Abbey of Saint-Acheul

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Abbey of Saint-Acheul

BT Amiens

Abbey of Saint-Acheul

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Abbey of Saint-Acheul

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Abbey of Saint-Acheul

62 Name results for Abbey of Saint-Acheul

62 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Kavanagh, Michael A, 1805-1863, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/45
  • Person
  • 11 October 1805-13 February 1863

Born: 11 October 1805, Harold's Cross, Dublin
Entered: 19 September 1823, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 24 September 1836
Professed: 02 February 1846
Died: 13 February 1863, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin

by 1829 in Clongowes Wood College SJ

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His father died when he was very young, but his mother was able to attend to his education, and as soon as Clongowes was opened, he was sent there, and she was happy to put him in the care of Peter Kenney. His friends there were keen that he would be come a Jesuit.
Once he finished school he Entered and did his Noviceship in France.
After First Vows he went for studies in Physics at Paris, under Moigno and Lejariel. He was then sent to Clongowes for Regency, where he taught Classics for several years.
When he finished Regency he was sent to England for Theology, and was Ordained at Stonyhurst by Dr Briggs.
1837 He came back to Clongowes, teaching the higher classes with great success, and was appointed Rector in 1850, a position he held for five years. he faithfully adhered to the old custom of wearing a Court Suit on Academy Day.
1855 He was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius, and worked thus for some years. Unfortunately towards the end he suffered greatly from scruples and so was unfit to work. he died quite suddenly in the end. All through his final sickness, he was patient and kind to all.
He was a great classical scholar, a good poet, very zealous, and a pious observant of his faith.

Duffy, Anthony, 1848-1872, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/1226
  • Person
  • 08 September 1848-27 December 1872

Born: 08 September 1848, Rahan, County Offaly
Entered: 06 September 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 27 December 1872, New Orleans, LA, USA

Part of the St Joseph’s College, Springhill, AL, USA community at the time of death

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1871 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Spring Hill College AL, USA (LUGD) teaching

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had a brother who was a Priest and distinguished Preacher in the Meath diocese.

After First Vows he was sent to Amiens for Rhetoric, then Philosophy at Louvain and Stonyhurst.
1870/1 He was sent to New Orleans for Regency, and he died of a fever there 27 December 1872.
William Butler had been his companion in New Orleans Mission.

Hanrahan, Nicholas, 1831-1891, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1407
  • Person
  • 21 October 1831-09 April 1891

Born: 21 October 1831, Templeshanbo, County Wexford
Entered: 12 September 1853, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1861
Professed: 15 August 1873
Died: 09 April 1891, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

MacDonnell, John Charles, 1814-1852, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1625
  • Person
  • 12 July 1814-14 January 1852

Born: 12 July 1814, Killarney, County Kerry
Entered: 01 July 1846, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 14 January 1852, Fordham College, New York, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)

Butler, John William, 1703-1771, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/977
  • Person
  • 10 November 1703-17 March 1771

Born: 10 November 1703, Besançon, France
Entered: 31 January 1722, Paris, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1735, Paris, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1739
Died 17 March 1771, Cadiz, Spain - Franciae Province (FRA)

1734 at College in Paris
1737 at Senlis
1743 At Cannes College (FRA) Minister for 9 years, Taught Humanities for 6 years, Rhetoric 1 year, Philosophy 3 years, Procurator for 6 years
1761 Superior at Nantes Residence from 16/03
Fr John Butler born or Irish parents in France about 1701. Was anxious to be sent to the Irish College at Poitiers

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1726 Went to Canada
1731 Returned to France
(”Documents inédits” of Carayon)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1726-1731 Sent to Canadian Mission
1731 Returned to France

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1724 After First Vows he was sent for Philosophy at La Flèche followed by Regency in FRA and in Québec, Canada.
1731 After three years abroad he was sent to Paris for Theology and was Ordained there 1735
1735-1741 He taught successively at Compiègne, Alençon and Amiens
1741-1745 Sent as Spiritual Father to Vannes
1745-1761 Sent as Minister and Prefect of the Church at Compiègne and later at Orléans
1761/1762 Superior of the Nantes Residence at the dissolution of the Society in France
1764-1768 Found refuge at Cadiz and had to find further refuge due to the expulsion of the Society in Spain
The date and place of his death are unknown. Father Butler, although born in France, was not regarded by contemporary Irish Jesuits as a foreigner. He was asked for to take up various posts of the Irish College of Poitiers, including that of Rector, but he was unable at the time to leave his own province. He was also consulted on financial business of the Irish Mission.

McKiniry, David, 1830-1896, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1727
  • Person
  • 5 February 1830-18 December 1896

Born 5 February 1830, Lismore, County Waterford
Entered 8 December 1854, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained 1859
Final vows: 14 September 1872
Died 18 December 1896, University of St Mary, Galveston, TX, USA - Neo-Aurelianensis Province (NOR)

Part of the College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans LA, USA community at the time of death

by 1857 at St Charles, Baton Rouge LA USA (LUGD)
by 1871 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1872 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship
Early Australian Missioner 1866

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
David McKiniry entered the Society in 1854, and after novitiate in Milltown Park studied in Europe before joining Joseph Dalton aboard the Great Britain, arriving in Melbourne in September 1866. Immediately he was sent to St Patrick's College to teach, but on weekends he worked in the Richmond Mission. The arrangement continued until the end of 1869, when McKiniry spent more time in Richmond, and during the middle of the year joined Dalton on a series of successful country missions around Castlemaine, Kyneton and Ararat districts.
As McKiniry had not yet undertaken tertianship or taken final vows, his appointment in Australia was going to be short lived, and he left for Ireland on 11 September 1870 with Isaac Moore. He did tertianship at Roehampton 1871-72 and transferred to the New Orleans province. He devoted most of the remainder of his life to parish ministry or chaplaincy work in colleges.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 1st Year No 1 1925
St Patrick’s College, Melbourne has just celebrated its Diamond Jubilee as a Jesuit College. It is the mother house of the Australian Mission.
On September 21st 1865, Fathers Joseph Lentaigne and William Kelly, the pioneer Missioners of the Society in Victoria, landed in Melbourne and took over the College.
On September 17th, 1866 , the second contingent of Irish priests arrived - Fr. Joseph Dalton, Fr. Edmund Nolan, Fr. David McKiniry and two lay brothers - Br. Michael Scully and Br. Michael Goodwin.

O'Neill, John, 1823-1882, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1937
  • Person
  • 19 November 1823-06 June 1882

Born: 19 November 1823, Mitchelstown, County Cork
Entered: 12 February 1850, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1852
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 06 June 1882, Belvedere College SJ, Great Denmark Street, Dublin

by 1858 at Mongré France (LUGD) studying Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had made all his Priestly studies before Ent.

He must have been Ordained at the end of his Novitiate, as he was a Priest on his first assignment.
1853-1855 Sent to Clongowes teaching Rudiments.
1855-1857 Sent to Tullabeg
1857 He was sent to Belvedere, where he spent twenty-five years teaching.
The whole of his Jesuit life was involved in teaching. He was a most successful Teacher, very kindly in his ways, and he won the affection and esteem of his pupils, who went back to see him time and again.
His death was sudden. Brother George Sillery, on calling him in the morning, found him very ill, as he had been bleeding during the night. The doctor was unable to stop the bleeding, and so he failed and died at Belvedere 06 June 1882.

Dooley, Michael, 1850-1922, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/127
  • Person
  • 08 September 1850-26 April 1922

Born: 08 September 1850, Shrule, County Galway
Entered: 27 September 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1878, Kolkata, India
Final vows: 15 August 1886
Died: 26 April 1922, St Ignatius College, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia

by 1870 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1871 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1873 at St Xavier’s Kolkata (BELG) Regency
Early Australian Missioner 1879; New Zealand in 1885

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Nephew of the famous Father Peter Dooley PP

He was sent for Regency to teach at the Belgian College in Calcutta with the Belgian Jesuits.
He was Ordained in Kolkata in 1878 by Archbishop Paul-François-Marie Goethals SJ, BELG - (First Archbishop of Kolkata)
1879 He was sent to Australia to assist the Irish Mission there in Melbourne and Sydney. He also spent some time at Invercargill, New Zealand, in a Parish given by the Bishop Samuel Nevill of Dunedin. However he taught chiefly in Melbourne and Sydney.
He died at Norwood 26 April 1922.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
Entered 1867

After First Vows he was sent to St Acheul for Juniorate. He was sent to Kolkata India for Regency teaching English at St Xavier’s. He was then Ordained at Asansol, Bengal, India in 1879.

1879-1882 He was sent to Australia and to Xavier College Kew teaching
1882-1886 He was sent to St Aloysius College Sydney, as Prefect of Discipline and also made tertianship in 1886
1886-1887 He was sent teaching at St Ignatius College Riverview
1887-1889 He was sent to St Mary’s Parish, Invercargill New Zealand and was also Minister there. He was Superior here in 1889
1890-1895 Have suffered some ill health he returned to Xavier College Kew
1895-1914 He was teaching at St Aloysius College Sydney
1914 He was sent to St Ignatius Norwood

He is described as a retiring man who did his work quietly and well. He was known as a scholar of great ability, a fluent linguist, well read in many languages and had a fund of accurate information. He was always a man of precise habits. When on holiday in Sydney, he carefully took a tram to each suburb, rode out to the terminus and back, and when he had exhausted all the lines, declared the holiday over and settled back to work again.

His spare time was spent reading. Aristotle remained his pet study when he was well on in years.

Scott, Patrick, 1826-1858, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/2099
  • Person
  • 17 October 1826-22 February 1858

Born: 17 October 1826, Tintern, New Ross, County Wexford
Entered: 12 September 1853, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Died: 22 February 1858, Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France - Franciae Province (FRA)

Farrell, Stephen, 1806-1879, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/146
  • Person
  • 13 December 1806-20 June 1879

Born: 13 December 1806, County Cork
Entered: 24 April 1850, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 02 February 1862
Died: 20 June 1879, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied at Maynooth for the Dublin Diocese, and when Ordained was a Curate at Francis St, where he worked for many years and was greatly loved by the parishioners, before Ent.
Feeling called to the Society he entered at Amiens, France 24 April 1850. Matthew Saurin was a fellow novice.
1851-1857 At the end of his First Year Novitiate, he was called back to Ireland, and sent to Belvedere as a Teacher, and remained there for six years.
1857-1858 He was sent to Clongowes as Minister.
1859-1860 He did further study in Theology at Milltown.
1860-1866 He was sent to Galway as a Teacher, and was Minister for a while there.
1866-1869 He was sent to Belvedere as a teacher and Minister.
1869 He was sent to Milltown, and remained there for the rest of his life. He performed various works there - Minister, Socius to Novice Master, and Spiritual Exercises. he died a holy death there 20 June 1879, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and was conscious to the end. The cause of his death was blood poisoning.
He was a very good religious, very exact and obedient. he had a love of neatness and was careful about everything.

Cahill, Thomas, 1827-1908, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/999
  • Person
  • 31 December 1827-19 April 1908

Born: 31 December 1827, County Carlow
Entered: 08 March 1855, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1857, Laval, France
Final vows: 01 November 1866
Died: 19 April 1908, St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia

by 1864 in St Joseph’s Macau (CAST) teaching Superior of Seminary by 1868
Early Australian Missioner 1871

Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia Mission : 1872-1879

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His early studies were under a private tutor at home and he spent one year at Carlow College. he then went to Maynooth, and was one of the students examined in the Commission of Enquiry of 1853 (cf Report, Maynooth Commission, Part II pp 297-299). On the occasion of his Ordination to the Diaconate he Entered the Society.

He made his Noviceship and further Studies at Laval, and was Ordained there 1857.
1858-1863 He was sent to teach at Clongowes.
1863-1865 He was sent as Operarius to Galway.
1865-1872 He was sent as Superior to St Joseph’s Seminary Macau, in China.
1872 He was appointed Superior of the Australian Mission, and also Rector of St Patrick’s Melbourne. He was founder and first Rector of Xavier College, Kew, and later Superior of the Parishes of Hawthorn and Kew.
The last years of his life were at St Ignatius, Richmond, and he died there 19 April 1908 His funeral was attended by a large number of clergy and local people and Archbishop Thomas Carr presided and preached. During his career he preached many Missions and retreats for Priests and Nuns. He was a profound Theologian, and Archbishop Thomas Carr appointed him one of his examiners of young priests arriving from the College. It was said that the Archbishop frequently consulted him on ecclesiastical matters.
On the Feast of St Ignatius 1908 a touching tribute was paid to him in the form of a new pulpit at St Ignatius, Richmond.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 "
He had been studying at Maynooth in Ireland almost up to Ordination when he entered the Society in 1855.

As there was no Noviciate in Ireland, he entered in France, and was later Ordained at Laval in 1857.

1857-1859 He came to Clongowes and taught Classics and Mathematics to the junior classes.
1859-1863 He was sent to Galway and divided these four years between the Parish and the School
1863-1872 He had always wanted to go on the Missions, and when the Portuguese Jesuits in Macau needed a man to teach English in the Seminary there he volunteered, arriving in 1863. There he found himself in a somewhat bizarre situation. The Seminary, with 100 boarders and 116 day boys had as it’s head a Portuguese prelate, Mgr Gouvea, who apparently had little capacity for his position. He and the three other Jesuits on the staff were supposed to be responsible for teaching and discipline, but in fact Gouvea confined them to teaching. The other Jesuits were Italian.
The community’s Superior was a Father Rondina, an enthusiast, his mind full of ambitious projects, but as Gouvea mentioned to his Mission Superior, he was so scatty that he would forget by midday what he had done in the morning and undo it. Rondina wanted to take over the administration of the Seminary, in spite of the fact that the two new men, Cahill and Virgili were sent in response to complaints of his chronic overwork. The other Jesuit - Mattos - was causing trouble by denouncing with some violence, what was practically the slave status of Chinese labourers in Macau - the colonial government was furious.
The two additions were most welcome and the Superior of the Mission wrote that he was delighted to get Cahill. The Feast of St Francis Xavier in 1864 brought letters from Father General Beckx to the priests in Macau. To Cahill, he wrote warmly that he had heard only good of him and hoped this would always be so - he should go on living by the Institute and doing God’s work.
He was not altogether won by the Mission. he wrote at the end of 1864 to the Irish Provincial, who had asked for news of the situation in Japan, and he recommended that the Irish Province should get in there quickly. Other Orders were taking over the cities in Japan, so why should the Irish Province not have a Mission there.
In the meantime, the situation in Macau became more troublesome. Gouvea refused to expel some boys for immorality - the Governor of the colony had interceded for them. Rondina, reporting this, added that Cahill was having stomach trouble, and that his gentleness, admired in an earlier letter, prevented him from maintaining discipline and made some of the boys avoid his subjects. This was a pity. Cahill was so devoted and good, and Gouvea and the assistant masters were rough and harsh with the boys. He was their Spiritual Director, but his work prevented him from being always accessible to them.
By the middle of 1866 Rome had decided that the Macau community needed a new Superior. It would have to be someone already there as no one else could be sent to Macau. The Superior of the Mission and his Consultors proposed Cahill - he was prudent and kind, perhaps not forceful enough - and the community, given to mutual complaints, needed someone strong. If the General, in appointing him, wrote him an encouraging letter, this might help him overcome his timidity. Beckx at first jobbed at appointing Cahill because of his experience, but later agreed that there was no one else, and he was a good man and peaceable. So, in August 1866 he appointed Cahill as Superior of the Seminary community.
Cahill met new problems and was not finding the mission satisfactory to his own missionary zeal - it was a settlement of hardly devout European Catholics. He raised again the question of the Jesuits returning to Japan when he heard of the canonisation of the Japanese martyrs, and asked General Beckx to remember him if the Society decided to found a Mission there.
Meanwhile, Cahill was finding the new Rector of the Seminary Antonio Carvalho - who had been friendly to the Society - becoming more difficult, and again confined the Jesuits to teaching only. Discipline was so bad that the Jesuits withdrew from their rooms in the Seminary and went to live in a house put at their disposal nearby.
Sometime later Cahill was reporting maniacal behaviour on Catvalho’s part - he forbade the Jesuits to hear the boys confessions and complained that to warn the boys against the Freemasons was to engage in politics. The Spanish and Portuguese in Macau were making outrageous accusations against Rondina because he encouraged girls to refuse their advances. The community wanted to withdraw altogether from working in the Seminary. Further dissensions developed with the Society on the outside watching and waiting. But the situation did not improve and Cahill wanted to leave the Mission. The situation became so impossible that the Jesuit presence there became impossible.
At one time during his stay Cahill was awarded a knighthood by the Emperor of Annam, for work he did for some Annamese fishermen unjustly imprisoned in Macau. He became so proficient in Chinese that he wrote a Chinese catechism for his people.
Cahill left for Manila, hoping to be sent from there to China, and indeed the Provincial in Portugal suggested using him in one of the off coast islands from which some missionaries had just been expelled. But the Irish Provincial wanted him to go to the new Irish Mission in Australia. Father General wrote to him in January 1872, praising his missionary zeal and thanking him for all he had done in Macau. he wrote that Melbourne’s needs were imperative and Cahill should get down there as soon as possible.
1872 In April of that year General Beckx asked the Irish provincial for three names of men suitable for appointment as Superior of the Australian Mission, Cahill’s name led all the rest, and in July he became Superior of the Mission. Two years later he was also Rector of St Patrick’s College Melbourne, and exchanged this post for the Rectorship of the newly formed Xavier College, remaining Superior of the Mission. At this time his students remembered him as a very earnest and able man, constantly called upon by the diocese to give occasional addresses. He was a methodical teacher of Classics and Mathematics.
He may have found Melbourne dull after Macau, or suffered a reaction after all the excitements there. In September 1875 Father general wrote complaining that he had not heard from him in two years, and six months later complained tat it was not two years and six months since he’d had a letter. Perhaps Macau had nothing to do with it, for the General also complained of one of the Mission Consultors - he had written only once in the past three years, and that was to say that there was nothing to write about.
Cahill remained Superior of the Mission until 1879, and Rector of Xavier until December of that year. During his time as Superior, in February 1875 he had preached at the opening of St Aloysius Church , Sevenhill, and in 1877 gave a two hour funeral oration on the first Australian Bishop, Dr Polding at a “Month’s Mind”.
1880-883 he did Parish work at Richmond
1883-1887 he taught for the university exams at St Patrick’s College Melbourne.
1887-1890 He worked at the Hawthorn Parish
1890-1894 He was appointed Superior and Parish Priest at Richmond.
18694-1896 He was appointed Superior and Parish Priest at Hawthorn
1896-1908 he was back at Richmond as Spiritual Father and a house Consultor.

Thomas Cahill was one of the “founding fathers” of the Australian Province, He was a fine preacher, a classicist, a linguist and a zealous pastor. He was also a respected theologian, called on to preach at Synods both in Sydney and Melbourne. He was one of the Diocesan examiners of the clergy and a Consultor of the Archbishop.

He was a man with a fine constitution, and did the work of a young man until within a few months of his death. However, suffering from heart trouble, there were long periods in his life when he was unable to leave his room. His life was given to his work, devoted to the confessional and the sick and those in trouble. he had a good memory for his former students and parishioners and was a good friend to many.

Note from Walmsley Smith Entry
Smith was baptised, 10 April 1904, by Thomas Cahill, the first rector of Xavier College.

Verdon, John, 1846-1918, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2205
  • Person
  • 18 July 1846-02 January 1918

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.

Carbery, Robert, 1829-1903, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1010
  • Person
  • 27 September 1829-03 September 1903

Born: 27 September 1829, Cobh, County Cork / Green Park, Youghal, County Cork
Entered: 20 October 1854, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1855, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Professed: 15 August 1866
Died: 03 September 1903, Milltown Park, Dublin

by 1875 at St Beuno’s Wales Rhyl Parish (ANG) health

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Came from a well known and highly respected family in the Youghal district, and was a general favourite among all classes there.
Early education was local, and then he went to Trinity, and also studied at Clongowes where he did some Theology. He then went to Maynooth for Theology, and was Ordained there. Soon after he Entered the Society.

After First Vows he was sent teaching at Tullabeg, and he was there for twelve years.
He was then appointed Rector of Clongowes. His charm and character won him great admiration and affection from his students there.
He was then sent as Rector to UCD. Here he found his métier. Under his tenure he raised the stature of the College for teaching in Ireland.
When he retired from UCD he was sent to Milltown, and was involved in giving Retreats to Lay people and Religious.
He enjoyed good health up to a few days before his death. He contracted a bad cold which quickly became more serious, and even the ministrations of Sir Francis Cruise were able to impede its progress.
(Taken from “The Freeman’s Journal’ 04/09/1903)

Note from Edward Kelly Entry :
He was to have gone to the Congregation which elected Father Luis Martin of Spain, but bad health kept him away, and Robert Carbery replaced him as 1st Substitute.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Robert Carbery 1829-1903
Fr Robert Carbery was born in Youghal County Cork on September 27th 1829. Strange to relate, according to his biographer, he went first to Trinity College and then to Clongowes. He was ordained a priest in Maynooth and became a Jesuit soon after in 1854.

He taught for about twelve years in Tullabeg and then became Rector of Clongowes. He is best remembered, however, as Rector of University College. His tenure of office was one of the most successful in the history of the College, and may be said to have constituted it to the centre of higher Catholic education in this country.

The last years of his life he spent in Milltown Park engaged in the work of giving retreats. He died in this house on September 3rd 1903.

He wrote a book on devotion to the Sacred Heart, and his pamphlet on the Novena of Grace did much to spread that devotion.

◆ The Clongownian, 1904

Obituary

Father Robert Carbery SJ

by Father Matthew Russell

Father Robert Carbery has more than one claim to be specially commemorated in these pages : he was a Clongowes boy, a Clongowes professor, and a Clongowes Rector. He was born in the year of Catholic Emancipation, and sufficiently late in the year 1829 to be from his birth one of the emancipated. His birthday was the 27th of September, a domestic feast in the Society of which he was destined to be a member - not on account of any special devotion to the saints of the day, Cosmas and Damian, but because that day is the anniversary of the confirmation of the Society by Pope Paul III, through the Bull “Regimini Militantis Ecclesia”, dated September 27, 1540.

Robert, son of William Carbery (of Green Park, Youghal), and Elizabeth Olden, was born at the Cove of Cork, which twenty years later changed its undignified name of Cove into Queenstown, in honour of Queen Victoria's first visit to Ireland, with perhaps a better reason than Dunleary had for becoming Kingstown in honour of the last of the Georges. His home, however, was not Cove but Youghal, that interesting old town “at the mouth of the exquisite Blackwater, which is the Anniduff of Spenser and the Avondhu of many an Irish tale and legend”. Here it was that Sir Walter Raleigh.smoked the first tobacco seen in Europe (and much more important), planted the first potato. The house in which he lived is well preserved, with its “outhanging oriel window in which Spenser read the beginning ‘Faery Queen’ to Raleigh”. (Some of these phrases are taken from a delightful paper, At Youghal, by Lady Gilbert, in The Irish Monthly, vol. xix,, pp. 617-627.)

Robert Carbery's father, and his uncle Andrew Carbery, of Shamrock Lodge, Dungarvan, were among the first Catholics appointed to the office of Justice of the Peace after Catholic Emancipation. They were the chief instruments in introducing the Christian Brothers into Youghal and Dungarvan.

I have sought in vain for some particulars concerning Robert Carbery's childhood. The Right Rev Monsignor Keller, the beloved pastor of Youghal, conjectures that young Carbery attended a school established there about that time by a zealous curate, the Rev John Russell, afterwards Dr Keller's predecessor as Dean of Cloyne. († Mr. Joseph Carbery, of Beila Vista, Queenstown, tells me that his brother's first schoolmaster was a : Dr. Edwards.) The little boy from Green Park was not old enough to be a pupil of the classical school conducted at Youghal by the father of the late Father Alfred Murphy SJ, who told Dr Keller'that he was born at Youghal but that his family removed to Cork so soon after that he did not remember the event. The home of Robert Carbery's childhood is now the Green Park Hotel, which transformation implies that it must have been a spacious family mansion. No doubt the boy felt very homesick for it when he was sent to Clongowes in 1844. He went through all the classes there till the summer of 1848. During all his time the Rector of the College was the holy and genial Father Robert Haly, well known as a missioner in almost every parish of Ireland twenty or thirty years ago his work, indeed, was over then, but well remembered; and, as Young of the “Night Thoughts” said of himself, “he has been so long remembered that he is now almost forgotten”. How many are there who can still recall the pleasant old man with the snow-white head stooped down, so venerable looking that in the country parishes the people would say of him, when he and Father Fortescue and Father Ronan were giving a mission, “I want to get to confession to the ould bishop”.

The only record of Robert Carbery's achievements during his Clongowes course that has come into my hands regards the school year 1846-1847. In the academical exercises which wound up the term in July, 1847, he took the part of Bassanio in a scene from “The Merchant of Venice”, and the part of Malcolm in a scene from “Macbeth”; and in the printed list of prizes the name Robert Carbery is very conspicuous. It appears first and alone in Christian Doctrine, and fourth in Natural Philosophy. In the Rhetoric class he was second as regards the examination in the authors studied, while, as regards original composition, he came first in the Greek oration, English oration, Latin Alcaic ode and English ode, second in Latin and French, and third in the Greek ode. In the first class of mathematics he got the second prize, and in the Debate he and his friend Nicholas Gannon of Laragh are marked as equal in their competition for the medal for excellence, A still more intimate friend, whose friendship lasted till the close of his life, won from him the first prize in mathematics. This was Christopher Palles, who has since gained an illustrious place in the history of the legal profession in Ireland as the greatest and the last of the three Catholic Chief Barons of the Exchequer, who have between them filled almost the whole of the long period that has elapsed since the Emancipation Act made Catholics eligible. This high office is now abolished, the Court of Exchequer being amalgamated with the rest of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, though the last, and certainly not the least distinguished holder of the extinct office continues to enjoy the title. Long inay he continue to do so, and to discharge with characteristic thoroughness the duties of President of the Clongowes Union. (Chief Baron Palles's immediate predecessor was David Pigot, who succeeded Stephen Woulfe. The former was grandfather to the Rev Edward Pigot SJ, who has recently been obliged to exchange China for Australia as the scene of his labours. Chief Baron Woulfe, in one of his parliamentary speeches, used a phrase which “The Nation” newspaper adopted as its motto - “To create and foster public opinion in Ireland and to make it racy of the soil”. This half sentence i now all that is remembered of him,)

Robert Carbery spent another year under the care of his Alma Mater, in the class of philosophy, although the register of Trinity College, Dublin, shows that he matriculated there on the 8th of November, 1847, and was assigned as a pupil to Dr Sadlier. He stayed on, however, as we have said, in Clongowes, till the summer of 1848. His acknowledged prowess in the Debating Society had helped to turn his thoughts towards the Bar. We do not know how his vocation was finally settled. We are not allowed to overhear “what the heart of the young man said to the Psalmist”, or rather what the Holy Spirit said to the heart of the young man. Long afterwards he told one of his brothers in religion that the following incident had been the turning point in his career, or at least had some share in fixing his determination to quit the world. He was over in London, enjoying keenly his first sight of the wonders of that already overgrown metropolis. It was the beginning of the year 1849, for he had during his visit an opportunity of seeing Queen Victoria open Parliament in person on the ist of February. The kindness of Richard Lalor Sheil, who was Youghal's brilliant representative in the House of Commons, had secured for his youthful constituent an excellent place for viewing the outside portion of the pageant. Even if it were worthwhile, the details of the scene cannot be verified on the spot at present. The old Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire in October, 1834. Sir Charles Barry began to rebuild them in 1840. The Lords entered their new premises in 1847, but the Commons did not assenible in theirs till November, 1862. In the building as it stood at the time of which we are writing there was, it seems, a balcony over the entrance, from which one particularly observant pair of Irish eyes looked down upon the expectant throng. Among other things they watched the efforts of a gentleman to provide a somewhat similar coign of vantage for a lady whom he was escorting. There was a corner fenced off by a low iron railing, and it occurred to the gentleman that, if the lady were snugly ensconced behind this railing she would be guarded from the crush and could see in security nearly all that was to be seen. Accordingly a chair was procured and placed against the railing to enable the lady to cross the barrier, but in the hurry of her excitement, or through some sudden swaying of the crowd, she slipped and struck ber forehead violently against one of the spikes. She was hurried off to the nearest hospital, but died before reaching it. Meanwhile plenty of sawdust was scattered over “.. the pathway to hide the blood that had gushed forth profusely, and the ringing cheers of the multitude went up, as the royal carriages with their brilliant escort at last swept in, while no one thought of the poor soul that had just been hurried before the Judgement-Seat. The dreadful contrast of life and death affected Robert Carbery powerfully; and, whatever may have been his hankering after the Bar, he sacrificed it for ever.

He did not, however, enroll himself at once under the banner of St Ignatius. Most of the Twelve Apostles were called twice, the first time not involving so complete and permanent a renunciation as the final “Follow Me”. This dual vocation has its counterpart in many lives. “Show, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me Thy paths”. (Psalm xxiv., 4). First, via the road that turns the traveller's footsteps in the proper direction, and then senita, the path that leads him straight to his special destination.

To prepare for the ecclesiastical state, Robert Carbery entered Maynooth College as a student of the diocese of Cloyne, on the 19th of September, 1849, and satisfied the Board of Examiners so well in logic that he was placed at once in the Physics Class, then taught by the holy and gifted Dr. Nicholas Callan. Throughout his course he won the first or second place in nearly all departments of study, his chief competitor and also his closest friend. being a saintly youth from Derry, Patrick Kearney, though I suspect that the third of the triumvirate who were “called to the first premium” was the most solid theologian of the three; this was John Ryan of Cashel - the holy and learned priest of that - southern archdiocese considered by his fellow-priests “most worthy” to succeed the Most Rev Dr. Patrick Leahy. Dr Croke, who was appointed Archbishop by the Holy See, had the most profound confidence in Dr Ryan as his Vicar-General.

It is needless to say that for piety and virtue, Robert Carbery stood very high in the esteem of his superiors and his fellow-students. One proof of the character that he had gained for himself is the fact that in September, 1852, at the beginning of his third year of theology, he was one of the two prefects placed in charge of the Junior House, which comprised the Classes of Humanity, Rhetoric, and Logic. As that was my second year in Maynooth, I was one of his subjects, but not a single word ever passed between us. My most vivid memory of him regards the speech that he made at our festive dinner in the Junior Refectory on St Patrick's Day, 1853. To set his eloquence off to greater advantage his colleague happened to be Peter Foley of Killaloe, afterwards a Jesuit also - he died at St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Feb 1st, 1893; aged 67 - a holy man, and one of the subtlest of thinkers, but one of the worst of speakers, and - till the end of his life the most inaudible of the race of articulately-speaking men, On the other hand “Carbery of Cloyne” proved that not in vain had he won the prize of excellence ii the Clongowes Debate. He electrified his youthful audience, one of whom guarantees after fifty years the almost verbal accuracy of one passage: “The greatest military genius of modern times, addressing his army before the Battle of the Pyramids, exclaimed : ‘Soldiers of France! from the summit of yonder Pyramids four thousand years look down upon you!’ And to you, students of Maynooth, I will say fourteen bundred years look down upon you, From their place in Heaven our forefathers in the Faith” - but if I went further, my guarantee for literal exactness would fail.

Soon after this God's will became clear to hin. He obtained leave to join the Society of Jesus, beginning his noviceship on the 20th of October, 1854. His friend, Patrick Kearney, continued another year or two in College, on the Dunboyne Establishment before joining the Vincentian Fathers. After he had come to an understanding with his confessor, Dr Thomas Furlong (after wards Bishop of Ferns) on this important point, he told me at the time that he sometimes wavered in his choice of a religious order, casting a wistful glance towards the Society of Jesus on account chiefly of his love for St Aloysius and Robert Carbery - this was precisely the way be put it - but whenever he ventured to moot the matter in confession, Dr Furlong would say: “Beware of the pillar of salt! Beware of the pillar of salt!” - an admonition that would have been more pertinent if the young priest had borne a closer resemblance to Lot's wife by “looking back” in a very different direction.

After two years in the novitiate of St Acheul, near Amiens, in France, Father Carbery was called home to Ireland in the summer of 1856. and was ordained priest in St Francis Xavier's, Dublin, in the presence of his father and mother. He was then placed on the teaching staff of his old “nutrix pientissima”, Clongowes Wood, where be taught for many years with great success. I have heard a very competent judge speak with warm admiration of the care and skill with which he trained his pupils to turn the various authors into good English. (Those who knew Father William Molony SJ, as a nonagenarian may be surprised to learn that Canon James Daniel, himself a clever writer of the journalistic type, praised the elegance of Father Molony's versions of Virgil, etc., when he was his professor at Belvedere College.)

I will not attempt to trace his course year by year. For some years towards the close of the sixties he filled very efficiently the office of Socius to the Master of Novices at Milltown Park, Father Aloysius Sturzo; who is still working in Australia, and who is still remembered with affection and respect in Ireland. A novice thus partly trained by Father Carbery, tells us that the novices recognised a sharp line of distinction between the Father Socius and Father Carbery. The former was a rigid and implacable stickler for rule and regularity, on whose lips the admonition was frequent: “Brother, no innovations!” But if a novice fell ill, or in any other way needed a mother's tenderness, then Pater Socius disappeared and his place was taken by Father Carbery, who was unceasing in his kindness and patient care.

In 1870 he returned to Clongowes as Rector. During his reign the new dormitories and class rooms and the present infirmary were built, the foundation stone of the new wing being laid and blessed by the oldest Clongownian then living, Dr James Lynch, who was also the bishop of the diocese. Since the good old bishop's death, who is the oldest alumnus of Clongowes Wood?

He was succeeded at Clongowes by Father Thomas Keating in 1876, taking his place (but after an interval) as Superior in St Patrick's House, 87 St. Stephen's Green, a house of residence for students of the Catholic University. I had the happiness of being his only companion there, as I had been for his two predecessors, Father Keating and Father James Tuite; and in so small a community I had the opportunity of being more intimately acquainted with him than a much longer term of years might allow in a large community. Father Carbery bore this test admirably. The arrangement with the Bishops of Ireland in reference to St Patrick's House came to an end in the summer of 1880; but Father Carbery was destined to return to St Stephen's Green under different circumstances, succeeding Father William Delaney as Rector of University College April 1oth, 1888, till he was succeeded by him in turn in 1897.

During the years that we have traced thus hurriedly, and especially in the intervals between his terms of office, Father Carbery discharged with great fruit the various functions of a preacher whether in churches or in convent chapels. He had very exceptional qualifications for the pulpit. His voice was excellent for public speaking - clear, penetrating, musical, sympathetic. One who was at Clongowes during his rectorship mentions that, during one year in particular, the Rector preached to the boys almost every Sunday; and - to this day he remembers the impression made by the voice and tone with which he said the prayer, “Come, Holy Ghost, etc”, before the sermon - as in Notre Dame Père Ravignan made the sign of the cross before his sermon so impressively that one of the listeners whispered to his neighbour, “Il a déjà prêché”. One of the boys themselves remembers a beautiful series of sermons addressed to them at this time on devotion to the Sacred Heart, preserved no doubt substantially in the beautiful little treatise which Father Carbery afterwards published on this divine theme. His tall, spare figure, his piercing eye, his refined and ascetic face, added much to the impressiveness of his discourses, which were always delivered with great feeling and earnestness.

Perhaps, however, the intermittent exercise of these faculties, which was all that his other duties permitted; was the best for his efficiency as a preacher. To use a homely phrase, his sermons took a good deal out of him. There are some to whom it costs nothing to speak in public, but generally it costs a good deal to listen to them. I have known Father Carbery to be quite exhausted after a touching charity sermon in St Francis Xavier's, Dublin, and obliged to lie down for a time. He was not a preacher of a robust and massive type, like the Father Peter Kenny of recent tradition, or the present Archbishop of Tuam, but rather of that nervous, electric temperament, of which the best example that occurs to me is the very eloquent English convert, Father Thomas Harper SJ, whom some one described as “a bag of nerves”, and who certainly was a nervous, incisive. preacher.

Immediately after a retreat which Father Carbery had conducted at Maynooth for the priests of the Archdiocese of Dublin, I met Canon William Dillon who died. quite lately. He praised the retreat very warmly. One item of his eulogy was this: “It was intensely gentlemanly”. This criticism, which his friends will recognise as characteristic of the critic, referred to a certain refinement of tone peculiarly acceptable to the Canon's fastidious taste; but this refinement did not hinder the preacher from being at the same time intensely priestly and apostolical.

His retreats were greatly valued in many convents, One of these was given in July, 1870, at Mount Anville, Dundrum, Co Dublin, not to the Religious of the Sacred Heart but to ladies who retired there for a few days from the world. Among these was the Countess of Portarlington, whose notes of the meditations have been shown to me by a lady who enjoyed the same spiritual luxury, and who says that the Father's instructions were most touching and holy. Lady Portarlington was a daughter of the third Marquis of Londonderry, and a fervent convert like her sister-in-law the Marchioness. of Londonderry. Soon after the Mount Anville retreat she fell dangerously ill and sought the assistance of Father Carbery, who had just then been appointed Rector of Clongowes. She recovered however, and did not die till the 15th of January, 1874, in the 51st year of her age. During her last illness Father Carbery's visits to Emo Park were a great consolation to her, and he was asked to speak at her obsequies, Her devoted husband, a kind and liberal man, had gratified the pious desires of the holy Countess (as he calls her in some memorial lines), by building a very beautiful parish church at Emo, and there the funeral words were spoken which are still praised enthusiastically by some who heard them. They won at the time the admiration of a young inan then at the beginning of his brilliant and too short career, Lord Randolph Churchill, who attended as a kinsman, with his father the Duke of Marlborough, the Marquis of Londonderry, the Marquis of Drogheda, and others of that titled class from which the deceased had turned to mingle with “the simple poor she loved so well”, as the bereaved husband wrote afterwards in the lines to which we have alluded, and which begin thus:
“ She rests within that hallowed spot,
Which in those early days she chose,
When first these sacred walls were built,
And first those pious altars rose”.

This was one of the very many death-beds that Father Carbery helped to make bright and happy. He was peculiarly kind and thoughtful about the sick; but when the dying one needed special help, God seemed to bless his zealous efforts in an extra ordinary degree. I remember two famous Irishmen to whom he longed to render this last and best service; but alas he was not summoned, as he had. hoped he might be, to their deathbeds - William Carleton and Isaac Butt. Butt, another great orator; succeeded Sheil as MP for Youghal. Carleton, in his last years, lived in Sandford Road, close to the entrance of Milltown Park, and so was Father Carbery's neighbour and made his acquaintance.

About his own death nothing need be said but that it was the fitting close of such a life. It took place at Milltown Park, Dublin, on the 3rd of September, 1903. Thus September was the month of his entrance into the world and of his two exits from the world He had spent seventy-three years on earth, and forty-eight in the Society of Jesus.

His grave is in Glasnevin. He rests from his labours, and his works follow him.

Delany, William, 1835-1924, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/456
  • Person
  • 04 June 1835-17 February 1924

Born: 04 June 1835, Leighlinbridge, County Carlow
Entered: 20 January 1856, Amiens France (FRA)
Ordained: 1866
Final vows: 02 February 1869
Died: 17 February 1924, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson St, Dublin

by 1866 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1866 at Rome, Italy (ROM) Making Tertianship
Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus : 05 August 1909-22 October 1912

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied Philosophy and one year of Theology at Maynooth before Entry.

1858-1866 He did Regency at Clongowes as a Teacher and later at Tullabeg, and then went to for Theology at Rome.
1870-1880 Rector of Tullabeg. Here he completely changed the method of studies. Introduced exams at London University and was mainly responsible for the Intermediate Bill.
He then went on a trip to America with Fr John Moore SJ of ANG.
1873 The Jesuits were asked to take charge of St Patrick’s House which began under Thomas Keating, James Tuite and Robert Carbery. When this house closed, a new one was opened on Temple St with William as Vice-Superior.
1881-1888 He was appointed Vice-Rector of UCD.
1892 He accompanied the Provincial Timothy Kenny to the General Congregation at Loyola which elected Luis Martin as General.
1897-1909 He was appointed Rector of UCD
1909-1912 He was appointed Provincial. When he finished he went to Leeson St as Spiritual Father and died there 17 February 1924.

“He was one of the most remarkable and distinguished Jesuits of the 19th and 20th centuries. Balfour said he was the most cultivated Priest of his time. He was called ‘Doctor’ having been awarded his LLD.

Paraphrase of Excerpts from an Appreciation published on his death :
“The death of ..... deserves more than the usual notice.... No man ever served the people better. Nation-builder........Pioneer in educational reform.........along with Archbishop of Dublin can be regarded as founders of Irish National University Education. Even before the Universities Act, the Intermediate Bill, he developed as a young Priest, standards at Tullabeg which have become an idea for Catholic public schools.
He worked with the O’Conor Don to encourage the Government to endow Secondary Education in Ireland, and this before it was done in England. Then came the Royal Universities Act. Concentrating on Newman’s old buildings in St Stephen’s Green.......they gathered honours and prizes......His success was the final argument needed to win equality of educational endowment and opportunity.
Aside from the political success, those who came to know him as a Priest as well, were touched by his spirituality. His key gift was that of choosing the best men to teach and giving them encouragement and freedom. His short sermons (20 ins) were models. His religious zeal was the source of his public service. It was not a narrow zeal, and he worked with all sorts and conditions for the Glory of God and Ireland”

Paraphrase of excerpts from the Irish Independent article 19 February 1924 “A Pioneer In Irish Education” :
“As the ruler of a great College, whether Tullabeg or UCD, he was chiefly remarkable, I think, for his quickly sympathetic spirit and readiness to accept new ideas. He was neither conservative nor cautious - the refuge of the weak - nor the tenacity of ideas once formed - the defect of the strong. This was equally true of the young man who made Tullabeg the leading College in Ireland and the old man who led his team to victory at UCD over three state supported rivals. He transformed Tullabeg through introducing London University Exams. His encouragement of the Societies at UCD was not only financial but borne of liberal tolerance, best exemplified in his attitude towards Irish Studies. He gathered round him very talented Jesuits and laymen. He also gave money liberally to ‘Irish” things such as “Irish Texts Society”, the Oireachtas and the Dublin Feis.
He managed to publish in his limited free time, his best being a series of Lenten Conferences “Christian Reunion” and “A Plea for Fair Play”. He could be impetuous, but had a quick mind to save himself from many blunders! He was both decisive and inspirational, and could also be very reflective, and he possessed a very generous heart.
Enough to say that the energy which inspired his untiring labours, the patience with which he gently endured trials and misrepresentations, the charity which sought to give help to all the needy, were alike drawn no more from excellence of nature, though that indeed was his, but from an intense spirit of prayer, an abiding realisation of the invisible world, a devout piety which he seemed to retain through life, the simple fervour of a ‘First Communicant’.”

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Delany, William
by Thomas J. Morrissey

Delany, William (1835–1924), Jesuit and president of UCD, was born 4 June 1835 at Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow, second of ten children (of whom five survived) born to John Delany and Mary Delany (née Brennan). As with many Irish catholic families of farming stock, there was an eviction in the background: John Delany had been evicted from the family farm just ten years before William's birth. He moved to Leighlinbridge and set up a small bakery business, which, with the assistance of his strong-willed, resourceful wife, began to prosper. William attended school (1845–51) at Bagenalstown; at home, during the bleak famine years, he assisted in handing out bread and soup to a starving people. At the age of sixteen he requested that he be sent to Carlow College to study for the priesthood. After two years he moved to St Patrick's College, Maynooth. His parents were pleased to learn of his academic success and good general conduct, but considered him extravagant and over-particular in his requests for new clothes. God's ministers should dress carefully and well, he claimed. The lavish use of materials in pursuance of lofty ends was to prove a characteristic feature, which added both to his influence and his troubles.

In January 1856 he joined the Society of Jesus. His noviceship commenced at Saint-Acheul in France and concluded at Beaumont Lodge, near Windsor, in England. Two years followed at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, teaching junior classes, and then (August 1860) he was transferred to St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, near Tullamore, King's Co. (Offaly), where (apart from three years at Rome) he was to be stationed for the next twenty years. In this unlikely location he achieved the reputation as an educationist that paved the way to his appointment to the presidency of UCD. After his ordination at Rome (1866) he served for a while as a chaplain of the Irish brigade formed to defend the papal states against the forces of Garibaldi. Soon after his return home (1868) he was reappointed to Tullabeg, this time as prefect of studies and rector. He embarked on an elaborate programme of building, updating facilities, raising academic and cultural standards, tightening discipline, and expanding games activities. His criteria were the more celebrated English public schools, but he placed more emphasis on academic excellence. Some of his fellow Jesuits, highly critical of the expenditure, complained to the general of the order. For a while Delany's hopes and prospects were dimmed, but all was changed when he entered the senior class for the London University examinations and 100 per cent success was achieved. The results received wide acclaim. A feeling of inferiority about academic standards in catholic schools was widespread; Tullabeg's success was seen as justifying claims for equal educational opportunity with the endowed protestant schools. Delany became noted as an educationist, and he was closely consulted by Randolph Churchill, then secretary to the lord lieutenant, his father the duke of Marlborough (qv). Delany's influence was said to be considerable in shaping the two government bills that, as the intermediate act of 1878 and the Royal University act of 1879, changed the face of Irish education; and he was instrumental, together with William Walsh (qv) (1841–1921) of Maynooth, in establishing the Catholic Headmasters’ Association in October 1878.

