Born: 13 November 1862, Effin, County Limerick
Entered: 18 September 1880, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 24 July 1883, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia

Early Irish Australian Mission 1882

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1882 He was sent for Regency to Australia with John Flynn, both being delicate in health. He took his First Vows there in 1883, but died shortly afterwards at the Residence in Richmond, Melbourne 18 September 1880.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
Having been educated at St Stanislaus College Tullamore and entering the Society at Milltown Park, Edmund became ill and was sent to Australia, where he took vows just before his death.

Note from John Flynn Entry
After a year it was discovered he had consumption and was sent to Australia with another novice sufferer, Edmund Bohan, and arrived in December 1882.

Born: 26 April 1919, Saint Alphonsus Terrace, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 16 April 2002, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

Father was Secretary of the Limerick Water Works.

Older of two boys with two sisters.

Educated at St Philomena's Convent school and then at Crescent College SJ for eight years.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 112 : Special Edition 2002

Obituary

Mr Thomas (Tom) Donnellan (1919-2002)

26th April 1919: Born in Limerick
Early education in St. Philomena's, Limerick and Crescent College, Limerick.
7th Sept. 1936: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Sept. 1938: First Vows at Emo
1938 - 1941: Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1941 - 1943: Receiving psychiatric treatment at “Health Centres”.
1943 - 1973: St. Ita's Psychiatric Hospital, Portrane
1973 - 2002: Manresa House - Sacristan, Ministered in the community
16th April 2002: Died at Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Tom was hospitalised recently in St. Vincent's Hospital for three months and had his left leg amputated. His heart remained weak, as it had been for the last few years. He was discharged to Cherryfield Lodge on 4th April, and died there, peacefully, on 16 April, 2002.

Paul Andrews writes....
Even as Jesuits go, Tom had an extraordinary story. He had deep and affectionate roots in Limerick where he came second in a family of four, of the strong Donnellan clan. Unusually the two boys outlived the two girls, now only Frank is left. Tom spent three years with the FCJs, and ten with the Jesuits in the Crescent. He was bright, led his class all the way, was looked up to as a star athlete, loved life. When he left school in 1936 it was not rare for such a boy to choose the Jesuits. He went to Emo for two years noviciate, then to Rathfarnham to start a degree in UCD.

Here is the sobering bit for us Jesuits. At the end of his long retreat Tom had offered God the unconditional service of his liberty, his mind and understanding. God heard him in a way he would never have wished. He had what was then called a broken head. His contemporaries noticed that he was skipping Sunday walks in order to study more at home. At the age of 21 Tom had a major breakdown, and for many years lost the use of his fine mind and understanding. The hardest loss of all was of his liberty, and for thirty years.

It was before the days of psychotropic drugs and there was little that medicine could do except contain him. A doctor remarked recently that if Tom fell sick that way today, he would be out of hospital after three weeks. But Tom was behind walls for more than a third of his life, while he grew from his splendid youth to middle age.

When his sister Maureen, then married in the USA, visited St Ita's Hospital in 1972, she found her little brother grey-haired, with a wispy beard, in heavy institutional clothes, but with his mind now functioning, with the help of new drugs. In some distress she wrote to Cecil McGarry, then Provincial, who replied with a compassionate letter, and sent out Joe Dargan (Rector of Manresa) and Paddy Meagher (then Socius) to visit Tom in Portrane. Paddy remembers how interested Tom was in the Province, and knew about several moves of his friends.

Maureen was the one who instigated his move back to a Jesuit house. The change was done gradually and carefully, and was slowed down not by any sickness of Tom but by habits born of long institutionalisation. He came to Manresa, which was both a retreat house and, at that time, a novitiate. Where the community treated him with some caution, unsure how to respond, it was the novices who did most to bring Tom back into the human race, treating him in a matter-of-fact but supportive way.

At the age of fifty-four he began to resume control of his own life. Asked about returning to Jesuit living he had said, “I would like to try preaching. My degree was in Latin so perhaps I could teach that”. But he never resumed formal studies, nor prepared for ordination; nor did he receive final vows, though the application went to Rome - the officials there did not want to canonise the role of perpetual scholastic. He loved the service of the altar, preparing the chapel and reading at Mass. He was invited to work in the grounds, but resisted, probably because that had been his staple occupation in Portrane.

