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Born: 03 December 1876, Arvagh, County Cavan
Entered: 28 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 19 July 1896, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Educated at St Patrick’s Seminary, Cavan

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He died at Tullabeg 19 July 1896 after a long illness. he had been three years in the Society.

Born: 10 March 1784, County Longford
Entered: 02 December 1812, Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Sicilian Province (SIC)
Final vows: 08 September 1837
Died: 10 July 1868, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

In Clongowes 1817 - infirmarian O’REILLY

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was a model religious.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
When he had finished his Noviceship in Sicily, he was sent back to Ireland with many book and some marble. His ship was wrecked at Dundrum Bay, Co Down, and he was kindly received there by the Russells of Killough. Finally reaching Dublin, he was sent to Clongowes, and worked there for many years.
1834 He was sent to Gardiner St, and worked there until his death 10 July 1868.
He was much esteemed by all who visited the Church at Gardiner St.
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.

◆ The Clongownian, 2009

The Origins of the Clongowes Library : The adventurous journey of Br Philip Reilly SJ from Palermo to Co. Kildare

Father Michael Sheil SJ

There is a marble plaque, still in existence, which recalls the beginnings of the 'Higher Line Library' in Clongowes. Dated 1837, it records:

Ad
horas subsecivas
amoeniter ac literate
decurrendas
hoc aperuit conclave
coll. cluen.
MDCCCXXXVII

“The Clongowes Record” speaks of the initiative of Fr Henry Rorke “who filled many offices in his long and serviceable years in Clongowes - Minister, Prefect of Studies, and more” and who equipped the Higher Line Library:

“...so used till 1886, it has long been the Rhetoric classroom; but its original purpose as a place of true recreation and relaxation is finely shown in Fr Paul Ferley's inscription, still there on the mural tablet”. The record further adds that “Historical reading was especially cultivated in close connection with the Clongowes Debating Society”.

But the story of a library in Clongowes goes back much further, as seen in the letters of Br Philip Reilly, whose account of his perilous sea voyage from Palermo in 1815 with the nucleus of a library in the newly-opened college of Clongowes Wood makes for fascinating reading. In one letter, sent to Fr Peter Kenney from his ship in Youghal on 10th October 1815, he gives a marvelous description of sea travel in those far-off days. He had left Palermo on 26th July on the schooner “Mary”, registered in and bound for Belfast “with all the books on board” and two weeks later called in at Girginti to take on board a cargo of sulphur. After seven days there “we set out for old Ireland” and, fifty-four days later put into Youghal “in distress”. His graphic account continues:

This is but little of my sufferings. The captain, who is a drunken rascal, had put to sea without laying in scarcely any provisions, and we have been reduced to the utmost misery. These six weeks we had not a morsel of bread but that which could walk with vermin, Our tea and sugar were ended before we reached the Straits of Gibraltar, and for twelve days we have been on a miserable allowance of bread and beef. All this will appear nothing when I tell you I have twice been on the brink of eternity, with all hands on board, once in the Mediterranean, and last night on the mouth of this harbour, by drunken fits of the captain. Last night the ship struck twice or thrice on the bar here; and, if God had not spared us, we should all have settled our accounts in eternity. I do not know if we shall be allowed to ride our quarantine here, or whether we shall be sent to Belfast; of which I shall give you the first notice, that you may send me the amount of the freight of the books, which will be from £16 to £20, as I believe that they measure three tons. I am of the opinion that, should I get the books free of duty into any of these harbours, I ought not to trust them again by sea to Dublin. If you could make interest with the Commissioners, it would be well; of all which you will inform me after my next. Pray much for me, I do not know what yet may happen to me. Give my love to all. Your affectionate son, PM Reilly

In a second letter to Fr Kenney about a fortnight later, Br Reilly recounts how, aided by fair winds and clear weather, the Mary reached Dublin safely by noon the following day and then continued its way northwards up the Irish Sea. “We were, as I have mentioned, bound for Carlingford to have the books taken out”. However, the captain said that with night drawing on, he could not put in there as he did not know the harbour; so he put up helm and steered the course for Belfast. But, to our great surprise, after suffering all the horrors of a stormy night, we found ourselves surrounded by land on all sides in this Bay of Dundrum (near Newcastle, Co. Down). At the instant our ship struck and I thought that she was in a thousand pieces. Providence of God! We were not ten perches (c 50m) from a whole shoal of rocks, on which, if she had struck, all the world would not save us.

But the Mary had struck on fine sand and Br Philip and his precious books were safe.

Books of account
In a third letter, from Killough, he continues to enquire if the books have been insured, for on the next day they were due to be taken ashore. From Dundrum Bay they would have to be transported to Killough for storage (at a rate of five pence per cwt) and thence on to Dublin. He requests money, £20, to have the books plus “polished stone, prints and private papers” released into his keeping, saying that “I intend going to Strangford as soon as I have the books assorted, to know if they there will make me any allowance for the damaged part of the books”.

In an old account book belonging to Fr Kenney one finds reference to charges incurred for

• books, marbles and crosses of agate from Sicily by brig to Belfast, stranded in Dundrum Bay near Killough on the night of 23rd October 1815 e.g.
• books bought = £161 4s 8p
• carriage of books from the Sand Bank to Killough
• and then from Killough to Grand Canal Harbour, James's St, Dublin – £10 14s 6p

Included also are some interesting items, such as:

• cash for extraordinary trouble caused to Mr Hamilton, officer
• Mr Reilly's first expenses waiting to see the books removed
• expenses attending three memorials to che Treasury Board of Customs and
Lord Lieutenant

and, finally, a real gem of an entry:

• To a new hat spoiled with rain and snow, and expenses incurred by illness caught by cold, also chaise to bring Mr Reilly to town, when suddenly called for...

• to make up a grand total of £234 0s 5p.

Eventually, the much-travelled consignment arrived safely at destination to form the foundation of the College Library. Its custodian also found himself in Clongowes, where one of his duties was 'the management of a certain important institution called "The Shop Some things never change!

Br Reilly was born in Longford on 17th March 1784 and had entered the Society of Jesus in December 1812. He made his last vows on 8th September 1837 and died in St Francis Xavier Community, Gardiner Street, Dublin, on 10th July 1868, after many years spent as Sacristan in the church there.

Thus, from the tiny mustard seed of that precious cargo on its perilous journey from Sicily to Kildare, has come the splendid state-of-the-art Library in the former Refectory-then-Theatre in the first House of the restored Society in Ireland. The spirit of both Br Reilly and Fr Rorke must surely bless the endeavours of all who enter this
place of true recreation and relaxation

• ad horas subsecivas amoeniter ac literate decurrendas.

Born: Ireland
Entered: 7 September 1669, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died 16 August 1708, Liege, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
RILEY, THOMAS, of Lancashire. This model of Temporal Coadjutors was admitted 7th September, 1669, and died at Liege College, 16th August, 1708, aet. 68. “Sartorem agebat et exequebatur diligentissime : Nunquam otiosus fuit, nunqnamnon muneri suo intentus - Fuerat ille per annos 35 sociorum Excitator matutinus, et ita quidem accurate statute tempore surrecturis pulsum dabat, ut externus quispiam petierit aliquando, mini forte nobis machina aliqua esset vel instrumenti genus, quodprotinus certis peractis horis, Campanae pulsandae inserviret”. An. Lit.

Set up in 1990 as 3R. Renamed Religious News Network (RNN) in 2006.
36 Lower Leeson Street.

Born: 02 February 1640, County Dublin
Entered: 20 June 1667, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1666, Rome, Italy, - pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1677
Died: 24 August 1707, Irish College, Poitiers, France

Superior of Mission 2 October 1684-1690

1672 At Loreto College
1678-1693 At Irish College Rome teaching Grammar and Philosophy (M Phil), Prefect of Studies, Penitentiary and Spiritual Father. Distinguished in his Philosophy and Theology studies. Capable of teaching the higher subjects.
1693 Had been Superior of Irish Mission
1691-1700 Rector of Irish College Poitiers and again in 1703 and remained at Poitiers where he died

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1668 In pen : Taught at Viterbo
1678 In pen : Irish and Greek Colleges Rome, Prefect of Studies
1684 Superior of Irish Mission 02 October 1684, residing in Dublin.
1697-1699 Rector of irish College Poitiers.
“An indefatigable labourer in the vineyard” (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
A very distinguished scholar; Exiled; Rector of Poitiers; Talents are praised by Dr Peter Talbot; Had defended theses “ex universa theologia” in the Roman College in 1667 (cf de Backer “Biblioth. des Écrivains SJ” and his article “Rome; Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Humanities at Lille (1656-1660) and Paris graduating MA. He then went to the Irish College Rome 25 September 1662, and was Ordained there February 1666, before Ent 20 June 1667 St Andrea, Rome
1669-1671 After First Vows he was sent teaching Humanities at Viterbo.
1671-1672 He was sent as Penitentiary at Loreto.
1672-1674 He was sent Teaching Philosophy at Perugia.
1674-1676 Prefect of Studies at the Greek College Rome.
1676-1681 He was sent as Prefect of Studies at the Irish College Rome.
1681-1682 He was sent to teach Theology at Siena
1684-1690 Sent to Ireland, arriving October 1683. He was appointed Irish Mission Superior on 26 August 1684. His years in office coincided with the Catholic revival under James II. He trued his best to satisfy the many requests for Colleges of the Society.
1690-1691 Remained in Ireland
1691-1700 Appointed Rector of Irish College Poitiers. He remained there after Office and was a Consultor of the College. He died there 24 August 1707
To Father Relly we are indebted for a History of the Irish College, Rome, and the many interesting letters he wrote illustrating the persecution of the Church in Ireland in the early years of the regime of William III

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
James Relly (1684-1687)
James Relly was born in the county of Dublin on 2nd February, 1640. He went to Belgium in 1656, and studied humanities at Lille till 1660, when he went to Paris and took out his degree of Master of Philosophy there in 1662. He accompanied the Archbishop of Armagh, Edmund O'Reilly, to Rome, and was admitted into the Irish College there on 25th September, 1662. In February, 1666 he was ordained priest, and celebrated his first Mass on the 14th of that month in the Church of S Maria Maggiore. He entered the Novitiate of the Society at Sant' Andrea on 20th June, 1667.
After teaching grammar at Viterbo, he acted as Penitentiary at Loreto for one year (1671-72). He then taught a course of philosophy at Perugia; acted as Prefect of Studies at the Greek College in Rome for half a year, when he was transferred in the same capacity to the Irish College in April, 1676. He made his solemn profession of four vows on 15th August, 1677. In 1681 he was appointed Professor of Theology at Siena. Two years later he was sent to Ireland, where he arrived in October, 1683. On 26th August, 1684, he was appointed Superior of the Mission. His years of office fell during the Catholic revival. under James II. Fr Relly tried to satisfy as best he could the many requests for colleges of the Society, and he opened a chapel in Dublin. At the end of his term as Superior he remained in Ireland till 1691, and on the 9th of June of which year he was appointed Rector of the Irish College of Poitiers, a position he held for nine years. He passed the last seven years of his life there as Consultor of the College, and died on 24th August, 1707. To Fr Relly we are indebted for a history of the Irish College in Rome and many letters illustrating the persecution in Ireland during the early years of William III.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father James Relly 1640-1707
James Relly, a Dublin man was the 24th Mission Superior of the Irish Mission from 1684-1687. He was already a priest with his Master’s degree in Philosophy when he entered the Society at Rome in 1667.
His Superiorship fell within the brief period of the Catholic Revival under James II, and thus he was able to open a chapel in Dublin.

His term of office over, he remained in Ireland until 1691, when he was appointed Rector of the Irish College at Poitiers. This post he held for 9 years. He died at Poitiers on August 24th 1707.

We are indebted to him for a history of the Irish College at Rome and also for many letters dealing with the Persecution in Ireland during the early years of William and Mary.

Born: 22 August 1841, Montrevault-sur-Èvre, Maine-et-Loire, France
Entered: 28 September 1862, Angers France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1876, St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1881
Died: 06 April 1916, Los Gatos CA, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)

Uncle of René Jeannière (FRA) - RIP 1918

by 1881 came to Mungret (HIB) as Director of Apostolic School; Rector 1885 1880-1888 and brought his nephew René Jeannière with him as a student in 1885 (he subsequently joined FRA Province in 1889 and worked on the Chinese Mission)
Rector: 1885 1880-1888

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1912

Silver Jubilee

Father Jean-Baptist René SJ

On September 28th, 1912, Father René 19 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into the Society of Jesus. The celebration took place in Gonzaga College, Spokane, Wash, where Fr René has been living since 1904. On the morning of the jubilee day, the professors and students of the college assembled in the great hall to tender him their good wishes. Several members of the staff had formerly been Fr René's pupils in Mungret, and now the life-story of the venerable jubilarian was fittingly recounted in prose and verse. At the close of the proceedings Fr René spoke very touchingly, telling the boys that he summed up the success and happiness of his life in the one word, “sacrifice”. He then gave the boys the expected holiday. On the following day, Sunday, Fr René celebrated the solemn High Mass in the college church, and the Rector of the college paid, in his sermon, a very eloquent tribute to Fr René's life-work, especially his seven years in Mungret and his nine years in Alaska. At the banquet which was given that evening in his honour a large number of secular priests, who esteen Fr René very much, were present. A very interesting sketch of Fr René is given in the “Gonzaga College Magazine”, from which we cult the following facts :

Father John Baptist René is a descendant of those illustrious Vendeans who in the sanguinary days of the French Revolution stood so firm in the defence of their Religion. He was born August 2nd, 1841, at Montevaux in Anjou, France. After a brilliant course of classical studies at Combrée, and after having obtained a degree in the French University, he entered the Society of Jesus at Angers, September 28ıh, 1862. He did his ecclesiastical studies at Laval, France, and at St Beuno's in England where he was ordained to the priesthood, 1876. He passed the third year of his probation under the shadow of the famous shrine of the Sacred Heart at Paray-le-Monial.

In the Jubilee Number of the Mungret Annual (July,'07), we have already recounted the history of Fr René's providential call to become the first director of the Mungret Apostolic School. Fr Ronan SJ always asserted that his meeting with Fr René was an immediate answer lo his prayers at he shrine of Blessed Margaret Mary, Fr René's labours in Mungret extended over seven years (1882-88) during all of which time he was director of the, Apostolic School, and during the last three years Rector of the College. In 1888 he was recalled to France by his superiors, and two years later he followed some of his spiritual sons to the Jesuit missions in the Rocky mountains. Soon after he was appointed Rector of Gonzaga College, Spokane, Washington.

During Fr René's vigorous administration, Gonzaga College advanced rapidly. There was a general improvement in discipline, and greater proficiency in class work and studies, and in consequence, so large an increase in the number of students that Fr René had to add greatly to the College buildings.

In 1895 Fr. René went as a missionary to Juneau in Southern Alaska; and a year-and-a-half later, in March,'97 he was appointed Prefect Apostolic and Superior of the Alaska Mission. In this most difficult mission Fr René laboured with heroic fortitude and self-sacrifice till, worn out by his incessant labours and cares, he was finally relieved of his onerous duties in May, 1904. Since that time Fr René had resided at Gonzaga College, Spokane, as professor of Theology for the Jesuit Scholastics, and later on as professor of Hebrew and Spiritual Father.

Fr René is still in fairly good health; his love for Mungret and his deep interest in everything that, concerns her welfare has not diminished during the twenty years of labour and of change that he has lived since he guided her destinies when he imparted a shape and a direction to the spirit of the Apostolic School which it has never lost.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1916

Obituary

Father Jean-Baptist René SJ

The death of Father Réné, which took place at the Sacred Heart Novitiate SJ, Los Gatos, Cal, USA, has sent to his reward of the last of the founders of the Apostolic School. With the memory of Father Ronan that of Father Réné will always be preserved. These were the two instruments which Providence selected to set on foot a work which though only yet in its infancy, has already rendered immense service to the great cause of Catholic missions. The idea of founding an Apostolic School was originated by Father Ronan, and was, in the face of great difficulties, reduced to a fact. If Father Ronan was the founder, Father Réné was the first Director. For six years the school grew under his wise care. In the work of drawing up a course of studies, of arranging a method of training and discipline, he took a leading part. . But a much more important work was that of giving a proper tone or spirit to the school : and the success of Father Réné in this respect must be judged from the work of Mungret priests in all the countries to which they have been sent.

Jean Baptiste Réné was a Vendean, and was born in 1841, at Montrevaux in Anjou. He: entered the Society of Jesus at Angers at the age of twenty-one, when he had already taken his degree with some distinction. His ecclesiastical studies he did at Laval and St Beunos (in Wales), and was ordained at this latter place in 1876. For a year after ordination he was director of the Apostolic School at Poictiers, and then passed on to Paray-le-Monial for his third year of probation. Here it was that he met Father Ronan, who, almost in despair at his repeated failure to find a suitable Director for his Apostolic School, had come to pray for assistance at this great shrine of the Sacred Heart. Father Ronan always regarded his meeting with Father Réné as a direct answer to his prayer.

From 1882-88 Father Réné was Director of the Apostolic School in Mungret, being also Rector during the years 1885-8. It was a period long enough to enable a man of strong personality such as Father Réné was, to leave his mark on the young foundation, to give it the bent and direction it would take. Changes and modification of detail there were inevitably to be; the rapid growth of the school was constantly presenting new difficulties to be met. But it is true to say that Father Réné's influence was incalculable, and that the Apostolic School has continued to move on the lines that he laid down and will continue in that direction for a long time to come. The years he spent at Mungret were among his happiest. With his old friends in the college,. who have dropped off one by one, he kept up correspondence and often spoke of the de light which the memory of those days. gave him.

Mungret Apostolic School was now firmly established, and in 1888 Father Réné was recalled to France, and two years later was sent to the Jesuit Missions of the Rockies, where he was made Rector of Gonzaga College, Spokane, Washington, which increased in numbers and prestige under his direction.

It was his fate to be a pioneer, and to see, without any bitterness, others succeed to the result of his labours; and so, in 1895, he left Spokane as a missionary for Juneau, in S Alaska. A year and a half after his arrival he was appointed Prefect Apostolic and Superior of the Alaskan Mission. In this arduous field he worked for seven years, till his growing infirmities compelled him to return to a more gracious climate. The evening of his laborious life he spent teaching. Theology and Scripture at Gonzaga College Spokane. In September, 1912, he celebrated his silver jubilee in the Society of Jesus. At his death he was seventy-five years of age, fifty-four of which had been spent in the Society.

Father Réné was a man of exceptional ability and possessed a firm and forcible personality, which made a deep impression on all who came in contact with him. His spirit of self-sacrifice and his generous zeal in every good cause were fitting qualities in one who was to train young men for the foreign missions. Many priests who are now working for the Kingdom of Christ in distant lands will acknowledge their indebtedness to his inspiring character, and will mourn the loss of a respected teacher and a dear friend.

RIP

Born: 30 December 1832, Münzkirchen, Austria
Entered: 06 September 1855, Baumgartenberg Austria (AUT)
Ordained: 1878
Final vows: 02 February 1873
Died: 16 July 1919, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Had a brother Cajan who was a Jesuit brother (ASR)

Mission Superior 1882-1888 and 1890-1897

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He belonged originally to the Austrian Province, and when the Irish province took responsibility for Sevenhill and Adelaide for the Irish Mission, he elected to spend his days with the Irish.
He died at Sevenhill 16 July 1919. He was a perfect religious and very hardworking. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of the Irish-Australian Mission.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Anthony Reshauer's father was a well-to-do baker, and Anthony was educated at the Jesuit school, Freinberg College, Linz. His brother, Cajetan, afterwards became a Jesuit brother.
Reshauer entered the Society 6 September 1855, at Baumgartenberg, and completed his juniorate at the same place, 1857-8. He studied philosophy at Posen, and theology at Innsbruck, Austria, 1864-68, concluding his course with the 'Grand Act'. He later became a professed father. His regency was undertaken at Kalksburg, teaching natural history, physics and mathematics. After theology he taught at Freinberg, Linz, 1868-70, followed by tertianship at St Andra. He returned to Freinberg, 1871-73.
He was sent to Adelaide, Australia, with Josef Peters in early 1874, and went to Sevenhill where he taught Latin, philosophy and theology. in 1876 he was named visitor of the mission, and the following year became superior of the mission from the Adelaide parish of Norwood. He also engaged in parish work, missions and retreats.
From 1880 to 1881 he went to Georgetown and became superior, 1882-88. He was also procurator and a consulter of the mission during this time. In 1885 he attended the episcopal
Plenary Council at Sydney as a theologian to the local bishop, Dr Reynolds. He returned to the parish of Norwood in 1888, and again became superior of the mission, 1890-97. His final years 1897-1919, were spent at Sevenhill. During these years he was extensively engaged in pastoral work.
At die time of the amalgamation of the Austrian and Irish Mission in 1901, Reshauer chose to remain in South Australia as a member of the Irish Mission. In his later years he became gradually more feeble. He was considered a man highly gifted intellectually in many areas, philosophy, theology, natural science, mathematics, and languages, which he combined with deep humility. He was kind and thoughtful of others. He did not relish high office, yet had his fair share of it. Until the end of his life he rose at 4.30 am and was first into the church to visit the Blessed Sacrament. He lived most abstemiously, but was very generous with others. His room contained only the bare essentials. His retreats were greatly liked, especially by priests. His contribution to the Church and Society in Australia was considerable.