The success of his college in the London University examinations (and subsequently in the intermediate and RUI examinations) made him an obvious person to be president of the catholic hierarchy's University College, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, the unsuccessful heir to John Henry Newman's (qv) Catholic University. The Jesuits took over the college as it stood in 1883, which meant that the fellows of the RUI were to be among its lecturers and also examiners of the university. This form of monopoly later led to hostility from some other competing colleges and from Walsh, subsequently archbishop of Dublin; but Delany and the senate of the Royal University of Ireland held to the original agreement, arguing that the only hope of obtaining a university for the majority population was by strengthening one college so that it might do outstandingly well and the catholic case for a university prove unanswerable. Delany, moreover, sought to have as many Jesuits as possible as fellows, provided they were fully qualified and the best suited for the advertised posts. By this means the fellows’ salaries would be ploughed back into the college, which was seriously under-funded. The college, under his presidency, proved so successful that it eventually achieved more honours in examinations than the three queen's colleges (Cork, Galway, Belfast) combined, although these were subsidised by the government. The talented staff of the college included Gerard Manley Hopkins (qv), Edmund Hogan (qv), Eoin MacNeill (qv), Tom Finlay (qv), and Thomas Arnold (qv); while among the brilliant student body were James Joyce (qv), Tom Kettle (qv), W. P. Coyne (qv), Arthur Clery (qv), Éamon de Valera (qv), Patrick McGilligan (qv), and John A. Costello (qv). Not surprisingly, Coyne was to remark in 1900: ‘The real work for Ireland is being done over there [University College]’ (Jesuit Fathers, A page of Irish history (1930), 244).

The achievements of UCD and Delany's close links with members of the Irish catholic hierarchy, with key politicians, and with successive chief secretaries and lord lieutenants, all played a part in the eventual solution to the Irish university question in the national university act of 1908. Delany's role was widely praised, yet within a short time he was to be lampooned as anti-Irish and his great services almost forgotten, because he let it be known that he did not approve of making the Irish language an obligatory subject for matriculation in the new university. He had done a great deal to promote Irish historical studies and Irish language and culture, but he did not wish to close off the university to many by having Irish as an entry requirement.

At the age of 74 Delany was appointed Jesuit provincial. He held the office for just three years, yet his was not a mere holding operation. He opened a new residence in Leeson St. for Jesuits lecturing in the university, and a hostel for students in nearby Hatch St.; and he served on the senate of the new university and on the governing body of UCD. Ahead of his time, he advocated the scientific study of agriculture at university level, pressed for education in the areas of industry and commerce, and proposed that UCD move from Earlsfort Terrace to more spacious grounds outside the city, a proposal publicly acknowledged by a later president, Michael Tierney (qv), on the occasion of the college eventually moving to an extensive campus at Belfield. Delany lived for another twelve years. In those years of dramatic change in Ireland, he became an almost forgotten figure: in the words of Cyril Power, SJ, who knew him, ‘a great man who had outlived his reputation’. He died 17 February 1924 at the age of 89.

Thomas Finlay, ‘William Delany, S.J.’, Clongownian (1924); Fathers of the Society of Jesus, A page of Irish history: story of University College, Dublin, 1883–1909 (1930); Thomas J. Morrissey, Towards a national university: William Delany, S.J. (1835–1924) (1983)

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 1 1934

Leeson St :
Monday, November 20th, was a red-letter day in the history of Leeson street, for it witnessed the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the House's foundation. In November, 1833. the Community came into being at 86 St Stephen's Green, where it remained until 1909, when the building was handed over to the newly constituted National University. The Community, however, survived intact and migrated to a nearby house in Lesson Street, where it renewed its youth in intimate relationship with the Dublin College of the University.
Its history falls this into two almost equal periods, different, indeed, in many ways, yet essentially one, since the energies of the Community during each period have been devoted to the same purpose, the furtherance of Catholic University Education in Ireland.
A precious link between the two eras is Father Tom Finlay, who was a member of the Community in 1883, and ever since has maintained his connection with it. His presence on Monday evening, restored to his old health after a severe illness was a source of particular pleasure to the whole gathering. It was also gratifying to see among the visitors Father Henry Browne, who had crossed from England at much personal inconvenience to take part in the celebration. Not only was Father Browne a valued member of the Community for over thirty years, but he acquired additional merit by putting on record, in collaboration with Father McKenna, in that bulky volume with the modest title " A Page of Irish History," the work achieved by the House during the first heroic age of its existence. It was a pleasure, too, to see hale and well among those present Father Joseph Darlington, guide, philosopher and friend to so many students during the two periods. Father George O'Neill, who for many years was a distinguished member of the Community, could not, alas be expected to make the long journey from his newer field of fruitful labor in Werribee, Australia.
Father Superior, in an exceptionally happy speech, described the part played by the Community, especially in its earlier days of struggle, in the intellectual life of the country. The venerable Fathers who toiled so unselflessly in the old house in St. Stephens Green had exalted the prestige of the Society throughout Ireland. Father Finlay, in reply, recalled the names of the giants of those early days, Father Delany, Father Gerald Hopkins, Mr. Curtis and others. Father Darlington stressed the abiding influence of Newman, felt not merely in the schools of art and science, but in the famous Cecilia Street Medial School. Father Henry Browne spoke movingly of the faith, courage and vision displayed by the leaders of the Province in 1883, when they took on their shoulders such a heavy burden. It was a far cry from that day in 1883, when the Province had next to no resources, to our own day, when some sixty of our juniors are to be found, as a matter of course preparing for degrees in a National University. The progress of the Province during these fifty years excited feelings of
admiration and of profound gratitude , and much of that progress was perhaps due to the decision, valiantly taken in 1883 1883, which had raised the work of the Province to a higher plane.

◆ Fr Joseph McDonnell SJ Past and Present Notes :

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.

◆ The Clongownian, 1924

Father William Delany SJ : Rector of Tullabeg 1870-1880

Father Delany’s career was much too big a thing to be even sketched out in outline in such a magazine as this. Scores of his friends have written emphasising this or that side of his great work, and their testimony is undeniable. His life-work was for Catholic Education. It began when, after his studies in Carlow, Maynooth and St Acheul, he went to teach in Tullabeg and Clongowes during the years 1859-1865. It was in Rome that he received his ordination, and he was chaplain to the Papal Zouaves in the critical year of 1869-70. But, returning to Ireland at the early age of thirty-five, he took command at Tullabeg, where he was destined to rule for ten years. In 1889 he came to Dublin, and from that time on, till the passing of the University Act in 1909, he was, in one capacity or another, the soul of the hard fight for that fair play in University studies which was the ambition of all far-seeing Catholics. That that fight was won so triumphantly is due in part to him. The policy which he followed for forty years was ever the same. He took whatever material he could obtain, first the small school of Tullabeg, then the limited numbers of University College, and he showed that, handicapped for funds, equipment, and even staff, these students of his could meet and overcome the far more numerous and more favoured sons of Protestant institutions. It was an ambitious and difficult task. It depended on never failing success, on inspir ing generation after generation of students, on persuading generation after generation of statesmen, on commanding the absolute devotion of generation after generation of helpers. This Father Delaney did, step by step, now using the London Matriculation, now the Intermediate System, now the Royal University, he made good his proposition, that Irish Catholics were capable of profiting by and desirous of the best education possible. It had been considered an absurdity in forty years Father Delany made it an axiom. Clongowes is proud to have shared with Tullabeg and University College in that work.

When the National University was achieved Father Delany became from 1909-1912 Provincial of the Irish Jesuits, and in that capacity did much to help the youthful University. In 1912 his health broke down, and from that time he lived in ever growing retirement. But to the last his keen intellect and tender heart never changed, and to many, many people the death of this old man was the loss of an intimate friend. We have said little of Father Delany's greatest quality, his charity, the tributes which follow, tributes of friends who knew him intimately must bring home to our readers how altogether lovable was this greatest of our Rectors.

-oOo-

Father Delany as I Knew Him : M McD Bodkin KC

Father Delany’s death was a great blow to me. It was the severance of a friend ship that lasted from the days of my boyhood. I had the good luck to have him for my master in 1st of Grammar class at Tullabeg, and the recollection of his tuition is one of the pleasantest of a long and happy life. Few school-boys will credit the statement that the hours spent in Father Delany's classroom were the happiest of our school life, but I confidentiy appeal to my old class-mate, Father Tom Gartlan, one time Rector of Riverview College, Australia, for confirmation. Father Delaney was an ideal master; he made study adelight. From every boy he evoked what was best in him. His influence inspired us. To the driest subject he could impart interest, and he could always find time for pleasant talk during class hours. Father Delany anticipated Pelman in the cultivation of memory. He taught us to remember by constant mechanical repetition, without thought of the meaning that might come before or after; his object was to get the words indelibly impressed on the memory. One of the feats he accomplished in this way was a bit out of the common. When he first suggested the test his amazed class unanimously declared it impossible. But the thing was done all the same. At the annual “conversatio” at the College, attended by a crowd of visitors, three of the class presented themselves without books, and in reply to the Rector repeated from, translated, parsed, and scanned passages selected at random from the second book of Virgil's Æneid.

My friendship with Father Delany, begun in my school days, stretched out into my after-life. I frequently visited my old college during the years of his preeminently successful rectorship, when it headed the schools of Ireland, Catholic and Protestant, under the Intermediate Education, Act (an Act, by the way, which I helped him to draft into legal form, clause by clause, nearly fifty years ago, in one of the parlours of Tullabeg). He ruled not by fear, but by affection. Physical punishment was almost unknown; he trusted to the honour of his boys. One little incident may be cited to illustrate the working of his system. It hap pened when I was present as a guest at the annual athletic sports: of the College. The most popular - if not the most important- event of the day was a blindfold race, to be won by the boys who passed first: through a pair of goal-posts about a quarter of a mile distant from the starting post. It was open to the entire school, for in such a race, it was plain that speed or endurance counted for nothing: the tortoişe had just as good a chance as the hare. I was beside Father Delany when he walked down the long line of boys, their eyes bound up in variegated handkerchiefs. Like a general reviewing his troops, Father Delany passed down the line. About the middle of the line he stopped and cried out in that clear voice of his that carried like a bell, “Now, boys, mind you are on your honour that none of you can see”. At the call there was a wavering and breaking up of the line. A score or so of the boys quitted the ranks and with self-convicting certitude went straight back yo the Prefect to be re-bandaged. So long a it was a trial of skill between the Prefect who did the bandarino and the boy it was lawful to best the enemy, but honor, once invoked there was a self-imposed master whose orders could not be evaded. In that short story there is perhaps more of the spirit that made Father Delany's Tullabeg such a success than many commissions and printed reports could give.

From the time I first met him to the date of his death. Father Delany always looked at least twenty-years younger than his age. He told me of an amusing incident which occurred when he was elaborating a system of Irish secondary education in conjunction with the Duke of Marlborough, then Lord Lieutenant, and Lord Randolph Churchill. After a good deal of correspondence, it was arranged that they should meet the Rector at his College. When they were shown into the Library, where Father Delany awaited them, there was an awkward silence for a moment. Then the Duke asked Father Delany if they might soon hope to see the Rector. In the explanation which followed, the visitors confessed that they thought the young man was a divinity student.

I frequently met Father Delany in later years, when at a further stage in his great campaign for higher education to Catholics he found himself President of the old University College Stephen's Green To him more than any man alive or dead, Ireland, owes the National University, and I am glad to think that I helped little in the good work by articles in “The Fortnightly Review”, setting out the overwhelming successes of: the students of University College in the examinations of the Royal University. It was only a little part in a vast work, but Father Delany showed as much interest and enthusiasm about my “inspired” controversial articles as if they were the main machinery of his scheme, and not a mere detail. It was thus he could command every man's best work.

In still later years I had many delightful conversations with Father Delany, even after he was confined to his own room in Leeson Street To the very last, his brilliancy of conversation, his indescribable fascination of manner, ranging from grave to gay, from serious to serene was maintained. Here is a story he told me only a few weeks befor his death. A member of the Order was constrained to make a journey alone through (I think) some un explored part of Northern Canada. He lost his way. On one occasion he returned after a day's journey to the camp he had set out from the night before. On another he was captured by a band of Indians. While he was pondering on his probable fate the leader approached him. “Don't be the laste taste afeared, yer Reverence”, he said, “sure we wouldn't hurt a hair of your head”. It was a Tipperary man who, for his skill in shooting, trapping and trailing had been promoted to the chieftainship of the band. Part of Father Delany's charm was that he could appreciate the very simple humour of such a story. He told it, if I remember rightly, as an interlude in a long discussion on the nature of duration in Eternity.

Having written of those frivolous recollections of a man so distinguished as my old master, I am ashamed of them, But they may serve to illustrate one of the many sides of his character. His learning, his piety and his incalculable services to Irish education must be recorded by a far abler pen than mine.

-oOo-

Father Delany as I Knew Him : T A Finlay SJ

A great many years have passed since Father Delany was a member of the Clongowes staff. But his name and his work deserve to be remembered enduringly in the College. What he accomplished in a wider field has profoundly affected the School in common with all the Secondary Schools of Ireland. The course of studies and the examination tests as they now stand are part of a system which he did much to bring into being. He was a notable figure in that movement for reform in education which has resulted in so many changes, and the force of which is not yet spent. His share in that move ment may be left to others to record in detail; it belongs to the chronicle of public events. In these pages a brief account of his life, as his intimate friends saw it lived, will be more appropriate.

Father Delany was born eighty-nine years ago in Leighlinbridge, a small village oil the Barrow, some miles below the town of Carlow. This village has been the birth place of more than one man of eminence. Not to mention contemporaries still living. Cardinal Moran was born here, and here, too, Professor Tyndall, of scientific fame, first saw the light. Father Delany received his early education in Carlow College, whence he passed to Maynooth. In the latter institution he had advanced to the second year of his theological course, when his vocation to the Society of Jesus came to him. He entered the Society in the year 1856. After a two years' noviceship at St Acheul, near Amiens, he was appointed to the Clongowes staff, and subsequently to that of St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore. In 1865 he was sent to Rome to complete his theological studies. On his way to the Eternal City he made acquaintance with the scenery of the Rhine, of Switzerland and of the Italian Lakes, as well as with the architectural wonders of Cologne, Strasbourg and Milan. In letters to his relatives, still preserved, he gives account of his impressions. The great mediæval, cathodrals fill him with reverent awe. Crossing the Alps in a diligence was one of the excitements of travel in the days before the mountains were tunnelled. He writes appreciativuly of his experience: “Fancy going for miles along a road cut in the face, of a cliff 1,600 feet high, about half way up, the rocks overhanging the road in many places-looking down over a little wall into a mountain torrent 600 to 800 feet below, and facing you on the other side a wall of rock so close that the daylight can hardly steal down to you”.

In the lecture halls of the Roman College Father Delany had as his professors men whose names and works were known throughout the Catholic world - Perrone, Franzelin, Cardella, Ballerini, and others. He is enthusiastic in his praise of them. His enthusiasm takes in the hall in which the lectures are delivered. The students of the College number some 1,600. Of these about 320 are in the school of theology “in the very room where Bellarmine, Suarez, Lessius and a host of others no less able, if less known, held out to similarly crowded audiences”. The very “air of the place ought to be saturated with learning of every kind. And still more ought it, as I really think it does, breathe of sanctity”.

Father Delany was ordained priest in 1866. This was an anxious year for Papal Rome. The defeat of Austria cleared the way for the unification of Italy, and the hesitating policy of Napoleon III withheld the armies of Victor Emmanuel from an invasion of the States of the Church. The anxieties of the time are reflected in Father Delany's letters to his friends. In the following year Garibaldi invaded the Papal States, but was defeated at Mentana, and fled, leaving an embarrassing number of prisoners in the hands of the Pope's soldiers. Of this event Father Delany sends home a vivid account. In the year 1867 he passed his final examination. He also served for a time as Chaplain to the Irish Zouaves in the Pope's service, and in the course of his duties came into unpleasant collision with the Zouave commander, de Charette. He returned to Ireland in 1868, and in 1870 was appointed Rector of Tullabeg. There began his activities in the cause of educational reform. To make clear the desire of Irish Catholics for opportunities of higher education, and to demonstrate their capacity to utilise that provided he prepared some of his more advanced pupils for the examinations of the London University and of the higher grades of the Civil Service. The experiment opened a career of distinction to more than one among them. Of the fortunate number were the late Sir Joseph McGrath, the late Mr Michael Crowley, Commissioner of Inland Revenue at Somerset House, and Sir Michael O'Dwyer, late Liutenant-Governor of the Punjab.

During the ten years of his Rectorship at Tullabeg the educational claims of Catholics were pressed vigorously and unceasingly, by none more vigorously than by Father Delany. Toward the end of the period the first concession was made to these demands: the intermediate system was established and modestly endowed. The foundation of the Royal University followed soon after. Father Delany was now transferred to Dublin and appointed Rector of St Ignatius College, which was to work in connection with the new University. The University, modelled upon the Intermediate scheme, was a mere examining body; it made no provision for the education of its students. To prepare for its examinations Catholics who declined to avail themselves of the endowed Queen's Colleges were obliged to maintain teaching institutions of their own. This injustice Father Delany denounced by voice and pen. He adopted a still more effective means of fixing public attention on the: Catholic grievance. In University College, St Stephen's Green, of which he became President in 1883, he devoted himself to the task of preparing his students for competition in the University examinations with the students of Queen's Colleges. Year by year the list of distinctions awarded to University College grew longer and longer, till at last it exceeded in length the combined list of the three endowed institutions. The situation thus created was more than inequitable, it bordered on the grotesque. Mr, Birrell put an end to it by establishing the National University, and endowing the Dublin College.

With the close of the long struggle in which he had taken so strenuous a part, Father Delany's participation in affairs of public import may be said to have ended. Old age was creeping on, pressing on his attention issues more vital than those which parlia ments discuss. After three years given to the duties of Provincial of the Irish Province of his Order, he devoted himself almost exclusively to his priestly functions and to the religious exercises which sanctify personal life. He undertook a treatise designed to confute some of the current forms of unbelief; but this task, too great for his failing powers, was eventually abandoned. In continuous communion with God, he waited through the evening of life for the Master's summons. When it came he received it obediently, humbly trusting that he had put to profit the talent entrusted to him.

Cleary, James, 1841-1921, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/93
  • Person
  • 10 May 1841-22 August 1921

Born: 10 May 1841, County Waterford
Entered: 07 September 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1870
Final vows: 02 February 1878
Died: 22 August 1921, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

by 1869 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1872 at Glasgow, Scotland (ANG) working
by 1877 at Castres, France (TOLO) making Tertianship
Early Irish Mission to Australia 1884

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He entered from Maynooth where he had already been ordained Deacon.

After Ordination he spent some time at an Operarius, was briefly at Crescent, and for over six years a Catechist on the Missionary Staff.
1883 he was sent to Australia and there he spent some years in Melbourne and Sydney. He was also an Operarius at Hawthorn.
1895 He was at St Patrick’s Melbourne
1901 He was sent to St Aloysius, Sydney.
1902 He was sent to Norwood
1903 He was sent to Adelaide
1905 He was sent to Riverview.
1907 He was sent to Sevenhill
1908-1914 He was sent to Norwood again.
1914 He returned to Sevenhill and he died there 22 August 1921.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He entered the Society as a Diocesan Priest having previously studied at Maynooth.

1868-1869 He was sent to St Acheul, Amiens, France for Rhetoric studies
1869-1870 He was sent to Leuven for theology
1870-1871 He was sent teaching to Clongowes Wood College
1871-1876 He went to Glasgow to work in a Parish there.
1876-1877 He made tertianship at Castres, France
1878-1882 He was a Missioner giving Retreats all over the country
1882-1885 He was sent teaching to Crescent College Limerick.
1885-1886 He was sent to Australia and Xavier College Kew
1886-1890 and 1900-1902 He was at St Aloysius Bourke Street teaching
1890-1891 He was sent for Parish work to Hawthorn
1891-1894 He was sent for Parish work to St Mary’s
1894-1895 He was sent for Parish work to Richmond
1895-1900 He was sent teaching to St Patrick’s College Melbourne
1904-1906 He was sent teaching to St Ignatius College Riverview
1903-1904 and 1907-1916 he was at St Ignatius Parish Norwood.
1913-1921 He was sent to do Parish work at Sevenhill

He seems to have been a little unsettled. moving frequently, and in later life was much troubled by scruples.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father James Cleary (1841-1921)

A native of Waterford, entered the Society in 1866. He was a member of the church staff at the Crescent from 1882 to 1885. This latter year he joined the mission in Australia where he was engaged first as master but later and for many years in church work until the time of his death at Sevenhills.

Foley, Peter, 1826-1893, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/158
  • Person
  • 06 January 1826-01 February 1893

Born: 06 January 1826, Carrigaholt, County Clare
Entered: 06 January 1856, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 01 February 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

in 1857 2nd yr Nov at Beaumont, England (ANG)
1856 Cat says Ent 22 December 1855

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He Entered at Beaumont (or finished there?) already a Priest of the Killaloe Diocese, and at exactly 30 years of age.
1858 He was “per exam. ad gradum” at Clongowes.
Soon after he was sent to Crescent in Limerick, and there he spent two long periods of his life as Minister, Prefect of Studies and Spiritual Father. He was also for some years at Clongowes in the same capacity.
1891/2 Failing in health he was sent from Limerick to Tullabeg, and he died there as he had lived, piously 01 February 1893.
He was greatly esteemed and loves, most kind and charitable to all.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Peter Foley (1826-1893)

A native of Carrigaholt, was a secular priest and sometime professor of theology at Maynooth College before he entered the Society in 1856. Father Foley was one of the founder members of the first community in Hartstonge St in 1859. Nearly all his religious life was spent in Limerick. He was a member of the Limerick community from 1859 to 1876. There followed a break with Limerick for some years when he was a member of the Clongowes and Galway communities. He returned to Limerick in 1885 but owing to increasing ill-health retired to Tullabeg, where he died on 1 February, 1893.

Father Foley was an able master and a zealous worker in the church where he was long respected by the people of the city. He was a fluent Gaelic speaker, and, so far as official records go, was the first Irish teacher in the Jesuit colleges before the Gaelic revival.

Mathews, John Stanley, 1833-1878, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1681
  • Person
  • 16 November 1833-31 December 1878

Born: 16 November 1833, Mount Hanover, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 13 November 1852, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 22 September 1866, Drogheda, County Louth
Final vows: 15 August 1872
Died: 31 December 1878, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

by 1855 at Villa Mongré France (LUGD) studying
by 1862 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying Philosophy 3
by 1864 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology 1
by 1865 at Montauban France (TOLO) studying Theology 3
by 1866 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology 4

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1856-1863 He was sent for Regency to Teach at Tullabeg, and then for two years at Limerick.
1863 He was sent to Stonyhurst for Philosophy and from there to St Beuno’s for 1st and 4th Year Theology, 2nd and 3rd Years were completed in the South of France.
1866 He was Ordained by Dr Nulty at Drogheda 22 September 1866.
1869 He was sent to Teach at Belvedere and was appointed Rector there in 1873. He died in office there 31 December 1878.
He was a very good religious. Though not of a robust constitution, his death was a peaceful one.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Stanley Mathews 1833-1878
Fr Mathews was born in Drogheda on November 15th 1833. He entered the Society in 1852 at St Acheul. He did most of his studies abroad but was ordained at Drogheda by Dr Nulty in 1866.

Three years later he went to Belvedere as a Master, and in 1873 he becmae Rector of the College. This post he filled until his death, which took place on December 31st 1878.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Stanley Mathews (1833-1878)

Was born at Drogheda and entered the Society at St Acheul in 1852. He spent two years of his regency at the Crescent, 1860-62, and can therefore be regarded almost as one of the pioneers of the re-establishment of the Society in Limerick. His higher studies were made in England and France, but his ordination took place at Drogheda on 22 September, 1866. The years after his ordination were spent entirely at Belvedere College where he was rector at the time of his early death.

Moore, Isaac, 1829-1899, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/254
  • Person
  • 21 May 1829-15 September 1899

Born: 21 May 1829, Newcastle, County Limerick
Entered: 05 October 1852, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1865, Rome, Italy
Final vows: 02 February 1872
Died: 15 September 1899, Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia

by 1855 in Montauban, France (TOLO) studying and teaching
by 1861 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying Philosophy
by 1864 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology 2
by 1865 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying Theology 3
Early Australian Missioner 1866
by 1871 at Roehampton, London (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1877 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) Min
by 1878 at St Ignatius, London (ANG) working
by 1883 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) teaching Philosophy

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows he was sent to Clongowes for Regency. By 1858 he was First Prefect, and was the man responsible for introducing Cricket, much to the disappointment of some of the older members.
He was then sent to Stonyhurst for Philosophy and St Beuno’s for Theology, making his third and fourth years in Rome, where he was Ordained 1865.
1866 He accompanied Joseph Mulhall to Melbourne, and he was appointed Prefect of Studies at St Patrick’s Melbourne. In addition to this work, he Preached and gave Lectures in many parts of Australia.
1870 He was sent back to Europe and made Tertianship at St Beuno’s.
1871 He was sent to Crescent in Limerick, and for some years we Prefect of Studies there and then Operarius and Teacher. He worked very hard and attracted great crowds to hear his Preaching.
1876 He was sent to St Beuno’s to teach Church History and also be Minister for a while. He was then sent to the London Residence, where he was engaged in Preaching, and was greatly admired there.
1881 He became Prefect of Philosophers at Stonyhurst and was much liked by the Scholastics.
1885 he was appointed dean of Residence at UCD.
1886 He was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius.
1888 He went back to Australia, and was associated with the Richmond and Hawthorn Missions. he died at Hawthorn 15 September 1899, and the Melbourne Mission lost one of its most able and energetic men. For many years he suffered greatly from eczema. His final illness however arose from a heart complaint. He had an operation which at first seemed successful but in fact advanced the problem, so that the news of his death surprised everyone in Melbourne.
He was a ready speaker and thought very impressive. His Retreats to the boys at Clongowes and Tullabeg were not easily forgotten.

He distinguished himself very much on one memorable occasion - the opening of Armagh Cathedral. One of the Preachers of the day disappointed and Isaac Moore was summoned by the Provincial. Ever after the Primate Dr Daniel McGettigan was wont to refer to his great courage, and the splendid manner in which he acquitted himself, notwithstanding the shortness of notice. He used to say “I can never forget it to Father Moore”.

Some of his Lectures he gave on Catholic Socialism, which he delivered in Melbourne were published in “Argus” and in a special form at the expense of the Parishioner’s Committee.

He was a brilliant conversationalist, and was much sought after in London, Melbourne and Dublin.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Isaac Moore entered the Society at St Acheul, Amiens, France, 5 October 1852, and then spent some years teaching and prefecting at Clongowes Wood College in Ireland. Philosophy studies followed, 1860-1862 at Stonyhurst, and Theology at the Roman College, 1864-1866.
In 1867 he arrived in Melbourne and St Patrick’s College, where he was Prefect of Studies. In 1860 he was recalled to Ireland and completed his Tertianship at Roehampton, England, 1870-1871. He taught and was Prefect of Studies at Crescent College Limerick, 1871-1876, and lectured in Church History at St Beuno’s, 1876-1879.
For the next three years he was engaged in pastoral work in London, attached to the Jesuit Church at Farm Street. From 1881-1885 he was prefect of Philosophers, also teaching modern languages and political economy at Stonyhurst. From 1885-1886 he was Minister at University College Dublin, and was Prefect of schools. The following three years were spent in pastoral work at Gardiner Street.
Late in life he returned to Australia, and spent one year as Prefect of Studies at St Patrick’s College, and then for the rest of his life he was involved in parish work at Richmond and Hawthorn. He was a man of wide learning and famous in his day as a preacher. He lectured also on “Catholic Socialism” and similar subjects. His retreats to boys were reported to be remarkably good. As First Prefect in Clongowes, he was said to have introduced cricket.

Note from David McKiniry Entry
As McKiniry had not yet undertaken tertianship or taken final vows, his appointment in Australia was going to be short lived, and he left for Ireland on 11 September 1870 with Isaac Moore. He did tertianship at Roehampton 1871-72 and transferred to the New Orleans province.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Isaac Moore 1829-1899
Fr Moore was born in Limerick on May 21st 1829. Even in his boyhood, his remarkable talents attracted attention. When only nineteen years of age he was elected President of the Catholic Young Men’s Association.

His priestly career was widely varied. He was appointed Prefect of Studies at St Patrick’s Melbourne in 1866. On his recall to Ireland he was assigned to the Crescent where he was in turn, Master, Prefect of Studies, Minister, Missioner and Operarius.

He was sent on loan to the English Province where he was Professor of Church History at St Beuno’s College, and later a popular preacher at Farm Street London. Having acted for some time as Prefect of Studies at Stonyhurst, he was recalled to Ireland as Dean of Residence of University College.

In 1888 he returned to Melbourne, where he laboured as lecturer and preacher till his death on September 15th 1899.

Fr Moore made his name on one very memorable occasion – the opening of Armagh Cathedral. The preacher already appointed was unable to attend. Fr Moore was summoned by the Provincial, and at very short notice undertook the task. The Primate, Dr McGettigan, ever after was wont to refer to his great courage and the splendid manner in which he acquitted himself. He used say “I can never forget it to Fr Moore”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Isaac Moore (1829-1899)

Was born in Limerick and received into the Society at St Acheul in 1852. He made his higher studies in England and Rome where he was ordained in 1865. Even in his boyhood, his remarkable gifts had begun to attract attention. Thus, at the age of nineteen and three years before he entered the Society he was elected President of the Catholic Young Men's Society. His priestly career was widely varied: He was appointed prefect of studies at St. Patrick's, Melbourne in 1866. On his recall to Ireland, he was assigned to the Crescent, where from 1871 to 1876, he was in turn, master, prefect of studies, minister of the house, missioner or attached to the church staff. In 1876 he was sent on loan to the English Province where he was first professor of Church History in the English Jesuit theologate. From his professor's chair he was summoned to the residence at Farm St., London, where he confirmed his reputation as a preacher of rare merit at the Jesuit church. Later he was appointed prefect of studies at the English Province's house of philosophy. He was recalled to Dublin in 1882 to become dean of residence at University College, Dublin. In 1888, he returned once more to Melbourne where he was engaged in mission work and public lectures on Catholic apologetics until his death.

Morrogh, Charles, 1845-1922, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/257
  • Person
  • 08 September 1845-08 May 1922

Born: 08 September 1845, Doneraile, County Cork
Entered: 03 November 1864, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1877, St Beuno's, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1884
Died: 08 May 1922, St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1867 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1868 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1869 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1875 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying
by 1881 at Sevenhill, Australia (ASR-HUN) for Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He studied Rhetoric at St Acheul (Amiens), Philosophy at Louvain and Rome, and Theology at St Beuno’s, where he was Ordained 1876, and during those years he also did a Regency at Clongowes.
1880 After Ordination he returned to Clongowes, and owing to indifferent health sailed with Mr Eastham to Australia.
1881 He made tertianship at Sevenhill.
He was appointed Rector at St Aloysius Sydney, and from there sent to Melbourne, where he worked in the Richmond Parish until his death there 08/05/1922.

Note from John Gately Entry :
Father Gately worked up to the end. He heard Confessions up to 10pm and was dead by 2am. Four hours, and perhaps most of that sleeping! Father Charles Morrough heard groaning and went down, and Father Joseph Hearn, Superior, gave him the Last Sacraments.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Charles Morrogh was educated at Tullabeg and Clongowes and in England. He was a good leader, prefect of the Sodality and an athlete. He was always fond of outdoor recreation, was a keen cricketer and a good shot. He entered the Jesuit novitiate under Aloysius Sturzo at Milltown Park, 3 November 1864, and studied in France, Rome and England before teaching senior Latin, Greek and physics at Clongowes College.
He arrived in Australia, 16 May 1880, and was sent to Xavier College as prefect of discipline. In 1883 he worked at St Mary's, North Sydney, before being transferred to St Aloysius' College. He was elected vice-rector of St John's in November 1883 at a salary of £500 a year, and resided there. He was prefect of discipline at St Aloysius' College, Bourke Street, from 1884-86, performed pastoral work and taught logic at St John's.
He spent another year at North Sydney in 1887 before going to Xavier College as socius to the master of novices, as well as being bursar to the farm and teaching students for the public examinations. He was minister in 1889. He was remembered for his gift of order and for the peculiar precision of speech and manner that marked him all his life.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1922

Obituary

Father Charles Morrogh SJ

The late Fr Charles Morrogh was born at Doneraile, Co Cork, Ireland, on the 8th September, 1845. He was educated at Tullabeg and Clongowes and in England. At school he was a leader, Prefect of the Sodality, and a noted athlete. He always remained fond of outdoor recreation, was a keen cricketer and a dead shot. He entered the Society of Jesus on November 3rd, 1864. His studies were done at St Acheul's, in France, in Rome and at St Beuno's College, North Wales, where he was ordained priest. He came to Australia in 1882, and was in Xavier in 1887 and 1888, and after a period as Rector in St Aloysius' College, Sydney, he returned to Xavier, where he was on the staff in 1893. As Minister he is remembered for his gift of order and for the peculiar precision of speech and manner which marked him all his life. After leaving Xavier, he spent a year at Hawthorn, and for the remaining 26 years of his life he served the parish of St Ignatius', Richmond. He remained at work almost till the end, which came after a brief illness on May 6. At his Office there was a great gathering of the parishioners and of his friends among the Past. He was buried in Booroondara Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Clongownian, 1923

Obituary

Father Charles Morrogh SJ

Charles Morrogh was a native of Doneraile, Co. Cork. He was at school in Tullabeg from 1859-62, and then, as was common in those days, he went to complete his course in Clongowes, where he stayed till 1864. He was in the Clongowes Cricket Eleven, and with his fast under-arm bowling was largely responsible for the defeat of Trinity's Second Eleven in a famous match in 1863.

Mr J B Cullen (sen), a schoolfellow of Father Morrogh's, remembers him as “a very serious and a hard-working student in Poetry and Rhetoric”. He was prominent in the school, proposed the toast of “The Rector” (Fr Eugene Browne SJ) at the jubilee celebrations in 1864, and delivered the English ode at the Academy Day of the same year. Less dignified but very human is another reminiscence of Mr Cullen's of Charlie Morrogh preparing for a pugilistic encounter with a certain foe of his. The advent of the Higher Line Prefect, however, left the issue undecided.

On leaving school he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Milltown Park. . Then followed a year of humanities at Saint Acheul in Northern France, and three years of philosophy at the Roman College. On his return to Ireland he went as a master to Clongowes. He studied theology at St Beuno's, North Wales, where he was ordained priest in 1877, by Dr Brown of Shrewsbury. In 1878 he returned to Clongowes. At this time he showed signs of bad health, and a couple of years later sailed for Australia. During the last forty years he occupied important positions in various colleges and residences of the Society in Sydney and Melbourne, being for some years Rector of St Aloysius' College, Sydney. For more than twenty years he worked with great zeal and fruit in the parish of St Ignatius, Melbourne, till his health failed him.

O'Carroll, John J, 1837-1889, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/316
  • Person
  • 01 September 1837-05 March 1889

Born: 01 September 1837, Great Charles Street, Dublin
Entered: 13 September 1853, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA
Ordained: 1865
Professed: 15 August 1873
Died: 05 March 1889, University College, Dublin, St Stephen's Green, Dublin

by 1855 at Laval, France (FRA) studying Theology
by 1857 at Montauban, France (TOLO) studying Theology
by 1859 at Feldkirch, Germany (GER) studying Theology
by 1864 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1871 at Maastricht College, Netherlands (NER) Studying
by 1872 at Stara Wieś, Subcarpathian Province Poland (GALI) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His father, Redmond, was first President of the VdP Society; his mother née Goold was related to the Dease family and that of Lord Justice Naish. His brother Vincent was an Oratorian. Both were educated at Clongowes.

His studies clearly had a linguistic direction, and he became Professor of Modern Languages at Catholic University, and Examiner at the Royal University, Ireland. It was said of him that he was a master of fourteen languages and literatures, and that he could converse in eight. In whichever country he studied, he quickly mastered both the language and dialects, and was appointed as an examiner there in some branches of public examinations. His likeable sanctity impressed everyone he met, and he possessed a remarkable innocence and spirit of penance. On the day of his death, 05 March 1889, he had carried on his research at both Trinity and Gardiner St, and on arriving home became very ill and died.

“We do not exceed the rigid truth when we say that he has left not one in Ireland who could fill his place. He was a master of almost all the languages of Europe ... He was an indefatigable student, always seeking to increased the range of his knowledge ... it was not unusual to have a sailor from a distant place spend time with him .... works on which he was engaged cannot now be completed .... his memory was tenacious, recalling for instance details of conversations that had taken place thirty years before ... he once stated .. that his study of the old Gaelic literature had convinced him that had the literature been allowed naturally to develop, it would have been rich in drama ...he was the last descendant of the O'Carrolls of Ely ... although naturally a bookworm, when at the Roman College he was always ready to companion another ... ”

William Delaney SJ :
“Being in Rome in the year 1866, I was present on many occasions at conversations between J J O’Carroll and a Dutch clergyman named Steins and also a Dalmatian named Jeramaz, with whom he conversed in the Dutch and Slavonic languages. I know these gentlemen intimately, and they assured me that Father O'Carroll spoke their languages with extraordinary ease and correctness. I was preset also several times at Propaganda College when he conversed in Modern Greek with a young Greek who assured me similarly”

Matthew Russell in the “Irish Monthly” :
“One day that St Aloysius and his fellow-novices were ‘at recreation’ - as the phrase is in convents - the question was mooted what each should do if he were told that in a few minutes he was to die. One would hurry off to his Confessor and try receive the sacramental absolution for the last time with the most perfect possible dispositions. Another would run to the chapel and pour out his soul before the altar in fervent acts of contrition. Aloysius said that he would go on with his recreation, for that is what God wished of him at that moment. Father O'Carroll did not guess, on the last morning of his life, that this same question was practically proposed to him, but it so happened that on that last morning he made use of these methods of immediate preparation for death. But his daily habitual life was the best preparation, and for the suddenness of his death was only an additional mercy. ‘Cujus anime propitietur Deus’.”

Father O’Carroll worked on cheerfully and earnestly, though it was known that he suffered from disease of the heart.

(full text appeared in “The Freeman’s Journal”, along with many Testimonials from his peers in various Universities around Europe, the morning after his death)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John O’Carroll 1837-1889
Fr John O’Carroll was the Mezzofanti of the Irish Province of the Society. He was master of fourteen languages and literatures, he could converse in eight of others, and could read eight or nine more. Besides the ordinary European languages, he knew Russian, Polish, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Serbian, Illyrian and Hungarian.

He was born at 51, Great Charles Street, Dublin, on September 1st 1837. His father was Redmond O’Carroll, first President General of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland, and a direct descendant of the O’Carroll’s of Ely. There were only two sons, Francis who became an Oratorian and died young, and John who became a Jesuit in 1853. He was therefore the last direct descendant of the O’Carrolls.

He showed a linguistic bent early, so that in the various countries in which he pursued his studies, he was able, in a short time, so to qualify himself as to be appointed government examiner in some branches of the public examinations. He had no difficulty in being appointed to the chair of Modern Languages in the Royal University. He was as proficient in Irish as in the other languages, and he contributed frequently to the “Gaelic Journal” and the “Lyceum”.

His death was sudden. On Shrove Tuesday, March 5th 1889, he pursued his researches in Trinity College Library until four o’clock, and then continued them in the library of St Francis Xavier’s Gardiner Street. Hurrying home after five o’clock to University College Stephen’s Green, he was seen to be very ill. There was but time to administer Extreme Unction, before he expired at the comparatively early age of 52. His obituary notice in the Freeman’s Journal contained the following :

“We deplore the sudden death which has taken him off with only a few minutes warning. We cannot but regard it as a national loss. As it is, his fame must not grow to the measure of his intellectual abilities. But his name will nonetheless remain enshrined in the memory of those who had the good fortune to know him intimately and to learn from him, how transcendent gifts of mind, may be combined with the most touching modesty, and rare endowments of intellect enhanced by the charm of unaffected humility”.

◆ The Clongownian, 1906

Two Distinguished Scholars

I Father John James O’Carroll SJ

by Father Matthew Russell SJ

John James O’Carroll was born at 51 Great Charles Street, Dublin, September Ist, 1837. Through his mother, a member of the Good family, he was connected with the Dease and Naish families. His father, Redmond O'Carroll, is memorable for one fact in his life. On the death of a relative he had entered into possession of a large landed property, when he himself discovered in some secret place a will bequeathing the property to another. He at once gave the property up, and remained poor all his life.

John James O'Carroll was educated at Clongowes, as was also his younger brother, Francis, who afterwards joined Father Faber's Oratory in London. He himself, when sixteen years old, joined the Society of Jesus, September 13th, 1853. He was always singularly pious, humble, obedient, . and amiable. His bent in study was towards the acquisition of languages. His acquirements in this department were amazing. We have his own testimony on the subject in the letter in which he offered himself as candidate for a Fellowship of Modern Languages in the Royal University of Ireland. He was incapable of untruth or exaggeration; and therefore we know that he was thoroughly acquainted with Irish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Bohemian, Russian, Serbian, Dalmatian, and Croatian. To these we may add Latin and modern Greek as well as ancient Greek, Father O'Carroll is careful to claim a much lower degree of acquaintance with Icelandic, Anglo Saxon, Romanian, Bulgarian, Carniolese and Romaic. In The Irish Monthly for 1889 (vol xvii., PP. 211-115) a most interesting collection of testimonies is given from Max Muller and Sundry Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, etc., each bearing witness that in his own language and literature Father O'Carroll was as much at home as an educated native.

After working for many years in Clongowes, and at Galway, Father O'Carroll was placed on the staff of University College, Dublin, and was appointed an Examiner, and afterwards a Fellow of the Royal University. He laboured assiduously at all the duties of his office, finding time also for an enthusiastic study of Gaelic literature, to which he contributed much original work. In his personal relations he was a model of every amiable virtue, a man of singular holiness. He was always ready for the end, which came suddenly on the 5th of March, 1889.

The following is the obituary notice which appeared in “The Freeman's Journal” the morning after his death :

“We deeply regret to announce the death of one of our country's most gifted scholars - Rev. JJ O'Carroll SJ, Professor of Modern Languages, University College, and Examiner in these same subjects in the Royal University. To men of education in Ireland it is unnecessary to explain what a loss the cause of learning has sustained in him. We do not exceed the rigid truth when we state that he has left not one in Ireland who can adequately fill his place, He was a master of almost all the languages of Europe a master in the fullest sense of the term. He spoke them fluently, and he was an adept in their literatures. The Russian and the Hungarian, which are beyond the reach of most of our literati, were familiar to him - even the provincial dialects of these strange tongues afforded him scope for the exercise of his singular talent. He was an indefatigable student, seeking every facility to extend the range of his knowledge. The ships which brought foreigners from distant lands to Dublin sometimes supplied him with teachers, and it was not unusual for him to pay a foreign sailor to sit with him in his room by the hour and talk to him in the language of Sweden or of Iceland. Hitherto he had been engaged accumulating his stores of knowledge; he had just begun to utilise his vast acquirements for the advantage of others. Works of rare merit on which he was engaged must now remain unfinished. There is no one who can complete fittingly the tasks to which he had put his band, but which he has not been spared to accomplish. We deplore the sudden death which has taken him off with only a few minutes warning. We cannot but regard it as a national loss. As it is, his fame must not grow to the measure of his intellectual merits. But his name will none the less remain enshrined in the memory of those who had the good fortune to know him intimately, and to learn from him how transcendent gifts of mind may be combined with the most touching modesty and rare endowments of intellect, enhanced by the charms of unaffected humility”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John O’Carroll (1837-1889)

A native of Dublin and alumnus of Clongowes, was one of the most remarkable Jesuits who have ever passed through the Crescent. More remarkable perhaps is the fact that no one saw anything remarkable about him. Father O'Carroll was the most accomplished linguist of his time. All his studies in the Society, which he entered in 1853, were made abroad. On his return to Ireland as a priest, this man of very modest, self-effacing bearing was sent to teach in the colleges. He came to the Crescent as prefect of studies in 1887 and remained here four years. Shortly after his departure from Limerick, Father O'Carroll was appointed to the position of Examiner in Modern Languages to the Royal University of Ireland and resided at University College, Dublin until his death. Father O'Carroll had mastered some two dozen European languages, between Romance, Teutonic and Slav.

Saurin, Matthew, 1828-1901, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/394
  • Person
  • 12 February 1825-10 May 1901

Born: 12 February 1825, Duleek, County Meath
Entered: 24 September 1849, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: Maynooth - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1862
Died: 10 May 1901, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

by 1855 at Moulins College (LUGD) for Regency
by 1865 at Bordeaux Residence France (TOLO) health
by 1870 at Mongré Collège, Villefranche-sur-Mer (LUGD) working
by 1886 at Charleroi Belgium (BELG) Teaching

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He entered Maynooth for his own Diocese, and was a classmate of the future Bishop, Dr Nulty. After Ordination he felt a different call and applied to the Society.

After First Vows he was sent to Tullabeg where he taught Grammar for two years.
He then returned to France for further Regency.
1857-1865 He returned to Ireland, and he taught at Belvedere, Limerick and Clongowes.
1865 He was at the Bordeaux Residence.
1866-1869 He was back in Ireland in Milltown and Gardiner St.
1867 The famous “Convent Case : Saurin v Star” was tried was tried in the English Courts, in which Matthew’s sister, A Mercy Sister, took an action against her Superioress and Community of the Mercy Convent Hull for the harsh treatment of expulsion. (cf https://archive.org/details/greatconventcase00joseuoft/page/n3/mode/2up) It was decided that Matthew should live outside the jurisdiction of the Courts, lest he be called as a witness, and so he lived in the Continent.
On his return home he was stationed at Dublin.
1872-1884 He was sent to Tullabeg as a Missioner for twelve years.
1884-1889 He was at Clongowes and Mungret, except for a year that he spent at Charleroi in Belgium.
1899 Early in this year he had an accident at Clongowes, when he fell down the steps near the Dispenser’s Office and broke his hip. It was apparently impossible to set it properly, with the result that he could no longer walk. After a very active life - he was a very keen sportsman which he called “Hunting” - it was a very difficult transition for him. However, he never complained, though on one occasions, being told that the Novices had gone out for a walk, he said “Oh, how I wish I could go out too”, and then added with a flash of his old humour “Horses and dogs!”
He died at Tullabeg 10 May 1901 deeply regretted by all who knew him, as his bright humorous ways made him a welcome addition to every community.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Matthew Saurin SJ 1825-1901
At Tullabeg on May 10th 1901 died Fr Matthew Saurin, deeply regretted by all, for he was a man of bright and humorous disposition, which made him a welcome addition to the various communities he lived in..

