket. It occupied all his spare time in the holidays and he showed no taste for country sports. He used to relate how on one occasion the Clongowes cricket XI played a match against the Mental Home in Carlow. George was bowling and the batsman, a patient, was palpably 1.b.w. However the umpire, an attendant, unhesitatingly gave him “not out” whispering to George, “I'll explain to you later”. When the batsman was finally bowled out, the attendant explained, “That man thinks he's a pure spirit. He’ll let you put him out any other way, but he can't be 1.b.w.”.
George Roche left Clongowes in 1889 and entered the noviciate at Tullabeg on September 7th of that year. Fr. John Colgan was his Master of Novices and Fr. David Gallery Sociuş. They were succeeded in the following year by Fr. W. Sutton and Fr. R. Campbell. Amongst his fellow novices were Fathers O. Doyle, J. F. X. O'Brien, H. and F. Gill, J. Kirwan, D. Kelly, J. Casey, L. Potter and T. Corcoran. He did a year's juniorate at Milltown and one year of philosophy at Jersey, returning to Clongowes in 1893 as Third Line Prefect, under Fr. Devitt as Rector and Fr. Fagan as Higher Line Prefect, two men whom he always admired. He also figures in the Catalogue as cur. instrum, mus. Fr. George's best friends will agree that the duties of this office must have been purely administrative. From 1894 to 1899 he was Lower Line Prefect and master. He then completed his two remaining years of philosophy at Stonyhurst and returned to Clongowes in 1901 for a year as Higher Line Prefect under Fr. James Brennan as Vice-Rector, From 1902 to 1906 he studied theology at Milltown, being ordained in 1905. After a year of tertianship at Tronchiennes, he once more returned to Clongowes, at the close of Fr. Devitt's second period of Rectorship, as Higher Line Prefect. He remained in this office for ten years under Fr. T. V. Nolan and Fr. N. J. Tomkin. It was during this period that he built the Higher Line pavilion which has since done such useful service. In 1915 he took over the Principalship of University Hall. In 1922 he was appointed Rector of Mungret, leaving there in 1927 to become Rector of Clongowes and Consultor of the Province. At the end of his term in Clongowes he worked for a year as Operarius in Gardiner St., 1933-34, then went to Rathfarnham as Spiritual Father and Assistant Director of the Retreat House. He was back once more in Clongowes from 1938 to 1945 as Spiritual Father to the Community, Assistant Procurator, Director of the junior sodalities and editor of The Clongownian. In 1945 his health began to fail and he was transferred to Rathfarnham so that he might more easily receive treatment for the diabetes which had long troubled him. In December 1950 he had a slight stroke and was removed to St. Vincent's Nursing Home. He never recovered and in April 1951 it was decided to move him to Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross. He grew steadily weaker, though suffering no pain and retaining all his usual placid cheerfulness.
On December 9th, 1953, he was anointed by his Rector, Fr, P. Kenny, and died on December 12th at 8.15 p.m.
The mere recital of the various offices held by Fr. Roche during his long life gives an indication of the worth of his work for the Province, There was nothing spectacular in it but it was all most solid and valuable. Wherever Fr. Roche went he did his job conscientiously and successfully and handed things over in good shape to his successor. Throughout the long span of his life be kept on doing the ordinary things. well ; one never expected him to be spectacular, one could not picture him as anything other than reliable.
If any portion of his work is to be singled out for special praise, it would obviously be the influence he exerted over boys and young men. He had almost all the gifts that make a man acceptable to the young. He was--to use a hackneyed but here applicable phrase-& man's man. He was straightforward to the degree of bluntness, ostentatiously courageous, able to preserve his good humour in adversity, incapable of harbouring a grudge, healthily unsentimental yet possessed of a really tender kindness which was all the more attractive because it was manifested in deeds rather than in words. A mother sending her son to Clongowes asked a friend, an old Clongownian, to write to Fr. Roche: and ask him to be kind to the boy. “You needn't worry”, was the reply. “George Roche couldn't help being kind to everyone”. He had, naturally, a particular interest in and special ties with Clongownians since he spent altogether just forty years of his life at Clongowes and had a deep attachment to his Alma Mater, but old Mungret boys and past students of the Hall can testify also to his sincere solicitude for their interests.
I have spoken of the placidity he inherited from his mother. This did not mean that he was incapable of emotion. To some he may have appeared stolid, but his imperturbable manner was not due to lack of feeling. On him, as Rector of Clongowes, there devolved the anxious task of carrying through the erection of the New Building which went on from September 1929 until the summer of 1933. There was a period when serious difficulties arose. I happened to meet Fr. Roche in Dublin at that time, I asked him conventionally how he was and I can recall the revelation he made to me when he replied in his usual almost brusque way, “Worried to death”. He knew the family history of almost every boy who had passed through his hands, and no one was capable of greater sympathy in the inevitable misfortunes that life brings to every family.
Another characteristic I have mentioned was his courage. This was manifested particularly during the time when he was Principal of University Hall, 1916 to 1922. It was a disturbing time in the history of our country and Fr. George had a difficult task since many of the young men under his care were involved in the political movements of the day. One instance will give an idea of the situations that arose and the way in which he dealt with them. The Hall was raided one night by the Auxiliary police. Fr. George's sister, Miss Isabella Roche, the only now surviving member of his family, was living nearby and . from the fact that the lights in the Hall were on all night knew that something untoward was happening. Next day Fr, George came to give her an account of the raid. A tremendous knocking came at the door and when Fr. Roche opened it he found a large force of the Auxiliaries, mostly in a state of inebriation and waving automatic pistols. He asked what they wanted and the leader replied : “We have come to search this house”. “Well”, said Fr. George, as imperturbably as if he were addressing a crowd of unruly Higher Liners, “you needn't make such a row about it”. The words were recorded by himself and those who knew him will recognise them as authentic and realise the courage they manifested.
Fr. Roche was a man of deep, if unostentatious piety. He was completely unworldly, simple and unpretentious. Though he worked untiringly to help his old pupils on in the world, one always felt that his paramount interest was their spiritual welfare, that the first question he wanted an answer to was "were they keeping straight?" His characteristic spirituality is manifested in two little works which he published, Meditations on the Passion, published in two parts by the Irish Messenger Office and now in its eighth edition (eighty-first thousand) and The Divinity of Jesus Christ, published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland. They are both solid, straightforward works, largely based on Scripture and breathing that warm, simple, virile devotion to the Person of Our Divine Lord which was the mainspring of the author's devoted life. In him the Province has lost one of its most loved and revered members.

◆ The Clongownian, 1954

Obituary

Father George Redington Roche SJ

Father George Roche was called home to his reward on the evening of December 12th, 1953. He had reached a fine old age at the time of his death, but he will long be missed by his religious colleagues and the countless friends be made through out his long connection with Clongowes,

George Redington Roche, sixth child of Thomas Redington Roche was born at Monivea, Athenry on Nov. 21st, 1869. His early-school years were spent at Oscott and Ushaw but in 1883 he came to Clongowes where he was to spend the next six years.

He entered the noviceship at Tullabeg in 1889 and, after his first religious profession, was sent for his earlier studies to Milltown Park and the house of the Paris province at Jersey. He then returned to Clongowes as Third Line Prefect and after a year was advanced to the management of the Lower Line. The years 1899 1901 were spent at his philosophical studies in Stoneyhurst but he was here for another year as Higher Line Prefect before he began his theological studies in Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1905. On completing his tertianship at Troncbiennes, he returned once more as Higher Line Prefect to Clongowes and filled that post until 1915. One tangible memorial of his term of office is the Higher Line Pavilion, which has given so many years of useful service while it forms a graceful landmark in the grounds of the College.

In 1915, Father Roche left Clongowes to take up the wardenship of University Hall where he remained until his appointment to the Rectorship of Mungret in 1922. He came back to Clongowes again, this time as Rector, in 1927. The tangible memorial of his rectorship is the New Building which was begun in 1929. Succeeded by Father Fergal McGrath as Rector in 1933, Father Roche spent the next four years in Dublin but returned for his last period in Clongowes in 1938. He was now close on the scriptural sepuaginti anni, yet we find him posted as Assistant Procurator, Director of the Junior Sodalities and Editor of the Clongownian. He returned, however, to Rathfarnham, in 1945, as he was suffering from diabetes and needed the treatment which could be got more easily in the city than in a country house. The last three years of his life were spent at The Hospice for the Dying, Harold's Cross.

From the foregoing account, it will be seen that for many years of his active life, Father Roche filled posts of responsibility. It is unnecessary for the present writer to emphasise the fact that he filled success fully the positions of trust given him by the Society. The fathers and mothers of boys who were entrusted to his care, past pupils on the threshold of life's responsibilities and in need of a steadying band and a word of kindness, can all testify to the deep understanding and humanity of this great priest. But his religious colleagues, too, will long cherish the memory of Father Roche, both as Superior and as colleague.

-oOo-

The Late Fr George Redington Roche

An Appreciation

Father George halted on the ground floor gallery at Rathfarnham Castle where he had been walking with no little difficulty. When I asked him if he was getting better his reply was unhesitating “I have no ambitions about getting well - I am ready”. Shortly afterwards, a severe stroke added to his other infirmities and necessitated his removal to the Hospice for the Dying at Harold's Cross. His speech and memory were gone and it seemed as if the end was only a matter of days. Yet, almost two years afterwards he was still alive. During a visit to the Hospice his nurse said to me “We never had a more gentle or obedient patient”, and she might have added “more resigned”. What astounded those who called to see him was the fact that, despite his helplessness and sufferings, never did they hear a complaint uttered by him. Shortly after his arrival at the Hospital, Father George, greatly to every one's surprise, improved considerably in his speech and his memory made a remark able come-back. True, he was looked after with devoted care.

I set down here some few impressions of visits paid him. We were conversing one day for some little time when I said : “Father George, you must be in your present state, the winner of great blessings for the Society's missionary efforts”. With touching simplicity he answered : “I hope so”. On a visit to the Hospice some time later, full of admiration for the extraordinary patience with which he accepted everything, I suggested suddenly, but quietly : “Father George, you, as his Rector, gave Father John Sullivan the final absolution and consolation as he was about to die, so Father John must be at help to you now”.. Caught off his guard, his answer came. unhesitatingly “Indeed he is, and constantly very near me”.

Father Roche looked forward to visits from his friends and at all times was. interested in any news, however trivial, about Clongowes where a long part of his life, from boyhood to Rector, was spent. With Old Clongownians, he had amazing contacts, far and near. He seemed to have a genius. for finding out the weaker type who found it hard to stand up to the world's cruel usage. In his own undemonstrative way he proved a tower of strength to that weaker member who needed advice, encouragement and help.

Father George loved a quiet joke and this, coupled with a delicate sense of humour, made him a pleasant companion. He had a simple directness which marked a natural shyness. Until one came to know Father George well, his shyness tended to embarrass others. Yet, it came to be almost an endearing trait, when one entered into his friendship.

A life-long interest of his was, of course, the Clongowes Rugby and Cricket Teams which he knew intimately all over the years, either as a player himself when a a boy or afterwards as a Line Prefect. He told me that he played as a boy on the first Rugby Fifteen that Clongowes ever turned out. I never tired of the story, which I set down here with the typical questions and answers :

“Did you score!” “No”. “Where did you play?” “Full back”. “Who won the match?” “Nobody”. “Why?” “We never finished it”. “What happened?” “The Match was abandoned”. “Why?” “One of the Opposition Players died on the field”.

Again, when he played Cricket in Galway for the Community when on holidays :

“How did you get on?” “Not too well”. “Why?” “None of us did too well”. “Why?” “Our Opponents fared worse”. “Was it the weather?” “No”. “Why?”! “The crease was wretched”. “Did you enjoy the match?” “Not so much until it was over”. “Why?” “One of the other side said the ground was very poor, which the farmer owner overheard and indignantly objected, saying: ‘It was the best land in Galway’.”

In the evening of his life at the Hospice for the Dying, it was a long way back to his achievement in 1895, when, playing for the Community at Clongowes, he got four consecutive wickets in five balls for no runs.

The beautiful Pavilion ·which he, as Higher Line Prefect, and his great friend, the late Tom Cullen, erected in the Cricket grounds and is so much admired on Union Day, was built on the profits of the shop, or if you prefer so to put it, on the innumerable bars of chocolate which the boys consumed in those days of plenty and cheapness. This will be, for many years to come, please God, a worthy memorial of this great man who loved Clongowes so deeply. I leave to historians of Clongowes in the future, the story of his part in building the new Clongowes. He was Rector when this gigantic undertaking was got under way and before he relinquished office he saw the boys housed in a building that is the justifiable pride of Clongowes today.

He lies in Glasnevin. The life of a great soul, a great gentleman and a kind-hearted confessor has passed peacefully to its close. Full of charity, full of years and full of sympathy for all who came his way, he will be sadly missed. His long weary wait at the Hospice was eased by the skill and constant care of the nursing staff and consoled by and comforted by the devoted attention of his Rector, Father P J Kenny, whose care it was to bring to his old Higher Line Prefect the last comforts and Rites of Holy Church.

Sidney B Minch

Born: 22 October 1882, Main Street, Castleisland, County Kerry
Entered: 07 September 1899, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1915, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1921, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 13 November 1961, St John’s Hospital, Limerick

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

Father a shopkeeper and of private means.

Second eldest of three boys and has six sisters (younges of whom died in infancy)

Early education at a convent school in Castleisland, then an intermediate school in Tralee and Clongowes Wood College SJ

First World War chaplain

by 1906 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1912 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 96th (CP) Field Ambulance, BEF France
by 1918 Military Chaplain : 18 KLR, BEF France

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/a-sparrow-to-fall/

A sparrow to fall
Damien Burke
A BBC Northern Ireland documentary, Voices 16 – Somme (BBC 1 NI on Wednesday 29th June,
9pm) explores the events of 1916 through the testimony of the people who witnessed it and their families. Documentary makers and relatives of Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle were shown his letters, postcards and personal possessions kept here at the Irish Jesuit Archives. In the 1920s, Alfred O’Rahilly used some of these letters in his biography of Fr Willie Doyle SJ. Afterwards they were given to Willie’s brother, Charles, and were stored for safekeeping in the basement of St Francis Xavier’s church, Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin in 1949. In 2011, they were accessioned into the archives.
Fr Willie Doyle SJ was one of ten Irish Jesuits who served as chaplains at the battle of the Somme (1 July- 18 November 1916): seven with the British forces; three with the Australian. Their letters, diaries and photographs witness their presence to the horror of war.

Fr Daniel Roche SJ, 97th (C. P.) Field Ambulance (06 July 1916):
I have been in a dug out up at the front line for the last fortnight, during the bombardment and four days of the battle... I have seen some sights for the last few days which I shall not readily forget. It has been a very very hard time which I would not have missed...I am in splendid form, or will be when I have had some sleep. Unfortunately I have been unable to say Mass during that time.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 37th Year No 1 1962
The Sacred Heart Church and College
Father Daniel Roche
On November 13th Fr. Dan Roche had a very happy and most peaceful death quite in keeping with that deep serenity that marked his life. He had a slight heart attack a week previously and since then had been in St. John's hospital, One could see from the reaction to the sad news the extent of the community's esteem and affection for the late Fr. Roche, which affection was so obvious also last spring when he had to go to hospital following an attack of 'flu. In the days which followed his death we fully realised the great blessing that an aged religious like Fr. Roche can bring on a community where he was often spotlighted and made the centre of recreation, recounting for us the stories of the past. Fr. Roche often spoke of the deeds of his long-deceased contemporaries and when he mentioned Fr. John Sullivan (a fellow-novice) he seemed to relive those noviceship days. Indeed it was more than a coincidence that Father Dan went to his Maker on the feast of St. Stanislaus. Fr. Roche is buried in the Mungret cemetery beside Fr. Barragry, Fr. O'Connell and Fr. McWilliams - those stalwarts of the Crescent church, who as confessors and preachers, quite subconsciously won the hearts of Limerick. Indeed only recently a nun from the St. Joseph of Cluny Sisters asked for a mortuary card of Fr. McWilliams, and on receiving it, wrote thus to Fr. Rector: “A thousand thanks indeed for the mortuary card. I cannot tell you how much my mother will appreciate it as Fr. McWilliams was her best friend in Limerick, In fact she prays to him and considers him a great saint as in his lifetime he did wonderful things for her. I can thank him also for the grace of my religious vocation”.

Obituary :
Fr Daniel Roche (1882-1961)
Fr. Dan Roche died in St. John's Hospital, Limerick, on Monday, November 13th, St. Stanislaus' Day, after a brief illness lasting a little over a week.
An examination of the Catalogue in an effort to trace Fr. Roche's career in the Province reveals something which is somewhat out of the ordinary. The chronological list is as follows :
1899 (Sept. 7th): Entered Noviceship at Tullabeg (one year ahead of Fr. John Sullivan.
1901 Junior in Tullabeg.
1902 Teaching Latin and Greek in Galway.
1903 Prefect of Discipline in Clongowes.
1905 Philosopher at Stonyhurst.
1906 Study Prefect at Clongowes (for five years).
1911 Finished Philosophy at Louvain.
1912 Theologian at Milltown
1915 Ordained priest at Milltown.
1916 Chaplain in British Army in World War One. Won Military Cross
1919 Tertian Father at Tullabeg.
1920 Teacher and Games Master at the Crescent.
1923 Teacher at Clongowes.
1924-1933 Member of the Mission Staff.
1933-1961 Operarius at the Crescent.

It is not an easy task to give even a fairly adequate account of Fr. Dan Roche, as he was a very reserved and reticent man, for the most part, and one could live for a long time with him and yet know little about him.
Rarely indeed did he reveal anything of his real self and then, not so much by what he said as by what he did. One has to depend, therefore, upon the few who knew him somewhat more intimately to get some insight into the true character of the man. One who was a fellow-novice writes of him :
“Fr. Dan was a great character. I met him first on September 7th, 1899, at Portarlington on our way to Tullabeg, and we became life long friends. He was a solidly good religious, always ready to give sound reasons for the faith that was in him. He was a good conversationalist, well read, and proficient in all kinds of games and sports and, naturally, he became a kind of a hero to the novices and juniors at Tullabeg. But that never went to his head and he had no use for pretence or ostentation, and hence he could not suffer fools gladly, He was, I always thought, a strong character, or a "he-man" as he used to say when speaking of a third party. He evidently made a good impression in the army, for during many years after the war, he used to get letters from officers and men with whom he had come in contact”.
Few of Fr. Roche's friends heard much about his experiences as an army chaplain in the first World War. He was extremely reticent on the subject. Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, he volunteered for service with the British Forces and was posted to a Field Ambulance in France. His real active service, however, was with a front-line battalion in the trenches of Flanders, and it was only a fitting tribute to his determination and courage that he was decorated with the coveted Military Cross for distinguished service on the battle-field.
After his tertianship in Tullabeg and four years of teaching at the Crescent and Clongowes, Fr. Roche was appointed to the mission staff where again he had an outlet for the zeal and self-sacrifice so conspicuous in his army career. From time to time, when he was in a more talkative mood, he would recall incidents and relate stories - always extremely well told - of his missionary experiences up and down the country.
In 1933 he returned to the Crescent and for nine years directed the Apostleship of Prayer Association and the Holy Hour. During this time and his remaining years in Limerick-twenty-eight years in all--he endeared himself to the patrons of the Sacred Heart Church. He was particularly noted for his zeal in the confessional and for the practical common sense which he displayed in his approach to the various problems which he solved for his penitents. Quietly and unobtrusively he comforted the sick and the afflicted and those who really got to know him found in him a true and sincere friend.
In community life he was pleasant and good-humoured and for one who was remarkable for a retiring and studious disposition—he was an omnivorous reader he took a kindly and sympathetic interest in the many and varied interests of a busy College.
If ever a Jesuit died in action it was Fr. Roche, He was busily engaged in the church up to the end. He heard Confessions for several hours on the three days prior to the fatal heart attack. In fact, he was in his confessional until 9 p.m. on the previous night. He died as he would have wished-ever ready for the call, giving himself generously to the service of the Lord. For Fr. Roche there was one motto : Give and do not count the cost.

Born: 1571, Kilfenora, County Clare
Entered: 1601, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: pre Entry
Final vows: 06 January 1629
Died: 06 June 1629, Galway Residence - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Alias Carrick

Studied 2 years Arts before entry
1603 In Philosophy at Coimbra (LUS)
1606 Hearing Confessions and helping Fr White at Madrid
1611 Minister at Professed House in Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain, The Minister at Irish College, Lisbon, Age 43 Soc 10 has studied Philosophy and Theology
1614 Has been Rector at Irish College Lisbon for 5 years and still there in 1622 (Rector 9 years)
1617 In Portugal Age 49 Soc 19
1626 In Portugal

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Called “Tuamensis and Toumensis”
Praised by Father Fitzsimon as a benefactor of Irish education; Was of Thomond or Tuam Diocese
1617 In Portugal (IER August 1874)
Drew’s “Fasti SJ” records a death of a man of this name in Cadurci (Cahors), France 1633. He is described as most devout to the Blessed Eucharist, and when a youth, being reduced to death’s door by a dangerous sickness, he earnestly desired to receive Holy Communion, not so much by way of viaticum as of medicine, and, having partaken of the heavenly Food, he was instantly restored to health, to the amazement of the medical men. He was so inflamed with the love of God, that, when speaking of the Divine things, sparks were seen issuing from his mouth, inflaming the hearts of his auditors with the same affection.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Humanities and Philosophy at Irish College Lisbon and was already Ordained before Ent 1601 Lisbon.
After First Vows he completed his studies at Coimbra.
1604-1606 Confessor at Irish College Lisbon
1606-1609 Minister at Vila Viçosa
1609-1620 Rector Irish College Lisbon
1620-1626 Procurator Irish College Lisbon
1629 Sent to Ireland in the Summer and to the Connaught Residence until he died June 1629

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Cornelius Roche SJ 1575-1633
Cornelius Roche was born in Tuam in 1575. He entered the Society in 1596 and was in Portugal in 1617, where his name was written as De Rocha. It is recorded in the “Fasti Breviores” that he died at Carduci in (Cahors) France in 1633. He was most devout to the Blessed Sacrament.

When a youth being reduced to death’s door by sickness, he earnestly desire to receive Holy Communion, not so much by way of viaticum but as medicine, and having received, he was instantly restored to health, to the amazement of the doctors.

The “Fasti Breviores” says of him “He was so inflamed with the love of God that when speaking of heavenly things, sparks were seen issuing from his mouth”.

His name also appears in the Irish version as Cornelius Carrig.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CARRICK, CORNELIUS. I meet him at Madrid in August, 1607. He is mentioned with honor in F. Fitzsimmon’s Treatise on the Mass, 1611

ROCHE, CORNELIUS. All that I ferret out, is his existence in the early part of the 17th century in Spain.