413 Clontarf Road, Dublin 3

Born: 1630, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 10 July 1650, English College, Valladolid, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Final Vows: 02 February 1665
Died: 18 November 1673, Arévalo College, Ourense, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

1651 A Coadjutor Novice at Valladolid
1660 At Ourense CAST
1665 “Rian” lay brother at Turiensis College
1672 At Ourense College
A James Rian was in BAE in 1655, but the Catalogue writer does not know in which College

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
After First Vows he was succesively at Logroño and Villagarcía
1660 Sent to Ourense College where he died 18 November 1673

Born: 17 September 1947, Hong Kong
Entered: 25 September 1980, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin (HIB for Hong Kong Province HK)
Ordained: 11 July 1987, Hong Kong
Final vows: 31 July 2004
Died: 14 April 2013, Stella Maris, Lutherville-Timonium, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Transcribed HK to MAR

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Farewell to one time warden of Ricci Hall

Jesuit Father Alvaro Ribeiro, a former warden of Ricci Hall at the University of Hong Kong, died on 14 April 2013 at the Stella Maris Hospice, Timonium, Maryland, the United States of America (US). He was 66-years-old.

Father Ribeiro was born in Hong Kong on 17 September 1947. He entered the China province of the Society of Jesus on 25 September 1980 in Dublin, Ireland, and was ordained a priest in Hong Kong on 11 July 1987. He made his final vows on 31 July 2004.

Father Ribeiro was the warden of Ricci Hall from 1990 to 1991. He was transferred to the Maryland province in the US in 1996 and became a member of the province in 2004.

A memorial Mass was celebrated for him on 4 May at Ricci Hall.

May he rest in peace.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 12 May 2013

Halls of residence, established by the Jesuits, attached to the University of Hong Kong.

Initially at Milltown Park, Dublin, the unit was staffed by Irish Jesuit philosophers. Transferred to St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly.

Born: 20 July 1844, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Entered: 05 November 1859, Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)
Ordained: 1872
Final vows: 02 February 1900
Died: 04 February 1913, Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)

2nd year Novitiate at Milltown (HIB) under Luigi Sturzo following the expulsion of Jesuits from Naples and Sicily

Born: 14 September 1908, Dundalk, County Louth
Entered: 09 November 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1939, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died: 22 February 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 35th Year No 3 1960

Obituary :

Br Ignatius Rice (1908-1960)

Br. Rice was born at Dundalk on 14th September, 1908 and entered the Society on 9th November, 1927. On 20th February, 1960 he collapsed at his work at Milltown Park and died two days later in hospital without regaining consciousness.
After his noviceship he worked as cook in Belvedere, Rathfarnham, Leeson Street and Galway. His years in the kitchen accentuated a weakness in his right leg which had given him trouble even as a boy; and the heat and long hours standing by the range made him suffer great pain. Finally he had to give up the work of cooking and was sent to The Crescent in charge of the domestic staff, where he also worked in organising card drives in aid of the college building fund. While in Limerick he made many friends by his zeal and good humour.
In 1956 Br. Rice was sent to Milltown Park to help in the Library, and by reason of his energy and great natural intelligence he learnt the new art of book-binding very quickly and soon became a very valuable member of the staff of the bindery. This is the work on which he was engaged when he suffered the stroke which led to his sudden death.
The loss of Br. Rice was very deeply felt by the community in Milltown Park. In this province the number of Brothers in any house is necessarily very small. In these circumstances a man of unfailing courtesy and friendliness is a very great treasure; and Br. Rice was just such a man. Furthermore, he was always ready and willing to take on extra work when one of the other Brothers was away for holidays or to make a retreat. Br. Rice was very versatile and always seemed to be delighted to find some way in which he could be of service to the community in spite of his ill-health. Finally, he was in his own way a deeply religious man with a very true notion of the ideals of the vocation of a Jesuit Brother.
To his sister, his brothers and other relatives and to his many friends we offer our sincerest sympathy. May he rest in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Ignatius Rice SJ 1908-1960
Br Ignatius Rice was born in Dundalk on September 14th 1908. All his life he was subject to an infirmity in his right leg which must have made his years as a cook and manductor a veritable martyrdom.

A good part of his religious life was spent in the Crescent where he was invaluable in organising charitable functions in aid of the school building fund.

His last years were spent at Milltown Park as a semi-invalid. Always a fund of good humour, he was willing, cheerful and deeply religious. Little was ever heard by his brethern of his sufferings in life. He gave a fine example of pain cheerfully borne.

He died on February 22nd 1960 from a stroke, which proved fatal.

Born: 03 April 1625, Dingle County Kerry
Entered: 20 May 1648, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny
Ordained: 13 March 1660, Louvain, Belgium
Final Vows: 03/ November 1664
Died: 07 January 1699, Dublin Residence, Dublin City, County Dublin - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias James Flent
Superior of Mission 08 October 1672

Had studied 2 years Philosophy before Ent. Taught Humanities 16 years. Was Superior of Irish Mission
1666 Is living near New Ross teaching school at his Boarding School. Preaches Catechetics in the country and does parochial work. Very good. On Mission 5 years. Has good talents with great fitness for catechising and teaching boys.
1679-1682 Minister and Prefect of Boarders at Irish College Poitiers
There is at Clongowes a “Praxis Episcopalis” Ed 1618 in which is written “P Ig. Rice”

1660 or 1662 Sent to Ireland from Professed House at Antwerp
1662 Living in New Ross where he kept a boarding school, and was engaged in Preaching, Catechising etc, and also occasionally acting as PP
1672 Superior of the Mission, and recommended for the same office in 1697 . Father Kelly, Rector at Poitiers, in a letter to the General, recommends Stephen Rice to be the Superior of the Mission again in a letter dated 26 May 1697 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
He is the author of a long and most interesting history of the Irish Mission SJ 1669-1675 (cf Foley’s Collectanea)
Highly eulogised in letters of the martyred Archbishop Plunkett to the General Oliva, dated Dublin 22 November 1672 and Armagh 31 January 1673
Much praised for learning, zeal, eloquence, holiness etc, by Primate Plunket and Dr Peter Talbot
Note from No Ch Name (actually George) Murphy :
Named in an Italian letter, dated Dublin 22 November 1672, ad written by the Martyr, the Archbishop Oliver Plunket, Primate of Ireland, to Father General Oliva, in which, after expressing his affectionate regard for the Society, and informing him of the meritorious labours of Fathers Rice and Ignatius Brown at Drogheda, he speaks of Father Murphy as a good Theologian, and excellent religious man, a man of great talent, and a distinguished preacher in the Irish language. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of James and Phyllis née Fanning (daughter of Edmund of Limerick) and brother of Br Nicholas Rice (LEFT?)
Studied Humanities and Philosophy under the Jesuits at Kilkenny before Ent 20 May 1648 Kilkenny
A year after First Vows he was sent to Flanders for Regency before Theology at Louvain where he was Ordained 13 March 1660
1662 Sent to Ireland and initially to Limerick
1663-1670 Sent to join Stephen Gellous at New Ross, where he taught Humanities and Rhetoric for the next seven years
1670-1672 Went to Drogheda to organise the College there which was opened by Blessed Oliver Plunket.
1672-1678 Superior of the Mission 08/10/1672. A fresh wave of persecution meant that the schools had to be closed and missionary work carried on in secret. During his term of office the Irish College, Poitiers was established, not only as a school for boys, but also a refuge for old, inform or exiled Irish Missioners. Before he finished Office he wrote at length to the General regarding the Irish Mission 1669-1675.
1678-1682 At the time of the Oates's Plot, 1678, he was arrested and then deported. He went to Poitiers and was Minister of the Irish College until 1682
1682 Sent back to Ireland and Limerick. After the surrender of Limerick he came to Dublin as Consultor of the Mission, and he died there 07 January 1699, and is buried in St. Catherine’s Churchyard

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
Stephen Rice (1672-1675)

Stephen Rice, son of James Rice, of Dinglicoush, and Phyllis, daughter of Edmund Tanning, of Limerick, was born at Dingle on 3rd April, 1625. He made his early studies up to philosophy at the College of Kilkenny, where he entered the Novitiate of the Society on 20th May, 1648. In 1651 he was sent to Flanders, where, after the usual course of teaching and study, he was ordained priest on 13th March, 1660, during his fourth year of theology at Louvain. On his return to Ireland he was stationed first at Limerick (1662), but next year he was sent to New Ross, where he taught school for seven years. He made his solemn profession of four vows at Dublin on 3rd November, 1664. In 1670 he went to Drogheda to conduct the College opened there by the Blessed Oliver Plunket. On 8th October, 1672, he was appointed Superior of the Mission. A fresh outburst of persecution caused the closing of our schools, and the ordinary ministrations of the Society had to be carried on in secret. During Fr Rice's term of office the Irish College of Poitiers was founded as a house of refuge for old, infirm, or exiled missioners. Before leaving office he wrote a long report on the work of the Society in Ireland from 1669 to 1675. At the time of Oates's pretended Plot (1678) he was arrested and banished. He went to Poitiers, and acted as Minister of the Irish College till 1682, when he returned to Limerick. After the surrender of Limerick he came to Dublin, as Consultor of the Mission, and died there on 7th January, 1699.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Stephen Rice SJ 1625-1699
Stephen Rice was born in Dingle in 625. Educated at our school in Kilkenny, he entered the noviceship there in 1648. Ordained at Louvain in 1660, the year of the Restoration of Charles II, he was stationed first at Limerick, then at New Ross, in which town he taught school for seven years.

At the request of Blessed Oliver Plunkett he opened a school in Drogheda, where he had 150 pupils, besides 40 Protestant gentlemen who attended classes in 1670.

Two years later he was made Superior of the Mission. During the disturbance caused by the Titus Oates Plot, he went to Poitiers, where he acted as Minister.

However, in 1682 he managed to return to Ireland and he worked in Limerick. After the surrender of that city to the Williamites he came to Dublin as Consultor of the Mission, and he died there in January 7th, 1699.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
RICE, STEPHEN, began his Noviceship at Kilkenny, and in the sequel became a leading man amongst his Brethren. The venerable Primate Archbishop Plunkett, of glorious memory,* in a letter addressed from Dublin on the 22nd of November, 1672, to the General S. J. Father John P. Oliva, extols Father Rice then Superior of his brethren, for his learning, disinterested and indefatigable zeal, fervid eloquence, remarkable discretion, and profound religious virtue; he adds, that this good Father has all the modest diffidence of a Novice: that he is a true son of St. Ignatius, and full of the spirit of the Institute. In a second letter to the same, dated Armagh, 30th of January, 1673, the worthy Archbishop repeats his unqualified commendation of this meritorious Father. His Grace of Dublin, Archbishop P. Talbot, held him in no less esteem. We have this Rev. Superior’s well written report of the Irish Mission of the Society, from the year 1669 to the 15th of July, 1675, and which has furnished several details for these biographical Sketches. I find by a letter dated Poitiers, 20th of May, 1097, that he was thus recommended by its Rector, F. Kelly, to the General Gonzales, to resume the Government of his Brethren in Ireland : “Rev. Father Stephen Rice, who, about 20 years since, was Superior of the Mission, appears to me eminently qualified to fill that office again, unless his age and strength may incapacitate him for the labour”. When the good old man descended into the tomb, I have inquired in vain.

• The head of this illustrious victim of legal murder, is respectfully preserved in the Convent at Drogheda. How true is the remark, that “Calumny spread, no matter how, will frequently prove an Overmatch for candour, truth, and innocence, until time has applied his Touchstone, and proved the temper of the Metal!”

Born: 09 November 1786, County Monaghan
Entered: 27 September 1836, Frederick, MD, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 15 august 1847
Died: 04 September 1864, Frederick, MD, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 06 November 1861, Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, County Dublin
Entered: 30 July 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 15 August 1906, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 02 January 1916, Mungret College, County Limerick

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was raised at Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin , on the site where the Presbyterian Church stood later. He had been a soldier in the English army, and had spent some years with them in India and Malta.

He was by trade a shoemaker, and this was his work in the Society. He also had a wonderful gift of taking care of the sick. This he did at Tullabeg, where he watched over the venerable Charles Young who died in his 98th year.
He was also a shoemaker at Mungret, where he worked until his peaceful death 02 January 1916, and was buried at Mungret.
Owing to the somewhat sedentary nature of his work, he became quite stout, which hindered his work somewhat!

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Patrick Rickaby SJ 1861-1916
Br Patrick Rickaby was born in Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, on the site where the Presbyterian Church now stands, on November 5th 1861. In his early life he was a soldier in the English Army, and saw some years of service in India and Malta. He became a Jesuit in 1891. He was by trade a shoemaker and worked in that capacity in the Society. He also had a wonderful gift of nursing the sick and devoted some years to that work in Tullabeg, where he nursed the venerable Father Charles Young, who died in his 98th year.

He had a subtle sense of humour. On one occasion when Fr Young had rung the bell previously rather often and needlessly to summon Br Rickaby, the later started to strop Fr Young’s razor. “What are you doing that for” said the patient from the bed. “Well” replied the Brother, “at the rate you’re calling me, you don't seem long for this world, and it will be easier to shave you now than when you’re dead”. The hint was taken and he was not summoned so often.

After joining the Society Br Rickaby grew enormously stout, perhaps owing to his sedentary life as a shoemaker. He spent the last years of his of at Mungret College, where he died on January 2nd, 1916, and was buried in the College Cemetery.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1916

Obituary

Brother Patrick Rickaby SJ

A large number of our recent Past must have. heard with regret of the death of Bro Rickaby SJ, which took place at the beginning of January, 1916. His death could not be said to be unexpected; in fact, it was not anticipated that he would have lived to see the new year. For a long time. past he had not been in good health, but in spite of frequent sickness and growing infirmities he went about his work cheerfully and uncomplainingly. At the beginning of last November, his malady grew rapidly worse. For two months he lingered on, often in great pain, but always cheery and patient. He passed away on January 2nd, perfectly resigned to die, having received the last Sacraments of the Church, and having given a fine example of what the death-bed of a Christian and a Religious should be.

Bro Rickaby was 55 years at the time of his death, and had entered religious life in the year 1891. Of the quarter of a century which he spent in the Society of Jesus, over fifteen years were passed at Mungret. In Mungret certainly he was happiest, and he had come to regard the College as his home.

For the boys who came to Mungret since 1901 he will remain one of the most distinctive memories. His work of shoemaker and infirmarian always gave him more than enough to do, but he was never too busy to interchange a cheery word with those that came to visit him. But the most vivid memory will remain with those who came under his care when he was infirmarian. His cheery disposition and kindness of heart made him an excellent nurse.

Among his brother religious his loss was deeply felt. He was a man whom all respected for his spirit of work and his exact observance of his rules. May he rest in peace!

Born: 12 October 1907, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 04 October 1934, Manresa, Roehampton, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 22 July 1922
Final Vows: 20 March 1950
Died: 01 September 1985, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - British Province (BRI)

Part of Coláiste Iognáid community, Galway at time of his death.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 60th Year No 4 1985

Obituary
Fr Brian Joseph Riordan (1907-1934-1985) (Britain)
Fr Brian Joseph Riordan was born in Belfast on 12th October 1907. He was educated at St Malachy's College, Belfast, and St Mary's College, Dundalk He became a journalist and then on 4th October 1934 joined the Society at Roehampton. After 1st vows he studied philosophy and theology at Heythrop Oxon. In October 1942 his theology was interrupted when he became an RAF chaplain. In February 1947 he was demobbed and had a brief spell on the staff of the Holy Name, Manchester, before returning to Heythrop to finish theology. In 1948 he was a tertian at St Beuno's. In December 1949 he went to Rhodesia where he served at Mondoro, Makumbi, Kutama and Martindale. He returned to the UK in June 1954 and went first to Craighead and then in 1955 joined the parish staff at St Aloysius, Glasgow. He was in charge of the Preparatory school at Langside from 1961 until 1964 when he began his long spell as priest-in-charge and military chaplain at St Margaret's, Lerwick. In 1980 he went to work in N Ireland, first at Ballykilbeg and then at Ballycrabble - both in Downpatrick. In Oct 1984 he was admitted to the Irish Province infirmary, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin, and from there moved to Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin, where he died on 1st September 1985. Fr Provincial celebrated the requiem in Gardiner street. Among those participating were Brian's brother and other members of the family; the parish priest of Downpatrick; Fr Senan Timoney, Acting Provincial in Ireland, with many members of the Irish Province; and Rory Geoghegan, Hugh Hamill and Bill Mathews from our own province. Fr Provincial is very appreciative of the care shown to Brian by the Irish Province during his illness in the last year, and for their support and hospitality at the funeral. The interment was at Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.

Born: 01 August 1823, Scrahanfadda, County Kerry
Entered: 06 August 1855, Sault-au-Rècollet Canada - Franciae Province (FRA)
Professed: 15 August 1865
Died: 01 July 1889, Montréal, Québec, Canada - Missions Canadiensis (CAN)

Born: 31 August 1904, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork City, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1924, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1942
Died: 02 February 1987, Nazareth House, 16 Cornell St, Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death.

Father was a Civil Servant (Post office official) and family lived at Egerton Villas, St Luke’s, Cork.

Fourth of five boys with five sisters.

Early education was at a Convent school and then at North Monastery, Cork. He then went to CBC Cork for six years, and then went to St Finbarr’s College. He then went to UCC studying English and History.

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05/04/1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Edward Riordan came from a remarkable Irish family. Of five boys, three became priests and two doctors. All four sisters received a tertiary education. The Christian Brothers in Cork educated him before he entered the Society at Tullabeg, 1 September 1924.
Riordan's Jesuit studies were all in Ireland, and his secular studies in the classics were undertaken at the National University at the colleges in Cork and Dublin. He was sent to Australia for his regency at St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, 1932-35. He was ordained, 31 July 1939, and arrived back in Australia in 1944. After two years as socius to the master of novices he was appointed master for sixteen years, and more than 100 Jesuits were formed by him. In 1961 he was assigned to profess theology, First in the diocesan seminary at Glen Waverley, then at Canisius College, Pymble. These were not the happiest years for him, as he was well aware of his limitations as a teacher of theology.
At the age of 67 Riordan volunteered to teach English in Lahore, Pakistan, for four years, then returned to Australia to work with the poor at Salisbury North, Adelaide. Living in a housing commission dwelling was not easy, privacy was hard to find, but he loved the people and was loved by them. They called him 'Ned'. After six years in this work he went to live with the homeless men at Corpus Christi Community, Greenville, Victoria, where the men praised him for being a hopeful sign of God's wisdom and true human dignity After four years his memory began to fade and he was forced to retire to the Hawthorn parish community The sisters at Nazareth House eventually cared for him. His memory had practically almost gone.
He was perceived by his novices to combine the rationality of John Fahy with the genuine affective devotion of John Corcoran. He taught his novices the deepest truths of the following of Christ, he lived by those truths as he taught them, and he carried them superbly into the life he led when his term as master of novices was over. His whole life was one of humble service The way he showed was an austere way, one of prayer, self-denial and fidelity He lived a life of great personal poverty and self-sacrifice. Rarely did his novices see the man who in his younger days had been a merry companion and the life of the party. He loved the stage and was a good actor and enjoyed proclaiming poetry and prose. Shakespeare was a particular love.
There was fire in Riordan, there were flashes of merriment but so much was suppressed. It was his understanding of his role. However, he mellowed in his latter years and entered into the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. In himself he was not an aloof person but very companionable. He was not a hard man, but rather had the gift of strong gentleness. He was at peace with himself, and content with his own company, deeply prayerful, and at home with the Blessed Trinity, a priest after the mind of St Ignatius Loyola.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 62nd Year No 2 1987

Obituary

Fr Edward Riordan (1904-1927-1987) (Australia)

31st October 1904: born. Ist September 1924: entered SJ.
1924-26 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1926-29 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1929-32 philosophy: 29-'30 Milltown, 1930-32 Tullabeg.
5th April 1931: formally transferred to Australia.
1933-35 (three years) Australia: St Aloysius College, Milson's Point, North Sydney, regency.
1936-'41 Ireland. 1936-'40 Milltown Park, theology, 31st July 1939: ordained a. priest, 1940-41 Rathfarnham, tertianship. (Late 1941: probably travelling to Australia. 1942: the Australian catalogue lists him among its overseas members in Ireland, while the Irish catalogue makes no mention of him, not even among the Australian Jesuits residing in Ireland. He may have been in an intermediate position - on the high seas – when both catalogues were being edited.) .
1943-70, 1975-87 Australia.
1943-61 Loyola College, Watsonia (Melbourne area): 1943-44 socius to the master of novices; 1945-61 Master of novices. 1962 Corpus Christi college, Glen Waverley (Melbourne area), professor of dogma, spiritual father to the seminarians. 1963-68 Canisius college, Pymble (Sydney area), professor of theology (1963-65 minor course, 1966-68 dogma; 1964-67 prefect of studies). 1969-70 Jesuit Theological College, Parkville (Melbourne area), professor of dogma, spiritual father.
1971-74 Pakistan: Loyola Hall, Lahore, pastoral work, giving Exercises.
1975-80 South Australia. Adelaide area, pastoral work, mostly in Salisbury North, while residing in Manresa, Norwood (1975), St Ignatius College, Athelstone (1976-78), and Salisbury North itself (1979-80).
1981-'7 Melbourne area: 1981-84 Corpus Christi men's hostel, Greenvale, pastoral work. 19858-6 Immaculate Conception residence, Hawthorn, praying for Church and Society. 20th February 1987: died.