He was born at Duleek on February 12th 1825 and was ordained priest at Maynooth for his native Diocese of Meath. Shortly after his ordination, he felt the call to religious life and accordingly entered the Society in 1849.

Fr Saurin’s main work in the Society was as a missioner on the Mission Staff, in the course of which he was stationed at Tullabeg for twelve years. On retiring from the strenuous work of a missioner from 1884-1899, he was stationed at Mungret and Clongowes. It was in the latter house that he met with an accident to his hip bone. At age 74 it was impossible to set it properly, and from then on he was deprived of the use of his legs.

After a very active life that he had led, for he took a very keen interest in al kinds of field sports which he called “hunting”, this life of inactivity must have been very irksome to him. However, he never complained. Once only was he ever heard to make a remark which showed he felt the tedium of his illness. One day he was told that the novices had gone out for a walk. “Oh” he said “how I wish I could go out for a walk too”. But immediately, he added with a flash of his old humour, “However, if Almighty God has need of my legs He is welcome to them”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Matthew Saurin (1825-1901)

A native of Duleek, Co. Meath, had been educated at Maynooth and ordained for the diocese of Meath. He entered the Society in 1859, at St Acheul, and continued his studies in France. Father Saurin was one of the founder members of the re-established Jesuit community in Limerick in 1859 and remained as a member of the teaching staff of the college until 1863. After some twelve years as a missioner he resumed teaching at Clongowes and Mungret. His later years were spent at Tullabeg.

Scully, Daniel O'Connell, 1826-1892, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/398
  • Person
  • 26 November 1826-19 June 1892

Born: 26 November 1826, Philipstown, County Offaly
Entered: 13 September 1852, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1861, Laval, France
Final vows: 02 February 1876
Died: 19 June 1892, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

by 1854 at Laval, France (FRA) studying Theology
by 1857 at Amiens, France (FRA) studying
by 1858 at Laval, France (FRA) studying Theology
by 1860 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying Theology
by 1873 at Laon, France (CAMP) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Tullabeg first and then Clongowes.

He studied Theology and Philosophy at Laval, and was ordained there 1861.
He was a Teacher and Prefect at Clongowes for five years and just over a year at Tullabeg.
The rest of his Jesuit life was spent teaching in Belvedere, with the exception of tertianship at Drongen. He was also a Minister for three years.
He had a very long illness, and was carefully nursed by his old friend Brother George Sillery, who told many amusing stories about him. He died 19 June 1892. His funeral was a very representative one in attendance.
He was for many years the fast friend of the Christian Brothers, whose Spiritual Director he had been for a long period.
He was very quick tempered, but thoroughly goof-hearted, and generous to the extreme. He usually heard Confessions in Gardiner St at night, and here it was clear the esteem in which he was held by both Priests and lay people. He was a man of lively faith and devoted to the interests of Belvedere. He always offered the Mass of each First Friday for the intentions of the Sacred Heart. His devotion to the sick and dying was admirable, and he often remained up the whole night with some of his penitents, in order that he might bring them comfort in their last moments.
He lived 41 years in the Society.

Wheeler, Thomas, 1848-1913, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/440
  • Person
  • 17 January 1848-28 October 1913

Born: 17 January 1848, Mullingar, County Westmeath
Entered: 07 September 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1883, Tortosa, Spain
Final Vows: 02 February 1888
Died: 28 October 1913, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1872 at Toulouse College (TOLO) health
by 1877 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1880 at Aix-en-Provence, France (LUGD) studying
by 1881 at Dertusanum College Spain (ARA) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Account from Freeman’s Journal of 29 October 1913 "
“The hand of death has been severely felt of late within the ranks of the Society of Jesus in Dublin. During a period of slightly over twelve months a number of the best known and most distinguished members of that body have passed to their reward after long service in the sacred cause of religion and Christian charity. The list includes such revered names as Matt Russell, Nicholas Walsh, James Walshe, and more recently John Bannon and Henry Lynch. It is now our duty to record the death of another well-known member of the Order in the person of Rev Thomas Wheeler SJ, who died after a long and tedious illness at Gardiner St.
He was born in Mullingar 17 January 1848. His elder brother, Rev James Wheeler, was PP of Stamullen. His younger brother was the lamented Dominican Joseph Wheeler, who predeceased him some years. His uncle was the Most Rev Dr James Carbery OP, at one time Bishop of Hamilton, Canada. His cousin Most Rev Dr James Murray OSA, is the present Bishop of Cookstown, Australia.
Educated at Mullingar and Tullabeg, he entered the Society at a young age. his higher studies were carried on in France - Philosophy at Louvain, and Theology at Tortosa in Spain. he completed his studies in Belgium. On returning to Ireland he was put to the field of education, and taught the higher classes at Clongowes, Tullabeg, Belvedere and Crescent. During these years he was rector of Belvedere, and Vice-President of UCD. In addition to his marked qualities as an educator, he had a facile pen, and gave many valuable contributions to the literature of his day. When Matt Russell died, he was chosen to succeed him as Editor of the “Irish Monthly” - a publication dear to the heart of its founder and to a circle of close personal friends and literary admirers. Under Thomas’ guidance it continued to fulfill worthily the aims and ideas for the propagation of which it was started, and continued to be in the fullest sense a high-class, well-written periodical full of information on subjects of deep interest to Irish Catholic readers.
Latterly, however, Father Wheeler’s health had begun to give way, and during the last few months he had been suffering from a rather severe breakdown.”

Note from Charles O’Connell Sr Entry
William E Kelly, Superior at Hawthorn, says in a letter 09 April 1912 to Thomas Wheeler “Poor Father Charlie was on his way from his room to say the 8 o’clock Mass, when a few yards from his room he felt faint and had a chair brought to him. Thomas Claffey, who had just returned from saying Mass at the Convent gave him Extreme Unction. Thomas Gartlan and I arrived, and within twenty minutes he had died without a struggle. The evening before he had been seeing some sick people, and we have since learned complained of some heart pain. Up to the last he did his usual work, taking everything in his turn, two Masses on Sundays, sermons etc, as the rest of us. We shall miss him very much as he was a charming community man.

Note from Henry M Lynch Entry
Note his obituary of Henry M Lynch in that Entry. Henry Lynch accompanied Thomas Wheeler when the latter was going for a severe operation to Leeds. When he returned before Thomas, he became unwell himself.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Thomas Wheeler SJ 1848-1913
Fr Thomas Wheeler was born near Mullingar on 17th January 1848.

He came of a very distinguished ecclesiastical family. His older brother was a Parish priest in Stamullen, a younger brother was a Dominican, an uncle was Dr Carbery, Bishop of Hamilton, Canada, while his cousin was Dr Murphy, Bishop of Cookstown Australia.

Fr Thomas entered the Society at an early age and taught the higher classes in Clongowes, Tullabeg, Belvedere and Limerick. He was rector of Belvedere and Vice-President of University College, St Stephen’s Green.

Having done some of his early studies in Spain, he was a good Spanish scholar, and was appointed Spanish examiner in the Royal University. He succeeded Fr Matt Russell as editor of “The Irish Monthly”. Under his guidance it continued to fulfil the aims and ideas for which it was founded.

He died after a long and tedious illness, cheerfully borne, on October 29th 1913.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1914

Obituary

Father Thomas Wheeler SJ

It is our painful duty to record the death of the Rev Thomas Wlieeler, which took place at the Presbytery, Upper Gardiner Street, some time ago.

The deceased was born near Mullingar in 1848, and joined the Society of Jesus at an early age. His course of studies was a long one, during which he travelled much in France, Belgium, and Spain. A man of marked ability, a distinguished scholar, an able linguist, he taught the higher classes in Clongowes, Tullabeg and Limerick. He was at one time Rector of Belvedere, and for many years Vice-President of University College, St. Stephen's Green. Notwithstanding his poor health during the last twelve months of his life, he continued to devote himself to his confessional, and was always eager to help and befriend others. A convincing preacher, he also had a facile pen, and succeeded Fr Father Russell as editor of The Irish Monthly. RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1914

Obituary

Father Thomas Wheeler SJ

It is our painful duty to record the death of another well-known member of the Society Jesus in the person of the Rev Thoma Wheeler, who died yesterday (October 28th) after a long and tedious illness, at the Presbytery, Upper Gardiner Street. Father Wheeler was born near Mullingar, Co Westmeath, the 17th January, 1848. His elder broth Very Rev James Wheeler, was PP of Stamullen; his younger brother was the lamented Father Joseph Wheeler, of the Order of Preachers, who predeceased him some years ago. His uncle was the Most Rev Dr Carbery OP, at one time Bishop of Hamilton, Canada. His cousin, Most Rev Dr Murray OSA, is the present Bishop of Cooktown, Australia.

Educated at Mullingar and at Tullabeg College, he entered the Society of Jesus at an early age. His higher studies were carried on in France - his Philosophy course being studied at Louvain, and his course in Theology at Tortosa, in Spain. He completed his training in the House of the Order in Belgium, at the close of a brilliant scholastic career. On his return to his native land he was, by direction his Superiors, almost at once placed in close touch with the educational interests which the members of the Society of Jesus are known to have so much at heart in Ireland, as in the other countries where their Missions flourish. In pursuance of his duties in his new sphere of activity Father Wheeler taught for any years the higher classes in Clongowes, in Tullabeg, in Belvedere, and in Limerick Colleges, filling during that period of his career many important offices--amongst them, those of Rector of Belvedere College, and Vice-President of University College, St Stephen's Green. In addition to his marked qualities as an educationalist he had a facile pen, and gave many valuable contributions to the literature of his day.

When Father : Matt Russell died, Father Wheeler was chosen to succeed him in the editorship of the “Irish Monthly” - a publication which was dear to the heart of its sainted founder and long time editor, as it was also to the hearts of a wide circle of close personal friends and literary admirers. Under the guidance of Father Wheeler the “Irish Monthly” continued to fulfil worthily the aims and ideas for the propagation of what it was started, and continued to be in the fullest sense a high-class, well-written periodical full of informative matter on subjects of deep interest to Irish Catholic readers.

Latterly, however, Father Wheeler's health had begun to give way, and during the last few months he had been suffering from a rather severe breakdown.

“Freeman's Journal”, Oct. 29th, 1913.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Wheeler (1848-1913)

A native of Mullingar, was educated at Tullabeg College and entered the Society in 1866. He pursued all his higher studies abroad: in France, Belgium and Spain, in which latter country he was ordained. Father Wheeler was one of the Irish Province's most gifted masters of the last century, but his association with the Crescent was limited to the years 1887-88 and 1894-95. He was sometime rector of Belvedere College and vice-rector of UCD. He was also widely known in literary circles and succeeded Father Matthew Russell in the editorship of the “Irish Monthly”.

Hogan, Edmund, 1831-1917, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/472
  • Person
  • 23 January 1831-26 November 1917

Born: 23 January 1831, Clonmel, Cobh, County Cork
Entered: 29 November 1847, St Acheul, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1855
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 26 November 1917, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin

by 1854 at Laval, France (FRA) studying Theology 2
by 1856 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying Theology 4
by 1865 at Rome, Italy (ROM) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
“Educated at UCD; D Litt 1897; Fellow and Examiner RUI; Professor of Irish and History at UCD; RIA Council, Todd Professor of Celtic Languages, Sec for Foreign Correspondence; Governor of the High School of Irish Learning; Brehon Law Commissioner for the publication of the ancient laws and institutes of Ireland; Has written more twenty or thirty works .......” - Catholic Who’s Who and Year Book”, 1915.

On his death, the following notice was published :
Father Hogan, who passed away peacefully after an illness which, up to the last, had not impaired his mental powers, was the last link with the pioneer days of O'Donovan, O’Curry and Zeuss. He was born in Clonmel, close to Queenstown 23 January 1831. Entering the Jesuit Noviceship at St Acheul at the age of sixteen, he was Ordained nine years later, and spent long and active years in labouring, now in the pulpit and confessional, now in the classroom. He was one of the founders of the Sacred Heart College, Limerick, in 1859, remaining there until 1865.
A subsequent year in Rome contributed largely to the definite trend of Father Hogan’s mind and interests towards the study of Irish antiquities. The Irish and other archives in the Eternal City started him upon a field of enquiry where he was to prove himself a singularly diligent and competent toiler. In spite of many difficulties, including the failure of his eyesight, he pursued studies along various lines of Irish linguistics, history and archaeology, and commenced in 1880 the publication of a series of works, many of which, at least will survive as imperishable monuments of energetic and well-directed scholarship.
The list of over twenty numbers would be too long to print here - we may mention as types, the “Documenta de Sto Patricio’, the “Battle of Ros-na-Righ” and other volumes in the Todd Lecture Series. “Ibernia Ignatiana”, “Distinguished Irishmen of the 16th Century” and the great “Onomasticom Goedelicum (completed in his 77th year) - a work bearing witness to his powers of laborious and minute research.
From 1888-1908 Father Hogan filled the Chair of Irish Language and History at UCD. He was a useful and active member of the RIA, and a Commissioner for the publication of the Brehon Laws.
His many fine personal qualities, no less than his eminent merits as a scholar, gained him the esteem of a circle extending even beyond the shores of the country, for which he laboured so untiringly and unselfishly, and will cause his departure, even at the ripe old age of eighty-seven, to be sincerely mourned.”

Note from Joseph O’Malley Entry :
He made his Noviceship in France with William Kelly, and then remained there for studies with Eugene Browne and Edmund Hogan

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Hogan, Edmund Ignatius
by Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh

Hogan, Edmund Ignatius (1831–1917), priest, Irish-language scholar, and historian, was born 23 January 1831 at Belvelly, near Cobh, Co. Cork, youngest son of William Hogan, craftsman, and Mary Hogan (née Morris). Though the older members of the family were native speakers of Irish, he was brought up through English. He entered the Jesuit Order at 16, beginning his noviciate in the Jesuits' French province on 29 November 1847. He stayed there until 1854, when, having completed his first two years of theology, he transferred to St Beuno's College, Flintshire, Wales, where he was ordained on 23 September 1855, completing his fourth year of theology the following year. He took his final vows in 1866.

On his return to Ireland he began teaching at Tullabeg House, King's Co. (Offaly) (1857–8), and was transferred the following year to Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. He was one of the founders in 1859 of Sacred Heart College, The Crescent, Limerick, where he stayed until 1865. That year he travelled to Rome, where he researched Irish Jesuit history. This resulted in Ibernia Ignatiana (1880). From 1873 to 1877 he was attached to the Catholic University, teaching moral theology. He served as priest and teacher in various Irish Jesuit colleges, although his teaching duties gradually decreased as he devoted himself more to scholarship. He began teaching in UCD in the 1880s and served as professor of Irish language and history there until the dissolution of the Royal University of Ireland in 1909. He was appointed examiner in Celtic by the RUI in 1888 and subsequently served as fellow in Celtic/Irish until 1909. He received a D.Litt. honoris causa from the RUI in 1897. In the RIA, to which he was elected in 1890, he was Todd professor of Celtic languages (1891–8), a member of the council (1899–1904, 1905–9), and secretary for foreign correspondence (1907–9). In addition, he was appointed a commissioner in 1894 for the publication of the ancient laws of Ireland and was a governor of the School of Irish Learning from its foundation in Dublin in 1903.

His impressive literary output in Latin, Irish, and English began in 1866 with Limerick, its history and antiquities. Other publications include Cath Ruis na Ríg for Bóinn (1892), Distinguished Irishmen of the sixteenth century (1894), History of the Irish wolf dog (1897), and A handbook of Irish idioms (1898). He spent ten years preparing his greatest, and as yet unsurpassed, work, Onomasticon Goedelicum (1910), a reference book on names of places and tribes found in Gaelic manuscripts. After its publication his sight and general health began to deteriorate and he lived a life of semi-retirement.

He died 26 November 1917 at the Jesuit House, Lower Leeson St., Dublin, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. Papers relating to him are housed at the Jesuit Archives, 35 Lower Leeson St., Dublin.

Royal University of Ireland Calendar, 1888–1909; Douglas Hyde, ‘A great Irish scholar’, Studies, vi (1917), 663–8; John MacErlean, ‘A bibliography of Dr Hogan, S.J.’, Studies, vi (1917), 668–71; IBL, ix (1918), 64; The Society of Jesus, A page of history: story of University College Dublin 1883–1909 (1930); Michael Tierney (ed.), Struggle with fortune (1954), 33; William Hogan, ‘Rev. Edmund Hogan S.J.: an eminent Great Island scholar’, Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxx (1965), 63–5; Beathaisnéis, i, iv, v

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Edmund Hogan 1831-1916
“At a ripe old age, loved and admired by a large circle of friends and honoured by scholars in many countries, there passed away from us the Rev Edmund Hogan SJ D Litt”. These are the opening words of an article on Edmund Hogan by the late Dr Douglas Hyde, in Studies 1917.

Edmund Hogan was born on 23rd January 1831 near the Cobh of Cork. He became a Jesuit at the age of sixteen and was ordained nine years later. He was one of the founders of the Sacred Heart College Limerick, and remained there from 1859-1865. From there he proceeded to Rome where he ransacked the Archives, and he gathered a vast amount of information relating to the history of the Society and of the Irish Church.

The fruit of his labours may be seen from a brief list of his works :
“Ibernia Ignatiana”, “Onomastican”, “Goedelicum”, a life of “Father Henry Fitzsimon SJ”, “Distinguished irishmen of the 16th Century”, “Outlines of Grammar of Old Irish”, “The Bollandists Life of St Patrick”, “Chronolofical List of the Irish Jesuits 1550-1814.
His net was wise. His studies include :
“History of the Irish Wolf-dog”, “Irish and Scottishe names of Herbs, Plants, Trees, etc”, “Physical Characteristics of the Irish People”.

He was Professor of Irish Language and Hostory at University College Dublin, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Governor of the High School of Irish Learning, and one of the Brehon Law Commissioners for the publication of the ancient laws and institutes of Ireland.

“He had a fine presence, his head was handsome, his forehead broad, his eyes kindly, and his manner always courteous and affable. With all his great learning, he was charmingly simple, and he delighted in anecdotes about people he had met and known”.

He died at Leeson Street on November 26th 1916. It was of him that Fr Henry Brown made a famous remark at recreation after his funeral “Well, I’m sure Fr Hogan will take what is coming to him like a man”.

◆ The Clongownian, 1918

Obituary
Father Edmund Hogan SJ
By Richard Ingham (Giving incidentally a glimpse of Clongowes in the Sixties)
My recollection of Father Edmund Hogan goes back to the year 1865-6, when he came to Clongowes to teach a class of philosophy. consisting of four students, James Galavan of Waterford, James Doyle of Wexford, Myles McSwiney of Dublin, and Stephen Boisson a Frenchman. These were high and mighty gentlemen, from the schoolboy's point of view, not mixing with the ordinary students and seldom seen by them except at a distance in Chapel, where they occupied one of the Community tribunes.

The professor of philosophy, then a fairly tall man, dark haired, and with an alert soldierly carriage, and a most genial and prepossessing appearance, we admired from a distance, but we had no acquaintance with him. In the next year, 1867-8, Father Hogan taught the class of 1st of Grammar, of which I was a member. Feeling deeply the loss of Father Stanley Mathews, of the family of Mount Hanover, Drogheda, one of the most fascinating men I ever met, always in college and in after life the best and truest of friends, the welcome extended to Father Hogan was, I fear, not warm.

After a little, his kindly, genial temperament won our regard and respect, and we pulled along evenly and well.

In those days the relation of master and pupils was intimate and very personal. In nearly all the subjects of their course the master was their sole teacher, and he was their guide, philosopher, and friend, and from the affection born in the classroom of times grew a strong, loving friendship, a help and stay to the pupil in all the joys and sorrows of his after life. Thank God, I have precious memories, alas, only memories, of many.

The present system in our colleges, I fear, is not calculated to foster such old world sentiments.

Long ago it was the custom for the master to bring his boys out to walk on playdays and half holidays, if they so wished, but the boys had to go to the castle and ask him.

Father Hogan was ever a great student, and in my days under him, all his spare time, and indeed all his waking thoughts, were devoted, we boys understood, to the preparation of a grammar, I daresay a Gaelic one, that was to throw into the shade all grammars hitherto in use. We sometimes found it difficult to catch our hare when he was wanted for a run, but when once caught, he gave us good sport, and was the most amiable and best of leaders. On one occasion we went to Maynooth, and after seeing the College, had a grand lunch of beefsteaks and pies in the hotel, over which Father Hogan presided, and we toasted the President in ginger beer.

It must have been trying to a man of his habits and tastes to have to run about the country roads with a pack of raw lads who took not the slightest interest in the studies or pursuits he most cared for. Never once, during the whole time he was our master, did I see Father Hogan show the least touch of annoyance, or shall I call it low spirits, on those occasions.

In 1868-9 Father Hogan was again our master in the class of poetry, of which Stephen Brown, now the Crown Solicitor of Kildare, was easily and worthily the Imperator primus. In this year our class acquired musical celebrity. Every day at the end of the after noon class our master, closing his desk, stood up and said, “Now, boys, a little French pronunciation”, and all standing, some in tune and some far from it, sang two verses of a hymn to our Blessed Lady, called “Reine des Cieux”. Never before, nor I suppose since, has choral music waked the corridors of Clongowes during class hours.

Father Hogan was singularly painstaking and patient in his efforts for our improvement, and always anxious that his class should make a decent appearance on all public occasions. As instances of the trouble he gave himself in these matters, I may mention the following. Twice he distinguished me, to my great annoyance, by selecting me to read the essay written by him at the academical exercises in July, 1868, and again as the reciter of the English poem in July, 1869. Curiously, the latter, called “A War Mirage on the Rhine”, was a vivid picture of the war that broke out the following year, 1870. Day after day alterations were made in that poem, until my small stock of patience being exhausted, I bluntly said I would learn no more new lines. My ill-temper was met with a genial smile, but the verses still grew. To practise' me in the required strength of pronunciation, I was brought to the big field beyond the pleasure ground, where, standing at one end and Father Hogan at the other, my success or failure depended, without regard to wind or distance, on Father Hogan's hearing me distinctly. I used to have a rough throat after these performances. To all of us, notwithstanding our shortcomings, Father Hogan was ever cheerful, kind, and singularly amiable, and at the end of the two years his class parted from him with the most kindly feelings, which lasted with the survivors to his death.

These thoughts were in my mind as I prayed beside the coffin, and looked upon the face of my dear old master for the last time. I seemed to hear again the voice coming to me across the big field, “Speak louder, I can't hear you”, or again calling on his class of Poetry to sing their evening hymn.

Richard Ingham

-oOo-

For Father Hogan's subsequent career as Irish historian, archæologist, and linguist, we must refer our readers to a sketch of him which appeared in “Studies” of last December under the heading “A Great Irish Scholar”. It is from the pen of Dr Douglas Hyde, joint founder and first president of the Gaelic League, and is a worthy tribute to his work, It is followed by a list of no fewer than thirty-eight publications by Father Hogan, Included in this list, which fittingly ends with his masterpiece, the “Onomasticon Gadelicum”, completed at the age of seventy-nine, appear four items which are the fruit of his connection with Clongowes. It was from a MS. preserved in Clongowes that he published for the first time in a large quarto volume of nearly four hundred pages, the “Description of Ireland and the State thereof as it is at this present in Anno 1598”. From another MS preserved in Clongowes he published in the “Irish Ecclesiastical Records” : “Hayne's Observation on the State of Ireland in 1600”. Then there is “The History of the Warr of Ireland (from 1641 to 1653)”, by a British Officer of the regiment of Sir John Clotworthy. This from a third Clongowes MS was published by Father Hogan in 1873, in a little volume of one hundred and sixty pages. Lastly, he published comparatively recently from yet another MS preserved in our Museum, “The Jacobite War 1688-1691”, by Colonel Charles O'Kelly.

Father Hogan died at 35 Lower Leeson St., Dublin, on 26th November, 1917. RIP

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

Father Edmund Hogan (1831-1917)

A native of Cobh, the eminent Gaelic scholar and historian, was one of the pioneers in the foundation of Sacred Heart College. He entered the Society in 1847; and it is clear that his superiors expected great things of him from the fact that his period of formation was so shortened that he was only twenty-eight years of age when he arrived as a priest in Limerick in 1859. He was appointed minister of the house in 1861 and was in charge of the boys' choir. He remained in the Crescent until 1864. The following years were devoted to research work amongst medieval Irish MSS. For a time he worked with the Bollandists in Belgium on the Lives of the Irish Saints. He returned to the Crescent in 1884 on the teaching staff but remained only one year. The following year at Clongowes saw the end of his career as master. After a short period in Tullabeg, where his sole work was study, he became lecturer in Celtic studies at University College, Dublin and retained that post until the National University replaced the Royal University of Ireland. He remained in the Leeson St community for the rest of his days. Limerick is proud of its associations with Father Hogan's great predecessor in the chair of Celtic Studies, Eugene O'Curry, whose business here was that of time keeper for the building of Sarsfield Bridge. The city may also be proud of its association with Edmund Hogan whose business here was the humble task of educating Limerick schoolboys.

Browne, Eugene, 1823-1916, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/568
  • Person
  • 31 July 1823-17 December 1916

Born: 31 July 1823, Ballivor, County Meath
Entered: 15 October 1840, Turnoi, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 21 May 1853, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1860
Died: 17 December 1916, Milltown Park, Dublin

by 1851 at Laval France (FRA) studying theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Born to an old Catholic family.

After his Noviceship at St Acheul, he studied Philosophy and Theology at Laval.
He was Ordained 21 May 1853 by Dr Paul Cullen Archbishop of Dublin
1860-1870 He was appointed for a long reign as Rector of Clongowes. (August 1860 to 21 July 1870), having already spent years there as a Teacher and Minister.
1872 He became Minister at Tullabeg.
He was then sent to teach at Belvedere and he suffered from some health issues.
1880 From 1880 he lived at Milltown until his death there.
1883 He was appointed Procurator of the Province, a post he held until within a few years of his death, and he was succeeded by Thomas Wheeler.
1884-1889 He was Rector of Milltown.
He was also Socius to the Provincial for some years, and acted as Vice-Provincial when the then Provincial John Conmee went as Visitor to Australia.
The last years of his life were spent as a Hospital Chaplain at the Hospital for the Incurables.
He died at Milltown 17 December 1916, aged 93.
He was often referred to as the “Patriarch of the Province”. he was a remarkably pious man, and daily Mass was everything for him.
Father Browne is “Father Kincaird” of “Schoolboys Three” (by William Patrick Kelly, published 1895 and set in Clongowes).

Note from Joseph O’Malley Entry :
He made his Noviceship in France with William Kelly, and then remained there for studies with Eugene Browne and Edmund Hogan

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Eugene Browne 1823-1916
Fr Eugene Browne had the distinction of being Rector of Clongowes for 10 years, from 1860-1870. Born in Ballivor County Meath, he entered the Society in 1840, and he made his noviceship and sacred studies at Laval in France.

He became Procurator of the Province and Rector of Milltown from 1884-1889. He afterwards acted as Socius to the Provincial, as as Vice Provincial during the absence of Fr Conmee in Australia. He had a useful life of administration which had the hallmark of success in his popularity with all members of the Province.

During the last years of his life, he was very faithful in his attendance on the sick in the Incurables.

He died on December 17th 1916.

Finlay, Peter, 1851-1929, Jesuit priest and theologian

  • IE IJA J/8
  • Person
  • 15 February 1851-21 October 1929

Born: 15 February 1851, Bessbrook, County Cavan
Entered 02 March 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1881, Tortosa, Spain
Final Vows: 02 February 1886, St Beuno’s, Wales
Died: 21 October 1929, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park community at time of death.

Younger brother of Tom Finlay - RIP 1940

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Maria Laach College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1879 at Poyanne France (CAST) Studying
by 1880 at Dertusanum College, Tortosa, Spain (ARA) studying
by 1886 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying
by 1888 at Woodstock MD, USA (MAR) Lecturing Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at St Patrick’s Cavan. Admitted aged 15 by Edmund J O’Reilly, Provincial and his brother Thomas A Finlay was a fellow novice.

1868 He was sent to St Acheul (Amiens) for a year of Rhetoric, and then to Stonyhurst for two years Philosophy, and then to Maria Laach for one more year.
1872 He was sent for Regency teaching Latin and French at Crescent for two years, and the four at Clongowes teaching Greek, Latin, French, German, Mathematics and Physics.
1878 He was sent to Poyanne in France with the the CAST Jesuits, expelled from Spain, and then three years at Tortosa, Spain where he was Ordained 1881. He also completed a Grand Act at the end of his time in Tortosa which attracted significant attention about his potential future as a Theologian.
1882 He returned to Ireland and Milltown where he lectured in Logic and Metaphysics for three years.
1885 He was sent to St Beuno’s as professor of Theology and made his Final Vows there 02 February 1886.
1887 He was sent to Woodstock (MARNEB) to help develop this Theologate with others from Europe - including Aloisi Masella, later Cardinal.
1889 Milltown opened a Theologate, and he was recalled as Professor of Scholastic Theology, and held that post for 40 years. During that time he hardly ever missed a lecture, and his reputation as an educator was unparalleled, shown in the quality of his lecturing, where the most complex was made clear. During this time he also took up a Chair of Catholic Theology at UCD from 1912-1923. In addition, he was a regular Preacher and Director of retreats, and spent many hours hearing Confessions of the poor.

He was highly thought of in HIB, attending two General Congregations and a number of times as Procurator to consult with the General.
His two major publications were : The Church of Christ, its Foundation and Constitution” (1915) and “Divine Faith” (1917).
He died at St Vincent’s Hospital 21 October 1929. His funeral took place at Gardiner St where the Archbishop Edward Byrne presided.

“The Catholic Bulletin” November 1929
“The death of Father Peter Finlay......closed a teaching career in the great science of Theology which was of most exceptional duration and of superb quality, sustained to the very close of a long and fruitful life. ..news of his death came as a shock and great surprise to many who knew him all over Ireland and beyond. ...in the course of his Theological studies at Barcelona he drew from the great tradition of Suarez and De Lugo. ....Behind that easy utterance was a mind brilliant yet accurate, penetrating, alert, subtle, acute in its power of analysis and discrimination, caustic at times, yet markedly observant of all the punctilious courtesies of academic disputation. ...The exquisite keenness of his mind was best appreciated by a trained professional audience .... and with his pen even more effective in English than Latin. Those who recall “Lyceum’ with its customary anonymity failed to conceal the distinctive notes of Peter Finlay’s style, different from, yet having many affinities with the more leisurely and versatile writing of his brother Thomas. The same qualities...
were evident in the ‘New Ireland Review”, from 1894-1910. Nor were the subjects ... narrowly limited ... he examined the foundations and limitations of the right of property in land, as viewed by English Law and Landlords in Ireland. On the secure basis of the great Spanish masters of Moral Philosophy, he did much to make secure the practical policies and enforce the views of Archbishops Thomas Croke and William Walsh.
He had a close relationship with the heads of the publishing house of ‘The Catholic Bulletin’. That said, this relationship was far outspanned by his marvellous service in the giving of Retreats to Priests and Religious and Men, added to by his work in the ministry of Reconciliation among the rich and poor alike, the afflicted and those often forgotten.”

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.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online
Finlay, Thomas Aloysius
by Thomas J. Morrissey

Finlay, Thomas Aloysius (1848–1940) and Peter (1851–1929), Jesuit priests, scholars, and teachers, were born at Lanesborough, Co. Roscommon, sons of William Finlay, engineer, and Maria Finlay (née Magan), who had four other children: three daughters, all of whom became religious sisters, and a son William, who became secretary of Cavan county council. Tom and Peter were educated at St Augustine's diocesan college, Cavan (predecessor to St Patrick's College), and in 1866 both entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Milltown Park, Dublin. Subsequently, they were sent for studies to St Acheul, near Amiens, after which they moved in somewhat different directions.

From St Acheul Peter Finlay went to Stonyhurst College, England, for two years philosophy, and spent a further year in philosophic studies at the Jesuit college of Maria Laach in Germany. Returning to Ireland (1872), he taught for two years at Crescent College, Limerick, and for four years at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. His theological studies were conducted with distinction at Poyanne in France and Tortosa in Spain. Recalled home, he lectured in philosophy at the Jesuit seminary college, Milltown Park, and at UCD for three years; and then in theology at St Beuno's, Wales, for three years. The next six years were spent at Woodstock College, USA, where he professed theology. When in 1889 a theologate was established at Milltown Park, Peter was summoned home. He professed theology there from then till his death. His lectures, said to have been models of clarity, were presented in fluent and exact Latin, the medium of the time for such lectures. He also lectured (1912–22) in catholic theology at UCD. In constant demand for retreats and lectures, and with a heavy weight of correspondence, he was also rector (1905–10) of Milltown Park, and was three times elected to represent the Irish province at general congregations in Rome. Peter Finlay did not have his brother's range of interests nor his literary productivity, but his published writing on theological and apologetic themes were widely read. These included The church of Christ: its foundation and constitution (1915), Divine faith (1917), and smaller works reflecting the issues of the day, such as The decree ‘Ne temere’; Catholics in civil life, The catholic religion, The catholic church and the civil state, The authority of bishops, Was Christ God?, The one true church: which is it?, and Is one religion as good as another?. He was an unassuming man, dedicated to a life of poverty, obedience, and obligation – never, it was said, missing a lecture for thirty-nine of his forty-four years as lecturer. He died of cancer of the kidneys on 21 October 1929, having lectured till 2 October, the day before going to hospital for the final time.

The brothers were among the most influential academics in Ireland in the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. Thomas was described by W. E. H. Lecky (qv) as probably the most universally respected man in Ireland. Peter, who professed theology in Britain, America, and Ireland for 44 years, was widely consulted on most aspects of theology and highly regarded for his gifts of exposition.

Provincial consultors' minute book, 20 Feb. 1890 (Irish Jesuit archives, Dublin); Irish Jesuit Province News, Dec. 1929 (private circulation); ‘Sir Horace Plunkett on Professor Finlay's career as social reformer’, Fathers of the Society of Jesus, A page of Irish history: story of University College, Dublin, 1883–1909 (1930), 246–57; W. Magennis, ‘A disciple's sketch of Fr T. Finlay’, Belvederian, ix (summer 1931), 19; obit., Anglo-Celt, 13 Jan. 1940; George O'Brien, ‘Father Thomas A. Finlay, S.J., 1848–1940’, Studies, xxix (1940), 27–40; Aubrey Gwynn, obit., Irish Province News, Oct. 1940 (private circulation); R. J. Hayes (ed.), Sources for the history of Irish civilization: articles in Irish periodicals (1970), ii, 310–12; Thomas Morrissey, Towards a national university: William Delany, S.J. (1835–1924) (1983); Trevor West, Horace Plunkett: co-operation and politics (1986)

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 1st Year No 3 1926

On March 2nd, Fr Peter Finlay celebrated his Diamond Jubilee. After a brilliant Grand Act at Tortosa, Fr. Peter was working at Hebrew and Arabic, with a view to further study at Beyrouth, when a telegram summoned him back to Ireland to be Prefect of Studies at Tullabeg. From Tullabeg he passed to Milltown to Professor of Philosophy, thence to St. Beuno's where he professed theology, but Fr General sent him to Woodstock instead. From Woodstock he was transferred to Milltown in 1889; he took possession of the Chair of Theology and held it ever since. Fr, Finlay has spent 42 years professing theology, and during all that time never once missed a lecture till he fell ill in March, 1924.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 1 1929

Obituary :

Fr Peter Finlay

Fr. Peter Finlay died at St. Vincent's hospital, Dublin on October 21st of cancer of the kidneys. Some twelve months previously, he felt the first symptoms of the attack. But so far was he from giving in, that he continued his lectures during the entire scholastic year that followed. This year he gave his last lecture on October 2nd, went to hospital on October 3rd, and died on October the 21st. His loss will be keenly felt far beyond the limits of the Society, for his opinion on all questions of theology was eagerly sought for and highly valued here at home in Ireland, and in many another country outside it, into which his wide learning and wonderful power of exposition had penetrated.

Fr. Peter was born in Co. Cavan, on the 15th February 1851, and educated at St. Patrick's College, Cavan. He had just turned his 15th year when on March 2nd 1866, he began his novitiate at Milltown Park. He made his juniorate at St. Acheul, France, two years philosophy at Stonyhurst, a third at Maria Laach in Germany, and returned to Ireland in 1872, Two years were passed at the Crescent and four in Clongowes as master. Theology was commenced at Poyanne in France, where the Castilian Jesuits, driven from Spain, had opened a theologate. The remaining three years of theology saw him at Tortosa in Spain, and the course was concluded by a very brilliant Grand Act.
Fr. Peter was working away at Hebrew and Arabic, with a view to further study when a telegram recalled him to Ireland. Milltown Park had him for three years as Professor of philosophy, and St. Beuno's for two as Professor of theology. It was said that at the end of these two years he was under orders to start for Australia, but Fr. General sent him to America instead to profess theology at Woodstock.
In 1889,the theologate was established at Milltown Park, and of course Fr. Peter was summoned home to take the “Morning” Chair. That chair he held with the very highest distinction, and without interruption, until less than a month before his death. In all, Fr Finlay was 44 years professing theology, and it is said that he never missed a lecture until he fell ill in the year 1924. And often, these lectures were given at a time when suffering from a bad throat.
Milltown Park had him for Rector from 1905 to 1910, and he was Lecturer of Catholic Theology in the National University Dublin, from 1912 to1922.
Fr. Peter was three times elected to represent the Irish Province at General Congregations, and on three other occasions at Procuratorial Gongregations at Rome.
His published works are : “The Church of Christ, its Foundation and Constitution”, 1915; “Divine Faith” 1917. In addition, he has left us several smaller publications, such as : “The Decree Ne Ternere”; “Catholics in Civil Life”; “The Catholic Religion”; The Catholic Church and the Civil State”; “ The Authority of Bishops”; “Was Christ God”; “The One Church, which is it”.
Fr. John McErlean, who had the privilege of having him as Professor for four years, writes as follows : “Merely to listen to his lectures was an education, for he was gifted with a wonderful power of exposition before which difficulties dissolved, and his hearers became almost unconscious of the subtlety of the argument. A past master of the Latin tongue, he poured forth without an instant's hesitation, a stream of limpid language in which the most critical classicist failed to detect the slightest grammatical inaccuracy in the most involved sentences”.
In addition to his duties as professor, he was frequently employed as Preacher, Director of the Spiritual Exercises etc. His correspondence alone must have been a heavy tax on his time, for his advice was much sought after by all classes of society. All these manifold duties did not prevent him from spending many hours every week hearing the confessions of the poor in Milltown village.
Fr. Finlay's piety was not of the demonstrative order, but was very genuine. He was a model of regularity. Day after day he said one of the very earliest Masses in the Community. He was most careful to ask permission for the smallest exemption. In the matter of poverty, he was exact to a degree that would astonish a fervent novice. He never parted with a trifle nor accepted one without leave. Devotion to duty, to the work in hand, accompanied him through life. His brother, Fr. Tom, gave his usual lecture in the University on the very morning that Peter died, and another lecture on the day of the Office and funeral. When some one mildly expostulated with him, his answer was : “I have done what I knew would please Peter, and what I am sure he would have done himself under like circumstances”.
Peter is now, please God, reaping the rich fruits of his 63 years loyal and devoted services to the Society.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 2 1930

Obituary : Fr Peter Finlay
We owe the following appreciation to the kindness of Fr, P. Gannon
“No man is indispensable, but some create by their departure a void that is very sensible and peculiarly hard to fill. To say that Fr. Peter Finlay was one of these is certainly not an exaggeration. Milltown Park without him causes a difficulty for the imagination. He was so large a part of its life since its foundation as a scholasticate, its most brilliant professor and most characteristic figure. Others came and went, but he remained, an abiding landmark in a changing scene. Justice demands that some effort be made to perpetuate the memory of a really great career, which, for many reasons, might escape due recognition. In this notice little more can be attempted than an outline sketch of his long and fruitful activities.
Fr. Finlay was born near the town of Cavan on Feb, 15, 1851, of a Scotch father, and an Irish mother. He was one of seven children of whom three girls became Sacred Heart Nuns, and two boys Jesuits.
The boys of the family attended St. Patrick's College, the seminary to Kilmore. Diocese, - then situated in the town. In 1866 Peter, now barely fifteen years of age, entered the Noviceship, Miiltown. Park, where his elder brother Torn soon joined him, and thus began a brotherly association in religion that was to be beautifully intimate and uninterrupted for over sixty years - par nobile fractum.
In 1868 he went to S. Acheul for his Juniorate. In 1869-70 he did his first two years Philosophy at Stonyhurst, and his third at Maria Laach (Germany) in company with his brother (1871-2). On his return he commenced his teaching in the Crescent (1872-74), passing to Clongowes in 1874, where he remained till 1878. The versatility of the young scholastic may be gauged from the fact that he is catalogued as teaching Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Latin, Greek, French and German.
In 1878 he was sent to Poyanne, France, where the exiled Castilan Province had opened up a house of studies. Here he commenced his study of Theology (1879-9). This was continued in Tortosa, Spain, (1879-82), and crowned by a Grand Act which became historic even in that land of theology, and marked him out at once for the professor's chair.From 1882 till 1885 we find him in Milltown Park teaching Philosophy and acting as Prefect of Studies. From 1885-1887 in St. Beuno's, Wales, teaching Theology (Short Course), In 1887 he was invited to Woodstock USA. where he lectured on Theology for two years with Padre Mazella, the future cardinal, as a colleague. In 1889 he finally cast anchor in Milltown Park, as professor of “Morning” Dogma. and this position he held till within a few weeks of his death in 1929 - over forty years. He was also Prefect of Studies from 1892 till 1903, and Rector from 1905 (Aug.) till 1910. In 1912 he was requested by the Bishops of Ireland to undertake the Lectureship in Dogmatic Theology which they were founding in the National University of Ireland. This he retained till 1922 when he insisted on resigning. The weekly lectures he delivered during Term time were published in full in “The Irish Catholic” and made his teaching accessible to wide circles. They formed the basis of his two published works “The Church of Christ” and “Divine Faith”. Earlier in his career he had written some articles for The Lyceum, under his brother's editorship, which caused no small stir and led to certain difficulties. It would almost appear as if this disagreeable experience had frozen a promising fountain at its source. For a long time it ceased to play. The invitations of The Catholic Truth Society and the pressure of friends to reprint his University lectures were needed to win him back to authorship, For the C.T. S. he wrote several very valuable pamphlets such as “Was Christ God”, The “Ne Temere Decree” etc. Occasionally also he penned public utterances of great weight and influence as, for example, his letter to the Press vindicating the Bishop's action in regard to Conscription (1918 and his article in Studies on Divorce when that topic occupied the attention of the Dáil (1924-25).
To finish with his literary activities a word of criticism may not be out of place, And the first thing that occurs to the mind is a sense of regret that he did not write more, he, who was from every point of view so well equipped for the task. What he has left us is very precious. All he wrote was solid, practical and beautifully clear. He had in a high degree the gift of exposition and could render the abstrusest questions of theology intelligible to any educated reader. He passed from the technicalities of the Schools to the language of the forum with instant success. Only those who have attempted something similar will be in a position to appreciate the skill with which he could combine thoroughness, accuracy and lucidity. His style was very correct. Indeed he was a good deal of a purist. He abhorred slovenliness, slang, journalese and Americanese. His prose is consequently classical clear, flexible, fitting his thought like a well-made garment, but perhaps a trifle cold, lacking colour and emotional appeal.
The occupations hitherto outlined might seem enough to fill his days and hours, But Fr. Finlay managed to add many other zealous endeavours. He was one of the founders of the Catholic Truth Society and remained to the end an energetic member of its committee. He played a large part in the creation of The Catholic Reserve Society, which has done such good work in the fight against Protestant proselytism in its meanest form.
During his Rectorship and under his auspices Week-End retreats for Laymen Were inaugurated in Milltown Park. And it would be difficult to estimate all the good these have done in the intervening years, He was a lover of books, and all through a busy life found time to keep an eye on booksellers' catalogues for rare and useful volumes, especially in Theology,
Philosophy, Church History and Patristics. More than anyone else he is responsible for the excellent library which Milltown possesses.
It was he who built what is sometimes known as “the Theologians' wing” and sometimes as “Fr. Peter's building” with its fine refectory characterised by beauty of design without luxury or extravagance. Finally he did much for the grounds and garden, planting ornamental and fruit-bearing trees. And unlike Cicero's husbandman he lived long enough to enjoy the fruit and beauty of the trees he planted.
In his relations to the outer world Fr. Peter never became as prominent a public or national figure as Fr.Tom. But he was well known in ecclesiastical circles, where his advice on theological questions was often sought. Through diocesan retreats and in many other ways he came into contact with most of the Irish bishops of his time, and he was on very intimate
terms with Cardinal Logue. He was regularly invited to examinations for the doctorate in Maynooth, when his mastery of theology and dialectical skill were conspicuous.
He counted many of the leading Catholic laymen of Ireland among his friends, such as Lord O'Hagan and Chief Baron Palles, to name only the dead. His inner, personal knowledge of Catholic life in Rome, Spain and England was also considerable , and in private conversation he could give interesting sidelights on much of the written and unwritten history of the Church in his generation.
As a confessor and director of souls he enjoyed a wide popularity. His prudence, wisdom and solid virtue fitted him peculiarly for the ministry, and his labours in it were fruitful Since his death the present writer heard quite spontaneous testimony from two nuns in widely different places as to the debt they owed him. They went the length of saying that they attributed their vocation and even their hopes of salvation Under God to his wise and firm guidance in their youth. He possessed a rare knowledge of human nature and he spared no pains in helping all who came to him. His fidelity to the Saturday-night confessions in Milltown parish chapel to the very end, in spite of obviously failing health, was truly edifying. And spiritual direction involved him in a wide correspondence that must have made big inroads on his time. In general Fr.Finlay was prodigal of time and trouble in helping others, whether by way of advice, theological enlightenment, or criticism of literary work. This seemed to spring from that strain of asceticism in him which was noticeable in his whole life - in his regularity, punctuality and devotion to duty. There was some thing of the northern iron in his composition or, as some might style it, Scotch dourness. He could be steely at times in manner, but most of all he was steely with himself. This was seen very clearly in the closing years of life when he really kept going by a volitional energy and a self-conquest which, though entirely unostentatious, was yet unmistakable to close observers, and revealed to them as never before the fundamental piety of his character - a piety made manifest in his death .
It was, however, as a professor that he won his high reputation and gave the true measure of his greatness.Only those who had the privilege of knowing him in this capacity were in a position to appreciate his real eminence. He seemed the incarnation of what Kant calls a the “pure intelligence”. He united qualities rarely combined, subtlety, profundity, clarity. He had something of the nimbleness of a Scotus without his obscurity. And that perhaps explained his marked leaning to Scotistic views on disputed questions, and his liking for Ripalda. His mind seemed attuned to theirs, though he was too independent to be addictus iurare in verba magistri. When we add to these characteristics a conscientious care in preparation, an admirable method, and a power of expressing himself in a Latin which Cicero could hardly have disowned (allowance being made for the necessary technicalities of the schools), it will be seen that his. equipment for his life's task was very complete. At his best he was a model of scientific exposition. Theology is a vast and difficult science. How would it be otherwise in view of what it treats? And to expound it adequately demands a combination and gifts granted to few. Fr. Finlay's pupils were nearly unanimous in the belief that hardly anyone of his generation possessed this combination in a higher measure or more balanced proportions than he. The only exception that could be taken to his lecturing was perhaps that it was more analytical and critical, or even destructive, than constructive. But these very features of it gave one the assurance that a conclusion which had stood the test of his scrutiny was sound indeed. Moreover he was genuinely tolerant of dissent from his views. Though a professor of dogma he was the least dogmatic of men and even strove rather to elicit your own thinking than to impose his on you. He revelled in the thrust and parry of debate and respected a good fighter. This could be seen best during the repetitions at the end of the year, and in the examinations, where he sought to test the pupil's understanding and grasp of principles rather than mere memory of councils or scripture texts. His objections were clear, crisp, to the point and faultless in form. There was no side-stepping them, no escape into irrelevancies, no chance of eluding him by learned adverbs or ambiguous phrases. Patiently, with perfect urbanity, but with deadly insistence he brought the candidate back to the point and held him there till be solved the difficulty or confessed that he could not do sol which was often enough a saving admission. Yet on the other hand no examiner was really fairer. For he seemed to see one's thoughts before they were uttered, and could penetrate through the worst Latin periphrases to what one was really trying to say. Hence no one was ever confused by misunderstanding him or lost by being misunderstood.
Neither did he keep urging a difficulty when it was solved. The answer once given he passed, easily and lightly, to something else.
Again, in Provincial congregations, of which he was the inevitable secretary, his conduct of business was a sheer delight. His writing of minutes, his resumés of previous discussions were masterly. Many a speaker was surprised, and perhaps a little abashed, to hear all he had laboured, in broken Latin and through many minutes, to express, reproduced integrally, in a few short sentences, which gave the substance of his remarks without an unnecessary word. As this was done almost entirely from memory, with the help of a few brief jottings, it compelled a wondering admiration. His election to represent the Province in Rome was nearly automatic. He attended every Congregation, general or procuratorial, which was summoned since the election of Fr. Martin, After the last general congregation he was specially thanked by our present Paternity for his signal services as head of the Commission in the Reform of Studies. These services taxed his strength severely and on his return the first clear signs of serious infirmity made them selves manifest. If even then he had taken due precautions, his essentially robust constitution might have enabled him to live for many years. But he would not take precautions and no one dared suggest any remission of work. He obviously wished to die in harness. And he did. His last lecture, as brilliant as those of his prime, was delivered within three weeks of his death, which took place on Monday Oct. 21, 1929.
No life escapes criticism, and it would be idle to pretend that Fr. Peter did not come in for his share of it. It would be even flattery to deny that he afforded some ground for it. But, take him all in all, only blind and incurable prejudice can deny that he was a very remarkable man, intellectually and morally, an ornament to the whole Society and a just source of pride of the Irish Province, which is the poorer for his loss and will feel it for many a day. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Peter Finlay 1851-1929
In the death of Fr Peter Finlay at Milltown Park on October 21st 1929, the Province lost its greatest Theologian. His death ended a teaching career in Theology, which was of exceptional duration and superb quality, which made him renowned not only in Ireland, but far beyond.

