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Born: 21 August 1842, Montalbano Elicona, Messina, Sicily, Italy
Entered: 20 December 1859, Palermo Sicily Italy - Siculae Province (SIC)
Died: 05 October 1869, San Calcedonio, Malta - Siculae Province (SIC)

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

39 Sackville Street Lower, Dublin.

Born: 02 October 1892, Norwich, Norfolk, England
Entered: 07 September 1915, Roehampton, London - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1925
Died: 11 January 1951, County Waterford - - Angliae Province (ANG)

Died in HIB but member of ANG

Born: 09 January 1908, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England
Entered: 07 September 1927 - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1947, Rome, Italy
Final Vows: 05 May 1944
Died: 30 May 1951, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland - Angliae Province (ANG)

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 26th Year No 3 1951

Obituary :

Died May 30th, 1951 of heart trouble in the Leeson Hospital in Dublin.
Fr. Henry Milner, or Fr. John as the Russians called him, was the youngest son of a big Yorkshire Catholic family. One of his brothers entered the Vincentians and went to China, where he was accidentally drowned near Peking just before the war. Henry and his brother Edward studied at Osterley and entered the Society, but Edward had to leave during Philosophy for reasons of health. Fr. Henry entered the novitiate at Roehampton on September 7th, 1927. Previous to going to Osterley he had earned his living as a carpenter and packer, and both these acquisitions proved most useful to him in later life. His third year of Philosophy was spent at Jersey, and it was during this time that he was accepted for the Russian Mission. In 1934 he went to Rome for Theology with a group of others from various Provinces studying for that Mission. Of those who were with him four are now dead, but Fr, Milner is the only one who died in more or less normal circumstances. His great friend Fr. Walter Ciszek of the Maryland Province died heroically on his way back from Siberia with a group of his parishioners at the end of the war. Another was gassed in Buchenwald. A third was killed on the Soviet frontier. The fourth is presumed dead in Russia. Another companion is probably still alive in a Soviet prison camp.
After his Theology in 1938 he spent a year doing special studies at the Russian College in Rome, and then was sent to a Russian parish at Esna in Estonia. He had not been there long when the Soviet troops entered the country and the British consul ordered all Britishers to leave the country. The only possible route was through Russia, so he joined a group which went to Moscow and down to the Black Sea and eventually to Palestine. Here he stopped to find out the wishes of superiors, suggesting that he might enlist as an army chaplain. Orders came from Rome that he should make his way to Shanghai and join Fr. Wilcock and make his Tertianship. After many adventures he managed to get to Bombay and board a Japanese ship which took him to Shanghai.
Although it was already January, 1941, and the Tertians had long ago finished the Long Retreat, superiors decided he should join them at Wubu and make his Long Retreat alone. When he returned to Shanghai in July, the building of St. Michael's College was well under way, and his experience as a carpenter and general constructor proved most valuable. He kept a vigilant eye on the contractor and his work men, who were amazed (and dismayed) to find that the Padre knew more about their jobs than they did. He would not allow any slipshod work. He himself made the altar and other things for the oriental rite chapel. There seemed to be nothing that he could not make or repair. His room was always like a workshop. Things awaiting repair were piled up everywhere which made it look rather untidy. Once when Admiral Boyd visited him he burst out laughing at the sight of the room and said he would like to get Fr. Milner for a time on board a navy ship to train him how to keep things stored tidily in a minimum of space.
When the College opened in January, 1942, there were only three Fathers, so Fr. Milner was Prefect of Studies, Minister, Procurator, full time teacher, Infirmarian, Chaplain of the nuns and doing a hundred other jobs. I have never met a man who could do so much work and seem to enjoy every moment of it. He was always cheerful and cheering up others. He had an inexhaustible fund of jokes and anecdotes, and certainly knew how to tell a good story. Often visitors would come to the College in a hurry on business, intending to stay just a few minutes, but once they got talking to him they simply could not tear themselves away. Up to five minutes before his death he was amusing the nurses with some of his wonderful stories about China.
In 1943 the Japanese put all our community into concentration camps, so Fr. Milner was sent first to Yanchow and then later to Ash camp in Shanghai. Those who were with him tell how he was the most popular man in the camps. They tried to get him to become the official representative of the camps to the Japanese, but he wisely refused. It was the strain of these two and a half years in camps which presumably caused the heart trouble which resulted in his death.
At the end of the war he took up again his old work at the College. He noticed that he had frequent light pains in his chest, but the doctors thought it was caused by stomach trouble. He took some stomach pills and carried on hiş heavy programme of work, always cheerful and never complaining. It was only in 1948, when he went to hospital on account of his pains, that the heart trouble was recognised. He was still there under treatment when the communist troops approached Shanghai. In May, 1949 superiors decided that he had better be evacuated, so he was sent with Fr. Brannigan on one of the last planes to Hong Kong. He was in hospital there for three weeks and then went by ship to England and eventually to Rathfarnham Castle in Dublin. The Columban Sisters in Ireland were training some of their Sisters for Russian work, and they had asked to have Fr. Milner near to advise them. Apart from that he was supposed to rest and recuperate, ready to join the other Fathers in the new work in America. Typical of him was that he could not just sit in his room and rest. He decided to print some badly needed music of the Russian rite, so he copied out about 600 pages by hand and had them lithographed. As a relaxation from writing music he translated from the Italian the latest book on the oriental rites, over 800 pages, helped some Russian D.P.s and did many other things for the Russian work. In his last letter to me he wrote that the music and the book were nearly finished and he could not bear the thought of having nothing to do. He had hopes that he would soon be well enough to travel to New York and help in the new Russian Centre. His health seemed to be improving, but suddenly on May 30th he had a sudden severe attack and died within five minutes.
The character of Fr. Milner is best summed up by the following incident. When plans were made for our Russian Centre in New York, Fr. General decided to put off Fr. Milner's appointment to it, for reasons of health. I consulted the other Fathers of the community and they all agreed that we should propose to Fr. General that we wanted to have Fr. Milner with us even though he were to spend the rest of his life in bed. His mere presence in the house would greatly help the morale of the community. It had become natural to us to take our problems to Fr. Milner and his solid Yorkshire common sense and good judgment usually solved them. His cheerfulness, piety, humility, devotion to the Russian work and simple obedience made his presence invaluable. He was one of the first to enter the Russian rite, at a time when it was all new and there were many serious questions as to how far we Jesuits. could adapt themselves to such a big change. We were required to drop all the customary devotional practices of the Society and take on new ones without changing our spirit. It required great adaptability and sound judgment concerning what are accidentals and what essentials, and a genuine indifference even in the intimate expressions of one's spiritual life. It was here that Fr. Milner excelled. He took no half measures and really adapted himself to the Russian customs. It is not surprising that all the Russians loved him and considered him one of themselves. One of his Shanghai companions writes: “His death is a grave loss. Fr. John was one of the most universally liked men I have ever known a wonderful personality.an endless store of energy and a tireless worker”. The Sisters of St. Columban write : “He was a model of cheerfulness. The two and a half years of invalid life must have been very trying, but he never complained. He was entirely given to souls, and his generosity combined with humility and true priestliness will always be an enduring inspiration to us”.
F Wilcock SJ, 12th June 1950

Born: 26 February 1916, Cleveland OH, USA
Entered: 01 September 1936, Milford OH, USA - Chicagensis Province (CHG)
Ordained: 14 June 1949
Final vows: 02 February 1954
Died: 08 December 1994, Detroit MI, USA - Detroitensis Province (DET)

by 1980 came to Milltown (HIB) working on a University of Detroit course in University College Cork

Born: 26 December 1832, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1857, Santa Clara University CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)
Died; 20 December 1857, Santa Clara University CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)

Born: 26 January 1836, County Tipperary
Entered: 27 January 1858, Beaumont, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained; 1867
Final vows: 15 August 1872
Died: 18 April 1894, Collège du Sacre-Coeur, Charleroi, Belgium

by 1866 at Laval France (FRA) studying Theology 2
by 1867 at Vals France (TOLO studying
by 1868 at St Bueno’s Wales (ANG) studying
by 1870 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1875 at St Wilfred’s Preston (ANG) working
by 1876 at St George’s Bristol (ANG) working
by 1890 at Charleroi Belgium (BELG) teaching

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a Teacher at Prefect at Clongowes and Tullabeg at different periods.
He studied Theology at Laval and Vals.
1869 He was sent as Minister to Galway.
He made his Tertianship at Drongen.
He worked on the Missionary Staff for a while and was based in Limerick.
1875-1876 He was working in the ANG parish at Bristol.
He then returned to Limerick where he excelled as a Confessor.
He was transferred variously to Milltown, Tullabeg and later to Dromore.
1888 He went to Belgium, and died there at the College in Charleroi 18 April 1894

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Molloy (1836-1894)

Of Co. Tipperary, entered the Society in 1858. After his ordination, he was appointed to the mission staff and was a member of the Crescent community, as missioner, from 1872 to 1874. He returned to Limerick as member of the church staff and was prefect of the church from 1877 to 1882. He was sent on loan to the Belgian's Province's College of Charleroi in 1888 as assistant prefect and English master. Here, it may be remarked that other Irish Jesuits at the period held the same position in the same school. Father Molloy remained in Belgium until his death on 18 April, 1894.

Born: 11 August 1841, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 15 June 1870, Sevenhill, Australia - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)
Final Vows: 25 March 1881
Died: 25 July 1925, St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed : ASR-HUN to HIB 01 January 1901

Edmund Moloney, a half brother of Thomas Carroll - RIP 1938 - and Francis - RIP 1929

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had joined the Austrian Mission at Sevenhill, and spent the best part of the rest of his life there until his death there 25/07/1925.
He was refectorian at Sevenhill.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Edmund Maloney, a half brother of Thomas Carroll, entered the Society at Sevenhill, 15 June 1870. After taking vows he remained at Sevenhill until 1877 as assistant tailor, refectorian and cook. In 1877 he was at Georgetown as cook and houseman, and in 1878, he performed similar duties at Manoora. From 1879-84 he was back at Sevenhill as assistant cook and doing housework. He returned to Manoora, 1884-86, was at Norwood in 1887, Kooringa in 1888, and in 1889 he was again at Sevenhill, where he spent the rest of his life, with the exception of 1907, when he was at Norwood.
Moloney was an active, zealous man with a powerful physique and equable temperament.

Born: 16 July 1910, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1943, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1946, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 10 October 1985, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News 61st Year No 1 1986

Obituary
Fr James Moloney (1910-1931-1985)

Jim was born in Dublin in 1910. His vocation to the Society came indirectly from his decision to become a quantity surveyor. This brought him to Clongowes Wood in 1929 as clerk of works in the building operations that resulted in the large castellated addition to the College. While there he thought joining the Jesuits, sought advice from some of them and entered the noviceship at Emo in 1931.Then followed his degree course in Rathfarnham castle (1933-36); philosophy in Tullabeg (1936-39); a year's teaching in Belvedere; theology and ordination in Milltown Park (1940-44); finally, tertianship in Rathfarnham (1944-45). (Of the remaining 40 years of his life, 33 were spent in Belvedere; or, put in another way, 34 (including the regency year) out of his 54 years of religious life were devoted to Belvedere).
In summer 1945 he came to Belvedere as minister. The writer remembers hearing him murmur anxiously to himself: “Oh, these supplies”, as he surveyed the Mass tabella. Jim's anxiety was understandable; “supplies” called to mind the long and complicated Milltown list. However, as minister he worked smoothly and efficiently. In addition, he taught religion, which he liked, at the technical school in Parnell square. It was during these first years in Belvedere he made himself indispensable when social occasions involving ladies' committees had to be planned times when communities tend to skulk, Jim revelled in meeting people, and became widely popular This activity however always had its apostolic side, and kept on growing. In 1951, after classroom, still in Belvedere, until 1959,when he took up again for over a decade the more congenial duties of minister.
In 1970, the blow fell: Jim was a city man and felt keenly his transfer to Mungret as minister. He referred to his year there as his penitential season. His great kindness, however, is still remembered.
Much more to his taste were his six years in Manresa (1971-77). He was back in his beloved city, and so fond did he become of his new house that he had regrets about his last posting: to Belvedere as bursar (1977-'85). An obedient man, he applied himself diligently to learning the ropes. He liked his mid morning visit to the bank just opposite the Gate theatre. There was a certain brief-case-and-rolled-umbrella formality about this excursion. Another part of his daily routine was his snooze in a chair during the early afternoon, That hour was sacrosanct and medically advised for a recurrent cardiac flutter resulting from a heart attack some years before. This palpitation was premonitory: Jim knew that he was under a sentence. Those who had known him in earlier days noted that his fussiness had all but subsided, and that his occasional testiness had become rarer. His manner showed a new mellowness and contentment. At the beginning of September 1985 he went to Wexford for a holiday. Shortly after his arrival, he had a stroke, then another, a very serious one. Transferred to hospital in Dublin, he died on 10th October 1985, still unable to communicate.
Jim's life in the Society had its centre in the community, never elsewhere. A very private person, he seldom talked about himself, and then only in a passing way. At the opening of his Jubilee Mass he made known his wish to have no interventions: in these matters he was conservative. He rarely indulged in even mild disparagement of others, and remained loyal to the rectors under whom he served. He was orderly and kept to a routine: he always appeared d well-groomed. During his years of formation, his contemporaries referred to him as the Student Prince - the nickname was both descriptive and affectionate. After his death, one came to realise that, in his own unobtrusive way, he had indeed exercised an apostolate. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1986

Obituary

Father James Moloney SJ

Jim was born in Dublin in 1910. His vocation to the Society came indirectly from his decision to become a quantity Surveyor. This brought him to Clongowes Wood in 1929 as clerk of works in the building operations that resulted in the large castel lated addition to the College. While there he thought about joining the Jesuits, sought advice from some of them and entered the noviceship at Emo in 1931. Then followed his degree course in Rathfarnham Castle (1933-6); philosophy in Tullabeg (1936-'9); a year's teaching in Belvedere; theology and ordination in Milltown Park (1940 4); finally, tertianship in Rathfarnham (1944-25). [Of the remaining 40 years of his life, 33 were spent in Belvedere, or, to put it another way, 34 (includ ing the regency year) out of his 54 years of religious life were devoted to Belvedere).