Born: 19 August 1943, Lally Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 10 May 1964, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 31 May 1979, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 04 May 1982, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 57th Year No 3 1983
Obituary

Br Vincent Robinson (1943-1964-1982)

My first memory of Vincent has him in a white apron wheeling a barrow full of turf along the bottom corridor in Emo: sturdy, composed, with bright and fun-loving eyes. When he entered the noviciate in Emo in 1964 he was already qualified as a gas-fitter/plumber with a London City and Guilds Intermediate and Final certificate. He made his first vows in the noviciate in 1966 and stayed on there till 1969: he subsequently had spells in Manresa, Milltown Park (for two different periods), Betagh House, Tullabeg (Tertianship). Belvedere and Galway. During most of that time he worked mainly but not exclusively (he was a man of many skills) as a plumber, servicing the demands of the particular house he was in or available to the Province at large: for some of it he did further studies at the College of Technology in Bolton street (obtaining his technician's certificate there); also some teaching in the same college. He took his final vows in May 1979; towards the end of that same year he became ill and was in and out of health, with periods of great distress, until his death this year, three years after those vows, also in the month of May. He was thirty-eight when he died.
A man of many skills and talents - to do with hands, with heart, and with head. And so the bare facts above indicate little of the great richness and vitality of his life. Vinny was an excellent craftsman and worker, who did the job not just competently and well, but with flair. This artistic side of his craftsmanship was given rein most freely in his work with silver and bronze. He took a delight in this work: I remember well in Milltown, the '70s, the relish with which he would discuss possible suitable titles for the four bronze shields which now hang on the wall outside the Milltown refectory. His skill and artistry were expressed in other ways too: in poetry, in music, in his soccer-playing and coaching. In these, as in so many other areas of his life, he demonstrated a competence, a seriousness of application and a genuine inspiration and imagination which were characteristic, and went deep. It meant that he did things well, but never in a pedestrian way: that he respected quality wherever he found it, and was dissatisfied with anything that was shoddy. He was the opposite of boring or censorious in this pursuit of excellence: a real sense of both fun and compassion ensured this.
The sense of fun was simple in the kind of surprising way that showed how deep and real it was. The joking and companionship of the lads he played within the Pioneer Soccer Club, the sing songs and yarns, the pleasure in a bit of cake, some sweets, a mineral, the calling by for a chat, the weekly cup of coffee with his mother in Bewley’s, the leg-pulling, the colloquialisms and inimitable gestures and turns of phrase: there was a simple joy in life at the heart of Vinny which made it a delight to know him. He loved the theatre, and was an acute and appreciative critic whose particular expertise lay in assessing the staging of a production: and one of my last memories of him shows that sense of fun in evidence precisely in a theatrical setting. We were at the production of The Pirates of Penzance in the Olympia after Christmas this year: Vinny had just been in hospital and was to return there before long. He loved the show, and at one particular point, as a contraption descended from the ceiling with one of the cast on it, he exploded with enjoyment and laughter to such an extent that the tears rolled down his cheeks. For minutes afterwards he laughed on: and, in as often happens on such occasions, the people all around were affected too, faces lighting up, laughing at and with him. To me it's a lovely image of the feel for life which he radiated to the many friends. from different walks of life who were so graced by his company. Not that Vinny was always laughing:. or that he was an effortlessly outgoing positive sort of person. He knew too much of struggle and conflict for this to be so, and the sense of fun and life were real precisely because they came from someone who at heart was deeply serious, and also quite shy. The effervescent front which he sometimes presented to the world did not conceal this side of Vinny from those who knew him, least of all from himself. He knew what it was to be confused, to be angry, to feel alienated, to question himself. In particular within the Society, which he loved so much, and with fellow Jesuits, for whom he had such great affection, there was nonetheless the very real difficulty of attempting to live the Brother's vocation at a time of great change: integration in this area was not easy; there was always struggle going on. Much of this was due to objective factors: but Vinny was quite aware too that his own diffidence contributed to the problem. Similarly with regard to those both inside and outside the Society whom he knew and liked well the path to intimacy was not easy: he was very sensitive, and did not find it obvious to accept that others were so pleased to be with him and to share his life. I think too that his keen intelligence, his questioning of life, his great integrity and honesty, his own strong views on many subjects were not always easy for him to live with: he mistrusted any kind of superficiality or fashion for its own sake, and sometimes this left him feeling a lack of sympathy for other positions and people which belied his more characteristic compassion. The richness and goodness of Vinny's life then were far from automatic: the great thing was that with all his complexity he did in fact come across as having a very simple love of life and people, and so many who came into contact with him sensed this, sensed that his shyness was not the last word, and responded to him with affection and gratitude. He enriched and warmed the lives of so many. He was a loving son and brother in his own family, a great friend, a most amiable companion: and his own human weaknesses, in this context, were simply a most reassuring touchstone of the reality of his love to those who were privileged enough to enjoy it.
Vinny's life then was humanly very rich: he himself however would have found such an assessment rather inadequate, perhaps beside, and certainly ' missing, the point. God was very much at the centre of his life: the ideals of the Jesuit vocation as a Brother nourished him throughout. He valued prayer, read copiously about it, practised it, treasured his relationship with the Lord. He valued deeply the often hidden life of service which he understood to be at the heart of his vocation: he was very proud to be a Brother in the Society. He lived out his vows to the utmost, conscious right to the end, and especially in the suffering of his final illness which he bore so courageously, that he was fulfilling the promise which he had made in Emo in 1966 to place himself under the standard of Christ's cross if that was the Father's plan for him. Such a strong and authentic faith was already rich in the hundredfold of God's love in this life: it is a great consolation and inspiration to those who now miss him so much - his mother Josephine, sister Maura (a nun with the Little Sisters of the Poor in France), three brothers Noel, Paddy and George, all his relations, fellow-Jesuits, many friends. We may have great hope that Vincent now enjoys the fulness of God’s love: the words of St Irenaeus seem very apt in his respect - “The glory of God is man fully alive and it is the life of man to see God”.
I’m left with a host of memories of Vinny: two stand out. One is of the emaciated figure, who had suffered so much, just days before he died, able still to smile for friends or nurses in the midst of his pain. The other, stronger, is of an exuberant, gleeful Vinny, just having scored a goal on the soccer pitch, fist raised in playful triumph, delighting in the joy of the moment, whooping exultantly to the rest of us - “No problem for this kid here!”. May he rest in peace.
Gerry O'Hanlon SJ

The Mountjoy square Pioneer Club devoted to Vincent almost a whole issue (dated 16th May) of their newsletter. In it Joe MacNamara wrote the following appreciation, slightly adapted and shortened here :
On Tuesday, 4th May, the Pioneer Club lost one of its best-loved members, Vincent Robinson. Vincent joined the club some eleven years ago, and since then contributed much not only on the committees and on the playing-fields, but generally with the jovial atmosphere which his presence brought. For Vincent, or better known to most as Robbo, was one of the characters of the club and of its football scene. For whatever he did, alone or in the midst of a group, he brought an air of lightheartedness which always went down well. He often gave a 'terrible slagging', but he also got a fair share himself!
Vincent joined the club as a player for our football teams, and played regularly for the Second team, mainly in defence. In tackling he was very strong. As the priest said at his funeral Mass, he was known to the team as the roving full back. It was very true. Vincent loved to go forward and have a go at scoring a goal. He did score now and again, and when he did, you could guarantee hearing how great a goal it was for weeks on end. He urged his team-mates on by his gentle jokes and by comments that brought the best out of them. Robbo knew the game: he had studied coaching, passed his tests, and in pre-season training made full use of what he had learned, passing it on to the players, particularly the newcomers, thus increasing their skills. He played right up the beginning of last season, and the Second team's first three games before leaving for Galway. All present at the first match will remember his goal. He kicked home a 25-yard free, so becoming the top scorer. He was thrilled over it.
At committee meetings he thought deeply on each matter and gave his view in a manner which showed this. He had to have advance notice of the agenda, so that he could study all aspects of the topic. Vincent was always looking to the future, and so he spoke about his 'visions'. One of these was the strengthening of the senior teams over the years. As it was hard to get Pioneers to play for the club, Vincent came up with the idea of catching them young, bringing them up along and then introducing them at senior level. His idea was a schoolboy team, to start at under-17 : under-18 level. Having got approval to enter a team in the schoolboy league at under-18 level, Vincent went on a search for players, as the club itself had none. : He attended schoolboy tournaments and spent his spare time watching school matches; he approached the teams, telling them about the club and its facilities, enticing them to join. As the 1980-81 season began, after his three month search for players, Pioneers were able to field a schoolboy side. The work put in by Vincent was tremendous. He himself looked after the team in the early days, but then other pressures forced him to hand over the management to others. At first the team did not achieve the best results, but most of the players were young enough for the same team again last season. With their year's experience they did well and as this was being. written were just one win away from the title. The club has reaped the benefit of those 'visions' that Vincent had. The great pity is that he passed away just a couple of weeks before the club achieved its first major honour in over eleven years, fulfilling his dream. On the to evening of the day of Vincent's death, the featured in youths were in action in his native Ballyfermot, where they recorded their biggest victory ever. When they returned to the club, news of Vincent's death had just come. Vincent was interested, not just in the football, but in the club as a whole. This can be seen by the very impressive papers he drew up for last year's club seminar. He put a lot of thought into the topic of better communications in the club, and had ideas on a change-around in structure and accommodation. At the seminar it was mainly Vincent's ideas that were discussed. All present agreed that these should be implemented in order to bring the members closer together.
It was at the funeral Mass that most members learned that they had known only a part of Vincent. He was a full-fledged plumber, having passed his London Guilds exams before he entered the Society of Jesus. He was also a silversmith, with his own registered mark, and designed various pennants and trophies. He once made the trophy for the Young Player of the Year, also a special cross and chains for the winners of the ladies' indoor football. (Another writer adds : that he was also a very useful painter, decorator and carpenter. He kept the football-room ‘in good nick'. It was typical of the man that when the room needed painting he got in there and painted it instead of talking about it.]
He had other talents. He was always having a “bash” at poetry and he was a “dab hand” on the guitar. He appeared on a number of shows; and the footballers who went on the Easter trips to Galway (1980, 1981) will never forget the songs he sang along with the rest of the lads. Those two weekends were great. Again it was Vincent who arranged it all: the rooms in the “Jes” and the food. Last year he even got a minibus to take our group out the Galway coast road, Everything had a story for Vincent: he loved telling stories, Passing a building or other place he would tell you a little story about it, going back into history. The way he told them would make anyone believe him, but I am sure some were just made up on the spur of the moment.
Vincent gave up the society of his many friends in his native Dublin and moved to Galway so that another Brother in the College there could go on the missions to Zambia. It was this unselfishness that one had to admire in him. One will always have memories of his vow-day: the joy on his face was really marvellous.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1982

Obituary

Brother Vincent Robinson SJ

Vinny came to live and work in Belvedere towards the end of his short life, (1943--1982). He had joined the Society of Jesus in 1964, already qualified as a gas-fitter and plumber, and took vows as a Brother in 1966. In the years that followed he lived in several different communities of the Society, servicing the houses of the Irish Province in his capacity as a plumber. He also did further study and eventually teaching in the College of Technology in Bolton Street.

These rather bare facts indicate little of the great richness and vitality of Vinny's life. He was an extremely talented person: skilled craftsman, artist in silver and bronze, poet, musician, gifted soccer player and coach, in all these areas he showed a faithful application and genuine flair which were characteristic of him in all other areas too. He did things well, but never in a pedestrian way: and he respected quality wherever he found it, dissatisfied with anything that was shoddy. He was the opposite of boring or censorious in this pursuit of excellence: he had a huge sense of fun and life which he radiated to the many friends from different walks of life who were so graced by his company, Not that he was an effortlessly outgoing sort of person: he knew too much of struggle and conflict for this to be so, and beneath the effervescent front which he sometimes presented to the world was quite a shy man. But he did love life and people, and others usually sensed that the shyness was not the last word, and responded to him with affection and gratitude. He enriched and warmed the lives of so many.

Vinny had just one year in Belvedere, 1980–81, when he was already suffering from the illness which would soon enough kill him. I like what was said about him as a soccer coach to the boys during that brief period: apparently, in the course of the year he won over some rather disgruntled, alienated young men to the point whereby the end of the season they were eating out of his hand. This would not be difficult to visualize for those who knew Vinny; his consummate professionalism, controlled enthusiasm, sense of humour, imagination, absolute fairness and great regard for the underdog, all these would indeed have been difficult to resist. And Vinny too by the end of that year had learned not to resist Belvedere either: he liked it there, made some good friends among community, staff and boys, and was sorry to be on his way again so soon.

His life then was humanly very rich: for Vinny himself however such a description would have fallen flat, would have missed the point. God was at the centre of his life, the ideals of the Jesuit vocation as a Brother nourished him throughout. He valued prayer, he valued the often hidden life of service that he understood to be at the heart of the Brother's vocation: and he lived out his religious Vows to the utmost, conscious right to the end, and especially in the suffering that his final illness entailed, that he was fulfilling the promise which he had made in Emo in 1966 to place his life under the standard of Christ's cross. The remark of St. Irenaeus is suitable: “The glory of God is man fully alive: and it is the life of man to see God”.

This strong faith is a great consolation to those who now mourn him: his mother, sister, three brothers, relations, fellow-Jesuits, his many other friends. It means that we're invited in the light of Christ's resurrection to hope in Vinny's new presence among us: and the memory of the unique beauty of his too-short life is a great encouragement to us to join with Vincent in anchoring our hope in the immense love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Gerry O'Hanlon SJ

Born: 12 October 1907, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 04 October 1934, Manresa, Roehampton, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 22 July 1922
Final Vows: 20 March 1950
Died: 01 September 1985, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - British Province (BRI)

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

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 60th Year No 4 1985

Obituary
Fr Brian Joseph Riordan (1907-1934-1985) (Britain)
Fr Brian Joseph Riordan was born in Belfast on 12th October 1907. He was educated at St Malachy's College, Belfast, and St Mary's College, Dundalk He became a journalist and then on 4th October 1934 joined the Society at Roehampton. After 1st vows he studied philosophy and theology at Heythrop Oxon. In October 1942 his theology was interrupted when he became an RAF chaplain. In February 1947 he was demobbed and had a brief spell on the staff of the Holy Name, Manchester, before returning to Heythrop to finish theology. In 1948 he was a tertian at St Beuno's. In December 1949 he went to Rhodesia where he served at Mondoro, Makumbi, Kutama and Martindale. He returned to the UK in June 1954 and went first to Craighead and then in 1955 joined the parish staff at St Aloysius, Glasgow. He was in charge of the Preparatory school at Langside from 1961 until 1964 when he began his long spell as priest-in-charge and military chaplain at St Margaret's, Lerwick. In 1980 he went to work in N Ireland, first at Ballykilbeg and then at Ballycrabble - both in Downpatrick. In Oct 1984 he was admitted to the Irish Province infirmary, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin, and from there moved to Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin, where he died on 1st September 1985. Fr Provincial celebrated the requiem in Gardiner street. Among those participating were Brian's brother and other members of the family; the parish priest of Downpatrick; Fr Senan Timoney, Acting Provincial in Ireland, with many members of the Irish Province; and Rory Geoghegan, Hugh Hamill and Bill Mathews from our own province. Fr Provincial is very appreciative of the care shown to Brian by the Irish Province during his illness in the last year, and for their support and hospitality at the funeral. The interment was at Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.

Born: 14 September 1908, Dundalk, County Louth
Entered: 09 November 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1939, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 22 February 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 35th Year No 3 1960

Obituary :

Br Ignatius Rice (1908-1960)

Br. Rice was born at Dundalk on 14th September, 1908 and entered the Society on 9th November, 1927. On 20th February, 1960 he collapsed at his work at Milltown Park and died two days later in hospital without regaining consciousness.
After his noviceship he worked as cook in Belvedere, Rathfarnham, Leeson Street and Galway. His years in the kitchen accentuated a weakness in his right leg which had given him trouble even as a boy; and the heat and long hours standing by the range made him suffer great pain. Finally he had to give up the work of cooking and was sent to The Crescent in charge of the domestic staff, where he also worked in organising card drives in aid of the college building fund. While in Limerick he made many friends by his zeal and good humour.
In 1956 Br. Rice was sent to Milltown Park to help in the Library, and by reason of his energy and great natural intelligence he learnt the new art of book-binding very quickly and soon became a very valuable member of the staff of the bindery. This is the work on which he was engaged when he suffered the stroke which led to his sudden death.
The loss of Br. Rice was very deeply felt by the community in Milltown Park. In this province the number of Brothers in any house is necessarily very small. In these circumstances a man of unfailing courtesy and friendliness is a very great treasure; and Br. Rice was just such a man. Furthermore, he was always ready and willing to take on extra work when one of the other Brothers was away for holidays or to make a retreat. Br. Rice was very versatile and always seemed to be delighted to find some way in which he could be of service to the community in spite of his ill-health. Finally, he was in his own way a deeply religious man with a very true notion of the ideals of the vocation of a Jesuit Brother.
To his sister, his brothers and other relatives and to his many friends we offer our sincerest sympathy. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Ignatius Rice SJ 1908-1960
Br Ignatius Rice was born in Dundalk on September 14th 1908. All his life he was subject to an infirmity in his right leg which must have made his years as a cook and manductor a veritable martyrdom.

A good part of his religious life was spent in the Crescent where he was invaluable in organising charitable functions in aid of the school building fund.

His last years were spent at Milltown Park as a semi-invalid. Always a fund of good humour, he was willing, cheerful and deeply religious. Little was ever heard by his brethern of his sufferings in life. He gave a fine example of pain cheerfully borne.

He died on February 22nd 1960 from a stroke, which proved fatal.

Born: 23 September 1703, Leinster, Ireland
Entered: 18 January 1726, Naples, Italy - Napoletanae Province (NAP)
Ordained: 1734, Naples, Italy
Died: 05 December 1756, Irish College, Poitiers, France

Spent 8 days in Irish College Rome and on 13 January 1726 went to the Novitiate at Naples - Arc I C Rome Lib IV f.249
1730-1734 At Coll Max Naples studying Philosophy. Talent, proficiency and prudence good. Experience beyond his years. Would be able for any duty if his judgement displayed itself.
1736 Prefect of Studies Irish College Rome - came from Naples Arc I C Rome Lib IX 138
1737 Not in Catalogue

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ:
After First Vows he was sent for studies at Naples where he was Ordained 1734
1736-1737 On the completion of his studies he was sent as Prefect of Studies to the Irish College Rome
1737-1748 The General sent him to Ireland, and he arrived in Galway Residence in March 1738, and he worked there for eleven years. In the opinion of the Mission Superior, Thomas Hennessy, Reilly was more suited to the contemplative than the active religious life, and so he was withdrawn from the Irish Mission and sent to Poitiers as a Spiritual Father, and he died there 05 December 1756

Born: 08 August 1884, Cooraclare, Kilrush, County Clare
Entered: 07 September 1901, Tullabeg
Ordained: 28 June 1915, Woodstock College MD, USA
Final Vows:02 February 1920
Died: 16 April 1967, Seattle, WA, USA - Oregonensis Province (ORE)

Transcribed HIB to TAUR : 1902; TAUR to CAL : 1909; Cal to ORE

Father is a farmer, mother died in 1888.

Two brothers (one deceased) and four sisters.

Educated in local NS, and then a local Intermediate school and then Colaiste Iognáid SJ, Galway.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Transferred during Noviceship to TAUR Province for Rocky Mountain Mission

Born: 10 April 1857, Dunmore, County Galway
Entered: 08 September 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 1880, St Patrick's College, Maynooth
Professed: 15 August 1902
Died: 02 August 1940, Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road, Galway

by 1888 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
Came to Australia 1889

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
James Rabbitte was a diocesan priest when he entered Loyola House, Dromore, in 1885 for the novitiate, and then went on to Louvain to revise his theology. In 1889 he was sent to the Australian Mission, where he taught at St Patrick's College and did some pastoral work until 1893, followed by some time at St Aloysius' College. He then taught at Riverview, 1896-98. He returned to Ireland in March 1898, teaching mainly in Galway, with a period of time as province archivist, living at Gardiner Street.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 15th Year No 3 1940

Obituary :
Father James Rabbitte

1857 Born at Dunmore, Co Galway10th April. Educated at St. Jarlath's Tuam and Maynooth College
1880 Ordained at Maynooth for the Ahdiocese of Tuam. Served as Curate at Roundstone, Inishbofin, and Ballyhaunis
1885 Entered the Society at Dromore 8th September
1887 Louvain, Recol. Theol.
1888-1897 Australia - Worked in St Patrick’s Melbourne, St. Aloysius and Riverview, Sydney Was “Cons. Dom,” in all three Colleges.
1898-1899 Crescent, Doc., Cons. Dom.
1900 Galway, Miss Excurr Oper
1901 Crescent, Minister, etc
1902-1904 Crescent, Doc., Oper
1905 Belvedere. Doc
1906-1908 Crescent, Doc., Oper
1909-1910 Tullabeg, Praef. Spir., etc
1911-1922 Galway, Doc., Oper
1923-1929 Gardiner St., Cust. Archiv. Prov.. etc
1930-1931 Galway, Praes. Coll. Cas., Oper
1932-1940 Galway, Cens. lib., Conf. dom

Died at Galway, Friday, 2nd August, 1940. Was 31 years Mag according to Catalogue of 1919

As will be seen from the above catalogue of dates, Father Rabbitte spent nearly half of his life in the Society at St Ignatius', Galway, where, in 1936, he celebrated the Golden
Jubilee of his entrance into the Society, and where he quietly passed to his reward on 2nd August of the present year, 1940.
A quiet man, Fr. Rabbitte lived a retired life, but he had many qualities that endeared him to those who came his way. Intimate with few, he had a host of friends - no enemies. He had an astonishing love of children, and even in his last years of life when he had no direct contact with the boys in the College he seemed to know most of them personally, and, of course knew most of their fathers unto the third generation. He was a keen and accurate observer, and was a lifelong student of History and Irish Archaeology. Both of these subjects were arenas in which a moderate iconoclast can do a lot of good, and Fr. Rabbitte was a moderate iconoclast. As a critic, he was undoubtedly severe, but at the same time he was just and always very courteous. Over a controverted point he would “sit as a refiner of silver”, and when, at length an article left his crucible for publication, one could rest assured that it bore little, if any, of the dross of fable under the guise of History. It was perhaps this desire for absolute accuracy that prevented Fr. Rabbitte from writing more, and it may be that his undoubted aversion to speaking Irish may have had its roots in that same trait of character.
But if we ask ourselves what struck us most in Fr. Rabbitte's ordinary life, I should answer without hesitation the regularity of his religious life. He rarely accepted, and still more rarely
sought exemption from Common Life. Up to the very end he never missed a visit to the Blessed Sacrament after his breakfast or his lunch, even though such a visit meant a weary journey up the stairs to the Domestic Chapel. During the last few years, after a stroke or fall had deprived him of the sight of one eye, he was (more praise to him for it) a little careful of himself. He never wore spectacles, but during Mass would use a large magnifying glass. During this period he found Community Recreation. a little trying, and asked to be exempted. When the community went into the Dometic Chapel for Litanies Fr. Rabbitte was sure to be there before, having come down from his room above in time.
His great anxiety after the stroke in June of 1938 was that he should be enabled to celebrate his daily Mass. God granted his request, and Fr. Rabbitte had the happiness of saying Mass almost to the end. His last Mass was on the Sunday before he died, and apparently he had some premonition of his coming illness, for he turned to his faithful server after Mass and said, “I shall not say Mass to-morrow”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father James Rabbitte (1857-1940)

Was born at Dunmore, Co Galway and educated at St Jarlath's, Tuam. He was accepted for the Tuam archdiocese and sent for his ecclesiastical studies to Maynooth where he was ordained in 1880. After five years' service in his diocese, he entered the Society in 1885. He continued his studies at Louvain and spent some nine years on the Australian mission. On his return from Australia in 1898, he was appointed to the teaching staff at the Crescent but after a year was changed to the mission staff. He returned to Limerick, however, a year later and spent four years either as minister, master or assistant in the church. His last association with the Crescent was from 1906 to 1909. His teaching career ended in the early 1920's when he was assigned to the curatorship of the archives of the Irish Province at Gardiner St, a post suited to his interests in Irish History. The last decade of his life was spent at St. Ignatius', Galway. Father Rabbitte was a native Gaelic speaker and a keen student of Irish history.

Born: 15 May 1887, Shannon Street, Bandon, County Cork
Entered: 12 November 1902, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1917, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1921, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 31 October 1956, Milltown Park, Dublin

Father is headmaster of a large school, and now resides at The Lodge, Watergate, Bandon, County Cork.

Fourth child of twelve - six boys and six girls.

At the end of his primary education he was given a choice to go into business or go to Clongowes. He chose business, but his parents removed him after two months and sent him to Clongowes Wood College.

by 1907 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 4 1948

Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin.
We moved in on Saturday morning, 14th August. Fr, Superior (Fr. McCarron), Fr. Minister (Fr. Kearns), and Bro. E. Foley constituted the occupying force, and Fr. T. Martin not only placed his van at our disposal, but gave generously of his time and labour for the heavy work of the first day.
A long procession of vans unloaded until noon, when the men broke off for their half-day, leaving a mountain of assorted hardware and soft goods to be unpacked and stowed. By nightfall we had a chapel installed, the kitchen working, dining-room in passable order, and beds set up, so we said litanies, Fr. Superior blessed the house and consecrated it to the Sacred Heart.
Next morning Fr. Superior said the first Mass ever offered in the building. It was the Feast of the Assumption and a Sunday, so we. placed the house and the work under the Patronage of Our Lady and paused to review the scene. Fr. Provincial came to lunch.
The building is soundly constructed from basement to roof, but needs considerable modification before it can be used as a temporary Retreat House. The permanent Retreat House has yet to be built on the existing stables about 130 yards from the principal structure, but. we hope to take about twenty exercitants as soon as builders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and decorators have done their work.
Fr. C. Doyle is equipping and furnishing the domestic chapel as a memorial to Fr. Willie, who worked so tirelessly for the establishment of workingmen's retreats in Ireland. A mantelpiece of this room has been removed, and thermostatically controlled electric heating is being installed. Lighting is to be by means of fluorescent tubes of the latest type.
With all due respects to the expert gardeners of the Province, we modestly assert that our garden is superb. Fr. Provincial was so impressed by the work done there that he presented us with a Fordson 8 H.P. van to bring the surplus produce to market. Under the personal supervision of Fr. Superior, our two professional gardeners took nine first prizes and four seconds with fourteen exhibits at the Drimnagh show. Twelve of their potatoes filled a bucket, and were sold for one shilling each. The garden extends over 2 of our 17 acres and will, please God, provide abundant fruit and vegetables.
From the beginning we have been overwhelmed with kindness: by our houses and by individual Fathers. Fr. Provincial has been a fairy-godmother to us all the time. As well as the van, he has given us a radio to keep us in touch with the outside world. We have benefitted by the wise advice of Frs. Doyle and Kenny in buying equipment and supplies, while both of them, together with Fr. Rector of Belvedere and Fr. Superior of Gardiner Street, have given and lent furniture for our temporary chapel Fr. Scantlebury sacrificed two fine mahogany bookcases, while Frs. Doherty and D. Dargan travelled by rail and bus so that we might have the use of the Pioneer car for three weeks. Milltown sent a roll-top desk for Fr, Superior's use. To all who helped both houses and individuals we offer our warmest thanks, and we include in this acknowledgment the many others whom we have not mentioned by name.
Our man-power problem was acute until the Theologians came to the rescue. Two servants were engaged consecutively, but called off without beginning work. An appeal to Fr. Smyth at Milltown brought us Messrs. Doris and Kelly for a week of gruelling labour in the house. They scrubbed and waxed and carpentered without respite until Saturday when Mr. Kelly had to leave us. Mr. Hornedo of the Toledo Province came to replace him, and Mr. Barry arrived for work in the grounds. Thanks to their zeal and skill, the refectory, library and several bedrooms were made ready and we welcomed our first guest on Monday, 30th August. Under the influence of the sea air, Fr. Quinlan is regaining his strength after his long and severe illness.
If anyone has old furniture, books, bedclothes, pictures, or, in fact anything which he considers superfluous, we should be very glad to hear of it, as we are faced with the task of organizing accommodation for 60 men and are trying to keep the financial load as light as possible in these times of high cost. The maintenance of the house depends on alms and whatever the garden may bring. What may look like junk to an established house may be very useful to us, starting from bare essentials. Most of all, we want the prayers of the brethren for the success of the whole venture, which is judged to be a great act of trust in the Providence of God.
Our postal address is : Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin.

