Showing 453 results

Born: 02 May 1815, Thurles, County Tipperary
Entered: 13 February 1844, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1857
Died: 31 March 1883, St Louis College, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 15 July 1805, Drumnakilly, County Tyrone
Entered: 09 September 1837, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 02 February 1848
Died: 19 December 1882, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 25 December 1813, Carrickmacross, County Monaghan
Entered: 31 July 1841, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 25 March 1854
Died: 07 June 1866, St Mary’s, Pottowatomie, KS, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 25 December 1830, Strokestown, County Roscommon
Entered: 28 September 1859, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows:15 August 1870
Died: 04 September 1908, Woodstock College, MD, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 11 October 1867, Kilternan, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1899, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 02 February 1911
Died: 21 June 1954, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway City

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 24th Year No 4 1949
Coláiste Iognáid, Galway :

Out of Brother Donoghue's fifty years in religion, thirty-seven were spent in Galway. After a year at the Crescent, Limerick, he first came to Galway from 1905 to 1915. Then came seven years at Clongowes, after which he returned to Galway, and has been with us since. During all his years in the Society, Brother Donoghue has acted in the combined functions of sacristan and tailor. He has also the distinction of having acted as reader in the Refectory for thirty-five years, and is justly proud of the fact that our present Fr. General, on hearing of this remarkable record from the late Fr. Hannon, a fellow-novice of Brother Donoghue, sent him a special message of congratulation. Apart from his regular duties, Brother Donoghue has been noted for his kindly interest in the poor of Galway. He has cheered the souls of many generations of the Community by his poems on subjects both religious and secular, and his most intimate friends would find this notice incomplete without a reference to the instrumental recitals to which, in former days, he treated them on favoured occasions.
Among other tributes, Brother Donoghue received the following lines from Senator Helena Concannon :

Dear Brother James, your jubilee
Is like a Golden Cup,
In which the fruits of fifty years
Are fitly gathered up.

Upon Our Lady's Natal Day
You" sought Ignatius' fold ;
And oh! what precious birthday gifts
Your young hands then did hold.

And since that day, in joy or woe,
You gave her service meet,
And prayer and work filled all the years
You now lay at her feet.

And gladly will she stoop to lift
The Golden Cup you bring,
And set it lovingly before
The Throne of Christ the King.

To mark the occasion, the Men's Sodality presented a set of vestments to Brother Donoghue, for use in the church.

Irish Province News 29th Year No 4 1954

Obituary :

The late Brother Donoghue was born in Dublin in 1867 and was a master tailor. In September, 1899 be entered the Society of Jesus and spent the first five years of his religious life in St. Stanislaus College, Tullamore. In 1904 he went to the Crescent College, Limerick as sacristan and tailor. In the following year he came to St. Ignatius in the same capacity, and spent the rest of his life in Galway, except during the period 1915-1922, when he was in Clongowes Wood College. Until 1936 Brother Donoghue was Sacristan, in charge of church collections until 1953, and followed his craft of tailoring until his illness began last March.
If ever an “Institution” passed away with the death of a man, an “Institution” of the Jesuit Church, Galway, and indeed of Galway itself, passed away with the death of Br. Donoghue, R.I.P.; and if ever there was a striking example of the individuality produced by the Jesuit Rule and the Jesuit ways of prayer it was the same Br. Donoghue. His Rule and his prayer, worked out in his life with that diamond-hard-and-bright Faith so characteristic of the Dublin Catholic working man, gave us the humble, cheerful, humorous sanctity which endeared him to all classes of people. The humorous glint in the eye as he held out the collection plate in some strategic position that said “You are getting more here than you'll ever give”.... The day's adventurous routine for this octogenarian . . . “The Way of the Cross” the minute he reached the church ... to point the way for himself. The running from church to domestic chapel and back again to church to catch each Consecration - and if That is the Heartbeat of God dying for love of man, who would not condone interruptions not always noiseless? The cheery professional business query, “How's the ward-robe?” as he sought material for his tailoring - a very finished work it was, until in the end, we had Dante's “old tailor peering through the eye of a needle” - and failing with the thread and even misplacing the button.
But most of all we recall his life-long real apostolate for the sick and the poor, his special favourites. In the days of his musicianship with the mouth organ he was known to have played many a difficult hospital case into the right frame of mind and soul for the Harmonies of Heaven.
And the poor! God alone knows how many he fed and clothed - in that line any object that looked unclaimed or about which the owner couldn't be “rationabiliter invitus” was treasure-trove and so the property of the King, Ri na mBocht, as the Irish has it ... and thereby hangs many a tale at which the Angels laugh.
We shall miss the spare figure with the springy walk as every evening without top-coat, in the worst weather he went to Benediction at the Poor Clares . . . and his cheery Dublin “Up the Jes!” to the boys whether they won or lost a match ... and the wavering notes of “My Old Kentucky Home”, when the sun did not “shine bright”, and “My Lady” the weather refused to “weep no more” in the long-sustained Galway rain.
In the end there was a kind of patient impatience in his hurry to be taken from being a worry to others, and to be with the Mother of God and the Sacred Heart , , . and so when the Novena to the Sacred Heart was filling the church, the welcome home came from that Sacred Heart in the words by which He will test all “I was hungry and you gave me to eat, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me”.
May we be as ready for that test as Br. Donoghue.

Born: 29 September 1815, Tuam, County Galway
Entered: 08 February 1845, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 15 August 1855
Died: 23 February 1896, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 10 January 1822, Paulstown, County Kilkenny
Entered: 17 August 1850, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 15 August 1860
Died: 16 December 1896, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 31 December 1826, Cloonmore, Tuam, County Galway
Entered: 17 November 1851, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Professed: 02 February 1862
Died: 02 September 1914, St Francis Hospital, New York NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

part of the Fordham College, New York, NY, USA community at the time of death

Born: 16 September 1809, Stralongford, County Donegal
Entered: 16 July 1843, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 14 April 1855, St Louis College, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 14 August 1827, Cumber Upper, Claudy, County Derry
Entered: 21 August 1852, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1863
Died: 27 September 1891, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 26 December 1817, Ballyragget, County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1857, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 16 May 1891, St Joseph's College, Philadelphia, PA, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 01 January 1888, Molong, NSW, Australia
Entered: 30 July 1909, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Final Vows: 15 August 1923, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Australia
Died: 13 June 1972, Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He was the youngest of a large family. Eight members of his family entered religious life, and he was the last to die. His early education was with the Mercy Sisters at Molong and then at Sydney Technical College, before he entered at Loyola Greenwich in 1909 aged 21. He then finished his Noviciate at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg in Ireland. He found the Novitiate difficult.

In his earlier years after First Vows he found himself sent to St Ignatius College Riverview, St Aloysius Sevenhill and Xavier College Kew mainly doing domestic duties.

1921-1951 He was sent to Sevenhill as an understudy at the winery and as infirmarian. He became the first Australian winemaker at Sevenhill and a very successful one. He succeeded Brother Boehmer, and he was able to bring some order into the affairs of the winery. The original aim of the Sevenhill cellars was to produce sacramental wine, but gradually other grapes were grown and different classes of table wine produced.
The cellars were always expected to more than pay their way and began to be seen as a Province milk cow. Not only did the cellar master have to be a vigneron, he had to be an engineer and administrator, with an ability to control staff and see that the interstate sellers were both capable and reliable. In addition he was to be a religious, a man of prayer. He preferred to work alone in running the cellars, free from interference of Superiors, whose job, he considered, was to look after running the Parish. During one of his spells in hospital, an agriculturally minded Superior grubbed out some acres of his claret vines in order to grow potatoes, and this didn’t help his recovery.
The liturgical highlight each year at Sevenhill was the Corpus Christi celebrations. George was also the choirmaster, and he directed combined choirs from local parishes. With an eye to the future, he had planted trees and shrubs to provide a setting for the outdoor Mass.
The Youth Club at Sevenhill was another activity of his, encouraging debates and public speaking among the young men. He was also a good musician and played the violin. He retained an interest as a hobby in woodwork. The altar in domestic chapel was one of his constructions, but one of his joys was the carving of delicate bridges for his violin. He also had the companionship of many cats, whose presence at the winery was important to keep down the mice.
He was conservative in his thinking, the old and trusted way was always the best, whether it was the equipment at the winery or the Latin Mass. It was worth directing him to something in conflict with these views just to watch his reaction - a delicate handling and then a little sniff, which was his comment.
1951-1972 While at Canisius College Pymble he could be heard during the evening meal playing the violin, often sad music which reflected his decreasing ability to play as he had once done.

he was a gentleman, quiet and private, though he enjoyed telling his stories in his old age. He was a man of sound intelligence, highly sensitive and he possessed a well-developed appreciation of good music.

Born: 13 May 1813, Bally Mac Quaid (Ballymacward), County Galway
Entered: 23 September 1841, Frederick, MD, USA - Mayrlandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 08 September 1852
Died: 30 June 1883, Baltimore, MD, USA - Mayrlandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEN)

Part of the Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA community at the time of death

Born: 12 May 1859, Draperstown, County Derry
Entered: 07 December 1885, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia (HIB)
Final Vows: 02 February 1897, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia
Died: 25 November 1936, Mater Hospital, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

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

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from Patrick Muldoon Entry :
Ent at the new Irish Novitiate in Richmond, and it was then moved to Xavier College Kew. He went there with Joseph Brennan and John Newman, Scholastic Novices, and Brother Novices Bernard Doyle and Patrick Kelly.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He was born in Ireland, but entered the Society at Richmond Australia in 1885.

1887-1888 After First Vows he spent a year at Xavier College Kew
1888 He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview and was to spend the rest of his life there.
He was at various times cook, buyer and storekeeper, but not involved in what was referred to as “domestic duties”. In his latter years he was in charge of the farm and the dairy, and in all his work he was considered efficient and kindly.
Sometime during the 1930s he paid monthly visits to St Michael’s Orphanage, Baulkam Hills, taking bags of potatoes and some trays of mince meat to supplement the poor diet of the orphans. The funds for this food came from the Riverview boarders.

Although Irish, he had emigrated to Australia before he entered the Society. Almost all of his 50 years in the Society were spend at Riverview, where he made a wide circle of friends, not only among boys, Old Boys and parents, but also in the business world of Sydney which his work as buyer for Riverview brought him into close contact with. The East Wing of the College, the organ in the Chapel, and the showers in the Second and Third Division buildings were all paid for by “friends of Brother Doyle”.

His community remembers him especially for his piety, his unfailing charity and affectionate interest in the students.

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1935

Golden Jubilee of Brother Bernard Doyle

Golden Jubilees seem to rush upon us. It is not very long since Riverview celebrated its fiftieth birthday. Even the “Alma Mater” is putting a flower in its buttonhole this year. On Sunday, October 6th, Brother Doyle celebrated his fiftieth year as a Jesuit amidst surroundings that have been his home during the greater part of his life.

For the boys it happened to be a Home Sunday. But for all that, they were the first to raise their voices in honour of Brother Doyle's Jubilee, when, as early as 7.15 a.m. in the Memorial Chapel, they sang, as one big choir, the entire High Mass. Father Rector celebrated the Mass, having as his assistants Father Frank Connell (deacon) and Father D O'Connell (sub deacon). Rev J McNamara SJ, was Master of Ceremonies.

To Brother Doyle had been left the choice of what friends he desired to in vite to join the Community at the Jubilee Dinner later in the day. It cannot have been easy for him to compose his list. For the countless Old Boys of Riverview are all his friends. There were about thirty guests, then - old Boys of various generations and some other personal friends of the Jubilarian, who sat down to table with the Community that afternoon.

After the Toast of the Pope and the King, Brother Doyle thanked in a few words those friends of his who had accepted his invitation to be present, and hoped that they would all enjoy their afternoon. Father Rector also thanked in his name and in that of the Community everyone who had come to do honour to Brother Doyle.

Father Gartlan SJ, in proposing the Toast of Brother Doyle, said that from the first day he had met him, he always looked on him as a very shrewd man, But he never suspected him of being shrewd enough to make his speech before his dinner, as he did to-day! He also admired his simplicity in thinking that his early speech would absolve him from making another later on!

He (Father Gartlan) was the first to receive Brother Doyle upon his arrival at Riverview from Melbourne so very many years ago. On that distant day, he considered that he was receiving a simple, alert and inoffensive-looking man, and he saw at once that in the case of Brother Doyle, it was a case of love at first sight between himself and Riverview.

Even in those days, he could see that this was no ordinary man - and that for three reasons .... his activity, his popularity and his regularity. He had been immediately appointed to the control of the supplies and the domestic arrangements of the College. He was soon as well known in Sussex Street as he was in Riverview. In general, he might say that there was scarcely any improvement made in Riverview, right down through those years, in which Brother Doyle did not have an active part. Very many valuable additions to the College, too numerous to mention in detail, came through his direct instrumentality. Even the Orange Groves, which contributed to the predatory instincts of so many generations of Riverview boys, owed their existence to him!

One thing, however, that always stood out in the character of Brother Doyle was his regularity as a Religious and a Jesuit. He was always first to the Chapel in the morning. There too he might be found in the late afternoon and at night, hidden away in some dark silent corner. It was this religious energy that gave him cour age and strength for his other activities outside and for that life-long service of others that had distinguished him so markedly. He wished Brother Doyle many more years of successful work for Riverview and for those to whom the school means so much.

Mr A A Rankin (OR) seconded the toast. He had been at Riverview, he said, even before Brother Doyle whom he regarded as a mere youngster. He wished him many more happy
years of activity in his present sphere of action, and he fully intended to be present at all Brother Doyle's future Jubilees! There are two sorts of popularity, he said: the kind that some seek and never get, and the other kind that others never seek but invariably get. Brother Doyle's popularity was most decidedly in the latter class.

Much against his inclination, but amidst the greatest enthusiasm, Brother Doyle was persuaded to speak again. (Father Gartlan was right after all!) This he did in a few well-chosen words, thanking once more his many friends-Old Boys and others, whether present or absent, for all their kindness to him to-day and in the past. He wished them every happiness and success in whatever walk of life they had chosen, and he was particularly grateful to Father Rector and the Community for their good wishes.

A message of congratulation with an offering of 60 Masses for his intention, was received by Brother Doyle from the Father General of the Society of Jesus, through the Very Rev J Fahy SJ (Mel bourne), Provincial Superior of the Australian Jesuits. Many other telegrams of congratulation had come the previous evening, one that gave Brother Doyle very special pleasure being from the Hon J H Keating and family (Melbourne) of whom he has very kindly memories.

In the evening there was Solemn Benediction, again sung entirely by the boys, and at which the Celebrant was Father C McKillop SJ, with Father Stone SJ (deacon), and Rev L Lachal SJ (sub deacon).

The day will live long in the memory of Brother Doyle. It will not be soon forgotten by the Old Boys and others who were privileged to be present on such a memorable occasion. For Brother Doyle and Riverview are names that go “hand in hand” for a longer period than many of us here now can remember. Indeed those names will never be separated, even when Brother Doyle and all his friends of to-day have passed away.

AD MULTOS ANNOS!

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1936

Obituary

Brother Bernard Doyle

All Riverview boys of the past 47 years will be sorry to know of the passing of Brother Doyle who died at the Mater Misericordiae Private Hospital on November 25th, after an active and laborious career.

Entering the Society of Jesus as a lay brother on December 7th, 1885, he was within a week or two of completing 52 years of religious life. He spent his first four years as a Jesuit at Xavier College, Melbourne. Coming to Riverview at the beginning of 1889, he took over the commissariat department and was steward in charge of the indoor employees of the College.

Old Boys will bear witness, as for years and years they have already done, to his efficient and kindly management. In later years he had charge of the farm and the dairy, which he directed with his usual energy. But the brightest memories of him will always be his sterling piety, his kindly ways, his affability, his unfailing charity and affectionate interest in every boy who passed through the school. Individuals and institutions that have experienced the unobtrusive practical charity of Brother Doyle, will specially mourn his loss.

Requiem Mass was celebrated at River view on November 26th by Rev Father Rector, the Chapel being filled to overflow ing, despite the short notice, by the pre sent boys and large numbers of Old Boys of practically every generation. Amongst these latter we noticed the President of the Old Boys' Union (Mr Geoffrey Hughes), Dr H Oxenham, Dr G H McElhone, Dr P M Curtis, Dr C King, Messrs G Oxenham, J W Hayes, J Hayes, C Bryant, J Brett, C Wilkinson, J Downey J Collins, A W M d'Apice, J Coyle, J Coen, J J Kinkead, E H Cox, J Donoghue, B Mc Phee, J Boylan, K Kelly, B P McEvoy, A Dougall, D Hughes, R Dunstan, H Broinowski, K Young and several others.

Among the Clergy present were Rev. Father McGuire, Parish Priest of Lane Cove, Rev Father Paschal OFM, Rev T Gartlan SJ, Rev R O'Mara SJ, Rev P McGrath SJ, Rev J Magan SJ, Rev T A Walsh SJ, Rev A Perrott SJ, Rev R Murphy SJ, Rev A Kelly SJ, Rev Brothers Louis, Fabian and Gerard.

Others present in the Chapel and at the cemetery were three Sisters of Mercy from the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, two Sisters of St. Joseph with some of the children from the Orphanage, Gore Hill (for which Brother Doyle always had a strong affection), Mr Harry Thomas, Councillor Marsh (Mayor of Lane Cove), Mr and Mrs King and family, Miss Lee, Mr E S McDermott, LDS, Messrs Dallas, Lambert, Stanley Warburton (2), Forsyth, Cox.

Father Rector gave a brief address at Mass stressing the outstanding characteristics of Brother Doyle - his devotion to prayer and to work. He spoke too of his life-long interest in Riverview; his work and his prayer were devoted to its welfare, and not a boy passed through the College but became immediately an object of the kindly interest of Brother Doyle, even long years afterwards.

Father Rector also gave the last absolution after Mass and recited the prayers at the graveside at Gore Hill, where all those present joined in the Rosary as a last tribute to one they had learned to know and to respect so wholeheartedly.

Riverview will not seem the same with out this familiar figure who, in the Chapel every morning soon after dawn, might be met during the day on the avenue, in the farm, in the garden - anywhere, and who seemed to us all to be such a permanent institution at Riverview that we shall find it hard to imagine it without him. RIP

Born: 1796, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 1819, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Died: 27 January 1822, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother Doyle was most useful. he kept God ever present to his mind by the constant use of mental prayer. From this fountain his other virtues were derived as from their source, and all his virtues seemed to tend towards the development of his interior spirit. He was remarkable for his humility, being never known to utter a word in his own praise, and he was most diligent and faithful in his observance of the virtue of obedience. It was his delight to speak of the advantages and blessings that flow from the cultivation of this virtue. So modest was he that, even in a passing way he studiously avoided making any mention of the opposite sex. In short, in the faithful and exact discharge of every duty, and in the perfect performance of his spiritual exercises, he was a remarkable and edifying example to his religious brethren.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DOYLE, JOHN : a very exemplary lay brother, who died at Clongowes 27th of January, 1822, Soc.2.