In summer 1945 he came to Belvedere as minister. In addition, he taught religion, which he liked, at the technical school in Parnell Square. It was during these first years in Belvedere that he made himself indispensable when social occasions in volving ladies' committees had to be planned and hosted - times when communities tend to skulk. Jim revelled in meeting people, and became widely popular. This activity however always had its apostolic side, and kept on growing. In 1951, after six years as minister, he returned to the classroom, still in Belvedere, until 1959, when he took up again for over a decade the more congenial duties of minister.

In 1970, the blow fell: Jim was a city man and felt keenly his transfer to Murgret as minister. He referred to his year there as his penitential season. His great kindness, however, is still remembered.

Much more to his taste were his six years in Manresa (1971-77). He was back in his beloved city, and so fond did he become of his new house that he had regrets about his last posting: to Belvedere as bursar (1977-'85). An obedient man, he applied himself diligently to learning the ropes. Another part of his daily routine was his snooze in a chair during the early afternoon. That hour was sacrosanct and medically advised for a recurrent cardiac flutter resulting from a heart attack some years before. This palpitation was premonitory: Jim knew that he was under a sentence. Those who had known him in earlier days noted that his fussiness had all but subsided, and that his occasional testiness had become rarer. His manner showed a new mellowness and contentment,

At the beginning of September 1985 he went to Wexford for a holiday. Shortly after his arrival, he had a stroke, then another, a very serious one. Transferred to hospital in Dublin, he died on 10th October 1985, still unable to communicate.

Jim's life in the Society had its centre in the community, never elsewhere. A very private person, he seldom talked about himself, and then only in a passing way. At the opening of his Jubilee Mass he made known his wish to have no interventions: in these matters he was conservative. He rarely indulged in even mild disparagement of others, and remained loyal to the rectors under whom he served. He was orderly and kept to a routine: he always appeared well-groomed. During his years of formation, his contemporaries referred to him as the Student Prince - the nickname was both descriptive and affectionate. After his death, one came to realize that, in his own unobtrusive way, he had indeed exercised an apostolate.

May he rest in peace.

Born: 25 March 1913, Abbeyfeale, County Limerick
Entered: 07 September 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1945, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1949, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 05 June 1984, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - Zambiae Province (ZAM)

Part of the St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia community at the time of death.

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 03 December 1969

by 1965 at Loyola Watsonia, Australia (ASL) working

◆ Companions in Mission 1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Michael Moloney on coming to Zambia wrote a short 250 word account of his life, at the end of which he put: “He arrived in Zambia in May 1967 and was attached to Mukasa Secondary School at Choma. He spent x years there. He died at xx in 19xx...May he rest in peace”. PLEASE PUBLISH NO MORE THAN IS IN THIS ACCOUNT Signed: Michael Moloney S.J. 14 April 1967.

He had had four heart attacks before this date and this might have prompted him to write his own obituary! So brief! So succinct! That was Michael! Yet he lived another seventeen years, in Zambia, fully occupied.

Michael was born on 25 March 1913 in Abbeyfeale on the border of Co. Limerick and Co Kerry. His secondary education was taken in St Michael's College, Listowel, and at the Jesuit College of Mungret. He entered the Society in Emo in 1931, pursued the normal Society studies with regency at Clongowes Wood College. He was ordained in July of 1945 at Milltown Park, Dublin and after tertianship went to Belvedere College to teach for four years. He moved to Leeson Street as minister and editor of the IRISH MONTHLY which ceased publication in 1953. From 1953 to 1959, he was attached to the College of Industrial Relations (CIR) as director of the Cana Conference which organised pre-marriage courses. These were a liberating experience for many couples whom were deeply in love and full of hope and good intentions. The spirit prevailing during courses were happy - even hilarious at times, deeply spiritual in the best sense, full of the wisest insights he could muster from wide reading and from his sympathetic and naturally optimistic temperament.

In 1959 he went to Loyola University, Chicago, USA, where he gained a degree in social and industrial relations and returned to CIR. He began to have heart attacks during these years (1961-64). For four years he went to Australia as a director of a retreat house near Melbourne.

He arrived in Zambia in 1967 to teach in Mukasa Minor Seminary for a year before being moved to St Ignatius in Lusaka. He became director in the Zambia Institute of Management and spent eleven years at Evelyn Hone College of Further Education, becoming Head of the Department of Business Studies. He retired in 1981. He was kept busy at St lgnatius helping with pastoral work, preaching, marriage counselling, writing leaflets and pamphlets on Christian values in the modern world. He was very conscientious in his work and totally dedicated to whatever work he was asked to do. He highly valued his religious life as a Jesuit and was very loyal to the Church. He loved a challenge and was always ready to take up his pen to defend the Church. He started the Kalemba Leaflets to bring out the deeper aspects of our common faith.

He was a good companion and, as well as enjoying his own talk, he could listen to others. He had certain conventions to which he held tenaciously, but he was not hidebound nor narrow. On the contrary, he loved freedom and the liberty to express every truth and facet of life as it was, or as he saw it. He was essentially logical and exact and could be impatient when undue consideration was being given to illogical and incalculable elements in human behaviour. He rejected all nonsense.

On and off during his seventeen years in Lusaka, some health symptoms occurred that slowed him up and endangered his life.

He returned to Ireland threatened with gangrene on the toe. The time he spent before and after the amputation was no more satisfactory than could be expected. There were times when he wanted to die. His lifelong sense of friendship with Christ seemed to become more vivid in that last year or so. He worked over many thoughts for the defense of the faith and these he hoped to continue publishing in Zambia in the Kalemba Leaflets. That was not to be. He was sensitively cared for in Cherryfield Lodge, the Jesuit Nursing Home in Dublin where, in the end, his death came unexpectedly on 5 June 1984.

Note from John Coyne Entry
Fr Michael Moloney writes:
‘Fr Coyne took a very keen interest in what Jesuits had done in Zambia since the coming of Frs Moreau and Torrend for whom he had a deep admiration. Admiration for people who did "great things for Christ" was a permanent attitude of his. His standard for a Jesuit was that he should be "a saint, a scholar and a gentleman" and he clearly tried to exemplify that in his own life. He was a kindly man yet at the same time a puzzle to many. Many wondered what "the real John Coyne was like" because externally he seemed to be set in a conventional spiritual mould and to be rather formal in much of his behaviour, so much so that one cannot escape the conclusion that he was a man with a conflict between his personality traits and what he considered Jesuit spirituality demanded of him. In Zambia he was faithful to his afternoon stroll during which he would meet people and through which he made some friends whose hospitality he was pleased to accept".

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Moloney came to Australia as director of the retreat house at Loyola College, Watsonia, and worked with Conn Finn, 1964-66.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 59th Year No 4 1984
Obituary

Fr Michael Moloney (1913-1931-1984) (Zambia)

1931-33 Emo, noviciate. 1933-36 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1936-29. Tullabeg, philosophy. 1939-42 Clongowes, 1942-46 Milltown, theology. 1946-47 Rathfarnham, tertianship.
1947-51 Belvedere, teaching. 1951-55 Leeson St., Minister, Ed, Irish monthly. 1955-59 Catholic Workers College, dir. Cana Conference. 1959-60 Loyola University, Chicago, stud sociology and industrial relations. 1960-63 Catholic Workers' College, lect and psychology. 1963-67 Loyola College, Watsonia, Victoria, Australia, dir. retreat-house.
From 1967 on: in Zambia. 1968-83 St Ignatius Residence, Lusaka, Zambia, dir Zambia Institute of Management (till 1970. then:) lect. Evelyn Hone College of Further Education/Applied Arts and Commerce. 1984 convalescing in Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin, after hospital treatment. Died there on 5th June 1984.

To write about someone I knew as well as Michael is surprisingly difficult, I have little interest in cataloguing the events of his life, and no inclination, or right, to reveal the inner person I came to know so well. What then can be said? As a young man in the Society (1931-47) he was very well liked; comfortable and relaxed in a rather tense era; lively and zestful for life; stalwart in his convictions and strong in their expression. He worked hard, and was always good at mastering a subject accurately and expressing it clearly. After the years of 'formation we never lived in the same community again. Our relationship was full of absences, crowned by the final departure so well described by Jean Guitton: “From the angle of the living and of those who have not yet made the great journey, the absence of the dead is more than a sorrow. It is so incomprehensible, so ironical, to see them no more, not to be able to communicate with someone who was a substantial part of one's life, and who seems to have gone away one evening in a fit of madness leaving no address....
In the close community of the early years he would be remembered for his pleasant singing of ballads like “Ivan Skivinski Skivar” or “The garden where the praties grow” on days of celebration; and indeed how he would become voluble and expansive after one glass of the unnamed wine we used to get on rustication days! He was good company; and, as well as enjoying his own talk, he could listen. He had conventions which he held to tenaciously, but he was not hidebound or narrow: on the contrary he loved freedom and the liberty to express every truth and facet of life as it was, or as he saw it. His competence on formal occasions combined well with an unfettered and untrammelled spirit at other times.
He had an orderly mind, symbolised by his very clear and firm handwriting and the way he typed his letters, with seldom a misprint and never a faded or blurred ribbon. He was essentially logical and exact, and could be impatient of undue consideration being given to the illogical and incalculable elements in human behaviour. He threw out nonsense, We often disagreed as to what constituted nonsense.
Nevertheless, during one of the most fertile periods of his life he was dealing with what might be thought of as the most illogical and irrational area of human life - sexuality. Here his sound judgement rescued him from the then conventional attitude of clerics to marriage as essentially a legal contract with rights and duties. He knew instinctively that this was an inadequate and he could not accept the sexual apparatus as some kind of mechanical device, kept in a bedside locker, to be used or not according to a complicated set of philosophical and legalistic nostrums, devised largely by the inexperienced. Hence his pre-marriage courses in the CIR were a liberating experience for many pairs in love, and full of hope and good intentions. The courses, I understand, were happy, even hilarious at times; deeply spiritual in the best sense; full of the wisest insights he could muster from wide reading and from a sympathetic and naturally optimistic temperament.
I cannot speak with any assurance of the other long period he spent in adult education, in the Evelyn Hone Institute in Lusaka, He went through some difficult times with courage and faith, and kept working hard even when he felt some degree of disapproval and a sense of being undervalued. On the whole, though, my impression was that he got satisfaction from and gave satisfaction in his work there. He did not take too kindly to the onset of old age or the intimations of mortality: he was in fact rather disbelieving of its drastic effects. Those who die young have this advantage over us, I now realise, that they come to fulfilment when still fastened to their “own best being and its loveliness of youth” (Hopkins: The golden echo), and do not have to reverse of anticlimax and slow decay to get there. About twenty years before he died he had some trouble with heart and circulation. Then he went to Australia, where he was very active in retreat-giving, and made at least one rich and lasting friendship. Off and on during the sixteen years he spent in Zambia some symptoms occurred that slowed him up and endangered his life. When he came on holiday to Ireland he took things physical quietly, On villa in Achill he showed no tendency to climb the lovely mountains, but would kindly drive me to the foot and would stay below until I returned many hours later, on one occasion to find that he had had a very serious fall from the pier at Dugort. On the last villa we spent together at Banna Strand, Co Kerry, we took little exercise, he much less than I. He was contented to mooch about the dunes when it was fine, and look long meditatively over the Atlantic to the and setting sun.
When he came back some months ago threatened with gangrene in the toe, he was a very changed man. The time he spent before and after the amputation was no more satisfactory than could be expected. There were times when he wanted to die. His lifelong sense of friendship with Christ seemed to become very vivid in this last year or so. He worked over many thoughts for the defence of the faith: these he hoped to continue publishing in Zambia, as the Kalemba Leaflets. He was sensitively cared for in Cherryfield Lodge, where in the end his death came unexpectedly. I viewed his remains in Kirwan's funeral parlour. They did not look like remains, but like him: determined, and ready to spring into animated conversation at the right stimulus. I came by chance into possession of a record of Verdi's Requiem a few days after his burial, and will I hope always enjoy thoughts of him as I listen to its gentle and its thunderous passages. May he enjoy eternal life. the years
Michael J. Sweetman

Born: 14 April 1931, Magherafelt, County Derry
Entered: 07 September 1950, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1963, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1968, Chiesa del Gesù, Roma, Italia
Died: 26 January 2017, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Early Education at NS Magherafelt, Co Derry, Northern Ireland; Clongowes Wood College SJ