Irish Province News 32nd Year No 1 1957

Obituary :

Fr Michael Quinlan (1887-1956)

Fr. Quinlan was born on 15th May, 1887, at Bandon, Co. Cork, the fifth child in a family of twelve, He attended the National School at Bandon, of which his father was Principal, and in 1899 went to Clongowes, where he remained until June, 1902, leaving after the Middle Grade, He entered at Tullabeg on 12th November, 1902, and after his first vows he remained there for two years' Juniorate. He then went to Stonyhurst to study philosophy for three years,
It was during this time that he took his B.A. degree at the Royal University in Dublin. He taught for five years at Belvedere and in 1914 he went to Milltown Park for theology. He was ordained on 31st July, 1917. Before his tertianship at Tullabeg he taught for one year at Belvedere and after the tertianship he returned to Belvedere in 1920 as Prefect of Studies. He was Rector of Belvedere from 1922 to 1928, and Rector of Galway from 1928 to 1933. After one year at Clongowes he was transferred to Gardiner Street, where we find him as Minister from 1934 to 1945, and Operarius from 1945 to 1955. Owing to failing health he was sent to Milltown Park. He died on 31st October, 1956, and he was buried with his fellow-novice, Fr. MacSheahan, at Glasnevin.
The author of this obituary notice has just attended a meeting of the St. Joseph's Young Priests' Society. It was the first meeting of that branch since the death of its Spiritual Director, Fr. Michael Quinlan. It would not be possible to remain unaffected by the obviously sincere tributes paid to his memory. “He was always ready, at any time or place, to help us in every way in his power”. “In the twenty years he was with us he was our most faithful friend and guide and advisor, never missing a meeting, always easy to approach”. “We could bring him any problem, sure, in advance, of a sympathetic hearing, certain he would leave nothing undone to find the solution”.
Fr. Bodkin, who succeeds Fr. Quinlan as Spiritual Director, warmly endorsed these remarks, having known Fr. Quinlan since he was a scholastic in Belvedere and Fr. Bodkin a small boy there. In those far-off days there was in evidence the same unfailing kindness which deepened with the years, and now remains the characteristic of the man that one instinctively associates with his name.
What was said at that meeting today finds a loud and ready echo in the hearts of countless numbers of Dublin's poor. As successor to Fr. Potter, Fr. Quinlan directed the “Penny Dinners”, devoting himself with tireless zeal, till near the end of his life, to collecting and distributing to visiting the poor, writing countless letters begging alms for them, missing no chance of interesting people in a position to help this excellent form of charity which for many long years has been carried on by the Gardiner Street community.
One got further insight into his interest in the poor and in his love for them, during a mission in Gardiner Street. The number who spoke of him in terms of deep affection, and the detailed knowledge he himself showed by the accurate information he put at the missioners' disposal, gave evidence of the practical zeal he had for their spiritual and corporal welfare.
Not content to direct a Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul, he proved himself a veritable apostle by the innumerable contacts he made with the poor in their homes. He was often observed slipping out quietly with one or two or three parcels of food or clothes for those in dire need. One large store in Dublin is said to have kept him supplied with lots of shoes and boots. The children of the poor flocked around him in the streets, and were happy when they could say they were attending “Fr. Quinlan's School” - the one he had charge of in Dorset Street.
A Jesuit told him once : “Congratulate me, I'm fifty today”. Fr. Quinlan paused a moment and then said the unexpected - regretfully but quite seriously. “Fifty are you? I'm afraid you'll never be a Rector now!” He had a most exalted idea of the honour conferred on a man whom the Society considered fit to be raised to that high eminence, and he would not fail, from time to time to regale you with stories about the time “when I was Rector”. He held that position twice, in Belvedere and at Galway, and it was in his time at Galway that the College got the status of an “A” school. Though no linguist, he managed to reach sufficient proficiency to teach mathematics through Irish, “and I doubt”, writes a contemporary, “if there has ever been a better teacher of that subject in the Province”.
For years in Gardiner Street, whether as Minister or Prefect of the Church, or later as an Operarius, he got through a prodigious amount of work. It was nearly always he who filled the gaps if a preacher had to drop out. It was, above all in the Confessional, we may very reasonably surmise that his great-hearted charity found its widest outlet. It has been well said that devotion to the work of hearing Confession is an infallible mark of a true priest. Judged by that test, Fr. Quinlan was a true priest indeed. He was “always ready”, early or late, irrespective of fixed “hours” to treat with souls in the sacred tribunal, One has heard it said more than once: “I'd love to go to Fr. Quinlan for Confession only that his ‘box’ is always so crowded”.
He was the author of many articles and pamphlets which have circulated widely, particularly one on Confession which is still enjoying an enormous sale.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Michael Quinlan 1887-1956
It has been truly said that devotion to the confessional is an infallible mark of a good priest. Judged by this standard Fr Michael Quinlan was an excellent priest. He was always ready, early or late, irrespective of fixed hours to help souls in the sacred tribunal. It was afterwards said “I’d love to go to Fr Quinlan for confession, only his box is always crowded”.

Born in Bandon in 1887, he entered the Society in 1902, after his schooling in Clongowes.

He became a Rector comparatively young, first in Belvedere from 1922-1928, and then in Galway from 1928-1933. He always had a reverence for the office of Rector, simple and amusing in its way.

In Gardiner Street, where he spent the latter part of his life, he was in charge of the schools and the Penny Dinners. His devotion to the poor knew no bounds. He was tireless, ingenious and shameless in their service. This and his devotion to hearing confessions mark him out as a man of God. He was also active with his pen, and he was the author of numerous pamphlets, many of which remain popular.

He died on October 31st 1956.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1957

Obituary

Father Michael Quinlan SJ

Fr Quinlan was born on 15th May, 1887, at Bandon, Co Cork, the fifth child in a family of twelve. He was at school at Clongowes, entering the Society of Jesus in 1902. He studied Philosophy at Stonyhurst and then taught for five years at Belvedere. In 1914 he went to Milltown where he was ordained on 31st July, 1917. He came back to Belvedere in 1920 as Prefect of Studies and in 1922 was appointed Rector of the College. At the end of his term of office he went to Galway as Rector and was there from 1928 to 1933. He worked at Gardiner Street from 1934 to 1955. From then till his death in October, 1956, he was at Milltown Park.

Anyone who knew Fr Quinlan could not help but see that his heart was in the work of a priest in Gardiner Street. In the last months of his life his cross was not the pain and weakness he was called on to suffer, but the separation from the work he loved best - the work of the confessional - and from that network of innumerable contacts with the poor he had built up over the years. For years in Gardiner Street, whether as Minister or Prefect of the church, he got through a prodigious amount of work. It was above all in the confessional that his charity found its widest outlet. It has been said that devotion to the work of hearing confessions is an infallible sign of a true priest. Judged by that test, Fr Quinlan was a true priest indeed.

◆ The Clongownian, 1957

Obituary

Father Michael Quinlan SJ

Father Quinlan came to Clongowes as a boy in 1899 and remained until 1902, when he entered the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg. Having finished his earlier studies, he taught for five years at Belvedere and went on to Theology in 1914. He was ordained in 1917.

In 1920 he became Prefect of Studies at Belvedere and he was Rector of that College from 1922 to 1928, and Rector of Galway from 1928 to 1933. After one year at Clongowes he was transferred to Gardiner Street where he worked until 1955, when he was transferred to Milltown Park. He died on October 31st, 1956, and was buried with his fellow-novice, Father MacSheahan, who had died on the previous day. Father Quinlan was for many years Spiritual Director of the St. Joseph's Young Priests Society, who paid glowing tributes to his work for them and to his great sympathy and accessibility. He was much sought after for Confessions and was the author of many articles and pamphlets which have circulated widely, particularly one on Confession which is still enjoying a wide sale. May he rest in peace.

Born: 02 February 1603, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 02 September 1623, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 04 July 1628, Douai, France
Final Vows: 16 May 1641
Died: 07 August 1663, Dublin City, County Dublin

Superior of the Mission 1654-1657

Son of Genet Lattin
Studied Humanities at Antwerp, Philosophy at Douai, became an MA
1627 ROM Catalogue Good in all. Colericus. Fit to teach Philosophy and Theology
1649 Catalogue marked at Dublin
1650 Catalogue Age 47. Came to Mission 1631. Superior in Dublin and Waterford Residences some years. Prof of 4 Vows. Taught Humanities, Concinator and Confessor
1652 His report on Ireland is at Arundel - Gradwell’s MS III 567

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities and two years Philosophy before Ent 1623. Knew Latin, English, French and a little Irish
1629 or 1631 Sent to Ireland
Taught Humanities for a number of years; was a Preacher and Confessor; Superior of a Residence (HIB Catalogue 1650 - ARSI); Writer; Prisoner; Exile.
1642 In Dublin, an indefatigable missioner. He held his ground in Dublin with Fathers Latin and Purcel for years, disguised often as a private gentleman, soldier, peasant, ratcacther, baker, shoemaker, gardener etc to elude the Puritans.
When Superior of the Mission he wrote a brief Report on the condition of Irish Catholics in 1652 and 1656
1651, 1658 In Antwerp
1659 At Nantes (all above dates Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS) He is placed in BELG Catalogues at Professed House Antwerp, as Confessorr 1651-1652, and June 1658 and October 1659
Writes from Douai to Wadding 1639 (Foley’s Collectanea)
Mercure Verdier, Visitor to Irish Mission calls him a wonderful missioner “mirabilis operarius”.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Richard, a merchant, and Jennett née Latin
Had graduated MA at Douai before Entry 02 September 1623 Tournai
1625-1628 After First Vows he was sent for classical studies to Lille and then Theology at Douai, where he was Ordained 04/07/1628
1628-1631 Sent to Ireland and Dublin, where he taught Latin and directed the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin
1632-1633 Sent back to Belgium to complete his studies
1633-1645 Sent to Ireland and Dublin, and when the Puritans took control he managed to stay there undetected
1645-1651 Superior of Dublin Residence (ie., Superior of any Jesuits exercising Ministry in Leinster)
1651-1654 Sent to Antwerp as Procurator of Irish Mission
1654 Returned to Ireland to substitute for the Mission Superior who had been arrested 01 October 1654. He managed to remain undetected for two years, and during this time wrote two accounts on the state of the Irish Mission and Catholic Ireland
1656 About November he was captured and was to be confined to Inishbofin, but at the end of 1657 he was released on bail and then deported to the Continent
1658 He arrived in Paris in 03 January 1658, and once more became Procurator for the Irish Mission. On 17/8/1658 he was asked by the General to establish in Brittany a house of refuge for the fathers of the Irish Mission, and two months later secured a house at Solidor, a suburb of St Malo in October 1659. They opened a school for the children of Irish merchants, and this was later moved to Dinant. The attempt to found an Irish Jesuit house in Brittany was frustrated by opposition from the local French Jesuits and Quin and his companions were summoned back to Ireland in 1662. On his return he offered strong opposition to Peter Walsh’s “Remonstrance”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
Thomas Quin (1654-1657)
Thomas Quin, son of Richard Quin, a Dublin merchant, and Jennett Latin, was born at Dublin, on or about 2nd February, 1603. He went to Flanders in 1619; studied rhetoric at Antwerp and Douay and philosophy at Douay, where he obtained his degree of Master of Arts. He joined the Society at Tournay on 2nd September, 1623. After his noviceship his scholastic career is rather interrupted. He repeated his classical studies at Lille, and studied theology at Douay for two years, and was ordained priest on 4th July, 1628. He returned then to Ireland for a couple of years, during which time he taught Latin and directed the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin at Dublin. He went back to Belgium in 1631 to finish his theological studies, but after one year had to return to Ireland, where he completed then a few years later. He was stationed usually at Dublin, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 16th May, 1641. He was one of the two or three Jesuits that succeeded in remaining in Dublin undetected during the Puritan regime. From 1645 to 1651 he was Superior of the Dublin Residence. Fr Maurice Verdier, the Visitor, in his report of 1649, says Fr Quin was one of two Fathers in Dublin, and adds: '”I have not seen him, but I hear he is a wonderful missioner”. At the general break-up in 1651 he was sent as Procurator of the Mission to Antwerp, where he remained three years. He was applied for by Fr. Malone, on his arrest, to act as his substitute, and set out on 1st October, 1654, from Belgium. He reached Ireland, and escaped capture for two years, during which he wrote two accounts of the state of the Mission and of the Catholics of Ireland. About the month of November, 1656, he fell into the hands of his enemies, and was to be confined in Inishbofin, but at the end of the year 1657 he was released on bail and banished to the Continent. He landed in France, and was in Paris on 3rd January, 1658.

Thomas Quin (1663)
When Fr Quin was banished at the end of 1657, he went first to Paris, and then soon after to the Professed House at Antwerp. During the Superiorship of Fr Richard Shelton he acted as Procurator of the Irish Mission in Europe. On 17th August, 1658, he was asked by the General to go to Brittany with a view to establishing there a house of refuge for the Fathers of the Irish Mission. He arrived in Nantes at the end of the year, and secured a house at Solidor, a suburb of St. Malo, in October, 1659. Here a school was opened for the children of Irish merchants, which was later transferred to Dinan, five leagues off. The opening of this house aroused much opposition, and Fr Quin and the other Irish Fathers returned to Ireland in October, 1662. On his arrival Fr Quin offered determined opposition to Peter Walsh's Remonstrance, On 10th February, 1663, he was appointed Superior of the Mission. He was in failing health at the time, and died at Dublin on 7th August, 1663.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Thomas Quin 1603-1663
Fr Thomas Quin, whop was twice Superior of the Irish Mission, was born in Dublin round about February 2nd 1603, the son of Richard Quin, a Dublin merchant and Jenett Latin. Having completed his studies on the Continent, he entered the Society at Tournai in 1623.

After his ordination in 1628 he returned to Ireland where he taught Latin and directed the Sodality of Our Lady in Dublin. He was one of the two or three Jesuits that succeeded in remaining in Dublin undetected during the Puritan regime.

From 1645-1651 he was Superior of the Dublin Residence. At the general breakup in 1651 he was sent as Procurator of the Mission to Antwerp, but returned at the request of Fr William Malone in 1654.

For two years he evaded the priest-hunters and managed to write two accounts of the Mission and of the Catholics in Ireland. He was banished to France in 1657, having acted as Superior of the Mission 1654-1657.

In 1658 he was sent by the General to open a house for the Fathers of the Irish Mission in Brittany. He secured a house at Solidor, a suburb of St Malo. Here he opened a school for the children of Irish merchants which was later transferred to Dinan. This aroused opposition, so he and the other Irish Fathers returned to Ireland, where Fr Quin was very outspoken in his opposition to Peter Walsh’s Remonstrance.

On February 10th 1663 he was appointed Superior of the Mission for the second time, but he was in failing health and died on August 7th 1663.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
QUIN, THOMAS. This worthy Jesuit was stationed in Dublin in 1642. In a letter of F. Robert Nugent, dated Manapia, (Waterford) 10th of October, 1642, he speaks highly of his unremitting zeal and charity that he was a source of comfort to the afflicted citizens that he was all to all, that he assumed occasionally the military uniform, now the habit of the gentry, occasionally the dress of a peasant, to elude Puritan vigilance, and to introduce himself into Catholic houses. Pere Verdier, in the course of his visitation nearly seven years later, could not get access to the metropolis, but states the general opinion of F. Quin’s invaluable services as a Missionary. I have seen a brief report of his, written when Superior of the Mission, on the condition of the Irish Catholics in 1652 and 1656. Three years later he was at Nantz, whence he removed to St. Malo. He died 7th August, 1663. See also pp. 677-882 of the Hibernia Dominicana.

Born: 30 July 1840, County Limerick
Entered: 30 July 1863, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 15 August 1874
Died: 14 December 1904, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1865-1874 He was sent as Sacristan to Galway.
1874-1875 He was sent as Dispenser to Clongowes.
1875-1876 He was sent to Limerick as Sacristan, and he assisted at the opening of the Sacred Heart Church.
He also spent some time at Tullabeg where he was responsible for the Domestic staff.
When Tullabeg closed as a College he was sent to Milltown, and later at Galway again as Sacristan.
Finally he returned to Clongowes and he died there 14 December 1904.
He was a simple soul and worked hard with goodwill.

Born: 29 April 1906, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 31 August 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1938, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 04 January 1971, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

by 1937 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

Mother died when he was young. Family then moved to Gorey supported by private means.

Second of four boys with one sister.

Early education at a Convent school in Gorey, and the at the Christian Brothers, also in Gorey

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 46th Year No 2 1971

Obituary :

Fr William R Prendergast SJ

Fr Prendergast died on January 4th this year. His death ended a long period of chronic if sometimes mysterious ill-health, under which he never gave up but continued to the last the sort of exacting work which had occupied so much of his life, facing gallantly never-ceasing demands on his failing energy.
His loss, when he might in happier circumstances have expected a continuing or perhaps growing capacity for good was a loss to the Society, the Church and even to the country.
One of three very able brothers he did not come under Jesuit influence until he joined the Order and was fortunate in finding in Fr Frank Ryan and still more in Fr J Canavan, men who appreciated and helped him, and won his undying gratitude. A practical rather than an academic-minded man he did not have much early opportunity to reveal his special quality. This, and perhaps his early training at home, made his deep humility something of a handicap. He was more than different. He had an obvious inferiority complex, thinking so little of his own powers that he needed the stimulus of praises, and this quite mistakenly gave the impression that he was vain. There was nothing remarkable about his formative student years, if one excepts the fact that he was sent, as might have been expected, to be First Prefect in Mungret immediately on its completion. The school was then smaller in numbers and had only recently begun to compete in rugby, a game which he had never played. Yet during his five years he saw his teams bringing home on more than one occasion the Munster Rugby cups which larger and longer-established schools sought for eagerly.
In 1943 he was appointed to the small mission staff and there, for more than twenty years, he found full scope for his gifts. A tireless worker he was also a natural orator of unusual quality with a fine presence and a good voice --- almost too powerful a voice. But that was only a foundation for a style which was dramatic and picturesque, if perhaps old-fashioned, but which was to the end most effective. He had also a remarkable power of illustrating and an excellent, though controlled sense of humour and a talent for exposition of even complicated thought. There was an other and perhaps equally important quality which made itself felt. Travelling one day in a town when Fr Prendergast had just given a big Mission, the present writer heard of the impression made during this mission from an enthusiastic taxi-driver. “You know, Father”, he said, after his account of the Mission, “every man and woman in the town knew that he really wanted to help them”. His busy mission periods were interspersed with continuous retreats to priests that were equally fruitful. Of one of them (to the clergy of a Northern diocese) a parish priest wrote in a letter to me: “He paid us the compliment of being very carefully prepared; he was refreshingly rude and his doctrine and advice were a grand blend of the practical and the ideal”.
It is not, one hopes, beside the point to record his personal influence. More than once miracles were attributed to him, a notion that he found ridiculous and suspect. But to see him in a crowd of gay children after an instruction, to hear the invariable tributes to his self-sacrificing efforts to help, both temporally and spiritually, was to understand the largeness of his heart. He was a delightful companion, the most tolerant and kind of friends, quick to share the joys and sorrows of his beloved priests and people. In the end ill-health forced him off the hard road of the Missions. But, both in our church in Galway and in the Rathfarnham retreat house where he was working until just before his death, he had devoted clients. Unmethodical and terribly busy as he was, he might at times seem to neglect even close friends. But he never forgot them. Though they might have grudged him to others for the most part, they knew him, and in their hearts relied on him if need arose, and they can now surely rely on his assistance from heaven. To his brothers and nephews we offer our sincere sympathy.

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: 1704, Connaught, Ireland
Entered: 13 September 1720, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Ordained: c 1732, Poitiers, France
Died: 26 December 1733, Galway Residence, Galway City, County Galway - Romanae Province (ROM)

At time of entry the only Connaught man in the Society (Ignatius Roche letter of 1732)
1723-1727 at College of Pau AQUIT teaching Grammar
1727-1729 At Limoges teaching Humanities and Rhetoric
1729 At Angoulême
1729-1733 At Irish College Poitiers studying Theology

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1722-1724 After First Vows he was sent to study Philosophy at Pau
1724-1729 He was then sent on Regency teaching at Limoges and Angoulême.
1729-1733 At the request of the Irish Mission Superior he was then sent to Grand Collège Poitiers for Theology and was Ordained there c 1732
1733 Sent to Ireland following repeated prayer and requests, but died three months later at the Galway Residence 26 December 1733. He had been in poor health during his studies

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: 16 March 1909, Glenview House, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1943, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 20 September 1985, Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown Park, Dublin

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

Youngest brother of Thomas - RIP 1964 and Cyril - RIP 1952

Father was a master painter and with his mother lived at Glenview House, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork, and then at Thorndene Cross, Douglas Road, Cork. Father died in 1921. Mother then moved to Cowper Road, Rathmines, Dublin.

Youngest of six sons with one sister.

Early education at a Convent school in Cork, he then went for six years to CBC Cork (1918-1924). In 1924 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 60th Year No 4 1985

Obituary

Fr Gerard Patrick Perrott (1909-1926-1985)

Born on 16th March 1909. Ist Septem ber 1926: entered SJ. 1926-28 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1928-31 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1931-34 Tullabeg, philosophy. 1934-37 Galway, regency. 1937-41 Milltown, theology. 1941-42 Rathfarnham, tertianship
1942-53 Clongowes, teaching. 1953-56 Galway, minister, prefect of church. 1956-66 Mungret, rector. 1968-85 Leeson street: 1968-82 bursar of S H Messenger; 1975-85 editorial assistant, SHM. 1985 Cherryfield. Died on 20th September 1985.

These are but a few personal reflections on the life of Fr Gerry Perrott, whose death we mourned this last September.
I knew him since September 1924, 61 years ago, when he and I were at school together. During the intervening time he was an unfailing friend; always a friendly happy person.
One outstanding feature of Gerry was his fidelity to his work, no matter what it was.
As a teacher, and indeed as minister and rector, he was a very good disciplinarian, yet showed himself nonetheless kindly and approachable to all.
What I always enjoyed in Fr Gerry was his good humour. No matter what the time of day - and he was a man of very set routine - he always had a moment to spare.
In the years after ordination, when he and I lived under one roof, he worked hard even in summer, when he would set off and give three or even four retreats to Sisters in large communities or small, Similarly at Christmastime he would give one triduum if not two.
His versatility was often the subject of my conversation with him. He laughingly glossed it over and put it down to a family gift.
No matter what problem cropped up under his administration, I never saw him in a state of real worry over anything.
The past pupils of Mungret were very devoted to him and he to them. I would venture to say that the new life of their Union dated from Gerry's time as rector there.
Thank God and Saint Ignatius for such a Jesuit. May he now once again enjoy the company of his two Jesuit brothers, Frs Tom and Cyril, who Tom 1964). God rest his happy soul.

◆ The Clongownian, 1985

Obituary

Father Gerard Perrott SJ

Gerard Perrott was one of seven who entered the Society of Jesus in Tullabeg from Clongowes in 1926. He is the fourth to finish his course; the remaining three are soldiering on. He was also the third member of his family to become a Jesuit. His brother Tom entered in 1916 and his brother Cyril in 1922. Both of them died before him; Cyril as a young priest in St Ignatius, Galway; Thomas at a good age in Australia where he spent most of his life as a priest. He was founder of the Jesuit school in Perth. Fr Gerard with his kindly nature felt their loss very deeply, Indeed, he suffered an unusual number of bereavements in his family.

He had lost his father, a victim of an ambush during the Black and Tan war and as a novice he lost his brother Paul, killed in a motor-cycle accident. Much later he was to lose his much loved sister, Mother St Thomas of Hereford of the Society of Mary Reparatrix.

If the novice Gerry from the pleasant waters of the River Lee' found the then bare and desolate aspect of his surroundings anyway depressing, he never showed it. He went through the noviceship in the resolute and regulated way that was standard, but always there was about him a gentle geniality and friendliness which won him many friends. It made him a 'good companion' all through the hard years of studies, and was a very pleasing quality later on when he was Rector in Mungret College and in St Ignatius, Galway. His ready friendliness and his deep genial laugh were a pleasure to his community and to the many who enjoyed his pleasant company,

In his person he was very neat, and he had a neat and effective way of doing things which probably came from the business of his family who were house painters and decorators in Cork.

In studies he might, perhaps, be described as an easy-going all-rounder who could get what mastery of his subjects he required without great difficulty or stress. He was very good at Irish, but did not become highly specialised in any subject, though, doubtless, he could have had he been required to. He could deal easily and competently with any task he was given.

As Rector he trusted his subjects and had a good practical commonsense wisdom. He tended to let things sort themselves out rather than impose a decision - part, perhaps, of his wisdom!
In later years he was Secretary to the Irish Messenger Office where he dealt with a large daily correspondence efficiently and with a warm personal touch that was greatly appreciated by the recipients. He was in failing health for some years before he died but carried on with quiet determination until shortly before the final phase of his illness.