Born: 14 January 1868, County Kildare
Entered: 24 March 1897, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 02 October 1898, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a Carpenter by trade.
He died at Tullabeg 02 October 1898 just over a year and a half after Entry.

Born: 11 November 1809, County Kildare
Entered: 02 February 1843, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Final Vows: 25 March 1859
Died: 19 February 1880, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He did not join the Society until his 36th year, having spent years before this as a Postulant at Clongowes.
He was one of the most remarkable of the Irish brothers, as he was a most saintly religious. He worked as a carpenter in any place where a Church or House was being erected.
The closing years of his life were spent at Gardiner St, where he gave great edification to all who came to the Church, through his spirit of piety and work. He constantly recommended a devotion to St Joseph. His death at Gardiner St was like his life, truly edifying, and he died 19 February 1880

Born: 31 December 1785, County Meath
Entered: 07 September 1819, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 08 September 1837
Died: 25 October 1867, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
From his earliest years he was trained by his uncle in farming. he acquired excellent knowledge in cattle, sheep, horse and tillage etc. He became a a land steward for a rich landlord, managing a number of his farms very successfully. Feeling himself called to Religious Life, he visited Clongowes, and asked to be admitted as a Postulant c 1817. Shortly after that, Peter Kenney dismissed him following some negligence on the farm. Soon after that he had the courage to apply again, and was admitted at Tullabeg 07 September 1819.

He spent early all his religious life at Tullabeg, being land steward there for almost thirty years. He was most diligent in his duties, and though he suffered from age and infirmity, he never complained nor shirked from his duties. He developed a wonderful power of conciliating all the neighbours adjoining the College lands.
1857 He was sent to Clongowes in the hope that the change of air might restore him somewhat. He was again in the role of “villicus”, and did this for a couple of years. He was obliged to cease work when his health and age got the better of him, and he approached death with a joy and confidence that he was going to a better life. He died 24/10/1867 at Clongowes, and is buried the Clongowes Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a small cross.
As well as hard work, he was remarkable for his great spirit of prayer, ad in spite of a very busy life was always faithful to his daily meditations and other prayers. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin was also noteworthy.

Note from John Nelson Entry :
He took his Final Vows 02 February 1838 along with eleven others, being the first to whom Final Vows were given since the Restoration in Ireland. The others were : Philip Reilly of “Palermo fame”; Nowlan, Cleary, Mulligan, Michael Gallagher, Pexton Sr, Toole, Egan, Ginivan, Patrick Doyle and Plunkett.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Patrick Doyle 1785-1867
Br Patrick Doyle was born in Meath in 1785 and was land steward to a rich land owner. Feeling the call to religion, he visited Clongowes and was admitted as a postulant in 1817. Shortly afterwards, Fr Kenney dismissed him for some negligence on the farm. However, he appeared again and was admitted in 1819.

He spent most of his life on the farm at Tullabeg, being land steward there for thirty years. In 1857 he was sent back to Clongowes as steward.

He was remarkable for his great spirit of prayer, and his devotion to Our Lady was noteworthy. He received the news of his approaching end not only calmly, but joyfully, and he expired on October 24th 1867, and was buried in the Clongowes cemetery.

Born: 06 September 1932, Fairview, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 July 1954, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final vows: 15 August 1964, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 21 February 2017, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

Early Education at St Joseph’s, Marino

1956-1957 Tullabeg - Cook; Refectorian
1957-1960 Milltown Park - In charge of Staff; Refectorian
1960-1963 CIR - Ministers in Community
1963-1974 Mungret - Ministers in Community; Tertianship in Tullabeg (1963)
1974-1981 Coláiste Iognáid, Galway - Maintenance; Carpentry
1981-1982 Chelston, Lusaka, Zambia - Maintenance at Jesuit Education Centre, Xavier House
1982-1983 Chisekesi, Zambia - Maintenance at Canisius College
1983-1985 Manresa House, Dublin - Maintenance; Painter; Ministering in Community
1985-1992 Chisekesi, Zambia - Maintenance at Jesuit Residence, Canisius College
1992-2002 Mazabuka, Zambia - Maintenance and General Services at Nakambala Catholic Church
2002-2017 Manresa House, Dublin - Cares for the fabric of the House and Grounds

Born: 31 December 1811, County Kilkenny
Entered: 17 November 1851, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final Vows: 02 February 1862
Died: 05 April 1874 Xavier College, New York, NY, USA - Neo-Eboracensis-Canadensis Province (NEBCAN)

Born: 10 October 1788, Ireland
Entered: 12 July 1814 - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1826
Died: 06 July 1831, Georgetown, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 16 November 1896, Karb, Bytom, Poland
Entered: 10 July 1923, Kalisz, Poland - Polonaise Province (POL)
Professed: 26 August 1933
Died: 07 June 1972, Lusaka, Zambia - Zambiae Province (ZAM)

Part of the Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia community at the time of death

Transcribed Polonaiae Minoris (POL Mi) to Zambia (ZAM) : 03 December 1969
by 1956 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - fifth wave of Zambian Missioners 1955-1970

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Joseph Duda was born on 10 July 1896 in Karb, Upper Silesia, Poland. From the age of twelve he was thinking of becoming a priest but his family was too poor to send him to a secondary school. He became a lock-smith at an industrial school. During World War I he was conscripted into the German army and fought for four years on the Western Front where he was wounded. He used to recount how the soldiers were lined up to get a decoration for their efforts but the officer giving out the medals saw he was a Pole, so he demanded that he say “Bitte” (‘Please’) before receiving his decoration. He refused – and so did not get his medal! Later he fought in the uprising in Silesia and joined the underground resistance.

When he read that the Jesuits received young men as brothers in Poland, he left Silesia and joined the Society on 10 July 1923. For three years after his vows he worked in Cracow and Chyrow. When the Provincial Fr Jankievicz appealed for missionary volunteers, he stepped forward. He arrived in Zambia on 30 April 1928 with a group of Sisters and three other Jesuits (Josef Boron, Ladislas Zabdyr, Stanislaus Wawrzkiewicz). Kasisi was his first mission. As an old man he could still point to two buildings that are still standing which he built at the time, the first solid dormitories for boys and for the girls. He was remembered for many years for having provided a copious water supply.

The following year he moved to Chikuni where he built many schools for Fr Zabdyr. For three years he was blacksmith, driver, carpenter, turner, bricklayer and sacristan. These were the most fruitful and productive years of his life. In 1932 he moved to Chingombe where he constructed the convent for the Sisters. Forty years later it is still among the most solid buildings of the many structures on the mission. But here his strength began to fail. He contracted tropical dysentery called chiufa which is treated with traditional bark medicine inserted into the colon. However it was hookworm which doctors later thought he had carried undetected for ten years that left him feeling weak at times. Still he helped build the church at Katondwe in 1934 and the orphanage at Kasisi in 1936.

During World War 2 while he was at Katondwe he was often sick, so he was sent to Cape Town for medical attention from 1945 to 1947. He returned to Kasisi to help with the new church and to repair some of the old buildings. Then in 1957 when the mission was divided, he moved to Chikuni where he stayed until his death. The community was very kind to him there and his declining years were very happy. He used to give practical advice to the newcomers and sometimes they would banter with him, saying “Brother this advice of drinking plenty of water seems crazy. How can one possibly drink 8 gallons a day?” He would always rise to the bait: “I said eight pints, not eight gallons!” He was a man of many memories, some of which he never let go. He used to mention about a great photograph of himself in his shirt sleeves holding a large snake that he had killed. It was duly sent to the
General, Fr Ledochowski in Rome. The comment that came back was remembered: ‘Why is brother not wearing religious attire?’

In 1968 he wrote to a fellow Jesuit in Poland: ‘It is forty years since we came with Father Zabdyr to Zambia. Father Zabdyr was buried in Kasisi in July. I hope I shall soon follow him. I desire it very much and I am ready. My weak heart will help towards it ’. Four years later Joseph was operated on in Lusaka hospital and while the operation was a success his heart finally failed him and he died on 7 June 1972.

Born: 10 February 1841, Ballynahowan, County Westmeath
Entered: 07 September 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1877
Died: 05 September 1897, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was ‘villicus’ at Tullabeg and for a long time at Clongowes, where he died 05 September 1897.
A most useful Brother.

Note from Laurence Brady Entry :
He was a companion on the farm to Eugene Duffy.

◆ The Clongownian, 1897

Obituary

Brother Eugene Duffy SJ

As Br Duffy has been so intimately connected with Clongowes, it is only just that we should pay some slight tribute to his memory.

Those who saw him last summer, strong and healthy, full of good humour as he ever was, little thought that the early days of Autumn would see him lying cold and lifeless in the little cemetery he tended with such loving care. Though Br Duffy, to a stranger, seemed in perfect health, he suffered from an internal disease; how much he suffered no one can ever tell, for he bore it all with an heroic patience which marked the true Jesuit.

Always forgetful of himself when he had the interests of others to serve, it was this which caused his death. Being away from the college on some business, he neglected to take proper nourishment, with the result that he brought on a fresh attack of his old enemy, and after a couple of months of intense pain, borne with the patience which was characteristic of the man, he died on the 5th of September, almost the very day on which he had entered the Society thirty - one years before.

-oOo-

As manager of the farm, Br Duffy had made such a reputation that people, came from miles around to consult him and get his advice, and it is only now that he is gone one is able to judge what his loss means.

By the poor of the country he was simply beloved, for they knew well the kind friend he was, and when at length he was laid in his last cold resting place, and the damp earth rattled on his coffin, many a rugged cheek was wet with tears, and rich and poor alike, who had come to pay this last tribute to his memory, turned away with sad and heavy hearts for the loss of him who lay there so calm and peaceful. RIP

Born: 10 June 1870, Yass, NSW, Australia
Entered: 29 October 1898, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Final Vow: 02 February 1910
Died: 02 February 1953, Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He had been a draper before he Entered at Loyola Greenwich in 1898

1900-1903 After First Vows he remained at Loyola Greenwich as Infirmarian
1903--1908 He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview in charge of the farm
1908-1940 He was sent to St Patrick’s College Melbourne as Assistant Editor of the “Messenger”, He was also in charge of the accounts and Sacristan. He was very much identified with the “Messenger” over these years. As well as keeping the accounts there, he also looked after the printer and cleaned the office every day. He worked hard at his tasks, though the surroundings were uncomfortable.
In all the work he did at the “Messenger” he was experienced as kind, cheerful and self-forgetting. He was so regular in his activities that you could set your watch by him. He regularly worked late into the evenings. The Old Patricians enjoyed his company after meetings in the College. As he aged, and other took over the accounts, he wrote to all of the promoters and friends of the “Messenger”. Unfortunately his letters were not always clear as he used a steel pen rather than a fountain pen or typewriter.
Apart from his work, his other great passion was his hometown of Yass. He loved talking about it and you couldn’t joke with him about it.
1940-1941 He went to Loyola Watsonia
1941-1945 He was sent to Riverview.
1945 He retired to St Canisius Pymble, where even in his old age he looked after the garden with great care. He also spent many hours in the College Chapel.

He was a very quiet, devoted, edifying man with a quaint sense of humour. People admired and respected him. He was a steady and conscientious worker, with a great spirit of faith, a touching regard for the reputation of others, an unfailing fidelity to fellow workers, a genial sense of humour, a love of prayer and devotion to Christ.

Note from Vincent Johnson Entry
Johnson was moved to the Messenger Office, replacing Brother Paul Duffy, who had been manager for many years.

Born: 15 September 1799, County Cork
Entered: 04 May 1839, Florissant MO, USA
Final Vows: 25 March 1854
Died: 25 April 1856, St Louis College, St Louis, MO, USA

Born: 17 January 1839, London, England / Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1857, Frederick MD, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)
Final Vows: 02 February 1869
Died: 04 December 1902, Woodstock College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born London of Irish parents came to live in Dublin until emigration to USA two years later.

◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 32, Number 1

Obituary

“Brother Richard Dugan SJ” p132

Few of our coadjutor Brothers were better known through- out the Province than “Brother Dick”, as he was universally known, to distinguish him from his brother, Henry Dugan,
who died three years before him. In fact, he was well known by Ours in all parts of this country, for he was for eighteen years infirmarian at Woodstock at the time the scholasticate was the common house of studies for all Ours in the United States. Born in London of Irish parents, January 17, 1839, he was moved to Dublin the following year and when only two years old emigrated along with his parents to Boston. It was here he was received as a postulant, when only sixteen years old, by Father Stonestreet and sent to Philadelphia for his probation. Here he spent three years, a part of this time as a novice under the care and direction; of Father Ward. In 1858 he was sent to Frederick to complete his novitiate and it was here he began what was the chief duty of his life, the care of the sick. After taking his vows, in 1859, be was sent to Georgetown as assistant to Brother John Cunningham, better known as "Brother Johnnie," of whom an account will be found in The Letters vol xvii p 386. For ten years these two Brothers attended to the sick at the college and scholasticate, which was then at Georgetown, and Brother Dick formed a lasting friendship with Brother Johnnie, amounting on his part to almost veneration. When the scholasticate was opened at Woodstock, in 1869, Brother Johnnie was sent there as infirmarian and Brother Dick remained at Georgetown. In 1885, Brother Johnnie on account of his age and ill health, had to be removed from his office and Brother Dick the following year was sent from Georgetown to take his place. His first patient at the scholasticate was his old friend Brother Johnnie, whose nurse and companion he now became for four years. The remainder of his life Brother Dick passed at Woodstock and in the same charge till shortly before his death. There was nothing striking or wonderful in this life except the good Brother's devotedness to the sick and his energy in his work. He never seemed so happy as when he had the care of some old Father or Brother or when he had to battle with some dangerous disease. It was then he would shut himself up with his patient and devote all his time and energy to combat the malady. Many a Father and Brother in the Province owes his life to the constant and unwearied care of this good Brother. Of course he could not nurse all back to health; among his patients there were those, like his friend Brother Johnnie, whose course was run. It was thus that he assisted a good number to die. He kept faithfully an account of all these and he had the satisfaction in his last days of counting sixty-one whom he had helped to die a holy death. Besides his devotedness to the sick, the Brother was remarkable for his energy in his work. There were times when he would have no sick to attend and then he would not rest but worked energetically at his trade of painter; whitewashing, if he could find nothing else to do. To be idle, even when he was invalided, was a great cross to him. Keeping up the traditions of his great friend, Brother Johnnie, everything had to be dispatched with the greatest ardor he could put into it. During his convalescence, after his first stroke of apoplexy, he found a pile of several thousand old bricks lying in the cellar, and unasked, set to work to remove the old mortar and put them in the condition to be used. This is only a little instance of his untiring energy. He seems to have adopted the saying of his dear old Brother Johnnie, which he would enjoin on those who bade him good bye on departing for another house : “Never let the Devil or the Minister catch you idle”.
'
It was thus that Brother Dick passed his eighteen years at Woodstock in the care of the sick, and in energetic labor when not in the infirmary. He passed through much suffering and underwent several severe surgical operations, in one of which, six years before his death, his life was despaired of by the physicians. He recovered, however, and it was only a year before his death that he was rendered helpless by a stroke of apoplexy. He was then wheeled around and, nursed by his successor and spent his days in reciting his “rosary”. He was glad to die, for death seemed to have no terrors for him. It was thus after sinking gradually, day by day, that he met his end, on August 3, conscious almost to the last.

Born: 24 June 1826, Downpatrick, County Down
Entered: 05 September 1857, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 27 June 1902, Georgetown College , Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 17 March 1813, Kells, County Kilkenny
Entered: 29 August 1841, Florissant MO, USA - Missouri Province (MIS)
Final Vows:15 August 1858
Died: 25 October 1890, Florissant MO, USA - Missouri Province (MIS)

Born: 22 May 1921, Kilbeggan, County Westmeath
Entered: 07 November 1949, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final vows: 02 February 1960, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 07 November 2014, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at the time of death

Transcribed : HIB to ZAM 03/12/1969; ZAM to HIB 1979

by 1952 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - fourth wave of Zambian Missioners

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Note from Bernard (Barney) Collins Entry
In 1951 he accompanied the first two scholastics, Bob Kelly and Joe Conway, and Br. Jim Dunne, on their way to the then Northern Rhodesia.

Note from Joe McCarthy Entry
In the late 50s, Joe pioneered the Chivuna Mission where he built the community house, church and Trade School with the co-operation of Br Jim Dunne and won the esteem and affection of the people in the locality

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 158 : Winter 2014

Obituary

Br James (Jim) Dunne (1921-2014)

22 May 1921: Born in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath.
Early education at Rahugh National School and CBS Tullamore.
Worked in the family business
7 November 1949: Entered the Society at Emo
8 November 1951: First Vows in Zambia
1951 - 1959: Chivunia Mission, Zambia – Teacher in technical and building skills
1959 - 1960: Manresa, Roehampton - Tertianship
1960 - 1974: Bishop's House, Monze - Builder
2 February 1960: Final Vows at Chikuni
1974 - 1981: Belvedere College - Minister
1981 - 1983: CIR - Secretary to the College
1983 - 1985: St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street - Minister; Supervisor of staff
1985 - 1987: Tullabeg - Minister
1987 - 1988: Tullabeg - Sabbatical; studying Theology at Milltown Institute
1988 - 1995: Milltown Park - Treasurer
1995 - 1999: St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street - Assisted in the church
1999 - 2007: Milltown Park - Assisted in the Community
2007 - 2014: Cherryfield Lodge – Prayed for the Church and the Society

Brother Jim Dunne was admitted to Cherryfield Lodge on 13th July 2007. He was a happy resident and enjoyed fairly good health over the years. His condition deteriorated over time and he died peacefully in Cherryfield Lodge. May he rest in the Peace of Christ.

On Friday, 7th November 2014, Brother Jim Dunne, a member of the Milltown Park community, died at Cherryfield Lodge, at the age of 93 years and several months - a monumental age for a man of many monuments. Always a man of few words, Jim became more quiet-spoken as the years advanced. But underneath this quiet exterior lay a deeply spiritual man whose longings and desires were always for the Lord and how he could use his talents to make the love and service of Christ our Lord a reality in his own life, as well as in the lives of his fellow-Jesuits and the many individuals whom he encountered during his many years with us.