1952-1954 Rathfarnham - Studying Arts at UCD
1954-1957 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1957-1960 Crescent College SJ - Regency : Teacher
1960-1964 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
1964-1965 Paray-le-Monial, France - Tertianship at Maison La Colombière
1965-1967 Bellarmino, Rome, Italy - Studying Theology at Gregorian University
1967-1968 Trier, Germany - Diploma Course in Liturgy at German Liturgical Institute
1968-1984 Milltown Park - Teacher of Theological Dogma & Liturgy
1977 President of Milltown Institute
1983 Sabbatical
1984-1989 Nairobi, Kenya - Professor of Theology at Hekima College School of Theology
1989-2017 Milltown Park - Professor of Systematic Theology at Milltown Institute
1993 Director of Lonergan Centre
1996 Visiting Professor at Hekima College School of Theology
2001 Professor Emeritus of Theology at Milltown Institute; Director of Lonergan Centre; Writer
2015 Director of Lonergan Centre; Writer

by 1965 at Paray-le-Monial, France (GAL M) making Tertianship
by 1966 at Rome, Italy (ROM) studying
by 1968 at Trier, Germany (GER S) studying
by 1985 at Nairobi, Kenya (AOR) teaching - Hekima

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fine-scholar-outstanding-lecturer/

‘Fine scholar, outstanding lecturer’
Jesuits, family and friends of the late Ray Moloney SJ packed into Milltown Chapel for his funeral mass celebrated by Bill Matthews SJ. Ray died on 26 January, aged 85. He was born in Belfast in 1931 and raised in Magherafelt, Co. Derry. At the age of 12 he went to Clongowes Wood College SJ and joined the Jesuits in 1950. Most of his life revolved around the Milltown Institute where he taught theology and liturgy. He spent five years on the missions in Kenya where he learnt Swahili so he could travel and celebrate Mass with the local people. He was the respected author of many theological books, and well known for his theology of the Eucharist.
Homilist Brian Grogan SJ noted that Ray’s writings on the Eucharist offered fleeting glimpses into his soul. Ray summarised his book Rediscovering the Eucharist not in terms of sacrifice, or obligation, or the Real Presence, but in terms of friendship. “In the Eucharist we already anticipate something of what our friendship with Christ will be when it comes to its full flowering in heaven. In the long run that friendship is all that matters,” he wrote.
Referring to his long academic ministry, Brian said that Ray was a “fine scholar and outstanding teacher.” This view was echoed widely by many of his former students who posted on the Irish Jesuits Facebook page. “Fond memories of learning theology from Ray Moloney. A scholar and a gentleman”, wrote Thomas Giblin. And US Jesuit James Pribek commented, “He combined fine scholarship with genuine humility and benevolence. In a group, he was usually on the edge, taking everything in and smiling. He radiated peace. May God be good to him”.
In his wide-ranging homily Brian spoke also about Ray’s life as a Jesuit, noting that his ministry in the intellectual apostolate was underpinned by a deep faith, committed prayer life and love of God. He said he lived an ascetic, almost monastic life, and a fitting symbol for that life was his breviary. “Ray leaned into the contrary wind and lived an orderly and predictable day. Some clerics, I have heard, sailed with the prevailing wind and eased up on the divine office, but not he... At the end his well-worn breviary was the only book beside his bed.”
Brian acknowledged that Ray held firmly to what some would call a more conservative theological position and was slow to relinquish beliefs that were dear to him. “But agree with him or not, he commanded your respect. He knew where he stood, and had a steely quality characteristic of his Northern Ireland roots.” He was also prepared to change and develop, something attested to in a few words from Provincial Leonard Moloney just before the final commendation. He said he had been speaking to Ray not too long before his death and Ray told him that his prayer had changed in recent times and was now much more affective than rational.
Speaking at the end of the Mass, Ray’s niece also told a revealing story about the man her family knew and loved. She remembered with fondness his visits to her home as a child and how he would let her put her feet on his shoes as he danced her round the room.
Brian concluded his homily with the following words: “In a little while we will say: ‘We shall become like God, for we shall see him as he is.’ Like Aquinas when asked by God ‘What do you want?’, Ray would have responded, ‘Teipsum, Domine. Yourself, Lord.’ ... Ray now sees God. He is enlightened, entranced, immortalised and divinised. Our Eucharist today is a thanksgiving for all that God has accomplished in our brother and friend, Ray Moloney”.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Born: 27 May 1880, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 7 September 1899, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1914, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 2 February 1917, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia
Died: 24 January 1972, Campion College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1902 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Bill Maloney was educated at Mungret College, where he was captain of the school, and he entered the Society at Tullabeg, 7 September 1899, after graduating in arts from the Royal University of Ireland. After noviceship at Tullabeg, 1899-1901, he studied philosophy at Stonyhurst, 1901-04, theology at Milltown Park, 1911-15, and tertianship at Tullabeg, 1915-16.
He was sent to Australia and St Patrick's College in 1916, and remained there all his working life until 1968, teaching mainly physics. He was also minister, 1918-45, procurator, 1946-68, consulter, 1918-45, and spiritual father and admonitor, 1946-68. He retired from teaching in 1964. When St Patrick's College closed in 1968, he went to Campion College until his death. His presence there was valued by the scholastics.
Moloney was doyen of the province at the time of his death, a genial and lovable priest, unassuming, humble, kind and charitable, of regular religious observance. He was a person of
powerful frame, an active, vigorous, outdoor man in his earlier years, a champion handballer and an enthusiastic fisherman. He was a good teacher, not only because of his efficiency, but also because of his patience, kindness, generosity and encouragement. He was particularly good with the weaker students. For some years he was director of the Sodality of Our Lady, and his talks were well remembered for simplicity and straightforwardness. He had a deep and practical piety, never forced nor strained nor extravagant, but based firmly on truth.
Moloney was also well liked as a retreat-giver, being not eloquent, but firm and practical and having a vein of quiet humour. He adapted to the post-Vatican Church by concelebrating Mass and wearing a tie. His adaptability was helpful to those who found the changes difficult.
To look for something spectacular in Moloney would be to look in vain. His life was dedicated to the unspectacular, to the routine of daily life. Quietly, with perseverance and patience, he went through the regular pattern of each day and each year. His was a life of fidelity, to his vocation, to the duties of the present moment, and to his fellow Jesuits. In attitude he was young. What he could not understand he did not criticise, even though he sometimes marvelled.

Born: 12 October 1894, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1912, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1929, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 19 December 1978, Bon Secours Hospital, Dublin

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

by 1921 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1928 at Paray-le-Monial France (LUGD) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News 54th Year No 2 1979 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1979

Obituary :
Fr Charles Molony (1894-1978)

On December 19th, 1978, at Bon Secours Hospital, died Father Charles Molony, SJ.
Father Charles Molony was born in Dublin on October 12th, 1894. He was baptised in the Pro-Cathedral, Marlboro Street, where he was also confirmed. His education before entering the Noviceship was received at Loreto College and Belvedere College
Father Charles Molony entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg on September 7th, 1912 where he pronounced his first Vows on September 8th 1914. After one year “home” juniorate at Rathfarnham (1914-1915) he spent five years teaching at Belvedere College. The years 1920-1923 were spent in Jersey studying Philosophy (and French). During his course of Theology at Milltown Park (1923-1927) he was ordained priest at Milltown Park on July 31st 1926 by the Archbishop of Dublin. After Theology he spent his Tertianship at Paray-le-Monial, 1927-1928. He pronounced his Final Vows in Belvedere College Chapel, in the presence of the Provincial, Father John Fahy, SJ, on February 2nd 1929.
After his return from his Tertianship he spent three years (1928 1931) in Belvedere College; from 1931-1934 he was on the Mission Staff, and stationed at Emo. From there in 1934, he was sent to Gardiner Street.
In Saint Francis Xavier's Gardiner Street, therefore, in 1934, Father Charlie Molony began the chief work of his life: he was operarius' in Gardiner Street for 42 years and “Assistant Operatius” for two years: in all from 1934 to 1978.

The following “Obituary” tributes to a devoted and zealous priest are from Father Dan Dargan SJ and Father Michael Sweetman SJ, - both fellow members of the same Community as Father Charlie Molony: Saint Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin.

“That's where I was born”, he would say when the Belvedere Hotel was mentioned. Fr. Charlie Molony - he was always very insistent that his surname be spelled without an “e” - was born in 1894. For him going to school was to entail the shortest possible of journeys, merely crossing the street, first to Loreto Convent, North Great George's St., and then to Belvedere for his secondary education.
He left Belvedere in 1912 and entered the novitiate in Tullabeg, where his contemporaries included Frs Aubrey Gwynn and Eddie Bourke. From Tullabeg he went on to Rathfarnham where he spent one year before being transferred to Belvedere for a five-year stint. His three years of philosophy he spent in Jersey and from there he went to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained in 1926. He did his Tertianship in Paray-Le-Monial and then returned to Belvedere for a period of three years. He then joined the Mission and Retreat staff and was stationed in Emo for three years 1932 and 1933. From Emo he went to Gardiner St. where he was to spend the remaining forty four years of a very active life.
In the course of those years he held the positions of Director of the Men's Sodality, Director of the Children of Mary Sodality, founder Director of the Boys’ Club, founder-Director of the Girls’ Club, Director of the Pioneer club, Chaplain to a St Vincent de Paul Conference, and Chaplain to a Legion of Mary Praesidium. In addition he was most devoted to the full pastoral work of Gardiner St. Church.
He worked with enthusiasm at whatever post was assigned to him. He was deeply interested in people, prayed for them, and gave himself generously to them, attending their weddings, visiting them when they were ill, bringing them the sacraments, and going to their funerals. he was always doing things for them, especially those whose need seemed great, trying to find jobs or houses. A large family of fine girls residing in Gardiner St. had great difficulty, presumably because of the address at which they lived, in getting suitable jobs. In turn they all sought Fr Charlie’s help, and using his influence he succeeded where they had failed. Several former members of his Children of Mary Sodality tell, some gratefully, some jocosely, of his efforts at unobtrusive matchmaking on their behalf. He was a man of loyalties, and his loyalty to the Society and to Belvedere was very evident. A founder member of Old Belvedere Rugby Club he loved to talk about the Club's players and games.
He was very humble about his intellectual attainments and once when as a priest he was invited to speak to the Juniors in Rathfarnham he commenced by saying: “I have been asked to read a paper on the Sodality. But the only paper I read is the Evening Herald!” In fact this was not true. He frequently read religious magazines, and in the last years of his life was often quite distressed by articles of an avant-garde nature.
He kept going, right up to April 1978 when he underwent a serious operation, and from that on his health deteriorated steadily. In December he was admitted to the Bon Secours Hospital. He knew the end was near and was well prepared for it. Shortly before he died a nurse came into his room and said: :Is there anything you want, Fr Molony?” He was able to force an answer of just one word. “Heaven”, he replied. That word came straight from his heart.

Fr. Charles Molony – An Impression

“If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light” (Mt. 622)
Charlie’s eye seems to me to have been sound, to a remarkable degree. His vision was simple, direct, clear and wholesome; he was a man totally dedicated and unconditionally vowed. The paradox is that, on occasion, he could confuse a simple issue inextricably! But even when in his dogged, uncompromising way, he obviously had the wrong end of the stick, he was quite incapable of anything vindictive or grudging afterwards. He was really the soul of kindness and a forgiver; it might be impossible to push him into anything, but he would gladly and cheerfully give everything. He signally lacked vanity or egocentricity.
I did not know him intimately, so this is the impression of an outsider. I’m inclined to think, but may certainly be wrong, that he did not fully disclose his feelings to anyone. He seemed to me the kind of man that neither needed, nor understood that another might need, to share his inner self with anyone but God.
As a younger priest here in St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, he was a great initiation. He started the boys’ club and girls’ club and many sections and activities with both of the main sodalities. He was an unashamed devotee of Our Lady and took an active part in the Legion of Mary. An athlete as a youth, he maintained an enthusiastic and detailed interest in sport to the end of his life. His particular interest was of course, the activities of the old Belvedere clubs. He had an immense and again - detailed knowledge of the people in the area, their marriages, employment, wanderings and deaths. He sought prayers almost daily for someone who had died. Scores of people loved and relied upon him.
It was a consolation to all of us here in St Francis Xavier’s that his mind remained lucid through the sharp decline of his last months. He was unwaveringly himself. When anyone asked did he want anything he used to reply “Yes, everything” or just “Yes heaven”.
When he almost lost the use of his voice it was quite hard to make out what he was trying to say; so Fr. Kieran Hanley chanced a “Yes” and a “No” fairly indiscriminately to his efforts. Finally leaning close to Charlie he made out that he was saying: “You are saying ‘Yes’? when it should be ‘No’ and ‘No’ when it should be ‘Yes’!
He has left behind him the image and memory of a man who kept his hand firmly on the plough for 66 years in the Society, ploughed a straight furrow, and was happy in the process.
Michael Sweetman SJ

Born: 26 October 1691, Limerick City, County Limerick
Entered: 13 September 1708, Paris, France - Francis Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1723, Collège Louis le Grand, Paris, France
Final Vows: 02/02/1726, Corsica
Died: 01 December 1765, Nantes, France - Francis Province (FRA)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
In pencil top of p 65 Th De Malone Ent 17 September 1708; Prof 4

Second Entry- Thaddeus De Malone
1746 At Nantes Residence (FRA CAT 1746)
He taught Humanities for seven years, Philosophy for eight and Mathematics for twelve.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ
O’Molony

After First Vows he was sent to study Philosophy at Paris and then Regency at Rennes and Eu.
1720-1723 He began his studies at La Flèche for a year and then at Louis Le Grand College Paris, where he was Ordained 1723
1724-1725 Made Tertianship at Rouen
1725-1757 For the next thirty-four years he held important teaching posts in FRA, in Philosophy, Mathematics and Hydrography : Teaching Philosophy at Quimper, Rouen and Paris (1725-1733); Prefect of Studies for the Juniorate (1733-1734); Teaching Mathematics at Paris (1734-1735); Teaching Mathermatics at Compiègne (1735-1736).
1736-1757 Sent to teach Hydrography at Nantes.
1757 Retired from teaching and was a Spiritual Father at Nantes until the dissolution of the Society in France 1761/62. His name then disappears from records

By 1736 had had regularly been mentioned as a possible Rector of Irish College Poitiers, but his name disappears from Irish correspondence thereafter.