He was born in County Cavan on February 15th 1851 and was educated at St Patrick’s College Cavan. He was accepted for the Society by Fr Edmund O’Reilly at the early age of 15.

His teaching career began in 1872 at the Crescent, followed by four years at Clongowes, during which his curriculum included Greek, Latin, French, German, Physics and Mathematics. At the end of his theological course at Tortosa Spain, he was chosen for the Grand Act, the public defence of all Philosophy and Theology. His brilliant defence placed him in the front rank of the rising generation of Theologians. He lectured in Philosophy at Milltown, Theology at St Beuno’s and at Woodstock USA.

On the opening of the theologate at Milltown Park he was recalled to fill the chair of Dogmatic Theology, a chair which he held for a full 40 years, even during his Rectorate of Milltown Park from 1905-1910.

When a chair of Catholic Theology was established at the National University, Fr Finlay was appointed and continued to held it from 1912-1923.

He was an able administrator and builder. The old Refectory at Milltown, which later burnt, was built by him. He often represented the Province in Rome. He was an able controversialist and an incisive writer, as may be seen by the numerous articles of his in the Lyceum and the New Ireland review. His writings, popular and appreciated even today, include “The Church of Christ”, “Divine Faith”, “Catholics in Civic Life”, “The Authority of Bishops”, “Was Christ God?” and “The one Church, which is it?”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Peter Finlay (1851-1929)

A native of Co. Cavan and educated at St Patrick's College, Cavan, entered the Society in 1866. He did all his studies abroad, in France, Germany and Spain. His future work in the Irish Province was in the chair of dogmatic theology at Milltown Park, where he was engaged for the next forty years. Father Finlay was one of the most brilliant theologians of his time. He spent two years of his regency at Crescent College along with his brother, Thomas Finlay (q.v. infra).

Fortescue, William. 1814-1888, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/749
  • Person
  • 26 June 1814-23 February 1888

Born: 26 June 1814, Killyman, County Tyrone (Armagh)
Entered: 24 April 1850, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 23 February 1888, Mater Hospital, Dublin

Part of the St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

by 1866 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows he was for a short time at Clongowes.
1853-1884 He was sent as Operarius and Missioner to Gardiner Street. As a Missionary he preached in all parts of Ireland with Robert Haly and others.
1884-1888 He was sent to Galway and then to Limerick
1888 He was moved to the Mater Hospital Dublin where he died 23 February 1888, and of the Gardiner Street Community.
He was a powerful Missionary, and very strong on Hell!

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Fortescue (1814-1888)

A native of Co. Louth, was admitted in France as a secular priest into the Society in 1853. He was many years in Gardiner St Church or engaged in missions throughout the country. He came to the Crescent in 1885 but died in Dublin on 23 February, 1888, after an operation.

Power, William, 1848-1931, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/755
  • Person
  • 03 January 1848-04 June 1931

Born: 03 January 1848, Ardee, County Louth
Entered: 07 September 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1881
Final Vows: 02 February 1889, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 04 June 1931, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1868 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1869 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1870 at Antwerp, Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1873 at Laval, France (FRA) studying
by 1879 at Laval, France (FRA) studying
by 1881 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
Came to Australia 1888
by 1916 at St Luigi, Birkirkara, Malta (SIC) teaching

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William Power began his long life in the Society at Milltown Park in 1865. Soon after tertianship, in 1890, he left Ireland for Australia, teaching at St Aloysius' College, 1891-92, followed by St Patrick's College in 1893, Riverview in 1894 and later that year he was moved to Xavier. He spent much of his later life writing at Tullabeg.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 4 1931
Obituary :
Fr William Power

Fr. Wm. Power ended his long life of 83 years at Tullabeg on 4 June 1931

He was born on January 3rd 1848, educated at Tullabeg, and, in his 17th year, entered the novitiate at Milltown. After the novitiate he was sent to St. Acheul in France for his juniorate. In those days this seems to have been the ordinary course for our young Irish Jesuits. At the end of the 1st year juniorate he went to Louvain for philosophy, but when the first year came to an end he travelled to Antwerp where he taught for one year. This was succeeded by five years of teaching and prefecting at Clongowes. In 1875 he went to Laval where he finished his philosophy, then another year teaching in Tullabeg, and when it over he returned to Laval for theology. In 1880 he shared the expulsion and exile of his brother Jesuits and finished his theology at Jersey.
Four more years teaching in Irish Colleges elapsed before his tertianship at Tronchiennes, followed by two years teaching in Ireland, and in 1893 he set sail for Australia. He did work in several Australian Colleges until 1895 when we find him once more in Tullabeg. Next four more years in Clongowes, and then Tullabeg. He remained there until 1915 when he travelled as far as Malta, where he taught tor two years. When they were over he went back to Tullabeg and did not leave it until his happy death in 1931. During the last five years of his life he was in very poor health.
Fr. Power was in fair health until 30 May. On that day he felt unwell and remained in bed. On 1 June he received Holy Communion in the early morning, and seemed to be fairly well. About 10 o’clock however, there was a a sudden change tor the worse and he was anointed. The end came four days later, Death was due to cerebral haemorrhage, Members of the Community watched continually by his bedside during the last four days and nights,
From the first days of his theology Fr. Power applied himself earnestly to the study of Holy Scripture. especially the Psalms, and gathered a vast amount of useful and instructive matter on this sacred subject. He was always most willing during his lifetime to help those who applied to him for assistance in solving difficult and obscure passages, but, unfortunately, he has left nothing behind him that would be of use to future students, and at the same time, show the extent of his own careful and wide reaching researches.
During his whole life he was an ardent student of literature, and won for himself in this matter a very high reputation. Some years ago he published a number of his poems in a volume entitled “The Kings Bell”. Since then he wrote a great deal, and it remains for our students to collect the scattered fragments, publish them, and thus perpetuate the memory of a scholar of very correct taste and varied culture.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1931

Obituary

Father William Power SJ

Xaverians of the early nineties may remember Fr William Power. He died this year at Stanislaus College, Tullamore, Ireland, at the age of 73. RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1932

Obituary

Father William Power SJ

On the 4th of June, 1931, Father William Power ended his long life at Tullabeg, which, in his boyhood, had been his Alma Mater, where many years of his teaching life, both before and after his ordination, had been spent, and where, too, were passed his declining years. He was also closely connected with Clongowes, for he spent here, as Prefect and Master, nearly ten years, 1870-75 and 1895-1900. Those who were in his classes, whether in Tullabeg or in Clongowes, will remember how he stimulated the interest of the boys in their work by dividing the class into two rival camps of Romans and Carthaginians, pitting one against the other, and awarding or deducting marks according as lessons were known or missed. How keen was the rivalry between the camps, how eagerly each side watched for a mistake, with its accompanying loss of marks, to be made by the other, and what angry looks and muttered threats greeted him, who by a mistake in gender or declension of conjugation, risked the loss to his side of the much coveted tin of biscuits.

Then, again, who in the neighbourhood of Clongowes in the later years of last century did not know “Father Power's Army” of II Rudiments as it passed through the fields on its forced marches? There is a photo in an early number of “The Clongownian” of that army drawn up in double line with wooden musket, bandolier and forage cap, and, standing beside, the Colonel-Master, tall-hatted and frock-coated. Perhaps some of that army who read these lines and are reminded of those far-off days, will say a prayer for the eternal well-being of their one time Commander.

But Father Power was not merely a successful school-master, he was also a deep student of Sacred Scripture, especially of the Book of Psalms, on which subject he had gathered a vast amount of useful and instructive matter. He was, too, very widely read in literature, and as his volume, “The King's Bell”, shows, could hold his own among the poets. May his kindly soul rest in peace.

Tuite, James, 1831-1891, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/432
  • Person
  • 26 May 1831-30 November 1891

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.

Burke, William, 1826-1869, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/972
  • Person
  • 17 December 1826-26 September 1869

Born: 17 December 1826, Ower, Headford, County Galway
Entered: 25 October 1845, St Acheul, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1859
Died: 26 September 1869, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

by 1857 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) Studying Theology
by 1859 in Laval France (FRA) studying Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Noviceship at Amiens in France in the company of James Dalton and William Seaver.

1851 He was Teacher and Prefect at Tullabeg, and he spent about six years there.
1857 He was then sent to St Beuno’s for Theology. However, Frederick St Theologate was opened and William was one of the first to be sent there. The following year he was sent for studies at Laval.
When he returned from Laval, he was sent to Belvedere. By 1863 he was Minister there, and continued in that role for two years, and then took it up again in 1868. he was known to be very exact in the observance of the rule.
He also gave the Spiritual Exercises with great success, and generally very helpful in Direction.
He died of a fever at Belvedere 26 September 1869.

Butler, William, 1848-1907, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/814
  • Person
  • 04 September 1848-03 February 1907

Born: 04 September 1848, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 November 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1880
Final Vows: 02 February 1888
Died: 03 February 1907, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

by 1868 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1869 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1871 at Spring Hill College AL, USA (LUGD) Teaching
by 1874 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1879 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Educated at Coláiste Iognáid.

After First Vows he studied Philosophy at Laval and Theology at Louvian.
He was then lent to NOR as a scholastic for three years.
When he returned from New Orleans he was sent to Clongowes for some years. He spent some time as a Priest at Tullabeg, and when the College closed there he went for Tertianship to Drongen. He then joined the Missionary Band and was an excellent and very vigorous speaker.
He spent the remaining years of his life at Gardiner St where he died 03 February 1907

Excerpts (paraphrased in part) from An Appreciation by One Who Knew Him (EM SJ)
He was a native of Galway. That he was endowed with natural talents of no mean order is quite true, talents for a somewhat extended range in Mathematical and Philosophical speculation. It is true that during his lifetime he improved and developed these natural gifts by assiduous toil. Truer still that he possessed a rare sensibility for the fine arts, especially for the art of Music. Those who are capable of forming a just judgement bear witness to the elegance and perfection of execution which he reached on more than one instrument, but especially on his favourite instrument, the violin..........he was far from looking on Music as the serious occupation of his life........He looked on it more as a legitimate means of relaxation after a hard day’s work, or still more, as a legitimate means of ministering to the recreation and enjoyment of others.
........After First Vows he went to St Acheul near Amiens for Rhetoric, and then to Louvain for three years Philosophy. He was then sent for Regency to Clongowes, and Spring Hill College Alabama on the New Orleans Mission. He was then sent to Louvain again for Theology, and was Ordained 1880. His Priestly life was spent at Tullabeg, Crescent and Gardiner St until his death there.
....Father Butler’s nature was highly sensitive and refined will, I suppose, may readily be taken for granted by those who understand what are the qualities which combine to make a talent for music approaches to genius. Whatever Father Butler may have appeared to strangers, this writer can amply testify that he was to those who lived with him, and knew him intimately, the simplest, most genial, and the most kind-hearted of men. To the end of his life he was as light-hearted, I had almost said frolicsome, as a boy. Few men could rival the gusto with which he told or listened to a merry tale. Few equalled the heartiness of his laugh.
....But though taking a measured delight in the innocent joys of this life, it was very evident that his serious purpose was often “to muse on joy that will not cease”. Underneath all his outward gaiety there was the abiding consciousness of weighty responsibility.......laboriously taming and bringing to subjection a somewhat naturally hot and impulsive nature. Certainly he did not wear his religion on his sleeve........but....he possessed in no stinted measure a deep faith, informed by a piety at once simple and tender.......

Note from John Naughton Entry :
1896 He finally returned to Gardiner St again, and was President of the BVM Sodality for girls, being succeeded by William Butler and Martin Maher in this role.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Butler (1848-1907)

Born in Galway, educated at St Ignatius College, and received into the Society in 1865, was at the Crescent for two short periods, 1888-1889 and 1901-1902. He was a talented preacher and most of his active religious life was spent as missioner or at work in Gardiner St Church. Father Butler, in his day, was known to many as a musician of outstanding ability. He was a violinist of sensitive technique and his services as leader for orchestral accompaniment to the choir at Sacred Heart Church were frequently availed of.

Byrne, Vincent, 1848-1943, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/5
  • Person
  • 5 May 1848-21 October 1943

Born: 05 May 1848, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 16 March 1880, Munich, Germany
Died: 21 October 1943, Dublin, Milltown Park, Dublin

Brother of Henry Byrne LEFT as Novice 1875 due to ill health resulting in death

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying
by 1871 at Maria Laach College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1878 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
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.
Note from Thomas P Brown Entry :
1877 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology with W (sic) Patrick Keating and Vincent Byrne
Note from Br Philip McCormack Entry :
Father Vincent Byrne said his funeral Mass which was attended by many of the Brothers from the city houses.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 19th Year No 1 1944

Obituary :

Father Vincent Byrne SJ

Fr. Byrne died on 20th October at Milltown Park at the age of 95. He was a brother of the late Mr. George Byrne, of the firm of Messrs. Byrne, Mahony and Co., flour and grain merchants, wbo was for a number of years chairman of the Dublin Port and Docks Board. His nephew, Mr. George Byrne, is a member of the present Port and Docks Board.
Father Byrne was born in Dublin in 1848 and educated at Belvedere College. He entered the Society at Milltown Park in 1866, studied rhetoric at St. Acheul, Amiens, philosophy at Rome and Maria Laach in Germany, and theology at Innsbruck University. He was ordained priest in the private chapel of the Archbishop of Munich on the eve of St. Patrick's Day in 1880, having had to interrupt his theological studies for some time owing to ill-health.
Possessed of literary and artistic talents of no mean order, Father Byrne as a young master in the Colleges of the Irish Province did much to disseminate among his pupils an appreciation of all that was finest in literature and drama, and through the encouragement he received from the late Father William Delany, his Rector at St. Stanislaus College, Tullamore, did notable work, as an interpreter of Shakespeare. Father Byrne will perhaps be best remembered for the success he achieved at Mungret College, Limerick, with which he was long associated, first as Vice-Rector, from 1889 to 1891, and then as Rector, from 1891 to 1900, and whose religious, literary and artistic life received fresh impetus from his forcefui personality.
The present scheme of decoration of the college chapel, with its oak panelling, its marble entablature and its organ, the founding of the College Annual, the embellishment of the college walls with many oil paintings, were all due to his initiative. With his pupils of those days, many of whom distinguished themselves in Church and State - like the present Archbishop of Baltimore, Most Rev. Dr. Curley - the late Archbishop of Adelaide, Most Rev. Dr. Killian, Mr. Frank Fahy, T.D - he remained all his life in the closest and most affectionate relationship. Father Byrne was also Rector of Clongowes Wood College, whose destinies he guided in the old Intermediate days under the late Father James Daly as Prefect of Studies.
An eloquent and graceful speaker, Father Byrne spent three years on the mission staff, and during his long career in the sacred ministry was constantly invited to preach from various pulpits on occasions of special importance. A selection of these discourses he published some ten years ago.
Father Byrne was the oldest surviving alumnus of the Gregorian University. In the stormy days of 1870, as a stretcher-bearer, he was present at the breaching of the Porta Pia, which led to the seizure of Rome and the complete spoilation of the Papal Possessions by Victor Emmanuel.
He was attached to the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Dublin, for over 30 years, where, even to an advanced age, he discharged his priestly duties with persevering fidelity, and preserved his keen interest in all that touched human life. R.I.P.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 38 : September 1985

Portrait from the Past

FR VINCENT BYRNE : 1848-1943

Seán Hughes

  1. Memories:
    As a young lad: of a quiet gentle confessor in Gardiner Street - though he had a disconcerting habit of dozing in the Box, with the additional alarm caused by the peak of his biretta, on the nodding head, descending like a blackbird. At a later time: or the elderly silk-hatted, frock-coated priest with his umbrella, setting out from Gardiner Street. I never, though, saw him in a tram - like some others of his distinguished-looking, silk-hatted community. As a scholastic: particularly at funerals, when he hatted, gazing down into the open grove of soneome junior to hio. Lastly, in Milltown, pathetically helping or being helped up the two steps to the chapel corridor - Fr. Vincent Byrne, in his nineties, and Fr. Nicholas Tomkins, in his eighties, linking one another from the refectory....

  2. The Official Record:
    Fr. Vincent Byrne was born in Dublin, 5th May 1848. He went to school to Belvedere, and entered the Society in Milltown Park on 7th September 1866. He went to St. Acheul, Belgium, for his juniorate, and was sent to Rome, to the Roman College, for phisolophy. After the fall of Rome, 1870, he moved to Germany to Maria Laach for his second year of philosophy. Then came a five-year regency - a year each in Tullabeg (still a college) and Crescent, and three years in Clongowes where he was Third Line Prefect. To Innsbruck then for theology - and he was ordained on St. Patrick's Day, 1880, in the private Chapel of the Archbishop of Munich: his health having broken down during his second year of theology. A leisurely return home, recuperating his health, became a Grand Tour.

As a young priest, before his tertianship, he spent seven years teaching in different colleges - three years in Tullabeg, two in Galway, one each in Clongowes and Crescent. Apparently a good teacher of languages (he has four to offer) and drama. Fr, Byrne was “in demand”...

In 1889, he was posted to Mungret - first as Minister, for two years; then as rector for nine years. For four of these, 90 - 94, he was in addition Moderator of the Apostolic School. Those years were the apex of his career - the man who Made Mungret - the tangible evidence being the embellishment of the College Chapel. But there was more: those years of Mungret's history were marked by its remarkable successes in the University Examinations of the old Royal University of Ireland. Fr. Byrne claimed that of his pupils in the Apostolic School, nine became Bishops, Archbishop Curley of Baltimore, USA, being the most notable. Ichabod!

After Mungret, Fr.Byrne went to Gardiner Street, where he was to spend all but four years of the rest of his long life. The first four years in Gardiner Street were spent as a member of the retreat and mission staff. There followed, 1904 - 07, three years as rector of Clongowes, then a return to Gardiner Street - as an operarius until 1934; as Conf. Dom., until 1942 - when he retired to Milltown, where it all began seventy-six years previously. He died on 20th October 1943. I don't remember his funeral - but being choir-master, I must have been there.

  1. The Legend:
    Arriving in Mungret, thirty-seven years after Fr. Byrne had left it, I found a green memory of great days and deeds of derring-do. To sift out the facts from the folklore would take a gift of discernment of very high order: so let us be content with the legend w some of the tales may well be apocryphal - but what matter? As Chesterton said about the legends of St. Nicholaus - “He was the kind of man about whom that kind of story was told”. So too “the Pie” - as he was nicknamed, because, it is said, he had a somewhat un-Ignatian “affection” for the dish.

I suppose the legend begins in Rome in 1870 - when he saw “service” with the Papal Army making its token stand at the Port Pia against the invading arny of Victor Emmanuel. The service was, no doubt, as a medical orderly - but, no matter; it was a signal beginning. When we were in Milltown, 1942-43, we understood that Fr Byrne was writing his Memoirs - I wonder where that piece of archives is? The stay in Maria Laach coincided with the beginning of Bismark's Kultur Kampf - and the saving of the library from confiscation by the process of pasting in the book-plate of a friendly Baron in each of the books was another tale.

Although Vincent's health did break down in Innsbruck, he must have been a man of extraordinary stamina and strength. He related, himself, how, when Third Line Prefect in C.W.C., he walked to Dublin (and back) to beg £5.00 from the Provincial to buy a small billiard table for his Line. He rode a bicycle - on what we would seem cart-tracks of roads (and not even a three-speed gear on the machine): he swam - whenever he could, until he was literally rescued from the stormy waters of the Forty-foot in his eighties/nineties and forbidden to swim again. And he died, the oldest member (then) of the Province - but was often heard to say: “That man” (the late E. de Valera) “has taken ten years off my life”. Did he die disappointed?

But the Mungret Legends: Fr Byrne's term as rector of Mungret saw stormy days - on two fronts. The then Bishop of Limerick, Dr. Edward Thomas Dwyer, a man of strong, positive views and irascible temperanent, apparently decided that the Jesuit occupation of Mungret was irregular. His predecessor had invited Ours to run the Diocesan Seminary which he had opened at Mungret. Bishop Dwyer withdrew the seminarians - and left us in occupation. He pursued his case in Rome - and lost it. But Fr Byrne had to face up to the tensions of such a situation. One story may indicate how he coped. He met the Bishop at a funeral. Said the Bishop: “Did you get the letter I sent you?”. Replied the Rector: “Your letter arrived but I did not receive it”. It was related that on another occasion, the Rector was cycling down the Mungret avenue. The Bishop in his coach was driving up to the College. Noticing his visitor, Fr. Byrne continued on his way. The Rector was not at home when the Bishop arrived. The failure of the Bishop's case in Rome did nothing to improve relations.

There was a further assault on his beloved College from quite another quarter. This arose from the complex history of the Mungret establishment. In the 50's the British government decided to do something for the agricultural community. It set up two (I think) agricultural colleges - one of them on land taken from (”ceded by”) the Church of Ireland diocese of Limerick, namely, the Mungret property. The college had a short and unsuccessful life. In or about 1870, the Catholic Bishop of Limerick secured a lease of and premises of the agricultural college, for the purposes of having his diocesan Seminary established there. There was, I believe, some kind of commitment to maintain instruction in agriculture in the new enterprise.

As already related, we remained in occupation of the former agricultural college - now Mungret College and the Mungret Apostolic School. The Protestant Dean of Limerick now challenged our right to be there: the land had been ceded for a specific purpose - which was not being carried out: the agricultural instruction had become a mere token. So, nothing less than a Royal Commission was set up to determine the matter. With the good help of Lord Emly a friend and neighbour, the Commission found a solution - and the Technical School in O'Connell Avenue, Limerick was the British Government's restitution to the people of Limerick.

But more intimate and family adventures: Community relations between Crescent and Mungret were normally very amicable. Whenever one Community was rejoicing, the other was invited to join in the celebration. Indeed it is related that the citizens of Limerick (who always knew, somehow or other, what was going on in either community!) used assemble at Ballinacurra Pike to enjoy the spectacle of the Mungret Long Car bringing one or other community home - rejoicing. Well, on one occasion the Minister of Crescent forgot to invite the Mungret Community to the party. Result: a breach in diplomatic relations - which went unhealed until the said Minister came out to Mungret and read an apology to the Mungret Community - Rector and all present in the Library. (A Community Meeting of a different kind). I mentioned the Long Car which transported the Community of Mungret: all, Rector down, had apparently bicycles: but there was some kind of coach too - for the Rector would be driven to Limerick (or Tervoe, Emly's place). Any respectable coachman would wear a tall-hat: but the Mungret coachman had no such thing. So a tin, black japaned headgear was provided for occasions when the Rector went driving. All was well - until in a bad hail storn descended. The hailstones on the tin hat made such a racket that the horse bolted... History doesn't recount the sequel.

There were tales of cycling expeditions. “Be booted and spurred at such a time” was the Rector's goodnight summons to his men. And off they would go - on their gearless, fixed-wheel bicycles, on the Limerick roads - trying to keep up with the Rector - and trying not to outstrip him when going downhill - a lesson that had to be learnt the hard way! The quality of the lunch depended on the Rector (a) not being overtaken coming down hill and (b) arriving first at their destination. Not all the picnics were cycle runs: there is a tale of an expedition to Killarney (cycling to Limerick Station, of course) with a return in the company of one of the Circuit Court Judges (Adams was his name, I think) who spoke highly of the gaiety of the journey - the bottle had the colour of lemonade (and maybe the label!). One of the party assured me that he found himself in bed the following morning with no recollection of getting there - nor any idea of how he cycled out from Limerick on a bicycle with a buckled front wheel.

There were tales, too, of adventures on villas - the Rector's requirement of his swim before lunch often the nub of the tale - as, for instance, once the party went to the Scelligs (by row boat, of course). Lunch was to be on the rock: but the Rector had to have his swim. The brethren sought to persuade him otherwise - no doubt, it was a hungry and thirsty journey. So they alleged that the waters were shark-infested. Nothing daunted, Fr Byrne had his oarsmen beat the waters - to scare off any intruding shark, while he had his daily plunge...

At home, of course, life was apparently of the “semper aliquid novi” ex Mungret type. Once, the orchard was raided - and the very angry Rector threatened the assembled boys with cancellation of the next free day - unless the culprit owned up. There was silence - and then, Pat Connolly one of the Rector's favourite pupils stood up and confessed. By no means nonplussed, the Rector's anger melted away and in volte face, he cried out: “May God forgive the boy who led this poor child into error. The poor child entered the Society and in the course became the devoted editor of “Studies” for many a long year. It is said that an application from Bruree for a boy with the unusual name of Valera did not meet with the Rector's sympathy - and went to WPB unacknowledged: so the boy went to Rockwell - and, maybe, history was made... With all, the Rector was a forceful personality where the religious, literary and artistic life of the College was concerned. He took his share of teaching and was Proc. Dom. in addition.

His triennium at Clongowes left no such harvest of Folklore. There, he had an outstanding Minister (Fr. Wrafter) and a dymanic Prefect of Studies (Fr. James Daly, in his prime): so Fr Byrne let then run the School while he went to Dublin regularly - coming back every few days to collect his post. It is related that the return was often by the “Opera Train” - the last train from Kingsbridge bringing county theatre goers home - and then by coach from Sallins - the coachman, no doubt, properly attired...

To the end of his active days, he attended both the Spring Show and the Horse Show on each of the four days. Every International Rugby Match and/or Cup Final saw him ensconced on the East Stand at Lansdowne Road, The umbrella element of his tenue on these social occasions, was wielded with vigour on those enthusiasts who stood up at thrilling moves on the pitch and blocked his reverence's view. He was a keen bridge player and commanded his friends to provide “a good four”. However, he developed a habit of pausing during play to recite his favourite poetry - with feeling. The provision of “a good four” became increasingly difficult.

But despite all these eccentricities, Fr, Byrne was one of the devoted and faithful members of the Church staff at Gardiner Street. In a time when the Province rejoiced in having a number of eloquent and sought after preachers - Fr. Robert Kane, Fr. Tom Murphy, Fr. Michael Phelan - Fr Vincent Byrne was 'an eloquent and graceful speaker. A panegyric of St. Aloysius is noted in the Clongownian obituary as outstanding. Some ten years before his death he published a volume of his sermons - and the edition was sold out, which, in 1933 must say something about them.

We shall not see his like again.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1944

Obituary

Father Vincent Byrne SJ

Father Byrne was born in Dublin in 1848 and educated at Belvedere. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1866, studied. rhetoric at St Acheul, Amiens, philosophy at Rome and Maria Laach in Germany, and theology at Innsbruck University. He was ordained priest in the private chapel of the Archbishop of Munich on the eve of St. Patrick's Day in 1880, having had to interrupt his theological studies for some time owing to ill-health.

Possessed of literary and artistic talents of no mean order, Father Byrne as a young master in the Colleges of the Irish Province did much to disseminate among his pupils an appreciation of all that was finest in literature and drama; and through the encouragement he received from the late Father William Delany, his Rector at St Stanislaus College Tullamore, did notable work as an interpreter of Shakespeare. Father Byrne will perhaps be best remembered for the success he achieved at Mungret College, Limerick, with which he was long associated, first as Vice-Rector, from 1889 to 1891, and then as Rector from 1891 to 1900, and whose religious, literary and artistic life received fresh impetus from his forceful personality.

The present scheme of decoration of the chapel at Mungret with its oak panelling, its marble entablature and its organ, the founding of the College Annual, the embellishment of the college walls with many oil paintings, all were due to his initiative. With his pupils of those days, many of whom distinguished themselves in Church and State, like the present Archbishop of Baltimore, Most Rev Dr Curley; the late Archbishop of Adelaide, Most Rev Dr Killian ; Mr. Frank Fahy, TD, he remained all his life in the closest and most affectionate relationship. Father Byrne was also Rector of Clongowes Wood College, whose destinies he guided in the old Intermediate days under the late Father James Daly as Prefect of Studies.

An eloquent and graceful speaker, Father Byrne spent three years on the mission staff, and during his long career in the sacred ministry was constantly invited to preach from various pulpits on occasions of special importance. A selection of these discourses he published some ten years ago.

Father Byrne was the oldest surviving' alumnus of the Gregorian University. In the stormy days of 1870, as a stretcher-bearer, he was present at the breaching of the Porta Pia, which led to the seizure of Rome and the spoliation of the Papal Possessions by Victor Emmanuel.

He was attached to the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Dublin, for over 30 years, where, even to an advanced age, he discharged his priestly duties with persevering fidelity, and preserved his keen interest in all that touched human life. RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1944

Obituary

Father Vincent Byrne SJ

Rector (1904-1907)

Although Fr Vincent Byrne was for over seventy years a member of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, his connection with Clongowes was very short, being practically confined to the three years of his Rectorate. He had indeed been Third Line Prefect and had taught here for a short time, but it was so long ago that it is almost beyond the memory of even the oldest Clongownian. He was, however, known to many of more recent years who remember his eloquent occasional sermons, particularly his panegyric of St Aloysius, which is included in the volume of his published sermons which was published a few years ago and was so well received by the public. His venerable figure was well known to those who live in Dublin where he will be greatly missed by his numerous friends.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1944

Obituary

Father Vincent Byrne SJ

Father Vincent Byrne, veteran of the Irish Province and “clarum et venerabile nomen” to Mungret men of his day here, passed away last October, To the last, in spite of his venerable age, he was interested in life and up to a short time before his death, he was one of the best known men in the city of Dublin. Police, newsboys, tram-men, everyone whose business it is to be abroad knew him and recognised him familiarly. His old pupils never forget him and he is a very vivid memory to them indeed. He came to Mungret full of vigour and he was not niggardly of his energy in her service. He built here, decorated, furnished and encouraged every side of college life whether it was sport of music or debates. His own humorous comment in old age when he revisited us “I made Mungret” has its quantum of truth.

Father Byrne was born in Dublin in 1848 and educated at Belvedere College. He entered the Society of Jesus at Milltown Park in 1866, studied Rhetoric at St Acheul, Amiens; philosophy at Rome and Maria Laach in Germany and theology at Innsbruck University. He was ordained priest in the private chapel of the Archbishop of Munich on the eve of St Patrick's Day in 1880, having had to interrupt his theological studies for some time owing to ill-health.

Authority on Shakespeare
Possessed of literary and artistic talents of no mean order, Father Byrne as a young master in the Colleges of the Irish Province did much to disseminate among his pupils an appreciation of all that was finest in literature and drama, and, through the encouragement he received from the late Father William Delany, his Rector at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, did notable work as an interpreter of Shakespeare.

Father Byrne will perhaps be best remembered for the success he achieved at Mungret, with which he was long associated, first as Vice-Rector from 1889 to 1891, and then as Rector from 1891 to 1900, and whose religious, literary and artistic life received fresh impetus from his forceful personality.

The present scheme of decoration of the college chapel, with its oak panelling, its marble entablature and organ, the founding of the College Annual, the embellishment of the college walls with many oil-paintings, were all due to his initiative.

With his pupils of those days, many of whom distinguished themselves in Church and State, like the present Archbishop of Baltimore, Dr Curley the late Archbishop of Adelaide, Dr Killian; Mr Frank Fahy TD, he remained all his life in the closest and most affectionate relationship.

Father Byrne was also Rector of Clongowes Wood College, whose destinies he guided in the old Intermediate days under the late Father James Daly as Dean of Studies.

An eloquent and graceful speaker, Father Byrne spent three years on the mission staff, and during his long career in the sacred ministry was constantly invited to preach from various pulpits on occasions of special importance. A selection of these discourses he published some ten years ago.

Father Byrne was the oldest surviving alumnus of the Gregorian University. In the stormy days of 1870, as a stretcher bearer, he was present at the breaching of the Porta Pia, which led to the seizure of Rome and the complete spoliation of the Papal Possessions by Victor Emmanuel.

He was attached to the Church of St Francis Xavier, Dublin, for over thirty years, where, even to an advanced age, he discharged his priestly duties with per severing fidelity, and preserved his keer interest in all that touched human life.

Mungret boys of every vintage will not forget to pray for the soul of this great old campaigner. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Vincent Byrne (1848-1943)

A native of Dublin, at the time of his death was one of the oldest priests in Ireland. He was in the Crescent as a scholastic, 1873-1874 and again as priest, 1883-1884. Father Byrne was later Rector of Mungret College (1890-1900) and for a brief period Rector of Clongowes. He was for nearly four decades a member of the Gardiner St. community and was in his day a distinguished preacher. A volume of his occasional sermons was published some twenty years ago.

Clarke, Thomas, 1804-1870, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1052
  • Person
  • 24 January 1804-02 September 1870

Born: 24 January 1804, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1823, Montrouge, Paris, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 20 December 1834, Stonyhurst
Final Vows: 15 August 1841
Died: 02 September 1870, Blackpool, Lancashire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Cousin of Malachy Ent 1825 and Thomas Tracy RIP 1862 (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Early education at Stonyhurst before Ent.

After First Vows, studies at Saint-Acheul, France and Stonyhurst, Regency and Theology at Stonyhurst, he was Ordained there by Bishop Penswick 20 December 1834
1834-1841 He was at the Gilmoss (near Liverpool) Mission
1841-1842 On the Lydiate - near Liverpool - Mission
1842 Appointed Rector of Mount St Mary’s. He left there some time after and served the Missions of Preston, Irnham, Lincoln and Market Rasen for brief periods.
1848-1850 Appointed Minister and procurator at St Beuno’s
1850-1859 On the Market Rasen Mission
1859-1867 On the Tunbridge Wells Mission, which was ceded to the local Bishop in 1867.
1867 He became a Missioner at Wardour Castle, from where, in declining health, he was sent to Blackpool, and he died there 02/09/1870 aged 66.
He was also Socius to the Provincial

Colgan, James E, 1849-1915, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/96
  • Person
  • 14 January 1849-06 August 1915

Born: 14 January 1849, Kilcock, County Kildare
Entered: 18 March 1868, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1881, North Great George's Street, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1888
Died: 06 August 1915, Mount Saint Evin’s Hospital, Melbourne Australia

Part of St Mary’s community, Miller St, Sydney, Australia at time of death.

Brother of John - RIP 1919
Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1871 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1877 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1881 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying
Came to Australia 1896

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education at Clongowes.
Owing to ill health he made some studies privately.
He was sent for Regency as a Prefect at Tullabeg.
He was Ordained at the Convent Chapel in Nth Great George’s St Dublin, by Dr Patrick Moran, Bishop of Dunedin.
He was Procurator for some years at Clongowes and Dromore, and was Procurator also at Clongowes, and then Minister at UCD. He also spent time on the Missionary Band in Ireland.
1896 He sailed for Australia to join a Missionary Band there. He was Superior for a time at Hawthorn.
1914 He returned to Ireland but set sail again for Australia in 1915.
1915 He returned to Melbourne, but died rather quickly there 06 August 1915.

Note from John Gateley Entry
1896 He was sent to Australia with James Colgan and Henry Lynch.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
Brother of John - RIP 1919

His early education was at Clongowes Woof College before he Entered at Milltown Park.
1869-1870 He was sent to St Acheul, France for his Juniorate.
Owing to ill health he did the rest of his studies privately, and he was Ordained by Dr Moran of Dunedin, New Zealand in Ireland in 1881
1874-1880 He was sent to St Stanislaus College Tullabeg as a Teacher and Prefect of Discipline
1880-1888 He was sent to Clongowes where he carried out much the same work as at Tullabeg
1888-1891 He was sent to St Francis Xavier Gardiner St for pastoral work, and then spent some time on the “Mission” staff giving retreats.
1891-1892 He was sent to University College Dublin as Minister
1892-1896 He went back to working on the Mission staff.
1897-1902 He was sent to Australia and began working as a rural Missionary
1902-1910 He was appointed Superior and Parish Priest at Hawthorn
1910-1915 He was appointed Superior and Parish Priest at St Mary’s Sydney

In 1914 he went back to Ireland, but returned to Australia the following year and died suddenly. He was a man of great austerity of life, and was valued as a Spiritual Director.

◆ The Clongownian, 1916

Obituary

Father James Colgan SJ

We deeply regret to learn of the death of the Rev James E Colgan SJ, which occurred at St Evin's Hospital, Melbourne, on Friday afternoon, August 6th, after an operation.

Fr Colgan was born on January 14th, 1849, at Kilcock, Co Kildare, Ireland. He entered the Society of Jesus on 18th March, 1868. His people were large property holders in that county. After entering the Society he studied at Milltown Park, Dublin, and subsequently continued his studies in France, England, and Ireland. He was for some time engaged in teaching in St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, and at Clongowes. After his ordination he filled important positions in both these colleges. Later he was engaged in missionary work. He occupied the position of Vice-President and Dean of Residence in the University College, Dublin. Subsequently he laboured in South Africa.

About 18 years ago he came to Australia, and was engaged in missionary work in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand. For eight years he was Parish Priest of Hawthorn, after which he was appointed to the parish of St Mary's, North Sydney, which position he held for five years. Two years ago he had the misfortune to break his thigh at North Sydney, and this confined him to hospital for some eight months. After his recovery be proceeded to Ireland, where he spent a year recuperating. He returned to Victoria about three months ago, and whilst giving a retreat at Bendigo recently he was seized with illness, and had to come to Melbourne and undergo an operation, from which he never rallied, passing away peacefully, as stated, on the afternoon of Friday, 6th August, fortified by all the consolations of Religion. On Saturday morning, the 7th August, the solemn dirge for the repose of his soul was celebrated in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Hawthorn, at 10.30 2m. The church was crowded - a proof that the people were not unmindful of the self-sacrificiog labours of the deceased priest, His Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne (the Most Rev Dr Carr) presided, and His Grace the Coadjutor-Archbishop of Melbourne (the Most Rev Dr Mannix) was also present.

“Advocate” (Melbourne), August 14th, 1915,

D'Arcy, John, 1848-1884, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1245
  • Person
  • 23 September 1848-04 June 1884

Born: 23 September 1848, Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny
Entered: 28 September 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1883
Died: 04 June 1884, Cannes, Alpes-Maritime, France

Brother of Ambrose D’Arcy (MIS) RIP 1875, (a scholastic), and six months after another brother William who died a Scholastic 1884.

by 1870 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1871 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1873 at Antwerp Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1882 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother of William D’Arcy RIP 1884, a scholastic, six months after him. Brother also of Ambrose D’Arcy who Entered at Milltown and then joined MIS, and he died at St Louis MO 1875 also a scholastic.
He was sent to be a Teacher at Tullabeg and a Prefect at Clongowes for Regency.
He studied Rhetoric at Amiens, and then Philosophy and Theology both at Louvain.
He died of rapid consumption at Nice, France.

Dalton, James, 1826-1907, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1156
  • Person
  • 04 May 1826-21 August 1907

Born: 04 May 1826, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 25 April 1845, St Acheul, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1860
Final Vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 21 August1907, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

by 1859 in Laval France (FRA) studying Theology
by 1860 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a younger bother of the celebrated Joseph - RIP 1905

After First Vows he made his studies on the Continent.
He spent much of his life as a Teacher in Clongowes and Belvedere.
He died at Gardiner St 21 August 1907

◆ The Clongownian, 1908

Obituary

Father James Dalton SJ

Father James Dalton was one of the oldest Clongownians. He was at school at Clongowes early in the forties. He will be regretted by all who knew him as master there, for he had a great facility for making friends. We have published several of his poems in “The Clongownian” already, and we publish yet another in this number. We owe this to the kindness of T E Redmond, MP, an old pupil and friend of Fr Dalton.

The following brief account of his career gives the main facts of his life Father Dalton was born at Waterford on May 4, 1826; when 19 years old he entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus, in which his brother Joseph preceded him by nine years, as he had exactly the same start of him in life itself. About the same time two sisters out of this pious family became nuns in the Presentation Convent of Maynooth. For twenty years Father James Dalton was a devoted and beloved master at Clongowės and Belvedere, forming friendships with his pupils which lasted through life. For more than twenty years he laboured zealously at St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin, the house in which he has just died. For some years, indeed, his work had almost been confined to patient suffering. He bore his tedious martyrdom with great courage and cheerfulness, trying to help till the end those who continually appealed to his charity, knowing of old the tenderness of his heart and his eagerness to aid those in trouble. He was a man of very refined taste, and a singularly faithful and devoted friend; and his memory will long be cherished tenderly by all who had the privilege of knowing him intimately.

Hughes, Joseph, 1843-1878, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1466
  • Person
  • 13 January 1843-02 September 1878

Born: 13 January 1843, County Carlow
Entered: 02 March 1865, Milltown Park
Ordained: 1874, Leuven, Belgium
Final Vows: 02 February 1878
Died: 02 September 1878, Milltown Park

member of the Sacred Heart College, Limerick community at the time of death

Younger brother of John Hughes- RIP 1888 and William Hughes - RIP 1902

2nd year Novitiate at Amiens France (FRA)
by 1867 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1872 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1877 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Younger brother of John Hughes- RIP 1888 and William Hughes - RIP 1902
He had made some of his Priestly studies before Entry.

