Item 192 - Typed copy of "Woodlock Letters", letters of Dr Bartholomew Woodlock, held at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Early education at Clongowes Wood College.
Founder of Catholic University School, Leeson Street, Dublin with St John Henry Newman
Founder of All Hallows Missionary College, Drumcondra, Dublin.

◆Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online

Woodlock, Bartholomew
by Liam Rigney
Woodlock, Bartholomew (1819–1902), catholic bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise and rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, was born 30 March 1819 in Dublin, the eighth of ten children of William Paul Woodlock and his wife Mary (née Cleary), who were natives of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. They settled in Dublin in 1798, where his father ran a successful hardware business at 13 New Row West, off Thomas Street. After some private tuition, Woodlock was educated by the Jesuit fathers at the St Francis Xavier seminary, Hardwicke Street, from January to September 1833; he then went to Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, where he remained until 1836. He studied for the priesthood at the Roman seminary (which was at that time in the palace of S. Apollinare) and was ordained priest for the diocese of Dublin at the basilica of St John Lateran, Rome, on 18 December 1841. He was awarded a doctorate of divinity in April 1842.

In 1842 Woodlock and Father John Hand (qv) founded the missionary college of All Hallows, Drumcondra, Dublin, for the education of priests for the foreign and colonial English-speaking missions; Woodlock maintained a lifelong commitment to this institution. The college was opened on the feast of All Saints, 1 November 1842, with one student and small funds, in a dilapidated Georgian mansion, Drumcondra House. Within two years it had a body of students that numbered more than fifty, a deposit of £2,000 in the bank, and a community of six priests. This community included Dr David Moriarty (qv), former vice-rector of the Irish college in Paris, who was elected president of All Hallows College in succession to Hand after the latter's death from tuberculosis on 20 May 1846. On 24 June 1854 Woodlock was elected the third president of the college when Moriarty was appointed co-adjutor bishop of Kerry. Under his seven-year presidency, the number of students doubled to more than two hundred for more than fifty missions. Woodlock continued Moriarty's expansionist policies of building and fund-raising, as well as establishing in 1857 a preparatory school at Belmont House, Stillorgan, Dublin, to supply All Hallows with students. However, during Woodlock's presidency the stability of the college remained under threat because it lacked a proper relation to an external authority and had no permanent financial support.

Woodlock was made a canon of the diocese of Dublin in 1853 and a monsignor in 1855. Fluent in Italian, Latin, and French, he had many interests, especially in liturgy and religious life. He was a founder member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ireland in 1844 and was spiritual director of the society's council of Ireland until 1879. He was appointed rector of the Catholic University of Ireland by the bishops on 25 April 1861; the university's college had opened in 1854 in St Stephen's Green, Dublin, with John Henry Newman (qv) as its first rector (1851–8). In his new role Woodlock struggled to assert the right of catholics in Ireland, without hindrance or obstruction, to educate their children in accordance with the principles approved by the Roman catholic church. For Woodlock, the most important of these principles were that all education should be based on religion, that catholic education should be presided over by the bishops, and that there should be perfect freedom and equality in education. By ‘freedom and equality’ he meant that catholic education ought to be totally free from any influence, interference, or control on the part of the state or of protestants, and that it ought to enjoy perfect equality, including equality in endowment, with education provided by other religious denominations.

Woodlock envisaged the Catholic University, catholic colleges including St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and the superior catholic schools being integrated into a single system of catholic education for Ireland with the university at its head. His plan to establish a system of Catholic University schools in every large town throughout Ireland never came to fruition: only three opened – in Waterford, Ennis, and Dublin – and they were short-lived. Furthermore, his scheme of affiliating existing schools and colleges to the university became ineffective by the late 1860s and irrelevant with the passing of the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act in 1878. The zenith of Woodlock's rectorship was marked by the ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the new Catholic University buildings on the site at Clonliffe West, Drumcondra, on 20 July 1862. However, the Dublin Trunk Connection Railway Company secured part of the university's land by an act of parliament in June 1864 in order to construct a new railway line, which rendered the site useless for university purposes. Woodlock continued to acquire property in St Stephen's Green for the university and built the Aula Maxima there in 1876. His ambitious plans for expansion were restrained by financial problems. Woodlock also failed to achieve his two aims in relation to the government of the university, which he considered necessary to its progress: these were to secure from the bishops the admission of laymen onto the university's governing body and to gain the unanimous active support for the institution from the episcopate body.