His many Jesuit friends will miss his genial presence and will cherish his memory. To his nephews and nieces and other relatives, we offer our sincere sympathy.

AE

Born: 27 December 1904, Glenview House, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 31 October 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1936, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1939, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 24 April 1952, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

Middle brother of Thomas - RIP 1964 and Gerard - RIP 1985

Father was a master painter and with his mother lived at Glenview House, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork, and then at Thorndene Cross, Douglas Road, Cork. Father died in 1921. Mother then moved to Cowper Road, Rathmines, Dublin.

Youngest of six sons with one sister.

Early education at a Convent school in Cork, he then went for six years to CBC Cork (1918-1924). In 1924 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

Chaplain in the Second World War.

by 1938 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ 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 1 1946
Frs. Guinane, Pelly and Perrott C. have been released from the Army. Fr. Guinane is now Minister at Mungret, Fr. Perrott is posted to Galway, and Fr. Pelly is awaiting travelling facilities to go to our Hong Kong Mission. Fr. Martin, a member also of the Mission, was to have been released from the Army on December 12th, but on the 11th be met with a serious accident in Belfast (see letter below). Fr. Provincial went to Belfast on Wednesday, January 9th, to visit him at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Fr. C. Murphy hopes to start on his homeward journey from Austria on January 14th and to be released from the Army by the end of January.

Irish Province News 27th Year No 3 1952
Coláiste Iognáid :
The deaths of Fr. Cyril Perrott and Brother G. Lynch, within a week of one another, on April 24th and May 1st, came as a great sorrow to us. Fr. Perrott's death, in particular, being quite unexpected. On April 22nd, he entered hospital for a duodenal operation, and, having come successfully through, as it appeared, he suddenly collapsed on the 23rd, and died the following morning. The Office and funeral, of which details appear elsewhere, were a remarkable tribute. Messages of sympathy and offerings for Mass poured into the house. The school was closed from the time we received news of his death until after the funeral. The boys gave a wreath, and each class an offering to have Mass said, whilst the entire school walked in the funeral.
Brother Lynch died in Dublin, after a long illness. His death was not unexpected, but he was sincerely mourned by the Community and the people of Galway to whom he had endeared himself by his quiet courtesy and unfailing good humour.

Obituary :
Father Cyril Perrott
Father Cyril Perrott was born in Cork on December 27th, 1904. He was one of six brothers, of whom two besides himself entered the Society, Father Tom Perrott, Norwood, South Australia, and Father Gerard Perrott, Clongowes Wood College. Their only sister is Mother Mary of St. Thomas, Convent of Mary Reparatrix, Merrion Square, Dublin. Cyril Perrott was educated in the Christian Brothers' School, Sullivan's Quay, and the Presentation College, Cork, and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on October 31st, 1922. After his Juniorate at Rathfarnham and Philosophy at Milltown Park, he went to Mungret in 1930 as master and Prefect of Second Club. He was ordained in Milltown Park in 1936 by the late Archbishop Goodier, S.J., and, after Tertianship at St. Beuno's, returned to Mungret as Minister, which post he held until his appointment as military chaplain in May, 1941. During the next three years he worked in war camps in the vicinity of Palmer's Green, London, and Litchfield, Hampshire. He was sent Overseas in 1944, and saw active service in India and Burma, being attached to the South East Asia Command,
At the end of 1945, he was demobilised, and came to Galway to work in the Church and take charge of the Men's and Women's Sodalities and of the Boys and Girls' Clubs. From 1947 on, he relinquished the Men's Sodality and Boys' Club, but continued to take a great interest in both. He was also a member of the Committee of the Galway branch of the National Council for the Blind.
For a good many years he had been suffering from duodenal trouble, and during the past year it had become intensified, causing him considerable pain and loss of sleep. He was finally advised that a remedial operation was advisable, and would become absolutely necessary within a year or two. The operation was apparently successful, but on the afternoon of the following day his heart suddenly failed. He was anointed immediately by Fr. Mallin, who was at hand, and his brothers, Fr. Gerard Perrott and Mr. Robert Perrott were summoned. The surgeon and two other doctors made every effort to save his life, but he died early on the morning of April 24th. The sad news came as a terrible shock to the community and to the people of the city, many of whom were in tears when they heard it.
The funeral, which took place on April 26th, was a striking testimony to the esteem and affection in which Fr. Perrott was held. His Lordship, the Bishop of Galway, presided at the Requiem Mass, and almost all the parish priests, clergy and religious of the city and surroundings took part in the Office. The Mass was sung by Fr. Gerard Perrott, Fathers Cashman and Diffely being deacon and sub-deacon, and the cantors at the Office were Rev, J. Kelly, C.C., Rahoon and Rev. F. Heneghan, C.C., Salthill. Fr. Provincial, who had just left for Rhodesia, was represented by Fr. W. Dargan, Fathers M. O'Grady, Rector, Milltown Park; D. P. Kennedy, Rector, Belvedere College and O'Catháin, representing Leeson St., came from Dublin, and Fr. C. Naughton from Limerick.
The church was crowded with the laity, among them the Mayor, members of the Corporation, civic officials and representatives of every walk in life. The coffin was carried to the hearse by members of the Men's Sodality, and a guard of honour was provided by the Boys' Club, whilst large contingents from the Women's Sodality and Girls' Club were prominent in the procession to the burial place in the New Cemetery.
After the Mass, His Lordship, the Bishop, delivered a moving address, from which the following are a few passages :
“The life which we mourn today was at first spent in a period of quiet and tranquillity. In the long period in College which the Church prescribes for those who have aspired to the priesthood, Fr. Cyril Perrott went steadily through the preparation of prayer and study, and his life was spent in tranquillity among the young like himself. When war broke out, he joined that great and gallant company of chaplains who gave honour to the Catholic Church, and then he was called to serve under the terrible conditions of war, and saw human nature suffering under severe trials for body and soul. Then was seen the profit of his long years of prayer and study, and the soul which had been tempered by years of meditation and mortification proved its worth, and he was able to bring the truth of Jesus Christ to men fighting and dying, and to seal their wounded lips and their tortured souls with the peace of Jesus Christ.
We cannot calculate what inestimable good he was able to do, but the strain of these years, short though they were, was very great. It was greater probably than he himself acknowledged. For his is not the only case we have known of priests who have been undermined by the terrible privations of these years, and so, when the trial came, although be received the best medical attention, the strain had been too great, and death came. But it was death in the Lord, death accepted, death surrounded by all the consolations of the sacraments of the Church and the prayers of his brethren, and he went forth gladly: and bravely to meet the creator of his soul,
Today we offer our deep sympathy to his family and to the Company of Jesus to which he belonged. We join our prayers with theirs that God may give him the reward of the faithful servant. I am sure he has the prayers of the members of the Sodality which he taught, and also the prayers of the blind, in whose interest he was most zealous and attentive. He has rested in the Lord, for the works of his sacred priest hood follow him”.
When one attempts to pay a fitting tribute to the memory of Father Cyril Perrott, the first thing that stands out is that he was a splendid community man, one with whom it was a real happiness to live. He had a very pleasant, even temperament, and always appeared to be in good humour. This came partly from his natural cheerfulness. He could always see the amusing side of even the most difficult situation, enjoyed a joke, and a rarer gift - took a joke against himself with the greatest enjoyment, though his keen wit often enabled him to have the last word. But there was a deeper foundation for his calmness of temperament, and that was his admirable courage. It was related by those who were associated with him in his work as a chaplain in London that he showed the most remarkable indifference to danger during the air raids, and often would not even trouble to take shelter. This courage showed itself in the less violent, but no less trying difficulties of ordinary life. Anything he took charge of seemed to go smoothly, because he faced every situation calmly, and rarely had need to call on others to give him encouragement. Like most courageous men, he was also very unassuming. Though he had a fine war record, and was evidently a great success as an organiser, he never referred to his work as a chaplain except in the most passing way. It was the same with regard to his priestly work. He was most successful and universally popular, but he never spoke of his success except in a half-joking and deprecatory manner.
His great popularity with the laity was in large measure due to the the qualities already mentioned, but he owed it also to his tact and gift of never giving offence, to his untiring energy in helping anyone who appealed to him, and to the quiet efficiency with which he carried out his duties. It was God's Will that his life should be cut short at a comparatively early age, but the crowds who came to pray beside his remains, who thronged the church for his Requiem, and who walked in an immense procession to his grave, were a striking proof that in his short life he had won for himself the reputation that is the ambition of every good priest, of being not only a sincere friend, but also a source of consolation and inspiration. Over two hundred Mass cards were laid on his coffin, and he will long be remembered by the members of the Sodalities and the Boys and Girls' Clubs, who owe so much to his quiet, unceasing work during so many years.
To his brothers, Fathers Tom and Gerard Perrott, is offered the sincerest sympathy of the Province and especially of the community of St. Ignatius', Galway.

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: 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: 14 August 1913, Laurel Villas, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 12 March 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 15 August 1946, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 15 August 1978, Croom Hospital, Croom, Co. Limerick

Part of the Sacred Heart community, Limerick at the time of death.

Educated at Crescent College SJ

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 53rd Year No 4 1978

Crescent Church, Limerick
This summer will be remembered as the one in which we lost two of our Community within a few short hours. Brother James Owens died on the evening of August 15th, and Father William Hogan in the early hours of the following morning. Both deaths were quite unexpected. Brother Owens sustained a heart attack while undergoing a slight leg-operation in Croom Hospital. Father Hogan, while doing a holiday supply with Fr Bernard Rowley in Frimly, Surrey also had a severe heart attack, and died within a few hours.
The funeral Mass of Brother Owens, on August 17th was concelebrated by a large number of Jesuits, religious and secular priests. On the 23rd August the concelebrated Mass and funeral to Mungret cemetery of Father Hogan took place. At the Mass for Br Owens Fr J Dargan represented the provincial; at the Mass for Fr Hogan the Provincial was present. On both occasions Father Superior preached the homily. In both cases the Bishop was represented by Canon Tynan. Father Hogan’s work in the Crescent brought its special “tone” to the ceremonies: the funeral procession through the Church to the muted tones of the dead march was very impressive. The procession was comprised of large numbers of clergy, relatives, the members of the Sodality in their blue cloaks, and the general public. Later we learned that at the time when Fr Bill’s remains were being taken to London Airport a Mass was being concelebrated at Fr Rowley’s church in Kent: among the concelebrants were the English Provincial, two members of the English Province and two members of the Irish Province.

Obituary :

Br James Owens (1913-1978)

A letter from the Sacred Heart Church, the Crescent, Limerick, included the following:
"On August 17th 1978 the Funeral Mass of Br Jimmy Owens was concelebrated by a large number of Jesuit, religious and secular priests. The Congregation included a large number of Brothers, as well as family friends and members of the general public, Father J Dargan represented Father Provincial, and the Bishop was represented by Canon Tynan. Father Superior was the chief concelebrant; and the funeral took place to the cemetery in Mungret.
Brother Jimmy Ownes died unexpectedly at Croom Hospital, Limerick, on August 15th, 1978.
He was born in Limerick on August 14th 1913. He entered the Noviceship in Emo on March 12th 1932, and pronounced his First Vows there on March 13th 1934.
From 1934 to 1951 he was Refectorian at Milltown Park. Those of us who studied Theology there remember well his quiet, cheerful character. His devotion to his job and his efficiency in performing it are best attested by the fact that they went almost unnoticed. The dining room - the ‘Refectory’ - is, unhappily, a place we become really aware of only if it is neglected or inefficiently managed. In Jimmy’s day you just went into the Refectory, sat down without reflection, and ‘got down to it’: everything needed ready at hand in the cleanest of environments.
On August 15th 1946 Brother Owens pronounced his Final Vows in Milltown Park. He was Refectorian in Clongowes for almost nine years: 1951-1957 and 1959-1962. The two years 1957-1959 were spent as Refectorian in Rathfarnham Castle. The years 1964-1967 were also spent at Clongowes and he was in Galway 1967-1975.
The last years of his life were spent in his native city, Limerick: in the Crescent from 1975-1978; and he died unexpectedly there in Croom Hospital on August 15th, 1978”.

Father Cassidy writes from the Crescent:
“Brother Jimmy Owens came to the Crescent three years ago - where he had, as a boy, completed his Secondary Education up to Leaving Certificate. From his arrival in 1975, although his health was already greatly impaired, he carried out his duties, spiritual and practical with an affability and cheerfulness that gave no intimation of his physical troubles. He had an established ability to deal with all problems with peace and acceptance. When he died one felt that he had done well the particular work given him in this world, and slipped away as quietly and unobtrusively as he would have wished. The tender and affectionate regard with which he was held by the public and by members of his own family was abundantly evident at his death. May such gentle and good men be always with us”.

Born: 01 April 1908, Wood Quay, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 14 September 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1942, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 31 August 1983, Milltown Park, Dublin

Parents were National teachers and resided at New Dock Street, Galway City.

Middle of three boys with three sisters.

Early education was at the Claddagh and Bohermore National Schools, he then went in 1921 to St Mary’s College Galway. In 1924 hhe went to St Joseph’s College Galway to prepare for the National Bank exams, but decided to apply for a Clerical Officer ecxam in 1926 and was successgul. He then went to Rockwell College in 1926 for one year.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 58th Year No 4 1983

Obituary

Fr Thomas O’Sullivan (1908-1927-1983)

Tommy O'Sullivan entered the noviceship in Tullabeg in 1927, a fortnight later than the main body which entered on 1st September. All those who entered late that year are
gone to Heaven now, and most of the others.
Brother O'Sullivan did not make himself noticeable in the noviceship nor later. He was always quiet and humble and good-humoured. The solid thing was there which made him so useful in Limerick for many years and then in Rathmines.
Being slightly older, he was given a home juniorate with several others instead of university. There he was fortunate to have forming him Fr Fergal McGrath and Fr Alan P Farrell (America). After two years he was sent to Tullabeg for philosophy, He slipping a year ahead of those who entered with him. In Tullabeg he helped to mould the happy life that the new philosophate there became.
Colleges were done in Limerick, theology in Milltown ("shorts', under Frs Fr Joey Canavan, an excellent course), ordination in 1940 in the war, tertianship in Rathfarnham under Fr Henry Keane, then back to Limerick (194 1-71), until age retired him to parish work in Rathmines.
We are meant to be insignes. With him it meant that quiet solidity that makes a college or church the successful apostolate which the Society expects. Heart attacks in his last years were taken in the same quiet way, slightly interrupting his routine of church work. One would altogether take for granted that it was: Come, good and faithful servant, the night the Lord called him Home after another heart attack.

In a letter written by His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, addressed to Fr Provincial and transmitted to Fr O’Sullivan's community, Milltown Park, Dr Dermot Ryan regretted that he had not been represented at the funeral. He himself had been away. and Archbishop’s House did not become aware of Fr O’Sullivan's death till some days had elapsed. added: “The diocesan clergy knew Father O’Sullivan well. He was very devoted in his attendance at deanery meetings. He will be missed by the priests and people in Rathmines.”
Fr O’Sullivan died on 31st August 1983.

Obituary
Fr Thomas O'Sullivan : continued
† 31st August 1983

To our obituary notice of Fr Thomas O'Sullivan in the October issue of the Province News, we append the following details submitted by his contemporary an tAthair Proinsias O Fionnagáin:

Thomas (he resented deeply the diminutive “Tommy”) O'Sullivan from his earliest days at Tullabeg gave advance notice of that self-effacement which so characterised his scholastic years and priestly life. Yet he was one of the few of the 1927 intake of novices to be admitted to the “vows of devotion” - surely an indication of the esteem he had earned with Fr Martin Maher and the Provincial of the time, Fr John Fahy.
Shortly after his arrival in Rathfarnhan it was discovered that he had not presented Latin in his Leaving Certificate and so was ineligible for admission to the Arts faculty of the NUI. As a result, Fr Fahy decided he should do one year of the home juniorate and then go on to philosophy. But we, his contemporaries, knew that he might have read a most distinguished course at UCD. The present writer recalls that in Fr Maher's Latin classes for second-year novices, Thomas could give a penetratingly good account of the subtleties of Latin syntax. I think he felt passed over when no arrangement was made to allow him to go to College. He never complained but we knew that deep down he felt hurt. He gave a poor account of himself in his philosophy exams.; perhaps his ingrained disposition to self-effacement gave the wrong impression to his examiners. In any event he was appointed to the short course in theology.
When I arrived in Milltown in 1938, Fr Frank Shaw asked me one day, “Aren't you a contemporary of Tom O'Sullivan's?” I agreed. Then Shaw, no mean judge of intellectual ability in a man, remarked, “Well, O'Sullivan is one man at least who is well fit to be in the ‘longs’.”
After his tertianship he was sent to the Crescent where he was to spend so many years. Here, his fellows realised that Thomas was a man gifted beyond the common run, this self-effacing man who shunned the limelight. I wonder how many in the province today, who knew him, are aware that he was a violinist of ability who had won the approval of Fr Arthur Little, a musician of uncommon sensitivity. He was a welcome member of the teaching staff and proved a capable master in Latin, Irish and other subjects. But as the school began to increase towards the middle 1940s he felt less and less at home in the classrooms that were now crowded with tall hefty youth. Bit by bit he eased himself out of the secondary school except for a couple of classes and established himself in the junior school. His credit with the parents of his pupils was simply immense.
Meantime he was being prepared for the really great work of his life in Limerick - the church choir. In 1943. Fr Robert Dillon-Kelly, choirmaster since 1914, was transferred to Galway and Fr Thomas was presented with his baton. The first few years in command must have tested his diplomacy and patience to the limit. In the choir-room he was faced by a formidable array of faithful old-timers, voluble prima donnas and operatically-voiced gentlemen of a more gracious age. Their répertoire, Mercadante et al, was all very well for a vanished generation that wanted their sermons long ... thirty, preferably forty minutes ... and luscious intervals of devotional bombastic music. Thomas had to bring a sense of reality into the choir-room and the organ loft.
He had also to provide a choir for ordinary Benediction services, of which there were very many, and to meet this need he formed a young girls' choir from amongst the sisters of our lads whose voices inclined to break, alas, too soon. Year after year this Crescent girls' choir had an audition on Radio Éireann that won acclaim throughout the country.
The reformed senior choir was meticulously trained to render worthy programmes at the sung Mass on Sundays and the greater feasts. Such was Fr Thomas's devotion to duty as choir master that it can be safely said he was absent for only three weeks out of fifty two: to make his retreat and spend a fort night near his family in Galway
Like the late Fr Peter Troddyn, Thomas was a very well-informed man. Uninvited he never advanced his views on anything. Likewise he never started an argument. If you found yourself arguing with him, then you had already lost.
During my father's last illness in 1944 I had to pay a number of visits home. As often as I returned to Limerick, an apologetic knock at my door told me it was Thomas or Fr McWilliams who had come to express sympathy and promise continued prayers. Thomas was then a young man, Fr McWilliams was into his eighties, but both priests had so much in common: an unobtrusive capacity for Sympathy and an exemplary gift of discretion. It is safe to say that no man living can recall a rash judgment, an uncharitable word, expressed by Fr Thomas.
Like Zachaeus, Thomas was a man of small physical stature ... so was St lgnatius himself ... so also were such celebrities of the Irish province as Fr Albert Power (”the mighty atom”), Fr Patrick Gannon and Thomas's own contemporary, Fr Terry Sheridan. You don't judge a man's worth by his physical stature, as David Lloyd George once said to an elongated nit-wit who referred to him as “the little man”: “In my country (Wales) a man's stature is measured from the chin up”.
Gaeilgeoir dúthrachtach ab ea an tAthair Tomás. I measc sluaite na nGael i bhfaitheas De, faoi bhrat Mhuire, go raibh a anam caomh, cneasta, cróga.

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: 06 January 1715, Clinagh, Drummully, County Fermanagh
Entered: 13 August 1734, Tarragona, Spain - Aragonsnsis Province (ARA)
Ordained: 1743, Valencia, Spain
Died: 15 July 1749, Galway Residence, Galway City, Ciounty Galway

Fr Francis Finegan SJ
DOB 06 January 1715 Drummully; Ent 13 April 1734 Tarragona ARA; Ord 1743 Valencia;
One of the very few Irishmen to be associated with the ARA Province
After First Vows he remained in Tarragona for a year of study.
1737-1740 He was sent for Philosophy at Gandia
1740-1743 Then he was sent for Theology at Valencia where he was Ordained 1743
1743 Sent to Gandia College to teach Humanities, and two years later as Operarius at the Church in Gandia

Born: 26 July 1855, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 16 September 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 19 June 1894, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare
Final Vows: 15 August 1903
Died: 01 June 1938, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Early education at PBC Cork and St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

Previously joined in 1874 at Milltown and left in 1876 rejoining 1890

by 1902 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Went to Louisiana Mission and LEFT without making Vows. READMITTED 16 September 1890

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 13th Year No 4 1938
Obituary :
Father William O’Reilly
1855 Born 26th July in Cork City
1890 Entd. 16th June, Tullabeg
1891 Tullabeg, Novice
1892-93 Milltown, Theol. (Ordained at Maynooth, 29 June 84)
1894-95 Clongowes, Doc
1896-97 Crescent, Doc. Oper. Praes. Cong. S.S. Heart, etc
1898-1900 Crescent, Min. Doc. Praef. Sod. B.V.M.. etc.. etc
1901 Tronchiennes Tertian
1902-03 Crescent, Min, Pries. Sod. S.S. Cordis Doc.. etc
1904 Crescent, Miss. Excurr. Oper
1905 Crescent, Min, Pries. Sod. S.S. Cordis Doc.. etc
1906-07 Galway, Miss. Excurr, Oper
1908 Tullabeg, Praef. Spir. Miss. Excurr., etc
1909-38 Crescent, During this period he was “Cons. dom” for 20 years, had charge of various Sodalities, and was “Dir Pioneers” from 1921 to the end. etc.

He died at St Vincent's, Dublin, on Wednesday, 1st June, 1938, within a few days of his 83rd year.

Father J. Gubbins, his Rector, has kindly sent us the following :
With the death of Father W. P. O'Reilly a well-known and revered figure has disappeared from the streets of Limerick. For thirty-nine years he worked at the Crescent. During five of these in addition to Church work, he taught in the College. One of his pupils, now labouring in the vineyard of the Lord, spoke to me of his kindness, his strict justice and impartiality to all, of the interest he afterwards took in their careers, of the encouragement he would give when difficulties arose. In this variety of work he laboured assiduously. His powers of organising were known and recognised throughout the country, Concerts, plays, lectures and excursions got up by him were always a success. He took great pains with his sermons and instructions. Where a helping hand could be given, a position secured, he left no stone unturned. The following extract from the “Limerick Leader” June, 1938 will illustrate his undaunted and untiring character:
It was through his good offices and influence the lives of Mr. Timothy Murphy and Mr. Edward Punch of Limerick, and Mr. John Egan of Ennis, were spared when these three were sentenced to death by the British military for their activities on behalf of Ireland during the period of the Anglo-Irish struggle. Father O'Reilly was a man of great influence, and he used it unsparingly and successfully in preventing three executions which would undoubtedly have been carried out were it not for his exertions. Father O'Reilly himself was anxious that credit for the saving of the lives in question should be given to Father Bernard Vaughan, with whom he was on terms of the closest friendship, and who was a cousin of Lord FitzAlan. the last British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
He never wished for external show or display, and so, at his own request, his fifty years jubilee as a priest was quietly held on 19th June, 1934. He was prudent in advising, and his judgment always sound. This was the experience of Ours who sought his advice, of religious and of externs. For nineteen years he was extraordinary Confessor to the Good Shepherds. All there admit that they have lost a kind father, a good friend and counsellor.
He was an exemplary Religious, and a good community man, always charitable and obliging. Though never sick himself he was always most kind to the sick, and paid frequent visits to the hospitals.
On January 8th he fell sick, and two days later was removed to Milford House. Towards the end of March the doctors suggested an operation, and Father O'Reilly himself was anxious for it. His life long friend, Dr. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe, had the same operation, and was completely cured. On April 1st he went from Milford to St. Vincent's, Dublin. Prior to the operation he was treated for two months. On May 29th the operation took place and he died on June 1st. Throughout his long stay in the hospital he was most patient - this for, a man who had never been sick was most surprising. Though he suffered much he never complained. He spoke in praise of the attention he was getting, and was most grateful for a visit or any token of kindness. Both the Bishop of Killaloe and the Bishop of Limerick visited him at St. Vincent's and his gratitude was genuine and touching.
It is hard to realise that . such a kind man has gone from our midst , but he had laboured well for the Lord. and the Lord has called him to his reward.
The following note of sympathy from the Bishop of Killaloe expresses also the views of Father O'Reilly's Community :
“I write to offer my sincere and deepest sympathy on the loss of Father W. P. O'Reilly, my class-fellow and life long friend. He was a saintly and zealous priest, a true and loyal friend. I am offering Mass for the repose of his soul. R.I.P”

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Paul O’Reilly (1855-1938)

Was born in the city of Cork and had been a secular priest, having been ordained at Maynooth in 1884, when he entered the Society in 1891. He continued his studies at Milltown Park and taught for one year at Clongowes before his first arrival at the Crescent in 1896. He was a member of the teaching and church staffs for the next four years when he was sent to Belgium for his tertianship. He returned to the Crescent in 1902 and was minister of the house for the next three years. The three ensuing years were spent as member of the mission staff until he returned once more to remain at the Crescent until his last illness, 1909-38. Henceforth, Father O'Reilly's life was given up to the work of a busy church, preaching, the confessional and the direction of various sodalities. Up to the 1930's, while his physical endurance was still to be envied, he was able, besides fulfilling his duties in the church, to organise concerts, plays, lectures and Pioneer excursions. Where a helping hand could be given, he put himself out to oblige. His obituary notice in the “Limerick Leader” surely illustrates what a power in the land he was during the Black and Tan war: “It was through his good offices and influence the lives of Mr Timothy Murphy and Mr Edward Punch of Limerick and Mr John Egan of Ennis were spared when these three were sentenced to death by the British military for their activities on behalf of Ireland during the period of the Anglo-Irish struggle. Father O'Reilly was a man of influence and he used it unsparingly and successfully in preventing three executions which would undoubtedly have been carried out were it not for his exertions. Father O'Reilly himself was anxious that credit for saving the lives in question should be given to Father Bernard Vaughan with whom he was on terms of closest friendship, and who was a cousin of Lord Fitzalan, the last British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland”.