“Ned came from a remarkable Cork family. Of the five boys, three became priests and two, doctors. All four girls had a tertiary education. His sister Una was due to revisit him in April. (Miss Una Riordan, 5 Egerton villas, Military hill, Cork.)

Born: 01 January 1811 Ireland
Entered: 24 January 1838, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died: 08 October 1838, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

23 St Clements Rd, Harrogate, England

Born: 25 June 1844, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Entered: 05 November 1859, Palermo Sicily Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)
Ordained: 1873
Final vows: 15 August 1878
Died 08 November 1919, Collegio Pennisi, Acireale, Sicily, Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)

2nd year Novitiate at Milltown (HIB) under Luigi Sturzo following the expulsion of Jesuits from Naples and Sicily

Andrew Devane joined John Joseph Robinson and Cyril Keefe.

Born: 19 August 1943, Ballyfermot, Dublin
Entered: 10 May 1964, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 31 May 1979, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 04 May 1982, Dublin

Part of Coláiste Iognáid community, Galway at time of his death.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 57th Year No 3 1983
Obituary

Br Vincent Robinson (1943-1964-1982)

My first memory of Vincent has him in a white apron wheeling a barrow full of turf along the bottom corridor in Emo: sturdy, composed, with bright and fun-loving eyes. When he entered the noviciate in Emo in 1964 he was already qualified as a gas-fitter/plumber with a London City and Guilds Intermediate and Final certificate. He made his first vows in the noviciate in 1966 and stayed on there till 1969: he subsequently had spells in Manresa, Milltown Park (for two different periods), Betagh House, Tullabeg (Tertianship). Belvedere and Galway. During most of that time he worked mainly but not exclusively (he was a man of many skills) as a plumber, servicing the demands of the particular house he was in or available to the Province at large: for some of it he did further studies at the College of Technology in Bolton street (obtaining his technician's certificate there); also some teaching in the same college. He took his final vows in May 1979; towards the end of that same year he became ill and was in and out of health, with periods of great distress, until his death this year, three years after those vows, also in the month of May. He was thirty-eight when he died.
A man of many skills and talents - to do with hands, with heart, and with head. And so the bare facts above indicate little of the great richness and vitality of his life. Vinny was an excellent craftsman and worker, who did the job not just competently and well, but with flair. This artistic side of his craftsmanship was given rein most freely in his work with silver and bronze. He took a delight in this work: I remember well in Milltown, the '70s, the relish with which he would discuss possible suitable titles for the four bronze shields which now hang on the wall outside the Milltown refectory. His skill and artistry were expressed in other ways too: in poetry, in music, in his soccer-playing and coaching. In these, as in so many other areas of his life, he demonstrated a competence, a seriousness of application and a genuine inspiration and imagination which were characteristic, and went deep. It meant that he did things well, but never in a pedestrian way: that he respected quality wherever he found it, and was dissatisfied with anything that was shoddy. He was the opposite of boring or censorious in this pursuit of excellence: a real sense of both fun and compassion ensured this.
The sense of fun was simple in the kind of surprising way that showed how deep and real it was. The joking and companionship of the lads he played within the Pioneer Soccer Club, the sing songs and yarns, the pleasure in a bit of cake, some sweets, a mineral, the calling by for a chat, the weekly cup of coffee with his mother in Bewley’s, the leg-pulling, the colloquialisms and inimitable gestures and turns of phrase: there was a simple joy in life at the heart of Vinny which made it a delight to know him. He loved the theatre, and was an acute and appreciative critic whose particular expertise lay in assessing the staging of a production: and one of my last memories of him shows that sense of fun in evidence precisely in a theatrical setting. We were at the production of The Pirates of Penzance in the Olympia after Christmas this year: Vinny had just been in hospital and was to return there before long. He loved the show, and at one particular point, as a contraption descended from the ceiling with one of the cast on it, he exploded with enjoyment and laughter to such an extent that the tears rolled down his cheeks. For minutes afterwards he laughed on: and, in as often happens on such occasions, the people all around were affected too, faces lighting up, laughing at and with him. To me it's a lovely image of the feel for life which he radiated to the many friends. from different walks of life who were so graced by his company. Not that Vinny was always laughing:. or that he was an effortlessly outgoing positive sort of person. He knew too much of struggle and conflict for this to be so, and the sense of fun and life were real precisely because they came from someone who at heart was deeply serious, and also quite shy. The effervescent front which he sometimes presented to the world did not conceal this side of Vinny from those who knew him, least of all from himself. He knew what it was to be confused, to be angry, to feel alienated, to question himself. In particular within the Society, which he loved so much, and with fellow Jesuits, for whom he had such great affection, there was nonetheless the very real difficulty of attempting to live the Brother's vocation at a time of great change: integration in this area was not easy; there was always struggle going on. Much of this was due to objective factors: but Vinny was quite aware too that his own diffidence contributed to the problem. Similarly with regard to those both inside and outside the Society whom he knew and liked well the path to intimacy was not easy: he was very sensitive, and did not find it obvious to accept that others were so pleased to be with him and to share his life. I think too that his keen intelligence, his questioning of life, his great integrity and honesty, his own strong views on many subjects were not always easy for him to live with: he mistrusted any kind of superficiality or fashion for its own sake, and sometimes this left him feeling a lack of sympathy for other positions and people which belied his more characteristic compassion. The richness and goodness of Vinny's life then were far from automatic: the great thing was that with all his complexity he did in fact come across as having a very simple love of life and people, and so many who came into contact with him sensed this, sensed that his shyness was not the last word, and responded to him with affection and gratitude. He enriched and warmed the lives of so many. He was a loving son and brother in his own family, a great friend, a most amiable companion: and his own human weaknesses, in this context, were simply a most reassuring touchstone of the reality of his love to those who were privileged enough to enjoy it.
Vinny's life then was humanly very rich: he himself however would have found such an assessment rather inadequate, perhaps beside, and certainly ' missing, the point. God was very much at the centre of his life: the ideals of the Jesuit vocation as a Brother nourished him throughout. He valued prayer, read copiously about it, practised it, treasured his relationship with the Lord. He valued deeply the often hidden life of service which he understood to be at the heart of his vocation: he was very proud to be a Brother in the Society. He lived out his vows to the utmost, conscious right to the end, and especially in the suffering of his final illness which he bore so courageously, that he was fulfilling the promise which he had made in Emo in 1966 to place himself under the standard of Christ's cross if that was the Father's plan for him. Such a strong and authentic faith was already rich in the hundredfold of God's love in this life: it is a great consolation and inspiration to those who now miss him so much - his mother Josephine, sister Maura (a nun with the Little Sisters of the Poor in France), three brothers Noel, Paddy and George, all his relations, fellow-Jesuits, many friends. We may have great hope that Vincent now enjoys the fulness of God’s love: the words of St Irenaeus seem very apt in his respect - “The glory of God is man fully alive and it is the life of man to see God”.
I’m left with a host of memories of Vinny: two stand out. One is of the emaciated figure, who had suffered so much, just days before he died, able still to smile for friends or nurses in the midst of his pain. The other, stronger, is of an exuberant, gleeful Vinny, just having scored a goal on the soccer pitch, fist raised in playful triumph, delighting in the joy of the moment, whooping exultantly to the rest of us - “No problem for this kid here!”. May he rest in peace.
Gerry O'Hanlon SJ

The Mountjoy square Pioneer Club devoted to Vincent almost a whole issue (dated 16th May) of their newsletter. In it Joe MacNamara wrote the following appreciation, slightly adapted and shortened here :
On Tuesday, 4th May, the Pioneer Club lost one of its best-loved members, Vincent Robinson. Vincent joined the club some eleven years ago, and since then contributed much not only on the committees and on the playing-fields, but generally with the jovial atmosphere which his presence brought. For Vincent, or better known to most as Robbo, was one of the characters of the club and of its football scene. For whatever he did, alone or in the midst of a group, he brought an air of lightheartedness which always went down well. He often gave a 'terrible slagging', but he also got a fair share himself!
Vincent joined the club as a player for our football teams, and played regularly for the Second team, mainly in defence. In tackling he was very strong. As the priest said at his funeral Mass, he was known to the team as the roving full back. It was very true. Vincent loved to go forward and have a go at scoring a goal. He did score now and again, and when he did, you could guarantee hearing how great a goal it was for weeks on end. He urged his team-mates on by his gentle jokes and by comments that brought the best out of them. Robbo knew the game: he had studied coaching, passed his tests, and in pre-season training made full use of what he had learned, passing it on to the players, particularly the newcomers, thus increasing their skills. He played right up the beginning of last season, and the Second team's first three games before leaving for Galway. All present at the first match will remember his goal. He kicked home a 25-yard free, so becoming the top scorer. He was thrilled over it.
At committee meetings he thought deeply on each matter and gave his view in a manner which showed this. He had to have advance notice of the agenda, so that he could study all aspects of the topic. Vincent was always looking to the future, and so he spoke about his 'visions'. One of these was the strengthening of the senior teams over the years. As it was hard to get Pioneers to play for the club, Vincent came up with the idea of catching them young, bringing them up along and then introducing them at senior level. His idea was a schoolboy team, to start at under-17 : under-18 level. Having got approval to enter a team in the schoolboy league at under-18 level, Vincent went on a search for players, as the club itself had none. : He attended schoolboy tournaments and spent his spare time watching school matches; he approached the teams, telling them about the club and its facilities, enticing them to join. As the 1980-81 season began, after his three month search for players, Pioneers were able to field a schoolboy side. The work put in by Vincent was tremendous. He himself looked after the team in the early days, but then other pressures forced him to hand over the management to others. At first the team did not achieve the best results, but most of the players were young enough for the same team again last season. With their year's experience they did well and as this was being. written were just one win away from the title. The club has reaped the benefit of those 'visions' that Vincent had. The great pity is that he passed away just a couple of weeks before the club achieved its first major honour in over eleven years, fulfilling his dream. On the to evening of the day of Vincent's death, the featured in youths were in action in his native Ballyfermot, where they recorded their biggest victory ever. When they returned to the club, news of Vincent's death had just come. Vincent was interested, not just in the football, but in the club as a whole. This can be seen by the very impressive papers he drew up for last year's club seminar. He put a lot of thought into the topic of better communications in the club, and had ideas on a change-around in structure and accommodation. At the seminar it was mainly Vincent's ideas that were discussed. All present agreed that these should be implemented in order to bring the members closer together.
It was at the funeral Mass that most members learned that they had known only a part of Vincent. He was a full-fledged plumber, having passed his London Guilds exams before he entered the Society of Jesus. He was also a silversmith, with his own registered mark, and designed various pennants and trophies. He once made the trophy for the Young Player of the Year, also a special cross and chains for the winners of the ladies' indoor football. (Another writer adds : that he was also a very useful painter, decorator and carpenter. He kept the football-room ‘in good nick'. It was typical of the man that when the room needed painting he got in there and painted it instead of talking about it.]
He had other talents. He was always having a “bash” at poetry and he was a “dab hand” on the guitar. He appeared on a number of shows; and the footballers who went on the Easter trips to Galway (1980, 1981) will never forget the songs he sang along with the rest of the lads. Those two weekends were great. Again it was Vincent who arranged it all: the rooms in the “Jes” and the food. Last year he even got a minibus to take our group out the Galway coast road, Everything had a story for Vincent: he loved telling stories, Passing a building or other place he would tell you a little story about it, going back into history. The way he told them would make anyone believe him, but I am sure some were just made up on the spur of the moment.
Vincent gave up the society of his many friends in his native Dublin and moved to Galway so that another Brother in the College there could go on the missions to Zambia. It was this unselfishness that one had to admire in him. One will always have memories of his vow-day: the joy on his face was really marvellous.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1982

Obituary

Brother Vincent Robinson SJ

Vinny came to live and work in Belvedere towards the end of his short life, (1943--1982). He had joined the Society of Jesus in 1964, already qualified as a gas-fitter and plumber, and took vows as a Brother in 1966. In the years that followed he lived in several different communities of the Society, servicing the houses of the Irish Province in his capacity as a plumber. He also did further study and eventually teaching in the College of Technology in Bolton Street.

These rather bare facts indicate little of the great richness and vitality of Vinny's life. He was an extremely talented person: skilled craftsman, artist in silver and bronze, poet, musician, gifted soccer player and coach, in all these areas he showed a faithful application and genuine flair which were characteristic of him in all other areas too. He did things well, but never in a pedestrian way: and he respected quality wherever he found it, dissatisfied with anything that was shoddy. He was the opposite of boring or censorious in this pursuit of excellence: he had a huge sense of fun and life which he radiated to the many friends from different walks of life who were so graced by his company, Not that he was an effortlessly outgoing sort of person: he knew too much of struggle and conflict for this to be so, and beneath the effervescent front which he sometimes presented to the world was quite a shy man. But he did love life and people, and others usually sensed that the shyness was not the last word, and responded to him with affection and gratitude. He enriched and warmed the lives of so many.

Vinny had just one year in Belvedere, 1980–81, when he was already suffering from the illness which would soon enough kill him. I like what was said about him as a soccer coach to the boys during that brief period: apparently, in the course of the year he won over some rather disgruntled, alienated young men to the point whereby the end of the season they were eating out of his hand. This would not be difficult to visualize for those who knew Vinny; his consummate professionalism, controlled enthusiasm, sense of humour, imagination, absolute fairness and great regard for the underdog, all these would indeed have been difficult to resist. And Vinny too by the end of that year had learned not to resist Belvedere either: he liked it there, made some good friends among community, staff and boys, and was sorry to be on his way again so soon.

His life then was humanly very rich: for Vinny himself however such a description would have fallen flat, would have missed the point. God was at the centre of his life, the ideals of the Jesuit vocation as a Brother nourished him throughout. He valued prayer, he valued the often hidden life of service that he understood to be at the heart of the Brother's vocation: and he lived out his religious Vows to the utmost, conscious right to the end, and especially in the suffering that his final illness entailed, that he was fulfilling the promise which he had made in Emo in 1966 to place his life under the standard of Christ's cross. The remark of St. Irenaeus is suitable: “The glory of God is man fully alive: and it is the life of man to see God”.

This strong faith is a great consolation to those who now mourn him: his mother, sister, three brothers, relations, fellow-Jesuits, his many other friends. It means that we're invited in the light of Christ's resurrection to hope in Vinny's new presence among us: and the memory of the unique beauty of his too-short life is a great encouragement to us to join with Vincent in anchoring our hope in the immense love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Gerry O'Hanlon SJ

Born: 23 June 1619, Park Grove, Ballyragget, County Kilkenny
Entered: 21 June 1647 Wilna (Vilnius), Lithuania - (GER SUP)
Ordained: 31 March 1657
Final Vows: 09 February 1959
Died: 03 June 1685, St Thomas of Canterbury, Hampshire, England

◆ The English Jesuits 1650-1829 Geoffrey Holt SJ : Catholic Record Society 1984
Born 23/06/1619 Kilkenny
Son of Thomas and Mary (Fines)
Educated St Omers College 1645-1646; English College Rome 16/10/1646-21/06/1647
Novitiate and Philosophy in another Province
1656 Liège Theology
Ordained 1657
1657 Ghent Tertianship
1658 St Omer
1659 Residence of St Michael
LEFT 20/08/1661 - READMITTED 19/06/1669
1672-1682 College of the Holy Apostles
1682 College of St Thomas of Canterbury

Catalogus Defuncti 1641-1670 has Robson (al Fines) RIP 03/06/1685 (ingr 1647, et reingr 1669) (HS49 43v et Foley, Angl)

◆ Henry Foley - Records of the English province of The Society of Jesus Vol VII
FINE, CHRISTOPHER, Father. See Robson, or Robinson, Christopher, Father.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
Robson, (CHRISTOPHER), Father, alias Robinson, and Fines, CHRISTOPHER, was the only son of Thomas Robson, Esq., a Yorkshire gentleman, and his wife Mary Fines, who was of a Sussex family of position. (1) Born about 1619, at Park Grove, county Kilkenny. Ireland, where his father had probably retired on account of the persecution at home; made his humanity studies in Ireland and at St. Omer's College; and entered the English College, Rome, for his higher course October 16, 1646. He was admitted to the Society in Rome, by the Father General in person, June 21, 1647, was sent to Wilna for his noviceship, and was made a Spiritual Coadjutor, February 9, 1659, being then it missioner in the Residence of St. Michael (Yorkshire District). He was dismissed the Society in Belgium, August 20, 1661. He appears to have then assumed his mother's name, and passed as Christopher Fines, succeeding Father John Penketh, alias Rivers, then a Secular Priest, as Confessor to the English Benedictine Nuns at Brussels, in April, 1672, Father Rivers having retired from that duty for the purpose of entering the Society. Father Christopher continued as Confessor for three years, retiring in 1665, for the purpose of seeking a re-admission to the Society. He was succeeded at the convent by Father Alexander Keynes, then a Secular Priest, who also retired in 1668, to enter the Society, (From the notes of the late Dame Mary English, O.S.B., St. Scholastica's Abbey, Teignmouth.) Father Christopher's re-admittance was delayed until June 19, 1669, when it took place at Watten. After his noviceship he was again sent to the Residence of St. Michael, and renewed his vows of a Spiritual Coadjutor in 1679. About 168, he was sent to the College of St. Thomas of Canterbury, the Hants District, and died in the same mission, June 3, 1685, et. about 66. (Catalogue of Deceased S.J., Louvain University Library; Records S.J. vol. vi. p. 366.)

(1) The family of Rostisan seem to have suffered severely for their faith. The names of William ind Colfrey Rolson appear in a list of upwards of sixty-five gentlemen of Northumberland in prison for refusing to take the condemned all of allegiance and supremacy (Canon Raine's “York Castle Depositions”, &c.. p. 2381)

Born: 01 January 1672, Munster, Ireland
Entered: 17 March 1693, Bologna, Italy - Venetae Province (VEM)
Ordained: 1705, Rome, Italy
Final Vows: 15 August 1709
Died: 04 November 1733, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias de Rupe

1705 At Roman College in 4th year Theology
1710-1714 At Roman College Penitentiary (or Loreto College. Good talent and judgement. Well versed in Moral things. Taught Grammar, Humanities and Rhetoric
1715 to 1719 & 1723-1724 & 1729-1740 & 1742-1743 Rector of Irish College Rome (said to be so in 1667, but this must be another Alex)
In a letter regarding a sale of an item he signs himself “de Roche”

(cf Alexander Roche a century earlier)
“St Jan Berchmans died 13 August 1621. The day before he died Fr Nicholas Radkaï and Alexander Rocca (Roche an Irish Jesuit) entered his room. When he perceived them he said eagerly : ‘Come in, Come in my very dear brother Rocca. I want to bid you farewell as it is probable that I shall depart tomorrow. Take good care to prove yourself a true son of the Society and to defend vigorously the Holy Roman Church against the heretics of your northern lands’. ‘I earnestly wish you to do so, but you for your part obtain for me from heaven the virtues and qualities necessary for the missionaries in this region, and do not forget the immense needs of my poor fatherland, you know them well enough.’ ‘Yes, yes, very well’ said the dying man ‘we will remember all that in heaven’” Vanderspeetens on the life of Jan Berchmans p 255

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Dr Burke in his “Hibernia Dominicana” says “I have often heard that respectable religious, Father Alexander Roche, the most worthy Rector of the Irish College Rome, say that Benedict XIII was a munificent benefactor of that College”. (Burke was in Rome 1724-1743)
1727 He was rector of Irish College Rome. He was praised in Marefoschi’s “Relazione” of his visit to the Irish College in 1771.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1695-1702 After First Vows he was sent on Regency to Forli and Piacenza
1702-1706 Sent for Theology to the Roman College and was Ordained there 1705.
1706-1708 He then spent two years as Prefect of Studies first at the Maronite College and then the Irish College in Rome
1708-1709 Made Tertianship at Florence
1708-1714 After Tertianship he was substitute Penitentiary for the English at St Peter’s in Rome
1714-1744 Initially Vice-Rector, and then a month later appointed Rector of Irish College Rome, and he held this Office until his death 04 November 1744. His was the longest Rectorate in the history of the College.
He was regarded as a potential member of the Irish Jesuit Mission and his name was sub- mitted to the General for nomination to the Superiorship in Ireland. During his long residence in Rome, he acted as Procurator of the Irish mission.

Born: Ireland
Entered: 01 October 1616, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: 09 June 1629, Graz, Austria - - Romanae Province (ROM)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
DOB Ireland; Ent c 1615; RIP post August 1621
He was at the death bed of Jan Berchmans, and asked him to “pray for his poor country”.
A full namesake of his was Rector of the Irish College Rome a century later.