From the very beginning of his religious life, Jim was a rock-solid man of God. Very early witness to this was the trust that the Irish Provincial, Fr. Tommy Byrne, placed in him by sending him in his second year as a novice to Northern Rhodesia, to what was then a newly developing world for Irish Jesuits. Jim was just over 30 at the time, mature in years but still grappling with the beginnings of the religious life. However, there was no need for any fear about the depth of his commitment. His solid spirituality stood by him through the long sea and rail journey from London (via Cape Town) to Chisekesi and on to Chikuni, where he arrived early in September 1951, and during the months of learning Chitonga in the somewhat spartan conditions that then prevailed. And it never deserted him after he took vows in Chikuni on the feast of St. Stanislaus Kostka later that year. This gave Jim the remarkable distinction of being the only Irish Jesuit ever to take his First Vows in what today is Zambia. He reaffirmed his Jesuit commitment on 2nd February 1960 when he took his Final Vows, again at Chikuni.

Endowed with great practical intelligence, Jim brought into the Society a wide range of skills developed and exercised in the family's workshop not far from Tullamore. Construction, artistic brick-laying, carpentry, joinery, plumbing, electrical work – he took all of these in his stride, almost as if they were second nature to him, and yet he was always prepared to learn more from those who were more qualified than he was. Jim was also a gifted manager, with a flair for organising and getting the right people, with the right tools and equipment, into the right place at the right time. His ability to give directions simply and effectively, and his own manifest skills, helped greatly in building up confident teams of proficient and well-motivated building workers. Working with and through these, Jim became key to building-development in what was to become the Diocese of Monze. But in addition to the buildings that bear his stamp even today, Jim also left a great monument in the skills that he passed on to the local people with whom he worked. He was very particular that anything he turned his hand to should be of the highest quality and he always tried to make sure that his trainees and workers would also be concerned not just with getting a job done but with getting it done to the highest possible standards.

One of Jim's earliest assignments was to develop and run with Father Joe McCarthy the Civuna Trades Training Institute (TTI). In time, the TTI gave way to a secondary school for girls, but not before, under Jim, it had qualified several hundred first-rate carpenters and brick-layers who fanned out to bring building development across much of the southern part of Zambia. Later, when the Diocese of Monze was established, Jim became in effect its building manager, working closely with Fr. Fred Moriarty and others in the development of Kizito Catechetical Centre, churches, parish houses, schools, and houses for teachers and catechists.

In the strangely coincidental ways in which God's providence works, another Jesuit Brother from the Irish Province came to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1952, one year after Jim's arrival in Chikuni. This was Pat McElduff who in his younger years had done some of his apprenticeship as a tradesman in Rahugh on the borders of Westmeath and Offaly where, in the years before he joined the Jesuits, Jim himself had been trained. The two knew each other from these early years and now they found themselves working together again, this time on a larger canvas. And almost after the manner of the Apostles Peter and Paul, building responsibilities were assigned to them in different ways: Jim became responsible for all projects that belonged to Monze Diocese, while Pat took on those that belonged to the Jesuits (or Chikuni Mission). As a result of this arrangement, for the last period of his life in Zambia, from 1960 to the time of his return to Ireland in 1974, Jim lived in what was to become the Bishop's house in Monze. While he was happy there and got on very well with Bishop Corboy and the rest of the community, at times he felt almost out of his depth and yearned for more interaction with the fellow-Jesuits he had lived with in earlier days. In the way of many quiet people, things sometimes got through to Jim, making him feel that bit down in himself. However, as a solid religious man, he would not let this interfere with his commitment as a hard working Jesuit but would eventually regain his equilibrium through his prayer, work, community involvement and, sometimes, rest and better physical health.

Jim was a very agreeable companion, one who was easy and enjoyable to live with. He was quiet in his manner but this did not stop him enjoying a game of cards, a good movie or the comradeship of a walk in the evening with one of the community. He was greatly loved by the Batonga people among whom he worked and is particularly remembered for the concern he showed that their marriages be happy and stable and that their children attend school. He showed special kindness and understanding towards Jesuit scholastics newly arrived in the country and was particularly attentive to their health needs; many a young Jesuit received gentle but firm admonitions from him about taking their anti-malaria medicines or wearing a hat until acclimatised to the sun.

Ironically, it was malaria that brought Jim's years in Zambia to a close. He contracted fever in days long before Artemesin or other drugs could provide powerful protection. Though frequently quite unwell, he continued with his work as best he could, but in time developed a recurrent form of malaria that was intractable to treatment. In the circumstances, the Holy Rosary Doctor-Sisters (Lucy O'Brien, Maureen O'Keeffe, Eileen Kane) advised that he return permanently to Ireland, because remaining in Zambia would always mean serious health problems for him.

So it was that after 23 years in Zambia, from 1951 to 1974, Jim returned to Ireland and was re-incorporated into the Irish Province. Until his mid-80s he was busy, a wonderful man to have on your side, practical and resourceful, moving where he was needed, always concerned about those around him; ever seeking perfection in anything undertaken by him or any of those for whom he was responsible; and always, simply always, a solid man of God, devoted and faithful to his religious duties, serving the God he loved through what he could still do, building up others through his sympathetic and understanding nature. Jim, sparing of speech, gentle and perceptive, contributed massively to the smooth running of the five Irish houses in which he served. These were not always the havens of peace one would like to imagine. Belvedere, where he was Minister for seven years, was a settled (I nearly wrote entrenched) community, hard-working but not easy to administer. If Jim was quiet, he was also alert, and concerned about everyone around him. From his sick bed in Cherryfield he would admire and appraise the craft of workmen in the building opposite. His regular greeting of How are you? was no formality. He wanted to know. No wonder he is missed. May God be good to this deeply spiritual Jesuit.

Michael J Kelly

Born: 29 June 1844, Loughtown, County Kildare
Entered: 12 November 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1888, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 07 November 1913, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows he remained at Milltown for some years and was then sent to Gardiner St. Later on he was sent to Mungret, and shortly before his death to Tullabeg.

During the thirty-six years he spent in the Society, he was engaged chiefly in farm work, except during his stay at Gardiner St. One always felt confident that whatever he had charge of was sure to be discharged faithfully. He was a very humble man, never sparing himself and always ready to oblige. Ever fond of a harmless joke and a quiet laugh - he had many friends, especially amongst our scholastics, who enjoyed his quaint wit.
During the last year of his life he suffered much from rheumatism and was compelled to withdraw himself for active occupation. His piety was in keeping with his character - simple. He loved his Rosary and the hearing of Holy Mass.
He has left a memory of a hard worker, ready to assist everyone, and also a man of great faith and deep piety.

Born: 02 February 1819, Cloonygormican, County Roscommon
Entered: 09 November 1854, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 02 February 1865
Died: 22 June 1888, Sault-au-Récollet, Montréal, Québec, Canada - Missions Canadiensis (CAN)

Born: 11 November 1830, Ballinruan, County Wexford
Entered: 24 March 1855, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Professed: 15 August 1865
Died: 09 July 1894, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 25 July 1832, Drumshambo, County Leitrim
Entered: 15 July 1855, Sault-au-Rècollet Canada - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 15 August 1865
Died: 10 May 1908, St Andrew on Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 19 April 1836, Sankt Andrä, Carinthia, Austria
Entered: 14 October 1861, Sankt Andrä, Austria - Austriae Province (ASR)
Final Vows: 03 February 1873
Died: 09 July 1912, St Aloysius College, Milson’s Point, Sydney, Australia

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was one of the Austrian Brothers who remained on in Australia with the Irish Mission in 1901.
He died at St Aloysius College Sydney 09 September 1912

◆ 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 in Austria 1861 and was sent to Australia in 1865.

1866-1882 He arrived at Sevenhill 01 February 1866, and there he was cook, refectorian and performed other domestic duties.
1882-1892 He was sent to the Northern Territory Mission. He was at the Daly River Station as infirmarian, and the Rapid Creek Station as cook.
1892-1898 He returned to Sevenhill as cook, refectorian and he worked in the garden. He was chosen to nurse Dr Reynolds, bishop of Adelaide in his last illness.
1898-1899 He was sent to Georgetown as Cook
1899-1901 He was back at Sevenhill as cook
1901-1905 He transcribed to the Irish Province and was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview as assistant steward and informarian.
1905-1909 He was sent to Loyola Greenwich as sacristan, refectorian and infirmarian.
1902-1912 He was sent to St Aloysius College Sydney as sacristan, refectorian and infirmarian.

Note from John F O’Brien Entry
He returned to Adelaide, 11 June 1882, and left to set up the Northern Territory Mission with Anton Strele, John Neubauer and Georg Eberhard

Born: 1578, Ireland
Entered: 1614, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final vows: 1630
Died: 20 September 1643, Ghent, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

Alias FitzEdmund
1628 Socius of the Procurator of ANG

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1628 In Madrid
Latin name of Edwardus is Edmundus.
He is called an Irishman in Catalogue ANG 1628 (cf Foley’s "Collectanea")

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
EDMUNDS, EDMUND, of Devonshire. This confidential lay-brother died at Ghent, 20th September, 1643, aet.75, Rel. 27.

Born: 10 May 1814, Birr, County Offaly
Entered: 13 September 1855, St John’s, Fordham, NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final vows: 02 February 1866
Died: 19 January 1892, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 01 February 1789, Edenderry, County Offaly
Entered: 01 February 1817, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 08 September 1837, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Died: 06 March 1855, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was brought up very piously by parents whose ancestors had made many sacrifices for the faith.
He became a shoemaker, and in his 28th year became a postulant and joined the Society.
After First Vows at Clongowes, he was employed in the humblest of offices in the house.
He was then sent to Tullabeg where he lived for 28 years.
A truly edifying religious, he was an example of every virtue, both to Ours and externs. Love of prayer, great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, modesty, meekness, industry, and above all love for fraternal charity were the virtues that everybody gave testimony to in his regard. Obedience was his great virtue, and he was most careful in fulfilling the smallest orders, at the exact time, and this is proven by the following fact : during very many years his duty was to ring the bell for class hours, and at the end of recreation, and never once did it happen that he was late to give the sign for the next duty.
He died 02 March 1855 and was buried in the old Rahan Cemetery, quite close to the south wall.
Note from John Cleary Entry :
He took his First Vows at Clongowes 02 February 1819, and Charles Aylmer said the Mass. There were six others with him: Brothers Egan, Nelson, Plunkett, Mulligan, Bennett and Sherlock, all who persevered happily in the Society to the end.
Note from John Nelson Entry :
He took his Final Vows 02 February 1838 along with eleven others, being the first to whom Final Vows were given since the Restoration in Ireland. The others were : Philip Reilly of “Palermo fame”; Nowlan, Cleary, Mulligan, Michael Gallagher, Pexton Sr, Toole, Egan, Ginivan, Patrick Doyle and Plunkett.

Born: 20 December 1829, Richardstown, County Louth
Entered: 23 September 1850, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 02 February 1865
Died: 10 April 1903, Woodstock College, MD, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 1793, Castletown, County Limerick
Entered: 12 November 1817, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 15 August 1836
Died: 15 December 1843, Stonyhurst - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1841 He was appointed Infirmarian at Stonyhurst, and died there himself Stonyhurst aged 50

Born: 1648, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 08 May 1673, Seville Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Died: 03 September 1689, Limerick Residence, Limerick City, County Limerick - Baeticae Province (BAE)

1646 Sacristan Limerick
1673 Porter and Procurator Limerick
1675-1682 In Irish College Seville

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :

Related to Stephen Rice

Ent as Brother

1682 As he was heir to a considerable inheritance he sought and received the General’s permission to return to Ireland and claim it (Fr General’s approval 24 October 1682). he remained in Limerick until his death 03 September 1689

Born: 08 September 1797, Faheran, Tober, County Offaly
Entered: 08 September 1842, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 08 September 1849, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 19 March 1811, Bagenalstown, County Carlow
Entered: 10 June 1847, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 07 May 1859
Died: 09 March 1890, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 09 September 1821, Castlegregory, County Kerry
Entered: 09 October 1849, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1860
Died: 13 October 1873, St Thomas, Port Tobacco, MD, USA (MAR) - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 14 February 1818, Glin, County Limerick
Entered: 20 February 1859, Santa Clara CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)
Final Vows: 02 February 1872
Died: 19 December 1876, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)

Born: 17 June 1821, Newry, County Down
Entered: 28 September 1859, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 02 February 1870
Died: 13 November 1895, Roehampton, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Born: 12 July 1933, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 16 March 1955, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 15 August 1966, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 09 February 1989, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia - Zambiae Province

Part of the Chikuni College, Chisekesi, Zambia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 03 December 1969

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Br George Feeney was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 12 July 1933. He attended school in that same city at St Canice's and O'Connells Secondary School, and also attended Bolton Street Technical School.

At the age of 22, he entered the novitiate at Emo Park in March of 1955. A couple of years after taking vows, he was sent to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This was in June 1960 and his first posting was at Charles Lwanga TTC where he stayed for two years looking after the water supply and things mechanical. In 1962 he was transferred to Chikuni across the river where he lived the rest of his life except for the year's tertianship at Tullabeg (Ireland) where he took his final vows in August 1966. Later he lived for a short spell at Kasisi, outside Lusaka.

George was very versatile and he turned his hand to many different types of work, from gardening to farming when the need arose, from mechanics to being minister in the house, while continuing with the very essential job of keeping the mission supplied with water. When someone went on leave, George was there to fill the gap until the return. He was a Jesuit for 34 years, 29 of which were spent in Africa, in Chikuni.

This very factual account of his life as given above does not do justice to the man George. Apart from the various jobs he did so ably, an outstanding quality which he had was his ability to make friends. To the many schoolboys who passed through Canisius, George was a good friend. It was not just the work that kept him going but just strolling down through the school in the evening for a bit of a chat. A not uncommon picture was to see him sitting on the low wall outside the house chatting with schoolboys while at the same time he pulled no punches and was very straight in his speaking with them.

He was very generous with his time and talents when people came to him for help or advice or both. The number of people who turned up for his funeral is clear evidence of the esteem in which he was held. He was a sharp card player as his friends knew well and sometimes his solution to a problem could be quite radical when with a characteristic shrug of the shoulders, he would say, "scrap the whole thing, matey, and put up a new one".

He came to Luwisha House a week before he was due to go on leave and receive medical treatment. He was quite sick really and was eating nothing and developed what seemed to be a high fever on Monday, the 6th February. He was taken to UTH to be put on a drip for the night. Next day it was suspected that he had blackwater fever and anaemia. But on Wednesday it was clear that it was more serious than that. The final diagnosis was leukaemia at an advanced stage. He must have had it for some time and yet continued with his work. He received blood transfusions from his fellow Jesuits. On Thursday he was in a comatose state not recognising anyone. That evening there were five Jesuits and a number of Sisters who knew him well, praying at his bedside. At 2100 hours he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit and died fifty-five minutes later. It was a shock to all, the speed with which the leukaemia acted. The funeral was held in Chikuni. The evening before many people both religious and villagers assembled in the church for the vigil. On the 13th February George was buried. The Bishop of Monze was the main celebrant at the funeral Mass, aided by the Archbishop of Lusaka and many Jesuit and other priests.

His life was one of faith, a constant presence in Chikuni. He, as a Jesuit, was "prepared and very much ready for whatever is enjoined upon us in the Lord and at whatsoever time without asking for or expecting any reward in this present and transitory life, but hoping for that life which, in its entirety, is eternal through God's supreme mercy".

Born: 28 June 1872, Glasthule, County Dublin
Entered 01 February 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1904
Died: 26 July 1959, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 34th Year No 4 1959
Obituary :
Br Denis Fennell

Denis Peter Fennell was born in Glasthule on 28th June, 1872 and died in St. Vincent's Hospital last July. Of his 87 years, over 59 were spent in Clongowes, where he worked patiently and efficiently as accountant and assistant to the Procurator to within a week or so of his death.
From his boyhood he deeply venerated the priestly and religious state and he first cherished the ambition of entering a seminary and devoting himself to God as a priest in the foreign missions preferably, he said, in a remote and painful mission. Family circumstances, however, imposed a delay and he joined the office of the Freeman's Journal in Dublin in 1889. Here, during an exciting and critical period of Irish history, 1889-1892, he worked in the capacity of shorthand-typist and junior secretary to the Manager, meeting the editors of the three papers published from that office and listening to the interesting and informative conversation of journalists and reporters during the dramatic years of the Parnell “split”. He had some interviews with the Provincial, Fr. Timothy Kenny, at that time, and it was suggested that he should pursue his studies and enter as a scholastic; but the disedifying aspects of the controversies then raging and the fact that his newspaper decided to his dismay to advocate the continued leadership of Parnell convinced him that it was time to flee the world. In any case he had, he believed, received a light in prayer that he would please God far more and do far more work for Him as a brother than as a priest. This, he said, overcame his natural reluctance to forego his first zealous desire, so he applied for admission at once and entered Tullabeg on 4th August, 1892.
Before his noviceship had been completed he was sent to Clongowes to undertake some urgent work and he remained there until it was time to return to Tullabeg for his vows. At once he was sent back to Clongowes and he remained there until his death in 1959 with but one break of six years. From 1918-1921 he was in Tullabeg and from 1921-1924 in Belvedere. He was to state towards the close of his life that he felt most grateful to God for this interruption of his long years of service in Clongowes. The sojourn in the quiet of our midland Thebaid and later amid the busy streets of Dublin helped, he felt, his love of solitude and shaped an inclination towards the mystical life, preparing him for the long term that awaited him among the account-books and money bags of Clongowes. Indeed, he once stated with an endearing simplicity that for a Jesuit he was exceptionally contemplative! He mentioned too that while a few past pupils, notably Sir Gilbert Laithwaite and Mr. Bobby Keogh, invariably went in search of him when they visited the old school, as regards other Old Clongownians, however much he might esteem and like them, he usually succeeded in following the counsel of the Imitation of Christ to keep from the company of men as much as he could”.
While he was in Tullabeg he wrote a little book entitled The Loving Adorer of Jesus. It consisted of 96 closely-printed pages of prayers in verse, and was, he proudly said, “honoured with the imprimatur of Archbishop Byrne and published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland”. He insisted on its being published anonymously but a few of his religious brethren and some old friends came to know the secret.
His long years of devoted service in Clongowes were passed within a narrow compass - his office, the chapel, his room. Apart from these places and in dispensable visits to the refectory, only the library saw him. Here he would peruse the news columns of the daily papers for half-an-hour or so, sometimes while Fathers waited with a kindly smile for the old man to finish his reading. His view of the world was that of the prelude to the meditation of Two Standards and he believed that he could see in the daily news items the working out of the conflict between the forces of Christ and the forces of the Evil One, thus drawing matter for contemplation even from the morning paper.
The study of history too was a favourite hobby of his and here again his standpoint was the same. I do not know if in his youth he had read De Civitate Dei or l'Histoire Universelle, but in heaven he will have discovered an affinity with Bossuet and St. Augustine. Not surprisingly his interest began with Irish history, as he felt that his vocation had been to some extent determined by it. His views were, of course, occasionally extravagant and unbalanced, for he lacked professional training in that study. But he had as much as some of those who looked askance at this hobby of his and had read more widely and systematically than most. In his service of God in Clongowes he was a model of punctuality, exactitude and method: even if the method was peculiarly his own it was intelligent and it worked. Members of that community have said that it was always a pleasure to deal with him. He was kindly, deferential, soft-spoken, always a perfect gentleman. When Fathers who were about to travel went to him to collect a viaticum, he invariably inquired anxiously if they were sure they had enough a solicitude not always remarked in keepers of the common purse-courteously and charitably presuming that their devotion to holy poverty was not less than his own. Finally, he was a religious who kept on working to an age when most others would have drifted into a well-merited retirement. The very large number of Jesuits who attended the funeral Mass said by his nephew testified to the esteem in which he was held by the Province in general and by all who had connections with Clongowes in particular. The community there will miss him and the Brothers have lost an old companion who was interesting, well-informed, edifying and withal possessed of a deep and charitable sense of humour - a remarkable man and a remarkable Jesuit Brother. May he rest in peace after his long labours.