Full of years and merits, Father O'Reilly passed away, leaving a void in the hearts of many who profited by his priestly ministrations.

Born: 31 December 1849, Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan
Entered: 19 April 1872, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1887, St Beuno’s, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 21 January 1932, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Youngest brother of John (ANG) - RIP 1892, and Philip (ANG) - RIP 1926

Early education at Mount St Mary’s, Derbyshire and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1873 at Laval, France (FRA) studying
by 1885 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1888 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying
by 1890 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932
Obituary :
Fr Richard O'Reilly
On Thursday, 21 January, Fr. R, O'Reilly died at Tullabeg, in his 59th year in the Society, at the age of 82.

He first saw the light at Ballyjamesduff, Co, Cavan on the 31st December 1849, was educated. first at St. Mary's, Chesterfield, then went to Clongowes in 1868, where he joined the class I Grammar, taught by Fr. N. Walsh, and had as class fellow Fr. M. Devitt. He was elected captain of the House two years in succession. This unique honour was probably due to that popularity which won for him so many friends in after life.
He entered the novitiate at Milltown 19 April 1872, and at the end of the two years was sent to Roehampton. After spending some months there he joined Frs. M. Devitt and H. Lynch at Milltown in September. All three attended the courses of the old Catholic University for the year 1874-75.
Three years philosophy at Laval followed, and then began a course of teaching for 6 years in Ireland, The first of them was spent in Tullabeg the next three in Clongowes, and the last two at the Crescent. His subjects were Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics. For one year he had charge of the H. Line debate in Clongowes. Theology came next, one year in Jersey and three at St. Beuno's. A year was spent in Mungret as Minister and Procurator before going to his Teirtianship at Tronchiennes in 1889.
On returning to Ireland he began his long career as Minister, Procurator, Consulter, broken only by three years as Miss. Excurr., during which he was stationed in Galway.
In all he was Minister for 11 years, Procurator or sub-Proc. for 29, Consultor for 39, twenty-seven of them being in Tullabeg.
He lived in Tullabeg for 29 years, in Clongowes for 9, Mungret 5, Galway 3, Milltown 3, Crescent 2, and Belvedere 1 (1917-18). These, with 8 years abroad, brought him to within a few months of his Diamond Jubilee in the Society.
He had charge of the People's Sodality in Tullabeg for a Number of years, and his devotion to the work made the members really devoted to him. They almost looked on him as their Parish Priest. He spoke to them with great frankness when occasion demanded it, and told them of their faults, but this only increased their respect.
For years he never missed saying Mass in the People's Church daily, though in winter it was so cold that with difficulty he kept the blood circulating in hi s fingers so as to hold the chalice. The novices looked serving Mass in that Church for a week during winter as a severe penance yet Fr O'Reilly said Mass there, week in week out, for many a year,
With the priests too he was very popular. At all their social meetings he was ever a welcome guest, and was given the place of honour. When Dr. Mulvaney was consecrated Bishop, it was Fr. O'Reilly who was placed on the Bishop's right hand.
All this shows what manner of man Fr. O'Reilly was. Through life a quiet, steady worker, easy to get on with, yet, when his own opinions seemed right, they were defended with energy. His kindliness won for him hosts of friends at home and abroad. No man enjoyed a joke better and when he himself was the object of the fun every thing was taken in the best possible humour, a somewhat rare virtue. To the end he was an excellent religious, and his devotion to the obligations of Jesuit life resembled at times those of a novice.
Fr, O’Reilly was anointed on Saturday evening, 16 Jan., yet he was able to get up on Sunday, actually said Mass and heard two others. On Monday he offered the Holy Sacrifice for the last time, and on the following Thursday morning was found dead.
His Lordship Dr. Mulvaney, many priests and a great crowd of people attended the Requiem Mass and funeral

◆ The Clongownian, 1932

Obituary
Father Richard O’Reilly SJ

Many old Clongownians will have heard with regret of Father O'Reilly's death at Tullabeg, on 21st January, 1932. He was then already beginning the 83rd year of his age and had nearly completed the 60th year of his religious life. Born at Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on 31st December, 1849, he was educated first at Mount St Mary's College, Chesterfield, from which he entered Clongowes on 31st October, 1868, and was placed in the class of I Grammar, of which the late Father Nicholas Walsh was then Master. Richard was then 18 years of age and considerably senior to most of his class-fellows, to whom he gave a good example of piety, industry and genial comradeship. His skill at games, especially on the cricket ground, where he excelled as a batsman, secured his election as Captain of the Higher Line XI in the summer of 1870, and his re-election to the same position in 1871. In the summer of this year an unpleasant incident occurred which occasioned some criticism of the Captain. An inter-collegiate cricket match had been arranged between Ciongowes and Tullabeg, and was to be played on the Clongowes ground. On the morning of the fixture, a scurrilous and insulting letter, anonymous, but purporting to come from the Tullabeg team, was delivered to the Clongowes Captain, who immediately showed it to the Rector Father Carbery, with the result that the latter sent an express messenger to Tullabeg cancelling the invitation previously issued to the XI of the latter College. This precipitate action caused much disappointment and bitterness, especially when it was ascertained that the Tullabeg XI had no cognisance whatever of the writer, and were looking forward to the match in the most friendly spirit. At the end of the Summer Term, 1871, Richard O'Reilly left Clongowes, having completed his course in the class of Rhetoric, of which Father James Dalton was Master. On 19th April, 1872, he entered the Jesuit Noviceship at Milltown Park. Two of his elder brothers had joined the Society before him - John in the English Province and Philip in the Irish, from which, in 1886, at his own request, he was transferred to England. Richard having completed his two years novitiate and one year of second Rhetoric at Milltown Park, was in 1875 sent to Laval for the usual three years course of Philosophy, and in 1878 to Tullabeg as master. In the following year he went to Clongowes as Master; taking Middle Grade for two years, and I Rhetoric for one year (1881-82), when he was also Presiderit of the Higher Line Debate.

After two years further teaching at the Crescent College, Limerick, he began his Theology at Jersey, in 1884, and passing to St Beuno's, N Wales, in 1885, where he was ordained in 1887. At the end of his fourth year theology, in 1888, he was appointed Minister and Procurator of Mungret College. He made his Tertianship in the following year at Tronchienne, and in 1890 was appointed Procurator and in charge of the farm at Tullabeg, where he remained in the same position for seven years. In 1897 he joined the Missionary Staff, and in 1900 he took charge of the farm in Clongowes for a period of six years. In 1906 he returned to Mungret as Minister and Procurator for four years. In 1910 he was again Procurator at Tullabeg, where, with the exception of one year as Minister in Belvedere College, he spent the rest of his life, either acting as Minister or in charge of the farm, and there he celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1922.

Of the 60 years of his life in religion, he gave 29 to the service of Tullabeg and 9 to that of Clongowes. In the various offices which he held he displayed great activity, and showed an ardent interest not only in his own work but in the responsibilities and concerns of others inside and outside the Society. For over a year before his death his energy had begun to wane, heart trouble set in and at last congestion of the lungs supervened. He received the last Sacraments on January 20th and died peacefully in sleep on the morning of January 21st, 1932. RIP

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1932 : Golden Jubilee

Obituary

Father Richard O’Reilly SJ

The 21st of January saw the death of Father O'Reilly at the advanced age of 82. For some months his health had been precarious and people wondered whether he would survive until his Diamond Jubilee in the Society. That he did not live to see it and the Golden Jubilee of Mungret College is a cause of sincere regret to us.

Father O'Reilly was born at Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on the 31st of December, 1849. After a year or two spent at Mt St Mary's College, Chesterfield, he went to Clongowes in 1868, where, before the end of his schooldays, he had the rare honour of being elected Captain of the House for two years in succession.

In 1872 he entered the Novitiate of the Society at Milltown Park, Dublin, and, at the end of two years, was sent to Roehampton. After some months spent there, he returned to Ireland to attend the courses of the Catholic University.

He spent three years at Laval, in France, studying philosophy and then taught for a year at Tullabeg, at that time a College of the Society. The next five years were spent teaching in Clongowes, and in the Crescent. Theology came next, one year in Jersey and three at St Bueno's, in Wales. In 1888, he came to Mungret as Minister and Procurator, before going to his Tertianship in Tronchiennes. He returned to Mungret in 1907, in his former capacity as Minister, and filled that office until 1910.

By far the greater part of the remainder of Father O'Reilly's life was spent at Tullabeg. He was given charge of the Sodality attached to the People's Church there, and won the respect of the people for miles around. His Sodalists were devoted to him and almost looked on him as their parish priest; and this in spite of the fact that when occasion demanded, he could be fearless in his rebukes.

His popularity with his fellow-priests was unbounded. Excellent at kindly repartee, they enjoyed a passage at arms with him, and his quick wit was nearly always successful in routing his opponents. When he himself was overthrown, a somewhat rare occurrence, he never showed signs other than those of an imperturbable self-possession and good humour. At social meetings he was ever a welcome guest, and was given the place of honour. When Dr Mulvaney was consecrated Bishop, it was Father O'Reilly that was placed on his right hand.

He knew everyone for miles around Tullabeg and was keenly interested in their doings. Those in trouble found him ever ready to come to their help with practical and sound advice. A quiet steady worker and excellent religious, his departure will be keenly felt by a wide circle of friends. He has taken with him some of that old-world courtesy and interest in things of the intellect, qualities all too rare in an age of staccato phrases and loose thinking. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Richard O’Reilly (1849-1932)

A native of Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan and educated at St Mary's, Chesterfield and Clongowes, entered the Society in 1872. He made his higher studies at the old Catholic University, Laval, Jersey and St. Beuno's, Wales. He spent two years of his regency here from 1882 to 1884. With the exception of three years on the mission staff, all of Father O'Reilly's priestly life was passed in the bursar's office and from 1902, with the exception of one year, his days were passed at Tullabeg where he worked many years in the church. In his school days he was elected captain of the house for two successive years-a distinction probably unique in the annals of that school.

Born: 14 March 1847, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 15 March 1869, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1883
Final Vows: 23 February 1902
Died: 13 March 1902, Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road, Galway

Early education at St Finian’s Seminary, Navan and St Patrick’s College Maynooth

2nd year Novitiate at Roehampton London (ANG)
by 1871 at Roehampton, London (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Maria Laach College, Germany (GER) Studying
by 1873 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1882 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying
by 1886 at Roehampton, London (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1888 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had intended to become a Priest in the Diocese and so went to Maynooth, before he decided to join the Society.

After First Vows he was sent to Maria Laach for Philosophy.
1874-1881 He was sent for Regency to Tullabeg, teaching Science, for which he had a remarkable talent.
1881-1885 He was sent to St Beuno’s for Theology.
1885-1886 He was sent back teaching at Tullabeg.
1887-1888 Sent for Tertianship to Drongen.
1888-1890 He was sent to the Crescent.
1890 He was sent to Galway as a Missioner and where he remained until his death 13 March 1902

He was a man of remarkable and varied talents. He not only excelled in Maths and Science, but he was also a very accomplished Classical scholar. He was a gentle and friendly man, always obliging others, and at the same time energetic and self-sacrificing in his work.
He had to endure a long and painfulness before death. He had suffered from digestive problems, but seemed able to manage them. These became much more acute in August 1901, and by September he had been able to travel to Dublin for medical diagnosis, where it was found he had a bad and inoperable cancer. When he returned to Galway, he said to one of the Community “Well, I have just had a great piece of news. It seems I am going to Heaven fast!” He had always had a special devotion to the Queen of Sorrows, and he intensified this in the succeeding months. His end came peacefully, just as the bell was ringing for Lenten Devotions, 13 March 1902.

He was the first Jesuit to die at Coláiste Iognáid, Galway.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Patrick O’Reilly SJ 1847-1902
Fr Patrick O’Reilly was born at Drogheda on March 14th 1847. He studied for the priesthood for some years at Maynooth before becoming a novice of the Society at Milltown Park in 1869.

He was a man of remarkable and varied talents. He was not only a mathematician and a a scientist but also a classical scholar. As teacher, confessor or preacher, he was most successful.

The way he met his end was characteristic of the man. Being informed that he had incurable cancer, he returned to St Ignatius Galway, where he was stationed, and said to one of the community : “I have just heard a great piece of news. It seems that I am going to Heaven fast”.

During the weary months of waiting for the end, he prayed constantly to the Holy Souls and to Our Lady of Dolours. The end came peacefully on March 13th 1902, just as the Church bell was ringing for the Lenten devotions.

He was the first member of the Society to die in St Ignatius Galway.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Patrick O’Reilly (1847-1902)

Was a native of Drogheda and had been studying at Maynooth some years when he was admitted to the Society in 1869. He made his higher studies at Maria Laach, in Germany and at St Beuno's in Wales, and was ordained in 1884. He spent three years as master at the Crescent and assistant in the church from 1888 to 1891. Though a gifted teacher, especially of science, his preference was for mission work to which he was later assigned. The later years of his short life were spent at St Ignatius, Galway.

Born: 18 July 1902, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 31 August 1920, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 03 August 1932 (from Milltown Park Dublin, studying theology)

Mother died in 1910. Father died in 1912

Educated Mercy Convent Galway and then at the Presentation Sisters school. After his mother died he went to the Christian Brothers in Galway.. Then his father died and his Uncle, Rev SJ Nestor of the Galway diocese was made his guardian (Ennistymon, County Clare). He sent him with his two younger brothers to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Banagher. After two years there he was sent to Blackrock College for one year and then to Mungret College SJ in 1915.

1920-1922: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Novitiate
1922-1923: Montée de Fourvière, Lyon France (LUGD) studying
1923-1924: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate
1924-1927: Milltown Park, Philosophy
1927-1931: St Ignatius College Riverview, Sydney - Regency
1931-1932: Milltown Park, Theology

Born: 24 November 1903, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1919, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1934, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1968, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 26 February 1979, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

Father was a farmer and a journalist and both parents are dead.

When his father died he was sent to his uncle, a Parish Priest in St Colman’s Church, Church Street, Gort, County Galway.

Educated first at Banagher Convent for two years and then went to Blackrock College CSSp for one year. He finally went to Mungret College SJ

Studied for BA at UCD

by 1936 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 54th Year No 2 1979

Galway
Fr Andrew O’Reilly RIP
It is with sincere regret that we have to record the death of one of the most respected and revered members of our community. Fr Andrew O’Reilly died on February 26 of an incurable illness, leukemia. His funeral Mass on Ash Wednesday, February 28, was concelebrated and attended by a very representative gathering of members of the Province. The chief concelebrant was his Rector, Fr Robert McGoran, assisted by the Vice-Principal, Fr Joseph Dargan, and Fr Bernard Murray.
Of Fr Andy we in the community could say “He was all things to all of us”. Always a friend to whom you could go when you wanted anything done. Elsewhere in this issue is an obituary notice. It was written by Fr Michael McGrath. Sincere thanks to him for such a fitting tribute. We include also two appreciations from dear friends, Maurice Semple, author of two books, “Some Galway Memories” and “Reflections on Lough Corrib”, and owner of the boat on which Fr O’Reilly spent his summer vacation, and Seán Beatty of the Columban Badminton Club, of which Fr O'Reilly was president.

Obituary :

Fr Andrew O’Reilly (1904-1979)

Fr Andy, as he was known by all, was a man without a spark of pride in him, yet in the last few years of his life, urged on and prompted by an American cousin, he did quite an amount of research on the family tree. Though three generations of O’Reillys have lived in Co Galway and Galway city, the O’Reillys were of Cavan origin. His greatgrandfather was Edward O’Reilly of Killanne between Shercock and Bailieborough. This Edward, who was a farmer, had a family of two sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Edward, became a teacher, moved south, and taught in Knockroon school between Headford and Shrule and lived in Headford. He married a Miss Kyne and had three children, a daughter Margaret and two sons, Alfred, who followed his father's footsteps and became a teacher, and Augustus, who moved to Galway and worked in the “Connacht Tribune”. Later, Augustus met and married a Catherine Nestor, whose family came originally from Gort. Augustus and Catherine had six children, Eddie, Andrew (our Fr Andy), George, Jack, Patrick and May. Both parents died whilst the family was still very young. The mother died in 1909 and the father in 1912, so their uncle, Father, later Canon, Andrew Nestor took charge of them. It meant however that the young OReillys hardly knew family life and had to be educated in boarding schools. So Fr Andy was in Banagher Convent, Blackrock College and Mungret. Andy felt the call to the priesthood and the Society. This was not surprising as the Nestor family had a tradition of giving sons to the priesthood. Fr Andy's granduncle, Fr John, was a priest of the diocese and died in Gort in 1853. Then as well as Fr Andrew Nestor, Fr Andy had another uncle, Fr John, who became a Jesuit in America where he died in 1942. Following therefore in their footsteps Fr. Andy entered the novitiate on September 1st 1919 before he had completed his sixteenth year.
He followed what was then the strict routine of formation and studies:
Noviceship 1919-1921 at Tullabeg
Home Juniorate 1921-1922 also at Tullabeg
University 1922-25 from Rathfarnham
Philosophy 1925-28 at Milltown
Regency 1928-31 at Clongowes
Theology 1931-35 with ordination 1934
Tertianship 1935-36 at St. Beuno's College, Wales
His first assignement after Tertianship was to St Ignatius College, Galway where he was to spend the rest of his life. For two years, he was Adj Praef Stud, Doc and Praef Spir Alumn, among other things. On August 3rd, 1938 he was appointed Rector but was also Doc and Operarius in the Church. Because the war intervened he held the office of Rector until 1947, a period of nine years. They were difficult years as finance was very tight because school fees were low and prices were rising. Yet he managed to save the wood panelling of the Church ceiling which was found to be infested with woodworm, as well as keeping the complex solvent. Whilst he fulfilled his duties as Rector most faithfully and conscientiously, with sound judgement and with kindness and consideration for everyone, I think it can be truthfully stated that he was never quite happy in the position and looked forward to the day his term of office would be finished. Being an essentially humble and self-effacing man, he disliked the limelight.
It was during his term of office that the Old Boys’ Union was founded and he also managed the affairs of the Columban Hall. This was because a Provincial had said that unless it paid its way it would have to be sold. By careful management and by doing most of the work himself, he managed to keep it afloat. In this way, he fostered music and dramatics in the city, for the Columban Hall was the only hall for such functions at the time. In his own strange way, he was very interested in these functions and made his contribution behind the scenes by acting as stage manager. His connection with the same hall continued to the end. Since the new School Hall was built, most of the former activities of the Columban Hall have been transferred to it, but Fr Andy continued to maintain the old Columban Hall. There had grown up a love-hate relationship between himself and that old building. From time to time, he would declare that he would gladly be rid of it, but at the same time all felt that he would be lonely without it.
When he ceased to be Rector, he returned to fulltime teaching, being the principal Latin teacher, through the medium of Irish, for many a long year. He was a man of tremendous practical abilities and skills and as well as his teaching, he was prepared to exercise his talents as electrician, carpenter, welder and general handyman in the house in his spare time. He even installed our first interphone system and did the same in Belvedere and the Crescent. Although he found preaching and public speaking difficult, he was always willing to step into the breach in the Church when help was needed. His whole life, though a rather hidden one, was nevertheless a very fulll one and one of service to others. He did not find it easy to mix with people, but when occasion demanded he was a most pleasant companion in any group. When he made friends his friendship was very sincere and loyal and again one of service. In return, his circle of friends was very loyal to him and truly loved him,
He was a man of prayer and most exact in the performance of all his religious duties but there was no outward show. He was a man who strictly interpreted his vow of poverty, sough permission for the gifts he received, never had superflua, never wasted, and used what he needed for his life and work with great care.
He was a man of great patience, self control and toleration and whilst he could get irritated and slightly annoyed, I don’t think anyone ever saw him lose his temper or get angry.
If he had one passion, it was his love of the Corrib River and Lake. He was never a great talker, but when he spoke of his trips and holidays on the lake he waxed eloquent. The Lake was obviously his earthly paradise. I think it was the peace, quiet and solitude of the lake that appealed to him, that and the companionship of those very dear friends, who shared these holidays and trips with him. May the Lord bless the Provincial who first granted him permission for such a holiday. He gave much happiness to Fr Andy. For whilst Andy gave unremitting service to the Society in Galway, apart from this pleasure we did not give him back much in return. Whilst he was teaching the Latin Classics down through the long years, from time to time he said he would like to visit Rome and Italy. Being the man he was, he would not ask for such a trip, but now it seems a pity that no one in authority ever said, “Andy, here is the money, Go”. Andy however did not look for earthly rewards.
His end was like the rest of his life, quiet, unobtrusive and without causing any trouble. He had been failing slightly for some months but no one paid much attention. He had always been so active, so sprightly, we thought that now in his 75th year, the years were catching up on him. However at the end of January it became apparent that it was something more than age. He was sent to the doctor who diagnosed leukaemia and he was put into hospital. There it was discovered after tests that he had one of the worst forms of that disease. Because his poor blood condition left him wide open to every and any infection he had to be pretty well isolated and his illness had to be kept quiet. Only the Rector and Fr Murray were allowed to visit him and then only for brief visits. He found the blood transfusions and drugs distressing and the haemorrhages and other side effects of his disease humiliating and then there was the loneliness of his isolation. As the month of February passed and he did not respond to the treatment it became obvious that there was little hope of his recovery. The Community arranged to say a Novena of Masses for him. The end came quicker than was expected on the morning of February 26th, the day the first Mass of the Novena was said. The Lord had answered but in a way we did not expect. Thus he entered his reward for his life of truly faithful service, and we can be certain he was welcomed by his Lord and Master with the words “Well done good and faithful servant: enter into the joy of the Lord”.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam gléigeal.

An Appreciation
It is only when one loses a friend to Death that the impact of his personality can be appreciated objectively. And so, with the passing to his Eternal Reward of Father Andrew O'Reilly, it is possible to consider him both as a priest and as a friend.
"Father Andy", as he was affectionately known to his friends, was firstly - and finally - a man of God, a faithful observer of the Rule of Saint Ignatius. This was reflected in his profound trust in Divine Providence and in his extraordinary sense of obedience and humility, Those of us who were fortunate to be close to him can truthfully and sincerely confirm that he was an inspiration - an example – on how to co-operate with Our Lord, and so, come closer to Him. And we are deeply, deeply grateful to Father Andy for this.
Who would expect that an expert in the Classics (having taught so many boys at Saint Ignatius College down the years the idiosyncrasies of Vergil and Homer) could also write to his friends in verse, while, in his unassuming manner, revealing himself as a skilled carpenter, electrician, and general handyman, whose talents were so freely made available to his Community and his friends ?
Father Andy had one particular interest, apart from his priestly vocation - his love for the Corrib country. Being a Galwayman, he had opportunity to visit it. For 21 years he sailed Lough Corrib from end to end, fishing, exploring and enjoying that peace and beauty so peculiar to that lake. In addition to his weekly visits during each season, he spent his annual fortnight's vacation in a boat, offering the Divine Sacrifice daily, on the lake. When he celebrated Mass on the 3rd August 1958 on a boat on the Corrib, it was the first time ever that such an event took place not alone on the Corrib but on any other lake in these islands. It was an historic occasion which pleased him greatly.
His ability to adapt himself in every company, his gentleness and his deep Christian convictions were an inspiration to many people around the lake. His passing has not only been a tremendous loss to his friends and Community but also a void on the Corrib scene.
May his gentle Soul find peace in his Divine Master and joy in the Happy Fishing Grounds.
(William F.) Maurice Semple

An Appreciation
Fr Andrew O’Reilly SJ, a Galway man, a community man, a priest, a friend and companion, slipped out of this world last month leaving with his friends and all who knew him wonderful and cherished memories.
Born in Galway 76 years ago. Went to school in Galway. Entered the Society of Jesus in 1919. Appointed to the teaching staff of Clongowes Wood College and ordained in 1934,
Returned to St. Ignatius College, Sea Road, Galway 43 years ago. Two years later he was appointed Rector. This position he held for 9 years and was also attached to the teaching staff of the College. He being a native Irish speaker, specialised in Irish, also Mathematics and Latin.
He was a quiet and unassuming man. A man of extraordinary and wonderful talent and ability.
Having attended to his priestly duties, he looked forward to overcoming any task great or small. He loved work and took delight and enjoyment in whatever he turned his hands to. His workshop was his paradise.
He was a builder, carpenter, decorator, electrician, painter, plumber, welder, in fact no task was too great and every job was a challenge.
He was associated with the management of the Columban Hall, Sea Road, and its activities including the Columban Players; Penny Dinners and Sewing Guild; Pantomimes (C.H.E.C.); Our Lady’s Boys' Club; Our Lady's Girls' Club; Irish Plays; Irish Dancing and the Columban Badminton club; the latter of which he was Honorary President of at the time of his death. : He was instrumental in reviving badminton in Galway in 1953 and his help and generosity were outstanding.
As a member of Corrib Rowing and Yachting Club, he was a navigator, an angler and above all he was a man of the Corrib. He loved the River Corrib and the Lake. He looked forward to cast off time on board the “Lady Corrib” each summer. For the first fortnight in August each morning he celebrated Mass on board the “Lady Corrib” in Golden Bay, Cong, where friends and neighbours and anglers prayed with him on board, on water and on land.
He has now cast off for his final voyage. His destination in his Final Reward.
He has left on the shore a multitude of friends. His hands will guide the rudder of each of us.
His guidance will be from the Higher Bridge. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.
Always remembered,
Seán Beatty

Born: 15 October 1923, Salthill, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 06 September 1941, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 10 April 1943

Father was a Sergeant of the old RIC and family live at Palmyra Park, Galway.