He gradually took over other work around the house, and developed a rhythm of healthy habits: walking, collecting his Pension from the GPO on a Friday, sea swimming in all seasons), and nostalgic holidays in Limerick and Kilkee with his brother Frank. He was the proud holder of one record, not mentioned in the Guinness book: among all the Jesuits worldwide, Tom was the senior scholastic.

When we think about the Tom we have known, one grace is remarkable. While he was a quiet, unobtrusive man, he had also an innate dignity, which drew deep reverence and affection from those he met. He never complained, in any of his sicknesses, even at the end when failing circulation led to the amputation of his left leg. There was an interior life there at which we can barely guess. As we grow older, we talk about the difficulty of no longer being able to achieve anything, or to work. Spiritual writers tell us we have to be content just to be rather than do; and in our declining years that can seem hard. It is sobering to realise that Tom, a handsome, athletic man of great ability , faced that for most of his life.

Yet he seemed a happy man. He was conscious of being liked. When in the last month, his illness grew more acute and he was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, he told them there, in a wry, self-mocking way: In Cherryfield I am the pet. In Manresa, too, we missed him when he was away: not for his work- though it was reliable and invaluable; not for his talk - he would sit happily through a buzzing conversation without uttering a word, though he relished good stories. What we missed was his presence, a gentle, undemanding man with a unique history and a wonderful smile.

He was happy also in his going. The Cherryfield nurses tended him with a care and affection that brought tears to the eyes of his brother Frank, when he recalled it at the funeral lunch in Manresa. On the last evening, three of his community, together with Eddy Fitzgerald, anointed him slowly and lovingly, Tom opened his eyes and took it in. Less than thirty minutes later he had gone to God.

There are times, when the sun is shining and life is sweet, that we may worry that our Lord will say to us at the pearly gates: You have had your reward. There is no such fear in Tom Donnellan; he has had his suffering. His rewards, at least to human eyes, have been few. May God be as good to him as he was to God.

Born: 31 October 1835, Carrickbeg, Carrick-on-Suir, County Waterford
Entered: 04 February 1859, Beaumont, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 01 January 1866, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Older brother of William Hayden RIP 1919

2nd year Novitiate at Tullabeg
by 1865 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying Theology 1

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of William Hayden RIP 1919

1862 Sent to teach at the newly opened school in Limerick.
1864 Sent to Rome for Philosophy, but he was sent back to Dublin due to failing health, and he died in a mental home 01 January 1866.

Born 16 January 1899, Keelogues Old, Ballyvary, County Mayo
Entered: 21 January 1919, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 18 June 1930, Crescent College, Limerick

Parents were farmers and father died in 1909.

Youngest of two sons with three sisters.

Educated at Keelogues (Ballyvary) NS he then went to St Gerald’s College, Castlebar (1911-1916). He then went to the Apostolic School at Mungret College SJ

1921-1924 Rathfarnham - studying for BSc at UCD
1924-1926 Milltown Park - studying Philosophy
1926-1927 Clongowes - Regency
1927-1928 Crescent - Regency