◆ “St Jan Berchmans died 13 August 1621. The day before he died Fr Nicholas Radkaï and Alexander Rocca (Roche an Irish Jesuit) entered his room. When he perceived them he said eagerly : ‘Come in, Come in my very dear brother Rocca. I want to bid you farewell as it is probable that I shall depart tomorrow. Take good care to prove yourself a true son of the Society and to defend vigorously the Holy Roman Church against the heretics of your northern lands’. ‘I earnestly wish you to do so, but you for your part obtain for me from heaven the virtues and qualities necessary for the missionaries in this region, and do not forget the immense needs of my poor fatherland, you know them well enough.’ ‘Yes, yes, very well’ said the dying man ‘we will remember all that in heaven’” Vanderspeetens on the life of Jan Berchmans p 255

◆ In Old/15 (1), Old/16 and In Chronological Catalogue Sheet
◆ CATSJ I-Y has “Alessandro Rocha" A pupil of the German College Age 20

Born: 1571, Kilfenora, County Clare
Entered: 1601, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: pre Entry
Final vows: 06 January 1629
Died: 06 June 1629, Galway Residence - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Alias Carrick

Studied 2 years Arts before entry
1603 In Philosophy at Coimbra (LUS)
1606 Hearing Confessions and helping Fr White at Madrid
1611 Minister at Professed House in Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain, The Minister at Irish College, Lisbon, Age 43 Soc 10 has studied Philosophy and Theology
1614 Has been Rector at Irish College Lisbon for 5 years and still there in 1622 (Rector 9 years)
1617 In Portugal Age 49 Soc 19
1626 In Portugal

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Called “Tuamensis and Toumensis”
Praised by Father Fitzsimon as a benefactor of Irish education; Was of Thomond or Tuam Diocese
1617 In Portugal (IER August 1874)
Drew’s “Fasti SJ” records a death of a man of this name in Cadurci (Cahors), France 1633. He is described as most devout to the Blessed Eucharist, and when a youth, being reduced to death’s door by a dangerous sickness, he earnestly desired to receive Holy Communion, not so much by way of viaticum as of medicine, and, having partaken of the heavenly Food, he was instantly restored to health, to the amazement of the medical men. He was so inflamed with the love of God, that, when speaking of the Divine things, sparks were seen issuing from his mouth, inflaming the hearts of his auditors with the same affection.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Humanities and Philosophy at Irish College Lisbon and was already Ordained before Ent 1601 Lisbon.
After First Vows he completed his studies at Coimbra.
1604-1606 Confessor at Irish College Lisbon
1606-1609 Minister at Vila Viçosa
1609-1620 Rector Irish College Lisbon
1620-1626 Procurator Irish College Lisbon
1629 Sent to Ireland in the Summer and to the Connaught Residence until he died June 1629

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Cornelius Roche SJ 1575-1633
Cornelius Roche was born in Tuam in 1575. He entered the Society in 1596 and was in Portugal in 1617, where his name was written as De Rocha. It is recorded in the “Fasti Breviores” that he died at Carduci in (Cahors) France in 1633. He was most devout to the Blessed Sacrament.

When a youth being reduced to death’s door by sickness, he earnestly desire to receive Holy Communion, not so much by way of viaticum but as medicine, and having received, he was instantly restored to health, to the amazement of the doctors.

The “Fasti Breviores” says of him “He was so inflamed with the love of God that when speaking of heavenly things, sparks were seen issuing from his mouth”.

His name also appears in the Irish version as Cornelius Carrig.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
CARRICK, CORNELIUS. I meet him at Madrid in August, 1607. He is mentioned with honor in F. Fitzsimmon’s Treatise on the Mass, 1611

ROCHE, CORNELIUS. All that I ferret out, is his existence in the early part of the 17th century in Spain.

Born: 22 October 1882, Main Street, Castleisland, County Kerry
Entered: 07 September 1899, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1915, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1921, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 13 November 1961, St John’s Hospital, Limerick

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

Father a shopkeeper and of private means.

Second eldest of three boys and has six sisters (younges of whom died in infancy)

Early education at a convent school in Castleisland, then an intermediate school in Tralee and Clongowes Wood College SJ

First World War chaplain

by 1906 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1912 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 96th (CP) Field Ambulance, BEF France
by 1918 Military Chaplain : 18 KLR, BEF France

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/a-sparrow-to-fall/

A sparrow to fall
Damien Burke
A BBC Northern Ireland documentary, Voices 16 – Somme (BBC 1 NI on Wednesday 29th June,
9pm) explores the events of 1916 through the testimony of the people who witnessed it and their families. Documentary makers and relatives of Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle were shown his letters, postcards and personal possessions kept here at the Irish Jesuit Archives. In the 1920s, Alfred O’Rahilly used some of these letters in his biography of Fr Willie Doyle SJ. Afterwards they were given to Willie’s brother, Charles, and were stored for safekeeping in the basement of St Francis Xavier’s church, Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin in 1949. In 2011, they were accessioned into the archives.
Fr Willie Doyle SJ was one of ten Irish Jesuits who served as chaplains at the battle of the Somme (1 July- 18 November 1916): seven with the British forces; three with the Australian. Their letters, diaries and photographs witness their presence to the horror of war.

Fr Daniel Roche SJ, 97th (C. P.) Field Ambulance (06 July 1916):
I have been in a dug out up at the front line for the last fortnight, during the bombardment and four days of the battle... I have seen some sights for the last few days which I shall not readily forget. It has been a very very hard time which I would not have missed...I am in splendid form, or will be when I have had some sleep. Unfortunately I have been unable to say Mass during that time.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 37th Year No 1 1962
The Sacred Heart Church and College
Father Daniel Roche
On November 13th Fr. Dan Roche had a very happy and most peaceful death quite in keeping with that deep serenity that marked his life. He had a slight heart attack a week previously and since then had been in St. John's hospital, One could see from the reaction to the sad news the extent of the community's esteem and affection for the late Fr. Roche, which affection was so obvious also last spring when he had to go to hospital following an attack of 'flu. In the days which followed his death we fully realised the great blessing that an aged religious like Fr. Roche can bring on a community where he was often spotlighted and made the centre of recreation, recounting for us the stories of the past. Fr. Roche often spoke of the deeds of his long-deceased contemporaries and when he mentioned Fr. John Sullivan (a fellow-novice) he seemed to relive those noviceship days. Indeed it was more than a coincidence that Father Dan went to his Maker on the feast of St. Stanislaus. Fr. Roche is buried in the Mungret cemetery beside Fr. Barragry, Fr. O'Connell and Fr. McWilliams - those stalwarts of the Crescent church, who as confessors and preachers, quite subconsciously won the hearts of Limerick. Indeed only recently a nun from the St. Joseph of Cluny Sisters asked for a mortuary card of Fr. McWilliams, and on receiving it, wrote thus to Fr. Rector: “A thousand thanks indeed for the mortuary card. I cannot tell you how much my mother will appreciate it as Fr. McWilliams was her best friend in Limerick, In fact she prays to him and considers him a great saint as in his lifetime he did wonderful things for her. I can thank him also for the grace of my religious vocation”.

Obituary :
Fr Daniel Roche (1882-1961)
Fr. Dan Roche died in St. John's Hospital, Limerick, on Monday, November 13th, St. Stanislaus' Day, after a brief illness lasting a little over a week.
An examination of the Catalogue in an effort to trace Fr. Roche's career in the Province reveals something which is somewhat out of the ordinary. The chronological list is as follows :
1899 (Sept. 7th): Entered Noviceship at Tullabeg (one year ahead of Fr. John Sullivan.
1901 Junior in Tullabeg.
1902 Teaching Latin and Greek in Galway.
1903 Prefect of Discipline in Clongowes.
1905 Philosopher at Stonyhurst.
1906 Study Prefect at Clongowes (for five years).
1911 Finished Philosophy at Louvain.
1912 Theologian at Milltown
1915 Ordained priest at Milltown.
1916 Chaplain in British Army in World War One. Won Military Cross
1919 Tertian Father at Tullabeg.
1920 Teacher and Games Master at the Crescent.
1923 Teacher at Clongowes.
1924-1933 Member of the Mission Staff.
1933-1961 Operarius at the Crescent.

It is not an easy task to give even a fairly adequate account of Fr. Dan Roche, as he was a very reserved and reticent man, for the most part, and one could live for a long time with him and yet know little about him.
Rarely indeed did he reveal anything of his real self and then, not so much by what he said as by what he did. One has to depend, therefore, upon the few who knew him somewhat more intimately to get some insight into the true character of the man. One who was a fellow-novice writes of him :
“Fr. Dan was a great character. I met him first on September 7th, 1899, at Portarlington on our way to Tullabeg, and we became life long friends. He was a solidly good religious, always ready to give sound reasons for the faith that was in him. He was a good conversationalist, well read, and proficient in all kinds of games and sports and, naturally, he became a kind of a hero to the novices and juniors at Tullabeg. But that never went to his head and he had no use for pretence or ostentation, and hence he could not suffer fools gladly, He was, I always thought, a strong character, or a "he-man" as he used to say when speaking of a third party. He evidently made a good impression in the army, for during many years after the war, he used to get letters from officers and men with whom he had come in contact”.
Few of Fr. Roche's friends heard much about his experiences as an army chaplain in the first World War. He was extremely reticent on the subject. Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, he volunteered for service with the British Forces and was posted to a Field Ambulance in France. His real active service, however, was with a front-line battalion in the trenches of Flanders, and it was only a fitting tribute to his determination and courage that he was decorated with the coveted Military Cross for distinguished service on the battle-field.
After his tertianship in Tullabeg and four years of teaching at the Crescent and Clongowes, Fr. Roche was appointed to the mission staff where again he had an outlet for the zeal and self-sacrifice so conspicuous in his army career. From time to time, when he was in a more talkative mood, he would recall incidents and relate stories - always extremely well told - of his missionary experiences up and down the country.
In 1933 he returned to the Crescent and for nine years directed the Apostleship of Prayer Association and the Holy Hour. During this time and his remaining years in Limerick-twenty-eight years in all--he endeared himself to the patrons of the Sacred Heart Church. He was particularly noted for his zeal in the confessional and for the practical common sense which he displayed in his approach to the various problems which he solved for his penitents. Quietly and unobtrusively he comforted the sick and the afflicted and those who really got to know him found in him a true and sincere friend.
In community life he was pleasant and good-humoured and for one who was remarkable for a retiring and studious disposition—he was an omnivorous reader he took a kindly and sympathetic interest in the many and varied interests of a busy College.
If ever a Jesuit died in action it was Fr. Roche, He was busily engaged in the church up to the end. He heard Confessions for several hours on the three days prior to the fatal heart attack. In fact, he was in his confessional until 9 p.m. on the previous night. He died as he would have wished-ever ready for the call, giving himself generously to the service of the Lord. For Fr. Roche there was one motto : Give and do not count the cost.

Born: 21 November 1869, Rye Hill, Monivea, Athenry, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 30 July 1905, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1908, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 12 December 1953, Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, Durham and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1893 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1900 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1907 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 2nd Year No 4 1927
Clongowes :
Fr. G. Roche has been appointed Rector of Clongowes. The College is not absolutely new to him. He was there for six years as a boy. As a Jesuit he was gallery prefect, third line prefect, lower line prefect for four years, and higher line prefect for nine. He put in the rest of his time as minister and prefect of discipline at University Hall, and as Rector of Mungret.

Irish Province News 29th Year No 2 1954
Obituary :
Father George R Roche
George Philip Redington Roche was the sixth of the eight children of Thomas Redington Roche J.P. and Jane Redington Roche, and was born on Nov. 21st, 1869, at Rye Hill, Monivea, Athenry, Co. Galway. This property had belonged to his grandmother, Eleanor Redington, whose family originally came from Mayo, and whose husband was Stephen Roche of Cork. George Roche's mother, before her marriage, was a Miss Cliffe, of Bellevue, Macmine, Co. Wexford. She belonged to one of those prominent High Church Protestant families whose conversion to the Catholic Church caused such a sensation just a hundred years ago. The most notable of these were the Rams of Ramşfort, and an interesting account of their conversion and also of that of the Cliffes was published by Burns & Oates in 1901 under the title. Some Notable Conversions in the County of Wexford. The author was Rev. Francis J. Kirk, an Oblate of St. Charles, formerly Protestant Rector of Gorey. The book contains a long letter from Jane Redington Roche describing the almost simultaneous though independent conversion of all the members of her family and their reception into the Church in Paris by Père de Ravignan in 1856. Mrs. Roche was a most fervent Catholic and a woman of strong character. She was noted for her imperturbable calm, a characteristic which her son inherited.
At the age of about ten George Roche was sent to school at Oscott. After two years the school was closed to lay pupils and he went for another two to Ushaw, but in 1883 was transferred to Clongowes together with his elder brother Charles, who as a young man went out to the Gold Coast and died there in 1897. The records state that George commenced his studies in Third of Grammar, his Professor being Mr. Richard Campbell.
There is little information available about his school days. A master with whom he was particularly friendly was Fr. James Colgan, who frequently visited his home and is thought to have influenced his vocation. He manifested an early enthusiasm for his favourite sport of cricket. It occupied all his spare time in the holidays and he showed no taste for country sports. He used to relate how on one occasion the Clongowes cricket XI played a match against the Mental Home in Carlow. George was bowling and the batsman, a patient, was palpably 1.b.w. However the umpire, an attendant, unhesitatingly gave him “not out” whispering to George, “I'll explain to you later”. When the batsman was finally bowled out, the attendant explained, “That man thinks he's a pure spirit. He’ll let you put him out any other way, but he can't be 1.b.w.”.
George Roche left Clongowes in 1889 and entered the noviciate at Tullabeg on September 7th of that year. Fr. John Colgan was his Master of Novices and Fr. David Gallery Sociuş. They were succeeded in the following year by Fr. W. Sutton and Fr. R. Campbell. Amongst his fellow novices were Fathers O. Doyle, J. F. X. O'Brien, H. and F. Gill, J. Kirwan, D. Kelly, J. Casey, L. Potter and T. Corcoran. He did a year's juniorate at Milltown and one year of philosophy at Jersey, returning to Clongowes in 1893 as Third Line Prefect, under Fr. Devitt as Rector and Fr. Fagan as Higher Line Prefect, two men whom he always admired. He also figures in the Catalogue as cur. instrum, mus. Fr. George's best friends will agree that the duties of this office must have been purely administrative. From 1894 to 1899 he was Lower Line Prefect and master. He then completed his two remaining years of philosophy at Stonyhurst and returned to Clongowes in 1901 for a year as Higher Line Prefect under Fr. James Brennan as Vice-Rector, From 1902 to 1906 he studied theology at Milltown, being ordained in 1905. After a year of tertianship at Tronchiennes, he once more returned to Clongowes, at the close of Fr. Devitt's second period of Rectorship, as Higher Line Prefect. He remained in this office for ten years under Fr. T. V. Nolan and Fr. N. J. Tomkin. It was during this period that he built the Higher Line pavilion which has since done such useful service. In 1915 he took over the Principalship of University Hall. In 1922 he was appointed Rector of Mungret, leaving there in 1927 to become Rector of Clongowes and Consultor of the Province. At the end of his term in Clongowes he worked for a year as Operarius in Gardiner St., 1933-34, then went to Rathfarnham as Spiritual Father and Assistant Director of the Retreat House. He was back once more in Clongowes from 1938 to 1945 as Spiritual Father to the Community, Assistant Procurator, Director of the junior sodalities and editor of The Clongownian. In 1945 his health began to fail and he was transferred to Rathfarnham so that he might more easily receive treatment for the diabetes which had long troubled him. In December 1950 he had a slight stroke and was removed to St. Vincent's Nursing Home. He never recovered and in April 1951 it was decided to move him to Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross. He grew steadily weaker, though suffering no pain and retaining all his usual placid cheerfulness.
On December 9th, 1953, he was anointed by his Rector, Fr, P. Kenny, and died on December 12th at 8.15 p.m.
The mere recital of the various offices held by Fr. Roche during his long life gives an indication of the worth of his work for the Province, There was nothing spectacular in it but it was all most solid and valuable. Wherever Fr. Roche went he did his job conscientiously and successfully and handed things over in good shape to his successor. Throughout the long span of his life be kept on doing the ordinary things. well ; one never expected him to be spectacular, one could not picture him as anything other than reliable.
If any portion of his work is to be singled out for special praise, it would obviously be the influence he exerted over boys and young men. He had almost all the gifts that make a man acceptable to the young. He was--to use a hackneyed but here applicable phrase-& man's man. He was straightforward to the degree of bluntness, ostentatiously courageous, able to preserve his good humour in adversity, incapable of harbouring a grudge, healthily unsentimental yet possessed of a really tender kindness which was all the more attractive because it was manifested in deeds rather than in words. A mother sending her son to Clongowes asked a friend, an old Clongownian, to write to Fr. Roche: and ask him to be kind to the boy. “You needn't worry”, was the reply. “George Roche couldn't help being kind to everyone”. He had, naturally, a particular interest in and special ties with Clongownians since he spent altogether just forty years of his life at Clongowes and had a deep attachment to his Alma Mater, but old Mungret boys and past students of the Hall can testify also to his sincere solicitude for their interests.
I have spoken of the placidity he inherited from his mother. This did not mean that he was incapable of emotion. To some he may have appeared stolid, but his imperturbable manner was not due to lack of feeling. On him, as Rector of Clongowes, there devolved the anxious task of carrying through the erection of the New Building which went on from September 1929 until the summer of 1933. There was a period when serious difficulties arose. I happened to meet Fr. Roche in Dublin at that time, I asked him conventionally how he was and I can recall the revelation he made to me when he replied in his usual almost brusque way, “Worried to death”. He knew the family history of almost every boy who had passed through his hands, and no one was capable of greater sympathy in the inevitable misfortunes that life brings to every family.
Another characteristic I have mentioned was his courage. This was manifested particularly during the time when he was Principal of University Hall, 1916 to 1922. It was a disturbing time in the history of our country and Fr. George had a difficult task since many of the young men under his care were involved in the political movements of the day. One instance will give an idea of the situations that arose and the way in which he dealt with them. The Hall was raided one night by the Auxiliary police. Fr. George's sister, Miss Isabella Roche, the only now surviving member of his family, was living nearby and . from the fact that the lights in the Hall were on all night knew that something untoward was happening. Next day Fr, George came to give her an account of the raid. A tremendous knocking came at the door and when Fr. Roche opened it he found a large force of the Auxiliaries, mostly in a state of inebriation and waving automatic pistols. He asked what they wanted and the leader replied : “We have come to search this house”. “Well”, said Fr. George, as imperturbably as if he were addressing a crowd of unruly Higher Liners, “you needn't make such a row about it”. The words were recorded by himself and those who knew him will recognise them as authentic and realise the courage they manifested.
Fr. Roche was a man of deep, if unostentatious piety. He was completely unworldly, simple and unpretentious. Though he worked untiringly to help his old pupils on in the world, one always felt that his paramount interest was their spiritual welfare, that the first question he wanted an answer to was "were they keeping straight?" His characteristic spirituality is manifested in two little works which he published, Meditations on the Passion, published in two parts by the Irish Messenger Office and now in its eighth edition (eighty-first thousand) and The Divinity of Jesus Christ, published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland. They are both solid, straightforward works, largely based on Scripture and breathing that warm, simple, virile devotion to the Person of Our Divine Lord which was the mainspring of the author's devoted life. In him the Province has lost one of its most loved and revered members.

◆ The Clongownian, 1954

Obituary

Father George Redington Roche SJ

Father George Roche was called home to his reward on the evening of December 12th, 1953. He had reached a fine old age at the time of his death, but he will long be missed by his religious colleagues and the countless friends be made through out his long connection with Clongowes,

George Redington Roche, sixth child of Thomas Redington Roche was born at Monivea, Athenry on Nov. 21st, 1869. His early-school years were spent at Oscott and Ushaw but in 1883 he came to Clongowes where he was to spend the next six years.

He entered the noviceship at Tullabeg in 1889 and, after his first religious profession, was sent for his earlier studies to Milltown Park and the house of the Paris province at Jersey. He then returned to Clongowes as Third Line Prefect and after a year was advanced to the management of the Lower Line. The years 1899 1901 were spent at his philosophical studies in Stoneyhurst but he was here for another year as Higher Line Prefect before he began his theological studies in Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1905. On completing his tertianship at Troncbiennes, he returned once more as Higher Line Prefect to Clongowes and filled that post until 1915. One tangible memorial of his term of office is the Higher Line Pavilion, which has given so many years of useful service while it forms a graceful landmark in the grounds of the College.

In 1915, Father Roche left Clongowes to take up the wardenship of University Hall where he remained until his appointment to the Rectorship of Mungret in 1922. He came back to Clongowes again, this time as Rector, in 1927. The tangible memorial of his rectorship is the New Building which was begun in 1929. Succeeded by Father Fergal McGrath as Rector in 1933, Father Roche spent the next four years in Dublin but returned for his last period in Clongowes in 1938. He was now close on the scriptural sepuaginti anni, yet we find him posted as Assistant Procurator, Director of the Junior Sodalities and Editor of the Clongownian. He returned, however, to Rathfarnham, in 1945, as he was suffering from diabetes and needed the treatment which could be got more easily in the city than in a country house. The last three years of his life were spent at The Hospice for the Dying, Harold's Cross.