Second youngest of three boys and five girls.

Early education was at the Christian Brothers primary school in Galway and then at Coláiste Iognáid

Born: 15 February 1915, Eyrecourt, Ballinasloe, Co Galway
Entered: 30 September 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 12 February 2003, County Dublin

Left Society of Jesus: 15 June 1945

Parents, Patrick and Mary (Donnellan) were shopkeepers and father died in 1915.

Elder of two boys.

Early education was at a Convent school and National school both in Eyrecourt, and then he went to Rockwell College for two years, followed by three years at St Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe.

Baptised at St Brendan’s, Eyrecourt, 21/02/1919
Confirmed at St Brendan’s, Eyrecourt, by Dr Dignam of Clonfert, 11/05/1926

1933-1935: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1935-1939: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1939-1941: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1941-1942: Clongowes Wood College S, Regency
1942-1944: Campion Hall, Oxford, England, Studying for a DPhil
1944-1945: St Ignatius Leeson St, preparing thesis for publication and assisting at University Hall.

On leaving was appointed as Assistant Lecturer in Classics at UCD. He was ultimately appointed Professor of Latin at UCD.

Address 2000 & 1991: Maple Road, Clonskeagh, Dublin City & UCD, Belfield, Dublin City

https://www.dib.ie/biography/omeara-john-a9461

O'Meara, John
Contributed by
Bradley, Bruce
O'Meara, John (1915–2003), academic, was born 18 February 1915 at Eyrecourt, Co. Galway, the elder of two sons of Patrick O'Meara, a small businessman from Ilaunmore on Lough Derg, and Mary O'Meara (née Donelan). The very early death of his father, at the end of 1915, and the troubled state of the country coloured his early years but he was to paint a warm portrait of his childhood in his gentle, elegant memoir, The singing masters (1990), written towards the end of his long life. After primary education in the local school, he was sent to Rockwell College in 1928. Planning to become a priest, he transferred to Garbally College, the minor seminary of his native diocese, Clonfert, in 1930. His academic ability and attraction to the ancient classics were quickly apparent and he remembered reading all the Odes of Horace four times during his last two years at school. During a retreat, he decided that his call was to the Society of Jesus rather than the diocese and he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Emo, Co. Laois, in October 1933. This was followed by four years at UCD, while living in Rathfarnham Castle. Here he studied Latin under Patrick Semple (1875–1954), whom he was later to succeed in the chair, and Greek under the redoubtable Michael Tierney (qv), with whom he would cross swords on several issues when his former patron had become president of the college.

A brilliant academic course led to the award of an MA and an NUI travelling studentship in 1939, but the outbreak of war encouraged his Jesuit superiors to send him first to philosophical studies in St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, Co. Offaly (known as 'Tullabeg' to the Jesuits), for two years, and then to teach in Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, for a further year (1941–2). Although not over-impressed by the quality of philosophical teaching he encountered at Tullabeg, he began his first serious work on Neoplatonism there, when studying the Enneads of Plotinus, and he delighted in what he remembered as a life 'of study, good companionship and a common noble purpose' (Singing masters, 78). He retained a special affection for the Jesuits throughout his life.

In October 1942 he was finally able to embark on his studentship, which, owing to the war, he took up in Oxford rather than Berlin or Leipzig, as he might have wished. An inclination towards Platonism from his early years, stimulated by Michael Tierney's tuition, and a growing interest in the Irish ninth-century Platonising philosopher John Scottus Eriugena (qv), then largely neglected, led him to propose the topic 'Prolegomena to the Contra academicos of St Augustine' for his doctoral thesis. This was intended to allow him to explore both Augustine and Plotinus, along with Plotinus's disciple Porphyry. Partly, at least, because of the war, these were not, academically, the best of times in Oxford. Living in the Jesuit Campion Hall, he had to pursue his studies with a lack of adequate supervision and largely on his own. Later on, as professor, he tended to direct his students towards the great European centres of classical study in preference to Oxford or Cambridge. But he loved the enchantments of Oxford itself and the opportunities it afforded of being taught by the great German classicist Eduard Fraenkel and of encountering such memorable figures as Edwin Lutyens, Evelyn Waugh, a very elderly Hilaire Belloc, and the brilliant master of Campion Hall, Fr Martin D'Arcy, and his own bright, attractive personality and high intelligence enabled him to make the most of it.

From early in his years as a Jesuit student, he had struggled with issues of faith, and, as the challenge of priesthood drew nearer, the struggle became critical and the reassurance of superiors that this was a common experience no longer sufficed. In June 1945, having returned to Dublin, he decided to leave the order. For a time, gifted as he was with musical ability and a fine tenor voice, he wondered about embarking on a singing career. Meanwhile, he had begun working in the classics department at UCD and, with Michael Tierney's support, he obtained Semple's now vacant Latin chair, becoming professor at the early age of 33, in 1948. A year earlier he had married Odile de Barthès de Montfort from the Passy section of Paris, who was secretary to the French ambassador in Dublin at the time. They were to have one son, Dominique, who followed him into the classics, and two daughters, Caitríona and Odile.

The UCD appointment proved inspired and created a context in which he could exercise his wide range of abilities as teacher, scholar and administrator to the full. Handsome, urbane, witty and approachable, he quickly emerged as an excellent teacher, equally competent in dealing with Latin as language and as literature. He could adapt his teaching to the needs of the large numbers of students whose only interest in Latin was to fulfil the university requirements then in force by passing a preliminary examination in it, but his special gift was to be able to inspire and encourage those better equipped and more committed to the higher reaches of the subject.

Meanwhile, despite the demands of administering a relatively large department, his own scholarship was not neglected and he produced a steady stream of studies, editions, translations and reviews from the beginning of his tenure, which in time won him international recognition in his two chosen fields. He had been elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1953 and, in time, would play a leading role in the Academy's Hiberno-Latin project. He represented Ireland on many overseas bodies, including the Fédération Internationale des Études Classiques. He was especially at home in French culture and his work with eminent French scholars duly won him inscription in the Légion d'honneur. His translations included not only Augustine's Against the academics (1950), on which he had written his doctoral thesis, and the third-century Greek Father of the Church Origen of Alexandria's On prayer and his Exhortation to martyrdom (1954), but also the Topography of Ireland (1951) of Giraldus Cambrensis (qv), and the The voyage of St Brendan (1976).

The main focus of his research always remained Augustine and Neoplatonism, but the interest he had developed in Eriugena came increasingly to the fore in later years and in 1970 he founded a society to promote Eriugena studies, in which he had long taken the lead. In Eriugena he saw a thinker who wrote in Latin but, remarkably for a ninth-century western European, knew Greek, and who had 'sought to reconcile the dominating, somewhat de-Platonised Augustinianism of the West with the Neoplatonised theology of the Greek Fathers' (Singing masters, 63). O'Meara's The young Augustine: the growth of St Augustine's mind up to his conversion (1954) became something of a classic on its subject and was later translated into French (1958) and reissued in paperback in 1980.

He took a keen interest in university politics, being elected to the UCD governing body (1956 and 1962) and to the senate of the National University of Ireland in 1962. By the time he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the college in 1964, following Michael Tierney's retirement, he had become a somewhat controversial figure in the eyes of some, owing to his views on such matters as the move of UCD to Belfield, which he opposed, and closer association with Trinity College, which he strongly espoused. In both instances, he was on the opposite side of the argument from Tierney. From early in his life, he had been a sceptic in relation to the revival of Irish: he was attracted to the language itself but viewed public policy in the light of what he saw as Ireland's enduring need to escape from cultural isolation. He was pragmatist enough to argue that Latin should cease to be required under university regulations, which, along with changes in the catholic church in the 1960s, had the effect of gradually reducing the hitherto large numbers in his department. Its larger impact may have been to contribute to the decline of Latin in the school curriculum, but this can hardly have been part of his purpose. He took a genuine interest in encouraging second-level teachers of classical subjects and was responsible for launching the Association of Classical Teachers in this cause. In all of these issues, his steely, combative side, not unfamiliar to his students, and his willingness to swim against the stream in the name of principle, whatever the cost to himself, was amply demonstrated.

Following retirement in 1984, he remained active in the studies to which he had devoted a significant part of his life, spending time in Princeton and other centres of excellence, as well as writing The singing masters, in which he displayed lyricism of vision and the felicity of his own style. The memoir deals only with his early life, ending with his departure from the Jesuits and marriage to Odile. There were many who regretted that no later volume followed. The year after it appeared, his colleagues produced a small Festschrift, From Augustine to Eriugena (1991), in his honour. This contains a comprehensive bibliography of his published work. He continued to keep in touch with and encourage his former students, offering friendship and advice as he had throughout his professorial career, up to the time of his death, which occurred unexpectedly in Dublin, after a minor operation, on 12 February 2003.

Sources
John O'Meara, The singing masters (1990); F. X. Martin OSA and J. A. Richmond (ed.), From Augustine to Eriugena: essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in honor of John O'Meara (1991); personal knowledge

Forename: John
Surname: O'Meara
Gender: Male
Career: Education, Classics and Languages
Religion: Catholic
Born 18 February 1915 in Co. Galway
Died 12 February 2003 in Co. Dublin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._O%27Meara

John J. O'Meara

John J. O'Meara (18 February 1915 – 12 February 2003) was an Irish classical scholar, historian of ancient and medieval philosophy (in particular Augustine and Eriugena), educationalist and writer.

Biography
John J. O'Meara was born in Eyrecourt (Co. Galway) to Mary Donelan and Patrick O'Meara on 18 February 1915, but lost his father when he was less than a year old. He had a younger brother, Patrick ('Paddy'). He was educated at Rockwell College and Garbally, Ballinasloe, becoming for a time a Jesuit seminarist. In his autobiographical book, The Singing Masters, O'Meara describes the hard times of his childhood, including the terror brought by the British Black and Tans, and by the subsequent Irish Civil War. He also describes his early experience of the beauty of nature, and of the difficult experience of following and at last ending his engagement as a Jesuit novice. A collection of short stories, Remembering Eyrecourt. Vignettes and Tales of earlier Days, Eyrecourt 2003, also describes the world of his childhood

O'Meara took an M.A. degree in classics at University College Dublin in 1939 and was awarded a scholarship allowing him to complete a Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford (1942–45). The Singing Masters also describes war-time Oxford and the antiquated (and quaint) conditions in which he studied there. His thesis concerned Augustine's use of Porphyry and was later revised and published in Paris (1959). Returning to Dublin he was appointed Professor of Latin at University College Dublin in 1948, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. O'Meara held visiting appointments at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University) and Vassar College. In Ireland he played a major role in the effort to modernize education in the schools and universities, in particular the teaching of Latin and Irish, and the collaboration between University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. His ideas were ahead of their time in the conservative and Church-dominated atmosphere in Ireland.

O'Meara contributed to the founding of the Irish Association of Classical Teachers in 1959. In 1954 he published The Young Augustine (with many re-editions), an introduction to reading Augustine's Confessions which has kept its value. As well as being a leading internationally recognized scholar on Augustine, he did much to further the study of the early medieval Irish philosopher John Scotus Eriugena, founding the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies in 1970 which stimulated a spectacular development in the study of Eriugena. He published a monograph on the philosopher, Eriugena (1988), and when he died he was working on finishing a complete edition and English translation of Eriugena's masterpiece, the Periphyseon. O'Meara also published English translations of Latin texts important to Ireland, Giraldus Cambrensis' Topography of Ireland and The Voyage of Saint Brendan. O'Meara was president of the Alliance Française in Ireland and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and of other international scholarly associations. In 1947 O'Meara married Odile de Barthes de Montfort, with whom he had three children and with whom he published a little book presenting new discoveries concerning Bernadette of Lourdes (Ordeal at Lourdes).

Select bibliography
A short biography and a bibliography of John O'Meara's publications in: From Augustine to Eriugena: Essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in Honor of John O'Meara, ed. F. X. Martin and J. A. Richmond, Washington, D. C., 1991, pages ix-xx.
The Topography of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis, Dundalk 1951 (also in Penguin Classics)
The Young Augustine: the growth of St. Augustine's mind up to his conversion, London, 1954
Reform in Education, Dublin 1958
Porphyry's philosophy from Oracles in St. Augustine, Paris, 1959
(with Odile de Montfort) Ordeal at Lourdes, Dublin 1959.
Charter of Christendom:the Significance of St. Augustine's city of God, New York City, 1962
The Voyage of Saint Brendan, Dublin 1976 (also Atlantic Highlands 1978).
Eriugena Periphyseon (The Division of Nature), translated by I. P. Sheldon-Williams revised by J. O'Meara, Montréal and Washington, D. C. 1987.
Eriugena, Oxford 1988.
The Singing Masters, Dublin 1990.
Studies in Augustine and Eriugena, edited by T. Halton, Washington, D. C., 1992.
Understanding Augustine, Dublin 1997

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/outspoken-and-popular-classical-scholar-1.349887

Outspoken and popular classical scholar
JOHN O'MEARA: John J

JOHN O'MEARA: John J. O'Meara, who has died aged 87, was Professor of Latin at University College, Dublin, from 1948 to 1984. A prominent figure in educational circles for almost half a century, he made a remarkable contribution to the development of classical studies in Ireland.

John Joseph O'Meara was born on February 18th 1915, the eldest of the two children of Patrick O'Meara and his wife, Mary (née Donelan), of Eyrecourt, Co Galway. His father died the following year and his mother took over the running of the family business; he and his brother were reared by their aunt.

He was educated at Rockwell College, Cashel, Co Tipperary, where he was drawn to the religious life and transferred to St Joseph's, Garbally, Co Galway, to pursue his vocation.

He later decided to join the Society of Jesus and, as a Jesuit scholastic, studied at UCD for the BA (1938) and MA (1939) in classics. Having studied philosophy at St Stanislaus College, Co Offaly, he taught Latin, Greek and German at Clongowes Wood, Co Kildare. In the early 1940s he studied at Oxford University, taking a doctorate in philosophy.

But doubts about his faith had taken hold and he reluctantly decided after 11 years to leave the Jesuits. In 1945 he started as an assistant in the UCD classics department. Two years later he was appointed to the chair of Latin. His lectures were immensely popular, treating Latin, a former student recalled, "as literature and not merely as a language". He presided or spoke at many student meetings, and students and colleagues were generously entertained in his period house in Sandymount.

A long series of scholarly publications established his reputation as a classicist of the first order. His research was primarily concerned with Eriugena (Johannes Scottus), the most notable of the ninth-century Irish scholars in Europe, whose work had been long neglected. In 1970 he founded the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies, which has resulted in a wealth of studies.

He himself wrote Eriugena (1988) and translated into English the final two books of the edition of Eriugena's greatest work, Periphyseon (De Divisione Naturae), published by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies in 1995.

His reputation was further enhanced by his many works on St Augustine, particularly by The Young Augustine: an introduction to the Confessions of St Augustine (1980). He is known in Ireland for Gerald of Wales's The History and Topography of Ireland and St Brendan's Navigatio. A memoir of his life up to the age of 30, The Singing-Masters, was published in 1990.

He was no stranger to controversy.

He opposed the proposal to move UCD from the centre of Dublin to Belfield. He criticised national policy to revive the Irish language. He advocated that Latin should cease to be a compulsory requirement at university. And his recommendation of a partial merger between UCD and Trinity College, Dublin, was attacked in 1958 by the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal D'Alton. His outspokenness almost certainly cost him election to the presidency of UCD in 1964.

On the expiry of his terms of office as a member of the UCD Governing Body and as a senator of the National University, he did not seek re-appointment to either body. When compulsory Latin requirements in church and university were dropped in 1966, his student numbers dropped dramatically.

Increasingly he spent semesters and sabbatical years abroad, including periods at Dumbarton Oaks as a fellow of Harvard and at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton. He built up a wide range of international contacts and his cooperation with leading French scholars was acknowledged by honours that included the Légion d'Honneur.

He played a major role in launching the Hiberno-Latin Dictionary project at the Royal Irish Academy.

His term as chairman of the National College of Art and Design coincided with significant improvements in its facilities and recognition for degree-level courses. He founded the Association of Classical Teachers to raise standards and morale among secondary teachers. Governor for Ireland of the Fondation Européenne de la Culture, he was also a director of Irish University Press.

He had a lifelong interest in music, studying the piano in his youth. He later considered pursuing a career as a singer. Later he was content to play for the entertainment of his grandchildren, "a not unjoyous or useless occupation".

He is survived by his wife, Odile de Barthès de Montfort, son Dominique, and daughters Caitriona (Brennan) and Odile (Ryan).

John O'Meara: born, 18th February; died, February 12th 2003

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: 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: 06 October 1923, Knocknakilla, Cree, County Clare
Entered: 15 September 1942, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 07 September 1955, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 31st Year No 1 1956
Obituary :

Mr Michael O’Kelly
Michael O'Kelly was born at Knocknahyla, Mullagh, Co. Clare, in 1924, and educated at St. Flannan's College, Ennis. At school he showed all round ability; among his academic distinctions, he took 1st place in Irish in the Leaving Certificate, and as a Junior footballer represented his county.
He entered the Society in 1942, did his Juniorate in Rathfarnham and his Philosophy in Tullabeg. There is not much to record of these years. He always kept his deepest thoughts very much to himself. He was an excellent companion; cheerful, amusing, at times facetious with a kind of facetiousness that delights rather than bores. He was fond of banter; and was almost continually at it, yet never gave offence. He was argumentative in a way that did not irritate; it was merely a sign that “O'Kell” was in good humour; a sign, too, of the strength of character that under lay his lightheartedness. Like all strong characters, he was impatient of inefficiency; meticulous in all he set his mind to, he expected to find others the same; but if at times he gave way to exasperation, it was always good humoured. He was full of common sense and moderation. The Irish language movement has lost a desirable apostle in Michael O'Kelly.
In 1950 he went to Galway as teacher and assistant games-master. From the beginning, among the Community and with the boys in the classroom and on the football field he endeared himself to all. In spite of a fine physique he had been constantly ill; he suffered particularly from a leg ailment, the result of an injury at football. In his second year in Galway his knee began to trouble him again. The doctors diagnosed cancer and his leg had to be amputated. After a winter in hospital he returned to Galway in the late spring. Though now on crutches, he went back to work as if nothing had happened and took his full part in Community and school life. In class he used his crutch to point to the blackboard ; from the sideline he refereed matches. His influence over the boys was great; they crowded about him when he appeared and he was often seen playing games with them or taking photographs, balancing himself on his crutches.
He came to Milltown in 1953. Already there were signs that secondary cancer had set in, but he attended all his lectures which meant climbing two flights of stairs. He insisted on doing as much as possible for himself. In May, 1954, he had a set-back. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, from which he was never to return. It was clear from the first that there was little hope for him. He underwent an operation which was successful to the extent of making his last days easier. He made a surprising recovery. Contrary to all expectations he lived on" for a year and a half after the operation, his physique and determination keeping him alive. He had many relapses, though each recovery was less complete than the previous. Nothing would induce him to give up hope. A few weeks before his death he was taken into the hospital grounds and spoke more confidently than ever of leaving hospital. If he did not always believe what he said, he kept his misgivings to himself. În September he felt his mental powers weakening, he was anointed and on the 5th he became unconscious. He died peacefully on the 7th, exactly thirteen years from the day he entered the Society.
During his illness he showed remarkable courage, even more remarkable cheerfulness. He accepted his infirmity with resignation no one ever heard him complain of it. To the end he kept up his interest in all that happened in Milltown, Galway and throughout the Province. Those who came to visit him - and there was always a great stream of visitors - often found that it was they who went away cheered by their visit. He was thirty-one when he died; had he lived he would have been ordained next Summer. To his sister, brother and aunt we offer our deepest sympathy. May he rest in peace.

Born: 1603, County Galway
Entered: 15 April 1623, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: 25 July 1632, Évora, Portugal
Final Vows: 11 February 1646
Died: 31 March 1664, Irish College, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1740 has Edmund Kelly (Chelli, Guellus, Quelly) RIP 31/03/1664 Lisbon (HS48 37r Hibern. et Transtag,)

Catalogus Defuncti 1640-1670 says Edmund Kelly (Chelli, Guellus, Quelly) RIP 31/03/1664 Ulyssipone (HS48 37r Hibern et Transtag)

Born: 25 January 1840, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 03 September 1863, Milltown Park Dublin
Ordained: 1866
Final Vows: 02 February 1876
Died: 18 December 1923, Ms Quinn’s Hospital, Mounty Square, Dublin

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

Educated in the Vincentian Seminary at Castleknock and at St Patrick’s Maynooth

by 1866 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a member of a prominent Limerick family. One of his brothers Francis was Mayor of Limerick (and MP for Limerick) during the troubled Land League days, and another was Rev Canon Joseph O’Keeffe PP of Rathfarnham.

His early studies were at Maynooth, where Cardinal Michael Logue was one of his classmates.
He completed his Theology at Louvain, and there had shown a natural attitude for Moral Theology, and this later made him a very good Spiritual Director.
After Ordination he was sent to Clongowes teaching, and then to Galway as an Operarius in the Church for seven years.
1879-1900 He was at Limerick, and was appointed Rector, and Minister, and was a strenuous worker in the Church.
1900 He was sent to Gardiner St where he worked until his health began to fail and confined him to his room. He died there 18 December 1923

Note from John Naughton Entry :
For the last year of his life he was in failing health, and about 10 days before death he was moved to Miss Quinn’s Hospital, Mountjoy Square, where he died peacefully. Fathers Matthew Russell and Timothy O’Keeffe were with him at the time.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Timothy O’Keeffe (1840-1923)

A member of an old Limerick family well known in the public life of the city, entered the Society in 1863. He had been a student at Maynooth when he felt that he was called to the religious life. He spent some twenty-one years at the Crescent from 1879 and was rector of the college from 1885 to 1891. After his term of office, he remained on the teaching staff and was in charge for many years of the women's Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. On leaving Limerick at the opening of the century, Father O'Keeffe was appointed to the Church of St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, where he laboured until his death.

Born: 27 May 1933, Arklow, County Wicklow
Entered: 07 September 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 24 May 1964, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare
Final Vows: 02 February 1977, Loyola House, Eglinton Road, Dublin
Died: 17 December 2022, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street Community at the time of death

Son of Fergus Thomas O’Keefe and Hilda Galwey Foley. Father was a Bank Manager. Family was living at Bank of Ireland House, Skibbereen, County Cork at the time of entry. They also lived at Bank of Ireland House, Callan, County Kilkenny for eight years.

Younger of two boys with one sister.

Early education for a year or so at a Mercy Convent in Arklow, he went to the Christian Brothers school in Callan for seven years. After the Intermediate exam he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ for three years.

FSS
Born : 27th May 1933, Dublin City
Raised : Arklow, Co Wicklow
Early Education at CBS Callan, Co Kilkenny; Clongowes Wood College SJ
7th September 1950 Entered Society at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
8th September 1952 First Vows at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
1952-1955 Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1955-1958 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1958-1960 Clongowes Wood College SJ - Regency : Teacher; Studying for CWC Cert in Education
1960-1961 Crescent College SJ - Regency : Teacher
1961-1965 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
24th May 1964 Ordained at Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, Co Kildare
1965-1966 Rathfarnham - Tertianship
1966-1968 St Mary’s, Emo - Socius to Novice Master; Minister; Teacher
1968-1972 Coláiste Iognáid, Galway - Rector; Teacher; BVM & S Ignatius Sodalities
1972-1974 Loyola House - Socius to Provincial; Province Consultor
1974-1986 Gonzaga College SJ - Minister; Bursar (House & College)
2nd February 1977 Final Vows at Loyola House, Eglinton Road, Dublin
1980 Assistant Provincial Treasurer; Curator Rocky Valley - Villa house
1981 Revisor Irish Province; Treasurer Gonzaga
1986 Sabbatical - half year (from 01/02/86)
1986-1995 Arrupe - Parish Curate in Church of the Virgin Mary, Ballymun
1989 Superior
1992 Socius to Novice Master
1995-2003 Iona, Portadown - Community Development; Reconciliation Ministry; Librarian
1996 Superior
2003-2005 Clongowes Wood College SJ - Minister; Treasurer; Guestmaster; Ministers in People’s Church
2004 Vice-Rector
2005-2013 John Sullivan, Mulvey - Superior; Directs Spiritual Exercises
2006 Director of Lay Retreat Association; Socius to Formation Director
2007 Formation Commission
2011 Minister
2013-20 Gardiner St - Assists in Church; Director of Lay Retreat Association
2014 + Superior’s Admonitor
2016 + Prefect of Health; off Director of Lay Retyreat Association
2018 Assists in Church; Superior’s Admonitor
2021 Superior’s Admonitor
2021 October - Prays for the Church and Society at Cherryfield Lodge

https://jesuit.ie/news/fergus-okeefe-sj-a-gentle-and-humble-presence/

Fergus O’Keefe SJ – A ‘gentle and humble presence’

Fr Fergus O’Keefe SJ died peacefully, aged 89, in Cherryfield Lodge nursing home, Ranelagh, Dublin on 17 December 2022. His Funeral Mass took place in St Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin on 21 December 2022, followed by burial in Glasnevin Cemetery. At the end of this article you can read the homily at the Funeral Mass by Fr Gerry Clarke SJ.