His second year Novitiate was at Amiens, where he also studied Rhetoric..
He studied Theology for three years at Louvain, and was Ordained there 1874.
1876 He was sent to Drongen for Tertianship
1877 He was sent to Limerick Teaching
He was Prefect and Teacher at Tullabeg over different periods.
1878 He arrived in Milltownfor his Annual Retreat, and then for Villa at Killiney. He contracted a fever there, was nursed and died at Milltown 02 September 1878.

Kane, Robert I, 1848-1929, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/25
  • Person
  • 29 March 1848-21 November 1929

Born: 29 March 1848, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 03 November 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1880, Laval, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1888, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 21 November 1929, Milltown Park, Dublin

Oldest brother of T Patrick - RIP 1918 and William V - RIP 1945
Cousin of Joseph McDonnell - RIP 1928

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1869 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Roehampton, London (ANG) studying
by 1875 at Vals, France (TOLO) studying
by 1877 at Laval, France (FRA) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Oldest brother of T Patrick Kane SJ - RIP 1918 and William V Kane SJ - RIP 1945

Paraphrase/Excerpts“Irish Catholic” :
“Father Robert Kane SJ, well known as ‘the Blind Orator’ died at Milltown Park.... The son of William J Kane of Dublin and his wife Mary MacDonnell of Saggart ... he was a nephew of Sir Robert Kane, distinguished Irish scientist, author of “The Industrial Resources of Ireland”, and first cousin to the famous Admiral Henry Kane. He received his early education at Clongowes (1859-1864) and Ushaw (1864-1866).

After First Vows he went to St Acheul and then Roehampton for studies. He then spent three years Regency at Clongowes teaching Classics, and then back to France at le Mans, then two years Philosophy at Laval and followed by three years Theology and he was Ordained in 1880. Ill health forced him back to Ireland where he finished his Theology.
When the Philosophical school was opened at Milltown in 1881 he was appointed Professor of Physics and Ethics, which due to failing sight he was forced to abandon after a couple of years. He made his Tertianship at Roehampton and was then sent to Gardiner St. for two years and where he made his Final Vows. Then the Theology faculty was opened in 1889, and in spite of his disability, he was appointed Professor, and again after three years he had to abandon this post due to poor sight.
He remained at Milltown after he finished as professor, with the exception of two years at Crescent (1901-1903). He now devoted himself to the ministry of Preaching, Confessing and giving Retreats. Though totally blind for almost 30 years he would not abandon work. His strong and determined character would not consider a life of inaction or repose. He was fifty-six when he started teaching Philosophy and an oculist told him his eyes would not stand the strain, but he went ahead anyway. Instead, knowing blindness would come, he resolved to acquire a thorough knowledge of Philosophy and Theology, a store on which he would have to draw in the future. In the darkness of his blindness he sat composing his sermons and committing them to memory. He was then continuously sought after as a Preacher both in Ireland and England. His style was florid and rhetorical, but the matter was solid and profound. He could make dry scholastic argument live by the touch of his poetic mind.
Although blind he was able to prepare many works for publication, ad so he kept working right until the end. His last illness lasted 10 days and he died peacefully at Milltown.
Shortly before his death the Senate of the National University of Ireland notified him that they intended to confer the Degree ‘Doctor of Literature’ on him, in recognition of his published work.”

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 5th Year No 2 1930
Obituary :
Fr Robert Kane
Fr. Robert Kane ended his long and heroic life at Milltown Park, Dublin, on Thursday Nov. 21st. 1919. Fighting a battle against blindness for 40 years, and during all that time preaching sermons, many of them on great occasions, giving retreats, writing books, travelling alone through a crowded city, going on long missionary journeys, surely all that lifts a man's life to the heroic level. And such was the life of Fr. Robert Kane.

He was born in Dublin on the 29th March 1848, His first school was the Loreto Convent, N. Gt. Georges St, in which street his family then lived. He spent a short time at a school in Gloucester St., then for a year was with the Carmelites in Lr. Dominick St., another year at Newbridge, went to Clongowes in 1859, and finally to Ushaw in 1864 where he put in two years. When at Clongowes he began to think of joining the Society. At that time he was a Ward of Court, under the authority of the Lord Chancellor, and the change to Ushaw was, possibly, to test his vocation. He remained firm and entered the Novitiate at Milltown Park on the 3rd. Nov. 1866. He went to St. Acheul for his juniorate, where, on his 21st birthday, 29th March 1869, he took his vows. A second year's juniorate, spent at Roehampton, followed, and then Clongowes for three years teaching 1st Grammar and Poetry.
It was during these three years that his eyesight, in consequence of a neglected cold, first became affected. A distinguished Dublin oculist, a protestant, told him that he would eventually lose his sight, that he would he unable for a life of severe study, and suggested settling down in the country to farm land. Fr. Kane went to our College at Le Mans instead, and put in a year as lower line prefect.
Next came philosophy, two years at Vals, and a third at Laval. On his way to Vals he got leave to visit Lourdes, and he ever afterwards believed that the result of the visit was a special grace that enabled his eyesight to hold out during the long years of severe Jesuit study. Theology followed immediately - three years at Laval, (at the end of them came the expulsion
from our houses in France), the fourth year was passed in private study at Clongowes. Fr. Kane was ordained in the Cathedral at Laval on the 8th Sept. 1880, travelled to Dublin and said his first Mass at St Francis Xaviers, Gardiner St. on the feast of the Dolours BVM.
Those who made their studies at Laval will remember the excellent custom of having a long sleep to 5am during the minor vacation. Fr. Kane would not avail of this privilege. Up at 4am., and, when the morning devotions were over, pounded hard in his room until 11.45. On Villa days there was a forced march of some 40 or 50 miles. On getting back to Ireland
this too strenuous work was increased rather then lessened. People say that he burned the candle at both ends.
However the studies were get through without serious mishap. From issi to 1991 the 1883 the philosophers of Milltown had him as one of their professors and their immediate Superior. In the latter year tertianship was commenced at Milltown, but did not last long, the eyes were getting ominously bad, and for nearly two years he was laid up partly at Milltown, partly at Dusseldorf. In 1885, all the Catalogue says about him is “Cur Val”. In 1886-87 he made his tertianship at Roehampton, and when it was over went to Gardiner St., remained there for two years and then returned to Milltown as professor of the “Short Course”. He held this position for three years, but the eyes seem to be getting slowly, steadily worse, and by 1892 his energies were confined to “Exam. NN., Trad. exerc. spir., conf. ad jan”. From that date he remained at Milltown until his death, with the exception of two years spent at the Crescent, Limerick . Limited space inexorably compels to postpone a further sketch of Fr. Kane's life to the June number.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 3 1930

Obituary : Fr Robert Kane continued

Up to about the year 1901, Fr. Kane was still able, under favourable circumstances, to read his own manuscripts, large, heavy writing. But about that date the sight failed completely. He became stone blind.
It was then that the heroism of the man asserted itself. He did not lie down under the weight of his heavy cross. He continued to preach, to give lectures, retreats, to move about the country on missionary journeys. And he prepared all his discourses with the upmost care. At first sight this would seem impossible, but with the help of a secretary, and the aid of the more than willing scholastics of Milltown, the work was done.
Fr. Kane's style of preaching had many ardent admirers and many very severe critics, He was quite alive to this fact, and defends himself as follows : “I frankly and most willingly admit that there are able and admirable men who don't quite approve of my style of preaching. To them, and to all those who share their views, I offer my “Apologia”. I never for a moment thought my style is the only good style, nor did I ever fancy that it is the best style. My position is this : My style is the best style for me, and for those amongst my audience whose character and sympathies are like my own.
“Nothing is too good, too beautiful, to he the living shrine of the living Word. The inspired practice of the Church has been always, when this is possible, to build her grand Cathedrals., her humble pretty Chapels for her King to dwell therein. No gold is too pure, no precious stones too costly or too brilliant to enshrine His Precious Blood, no silk too fine, no lace too delicate to adorn His Altar or its ministers. So, too, no oratory is too elevated, or too touching, or too beautiful to be the medium of His teaching or His appeal.
This is true of the personal character of the Priest, as he is Christ's Preacher. To his Divine work, the individual Priest must put all the thinking of his mind, the knowledge of his study, the care of his writing, the accuracy and finish of his speech, the power and attraction of his voice, the fitness, the reverence and the subdued sacredness of good taste in gesture. In all this the Priest must he himself, his very own best self. This is my ideal, and I have tried to realise it in myself.”
The depth of Fr. Kane's holiness has been, fortunately, revealed to us by a little book, a few copies of which were distributed on the occasion of his Diamond Jubilee. It consists of a collection of prayers composed by himself. The prayer for patience occupies just six pages of that book. Though he does not say so, it is quite obvious that his own heavy cross was pressing on him, and the prayer tells us how he bore it. Only a few lines of those six pages can be given : “Jesus Christ, my God and my Redeemer, I accept my cross as a result of my own folly, ignorance, or obstinacy, as a result chosen or permitted by Thy Supreme Will. I accept it as a punishment inflicted by Thine Absolute Justice, As a keepsake sent from Thy Sacred Heart; As the Sign of the Cross upon my life; As a moulding of my life into a likeness of Thine own life. I accept it in union with Thine own most bitter Passion, and in union with the Dolours of Thine own most Blessed Mother. I accept it with unquestioning resignation, with thanksgiving, with gratitude for Thy goodness to me and mine, in reparation for my faults and sins”. He confided to a friend, that it costs him years of struggle to say this prayer with his whole heart. The “Prayer of a Religious” is very striking. Again no mention of himself, and again quite obvious that he is unconsciously laying bare his heart . He thanks God for the “inestimable grace of vocation”, for God's “mysterious mercy”, in keeping him true to that vocation, and then, in impassioned words, begs for the grace to he faithful to that vocation in life and in death. Those who can speak with certain knowledge tell us of his tender devotion to Our Blessed Lady, from boyhood. Of course the “Few Special Prayers” contains prayer to the “Virgin Mother”. But there is scarcely a prayer in the book in which Mary is not called on with tender devotion and absolute confidence. Fr. Kane was very honest when telling us of the praise or blame meted out to him during life. Surely he was not less honest when dealing heart to heart, with God, and these Special Prayers tell us how he dealt. His piety did not lie on the surface, but every page of that book reveals the true Jesuit, the real, genuine A “Man of God”
During his period of total blindness Fr. Kane prepared for the press and published the following : “The Eucharist”; “From Peter to Leo”; The Virgin Mother”; “The Sermon of the Sea and other Stories”; “Socialism”; “The Plain Gold Ring:’ “Good Friday to Easter Sunday”; “God or Chaos”; “From Fetters to Freedom”; “Worth”; “A dream of Heaven and other Discourses”. A poem of his “From out the Darkness” appeared in the Irish Monthly, October 1885, 1885, that gives a good idea of his character.
Shortly before his death, the Senate of the National University notified him that they intended to confer the degree of Doctor of Literature on him in recognition of his published work.
We are again indebted to Fr. P. Gannon for the following appreciation It appeared in the : Standard” 1of Nov. 30th. :
After Fr. Finlay, Fr. Kane, and another link is snapped with the ecclesiastical Ireland of the last half century. Much more, too, than his younger colleague did Fr. Kane pertain to that past. The final years of blindness naturally lessened contact with men and passing events.
Yet Fr. Kane refused to be alone, or to be severed from the world of men. He did not retire to his tent embittered and inactive. He came of a fighting race and continued the good fight, as he saw it, with a gallantry well nigh heroic. He reminded one a good deal of an abbé of the ancient régime - perhaps because so much of his education was received in France. He had the dignity and stately courtesy of older times. His appearance in the pulpit suggested even a prophet of the Old Testament - The handsome face, the flowing beard, the voice, rich and sonorous till age weakened it, the gestures graceful and impressive, the moral earnestness, the air of conviction of this sightless seer caught the attention and stirred the imagination of his listeners. These external characteristics, united with a genuine gift of eloquence which he had cultivated with his wonted thoroughness and assiduity, made him perhaps the most distinguished pulpit orator in Ireland for a whole generation. Loss of sight, making its insidious approach from early manhood gradually forced him to relinquish the professor's chair, for which he was highly qualified, and compelled him to devote all his energies to the pulpit and the lecture platform. He became “the blind orator”, widely familiar as such throughout Ireland and Great Britain, and rarely has success been more nobly won. The style of his oratory is less in harmony with the taste of to-day, and never lacked its critics. It is studied, self-conscious and somewhat artificial. It abounds in antitheses, alliteration, and elaborate cadences, which would have earned for him the reproach of Asianism among the ancients. His very dedication to his art, so admirable under the circumstances, rendered him a victim to its wiles, which are not without their seduction. The loving care which he devoted to his periods robs them too often of naturalness and spontaneity.
But when criticism has had its say, it remains true that he was a very polished, impressive and at times even great preacher, who exercised an undoubted spell upon crowded congregations for almost fifty years, and has left eleven volumes of sermons and lectures to perpetuate his fame.
They are, perhaps, a little too rhetorical, but they are not mere rhetoric, They are informed by a sound knowledge of theology, and philosophy, and give evidence of an earlier literary formation which an almost phenomenal memory kept at his disposal even to the end. This would be no mean achievement for any man, and for him, with his tragic handicap, was a triumph of will-power and brain-power which none can fail to admire.
Indeed we may say that, though he preached frequently and eloquently, the noblest sermon of all was just his life-long fight against disabilities that would have daunted the courage of any heart less resolute than his, or less stayed on God. For the secret of his strength was just an unwavering faith in “HIM who rules the whole”.
His cousin, the admiral, rescued the Calliope from a storm in southern seas in which all others perished. Father Kane saved the vessel of his own career from similar shipwreck by moral seamanship not less wonderful. In addition to his activity in the pulpit he was an assiduous giver of retreats to priests, religious and laymen, He was also a very popular and trusted confessor, and the director of many souls. Many still remain who will mourn hint and miss the cheery tones inculcating courage and confidence all the more persuasively because coming from one who had never failed to exemplify these virtues in his own sorely tried life.
Fr. William Kane once asked Fr. Robert, by letter which of his sermons or sets of lectures did he himself prefer. The reply was a straight and as honest as the passage in which he gives us the criticisms of those who disliked his style of preaching : “The dearest to me of all my writings is my set of lectures on “the Virgin Mother”. They are the realisation of a long cherished hope. They are inferior from a literary point of view to many other sermons and lectures which I have written , yet, as I told you once, I want to have a copy of them put in my coffin. The sermon on Dr. Nulty was the greatest triumph which I have achieved. The fierce feud between the Parnellites and anti-Parnellites, the rancour of anti-clerics, with many other causes, made the occasion one of almost unparalleled difficulty. To my own mind it appears that I never got so near the highest oratory, as in the way in which I approached the subject, marshalled my materials, interested my audience, and won their sympathy for my hero before they were conscious of it, brought his enemies to lay down their arms, brought his friends to be generous towards their opponents. and left the feud buried with the great old Bishop. That will sound very conceited, but it is not really so, I had prayed with the most intense earnestness, and I relied exclusively on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Against the entreaties of my greatest friends and those whose wisdom I esteemed most highly, I neither asked nor took advice. I let my own thought and feeling follow implicitly the inspiration which I knew l had a right to claim from God in the doing of His work.
“Good Friday to Easter Sunday” puzzles me. On the one hand, it is my natural expression of my most intense reverence and feeling, and, as far as I can look upon it coolly and impartially, it seems to me very good literature, as far as my own personal style goes , but, on the other hand, it falls so immeasurably below its subject, that 1 should wish to to rewrite almost every sentence of it, but 1 know and feel that if I were writing and re-writing it for ever I should always remain dissatisfied.
If you find all this too long and too egoistic, you have only got yourself to blame for asking an imprudent question”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Robert Kane 1848-1929
Fr Robert Kane, well known as the “Blind Orator”, died at Milltown Park on November 21st 1929. He was born in Dublin on March 29th 1848, brother of two other famous Jesuits, Frs Patrick and William. He was a nephew of the renowned scientist Sir Robert Kane, and a firsst cousin of Admiral Henry Kane.

Fr Robert entered the Society in 1866, and he professed Philosophy at Milltown Park, a post he had to relinquish owing to weak sight. On the opening of the Theological faculty at Milltown in 1889, he was appointed to a chair there from Gardiner Street, in spite of his defective sight. Again, after three years he had to give up. From 1889 he resided at Milltown Park, apart from two years at the Crescent.

During all those 37 years he devoted himself to preaching and giving retreats. Though totally blind for 30 years, he never ceased working for God.

At the beginning of his philosophical studies he had been warned that his eyes could not stand the strain of study. Yet he persisted, and he refused to renounce his vocation. Knowing the affliction that would ultimately come upon him, he laid up a store of learning in the Sacred Sciences, that never failed him during his years of darkness.

He was in continual demand as a pulpit orator, both in England and Ireland. His style eas florid and rhetorical, but the matter was solid and profound. It was during this long night of the soul that he prepared for the press those numerous volumes of his including “Sermon on the Sea”, “God or Chaos” and “Socialism”. Thus he kept working up to the very end.

The character and determination displayed by him iin overcoming his handicap, and the vast amount of good he accomplished for religion, are a lasting and inspiring example to all Jesuits.

◆ The Clongownian, 1927

The Past

Father Robert Kane SJ

We take this opportunity of offering to Fr Robert Kane our very sincere felicitations on the celebration of his Diamond Jubilee in the Society, in November last.

His service in the good cause has not been that of those who stand and wait. Through forty long years of the darkness he himself has suffered he has continually upheld the torch to light the way for others. In the pulpit, in the confessional, with the pen, he has laboured with un rernitting vigour, with undaunted courage, with a vision before his eyes which is denied to many who look upon the beauties of this world. Only last year his most recent book, “The Unknown Force”, was reviewed in the “Clongownian”, while large as is the number of his published works, the body of his unpublished work, sermons, lec tures and addresses of various kinds, is greater still. Thus, even in his eightieth year, is his sword not rusted.

Contre mauvaise forturte bon coeur is a motto which Fr Kane will recognise, should these words come to his ears. Courage is the word which seems most effectively to sum up his character and his outlook. His is a courage in the truest and highest sense of the word, a courage which finds its strength in God, and which, relying on Him, has fought its way through black difficulties which most men can but dimly guess at.

◆ The Clongownian, 1930

“My Star” (Ave Maris Stellis)

Father Robert Kane SJ

Hid in tumultuous gloom, the winds made war
On the sad sea, which, wild with pain and white
With terror, leaped from the storm's stroke to height
Of cloud ; then stunned, fell moaning back afar
Down to vague chasms. Forth flashed forked fire to mar
Death's sacred horror with its demon light,
When, through the gale, the gloom, the rage, the night,
Appeared a lull, a gleam, a hope, a star.

Thus did a storm of sorrow , my day
In tangled violence of woe, that tore
My heart with wreck and havoc. But the gray
Grim tempest fled in scattered drift before
My star, and, as its mutterings died away,
The waves still sobbing, smiled and slept once more.

Written by the late Father Robert Kane, S.J.. and first published in “The Irish Monthly”, May, 1896,

-oOo-

Obituary

Father Robert Kane SJ

Nowhere ought the memory of Father Robert Kane be enshrined with more reverent care than in “The Clongownian”. Father Kane was the soul of loyalty to the College, and represented the best type of its sons. From nature he had received striking gifts, but to Clongowes he owed very much of their development and of his life-long characteristics in mind and manners. Holy, priestly, learned, a cultured gentleman-such he was in gerin when in his eighteenth year he left the College walls to enter the novitiate of the Society of Jesus; such he was when he returned thither to form the minds and tastes of another generation of Clongowes' boys; such he was in fullest development when, on Whitsunday, 1914, in the new chapel, he hailed with enthusiastic eloquence the joyful occasion of the College centenary. He was proud of Clongowes, and Clongowes has had good reasons to be proud of him.

Undoubtedly, other influences also moulded him into what he became. Of his early surrender of himself to the Society of Jesus I will not speak, save to recall that it was followed by sixty-two years of unwavering loyalty. He spent altogether nine years in France. There his mind was trained to the orderly and disciplined habits that go to make the clear thinker and the thoroughly Catholic theologian, and that in other ways too help to render life successful and beautiful. But he was too much of an Irishman to like everything he met in France. I think he sensed there a certain narrowness and rigidity which repelled him and which made him throughout life to use a French expression something of a “rondeur” a ready critic of what he thought impostures, and a tendency (controlled, no doubt) to be “agin the government”. He was not always patient with the failures of other people to reach the high ideals he had conceived as to life's conduct; and his refined idealism, combined with a quick wit and a cultivated power of epigrammatic expression, were not gifts calculated to win him unvarying popularity. One thing they would have done, combined with his strong intellect and eager ...ness as a student-that was to make him a brilliant professor. He was beginning to find himself thoroughly, it seemed, as an exponent and disputant in theology or philosophy. But it was not so to - continue at least not in the obvious way.

And so. We come to the last great formative influence in his career. This was his blindness. Induced by whatever causes - imprudence on the part of others, or imprudence in his own application to study - this dread affliction fell upon Father Robert in the prime of his manhood, came as a death-in-life when he was beginning to add to the successes of a gifted professor those of a popular preacher, when, too, he was physically full of a still-juvenile activity. A harder trial could not easily be imagined. Inexorably the shades of i night crept on, while hope after hope faded out, the long succession of forty-three years began to build round the sufferer an ever-closer prison of darkness and repression. No longer could he pick out from their shelves and skin through at will the great tomes that were his chief nental food, no longer stride forthi at four miles an hour to drink in the beauty of mountain Or sea, no longer wander freely through the pictured pages of poet or novelist or essayist.

Yet it was a wonderful proof of his elasticity and resource that he made life for himself so livable in a simply natural way as he did. He was astonishing, even in his completely blind days, as a walker, a skater, a swimmer, a diver, In such recreations he often proved his light-hearted courage in feats that left onlookers open-mouthed. But better than all this was his victorious battle against idleness and uselessness. Early he acquired the habit - afterwards so marked a feature of his career, and his success - of composing sermons and other discourses in his mind not in a vågue or haphazard fashion, but with complete grasp of the whole and the parts, and with exacting choice of every word. {In his published volumes one notices with regret that his inability to revise printers' proofs has often played false with this text). He could then dictate without pause the finished discourse to whatever scribe presented himself or was sent to him by Superiors.

In and above this activity there was something greater than a merely natural force of heroism. The supernatural was needed - and it was there. A temperament that might have been drawn, too violentīy to love of the external world, an abundance of gifts that might have proved intoxicating all these were secured for the highest aims by those angels of Providence that bring at once the chalices of pain and the mystic words of strengthening. Not only of the Greatest of Sufferers has it been written : “And, being in an agony, he prayed the longer”, but also of many a weak human follower. Robert Kane prayed long and well in his cell of darkness, and strength from above was given to him.

It was my good fortune to live on somewhat intimate terms with him during two of the earlier years of his great calamity, when, kept within a shuttered room and plagued with useless drugs, he was still encouraged to keep up the hope that sight would one day again be his. His patience and good humour were uniform. Sometimes he varied graver occupations with verse-making. His fastidiousness as a poet was all that one might expect from such a writer of prose. He anused himself with polishing and refining. I can recall how long he wavered between “whin” and “gorse” as the fitting word for a certain line of a certain sonnet. I wonder does that sonnet - or do others of his poems - survive in accessible form? I made no copies for myself - in those days, of course, carbon copies were a thing undreamt of. But my memory retains something of the most pathetic piece he dictated to me - a sonnet suggested by the first sense of despair as to his cure. It ended thus :

“My eyes shall light with joy no more
Until they look upon His face”.

But, throwing aside despair, he set himself to walk along his lightless way. He performed, during some forty-three years, work oratorical and literary that was, considering his difficulties, both in quantity and quality really astonishing. It had an immediate reward in great popular successes. As to its absolute and lasting value there may be, as there has always been, some difference of opinion. He showed himself a thoroughly-equipped philosopher and theologian - of that there need be no doubt. His literary expression he consciously and conscientiously worked up to the highest standards he knew of. He would rival Ruskin, Chateaubriand and all the literary florists in effectiveness and beauty of language. No flowers were too brilliant to set before the altar of Truth. At the same time he detested along with boldness of expression and commonplace simplicity, the exclusion of emotion, even passion, from religious art - whether music, oratory, or any other. All such negations he anathematized as puritanism, Jansenism, pharisaism. Not going into the deeper questions thus raised, I will merely say that these views of Fr Robert's had for their literary result a deliberate letting loose of emotion, a warmth (or heat) of language and an accumulation of ornament which did not win the admiration of all hearers or readers; and which in some respects such as the abuse of alliteration will be defended by few persons of good taste.

Many, undoubtedly, listened with more complete satisfaction to his less formal, less carefully prepared discourses such as those, for example, that he delivered, during a long series of years to the Students Sodality at University College, Dublin. No one was so frequently invited to help at its meetings, because no one was so surely trusted to please and to do good. Personally, I thought a little discourse of his on St Joseph delivered to that audience the most beautiful thing I ever heard spoken by him.

If there were only room for it, I should have liked to quote here, as a fine specimen of his fully-elaborated rhetorical passages, a piece which is'to be found at page 77 of the volume entitled “The Sermon of the Sea and other Studies”. Its theme is the Church as the friend of human intellectual effort.

Such a passage may well suggest to some of my readers that they have lost a good deal by not reading and studying Father Kane's books. To the more thoughtful, to the youth (for example), who is facing newly a world uncatholic and argumentative, one night suggest - as a first choice - the volume named “God or Chaos”. It was much admired by a school-fellow and unchanging friend of the author's, who was also a man of the keenest judgment - Chief Baton Palles. He said of it that though it seemed at first approach “deep” and “hard reading”, yet, when one read it slowly and thoughtfully, it is “very simple”. It has, in fact, the simplicity that belongs to clear and logical thought; it is a repertory of philosophical and theological argument clothed in a vivid and trenchant style.

Much else might be said concerning Father Kane. Here are set down merely the chief impressions and recollections of one among the many who cherish his memory. His soul is beyond concern for these human appreciations - perhaps already in bliss; still, let none of us forget him in prayer.

G O’N

◆ The Clongownian, 1941

Tribute

Father Robert Kane SJ

In the first four numbers of “Black and White”, a new magazine devoted to the cause of the blind in Eire, there appeared a series of articles on Father Robert Kane SJ, the great preacher and conferencier, familiarly known as the “Blind Doctor”, who died in 1929. These articles are from the pen of Fr Hugh Kelly SJ, and they give in eloquent and touching words the life story of that truly great Jesuit and loyal son of Clongowes. As an obituary notice of Fr Kane appeared in “The Clongownian” of 1930, it will not be necessary to do more than to recall briefly the main features of that wonderful life,

Fr Kane's blindness came upon him just when he felt himself facing his life's work and longing to do great things for The Master. In spite, however, of his great handicap he did the great things that he dreamt of, and did them with a success that he would hardly have attained had he not to face difficulties that would have daunted a less determined spirit. There was hardly an important occasion, or a great ecclesiastical function in Ireland during almost 30 years in which Fr Kane was not a prominent figure. Many will remember the truly eloquent sermon that he preached at the High Mass in our Chapel on the occasion of the Clongowes centenary. It was for him a great occasion, the greatest of his life, as he said, and he rose gloriously to it.

We trust that the purpose for which Black and White was started may be achieved, and we are glad that its earlier numbers are associated with the name of Fr Robert Kane. We are sure that now that he is in the presence of the Great Light he will not forget those, in Eire especially, who are enduring the great privation which he endured so long and so patiently, but will plead for them that they may be comforted, and perhaps relieved, in their hard lot. Certainly in Fr Robert Kane they will have a powerful advocate,

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Robert Kane (1848-1929)

The celebrated pulpit orator was stationed here from 1901 to 1903. He was educated at Newbridge, Clongowes and Ushaw and entered the Society in 1886. He made all his studies abroad chiefly in France and was ordained at Laval in 1880. He was for a time lecturer in philosophy and later, professor of theology at Milltown Park but had to relinquish these posts of responsibility because of failing eyesight. By 1901, when he arrived in Limerick, he had become totally blind. Yet in spite of this handicap, he was one of the most sought-after preachers for great occasions. And his eleven books of published sermons and lectures had a wide popularity in their day.

Keating, Thomas, 1827-1887, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1502
  • Person
  • 06 July 1827-13 March 1887

Born: 06 July 1827, Tipperary Town, County Tipperary
Entered: 24 September 1849, St Acheul, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1863, Stonyhurst
Final Vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 13 March 1887, St Patrick’s College, Melbourne, Australia

Older brother of Patrick - RIP 1913

by 1854 at Brugelette College, Belgium (FRA) for Regency
by 1863 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology 4
by 1865 at Tournai Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
Early Irish Australian Mission 1882

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother of Patrick - RIP 1913
His family emigrated to the USA. Thomas did not go with them and studied at Thurles and Maynooth. His family had owned an ironmongers shop in the town.

Fellow Novices of his in France were Christopher Bellew and James Tuite.
He was sent to Laval for Theology, which he completed at Stonyhurst at a later time. A reason for the delay in Ordination was because he did not wish to receive it from a French Bishop. So, in the intervening years before he completed his Theology and was Ordained at Stonyhurst, he had been a Teacher and prefect under John Ffrench at Tullabeg.
1856-1862 He was a Teacher at Clongowes.
1863-1864 He completed his Theology and was Ordained at Stonyhurst.
1864-1865 He was sent for Tertianship to Tournai.
1865-1869 He was again sent teaching at Tullabeg and Clongowes.
1869-1873 He was sent as Operarius to Gardiner St, and preached frequently.
1873-1876 He was appointed Superior of St Patrick’s (Catholic University).
1876-1881 He was appointed Rector of Clongowes on 17 February 1876.
1881 He returned to Milltown. he had offered for the Australian Mission, and sailed there with Joseph Brennan, who was a Novice Priest at the time.
When he arrived in Australia, he was sent to St Aloysius, in Sydney as a Teacher.
1886 He was sent to St Patrick’s in Melbourne, where he died March 1887. His brother Patrick had come from Sydney to be with him when he was dying. he died aged 60, which was a real surprise in the community, as he had appeared to be a very strong man.

He was a very capable man. The Abbé of Dunleary said he was very knowledgeable of the Fathers and Scripture, and he gave many Priests retreats. he was though to have a somewhat cold manner and perhaps not very genial, but was considered kind.

Note from Joseph Brennan Entry :
1882 He and J (Thomas) Keating arrived in Australia

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Thomas Keating, older brother of Patrick, studied at Thurles College and the Maynooth seminary before entering the Society 24 September 1849. He was professed of the four vows on 15 August 1866 during his time of teaching the humanities at Clongowes Wood College. From 1874-76, he was superior and procurator at St Patrick's House, Catholic University of Ireland. Then he was appointed rector and prefect of studies of Clongowes Wood, 1876-81, before being sent to Australia.
Upon arrival in Australia in 1882, he went to St Aloysius' College, where he worked until his early death.
He was considered by the Irish provincial to be of “great merit and learning, and full of zeal for God's Kingdom”. Bishops admired him for his retreats, but he was not recommended to be a superior, as he was previously rather stern and exacting on others. Despite this, Jesuits in Ireland held him in “great esteem”.

Keating, Patrick, 1846-1913, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/201
  • Person
  • 17 March 1846-15 May 1913

Born: 17 March 1846, Tipperary Town, County Tipperary
Entered: 28 August 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 21 September 1880, St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales
Final Vows: 15 August 1890, Australia
Died: 15 May 1913, Lewisham Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Part of St Ignatius College community, Riverview, Sydney, Australia at the time of death.

Younger brother of Thomas - RIP 1887
Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 3 December 1894-11 November 1900.
Superior of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia Mission: 05 April 1890-1894

by 1868 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1869 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1871 at Maria Laach College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1878 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1879 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying
Early Irish Australia Mission 1884; Mission Superior 05 April 1890
PROVINCIAL 03/12/1894

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Younger brother of Thomas - RIP 1887. They were very close.
Early education was in America and then Clongowes.

After First Vows he did his studies at Amiens and Rome, later at Maria Laach and Innsbruck, and in the end at St Beuno’s. Wherever he went, the same spirit of kindness and good humour went with him, and this was true throughout his life. On Australian who went to visit him in Rome was greeted warmly at first, but when he mentioned that he was to see Father Keating, the courtesy was unbridled.
1870 He was living in Rome at the same time as the “Robber King of Sardinia” Victor Emmanuel laid siege to and conquered the city. he was a student at the time, and not inactive in the siege, going here and there to tend to the injured and dying. He was truly a martyr in desire. The conquerors drove the Jesuits from the Roman College. By 1872 the Jesuits were banished from Maria Laach and Amiens, and he was in these places.
1877 He was sent for studies to Innsbruck where he joined Thomas Browne and Francis Carroll.
1880 He joined Joseph Dalton in Australia, and succeeded him as Rector of Riverview.
1890 He was appointed Mission Superior in Australia.
1894 He was recalled to Ireland as provincial of HIB, and he remained there for six years.
1901 He returned to Australia as Rector of Xavier College, Kew. He then moved to North Sydney, for a time at St Mary’s, then Lavender Bay, succeeding John Gately. While working in these Parishes, his gentleness, friendliness and care for every man, woman and child, won the hearts of all. When he left Lavender Bay for a second stint as Rector of Riverview in place of Thomas Gartlan who had been sent to Melbourne, the people gave him a wonderful send off.
His death took place at Lewisham Hospital (run by the Nuns of the Little Company of Mary) 14 May 1913. The funeral was hugely attended and the Archbishop of Sydney, Michael Kelly, both presided and Preached. The Jesuits at Riverview received countless letters and telegrams from all parts of Australia condoling with them on the death of Father Keating.

Catholic Press, Sydney :
Rev W A Purves, Headmaster of the North Sydney Church of England Grammar School wrote : “I am sure everyone who knew Father Keating feels an individual loss. For myself I never knew quite so courteous and kindly and entirely charming a gentleman; and for you who knew well his other great and endearing qualities, the blow must indeed be heavy. I think sch personalities as his have a strong influence in maintaining friendliest relations among us all, and whilst in a sense one cannot mourn the second and better birthday of a good man, one cannot but miss him sorely.”

Rev Arthur Ashworth Aspinall, headmaster of the Scots College, in conveying his sympathy to the Acting Rector, the Staff and Pupils of Riverview, wrote :
“It was my privilege to meet Father Keating years go and more recently, I realised the charm of his cultured personality, and can thus in some degree realise the loss which the College and your Church has sustained. The State has too few men of culture not to deplore the removal of one so much honoured in the teaching profession.”

Note from Thomas P Brown Entry
1877 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology with W (sic) Patrick Keating and Vincent Byrne

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Although born in Ireland, Patrick Keating received much of his early education in the USA. His secondary education began at Clongowes Wood College, Kildare, Ireland, where he had a reputation as a fine athlete and was a good rifle shot. He entered the noviciate at Milltown Park Dublin, 2, August 1865. His juniorate studies were at the College of St Acheul, France, his philosophy at the Roman College, and theology at Innsbruck and St Beuno's, Wales, 1877-81. Regency was undertaken after philosophy at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg, 1871-77, where he was assistant prefect of studies and taught university students.
Keating was living in Rome in 1870. On 20 September the troops of Victor Emmanuel laid siege to the city of Rome. He risked his life by helping the wounded on the streets. The Jesuits were driven from the Roman College. So Keating finished his third year philosophy at Maria Laach during the Franco-Prussian War.
After his ordination in 1880, he taught religion, French and Italian for a short time, 1881-82, at Clongowes Wood, and the following year was socius to the master of novices at Milltown Park, during which time he completed his tertianship.
In 1883 Keating arrived in Australia, joined Joseph Dalton at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, and succeeded him as rector in 1888. He was appointed mission superior in 1890 and resided at Riverview. In 1894 he returned to Ireland as provincial, residing at Gardiner Street.
He returned to Australia in 1901 and was appointed rector of Xavier College, Kew, and taught for the public examinations. From 1908-11, he performed parish ministry at North Sydney and at Lavender Bay, Sydney, and in 1912 was appointed rector of Sr Ignatius' College, Riverview. He died in office the following year following a cerebral haemorrhage.
Patrick Keating was one of the most accomplished Irish Jesuits to come to Australia. He was spiritually, intellectually and athletically gifted, and respected for his administrative skills. People spoke of “his urbanity his culture, his charm, his good looks, his human insight and his ability to inspire affection”.
Christopher Brennan, the Australian poet and former student of Keating, paid him an outstanding tribute. He believed him to be “the most distinguished personality that I have ever met, a standard whereby to test and judge all others. To come into his hands ... was to be initiated to a quite new range of human possibilities”. He praised Keating for his 'rare qualities of gentleness and sympathetic comprehension.
His Jesuit community praised his great spirit of exactness and neatness, the kindness he extended to all, his strong sense of duty, a tender devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and his work in adorning the chapel. Under his direction, Brother Girschik made a line cedar vesting press for the sacristy at Riverview, which still stands.
Writing to Ireland in 1894, Dalton, at Riverview, believed that Keating's students had great confidence in him and “liked him well”. John Ryan, mission superior, did not lavish praise upon him. He believed him to be good at administration, but not with finances, not overly strict in discipline; firm and decisive, but easily influenced by anyone of strong mind, cool of temper, but not fatherly or sympathetic, somewhat superficial, cold and at times sarcastic, discouraging more than encouraging. The Irish provincial, Timothy Kenny, while visiting Australia in 1890 believed Keating to be “the most admirable man I ever met”. That being the opinion that counted, Keating became the next Irish provincial.
In his speeches as rector of the various colleges, Keating showed his openness, appeal to reason and genuine belief in the goodness of human nature. He was truly a cultured humanist. He kept well informed about contemporary ideas in education and gave critiques of them, continually stressing the traditional classical education of the Jesuits. He was concerned at Riverview by the rather poor quality of Jesuit teachers, men “rather broken in health”, who were not helping the boys achieve good examination results.
At the time of his death, Keating was one of the most significant Jesuits in Australia, much loved and most appreciated by those who experienced him, both as a kind and courteous gentleman, and as a cultured scholar.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Patrick Keating SJ 1846-1913
Fr Patrick Keating was born in Tipperary on March 17th 1846. Although born in Ireland he received his early education in America, then completing his secondary course at Clongowes Wood.

As a Jesuit, he was present in Rome when it was captured by Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia. In the midst of the bombardment, he went here, there and everywhere, assisting the wounded civilians and soldiers. He, with his companions, were driven from Rome and proceeded to Maria Laach in Germany and then to Innsbruck.

Fr Keating went to Australia where he became the first Rector of St Ignatius Riverview, and then Superior of the Mission.

He was recalled to Ireland to become Provincial in 1894. After his term as Provincial, he returned once more to Australia, where he filled many administrative posts and became a widely-known and popular figure in public life. He figures largely in the long and brilliant school-story of Fr Eustace Boylan”The Heart of the School”. Fr Keating (Keeling of the story) is a winning and lovable Rector of Xavier.

At his death in Sydney on March 15th 1913 there were many generous tributes to his work and character, not only from Catholics, but from persons of all religious denomination.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 42 : Easter 1986

Portrait from the Past

PATRICK KEATING : 1846-1913

Province Archives

The following appreciation of a former Irish Provincial appeared in the CATHOLIC PRESS of Sydney on 22nd May 1913.

Born in Tipperary on 17th March, 1846, Fr. Keating occupied almost every position a Jesuit can occupy except that of General. His last sickness was brief. It was only a few days before his death that he became ill. His medical attendants pronounced his case serious - cerebral hemorrhage - and the last Sacraments were administered to him at once by the Rev. Father C. Nulty, S.J. He was taken to hospital the following day, and had been a patient only twelve hours when he died.

Of Father Keating, as boy and man, as student and teacher, as pastor of souls and Provincial of the Irish branch of his Order, it may be safely said that his whole life was one well-sustained effort to be ready for the final sunmons of the Sovereign Master who has called him home so suddenly. He was Superior of the Australian Mission of the Society of Jesus in 1894. At a later date he governed the Irish Province. He was for some years Rector of St. Francis Xavier's College at Kew, and before he went to Riverview as Rector for a second time, he had been zealously labouring as pastor of souls among the people of North Sydney.

Although he was born in Ireland, Father Keating imbibed the rudiments of knowledge in America. His high-school studies began at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. He entered the Novitiate at Milltown Park, near Dublin in 1865. His later studies were made at the College of St. Acheul, in France; at the Roman College of Maria-Laach, in Germany; at the University of Innsbruck, in the Tyrol; and at St. Beuno's College, in Wales Wherever he went, the same spirit of genuine kindness and genial good-humour that we ourselves witnessed invariably went with him, An Irish-Australian who visited Rome a few years ago called at one of the principal colleges there. The Professor who showed him over the place was kind and courteous; but when the name of Father Keating was mentioned to him, then to kindness and courtesy were added all manner of friendly offices. The Professor had been an old class-fellow of Father Keating, about 40 years before, and his face glowed with pleasure at the very mention of his name.

Father Keating was living in Rome in 1870. On September 20th of that year the troops of the robber King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, laid siege to the city of the Popes, bombarded the walls of Rome, and entered into its streets as conquerors. While all this was going on, Mr. Keating, as he then was, was not inactive. In the midst of balls and bombs, in the midst of whizzing bullets and falling masonry, at the risk of his own life, he went here, there and everywhere on his mission of assisting to the best of his power the wounded and dying soldiers and civilians. He was truly a martyr in desire. The same bandits that deprived the Pope of his dominions deprived the Society of their college. They were driven from the Roman college in 1870. In July, 1872, they were banished by the German government from Maria-Laach, a college they had acquired only ten years before. If Father Keating had remained only a little longer, at Maria-Laach and St. Acheul, he would doubtless have driven out of house and home like so many of his brethren, at the point of the bayonet.

In 1877, Father Keating was sent to Innsbruck, where he studied for a time with Father T. Browne and Father Carroll, of North Sydney.

Three years after his ordination, which took place in 1880, Father Keating came to Australia. He joined the late Father Dalton, founder of the college, at St. Ignatius', Riverview, and succeeded him as Rector. He held the position for six years, and was then appointed Superior of the Jesuits in Australia. He was recalled to Ireland in 1894 to be Provincial of the Irish Province, an office he filled with distinction for six years. He returned to Australia in 1901, having been appointed Rector of Xavier's College, Kew. He was transferred to North Sydney some years ago, and for a time was on the staff at St. Mary's, Ridge Street. Thence he was placed in charge of St. Francis Xavier's, Lavender Bay, succeeding the late Father Gately. While working amongst the people of the parish, Father Keating's gentleness, geniality, zeal and solicitude for the welfare of every man, woman and child in his flock, won the hearts of all, as they did everywhere he laboured throughout his career.

When he left Lavender Bay in January 1912 to assume the Rectorship of Riverview for the second time, in the place of Father Gartlan, who was transferred to Melbourne, the people entertained him, and demonstrated their affection for hin in no unmistakable way.

The late Father Keating belonged to an old Tipperary family. An elder brother, Father Thomas Keating, S.J., came to this country two years before him. In Ireland he had been Rector of Clongowes Wood College. In Australia he joined the teaching staff of St. Aloysius' College, then in Sydney. He died many years ago in St. Francis Xavier's College, Kew. The deepest affection existed between the two brothers. Both were excellent religious and most saintly men. Their immediate relatives reside in a fine place close to Chicago, USA.

Father Keating's death took place as described at Lewisham Hospital on May 14th, 1913. The obsequies were largely attended and were presided over by His Grace, the Archbishop of Sydney, who, after Mass, preached the panegyric, basing his discourse on the inspired words of St. Luke:- “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. Amen, I say to you, that He will gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them, and if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready; for at what hour you think not, the Son of Man will come”. His Grace said the Divine Redeemer spoke these words tacitly for circumstances like those in which they were now assembled. One of their number had been called away, his soul had gone to eternity, and the earthly tenement of that soul lay on the catafalque before them like a house broken through, the spirit gone. This fact shocked them, but Holy Faith told them that blessed was the soul that was found watching, as Father Keating's was.

Now that they were gathered together according to the traditions of the Church, to mourn together, they must attend to the spiritual profits to be derived from the occasion, and first of all heap up powerful supplications for the soul that had been called away that it might speedily, if not immediately, enter into the joy of the Lord. The sacred liturgy which guided them to that bier to send forth their last prayers, and to accompany those mortal remains to the grave, wished that they would first of all derive consolation from the solemnities, and secondly, edification. The good man would be encouraged to greater perseverance, the tepid would be made fervid, and those who might be asleep in the sleep of sin, induced by the concupiscence of the flesh, would be wakened up. Father Keating served God and guided youth in the paths of learning and holiness which were characteristic of himself when his soul inhabited that human frame, with its vital organs stilled in death, and like a house abandoned. The earth would go back to the earth until the Last Day, but the soul was at that moment in the strange land from which no traveller returned. What did they think had been its lot? A week ago Father Keating had been with them in the flesh as a brother, as a fellow-worker, but suddenly he was caught up and taken from their midst. Well for his friends to know what a life Father Keating had led, happy for them that the record he wrote upon their memories was ripe in personal sanctification and spiritual victory. Therefore, he was found watching in the observance of the rules of his Order, watching at his post of duty, Father Keating had triumphed, he had fought the good fight, and kept the faith. But though they looked upon him as one already saved, he might be crying out for their suffrages from the fires of Purgatory. Sinners though they be, they could help him, for in the economy of God's Providence prayer was the Key of Heaven. God would hear their supplications on behalf of the faithful departed, but he would be dear to their prayers when they themselves were bring purged. Hence, let them studiously avail themselves of the period during which the recollection of Father Keating would be living amongst them to send up this prayer from the bottom of their hearts: “Eternal rest grant him, O Lord, and let perpatual light shine upon him. From his iniquities cleanse him, for all human frailties forgive him. What is man taken from this vale of tears that he shall be justified in the sight of God? Purify, O Lord, all this is to be purified, and take the soul of your servant and our brother, and peruit him to pass quickly, if not at once, into the joys of your heavenly abode”.