◆ CATSJ I-Y has
“Simon or Thady S, Molony or de Molony or Malone”; DOB 28 October 1690 or 1692 or 27 October 1669 or 27 October 1691 Limerick; Ent 15th or 3rd or 13 September 1708; FV 02 February 1725 or 1726 Quimper;
1711 At Paris College
1714-1717 At Rennes College (FRA)
1720 At Eu College FRA teaching Grammar, Humanities and Philosophy. Best talent distinguished judgement, Grammar, Humanities, speculative sciences and fit to any office in Society
1723 At Paris College teaching Humanities
1726 Teaching Philosophy at Quimper FAR
1730 At Rouen teaching Philosophy
1734 At College of Paris teaching Philosophy
1737-1757 At Nantes teaching Hydrography (Letter of Bernard Routh 1737) and Humanities

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

Born: 28 August 1796, County Limerick
Entered: 01 May 1829, Avignon, France (GALL)
Ordained: 23 December 1820, Dublin - pre Entry
Final vows: 02 February 1846
Died: 29 September 1886, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Was already Ordained 23 December 1820 in Dublin, and had spent nine years as Priest in the Diocese, before Ent.

He Entered at Avignon, France under Father Renault.
He taught at Tullabeg and Clongowes at first.
1841-1846 He was sent to Belvedere to teach.
1846 he spent the next forty years at Gardiner St as Operarius, until his death there 29 September 1886.
He had a great reputation for sanctity, and was indefatigable in the Confessional.

Born: 22 April 1825, County Meath
Entered: 07 October 1860, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Died: 08 September 1865, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a carpenter by trade.

Born: 26 November 1938, Hardwicke Street, Dublin
Entered: 06 April 1958, St Mary's , Emo, County Laois
Final Vows: 15 August 1971, Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare
Died: 29 May 2000, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin

by 1991 at Toronto Canada (CAN S) Sabbatical

Born: 08 May 1920, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1939, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 04 January 1956, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 03 December 1977
Died: 08 December 1993, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the St Joseph’s, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1951

by 1948 at Australia (ASL) - Regency

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Seán Monahan's family attended St Francis Xavier's Church, Gardiner Street, and he received his secondary education at Belvedere College nearby. On 7 September 1939 he entered the Irish noviciate at St Mary's, Portarlington, and then did juniorate studies in arts, studying English, French, Latin and Irish, at the Irish National University, while living at Rathfarnham. He developed tuberculosis during this time and never completed the course. For the next three years he was an invalid, and the decision was made for him to go to Australia.
At the beginning of 1948 Monahan arrived in Australia and began the three year philosophy course at Loyola College, Watsonia. He was a wonderful companion with his sense of humour, his gift for mimicry and his talent for friendship. He enjoyed participating in the scholastic dramatic performances, particularly the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He produced Iolanthe.
For regency he spent some time at St Louis School, Perth, teaching and working in the boarding house, but he found the heat did not benefit his health, so in 1953 he began theology
studies at Canisius College, Pymble. After ordination in 1956, Monahan became a member of the Australian province. Tertianship followed in 1957 at Sevenhill, SA, under Henry Johnston, his theology rector.
His first priestly appointment was to Corpus Christi College, Werribee, where he was minister, bursar, prefect of liturgy and librarian. In 1958, there were 189 diocesan students; 42 in the first year. Monahan was a good administrator, shrewd, diplomatic, and with a care for detail. His special eye for individuals was much appreciated. He soon became involved in spiritual direction and the students found him a most warm and understanding confessor. He kept contact with many of these men in later years, either as priests or laymen. He was probably one of the best known Jesuits among the Melbourne diocesan priests.
Monahan's special talent for spiritual direction became well known, so he was sent to Loyola College, Watsonia, in 1960, first as socius to the master of novices and later as master of novices. In his first year as master there were 36 novices. Monahan was a most successful and highly acclaimed novice master. Despite his obvious garishness, he understood Australian young people and the contemporary needs of the Church and Society, and initiated many sensible changes into the life of the Jesuit novice. In many ways, he was a significant turning point in the formation of Jesuits in the Australian province, and the last of the Irish novice masters. At the time of his death, 42 of his novices were still members of the Society.
Monahan spent 1971 as spiritual father to Jesuit University scholastics at the Dominican house of studies in Canberra. In 1972 he was recalled to Victoria to become rector of Corpus Christi College, Werribee. It was the last year of the college at that place, the Society handing over its administration to the diocesan clergy.
For the next two years Monahan was spiritual director to the ]suit scholastics at Campion College, and in 1976 he was appointed socius to the provincial and lived at the provincial residence, Hawthorn. Having made his mark as socius, he was given the job, in 1977, of secretary to the South East Asian assistant in Rome, Robert Rush. However, the Roman climate affected his health, and he had difficulty learning Italian, so Paul Gardiner replaced him. He returned to Australia in 1978. At this time the archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Little, asked for him as vicar for religious in the archdiocese.
On his return he took up residence at the provincial house, and was superior from 1979-85, secretary of the province, giving wise advice to the provincial, while continuing his work as spiritual director to many in Melbourne. He was a most hospitable man, and Jesuits enjoyed being invited to Power Street for some Jesuit celebration. During this time his health continued to deteriorate.
In 1993 his health improved a little and Monahan was keen to revisit Ireland. He went and stayed at Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown Park, Dublin, where he received many visitors. He related by mail that he was very happy to be in Dublin. However, his health further declined, his return to Australia was postponed, and he finally died there in December.
Monahan was much loved in the Australian province for his personal humanity and charm, his loving care of others, his encouragement and cheeriness, his sense of fun and wit. He was one of the great storytellers and was a good companion. He loved news, enjoyed being consulted and gave wise advice. Above all he engendered love of, and confidence in, the Society.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 1 1948

Fr. Peyton left for Australia on the “Mauretania” on 31st October in company with Fr. Conway, a member of the Viceprovince. Fr. Kevin Carroll, also a member of the Viceprovince, left Shannon Airport on 3rd November for New York, bound for San Francisco and Sydney. Mr. Monahan left Southampton on the “Queen Mary” on 20th November for New York; he took boat at San Francisco on 12th December for Sydney which he reached on 4th January. He will be doing his first year's philosophy at Loyola, Watsonia in the coming year.

Irish Province News 48th Year No 1 1973

A recent letter from Fr Seán Monahan, Corpus Christi College, Werribee, conveys the new that the Seminary is being replaced; “After just 50 years in Jesuit hands; the diocesan authorities have to find a buyer for a property a bit like Emo. A new Seminary is a building and though scheduled to be ready for the opening of this year on February 26th it will not in fact be ready in time. We have handed over the administration to the diocese but there will be Jesuits on the staff of the new establishment as academic and spiritual directors. It is in this latter capacity that I go there together with the present spiritual director here, Fr Paul Keenan. Altogether there will be five of us working with the same number of diocesan priests for 161 students following an 8 year course”.

◆ Interfuse No 77 : Summer 1994 & Interfuse No 82 : September 1995 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995

Obituary
John (Seán) Monahan (1920-1993)

During the six decades of my life, an unbelievable number of people have crossed my path, some friends, others mere acquaintances.

Out of this vast galaxy of people, some have shone like stars to light my way, a select few have been guiding lights that have helped me to believe in myself and to keep on course when I was in danger of losing my way or of being overwhelmed by what confronted me. These latter luminaries have exerted a colossal impact on my life, and I am ever conscious of my debt to them.

On this occasion I want to talk about one that I treasure very specially, one who died on the 8th of December last year after a life of extraordinary dedication to God and to people who needed him. He was John (Seán) Monahan, and I met him first in my last year in the seminary 1958. He had been born in Dublin, Ireland, on 8th May 1920, and had entered the Society of Jesus just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, on 7th September 1939.

Interestingly enough, he had been ordained a priest only two years before our own group, on 6th January 1956. Because of health reasons he was sent to work in Australia where he spent over thirty years; ironically enough, for the latter part of this period he was contending quietly and courageously with a debilitating illness.

I was thinking back, as I was putting these thoughts together, about how we first met, and I can't quite recollect exactly how that meeting took place. What I do recall, however, is the fact that during the space of a few short months we established a bond that was to link us in friendship every since that time.

As I indicated earlier, I saw him as one of those luminaries who exerted a colossal impact on my life. Whether our contacts were frequent or separated by long intervals, those points at which our lives touched each other, either by letter or in person, exerted a considerable influence on me, both as a man and as a priest. All this was so profound and leaves me so indebted to him that I would like to tell you about at least a few of the riches that I derived from my friendship with Father John Monahan.

My first comment might well sound extraordinary, but I believe it to be the truth; in John Monahan I met Jesus. He was a person in whom I perceived, particularly at a time I needed it, that he really cared about me. He was unhurried as he walked with me on my journey.

There was an extraordinary warmth in him. He had a graciousness, a charm that was not artificial but from the heart. It wasn't a performance designed to impress, it was a natural outflow from his personality. Quite obviously, I wasn't the only one to have experienced this Monahan touch. From the testimonies of others ! know that he endeared himself to an incredible number of people, who were, like myself, influenced and enriched by his part in their life.

As I said, he really embodied Jesus for me, and I mean that if I were to meet Jesus, he would act towards me as John did. Related to this Christlikeness, he breathed an extraordinary inner peace. Any contact that transpired between us was characterised by this quality. There was this relaxing, disarming approach that he adopted, and it said to you in unmistakable terms, “Just be at home while you're with me”.

Had I been aware that he was going home to Ireland for a final farewell to his relatives, friends and fellow religious, I would have grasped the opportunity of saying my own good byes. Therefore, regret that I failed to say goodbye to him and to thank him for everything.

In a way, this tribute to him is a public goodbye and thanks to John for all he was for me and did to me. That is not to suggest that I have finished what I want to say about him, because there is one other comment that completes the picture, and it is this.

The most indelible and most lasting impression that I will always carry with me is that he was a great affirmer. How often, when important events occurred in my life and I let him know about them, and sometimes when I omitted to do so, through the mail would come, written in his neat and thorough way, a letter that complimented me on what I had achieved, or encouraged and supported me in what I was about to undertake.

So often in regard to this very programme he was a source of endorsement and positive comment which encouraged me to give of my best. He wouldn't hesitate to provide a suggestion, too, of how this or that might be improved, but there was always a sensitivity and enthusiasm that urged me on.

His was a caring ministry and I know from comments of other priests and people how widespread and powerful was the influence for good in their lives. Which means that the greatest kindness would be for us to emulate him and his Christlike behaviour in our daily lives. That is no easy prospect, to absorb all these great qualities of a genuine loving priest, but it would be worth the effort.

I already miss John very much; I was always aware that he was there, selflessly supporting me in the background through his suffering and by his prayer.

I thank our heavenly Father that in his providence our lives did touch each other and that I am so much the richer for that as I share these thoughts with you now.

So, to fittingly conclude these thoughts about the man who was for me my Christlike Character for 1993, I share with you a text of Scripture that John referred to often and which presumably affected his personal and priestly ministry and sustained it.

It was found highlighted in his Bible, following his death. It comes from Paul's Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses twenty-six to twenty-nine. As I read it, I can perceive John really reaching into the very depths of his being, and opening himself to the power of the Spirit, seeking to be a true priest - a bridge between us and the Father, in and with our Brother, Jesus.

These are the words that animated and challenged John Monahan, Priest and Member of the Society of Jesus, to be Christlike in character:
“...the mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone to make them all perfect in Christ. It is for this I struggle wearily on, helped only by his power driving me irresistibly”.

Christopher Gleeson, Riverview Australia

Born: 07 May 1886, Coleraine, County Derry
Entered: 08 September 1903, Manresa, Roehampton, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1919
Died: 31 October 1918, Awoingt, Hauts-de-France, France (in war)- Angliae Province (ANG)

22nd Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery

https://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/tremeichion-memorial/tremeichion-soldiers/montague-walter-philip/

Montagu, Walter Philip

Walter was born on the 7th May 1886 at Portstewart near Londonderry.

David Littler Jones tells us that he was the 5th son of seven boys. Their parents were Lt Com Robert Acheson Crombie Montagu and Annie Margaret Montagu (nee McMicking), of Crowmore, Portstewart, Co Londonderry.

Walter entered the Society of Jesus in 1903 and went to St Bueno’s College, Tremeirchion in 1915 to study theology. He was ordained early so he could join the forces as an army chaplain and was attached to the 22nd Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery. He enlisted on the 17th March 1918 and served in France. He was wounded in his thighs and taken to the 45th casualty clearing station near Avoingt on 28th October. He died of his severe wounds on the 31st October 1918, just before the end of the war.

Walter Philip Montagu left a will. The England and Wales National Probate Calendar,( index of wills and administration) includes the following entry –

” Montagu. The Rev Walter of St Bueno’s College St Asaph, temporary chaplain HM Forces died 31st October 1918 in France or Belgium. Probate London 9 July to Rev Joseph Edward Blackett clerk. effects £1,166 ..11sh ..10d

He is buried in the British Cemetery at Avoingt. His younger brother, Alexander Cyril Montagu, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was killed in an accidental explosion on the battleship HMS Bulwark off Skegness harbour on 26th November 1914 when over 750 crew members were killed.