◆ The Clongownian, 1953

Jubilee

Brother Denis Fennell SJ

In February Brother Fennell celebrated his Diamond Jubilee as a member of the Society of Jesuis. He first came to Clongowes in November, 1894 and, with the exception of the years 1918-24 which were spent in Tullabeg and Belvedere, he has passed his long and devoted life here.

Early on in his life in the Society, Brother Fennell's talents in book-keeping were recognised by his superiors. He was appointed accountant and assistant to the procurator of Clongowes and has been employed in this exacting work ever since. Over the long years he has given splendidly efficient but unobstrusive service in the procurator's office and Clongowes owes him a debt of deep gratitude. It is characteristic of Brother Fennell's devotion to duty that he spent the most of his Jubilee day at the books. His sixty years of signal service have in no way diminished his ardour for work and we pray that Brother Fennell with his useful talents may long be spared to us.

Editors of the Clongownian in the past have been under deep obligations to Brother Fennell, who since his arrival in Clongowes, set in order many valuable memorials of the College's history. His collections of press cuttings, and printed documents relating to social activities in the College for the past century and a half (nearly) will in days to come make historians of the College bless his memory. A feature of Brother Fennell's Jubilee celebrations was the number of letters of congratulations and enquiries from many of our Past. Ad Multos, Annos.

◆ The Clongownian, 1960

Obituary

Brother Denis Fennell SJ

Last July, shortly after the boys had left for the holidays, died the oldest member of the Clongowes community, Brother Denis Fennell, in the 88th year of his age. And it is almost certainly true to say that when they returned after the vacation not a single boy missed him or even noticed his absence. For he was one of the many who in the background or behind the scenes perform the work, humdrum and tedious, on which so much depends, without which the school could not continue. For almost 60 years he had toiled for God in Clongowes, spending his days among ledgers and bills and receipts, passing the rest of his time in prayer or exploring the curious by ways of history, a study which he loved much, At last, unthanked by any of those whom he had served in successive generations through such long years, he quietly left to meet his Master, a likeness of the good and faithful servant of Our Lord's parable.

Schoolboys are thoughtless - they have, most of them, received so much loving care from their parents and others that they take for granted and as a matter of right anything that is done for them. But perhaps their elders are often at fault in allowing them to ignore so blithely the realities of life and their debt to others. The passing of a man like Brother Fennell should furnish matter for reflection for our past and present boys, for their parents, and indeed for some of our facile theorists in the popular subject of education,

He was born in 1872 in Glasthule and from an early age was attracted to the priesthood. Family circumstances however seemed to impose a delay in carrying out his plans and he took to newspaper work, joining the staff of the Freeman's Journal and serving on that paper during a most interesting and dramatic period of Irish history, an intelligent young observer of events that included the Parnell “split”. Before very long the impulse towards the religious life made itself felt more strongly and he received, he believed, a light in prayer that God wished him to become a religious brother rather than a priest. And so this talented young man left behind the world and the prospect of an interesting career.

The story of the long years that followed is briefly told: almost all of them, after the noviceship, were spent in Clongowes where his skill in accountancy was to prove most useful until the end of his life. For him the service of the school was the service of the Divine Majesty, and was therefore performed with no thought of reward, no hungering for human gratitude or recognition. Such is the foundation of supernatural dedication on which a school like Clongowes is built; such is the capital of selfless enthusiasm and service on which a school like Clongowes runs; and it is lives of prayer and toil like Brother Fennell's that bring down God's blessing on its activities. And here is the secret which is apparently so seldom penetrated even by those who profit most from it. It is surely fitting that such devotion should be occasionally acknowledged and that those for whom Brother Fennell worked so hard should pray for him now that his long years of labour are ended.

Born: 1739
Entered: 1747, Mexico - Mexicanae Province (MEX)
Died: 16 January 1751, Tepotzotlán, Mexico - Mexicanae Province (MEX)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
DOB 03 June 1739; Ent 23 November 1747;
1750 In Mexico

◆ CATSJ A-H has 1750 MEX CAT Scholastic teaching Grammar at Havana College

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Old/16

Born: 27 June 1638, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 24 November 1668, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Final Vows: 02 February 1679
Died: 05 October 1685, Cuenca, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)

1670 After First Vows in Madrid 25 November 1670 he was sent to various houses of TOLE at Huete, Caravaca de la Cruz and Villarejo
In latter years he was sent to Cuenca College as a teacher of the younger pupils, where he died 05 October 1685

Born: 1637, Ireland
Entered: 17 May 1662, Bahia, Brazil - Brasilia Province (BRA)
Final Vows: 02 February 1679
Died; 02 March 1712, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Brasilia Province (BRA)

Alias De Campos

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
Ruperto de Campos (probably a trans of Robert Field)
Entered 1662 Bahia, Brazil, lay-brother; RIP 1712 Rio de Janeiro (age 75)
Worked as a Brother at Colleges in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo for 50 years.
Had a reputation as a learned man as he was a superb teacher of the lower classes

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Ruperto de Campos 1637-1712
Br Ruperto de Campos, whose name is probably a translation of Robert Field, entered the Society as a Brother in Bahia Brazil in 1662.

He worked in the College of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santo Paolo for fifty years. He must have been a man of some education, for he had a high reputation as a teacher of the Junior classes in these schools.

He died at Rio de Janeiro in 1712, aged 75 years.

Born: 01 April 1799, Ireland
Entered: 06 June 1834, Florissant MO USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 09 June 1855, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 01 July 1814, Mortlestown, County Tipperary
Entered: 19 October 1843, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1855
Died: 09 April 1873, St Mary’s, Kansas, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 24 August 1912, Myshall, County Carlow
Entered: 20 April 1935, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Miltown Park, Dublin
Died: 10 November 1990, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin

Born: 04 May 1921, Shanaclough, Oola, County Limerick
Entered: 14 August 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 15 August 1960, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 08 September 1995, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare community at the time of death.

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 92 : August 1996

Obituary
Br William (Willie) Fitzgerald (1921-1995)

4th May 1921: Born in Shanaclough, Oola, Co. Limerick
Education: Oola NS, Co. Limerick
Employment: 10 years farming
14th Aug. 1950: Entered the Society at Emo
8th Sept. 1952: First Vows at Emo
1952 - 1959: Emo, Farm Steward Tertianship,
1959 - 1960: Roehampton, England
15th Aug. 1960: Final Vows, Emo
1960 - 1967: Emo, Farm Steward
1967 - 1995: Clongowes - Plant maintenance, House and College
1st June 1995: Admitted to Naas Hospital. Convalescence in Cherryfield Lodge
8th Sept. 1995: Died at Cherryfield Lodge

There is a tradition in the neighbourhood around Clongowes that there is always a “holy Jesuit” at the College. In recent years the pupils at the school would have had no doubt about who the “holy Jesuit” was. Br. Willie Fitzgerald was their idea of a holy man. They have their own stringent criteria for assessing holiness. And according to their criteria he never failed: he was invariably helpful and he repaired the same window they had broken yet again with the same patient good humour. He never gave out to them. Maybe his reputation said more about his fellow Jesuits in Clongowes than about Willie, but the reputation stood the test of time.

In a college where Fr. John Sullivan had set the standard, his fellow Jesuits noticed the similarities: Willie had a most extraordinarily cheerful willingness to help, no matter what time it was, no matter how inconvenient it was, and no matter how often he had had to do it even that very day. And that same cheerfulness survived nearly thirty years of breakages, broken windows, missing slates, clogged drains and blown bulbs. He often uncomplainingly repaired the same window twice in the same day.

For him love was found in deeds not in words. As with John Sullivan he knew when he was being taken advantage of, yet neither of them lost their temper, neither used recrimination even when they knew the damage was malicious. When you come across that kind of thing you know you are dealing with something special. As the boys in Clongowes knew in both cases, for nothing fake could take that much.

Br. Willie was hard to find, except twice a day, in the chapel. No matter what had disturbed his sleep during the night he was up and in the chapel as usual at 5,10 the next morning. In this too he was like John Sullivan. It was quietly done, but he was never late, never absent. He was there unobtrusively at different hours when nobody else was around. And we knew we were blessed; he prayed for us, the community, the boys.

Like John Sullivan too he suffered and always in silence. He suffered much from arthritis and was nearly crippled before he underwent the hip-operation, Afterwards there were strict injunctions that there was to be no climbing of roofs, no lifting of ladders. There was no stopping him. There was work to be done, and he did it. In his final illness there were long periods of pain, sleeplessness, but as always it was borne without complaint.

Vocation - that mysterious calling to imitate Christ - for Br. Willie it was not to imitate him in his teaching ministry but in his serving ministry. “I have come not to be served but to serve". For Willie it was a pouring out of self, without question, without complaint, AND doing it willingly, doing it cheerfully.

I think for the pupils of the school it was a choice they found difficult to envisage. With their young talents they dream of taking a place in life commensurate with their gifts. His vocation was challenging, all the more challenging because it was free. Willie Fitzgerald had talents that few guessed at. He had been best in his class at school, he had been a talented actor as a young man, and a keen sportsman. He would cycle to Carlow of a Sunday for a GAA match. Gerard Manley Hopkins was his favourite poet, and he could recite whole poems of his by heart. He had many talents but he chose a life of service as his way of imitating Christ.

I entered the noviciate in 1950, the same year as Willie Fitzgerald; we took our vows on the same day. I heard him make his dedication of himself; I saw him over more than forty years live out that dedication, not as a burden but cheerfully and willingly - just like his warm salute every time you met him.

Willie had a hermit streak, but he was a vital member of his community because he prayed for us. It was typical of him that when he was in Naas hospital during his final illness other patients and their visitors gravitated towards him and asked for his prayers. In his final days in Cherryfield I visited him and before taking my final leave of him I made sure to add my request to that of others, pray for me”. I know a good thing when I see it. The Community miss all the things he did around the place, but we feel sure of his prayers. Willie Fitzgerald died on 8th September 1995.

JL

◆ The Clongownian, 1996

Obituary
Brother William Fitzgerald SJ

“Willie Fitz”, as we called him in the Jesuit community, died peacefully after an illness of some months on the morning of 8 September 1995 in Cherryfield Lodge, the same day as young Stephen Downes a few miles away in Beaumont Hospital.
Willie came from Oola, Co. Limerick, where he was born on 4 May 1921. He farmed there until joining the Jesuits on 14 August 1950, at the age of 29. Almost uniquely for a Jesuit, his whole life was lived in just two houses: St Mary's, Emo, where he entered and remained a member of the community until 1967, shortly before the house was closed, and then Clongowes. In Emo he looked after the farm; here he was part - or several parts - of the maintenance staff. As we discovered after his death, although we had suspected it long before, he did the work of three men and no neat description of his job or his duties could properly encompass all the labours with which he filled his days.

He was a skilful handyman in several departments, in addition to the mechanical jobs for which he was formally responsible. Much of the work he did was hard, physical labour. He worked with complete fidelity and reliability. Broken windows never remained broken for long. The boiler was switched on and off personally - Willie never had much time for mechanical devices and preferred personal supervision. But the hallmark of all his work and his personality was his unfailing cheerfulness. This, more than the work itself, was one of the clues that Brother Fitzgerald was an unusually holy man. He was impossible to put out of countenance. Whatever the demand, he responded without complaint.

The present writer remembers him being called from his bed (or at least from his bed room - he retired late and rose extremely early) long after the midnight hour to secure entry to the top floor of the infirmary for a lay teacher who had got locked out. This necessitated Fitz going down to his workshop, carrying a heavy ladder to the back of the building and climbing up outside and through a window on the back-stairs. We, who were waiting inside, knew he had arrived when we heard his characteristically jovial singing on the other side of the door. That small, but revealing, incident was repeated time after time and typified his complete availability to others, utterly unmindful of any cost to him self. This is surely one of the principal marks of sanctity in a human being.

He was physically very robust and agile, until the end of his life. The heavy ladder he hoisted on his shoulders that night was one of countless loads we saw him carrying round over the years. The sight of Fitz up a ladder erected against a precariously wavering flag pole on top of the “29 Building” to run up the flag for Union Day inspired severe misgivings in others but he clearly thought nothing of it himself When he travelled, his favoured mode of transport was the bicycle. He went for long trips when he was allowing himself a little time off and, when he went home on holidays once a year, he cycled to Oola and back. We had no evidence that he even broke the journey.

All the while, he was making a more important journey and scaling other heights. We knew that he prayed - not as so many of us pray, as if, in the words of the Curé of Ars, we were saying, “I am just going to say a couple of words, so I can get away quickly”, but more like John Sullivan (and the reminiscence is not by chance), about whom a fellow scholastic once marvelled: “Mr Sullivan actually talks to Jesus in the chapel”. We only caught glimpses of this in Fitz - from the nature of things and because much of it was in the early hours when no one else was about - but we were keenly aware of it.

He was, in any case, a deeply private man. He was not unfriendly or unsociable. He was anything but unapproachable. But you did not feel he needed conversation or recreation, In some ways, living his slightly reclusive life, he was almost more a Carthusian than a Jesuit. He kept a certain kind of reserve, always, for example, addressing the rest of us as “Father” or “Brother”, never by our first names. He lived in obscurity, unknown except by the small circle of his family, his fellow-Jesuits in the community and those he worked with or met through his work. That was the way he wanted it and it revealed another dimension of his profoundly Christian personality, a humility which had no false note.

He had a good, alert mind and he was a shrewd observer of what was going on around him. We remember the sight of him in the community library after tea (his taken early), studying the newspaper, always The Irish Independent. He was keenly interested in sport, especially hurling and football. He had a hearty sense of humour, which could be sharp but was never unkind. We were amused and touched to discover that he used to send jokes to Ireland's Own, in the hope of winning the small prizes offered. Whoever the money was for, if he did win, it was certainly not for himself.

There was a depth of goodness and humanity in Willie Fitzgerald, which touched every one and he was a completely real person. Although his contact with the boys was some what indirect, “Brother Fitz” was a very familiar figure, always working, always on the move, always good-humoured and cheerful, and many of them had a sense of his special quality.

The day he died was the 43rd anniversary of his First Vows as a Jesuit. Those of us who had the privilege of living with him know that few have lived those vows with such awe-inspiring goodness and commitment as Willie Fitzgerald did. We convey our deep sympathy to his family.

Born: 24 June 1789, Dingle, County Kerry
Entered: 01 April 1828, St Louis, Missouri, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1839
Died: 25 May 1863, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 17 March 1828, Leinster
Entered: 03 December 1850, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1862
Died: 28 February 1865, St Louis University, St Louis MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 06 January 1822, County Fermanagh
Entered: 14 August 1848, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 15 August 1859
Died: 08 January 1882, St Mary's, Kansas, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 01 January 1841, County Mayo
Entered: 20 June 1866, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1876
Died: 21 June 1903, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Aloysius Sturzo was Novice Master to Thomas at Milltown.
After his First Vows he remained at Milltown as Cook.
He was then sent to Gardiner St as Refectorian. He was known there as a man who always had a god word for you, especially for externs he came in contact with,
1886-1888 He spent a year each in Clongowes and Milltown.
1888 He returned to Gardiner St.
Eighteen months before his death he had a serious operation for cancer, which prolonged his life a little. He was a most edifying patient during his final illness, and died on the Feast of St Aloysius at Gardiner St 21 June 1903

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Thomas Flatley 1842-1903
Br Thomas Flatley, who was born on January 7th 1842, entered the Society 24 years later. He did his noviceship at Milltown Park under Fr Sturzo.

The greater part of his life he worked at Gardiner Street. While there, he ever lost the opportunity of saying a good word in due season, to the many externs with whom he came in contact.

Eighteen months before his death he underwent a sever operation, which only prolonged his life for a short while. His conduct during his last illness was most patient and edifying, and he died calmly on the Feast of St Aloysius, June 21st 1903.

Born: 17 March 1815, Monsea, County Tipperary
Entered: 07 December 1857, Santa Clara CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)
Final vows: 19 March 1868
Died: 21 May 1875, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)

Born: 24 December 1841, Austria
Entered: 08 January 1862, Sankt Andrä, Wolfsburg, Carinthia, Austria (AUT)
Final vows: 02 February 1872
Died: 10 June 1918, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed : ASR-HUN to HIB 01 January 1901
◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Brother Florian seems to have spent almost all his religious life in Australia, living chiefly at Sevenhill and dying there 10 June 1918

◆ 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 at Sankt Andrä, Austria, and after first Vows he remained there and then went to Posen (Poznań, Poland) and Vienna, working mostly as a tailor.

1880 He was sent to the Australian Mission and Sevenhill, where he worked as a tailor and infirmarian for the rest of his life.