By 1873 the university college in St Stephen's Green had reached its nadir. It had only a handful of students and a few professors, with limited finance and little public or episcopal support, and small hope of securing legal recognition for its degrees after the failure that year of Gladstone's university bill. However, Woodlock persevered in keeping the question of the university's future alive and secured support from the bishops for maintaining it by advocating that it was as necessary in 1873 as it had been when it was opened in 1854. The school of medicine in Cecilia Street was more successful than the university college, largely because of the high calibre of the professors and the recognition of the school by several incorporated bodies in Ireland, including the RCSI, which were empowered by charter to grant medical and surgical qualifications. The end of Woodlock's term as rector coincided with the passing of the University Education (Ireland) Act (1879), which was accepted by Woodlock as an instalment of justice and a basis for the continued struggle for university education in Ireland. He was a member of the senate of the RUI, which was established under the act, from June 1880 until 29 June 1890.

Woodlock left the rectorship when he was made bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, being consecrated by Pope Leo XIII in the Sistine Chapel in Rome on 1 June 1879. He moved to his residence at Newtownforbes, outside Longford, to begin his episcopacy, which was to last sixteen years. His period in office was remarkable for the frequency and regularity with which Woodlock visited the parishes and institutions of his diocese. He established and promoted educational and religious institutions. He completed the foundation of the Sisters of Mercy convents at Ballymahon and Mohill, enlarged the convent of the teaching order of La Sainte Union des Sacrés Coeurs at Banagher, and introduced the order into Athlone along with the Marist Brothers to provide for the intermediate education of boys and girls. He initiated restoration work at the ancient site of Clonmacnoise and spent all his private savings on the completion of St Mel's cathedral at Longford.

As a consequence of a fall in May 1894 in London, in which he broke his right arm, Woodlock was afflicted by a prolonged and serious illness. In September 1894 he petitioned the pope to accept his resignation, giving as reasons his advanced age of seventy-five and ill health. He was then named titular bishop of Trapezopolis and granted his expressed desire to retire to All Hallows College, which had been committed by the Irish bishops in October 1891 to the care of the Congregation of the Mission, the Irish Vincentians. Woodlock died 13 December 1902 at All Hallows College and his remains were buried in the grounds of St Mel's cathedral, Longford. A portrait of Woodlock survives at St Mel's College, Longford.

Dublin Diocesan Archives: Woodlock papers, Cullen papers, Murray papers, McCabe papers; UCD Archives: Catholic University of Ireland records; Irish College, Rome: Kirby papers, Cullen papers, Kelly papers; Ardagh and Clonmacnoise diocesan archives: Woodlock papers, Hoare papers; Maurice Kennedy Research Centre, UCD: James McCarthy, elevation of proposed Catholic University of Ireland building, Drumcondra, 1862; All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin: presentation to Bartholomew Woodlock from the Catholic University of Ireland, June 1879; James Meenan (ed.), Centenary history of the Literary and Historical Society 1855–1955 (1955); William J. Rigney, ‘Bartholomew Woodlock and the Catholic University of Ireland’ (Ph.D. thesis, NUI (UCD), 1995); Donal McCartney, UCD. A national idea (1999)

Born: 11 August 1912, Rutland (Parnell) Square, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1949, St Ignatius Leeson Street, Dublin
Died: 15 September 1998, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

Father was a physician at St Vincent’s and Jervis Street hospitals, and he died in 1912. Mother resided at Ardenza Terrace, Monkstown, County Dublin supported by private means.