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 5th Year No 4 1930
Sacred Heart College Limerick :
Sad events :
June 18. This morning, the first of the holidays, our scholastic, Mr J Hyland, was found dead in his bed. Not receiving an answer to repeated knocks at the door, the houseman entered the room, and found the corpse lying on the bed.
June 19. In the evening the remains of Mr Hyland were brought down to the Church. The Community formed the procession, The Church was filled with sympathisers, Solemnity was added by the playing of the Dead March by our Church organist.
June 20. Solemn obsequies for the repose of Mr Hyland’s soul, followed by funeral to Mungret College cemetery. Fr. Provincial presided at Mass, and officiated at the graveside. The old boys of the College insisted on carrying the coffin.
Two deaths - one of the youngest member of the Community, the other of its oldest, well within a month, were a severe trial for the Crescent Fathers. It was a consolation to them during the rather sad time they passed through, to note the very wide and very sincere respect with which the Society is regarded in Limerick. At a full meeting of the Sodality BVM,
on the evening of Fr. Kelly's burial, the Rector thanked the public for the remarkable sympathy shown to the Community of the deaths of Mr Hyland and Fr. John Kelly.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 4 1930
Obituary :
Mr James Hyland
We owe the following to the kindness of Fr McCurtin, Mr Hyland’s Rector :
Mr Hyland died suddenly at Sacred Heart College, Limerick, about 6.30 on the morning of June 18th, 1930. The house-man had knocked at the door of his room a couple of times. Fearing that Mr Hyland would be late, at 8.15 he entered the room to find the corpse lying back on the bed, with the legs protruding over the side. The poor young man evidently started to rise at once his alarm went. He was to have served an early Mass, and then to have taken the acolytes on a picnic to Galway. The doctor, who was with us immediately, pronounced that Mr Hyland had died about two hours previously, of heart failure. The Coroner was summoned at once. He and the doctor decided that there was no need for an inquest.
Mr Hyland had been swimming and cycling the afternoon before his death. He had attended the College distribution of prizes in the evening, and, later still, had been to the procurator's room to get money for the excursion to Galway next day. As far as is known there was no warning that his heart was weak. In fact, he had said a few days before that he felt in very good form. The only illness he had during his time at the Crescent was an obstinate carbuncle on the back of his neck. For this he had been carefully treated, and was sent on holiday to Galway at Christmas, 1929, and again at Easter 1930.
A remarkable tribute was paid to Mr Hyland, and, indeed, to the Society, on the occasion of the obsequies. The clergy, both secular and regular, were present in great numbers at the High Mass in our Church. The Church was quite filled with sympathisers. Public bodies, such as the Limerick Corporation and the Labour Organization, sent in notes of condolence. The latter body also postponed an important public meeting out of sympathy with the Community. The boys of the College, whose vacation began the evening before Mr Hyland's death, were all present at,the Mass and the funeral, wearing the school colours draped in black. Fr. Provincial very kindly came from Dublin for the obsequies, and officiated at the graveside in the Mungret College cemetery. Mr Hyland’s aged mother, his brother and brother-in-law, were present during the last rites. One could not but sympathise with them in their great grief, and in the tragic frustration of their hopes to see him a priest.
Mr Hyland was horn at Ballyvary, Go. Mayo, 6 Jan. 1899. He spent a few years in the Apostolic School, Mungret, and entered the Society in 1919. After noviceship at Tullabeg, he did his juniorate at Rathfarnham, and secured the B. Sc. degree of the National University. Philosophy followed at Milltown, after which he spent one year at Clongowes, and then joined the Crescent College staff as Science Master and teacher of Irish. He was a devoted student of the national language, and spoke it fluently. He was also Prefect of the boys, who liked him greatly, and was very successful in his training of the acolytes for church ceremonies. More than once the Bishop of the Diocese praised his work in that respect, as well as his efficiency as Master of Ceremonies - a duty he was always ready to fulfil.
Mr Hyland was a very exact young Religious - punctual at all his duties, end very careful not to omit any religious exercise, He was specially devoted to the Mass, and had the habit of hearing as many Masses as his work would permit. Notwithstanding a shy and retiring disposition, his uprightness and unfailing kindness won for him the respect and even the affection of the boys. They loved to go on cycle rides or picnics with him, and it was touching to see the friendly way in which the little lads gathered round him during recreations. May God give this good young man an eternal rest.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1931

Obituary

James Hyland SJ

The sudden death of Rev J Hyland at the Sacred Heart College, Limerick, on June 18th, 1930, came as a shock to the members of his Order, and was a cause of general sorrow in the city of Limerick. During the early part of the recent year, Mr Hyland had not been in good health; but a period of rest in Galway College at Xmas and Easter seemed to have given him renewed vigour. On the day before his death he appeared in excellent health; but on the morning of June 18th he was found dead on his bed. Death was due to heart-failure.

Mr Hyland entered Mungret College, as an Apostolic student in August, 1916. When he had completed his classical course, he entered the Society of Jesus in January, 1919. He made his noviceship at St Stanislaus, Tullamore, Offaly, and then went to Rathfarnham Castle, Co. Dublin for his University studies. His intellectual bent was towards Mathematics and Science, and, at the close of his University career he secured the BSc degree. He studied Scholastic Philosophy at Milltown Park, Dublin, after which he was attached for one year to the staff at Clongowes Wood College. From there he was transferred to the Sacred Heart College, Limerick, three years ago, as Prefect of Discipline, teacher of Science and Irish. He was a diligent student of the national language - spoke and wrote it fluently. He was, also, an enthusiast for national games.