Born: 02 April 1836, Birr, County Offaly
Entered: 03 September 1857, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 07 July 1885, Roehampton, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Born: 07 September 1900, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 30 April 1925, Tullabeg
Final Vows: 02 February 1936, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 20 October 1967, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 4 1948

Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin.
We moved in on Saturday morning, 14th August. Fr, Superior (Fr. McCarron), Fr. Minister (Fr. Kearns), and Bro. E. Foley constituted the occupying force, and Fr. T. Martin not only placed his van at our disposal, but gave generously of his time and labour for the heavy work of the first day.
A long procession of vans unloaded until noon, when the men broke off for their half-day, leaving a mountain of assorted hardware and soft goods to be unpacked and stowed. By nightfall we had a chapel installed, the kitchen working, dining-room in passable order, and beds set up, so we said litanies, Fr. Superior blessed the house and consecrated it to the Sacred Heart. Next morning Fr. Superior said the first Mass ever offered in the building. It was the Feast of the Assumption and a Sunday, so we. placed the house and the work under the Patronage of Our Lady and paused to review the scene. Fr. Provincial came to lunch.
The building is soundly constructed from basement to roof, but needs considerable modification before it can be used as a temporary Retreat House. The permanent Retreat House has yet to be built on the existing stables about 130 yards from the principal structure, but. we hope to take about twenty exercitants as soon as builders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and decorators have done their work.
Fr. C. Doyle is equipping and furnishing the domestic chapel as a memorial to Fr. Willie, who worked so tirelessly for the establishment of workingmen's retreats in Ireland. A mantelpiece of this room has been removed, and thermostatically controlled electric heating is being installed. Lighting is to be by means of fluorescent tubes of the latest type.
With all due respects to the expert gardeners of the Province, we modestly assert that our garden is superb. Fr. Provincial was so impressed by the work done there that he presented us with a Fordson 8 H.P. van to bring the surplus produce to market. Under the personal supervision of Fr. Superior, our two professional gardeners took nine first prizes and four seconds with fourteen exhibits at the Drimnagh show. Twelve of their potatoes filled a bucket, and were sold for one shilling each. The garden extends over 2 of our 17 acres and will, please God, provide abundant fruit and vegetables.
From the beginning we have been overwhelmed with kindness: by our houses and by individual Fathers. Fr. Provincial has been a fairy-godmother to us all the time. As well as the van, he has given us a radio to keep us in touch with the outside world. We have bene fitted by the wise advice of Frs. Doyle and Kenny in buying equipment and supplies, while both of them, together with Fr. Rector of Belvedere and Fr. Superior of Gardiner Street, have given and lent furniture for our temporary chapel Fr. Scantlebury sacrificed two fine mahogany bookcases, while Frs. Doherty and D. Dargan travelled by rail and bus so that we might have the use of the Pioneer car for three weeks. Milltown sent a roll-top desk for Fr, Superior's use. To all who helped both houses and individuals we offer our warmest thanks, and we include in this acknowledgement the many others whom we have not mentioned by name.
Our man-power problem was acute until the Theologians came to the rescue. Two servants were engaged consecutively, but called off without beginning work. An appeal to Fr. Smyth at Milltown brought us Messrs. Doris and Kelly for a week of grueling labour in the house. They scrubbed and waxed and carpentered without respite until Saturday when Mr. Kelly had to leave us. Mr. Hornedo of the Toledo Province came to replace him, and Mr. Barry arrived for work in the grounds. Thanks to their zeal and skill, the refectory, library and several bedrooms were made ready and we welcomed our first guest on Monday, 30th August. Under the influence of the sea air, Fr. Quinlan is regaining his strength after his long and severe illness.
If anyone has old furniture, books, bedclothes, pictures, or, in fact anything which he considers superfluous, we should be very glad to hear of it, as we are faced with the task of organizing accommodation for 60 men and are trying to keep the financial load as light as possible in these times of high cost. The maintenance of the house depends on alms and whatever the garden may bring. What may look like junk to an established house may be very useful to us, starting from bare essentials. Most of all, we want the prayers of the brethren for the success of the whole venture, which is judged to be a great act of trust in the Providence of God.
Our postal address is : Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin.

Irish Province News 43rd Year No 1 1968

Obituary :

Brother Edward Foley's death came as a shock to most of us. He looked so fresh and youthful that few realised that he was just three years short of the seventy mark. When we heard the details of his last illness the comment was “just as he would have it, no full”. For the record we give the details. On October 19th he said that he was very tired, too tired to remain on his feet. The doctor wisely suggested anointing. He received the last sacraments and slept his last sleep.
Brother Ned, as he was known, was a favourite everywhere, and he shared his light-hearted laughter wherever he went. The community to which he belonged was always the better of him being of it, whether it was the three-man community of Manresa in its earlier days or the almost one hundred strong of Tullabeg.
He had the ability to settle in wherever he was; he could adapt himself to circumstances or rather he was independent of them. In his exile in Tullabeg his laughter filled the recreation room in an enthusiastic game of cards or his voice filled the back kitchen as he sang while he peeled the potatoes. In Manresa where he was lonely he made friends with the local cat and it was amusing to see pussy at his heels the whole length of the avenue.
His light-heartedness was not an unfeeling indifference to people and things, on the contrary it was a deep thoughtfulness that had measured accurately the value of life, “Why worry?” he used to say “make the most of what you have”.
This thoughtfulness made Br. Foley's opinion on things most valuable. His criticism of a film, a play, a football game, or on more sedate things like music, a building or a sermon was always well worth hearing. The late Father Meaney, who preached well, when in the Crescent frequently read his sermons to Brother Ned and added or expanded where Brother Ned suggested that idea was not clearly explained.
His judgement of men was still more valuable. He could measure a boy on the staff, a scholastic, a Superior or a minister quicker than most, and his measure would be an accurate one, and a generous one.
His witty retorts were good, always made in a roguish way that could not offend. When the new drinking glasses he put on the table in the Crescent were criticised by Father Dillon-Kelly of happy memory : “I suppose they are Woolworth's best, Brother”. “I beg your pardon, Father, these are from Barbara Hutton's” - and he got by.
Brother Foley always got by, whether it was a Long Table dinner with the preparations left to the last minute or getting into Croke Park on an All-Ireland Final as when he put out his chest and swung his arms and joined the Artane Boys' Band as Brother in Charge.
Brother Foley had been working as a watch-maker before he joined the Society in 1925 at the age of twenty-five. A short while after his noviceship in Tullabeg he went as a founder member to Emo where with Fr. Corbett and Brother Tom Kelly (no longer in the Society) he did real hard work preparing Emo, which had been unoccupied for many years for the coming of the novices in
1930.
The Crescent was his home for fourteen years from 1932-46. Here he was cook, infirmarian, in charge of the staff and general factotum in the house and, for good measure, in the summer he took on the sacristy and Church collections. It was no trouble to him. He had that rare gift of being able to delegate, moreover, he could select a reliable delegate, and still more, he instilled a loyalty that made one feel privileged to have been chosen. This was so because he himself was most obliging and generous; a meal at an unusual time - “I'll have something for you”; a boy on the staff anxious to get to some special engagement - “You run off, I'll stand in”. He did these good turns so spontaneously and so cheerfully that one was more than happy to be able to do something for him by way of return.
From the Crescent he went to Clongowes for one year and in 1948 he went to the newly opened Retreat House at Manresa where he worked again as a general factorum for six years. In 1954 he spent one year in Tullabeg and then moved to Gardiner Street. This assignment was not an easy one. Though it brought him to his own locality in Dublin and to the Church where as a boy and a young man he had served on the altar, yet he was second in command to Brother Furlong. Brother Furlong, ageing at this time, had been over fifty years in office when Brother Foley arrived to take over, Here more than anywhere else the true Brother Foley showed itself. With a wisdom that was natural to him, and with a patience that was truly supernatural he smilingly played second fiddle and played in tune. While in Gardiner Street the first signs of illness showed themselves. He lost considerable weight and be came emaciated diabetes was diagnosed, but this he took in his calm philosophical way.
The last years of his life - 1962-67 - he spent at Manresa and there he died on October 20th, and died as he would have wished, giving trouble to no one.

Born: 21 March 1891, Tullycrine, Kilrush, County Clare
Entered: 04 February 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1938, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 25 July 1968, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Train Driver before entry

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 43rd Year No 4 1968

St. Ignatius College, Galway
Our Community has seen sad days since the last issue of “Province News”. Fathers O'Connor, Hutchinson and Brennan had severe heart attacks which necessitated for each a long stay in hospital. Father Andrews, on his return from Spain, was very ill and went into hospital. And Father Butler is in hospital after an appendix operation.
The saddest news of all, however, was the death of two members of our community, Father P. O'Kelly and Brother Foley. Father Kelly's death was sudden and unexpected. On Monday, 22nd July, when he did not turn up for the 6.50 a.m. Mass, Brother Bonfield went to his room and found him dead in his chair. A note in the “History of the House”, in his own hand, dated the 22nd July, leads to the conclusion that he died in the early hours of that morning. On Sunday 21st he seemed to be in the best of form, had his usual swim (or swims), his usual trips on the bike, and in the evening took the Bona Mors Devotions. Little knowing that the prayers were for himself he said the usual three Hail Marys for the person in the congregation who was next to die. His death has left an unfillable gap in the Community. “We shall not see his like again”. But it was surely the death Father Paddy would have chosen for himself - a labourer in the Lord's vineyard, working on and on, right up to the eleventh hour. Messages of sympathy poured in from all sides, among them, one from His Lordship the Bishop, and one from the County Council. All day long, for two days, the doorbell kept ringing as Mass Cards were handed in and the pile grew steadily.
When Brother Foley's death came so soon after Father O'Kelly's funeral and the church bell tolled again, people showed deep sympathy for the community. Mass cards piled up again, a sign that, in spite of his enforced retirement, over the years, his old friends had not forgotten him.
Both funerals were large and impressive. The town's people were there in great numbers to pay their last tribute, and Fathers and Brothers from all over the Province came to be present at the last sad rites. Many of Father O'Kelly's and Brother Foley's relatives were at the Mass and at the graveside. Fr. G. Perrott (Rector at the time) came all the way from Achill to say the Requiem
Mass for Father O'Kelly and was present at both funerals. Fr. V. McLaughlin was Clebrant at the Mass for Brother Foley. Reciting the last prayers at the burial of Father O'Kelly was Rev. Father Provincial, Father Barry and at Brother Foley's burial the prayers were said by Father C. McGarry, Father Barry's successor as Provincial. Ar laimh dheis De go raibh a n-anama.

Irish Province News 44th Year No 1 1969

Obituary :

Br Peter Foley SJ (1891-1968)

When at 6.50 a.m. on the morning of July 25th, 1968, Brother Peter Foley closed his eyes in death after a fairly short heart attack, the Irish Province lost one of its most colourful and lovable members. Galway Community, already heavily stricken by the sudden passing three days before of Fr. Paddy O'Kelly, was left with a sense of loss difficult for those outside the Community to appreciate. Fr. Paddy and Br. Peter were irreplaceable.
Brother Foley was born in the family home in Tullycrine, Kilmihil, Co. Clare on the 21st March, 1891. He was in his 78th year when he died. Peter was the eldest of a family of twenty, a family blessed with wonderful Irish parents for whom Peter always had the greatest respect and deep love. In such a family, where “there was always a concertina in the corner” (to quote Br. Peter) the eldest had a very big hand in rearing those after him. From early on his parents found that with Peter in charge all would be looked after. If Peter ever took on a job he saw it through to the end cost what it may. This reliability was characteristic of him to the day of his death. Of course, heaven help those whom he found to be wanting in this matter!
As he grew up Peter proved to be an able scholar so much so that it was thought that teaching would be a suitable career for him. (He certainly would have had no discipline problems in class. When Br. Peter's eyes glinted there was no room for trifling!) However, that was not to be. Peter worked at home tending the cattle, looking after the delightful orchard which he planted, doing the “babysitting” when his parents were away and also, we must not forget, having a gay time! Yes! a gay time, for there was a sparkle in that gamey eye. To listen to Br. Peter talking of life as it was in Clare in the first decades of this century would surely bring home to one how much we have lost of the art of living. Without the organised and often empty entertainments of today people of those times made their own entertainments. Peter did not go unnoticed at these night-long dances and parties and his meticulous care of his dress earned the admiration of all and sundry.
Was it surprising that Peter's rather unexpected departure for Dublin caused alarm in many quarters? He was missed grievously at home and indeed elsewhere. How could it be otherwise when one reflects on his gaiety, dependability, and on the fact that there was nothing he would not do for those about him in need. On one occasion he sat non-stop for days on end by the bedside of a friend who was very seriously ill with whooping cough. A friend of Peter's quality is sorely missed.
Peter quickly took to Dublin although he found it hard to be so far from his own. Peter joined the D.U.T. Co. In his years as a Tram Driver he showed again all his good qualities. While working in Dublin he helped his younger brothers and sisters as handsomely as he could. They never forgot his goodness to them. In later, years and right up to his death they on their part showered kindnesses of all kinds upon him and on all the many friends he brought to see them in Tullycrine and in all the surrounding areas, Kilmihil, Kilrush, by the Shannon.
His good example in the D.U.T, Co, set many a fellow worker back on the right road. His advice was carefully listened to. For his friends in trouble he was able to pick the "”ight priest” and say the right word ... and lead all off to a good picture or a dance when ease of conscience had been restored. He showed his reliability and courage on Bloody Sunday when despite the chaos and fear in the city he drove his Howth Tram from the Pillar right on the appointed time and in the midst of all! It was not surprising that a priest in Confession during a Parish Retreat told him he should examine whether he had a vocation. The priest was a well-known retreat giver of the time, Fr. Halpin, S.J. Some time before that a Carmelite nun whom he visited in Ranelagh told Peter that he had a vocation to the Society of Jesus.
Peter never dallied - unlike so many of the rest of us. “When there is a job to be done, it must be done!”.., no excuses! He was interviewed by Fr. Provincial and was accepted. He bade his farewells very matter-of-factly, gave all his furniture to the French Sisters of Charity in Dollymount and entered the Tullabeg Novitiate. It was the fourth of February, 1925.
For a man of Br. Peter's make-up life in the noviceship of these days must have been rather excruciating! But no matter what hardship was there Peter was not the one to look back after he had put his hand to the plough. His novice master must have been perplexed at times by Peter's openness which was a very blunt kind of openness, for he believed very much that there was more room outside than inside! No bottling up! If something was on his mind and bothering him out it had to come! This meant a certain boiling over of the pot from time to time. Right to the end the pot had to boil over in this fashion. This was part of the rich colouring of Peter's make-up and life!
His Master of Novices and the Holy Spirit between them must have done a great job on Br. Peter. From childhood he had been a tremendous worker. He remained so all through his years in religion. Added to that he became a tremendously regular religious. Those who were stunned by the gay Peter becoming a Jesuit Brother would have been more stunned by the regularity of his life if they had known of it.
Right to the end Br. Peter was an early riser. Even when he was sick he was loath to stay in bed. By the time many others were beginning to wake up he had been up and said his third Rosary. He was tremendously devoted to his Beads and his example should cause us to hesitate to neglect this form of prayer. Modern trends in this line did not appeal to Br. Peter. His own fidelity to his religious duties made him a great example, a pace setter you might say, for the rest of us. He was very much our Community watchdog. A very helpful tonic he was too, for he believed firmly in “chastising those whom he loved”. He was very proud of the fact that he “never left the monastery”. His observation about “certain people!” - no names of course, whose business took them out were predictable : “That fella! sure he's never in!” Heaven help the unpunctual for punctuality was one of Peter's cardinal virtues. “I'm methodical!” he loved to say while he smilingly pointed to his head. “It's up there you need it. When I say a thing I do it!” Small wonder that there were sparks and red faces when he came across us lesser mortals who were unmethodical and forgot or were unable to do what we said.
In each of the houses he was stationed in the three main ones were Emo, Rathfarnham and Galway - the great qualities of Br. Peter were noted and appreciated by all. He did not know how to spare himself as far as work was concerned. His bighearted generosity was proverbial. All of his friends could write books on his devoted loyalty. He was no man for half measures in any sphere.
Over the years his main jobs were those of mechanic and driver in Emo, in charge of the staff, the turbines, the garden in Rathfarnham, mechanic, painter, gardener, general repairer and charge of Church collections in Galway. (In this latter very important sphere he showed his great observation of fashion trends and always had an admiring word for the people as they passed into Church. “You're like a spring chicken!” “How do you do it?” How the people loved that!) The Mungret Community of course had Br. Peter on loan for several months to do a big painting job for them.
In his dealing with the staff under him, with the poor and the needy, the lonely, many people experienced his very practical kindness and apostolic zeal. Only the Recording Angel could keep check on his quiet visits to the lonely, of the sacks of vegetables and potatoes he slipped to those in need. He timed matters well. He made sure there was nobody about to know of his ventures in this way.
Although in his later quiet years Br, Peter would say he only knew twelve people in Galway or that he was “unknown”, those who lived with him knew better. At Christmas in particular the letters came flowing in from all over Ireland, from England, from America, from his many brothers and sisters, their husbands and wives, his nephews and nieces, and the uncountable number of friends, Peter did not forget them. He was reliable and methodical about his letters just as he was about everything else. Whenever he could he gave presents too. His great joy in life was to make other people happy. Is it any wonder that he is now sorely missed?
The warm and boisterous greeting for the visitor is missed; the laughing chat over the cigarette, the kick that he got out of showing that although he never left the monastery he knew everything, his enjoyment of his brethren at supper and coffee and his amazing devotion to horses, to “Ireland's Own” to County Clare (but not alas! to Nenagh or to Tipp.) ... the sparkle, the shout, the gaiety, all is missed.
His death came suddenly in the end. He had been sick for years, He had two big operations, one in Rathfarnham, the other in Galway. After that he developed serious heart trouble and for years he suffered agony with a stone in the kidneys. When last March Mr. McDermott removed the stone we had hoped that he would be left with us for a few years longer. God's ways are not ours. Fr. Minister's anxious care of him, which he deeply appreciated and was never finished talking about, was unable to cope with what must have been the shock of Fr. O'Kelly's sudden passing, Br. Peter was dead three days after Fr. Paddy O'. He had gone to Fr. O'Kelly's funeral and he had stood looking thoughtfully at the coffin and grave. He must have known that he would not last longer himself.
He had great friends in life. In Heaven we can be sure that the great friends of his life were to welcome him : Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Solas na bhFlaitheas dá anam uasal.

Born: 10 October 1836, County Waterford
Entered: 27 February 1855, Florissant MO, USA - Missourians Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 02 February 1867
Died: 10 March 1918, Florissant MO, USA - Missourians Province (MIS)

Born: 21 July 1869, Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia
Entered: 09 October 1894, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Final Vows: 02 February 1916, St Mary’s, Miller Street, Sydney, Australia
Died: 03 August 1929, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia

Older brother of John - RIP 1964; Uncle of Leonard (ASL) RIP 2002

HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Novitiate under Luigi Sturzo.
He was multi talented, as at times and in various houses he was Cook, Gardener, Infirmarian, Assistant Steward and Carpenter.
He spent five years at Loyola, six at Xavier, one at Sevenhill and twenty-three at Riverview, and his loss was much regretted in the latter.
At the time of his death he had charge of the building new wing which was making rapid progress.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He was a brother of John (RIP 1964) and was a master builder before he decided to follow his younger brother into the Society, He was invited to study for Priesthood but preferred to become a Brother. Both brothers were very intelligent and good musicians - their simplicity was deceptive and some underrated them. He Entered at Loyola Greenwich.