Born: 26 May 1888, Garvaghy, County Tyrone
Entered: 07 September 1908, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1921, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1925, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia
Died: 10 October 1972, Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL 05 April 1931

by 1916 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Thomas Montague was educated by the Vincentian Fathers at St Patrick's, Armagh, 1901-08, and entered the Jesuit noviciate at Tullabeg, 7 September 1908. He completed his juniorate at the same place, but ill health forced him to begin regency at Mungret, 1911-15, completed, 1918-19. Philosophy was studied at Jersey, 1915-18, theology at Milltown Park, 1919-23, and tertianship at Tullabeg, 1923-24.
He came to Australia in 1924 and spent 1925-31 at Xavier College, Burke Hall, and was headmaster from 1927. Here he began the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, put the boys into uniform and laid out the grounds, supervising the construction of the main oval and wide shovels and spades building up the banks that surround it.
He spent a year at St Patrick's College, 1934, and except for a further few years at Burke Hall, 1937-40, spent the rest of his life at Xavier College, Barker's Road, teaching mainly mathematics and French. He was prefect of studies in 1932, then minister from 1941-53, choirmaster, 1947-62, and director of the opera for about 25 years until 1968. He continued his work in the grounds and strengthened the banks that surround the chapel and those on the south wing. He frequently had a band of unwilling workers-boys with penals. The punishment took the form of filling up barrows with soil and wheeling them to wherever he wanted them. One of his choirs won a competition in the Melbourne Town Hall and the members took it in turn to carry the trophy up Collins Street around midnight.
Montague retired from teaching in 1969. He was keen on cricket and showed endless patience in teaching small boys how to bat. He coached teams at Xavier, and in one year, the First XI. He supervised the boarders' meals three times a day for over twenty years. He was a hard worker, always willing to substitute for someone else.
His direction of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas at the college were well appreciated by all associated with them. He loved the words, music, dances and stage administration. He was a good musician and knew Gilbert and Sullivan operas well. He taught the dances, and conducted the orchestra. To his opera students he was held in high esteem, even awe. He demanded high standards of the boys, and was a hard taskmaster, but the boys learnt discipline and teamwork as well as music accomplishments. The opera productions were not a lone production. For twenty years, from 1943, Montague had the assistance of the ever efficient and reliable Eldon Hogan as Opera General Manager and Stage Manager.
Basically, Montague was shy and retiring, but could be pleasant in community He was a man of few words. In the classroom he kept boys working, in the dining room he seldom spoke, except about table courtesy, at cricket practice his comments were short and clear. When he was annoyed with boys he needed few words to correct them, usually “nonsense” or “humbug” were quite sufficient to let people know his disapproval. He was certainly well respected. In the community he showed a sense of humour and enjoyed a game of billiards, but his usual terse comments were telling. In his latter years he read much, but never a newspaper, as he considered them a waste of time. Nevertheless, he always wanted to have news of the latest cricket score. He was certainly a powerful presence in the Xavier College community for many years.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 47th Year No 4 1972

The death of Fr Thomas Montague has occurred in Australia, October 10th, RIP

Born: 26 November 1891, Thebarton, Adelaide SA, Australia
Entered: 25 March 1930, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Final vows: 15 August 1941
Died: 26 January 1965, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Charles Moore was a hotel manager and proprietor before entering the Society at Loyola College Greenwich, 5 February 1932. He was a reluctant cook and buyer al his life in the Society, especially at Loyola College Watsonia, Canisius College Pymble and the Provincial residence.
He worked hard for many years doing different domestic duties. He was a deeply spiritual man, a happy cheerful person, with a great love of the Society and of his vocation, as well as being a robust and forthright character.
He was always sad when someone left the Society - he could not understand how it could happen. He had a high regard for poverty, and despite many years as manductor and buyer, he was exact in his use of money. He was a man of simple pleasures. For years his days off consisted of a business trip to the city, a visit to one of the Churches, a cut lunch in the park, or Mass at the Cathedral and lunch at St Patrick’s College.
He enjoyed smoking, but i later years gave it up. He was a member of the Pioneers Total Abstinence Association. He was also fond of music, and as a pianist was a good exponent of light music, tough he rarely touched the piano after he entered. He gained much pleasure from the stereogram at Power Street. He worked hard for the Indian Mission, especially the stamp unit, tearing stamps off envelopes. His happy presence at the “May Time Fair” each year we appreciated. He was a thoroughly useful and reliable person, and always good company in community. He valued the spiritual help and friendship of Henry Wilkins.
His last illness was long and painful. The large number of Jesuits at his funeral was testimony to the love and affection in which he was held.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

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

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

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

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

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

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Isaac Moore (1829-1899)

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

Born: 25 July 1799, Kilrush, County Wexford
Entered: 28 November 1839, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1852
Died: 02 January 1868, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 24 October 1835, Tullamore, County Offaly
Entered: 18 January 1857, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1868
Final vows: 02 February 1874
Died: 13 February 1925, Roehampton, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Born: 25 July 1858, Bellinter House, County Meath
Entered: 13 September 1873, Milltown Park (HIB for Taurensis Province - TAUR)
Ordained: 1888
Final Vows: 08 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, County Offaly
Died: 27 January 1906, Saint Joseph’s Church, San José, CA, USA - Taurensis Province (TAUR)

Born 22 April 1927, Ballyglass, Kilmovee, County Mayo
Entered 07 September 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1958, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin
Died 20 September 2018, Coptic Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Part of the Novitiate, Xavier House, Lusaka, Zambia at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 16 May 1990

by 1960 at Münster, Germany (GER I) making Tertianship
by 1985 at Lusaka, Zambia (ZAM) teaching

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fr-brownes-polymath-partner/

Fr Browne’s Polymath partner
While John Moore was home on leave from Zambia, he talked to Pat Coyle, Director of Communications, about his links with Fr Frank Browne, and about much else in his most unusual life. He was Professor of Botany in UCD during the 70’s. He also became a student and friend of the renowned Jesuit photographer, Fr Frank Browne. John took early retirement from his UCD chair, but the last thing he did was retire. Instead he became a Jesuit missionary and went to Africa, working in Zambia and Malawi. As in previous years, John returned to Ireland this summer to visit his family and Jesuit friends. Whilst here he watched the RTE TV documentary on Fr Browne (see story in this issue) and recalled his own special relationship with the Jesuit who was not only a famous photographer but also a heroic chaplain to Irish volunteers in World War I.
After the documentary was aired, John talked to Pat Coyle of Jesuit Communications about his life and his friendship with Fr Frank. You can listen here to the interview in which he recalls his days in UCD as Professor of Botany and shares with her a letter he’d just received from a student who’d discovered a yellow poppy on a beach in Mayo. The poppy was thought to have been lost to these shores, not having been seen for thirty years – but it’s back! He also speaks about the subsequent rewards and challenges of becoming a missionary in his late 50’s; as well as lecturing in various institutions, he mastered the complexities of the computer age and put those skills to good use. At 87 John is still full of vitality and as the IJN photo shows, he looks like a man in his sixties. There’s a reason for that too; he spoke about what keeps him young in body and soul. He returns to Africa in September, bitten by the missionary bug and refreshed by his holiday home, ready as ever to serve the Lord with a willing heart.

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/death-of-a-botanist/

Death of a botanist
The funeral Mass of Fr John J. Moore SJ took place on Monday 24 September in Kasisi Parish, Lusaka. Fr Moore, who was 91 years old, died on 20 September. Charles Searson SJ was the principal celebrant and homilist at the vigil Mass. Speaking to a packed Church he recounted the key moments of his life and the remarkable contribution he made to the Jesuits and to wider society. (Read his homily notes here).
Fr John was a native of Mayo, born in Kilmovee on 22 April 1927, and his family moved to Dublin when he was ten. He was a student at Belvedere College SJ. He joined the Jesuits in 1945, was ordained a priest in 1958, and took his final vows in 1963.
For more than twenty years Fr John was Professor of Botany in UCD. He was an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy, and an Irish government appointee to the Wildlife Advisory Council. He was awarded the Europapreis für Landespflege prize in 1982 in recognition of his work on Irish vegetation and nature conservation. As Fr Charlie noted, “Right through his academic career in Dublin John showed himself to be an outstanding academic and professor.”
In the 70’s Fr John was rector of the Monkstown community in Dublin and in 1980 he was appointed superior of the Espinal community in Gardiner St, in inner city Dublin. He also was a member of the Teams of Our Lady, a Catholic organisation which supported couples in their married life.
In 1983 Fr John took the surprising step of early retirement in order to join the Jesuit mission in Zambia. Fr Charles also noted that when he first turned up for work in the University of Zambia he showed considerable patience as he had a lengthy wait for an official appointment. But he put his computer skills (honed in 1960’s Dublin) to good use. According to Fr Charles, “there was great demand for his assistance from Ph.D students at the university, who were trying to assemble the fruits of their research.”
Fr John settled well in Zambia but he did return to Ireland from time to time. During a visit in 2016 he gave a lengthy an insightful interview to the Irish Jesuit Mission office which you can read in full here.
He also spoke to Pat Coyle, Director of Irish Jesuit Communications in 2014. In the course of that interview (listen above), Fr John talked about his early Jesuit days as a student and friend of the renowned Jesuit photographer Fr Frank Browne SJ.
Recalling his days as Professor of Botany in University College Dublin he shared a letter he had just received that summer. It was from one of his former students and he had discovered a yellow poppy on a beach in Mayo. The yellow poppy was thought to have been lost to Irish shores, not having been seen for thirty years, but it was back.
Fr John also spoke about the rewards and challenges of becoming a missionary in his late 50’s, and his work as a lecturer in various institutions in Zambia, first teaching biology and later theology.
He was 87 at the time of the interview but was still full of vitality. As the IJN photo shows he looked like a man in his sixties and there was a reason for that which became clear when he talked about what kept him young in body and soul.
The interview took place in August and Fr John returned to Zambia in September bitten by the missionary bug, and refreshed by his holiday back home. He gave four more years of fruitful service before his peaceful death last Thursday. The readings at his vigil Mass, were from Isaiah 6;1-8 ‘Whom shall I send? Who shall be our messenger?’ And Matthew 6:25-33: ‘ Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.’ They were a fitting tribute to his life of service to others, and care for the earth.

◆ Irish Jesuit Missions : https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/211-john-moore-sj-mission-in-zambia

What does it mean for me to be a missionary in Zambia today?
John Moore, SJ
I came to Zambia as a missionary when I was 56, after a very fulfilling time working in the Botany Department at UCD. My “spare-time” activities during that time involved me with married couples, giving retreats and spiritual direction as well as helping in Parishes at the weekends.
When I left Ireland some of my colleagues at the University as well as the more senior students were very surprised at my decision to move to Zambia and some told me bluntly that it was a wrong decision. I was not convinced by their arguments. It seemed to me that I had done sufficient for Ireland during my 23 years at UCD. Besides, after I had spent a few days the previous year as external examiner at the Biology Dept. of the University of Zambia (UNZA), I became very aware of the needs of Zambia, especially in University education.
Since I am now 85 years old, I could hardly be called an active missionary, but I am still convinced that I am in the right place. During my 29 years “on the missions” I have seen a huge change in the Church and among the Jesuits in Zambia. When I came here all the active Jesuits were white – now almost all the Jesuits running the various Jesuit works are native Zambians or Malawians. This gives me enormous satisfaction. Is this not why we came out here? To help in the development of an indigenous church.
So, without falling into the temptation of sitting back in my old-man’s rocking chair in a self-satisfied way, I must admit that I do feel a sense of having cooperated with the Lord in doing my little bit to bring about this change.
2nd April 2012

https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/508-irish-men-behind-the-missions-fr-john-moore-sj

IRISH MEN BEHIND THE MISSIONS: FR JOHN MOORE SJ

The Irish Jesuit Missions continues its series of interviews with Fr John Moore SJ. From ecologist to theologian, Fr John Moore SJ takes us though his life’s story in Ireland and Zambia.
When John Moore entered the Society of Jesus’ noviciate straight from secondary school, it was customary at the time. Like the other young Jesuits who came straight from secondary school, he was assigned to study for a degree in UCD. He did first Arts but switched over to Science the following year. In his final year one of the research projects he undertook was a follow up survey of vegetation in the Dublin Mountains, which had been researched 50 years previously by the famous naturalist, Lloyd Praeger, the results being published in 1905. He was required to re-survey the parts closer to Dublin and write up the results.
After getting his B.Sc. degree he was sent to study philosophy in the Irish midlands. A few days before he left Dublin, the Fr. Provincial (who had been his Master of Novices and knew all about his scientific interests) suggested that he might look around and start work in an informal way on his Ph.D. during his spare time. He was fascinated by the vast areas of Bogland which stretched in all directions and discovered that a local bog had two very rare plants growing on it: one a rare rush never seen in Ireland before, the other one found in only one other place in Ireland. So he decided to work eventually on a Ph.D. thesis on the ‘Bogs of Ireland’.
During the holiday periods he decided to finish the re-survey of the mountain area south of Dublin, covering the whole area of Praeger’s original survey. He wrote up the results during his spare time while studying Theology at Milltown Park. He finished the job before leaving for ‘Tertianship’, the final year of Jesuit formation which focusses on deepening one’s spiritual life. He was sent to Germany for this stage of his formation, so he left the manuscript with the Professor of Botany to see it through the printing process.