Remarkable tributes were paid to the deceased young Jesuit, not only by the number of clergy in attendance at the obsequies in the Church of the Sacred Heart, by the boys of the College and the laity in general, but several public bodies - such as the Limerick Corporation, the Workers Transport Union, the Limerick Golf Club, and the Committee of Technical Instruction
sent in votes of condolence to the community.

To Mr Hyland's family we offer our very sincere sympathies in their sorrow. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

James Hyland (1899-1919)

A scholastic, was born in Ballyvarry, Co Mayo and was eleven years in the Society. At the time of his unexpected death Mr Hyland had completed the usual Jesuit course (noviceship, university studies, philosophy and regency) preceding theology. He was a native speaker of the Irish language and was instrumental in refounding the Irish Society in the College.

◆ SHC - Sacred Heart College Limerick 1931

Obituary

James Hyland SJ

At the Sacred Heart College, on June 18 – the first morning of the summer holidays - Mr Hyland was found dead on his bed. He was to have served an early Mass, as he was to have taken the acolytes on their annual excursion. Evidently he had made an effort to rise quickly when his alarm sounded, but fell back and died, according to medical opinion, of heart failure. He had very well on the previous day, and had enjoyed a bathe and a cycle-ride.

Mr Hyland was born at Keelogues Old, near Castlebar, on Jan. 6, 1899. He entered the Apostolic School at Mungret in 1916, and three years later went to the noviceship of the Society of Jesus. Having finished his noviceship he was sent to Rathfarnham for his University studies, and at the close of his period there, he secured the degree of BSc at University College, Dublin. Then followed his philosophical studies at Milltown Park, Dublin, after which he was attached for one year to the teaching staff at Clongowes. He was transferred to the Sacred Heart College, in 1927, where he was Prefect of Discipline, and taught Science and Irish. He was an enthusiastic Gael, keenly interested in the language, which he spoke and wrote fluently, and was a lover of the national games. His Gaelic Club, which he worked most energetically, during the year before his death, gave splendid results in the debate meetings and concerts, which were conducted completely in Irish. He was a fervent religious, preparing carefully for his priesthood years, which he had hoped to spend in China, and had repeately asked his superiors to be allowed to go on the Chinese mission.

Remarkable tributes were paid to his memory, not only by the number of clergy in attendance at the obsequies in the Church of the Sacred Heart, by the boys of the college and the laity in general, but also by several public bodies, such as the Limerick Corporation, the Limerick Trades Council, the Limerick Golf Club, and the Committee of Technical Instruction, who sent votes of condolence to the community of the Sacred Heart College. A thoughtful action by the members of the Limerick Trades Council, in postponing an impor tant public meeting which was to have been held at the O'Connell Monument on the evening of June 18, was very much appreciated.

He was laid to rest in the cemetery of his old school at Mungret. M Kelly, the Captain of the School, placed a beautiful wreath “from the pupils of Rev J Hyland SJ" on the grave. His heart-broken mother - for she longed to see him a priest -was present at his funeral, but she soon followed him to Heaven, as she died a few months ago.

To his brother, sister and other relatives we offer our deepest sympathy in their double bereavement. RIP

Born: 17 March 1843, Shanagolden, County Limerick
Entered: 01 February 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 12 February 1875, Milltown Park, Dublin

Educated at St Vincent’s, Castleknock, St Munchin’s College, Limerick

by 1869 At Home Sick
by 1870 at Aix-les-Bains France (LUGD) studying
by 1871 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He studied Rhetoric at Roehampton, Philosophy at Stonyhurst and in the South of France, but was sent home ultimately for health reasons, and died 12 February 1875 at Milltown Park.

Born: 24 April 1855, Garrynacoonagh, Charleville, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 24 July 1883, Woodstock College, MD, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)

Educated at Charleville, County Cork and Sacred Heart College SJ Limerick

by 1880 at Milltown Park (HIB) health reason

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Joined Missouri Province. Departed Ireland in the Summer of 1880