1897-1903 After First Vows he was sent to Xavier College Kew for domestic duties, cook, buyer, storekeeper and anything else necessary.
1903-1906 He was sent back to Loyola Greenwich for the same purpose as at Xavier
1906-1910 He was sent for similar duties to Riverview in Sydney
1910-1912 Saw him back at Loyola Greenwich
1912-1929 He settled back at Riverview for the rest of his life.

He was described as “ad omnia”! He was the best builder and carpenter, but he could turn his hand to most things. He built the seismological cellar at Riverview, and with one assistant constructed the second and third storey balconies on the West Wing facing the quadrangle, as well as the open air dormitories of the Senior House. He also built the Bandhouse on the foreshore and the brick building on the rocks at the foot of the garden. When William Lockington embarked on his building programme in n1928, he use Thomas as clerk of works with excellent results. His sudden death from a stroke was a severe blow to Lockington.

His brothers considered him an excellent religious man of virtue. He was popular with the students who enjoyed his ready wit, especially his fund of amusing anecdotes and puns. To them he was kind and gentle.

For many years he served the 5am Mass. He had a retiring disposition but always ready to perform a service for anyone

Note from Edward Pigot Entry
One result of his visit to Samoa was the building and fittings for the instruments in the half-underground, vaulted, brick building at Riverview. Brs Forster and Girschik performed the work.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 5th Year No 1 1929
Obituary :
Br Thomas Forster

Br. Forster was born the 21st July 1869, and entered the Society the 9th October 1894 at Loyola, Sydney, where he had Fr. Sturzo for his Master of Novices.
He was a man of varied talent, as, at different times and in various houses, he discharged the duties of cook, gardener, infirmarian, assistant steward, and carpenter. He spent 5 years at Loyola, 6 at Xavier, 1 at Sevenhill and 23 at Riverview, where his loss was much regretted. He had charge of the building of the new wing, which under his care, was making rapid and satisfactory progress

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1929

Obituary

Thomas Forster

On August 2nd we suffered a severe loss through the death of Bro Thomas Forster, after an illness of about three months' duration. He was the clerk of works for the addition to the College buildings and the church, and in the midst of his activities the news that he was suddenly prostrated early in May by a paralytic stroke came as a painful surprise.

Though not a member of the teaching or disciplinary staff, Brother Forster was well known to many successive generations of Collegians, having spent more than thirty years at Riverview.

He was brother to Father John Forster, former rector of St Aloysius' College, North Sydney, and was born on July 21st, 1869. He had thus completed his 60th year when his end came. With two of his brothers, he had formed a firm of master builders before entering religion, and, having received a sound education, was well fitted to aspire to the Priesthood, which indeed his Superiors wished him to do, but he preferred to serve God in the humbler grade, having a great desire to imitate St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, to whom he had a tender devotion. Only a few of his intimate friends knew that he was a good musician, with considerable skill on the piano and the organ Also some excellent verses from his pen appeared in print from time to time.

But there are more lasting monuments to his precious memory. He it was who, with one assistant as labourer, constructed the second and third storey balconies of the west wing facing the quadrangle, as well as the open-air dormitories of the Senior House, and his work is spoken of with the highest appreciation by the contractors and operatives engaged in completing the College buildings. He also built with his own hands the pretty band house on the foreshore, and the brick pavilion on the rocks at the foot of the garden. There are many other specimens of his expert workmanship, such as additions to the infirmary, and the caretaker's cottage at the boatshed. He was thus a great treasure to the College, and our loss is correspondingly great. But his greatest achievement was the massive, thick-walled semi-underground chambers and the solid setting of instruments in Father Pigot's seismological observatory.

He was exceedingly popular with the boys, who always looked for a pleasant word from him in passing, and took great delight in his ready wit, especially in his inexhaustible fund of amusing anecdotes and really excellent puns. Also he won their profound respect by his kindly manner and his admirable humility. For many years he served Holy Mass at 5 am, and going about his devotions as a matter of regular routine, he was an example to all. of what a true servant of God ought to be. Of a retiring dispostion, he disliked putting himself forward, but when sought for one reason or other, he was always most affable and obliging, taking pleasure in doing anyone a service. He lingered for three long months from the date of his initial prostration, and when a second stroke came he passed peacefully away, leaving behind him precious memories of a holy and edifying career. May he rest in peace!

Born: 01 August 1814, Enfield, County Meath
Entered: 08 February 1843, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 02 February 1862
Died: 24 February 1895, Mungret College, County Limerick

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was Cook and Dispenser at Gardiner St and also at Belvedere where he lived for many years.
He was at Galway and Tullabeg Colleges over the years, and in 1883 went to Mungret, where he passed a peaceful life, and died 24 February 1895
He was always very neat and obliging.
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 William Frayne and David MacEvoy, and close to the grave of William Ronan.

Born: 29 June 1833, County Kildare
Entered: 23 May 1858, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Final vows: 15 August 1868
Died: 24 December 1884, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a baker by trade, and a Manductor to the Brother Novices at Clongowes.
1866 He was sent to Gardiner St, and he worked hard in various posts until his death there Christmas Eve 1884. By a strange coincidence, Fr Joseph Lentaigne, who had received him as Provincial, died in the same community the day before. Both coffins were laid on the High Altar on 26 December 1884.

Note from Francis Hegarty Entry :
He did return after some months, and there he found in Father Bracken, a Postulant Master and Novice Master, and this was a man he cherished all his life with reverence and affection. His second Postulancy was very long and hard - four years. he took the strain and was admitted as a Novice with seven others which had not had so trying a time as himself. He liked to say that all seven along with him remained true to their vocation until death, and he was the last survivor. They were Christopher Coffey, Peter Freeman, David McEvoy, James Maguire, John Hanly, James Rorke and Patrick Temple.

Born: 05 July 1882, New Ross, County Wexford
Entered: 18 March 1904, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1915, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 10 January 1958, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News

Province News 33rd Year No 2 1958

Obituary :

Br James Furlong (1882-1958)

Br. James Furlong was born in July, 1882, in New Ross. He entered the Society on 18th March, 1904. While yet a novice he was sent to Gardiner St. and remained there till his death on the 10th January of this year. He became Sacristan of the Church after the death of Br. Mahon in April, 1917, but had done much of the sacristy work in the previous two or three years.
It is not too much to describe his fifty-two years in Gardiner St. as a chapter in the history of the church which began in 1832. His one interest was in the church. In a special sense he could have said: “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house”. This love was shown in his unremitting zeal in all that concerned the altar. Everything was carefully attended to, the chalices, ciboria, candlesticks always polished, the vestments kept clean and in good repair, “the white cloth spread glistening for the Mass”. A nun, writing from Kildare, recalls that when as a young girl she watched Br. Furlong, prepare the altar, she thought : “If only I could live and work like that for Jesus”.
His ordinary work put him in contact with people of all kinds, and he had the gift which made him many friends among them. Thus he had lady helpers, both poor and well-to-do, in making and mending for the altar. He was never without help from the Mass servers and “old boys” to whom his character had some special appeal. He won their hearts, for he was a genuine man. In his dealings with the boys he could be brusque enough. He could hustle and order them about, and often seemed over-exacting in his demands on them. Yet they did not fear him. They sensed that he understood them, and there was no sting in his rebukes.
He had their welfare at heart. He enjoyed organising their little celebrations, preparing for their annual excursion to Clongowes, the big outing of the year. He joined simply and heartily in their occasional parties in the choir room, and got cross with anyone who would not contribute a song or some other item to the entertainment.
His old Mass servers gave a striking proof of their regard for him, when a large number of them gathered to honour him at a Golden Jubilee dinner in the Belvedere Hotel. A source of great happiness to Br. Furlong was the number of sacristy boys who had become priests and brothers. Some are in the Society, some among the diocesan. clergy, at least six are Marist priests or brothers. One joined the Picpus Fathers, and spent many years in Fr. Damian's Island of Molokai.
There was nothing subtle or mysterious about Br. Furlong. He was forthright and outspoken, but not given to expressing his views. He had to be drawn, then he spoke sincerely. He was simple and straight in his outlook. He enjoyed an amusing story or incident, and laughed heartily when he heard it. He would tell it to his friends. On his last visit to an elderly lady who had been confined to her house for some years, he told a story he had heard in the community. A certain victim of heart trouble was given a prescription by the doctor. He was to take the medicine every second day, take it one day and skip the next, and so on. Some time after, the man's wife sadly told the doctor of the patient's death. The medicine had been all right. It was the skipping that killed him. And Br. Furlong's story was a good prescription to cheer a lonely invalid.
Br. Furlong was a happy man. He needed no relaxation outside the ordinary round of his work, which provided him with pleasant contacts with many friends; and the ordinary recreation of the Society where he was an easy and pleasant companion. He was ready to enjoy the simplest bit of fun or engage in an argument. It was all the happier, when, as in recent years, many of these engagements were with two of his former altar boys, Brs. Foley and Colgan.
His life was busy and contented. The work of his department could be taken for granted. He fitted easily into the community. In the past few years impaired health made him hand over more and more of the church work to Br. Foley. He had much illness of body to suffer, but his faculties never failed, and he was at hand to direct, and to do much of the lighter work of the sacristy.
His name is linked with one notable and glorious chapter of Dublin's history, the sanctity of Matt Talbot. Matt was amongst the group to whom Br, Furlong for years opened the church door at 5.30 each morning. And so he was called upon to give evidence in Matt's cause,
Br. Furlong's piety was, like himself, simple. After his work round the altar, he liked to retire in the afternoon to the organ loft or the domestic chapel for a long visit. Love of the church, love of the Rosary, love of the Blessed Sacrament, these were obvious in his life.
So, known far and wide, and associated with the church for so many years, but personally unassuming and sincere in all his ways, Br. Furlong passed from his good and faithful service to the Master's yet more beautiful House.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother James Furlong SJ 1882-1957
Br James Furlong spent fifty two years as Sacristan in Gardiner Street Church. Surely that is a record comparable with the years of service of St Alphonsus Rodriguez as porter in Palma.

His care of the altar and the Church, and all that appertained it was the tender solicitude of a mother for her child. Truly it could be said of him “I have loved, O Lord the beauty of Thy House”. It follows “as the night, the day” in the words of Fr Michael Brown, that such a long period of service in one house was based on an essential fitness and deep spirituality in Br Furlong.

He came into contact with all sorts, high and low, rich and poor. Many friends he made who helped him with the altar. But his best friends were the altar-boys, many of whom, influenced by his example, became priests and religious, Jesuits – one of them a Provincial. On the occasion of his Golden Jubilee, these old boys entertained Br Furlong to dinner. Their number, their excellence, their high standing in their vocations, is sufficient tribute to Br Furlong. “By their fruits ye shall know them”.

He died on January 10th, being born in New Ross in 1882.

Born: 08 May 1778, County Dublin / County Meath
Entered: 09 October 1828, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Final Vows: 24 September 1841
Died: 01 February 1842, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a very good carpenter, and made himself very useful at Tullabeg in its early days. Very little is known about him, except that he had the name of being a very good religious and very devoted to prayer. He was 50 year of age when he entered the Society.

He died at Tullabeg 01/02/1842, and is buried under a yew tree in the centre of the old Rahan Cemetery. No cross marks his grave. Father John Curtis was Superior at the time, and there were eleven other Jesuits in the community.

Note from Patrick Byrne Entry :
He is buried in the old cemetery at Rahan, in the same grave with Brother Gaffney.

Born: 01 September 1786, Leixlip, County Kildare
Entered: 07 September 1819, St Stanislaus, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 08 September 1837
Died: 04 December 1866, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a carpenter by trade. It is not certain when he first went to Clongowes, but after several petitions, he was finally accepted in the Noviceship at Tullabeg 07/09/1819.

He spent the greater part of his life in the Society at Clongowes. He was very hardworking and made himself very useful. He was industrious and skillful and “paratus ad omnia”. Nothing was beneath him, although he often had the lion’s share of the work to be done. He wore the oldest clothes, washed and cleaned the dormitories, and this and other similar kinds of work were his delight. He was both innocent and remarkable for his singular good humour, d though naturally quick tempered, he never showed it in his work, governing it with humility and modesty.
During the last years of his life he suffered much. The fact that he had been so active and now unable to be so pained him greatly. In time he became both blind and deaf, and he bore all these sufferings with great patience. He died peacefully 04/12/1866, after 47 years of service in the Society.

Note from John Nelson Entry :
He took his Final Vows 02/02/1838 along with eleven others, being the first to whom Final Vows were given since the Restoration in Ireland. The others were : Philip Reilly of “Palermo fame”; Nowlan, Cleary, Mulligan, Michael Gallagher, Pexton Sr, Toole, Egan, Ginivan, Patrick Doyle and Plunkett.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Michael Gallagher 1796-1866
Br Michael Gallagher was born in Leixlip County Dublin in 1796. A carpenter by trade, he became a Jesuit Brother in 1819.

The greater part of his life was spent at Clongowes. He was a “paratus ad omnia”, nothing was beneath him, although he always had the lion’s share of disagreeable work.

Though naturally of a quick temper, he scarcely ever sign of it, but governed it by humility and modesty. During the later years of his l;ife he suffered much, especially from being incapable of work, when he had been so active. He became blind and deaf.

At a ripe age of seventy years, forty seven of which he spent in the Society, he died peacefully and full of merit on December 4th 1866.

Born: 30 December 1833, County Kildare
Entered: 23 September 1860, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 27 December 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin

Part of the Tullabeg, County Offaly community at the time of death

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was Villicar and Emptor al his religious life at Tullabeg, until shortly before he died, when he went for a change to Milltown.

Born: 1650
Entered: 01 October 1673
Died 01 August 1678, Cadiz, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE).

Administrative Socius Fr Emmanulis de Eredia

Born: 01 January 1794, Shandrum, Charleville, County Cork
Entered: 01 July 1845, St Mary’s, Lebanon, KY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Final Vows: 25 March 1857
Died: 28 July 1875, Xavier College, New York, NY, USA - Neo-Eboracensis-Canadensis Province (NEBCAN)

Born: 20 December 1822, Ballyheane, County Mayo
Entered: 25 July 1854, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 15 August 1864
Died: 30 December 1895, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 24 June 1777, County Galway
Entered: 26 September 1820, White Marsh MD - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final Vows: 15 August1833
Died: 13 March 1862, Georgetown, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 20 September 1775, Athy, County Kildare
Entered: 17 November 1817, Richmond, Virginia, USA - Maryland Mission (MAR)
Final Vows: 15 August 1829
Died: 09 August 1864, Georgetown College MD, USA - Maryland Province (MAR)

Born: 06 June 1686, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 02 December 1707, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Final Vows: 02 February 1718, Irish College, Poitiers, France
Died: 31 December 1745, Irish College, Poitiers, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

Alias Williams

1708-1713 Novice, Cook and emptor at Poitiers
1714-1717 At La Rochelle as Cook and emptor
1717-1724 Cook and emptor at Poitiers
1734-1742 Cook buyer and aeditus at various Colleges including Poitiers
At Agen Collège as Emptor and Architriclinus (steward)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows He gave faithful service for many years in different houses in AQUIT
1718-1724 and 1731 Sent to Irish College Poitiers where he died 31 December 1745

Born: 08 February 1793, Kilworth, County Cork
Entered: 07 September 1819, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 08 September 1837
Died: 30 January 1893, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
John was the eighth Brother to join the Irish Province. He began his Noviceship in the company of John Doyle; Patrick Doyle; Peter Egan and Michael Gallagher, who all Entered on the same day. He was “Master Tailor” and widely known to the Province - there is hardly one he did not clothe, either as boys or Jesuits.

Joseph Dalton writes of him :
“After many years in the College, he did not - though he probably felt it - ‘quorus magna pars fui’, he was moved to Dublin and St Francis Xavier’s Church and Presbytery, where he spent the rest of his days as tailor, assistant infirmarian, and Reader i the Community refectory. This last duty he performed very correctly and wit great ‘gusto’, even in his old age. He was greatly liked by all for his simple piety, respectful manner and kindness to the sick. He was well known by many from all parts of Ireland, who knew him when they were boys in the Colleges, and they spoke of him always with respect and affection. His fellow Lay Brothers looked on him as a Patriarch among them, and treated him with great respect.”

He was a truly edifying religious.

Note from John Nelson Entry
He took his Final Vows 02 February 1838 along with eleven others, being the first to whom Final Vows were given since the Restoration in Ireland. The others were : Philip Reilly of “Palermo fame”; Nowlan, Cleary, Mulligan, Michael Gallagher, Pexton Sr, Toole, Egan, Ginivan, Patrick Doyle and Plunkett.

Born: 20 March 1867, Hollenstein, Bohemia, Czech Republic or Hollenstein an der Ybbs, Austria
Entered: 03 October 1891, Sankt Andrä Austria - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)
Final Vows: 02 February 1902
Died: 03 March 1930, Mater Hospital, Sydney Australia (St Aloysius College, Milson’s Point, Sydney, Australia)

Part of the St Aloysius College, Milson’s Point, Sydney, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 11 February 1901

Came to Irish Australian Mission 1899

◆ 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 at Sankt Andrä Austria. He was a cabinet maker and used this skill to beautify houses where he was posted.

1891-1898 He remained at Sankt Andrä and then was sent to the Australian Mission and the Northern Territory.
1899-1902 He was sent to Loyola Greenwich
1902-1903 He was at Xavier College Kew
1903-1919 He was sent to St Ignatius College Riverview where he built the elaborate vesting press in the sacristy.
1919 He was sent to St Aloysius College Sydney and remained there until his death.

He won the admiration of many for his piety and quiet and silent efficiency. He was a real artist and perfectionist, and it was a pleasure to watch him work in the carpenter’s shop. He also had a keen appreciation of classical music and painting.

For many years he suffered ill health, but he continued to work as hard as he could until the end.

Note from Patrick Keating Entry
Under his direction, Brother Girschik made a line cedar vesting press for the sacristy at Riverview, which still stands.