Dublin Mountains’ conversations in Germany
While in Germany his paper on the “Resurvey of the Vegetation south of Dublin” appeared in print and his Professor in Dublin sent him a few reprints. These he distributed to some of the ecologists living on the European Mainland. To his surprise, a reply came back immediately from the famed German ecologist, Reinhold Tüxen. He, along with the famous French ecologist Braun-Blanquet, had been invited to Ireland after Europe began to recover from the effects of World War II. They published their results (in German) in 1952 and John had critiqued some of their work in his paper. Tüxen was extremely pleased. He wrote “Although we published our Irish material 10 years previously, nobody seems even to have read it, let alone critiqued it! “Can you visit me before you return?” Tüxen asked. And so began a long and valued relationship of scientific interests with Reinhold Tüxen.
Before John’s ordination, his Provincial casually mentioned to John that UCD (University College Dublin) had requested to have him on its staff after he had finished his Jesuit studies. “I said ‘Yes’ - is that OK for you John?” All he could say was “You are the boss! If you want me to take up the offer, that is OK by me.”
So John taught for 23 years at UCD, Botany Dept., being eventually appointed Professor and Head of Department.

In the 1970’s the Irish Government was sending quite a lot of official aid to Zambia University, financing lecturers from the Irish Universities to give courses at the University of Zambia. Fr Michael J. Kelly, SJ, a good friend of John since the novitiate, was at this time Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University in Lusaka and was much involved in arranging this government aid; he petitioned the Irish Government to finance John to come as External Examiner of the Biology Department. John accepted the offer and was very struck by the difficulties of running a third world University according to First World standards. When his work in the University was finished John stayed on for some time in order to visit the Irish Jesuit Missioners and help in their work.

A ‘road to Damascus’ moment
John returned to UCD in time to organise things for the new academic year. It was while making his annual retreat in the Jesuit retreat-house, Manresa in Dublin that it happened.
John had been 23 years in the Botany Department of UCD. He was unexpectedly overcome with a very strong feeling that he should relocate to Zambia! Having prayed over the matter, he sent a letter to the Provincial requesting to be sent to the Zambian mission. He was quite late going onto the missions at 56 years of age.
The answer he wanted arrived with one condition – that he remain working within third-level education. Fr Michael Kelly SJ (https://www.jesuitmissions.ie/news/494-a-museum-piece-or-a-hero) set about arranging a position for him at the University of Zambia and John prepared for this new phase in his life. Then with only two days to go before departure, a telegram arrived from Michael: “SOMETHING GONE WRONG WITH JOB. STOP. COME ANYWAY. STOP.”
“What should I do Fr Provincial?”. The Provincial’s consultants had all been very clear in their requirement that John remain at third level teaching. He consulted Bishop Corboy of Monze, Zambia, who was in Dublin at that time for medical treatment. “You can trust Michael Kelly’s good judgement” he advised. And, with that assurance, John set out for Zambia and a new chapter in the book of his life.

Once a professor, always a professor
The search was then on in earnest for a job in Lusaka, but it had to be in third level education. He found out that when he applied for an advertised position in Agricultural Ecology, he didn’t even get an acknowledgement of his applications. Undaunted, he took the bold step of offering himself and his expertise to the Biology Department in Lusaka University. Not as a professor, not as a salaried staff member—but just as a n ordinary demonstrator! During the following year, he was back in the lecture halls and laboratories, giving tutorials and running practical classes.
At that time, a new lecturer had been employed and she was assigned to run a rather difficult course on Ecology, Statistics and Evolution to the final year students. She became ill. So John and two others stepped up to the mark, put a course together and got the students through their exams.
His opportunistic efforts paid off and he was offered a three year professorship contract, ‘once a professor, always a professor’. The contract was duly renewed after three years.

Former biologist turned theologian
At this time, In Malawi, there were big problems at the Diocesan Major Seminary situated at Zomba in southern Malawi. A decision from Rome requested that three Jesuits be sent in from Zambia—a Rector, a spiritual father and a Dean of Studies.
The Provincial Fr Jim McGloin had two well prepared men for the first two jobs, but he had no one who would be able to take on the job of Dean of Studies. He wrote to the Provincials of all the Jesuit provinces who might have a suitable man qualified to teach theology in English, even for a year or two. At that time John was living with the Provincial and each day when John enquired of him how the search was progressing, the reply was negative. John understood the awkward position the Provincial was in, given that the request had come from Rome. But he had a solution.
His contract was up for renewal but a thought persisted. Should he retire from Biology and teach theology, work towards taking up the Dean of Studies position? He shared his thoughts: Jim was delighted! “Do you really mean that?”.“I do!” said John and so it was settled. The two others were already in Zomba and soon he was welcomed as the third man.
A few weeks remained before the next semester and John had to work very hard to prepare to teach Theology of the Sacraments to students. During the following years he also taught Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.
The Jesuit Provincial had signed two 5-year contracts with the Malawian Bishops but then the Jesuit teachers were gradually withdrawn. After two more years, John too was moved on, received by the international education authorities. Back at Ireland’s UCD, 70 was the limit for even the best preserved lecturer to function.

The influence of others
Fr Tommy Byrne SJ was his Master of Novices for two years and then was made Provincial during which time he always took an interest in John and the development of his scientific interests.
Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ and his account of the atom bomb blast at Hiroshima is the passage John likes to recommend to young men wanting to know about the Jesuits. Fr Arrupe had been a medical student before entering the Jesuits and was the master of novices in the novitiate situated on a hill outside Hiroshima far enough from the centre of the city to avoid any deaths from the blast. Since this was the first atomic blast to be exploded over a civilian target, the medical authorities had no idea of what the best treatment was for severe radiation burns. Fr Arrupe set up a clinic in the novitiate to treat the survivors suffering from severe radiation burns but he had no idea on how to treat them. He had just received a consignment of borax for his infirmary. He discovered that it was quite effective in alleviating the effects of bad radiation burns.
Man’s inhumanity to man framed Fr Arrupe’s whole character and was noted by all who met him. When, several years later, Fr Arrupe viewed the film “Hiroshima, mon amour” where the nuclear blast was replicated—a terrible flash, then awful destruction—the memory came back to haunt him and he resolved never to view it again.
The present pope is also a much admired figure. John was inspired when he read about the change that Pope Francis had experienced when he lived in very poor areas of Brazil. Upon his return he was made Bishop of Bueno Aires.

The day the unexpected occurred
Born in Kilmovee, County Mayo in Ireland, John is the eldest of two sons and two daughters. At 10 years of age the family moved to Dublin for his father’s work. He had been separated from them during his primary school years since his mother wasn’t very keen on the local school; so she had sent her son to be educated at the national school where her father was Principal. There the teaching standard was high and in fact, John Mc Grath, his grandfather, was the first Irish National School teacher to receive a University Degree from the Royal University in Dublin.
John’s secondary school years were spent very happily at Belvedere College in Dublin and was his first encounter with the Jesuits, although John didn’t experience any inclination at the time towards becoming a member of the Society of Jesus. There was a connection in the wider family: Fr Jack Kelly SJ was a first cousin.
Then the unexpected occurred when, on John’s first enclosed retreat in 6th year, Fr Eugene Ward SJ gave the retreat to the young men during their last year of college. Fr Ward had returned from the Chinese missions to study theology and be ordained priest, but he had been blocked by World War II from returning as a young priest.
One evening during the retreat, he was reminiscing about his experiences in China and mentioned the enormous opportunities there since the Chinese people were very receptive to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Suddenly, like a flash, John was convinced that the Lord wanted him to be a Jesuit! Next day, determined to rid himself of what he felt to be a silly teenage crush on the Jesuits, he took a long walk in the rain – to no avail. He asked Fr. Ward, the retreat director, what he should do about it. “Ah interesting.” was the only reply he got, and that was all! But John could not shake the thought off. He decided to attended Mass every morning with the intention that the Lord would help him to shake off the idea. It did not work!
Next step was to run this persistent notion past the Prefect of Studies who advised John to speak with the Provincial about it. So far he had kept the idea to himself knowing that once it was shared, it would spread, which it did eventually. He confided his decision to his uncle, Fr Jack Kelly’s father, who scolded him for not informing his parents first. But John’s parents weren’t surprised at his decision to enter the Society of Jesus and were very supportive.

A lifetime’s decision finally made
It was decided—John went to Emo to begin his studies! And so the decision to become a Jesuit was partly influenced by Belvedere College, partly perhaps by his cousin Jack Kelly SJ and certainly by Fr Ward’s quiet evening musings over his experience as a missionary in China.
Ironically, at the beginning of John’s second year at Belvedere, the prefect of studies decided he should be a member of a small class studying classical Greek while the rest of the class were studying Science. His parents requested that he take Science, given his inclination towards the subject, but the Prefect was adamant. It was only a few months before the Leaving Cert Exam that the Prefect allowed him the option of writing the Science exam.; John decided to finish the Greek course. The result was that Science as a subject was not taken by him at secondary school and yet he ended up as a scientist plus theologian! The knowledge of classical Greek became very useful later on in study of Sacred Scripture—to this day, John always reads the New Testament in Greek.
Retirement in Zambia
John is now living a very busy retirement in Zambia in the novitiate for English-speaking young African men wishing to join the Jesuits. He teaches an introduction to the New Testament to novices—a challenge at times, as some hold fundamentalist ideas and expect every word in the New Testament to be ‘gospel truth’ even when taken outside of its context. John divides his time between community work, managing a large library and the Jesuit archives for Zambia.
The Irish Jesuit Missions is grateful to Fr Moore for the time and care given to his interview in July 2016 and for this ensuing article.
Author: Irish Jesuit Missions Communications, 24th November 2016

Born: 1582, Duleek, County Meath
Entered: 25/04/1600, Coimbra, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: c 1611, Coimbra, Portugal
Final Vows: 1624
Died: 11 August 1652, Galway Residence, Galway City, County Galway

Alias De Moura

1642 At Drogheda, and subsequently appointed Chaplain to Sir Richard Blake (Oranmore, Co Galway, Mayor of Galway twice and Parliamentarian)
1649 Superior Galway Residence
in 1650 Catalogue
He was a very learned, charitable and humble man; Superior in Connaught; Forty years on the Irish Mission, and imprisoned for the Catholic faith.
Peter Walsh in his “Remonstrance” calls him “an old venerable Jesuit and skilful exorcist” (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1642 At Drogheda, and subsequently appointed Chaplain to Sir Richard Blake (Oranmore, Co Galway, Mayor of Galway twice and Parliamentarian)
1649 Superior Galway Residence
in 1650 Catalogue
He was a very learned, charitable and humble man; Superior in Connaught; Forty years on the Irish Mission, and imprisoned for the Catholic faith.
Peter Walsh in his “Remonstrance” calls him “an old venerable Jesuit and skilful exorcist” (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied Humanities at the Irish College Lisbon before Ent 25 April 1600 Coimbra
After First Vows - which he completed at Braga College - he was sent for studies to Coimbra (1602-1605), did regency as Minister at Irish College Lisbon companioning Thomas White, and returned to Coimbra for Theology and was Ordained there c1611
1612-1613 Spiritual Father and Confessor at Irish College Lisbon
1613/14 Sent to Ireland and Connaught Residence.
1625 He was sent to Dublin Residence to act as Master of Novices for the four priest candidates. He was later at Drogheda, but had to leave there when it fell to the Puritans in 1642
1649 His whereabouts after Drogheda are unknown, but he was Superior of the Galway residence in 1649, and he died there 11 August 1652

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORE, JOHN. He was living at Drogheda, in 1642, but in October that year, succeeded in escaping thence from Puritanical fury. Subsequently he was appointed Chaplain to Sir Richard Blake. When Pere Verdier visited him in the early part of the year 1649, he found him Superior of his Brethren at Galway, and reported him as being a Septuagenarian, as a man of consummate probity, and conspicuous for charity and humility. I fear it will be nearly impossible to ascertain the date of his death.

Born: 24 September 1914, Banagher, County Offaly
Entered: 30 September 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 24 September 1936, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 12th Year No 1 1937
Obituary :
Mr. Michael Joseph Moore
The following was kindly sent to us by Mr. Moore's old school fellow, Mr. John O'Meara :
On Thursday morning, September 24th, 1930, Mr. Joseph Moore celebrated a double birthday , the second his heavenly one. He was just twenty-two years of age, and had all the appearance of healthy strength. He had great mental vigour, and every thing seemed promising, but he had already matured for heaven.
He was born in Banagher, Offaly, 24th September, 1914. As a boy he was exceptionally studious, and exceptionally pious. He played few games, and even these rather inconsistently and indifferently well. This non-participation in games was no indication of moroseness, still less of softness. It resulted almost entirely from a desire to work hard and attain to the highest qualifications in his studies. If any other motive kept him from the playing fields of St. Joseph's College, Ballinasloe, it was the delight of bantering chat with kindred spirits on questions Irish and democratic. He was an independent and firm character with fixed ideas, though he was always open to persuasion. Those fixed ideas were mainly centred around, and resulted from, a love of his country and its inhabitants, especially the poorer ones. A list of his scholarships would almost appear too statistical for inclusion here. His secondary school course was extremely brilliant.
He entered the novitiate at Emo on September 30th, 1933, and very soon began to show how sterling and fine his character was. He set himself to the correction of any defects which he remarked in himself, or were remarked in him. with positively enjoyable zest. He was always light hearted and not infrequently rocked with uncontrollable laughter.
His career in Rathfarnham was unobtrusive and redolent of the humility and unworldliness which animated him. It was here especially that the more spiritual side of his character was evidenced. He was always cheerful and exemplary and always worked hard. But there was a sense of guilelessness, simplicity or other worldlines about him which should have told us that he was not to remain with us. The fatal disease was mysterious and rapid in its development , and he died in the most edifying sentiments of resignation, peace and devotedness. RIP

Another close friend, Mr. Kent, was good enough to contribute the following :
If I noticed one virtue more than another, unworldliness was the one which he possessed in no small degree. He was other-worldly and this even before he entered our Society. On looking back over the few years that I knew him, his simplicity of manner, his love of poverty and his deep love of Christ and His Blessed Mother only make me realise that the Master was at work on his soul, strengthening it and purifying it, so that in a short time he might reach his full stature in Christ, and answer the call that reached him faintly on the feast of Our Lady of Dolours, but clearly on that of Our Lady of Ransom, September 24th. By those who knew him well he is remembered as a man of high ideals a man of principle and high moral courage, cheerful to a very great degree, a most companionable and edifying brother.
To some it may appear that these appreciations are an outcome of the “de mortuis nil nisi bonoum” principle, and are somewhat coloured by the dictates of a sincere and holy friendship. They are not. All who knew Mr. Moore will recognise in them a true picture of the kind friend and brother who has been taken away from us.