The Archbishop then vested in cope and mitre, and pronounced the Last Absolutions. As the strains of the “Dead March in Saul” throbbed through the church, the coffin was raised on the shoulders of the bearers and carried to the main entrance, the Archbishops and priests accompanying the remains to the hearse, where the Benedictus was chanted.

The Jesuit Fathers at Riverview received countless letters and telegrams from all parts of Australia condoling with them on the death of Father Keating.

In the course of his letter, the Rev. WA Parves, head-master of the North Sydney Church of England Grammar School, wrote: “I am sure everyone who knew Father Keating feels an individual loss. For myself, I never knew quite so courteous and kindly and entirely charming a gentleman; and for you who knew well his other great and endearing qualities, the blow must indeed be heavy. I think such personalities as his have a strong influence in maintaining friendliest relations among us all, and while in a sense one cannot mourn the second and better birthday of a good man, one cannot but miss him sorely”.

The Rev. A. Ashworth Aspinall, head-master of the Scots College, Bellevue Hill, in conveying his sympathy to the acting-Rector, the staff, and pupils of Riverview College, wrote:- “It was my privilege to meet Father Keating years ago and more recently, and I realised the charm of his cultured personality, and can thus in some degree realise the loss which the college and your Church has sustained. The State has too, few men of culture not to deplore the removal of one so much honoured in the teaching profession.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1913

Obituary

Father Patrick Keating SJ

The news of the death of Fr. Keating came as a shock to us in Kew. Schools change fast, and there are few of the boys of his time amongst us this year, but his passing stirred up again in many of us the very kindly feeling that accompanied his presence when he was amongst us before.

Fr Keating was born in Tipperary, in 1846. He left his native land for the United States when still young, and found his home for a time in Illinois; but he returned to Ireland as a student of Clongowes, of which his brother at that time was Rector. Some old Xaverians will remember Fr Thomas Keating as he came to Australia later, and was on the staff of Xavier for a few months of 1887, teaching classics in the Honour Class till within a couple of days of his death.

According to contemporary accounts, Fr Keating was very prominent in school life at Clongowes, leading in class and sports. He was a good all round athlete, and to his early training must have been due the fine physical development which he retained to his later years. He was a good rifle shot, and kept up his interest in everything touching on school life to the end.

His studies took him to France, Germany, Austria and Rome, and he had many interesting recollections of life in those places. He was present in Rome during its bombardment by the Garibaldians, which resulted in the breach of the Porta Pia and the spoliation of the States of the Church. In 1883 he came to Australia, and was a master in Riverview till 1990, when he was appointed Superior of the Society of Jesus in Victoria and New South Wales. In 1894 he was transferred to Ireland, as head of the Irish and Australian Province, and after seven years spent in that office he returned to Australia to be Rector of Xavier in 1901. In 1908 he was sent to North Sydney to take up parish work at Lavender Bay, wliere he had as his assistant Fr Corish, who had been minister here with him for some years. The good work done by these two old Xaverians there was such as those who knew them both could expect. The same' kindly spirit accompanied Fr Keating. always, finding everywhere the same return. He liked his work, and him self was liked by young and old. So it was with a feeling of distress that he received the cabled order to return to Riverview as Rector. But the buoyancy of his spirit soon showed itself, and, as was his way, he entered heart and soul into his work there. During the illness of Fr Brown he was called upon to take up again the burden of Superior, until he was relieved after a few months by the appointment of Fr Ryan.

As he was settling down now to work, as he hoped, undisturbed, he was taken ill on May 12, and died early on the morning of the 15th. His death was the occasion of most generous expressions of a kindly feeling on all sides, induced as was evident, not so much by his position as by his personal qualities.

Fr Keating was a man of many parts as we knew him. His unfailing kindliness and courtesy made everyone feel at home with him; and, what is" after all perhaps the best test of a character, those who lived on closer terms with him, felt that in parting with him they had lost a friend.

May his soul rest in peace.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1913

Father Patrick Keating SJ

At the last Old Boys' dinner I promised to say something about Father Keating in this “Alma Mater”. At that time his death was too poignantly near to allow (so it seemed) of any direct emotional expression in English verse or of elaborated and transposed elegy in one of the classic tongues; and I stipulated for mere personal reminiscence. in pedestrian phrase. And then, as I came to carry out my promise, I felt a certain disgust with what I was trying; it was not worthy of the dead man, and all that I owed him, and who was I to utter my school-boyish reminiscences: among others so better called to speak? So, at. the risk of exhausting all the editors' kindness - and patience, I destroyed what was beguin, and I waited and waited, until at last I have, perhaps, fallen between two stools - the Pindaric ode and the Boswellian note-book - missing both.

I first came under Father Pat Keating in the year 1885. It was my happy chance to spend the five best years of my boyhood under two Keating brothers. At old St Kilda and St. Aloysius', in Bourke Street, I had for two years sat under Father Tom, that gentle ascetic with the full head of silvery hair, and beneath it a face like that of a kindly Moltke, and the shrewd fold of the eyelids; Father Pat had the same, but whereas his eyes never missed anything (I remember well!), Father Tom's often seemed to be gazing within. But how could there be two Fathers Keating? I wondered and wondered - for a boy is slow to catch such a likeness: he knows father and uncle, but has no idea or fancy of how they were boys and brothers together, how much less then will he imagine his masters as standing in human kindship to each other or anyone at all? - and it was months before some better-informed schoolmate, who had preceded me from St Aloysius', amazed me with the truth. My amaze was further excusable in as much as there was twenty years between the brothers, and Father Tom had seemned such a very old man. How different Father Pat!

To live at a boarding school has this advantage, that one meets one's masters outside the class-room, adi comes into touch with their personality. I was probably just at the right age to undergo the influence, and absorb the charm of a personality when I met Father Keating and that, perhaps, has helped to make ineffaceable the impression I received from him. But time and favouring occasion are of no avail unless the personality, unless the man is there. And Father Keating was unique.

Distinction is a subtle thing: unmistakable to perception, intangible to analysis and definition. Everyone, I think, who uses and understands the word must have, in his mind's eye, some persons, and pre-eminently one, to make his idea of distinction palpable to his thought and fancy. For me, Father Keating always was and shall be that man; easily the most distinguished personality that I have ever met, a standard whereby to test and judge all others. To come into his hands, at that age and at that conjunction of things, was to be initiated to a quite new range of human possibilities. It is not always nor altogether an easy and flattering thing, such initiation. One feels oneself rebuked, by the unspoken contrast between what the other is and one's own crudeness; so at least it was with me, and it is another proof of Father Keating's rare qualities of gentleness and sympathetic comprehension that he bore for a long time with the wily discourtesies of what was, after all, only a distorted admiration. At last he had it out with me, man to man, and that made me his friend for ever. It showed me, behind all that perfection of word and manner and bearing that might have been the envy of any diplomat or man of the world, the simple and affectionate humanity that was always there, in Father Keating, for those who wanted it or appealed to it.

It is curious how, when one reflects upon one's impressions of Father Keating, one never thinks of him in terms of this or that; it is always the man and the personality that lives before one. Not that one abstracts from the things he was, but they do not force themselves to the front. Thus, Father Keating was of course Father Keating, and a priest of the Society, and one never knew him otherwise and yet even that seems, as it were, absorbed into the nature of the man that one remembers. And so with the rest. He was a fine athlete, and it was a sight, regularly expected, regularly recurring, to see him lift a leg-ball right out of the cricket-ground; but it seemed all to be done by the way. Just so, for all his fine knowledge of the classics (and how much else!) one hesitates to call him a scholar; that name seems to be better reserved for smaller men who have chosen the one-sided development of a single faculty. And yet the classics will help me to express, to some degree, what I feel. I remember how he enjoyed doing Horace; and there was a certain Horatian felicity and perfection of style about everything he did. I think he was aware of it, and it was a pleasure to him; but the thought never came and never can come to one that he tried after it; it was all so natural, so himself, Even so, the word “gentlemanly”, would be all too common, in fact all too shoddy for Father Keating's exquisite ways. It was just that: he was unique, he was hirrself.

When I first knew him, Father Keating was in his early prime, only just forty. I had three years with him; then during my University years I saw him continually. Then we went our ways in life (and his took him far), and after 1894 many a year went by without our meeting; when, one day, a letter arrived, in his well-known hand, telling me that he had discovered my whereabouts and asking me round to St. Xavier's. I found him there, just a little stooped and his hair whitening, but otherwise the same as ever. I was looking at the bookshelves as he came into the room, and he asked me what had caught my notice. It was the life of Coventry Patmore, and I remarked what a great poet he was: “But not as great as Homer, surely”! said Father Pat. He showed me where his old copies of Homer and Horace stood, but regretted that parish work left him but little time for such reading, Then, I remember, some incident of his morning's round led him to remark on the lack of politeness in our youth: “I remember I had a lot of trouble with you”, he said, turning to me with a smile. I confessed that I had been something of a cub and that I had deserved to catch more than I did catch.

I was Father Keating's guest twice after his return to Riverview. One noticed, just now and then, a little sign of approaching age: a slight uncertainty of vision, where the eyes had once been so keen; a slight uncertainty of movement, where the hands had once been so precise. But old age had not yet overtaken him, and it seemed as if he yet had many a happy year before him. I was thinking to myself: “It's too bad, you haven't been up to Riverview for some time now”, and planning to get a day free in a fortnight or so, when, one morning, the paper opened on his portrait and I knew that I should not see him in this life again.

We were a small class in those days at Riverview, Steve Burke and myself; Harry Fitzgerald was with us for a while, but I think we always regarded him as an outsider; we had gone through St Kilda and St Aloysius' side by side, and come up to Riverview together. Our little class was tended by three teachers, Father O'Malley, Father O'Connell, and especially Father Keating. And now they are all gone: Steve is dead and Father O'Connell and Father O'Malley, and now, at last, Father Keating. Life begins to get lonely when one thinks of the best days of one's boyhood and finds none of those who were an intimate part of them to share or stimulate one's memories. And for me a great part of what is dear and precious in life was carried away as I saw his coffin borne out of the church, and whispered to myself just the simple farewell, “Good-bye, Father Pat”.

-oOo-

The Late Father Keating

In setting out to write this little sketch of Father Keating, we are fortunate in having his autobiography at hạnd. It was begun at Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, during his rectorship of that College, on a piece of notepaper, and on the last sheet we find the last entry, recording, his entrance into office as Rector of Riverview, in January, 1912. A feeling that it was perhaps too intimate to expose to the gaze of all who may read has prevented its inclusion; its substance is our guide in what will follow. Father Keating often used to say, in his characteristic way, that one should leave one's things in order and not cause people unnecessary trouble, even at the end; and we have no doubt that it was sheer good nature that urged him to leave us his life in miniature.

Father Patrick Keating was born at Tipperary, in Ireland, on the 17th March, 1846; of an excellent Catholic family which had the distinction of giving three of its members to the service of God, in religion. His elder brother, Thomas, like himself, became a Jesuit; a sister is a Sacred Heart nun in America. In 1850, a little boy of four years old, he went to America with his parents, to live at Elgin, Kane County, Illinois. His first education was obtained at a private school at Elgin; in 1861 he was sent by his parents to the Jesuit College, at Clongowes Wood, Co. Kildare, Ireland. After four years at Clongowes, in 1865, being then nineteen years of age, he entered the Irish Jesuit novitiate, taking his vows two years later, in 1867. He spent the next two years studying thetoric at St. Acheul, Amiens, and in 1868 went to Rome to study philosophy at the Roman College. He was in Rome during the Session of the Vatican Council at which the dogma of Papal Infallibility was declared, and in the same year, 1870, the Italian army entered Rome through the breach in the Porta Pia, after the famous siege.

It must have been a stirring time! We have heard Father Keating describe the walks the philosophers would take in the city during the siege. There was one poor fellow who had both legs blown off by a shell. Father Keating and his companions took pity on him, and told him he should resign himself to the misfortune God had sent him. “But how can I?”. he cried, “what can I do without legs?” Then they carried him to his home. There must have been many such scenes, and one can easily imagine the charitable “Mr” Keating of those days, often rendering such assistance.

The Roman College was appropriated by the government - it is still in use as a caserna, or military barracks and the philosophers moved to Maria-Laach, in Rhein Preussen. Here Father Keating completed his third year of philosophy. During his stay at Maria Laach the Franco-Prussian War was going on, and we have been told some interesting stories of the community at the German house, where Frenchmen and German would fraternise, forgetting or trying to forget national animnosities, while their compatriots were killing each other almost within view of the College. In 1871 he returned to Ireland to act as Prefect of the Lower Line at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore, and to teach the classes of rhetoric and poetry till 1877. In this year he went to study theology at Innsbrück, in the Tyrol. After two years at Innsbrück, he was sent to complete his theology course at St Beuno's College, North Wales, and here he was ordained, in 1880, on September 21st. He next returned to Clongowes and taught for a year, going to his tertianship ini 1882.

During most of his “third year:, he acted as Socius to the Master of Novices in Milltown Park, Dublin. He spent the last three months of the year of the tertianship at Hadzor House, near Worcester. In 1883 he came to Australia with Fathers Sturzo and Edward Murphy, and taught at Riverview for seven years. In 1889 he was appointed Rector of Riverview, and in 1890 Superior of the Australian Mission. In 1899 he was recalled to Ireland to act as Provincial of the Irish Province. In 1901 he returned to Australia as Rector of Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne. In 1908 he took charge of St Francis Xavier's Parish, Lavender Bay, North Sydney. In 1912 he succeeded Father Gartlan as Rector of Riverview, entering on his office early in January.

During this, his second rectorship of Riverview, he again won the respect of all. The boys thought him a little strict at first, but his sterling character soon won their admiration and affection. We who lived intimately with him then had an opportunity of noticing more closely his salient characteristics. There was a great spirit of exactness and neatness; a kindness extended to all; a strong sense of duty; a tender devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and a great desire to beautify and adorn the chapel, and all connected directly with it. There was renovation and improvement in many quarters, but the chapel got most of it, and nothing seemed too good for God's own house. Under his orders, Brother Girschik made a fine cedar vesting press for the Sacristy, and we know that it was his intention to complete the Chapel furnishing before all else. We were hoping to have him with us for many years when God saw fit to take his to Himself, after a little more than a year of office.

On Monday, May 20th, he took the mid-day meal with the Community, and chatted after dinner in his usual cheerful way. During the afternoon he told Father Pigot that he felt unwell, and he was advised to rest himself. In the evening his illness took a serious turn, and next morning we were grieved to hear that he was very ill. He had developed a cerebral hemorrhage, and the doctors said that the only chance of recovery lay in his immediate removal to the hospital, and con stant skilled attention.

He showed the greatest resignation and sweetness throughout. He often used to say, when in health, that he would be ready to go “on the last journey at any moment”, and this was literally true of him. When Father Corcoran went to his room early on the Tuesday morning, he said, quietly, “Well, Father Minister, I will be going home before you, after all. I believe I am going there now”. Father Corcoran was on the eve of his departure for Ireland, his homeland, and the remark was characteristically supernatural.

He was taken to Lewisham Hospital that morning, and edified all by his patience, even joyfulness, at the call of God. When he was brought to his room in the hospital, he looked round quietly and smiled, and said, “Everything is so nice and neat; so it's here it is to be”. When told by the Sister that he might die, he said, “Yes, but I received the last Sacraments two days ago, and am ready”. He passed away gently and unobtrusively - his death was like his life - in complete peace and resignation, early in the morning of Thursday, the 22nd May. He really was “going home”,' and why should he be sad?

On Friday evening the remains were brought to the College, where an escort was waiting at the avenue gates to welcome all that was left of one whose death had made a void in the hearts of many in Riverview. The Rosary was recited by all, and when the Chapel was reached we said the Vespers for the Dead, and then during the evening many a boy, and many a master, would say a prayer for the soul of their dear Rector. Next morning we sang a short Requiem Mass, and then the remains were conveyed to St Mary's, Ridge Street, North Sydney. Here an immense concourse of members of the clergy and laity had assembled to take part in the Solemn Office for the Dead and Requiem. His Grace the Archbishop presided. Very Revs T O'Reilly PP, VF, and J P Moynagh PP, VF, acted as deacons at the Archbishop's throne. The chanters at the office were Revs L Chatelet SM, and T Hayden. The Mass was celebrated by Rev E Corish SJ, the deacon being' Rev J HealySJ, and the sub deacon Rev Father Ignatius CP, (an old Stonyhurst boy). Among the clergy: present: were Right Rev Monsignor O'Haran DD, PA, Right Rev Monsignor. O'Brien DD, Right Rev Monsignor Coonan PP, VG,. and Venerable Archpriest Collins PP, Very Rev P B Kennedy OFM, Revs H E Clarke OFM, R Piper OFM, F S McNamara OFM, M P Kelly, OFM, Very Rev P Treand MSH, Revs E McGrath MSH, F Laurent SM, Ginsbach SM, Very Rev Father Francis CP, Revs P Tuomey DPH, W McNally, E Brauer, P Walsh, T Barry, W Barry, T Phelan PP, J Kelly, J Roach, R O'Regan, J Rohan, R J O'Régan, R Darby, P Nulty, A O'Farrell, M Rohan, J J O'Driscoll, T Whyte, P Murphy.

Representing: the Society of Jesus there were present the Community of Riverview College, also Fathers J Colgan, J Brennan, P McCurtin, E Sydes, J Forster, R O'Dempsey, R J Murphy, T Cahill, T Fay, T Carroll. There were also representatives of the Marist. Brothers and Christian: Brothers; De la Salle Brothers, Sisters of the Little: Company of Mary, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy, Loreto Nuns and Sisters of St Joseph. Many prominent members of the Catholic laity were present, including a large number of Riverview ex-students. One seemed to recognise old Riverview boys everywhere, and all ages were represented.

Among the laity present were the President of the Ex-students Union, Mr A W M d'Apice BA, LLB, Hon Thomas Hughes MLC, Messrs T J Dalton KCSG, James Dalton KSG (Orange), T Mac Mahon, C. Brennan MA, C G Hepburn, F W T Donovan, T McCarthy, P Minahan, I B, Norris BA, LL, Lieutenant-Colonel Fallon, J Lane Mullins, B A McBride, G E Flannery, BA, LLB, P J ODonnell, G B Bryant, C Moore, Roger Hughes BA, A Deery, P Moore, Bryan Veech, A Moran and very many others. All the great public schools were represented at the church or at the funeral, the Headmasters' Association being specially represented by the Rev C J Prescott MA (Newington College), Brother Borgia (St Josephs College), and Mr Lucas (Sydney Grammar School).

After the last Gospel His Grace the Archbishop: delivered a touching panegyric based on the text from St Luke, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching”.. His Grace referred to the shock which such a sudden death must give to all, and to the temper of consolation to be found in our Holy Faith, and the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, by which we believed that we could help our suffering departed friends by our suffrages to God, that their purging pains might be shortened, and they might soon enter into the life of bliss, a life which Father Keating had “richly deserved”, we might hope with assurance, by his many good deeds. We should all be ready like him, at the call of our: Maker, to render an account of our stewardship. After His Grace the Archbishop had pronounced the last absolutions, the funeral procession proceeded to Gore Hill Cemetery. The cortège was headed by a detachment of cadets from St Joseph's College, Hunter's Hill, St Aloysius College, North Sydney, The Sydney Grammar School, and the Church of England Grammar School,
The cadets from Riverview College formed the immediate guard of honour to the hearse, and: the detachment marched with reversed. arms, while muffled side-drums rolled a plaintive accompaniment to the marching. Major J Lee Pulling, of the Church of England Grammar School, was in command of the military escort, and was assisted by Lieutenant Murphy, of St Aloysius College Corps, and Lieutenant Loughnan, of Riverview, while Staff-Sergeant Major Harvey represented the Fifth Brigade.

The cortege was a very long and representative one, many, who had attended the long church service walking in the funeral procession to the graveside, as a last tribute of respect.

At the graveside the Rev J Corcoran SJ, performed the burial service, at the termnation of which the Riverview choir chanted the “Benedictus”. The guard of honour saluted our departed Rector by presenting arms, and then rested on reversed arms, while the bugler of St Joseph's College Corps sounded the “Last Post”.

Father Keating was a man of great culture and charming personality. He was a master of the Latin and Greek languages, and conversed fluently in French, German, and Italian, As one can see from the life account we have given, he spent many years of his life in various parts of Europe, as well as America and Australia, and perhaps this contact with diverse types of men gave to him much of the urbanity which was to many his greatest charm. One remembers the interesting way he would chat about his stay in Rome during the siege of 1870, of the Vatican Council, of his life at Maria-Laach, and the almost constant habit he had of breaking off into snatches of foreign popular airs.

The charm of his personality seems to have been felt by all who knew him. Among the very numerous letters and telegrams which came to the College for several days after his death, there were many from old boys, from parents of present boys of the college, from those who had found in him a strong guide and a warm friend. But perhaps what impressed one most was the obvious effect of his personality on those who had not known him so intimately as his confrères, his pupils, or his clients. From headmasters of the schools, from mernbers of the legal and medical professions, from the clergy, from men of commerce, came a continual stream of letters, in which one and all attested their conviction of his sterling worth. Mr W A Purves MA, headmatser of the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, wrote: “I am sure everyone who knew Father Keating feels an individual loss. For myself, I never knew quite so courteous an entirely charming a gentleman. I think such personalities as his have a strong influence in maintaining friendly relations among us all, and while in a sense one cannot mnourn the second and better birthday of a good man, one cannot but miss him sorely”.

In a letter from the Rev Ashworth Aspinall MA, headmaster of the Scots College, we find these words: “It was my privilege to meet him years ago, and more recently, and I realised the charm of his cultured personality, and can thus in some degree realise the loss which the College and your Church has sustained. The State has too few men of culture not to deplore the loss of one who so muclı honoured the teaching profession”.

The letters received from old pupils were characterised by a note of warm affection, Everyone who knew Father Keating intimately loved him. At the Annual Dinner of the Old Boys' Union, held shortly after his deatlı, several told of incidents illustrating all those things that went to make up “dear Father Keating's” character - how he had reproved one for his good, and almost crushed him with sarcasm; how he had encouraged another, how he had entered into the sports of the boys to gain their hearts, how he had shown sympathy with the sorrows of the new boy whose heart ached with thoughts of the home he had left. The homesickness of one new boy seemed incurable. Father Keating, Rector of Riverview at the time, won his affection and it was lifelong and cured his homesickness by chaffing him about his untidy hair, and brushing it for him in quite fine style with his own hair brush! Perhaps the occasion may excuse the writer for telling of Sunday mornings he remembers himself, when Father Keating's room would be invaded by an army of small folk - Father Keating always loved the little ones and a judicious selection would be made from the throng. We would go off bird-nesting, and the two hours before dinner-time would pass in a flash. Everyone would enjoy the walk, Father Keating himself most of all. It was difficult to say why one liked him so much; perhaps it was the simplicity of his view which suited the young ones. He seemed, like them, to have an insight into the things which are more real because invisible and intangible, the really beautiful things which Plato imagined to be stored away in some ideal place where all is perfect and without spot.

Looking back one sees that those early days of companionship were indeed a time when the common things of nature.
“did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream”.

Further intercourse with Father Keating at a more mature age has strengthened this feeling; the key to his charm lay in the simple child-like, single view of all, which gave a zest to life. One felt in his presence the value of living, and the joy; the supernatural became evident in his cheerful, bright view of all eventualities, actual or possible. It did one good to know him, and one felt a participation of the strength which the supernatural view of all things gives, a strength proof against all vicissitudes, against the onslaught of external or internal foes, an unutterable security which seemed to be his reward for his perfect life; and which radiated in some way from Father Keating to all those who had the privilege of knowing him.

PJD

-oOo-

Lines to Father Keating, Scholar and Priest

Was it from wells of ancient classic lore
He drew his cultured sweetness, and the store
Of high and holy thoughts that made his life
So gracious, yet so firm-amid the strife
Of warring creed and class - that if the world
Had crashed, and all its fragments wildly hurl'd
Thro' space, his soul had still stood unafraid?
Perchance 'twere so! But something he displayed,

Ne'er caught from Greece or Rome's most glorious days,
That, more than classic culture, won the praise
And love of men. For now, the Light of Old
Is but a lonely star, that sternly cold,
Keeps from the frighted herd of clouds apart,
Or stoops to let them pass with scornful heart,
And glimmers thus thro' life, and dies at death.
Not thus was he! His was the mighty Faith.
Unclouded, glad, and simple as the sun,
That saw and met life's sorrows one by one,
The weariness—the sadness—and the crime,
The “tears of things” but straight, o'erleaping Тіmе,
Reached out to Heav'n with hands of eager prayer,
And caught and flung the mantle of God's care
O'er all the world-and what before was night
And night's wild storm-lo! now was Peace and Light.

DF

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, Golden Jubilee 1880-1930

Riverview in the ‘Eighties - A McDonnell (OR 1866-1888)

Father Pat Keating (whose brother, Fr, Tom Keating was then at Bourke St.) was a most remarkable man in many respects. A scholar in every sense of the term, he was a man of a most striking personality. Strikingly handsome, he was an all round athlete. It would be hard to find a game requiring strength and skill, which he could not play well. He used to play as a member of our team when the teams of the most formid able cricket clubs about Sydney visited Riverview. Being an all round expert at the game, he used to surprise these strangers, as the following incident will show. A match was being played against one of Sydney's best clubs, and the visitors won the toss. Father Keating went on as one of the bowlers. I was sitting near, and just to the rear of Father O'Connell, who was sitting next to the club's scorer and Secretary. Their admiration of Father Keating's bowling was freely expressed. As the bowler at the other end was also of good quality, the visiting team was out in a short space of time, and Father Keating was one of the opening batsmen. When he proved himself as expert with the bat as he had with the ball the visitors applauded heartily; but when he drove a ball from the visitors' best bowler far into the bush beyond the boundary, the gentlemen with the scoring book jumped to his feet and shouted: “By- that - parson can play cricket”. We did not laugh-aloud..because “language” was bad form; but I noticed that Father O'Connell's back underwent some decided convulsions for some time after.

Father Keating was a man of untiring energy. His day began before five in the morning, and he was still at work at ten o'clock at night, and this year in and year out. His was the first Mass celebrated, and for several months, I, with another boy, served this Mass. Father Keating always acted as prefect of the late or “voluntary” study—from nine to ten pm, and many a knot he solved for me when construing. It was he who awakened in me the admiration for Cicero which I have ever since retained. Though a man naturally of a quick and violent temper, no one could believe such to have been the case except on his own admission. He had so far trained himself in this respect that no one ever saw him exhibit the slightest annoyance or impatience, in word or action, although his face might flush. Some of the wilder spirits used to try to annoy him, but they never succeeded. He succeeded Fr Dalton as Rector at Riverview, and after he had been called by his Order to serve in the United Kingdom he was again made Rector at Riverview, and held that office until his death, which came alas too early, and we may well say we shall never see his like again. He united in himself so many great and admirable qualities, and such high attainments in the intellectual sphere, and yet he was the most humble and approachable of men. A great priest, a great scholar, a cul tured gentleman, a sterling friend, a model of the highest type of manhood, a great member of a great Order, the death of such a man leaves this world much poorer.

◆ The Clongownian, 1913

Obituary

Father Patrick Keating SJ

A cablegram received yesterday at St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, an nounced the death at Riverview College, Sydney, Australia, of the Very Rev Patrick Keating SJ. Although his field of duties during the greater part of his full and laborious life lay outside Ireland, there are still very many amongst us to whom the announcement of his death will cause a pang of bitter regret. Among the older generation, to whom he was a familiar figure, whether in his schooldays at Clongowes, or in the later years as Master there, and in Tullabeg, his name will come back as a fresh and invigorating memory. Prominent in his class, first in games, first in the affection of his school-fellows, such was he during his earlier years, and his later life did not belie the promise of his vigorous youth.

He was born in the town of Tipperary, and from there his family proceeded to America while he was yet very young. Later on he returned to pass his schooldays in Clongowes. He entered the Society of Jesus immediately after his course of rhetoric, and having gone through the full course of studies of literature in France and philosophy in Rome and Ger many, he was called back to Ireland to take up the work of teaching for six years before proceeding to his final theological studies. These were made in Austria and in England. In the year 1883 he volunteered for missionary work in Australia. His name and fame are well known in the Commonwealth. He directed with signal success the destinies of the important College of Xavier in Melbourne, and, later, Riverview, Sydney. Having been for many years Superior of the whole Australian Mission, he was recalled to Ireland to undertake the government of the Irish province. Having accomplished the work with conspicuous success, to the general regret of his friends in Ireland he was recalled to the broader field of his labours, and directed by his gentle and effective sway the Xavier College, Melbourne, before he was sent to undertake again the direction of the great Riverview College, overlooking Sydney Harbour. This position he occupied for some time past, and his later letters from there, received in Dublin during the week, gave his friends no indication either of weakened health or failing powers.

Thus the cable yesterday came as a great shock to his brethren. Father Keating was a man of varied parts. In a remarkable degree his gentleness, prudence, and knowledge of men were evinced in all his dealings and intercourse with others. He seemed particularly suited to the work of conducting retreats to the communities, but his labor lay mostly in other fields. It was, however to those who knew him most intimately, who enjoyed his confidence and friendship, to those who shared with him the intimacy and amenities of community life - it was to his brethren in religion to whom the charm and worth of his character were best known. His death is a serious loss to the Australian Mission as well as to the whole Jesuit Order in Ireland.

“Freeman” May 16th, 1913.

Kelly, William E, 1823-1909, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/212
  • Person
  • 21 October 1823-30 January 1909

Born: 21 October 1823, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 24 April 1850, St Acheul, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1854
Final Vows: 15 August 1881
Died: 30 January 1909, Milltown Park, Dublin

Older brother of Edward - RIP 1905 and Thomas - RIP 1898

by 1854 at Laval France (FRA) studying Theology 4
by 1856 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) teaching Theology
1st Missioner to Australia with Joseph Lentaigne 1865

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of Edward - RIP 1905 and Thomas - RIP 1898

Paraphrase and excerpts from a Tribute which appeared in the Melbourne Advocate :
“The Jesuit Order in particular and the Church in general have lost a cultured and fearless champion of Catholicity by the lamented death of Rev William Kelly SJ, who may be said to have died in harness, as when the summons came the Rev gentleman held the Chair of Ecclesiastical History in the famous College of the Order at Milltown Park.
Last Sunday, the Mission Superior of Jesuits in Australia, Thomas P Brown, received a cable message announcing the death of Father Kelly at the ripe old age of 86. .......
The late Father Kelly was in the very forefront of scholars, and did he desire it, that very conservative body, the French Academy, would have put his name on the Roll of Honour, so deep and thorough was his scholarship. Science and Art owe him a great debt of gratitude, for he did much for the advance of Science. He accompanied a gathering of the Members of the Royal Society for observing a transit of Venus, and for the promotion of military knowledge, he also did much. Those who had the privilege of listening to his lectures and sermons will never forget the power of his eloquence and his magnetic force of the treatment of the subject. He was, in a sense, an alchemist, for he had the power of turning anything he touched into gold. As a controversialist, he stood head and shoulders above his opponents. One of his masterly efforts was the vindication of the truth of eternal punishment. The late Archbishop Roger Vaughan of Sydney erected a Catholic Bible Hall in the capital, where lectures were given on Scripture and Sacred History by the late Father Kelly. He declined to discuss subtle biblical questions except with scholars, and this sometimes led to amusing episodes. Whilst in Victoria, he had very little leisure time, with calls for sermons and lectures taking up his attention. He also had charge of University classes at St Patrick’s College. He was born in Dublin 31 October 1823, and at the time of his death was in his 86th year. He made studies at Maynooth, at Laval and then Entered the Jesuits 24 April 1850. Just before leaving for Australia, he was on active Missionary work and had taught in the Colleges in Britain and Ireland. He was for some time Professor of Theology at St Beuno’s.
With Fr Joseph Lentaigne, Father Kelly reached Victoria in 1865. For years he worked zealously in Melbourne and Sydney, and in the latter he was wont to deliver two lectures a week on ecclesiastical subjects. He was a lecturer in Moral Philosophy at St John’s College within Sydney University, and he taught at the Jesuit College there too. he left Australia in 1889 and worked in Ireland until his death”.
1889 He returned to Ireland from Australia and became a distinguished Theologian at the newly opened Theologate at Milltown. And he lived and worked there until his death 30 January 1909, twenty years after his return.

He was a great personal friend of Archbishop James Goold of Melbourne, and travelled round with him a great deal. In Dr Goold’s Journals, he frequently made mention of William Kelly’s activities, such as : Sermon at the laying of the foundation stone at St Kilda’s; Sermon at St Augustine’s; Sermon at Blessing of Bell - St Francis; Month’s Mind of Dr James Quinn of Brisbane; At Requiem of Reverend Mother at Abbotsford; Installation of Dr Michael O’Connor at Ballarat; Special sermons at Heidelberg, Maryborough and Williamstown; At laying of foundation stone at Kew College. These are but a few of his activities. He preached up and down Australia, gave lectures, answered attacks on the Church, all through the 24 years he spent in Australia. 1865 to 1889.

Note from Joseph O’Malley Entry :
He made his Noviceship in France with William Kelly, and then remained there for studies with Eugene Browne and Edmund Hogan

Note from Charles O’Connell Sr Entry :
William E Kelly, Superior at Hawthorn, says in a letter 09 April 1912 to Thomas Wheeler “Poor Father Charlie was on his way from his room to say the 8 o’clock Mass, when a few yards from his room he felt faint and had a chair brought to him. Thomas Claffey, who had just returned from saying Mass at the Convent gave him Extreme Unction. Thomas Gartlan and I arrived, and within twenty minutes he had died without a struggle. The evening before he had been seeing some sick people, and we have since learned complained of some heart pain. Up to the last he did his usual work, taking everything in his turn, two Masses on Sundays, sermons etc, as the rest of us. We shall miss him very much as he was a charming community man.

Note from John McInerney Menologies Entry :
He went afterwards to St Patrick’s College, Melbourne, and there he had amongst his teachers Fathers William Kelly, Frank Murphy and William Hughes.

◆ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University online
Kelly, William (1823–1909)
by G. J. O'Kelly
G. J. O'Kelly, 'Kelly, William (1823–1909)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kelly-william-3937/text6195, published first in hardcopy 1974

academic; Catholic priest; schoolteacher

Died : 30 January 1909, Dublin, Ireland

William Kelly (1823-1909), Jesuit priest, was born on 21 October 1823 in Dublin, Ireland. After secondary education he entered Maynooth seminary but was expelled because of a poem he wrote in sympathy for the 'Young Ireland' movement. Later he applied for admission to the Society of Jesus and was accepted on 24 April 1850. On 21 September 1865 he arrived at Port Phillip with Joseph Lentaigne who became rector of St Patrick's College, East Melbourne; they were the first Irish Jesuits in the colony. For the next twelve years Kelly was officially master of the matriculation class at St Patrick's but was also appointed by his superior, Joseph Dalton, to teach philosophy and theology to the students for the diocesan priesthood then housed at the college.

Kelly's repute as a versatile scholar did not rest simply on his classroom activities. He excelled as a polemicist and was the most celebrated Catholic preacher in Victoria from 1866 to 1877. Almost weekly the press carried reports of his Town Hall lectures and apologias. Dr James Goold's diary for 1869 has him preaching at thirteen special functions all over Victoria, and Howard Willoughby claimed that 'Father Kelly is the orator chosen in Melbourne when the Church has to show that her right hand still possesses its cunning … He is the controversialist called upon to confute error in the lecture-hall, and win ringing applause from fiery partisans'. He was very popular and his speeches were often interrupted by 'deafening applause'. Perhaps his most celebrated doctrinal controversy was with Dr John Bromby in several Town Hall lectures on the existence of hell. From 1869, although Kelly's most frequent topic was secular education, he also lectured in such diverse fields as history, zoology, literature, physics, astronomy and chemistry. In 1871 his paper on tests for arsenic to the Royal Society of Victoria won him election to its council in 1872-73. Optics and astronomy were his favourite fields and in 1882 the Royal Astronomical Society invited him to join the party which intended to observe the transit of Venus from the Blue Mountains.

In 1878 Dalton sent Kelly to Sydney as prefect of studies at St Kilda House, the forerunner to St Aloysius College. In Sydney he revealed himself less as a polemicist and more as a scholar, and so never attained the popularity that he had in Victoria. In 1888 he was recalled to Ireland to profess Greek and Hebrew to the Jesuit theological students at Milltown Park. At 80 he was credited with undertaking the study of Persian. He died on 30 January 1909 in Dublin.

Select Bibliography
H. Willoughby, The Critic in Church (Melb, 1872)
Age (Melbourne), 1 Feb 1909
Jesuit and St Patrick's College records (Jesuit Provincial Archives, Hawthorn, Melbourne).

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/commemorating-the-sesquicentenary-of-the-arrival-of-irish-jesuits-in-australia/

Commemorating the sesquicentenary of the arrival of Irish Jesuits in Australia
This year the Australian Province of the Jesuits are commemorating the sesquicentenary of the arrival of Irish Jesuits in Australia. Australia became the first overseas mission of the Irish Jesuit Province. To mark the occasion the Archdiocese of Melbourne are organising a special thanksgiving Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne 27 September. On 20 June Damien Burke, Assistant Archivist, Irish Jesuit Archives gave a talk at the 21st Australasian Irish Studies conference, Maynooth University, titled “The archives of the Irish Jesuit Mission to Australia, 1865-1931”. In his address Damien described the work of this mission with reference to a number of documents and photographs concerning it that are held at the Irish Jesuit Archives.
Irish Jesuits worked mainly as missionaries, and educators in the urban communities of eastern Australia. The mission began when two Irish Jesuits Frs. William Lentaigne and William Kelly, arrived in Melbourne in 1865 at the invitation of Bishop James Alipius Goold, the first Catholic bishop of Melbourne. They were invited by the Bishop to re-open St. Patrick’s College, Melbourne, a secondary school, and to undertake the Richmond mission. From 1865 onwards, the Irish Jesuits formed parishes and established schools while working as missionaries, writers, chaplains, theologians, scientists and directors of retreats, mainly in the urban communities of eastern Australia. By 1890, 30% of the Irish Province resided in Australia.
By 1931, this resulted in five schools, eight residences, a regional seminary in Melbourne and a novitiate in Sydney. Dr Daniel Mannix, archbishop of Melbourne, showed a special predication for the Jesuits and requested that they be involved with Newman College, University of Melbourne in 1918. Six Jesuits (five were Irish-born) served as chaplains with the Australian Forces in the First World War and two died, Frs Michael Bergin and Edwards Sydes. Both Michael Bergin and 62 year-old Joe Hearn, earned the Military Cross. Bergin was the only Catholic chaplain serving with the Australian Imperial Force to have died as a result of enemy action in the First World War.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
William Kelly studied for the diocesan priesthood at Maynooth but left without completing his course because he had written a poem in sympathy for the “Young Ireland” movement. He entered the Jesuits 24 April 1850, at the age of 26. There is no record of his work in Ireland before he arrived in Australia 1865, where he taught matriculation students and seminarians at St Patrick’s College, East Melbourne.
While in Melboune he produced at least two dramas that were published. The first was “The Young Queen : Will She Tell? A Christian Drama in Three Acts”, composed for the students of the Convent School of Our Lady of Mercy, Perth, Western Australia, published in 1871. The second was “Marie Antionette, A Drama in Three Acts” 1875. The first was described by William as “embodying some of the principle agencies made use of by Divine Providence for the conversion of the pagan world”, while the second was written entirely in rhyming pentameters with songs and original music.
He moved to Sydney and St Kilda House in 1879, teaching the boys Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy until 1889. He also gave lectures in Logic and metaphysics at St John’s College within the University of Sydney for an annual fee of £100, and many public lectures on the Scriptures' and Catholic dogma. He was in demand for occasional sermons at the opening of churches and solemn festivals.. He was also a poet, linguist, controversialist and missioner, remaining in Australia 24 years. He returned to Ireland in July 1889 to become a Professor of Scripture, Hebrew and Church History at the Jesuit Theologate in Milltown Park.
He was one of the most gifted Jesuits ever to have worked in Australia. Only superlatives are used to describe his gifts, “a veritable polymath, poet, scientist linguist, scripture scholar, controversialist and preacher”. He was adept in Science, Mathematics, History, the Classics, Arabic, Syriac and Sanskrit. As an Astronomer he was highly esteemed by the Royal Astronomical Society. He had worked with them in observing the transit of Venus that took place in 1882.
He was recognised for his wit, good humour and modesty. He completely supported the traditional Jesuit emphasis on a classical education, Mathematics and astronomy.
His students appear to have reacted to him with awe. He was loved and admired at St Patrick’s College, where he taught all nine matriculation subjects, to which he added Chemistry and Physics. He particularly enjoyed preparing academic vignettes with the students for speech day entertainment. He was equally at home with music, drama, recitations in different languages and debates.. One former student reckoned him to be a better lecturer than teacher, but he was above all a kind and lovable person, “most affable and amiable and intimately known by his pupils”. He was a good friend to his students, sharing “the encyclopaedic repository of his gigantic intellect”.
As with many Jesuits, his contribution to Australian education was not restricted to the classroom. He entered every kind of religious controversy, not least the religious education debate in Victoria in the 1870s. His farewell, amid much ceremony, from Victoria was an emotional affair, his departure being considered a tragedy for the Church in that colony. A similar ceremony was held by the Catholic community in Sydney on his departure to Ireland, at which he was praised for his eloquence, devotion and unsurpassable kindness of heart, as priest, scholar and gentleman. His equal was rarely seen again among the Jesuits in Australia.

Note from Walter Steins Entry
Under medical advice he sailed for Europe on 4 May, but was forced to break his journey in Sydney, and went to St Kilda House. Here his condition became worse, and on 4 August, William Kelly said Mass, administered extreme unction and gave him viaticum. Steins held on for a few more weeks until he finally died.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 1st Year No 1 1925

St Patrick’s College, Melbourne has just celebrated its Diamond Jubilee as a Jesuit College. It is the mother house of the Australian Mission.
On September 21st 1865, Fathers Joseph Lentaigne and William Kelly, the pioneer Missioners of the Society in Victoria, landed in Melbourne and took over the College.
On September 17th, 1866 , the second contingent of Irish priests arrived - Fr. Joseph Dalton, Fr. Edmund Nolan, Fr. David McKiniry and two lay brothers - Br. Michael Scully and Br. Michael Goodwin.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 2 1930

St Aloysius College Sydney Australia : Golden Jubilee
St Aloysius College celebrated the Golden Jubilee of its Foundation in the course of last year. The principal functions were held on the 22nd July, and from the 25th to the 29th September.
The beginning of the College is mentioned in Fr, Dalton's diary, under date Nov. 21st 1878. After much negotiation terms were accepted for St. Kilda House at £260 rent per annum. At that date, if the Jesuits, at the invitation of Archbishop Vaughan, had not come to the rescue, there would not have been a single Catholic College in Sydney.
The College was opened early in 1879 with Fr. Dalton as first Rector and Fr, Wm Kelly, Prefect of Studies At the first distribution of prizes, Dec. 23rd 1879, Archbishop Vaughan presided, and claimed the responsibility of having brought the Jesuits to Sydney. “It is I who invited Fr. Beckx, the venerable and saintly General of the Society of Jesus, to found a school and finally a College in Sydney, and gladly do I publicly acknowledge before you all my great gratification at having done so”.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1887

Poem

Father William E Kelly

English Ode

I
Hair scion, sprung from line of kings,
To thee, Australia Felix sings -
At all time “Feliz” - happier now,
Beneath her Prince's beaming brow.

II
First Royal foot that ever trod
Remote Australia's youthful sod,
Victoria welcomes, Melbourne greets,
The future hope of Eagland's fleets.

III
Neatlı canvas broad and flag unfurled,
He hies him o'er the ratery world,
To bear unchangecl, to Southern isles,
The sunshine of a Mother's smiles.

IV
Whispered of old Rome's lyric son,
“Fair Galatea, Ocean shun”.
He sang the perils of the deep,
Orion setting wild and steep,

V
Black billows lashed by furious gale,
Unbridled storm and straining sail,
“Shun, Galatea, shun the sea,
Live happy, and remember me”.

VI
No storm thy Galatea dreads,
From rolling Thame to southern heads;
The perils of the wind and wave,
Stout ship anel Royal captain brave.

VII
Haill spreading sea, great path of man
Hail! boundless oceanic span;
On thee, fair Science writes her trace,
Grand highway of the human race.

VIII
Be not displeased then if my voice,
Heroic Prínce applaucl thy choice,
O'er ocean, gulf, stream, bay to roam,
And make the mighty sea thy home.

IX
To change the palace fair and high,
For gallant ship and starry sky,
To quit the haunts of gorgeous case,
And be a Prince upon the seas.

X
A sailor Prince that magic word
Has deepest reminiscence stirred,
Of Royal steersmen, sea-kings brave,
And princes powerful on the wave

XI
In mystic days of earlier Greece,
Prince Jason sought the Golden Fleece,
Led hearts of oak o'er Euxine foam,
And plough'd his way triumphant home

XII
O'er wider ocean's plash and roar,
A Prince has sought Australia's shore,
The land which yields true Fleece of Gold,
Exhaustless mines and flocks untold.

XIII
The princely flag of Austrian John
Once lecl united nations on ;
That pennon at Lepanto waved
O'er Crescent cbeckecl and Europe saved.

XIV
Thy Royal banner floats to-day
O'er hosts engaged in bloodless fray,
Thy streamer waves o'er triumphs won
Where flashed no cutlass, boomed no gun.

XV
The tongues that Gaul and Briton speak,
And stately Roman, fiery Greek ;
The page that pictures deeds of yore,
And Science with her varied lore.