From the foregoing account, it will be seen that for many years of his active life, Father Roche filled posts of responsibility. It is unnecessary for the present writer to emphasise the fact that he filled success fully the positions of trust given him by the Society. The fathers and mothers of boys who were entrusted to his care, past pupils on the threshold of life's responsibilities and in need of a steadying band and a word of kindness, can all testify to the deep understanding and humanity of this great priest. But his religious colleagues, too, will long cherish the memory of Father Roche, both as Superior and as colleague.

-oOo-

The Late Fr George Redington Roche

An Appreciation

Father George halted on the ground floor gallery at Rathfarnham Castle where he had been walking with no little difficulty. When I asked him if he was getting better his reply was unhesitating “I have no ambitions about getting well - I am ready”. Shortly afterwards, a severe stroke added to his other infirmities and necessitated his removal to the Hospice for the Dying at Harold's Cross. His speech and memory were gone and it seemed as if the end was only a matter of days. Yet, almost two years afterwards he was still alive. During a visit to the Hospice his nurse said to me “We never had a more gentle or obedient patient”, and she might have added “more resigned”. What astounded those who called to see him was the fact that, despite his helplessness and sufferings, never did they hear a complaint uttered by him. Shortly after his arrival at the Hospital, Father George, greatly to every one's surprise, improved considerably in his speech and his memory made a remark able come-back. True, he was looked after with devoted care.

I set down here some few impressions of visits paid him. We were conversing one day for some little time when I said : “Father George, you must be in your present state, the winner of great blessings for the Society's missionary efforts”. With touching simplicity he answered : “I hope so”. On a visit to the Hospice some time later, full of admiration for the extraordinary patience with which he accepted everything, I suggested suddenly, but quietly : “Father George, you, as his Rector, gave Father John Sullivan the final absolution and consolation as he was about to die, so Father John must be at help to you now”.. Caught off his guard, his answer came. unhesitatingly “Indeed he is, and constantly very near me”.

Father Roche looked forward to visits from his friends and at all times was. interested in any news, however trivial, about Clongowes where a long part of his life, from boyhood to Rector, was spent. With Old Clongownians, he had amazing contacts, far and near. He seemed to have a genius. for finding out the weaker type who found it hard to stand up to the world's cruel usage. In his own undemonstrative way he proved a tower of strength to that weaker member who needed advice, encouragement and help.

Father George loved a quiet joke and this, coupled with a delicate sense of humour, made him a pleasant companion. He had a simple directness which marked a natural shyness. Until one came to know Father George well, his shyness tended to embarrass others. Yet, it came to be almost an endearing trait, when one entered into his friendship.

A life-long interest of his was, of course, the Clongowes Rugby and Cricket Teams which he knew intimately all over the years, either as a player himself when a a boy or afterwards as a Line Prefect. He told me that he played as a boy on the first Rugby Fifteen that Clongowes ever turned out. I never tired of the story, which I set down here with the typical questions and answers :

“Did you score!” “No”. “Where did you play?” “Full back”. “Who won the match?” “Nobody”. “Why?” “We never finished it”. “What happened?” “The Match was abandoned”. “Why?” “One of the Opposition Players died on the field”.

Again, when he played Cricket in Galway for the Community when on holidays :

“How did you get on?” “Not too well”. “Why?” “None of us did too well”. “Why?” “Our Opponents fared worse”. “Was it the weather?” “No”. “Why?”! “The crease was wretched”. “Did you enjoy the match?” “Not so much until it was over”. “Why?” “One of the other side said the ground was very poor, which the farmer owner overheard and indignantly objected, saying: ‘It was the best land in Galway’.”

In the evening of his life at the Hospice for the Dying, it was a long way back to his achievement in 1895, when, playing for the Community at Clongowes, he got four consecutive wickets in five balls for no runs.

The beautiful Pavilion ·which he, as Higher Line Prefect, and his great friend, the late Tom Cullen, erected in the Cricket grounds and is so much admired on Union Day, was built on the profits of the shop, or if you prefer so to put it, on the innumerable bars of chocolate which the boys consumed in those days of plenty and cheapness. This will be, for many years to come, please God, a worthy memorial of this great man who loved Clongowes so deeply. I leave to historians of Clongowes in the future, the story of his part in building the new Clongowes. He was Rector when this gigantic undertaking was got under way and before he relinquished office he saw the boys housed in a building that is the justifiable pride of Clongowes today.

He lies in Glasnevin. The life of a great soul, a great gentleman and a kind-hearted confessor has passed peacefully to its close. Full of charity, full of years and full of sympathy for all who came his way, he will be sadly missed. His long weary wait at the Hospice was eased by the skill and constant care of the nursing staff and consoled by and comforted by the devoted attention of his Rector, Father P J Kenny, whose care it was to bring to his old Higher Line Prefect the last comforts and Rites of Holy Church.

Sidney B Minch

Born: County Wexford
Entered: c 1703, Salamanca, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained:
Died: 26 November 1739, Monterey, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1726-1729 Superior of Irish Mission
1730 Rector of Poitiers

Writes from Waterford 08 January 1734 and 25 May 1739

A Book of the old Waterford Library SJ read “Ign Roche SJ” 1739

Born: 24 January 1672, County Kildare
Entered: 18 October 1693, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Ordained: 24 March 1707, Valence, France
Died: 13 January 1714, Billon, Auvergne, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ ;
After First Vows he was sent for studies in Philosophy and Toulouse, then for Regency at the Colleges of Rodez and Albi. He was then sent to Valence for Theology and was Ordained there 24 March 1707
After studies he was sent to Albi College and the Billom College where he died 13 January 1714

Born: 1592, Ireland
Entered: 1619, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Ordained: Seville, Spain - pre Entry
Died: 10 April 1624, Cadiz, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)

1622 At Seville studying Theology Age 30 Soc 3

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied at the Irish College Seville and was Ordained there before Ent 1619 Seville
1621-1622 After First Vows he was sent to San Hermengildo at Seville to continue studies
1622-1623 Sent as Spiritual Father to Irish College Seville. He was already suffering from Consumption, and so given permission by Fr General to return to Ireland in October 1623
1623 For the next few months he waited for a ship to Ireland but when at last he was on board, the ship was forced back by a storm and he died shortly afterwards at Cadiz, 10 April 1624
His obituary notice which is extant mentions his exemplary life both as a student at the Irish College and as a Jesuit. He had shown outstanding ability in his studies and was mature in all the virtues.

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

Alias de la Roche

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

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

Alias de la Rocha

Died Cordoba, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)

Entered: Toletanae Province (TOLE)
Died: Caravaca de la Cruz, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)

Born: 10 December 1619, Cork City
Entered: 09 April 1641, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1649, Bologna, Italy
Final vows: 11 October 1654
Died: 11 June 1667, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Alias della Rocca

1645 At Montesanto College ROM teaching Grammar
1649 At Roman College studying Philosophy and Theology
1651-1657 Prefect of Irish College Rome teaching Grammar, Philosophy, Casus and also at Bologna
1658 Rector of Irish College Rome (suggests that in 1659 he was a “Consultor” and Fr Young was Rector)
1661-1667 Rector of Irish College Rome (signs himself Rocheus) - sold the vineyard at Castel Gondolfo to Fr O’Holini

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1664 Rector of Irish College Rome

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
He had studied Humanities in Cork and then went for Priestly studies to Belgium. Initially he offered himself for the Society, to be received as coadjutor Brother to serve on the Indian Mission. He was accepted for the Society but sent to Rome not as a brother but as a scholastic novice and then Ent 09 April 1641 St Andrea, Rome
1643-1644 After First Vows he was sent for a year of Regency at Monte Santo
1644-1650 He was then sent to Bologna for Theology and was Ordained there 1649, after which he then returned to Rome for more studies
1650-1651 Spiritual Father at Irish College Rome
1651-1658 Sent to teach Philosophy and then Dogmatic Theology at Bologna
1658 Sent to Irish College Rome as prefect of Studies. In spite of his efforts during the next few years to be sent either to Ireland or the foreign missions, but, for one reason or another, he was detained in Rome.
1664 Vice-Rector of Irish College Rome 29 July 1664 and shortly afterwards Rector. He died in Office 11 June 1667

Born: 01 August 1904, Clonmore Terrace, Tralee, County Kerry
Entered: 05 October 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1936, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
Died: 20 June 1983, The Whitworth Hospital, Grangegorman, Dublin

Father was a solicitor and the family moved to Denny Street, Tralee.

Only boy with two sisters.

Early education was at the Christian Brothers Primary school in Tralee and then he went to Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone. In 1918 at the age of fourteen he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1938 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 58th Year No 4 1983
Obituary
Fr Redmond Francis Roche (1904-1922-1983)

We had been friends since we came together as boys in Clongowes. As a boy, as indeed all through life, he was quiet and unassuming, always in good humour, and somehow radiating goodness. In the Lower Line, he and I and a couple of others, under the auspices of Mr Patrick McGlade, the Line Prefect ( †1966), started a news-sheet called Lower Liner. The first few weekly issues were polycopied before we ventured into having it printed by the Leinster Leader and sold at 3d a copy. However, for Fr Larry Kieran, the Prefect of Studies, this schoolboy venture into publication was too much. We were ordered to desist and confine ourselves to our quite undistinguished studies.
Ned Roche was born in Tralee on 1st August 1904, and before going to Clongowes attended the Christian Brothers' School, Tralee, and Our Lady's Bower, Athlone. He entered the Society in Tullabeg on 5th October 1922, some days too late to join in the First-year novices Long retreat. In travelling to Tullabeg, he had been hindered by the disruption of transport services caused by the civil war. If I recall aright, Ned, accompanied by his father, came by coaster from Tralee to Cork, and thence as best he could via Limerick to Tullabeg.
He joined our group of ten Second-year novices for that very happy month while, without making the retreat, we attended the talks. These were given by Fr Michael Browne, who had just begun his third term as Master of novices. For conferences and recreation we were accommodated in the old Sodality room beside the People's church. Outside, we walked untold miles up and down the stretch of road outside the back gate. Ned fitted in as if he had been there all the year.
Noviceships are normally uneventful. His finished, Ned passed on to juniorate in Rathfarnham (1924-26), philosophy in Milltown (1926-29), prefecting in Clongowes (1929-33), theology in Milltown (1933-'7). In 1934 he served my First Mass in the old chapel of Marie Reparatrice in Merrion square. His own ordination came in 1936, followed after theology by tertianship in St Beuno's (1937-38). He served as Socius to the Novice-master in Emo for four years (1938-42).
There followed an unbroken term of twenty-five years as a superior: Rector of the Crescent, Limerick (1942-"7), of Clongowes (1947-53), of Belvedere (1953-39), and Superior of the Apostolic school, Mungret (1959-67); then Minister, Vice Rector and Rector of Gonzaga (1967-'74). On recovering from a a very severe (almost fatal) illness in 1974, he served for three years on the Special Secretariat. In 1977 he became Superior and bursar of John Austin House.
To have borne so much overall responsibility for so long, with the added burden of big building extensions in both the Crescent and and Belvedere, and to have won such respect, admiration and affection amongst his fellow-Jesuits, the college boys and their parents - all this makes Ned one of the truly Ignatian Jesuits of our time.
In a letter he wrote to me on my way to Australia, telling all about the retreat Er Henry Fegan had just given the juniors in Rathfarnham (1925), he constantly reminded us of it. “Quid faciam pro Jesu? and Non quaero gloriam meam, sed gloriam Eius qui misit Me: these were much-used texts. These words express a profound influence on a life they go a long way to explain.
G. Ffrench

This year (1983) Fr Roche's health began to deteriorate markedly. Stair climbing became an ordeal and black-outs occurred. After a time in the Whitworth (St Laurence's) hospital, he went to Cherryfield to convalesce, but was soon back in the Whitworth, where he died peacefully on the morning of 20th June.
It was a life of remarkable service in one very responsible position after another. He brought to each assignment a dedication that was wholly admirable and meticulousness that could on occasion be exasperating. In his rectorships he completely accepted the whole 'package', from care of the community and in the old system) the school to responsibility for attendance at meetings, matches, plays, dinners, funerals. All that involved considerable self-giving austerity of life.
He was quite clearly a man of God, and quite unconsciously conveyed that impression to others. After his death the parish priest of Aughrim street parish and the president of the Legion of Mary praesidium of which Ned was spiritual director told me of the sense of Gold that he brought with him. There will be readers of this He was kind and understanding (there are many testimonies of this). On his own admission he hardly ever lost his temper, but when he did, he did! He was a shrewd assessor of character and situation. He was very interested in developments in the Church and the Society, and kept up his reading in Scripture and Moral Theology. Here one sensed his spirit of obedience.
There are some good-humoured stories about him: the one apropos of his devotion to funerals, that he once approached a funeral stopped in traffic and asked could he join it; how he once delighted the novices by inadvertently pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket as he left the refectory; how he once began to admonish scholastic X and then said, “Oh, I beg your pardon, that was meant for scholastic Y”.
He had a special interest in and affection for Mungret. Readers will remember his authoritative article on Mungret in Interfuse (no. 12 (Dec 1980), pp. 11-24). Mungret records found a home in his room in John Austin. One of the great pleasures of his later years was to be visited by graduates of the Apostolic school from various parts of the world.
In his day he was a keen golfer, cricketer and skater, He brought to his sport that exactness with which he served God in larger matters. (Playing croquet with him in Emo, remember, was an exhausting experience!) His favourite animal was the racehorse, and he went to the - on television - as often as he could.
On 20th June he finished his own earthly race in the peaceful hope of another vision. It is a grace to have been with him.
SR

◆ The Clongownian, 1983

Obituary

Father Redmond F Roche SJ

Ned Roche, as he was familiarly called, died in Dublin in June last; only some years previously he fought his way back from almost fatal illness, showing in this the measure of his willpower.

Born in Tralee on 1 August 1904, he came to Clongowes after earlier schooling in Our Lady's Bower, Athlone. Four years later in October 1922 he joined thirteen first year Jesuit novices in Tullabeg, among them two of his contemporaries in Clongowes, Charlie Daly (1919-22), now in Hong Kong and Bill Dargan (1917-22), now in Eglinton Road.

With a pretty good general knowledge of the career of Irish Jesuits since Fr Peter Kenney landed in Dublin on 31 August 1811, I think his record of continuous administrative service is unique. Beginning with his eight years in forming others with its due place in learning the art of administration, I set down here without immediate comment his curriculum vitae:
1921-31: Gallery Prefect in Clongowes.
1931-33: Lower Line Prefect in Clongowes.
1933-37: Theology in Milltown Park where he was ordained priest on 31 July, 1936.
1937-38: Tertainship in St Beuno's, N Wales
1938-42: Socius, i.e. assistant to Master of Novices, Emo Park.
1942-47: Rector, Crescent College, Limerick.
1947-53: Rector, Clongowes Wood, College.
1953-59: Rector, Belvedere College.
1957-67: Superior, Apostolic School, Mungret.
1967-70: Minister, Gonzaga College.
1970-76: Rector, Gonzaga College.
1976-78: Bursar, John Austin House, NCR, Dublin.
1978-83; Superior, John Austin House.

While Fr Roche was certainly not the first Superior to die in office - one thinks off-hand of Fr James Gubbins who died as Rector of Belvedere, of Fr John S Conmee who died as Rector of Miltown Park - the unadorned mention of the offices he filled is ample evidence of the respect in which he was held by the eight provincials whom he served as a priest and by his Jesuit brethren.

The hallmark which stamped his character was thoroughness inspired by charity. Not over-quick by nature this thoroughness in mastering detail caused him hours of patient daily labour. In the five schools in which he worked he set out to gain as full a knowledge, as possible of his boys and their parents, of their individual personal problems, their joys and their sorrows. Nor did he forget them in their careers after they left: quite by accident I came across two instances where he had supplied the money to make post graduate studies in the United States possible. He had the countryman's innate sympathy for bereaved familiers and, if at all possible, attended requiems, often involving long tire some journeys.

As in work so also in play, Ned was thorough: for years he was one of four Jesuits who took their fortnight's summer holiday in Tramore: the drill was strenuous, eighteen holes before lunch, eighteen holes and a swim after lunch; deadly serious bridge after supper.

His memory should be kept alive here in Clongowes by placing a modest plaque on the Lower Line Pavilion which he built fifty years ago. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1984

Obituary

Father Redmond Roche SJ

This year (1983) Fr. Roche's health began to deteriorate markedly. Stair-climbing became an ordeal and the black-outs occurred. After a time in the Whitworth (St Laurence's) hospital, he went to Cherryfield to convalesce, but was soon back in the Whitworth, where he died peacefully on the morning of 20th June.

It was a life of remarkable service in one very responsible position after another. He brought to each assignment a dedication that was wholly admirable and a meticulousness that could on occasion be exasperating. In his rectorships he completely accepted the whole package', from care of the community and (in the old system) overall responsibility for the school to attendance at meetings, matches, plays, dinners, funerals. All that involved considerable self-giving and austerity of life.

He was quite clearly a man of God, and quite unconsciously conveyed that impression to others, After his death the parish priest of Aughrim Street parish and the president of the Legion of Mary praesidium of which Ned was spiritual director told me of the sense of Gold that he brought with him. There will be readers of this obituary who can confirm this for themselves.

Ned Roche was born in Tralee on 1st August 1904, and before going to Clongowes attended the Christian Brothers' School, Tralee, and Our Lady's Bower, Athlone. He entered the Society in Tullabeg on 5th October 1922, some days too late to join the First-year novices' Long retreat. In traveiling to Tullabeg, he had been hindered by the disruption of transport services caused by the civil war. If I recall right, Ned, accompanied by his father, came by coaster from Tralee to Cork, and thence as best he could via Limerick to Tullabeg.

In 1934 he served my First Mass in the old chapel of Marie Reparatrice in Merrion Square. His own ordination came in 1936, followed after theology by tertianship in St Beuno's (1937-8). He served as Socius to the Novice-master in Emo for four years (1938-42).

There followed an unbroken term of twenty-five years as a superior: Rector of the Crescent, Limerick (1942-7), of Clongowes (1947-53), of Belvedere (1953-9), and Superior of the Apostolic school, Mungret (1959-67); then Minister, Vice-Rector and Rector of Gonzaga (1967-74). On recovering from a very severe (almost fatal) illness in 1974, he served for three years on the Special Secretariat. In 1977 he became Superior and bursar of John Austin House.

To have borne so much responsibility for so long, with the added burden of big building extensions in both the Crescent and Belvedere, and to have won such widespread respect, admiration and affection amongst his fellow-Jesuits, the college boys and their parents.

(Compiled from contributions by S. R. and Ffrench).

Born: 1606, County Wexford
Entered: 02 February 1634, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 19 December 1649, Wexford Residence

1636 At Irish College Seville - presides over disputaciones of the students
1637-1639 At Irish College Seville Consultor, Admonitor, Spiritual Father, Prefect and Superintendent of the Theologians and Philosophers

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1634 In BAE (Irish Ecclesiastical Record)
1636 At Seville, February, was Prefect of Conference and Confessor
1638 Came to Irish Mission from Spain and stationed at Wexford
A joint letter from him and Oliver Eustace in favour of Dr French is at Trinity College.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Was probably already a priest when he went to Irish College Seville 15 August 1630. He was a very brilliant student and in 1632 and 1633 was chosen to represent the College in the public disputations conducted in the city at the College of San Hermengildo. According to the Diario of the College, he had finished his studies with credit before Ent 02 February 1634 Seville
1636-1637 After First Vows he returned to Irish College Seville as Spiritual Father and Prefect of the public Oratory
1637 Given permission to be sent to Ireland and Wexford, for which he had volunteered where he spent all of his working life in Ireland, teaching Humanities and as Operarius
His date of death 19 December 1649 is somewhat dubious, as he is not mentioned in the Visitor Mercure Verdier’s exhaustive Catalogue of the Mission dated 24 June 1649

Born: 11 August 1822, Ballysampson, Tagoat, County Wexford
Entered: 02 December 1859, Beaumont, England (ANG)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1873
Died: 15 February 1909, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

by 1877 in Maryland (MAR) working

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He spent most of his life in the Society, which he entered as a Priest, as an Operarius in Limerick and Galway. He was sent to America to collect alms for the Church in Galway. He was sent to Belvedere for a short time, but returned to Galway, and died there, 15 February 1909

Paraphrase of excerpts from an Obituary Notice for Richard Rochford :
“...... Though he had reached a green old age, his death was sudden and unexpected. A man of uncommonly hale constitution, he continued until within a fortnight of his peaceful passing away to celebrate daily Mass, and to follow with edifying punctuality all the duties of community life. After saying Mass on the Feast of the Purification, he began to complain of a slight cold. He was advised by doctors to stay in bed for a few days, but up to the day before nobody suspected he was close to death. On that day before the doctor who noticed an alarming symptom, decided that the Last Rites should be administered. The following evening, having just received a final absolution he calmly passed away.
Born in Wexford in 1822. His early education was received as far apart as Washington, USA and Clongowes. He then went to Maynooth where he was Ordained for his local Diocese of Ferns. As a Priest he taught at St Peter’s College Wexford.
He then Entered the Society of Jesus 02 December 1859, and after First Vows divided his time between Crescent and Coláiste Iognáid. In both cities he was beloved by all who knew him. He was not a man of strikingly brilliant talent, but he did possess a simple faith and tender piety. He was unworldly, and utterly sincere in all his dealings, both with God and man. Whether in sermon or ordinary conversation, every word he spoke was with utter conviction. His sermons were more often very direct and about practice rather than belief.
He had a great love for his native land of Wexford. He loved a good joke, but two topics were excluded - Religion and Patriotism.
He was a man free from doubt in his faith, and he was heard declare that the was not conscious of holding the Articles of Catholic Belief with any more freedom from doubt than he was conscious of holding the principles of Irish Nationality and her right to make her own laws.
During his early life in America he seems to have been filled with a love of free institutions, and this remained with him to the end. In the 1870’s it was his privilege to visit America once more, where he collected the money that paid for the beautiful High Altar, in many-coloured marble, which adorns St Ignatius’ Church, and on which his requiem Mass was performed in front of a large congregation.”