Born: 1655, Ireland
Entered: 24 September 1674, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Ordained: 17 April 1683
Died: 04 October 1684, Irish Sea in transit to Ireland

“Laurence Poore (”Boore”) an Irish Jesuit died in the Irish Sea, Oct 1684” (From p91 E vid)
“Laurence Poore (Boore); Irish; RIP Oct 1684 in the Irish Sea

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
1684 Because of delicate health he was allowed to leave the Society. He was commended by the General to the Mission Superior in Ireland, but on his journey to Ireland he died 04 October 1684

Born: 21 December 1790, Duncormick, County Wexford
Entered: 31 October 1825 St Thomas, Newtown, Maryland - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Final vows: 02 February 1841
Died: 29 March 1863, Georgetown College, Washington DC, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Born: 15 September 1894,
Entered: 27 November 1911, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Left Society of Jesus: 06 June 1918

The Cottage, Bagenalstown, County Carlow.

Sheila Gwynn married Thomas Gillman Moorhead.

Born: 18 November 1914, Shantalla, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 17 September 1932, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 29 July 1943, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 19 March 1946, Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Died 03 November 1992, Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, County Mayo

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

by 1975 at Palmer City AK, USA (ORE) working
by 1988 at Greenlawn, Long Island NY, USA (NEB) working
by 1979 at Monterey Park CA, USA (CAL) working

Died: 29 March 1730, Madrid, Spain - Toletanae Province (TOLE)

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet and CATSJ I-Y

Born: 17 August 1932, Ballina, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1951, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1964, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1967, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 18 November 2016, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

by 1966 at Salamanca, Spain (LEG) making Tertianship
by 1978 at Wilmette IL, USA (CHG) studying
by 1984 at Palo Alto CA, USA (CAL) studying
by 1985 at Barrington IL, USA (CHG) studying
by 1987 at Menlo Park CA, USA (CAL) working
by 1992 at Chicago IL, USA (CHG) working

Early Education at NS Ballina, Co Mayo; Mungret College SJ

1954-1955 Rathfarnham - Studying at UCD
1955-1958 Tullabeg - Studying Philosophy
1958-1961 Crescent - Regency : Teacher
1961-1965 Milltown Park - Studying Theology
1965-1966 Salamanca, Spain - Tertianship at Collegio de San Estanislao
1966-1968 Belvedere - Teacher; Assistant Gamesmaster; Spiritual Father (3rd & 4th Years); “Newsboys Club”
1968-1969 Clongowes - Teacher; Lower Line Prefect; Studying CWC Cert in Education
1969-1974 Belvedere - Teacher; Assistant Gamesmaster; Spiritual Father; Career Guidance (5th & 6th Years)
1974-1976 Leeson St - Principal at University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin
1976-1977 University Hall - Community Minister
1977-1983 Chicago, IL, USA - Studies at Loyola University; St Joseph’s Parish, Wilmette, IL, USA
1982 Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Glenview, IL, USA
1983-1984 Palo Alto, CA, USA - Doctoral Studies at Palo Alto University; St Thomas Aquinas Church
1984-1986 Chicago, IL, USA - Studies at Loyola University; Parish work; Counsellor at St Anne’s Rectory, Barrington
1986-1991 Palo Alto, CA, USA - Post Graduate Training at Palo Alto University; St Raymond Catholic Church; Menlo Park
1988 Research in Family Therapy MRI at Palo Alto University
1987 Our Lady of the Rosary Rectory, Palo Alto
1991-1994 Chicago, IL, USA - Visiting Professor in Psychology at Loyola University; St William’s Church
1992 St Philip the Apostle Rectory, Northfield
1994-2016 Leeson St - Sabbatical (94-95); Lecturer in Education at Trinity College Dublin; Family Apostolate; Writer
1998 Vice-Superior
2002 Principal University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin
2003 Family Therapist
2015 Prays for the Church and the Society at Cherryfield Lodge

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/a-man-for-others/

A man for others
friends, and fellow Jesuits bade him a final farewell at his funeral Mass in Milltown Chapel on Monday 21 November.
Jim had a wide circle of friends associated with the various ventures he undertook as a Jesuit. They were active on Facebook when news of his death broke. Despite some bad health and a twice broken leg, Jim was quite an athlete. He had a passion for rugby, which he taught with gusto to many students down the years in various Jesuit schools. Ivan Morris, one of his former pupils, posted a photo of the rugby team Jim coached, a long time ago. He wrote: “55 years ago these old geezers were quite a decent rugby team! Sadly, our trainer Fr. Jim Moran passed away yesterday. We all owe him a lot. He instilled in us the ability to focus on our goals, gave us just about the right amount of confidence and enough back bone to last a lifetime.”
Similar sentiments have been echoed by many since his death. Preaching at his funeral Mass, his life-long friend Fr John Looby SJ recalled two stories that summed up Jim’s determination and desire to win, even though he would have roundly protested that ‘it wasn’t about the winning’. One concerned the handball games they used to play as novices. John said that although he himself was the better handball player, Jim worked out a strategy and a war of attrition that always resulted in Jim being the victor.
He recalled another occasion when Jim went off to Chicago to study and offered his rugby training services to a Jesuit school there, telling them of his winning accomplishments back in Ireland. His offer however was politely declined and he was told the school was already proficient at winning rugby games. So Jim took himself off to a neighbouring Jewish school where the same offer was gratefully accepted. Some time later his rugby team took on the Jesuit school that had spurned him and won.
Jim had a number of careers in his lifetime – teacher, coach, psychologist, family therapist, and finally lecturer in Trinity College Dublin. Wherever he went he made friends. “He never forgot his friends and I was to learn that his friends never forgot him,” said John, noting that this was especially true of his Jesuit brothers. John learnt in later years that Jim’s father had died before Jim was born, and his stepfather was instrumental in cultivating the talent he had for making lasting friendships. “Providentially his stepfather was a strong influence, setting an example that Jim copied for the remainder of his life. He was given great freedom and he confidently went out to meet new people and allow them into his life.”
The Gospel read at the Mass was that of the Good Samaritan, a fitting one for Jim who was, according to John and indeed all those who knew him well, “a man for others”. He was always quick to offer any help he could to those who crossed his path. Be it the mother in difficulty with her teenage son or the former student who needed some good advice. The music at the funeral was the work of the well known composer and musician Willie Hughes who played and sang in gratitude for the influence Jim had been on his life.
When he returned to Dublin from America in the ’90s, Jim was part of the Leeson St community. They had a large garden at the back-end of the large Georgian house, and Jim spent years lovingly and patiently transforming it. He planted trees and stunning rose bushes, and made arbours and boundaries out of bushes and flowers. It was a labour of love that to this day gives endless pleasure to those who visit the community house in the centre of Dublin.
John concluded by noting that Jim was a person who never saw events in life as mere chance but rather as due to “the providence of a loving God whom he loved and trusted in all his life”.
He served Him well. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 2017

Obituary

Father Jim Moran SJ

An Appreciation by Peter Thompson

dozen of us from the Rhetoric year of 1972, welcomed in by the open door of Belvedere House, manned by the great Mick Hickey, from the year of 1973and, like Ollie Campbell, one of our great Rugby players of that era, a man who had owed the nurturing of his sporting talents to the recently-deceased Jim Moran, in honour and memory of whom we had come to celebrate Mass in the Boys' Chapel. Mick had come a long way, literally, for the occasion, a testimony to Jim, certainly, for he now lives in Delaware, the beautiful peninsular State on the eastern shores of the United States.

I hadn't been in Belvedere at all since leaving the college over 40 years previously. In the Chapel, noticed immediately the absence of confession boxes, a sign (I hope) that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has moved on from its days as “Penance” to a more enlightened interpretation of what it means to feel oneself whole again after a period of mental and emotional stress.

Also different, and a most welcome difference it was too, was Leonard Moloney's model of celebration of the Mass, we old boys gathered around in a semi-circle before a simple altar table, with the Holy Communion administered in both Kinds, after a gentle invitation from Leonard that, if any of us felt awkward about receiving, We come forward anyway for a blessing.
This was an inclusiveness I was delighted to experience, after many years of alienation from the Church, and I for one was grateful indeed for it, for its sensitivity. It expressed for me also that ritual, much criticised today, has at its best a capacity to act as a means, a fuselage, a hull by which eternal truths of love are conveyed from one generation, one time as it were, to the next.
Another sensitivity was shown by the great Ollie, my childhood friend from north county Dublin, who, gentleman that he is and always has been, had gently touched my left elbow earlier in the quadrangle and asked me discreetly if I would do one of the Readings from Scripture - St Paul to the Ephesians, 1 think it was. I deeply appreciated that invitation, which I was happy to accept.

The name Jim Moran may not mean all that much to today's young Belvederians, if anything, but in a darker, much more formal time he was a beacon of warmth to his pupils and schoolboy rugby players, whom he coached to victory in the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup in 1972. It is fitting, in a serendipitous way, that in this year's edition of The Belvederian the present generation of pupils are celebrating yet another victory in that intensely competitive of sporting challenges for Leinster schools.

Jim had had earlier success in the Crescent College (now Comprehensive) in Limerick in 1961 where, as a scholastic, he coached its Junior team to success in the Munster Schools Junior Cup. After Belvedere, both Clongowes and UCD were also to benefit from his striking ability to relate to, and inspire, young people to sporting and perhaps also personal excellence. Jim was the sort of james who became jim, if my readers follow me. From the rural west of Ireland of the now so-remote 1950s, he was bereft of that bourgeois stiffness and aloofness with which, rightly or wrongly, our college was associated in the minds of many Dubliners in the past. He would have strongly approved of the wonderful example which Belvedere has shown to other private schools in recent years by the reservation of 10% of its pupil numbers to boys whose parents, for financial reasons, would never have dreamt of having one of their sons enter the portals of James Joyce's alma mater.

When last I met him, at the most recent 1972 re-union held in Portmarnock in 2012, I, trying my best with the best of intentions, invited him to have tea with me someday in the Shelbourne Hotel, around the corner from where he was then living at the Jesuit house in Lower Leeson St. to my dismay, but not, on reflection, to my surprise, he refused, saying he could not accept the offer, however sincerely made, of such a “luxury” as tea in Dublin's premier hotel. He was instructing me still, teaching again the values which I would like to think we all have in common, however we may express them now.

After Mass, the company - minus Leonard - moved on to the congeniality of the Dergvale Hotel in Gardiner Place, a very different hostelry from the Shelbourne, but a favourite watering hole of us early Seventies OBs, where I found myself in animated conversation with the said Mick Hickey about, of all things, Dublin Gaelic football, of which his distinguished medical brother David, with three Senior All Ireland Medals to his credit, was a great exemplar.

Now maybe Mick was pulling one of my legs, or indeed both of them, but he told me that David had developed a totally new strategy in Gaelic football, which is now used also, I believe, in Rugby. As a corner right forward, he would kick the ball, not towards the net, but into the right corner of the opposition, then race ahead, before the opposing defence had cottoned on. to the move, collect the ball, Garryowen-style, and lope it back into the goal mouth for a fellow teammate to collect and pummel into the net. David, apparently, developed this following on from an idea by his coach, the late Kevin Heffernan.

Mick and I were joined by another distinguished sportsman of our generation, Neil Murphy, formerly President of the Irish Sailing Association and helmsman of a Puppeteer at Howth Yacht Club. In discussing the emollient effects of the Mass we had all just experienced, Neil made a telling remark which has stayed, and will continue to stay with me. “Age gives you perspective”, he said, which I think is a piece of wisdom, deeper, much deeper than it might seem at first glance, which I wish to share particularly with the young Belvederians of today.

The mention of another great football coach brings me back of course to Jim. He lived long enough, as a man for others, always, to live in an age when, in some quarters today, that ideal, that nobility of spirit and of behaviour seems almost reviled. Yet he achieved so much, in obscurity, by practising it. I hope up there on the Fields of Elysium he will forgive me this notoriety I pen in his memory. In the best sense, he was Old School, all right

Born: 22 July 1905, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 31 August 1923, Tullabeg
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1940, Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Died: 30 April 1991, Saint Teresa's Hospital, , Hong Kong - Macau-Hong Kong Province (MAC-HK)

Part of the Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Hong Kong community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to HK : 03 December 1966

Older Brother of Val Moran (ASL) - RIP 1988

Early education at Belvedere College SJ

by 1929 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1932 fifth wave Hong Kong Missioners - Regency
by 1939 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Hong Kong Catholic Archives :
Father John Moran, S.J.
(1905-1991)
R.I.P.