Note from Edward Pigot Entry
One result of his visit to Samoa was the building and fittings for the instruments in the half-underground, vaulted, brick building at Riverview. Brs Forster and Girschik performed the work.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 5th Year No 3 1930
Obituary :

Br Joseph Girschik

March 20th 1867 is the date of Br. Girschick's birth. In 1891 he joined the Austrian Province. Two years before the final transfer of the South Australian Mission to the Irish Province in 1901,we find the Brother’s name in the Irish Catalogue. From 1899 to 1901 he was at Loyola, Sydney. Then, after a year at Xavier's. he went to Riverview where he remained till

1918. He was then changed to Milson's Point, and did not leave it until he went to his reward on Monday, 3rd March, 1930.
      Br. Girschick was a skilled carpenter, and is described in the Catalogue either as “Fab, Lig. or Arcularius”.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1930

Obituary

Brother Josef Girschik SJ

Far from the spot where he now lies awaiting the Resurrection, Joseph Girschik was born sixty-three years ago, in Czecho-Slovakia, or as it was then known, Bohemia.

As a young man of twenty-four, and already a skilled carpenter, Brother Girschik entered the Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus. A Catholic mission for the conversion of aboriginals of Australia had been entrusted to the Austrian Province, and the first missioners had arrived in Australia in December 1848, after a voyage of four months out of the port of Hamburg.

Seven years after his entry into the Society Bro Girschik was attached to this mission, but hardly had he arrived at the headquarters of the mission at Daly River, when a flood wrought such havoc that the missioners had to retire from their settlement.

Bro. Girschik was then transferred to “Loyola”, Greenwich, near Sydney, the Noviceship of the Irish Province in Australia, and when offered the opportunity of returning to his native land elected to give the remainder of his life to the ser vice of God in Australia.

From that time until 1919, he was stationed in various colleges in Australia. The last eleven years of his life he spent at St Aloysius College, and saw many generations of young Aloysians pass through the College.

Few of the many boys who saw Bro Girschik quietly at his obscure work in the carpenter's shop knew that they looked on a man who was an artist, with a keen appreciation and deep knowledge of classical music and painting. His beautiful work was an index to the man's character. For Bro Girschik was never content unless a piece of work was perfect.

This life of retirement concealed an admirable courage and self-sacrifice. For many years, he suffered from continued ill-health, but only weakness and failing strength caused him to lay aside his tools. Ordered by the doctor to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, he spent there a few weeks, making light of his sufferings, and at last on the 30th March of this year went to receive his reward. RIP

Born: 23 November 1900, Rosses Point, County Sligo
Entered: 08 June 1919, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1931, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 06 February 1984, North Infirmary Hospital, Cork

Part of Clongowes Wood College SJ community, County Kildare at time of his death.
Grew up Carrigaholt, County Clare

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 59th Year No 3 1984
Obituary
Br William Glanville (1900-1919-1984)
Br Glanville's father was a lighthouse keeper who married twice. Of the first marriage there were two children, our Br William being one of these. The first wife was an O’Malley from Co Galway, whose brother was MP for East Galway - not that Br Glanville ever imparted this piece of information. He was born at Rosses Point outside Sligo. In the second family there were sixteen children, and apparently the second Mrs. Glanville was very kind to all the children, and remembered by Br Glanville with deep gratitude and affection.
They moved to Carrigaholt, west Clare, when he was very young, and it was from there that he entered the noviciate at Tullabeg in 1919 at the age of nineteen. Early in his Jesuit life he spent ten years at Rathfarnham Castle from the mid-twenties, when the Australian Jesuits were attending the university. He acted as cook in other houses until the early 'fifties, when he was assigned to Clongowes as sacristan, a position that suited him and which he really loved. He remained at Clongowes for the last thirty-one years of his life in the Society; thirty-one happy years for him and for Clongowes.
His sudden death, while not unexpected by the community, has nevertheless left them with a genuine sense of loss, because they liked him and respected him for his qualities and his admirable example as a Jesuit. To the Clongowes community he is naturally associated with the sacristy and floral decorations with his own peculiar touch fitting for the occasion. They still remember his footsteps in the early morning about 4.30 on his way to the People's church; they remember him day after day in his own corner in the domestic chapel quietly saying his prayers; they remember his quips and asides during the early dinner; but above all they remember his quiet, unassuming, gentle manner. He was a very shy man, and yet a man who thoroughly enjoyed life - after his own fashion.
He kept a few letters all his life including one from Br Kevin Bracken (brother of the famous Brendan Bracken) who wrote to him from Australia in 1923. Two letters he treasured were from Captains of the school who wrote thanking him for all his trouble in making the altar so beautiful for some celebrated occasion. His three remaining sisters who live in the United States were his regular confidantes about his health and Irish affairs of interest to them.
For a man so timid and shy it's amazing how many friends he made over the years. These friends wrote to him constantly; he visited them from time to time, and never forgot their birthdays. . He enjoyed meeting people on his weekly train journey, and would often on the following day recall with a chuckle remarks that had been passed. The ticket-collector, for example, on the Dublin-Cork train always presented him with tea - gratis. More than once this same man drove him to his home at Mallow, and arranged that on his days off his substitute would have tea ready for Br Glanville. Towards the very end he found the train trips hard, but was determined to keep on his feet as long as possible. On Friday, 2nd March, he selected Cork as his journey's end and took the train there. After arriving at Glanmire station, he was walking slowly towards the city centre when he collapsed on the side walk. A number of people came to his assistance, one of them being a nurse, who noticed that his heart had stopped, Some time later an undertaker arrived on the scene and managed to get the heart going again. An ambulance took him to the North Infirmary hospital (near the bells of Shandon). However, there in the coronary care, unit the staff were convinced that damage had already been done to the brain. The Daughters of Charity, who run the North Infirmary, were very kind and attentive. He never regained consciousness, and died peace fully about 7 pm on Tuesday, 6th March.
The large gathering at his requiem Mass at Clongowes on the Thursday was certainly a tribute to Br William, Practically all the Brothers of the Province arrived, and particularly notice able was the number of priests who con celebrated. Br Glanville would have loved it all. It was a beautifully fine day with good sunshine, and with their guard of honour the boys did him proud. It was a fitting finale to sixty-five years' service as a Jesuit in the Irish province. May the What does it mean to be a Jesuit? The Lord be good to him.

◆ The Clongownian, 1984

Obituary

Brother William Glanville SJ

On Friday, 3 May 1984 a phone call from a hospital in Cork gave the disturbing news that a Brother Glanville had collapsed on the street and was brought unconscious to the hospital. For some years back Brother availed himself of the free ticket for the old to take a trip every Friday north, south, east or west. As the mood or a very definite purpose took him such a call on the odd friend. In spite of very bad arthritis, in defiance of most inclement weather every week he boldly “sailed” out, and oniy on his return did we learn he had been in Limerick, Galway, Dundalk or Cork, having on some of these visits just time to take a sandwich before having to board the train for the return journey. What he really loved I think, was the movement of the train, the passing ever changing panorama of the countryside, and the chats with chance acquaintances on the journey. For though shy enough with his brethren, he was quite unin hibited with passing strangers, possessing, as he did, a rare and quiet sense of humour that he preserved till his death.

The collapse on the street ended in a few days with his death, never having regained consciousness. His passing from our midst was felt deeply by all the community, and lay staff. His attachment to his duties as sacristan to both churches was most edifying, remembering the real pain and struggle he had to get round at all. He's unfailing humour made his company a thing of pleasure. While he had been in Clongowes for many years, and had been always a devoted servant of his duties, profane and religious, he had shown the same qualities in the three or four other houses where he had been stationed. It was at his funeral here that his real popularity, and the deep appreciation for the man himself was seen by the presence of most of the Brothers of the province, and the very large number of priests, who concelebrated the funeral Mass. We, and they, felt we had lost for a time some one, whose absence would be felt, and whose company could not be easily filled. RIP

G O'B SJ

Born: 18 June 1815, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 31 July 1842, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 15 August 1853
Died: 25 November 1886, Roehampton, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Born: 29 September 1839, County Armagh
Entered 11 October 1864, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died 13 October 1867, St Patrick’s College Melbourne, Australia

Early Australian Missioner 1866

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1866 He was sent to Melbourne with Joseph Dalton, Edward Nolan, David MacKiniry - note in pen Brother Scully also went with Brother Goodwin, and he LEFT the Society and died in Melbourne. He died suddenly in Melbourne from a haemorrhage, shortly after his arrival 13 October 1867.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Goodwin entered the Society in Ireland, 11 October 1864, and arrived in Melbourne as a novice 17 September 1866, with Father Joseph Dalton. Shortly after his arrival he burst a blood vessel and died of consumption at St Patrick's College, just after taking his vows. He was a carpenter by trade, and has the distinction of being the first member of the Irish Mission to die in Australia.

◆ 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.

Born: 24 September 1815, Draperstown, County Derry
Entered: 19 June 1851, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 08 September 1862
Died: 18 December 1905, St Mary’s, KS, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 13 April 1846, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 16 October 1876, Milltown Park
Final Vows: 15 August 1888, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 29 December 1906, Tullabeg, Co Offaly

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a shoemaker by trade and did excellent work first at Milltown and then at Mungret.
He was considered very hardworking and had become huge in size.
He died at Tullabeg 29 December 1906

Born: 03 February 1902, Headford, County Galway
Entered: 03 December 1921, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1933, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 16 March 1944, St Joseph’s, Kilcroney, Bray, County Wicklow

Part of the St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin community at the time of death.

Born: 05 April 1829, Tyrrellspass, County Westmeath
Entered: 01 January 1853, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 02 February 1864
Died: 10 December 1915, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 06 June 1900, Mountrath, County Laois
Entered: 28 November 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 02 February 1946, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 26 December 1992, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin community at the time of death

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Painter before Entry

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 75 : Christmas 1993 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995

Obituary
Br Patrick Guidera (1900-1992)

6th June 1900: Born, Mountrath, Laois
Worked as painter/decorator for 20 years in the family business
28th Nov. 1933: Entered the Society at Emo
1935 - 1941: Belvedere - Painter
1941 - 1942: Crescent College - Maintenance
1942 - 1948: Emo - Plant Maintenance
1948 - 1990: Tullabeg - Plant and Church maintenance/Fundraiser
1990 - 1992: Cherryfield Lodge
26th Dec. 1992: Died at Cherryfield Lodge

Pat Guidera was a few days short of his thirty-third year, when in the belief that God was calling him to the religious life, he arrived at the door of the Jesuit Novitiate, St Mary's, Emo Park. It was the evening of May 28th, 1933. The decision which brought him that evening from his home in Mountrath to the steps of St Mary's was not an easy one for a man of his age and experience.

Pat was the eldest son in a large family; he was a skilled painter and decorator whose work was widely appreciated. His father and younger brothers had come to rely on his skills and on his ability in dealing with the business side of his and their work. He was, too, a devout Catholic, a popular neighbour, a mature man with, as he tells us himself, serious plans to marry and father a family of his own.

Such in a nutshell was his position when the call to the religious life, of which he had been vaguely conscious, became more insistent. The Hound of Heaven was not to be denied! It was on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 that Patrick made his first outward response. Through the Brigidine Sisters at their convent in Mountrath, he made contact, with his first Jesuit, the late Fr James Whitaker who was conducting the Sisters' annual Retreat. Under this priest's kindly and understanding direction, Pat finally made up his mind to apply for admission as a religious Brother in the Irish Province of the Company of Jesus.

Thus it was that Pat Guidera, after much soul-searching and prayer, came to leave all' to follow the Christ who went down to Nazareth and lived a life of dependence on his parents to whom He was subject. The surrender of his independence as a mature man was, perhaps, at the core of his sacrifice. Indeed, few, if any, of his fellow novices, had anything like the sacrifices to make as those required of him on answering that same call. Surely that tells us something of the mutual love between God and himself as he knocked at St Mary's door. Even then he was a man after St Ignatius' own heart - a man of generous spirit and desiring to be detached from “all that the world loves and embraces”.

After his first chat with the master of novices, Pat realized that Canon Law required him to wait six months in residence at St Mary's before admission to the Noviceship. This proved a wise provision in his case as it gave him time and space to reconsider in a prayerful atmosphere his decision to leave a comfortable home, to forego the happiness of married life and to bind himself to a life of obedience and dependence. It was during these first months he came to appreciate the wise and firm direction of the late Fr John Coyne of whom Pat was untiring in his praise all his long life. He began his two-year noviceship on Nov 22nd 1933, and immediately entered on the Thirty Day Retreat; after this experience, he never “looked back”.

Now in later years Brother Pat would say that he found his noviceship years a real trial. It is to his credit and to the continuing power of the grace of vocation that he persevered and happily made his first Vows as a Brother in the Society of Jesus.

During the next eleven years, 1935-46, he had ample opportunity to exercise his talent as a painter and decorator, first at St Mary's Emo, then at Belvedere and for a short period at Rathfamham. And as was the common practice at the time for every member of the Province, he was expected to be ready and able to help out in spheres of activity for which he had no special training or aptitude. Brother Pat, no doubt, found the words, Ad dom! after his name in the annual Catalogus. In practice it direct ed him to be at the service of all whenever he might be needed. In this, too, he was like his Master who was 'among us as one who serves'. So, as the years went by Brother Pat could be found at work as a carpenter, or electrician, a motor mechanic and chauffeur, a builder in stone, a plasterer, a glazier and general handy-man. This was the patter of his daily work from February 2nd, 1946, when he made his final vows in the Company of Jesus, up to a few years before his death on December 26th 1992.

Sometime in 1948, he was asked to leave St Mary's Emo and go to Tullabeg on loan for the purpose of painting and decorating the People's Church there. However, he remained in Tullabeg for the next forty-two years, 1948-1990. During the years up to 1962, Brother Pat's life was hidden from most of us, even from some of his fellow Brothers! Being a jack-of-all-trades and master of most, he was difficult to find in the labyrinth that was old Tullabeg House and farm out-offices. Moreover, he rose earlier than most and was always a step ahead in his morning prayers. He often breakfasted on the foot and after a long day's toil was the last to retire. In part, this was the kind of life he chose to live. If one permitted a mild criticism, it would be that perhaps our brother was too wedded to his work. But he'd surely have a reply to that.

It would be true to say of him that he was a worrier, a man not easily satisfied with himself or his work, whatever it might be. And if his efforts did not always please others, they did not always please himself. His standards as a religious were high, and high, too, were the standards of work he set for himself. Often finding himself pulled from “Billy to Jack”, often expected to make “a silk purse out of a sow's ear”, our Brother occasionally found his fellow Jesuits disapproving either of his way of acting or of his actual work. He would listen in silence, make little or no defence, offer no excuse, but with head bowed and with a characteristic back ward shovelling of his feet, he would depart with his new instructions, which he feared would not remedy the situation. In such situations, the example of Jesus, the Son of the Carpenter of Nazareth, was a source of strength to him. His way of silence in the face of criticism, of obedience to lawful authority, of charity to all was the way Brother Pat continued to strive to follow Him who is the way for every religious. Like many of his contemporaries Pat lived his life in the Second Degree of Humility with many an excursion into the Third. And in his last years, he came to be like his Master in others ways, too, not least in his love of prayer, in his love of the Mass and in his devotion to the Mother of Jesus. In 1991 he visited our Lady's Shrine at Medjugorje and in 1992 he visited Knock with a group from Rahan and Tullamore.

In 1990, the Lord asked one more sacrifice from his faithful friend - to leave Tullabeg and retire to Cherryfield Lodge. In time he came to accept that too. In the story of his life as told to, and beautifully edited by Fr Eddie O'Donnell, SJ, there is much to admire, much to smile at, and not a little to make one wonder at the loving providence of God.

Edmond Kent SJ

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995

Obituary
The above is Fr Kent's account of Br Pat's life, but Pat, in the months before he died wrote his own autobiography, “The Story of my Life”. What follows are his own words on his years in Belvedere (1935- 41):

I spent most of my life as a Jesuit Brother at Rahan, near Tullamore, County Offaly. I was stationed there for over forty years, from 1948 to 1990. Since that period deserves a chapter all to itself, what I'm going to do here is bring you from the year I took my First Vows (1935) up to 1948. Okay?

Immediately after taking my vows in Emo, I was transferred to Belvedere College, the Jesuit day school in Dublin. My first job there was to repair the roof of the community building with the help of a couple of handymen. I bought lead sheeting from Lenehan's shop in Capel Street - which is still going strong - and had the work finished in no time.

Then I was asked to paint all the windows on the front of the house. This entailed the erection of a scaffolding, which was quite an awkward operation on account of the “area” beneath the building. We managed it all right. At that time there was a lot more painting to be done on the windows than there would be today. The windows were “Georgian”, with a lot of small panes like those in the houses nearby. In later years, these were replaced by single-pane, plate-glass windows, a mortal sin from the architectural point-of-view.

At that time in Belvedere, there was a fountain in the middle of the school yard. It had a pond or basin around it. I was asked to clear it away altogether. I started this work with the help of a few construction workers but a twenty-six week builders' strike had just started and these lads were told not to work with me. A group of workmen came into the yard and kicked up a shindy, so I was left on my own. One of the priests in the community - Fr Charlie Scantlebury SJ, who was editor of “The Sacred Heart Messenger” for many years - came out to give me a hand.

The militant workmen returned and tried to beat him up! Punches were exchanged and I had to go to his rescue. We waited for the strike to finish before completing that job, although I did a lot of work on it early each morning myself.

Another task I was given was to install electric chandeliers in the Front Parlour. I knew nothing about electricity but decided to have a go all the same. When I was nearly finished, I remember standing up on a ladder to cut off some loose ends with a sharp knife. Suddenly, there was a sheet of flame, a flash like lightning, that knocked me off the ladder. I will never forget that narrow escape.

My next assignment was to paint the school hall, or the “Gymnasium” as it was called. It's where the boys did their drill as part of the curriculum. It's also where the school operas were staged and where the Old Boys held their annual dinners. Everyone was very pleased with the work I did there, especially with the college crest and its motto, “Per Vias Rectas”, painted on the centre of the side wall. Fr Charlie Byrne SJ, was particularly delighted. He was in charge of putting on the operas - usually Gilbert & Sullivan - and he realised he had found someone who could do a proper job on the scenery in future.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, there were a lot of shortages in Dublin. Coal boats couldn't cross over from England so we had to make do with turf. During the winter of 1939 itself, we still had a fair bit of coal left but Fr Rupert Coyle, SJ, in an effort to spare the fuel, told me to leave off the boiler in the Senior School during the Christmas holidays. There was a bad frost, unfortunately, and the pipes burst, flooding the whole building from top to bottom. There was an awful lot of damage done. I can leave you to guess whose job it was to clean up the mess.....

In 1940 the Rector of Belvedere, Fr John Mary O'Connor, SJ (affectionately known as “Bloody Bill”) received a letter from his opposite number in Rathfarnham Castle, Fr P G Kennedy SJ (the famous ornithologist) asking if he could send me over to paint the chapel. Like Emo and Belvedere, Rathfarnham Castle had ornate Georgian ceilings. The ceiling in the chapel took me over a month to paint. Like Michelangelo in Rome, I had to lie on my back on top of a scaffolding for days on end painting the intricate ornamentation.