Fergus was born on 27 May 1933 in Dublin City. Raised in Arklow, Co Wicklow, his early education was at CBS Callan, Co Kilkenny, followed by Clongowes Wood College SJ, Co Kildare.

He entered the Jesuit novitiate at St Mary’s, Emo, Co Laois in 1950 and took his First Vows there on 8 September 1952. His Jesuit formation included studying arts at UCD; philosophy at Tullabeg; regency in Clongowes Wood College SJ and Crescent College SJ; and theology at Milltown Park, Dublin.

Upon ordination at Clongowes Wood College SJ on 24 May 1964, Fergus served in a number of roles including Socius to the Novice Master; Rector and teacher at Coláiste Iognáid SJ in Galway; Socius to the Provincial; and minister and bursar at Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin. He took his Final Vows in the Society of Jesus on 2 February 1977.

He continued to experience variety in his Jesuit life from 1977 to 2003 including acting as assistant provincial treasurer; revisor of the Irish Province; Parish curate in Church of the Virgin Mary, Ballymun, Dublin; and working in community development and reconciliation ministry in Portadown, Northern Ireland.

From 2003 onwards, Fergus lived in three other Jesuit communities at Clongowes Wood College SJ; Mulvey Park in Dundrum, Dublin; and Gardiner Street Parish in Dublin. He assisted in church and ministered the sacraments, guided people in the Spiritual Exercises, and was Director of the Lay Retreat Association.

Fergus moved to Cherryfield Lodge nursing home in 2021 where he prayed for the Church and the Society of Jesus. He accepted the situation with his usual serenity and calm, never complaining as his health declined. He died peacefully surrounded by his family on 17 December 2022.

Homily at Funeral Mass by Gerry Clarke SJ

There are, I know, many Jesuits who stand in the queue to make the homily at Fr Fergus’s Funeral Mass. And speaking to them over the last few days has brought back to mind the many and various ministries and communities where Fergus has lived and where he has graced people with his gentle and humble presence.

I had the privilege of sharing community life with Fergus in three locations:

Iona Community in Portadown
John Sullivan House in Mulvey Park, Dundrum
St Francis Xavier’s Gardiner Street

I am consoled by the fact that no words can ever capture the richness of a person or of a person’s whole life. So this is my attempt to capture something of Fergus’s grace and gift as we gather to lay his mortal remains to rest.

Remembering Fergus brings us closer to the mystery of the Incarnation

Fergus has given us a gift as we approach Christmas because, remembering Fergus and his personality, brings us closer to the mystery of how God comes into the world: Christ’s Nativity

Always speak well of others

I never, ever heard Fr Fergus utter a bad word about another person. I’ll repeat that: “I never, ever heard Fergus utter a bad word about another person.” It was part of his character never to indulge his anger or frustration by spreading gossip about others. It was just not part of his DNA. And in not gossiping about others, he forced those who might have a tendency to gossip to refrain. Being around Fergus meant only ever speaking well of others. And if you can’t speak well of others, then don’t speak at all.

Pope Francis is a past master at this too. He simply goes silent. And this is what Jesus does before the authorities who, sitting on the throne of judgment would condemn him and sentence him to death.

Pope Francis, Fergus, Jesus refuse to condemn others.

Always place others before you

We all knew Fergus as a shy person. He shunned the limelight and stuck to the shadows, doing his duty with the utmost dedication. And duty has to be the hallmark of his life as a priest. Placing himself after others and always placing others before himself.

And this is another feature of Fergus that leads us into the mystery of the Incarnation. As we read from an early Christian hymn in St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:

“he humbled himself and became obedient” (Philippians 2)

It was a feature of his life that Fergus took on what he was asked to take on, one thing after another. Sometimes when it involved quite a challenge to his own personality and character:

In his breviary I find on the inside page, written in Fergus’s unmistakable hand … each with a line drawn neatly through it:

Ballymun
Portadown
Clongowes
Mulvey Park
Gardiner Street (where there is no line yet drawn)

And then in his later years, Fergus was free and willing to proof-read texts for the Messenger and other Jesuit publications – dutifully, tirelessly and with great attention to detail. Sometimes he would present you with a really prickly problem in grammar, which you couldn’t solve and which he would have to slope off and solve in his own way!

One of the gifts of old age has to be a slowing down and a reflectiveness. Fergus embraced that generously. I remember him moving out of Mulvey Park, where, like the younger Jesuits in formation, he cooked and cleaned and kept house. But there was a moment when he realised that he wanted to and needed to move somewhere where there was a little more support and where he didn’t have to shop or prepare meals for 8! So, he moved to Gardiner Street. And when his sense of duty in the parish could no longer drive him strongly enough to celebrate daily Mass or hear confessions in the parish, Fergus, gracefully asked to be relieved of his responsibilities and step down from the daily rostering for masses and confessions.

This showed a freedom and knowledge of himself and a humility to accept the inevitable weakening of later life.

Conclusion

Fr Fergus, like his elder brother and Jesuit, Fr Ed O’Keefe had a great love for Blessed Fr John Sullivan. And it was Fergus who composed the prayers for the ceremony of beatification of Fr John which took place here at Gardiner Street on 13 May 2017. You’ll find those prayers on the wall display in the shrine at the back of the church. They remind us of Fergus’s own virtues and are, perhaps, his prayers for us today here:

We thank and praise God for every moment of this celebration; for everybody present here, especially those who are sick or unwell. May the Lord open our hearts to the needs of the poor that, like Fr John, we may be witnesses to the love of Christ Jesus, our Saviour and friend.

We pray for the leaders of our churches and for all those who serve the Christian community as pastors. We pray especially for Pope Francis, (for his representative here today, Cardinal Angelo Amato,) and for all the pastors leading us in prayer at this Mass. May they be strengthened in the gifts of leadership and service, humility and courage.

We pray for our young people facing decisions in life: that they may find in Blessed John the inspiration to be men and women for others, thoughtful, generous and kind.

Blessed Father John used to say “Be beginning. Be always beginning. The saints were always beginning.” We pray that the Lord will release us from the things that hold us down, the habits and ways in which our churches stifle growth and unity. May we “be always beginning”.

As we gather to pay tribute to Fergus, to thank God for his life and witness, we draw that line which he never drew through the final place on the list of his Jesuit life:

Gardiner Street

And we pray for him now, in the sure and certain hope that this humble, kind and self-effacing Christian, priest, brother, uncle and companion of Jesus is now beginning his new life with the Lord, meek and humble of heart.

May he rest in peace.

Born: 05 September 1917, O’Curry College, Carrigaholt, County Clare
Entered: 14 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 19 March 1950

Father, Brian, was a journalist at publisher. Mother, Anne (Kenny). Family lived at Hollybrook Road, Clontarf, Dublin.

Youngest of four boys with one sister.

Early education was at a Convent school in Glasnevin and then at O’Connells School. (1927-1936)

1936-1938: St Mary's, Emo Novitiate
1938-1941: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1941-1944: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1944-1946: Coláiste Iognád SJ, Regency
1946-1950: Milltown Park, Theology

After leaving was married and had six children. He lived at Goatstown Road, Dundrum, Dublin and worked at Gill & MacMillan, Belvedere Place, Dublin

Born: 08 September 1911, Cappagh, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1941, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Miltown Park, Dublin
Died: 07 June 1969, College of Industrial Relations, Ranelagh, Dublin

Parents were both National Teachers.

Sixth of a family of eight with four boys and four girls.

Early education was at his father’s National School until 1924. He won a County Scholarship and entered the Diocesan Seminary in Sligo, Sumerhill College.

by 1946 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, 31 July 1953-19 July 1959.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Summerhill College, College Road, Knocknaganny, Sligo student

Irish Province News 34th Year No 4 1959

GENERAL
On 20th July Fr. Charles O'Conor, former Rector of Gonzaga College was appointed Provincial in succession to Fr. Michael A. O’Grady. The best wishes of the Province are with the Provincial in his new office, and to Fr. O'Grady the Province offers its gratitude for his services during his Provincialate. He will be remembered, beyond doubt, above all for his outstanding kindness, under standing and sympathy. His great and quite genuine charm of manner made personal contact between him and his subjects easy. They could always feel that their position was understood even if it could not always be improved. And these qualities extended themselves outside the Society and won for Fr. O’Grady and for the Province the goodwill, esteem and affection of everyone with whom he came into contact.
When he became Provincial in 1953 Fr. O’Grady was faced with a task which demanded gifts of this high order, The period of office of his predecessor, Fr. T, Byrne, had been one of expansion after the war. It was for Fr. O’Grady to consolidate. He found himself with a number of new enterprises-the Catholic Workers' College, the Mission in Rhodesia, Gonzaga College - which he had to see firmly established. This involved, among other things, a heavy building programme. It has been his great achievement that he courageously carried through this programme, though the toll on his health was at times very great. Besides the buildings at Gonzaga and the Workers' College, there were the preparatory school at Belvedere, the Pioneer Hall, the extension to Manresa and the renovation of Loyola, Eglinton Road, which was purchased as a Provincial Residence in his term of office. That, in spite of the expenditure involved, the Province is in a sound financial position is a tribute to Fr. O'Grady's generous use of his great personal gifts and to his inexhaustible patience and zeal.
Other activities recently undertaken which received his wholehearted encouragement were the Missions to Britain and to the Irish workers in Britain, the work of teaching Christian Doctrine in the Technical Schools, and the Child Educational Centre, which was started in his Provincialate and was finally established in its new premises in Northumberland Road last year.
He visited both China and Northern Rhodesia, and it was largely through his tireless negotiation that a satisfactory status for the Rhodesian Mission was worked out and the Mission of Chikuni created. He also saw the expansion of the Mission to the Chinese in Malaya. In both Missions he supported extensive building schemes of which the most ambitious were the new Wah Yan College, Queen's Road, Hong Kong and the Teacher Training College, Chikuni. And for all this the Province is grateful to Fr. O’Grady.

Obituary :

Fr Louis O’Grady SJ (1911-1969)

To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look up or look down. Many of the friendships which he made began with an appeal to him for help. The truth was that men came to Louis not so much because they wanted the benefit of his judgment as because they needed the strengthening of his understanding and kindness.
As time went on the number of those who depended on him grew. Unfortunately his physical strength did not grow apace, and he began to be at times desperately tired. He spoke to me once about that well-known exhortation to moderation which takes the form : if you were dead, people would get along all right without you. Characteristically his comment given with a tired smile was : that argument is useless : the difficulty is that I am not dead.
He is dead now, God rest him, and what can we do who are saddened by his death other than thank God for the precious goodness which shone so brightly amongst us. Under God's grace the cost in effort and determination was great; in later years the cost included perhaps inevitably some small measure of irritability, At times he drove himself very hard with an intensity which few could emulate : there was never any doubt about the high grade of asceticism to which he attained : but of this few were aware. Surprisingly this achievement of his increased rather than diminished his humanity: it gave him a freedom of action beyond the ordinary, and allowed him to disregard convention for convention's sake.
Speaking of Louis's humanity it should be recorded that those who had always the first claim on his affection were the members of his own family, especially, in later years, his ageing mother but not less indeed his brothers and sisters.
Father Louis's life was totally at the service of the Society which (within or after the Church) had claim on his whole loyalty. Some who did not know him might think from what I have written that he was an invalid who from his sick-bed gave counsel to many. Not true this: in any case he was never that long in a sick bed. The Society made a full claim on him, as a teacher and administrator at the highest level both separately and together. His gifts of intellect were considerable and had he been chosen for a purely scholastic career he might have made a name for himself as a philosopher or a theologian. He was not good at languages and I know he found the use of Latin as a medium of teaching a burden. As a consequence the movement away from Latin in post-Vatican II days he welcomed; but of many other changes in the same time he felt less happy.
Father Louis, one may surmise, might have been happier had he been born a quarter of a century earlier or a quarter of a century later. By nature and taste he had always been in church affairs more liberal and progressive than otherwise. In the pre Vatican II world he might have been said to be left of centre. When the centre moved rapidly to the left, like many of his contemporaries, he was perplexed to some degree and to some extent unhappy.
When I was asked to write this notice of my friend, I hesitated, because I did not think that it would be easy to do justice to the subject of it. In many ways Father Louis O'Grady was a conventional religious, not differing that much from his fellows. As a teacher and an administrator he was possibly more competent than brilliant. The record in the books may not put him in the first dozen. That does not matter, because in the case of Louis O'Grady it is not what he did which counts but what he was. Father John Ryan has said somewhere that in Ireland there was never any need for a judicial process of canonisation : if a man, especially a religious, could pass the scrutiny of his fellowmen, especially his fellow-monks, it was enough. Most of his religious life Father Louis, as rector or provincial or superior, underwent that extra sifting which the monks reserve for those who sit in the chair of Moses; he passed that stringent test splendidly, and as far as I know nem. con.
The ability of the man, about whom I write, to make friends was a purely natural asset, with nothing about it which was either studied or artificial. But the synthesis of this natural gift with the purer and more intense flame of Christian charity was the work of a lifetime. No one could know Louis for long without realising how near to God he was at all times. And this was the source in him of that rare sensitive personal integrity which was with him in the noviceship and was with him to the end : and this too was the source in him of that expansive, universal, dynamic. fearless love for men which knew no limit of moderation or even of prudence.
The strain and the tension in this man's life could have but one ending, for the conflict was unequal. During the night of June 6:7 the persistently over-taxed energy finally ran out, and Louis was dead.
It is not easy to link with him the notion of rest and peace. Nevertheless one feels that the change from life to death (or from life through death to life) in Louis's case cannot have been great; perhaps now that he is dead, with more truth he can say what he could surely have said at any time in his life : I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Born: 18 October 1858, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 05 January 1879, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1891, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 15 December 1943, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Had a brother a scholastic in the Missouri Mission

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 4th Year No 2 1929
Jubilee :
Br. O'Grady celebrated his Golden Jubilee in the Society on Jan. 10th. He spent 42 out of the 50 years in Clongowes, intimately connected with that important department on which, in great measure the material, and, to some extent, the spiritual progress of a Community depends. On the 10th a big crowd of his Brother friends assembled at Clongowes to wish him many more years of health, holiness and active service.

Irish Province News 19th Year No 2 1944
Obituary :
Brother James J O'Grady SJ (1858-1943)

On December 14th a very peaceful death brought to a fitting end the long and saintly life of Brother O'Grady. He was born in Dublin on the 18th October, 1858, and was educated by the Christian Brothers. After a short time in business he entered the Society at Milltown Park, January 5th, 1879. Immediately after his noviceship he was sent to Clongowes where, with the exception of three years (1895-6 and 1903-5) in St. Ignatius College, Galway, and one year (1896-7) in Tullabeg, he was to spend the rest of his life. He was cook and dispenser there until a couple of years before his death, and during that time it would be impossible to estimate his value to the College, whether as an exemplary religious or an efficient and painstaking official. Those who served under him, cooks and servants, had the highest esteem and regard for him. He was always most courteous and even-tempered in his dealings with them, and always most anxious to help them in every way, and many who afterwards got good positions in hotels and elsewhere owned that they owed their success to what they had learned from Br, O'Grady in Clongowes.
As a religious, Brother O'Grady was a model, being always most regular in his observance of rule, most hardworking and most charitable when speaking of others. Clongowes feels that it has in Br. O'Grady a most eloquent advocate before the throne of the Master whom he served so long and so loyally. R.I.P.

◆ The Clongownian, 1944

Obituary

Brother James O'Grady SJ
In “The Clongownian” of 1910, under “Choir Notes”, there is the following item, dated May 25th : “At 5.30 our less fortunate companions went to the study to discuss wall building with old Balbus or feast on Algebraical factors. We remained below to enjoy the fine menu provided by Br O'Grady. The table was very artistically decorated by Br Brady, who left nothing undone that could conduce to our comfort”.

There is something especially pathetic in this entry of thirty-three years ago, as both those mentioned have this year gone to their reward after lives spent in just those occupations that are mentioned in the entry.

With the exception of four years, Br O'Grady had been continuously in Clongowes from 1882 until his death last December. In spite, however, of that long connection of over sixty years, he was but little known to the boys of the school, though many, at least of the older generation, will remember him on the ice as a graceful and accomplished skater. His work was confined mostly to the kitchen and its environments where he laboured unostentatiously, but most efficiently, during all those years. With the preparation of how many “feeds” he must have been connected! How many enjoyed the good things that he prepared without, perhaps, giving a thought to the hand that had prepared them and the care that had been lavished upon them ! But it was not for the thanks of those who benefited by his work that Br O'Grady laboured. He was a true religious and worked for a Master Who never fails to reward His faithful servants. Clongowes and its interests will be better served by Br O'Grady in heaven even than they were when he lived and worked amongst us.

Br Brady's connection with Clongowes was very much shorter than that of Br O'Grady, but it brought him into closer con tact with the boys, as he was for many years in charge of the refectory. He took a deep interest in them and in everything connected with them, even their games, especially the Line Matches. He possessed a great sense of humour, and a joke was ever ready to his lips.

Many will remember how his answer to the question “What second-course to-day, Brother?” was invariably “Plums”, whether or not these dainties were to appear ! For many years before his death he suffered from deafness, but that did not affect his cheerfulness, nor did even the ill-health of his last few years which he bore with great patience and resignation to the will of God.
May they rest in peace.

Born: 09 June 1894, Cornelscourt, Foxrock, County Dublin
Entered: 07 October 1913, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1931, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 14 November 1961, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

Father was an Accountant at the Irish Railway Clearing House, Kildare Street, Dublin.

Second of four boys and he has four sisters.

From age 3-11 he went to a local National School. In 1905 he went to Blackrock College as a day boy until 1908. He then went and studied a commercial course in Skerries Harcourt Street, Dublin, taking up a position six months later as a Registration Clerk (voting) for two years. He was then a clerk in the stores at the GPO. He then changed to being a Bank Clerk at the Hibernian Bank until he entered the Society.

by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1929 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Fr Francis Finegan: Admissions 1859-1948 - Post Office Civil Servant before entry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 37th Year No 1 1962
Obituary :
Fr Andrew O’Farrell (1894-1961)
Fr. Andrew O'Farrell was born in Dublin in 1894. He received his secondary education at Blackrock College and then entered the service of the Hibernian Bank. He worked for some years in the Head Office, College Green, and in after life maintained a close connection with officials whom he had known there, especially with the late Henry J. Campbell, who was his manager and later became General Manager. In 1913 he resigned from the Bank and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg.
At the end of his novitiate Fr. O'Farrell went for a year to Rathfarnham. Owing to his early entry into the Bank he had not matriculated and so did not go on for a degree, a regrettable decision in view of the great ability which he later showed. In 1915 he went to Jersey for philosophy, where his natural talent for languages at once showed itself. He rapidly acquired a thorough knowledge of French and a high degree of fluency in speaking it. He used to recall, with amused satisfaction, how the scholastic who taught him remarked : “Vous parlerez bien Français parceque vous êtes très bavard”. He also developed a great taste for French literature which lasted all his life. It is remarkable that all this progress was made in the short space of eighteen months, since in the spring of 1917, owing to the threat of conscription, all the Irish philosophers were recalled from England and the continent to Milltown Park.
Fr. O'Farrell finished his philosophy at Milltown and then did four years' teaching, the first at Clongowes, the remainder at Mungret. He returned to Milltown for theology and was ordained in 1926. After theology he did another year's teaching in Clongowes, then tertianship at St. Beuno's and in 1929 came to Galway, where the college had just been re-opened as an all-Irish school.
It was now that Fr. O'Farrell's abilities found full scope. He had always been a keen student of the Irish language, and so threw himself with enthusiasm into the work of the college and perfected his own knowledge of Irish by regular attendance at Irish courses in the Gaeltacht. In later years, though he no longer needed to attend courses, he visited every summer the Gaeltacht of Carraroe, where he became a familiar and beloved figure and usually supplied for or assisted the parish priest, In St. Ignatius Fr. O'Farrell also found the opportunity to make use of the facility in French which he had acquired in Jersey. He was a most successful teacher and on several occasions his pupils obtained first place in French in one or other of the certificate examinations. Though often hampered by ill-health, Fr. O'Farrell continued up to within a few days of his death to devote himself to the apostolate of the classroom. In the current Catalogue the words appear after his name: "doc. ann. 39". To those who have any conception of the value of Catholic education these brief words are a record of great and lasting achievement. At Fr. O'Farrell's funeral His Lordship the Bishop of Galway spoke with appreciation of his long and devoted life as a teacher and held it up to others as an inspiring example.
It was not only as a teacher that Fr. O'Farrell established himself in Galway but also as a priest. Though he was never one of the church staff, he did an immense amount of quiet work, visiting the sick, hearing Confessions and consoling those in trouble. He was most self-sacrificing in trying to help others and those who knew him intimately will agree that he nearly always had some task on hand, a job to be got, an interview to be arranged, information to be got, and that he was indefatigable in his efforts and often very successful, owing to the large number of influential friends whom he had, both in Galway and elsewhere. Mention must also be made of his work for the choir, which he directed from 1932 onwards. He was not a great musician, though an adept at sight-reading, and his interest in music was somewhat limited - he did not seem to care much, for instance, for orchestral music - but his taste in church music was sound and he insisted on accuracy of performance.
It has become somewhat of a commonplace to say of those who die that they will be greatly missed, but the statement can be sincerely made about Fr. O'Farrell. For over thirty years he was a familiar figure in Galway, usually on his bicycle, waving a salute to the many friends whom he passed, and almost always bound on some altruistic errand. He had an intimate knowledge of the life of the city and often manifested a humorous enjoyment of the complications that arise in any closely-knit community, but his comments were always tempered by charity, and indeed he would often express almost scrupulous regret if he thought he had gone too far in criticism. It is not only in Galway itself that his loss will be felt, but also in the remote and beautiful region in Iar-Connacht where he spent so many holidays. His goodness of heart, combined with his extraordinarily perfect grasp of the Irish language, won for him over many years the esteem and affection of the people of Carraroe and the surrounding countryside, and during his visits there, there was hardly a day but some messenger would come asking that “an t-Athair Ó Fearghaill” would come to some humble home to console the sick or to advise on some family problem. In his last moments it must have been one of Fr. O'Farrell's greatest consolations to think that those whom he had so befriended would often have on their lips and in their hearts the familiar prayer: “Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam!”

Born: 1604, Galway City County Galway
Entered: 02 February 1619, Coimbra, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: 1633, Coimbra, Portugal
Final Vows: 01 November 1640
Died: 01 January 1642, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

1622 At Évora studying Rhetoric;
1625 At Coimbra 3rd year Arts
1636 In Tertianship at St Anthony’s Lisbon
1639 At St Anthony's College, Lisbon teaching Latin (or Grammar) and Mathematics

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1626 Sent to Bragança College for Regency and demonstrated exceptional ability as a Mathematician
1631 Returned to Coimbra for Theology, qualified with an MA and was Ordained there in 1633
After studies he was appointed to teach Mathematics at St Anthony’s Lisbon regarded as one of the most outstanding mathematicians in that kingdom.
1641 He was named Royal Engineer but did not long enjoy his distinction as he died in Lisbon 01 January 1642

Born: 31 July 1933, Piltown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1954, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1965, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, Mukasa Seminary, Zambia
Died: 27 January 2015, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

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

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 15 August 1971

Born in Wexford Town, County Wexford

Father was a Sergeant in the Garda and family lived in Grew up in Ballyhale, County Kilkennn and Piltown, County Kilkenny

Eldest of five two boys and three girls.