At one time he had very strong political views.

◆ The Clongownian, 1909

Obituary

Father Richard Rochford SJ

The hand of death has been laid frequently last 2 year on that section of old Clongownians who had devoted their lives to furthering the cause of Christ in the ranks of the Society. A veteran amongst these was Father Rochford. A brief account of a his career will reveal the story of a simple life, where love of country and love of God were strongly intertwined,

Father Rochford was born in the County Wexford in the year 1822, so that on the 11`th of August, 1908, he completed his tale of 86 years. As a boy, Richard Rochford received his early education in two Jesuit colleges, so far apart geographically as Washington, in the United States of America, and Clongowes Wood, Co. Kildare. His ecclesiastical studies he made at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where, in due course, he was ordained priest for his native diocese of Ferns. As priest, he was for a time Professor at St Peter's College, Wexford.

On the 2nd of December, 1859, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate. His noviceship ended, he divided his years between Sacred Heart College, Limerick, and St Ignatius College, Galway. In both cities he was beloved of all who knew him. He was not a man of strikingly brilliant talents, but he was possessed of a simple faith and tender piety. He was utterly unworldly and sincere; sincere in all his dealings - in his dealings with God and man. Whether in ordinary conversation or in his sermons, every word he uttered had in it a ring of honest conviction. Of his sermons, we may say that were never abstruse or recondite. They had to do with practice more than with belief. In them he spoke right at his hearers, expounding their obligations to God with an earneştness that always went home. Even the shortest biographical notice should say a word about Father Rochford's love for his native land. He was ever ready to enjoy a joke, but not on every subject. Two topics he always rigidly excluded from the domain of banter, religion and patriotism. His simple faith in the truths of religion knew neither doubt nor difficulty; and not once, or twice; or thrice, but often and often he has been heard to declare that he was not conscious of holding the Articles of Catholic Belief with any more freedom from doubt than he was conscious of holding the principles of Irish nationality, and her rights to make her own laws. During his early life in America he seems to have been filled with a love of free institutions, which remained with him to the end.

In the early seventies of last century it was his privilege to visit America once more, where he collected the money that paid for the beautiful High Altar, in many coloured marble, which adorns St Ignatius' Church, and on which the Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was offered in the presence of a large congregation.

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

Father Richard Rochford (1822-1909)

A native of Wexford, emigrated in his youth to New Orleans where his elder brother had acquired wealth. Some years later, feeling he had a call for the priesthood, he returned to Ireland and pursued his ecclesiastical studies for the diocese of Ferns, at Maynooth College. He entered the Society as a priest, in his thirty-eighth year. Father Rochford spent many years on the teaching staff of Crescent College - 1864-65, 1884-99 and again in the church from 1900 to 1902. His later years were spent at St Ignatius, Galway.

Born: 1530, County Wexford
Entered: the Society 05 December 1564, Professed House, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Final Vows: 1575
Died: 19 June 1588, at Sea in The Armada - “in classe quel ibat in Angliam” - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

1567: He is being sent by Fr Borgia to Canisius “as he is one of the most talented of the pupils of Fr Pereira, Prof Philosophy at the Roman College, and advanced in virtue” (Letters of Borgia Vol III p510).
1567: “Robertus or Rochford Hibernus” at Dillingen in November (Richard Fleming there at the same time) - his talent at Rome having been noteworthy
1576: At Paris College Age 30.
1587: At St Anthony’s College Lisbon, Age 44, Soc 22, teaching Latin and Catechism. Said to be teaching Ireland under the Bishop of Cork -Tanner, an ex Jesuit) VAT Arch Inghilterra 1.308)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica”
Probably a brother of Charles - who only gets mentioned as being in Youghal 1588.
He was a great linguist; Prisoner; Missioner.
His name often appears in the Anglo-Irish State Papers.
He died on board a Spanish man-of-war; “a Martyr of Charity”; Had taught school in Youghal in 1575.
It is probably he of whom Stanihurst describes “born in the county of Wexford, is a proper divine, an exact philosopher and very good antiquary”.
In 1581 Matthew Lamport of Waterford and Matthias Lamport a Dublin PP were hanged for harbouring Fr Rochford; Robert Meiler, Edeard Cheevers, John O’Lahy and two sailors were hanged, drawn and quartered for bringing him from Belgium to Ireland; Richard French, A Wexford Priest, for harbouring him, was imprisoned in Dublin and died of misery in prison (IbIg).
Mentioned in a letter of Edmund Tanner, Cork 11 October 1577, as keeping a school at Youghall with Charles, spreading on every side the good odour of the Society of Jesus (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).
Highly spoken of in a letter from Henry Fitzsimon in a letter in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, March 1873 p 262, and is frequently mentioned in "Hibernia Ignatiana".
We know of his death 19 June 1588 from an entry in “Bibl. de Bourg. MS n 6397, liber primus defunctorum SJ in variis provinciis, Brussels” : “Balthazar de Almeida (died) in a ship which was proceeding to England, 17 June 1588. P Robertus Rocheford (died) on the same ship, 19/06/1588”. They were probably Chaplains in the Spanish Armada.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Robert Rochfort 1530-1588
After the departure of Fr David Wolfe from Ireland, there were two Jesuits left there, Frs Charles Leae and Robert Rochfort. The latter was born in Wexford in 1530 and entered the Society at Rome in 1564. St Peter Canisius was his Professor at Dilingen in 1567.

Having come to the Irish Mission, he succeeded in maintaining a school in Youghal, in spite of continual persecution until 1575, with the aid of Fr Leae. This school was highly praised by Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork and former Jesuit.

Fr Rochfort was closely associated with Viscount Baltinglass in the rebellion of 1581. On his account many people suffered imprisonment and death for harbouring him. The English seem to have had a great dread of him and his name is constantly mentioned in State Papers of the time. Finally, seeing how dangerous it was for people to harbour him, he withdrew to Lisbon in 1532.

In Lisbon he laboured for some years to the great spiritual advantage of Catholics from Ireland and England and other nations, and whom his skill in many languages enabled him to instruct and assist. According to common report, he died in Lisbon in 1588. However, in a list of Defuncti of the Society we find the following “Balthazar Almeida died in a ship which was proceeding to England June 17th 1588. P Robert Rochford died in the same ship, June 19th 1588. He had been a prisoner for the faith and died a victim of charity”. It would seem that he had been a chaplain to one of the ships of the Spanish Armada

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ROCHFORD, ROBERT, is mentioned with honour in the Epistle Dedicatory of Father Fitzsimon’s Treatise on the mass, printed in 1611. In a letter of Father Edmund Tanner, dated Cork, the 11th of October, 1577, I read, “Rev. Father Charles and Master Robert Rochford spread on every side the sweetest odour of the Institute of the Society of Jesus. They keep a school in the town of Youghall, in the Dioceses of Cork, Munster : their auditors and the townspeople are daily trained in the Christian doctrine, and the frequentation of the Sacraments and good Morals, as well as the miserable circumstances of the times will permit, but not without molestation; yet God gives them perseverance and great benefit to their Hearers”.

Born: 26 April 1913, Keadue, Boyle, County Roscommon
Entered: 16 November 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois

Left Society of Jesus: 10 August 1938

Born: 09 December 1917, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 March 1939, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 15 August 1949, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 13 March 2003, St Vincent’s Hospital

Part of the Milltown Park, Dublin community at Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin at the time of death.

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
After his novitiate, Br Frankie Roe was posted to Belvedere College to take charge of the Boys Tuck Shop. A fellow Jesuit, who was a boy at the school, remembers: ‘It was there that I first met him when I was a small boy of 8. He was in charge of the Tuck Shop and was to us a person of significance. But my main memory is of his kindness to the youngest boys and how he protected us from what seemed to us to be the giant marauding 11 year olds. Never would he allow the older ones to push us youngsters out of the queue. He consoled us when we were in trouble and encouraged us at all times’.

Br Roe, born in Dublin on 9 December in 1917, was the seventh of eight children, all of whom predeceased him. Among his brothers were two All-Ireland Handball champions and he himself was no mean performer in the sport. He was educated by the Christian Brothers and after schooling worked with Independent Newspapers.

He entered the Society at Emo in 1939. For 64 years he served the Lord in the Society in many places, in Ireland and Africa and in a variety of roles. He was refectorian in a number of houses, – Clongowes, Milltown Park, Loyola House, Tullabeg – twenty eight years in all. Added to that, he was also sacristan in the houses as well.

He decided to offer himself to the missions in Zambia. He came out for two years, 1977 to 1979, at the age of sixty. He worked at Choma Minor Seminary School as minister and library assistant and then moved on to Kizito Pastoral Centre, Monze, as general factotum.

In everything he did he was a perfectionist – highly competent, diligent, and meticulous in the attention that he gave to his tasks, precise in word, deed and in every detail of his manner. All of these tasks he carried out effectively and industriously but almost always with a touch of the frustration that is the lot of the perfectionist. He had great difficulty reconciling himself to be among the ‘imperfectionists’ who populate our world.

He returned to Ireland and found the ideal position and with it something approaching happiness. In 1981 he became bookbinder of the Milltown Library. It demanded the skills that he had in abundance and afforded him an environment that suited his temperament perfectly. He applied his skill assiduously and took immense pride in his work that he carried out flawlessly and generously. He did all the work himself and no longer was he at the mercy of the shortcomings of others. He was truly master of all he surveyed in the bindery. In these years, his relationships with others blossomed. He greatly appreciated the librarians and they, in their turn, positively treasured him. Within the library staff the feminine balance seemed to have pleased him significantly. His departure from the library left a gap that will not be filled.

For two and a half years he battled with cancer uncomplainingly. In Cherryfield Lodge, the Jesuit Nursing Home, he found something approaching perfection, particularly in the staff, who were devoted to him, whom he so deeply appreciated and of whom he was so extraordinarily undemanding. He died on 13 March 2003 in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Worked at Independent Newspapers before entry

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 117 : Special Issue November 2003

Obituary

Br Francis (Frankie) Roe (1917-2003)

9th December 1917: Born in Dublin city
Early education at St. Columba's CBS School, Dublin
Worked for several years in the Irish Independent office
7th March 1939: Entered the Society at Emo
8th March 1941: First Vows at Emo
1941 - 1945: Belvedere College - Sacristan; Tuck shop
1945 - 1950: Clongowes College - Refectorian (boys)
18th August 1949: Final Vows at Clongowes
1950 - 1958: Milltown Park - Refectorian
1958 - 1962: Belvedere - Assistant Librarian, Sacristan
1962 - 1963: Loyola House - Sacristan / Refectorian
1963 - 1966: Tullabeg - Sacristan / Refectorian
1966 - 1977: Milltown Park - Refectorian
1977 - 1979: Zambia - Choma Minor Seminary: Minister; Library Assistant; worked at Kizito Pastoral Centre, Monze
1979 - 1980: Milltown Park - Sacristan; Ministered in the Community
1980 - 1981: Clongowes - Assistant to the Headmaster; Librarian
1981 - 1984: Milltown Park - Book binding
1984 - 1985: Cherryfield Lodge - Worked at Milltown Park Library; book binding
1985 - 2000: Milltown Park - Book binding
2000 - 2003: Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin
13th March 2003: Died in St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.

Brother Roe was admitted to Cherryfield in November 2000, suffering from prostate cancer. His condition began to deteriorate in September 2002. He was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital on 21" February, and he died peacefully three weeks later.

Noel Barber writes:
Brother Roe was the seventh of eight children all of whom predeceased him. Among his brothers were two All Ireland Handball champions and he, himself, was no mean performer in this sport. He was educated by the Christian Brothers and after his schooling worked with Independent Newspapers. Just over 64 years ago, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Emo on March 7th 1939. Over his 64 years in the Jesuits, he served in many places in Ireland and Africa and in a variety of roles. In everything he did, he was a perfectionist - highly competent, diligent, and meticulous in the attention that he gave to his tasks, precise in word, deed and in every detail of his manner. However, he was not only a perfectionist; he was also kindly and generous. After his novitiate he went to Belvedere. It was there that I first met him when I was a small boy of 8. He was in charge of the Tuck Shop and was to us a person of immense significance. But my main memory is of his kindness to the youngest boys and how he protected us from what seemed to us to be giant marauding 11 year olds. Never would he allow the older ones to push us youngsters out of the queue. He consoled when we were in trouble and encouraged us at all times. He was a most benign presence and we were sorry to see him leave at the end of our second year. He went on to many tasks, all of which he carried out effectively and industriously but almost always with a touch of the frustration that is the lot of the perfectionist. He had great difficulty reconciling himself to the imperfectionists, who populate our world.

However, he did find the ideal position and with it something approaching bliss. In 1981 he became bookbinder of the Milltown Library. It proved to be perfect for him. It demanded the skills that he had in abundance and afforded an environment that suited his temperament perfectly. He applied his skill assiduously and took immense pride in his work that he carried out flawlessly and generously. He did all the work himself and no longer was he at the mercy of the shortcomings of others. He was truly the master of all he surveyed in the bindery. In these years his relationships with others blossomed. He greatly appreciated the librarians and they, in their turn, positively treasured him. Within the library staff the feminine balance seemed to have pleased him significantly. His departure from the library left a void that will not be filled.

For two and a half years he battled with cancer uncomplainingly. He gradually spent more and more time in Cherryfield Lodge, until he became a permanent resident. There, as in the Library, he found something approaching perfection, particularly in the staff, who were so devoted to him, whom he so deeply appreciated and of whom he was so extraordinarily undemanding

In the Gospel from St. Luke that was read at his funeral Mass, Our Lord points out to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead; or as he puts it earlier in the same chapter, “Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory? No doubt the joy of discovering that Christ had risen blocked some obvious questions, such as “Why? Why should the innocent suffer? Why must Christ suffer? Why should the Passion have to precede the Resurrection?” The message of the Gospel is a stark statement of the Law of the cross. The cross is the way to glory; that cross that is a folly and a scandal, unintelligible in itself and acceptable only in the light of Faith, However, the message of Christ and the demands that it makes on us would be hollow if Christ himself did not take on the depths of human suffering. After all, the first readers of St. Luke's Gospel were facing persecution and some were prepared to die for their Faith. To those and many others who follow them to this very day Christ did not point out the narrow, difficult path while taking a different route himself.

All lives are configured to that of Christ. It is in accepting this that we mysteriously find full life. This was something of which Br, Roe was convinced and that he accepted in faith. It was this convinced faith that provided him with that serenity and calm with which he accepted his illness, the humiliating dependency on others, the enfeebled body, the weakening mind and ultimately his death that finally conformed him to his Master whom he served so loyally, unobtrusively and dutifully.

Born: 11 April 1830, Galicja, Poland (Halych, Ukraine)
Entered: 09 November 1861, Stara Wieś, Poland - Galicanae Province (GALI)
Ordained: 24 August 1855 - pre Entry
Final vows: 25 March 1873
Died: 03 June 1906, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia - Galicanae Province (GALI)

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He arrived in Australia 04 April 1870 and was stationed at Sevenhill as part of the ASR Mission. He devoted himself particularly to the spiritual needs of the Poles there.
He was considered to be a very holy and zealous man.
He was sick for some time and had a number of strokes, the last of which took place six days before he died 03 June 1906 at Sevenhill

◆ Australian Jesuits : http://jesuit.org.au/anniversary-celebration-for-polish-jesuit-chaplain/

Anniversary celebration for Polish Jesuit chaplain

The Polish community in Melbourne gathered in celebration and thanksgiving on Sunday 8 March to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the country’s first Polish chaplain, Fr Leon Rogalski SJ.

Australian Provincial Fr Brian McCoy presided over Mass at St Ignatius’ Church in Richmond. In his homily, Fr McCoy spoke of the enormous undertaking that Fr Rogalski embarked on in accepting his mission to Australia.

‘In this modern time of air travel, it can be hard to imagine the generosity of Rogalski’, said Fr McCoy. ‘He was being asked, like Abraham, to leave his country, his kindred and his father’s house. To go somewhere new and foreign at the far end of the world. A journey so far away that it was most unlikely that he would ever return home.’

Fr Brian said that the anniversary was an opportunity not only to remember and give thanks for Fr Rogalski’s mission, but also to remember and give thanks to the Polish community’s contributions to Australia, and to the Jesuit chaplains who have followed Rogalski in ministering to that community over many years.

‘May we be encouraged by the example of Leon Rogalski, that the faith, generosity and love that he brought to this land 150 years ago may continue to bear fruit.’

Fr McCoy was joined at the Mass by Andrzej Pawel Bies SJ representing the Polish Jesuits, Fr Tony (Wieslaw) Slowik SJ and other members of the Polish Jesuit community in Australia, as well as other Australian Jesuits.

Mass was followed by refreshments in the parish hall. A new biography by Fr Pawel Bies SJ, depicting the life and work of Fr Rogalski SJ, was available for sale, as well as a commemorative Fr Leon Rogalski Sevenhill Cellars Shiraz.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Leo Rogalski entered the Society as a secular priest, 24 August 1855, and was unique among the members of the Austrian Mission in Australia in being sent as a Polish-speaking priest to minister to the Poles, especially to those who had congregated at Hill River. He arrived at Sevenhill on 5 April 1870.
The Polish community was delighted with his arrival, and he immediately gave his people a mission. He also visited them in rural areas. He did this for the next 30 years, mainly stationed at Sevenhill. In 1894 he had a stroke, which left him partially paralysed, and so was unable to give much further service to his community In his latter years he was a vigorous promoter of the Australian “Messenger” among the younger generation of Poles.

Note from Franz Waldmann Entry
He left Vienna for Australia with Leo Rogalski, 3 December 1869

Born: 18 July 1845, County Down
Entered: 28 February 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 16 September 1886, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

2nd Year Novitiate at Gardiner St

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was sent in his Second Year Novitiate to Gardiner St as a Cook and Dispenser.
He was later sent to Clongowes to carry out the same work, and he died there 16 September 1886.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - DOB is actually Baptismal date; Killed in an accident at Clongowes

Born: 03 April 1905, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 08 February 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 15 August 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 09 May 1976, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

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

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - KEVIN J Rogers; Drapers Assistant before entry

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 51st Year No 3 1976

Obituary :

Br John Rogers (1932-1976)

It was in 1933 that I first met Br John Rogers in the novitiate at Emo, and later on I lived some fifteen years with him at Milltown Park. So I think I knew him fairly well, although he was always a bit reserved, shy almost. He was a gentle and cultured man, a fine pianist and had a gift of dedication to anything he took in hand. After his noviceship he went to Milltown Park and spent all his life there, except for two short spells at Roehampton to study firstly nursing and later bookbinding.
Living with him I was always struck by his devotion and dedication to his allotted tasks. Milltown Park being a big sprawling building, it was edifying to say the least, to see Br Rogers during a flu epidemic (in pre-antibiotic days, remember) making three trips a day carrying food trays all over the house. When the disastrous Milltown fire of 11th February, 1949, necessitated new buildings, his wish to have a six-bed infirmary incorporated in the plans went unfulfilled. He read quite a lot about medicine and nursing, and this along with his devotion to duty was one of the reasons why he was such a good infirmarian. He combined this duty with his work as bookbinder until some six years before his death. Over the years he built up a fine workshop, acquiring good machinery at bargain prices, and his knowledge and craftsmanship advanced so well that he was recognised by the trade as one of the finest bookbinders in Ireland.
His devotion and regularity and prayer were striking and must surely have been the source of his perseverance and patience. Some three years ago he developed a very troublesome growth alongside the breast, which meant annual visits to hospitals and an operation to arrest growth. The infection, however, spread and eventually resulted in his death, which took place at Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross. I visited Br John there a few times, and his patience and resignation were obvious, although he admitted that he had suffered a great deal, especially during his treatment at St Vincent's hospital, Elm park. He was an excellent religious and a true son of Ignatius, and I am sure he will have a very high place in heaven.