Youngest of three sons (and has two step-brothers from his father’s first marriage).

Early education at Sion Hill Convent, he went to Presentation College, Dun Laoghaire. In 1926 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1946 at St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Savage, Roland (‘Ronnie’) Marcus Anthony Burke-
by David Murphy

Savage, Roland (‘Ronnie’) Marcus Anthony Burke- (1912–98), Jesuit priest and editor, was born in north Dublin on 11 August 1912, son of Matthew Burke-Savage, medical doctor, and his wife Alice (née O'Connor). Educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, he entered the Society of Jesus at Emo Court, Co. Laois, on 7 September 1931. He lived with the Jesuit community in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, while he studied arts at UCD (1933–6), where he was Hutchinson Stewart scholar in English literature (1934) and graduated BA (1936) and MA (1941) with first-class honours.

Professed of his first vows in March 1934, he moved to Milltown Park in Dublin, where he studied theology (1941–5). Ordained on 31 July 1944, he spent his tertianship at Milltown, before moving to the Leeson St. community in 1946 as a writer and assistant editor of Studies. He published his biography of Catherine McAuley (qv) in 1946 (reprinted, 2nd ed., 1955), a work of which he was justifiably proud. In 1947 he took over the editorship of the Irish Monthly (1947–50), while still continuing to work on Studies, of which he became editor in 1950. During his tenure as editor of Studies he reorganized the journal's administration and encouraged a new generation of contributors, including Garret FitzGerald. Towards the end of his term as editor it was thought by some that Studies had become less critical of the catholic hierarchy than it had been previously. In 1968 he handed over the editorship.

Having served as superior of the Leeson St. community (1951–9), he was appointed in the latter year director of the Central Catholic Library from which he resigned in 1968. Moving to Clongowes, he worked as house historian, writer, and editor of the Clongownian. He served later as college archivist and curator of the college museum. In failing health he moved to the Jesuit nursing home at Cherryfield Lodge, Sandford Rd, Dublin, in 1997 and underwent an operation. He never really recovered and died there 15 September 1998. He was buried in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin cemetery. Throughout his life, Ronnie Burke-Savage suffered from depression and found life more difficult as he grew older. His affliction often manifested itself in reclusiveness and difficult relations with his colleagues.

ITWW; Louis McRedmond, To the greater glory (1991); Ir. Times, 16 Sept. 1998; Studies, lxxxvii, no. 348 (1998); Interfuse (Jesuit in-house publication), no. 101 (1999); information from Fr Fergus O 'Donoghue SJ and Dr Thomas Morrissey SJ

◆ Interfuse No 101 : Special Edition 1999 & ◆ The Clongownian, 1999

Obituary

Fr Roland (Ronnie) Burke-Savage (1912-1988)

11th Aug. 1912: Born in Dublin
Early Education at Clongowes
7th Sept. 1931: Entered the Society at Emo.
13th Mar. 1934: First Vows at Emo.
1933 - 1936: Rathfarnham - Arts at UCD, MA
1941 - 1945: Milltown Park - Theology
31st July 1944: Ordained at Milltown Park.
1945 - 1946: Tertianship
1946 - 1968; Leeson Street
1947 - 1950: Assist Editor Studies; Editor Irish Monthly, Writer.
1950 - 1951: Minister, Editor Studies.
1951 - 1959: Superior; Editor Studies.
1959 - 1968: Director Central Catholic Library,
1968 - 1997: Clongowes - Editor Clongownian; Writer; House Historian.
1973 - 1976: Writer; Curator College Museum.
1976 -1997: Writer; College Archivist; Curator College Museum.
1997: Cherryfield Lodge - Prays for the Church and the Society

Father Burke-Savage had been in Cherryfield Lodge for the last year. He underwent a serious operation last May and never fully recovered. Although in good form he deteriorated over the week-end and died peacefully in Cherryfield Lodge at 6.10 a.m., Tuesday, 15 September 1998.