Educated first at Ballyhale NS, County Kilkenny and then at St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny City. After school he was awarded a Cadetship in the Irish Army and was a commissioned officer in 1953.

by 1960 at Chivuna, Monze, N Rhodesia - studying language Regency

Early Education at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny and Defence Forces (Cadetship and Commission)

31 July 1933: Born in Wexford.
Early School years in Ballyhale National School, Kilkenny
1945 - 1951: St Kieran's College, Kilkenny
1951 - 1954: Defence Forces - Cadetship and Commission
7th September 1954: Entered the Society at Emo
8th September 1956: First Vows at Emo
1956-1959 Tullabeg – Studied Philosophy
1959-1960 Zambia – Studied the language
1960-1962 Chikuni College – teaching, prefecting, games, helping in Parish
1962-1966 Milltown Park – Studied Theology
1966-1968 Zambia – Chikuni College, teaching
1968-1969 Mukasa Minor Seminary – Teaching; Prefecting; Games; Helping in Parish
1969-1971 Chikuni College – Teaching; Prefecting; Games; Helping in Parish
1971-1972 Tertianship: Liverpool/St. Bueno’s
1972-1976 Chisekesi, Zambia – Teacher; Prefecting; Games at Canisius College, Chikuni
1976-1978 Mukasa – Teaching; Prefecting; Games; Helping in Parish
1978-1981 Namwala; Chikuni; Chivuna, Assistant Parish Priest
1981-1985 SFX, Gardiner Street – Vocations and Church/Parish Work
1985-1988 Chikuni; Namwala – Teaching; Parish Work; Marriage Encounter
1988-1991 Namwala-Superior, Assistant P.P.
1991-1992 3M Course at St. Beuno’s, Wales
1992-1994 Namwala/Mukasa – Teaching; Parish Work; Marriage Encounter
1994-1995 Milltown Park – Directing Spiritual Exercises; Pastoral Work;
1995-2005 Galway – Church/Parish/Retreats
1997 Parish Priest; Librarian
2003 Prefect of the Church
2005-2006 Sabbatical (USA); Rome C.I.S. Course on Spiritual Exercises
2006-2010 John Austin House – Assistant Director Jesuit Mission Office; Assisted in Aughrim Street Parish
2008 Superior
2010-2015 St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner St. – Assisted in Mission Office; Spiritual Director, Legion of Mary
2015 Residing in Cherryfield Lodge, praying for the Church and the Society

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Note from Joseph B (Joe) Conway Entry
Two days before his death, Joe became semi-comatose and was moved to a nearby hospital run by the Sisters of St. John of God. While in this state, he spoke Tonga and also answered Fr O’Driscoll in Tonga who was with him the day before he died.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/rip-fr-neil-odriscoll-sj/

RIP: Fr Neil O’Driscoll SJ
Fr Neil O’Driscoll died peacefully in St. Vincent’s Hospital on Tuesday 27th January, aged 81. The eldest of five children, he was born in Wexford but moved as a child to Kilkenny, the county that commanded his loyalty from then on. He was a fine figure of a man who never lost the military bearing that reflected his three years in the army, moving from cadetship to commission. Was it the example of the soldierly Ignatius Loyola that moved him to the next stage, entering the Jesuit noviciate at Emo? Or the fact that Neil, like his father, was born on St Ignatius’ feast, 31 July? As with Ignatius, what met the eye was impressive, but less important than the depth and gentleness that lit up his face when he smiled. He was a dear and delightful companion.
Of his fifty years of priesthood, he spent half in Zambia, first learning the language, then schoolmastering and parish work in Chikuni and Namwala. When Bishop James Corboy founded Mukasa Minor Seminary in Choma, Neil went there as Prefect and teacher, and had a great influence on the boys there. His ability to encourage vocations and his good-tempered approach to teaching and to discipline made him a valued member of staff. I don’t think it is just coincidence that among his pupils there were two who later became Bishops and many others who were priests in various dioceses.
Neil was 61 when he returned to Ireland for a new ministry of giving retreats and running St Ignatius’ parish in Galway – he was the last Jesuit Parish priest. It was a good time for him. He always spoke of Galway with special affection; he found a warm welcome there and made many close friends. Meeting Neil you sensed a man who was happy in his priestly vocation, right up to his last years in Cherryfield. And he was a man of strong loyalties: to his family, his county of Kilkenny, his Alma Mater St Kieran’s College, and to the Jesuits, his comrades and spiritual home for sixty years of his life. May the Lord reward him.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 159 : Spring 2015

Obituary

Fr Cornelius (Neil) O’Driscoll (1933-2015)

Neil O'Driscoll died peacefully in St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin on 27th January 2015, aged 81. Like his father, he was born on the feast of St. Ignatius, something that may have had a bearing on his decision to enter the Society. He was baptised as Cornelius, though his Jesuit colleagues will ever remember him as Neil. But there are more significant things they will surely remember about him; his bright reassuring smile; the twinkle in his eye; his personal concern for his fellow-Jesuits and their work; the warmth, kindness and sincerity of his friendship; his gentle manner; the patient resignation with which he bore adverse health conditions; the uncomplaining way in which time and again he readjusted the course of his life in answer to the demands of his deteriorating health; his deep spiritual life, never paraded openly, but obvious in his great devotion to the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary.

The human context for all of this was the characteristic that first met the eye: Neil's impressive, almost military, bearing and the measured way in which he would deal with an issue. The years he spent in the Irish Army Officer Cadet Corps before entering the Jesuit novitiate made a deep impression on him and in God's surprising ways equipped him for some of the roles he would fill in the Society. A very early one, while still a novice, was to take some of his fellow-novices for drill, marching them round in efforts to improve their carriage and bearing. This was at a time when Ireland was experiencing renascent Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity; so it is no surprise that when light aircraft were seen flying over Emo, the rumour went round that the Irish authorities were checking in case the Jesuit novitiate had become a hot-bed for training IRA recruits! Neither is it any surprise that Neil was affectionately known to so many fellow-Jesuits as “the Captain” - almost instinctively you wanted to salute him when you first met him!

Neil spent 27 years, or almost exactly one-third of his life in Zambia. He would certainly have remained longer if the problems with his health had not made it necessary for him to return permanently to Ireland in 1994. In 1959, he arrived in what was then Northern Rhodesia for his three years of regency, spent most of his first year learning Chitonga and the following two years teaching in Canisius College, the Jesuit secondary school at Chikuni, He returned to Ireland for theology and was ordained on 27th July 1965, along with two other stalwarts of the Zambia-Malawi Province, Frank Wafer and Frank Woda. Following his fourth year of Theology and then Tertianship, Neil returned to Zambia in 1967. There he found both national and church scenes greatly changed compared with the way they had been when he left in 1962: what had been Northern Rhodesia had become Zambia; the Diocese of Monze had been established, with James Corboy as its first bishop; and Mukasa, a Jesuit run minor seminary for Monze Diocese, had been opened in Choma.

Neil was always happy to be sent where there was a need. At the time of his return to Zambia the need was for dynamic teachers and exemplary role-models in the schools for which the Society was responsible. And so it was that he spent the next eleven years of his life teaching either in Canisius or Mukasa. His colleagues remember with great admiration the way he always gave himself totally to the job. Very cheerfully he would take on extra classes or deal creatively with double sized classes of 75 or more (necessitated by a shortage of teachers). And as might have been expected from such a fine figure of a man, he knew how to use his impressive presence to bring control out of what otherwise might have been bedlam.

In some ways these were Neil's best and most fulfilling years. He was totally engrossed in his work, never seemed to have a moment for himself, and clearly enjoyed almost every minute of the diverse demands of his teaching apostolate. Around this time he began to show the attractive personality trait that was to become his hallmark in later life - pausing in a reflective and somewhat ponderous manner when asked a question and then giving a characteristic "hmmm” before answering. But for Neil one great thing about these teaching years was that he was just too busy to be able to pay attention to the dark and nameless anxieties that were lurking under the surface of his personal life and that became such a heavy cross for him in later years.

As was not unusual at that time in schools in Zambia, Neil also had to provide back-up and support for his teaching colleagues and the school administration if there were any disturbances among the students. This was a challenge for him, often involving a situation where he did not feel comfortable or at ease. But invariably he provided courageous support and showed unswerving loyalty. The experience of such situations burned deeply into him, unsettling him in some ways, though in later life he could recall them with sardonic humour. Thus, in mid-March 1974, he was with Jerry O'Connell one Sunday evening in the Canisius Headmaster's office when they heard sounds of shouting and rioting that were getting ominously louder. Quickly, Jerry and Neil switched off the lights and remained low, letting the disorderly students pass by outside. All settled down that night, but ever after when he would meet Jerry, Neil would say in characteristic fashion, “Jerry, beware the ides, beware the ides of March”

The legacy that Neil brought with him into the Society as a cadet officer in the Irish Army stood him in good stead during the years of his assignment to Canisius. Under Tom McGivern, a cadet contingent, attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Zambian Army, had been established at the school in 1964 and flourished over the years. On his return to the school in 1967, Neil enthusiastically became involved with these Cadets - the records show him as “Lieutenant the Rev. N. O'Driscoll” for five years and then for a year as Contingent Commander until he withdrew gracefully from this position so that a Zambian could take charge.

In 1979 Neil moved from school to parish work, becoming assistant parish priest in Chivuna. He served in this position for two years before returning to Dublin to spend three years in Gardiner Street on vocations promotion and parish work. From there he moved back to Zambia, first to a teaching post for three years in Canisius, then to Namwala for five years as superior and assistant parish priest, and then once again back to teaching, this time in Mukasa for a year.

The background to these many adjustments and changes was Neil's uncertain health status. For a considerable period he suffered from the undetected condition of excess iron in the blood, something that necessitated regular replacement of his blood supply. It was this that eventually made it necessary for him to leave Zambia in 1994 and return permanently to Ireland, At the same time he had to withstand the almost unremitting onslaughts of what St. Ignatius called the "evil spirit”. This plagued the second half of his life with a great burden of nameless anxieties, apprehensions and uneasiness. Notwithstanding his fine presence, he disliked being in a position of responsibility as he felt it difficult to make important decisions. But for as long as he was able, he continued with his apostolic work despite the physical and psychological burdens that he was carrying. Unfailingly he also continued to show himself a warm-hearted and delightful companion.

That he never deviated from the steady paths of apostolic engagement and very agreeable companionship shows that spiritually as well as physically Neil was truly a man of God and a man of stature. This made a strong impression on his Jesuit colleagues as well as on the Zambian people. It is gratifying to be able to record that late in 2014, just some months before he died, former parishioners of his recalled with great appreciation the work that he and Frank O'Neill had done when they were running Namwala parish. Even today, more than twenty years after his departure from the country, the people of Zambia remember with affection and appreciation Neil's pastoral presence among them.

Neil was 61 when he returned to Ireland in 1994 to a new ministry of giving retreats and running the parish in Galway, This was a good time for him. He always spoke of Galway with special affection. Meeting him, you sensed a man who was happy in his priestly vocation, right up to his last years in Cherryfield. And he was a man of strong loyalties: to his family, his county of Kilkenny, his Alma Mater St Kieran's College, the people of Zambia, his fellow-Jesuits, and the Society that was spiritual home for sixty years of his life.

In his wonderful book Where To From Here? Brian Grogan envisages a person who has just died moving with Christ in a small boat into the unbelievably wonderful life that lies ahead and being welcomed on the other side at a crowded quay. Undoubtedly it was that way with Neil when, towards the end of January, he got into that boat and left us. And surely among those offering him a thunderous welcome when he arrived at the other side were the Jesuit colleagues with whom he had worked in Zambia and who had pre-deceased him in Cherryfield - John Fitzgerald, Dick Cremins, Paddy Kelly, Charlie O'Connor, John McCauley, Jim Dunne, Denis Flannery and, of course, Frank O'Neill – and the countless Zambian people to whom he was such an inspiration, guide and genuinely good person. Can't you see him characteristically raising his bushy eyebrows, smiling radiantly with his whole being, joy shining through his eyes, completely overwhelmed, unable to find a word, and a small sound coming from his lips -- "hmmm”? Neil, you were a great and wonderful companion and priest. We greatly took forward to the welcome you will have for us when the time comes for us also to get into the boat and cross with the Lord to where you are now.

Michael J Kelly

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: 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: 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: 1619, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 1638, Villarejo, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Died: 05 July 1645, Oropesa, Toledo, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)

1644 was at Oropesa (TOLE) teaching Grammar for 4 years

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already completed two years Philosophy before Ent 1638 Villarejo TOLE
After First Vows he was sent on Regency, first to Plasencia and then or Oropesa where he died 05 July 1645

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: 17 December 1923, George’s Street, Gort, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1941, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 30 June 1942

Parents were in business

Two brothers one his twin.

Educated at the Convent of Mercy school in Gort for four years. He then went to Mungret College SJ (1934-1941)

Born: 22 October 1898, Saint Alphonsus Terrace, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 31 August 1916, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1931, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 20 May 1972, Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road, Galway

Father was head accountant and secretary at WJ Shaw & Sons, Limerick. Mother died in December 1900

Only son with two sisters.

Educated initially at a Convent school for two years and then he went to at Crescent College SJ

by 1923 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1933 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 47th Year No 3 1972

St Ignatius College, Galway

Father Joseph O'Connor died in the Regional Hospital on the morning of Saturday, 20th May from a coronary attack. He had been in hospital for about six weeks. He had been a member of this Community since 1941, when he came here as Minister. Fourteen priests took part in the Concelebrated Mass on the day of his burial, Fr O'Keefe (Rector) being First Concelebrant, assisted by Fr Provincial and Fr McGrath, PP, and a very large number followed the remains to the graveside. May he rest in peace.

Obituary :

Fr Joseph O’Connor SJ

Father Joe O'Connor who died in Galway on 20th May was born in Limerick, in October 1898, and was educated at St. Philomena's Preparatory School and the Crescent College, Limerick. On August 31st, 1916 he entered the Society at Tullabeg, and at the end of his Noviceship went to Rathfarnham Castle for his University studies. Having taken his degree, he studied Philosophy for three years at Stonyhurst, and then went to Mungret College, where he taught for three years. Going to Milltown Park for Theology, he was ordained there in 1931. The following year he did his Tertianship in St. Beuno's, N Wales. Returning to Ireland in 1933 he spent three years as Higher Line Prefect in Clongowes, and was then appointed Rector of Mungret College. From Mungret he came to Coláiste lognáid, Galway in 1941 where he remained until his death in 1972. There he began a busy career, occupying the positions of Minister, Procurator, Prefect of the Church, and Director of the Bona Mors Confraternity. He continued as Pro curator, Operarius in the Church, and Director of the Bona Mors till 2 or 3 years before his death, when ill health forced him to retire. In 1942, due to his contacts with the people and the need he saw for it, he began the Nazareth Benevolent Fund and continued as its organiser till the time of his death, The aim of this fund was to assist those whose financial status had been reduced and who needed help. Through Flag Days and Xmas Raffles he raised sufficient money to keep the Fund going. By personal contact he had the gift of singling out those who stood in most need, and helped them over long periods. Besides that, he was Spiritual Director of the Ignatian Branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, for years, and came to know the very poor of the City, and was always ready and generous in helping them. Those in distress found in him a “friend in need”, one always ready to lend them a helping hand.
As Operarius in the Church, he was dedicated to his work over a period of 28 years. He wrote all his sermons in a neat hand, and preached them in a gracious way all his own, occasionally stepping back quietly but in an authoritative manner to emphasise some point. He had a fair knowledge of Irish, and read the Long Acts and the long prayer before Mass quite fluently. In his active years he quite frequently cycled to Calvary and Merlin Park Hospitals to visit patients whom he knew. Once, after a long absence, (through illness) he found the front wheel of his bicycle missing, and this put an end to his cycling career. This was 4 years ago.
At no time was his health very robust, but the first sign of serious illness came in the Spring of 1968 when he had a black-out after supper and was rushed by ambulance to the Regional Hospital. After a fairly long stay there he went to Milford House, Limerick, to recuperate. He seems to have never fully recovered from that attack, as he had to go away for treatment, on many occasions, during the last few years, and in the last year or more, one could see that he was a sick man. Even in his last years he sometimes took over, for a brief period, the office of Procurator, and helped in the Church,
His chief characteristics were, quietness, kindness, and gentleness combined with remarkable efficiency in all that he undertook. He was very interested in people and his knowledge of the Galway people extensive and, sometimes, very surprising. In his walks through the city he often stopped for a chat with one after another on his way. As a result he had numerous friends, and was very popular. When he was ill members of the community were frequently stopped in the street to be asked “How is Father Joe”. To many who had known him since the days of their childhood his death was in the nature of a personal loss. This was shown by the large number of Mass Cards and letters of sympathy that came to the house when the news of his death spread through the town. (One of these letters of sympathy was from the Mayor and Corporation of Galway City). It was also shown by the large number of mourners who followed his remains to the graveside to pay their last tribute to one they had esteemed and loved over so many years. His funeral was attended by priests from all houses of the Province and from the parishes of Galway. May he rest in peace!

Born: 14 October 1827, Tullyvin, County Cavan
Entered: 15 September 1864, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: - 1852, pre Entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1877
Died: 06 July 1903, University College, Dublin

Education at Laragh Classical School, County Cavan; Diocesan Seminary County Cavan; St Patrick’s College Maynooth

1866 2nd year Novitiate at Galway
by 1867 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a priest of the Diocese of Kilmore. When he had completed his studies he was appointed President of St Patrick’s College, Cavan. Under his leadership he raised the status of the College as one of great efficiency. he endeared himself to his students by his courteous and friendly manner, whilst at the same time modelling the virtues necessary for Ministry.
After years of service to his Diocese he entered the Society of Jesus.

After First Vows he was immediately appointed Rector at Galway, and later Rector at Crescent, Limerick.
As a Missioner, he became known and revered in many parishes in Ireland.
He continued to be held in high regard by the Priests of Kilmore, even after he entered the Society. When the Bishop Dr Finnegan died, as names of a possible successor were sought from the Priests of the Diocese, many voted for Philip O’Connell, eve though they knew he was precluded from Ecclesiastical Office by his membership of the Society of Jesus. He was mourned greatly by the Priests of Kilmore and the Society, many of those Kilmore Priests had been students of his at St Patrick’s.
(Text taken from an obituary which appeared in “The Nation”)

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Philip O’Connell (1827-1903)

Was a secular priest of Kilmore diocese when he entered the Society in 1864. After his ordination at Maynooth, he had been appointed to the staff of St Patrick's College, Cavan where he eventually became President. His obituary notice in “The Nation” states that “during his tenure of that office, he raised the College to a high state of efficiency”. His first association with the Crescent was from 1869 to 1870 when he was a member of the teaching staff. He returned to Limerick in 1872 as member of the mission staff and remained here until 1876. Appointed rector of the Crescent in 1882 he remained in office until 1885 when he resumed his mission work. During the years 1885 to 1896 he was stationed variously at Clongowes, Milltown Park and Tullabeg. He was appointed rector of St Ignatius', Galway in 1896 and remained there until 1900 when he returned for another year to work at Sacred Heart Church. He was a member of the community at University College and attached to University Church at the time of his death. Whether as missioner or retreat director, Father O'Connell was one of the most respected priests of his day. The obituary notice in “The Nation” says of him: “As a missioner, he was known and revered in many parishes of Ireland; and from many a peasant homestead will arise a prayer to God for the repose of his soul. Among his brother priests of the diocese of Kilmore, he was held in special veneration. This feeling found expression when, on the death of the late Dr. Finnegan, the names of those from whom the priests of the diocese judged his successor should be selected were submitted to the Holy See. Many of his old colleagues and friends voted for Father O'Connell, though it was known that his obligations precluded him from accepting ecclesiastical dignities”.

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: 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: 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: 1598, County Meath
Entered: 17 November 1624, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM) / Paris, France (FRA) - Franciae Pronince
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final Vows: 09 April 1650
Died: 10 March 1653, County Galway - described as "Martyr"

Alias O’Kerolan

1625 Was at Paris novitiate
1650 Studied at Douai and taught Humanities

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities and Philosophy as a secular priest, and did a year of private study in Theology.
Taught Humanities for sixteen years (HIB Catalogue 1550 - ARSI)
Hunted by Cromwell’s soldiers (1652-1656), he died from starvation and exposure in the woods. A pious lady risked her life to rescue him, she had him brought to her house, but it was too late.
1649 Teaching in Galway. A worthy man of pious and joyous temper (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Already a priest on Ent 17 November 1624 Rome
Sent to Paris for Noviceship, after First Vows he stayed in Paris for two years Theology at St Louis College - as his previous Priestly studies only composed Rhetoric and Philosophy.
1629 Sent to Ireland and the Dublin Residence, though worked mostly in Meath
1649 Sent to Galway to teach
According to the Visitor Fr Mercure Verdier, he spent many years teaching but there was no record of where. Verdier also reported that he was of ancient Irish stock, a cheerful, a good man and that he had strongly supported the “Censures” of the Nuncio both within the community and in his sermons. At the time of Verdier's visitation, he had not yet made his final religious profession although he was over twenty-five years a Jesuit. He seems to have received some harsh treatment from the Mission Superior, William Malone who had threatened to expel him from the Society for his defence of the censures at a meeting of Theologians. Following Verdier’s Report to Rome, Malone was ordered by the General to admit John to his final vows without more delay, 9 April, 1650.
After the fall of Galway he escaped arrest, but he suffered a lot from hunger and exposure, but in the end he found refuge with a charitable family and died in Galway 10 March 1653

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Carolan SJ 1598-1653
In Ireland at a date unrecorded, died Fr John Carolan, having been hunted to death by the Cromwellians.

He was born in Meath in 1598, and having made his studies joined the Society as a priest on November 17th 1642. He was a good Latin and Irish scholar and taught Humanities in the Irish Jesuit Colleges for 16 years.

In 1649 he was stationed in Galway, being then 51 years of age. He was fiercely and relentlessly pursued by the Cromwellian soldiers, who would doubtless have conferred on him the martyrs crown, had the succeeded in capturing him. He may indeed be said to have won the palm of martyrdom, for he finally succumbed to the fury of his persecutors, and he died of exhaustion and hunger, a true confessor of the Faith, some time between the years 1652 and 1656.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CAROLAN, JOHN. In 1649, he was living at Galway, aet. 64, of which period he had passed twenty-four years in the Society; but was in Priest’s orders before his admission. The good old man was literally hunted to death by the Cromwellian Myrmidons between he years 1652 and 1656. Though not actually taken by his inveterate and savage pursuers, he died of exhaustion and hunger

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: 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 May 1919, Palmyra Park, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1949, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 02 December 1992, Heathrow Airport, London, England in transit to Jesuit Residence, Kitwe, Zambia. - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Transcribed : HIB to ZAM 03/12/1969

Father was a National school teacher and he died in 1925, as was his mother, and the family moved to live at Maree, Oranmore, County Galway

Second of fve boys with two sisters.

Earle education was at a National school and then at Coláiste Iognáid.

by 1952 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - fourth wave of Zambian Missioners

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
In a letter written in January 1953 by Fr Colm (as he was known and not by his other names) to his Provincial, he wrote ‘Since July, new schools have been finished at Pemba, Haamapande, Siggubu, Ntambo, Lumbo, and Ntanga; new teachers' houses at Pemba, Ntambo, Sikabenga, Njola, Civuna, Fumbo, Ntanga and Nyanga’. He was Manager of
Schools since 1952 having learned ciTonga after he arrived in 1951. So much in so short a time!

Colm was born in Galway in the west of Ireland on 31 May of 1919. He was fluent at the Irish language which influenced the other languages in which he was proficient. After juniorate, philosophy, regency in Clongowes Wood College and theology, he was ordained priest in Milltown Park, Dublin in 1949. After tertianship, he came to Zambia in August 1951.

Education was his field of work for the forty years he lived and worked in Zambia. As Manager of Schools, he built both new schools and teachers' houses as exampled above. He became education secretary in Chikuni, Civuna and Monze up to 1960 and was responsible for building the church at Monze town. In the early days, he traveled by bicycle, motor bike and landrover setting up, visiting and inspecting schools.

Someone compared Fr Colm to that Irish 6th century Saint Columba (after whom Colm took his name). ‘He (Columba) was able, ardent and sometimes harsh but mellowed with age. The description is also apt for Colm. He was extremely able. As an educationist and administrator he was highly capable and was driven by a generous zeal for the Lord's work. Like other outstanding people there was also a negative side to his very positive character, at times he would appear moody or even harsh. But this was only a passing phase; like his patron Columba, he mellowed with age’.

His work in education continued in Lusaka from 1960 to 1976. He worked in the Catholic Secretariat as Education Secretary General 1960 to 1964 and combined this with the job of Secretary General 1964 to 1976. He was convinced of the value of education and the apostolate of education was his first preference. Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College was launched by him and he was responsible for the establishing and developing of lay missionary teachers (LMA T) so sorely needed in the early days of independence. He came to be widely known as a good organiser and administrator, a chairman who could be relied upon to give satisfaction, get work done and produce results.

In 1970 he was nominated by the President of Zambia to be chairman of a high level commission to review salaries, salary structures and conditions of service for the Public Service, including police and defence forces on a nationwide basis. However, he had not left his building skills behind in Monze for he planned and executed the Catholic Secretariat Building – Unity House on Freedom Way, as well as the residence at St. Ignatius Church in Lusaka.

His work became widely known and he was invited to cooperate in the setting up of a Bishops' Secretariat in Lesotho which occupied him from 1977 to 1978. He retired to Kitwe to be engaged mainly in pastoral work.

He was very loyal to his friends and devoted to others, ready to put himself out to help them. In the midst of all his education work, he was first and foremost a priest, very conscientious to his call to grow in the love and service of the Lord and bringing others to Him, helping others to seek and find God in their lives by his preaching, Mass, sacraments, retreats and counselling.

As the years went by, his health became quite a serious problem especially heart and circulation difficulties. He was in Ireland for treatment but his mind was made up to return to Zambia since he had become a Zambian citizen in 1966. At Heathrow airport on his way back, he collapsed and died on the 2 December 1992.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - MICHAEL O'Riordan

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: 21 April 1921, Caledonian Place, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1953, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin
Died: 23 October 2007, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Father was a dentist.

Eldest of five boys (one deceased) with six sisters (two deceased).

Educated at at Convent school in Limerick and then at the Christian Brothers Primary school. he then went to Ring for a year and returned to the Christian Brothers school. He then went to Crescent College SJ (1933-1939)

Editor of An Timire, 1949-71.