When the ceiling was finished I did the walls and the sanctuary and then painted the front and sides of the altar. To restore the altar to its original glory, I had to purchase special gold-leaf paint which was manufactured in Dublin by a firm called Phillips (it can only be obtained from a firm in England nowadays). The Rector and his second-in-command, Fr “Dolly” Byrne SJ, were both very satisfied with what I did.

Then it was back to Belvedere, where the Minister, Fr Leo Donnelly SJ, had a major enterprise awaiting me. Away back in 1881 the Jesuits had bought a house on Temple street (opposite the Childrens' Hospital) and for two years it had been run as a third-level college called after St Ignatius. During the Second World War, this building was being used to house the domestic staff of Belvedere, but it was very dilapidated. I was asked to construct a bridge from the back of Belvedere College, across Temple Lane, into the back yard of “Temple Chambers” as the place was known then. This took quite a while, On account of the shortage of building materials during the war.

Anyhow, we got the bridge built and had to cover it in because it was the object of numerous missile attacks by kids from ... (nearby).

Then I had to renovate Temple Chambers. Another Brother and myself used to sleep there at night, Our rooms were right at the top, with the domestic staff occupying the lower storeys, now nicely re-papered: My room must have been at the front, because I remember being kept awake at night by the crying babies in the hospital across the street. Early in 1941, one of these babies was suffering from a rare-insect bite and screamed all night for weeks on end. He grew up to become Fr Eddie O'Donnell, SJ!

Later in 1941, the Rector of Milltown Park (Fr John McMahon SJ) who had admired my work in Rathfarnham, asked if I could come over and paint the domestic chapel at Milltown. This was a fairly straightforward job in comparison with the one at Rathfarnham. It took me less than a month to repaint the entire chapel.

When I returned to Belvedere during the summer of that year, most of the community were away on holidays. The Bursar, Fr John Calter SJ, was in charge and he asked me to paper and paint the room of Fr Frank O'Riordan. This was a tall order because Fr O'Riordan used to practise playing golf in his room! He'd hang a blanket, so I had to spend ages repairing the plug marks in the walls before the re-papering could start. All went well, however, and Fr Calter was delighted with the finished product, so delighted, indeed, that he decided to move into that room himself! When Fr O'Riordan returned, there was an awful rumpus. But I wasn't there to hear it because I had been transferred to Clongowes Wood.

Born: 15 June 1834, Clane, County Kildare
Entered: 28 February 1868, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 01 November 1878
Died: 06 May 1908, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1874-1876 He was at UCD
1876-1881 He was sent to Galway
1888 He was sent to Clongowes and he died in hospital but was buried there 06 May 1908
He was a painter by trade. he was considered a very handy, painstaking, hardworking and most obliging man. He was quiet and retiring in manner, but was often chosen as Manductor for the Brother Novices.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Glazier before entry

◆ The Clongownian, 1908

Obituary

Brother Daniel Hampson SJ

The hand of death has been heavy on Clongownians this year. Few were so intimately connected with Clongowes as Brother Daniel Hampson. He was here for a great number of years, but now be is gone. Many prayers have gone with him for he was much beloved. We all liked him and admired his goodness. He astonished everyone by his marvellous memory. The department of the Magazine over which he presided was one to tax the best of memories his was seldom found wanting. Brother Hampson was respected by all classes in the neighbour hood. He was very zealous, particularly for the Propagation of the Faith, and he distributed the periodical of the Society and made the annual collection with great earnestness. Punctuality was one of his most noted characteristics. He was for many years Sacristan, an office which he filled with great zeal. He wound up a long, earnest life, devoted with great singlemindedness to God's service, by a pious death. He has now gone to his reward, and the regrets and prayers of many past Clongowoians will follow him.

Born: 24 June 1832, Scariff, County Clare
Entered: 23 May 1858, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare
Final vows: 15 August 1868
Died: 25 January 1897, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Novices had traditionally made their Novitiate at Clongowes under Father Bracken until 1860, when with a few exceptions, the Brother Novices were moved to Milltown. John was one of the exceptions, and did all his Novitiate at Clongowes. He remained there until 1867 as Infirmarian and Sacristan.
1867-1872 he was sent to Gardiner St as Sacristan, and then in 1871 he was made Buyer and Dispenser.
1872-1877 He was sent back to his old job at Clongowes for a short time, and then sent to Galway as Sacristan.
1877-1881 he was sent to UCD as Buyer and Dispenser.
1881-1882 He was sent to Limerick for a year.
1882 He was sent back to his former job at Clongowes, and remained there until his death 25/01/1897.

Old Clongowonians recall fondly the kindly smile and gentle word they always received from him as Infirmarian. Others also testify to his patient and loving care for them when they were sick. Although aged 65 and suffering from heart disease, he continued to work to within a few months of his death. Though he had cared for others most of his life, especially sick people, now confined to his room it troubled him that he was something of a burden to others as they cared for him.
The last thing he did was to sit up, take hold of a crucifix and kiss, He then lay down and died.

Note from Francis Hegarty Entry :
He did return after some months, and there he found in Father Bracken, a Postulant Master and Novice Master, and this was a man he cherished all his life with reverence and affection. His second Postulancy was very long and hard - four years. he took the strain and was admitted as a Novice with seven others who had not had so trying a time as himself. He liked to say that all seven along with him remained true to their vocation until death, and he was the last survivor. They were John Coffey, Christopher Freeman, David McEvoy, James Maguire, John Hanly, James Rorke and Patrick Temple.

Born: 26 March 1858, Austria
Entered: 17 July 1885, Sankt Andrä, Austria (ASR-HUN)
Professed: 15 August 1895
Died: 23 June 1907, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB: 01 January 1901

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He belonged originally to the ASR Mission in Australia.
He worked at the vineyard in Sevenhill very diligently, and died peacefully there 23 June 1907

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Rupert Härtl entered the Society in Austria, 17 July 1885, and was cook and storekeeper at the residence and seminary at Klagenfurt, Kärnten (Carinthia), 1889-92, and at St André, Lavanttal, 1892-98. He took his final vows 15 August 1895. He was sent to the Australian Mission, arriving in Adelaide, 5 December 1898. He was resident in the Georgetown parish as cook, 1899-1900, and then had a similar role in the parish residence at Sevenhill, 1900-07. In 1901 he transferred to the Irish Mission.

Born: 03 December 1849, Dooneen, Quin, County Clare
Entered: 04 November 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Final Vows: 25 March 1896, St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, County Offaly
Died: 26 April 1938, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - The first Jesuit to die at St Mary’s Emo - Buried at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 13th Year No 3 1938
Obituary
Brother James Hassett
On 26th April, Brother James Hassett passed peacefully away after a brief illness. For the past few years it was clear that the old man was failing, but with characteristic determination he remained at his post to the end.

Brother Hassett was born at Dooneen, near Quin, in the Co Clare, on December 3rd, 1848. He was the eldest son of a strong farmer who owned over 2,000 acres of land, in three farms, and on the death of his father he inherited the three farms. For ten years he worked these farms and supported his younger brothers and sisters. When one of his brothers, Laurence, who is still living, was old enough to look after the farms, Brother James decided that the family no longer needed his help. One day he mentioned to them that he was thinking of entering religion, and a few days later he set off for Dublin, saying that he was “going to make some enquiries”. He never returned. His brother, Laurence, waited up for him in vain that night and again the following night. On the third day a letter came from James telling Laurence that he had made the farms over to him and was not returning.
He had seen Father Tom Browne (Provincial) in the meantime and had been accepted for the Society. He entered as a Postulant in Dromore on 25th July, 1885, received his gown on November 4th of the same year, was admitted to his First Vows on November 5th, 1887, and to his Final Vows on 25th March, 1896. Brother James remained in Dromore aa “Villicus” till the house was closed down in 1887. He was then sent to Tullabeg, where he remained till 1901, when he was transferred to Clongowes to take charge of the farm. Four years later he was back again in Tullabeg and there he remained till Emo was opened in August, 1930. One might have thought that the work of starting a farm would be too much for an old man already in his 82nd year, but Father Fahy knew his man, and he entrusted the difficult undertaking to Brother Hassett. A better choice could not have been made.
In spite of many difficulties he soon had things running smoothly. He was alive to every need, foresaw every difficulty, thought out and wisely arranged for every eventuality, and for the next seven and a half years not only looked after every detail of the farm work, with a vigilant and discerning eye, but worked himself with a will. “" He is a terror for work”, a man remarked. We in Emo have reason to be grateful to Brother Hassett for the material assistance which he rendered from the beginning, but that is not his only, or even his chief, claim on our gratitude. When Emo was opened, the Society was quite unknown to the people of the neighbourhood. The first impressions made would be likely to be lasting. From the nature of his work, Brother Hassett, though of a most retiring disposition, necessarily came in contact not only with the farm hands but with many of the neighbours. What was the impression produced? Respect, admiration, veneration do not seem to be excessive epithets. Nothing less would give an idea of the truth. “It is not praying for that man we will be, but to him,” one of the farmhands remarked a few days after his death. And what of the impression created by Brother Hassett in his own Communities? Lean of Me for I am meek and humble of heart were words most assuredly, that fell not on deaf ears in the case of Brother James. Why stress it? All who knew him know it. That humility which not only caused him to fly the praise of men, but made him so deferential and submissive - strong man as he was, with strong views , that regularity which brought him with amazing exactness to every duty, that prayerfulness which led him to the chapel, first of all the Community, each morning and again in the evening when his work was done , that spirit of work which kept him on his feet and at his post when he was tottering to the grave, that deferential respect which stamped him as a perfect gentleman. These are some of the thoughts that come to the mind when the name of Brother James Hassett is mentioned. “Father General was much moved when I told him about Brother Hassett”, wrote the late Father Joseph Welsby, on the occasion of Brother Hassett's golden jubilee. And Father General showed his appreciation by sending him a picture of St, Alphonsus Rodriguez, endorsed with Father General’s signature and the words, written in Father General’s own handwriting : “God bless Brother Hassett! Pray for me!” Rome II. xi. 1935.
In recent months it became more clear that the end was fast approaching. He had taken to using a stick - “the old man's staff” as he remarked with his own quiet humour - and occasional weaknesses were an outward sign that the old heart was giving out. It was on Good Friday, April 15th, that he went to bed - a most appropriate day. Like his Master, he had finished the work that God had given him to do. He had not the slightest fear of death, and when the call came on 26th April, he passed most peacefully into eternity. His brother Laurence and his two nephews, one of whom is a priest in the Killaloe Diocese, came for the funeral. Father Hassett said the Mass and read the prayers at the graveside. He is buried in Tullabeg, where he spent so many years, where he wished to lay his bones. The scene at the graveside was most impressive. There was the Tullabeg Community, the Tullabeg farmhands and neighbors (some with tears in their eyes), Fathers and Brothers from Emo, Clongowes and Gardiner Street, including Father Vice-Provincial, and the whole Emo farm staff. And, to crown all, we had the Benedictus beautifully rendered by the Tullabeg Choir. In life, Brother James Hassett fled from the honour of men, but he could not escape it in death, His Brothers in religion were there to show their appreciation of his worth and their admiration of his holiness. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother James Hassett SJ 1849-1938
On April 26th Br James Hassett died after a brief illness. He was born in Quin, County Clare in 1848. On the death of his father, he inherited three farms, which he worked until his younger brothers grew up. Then, deciding that the family no longer needed his help, he made over the farm to one of his brothers and entered the Society in Dromore County Down in 1885.

He remained in Dromore after his Vows until that house was closed. Then he was in charge opf the Tullabeg farm until 1901, when he went for four years to Clongowes. Back again in Tullabeg, he remained in charge of the farm until 1930, when Emo was opened. Although in his 82nd year, Br Hassett soon had the Emo farm running smoothly, and not only was he alive to every need, but worked himself with a will for the next seven years and a half.

To say that Br Hassett won the respect, admiration and even veneration of outsiders is not an exaggeration. And what was the impression in his own communities? The humility which made him so respectful and submissive; the regularity which brought him with amazing exactness to every duty; the prayerfulness which led him first of all to the community Chapel each morning and again in the evening when his work was done; the spirit of work which kept him at his post even in the last weeks of his life; and the deferential respect which stamped him as a perfect gentleman. These are some of the thoughts which come to mind when the name of Br James Hassett is mentioned.

He is buried at Tullabeg, where the greater part of his life in the Society was spent.

Born: 09 September 1813, Omagh, County Tyrone
Entered: 03 May 1843, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed: 02 February 1854
Died: 23 March 1892, St Ignatius College, Chicago, IL, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 31July 1850, Multyfarnham, County Westmeath
Entered: 08 October 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Professed: 15 August 1902
Died: 28 December 1909, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a bricklayer by trade and very skilful in anything to do with building. While in Dublin he was involved heavily with the Nationalist movement, and knew a lot about Fenians. He also served with the Ambulance Service during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 where he suffered much. When he returned to Dublin his health was poor and he suffered on and off from the effects of tat severe war.

Had made two attempts to join the Society, and eventually did 08 October 1891..

1900 He was sent to Clongowes where he built the Infirmary. During his last years there he developed heart trouble. He died, as he said himself, at peace with everybody on the Feast of the Holy Innocents 28 December 1909.
He was very pious and edifying. He was always obliging, skilful, handy and a singularly gentle and quiet person.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Entered 04 November 1888. LEFT. RE ENTERED 08 October 1891

Born: 01 March 1825, Ireland
Entered: 02 December 1847, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed:
Died: 15 June 1852, St Xavier College, Cincinnati, OH, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 1630, County Meath
Entered: 30 July 1651 Liège, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Final Vows: 02 February 1663
Died: 15 March 1706, Ghent, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

Studied Humanities
1678 at Liège - informarian and in charge of the medicines (had knowledge of medecines)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was an educated man and had studied Humanities before Ent.
1694 Socius to Procurator at Antwerp.
1701 & 1704 Infirmarian

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
HAYWOOD, FRANCIS, died at Ghent, 15th of March 1706. In vain do I search for further particulars about him.

Born: 08 December 1830, Draperstown, County Derry
Entered: 23 May 1858, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare
Final Vows: 15 August 1868
Died: 05 March 1915, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He worked on the land for many years at Clongowes. He was a very strong man and did great work for the College. During his last years the Provincial dispensed him from all work, and he made up for this with the piety of his life, and incessant visits to the Blessed Sacrament and prayer. He was held in great respect.

It is not well known, but a year after arriving at Clongowes as a Postulant, he went to the Rector and told him he was resolved to return to his home. His stated reason was that since he arrived, not the slightest interest had been taken in his spiritual welfare by any of the community. He might as well be an ordinary farm labourer, he said. He saw no advantage of staying in Clongowes over his old life which had been good and spiritual. The Rector was greatly distressed and found he could not deny what Francis told him. He pleaded with him to remain and promised he would be looked after. All the Priests were working overtime, and none was in charge of the Postulants. Francis had made up his mind however, and the Rector told him he would be most welcome if he ever returned.
He did return after some months, and there he found in Father Bracken, a Postulant Master and Novice Master, and this was a man he cherished all his life with reverence and affection. His second Postulancy was very long and hard - four years. He took the strain and was admitted as a Novice with seven others who had not had so trying a time as himself. He liked to say that all seven along with him remained true to their vocation until death, and he was the last survivor. They were John Coffey, Christopher Freeman, David McEvoy, James Maguire, John Hanly, James Rorke and Patrick Temple.
He filled many offices in his time. At one stage he was House Steward, and I knew he used buy eggs at the gate. Before that he had been a baker, [ ] and what not. He was a man of the most powerful build, though below medium stature. He used to relate as one of his earlier experiences, that he was appointed to act as a kind of “night Prefect”, sleeping in a cubicle near the “scholars”, he was roughly impeded by one of the scholars in his way up the stairs, who were men rather than boys, but who suddenly found themselves, by a well directed use of his massive shoulders, sprawling all over the place and humiliated. They respected him after that for his physical - as they had, no doubt, always respected him for his religious - qualities.
His last years were ones of restful and entirely prayerful preparation for eternity. He was untiring in saying the Rosary and most devout to the Blessed Sacrament.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Francis Hegarty 1830-1915
Br Francis Hegarty was born near Draperstown on December 8th 1830, and he died at the ripe old age of 85 at Clongowes on March 5th 1915. He had the distinction of leaving as a postulant because there was little or no spiritual direction being given to him. This was nobody’s fault as there were very few priests in the community, and each was fully occupied in his own office. He was assured of a welcome if he should return, which he did after an absence of a few months.

On his return he found Fr Bracken installed as Novice Master, a man whom he cherished all his life long with the greatest affection and reverence. His second postulancy was long and very hard, 4 years. However, he was a man of deep spirituality and he stood the strain well.

He was admitted to vows with seven other postulants : Brothers Coffey, Brennan, McEvoy, Maguire, Hanley, James Rorke and Temple, all of whom, like Br Hegarty – the last survivor – persevered until death.

He was remarkable for his physical strength, though below medium height. He used to relate as one of his earlier experiences, that when he was appointed to act as a sort of night prefect, sleeping in a cubicle near the “scholars”, how he was roughly impeded by these scholars in his progress up the stairs, and they were men rather than boys. But, they suddenly found themselves, by a well directed use of his massive shoulders, sprawling all over the place. From then on, they added to a respect for his religious qualities, a healthy respect for his physical prowess.

During his last years he was dispensed from all work by Fr Provincial, but he made up for that by the piety of his life, incessant prayer and visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

Born: 20 December 1603, Ireland
Entered: 03 July 1640, Parayuayensis Province (PAR)
Final Vows: 05 February 1653, Córdoba, Mexico
Died: 12 June 1678, Corduba, Paraguay - Parayuayensis Province (PAR)

Born: 06 January 1819, Ballyroebuck, County Wexford
Entered: 30 August 1857, Sault-au-Rècollet Canada - Franciae Province (FRA)
Professed: 15 August 1868
Died: 03 November 1876, Sault-au-Récollet, Montréal, Québec, Canada - Neo-Eboracensis-Canadensis Province (NEBCAN)

Part of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, Manitoulin Island, Killarney, Ontario, Canada community at the time of death.

Born: 15 January 1831, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 12 January 1859, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Professed: 02 February 1869
Died: 20 September 1914, Woodstock College, MD, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 01 January 1825, Taghmon, County Wexford
Entered: 26 October 1857, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Professed: 15 August 1868
Died: 15 September 1911, St Louis University, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)