Homily at the Funeral Mass of Fr. Burke-Savage
The popular writer, Fr. John O'Donohue has a wonderful image of birth and death.

“Imagine if you could talk to a baby in the womb and explain its unity with the mother. How this cord of belonging gives it life. If you could then tell the baby that this was about to end. It was going to be expelled from the womb, pushed through a very narrow passage finally to be dropped out into vacant, open light. The cord which held it to its mother's womb was going to be cut and then it was going to be on its own for ever more. If the baby could talk back, it would fear that it was going to die. For the baby within the womb being born would seem like death."

Death is a kind of re-birth. We cling to the cord of life but eventually we must let go and then we enter a new world where time and space are utterly different, a world without shadow, darkness, loneliness, isolation or pain. We are at home with the God from whom we came and to whom we go. We are in God's world of goodness, unity, beauty , truth and, above all, absolute love. The Trinity, Absolute Love, Absolute Giving and Receiving, Absolute Intimacy and Creativity is where all the longings of the human heart at last find fulfillment.

It is to that world that Ronnie, as he was affectionately known in the Society, has now gone. Roland Marcus Anthony, to give him his full name, was born in Dublin in 1912. Somehow that name fits for, in many ways, he was a renaissance man. Educated here in Clongowes, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1931. He took a first class honours BA in UCD and later a first class honours MA also in UCD. While in UCD, he was president of the Literary and Historical Society and thought nothing of bringing the likes of the poet T.S. Eliot to speak to the students. In 1946 he became the assistant editor of the Jesuit review “Studies” and at the same time he published a life of Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, a book of which he was very proud.

In 1950 he became the editor of Studies. During his years as editor he was embroiled in many controversies. At the same time he got to know many of the students in UCD and had a deep and lasting influence on many of them. Some later rose to prominence in Irish public life.

In 1959 he became the Director of the Central Catholic Library and in 1968 he retired to Clongowes where he was the college archivist and curator of the college museum.

All his life, Ronnie suffered from one major cross. He was prone to deep depression but he bore this cross with great constancy and faith. It was his faith that sustained him and gave him the courage and will power to continue.

In many ways his life, particularly in his later years, can be illustrated by two stories. The first is a Taoist tale.
The carpenter said to his apprentice: “Do you know why this tree is so big and so old?” The apprentice said: “No. Why?” Then the carpenter answered: “Because it is useless. If it were useful it would have been cut down, sawn up and used for beds and tables and chairs. But because it is useless, it has been allowed to grow. That is why it is now so great that you can rest in its shadow”.

Ronnie, in his periods of depression, often felt that he was useless. But as he grew to accept himself for what he was - when he ceased to link his own value and worth to past achievements or to work he could or could not do in the present, as so many people tend to do - then, like the tree, he achieved a serene and gentle maturity as, in these latter years especially, he quietly prayed for the Church and his brother Jesuits. Another story sums up his life:

The Master was in an expansive mood so his disciples sought to learn from him the stages he had passed through in his quest for the divine. “God first led me by the hand”, he said, “into the Land of Sorrows; there I lived until my heart was purged of every inordinate attachment. Then I found myself in the Land of Love whose burning flames consumed whatever was left in me of self. This brought me to the Land of Silence where the mysteries of life and death were bared before my wondering eyes”. “Was that the final stage of your quest?” they asked. “No”, the Master said. “One day God said, ‘Today I shall take you to the innermost sanctuary of the temple, to the heart of God himself. And I was led to the Land of Laughter’.”

May Ronnie's joy now be complete, all the longings of his heart fulfilled as he joins the Lord he served for so long in that Land of Laughter.

Philip Fogarty