Born: 8 March 1879, Dennehy’s Cross, Lower Glasheen, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1901, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1914, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1917, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 27 August 1962, Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Older Brother of Denis - RIP 1958

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Father was a constable in the RIC and then at the Customs House, Cork.

Has five brothers and five sisters living at Greenmount Villas, Greenmount, Cork

Educated at St Maries of the Isle Convent of Mercy, The Lough, Cork City and then Presentation Brothers. Then became a clerk at Beamish & Crawford, then as a clerk to the Cork office of Lever Brothers, and then John Perry & Sons, Cork (wrought iron manufacturers)

by 1905 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
John Nerney entered the Society at Tullabeg, 7 September 1901, and after his juniorate there, studied philosophy at Valkenburg, 1904-07. He taught at the Crescent, Limerick, 1907-09, and at Clongowes, 1909-11, before studying theology at Milltown Park, 1911-15. Tertianship followed at Tullabeg, 1915-16. He taught at Mungret for a few years before going to Australia in 1919.
He taught for a few years at Xavier College, before going to St Patrick's College, 1921-23, where he was editor of the Messenger and Madonna. He did parish work at Norwood, 1923-33, and went back to St Patrick's College, 1934-38, continuing his work with the Messenger, and doing spiritual work with the students. At the same time he directed sodalities, including the very popular men's Sodality in Melbourne. Later, he was stationed at Richmond, doing similar work, and at Loyola College, Watsonia, 1940-43 and 1946-59. He also gave retreats at this time. His last years were at the parish of Hawthorn.
For most of his life in the Society Nerney suffered from a form of anaemia which made work difficult, but he contrived to get through a great deal of work all the same, and lived to a good age. His chief interest was in spreading devotion to Our Lady, and one of his chief instruments in doing so was the professional men's Sodality which was centred on St Patrick's College. Nerney directed this Sodality for 25 years as a benevolent despot. He had a great capacity for making friends. He took a great interest in people and their problems. Those who lived with him saw another side of him, a man with very definite views. He had a keen mind and could discuss theological questions in a subtle way.
He was also a regular visitor to the prisons, visiting 'Old Boys', as he used to say He was spiritual father at Loyola College, Watsonia, for many years, and his domestic exhortations were awaited with some expectation. They were learned, well prepared, devotional, and yet idiosyncratic. Scholastics were able to mimic his style, much to the mirth of their colleagues. Novices were regularly so amused that they had to be removed from the chapel! He rarely attended meals in the early days, preferring to eat alone at second table. He always had a simple, special diet. He was also a collector of sheets! When he left his room for any reason, the minister was able to collect many sheets that had been stored. Yet, for all that, he was much loved and respected in the community.
At Hawthorn he took an interest in the midday Mass, regarding it as his own, and keen to build up numbers. He died unexpectedly of a coronary occlusion.

Born: 04 May 1930, Carrigfern, College Road, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 06 September 1947, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1966, St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia
Died: 20 May 2012, Enstone, Oxfordshire, England

Left Society of Jesus: 25 February 1972

Transcribed HIB to ZAM 03 December 1969

Conor Simon Reilly was born at Stella Maris Nursing Home, Wellington Road, Cork City

Father, Joseph, was a Professor of Chemistry at UCC (lived at Woodlands, St Anne’s Hill, Cork City). Mother, Susan (O’Brien) lived at Nowlan Avenue, Dundrum, Dublin, County Dublin. Growing up Conor’s family lived at Beaumont Avenue, Dundrum, Dublin

Youngest of three boys with two sisters.

Five years were spent in various Convent and National schools in Cork - which he left in 1933 - he then went to Synge Street for nine years.

Baptised at Immaculate Conception, St Finbar’s West, The Lough, Cork City, 19/08/1940
Confirmed at St Kevin’s Harrington Street, Dublin by Dr Wall of Dublin, 19/02/1942

1947-1949: St Mary's, Emo, , Novitiate
1949-1953: Rathfarnham Castle, Junorate, UCD (BSc in Biochemistry)
1953-1956: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1956-1957: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Regency
1957-1961: Milltown Park, Theology
1961-1963: Rathfarnham Castle, studiying for a PhD in Biochemistry at UCD
1963-1964: McQuaid Jesuit High School, Clinton Avenue South, Rochester NY, USA (BUF) on a Fulbright Scholarship studying Biochemistry at University of Rochester, Wildon Boulevard, Rochester NY
1964-1965: North American Martyrs, Auriesville NY, USA (BUF) making Tertianship
1965-1971: Lusaka, Zambia, lecturing Biology an Biochemistry at University of Zambia, attached to St Ignatius community
Was at Unversität Bern, Hochschulstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland, Sept 1969- January 1970