As one who joined his community in the latter years of John's life, I think of him as a master bookbinder. He really loved his work, and spoke with warm affection of Fr Cyril Power, then his rector, who appointed him to the job forty-two years ago. John often reminisced about the difficulties in procuring the various machines for his art. He attended auctions and picked up old machines that needed repairs. These repairs he did himself, and was very proud of being able to do a first-class job on a machine that was bought for a pittance. As he advanced in age, he asked for an assistant, and found a most willing helper in Br John Ronan.

It is estimated that Br Rogers bound ten thousand books in his forty-two years on the job. If anyone wanted a little binding job done, he was most obliging. No matter what it was, from making an old keepsake look like new, to binding a writer's thesis, he would say “Yes; come back in a few days”.
Besides being bookbinder, which occupied him six full days a week, he was also infirmarian to the large community. He was shrewd and clever, often diagnosing the patient's complaint before the doctor was called. Milltown always had many old people who needed nursing and care, and John always kept a supply of medicines for this. Unlike today's system whereby the man in the room next door to the sick person looks after him, John had to carry trays up many flights of stairs to many people in an epidemic. For this tireless labour of love, the Lord will surely reward him. For one who admitted he had not got a 'bedside manner', we can only guess at the personal sacrifice this must have cost him. John was relieved of this office some seven years ago due to his failing health
Another of John's talents was cooking. This job he did equally well, but it was not a long-term assignment,
What kind of man was John? After his early education at the hands of the Christian Brothers, he continued to educate himself, and read extensively. He was a cultured man and a musician, playing the organ and piano superbly. There was one subject on which he confessed his ignorance: sport, His main hobby was stamp-collecting. He often said that his large collection would be worth quite a sum of money when he had gone. If one wanted to thank John for some favour he had done, a gift of stamps meant more to him than anything else.
He was a solitary: no one knew him intimately. I think that in many ways he was a lonely man, and in this he probably suffered quite a bit. As a religious, he was regular at his duties, being an early riser. Although he agreed with changes in the liturgy, he never participated in these changes himself, but kept faithfully to his earlier devotions.
The last two years of John Rogers's life saw a series of seven operations on a cancerous growth under the arm. He suffered greatly during this period. When the old trouble was seen to return, he was most resigned and worked away at his job quite resignedly. For the last six months right up to the morning of his death, he was in great pain, apart from the relief that modern medicine can provide.
I am satisfied now that John is enjoying the reward of his steadfastness. He has answered the invitation he received forty-four years ago : “Come, follow Me!”

1879: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Zambese from the Apostolic Vicariate of Natal in South Africa
1915: Promoted as Apostolic Prefecture of Zambese
1927: Renamed as Apostolic Prefecture of Salisbury
1931: Promoted as Apostolic Vicariate of Salisbury
1955: Promoted as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Salisbury
1982: Renamed as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Harare

Established in 1927, as Apostolic Prefecture of Broken Hill (from Apostolic Prefecture of Zambese). Lost territories in 1936 to establish Apostolic Prefecture of Victoria Falls (now its suffragan diocese Livingstone) and in 1938 to establish Apostolic Prefecture of Ndola (now its suffragan diocese). Renamed in 1946 after its see as Apostolic Prefecture of Lusaka. Promoted in 1950 Apostolic Vicariate of Lusaka. Promoted in 1959 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lusaka. Lost territories in 1962 to establish Diocese of Monze and in 2011 to establish Diocese of Kabwe, both as its suffragans.

Born: 11 February 1893, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 02 June 1915, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows 02 February 1926, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Died:08 August 1979, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 54th Year No 3 and 4 1979

Obituary :

Br John Ronan (1893-1913-1979)

John Ronan was born in Dublin on 11 February 1893. His family had Scottish connections and John used like to take his holidays in Scotland. It may well be that it was from his father he inherited his dry wit and his gift with words. He attended National School and then a Christian Brothers school to sixth standard, and joined the novitiate at Tullabeg in the year 1913. The precise date was a subject of controversy between John and a succession of editors of the Province Catalogue: in the Catalogue he consistently appears as entering in 1915; Fathers Aubrey Gwynn and Fergal McGrath, however, recall that John was in Tullabeg in 1913; further, John's Final Vow formula is dated 2nd February 1926, which indicates that he must have taken First Vows in 1915 or early 1916.
In 1918 a young man was despatched from Tullabeg to Gardiner Street; the Minister, Father Bury, greeted the news with joy: “This is splendid: he will tempt the Fathers to eat better because of his good cooking!” John was twenty-five then, and his gift for making people happy is well attested; he was asked for by various houses, and a member of the Province who arrived in houses which Brother John had just left recalls that John was remembered with gratitude and affection. Cooks have a central place and wield great power within their domains: John cooked for his brethren for thirty years and made them happy because he was generous, painstaking and thoughtful. He worked in Gardiner Street (1918-23), Rathfarnham Castle (1923 36), Belvedere (1926-29), Clongowes (1929-31), Emo (1931-35), Mungret (1935-38), Tullabeg (1938-43), St Ignatius, Galway (1943-47), Crescent (1947-48), Clongowes again (1948-58), Manresa (1958-59) and finally Milltown Park (1959-79).
It was during the last twenty years of his life that the present writer came to know and appreciate him. He was assistant to Brother John Rogers in the bindery and ad dom. He was neat and self-contained; had a small stocky frame, large and long face, black hair, steel rimmed glasses, black chesterfield and boots which had long since seen their best days; he made an unusual figure both within and outside the house. He loved the city of Dublin and was the best known of the community on the 11 bus route; drivers used make unscheduled stops to take him aboard. They loved him more for his easy chat and good-humoured wit than for the sweets he used give them. He aged imperceptibly, for he was built of durable stuff. He seemed indestructible, as was illustrated when at the age of eighty three he came limping home after an affair with a car; he was reluctant to admit to the accident, went off to take a bath to ease his wounds and was back in action the following day. He was delightfully unpredictable in ways, and free of shyness in his relating to others. To illustrate: passing the Gas Company showrooms one day, he looked in and saw a salesgirl within who looked very gloomy. He went in: “I'd like to ask you about a gadget which you're advertising; you don't seem to have it on display”. “What is it?” she replied grumpily. “Well, you've an ad saying: Make your tea in a jiffy! I'd like to see a jiffy and know how it works!” As she tried to explain she began to smile. After a while, he said: “I know well what a jiffy is, but you look a lot happier now than when I came in!” And off he went.
John was seventy years old when Vatican II came, bringing to an end an era of stability in which regularity of practice and unswerving loyalty to authority were the characteristic of the faithful, John among them. The way was opened for new forms of religious and personal expression, with questioning and experimentation the order of the day. Like many of his generation, John found the sweeping changes in Catholic and Jesuit life hard to understand; the new forms of expression and the eclipse of the old left him confused. He was ill at ease in the new Milltown Park, and voiced his reservations with great honesty to his superiors and to the community; he was distressed that his critiques met with little effective response; he felt that a sympathetic hearing of his views was not enough. Values were at risk, as his eagle eye could see, and he loved religious life and the Province enough to do what he could to safeguard these values. Now that we as a Province are moving into calmer waters we can be grateful to John and others like him who have acted as reminders of the central qualities which must characterise any religious life worthy of the name.
Together with the difficulty he experienced in adjusting to the upheavals of aggiornamento, John went through a long period of indifferent health. For sixteen years his problem was wrongly diagnosed and treated, until finally Dr Dan Kelly brought him relief. The wit which had been so noted in him before was less evident in the latter years, though it emerged in flashes still, and brought many a smile. The younger brethren who overslept were labelled “the rising generation”; “All for me, dear Jesus!” was a remark used for a certain Father whom John thought as caring for himself a little too well. Some found it disconcerting to pass him on the corridor and half-hear a devastating remark as he shuffled away, but this may have been a device to communicate and keep in touch with those whose ways he found hard to understand. He detested beards, and persisted for quite a time with one scholastic in an anti-beard campaign until the object of his attentions asked him to ease up, whereupon to his surprise John said: “I’m only waying it because I like you”! A few years ago he fell into conversation with a lady on the front drive: he confided that he had been sent down town to buy two butterfly nets for the Rector (these were in fact intended for the removal of leaves from the swimming pool), He then launched into an incisive commentary on the Rector’s general performance, and told how the superiors of old used stay in their offices and appear mainly at mealtimes whereas the present one ... etc., etc. At the front door the lady revealed that she was the Rector's mother. Nothing daunted, he bade farewell with the remark: “See if you can't do something with him!”
Over a long lifetime John used his gifts well; he was cook, dispenser, house steward, manuductor, assistant bookbinder; he was a respected watch-mender, fiddled with radios - one of his crystal sets is still extant; he made walking sticks for those who, unlike himself, enjoyed the countryside. The present writer, more than forty years his junior, never knew him in his heyday, but considers his sixty-six years of service to the brethren a remarkable achievement worthy of the gratitude which was expressed by the wide representation of Province members at John’s requiem. What I find more remarkable, however, is the manner in which he continued his life of service to the very end. He might well have felt that by his eightieth year he had done enough, that he was no longer needed or wanted, that he could legitimately retire. Instead he took on a new role - that of postman and messenger. In finding yet one more way to serve the brethren he was typical of a great tradition of Jesuit brothers; having early on, in the words of the Kingdom exercise offered himself “entirely for the work”, he carried through to the end his promise of availability. While he was glad to have a daily task and was upset when the protracted mail-strike from February to June of this year left him with little to do, the work took its toll, and he was frequently to be seen suffering from attacks of dizziness, sitting along the corridor with his head between his hands.
What was sad in the final years was that it was hard to convince him that he was appreciated. Superiors had with doubtful wisdom allowed too much to change for him to be other than wary of well intentioned compliments. He developed the habit of blessing himself as they went by. Yet he had his friends in the community, and also among the lay-staff. He delighted in chatting with the latter and running errands for them; he continued to get cut-price cigarettes in Clery's for one woman long after she had given up smoking, for she had not the heart to tell him she no longer needed them. Moreover, he always presented the best side of community life to outsiders. I quote from a letter of his nephew: “John always spoke with great pride of your Society ... and of the wonderful work which is being done by everyone within the order”. That reticence, however, which often blocks us from speaking within the community of that pride we feel for the brethren afflicted John too. There's the story of the two scholastics who came early to supper and found John sitting down before them. “Supper doesn't begin till six!” he admonished them. “Ah”, they answered, “but we have an excuse; we're off on apostolic work. We're working for God!” “That's obvious”, said John. “If you were working for anyone else you'd have been sacked long ago!”
Of the inner life of such a man one of my generation can only guess. Surely there must have existed a deep union between God and himself to make him so consistently faithful to his religious practices, so simple and frugal in his dress and way of life, so willing to live out a life of uneventful service. He had to face the sufferings of loneliness, ill-health, confusion and perhaps even a sense of betrayal over the changes that came in the last years of his life. One thinks of the hardships of the disciple’s calling in the gospel of Luke; of Ignatius' prayer: “To give and not to count the cost”; of Hopkins sonnet on St Alphonsus Rodriguez; of K Rahner's account of the “wintry spirituality of many Jesuits”.
His death, like his life, was simple, unadorned, unromantic and without fuss. When asked about his health earlier this year, he used reply: “I'm all right, Father, you have to keep going, if you lie down they'll put you in a box?” He was moved down to the Chapel Corridor a month before he died: he had already renamed that corridor “the coffin corridor” some time before. He accepted the change with macabre humour; the door of his new room would be just the right size to get out the coffin! He sought out his friend Dr Dan Kelly at St Vincent’s, the day before he died. He knew with his quiet realism that he was dying, yet he refused to stay in hospital; he wanted to die at home. A life-long Pioneer, he took a little brandy that night; the end came peacefully about 6 am the following morning; it is hard to think that he was reluctant to go. I like to think of him now as surprised by joy at his meeting with the Lord, amazed and delighted at hearing the divine commendation for his life of service. Gone now the misunderstandings that marred the last years; if the communion of saints means anything, we at Milltown Park may confidently hope that he will keep a brotherly eye on us and on our affairs, now that he has entered into new service as God's messenger of grace to us.

A writer from the Far East would like to add the following:
A fine, warm-hearted man, whose conversation on spiritual and secular matters had the quality of suavitas. Knowing that he was from the Coombe, I associated him with a man like Dean Swift - he had that observation of people and that natural eloquence of the Dubliner. A dedicated man, he had that warm humanity so befitting a Jesuit, and which the Brothers by their prayer and simplicity have given so fully to the Society. May he pray for us to be gifted with more vocations like his

Born: 13 July 1825, Newry, County Down
Entered: 13 November 1850, St Acheul, Amiens, France (FRA)
Ordained: 1848 - Maynooth College, County Kildare - pre entry
Final Vows: 02 February 1865
Died: 10 December 1907, Mungret College, County Limerick

by 1855 in Istanbul?
by 1864 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship
by 1899 at Villa Saint-Joseph, Cannes, France (LUGD)

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had studied at Maynooth and was Ordained 1848 for his native Diocese of Dromore before Ent.

A Few years after his Novitiate he went with Fr Patrick J Duffy as a Chaplain in the Crimean War, where he worked for more than a year in the hospitals of Scutari Hospital (of Florence Nightingale Fame in the Istanbul Region) and other Military stations.
On his return to Ireland he worked for many years as a Missioner, and became well known in almost every diocese and district in the country. Few men were better known as a Spiritual Director in religious communities through Ireland as well as the clergy of many Dioceses.
He was Superior in turn of the Galway and Limerick houses, and was known for extraordinary zeal and devotion to the Sacred Heart. he shared this devotion with one to Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph.
1880 While Rector in Limerick, he founded the Apostolic School, and when Mungret was given to the Jesuits, and the AS moved there, he became its first Rector. He considered the founding of the AS as the greatest work of his life. He travelled to the US in 1884/5 to get funds for the AS so that he could set up a more permanent financial foundation for it.
1887 He began the second phase of his life as a Missioner in Ireland, and continued this even when he was appointed Superior at Gardiner St.
1897 By now he was compelled to give up active work due to ill health and he spent some years in the South of France.
1901 He was sent back to Mungret and spent the last six years of his life there as Spiritual Father and Confessor to the Community and students. During these years he had the great consolation of seeing the growth of the College, and always spoke of those Priests, former students, working in all quarters of the world, as his children.

His last days were happy ones “How good God is to me and how happy I am to be here”, were almost the last words he spoke when he was in the full of his health. It was a massive stroke which brought about his death on 10 December 1907 at Mungret, and he was buried in the College Cemetery, following a funeral procession which was led by the younger students walking in twos, followed by the clergy, the the coffin borne by senior students and then the mourners, of whom there were many. Afterwards many stories were shared by his former students in Mungret and the Crescent, as well as many who had come to know him through his Missionary work. General Sir William Butler (who had been educated at Tullabeg), who had visited Father William three days before and listened carefully to him as he spoke about his time in the Crimea, and Sir William thought of him a a soldier of the truest type :
“he said to me some memorable things in that first and last interview I had with him on December 9th. Amongst other things he said ‘In the hospital near Scutari I suppose more that 1,000 poor soldiers from the Crimea were prepared for death by me. Some were able only to utter an ejaculatory prayer, some of them had known little of their faith before this time, but I have never doubted for one moment that every one of those poor souls went straight to Heaven. And when I go and meet them in Heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there. I pray our Lord that he may take me at any moment. I am quite willing to go, but I say that I am ready to stay too, if he has any more work for me to do here’. It is an intense satisfaction to me that it was given to me to see this grand veteran on this, his last full day of his long and wonderful life - all his faculties perfect”.

Note from Patrick Hughes Entry :
1888 He was appointed Rector of Galway, and continued his involvement in the Mission Staff. On Father Ronan’s retirement, he was appointed Superior of the Mission Staff.

Note from Christopher Coffey Entry :
He died peacefully 29 March 1911, and after the Requiem Mass he was brought to the small cemetery and buried between Brothers Franye and MacEvoy, and close to the grave of William Ronan.

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
Ronan, William
by David Murphy

Ronan, William (1825–1907), Jesuit priest and Crimean war chaplain, was born 13 July 1825 in the parish of Clonduff, near Newry, Co. Down, son of Patrick Ronan, farmer. His mother's maiden name was Rooney. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and was ordained priest in 1848, entering the Society of Jesus in November 1850. Completing his noviciate at Dromore, Co. Down, he studied philosophy at Saint-Acheul, near Amiens, France, and went to Laval (November 1852) to study theology. In 1854 he joined the Jesuit community at St Francis Xavier's in Gardiner St., Dublin. At the end of 1854 he was appointed to serve as a chaplain with the army in the Crimea. This was the first occasion since the reign of James II (qv) that catholic chaplains had been given official status in the British army, and Ronan (along with fellow Jesuit Patrick Duffy and some Irish diocesan priests) travelled to the Crimea at the end of 1854. Specifically instructed to look after the welfare of the Irish Sisters of Mercy working in the hospital at Scutari, he arrived in January 1855 and immediately clashed with Florence Nightingale, who was in charge of the hospital. He disagreed with the way the Irish nuns were employed and also found them living in unsuitable conditions. Following negotiations with Nightingale, the conditions for the Irish nuns improved. He outlined his initial impressions of the Scutari hospital in a letter (preserved in the Dublin Diocesan Archive) to his superior in Dublin, Fr Robert Curtis, SJ. While in the Crimea he occasionally found some Irish secular priests to be hostile towards the Jesuits and experienced particular difficulties with one priest, Fr Michael Cuffe.

Returning to Ireland at the end of 1855 in bad health, he initially worked as a missioner. A noted preacher and retreat-giver, he toured the towns and cities of Ireland before being appointed superior of the Galway Jesuit community. He took his final vows in February 1865. In 1880 he became rector of Limerick and founded the Irish Apostolic School, which transferred (1882) to Mungret College. He then travelled to the USA on a fund-raising tour and raised over £10,000 (1884). In 1887 he worked as a missioner again before joining (1893) the Gardiner St. community, of which he was made superior in July 1895. His later years were overshadowed by controversy, as he was accused of an improper relationship with a wealthy widow, Mrs Doyle. He denied these accusations but spent some time abroad, living first in Jersey and then in the south of France. In 1901 he returned to Mungret and remained at the college until his death. On 9 December 1907 he was visited by Gen. the Rt Hon. Sir William Butler (qv), who was recording the accounts of men who had served in various military campaigns of the nineteenth century, including the Crimean war. At the end of his interview, Ronan remarked ‘I pray hard that He may take me at any moment. I am quite willing to go but I say that I am ready to stay too, if He has any more work for me to do here’ (cited in Murphy, War Correspondent, 45). The next day, 10 December 1907, he suffered a stroke and died. He was buried in the college cemetery at Mungret.

There is a substantial collection of his papers in the Irish Jesuit archives in Dublin. There are further letters in the papers of Cardinal Paul Cullen (qv) in the Dublin diocesan archives.

Fr William Ronan, SJ, files in Irish Jesuit Archives, Dublin; Freeman's Journal, 12 Dec. 1907; Evelyn Bolster, The Irish Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean war (1964); Louis McRedmond, To the greater glory: a history of the Irish Jesuits (1991); Tom Johnstone and James Hagerty, The cross on the sword: catholic chaplains in the forces (1996); David Murphy, ‘Irish Jesuit chaplains in the Crimean war’, War Correspondent, xvii, no. 1 (Apr. 1999), 42–6; id., Ireland and the Crimean war (2002); Thomas J. Morrissey, William Ronan, SJ: war chaplain, missioner, founder of Mungret College (2002)

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father William Ronan 1825-1907
Fr William Ronan was born on July 13th 1825 in County Down. He was ordained priest in Maynooth for his native diocese of Dromore. After two years as a secular priest he entered the Society in the Crimean War, where he laboured for more than a year in the hospitals of Scutari, where, as he afterwards recounted to a famous friend he met there, Sir William Butler, “more than 1,000 soldiers were prepared for death by me”.

On his return to Ireland he worked on the Mission Staff, and he was a much sought after giver of retreats to religious and diocesan clergy. He was Superior in turn at Galway and the Crescent. It was while he was Rector of the Crescent that he founded the Apostolic School, first at the Crescent, and then with the help of Lord Ely and the Abbé Heretier, in Mungret, where he became the first Rector. He went to the United States in 1884 to collect funds for the new College.

After another period on the Mission Staff and a period as Superior at Gardiner Street, owing to ill health he had to spend some years in the South of France. In 1901 he returned to Mungret, where he spent the last six years of his busy and extraordinarily fruitful life.

He was a man of remarkable zeal and fervent piety, outstanding for his devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to which devotion he attributed the great success of all his undertakings.

On the last day of his life, chatting to his old friend Sir William Butler, and referring to the soldiers he had anointed in the Crimean War, he said “I have never doubted for one moment, that every one of these poor souls went straight to heaven, and when I go and meet them in heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there”.

Death came on him unexpectedly at six o’clock on the evening of Tuesday December 10th 1907, after he had spent an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, as had been his custom for many years. He survived a heart attack long enough to receive the Last Rites, and was buried in a spot chosen by himself years before, facing the window of the College Chapel.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1908

In Memoriam : Rev Father Ronan SJ (1825-1907)

by Thomas Cassidy (Matriculation Class)

We saw a flower in bloom one summer day,
The glowing dawn imbued its petals sweet,
But when the night came on it passed away
And fell a faded cluster at my feet.