XVI
Such is our field, and such our arms -
This Royal scene attests their charms.
The memory of this gracious day
Shall live till life has ebbed away,

XVII
Thy princely band the prize accords ;
That hand, thy smile, our best rewards.
Hail gallant Prince! loud, long our cries
Of gratitude and welcome risc
Sonorous, through land, sea, and skies
The Queen, God save!
Heaven shield the brave;
Be Prince Alfred happy on land and wave.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1929

Tribute

Father William Kelly SJ

by Father Frank Connell SJ

Any history of St. Aloysius College would be faulty indeed without notable mention of Father William Kelly. This great man - we carefully select our terms - was on the original staff, and in his memory is held in benediction by Old Collegians of the first decade of the life of the College. He was of a most affable and amiable disposition, and was intimately known by his pupils none of whom he ever afterwards forgot - just because he was so easy to know and deal with. At the time of his departure from Sydney to begin his career as professor of Hebrew, Scripture and Church History at the Theological Seminary, at Milltown Park, Dublin - a post he held for 20 laborious years - one of his former pupils, who had become a prominent medico, said of him: “With Father Kelly, you were not just a college-boy paying for your education; you were a personal friend with a passport to the encyclopaedic repository of his gigantic inteilect”. He was an adept in science, mathematical, physical, and natural; he was a historian with a tenacious memory for even small details of ancient mediaeval and modern history; he was a linguist, with an astounding familiarity with ancient classics, as well as modern languages, he knew Arabic, Syriac, Sanscrit, Hebrew; he once acted as interpreter in a law-court for a poor Polynesian prisoner; he was a wonderful orator; he was an astronomer, he was a poet; he was it seemed, everything that intellectual activity could make a man. In addition he was a ravishing conversationalist; and a glorious wit. In 1889. Father Isaac Moore SJ, himself known in Ireland, England and Australia as a man of great learning, said of him after consulting him about some abstruse matter “I have known him forty years, and have always classed him a universal genius; but I am finding out new things about him every day”. The present writer heard him say in a conversation among his brethren, when a Greek quotation was being discussed: “That word occurs only three times in Greek literature outside of the writings of St Paul, Each time it is used by Theocritus, who always uses it in the same sense”.

Before entering the Society of Jesus Father Kelly had been a student at Maynooth. One day during a mathematical lecture by the famous Dr Callan, that professor imagined he saw Mr Kelly somewhat inattentive, and called him out to the black-board to complete the solution of a problem. In course of interrogation the professor asked “How would you find a key to deal with that set of numbers in order to attain that result?” “I would go to my logarithm tables”, was the reply. “What if there were no logarithm tables?” was the poser put by the professor. Mr. Kelly looked puzzled for just a moment, and then after looking at the board for a moment, he flashed out the original answer: “If there were a set of numbers in arithmetical progression and the same set in geometrical progression, they would be logarithms to each other” and now it is in all the books.

He entered the Society of Jesus in. 1850, and after his two years' novitiate, was sent to France where he soon completed his clerical preparation, and was ordained priest. His next brother had preceded him as a Jesuit novice, and a third entered a few years later. These two brothers were also men of great talents, and became famous as school men and preachers, but their wonderful brother stood even above them. Father William had already speedily become renowned throughout Ireland when, in the fifties he was appointed, though yet a young man, professor of Dogmatic Theology at St Beuno's College, Wales, in the English Province. An anecdote will testify to the reputation he gained there. This writer having being introduced to Old Father Everard of Stonyhurst, as an Australian about to proceed to Ireland, the old Father said: “O then you know and will meet Father William Kelly. He was my professor forty years ago and we regarded him then as a prodigy of learning. He was also a tireless student, so what must he be now? Give him my affectionate regards, and tell him that if I had Saint Peter's boots I'd walk over the sea to meet him once more”.

When, in 1865, the Jesuits, in compliance with the request of Dr Goold OSA, Bishop of Melbourne, consented to take charge of St Patrick's College, Melbourne, until then under other management, Father Lentaigne and Father William Kelly were appointed to pioneer the movement. There is a pretty story of their landing. Their steamer, the Great Britain, had cast anchor some distance out, and the passengers were rowed ashore. When the two priests stood up to step ashore on the sand, Father Kelly stood back to let his superior go first. The latter however, was equally humble, and did not want the honour of landing first. “Go on”, said he. “No Father”, said Father Kelly, “You are the Superior; you go first”. “Yes, I am Superior, and I order you to go first”. But Father Kelly pleaded and won. The other landed first. On that very day they landed Father Kelly got into the pulpit, and preached the evening sermon at a mission which was being conducted by the Bishop. He became famous at once. Space will allow us to present mere patches of his wonderful career as a preacher, writer and teacher. Look up old newspapers, or ask the aged for details of the rest. One noteworthy exploit was his refutation at the request of the Bishop, of a series of eloquent lectures by a Protestant dignitary, Dr Bromby, whose addresses on “Beyond the Grave” were deemed dangerous to Christian truth regarding eternity. An immense mixed audience thronged the Melbourne Town Hall to hear Father Kelly in reply, and the Argus sent quite a staff of reporters to secure a complete report of the lecture which took two hours and a half to deliver. Father Kelly appeared on the platform without a book or note of any kind in his hands, and poured forth a torrent of eloquence that frequently carried the whole audience into enthusiastic outbursts of cheering. He was a very rapid but distinct, speaker, and only two of the reporters - one of whom was Dr Cunningham, the recently retired editor of the Argus - by relieving each other, secured a complete report, which was afterwards published as a pamphlet. It is treasured by Catholic scholars as a triumph of eloquent apologetic.

After 13 fruitful years of varied and untiring toil Father Kelly was transferred to Sydney, whither the Jesuits came under Father Dalton, the first Superior, to open a college at the request of the Archbishop, Dr Roger Bede Vaughan OSB. A house was secured in the now unlikely district of Woolloomooloo in the part touching on Darlinghurst, and here it was that the first College of St Aloysius was initiated in 1879. It was afterwards - in 1883 transferred to Bourke Street, Surry Hills. Some years later 1903, it was changed to its present site at Milson's Point; but that was after Father Kelly had left for Ireland. Old Aloysians of those days will be able to testify to the unremitting labours of Father Kelly during the eleven years he was connected with the college. He had been from the date of his arrival lecturer on philosophy in St John's College, University, and in 1883 was appointed by Dr Vaughan to be Public Scripture Lecturer in the newly-opened “Bible Hall” in William Street*. One outstanding episode was his brilliant funeral oration in St Mary's Cathedral, at the obsequies of Dr Steins SJ, formerly Archbishop of Calcutta, and later Archbishop of Auckland, who died at the first St Aloysius College, “St Kilda House”. An even more brilliant funeral oration was that which in 1889 he preached over the remains of his friend, the Hon William Bede Dalley, also in St. Mary's. Non-Catholic Parliamentarians and other public men who heard him for the first time were heard enquiring who was this great orator, and where the Catholics had got him.

The rest of the career of this great scholar and holy priest was spent in Ireland.

(*Father Kelly, as desired professed himself ready to meet any non-Catholic opponent in controversy on Scriptural and doctrinal sub jects. He merely stipulated that any prospec tive adversary should have a thorough know ledge of Hebrew and Greek, Needless to say, no one entered the lists).

Leahy, Thomas, 1846-1908, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1564
  • Person
  • 25 August 1846-11 February 1908

Born: 25 August 1846, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 05 August 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1880, Laval, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 11 February 1908, St Patrick’s, Melbourne, Australia

by 1868 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1871 at Antwerp Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1879 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1885 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship
Came to Australia in 1887

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education at College of Immaculate Conception, Summerhill, Athlone. Here he had as fellow students, Michael Watson SJ, Sir Anthony MacDonnell who became Under-Secretary for Ireland and Mr TP O’Connor, later editor of “MAP” and other Journals.

After First Vows he studied Rhetoric at Amiens, Philosophy at Louvain, Theology at Louvain and he was Ordained there in 1880.
He was a Teacher at various Colleges, Tullabeg, Galway and Belvedere, and later Minister at Crescent.
1880 After Ordination he was sent to Australia.
1890 Appointed Rector of St Patrick’s Melbourne. After his time as Rector he continued on teaching at St Patrick’s, acted as Minister for a time, and remained there until his death 11 February 1908 aged 62.
He was thought gentle and courteous to all, and sometimes called “Silken Thomas”. His death was reported as most edifying.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Thomas Leahy studied at Athlone before entering the Society at Milltown Park, 5 August 1865 . He studied philosophy at Louvain, 1869-70, and theology at Laval, France, 1879-80. He taught mathematics and natural philosophy at the Crescent, Limerick, 1874-76, and French, mathematics and physics at Belvedere College, Dublin, 1880-83. Before tertianship at Roehampton, England, 1884, he was minister at University College, Dublin. Then he was appointed to teach at the Crescent and in Galway, 1885-87, before leaving for Australia in 1887. His first appointment was to prepare students in Classics, French and English for the public examination at Riverview. He became prefect of studies at St Aloysius' College, Bourke Street, 1889-90, and continued his teaching for the public examinations. His first administrative appointment was as rector of St Patrick's College, 1890-97, when he was also procurator and prefect of studies, as well as a teacher. Afterwards he taught in succession at St Aloysius' College, 1897-98, Xavier College as minister, 1898-1901, and St Patrick’s College as minister 1901-08. He was a very gentle, kind man, whom everybody seemed to like, and he did a great deal of good work, but without any fanfare. At Riverview he was considered a fine teacher of classics.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1908

Obituary

Father Thomas Leahy SJ

Xaverians of the early nineties will remember Father Leahy. He was Minister of the College during part of the time in which Father Ryan was Rector. Later he was transferred to St Patrick's. He was remarkable for his kindness and good nature, having al ways a cheerful word, and loving a quiet joke. He died at St Patrick's, after a short illness, on February 11th, RI.P.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, Golden Jubilee 1880-1930

Riverview in the ‘Eighties - A McDonnell (OR 1866-1888)

Fr Leahy, who came to Riverview at the same time as Fr Tuite, in 1886, was his opposite in many respects.. A big handsome man with a singularly benevolent face. And he was as good as he looked. When he took over the office of Prefect, he addressed us, and announced his policy, and told us what we might expect from him, and what he expected from us. For the first two or three weeks he rather kept us at arm's length, but after that he put unbounded confidence in us, and I think I can fairly say that this attitude was justified. During the half it was not necessary for the Prefect to secure order, the boys relieved him of that duty. Some times one of the “game chaps” would be inclined to play up, but an admonition from the more steady ones to the following effect would secure order: “Don't be a fool, you don't know when you have a good thing on”. Such warning or advice was not couched in formal terms, or strictly correct language, but it was always effective, because it expressed the opinion and the will of the majority. I have said that Fr. Leahy was not to be imposed upon by “leg-pullers”, and the boys soon found that out. They tried it in the playground, and they tried it in class, but he was proof against all their wiles. He was teacher of classics in my class, and a fine teacher, too. His idea of learning any language was to acquire it by ear. Acting on this principle, he used to make the whole class recite, in a good loud voice, declensions and conjugations, he leading. This was soon found to fix the grammar, even into the heads of the inattentive. It also had the effect of imparting a correct idea of “quantity”. When construing a Latin text, he would recite, in his fine style, parallel passages from both Latin and Greek authors, and it was a treat to hear him giving out the sonorous Greek. The artful boys used to “fag up” passages from “word books” of these languages, and put them to him as posers, but he was equal to them. When they attempted to coax him away from the class work, he would say: “Now boys, we have digressed sufficiently, let us return to our work”. Nothing delighted him more during playtime, than to engage the boys in conversation, above all he was anxious to learn all he could about Australia. Its birds, animals and plant life interested him intensely, and he longed to see the conditions of life in the interior.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Leahy (1846-1908)

A native of Ballinasloe, entered the Society in 1865. He spent four years of his regency at the Crescent, 1874-78. He returned for a year after the completion of his studies when he held the position of minister. The next year was spent in the same office at St. Ignatius', Galway when he was transferred to the Australian mission. The greater part of his career was afterwards spent at Melbourne, where he was rector of St Patrick's College from 1890 to 1896.

Lynch, John, 1796-1867, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1601
  • Person
  • 10 October 1796-26 November 1867

Born: 10 October 1796, Dublin City County Dublin
Entered: 03 October 1821, Montrouge, Paris, France - Angliae Province (ANG) / St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 20/05/1826, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, County Kildare
Final Vows: 08 September 1841
Died: 26 November 1867, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin

Ordained at St Patrick’s College Maynooth, within an octave of Pentecost 1826, having studied Theology at Clongowes. (Given as “James” Lynch, but in previous lists at St Patrick’s he is called “John”

by 1829 in Clongowes
by 1839 doing Tertianship in Amiens France (FRA)
by 1851 at St Joseph’s Church Philadelphia, PA

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied some years at Maynooth before Entry.

His Novitiate was spent partly at Montrouge and partly at Tullabeg.
After Ordination 20 May 1826 at Clongowes, where he spent many years as a Prefect and Teacher, he was sent for Tertianship in France.
Before 1850 he was sent to the Maryland Mission, returning to Ireland in 1854. he sent many novices from Ireland and France to the Maryland Mission.
The final years of his life were spent at the Dublin Residence, Gardiner St. He suffered from a most painful cancer of the stomach, and enduring this with patience and fortitude, he died 27 November 1867.
He was a man of great piety, observing the rules, active, zealous and charitable. He was a good mathematician, and had a keen interest in architecture. He had planned many houses in both Ireland and the US. he also translated many books from Italian and French into English. he was a very zealous promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer. He was distinguished for his great constancy in faith in God.

Mahon, Henry, 1804-1879, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1660
  • Person
  • 25 September 1804-04 May 1879

Born: 25 September 1804, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 November 1823, Montrouge, Paris, France - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 20 December 1834, Stonyhurst
Final Vows: 15 August 1841
Died: 04 May 1879, Stonyhurst, Lancashire, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Early education in Humanities at Stonyhurst before Entry

1827 At a newly opened Jesuit school in London
1834 Ordained at Stonyhurst by Bishop Penswick 20 December 1834
1842-1847 After serving at Wardour Castle and St Ignatius Church, Preston, he was appointed Superior of the St Francis Xavier College (Hereford District), and of the Residence of St George (Worcester District), and residing as Chaplain at Spetchley Park.
1848-1851 Served the Shepton Mallet and Bristol Missions, also being Superior At St George’s.
1851-1858 Served on the London Mission
1858 he served the Great Yarmouth, Edinburgh, Worcester, London and Liverpool Missions, and then went to Stonyhurst for health reasons in 1872. He died there 04 May 1879 aged 75.

He was distinguished for his eloquence in the pulpit and skill as a Confessor. (Province Record)

McDonnell, John, 1848-1928, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/703
  • Person
  • 01 February 1848-07 November 1928

Born: 01 February 1848, George (O'Connell) Street, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 14 September 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1877, Leuven, Belgium
Final Vows: 02 February 1887
Died: 07 November 1928, Milltown Park, Dublin

Educated at Crescent College SJ

by 1870 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1871 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1877 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1886 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After his Noviceship he was sent to St Acheul (Amiens) for Juniorate, and then to Louvain for Philosophy.
He was then sent to Tullabeg for Regency and returned to Louvain for Theology in 1875.
1885 He was sent to Belgium for Tertianship.
He spent seven years at Tullabeg as a Prefect or Teacher. He also spent six years in Belvedere, six years at Mungret and four at Crescent. He was also an Operarius for four years at Milltown and seven years in Galway.
He died at Milltown 07 November 1928.
His life was somewhat uneventful and hidden, though nonetheless meritorious. Teaching or Prefecting the youngest boys in the various Colleges won admiration from many. Given that he was a very highly strung man, this kind of work was quietly heroic.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 4th Year No 2 1929

Obituary :
Fr John McDonnell
John McDonnell was born in Limerick February 1st 1848, and began his noviceship at Milltown September 14th 1867. There were 24 novices in those days at Milltown, amongst them Frs. T. and P. Finlay. R. Kane, Weafer, Waters etc, He made his juniorate at S. Acheul, his philosophy at Louvain, and then went to Tullabeg as prefect. There he remained until 1875, in which year he returned to Louvain for theology. His tertianship was made in Belgium in 1885. As prefect or master Fr, McDonnell spent 7 years in Tullabeg, 6 in Belvedere, 6 in Mungret, 5 in Clongowes and 4 at the Crescent, in all 28 years. He was operarius for 4 years at Milltown and 7 in Galway. His happy death took place in Dublin on the 27 November 1928.If Fr. McDonnell's life was uneventful and hidden it was certainly meritorious. Teaching or prefecting, for 28 years, the smallest boys in the various Colleges where he was stationed is a feat that wins our admiration, and was an abundant source of merit to himself. When it is added that nature had given Fr McDonnell a set of highly strung nerves, his life for these years must have bordered on the heroic. RIP.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John McDonnell (1848-1928)

A native of Limerick and one of the first pupils of Crescent College, entered the Society in 1867. He made his higher studies at St Acheul and Louvain where he was ordained in 1878. He spent two periods as master in the Crescent, 1887-88 and 1895-98. His teaching career throughout the Irish Jesuit colleges amounted to twenty-eight years. He spent some twelve years in church work at Milltown Park and Galway. He died at Milltown Park on 27 June, 1928.

McGrath, Thomas, 1841-1927, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1716
  • Person
  • 25 January 1841-23 May 1927

Born: 25 January 1841, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 23 September 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1874, Laval, France
Final vows: 02 February 1887
Died: 23 May 1927, Loyola College, Greenwich, Sydney, Australia

by 1870 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1871 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1875 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1878 at Holy Name Manchester - Holy Cross Bedminster (ANG) working
by 1878 at Holy Name Manchester - St Helen’s (ANG) working
by 1885 at Mariendaal, Osterbeek Netherlands (NER) making Tertianship
Went to Australia with John McInerney 1885

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After his Novitiate he was sent for Philosophy and some Theology at Louvain, finishing his Theology at Laval, after which he was sent to Mariendaal, Holland for Tertianship.
1884 He was sent to Australia and he spent most of his years there at St Aloysius Sydney, and was Minister there for many years.
1919 His health gave way and he was moved to the Novitiate at Loyola, Greenwich, and remained there until he died 23 May 1927

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Thomas McGrath entered the Society as a priest, 23 September 1867. He completed his juniorate studies at St Acheul, France, 1869-70, and studied one year of theology at Laval, France, 1874. He taught at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg, Galway, Limerick and Mungret, during the years 1875-84, before tertianship at Mariendaal, Holland, 1884-85. Then he left for Australia, arriving in December 1885 .
For the rest of his apostolic life, McGrath spent his time at St Aloysius College, 1885-1919, teaching French and bookkeeping, as well as being a thoughtful minister for a number of years. As a teacher he was recognised by all as kind and considerate, though a strict disciplinarian.
At Milsons Point he was mainly involved with pastoral work at the Star of the Sea Church. Because of failing health, he retired to Loyola College, Greenwich, from 1919 until his death.
For many years he was confessor to the Jesuit novices and the Josephite novices at Mount Street, North Sydney, He was considered a likeable man by those who knew him. He was bearded, and in later life nearly blind and almost deaf. He continued saying a special Mass for priests with poor sight until the end, even though he practically had to be held at the altar by the novice servers.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Had spent several years at business in Dublin before entry. Had been St Stanislaus student

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 2nd Year No 4 1927
Obituary :
Fr Tom McGrath :

On 8th May Fr Tom McGrath the senior in age of, our Province, died at Loyola, Sydney.

He was born on the 25th January, 1841, in Dublin, and entered the Novitiate, Milltown, in 1867. He had a year's rhetoric in France, and made philosophy and theology at Louvain, with the exception of the last year, which was passed at Laval. 1875 found him Prefect in Tullabeg, and from that date to 1884. he did excellent work at Galway, Crescent, Mungret, and on the Mission in England. In 1884-85 he made his tertianship in Mariendaal, Holland, and immediately afterwards sailed for Australia. Until his health broke down he worked at St. Aloysius' College, First at Bourke Street, Sydney, and then at Milson's Point. He was for sixteen years Minister. In 1919 his health gave way, and he was moved to the Novitiate, where he remained until he died. On the evening of his death the Master of Novices selected as the subject of his points the life of the good old man. He dwelt on his patience under pain and humiliation, which were intense as the end drew near, on his great faith, on his charity--he was never heard to say an unkind word of anyone-on his respect for superiors, and on his exact observance of spiritual duties. The impression made on the youthful community was deep, for they knew that the Master's words were not a. mere formula, that the virtues he put before them found a living realisation in the holy life and death of Fr. Tom McGrath.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas McGrath (1841-1927)

Was born in Dublin and admitted to the Society in 1867. He made his higher studies in France and Louvain and was ordained at Laval in 1875. For the next nine years he was prefect or master in Tullabeg, Galway, the Crescent and Mungret. He spent one year as master and worker in the Sacred Heart Church. Transferred to Australia in 1885, he continued his work in the colleges and in spite of delicate health carried out for many years the onerous duties of minister of the house.

Murphy, Alfred, 1827-1902, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/565
  • Person
  • 17 April 1827-28 October 1902

Born: 17 April 1827, Youghal, County Cork
Entered: 05 September 1844, St Acheul, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1856
Final Vows: 02 February 1864
Died: 28 October 1902, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

by 1847 in Namur (BELG) studying
by 1856 Studying at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG)
by 1863 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Clongowes, where he even studied Philosophy under Henry Lynch. Always popular with students and Staff his nickname was “Steamer” largely attributed to his commanding stature and energetic gait, and it was intended as a compliment. Less complimentary was a later nickname of “The Handsome Scholastic” given him by the pupils of Belvedere!

After First Vows he remained in France for some studies.
He made his Theology studies at St Beuno’s, and a year in Dublin at the Theologate at Nth Frederick St which had Michael O’Ferrall as Rector, and William Kelly, Edmund O’Reilly and Daniel Jones as Professors.
He then made his tertianship in Rome.
He worked as a teacher for ten years, 2 at Belvedere and 8 at Clongowes. He was known to be teaching Rhetoric at Clongowes in 1859.
He was also Minister at Belvedere for a period.
1865-1870 He was Rector at Tullabeg. During his term, the tower of the Church was erected.
1870-1876 he was sent to Galway as Vice-Rector, and in 1872-1876 he became Rector.
1876 He was sent to Gardiner St, and remained there until his death. He worked very hard there, and exercised an apostolate of kindness and unwavering perseverance, especially in the Confessional. In the latter stages of his life it was noticed that his health was failing, and he gave great edification in his final illness. When his mind began to wander, he was focused on the work he had given a lot of his life to - and so he was found in the Confessional when the Church was empty, and he was still trying to arrange some convent Retreats for the Fathers. He received the Last Rites from Edward Kelly, who had just returned from the Procurators meeting in Rome. He died a happy death in Gardiner St 28 October 1902. His funeral was one of the first for many years in which he was not the celebrant. It was attended by the Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr Matthew Gaffney the Bishop of Meath, and a large number of Priests and Lay People.
He was a good organiser, and for many years was responsible for coordinating the many Retreats give by Ours in Convents. He required great diplomacy to manage the vagaries of ours and many Mothers Superior. He was a good writer, and this stood him well in the number of letters this task required of him.
He also occasionally contributed some musical verses to the “Irish Monthly”.
He served as Provincial Socius for several years up to 1884, and for six months was Vice-Provincial (1889-1890) while the Provincial Timothy Kenny was on Visitation in Australia.
On one occasion he was invited by a brilliant young Professor, who later became Dean Henry Neville of Cork, and accompanied by Robert Carbery, who was a Prefect of Juniors at Maynooth and a future Jesuit Peter Foley, to dine with the Professors at Maynooth, where he made a great impression on the Juniors there.
His Golden Jubilee was celebrated at Gardiner St, and at this celebration, a member of the community tried to capture his life in verse to the great amusement of the gathering. The poem was entitles “Alfredus Magnus”!
He was a good community man and loved conversation, taking a large - though not too large - share of it himself. He was invariably good-natures, good-humoured, friendly and truly charitable. he like a bit of news or gossip, especially if he was the one telling it.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Alfred Murphy 1827-1902
Fr Alfred Murphy was born in Youghal on April 17th 1827. Educated at Clongowes, he entered the Society in 1844, doing his noviceship and early higher studies in France. He was one of those Jesuits who studied Theology at our house in North Frederick Street Dublin, where Fr Michael O’Ferrall was Rector, and Frs William Kelly, Edmund O’reilly and Daniel Jones were Professors.

In 1870, Fr Murphy, while Rector of Tullabeg, erected the tower on the Church and added the fine wing parallel to the front building. After a term of office as Rector in Galway, he spent the remaining years of his priestly life as an Operarius at Gardiner Street, in the course of which he acted as Socius to the Provincial, and also acted as Vice-Provincial in the absence of Fr Timothy Kenny when he was a Visitor to Australia.

He died a very happy and edifying death on October 28th 1902, in his 75th year.

◆ The Clongownian, 1897

Father Alfred Murphy SJ

The Last of the Munster Geraldines

Delivered by Patrick Mathews of the class of Rhetoric

Mononia, thy plains yet thrill with gladness,
As Minstrels sweep thy harps of fire;
Thy beauties still, though veiled in sadness,
Full many a song of pride inspire.
Thy hills, where Morning sits enthroned,
On mists that wreaths of glory twine,
Thy fairy.lakes with forests crowned,
Where the lingering ray,
Of pensive evening loves to play,
And brighten with hues of purple and gold,
The ballowed slirines and towers of old,
Mononia, ny country ! No land like thine.

So thought when first the Emerald Isle
Beamed on his gaze, the lordly Geraldine ;
His sires had basked in the radiant smile
Of fair Italia ; his Norman lance
Had flashed on the plainis of sunny France,
Yet he loved thee more, fair land of mine!
More true than many a purer vein,
He clung to the home he fought to gain;
His heart its bravest impulse gave,
For the faith and land he died to save;
And thy Minstrel's harp, will ever tell,
As with strings all steeped in sorrow's tears,
It thrills with the voice of byegone years,
How the last brave Desmond fell.

Night veils in storm MacCaura's hills,
And darkly broods o'er wood and glen;
The heaving air with terror thrills,
As sweeps in fury o'er the plain
The wild tempestuous swell. Alone
Mid the tempest's fearful moan,
An aged hero wenda his weary way.
His steps are tottering, his form
Bends in its weakness with the storm;
His hand is raised, his long loose hair,
Streams wild upon the midnight air,
And fiercely round his head the raging whirlwinds play.

Not thus of old when more than King,
The noble Desmond trod in pride,
These his own hills then wont to ring,
With shouts of thousands by his side;
Not thus, when the love of all the land,
Crowned the great Earl with truer praise,
Than kingly despots can command,
Or slave's reluctant homage raise.
But the wayward fate of the sad green Isle,
Had clouded the light of fortune's smile ; .
He scorned to crouch at a tyrant's nod,
And basely live a woman's slave;
His heart refused to forget his God,
And spurn the charms the old religion gave.
For this all mercy is denied
The humbled hero in his woe,
For this fell hate and vengeance guide
O'er the wild waste the ruthless foe,
And all the terrors tempest gives
Are braved while hated Desmond lives,
Save thee, ny Prince, for worse than Nature's wrath,.
Traitors and foes beset thy path;
E'en now shrill sounds the larum cry,
And shouts are heard and lights are seen along the sky.

An hour is past. Yon hut is won,
The last sad refuge from despair,
The storm still shrieks through the forest lone,
And swells upon the troubled air.
But Desmond sunk in calm repose,
In dreams forgets awhile his woes;
Blest sleep of peace that only virtue knows!
But hark! What spirit yoice of wail,
Mingles its moaning with the gale!
Now in plaintive breathings low,
Now swelling dire in notes of woe,
“Sleep on, last hero of a noble line,
Sleep on, while yet you may ;
Ah! soon will change that sleep of thine,
To one that knows not day.
My voice has warned thy Sires in their decline,
'Tis heard in thy decay”.

Hark! that piercing cry,
The murderer's shout, the victim's sigh;
“Spare, oh! spare” he cries in vain,
The noble Desmond never breathes again.
But his spirit all bright with virtue fies,
As angels wreaths of triumph wave,
To that home of the blest beyond the skies,
Where glory enshrines the good and brave.
Weep not for him ; 'tis a noble pride,
For country and creed to bave lived and died.

◆ The Clongownian, 1903

Obituary

Father Alfred Murphy SJ

We regret to announce the death of the Rev Alfred Murphy SJ, who was for many years as boy or master or priest connected with Clongowes and Tullabeg. For a year or so it was noticed that his health was failing, and the end came last October, when he was half way through his 76th year.

Father Murphy was born at Youghal, April 17th, 1827. In his thirteenth year he went to Congowes, 'Where he was always popular, both with his comrades and his masters. His schoolboy nickname of “Steamer: was a very covert compliment to his commanding stature and his energetic gait and deportment. At school, he went through the full course of studies, even the class of Philosophy, under Father Henry Lynch.

In 1844 he left Clongowes and entered the Society of Jesus, beginning his noviceship at St Acheul, near Amiens. In France also he went through some of his highest studies. Returning to Ireland he worked as a master for ten years, two at Belvedere and eight at Clongowes. He certainly had charge of the Rhetoric Class of his Alma Mater in July, 1859 - the only Clongowes Academy Day ever enjoyed by the present chronicler, who also remembers the very favourable impression made by Father Murphy on the Junior students of Maynooth, when he came over a few years earlier to the great Ecclesiastical College to dine with the Professors, on the invitation of the brilliant young Professor, who was afterwards Dean Neville of Cork.

Between 1852 and 1859, Father Murphy had made his Theological studies and became a priest. He studied at St Beuno's in North Wales, and for one year in Dublin, after which he spent a year in Rome. In 1863 he became Minister in Belvedere, from which he was changed after two years to Tullabeg, of which he was Rector till 1870. During his term of office the tower of the People's Church was erected, and the fine wing parallel to the front of the College was added. The same month in which he ceased to be Rector of Tullabeg saw him Rector of St Ignatius College, Galway, which office he filled till March, 1876. From that day till the day of his death he was a member of the Community of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, where his kindness and prudence and unwearying perseverance met with marvellous success.

The Requiem Mass of Fr Murphy's obsequies was the first for many years in St Francis Xavier's of which he was not himself the celebrant. It was attended by the Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr Gaffney, Bishop of Meath, and by a very large number of priests and laity. His remains await the Resurrection beneath the shadow of the noble Celtic Cross that marks the burial-place of the Society of Jesus, in the Cemetery of Glasnevin. RIP

O'Ferrall, Robert, 1803-1834, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1902
  • Person
  • 09 November 1803-07 August 1834

Born: 09 November 1803, Balyna, Moyvally , County Kildare
Entered: 19 September 1823, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 22 September 1832, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Died: 07 August 1834, Balyna, Moyvally , County Kildare

by 1829 in Clongowes

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Died a victim of charity from cholera, while attending the sick bed of Father John Shine, who died from the same disease, at Gardiner St.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
According to Father Grene, he was a descendant of Rory O’More and brother of Richard O’Ferrall (Richard More O'Ferrall (1797 – 27 October 1880) was an Irish politician, a high level British government official and a Governor of Malta.)

Early education at Clongowes before Ent.
Ordained by Dr Cantwell, Bishop of Meath, who had given him Minor Orders and Diaconate.
1833 He was stationed in Dublin with Father Shine working in the Church and School. During the cholera epidemic he was sent to his father in Balyna hoping to escape it. he had been very affected by Father Shines death from cholera. He arrived at his father’s house, but died the next day. He is buried in the family vault. He was a man of sterling honour, high principle, strict observance and solid piety.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Robert O’Ferrell 1803-1834
Robert O’Ferrell was a descendent of Rory O’More and brother to Richard O’Ferrell, who was Governor of Malta in the critical years 1546-1850.

He was born in County Kildare on November 3rd 1803. He was educated at Clongowes where he also entered the Society in 1823, and his noviceship was carried out in France. He taught philosophy at Tullabeg where he was ordained priest by Dr Cantwell, Bishop of Meath.

In 1833 and 1834 he was stationed in Dublin where he worked in the Church and in the Hardwicke Street school. During the cholera epidemic there he was sent to his father’s house at Balyna County Kildare. Reaching his father’s residence in the evening, next day his remains were carried out for burial. He died on August 7th 1834 and is buried in the family vault.

He was a man of sterling honour, high principle, strict observance and solid piety.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
O’FERRALL, ROBERT, son of Ambrose O Ferrall, Esq., of Bellina, County Kildare : born on the 4th of March, 1791 : ordained Priest on the 22nd of September, 1832 : was attacked with Cholera whilst attending his colleague, F. John Shine, of St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner street, Dublin. Removed to Ballina for a change of air, his constitution was still unable to resist the fatal attack, and on Friday morning, 8th of August, 1834, this promising young Jesuit surrendered his innocent soul to God. Soc. 13.

O'Rian, William, 1628-1700, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1951
  • Person
  • 22 April 1628-01 December 1700

Born: 22 April 1628, Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny
Entered: 11 November 1647, Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny
Ordained: c. 1658, Bourges, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1663
Died: 01 December 1700, Irish College, Poitiers, France

Superior of Mission 1676-1679

Has studied 2 years Philosophy before Ent
1651 At La Flèche College studying Theology
1655 At Bourges College FRA - Excellent talent, fit to teach or govern
1658 “William Orient” teaching in FRA
1661 At Arras College teaching Grammar and Philosophy
1665 At Bourges College teaching
1669 At La Flèche College teaching Grammar, Humanities and Philosophy
1679-1700 First Rector of Irish College Poitiers (1679-1691). 1691 Prefect of Boarders
“William O’Rian, President of Poitiers Irish College in 1723, b Kilkenny 18 April 1628, E 11 November1647, taught Philosophy and Scholastic Theology. Master of Arts and Doctor of Theology. Prof 4 vows 02/02/1663 has been Superior of whole Irish Mission”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Had studied Humanities and two years Philosophy before Ent. he knew Latin, Irish and English. (HIB CAT 1650 - ARSI)
1650 Taught Grammar
1678 Superior of Irish Mission and then arrested in October 1678, in the Titus Oates Plot, a prisoner, but soon after honourably liberated by the Viceroy and Privy Council.
1679-1683 Rector at Irish College Poitiers (cf letters for ANG Provincial John Warner in letters dated 09 April and 06 August 1683, - Father Warner’s Note and Letter-book. He had arrived at Poitiers 29 May 1679, and in a letter sated the following day, he mentions that Archbishop Peter Talbot and his brother Richard, with Viscount Mountgarrett’s son Edmund Butler, still remained close prisoners. He tells also of a proclamation by the Viceroy in October requiring the departure of all Catholic Bishops and Regular Clergy from Ireland, and of a reward recently offered for the apprehension of every Bishop and Jesuit, being £5 for every Abbot or other Regular.
Professor of Theology in France

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Early education was at Kilkenny with the Jesuits
After First Vows and following the dispersal of the Irish Scholastics in the face of the Puritan forces, he was sent to La Flèche for studies where he graduated MA. He then spent three years Regency in FRA Colleges. After Regency he was then sent to Bourges for Theology, graduating DD and where he was Ordained 1658
1659-1672 Taught Philosophy at Amiens, Bourges and La Flèche, and then Theology at Bourges
1672 Sent to Ireland
1676-1679 Superior of Irish Mission. In 1677 he made a Visitation of the newly founded Irish College Poitiers, and on his return was arrested in connection with the Titus Oates's Plot. Nothing incriminating was found amongst his papers but he was ordered to be deported to France on 26 February 1679
1679 He arrived in France and went to Irish College Poitiers
1680-1689 Rector of Irish College Poitiers
1691-1698 He was Prefect of Boarders at Irish College Poitiers, and forced to retire due to poor health. He died there 01 December 1700

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962

William O’Rian (1676-1680)
William O Rian was born at Kilkenny on 22nd April, 1628. After studying in the Jesuit College there as far as the end of his second year of philosophy, he entered the Kilkenny Novitiate on 11th November, 1647. When the Kilkenny schools were broken up, he went to France, and took out his degree of Master of Arts at the College of La Flèche. He taught grammar then for three years, studied theology for four, and obtained the degree. of Doctor of Theology at Bourges in 1658. We next find him teaching philosophy at Amiens (1658-60) and grammar at Arras (1660-61). After making his tertianship at Rouen (1661-62), he resumed his professional career at Caen, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 2nd February, 1663. He lectured next on philosophy at Bourges for two years, was Prefect of Repetitions at La Flèche for one, and finally became Professor of Scholastic Theology at Bourges in 1669. In 1671 he went to Paris on business of the Irish Mission, and returned to Ireland in 1672. He was appointed Superior of the Mission on 14th March, 1676. In 1677 he made a Visitation of the Irish College at Poitiers, and in the following year he was arrested at Carlow in connexion with Oates's Plot. Nothing incriminating was found among his papers, and he was ordered for transportation on 26th February, 1679. He was landed in France, where he became Rector of the Irish College of Poitiers in 1680, an office he held till 1691. In his later years he had charge of the boarding students (1691-98), until his health gave way, and he died, after two years of infirmity, on 1st December, 1700.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father William Ryan 1628-1700
William Ryan attended our College in Kilkenny as far as second year Philosophy. He then entered the noviceship in 1647.

For the rest of his studies he went to the continent, La Flèche, Bourges, Amiens, Rouen, Caen. He lectured on Philosophy at Bourges and La Flèche.

He returned to Ireland in 1672, and became Superior of the Mission in 1676. Two years later he was arrested in Carlow in connection with the Titus Oates’ Plot, and as a result was banished from Ireland.

He went to Poitiers, where he became Rector. He died at Poitiers on December 1st 1700.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
RYAN, WILLIAM, was fellow Novice with Father Stephen Rice, and I think succeeded him in the government of the Irish Mission. Whilst Superior he was arrested towards the end of October, 1678, and kept in close custody, on suspicion of being concerned in Oates’s Conspiracy : but his innocence appeared so manifest to the Viceroy and Privy Council, that he was most honourably acquitted and set at liberty. A letter written by him, and dated the 30th of May, 1679, announces his safe arrival at Poitiers the day before. He adds that his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, and his brother, Richard Talbot, with the son of Viscount Mountgaret, still remained close prisoners. He mentions the Proclamation of the Viceroy, issued last October, for the departure of all the Catholic Bishops and Regular Clergy from the realm of Ireland, as also the recent Reward offered of 10l. English for the apprehension of every Bishop and Jesuit, and of 5l for every Abbot or other Regular so apprehended. On the 5th of July, 1679, Father Ignatius Brown recommended Father William Ryan for the Rectorship of the new College at Poitiers; but further I cannot trace him.

Redmond, James, 1842-1914, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2035
  • Person
  • 21 April 1842-07 February 1914

Born: 21 April 1842, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 30 July 1866, Roehampton England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1880
Final Vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 07 February 1914, St Ignatius' House of Writers, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1879 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1885 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
His early education was at Clongowes (1856-1859), and he completed his education abroad. In fact all his further studies in the Society were completed out of Ireland. Before entering he had spent some time at the Commercial Buildings on Dame St, Dublin, and this experience stood him well in later life.

He was received age 24 by Edmund O'Reilly then the Provincial. He did his Noviceship at Roehampton. He studied Rhetoric at St Acheul, Amiens with Michael Weafer, Thomas Finlay and Peter Finlay, Robert Kane and Vincent Byrne, among others.
1872 He was sent for Regency to Clongowes which was the start of a long association. He was Sub-Minister there and Sub-Procurator1876-1877, and then in 1877 was in charge of the Study.
1879 He was sent to Louvain for Theology.
After Ordination he was sent back to Clongowes as Procurator.
1883-1884 He was sent to Tullabeg as Minister.
1884 he was sent on Tertianship to Roehampton.
For the next number of years he held many posts, Minister, Socius to the Novice Master at Dromore, Procurator at Milltown and finally for a year, procurator of the Province.
1888 He returned to Clongowes as First Prefect and then Procurator. During this stay at Clongowes, he was also Vice-Rector for a time. As Procurator he was a very familiar figure to generations of Clongownians. He always exhibited the same calm, dignified, unbending bearing with those in Third Line, who troubled him with their important affairs of half a crown for POs. He impressed the boys with his handsome grey head, a slightly husky voice and the profusion of snuff!
1905 He was sent to UCD, and remained in that community until his death 07 February 1914, including accompanying it in the change to Leeson St. He was Superior at Leeson St until June 1912. The numerous positions that James held during his long career as a Jesuit show the esteem in which he was held. he combined great shrewdness of judgement with polish and dignity of manner, and possessed a subtle and delicate humour. His opinion was often sought on knotty practical points. His decisions were always given with great clarity and brevity. As a Minister or Superior the extended hospitality with great readiness and affability. His strongest characteristic was his equability of temper, which was what you expected from his very retiring but remarkably gentle nature.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father James Redmond SJ 1842-1914
The numerous positions of importance which Fr James Redmond held at various times during his long career as a Jesuit show the great esteem in which he was held. He combined great shrewdness of judgement with polish and dignity of manner, to which was added a delicate and gentle humour. As Minister or Superior, he extended his hospitality with great readiness and affability.

He entered the Society in 1886, being received by Fr Edmund O’Reilly, the then Provincial. Before his entry he had given some years to business in the Commercial Buildings, Dame Street, Dublin, an experience which was to stand him in good stead in later years.

He studied Rhetoric at St Acheul with Frs Weafer, Thomas and Peter Finlay and Vincent Byrne amongst others. He had a long connection with Clongowes, both as a scholastic and priest, in many capacities, including Vice-Rector. Owing to his business experience he was Procurator in many houses, including Clongowes and Milltown Park. When we had the novitiate in Dromore, he was Socius to the Master of Novices.

In 1905 he was changed to University College, Stephen’s Green. He remained attached to this community to the end, and when the change was made to Leeson Street, he became Superior of the Residence..

His death occurred on February 7th 1914.

◆ The Clongownian, 1914

Obituary

Father James Redmond SJ

An old and esteemed member of the Jesuit Order died at St Ignatius', No 35 Lower Leeson Street, February 7th, in the person of Rev James Redmond SJ, who passed away peacefully' to his reward after an illness of a few days' duration. Father Redmond, who had reached the advanced age of 72 years, belonged to an old and highly-respected Dublin family, being a brother of Sir Joseph Redmond MD. He received his early education in Clongowes Wood College, and completed his course of studies on the Continent, entering the Order at the close of a distinguished scholastic career. Subsequent to his ordination he held several important posts in the Order, acting temporarily as Vice-Rector of Clongowes Wood College, and, at a later date, he was Vice-President of University College, St. Stephen's Green. A man of saintly and scholarly character, he was very much respected and esteemed by his brethren in th Order, by whom his death is deeply mourned.

Roche, John, 1670-1718, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2059
  • Person
  • 10 July 1670-10 July 1718

Born: 10 July 1670, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1687, Paris, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1699, Paris, France
Final Vows: 15 August 1703
Died: 10 July 1718, La Flèche, France - Franciae Province (FRA)

Alias de la Roche

MA of Poitiers of Bourges (at entry?)
1693 At Compiègne College FRA
1711-1718 At Amiens teaching Humanities, Rhetoric, Philosophy and Theology
“...whose whole life devolved to the teaching of literature and the higher studies of Philosophy and Theology offers nothing but an almost scrupulous fidelity to the accomplishment of all his duties. Weak health required his Superiors to withdraw him to La Flèche.”
Also known to work as a confessor, visiting the poor, sick and prisoners, He enlisted his students in all of his good works.
(Guillaume Astana, Franc II p 43)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had already studied Philosophy before Ent 07 September 1687 Paris
After First Vows he was sent for Regency to Nevers, La Flèche, Compiègne and Arras, and after that sent for Theology to Paris where he was Ordained 1699
After his studies were completed he was sent to teach Philosophy at Moulins for two years, and then he made Tertianship at Rouen.
1703-1712 He spent the next nine years teaching Philosophy at Amiens, La Flèche and Paris.
1712 Then he was sent to La Flèche for a Chair in Theology, and he remained there until his death 10 July 1718
Just before his death he had been invited by the General to join the Irish Mission

Ronan, William, 1828-1907, Jesuit priest and chaplain

  • IE IJA J/382
  • Person
  • 13 July 1825-10 December 1907

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.

Ronayne, Maurice, 1828-1903, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2067
  • Person
  • 02 April 1828-04 March 1903

Born: 02 April 1828, The Dower House, Ashford, County Wicklow
Entered: 12 September 1853, St Acheul, Amiens Francee - Franciae province (FRA)
Ordained: 1859
Final Vows: 15 August 1869
Died: 04 March 1903, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Ne-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Rorke, Andrew H, 1834-1907, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/387
  • Person
  • 18 December 1834-27 May 1907

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.

Rorke, Andrew J, 1829-1913, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/386
  • Person
  • 09 October 1829-11 November 1913

Born: 09 October 1829, Limerick City, County Limerick / Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 25 January 1853, Amiens France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1861
Final Vows: 15 August 1869
Died: 11 November 1913, Crescent Nursing Home, The Crescent, Limerick

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

Educated at Belvedere College SJ

by 1857 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) for Regency
by 1858 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) Studying Philosophy
by 1860 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying Theology

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After the completion of Gardiner St Church, the Jesuits opened a school in Hardwicke St and this was his first school. In 1841 Belvedere was acquired, and on the first page of the College Rolls stood the names of Andrew Rorke and Christopher - later Chief Baron - Palles. It is of interest to note that Andrew’s father was the one who negotiated the purchase of Lord Belvedere’s house for the Jesuits. Andrew then went to Clongowes, where he also had Christopher Palles as a classmate.