Married Anne Drew, a widow with four children and Conor’s lab assistant 17/03/1972 (having “married” her in Zambia 22/12/1971). Left Zambia in summer 1973 and began work at Oxford Polytechnic (Oxford Brookes University, Headington Road, Headington, Oxford, UK

Interfuse No 149 : Autumn 2012

CONOR REILLY

John J Moore

Another ex-Jesuit deserves a mention in Interfuse: Conor Reilly is remembered with affection and respect by those who knew him in Dublin and Zambia. He entered the Society in 1947, left in December 1971, married the following year, and died in May 2012 aged 82 at his home in Enstone, Oxford, UK. John Moore was two years ahead of him in the Jesuits, but since they studied science together at UCD, they were good friends, and John has recorded these memories of Conor.

It was when “googling” to get information about Conor that I suddenly got the death notice from the London Times on the screen. We were very good friends. Being the only scientist in Rathfarnham at that time was a rather lonely assignment. When Conor joined me in the College of Science, our friendship blossomed. His father was Professor of Biochemistry in UCC, so it was not surprising that he opted for Biochemistry as his major subject; but actually his first appointment in Zambia was as Lecturer in Botany. During Philosophy and Theology he turned his talents to the history of Jesuit scientists, and published two well-known historical works. (There certainly were a few others, but I do not have the bibliographical information.): Francis Line, SJ: An Exiled English Jesuit (1969). Vol. 29 of the Bib. Inst Hist SJ.; Athanasius Kircher S.J.: Master of a Hundred Arts. 1602-1680. (1974) Band I of Studia Kircheriana, Wiesbaden-Rome. (This is a standard reference on Kircher).

He did his Ph.D, at UCD immediately after Theology, and managed to get it in two years, the only case I know of for an experimentally based Ph.D in UCD - normally it took three years and often longer if the write-up was giving difficulties. In his fourth year in Milltown he had already worked out in detail his plan of research and ensured that the Dept of Biochemistry had all the equipment in place to start his work as soon as he finished in Milltown. He got a job as lecturer in the Biology Dept of UNZA (University of Zambia) in 1965 before they started taking students – the idea was to get courses and equipment organised in time for the arrival of the first students. I became a lecturer (later Professor) at the Botany Dept of UCD.

He left the Society in 1971, married and transferred to Food Science in Oxford Polytech, UK. He later moved to Brisbane, Australia where he became the expert in Trace Metals in Food, and I lost personal contact with him. He wrote the work on Kircher while a Jesuit scholastic before doing his Ph.D. in biochemistry. He is the author of a standard book on metal contamination of food whose third edition was published in 2002.

At an early stage he got interested in “heavy metals in plants” which became his speciality - his books on the subject are standard references in the field. He got interested in the subject when some of his medical colleagues mentioned to him that they were getting abnormally high incidence of mouth and throat cancer among Zambian males living in the rural villages. Jointly they discovered that the cancer was correlated with the use of metal barrels for making traditional beer. Those who used earthenware pots for brewing the beer were not suffering from mouth cancer. Conor found that Zinc or Lead leached from the inner surface of the metal drums proved to be carcinogenic. He then turned his attention to the Copperbelt and the mines which then (and now) were “environmentally unfriendly”. He discovered that some plants managed to grow on the copper waste, and then showed that these could be used in prospecting. The rocks beneath the places where they grew in abundance usually proved to have copper veins running through them.

Conor did not share with me the circumstances of his leaving the society and Zambia, but as soon as I got the news in Ireland I wrote to him saying I hoped our friendship would not be broken by his decision to leave. In fact it was not – when he moved to Oxford he would sometimes come to Ireland for Summer Holidays along with his wife and her four children. We used to arrange “a day in the hills” as in the old days. After our picnic with his wife and the children, we would excuse ourselves and go off for a walk together in the woods, sharing all sorts of things – except his new married life, or what exactly happened in Zambia!"

May the Lord be good to Conor and comfort his wife and step children.