Born: 16 April 1732, County Waterford
Entered: 08 September 1750, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Ordained: c1759, Alcalá, Spain
Final Vows: 02 February 1768
Died: 22 February 1795, St, Patrick's, Waterford
◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1783 Succeeded Father St Leger as PP of St Patrick’s Waterford
1793 Fathers Power, O’Halloran, O’Callaghan, Mulcaille and Betagh (the five survivors) met and agreed to confide the funds to Father O’Callaghan to be kept for the Restored Society.
◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Nicholas and Helena née Keating
Studied at Irish College Salamanca from 07 August 1748 for two years before Ent 08 September 1750 Madrid. He originally expressed his desire to join the Society and his Rector at Salamanca John O'Brien gave him a letter of introduction to the Provincial of Toledo : “He is 18 years of age, of good health, great ability, of a peaceful disposition and well inclined, of good appearance and with none of those impediments mentioned in our constitutions. He is of good parentage, upright and Catholic. He has a first cousin of his name, a merchant of Seville, who has offered to defray the expense of his entering”.
After First Vows he was sent to Alcalá for studies and was Ordained there c 1759
1759-1762 He was then sent to teach Humanities at Villarejo
1762 Sent to Ireland and the Waterford Residence. At the Suppression he was incardinated at Waterford, and continued to minister at St Patrick’s. He succeeded Fr St Leger as PP in 1783 and died there 22/02/1795
◆ Fr Joseph McDonnell SJ Past and Present Notes :
16th February 1811 At the advance ages of 73, Father Betagh, PP of the St Michael Rosemary Lane Parish Dublin, Vicar General of the Dublin Archdiocese died. His death was looked upon as almost a national calamity. Shops and businesses were closed on the day of his funeral. His name and qualities were on the lips of everyone. He was an ex-Jesuit, the link between the Old and New Society in Ireland.
Among his many works was the foundation of two schools for boys : one a Classical school in Sall’s Court, the other a Night School in Skinner’s Row. One pupil received particular care - Peter Kenney - as he believed there might be great things to come from him in the future. “I have not long to be with you, but never fear, I’m rearing up a cock that will crow louder and sweeter for yopu than I ever did” he told his parishioners. Peter Kenney was to be “founder” of the restored Society in Ireland.
There were seventeen Jesuits in Ireland at the Suppression : John Ward, Clement Kelly, Edward Keating, John St Leger, Nicholas Barron, John Austin, Peter Berrill, James Moroney, Michael Cawood, Michael Fitzgerald, John Fullam, Paul Power, John Barron, Joseph O’Halloran, James Mulcaile, Richard O’Callaghan and Thomas Betagh. These men believed in the future restoration, and they husbanded their resources and succeeded in handing down to their successors a considerable sum of money, which had been saved by them.
A letter from the Acting General Father Thaddeus Brezozowski, dated St Petersburg 14/06/1806 was addressed to the only two survivors, Betagh and O’Callaghan. He thanked them for their work and their union with those in Russia, and suggested that the restoration was close at hand.
A letter from Nicholas Sewell, dated Stonyhurst 07/07/1809 to Betagh gives details of Irishmen being sent to Sicily for studies : Bartholomew Esmonde, Paul Ferley, Charles Aylmer, Robert St Leger, Edmund Cogan and James Butler. Peter Kenney and Matthew Gahan had preceded them. These were the foundation stones of the Restored Society.
Returning to Ireland, Kenney, Gahan and John Ryan took residence at No3 George’s Hill. Two years later, with the monies saved for them, Kenney bought Clongowes as a College for boys and a House of Studies for Jesuits. From a diary fragment of Aylmer, we learn that Kenney was Superior of the Irish Mission and Prefect of Studies, Aylmer was Minister, Claude Jautard, a survivor of the old Society in France was Spiritual Father, Butler was Professor of Moral and Dogmatic Theology, Ferley was professor of Logic and Metaphysics, Esmonde was Superior of Scholastics and they were joined by St Leger and William Dinan. Gahan was described as a Missioner at Francis St Dublin and Confessor to the Poor Clares and irish Sisters of Charity at Harold’s Cross and Summerhill. Ryan was a Missioner in St Paul’s, Arran Quay, Dublin. Among the Scholastics, Brothers and Masters were : Brothers Fraser, Levins, Connor, Bracken, Sherlock, Moran, Mullen and McGlade.
Trouble was not long coming. Protestants were upset that the Jesuits were in Ireland and sent a petition was sent to Parliament, suggesting that the Vow of Obedience to the Pope meant they could not have an Oath of Allegiance to the King. In addition, the expulsion of Jesuits from all of Europe had been a good thing. Kenney’s influence and diplomatic skills resulted in gaining support from Protestants in the locality of Clongowes, and a counter petition was presented by the Duke of Leinster on behalf of the Jesuits. This moment passed, but anto Jesuit feelings were mounting, such as in the Orange faction, and they managed to get an enquiry into the Jesuits and Peter Kenney and they appeared before the Irish Chief Secretary and Provy Council. Peter Kenney’s persuasive and oratorical skills won the day and the enquiry group said they were satisfied and impressed.
Over the years the Mission grew into a Province with Joseph Lentaigne as first Provincial in 1860. In 1885 the first outward undertaking was the setting up of an Irish Mission to Australia by Lentaigne and William Kelly, and this Mission grew exponentially from very humble beginnings.
Later the performance of the Jesuits in managing UCD with little or no money, and then outperforming what were known as the “Queen’s Colleges” forced the issue of injustice against Catholics in Ireland in the matter of University education. It is William Delaney who headed up the effort and create the National University of Ireland under endowment from the Government.from the Government.
◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
POWER, PAUL. All that I can glean of this Father is, that he was appointed joint executor with F. Callaghan to Rev. John Fullam’s will. It is painful to the compiler of these notes to be able to offer so little information, but he hopes to sharpen the industry and zeal of others. His object is merely to gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