We saw another power in bloom full bright,
And in its day its sweetness far it shed;
But then, when o'er it fell the robe of night,
A crown of splendour settled on its head.

O God; we missed him, but he'was Thine own,
A benefactor and a friend to all;
And called by Thee he fled unto Thy Throne
To answer sweetly to Thy loving call.

He was a man of constant mind and strong,
Of powerful frame, more powerful still in prayer;
Throughout his life, and that had been full long,
He breathed heavenly sweetness everywhere.

And Mungret stands his living monument,
Looks o'er his grave and guards his memory,
Prays for him e'er, and thanks the hand he lent,
To breathe in her a soul so heavenly.

List, sainted Father, to thy children dear,
Who in thy widowed habitation dwell:
We pray thee, in our need be evěr: near
Far from us drive the tempting powers of hell.

That on that day, sweet saint, when nations rise.
To bliss eternal, or to lasting woe, .
We may with thee ascend unto the skies,
And bless the days you spent with us below.

-oOo-

Obituary

Rev William Ronan SJ (1825-1907) : Founder of The Apostolic School and Mungret College

In the afternoon of Tuesday, December 10th, 1907, while the boys were at supper, a rumour reached both their refectories that Father Ronan had been taken suddenly ill, The Apostolics soon learned the whole truth and knew that he whom they looked upon as a father, and whom all the boys in the College had learned long ago to revere as saint, had gone to the reward for which he had laboured so long.

Full particulars, however, were not known till about two hours later when all the boys had assembled in the College chapel for night prayers and the spiritual director of the pupils detailed to them the circumstances of Father Ronan's unexpected, but singularly happy death. The boys listened with awestruck and eager attention,

Fr. Ronan was apparently in his usual vigorous health a few hours before. Some of the boys had seen him come to the chapel about 5 p.m., as he was accustomed to do every evening, to spend an hour in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. He returned towards his room about 6 p.m. He spoke for a short time to a father of the community a little while later on, and after leaving the room of the latter seems to have been struck with a sudden fit of apoplexy in the cloister... leading to his own room, Here he was found a short time after 6 p.m., prostrate and speechless, but still breathing, 'The Father Rector was immediately summoned and, assisted by several of the community, administered Extreme Unction. The dying man gave no further sign of consciousness, and calmly breathed his last while the prayers for the dying were being recited by those present.

The boys were profoundly impressed by the story; and the lessons of Father Ronan's life his singleness of purpose, his zeal for the Master's glory, his union with God-now came home to all most strikingly, as it was so clear that these were the only things that retained their value when the Almighty Master sent the final unexpected summons. And while all joined in performing the Stations of the Cross for the repose of the good father's soul, the prayer uppermost in their hearts was “may I, too, die the death of the just, and let my last end be like to his”.

Father Ronan had attained the ripe age of 82 years. He was in the sixtieth year of his priesthood, and the 58th of his life in the Society of Jesus. He was born July 13th, 1825, in Co. Down. He read his ecclesiastical course in Maynooth, where, in the year 1848, he was ordained priest for his native diocese of Dromore. After about two years work as a secular priest he entered the Society of Jesus in 1850. A few years after his novitiate he went with the Rev Fr Duffy SJ, as chaplain to the British forces in the Crimean War, where he worked for more than a year in the hospitals at Scutari and other military stations. After returning to Ireland he laboured for many years as a missioner, and became well known in almost every diocese and district of the country. His untiring zeal, his spirit of prayer, and his power of work, secured extraordinary fruit to his missionary labours; and ill very many parts of the country his name is even still held in benediction. Few men were better known for more prized as a spiritual director of religious communities of both sexes throughout Ireland, and of the clergy in very many dioceses. He resided in turn in the Jesuit houses in Galway and Limerick; in the latter of which he was Superior; and here, too, his zeal, his spirit of prayer, and his extraordinary devotion to the Sacred Heart brought manifest blessings on his work.

He also had a wonderful devotion to, and confidence in the Blessed Mother of God, under the invocation of Our Lady of Lourdes, a devotion which he constantly preached and recommended; and he himself always attributed the temporal success and prosperity which were never wanting to any of his undertakings to his confidence in St. Joseph.

In 1880, while Rector of the Crescent College, Limerick, Father Ronan founded the Irish Apostolic School; and when Mungret College was handed over to the charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, and the Apostolic School transferred thither in 1882, he was first rector of Mungret. A full account of these events has already been given in the Jubilee Number of the “Mungret Annual”, July, 1907. The founding of the Apostolic School he always regarded as the great work of his life, and one which he said God enabled him to accomplish, as the result of twenty years of constant effort and prayer for its realisation.

Up to that required to found the Apostolic School on some the United States, in order to procure the funds.

In 1884 and 1885, Father Ronan travelled in the United States, in order to procure the funds required to found the Apostolic School on some kind of permanent financial basis. Up to that time he had depended solely on the support and alms of the clergy and faithful throughout Ireland.

In 1887, he began the second period of his career as a missioner in Ireland, continuing to do great work in this capacity, even after he became Superior of St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin, in the middle nineties. In 1897, however, being now in the seventy-second year of his age, he was compelled to give up active work, and he spent the following years in the South of France.

In 1901, Fr. Ronan returned once more to Mungret, after an absence of fourteen years, and there he spent the last six very happy years of his busy and extraordinarily fruitful life. During that time the greater part of each day was spent in prayer. He still continued, however, in his capacity of spiritual father of the house, and confessor of very many of the pupils of the College, to do remarkable work for the great cause of the salvation of souls, to which his life was devoted with such extraordinary singleness. Not the least fruit of his spiritual direction of the pupils during this time was the practice of daily Communion, which, owing to his special encouragement, became common in the College, and practically universal among the Apostolic students.

During the last years of his life he had the consolation of seeing the growth and progress of the College and the Apostolic School, which, under God, owed their existence to him, and he always spoke of the priests educated in the Apostolic School and now labouring in the ministry in all quarters of the world, as his children.

Few men are privileged to live and die a life of such quiet but unvarying success as Father Ronan; and to the lot of very few, indeed, will fall such consolation as he must have enjoyed a few months before his death, when the College which he looked on as his own child, and in which he lived as a beloved and revered father, celebrated her silver jubilee. Although his. death was unexpected, the great wish of his closing years was granted: that he should celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, which he had never once voluntarily omitted during the three score years of his priestly life, on the morning he was to meet his Maker.

Fr Ronan was not a man of exceptional intellectual powers, but he possessed what is infinitely more valuable in the race of life : indomitable strength of will, a power of perseverance in the teeth of all difficulties, and a cheerful courage that bore him up and inspired a certainty of success even when affairs looked most unpromising. He had a clear idea of his purpose and object, and went straight and frankly for it without recking of minor obstacles. He had a wonderful faith in the all-ruling Providence of God, and calmly received all eventualities, whether apparently favourable or otherwise, as the outcome of the eternal decree which is formed by infinite Wisdom solely for our good. Hence, he never gave evidence of despondency or doubt, and his cheerful spirit, which he preserved to the day of his death, reacted on all around him.

Though a man of stern, determined, fearless : character, who flinched before no opposition, and knew not what it is to yield or compromise: where principle or what he considered the glory of God or the advancement of God's work was involved, he was in social relations singularly : amiable, and forgiving and considerate. Even to the last he was unusually free from the idiosyncrasies that often accompany old age, and was constantly bantered on his youthfulness of heart, He never denied that he was in a way the spoiled child of God's goodness, for he enjoyed life thoroughly, he said, and expected nevertheless to get off with little or no Purgatory after death. Even when he was over eighty years of age, none enjoyed a joke more or bore with better grace the turning of the tables against himself, or told a good story with richer humour, or contributed a more considerable share to the general social cheerfulness which he loved.

His spiritual life and his ascetical teaching bore the impress of his natural character. It was founded above all on the virtue of hope ; and he always insisted on prayer and union with God as the one means to do successful work in God's service.

When congratulated on all hands, as he was during the Jubilee celebrations in September, it seemed most striking to all how little he was moved or affected by congratulation or praise. His invariable reply was: “Thank God! It is all His work; I really had very little to do with it”.

A striking trait in Fr. Ronan's character was his singular loyalty to the claims of friendship. He had many friends, and his friendships seemed all.to be lifelong. In that matter he was always most sincere and earnest, and no trouble or in convenience seemed worthy of regard when it was a question of doing a service to a friend. .

“How good God is to me! how happy I am here!” were almost the last words he was heard to utter, while apparently in his usual vigorous health, and before he had yet felt the approach of the apoplectic stroke. which terminated his earthly career on the evening of December 10th.

The body of the deceased father was laid out in his room; and during Wednesday, December 11th, the pupils of both sections of the College visited the room to look on the venerated re mains, and to say a prayer beside the bier.

On the morning of December 12th he was borne to his quiet resting place in the College Cemetery, and laid in the spot--which he himself had carefully chosen long before - facing the window of the College Chapel, where the Blessed Sacrament is, which had been to him the great support and consolation of his life!

After the Solemn Requiem Office and Mass, which began before 11 am, in the College Chapel, the procession proceeded to the cemetery. The pupils of the College went first, marching two and two, and reciting aloud the Rosary ; next came the clergy in choral dress; after these the coffin was borne along on the shoulders of the senior students, and was followed by the mourners, who were present in considerable numbers.

Among those latter were some elderly men who retained vivid recollections of the missions preached by Father Ronan half a century ago; some others had been boys in Crescent College, Limerick, a quarter of a century later, when he was Rector and Spiritual Father of the pupils. A goodly number of the pupils of the Crescent College had come in a body to show their appreciation of the old Rector of their College; and General Sir William Butler was there to do honour, as he said to the saintly old veteran of the Crimea, whom he looked upon as a soldier of the highest and truest type.

Sir William had listened with intense interest three short days before in Mungret to Father Ronan, who then seemed quite hale and vigorous, as the latter recounted anecdotes of his life as Military Chaplain in the Crimea, and of his travels in the United States.

One statement which Father Ronan always insisted upon, when speaking of his work in the Crimea, and which he then repeated to General Butler, is interesting, and so characteristic of the man that we give it here. We quote from General Butler's account of their interview:

He said to me some memorable things on that first and last interview I had with him, on December 9th. Amongst other things he said:

“In the hospital near Scutari I suppose more than one thousand poor soldiers from the Crimea were prepared for death by me. Some of them were able only to utter an ejaculatory prayer some of them had known little of their faith before that time, but I have never for one moment doubted that every one of those poor souls went straight to Heaven; and when I go”, he added, smiling, “and meet them in Heaven, I think they will elect me their colonel, and I shall stand at their head there”; and again, “I pray our Lord that He may take me at any moment; I am quite willing to go - but I say, too, that I am ready to stay, if He has any more work for me to do here”.”

Sir William adds : “It is an intense satisfaction to me that it was given me to see this grand veteran on the last full day of his long and wonderful life - all his faculties perfect”. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father William Ronan (1825-1907)

A native of Co. Down was educated for the diocese of Dromore and ordained at Maynooth in 1848. Two years afterwards he entered the Society. He served as chaplain in the Crimean war. He became rector of Sacred Heart College in 1872 and occupied that post until 1882. During his rectorship, the St Joseph transept of the church was built and the three altars of the sanctuary consecrated. In 1880 he founded at the Crescent an Apostolic School or the education of boys who wished to serve in the missions. This school was transferred to Mungret in 1882 when the Jesuits acquired the property of the Mungret Agricultural School. Father Ronan spent two years in the USA, where he was able to collect enough money for the building of the Apostolic School wing. He spent some years on the mission staff and was for some years in Gardiner St, where he became superior. His last years were spent at Mungret College which will always be associated with his name.

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

Born: 1801, Ireland
Entered: 09 November 1857, Grand Coteau, LA, USA - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Died: 22 March 1861, St Charles College, Grand Coteau, LA, USA - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)

Born: 23 November 1856, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 01 January 1878, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1889
Final Vows: 15 August 1894, Xavier College, Kew, Australia
Died: 31 May 1931, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

RONEY or ROONEY - changes in Cat 1900

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

by 1886 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
Came to Australia 1892

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
John Roney was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers, and entered the Society 1 January 1878, at Milltown Park at the age of 21, probably after some further education. He studied philosophy at Milltown Park, and theology at Louvain, 1886-88, with regency at Belvedere and Tullabeg Colleges, 1882-85, teaching physics, chemistry, French and mathematics. He returned to teaching after ordination, first at Belvedere, 1888-89, and then at the Crescent, Limerick, before arriving in Australia in 1890. Tertianship was completed at Loyola College, Greenwich, the following year.
From 1891-1900 he taught for die public examinations and was hall prefect and prefect of discipline at various times, at Xavier College, Kew. Then he worked in the parish ministry, at North Sydney, 1900-08, at Hawthorn as minister, 1908-10, at Norwood, 1910-13, as superior and parish priest, followed by Richmond, Lavender Bay, and Toowong, 1919-24, again as superior and parish priest.
His final years, 1924-31, were teaching languages at Riverview. He suffered much in this final period from an internal trouble. While preparing for an operation he developed heart trouble from which he died suddenly.
Roney was a zealous, active and prayerful priest who had an irascible temper. The boys at Riverview would provoke him into one of his passions, though he begged them not to! When he was superior at Toowong he quarreled with one of the parishioners whom he accused of wanting too high a price for a piece of land which he wanted for the church, and when he took to denouncing her from the pulpit he was removed from office. He was also a great champion of Irish rights in the days of Home Rule.
He was remembered as a most sincere priest. Inaccuracy in narrative or argument always incurred his censure. He had a great love of literature and the ancient classics, and a deep knowledge of modern languages, especially French language and literature. He was a man of prayer, spending an hour before the Blessed Sacrament every evening.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 6th Year No 4 1931
Obituary :
Fr John Roney

Fr. John Roney was born 3 Nov. 18533, and entered the Society at Milltown 1 Jan. 1878. He began Philosophy immediately after the noviceship, spent two years at it, then put in two years at Belvedere and one at Tullabeg teaching. 1885 saw him at Louvain, where he completed Philosophy, adding two years Theology before returning to Belvedere for a year, and another at Crescent.
In 1900 he sailed for Australia, made his Tertianship at Loyola (Sydney), and spent the next nine years at Xavier as Prefect or Master. During this period, he was Minister for eight years in various Residences, Superior of Norwood for two years, and Toowong for six. He was Miss. Excurr. in 1904, an unusual work at that time in Australia. Superiors sent him to Riverview in 1925, as Spiritual Father and Master, where he remained until his death. In all he was 23 years Master.

We owe the following appreciation to Mr G Ffrench. It is a true picture of the man, not only during his stay at Riverview, but of his whole life :
“This note merely gives impressions Fr. Roney in his last years in Riverview, some half dozen years ago, he was active still. He was Spiritual Father of the Comunity and was teaching French in the three top classes.
It is easy to visualise him sitting in the library during recreation watching a game of billiards, reading the Tablet, conversing - or rather arguing - with someone. He was a well of interesting information. His varied career had made him rich in experience and anecdote. He was accurate, sometimes overwhelming accurate in conversation.
This same accuracy distinguished his teaching. On a point of French grammar he would give you the rule in a neat formula, and then the exceptions in an order which aided memorising them.He slaved for his classes. No matter how late at night it was when one got down to his room to go to confession, Fr. Roney was always to be found at his table, with a pile of theme books on either side of him. His work often took him till 2 o'clock in the morning. Every mistake was underlined, every theme annotated. Was all this necessary? Perhaps not. But it showed an admirable devotedness to duty.
Indeed, unswerving, unmeasured fidelity to duty was the most characteristic feature of the man. It appeared everywhere. His observance of rule was truly edifying. His exhortations were always ad rem. Their chief theme was the necessity of the interior life which over work and the spirit of competition tend so much to dissipate. He never wearied of urging the practice of a monthly recollection. He was in our busy world of school, toiling from morning till far into the night, but he was not of it.
Fr. Roney had high ideals and strict views. Being honest, he was consequently, hard on himself. It is not surprising that he expected much from others, inferiors and superiors alike. During the years he was superior in the residences, he appears to have been an exacting one. Some quite amusing stories are told of his rencontres with defaulting subordinates.
When his own superiors failed, or seemed to him to fail in their dealings with him, he was wounded. He bore such wounds to the grave. Vain to reflect now that perhaps greater width of vision. deeper sympathy with the difficulties of others, a keener sense of humour might have lightened his troubles. For him these troubles were real and heavy. He bore them like a
true Jesuit. Fr. Roney was too humble a man to be embittered, too honest a man not to he saddened. Not all who saw him walk resolutely over to the boys' Chapel every evening, and there spend an hour in prayer, knew that within that bowed figure a bowed though not a broken spirit was meditating on indifference and praying for it.
One who knew him long and well once put it, “John Roney is rough, outspoken if you like, but he is a very holy man.”

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

Obituary

Father John Roney SJ

Xaverians of the early nineties will learn with regret of the death of Father John Roney SJ. He was a priest who had lengthy experience in Australia. He was born in 1856. He studied for the priesthood at Louvain. After coming to Australia he undertook parochial work and was successively in charge of St Ignatius Parish, Norwood (South Australia), St Francis Xavier's (Lavender Bay), St Mary's (North Sydney), and Toowong (Brisbane). He was on the teaching staff here at Xavier from 1891 to 1899, and at the time of his death he was teaching at Riverview. RIP

◆ Our Alma Mater, St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, Australia, 1931

Obituary

John Roney

On May 31st, Trinity Sunday, we sustained a very heavy loss through the death of Father Roney. He had been suffering for a couple of years from an internal troule, which, while it did not in any way interfere with his work as a cleric and teacher, yet was a cause of much inconvenience and suffering to him. Dr Curtis thought an operation would remove the trouble and so sent him to St Vincent's Private Hospital, to be treated by a specialist. It was realized that preparation for the operation involved considerable risk for a patient of his 72 years, but he was ordinarily so robust and agile, that there seemed to be every hope of a successful issue. At first his constitution responded satisfactorily to the treatment, but somewhat unexpectedly, a disposition to heart-failure developed, and it was seen that he would not survive the treatment necessary to prepare him for the operation. He felt that his end was approaching, and disposed himself accordingly, receiving all the last sacraments in a spirit of cheerful resignation to the holy will of God. The end came rather suddenly. We heard that he got a turn for the worse on the morning of Trinity Sunday, and he passed peacefully away at about one o'clock on that day.

Characteristic of this fine priest was his striking sincerity. Inaccuracy in narrative or argument always incurred his censure, This quality made him somewhat formid able in the classroom, where his students found it wise to be more than usually atten tive to his admonitions.

In addition to profound scholarship in literature and the ancient classics, he possessed a deep knowledge of modern languages, being specially learned in French language and literature. He was a man of prayer, one of his most edifying devotions being an hour spent every evening in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

The following notice of his death, which appeared in the “Catholic Press” of June 5th, will give some details of his long and fruitful apostolate. He came to Australia in 1889, so that his labours in this hemis phere spread over 42 years :

Father Roney SJ - Death After Long Career
“An Irish priest who had a lengthy experience of the Australian misson, in four States of the Commonwealth, died in Sydney on Sunday. Rev Father John Roney SJ, whose active ministry was exercised to the last, leaves to a wide circle of friends memories of a deeply religious man, who fulfilled with honour and unflagging zeal the sacred obligations of the priesthood. As a humble religious, counting obedience as a precious help to perfection, or in the capacity of a superior, which office he held on several occasions, he was equally zealous, kindly, and attrac tive to the thousands who came within his influence.

Father Roney was born in Belfast in 1856, and educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. He studied for the priesthood at Louvain, that great centre of Catholic learning in Belgium. After coming to Australia he undertook parochial work, and was successively in charge of St Ignatius' parish, Norwood (South Australia), St Francis Xavier's (Lavender Bay), St Mary's (North Sydney) and Toowong (Brisbane). He was for a time attached to the teaching staff at Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, and at the time of his death was master of languages at St Ignatius' College, Riverview. Those who knew him as a young priest speak with admiration of the interest he took in matters concerning the emergence of Ireland to freedom and prosperity. In the days when the Home Rule question agitated the public mind, he was a fearless champion of Irish rights.

Requiem Mass.
A Solemn Office and Requiem Mass were celebrated in St Mary's Church, North Sydney, on Tuesday morning, for the repose of his soul. His Grace Archbishop Sheehan presided, and was attended by Right Rev Monsignori J P Moynagh PP, PA, VF, and T Hayden DD, PP The Mass was sung by Rev F X O'Brien SJ, who was assisted by Rev Fathers J Craig SJ (deacon), V Conlon SJ (sub-deacon), and E Corish SJ (master of ceremonies). The Schola sang the Office and the usual Gregorian hymns at the Absolution”"

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Rooney (1856-1931)

Entered the Society in 1878 and made his higher studies at Milltown Park and Louvain, and was ordained in 1888. He spent one year on the teaching staff of the Crescent and set out for Australia in 1890.

Fr Jan Philipp Roothaan SJ was a Dutch Jesuit priest who served as the twenty-first Superior General (Father General) of the Society of Jesus (1829 - 1853).