He Entered at St Acheul, Amiens, as there was no Novitiate in Ireland in those days.
After completing his studies he was sent to Clongowes, then Crescent, and then Milltown where he spent forty years as Minister of Director of House retreats. He also looked after the Ecclesiastical and Lay Retreats,personally supervising even the most trivial detail to ensure the comfort of the retreatants.
25 January 1903 He celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his Entry. he often referred to this occasion fondly in later years, and spoke with particular affection for those who had made the jubilee the happiest and most memorable day of his long life.
06 December 1911 When had finished his thanksgiving after Mass, he had a stroke which rendered him unconscious. his condition was quite critical, but he rallied slowly and steadily regained much of his old strength.
He was very happy that he was able to celebrate Mass for several months before his death. He was sent to Crescent for a change of air towards the end of 1913. The morning after his arrival he had another stroke which caused his death there 11 November 1913. he died in the Crescent Nursing Home and was buried at the Mungret Cemetery.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Andrew Rorke 1829-1913
On the first page of the College roll at Belvedere stands the name of Andrew Rorke, side by side with that of Chief Baron Palles. Actually Fr Rorke was a Limerick man, being born in that city in 1829. It was Fr Rorke’s father who negotiated the purchase of Belvedere House for the Jesuits. Andrew entered the Society at St Acheul in 1853.

His studies completed, he worked for a time at Tullabeg and the Crescent, but the major part of his life was spent in Milltown Park as Director of Retreats. He looked after these retreats with the most praiseworthy exactitude, personally supervising the most trivial details.

On December 6th 1911 he got a stroke after Mass, but recovered sufficiently to be able to say Mass again. He was sent to the Crescent for the benefit of his health, but he got another stroke the morning after his arrival. He died ultimately on November 11th 1913, at the ripe age of 84, and he is buried in the College cemetery at Mungret.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1914

Obituary

Father Andrew Rorke SJ

Among the very first students to enter Belvedere was Fr Andrew Rorke SJ, whose death it is our sad duty to record. He entered the noviceship in 1853, and after spending some time at Tullabeg and Limerick he was transferred to Milltown Park, where he spent over 40 years. On the 28th January, 1903, he celebrated his jubilee. In December, 1911, he got a paralytic stroke, from which he gradually recovered; but in 1913 he received a second scizure, which proved fatal. He was buried in the Cemetery, Mungret College. RIP

◆ The Clongownian, 1914

Obituary

Father Andrew Rorke SJ

The large numbers of clergy and laity who in the course of the last twenty-five years have frequented the Retreats at Milltown Park will learn with regret of the death of Father Andrew Rorke SJ, who died November 12th, in Limerick. Though he had reached the ripe old age of 85, Father Rorke preserved up to the moment of his last illness the bright and, at the same time, the courtly old world manner for which he was distinguished throughout life. As a boy Father Rorke was educated at Hardwicke Street School, which was in charge of the Jesuit Fathers, till the opening of Belvedere College in the year 1841, at which time he became a pupil in the new college. Passing some years later to Clongowes, he there completed his early education, and in the early fifties entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in France. Returning to Ireland, he filled many posts in the Jesuit Colleges of Clongowes and Tullabeg. Many old Tullabeg and Clongowes boys still retain kindly memories of him. On leaving Clongowes, Father Rorke was transferred by his superiors to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Limerick, where he laboured zealously for several years, till in 1888 he was sent to Milltown Park, of the Community of which he was a member till his death. It was during this period that he made hosts of friends, for in his hands were the arrangements for the accommodation of those who came to make Retreats. Just two years ago Father Rorke was suddenly struck down, but, rallying with really wonderful ! vitality, he had almost recovered his former vigour when he was once more prostrated. All the efforts of the doctors were of no avail, and Father Rorke passed away peaceably.
“Freeman's Journal” Nov 13th

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Andrew Rorke (1934-1913)

Born in Dublin and educated at the old Jesuit school in Hardwicke St, Dublin, and Clongowes, entered the Society at St Acheul in 1853 and pursued his higher studies also abroad. He was a master here, during his regency, in 1863-64 and later returned as minister of the house in 1875-78. After two more years service in Limerick, 1884-86, he was transferred to Milltown Park, where he was many years director of retreats. He died while on a visit to Limerick, 11 November, 1913.

Seaver, William, 1825-1891, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/466
  • Person
  • 22 December 1825-29 August 1891

Born: 22 December 1825, Rush, County Dublin
Entered: 25 April 1845, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1860
Final vows: 15 August 1872
Died: 29 August 1891, Tienen (Tirlemont), Brabant, Belgium

Younger brother of Matthew Seaver - RIP 1872, and Uncle of Elias Seaver - RIP 1886

by 1853 at Montauban France (TOLO) studying Theology
by 1857 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) Studying Theology
by 1865 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship
by 1878 at Fourvière France (LUGD)
by 1878 at Mount St Mary’s - Spencer St Chesterfield (ANG) working
by 1880 at St Joseph’s, Glasgow Scotland (ANG) working
by 1882 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) working
by 1883 at home - health

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Younger brother of Matthew Seaver - RIP 1872, and Uncle of Elias Seaver - RIP 1886

Studied Philosophy at Toulouse
1856 He was sent for Regency teaching at Clongowes and then as Prefect at Tullabeg
He studied Theology partly at St Beuno’s, partly in Hardwicke St, and finished at Tullabeg.
1861 He was sent as teacher and Prefect to Tullabeg
He then was sent to Rome for Tertianship
1865-1866 He was sent as Minister to Tullabeg.
He then taught in Belvedere for many years.
1875 he was Minister at Milltown.
Failing in health he was sent to Fourvière, and worked for a while in Chesterfield, England. Becoming mentally affected he went to Belgium and died there 29 August 1891

Weafer, Michael, 1851-1922, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/2234
  • Person
  • 16 August 1851-26 March 1922

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

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

Colgan, John, 1846-1919, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/578
  • Person
  • 08 November 1846-26 June 1919

Born: 08 November 1846, Kilcock, County Kildare
Entered: 12 November 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1883
Final Vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 26 June 1919, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Brother of James - RIP 1913

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1870 at Amiens, France (CAMP) studying
by 1871 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1882 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After Noviceship he studied Philosophy in Europe, was Prefect for a long time at Clongowes for Regency, and then did Theology at St Beuno’s.
After Ordination he was appointed Socius to the Novice Master at Dromore, eventually becoming Master himself.
1888 Dromore Novitiate was closed and he took the Novices to Tullabeg.
1890 His health had begun to suffer so he was sent to Clongowes as Spiritual Father, and did this for a number of years.
He was next sent as Minister to Milltown for a couple of years, but again returned to Clongowes in the same capacity as before.
1901 He was sent to Gardiner St. He was always in compromised health and had a very weak voice, but worked away there for a number of years.
In the end he had a very long illness which he bore with great patience and he died at Gardiner St 26 June 1919. His funeral was held there, very simply, as it was difficult to get a choir together at that time.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Made his first Vows at St Acheul, France 13 November 1869

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Colgan 1846-1919
Fr John Colgan was born at Kilcock County Kildare on November 8th 1846.

At the end of his theological studies he was appointed Socius to the Master of Novices at Dromore, eventually becoming Master of Novices himself. In 1888 Dromore was closed and he took the novices to Tullabeg.. His health broke down and in 1890 he went to Clongowes as Spiritual Father. In 1901 he was posted to Gardiner Street.

He was never of robust health and he laboured according to his strength for a number of years. His last illness, which was long, he bore with great patience until his death on June 28th 1919. His funeral took place after Low Mass, as it was impossible to get together a choir of priests. His funeral was very simple, as every Jesuit’s should be.

◆ The Clongownian, 1920

Obituary

Father John Colgan SJ

John Colgan passed quietly away at St Francis Xavier's Presbytery, Gardiner Street, on June 19th last year. He was in Clongowes from 1860-67, where his brothers James and Edward, who both predeceased him, were also students. Fr Colgan spent most of his earlier life as a Prefect in Clongowes, Externally cold and formal, he was in private a most kind-hearted and even indulgent man. His Theological studies over, he was sent as Socius to the Master of Novices at Dromore, county Down. He subsequently became Master of Novices himself, and it was he who took the Novices to Tullabeg after that college had been amalgamated with Clongowes. Not long after, his health breaking down, he came to Clongowes as Spiritual Father, at which post - excepting a short interval as Minister at Milltown Park - he remained until 1901. The remainder of his life was spent in works of the ministry at St Francis Xavier's, Dublin, where he rarely left the precincts of the Presbytery except for an occasional short walk. His interest in and kindly disposition towards visitors helped not a little the success of his sacredotal functions. To his sister we tender the sympathy of many generations who knew Fr Colgan.

Finlay, Thomas A, 1848-1940, Jesuit priest and economist

  • IE IJA J/9
  • Person
  • 06 July 1848-08 January 1940

Born: 06 July 1848, Lanesborough, County Roscommon
Entered: 01 November 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1880
Final Vows: 25 March 1885
Died: 08 January 1940, Linden Nuring Home, Dublin

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

Older brother of Peter Finlay - RIP 1929

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying
by 1871 at Lacens College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1878 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from Peter Finlay Entry
Early education was at St Patrick’s Cavan. Admitted aged 15 by Edmund J O’Reilly, Provincial and his brother Thomas A Finlay was a fellow novice.
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.

See: Morrissey, T. J. (2004). Thomas A. Finlay: Educationalist, editor, social reformer, 1848-1940.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online
Finlay, Thomas Aloysius
by Thomas J. Morrissey

Finlay, Thomas Aloysius (1848–1940) and Peter (1851–1929), Jesuit priests, scholars, and teachers, were born at Lanesborough, Co. Roscommon, sons of William Finlay, engineer, and Maria Finlay (née Magan), who had four other children: three daughters, all of whom became religious sisters, and a son William, who became secretary of Cavan county council. Tom and Peter were educated at St Augustine's diocesan college, Cavan (predecessor to St Patrick's College), and in 1866 both entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Milltown Park, Dublin. Subsequently, they were sent for studies to St Acheul, near Amiens, after which they moved in somewhat different directions.

Thomas Finlay went (1869) to the Gregorian University, Rome, and thence, after Garibaldi's invasion, to Maria Laach where he was trained (1871–3) in modern scientific methods and was impressed by the new agricultural policy of the Prussian government, an experience he drew on in his later work. On his return to Ireland (1873) Tom joined his brother at the Crescent, Limerick, where he stayed till 1876, acting as headmaster as well as teaching German and French. He also found time to publish, under the pseudonym ‘Thomas Whitelock’, a best-selling novel, The chances of war, based on the life of Owen Roe O'Neill, which went through several editions. In addition he wrote pamphlets and was co-founder of the periodical Catholic Ireland, which became the influential Irish Monthly. In 1877 he went to St Beuno's for theology, and was ordained in 1880. His self-reliance, great energy, equable temper, and gifts for making and keeping friends were already in evidence, as also his prowess as a conversationalist and a fisherman. In 1881 he was placed in charge for a short time of St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, near Tullamore, before being entrusted with the joint task of rector of Belvedere College, Dublin (1882–7), and fellow of the RUI in classics. In 1883 he and Peter were appointed joint professors of philosophy at UCD. He occupied the chairs of philosophy (1883–1900) and political economy (1900–30). Hence his unusual distinction of professing in three different disciplines – classics, philosophy, and political economy. Like Peter, he was a highly successful lecturer, noted for his clarity of exposition, and popular also with the students for his human qualities and his policy of promoting responsibility and independence. At Belvedere he built a new wing and purchased additional playing fields, while at the same time reconstructing the philosophy programme of the Royal University and responding to demands for retreats and spiritual lectures from the clergy of different dioceses. In 1887 he took up residence at UCD and turned again to writing as well as teaching. He translated articles from German on philosophy, and Stockle's History of philosophy. The extent and range of his articles during a busy life may be judged from the incomplete list of titles in R. J. Hayes's Sources . . . articles in Irish periodicals. He founded and edited the Lyceum magazine (1889–94) and the New Ireland Review (1894–1911), which was succeeded by Studies in 1912. In addition, as part of his deep involvement in the Irish cooperative movement, he founded and was an incisive editor of the Irish Homestead. In support of the movement, he traversed the country preaching the merits of being industrious and self-supporting, and won support among northern unionists as well as southern farmers. Sir Horace Plunkett (qv), founder of the movement, termed him ‘a remarkable living Irishman’ who had ‘largely moulded my own life work’, and who, ‘for a full half-century, laboured disinterestedly for the moral, social, and economic uplifting of the Irish poor’ (A page of Irish history, 246–7). Finlay's strong advocacy of high moral standards in public life made him enemies in the Irish parliamentary party; and his critical review of Cardinal James Gibbons, Our Christian heritage (1889), led to complaints to Rome from American Jesuits and his suspension from writing (1890–92).

Despite these varied activities, he was primarily an educationalist. Apart from his teaching in Jesuit schools and at UCD, he was a commissioner for intermediate education for many years, was active in establishing and administering a system of technical education at the start of the century, was editor-in-chief of the ‘School and College’ series of books for pupils and students, and inspired and guided those who created the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Moreover, he was for many years a prominent member of the senate of the NUI and of the governing body of UCD, and was chairman (1909–38) of the trustees of the NLI. Little wonder that his successor to the chair of economics, George O'Brien (qv), remarked in Studies (1940) that ‘to write about him is like writing about a number of persons rather than a single man’. He alleged that in forty-seven years Finlay ‘never broke an engagement, never missed a lecture, never was late for a meeting’. Finlay's retirement (1930) was marked by a collection to provide a presentation portrait (now in UCD) by Leo Whelan (qv). It was so generously subscribed that funds were available to endow an annual Finlay lecture on an economic theme; the first was given by John Maynard Keynes. Tom Finlay died 8 January 1940 in his ninety-first year. He had been an invalid from 1936.

The brothers were among the most influential academics in Ireland in the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. Thomas was described by W. E. H. Lecky (qv) as probably the most universally respected man in Ireland. Peter, who professed theology in Britain, America, and Ireland for 44 years, was widely consulted on most aspects of theology and highly regarded for his gifts of exposition.

Provincial consultors' minute book, 20 Feb. 1890 (Irish Jesuit archives, Dublin); Irish Jesuit Province News, Dec. 1929 (private circulation); ‘Sir Horace Plunkett on Professor Finlay's career as social reformer’, Fathers of the Society of Jesus, A page of Irish history: story of University College, Dublin, 1883–1909 (1930), 246–57; W. Magennis, ‘A disciple's sketch of Fr T. Finlay’, Belvederian, ix (summer 1931), 19; obit., Anglo-Celt, 13 Jan. 1940; George O'Brien, ‘Father Thomas A. Finlay, S.J., 1848–1940’, Studies, xxix (1940), 27–40; Aubrey Gwynn, obit., Irish Province News, Oct. 1940 (private circulation); R. J. Hayes (ed.), Sources for the history of Irish civilization: articles in Irish periodicals (1970), ii, 310–12; Thomas Morrissey, Towards a national university: William Delany, S.J. (1835–1924) (1983); Trevor West, Horace Plunkett: co-operation and politics (1986)

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 2nd Year No 2 1927

University Hall :
On November 16th the Community at Lesson St. celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Fr T Finlay. As a scholastic, Fr Finlay helped Fr. Matt Russell to found the Irish Monthly and the Messenger. The latter periodical ceased to appear after a short time; it was to be revived later, again under Fr Finlay's inspiration. He took a leading part in conducting the brilliant but short-lived “Lyceum”, and its successor the New Ireland Review. For Belvedere College his rectorship represented, until quite lately, the high-water mark of its success. Since 1883 he has been a Professor at University College, first under the Royal and then under the National University. During that time he has been prominent in many movements for the betterment of his Country. He was a member of the Boards of National and of Intermediate Education, is still Chairman of the National Library, Committee, has organised food depots for the poor, while his work for industrial and agricultural co-operation has won him fame in many lands. As a preacher and a lecturer his success has been extraordinary. And though he no longer appears in the pulpit, his power and his popularity as a lecturer are as great as ever. From 1912 to 1922 he was Superior in Leeson St, and President of University Hall.

Irish Province News 9th Year No 1 1934

Leeson St :
Monday, November 20th, was a red-letter day in the history of Leeson street, for it witnessed the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the House's foundation. In November, 1833. the Community came into being at 86 St Stephen's Green, where it remained until 1909, when the building was handed over to the newly constituted National University. The Community, however, survived intact and migrated to a nearby house in Lesson Street, where it renewed its youth in intimate relationship with the Dublin College of the University.
Its history falls this into two almost equal periods, different, indeed, in many ways, yet essentially one, since the energies of the Community during each period have been devoted to the same purpose, the furtherance of Catholic University Education in Ireland. A precious link between the two eras is Father Tom Finlay, who was a member of the Community in 1883, and ever since has maintained his connection with it. His presence on Monday evening, restored to his old health after a severe illness was a source of particular pleasure to the whole gathering. It was also gratifying to see among the visitors Father Henry Browne, who had crossed from England at much personal inconvenience to take part in the celebration. Not only was Father Browne a valued member of the Community for over thirty years, but he acquired additional merit by putting on record, in collaboration with Father McKenna, in that bulky volume with the modest title " A Page of Irish History," the work achieved by the House during the first heroic age of its existence. It was a pleasure, too, to see hale and well among those present Father Joseph Darlington, guide, philosopher and friend to so many students during the two periods. Father George O'Neill, who for many years was a distinguished member of the Community, could not, alas. be expected to make the long journey from his newer field of fruitful labor in Werribee, Australia. Father Superior, in an exceptionally happy speech, described the part played by the Community, especially in its earlier days of struggle, in the intellectual life of the country. The venerable Fathers who toiled so unselfishly in the old house in St. Stephens Green had exalted the prestige of the Society throughout Ireland. Father Finlay, in reply, recalled the names of the giants of those early days, Father Delany, Father Gerald Hopkins, Mr. Curtis and others. Father Darlington stressed the abiding influence of Newman, felt not merely in the schools of art and science, but in the famous Cecilia Street Medial School. Father Henry Browne spoke movingly of the faith, courage and vision displayed by the leaders of the Province in 1883, when they took on their shoulders such a heavy burden. It was a far cry from that day in 1883, when the Province had next to no resources, to our own day, when some sixty of our juniors are to be found, as a matter of course preparing for degrees in a National University. The progress of the Province during these fifty years excited feelings of admiration and of profound gratitude , and much of that progress was perhaps due to the decision, valiantly taken in 1883 1883, which had raised the work of the Province to a higher plane.

Irish Province News 15th Year No 2 1940
Obituary :
Father Thomas Finlay
When the Editor of “Province News” did me the honour of inviting me to write a notice of Father Finlay's life, he added a comment on the usual summary of dates which he
enclosed from the annual Catalogues : “Never did Catalogues conceal so completely the life of a Jesuit as Father Finlay's Catalogues conceal his splendid and most active life.” There is a great deal of truth in this comment, though the fault does not lie with the compiler of the annual Catalogues. From his early years as a Scholastic in Rome, Maria Laach, Limerick and St. Beuno's, Father Tom was never lacking in that remarkable power of initiative which enabled him to attempt and accomplish so much during his long life of ninety-one years. His initiative was largely personal, and many of the works for which he was known throughout the country are not even mentioned in the official records of the Catalogues. Apart from his activities, Father Tom's fame was largely due to his great gifts of personal charm, sympathetic kindness and quiet humour. No man was better. fitted to make friends everywhere, and Father Tom made and kept a host of friends during his long and most useful life. Even his birthplace is matter for dispute among the learned. He was always claimed as a Cavan man; but a record is extant from his novitiate, in which he himself has entered his birth-place as Lanesborough, Co. Roscommon. The mystery is solved by a reminiscence, of which he was proud. His father was an engineer on the Shannon River works, and young Tom Finlay was born on an island just north of Lough Ree, which his father was later to submerge beneath the waters of the Shannon. One of his favourite reminiscences was of a Hedge-schooI which he attended somewhere near the Shannon in the early fifties. The master used to test the ability of his pupils by making them spell “Antitrinitarian.” But discipline was too severe for the engineer's young son, and he ran away home from class on the second or. third day. He was then sent to school at St Patrick's, Cavan, where he remained until he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Milltown Park, on November 12, 1866. He took his first vows at Milltown on the Feast of St. Stanislaus, 1868. Just seventy years later it was any privilege to say Mass for Father Tom at Linden Convalescent Home on the Feast of St Stanislaus, 1938. He had then been an invalid for two years and was almost ninety years old. He had been wheeled into the Convent Chapel in a chair, and heard his Jubilee Mass in the midst of the patients and children of Linden. “Consummatus in brevi explevit tempera multa.” The young novice of 1868 can have little dreamed how many long years lay before him. But there was a great deal of simple novice's piety about Father Tom in his last years. Day by day he was wheeled into the Chapel for his morning Mass; and it was seldom indeed that he would allow his nurse to keep him away from the Chapel for the daily Rosary, which he loved to recite with the other patients every evening. From Milltown he was sent to the French Juniorate at Saint-Acheul. where he spent part of the year 1869. Then, with Father Vincent Byrne as his companion, he was sent to the Gregorian at Rome, where they witnessed the stirring scenes of the Vatican Council and Garibaldi entry into Rome. In 1936, Father Vincent McCormick, then Rector of the Gregorian visited Dublin, and stayed in Lesson Street, where Father Finlay was still resident. He was introduced as a past student of the Gregorian. “And when were you in Rome?” asked the Rector, not realizing how old his new acquaintance was “At the Vatican Council” was the smiling answer, and Father Tom’s eyes were twinkling, for he felt that he had scored a point. Garibaldi's entrance into Reine threw the Gregorian into confusion, and Father Tom was sent to Maria Laach, where he spent the next two years (1871-73). It was here that he was impressed by the new agricultural policy of the Prussian government - a lesson in practical economics that he was later to turn to most practical uses. And it was from the German Fathers at Maria Laach that Father Tom received his training in modern scientific methods, which (for a time, at least) made him anxious to specialise in Biology. His intellectual activity during these years must have been remarkable. When he became Professor of Metaphysics in Father Delany's University College ten years later, one of his chief enterprises was to bring Irish Catholic students into contact with modern German thought by the translation of German works on Scholastic Philosophy.
From 1873-76 Mr. Thomas Finlay was teaching his class at the Crescent College, Limerick, with extra work as French and German master and (for the last two years) as Prefect of Studies. A full programme for most men. and the work was not lessened by the fact that the Irish schools were adapting themselves to the new Intermediate System in these years. Mr Finlay's results were brilliant in the new system of competitive examinations, but that did not prevent him from writing his historical novel, “Chances of War,” during these same years. As an old priest, with a long record of useful work behind him, he was fond of telling a story that happened in these Limerick years. Some of the older Fathers found this young scholastic too enterprising, and complaints reached the Irish Provincial, who was a firm believer in the established order of things. Father Tuite summoned the budding author to his presence, and gently suggested to him that “he should remain in his legitimate obscurity.” But the Society has its own ways of checking too great enterprise for a time, and Mr. Finlay was sent to St. Beuno's for his four years of Theology in 1877.
Father Tom was ordained in 1880, he lived to say the Jubilee Mass of his ordination in 1930. There is no trace of his Tertianship in the official Catalogues, and the reason is not far to seek. When Father Tom emerged from Theology in 1881 the Irish Province was faced with an unusual responsibility. The Catholic University which had been founded, with Newman as Rector, in 1851, had failed, so far as practical results were concerned. But the long struggle for equality of rights in University education had at long last met with a partial response from the English Government of the day. The Royal University of Ireland was founded as an examining body, with a limited number of endowed fellowships, in 1881, and the Irish Hierarchy invited Father William Delany, whose energy and ability had made Tullabeg a centre of intellectual life, to take over control of University College under the new conditions. Father Finlay was sent to Tullabeg without further delay, to assist Father Delany as Assistant Prefect of Studies. From Tullabeg a small group of Jesuit Fathers came to Temple Street in Dublin, whilst the Bishops were negotiating the final transfer of University College. As soon as the teaching staff of the new College was formed, with Father Delany as first Rector, Father Finlay was nominated to one of the fellowships in the Royal University, and was appointed Professor of Metaphysics. He held this chair until 1900, when he resigned it in favour of his most brilliant student in these early years, the present Professor William Magennis. Meanwhile, another of his brilliant students, William Coyne, had been appointed Professor of Political Economy. University College suffered a sore loss by William Coyne's death in 1904 and Father Tom Finlay, who had meanwhile taken a leading part in the Co-operative Movement throughout the country, took over the vacant Chair of Political Economy in the same year, He held this chair until the end of the Royal University in 1909; and was immediately appointed to the same chair in the new National University of Ireland. It was this chair that he resigned in 1930, having taught his classes without interruption for forty-seven years (1883-1930). It was his boast that, during all those years he had never omitted a lecture for ill-health or any other reason. God had certainly blessed him with a wonderfully strong and harmonious constitution.
During the first five years of his new career, Father Finlay was not resident in St. Stephen's Green, but was Rector of Belvedere College (1883-87) with his duties as fellow and professor of the Royal University as an extra charge. It is indeed hard to understand how any man can have thrown himself with such energy into his various activities as Father Finlay did during these early years. In Belvedere the new school-buildings were rising as proof of his keen organising ability; and they were only the symbol of an active intellectual life that was attracting general attention to the College. Father Finlay planned a whole series of school text-books and copy books that were to help him pay off the debts incurred in the erection of the new buildings. But this policy was checked for a time, and Father Finlay left Belvedere for University College in 1887. Memories still survive among some old inhabitants of North Dublin : Father Tom Finlay, as a young, vigorous and good-looking priest, riding a fine, black horse down the streets of Dublin to the Phoenix Park. For the Rector of Belvedere College was a conspicuous figure in the social life of Dublin City at that time. The friendships which Father Tom made in the 'eighties and nineties opened up a new sphere of activity, which led to his becoming one Of the best-known and influential priests in the country. His influence in Government circles was very great. He was appointed a Commissioner of National Education, a Trustee of the National Library, and a member of various Royal Commissions. His word was often decisive in the appointment of some Catholic to a post that had hitherto been jealously reserved by the Protestant ascendency, and Father Tom had the knack of making himself liked as well as respected for his solid judgment and courageous support of what he held to be good and true. During these same years he founded and edited two notable monthly magazines : “The Lyceum” (1889-94), and the “New Ireland Review” (1894-1911). There is no space here to tell in any detail the story of Father Tom Finlay's work for the Irish Co-operative Movement, by which he will probably be chiefly remembered in Irish history. It was work that could only be done by a man who had attained the special position which he held in Irish public life. But it is worth recording that gratitude to Father Tom was felt by the poor as well as the rich, for he would spare no time and trouble if he thought the Irish people could be helped by his labourers. His memory is perhaps most cherished .in Foxford Co. Mayo, where he took a leading part in the establishment of the Providence Mills, that have been founded and managed from the first by the Irish Sisters of Charity. During his last illness two of the workers in the Mills were married in Foxford. They were old friends of Father Tom, and they were not satisfied until they had travelled to Dublin in one of the lorries owned by the Mills, to get the old priest's blessing on their married life. When news of his death reached Foxford this year, telegrams of condolence were sent by the staff as a whole, and by some of his personal friends in the Foxford Mills. A notice of Father Finlay's life would be incomplete without some reference to the out-door sports which he had always clung to, in the midst of his busiest years. He was a firm believer in the policy of one good holiday a week, for which good Jesuit tradition can be quoted. His own tastes favoured fishing and shooting, and his friendships. through the country gave him opportunities that were sometimes perhaps the subject of envious comment. Father Tom and his brother Father Peter were keen sportsmen, but it is not certain that their skill was equal to their interest in the sport. Both men were individualists; and their individualism was sometimes erratic in quality, One leading Irish statesmen still has memories of a day's shooting on the lands of O'Conor Don. The party went to to the bog after breakfast; and a council of war was held during the lunch interval. The more cautious members gave it as their opinion that there was only one completely safe position in the field. You could get it by drawing a straight line between the two brothers Finlay! Even his brethren in Leeson Street were sometimes inclined to be sceptical. To the very end, when Father Tom was already long past eighty he made it a practice of. going off for a few days fishing in the Easter holidays, and Good Friday was not complete unless Father Tom brought home a salmon for the community. It was always welcome; but some at least of the Fathers used to murmur that perhaps a faithful Gilly in Co. Wexford was as much responsible for the salmon as Father Tom. But that was a joke that no one would venture to make in Father Tom’s presence. The end came, after four long years of illness, on January 8th. 1940. Father Tom had been stricken down in Leeson Street in the early autumn of 1936, and ever since he had been confined to his bed-room and an invalid chair. It was a long trial, which he bore with wonderful patience, and it was good to think that so many of his friends showed their loyalty and gratitude to him by their frequent visits and messages of sympathy. He died peacefully, having spent the last two days in almost continuous prayer. The funeral Mass at Gardiner Street gave a last opportunity for a tribute of respect and affection, which, once more, revealed the wide connections that Father Tom Finlay had made in his long and laborious
life. May he rest in peace. “A. Gwynn”

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1931

A Disciples Sketch of Father Tom Finlay SJ - William Magennis

When I first saw Father Finlay he was the youthful Rector of Belvedere College. Of middle height, squarely built - so the ordinary man of his physique would be described. But in Father Finlay's case, the face at once captured and held one's notice. It was a strong, somewhat Milesian face, marked with firm decision; not stern, however, for the shrewd bright eyes were always ready to light up with a genial smile. Even then they had that surround of wrinkles which are supposed to indicate advancing age but are more likely to be born of frequent laughter. His hair was coal-black and it lay on his shapely head just as Mr Leo Whelan's masterpiece of portraiture shows it in the painting with which he has immortalized himself.

Like, “Father O'Flynn”, Father Finlay had and still has - the wonderful way with him. Tho' he was Rector and I was an Intermediate boy, he treated me - or so it seemed to me as an equal. Never in his career, not even when in later years he was an intimate of Mr Gerald Balfour, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Lady Gerald Balfour (a very exceptional and gifted woman of influence) and was high in the councils of the great, did he ever “put on side”. He was invariably simple, and unpretentious, apparently unconscious of his own per-eminence.

At the time I first came under his spell, he had built Belvedere College, for he was full of enterprise and courage. In spite of his humility he had faith in his own designs and projects. To me he is the living embodiment of Russell Lowell's dictum. The confidence of the world is guided to a man by a well grounded confidence in himself.

The building was erected on the grounds of Belvedere House, one of those glorious mansions which serve to make us realize to what a level of superb culture the eighteenth century Anglo-Irish - or were they Irish English? - had attained. The Rector's reception-room was at the back of the grand salon, a former music-room probably, and its windows looked out on the facade of the new building. It was there I saw him first, and the memory of him, in his fine environment, remains to me a living vivid memory unduled by all the years between.

Not the least, by the way, of his minor contributions to Dublin's improvement, was the pious care with which he had the exquisitely beautiful stucco enrichment by Italian artists that decorate the hall and staircase of the mansion, restored and delicately picked out in refined colouring.

In those years Belvedere had no playing fields; but later on, he bought grounds between Palmerston Road and Cowper Road, and constructed a bridge across the railway line to give access to them.

He was then a Nationalist in politics, and had considerable weight with not a few of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He secured entrance into the Party for Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde, but Parnell rather suspected the neophyte as a possible instrument of a Jesuit intrigue. That superstition about Jesuitry dies hard, or rather, it lives hard; Even John Dillon, a devoted Catholic, shared it: he said to me one day - in a moment of expansion during our campaign for a new University - “That friend of yours, Father Finlay, is one of the d---est intriguers in Ireland!” When I expostulated that others might engage in intrigue, but Father Finlay never, Mr, Dillon retorted, “That only shows how he has hoodwinked you!!!”

In course of time I became a teacher of English Literature in Belvedere, and as I was simultaneously a student of Father Finlay in Philosophy, I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of walking with him from his house to the old University College in St Stephen's Green, where he lectured as a Fellow of the Royal University in Mental and Moral Science - as Philosophy was then nicknamed for prudential reasons.

T D Sullivan, poet and patriot, had fallen on evil days financially and was losing heavily on the weekly which he had acquired from his more eminent brother, “A M” Sullivan. This, “The Nation” (founded by Thomas Davis, the elder Dillon and Gavan Duffy) lived largely on recollections of its past, and had a slender circulation. Father Finlay came to T D's rescue by suggesting that three of us, of University College, should be permitted to contribute articles. The present Professor Robert Donovan, who was a tutor in English and several years our senior, Joe Farrell (long years dead) and I were thus introduced to Journalism under Father Finlay's auspices.

The mention of this serves to introduce another of his projects - provision of a Club which would serve as a social centre for Catholic professional men and others in Dublin who had passed through “Tullabeg” (then a College for laymen), Clongowes, Mungret or St. Ignatius. The late Sir Joseph McGrath (who died Registrar of the National University) and his partner “Dan” Croly, MA, who was lecturer in many Catholic institutions, were the only people connected with it whom I ever knew. It was called the “Lyceum Club” and it had the ambition, I heard, at one time to rival the Trinity College Club in St Stephen's Green. It was, however, a vaulting ambition, and it “fell on the other” financially. It was still alive, tho' moribund, when Father Finlay had us made members of it, that we might have the facilities it provided for reading magazines and reviews.

Writing and publishing had always a powerful attraction for Father Finlay. While a “scholastic” he wrote an Irish historical novel treating of the times of Owen Roe, “The Chances of War”, by Rev Thomas Whitelock - I had the pleasure in later years of making it a school reader with my photograph of the author as a frontispiece. He helped the Land Movement, I remember, by pamphleteering - one pamphlet, I remember “Ricardo on Rent”. The Lyceum was a more ambitious - undertaking, a monthly magazine cultivating philosophic politics, sociology, and the Arts, especially Literature. In the first years, Father Finlay was The Lyceum. But I need not recite its history in detail here, for my old friend and college companion-Professor John W Howley of University College, Galway has performed that service with consummate ability and considerable accuracy, in view of the fact that he was not a Lyceum-ite, his history of it forms a chapter in “A Page of Irish History” (Talbot Press). His tireless anxiety to develop his students led him to initiate all sorts of College Societies, not to speak of the Sodality. One of these was a Shakespeare reading society, and Father Finlay was fond of explaining to us different interpretations of favourite passages. I fear, however, few of our number had any histrionic capacity. He promoted, notwithstanding, college theatricals and one of his younger “stars” Tom Molloy, grew stage-struck and joined the company of Beerbohm Tree. I saw him on the boards of the “Gaiety” as Roseneranz or was it Guildenstern? - in Hamlet. He worked up also a Debating Society; and under its favouring conditions “Alex” Sullivan, now Sergeant Sullivan, KC, of the London Bar, first displayed his hereditary powers of oratory.

As regards public speaking, Father Finlay taught by example. He was never what I would call an orator. He was always a finished speaker. He himself, I fancy, rather scorned those elements, rhetorical turns of expression, semi-poetical diction, ornament and emotional appeal, which mark out oratory from the less ornate utterance of ideas. There are sincere souls to whom these “flights” savour of insincerity, or affectation. Where Father Finlay excelled was in the orderly marshalling of his facts, in lucid exposition, and ice-cold, clear-cut, hard, close reasoning that never turned aside until it had remorse lessly demolished the opponent's case. I have always thought what a magnificent equity lawyer and Lord Chancellor were lost to fame when T A Finlay entered the Jesuit Order.

There is, indeed, in the present generation a young T A Finlay who has already made his forensic mark, is an KC and TD, and will assuredly one day ornament the bench of the Supreme Court.

At the expiration of his rectorship, Father Finlay took up residence in University College, where Father Delany reigned as President, The building, famous from long before, as the city dwelling-house of Buck Whalley (a Hell Fire Club-inan with Curran) had been the scene of Newman's ill-starred attempt to found a Catholic University. Father Delany and Father Finlay, aided by colleagues like the historian of Cromwellian Ireland, Rev Denis Murphy; the Irish Mezzo-fanti, Rev J O'Carroll; Rev Gerard Hopkins, the poet; Rev Joseph Darlington (friend of Everyman), were able in some miraculous fashion, to galvanize the corpse that Newman's failure had left unburied, into healthy, vigorous life. And its activities made the National University of Ireland possible.

In St. Stephen's Green, Father Finlay found more leisure - if “leisure”can be used, without a “Bull”, to name a host of varied occupations. He gave scholarly courses of Lenten Lectures, making dry-as-dust Theology a popular “draw”; he organised Needlework Depots, creating industries, and enlarging employment for women and girls; helped to establish woollen mills; founded a publishing firm; was controlling editor of “The New Ireland Review”, and editor-in-chief of “The School and College Series” of books for pupils and students; assisted the Creamery movement; lectured all over Ireland in praise of co-operative industry; inspired and guided the men who created the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

During the Parnell leadership controversy, Father Finlay, who, in virtue, perhaps, of his semi-Scottish ancestry, had always been rigidly austere in moral matters even to Puritanism, assailed Parnell vigorously, and joined with the late Mr Tirnothy Healy in calling for his deposition. To me, an ardent Parnellite, it seemed an unhappy alliance. The friendship of the two men, thus begun, remained firm and unbroken till death, some months ago, severed it rudely.

Father Finlay magnanimously forgave my political break-away from his leadership; and it speaks eloquently for his tolerance, that the strong divergence of opinion which grew up between us as the years went by never threw its shadow on our relations as co-workers in the production of school-books, and as colleagues in the University Department of Philosophy.

The hero-worship with which from the first years I could not but reverence him, survived in spite of his union with the Horace Plunkett group in a movement into which Nationalist prejudice did not permit of his being followed. Father Finlay, thanks to his reaction against Parnellism, and his deepened sense of the vital importance of economic matters in the life of the Nation, had come to consider direct, constructive effort among the farmers a more potent instrument of building up a prosperous, Catholic Ireland than political action in way of agitation could ever provide. His satirical humour, of which he has a fund, loved to play its blistering tongue on the moving and passing of resolutions, and “voicing the aspirations of a down-trodden and oppressed nationality”. Clap-trap, raimeis, make-believe, falsities and lies, he abominates by instinct. And, I fear, he relegates our political propaganda to that infamous dust-bin of things despicable.

They who have only an external acquaintance with Father Finlay cannot even guess what depths of genial humanity lie hidden from them in the man. It would, I know, displease him were I to make public here even a fraction of what I know of his innumerable benefactions. St Francis of Assisi was happily styled the “friend of every friendless beast” : Father Finlay I would style the
friend of all the friendless poor. He has a strong sense of duty; but his large heart gives as strong an urge.

Father Finlay has a keen zest for shooting and fishing, he has fished trout from every lake in the Comeragh hills, in Galway and Mayo, Sligo and the North-West. He has no less zest for humorous narrative; and can rival, at times, even Dickens in giving a comic colouring to the most unpromising materials.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1940

Obituary

Father Thomas Finlay SJ

Though he was not educated at Belvedere it would be the blackest of ingratitude if Belvedere did not recognise in Fr Tom Finlay one who had paramount claims upon the School. Others have spoken and written of the wider activities with which this great man's later life was crowded, but we cannot o help rejoicing that the educationalist, who was for many years a pillar of the
National University and an outstanding force in the intellectual life of his country, served his apprenticeship to education and public affairs in Belvedere.

He was a young man, a very young man as Jesuits go, when in 1883 he s became Rector of Belvedere. Yet, he had already about him the elements which were to build up his great prestige. He was already associated with those views and projects which made him not only an ideal Commissioner of Education, and Dean of the Philosophic Faculty in his University, but Founder of the Irish Co-operative Movement and of University Hall. In a true sense, he was the second founder of Belvedere. Materially; certainly. For with the widest vision, backed by the financial resources of his own active brain and pen, he set to work to provide adequate accommodation for a great School for over fifty years.

Incredible as it seems, Belvedere had then carried on with no larger accommodation than the stately drawing-rooms and parlours of Lord Belvedere, where ugly partitions hid the beauty of the decoration and familiarity exposed it to damage. It is hard to-day to realise what those improvised class-rooms and mutilated halls must have been like; what handicaps it had of air and light and heat and cold, and noise and crowding. Fr Finlay swept all that away. First, built the new school buildings in solid red brick which now, as then, though almost doubled by recent additions, housed the Senior school. There was a fine, if small, chapel, excellent laboratories, a “manual work” room, and plenty of class-room space, well lit and warmed. It was work done, not for a day or a year, but for a century or two at the least. Not content with this achievement, he built our theatre and gymnasium, built it so well that it serves admirably the needs of what has become one of Belvedere's most remarkable activities, our popular opera week. In its construction vision, vision once again united with common sense, the spacious and solid with the practicable and the useful. Lastly, he acquired that fine mansion, fit neighbour to Belvedere House, which had been the residence of the Earls of Fingal. Part of this was designed as club house, it has since served to house the Irish Messenger Office, whose connection with Belvedere has been so happy a thing for the School. But for many years before Fr Finlay's policy could be carried further by the acquisitions Nos 7 and 8 Great Denmark Street, it served as a Preparatory school, too, and generations of Belvederians began their school life in the “Little” House. Such a record needs no emphasising. Fr Finlay's was a unique opportunity. He rose nobly to it, and all future generations have only to follow his lead..

Spiritually, perhaps, he meant even more to the School. For Fr Finlay was anything but a mere efficient machine, a juggler with bricks and mortar pounds and pence. To those who knew him that idea is so absurd as to be laughable. For those who did not, one glance at the fine countenance in Leo Whelan's portrait should reveal that wonderful combination of head and heart which made him the great man he was. One misses indeed the little smile the eyes began and the fine, sensitive lips finished, but there is in that broad clear brow and firm glance, and in the enviable repose of the features, a summary of Fr Finlay's qualities. He was one who loved knowledge greatly for herself but more for her kindness to mankind. He was one who loved boys, but again loved manhood more. This made him a teacher, a director of studies and a inspirer of studies at once zealous and not fanatical, wide and not wasteful, noble and not visionary. Of his government of boys. it can be said with certainty that it was much ahead, both in theory and practice, of the normal expectation of his time. Father Finlay was as incapable of harshness, even of what could fairly be called severity, as he was unyielding in his demand for the essentials and just in his sense of proportion. Character in him was fused with kindness. Only a few months before his death a distinguished Belvederian priest, whose picture adorns our pages, found himself in Ireland for a brief spell and learn of his old rector's accessibility even in retirement. He was on the eve of his departure to what is perhaps the world's most arduous and dangerous mission On the day he sailed he went out to Linden. There the two had long talk. Who shall say what they remembered or what they anticipated. But as his visitor rose to go Fr Finlay, with real feeling, asked for a last blessing and with tears in his eyes, his admiring son did for the last time what he was bidden The episode is characteristic. To hear Fr Finlay talk of his old boys was to hear him tell stories of the happy intercourse that can exist between master and boy almost in proportion to the humility, nay, the reverence of both.

He was too short a time (1883-1888) in Belvedere, for it was impossible to expect he should be allowed to give to one limited sphere and group the talents which have enriched the nation. But he never altered his allegiance to his old School. At the Centenary Celebrations in 1931, when he was well over eighty he preached the sermon at the commemorative High Mass, and linked with glowing words, a worthy past to the hopes of a proud future. God spared him to his ninety-second year, with all his wonderful powers of mind and affection intact, and in the final years he would enquire from his visitors after the health and happiness of the School which he had led out of the stages of childhood to the full growth of manhood and maturity. Always it was with a mind eager to hear of new effort and fresh achievement, so that his hearers surely cannot doubt that it will be part of his reward to assist from the Kingdom of Glory those who still struggle with the problems, the works and the opportunities in which he merited so splendidly of boyhood, of his country and of God.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Finlay (1848-1940)

Entered the Society some eight months after his younger brother. He also did all his higher studies abroad, as, in those days, the Irish Province of the Society had not enough men to maintain their own houses of studies. Thomas Finlay was a student of philosophy in Rome when Garibaldi took the city. He finished his philosophy in Germany and it was during this time he first acquired his interests in scientific methods of agriculture. He spent his regency at Crescent College, 1872-1877. In 1875, although he was still only a scholastic, he was appointed prefect of studies. His versatility was remarkable during his years in Limerick: he was master, prefect of studies, master of the choir and novelist! it was at this time he published his novel, “The Chances of War”. Shortly after his ordination in 1880 a new and brilliant career lay ahead for him. He became a Fellow of the newly established Royal University of Ireland and until 1900 was professor of metaphysics. It is a significant tribute to his physical, no less than his mental energy, that for the first five years of his professor ship at University College, Dublin, he was also Rector of Belvedere College.

In 1900, Father Finlay, who for years had taken a leading part in the co-operative movement, was appointed to the chair of Political Economy, and held this post with distinction for the next thirty years.

McQuaid, John, 1826-1904, Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA J/1733
  • Person
  • 06 September 1826-08 April 1904

Born: 06 September 1826, Glaslough, Co Monaghan
Entered 06 June 1854, Sault-au-Récollet, Montréal, Canada - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1859, All Hallows College, Dublin
Professed” 15 August 1871
Died 09 October 1885, St Vincent’s Hospital, New York, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Part of the Boston College, Boston MA, USA, community at the time of death

Older Brother of Patrick McQuaid (MARNEB) - RIP 1885

Murphy, Peter, 1844-1872, Jesuit scholastic

  • IE IJA J/756
  • Person
  • 12 November 1844-02 April 1872

Born: 12 November 1844, Rathangan, County Kildare
Entered: 07 September 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 02 April 1872, Rathangan, County Kildare

Brother of Luke Murphy - RIP 1937

Part of the Leuven, Belgium community at the time of death.

by 1871 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother of Luke Murphy - RIP 1937

He was sent to Amiens for Rhetoric, then Louvain for Philosophy, and eventually was set home to Rathangan for health reasons. he died there 02 April 1872. He is buried at Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare.

Clery, Joseph, 1837-, former Jesuit priest

  • IE IJA ADMN/7/239
  • Person
  • 11 February 1837-

Born: 11 February 1837, County Cork
Entered: 13 September 1856, Beaumont, Berkshire, England - Angliae Province for HIB (ANG)
Ordained: 1868
Final Vows: 02 Fenruary 1872

Left Society of Jesus: 1883

by 1858 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) Studying Philosophy
by 1866 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying Theology
by 1871 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
Early Irish Mission to to Australia 1880

1857 FRA CAT has St Acheul, Amiens entry