Father John Moran S.J. died in St. Teresa’s Hospital on 30 April 1991 after a short illness.

Father Moran was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 22 July 1905 and educated by the Dominican Sisters and the Jesuits.

He entered the Jesuits in Ireland in 1923 and, after novitiate, university studies and philosophy, volunteered for the mission of the Irish Jesuits in Hong Kong.

He arrived in Hong Kong in the Autumn of 1931 and went to Shiu Hing, then a mission of the Portuguese Jesuits, to learn Cantonese.

The following year he was back in Hong Kong at the South China Regional Seminary in Aberdeen.

He returned to Ireland for his theological studies and was ordained priest there in 1939.

He was back in Hong Kong just before the outbreak of the Japanese war. At first he spent some time in the Aberdeen seminary and then for the rest of the war period moved to the French enclave of Kwong Chau Wan on the south coast. He remembered his years spent there as being some of the best of his life.

Recalled to Hong Kong at the end of war, he was chaplain in the Queen Mary Hospital and then went to Canton.

By the Autumn of 1949, all except four Jesuits withdrew from Canton. Father Moran taught for a while at a feeder school for Wah Yan College in Nelson Street, Kowloon. He then took over editorship of the Far East Messenger, a monthly magazine started by Father Terence Sheridan SJ. It ceased publication in 1953.

In 1952 Father Moran moved to the newly-built Wah Yan College on Waterloo Road. The room he moved into he was to occupy for the next 39 years until his death.

He joined the teaching staff and continued to teach long after his official retirement.

Father Moran is particularly remembered for his gentleness and kindness to all and for the hospitality he extended to visitors.

He spent many hours hearing confessions, being in his confessional at practically every Mass said in St. Ignatius Chapel.

His simplicity of life was legendary among his fellow-Jesuits.

A few years ago he suffered a stroke which severely impaired his memory. A few days before his death he was admitted to St. Teresa’s Hospital with breathing problems.

A funeral Mass, presided over by Cardinal Wu, was celebrated at Wah Yan Kowloon on 6 May.
Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - 10 May 1991

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 22nd Year No 1 1947

Departures for Mission Fields in 1946 :
4th January : Frs. P. J. O'Brien and Walsh, to North Rhodesia
25th January: Frs. C. Egan, Foley, Garland, Howatson, Morahan, Sheridan, Turner, to Hong Kong
25th July: Fr. Dermot Donnelly, to Calcutta Mission
5th August: Frs, J. Collins, T. FitzGerald, Gallagher, D. Lawler, Moran, J. O'Mara, Pelly, Toner, to Hong Kong Mid-August (from Cairo, where he was demobilised from the Army): Fr. Cronin, to Hong Kong
6th November: Frs. Harris, Jer. McCarthy, H. O'Brien, to Hong Kong

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1991

Obituary

Father John Moran SJ

Fr John Moran SJ died in St Teresa's Hospital, Hong Kong, on 30th April 1991, after a short illness, He was born in Dublin in 1905 and educated by the Dominican Sisters and the Jesuits (at Belvedere). He entered the Jesuits in 1923 and, after novitiate, university studies and philosophy, volunteered for the mission in Hong Kong.

He arrived in Hong Kong in the autumn of 1931 and went to Shiu Hing, then a mission of the Portuguese Jesuits, to learn Cantonese. The following year he was back in Hong Kong at the South China Regional Seminary in Aberdeen.

He returned to Ireland for his theological studies and was ordained priest there in 1939. He was back in Hong Kong just before the outbreak of the Japanese war. At first he spent some time in the Aberdeen seminary and then for the rest of the war period moved to the French enclave of Kwongchauwan) on the south coast. He: remembered his years spent there as being some of the best of his life.

Recalled to Hong Kong at the end of the war, he was chaplain in the Queen Mary Hospital and then went to Canton. By the autumn of 1949, all. except four Jesuits withdrew from Canton. Fr Moran taught for a while at a feeder school for Wah Yan College in Nelson St, Kowloon. He then took over editorship of :The Far East Messenger:, a monthly magazine started by Fr Terence Sheridan SJ. It ceased publication in 1953.

In 1952 he moved to the newly-built Wah Yan College on Waterloo Road. The room he moved into he was to occupy for the next 39 years until his death. He joined the teaching staff and continued to teach long after his official retirement.

John Moran is particularly remembered for his gentleness and kindness to all and for the hospitality he extended to visitors. He spent many hours hearing confessions, being in his confessional at practically every: Mass said in St Ignatius Chapel. His simplicity of life was legendary among his fellow-Jesuits.

A few years ago he suffered a stroke which severely impaired his memory. A few days before his death he was admitted to St Teresa's Hospital with breathing problems. A funeral Mass presided over by Cardinal Wu was celebrated at Wah Yan, Kowloon, on 6th May 1991. May he rest in peace

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, Centenary Edition 1832-1932

Life Among The Chinese : A Letter from John Moran SJ

I’ve been at Canton ever since I came out. The College belongs to the Paris Foreign Missions (Mgr. Fourquet) and is in the same property as the Cathedral, “petit séminaire”, and Bishop's house and orphanage. There are about 400 pupils, twenty per cent of whom are pagans, as are all the masters except one. . The Director of the College is a Catholic Government regulations demand that a Chinese with university degrees be at the head of every college, hence Catholic laymen can do their part for the missions in inscribing themselves as “Director”. We Jesuits teach English and have absolutely nothing to do with the running of the school. The Government unfortunately forbids religious instruction in the schools, so this is a terrible blow because our apostolic work is limited to. chats in private every evening after school hours. Thus we manage to baptise a few pagans every year, but we cannot get into contact with the great majority of the boys at all. The Catholics in two of the three hostels come to Mass daily in our little community chapel, and at present we are trying to organise regular spiritual conferences or catechism classes for them. The third hostel is wholly Catholic consisting of poor boys, admitted at half the regular fee, and these assist regularly at spiritual duties in the Cathedral.

The boys are a decent set, very friendly, and many of them, though pagans, are wonderfully "straight” and good. Indeed when we see evil among these pagans we should rather express surprise at finding the boys so naturally good, than criticise their failings, because they have not the Catholic tradition we have had for centuries, nor have they the same knowledge of sin and punishment that we have. What offers the most insuperable difficulty to conversion is the innate respect for the parents will. Many boys who studied catechism and were ready for baptism as far as knowledge of doctrine was concerned, stated to our Fathers that they could go no further, as their parents had refused permission. And there is no use advising them await their twenty-first birth day, when they can claim independence - in China the father's sway holds good till his death! You see then what difficulties we are up against-till the family stand point is changed, a huge obstacle lies between conversion and the Chinese. Our Chinese professor-a' Catholic, as is his wife “became a father” some weeks ago. The child was a girl - he was delighted - why? Because his father, who is still a pagan, had told him that he would take the child for himself if it turned out to be a boy! Just see to what lengths the father's dominion goes - he could actually claim the grandson and take it from its own father. Of course women are despised - a girl-child is considered a disappointment, perhaps a humiliation, (here, of course, I speak only of the pagans). The one desire the Chinese have is to be made happy by a boy-child who can carry on the name and assure the ancestor-worship. Woman's position in China is gradually being bettered, thanks to foreign ideas, but missioners with whom I've spoken have told me that in the country paganism and superstition have still a fast grip and that woman is just a beast of burden. If you saw the women at work, carrying loads, dragging carts by means of ropes round their arms, it would remind you of slavery as practised in Egypt centuries ago. Even at Hong Kong the ordinary thing is to see women carting gravel, etc., carrying it in two baskets at either end of a bamboo pole resting on the shoulder - the universal means of transport here.
However, in the cities literature, novels, and the cinema are doing much to modernise Chinese youth, though it does not put them on the right tracks either in great part—but certainly the emancipation of children from a too rigid' obedience to parents' wishes, and of young girls from the marriage conventions which relegate them to the state of slaves, is gradually appearing. If Priests could get into direct contact with Chinese youth great good could be done because it is wavering in its old beliefs of ancestor-worship.

Pride in their ancient civilisation is a factor with which we have to reckon too. It's strange to find that Chinese despise foreigners as regards culture. They adınıt that we are far superior to them in material civilisation, namely machinery, etc., but they hold that as regards, literature and philosophy we have far to go before we catch up on them. They even say that we are not yet at their stage of natural evolution, because we have beards, whereas they are very smooth-skinned - the culminating point it would seem in their idea of physical evolution! So where we pride ourselves on our facial appendages and say “We are more man if we own more hair”, they say that we are more barbarian! But their indifference to foreign institutions, their attitude that the foreigner can bring them nothing better than they have al ready, naturally adds one more difficulty to the work of conversion. They have got along for centuries without Christianity - what need have they of it! Won't their own religion suffice? So they argue, and among the cultured class conversions are few. Indeed in the big cities the Chinese going to the Universities frequently see that ancestor-worship and their deities give no consolation and are pure superstition, and become pagans. They practise no religion at all. In the country places among the poor, conversions are more easy to make. Catholic schools out here can do vast good.

Even though they do not convert many boys, they do much to spread the knowledge of the Catholic Church among those who are to hold official positions in the China of to-morrow, and who will be ready to further the interests of the church in their districts.

You asked me about bandits. Well, I am afraid that I have never got an invitation to dinner with them; so that my knowledge of them is very limited. But they exist in small armies of over one thousand strong and swoop down on towns, pillaging and robbing. They are even armed in some districts with machine guns and the most modern rifles, and the military are not too anxious to disturb them when they are not too active. In fact there are only a few divisions of the whole Chinese army which are really feared by the bandits. But I would not blame the military for their policy of “letting sleeping dogs lie”. Just consider the enormous expenses a campaign against a few thousand well armed and well-organised bandits would entail-adding that the latter run off to the mountains where they could defy any army. One bandit chief had four hundred men under him and terrorised the whole district, robbing and looting. He stopped at nothing, and did not hesitate to kill where he could not get what he wanted by other means. He captured a Bishop and a Priest and had decided, I think, to hold them to ransom, till, to his surprise he found the village he and his 400 men were in, surrounded by military. He asked the Bishop to go as mediator to the commandant of the troops, but told the Bishop that if he did not return, he would kill every missioner of the Bishop's order that he would ever lay hands on in the future. Off the Bishop went with the Priest and offered the bandit's terms - which were, I think, giving up their arms and being allowed to pass out uninjured. The commandant refused and swore that not one of the 400 men would escape alive, and when the Bishop wished to return the commandant refused. On the Bishop having urged the point of his having given his word to the bandit chief, the commandant ordered him off - in the other direction, refusing to allow him approach the village. The army covered every exit from the village save one, which led to a hill. They attacked the bandits naturally seeking escape to the hill—but what was their surprise to find that the hill itself was surrounded. Seeing that all possibility of fighting was out of the question, they sent word that they would surrender if they would be allowed to join the commandant's army. “Alright”, said he, “but come down in bands of ten with your arms”. Down they came, surrendered their arms and were promptly tied up into bands of ten. The commandant waited till he had the whole lot, bandit leader and all, transferred them on rafts to the middle of the river and drowned every one of them. Since then, bandits have been quiet in his area!

But the losses they have caused in lives recently are appalling. I saw in to-day's paper that statistics from one district show that in recent Communist raids 260,000 people have been slain and property to the value of £2,350,000 has been destroyed. These Communist raids include, of course, bandit raids, and the figures from twelve other districts are to come in shortly. This will show you how banditry is rampant and how it is causing losses greater than a war. Some of the bandit chiefs are paid for their work. by very rich Chinese who get all that is stolen. It is said that some Chinese make huge sums as bandits and then come and live in Shanghai or Hong Kong as “respectable” citizens and there take in the “tribute” from the bandit chief in their pay.

A Vincentian Bishop who came out on the boat with us and whose vicariate is up north, told me that some of the bandits are “decent sorts” and don't molest the missions, but actually allow the Catholic Priests to go unharmed from place to place. The big prize that the bandits hope to get is the rich Chinese, whom they kidnap and hold to ransom for incredible sums. If the money is refused by the family, they cut off an ear of the kidnapped man and send it to the family with the intimation that they will continue to “dismember” the victim until the money is paid. Kidnapping is very frequent, and is greatly feared by the rich Chinese - so much so that their property is surrounded by huge walls on which police continually walk up and down. And even when these Chinese go out in their sedan chairs they will have their guard with them.

The Chinese seem to love exterior display - rich colouring to strike the eye and loud explosions to deafen the ears! Red is their marriage colour - white their mourning. I assisted recently at the departure of a Catholic funeral from Canton Cathedral. Just before it started off one of the mourners presented me with a handkerchief, with which to wipe the tears from my eyes. He gave one to many bystanders, who wiped their eyes - through pure convention. The coffin is carried on bamboo poles borne by six to ten men, and over it is a light bamboo framework covered with the richest coloured flowers. When I first saw a funeral here I would not believe it to be such, the colouring of the flowers was so rich. In front of the procession went the band, dressed in black hat, light blue jacket with white facings and white trousers - colours that would not be seen in Ireland except on some festive occasion.

As for noise! You have only to assist at a marriage to witness a bombardment! Crackers - or rather squibs are an essential element of their celebrations, whether civic, family, or religious. The well-to-do buy a long string of crackers lying parallel one to the other which is suspended from the fourth or fifth storey of the hotel and hangs down to the ground. When the bride leaves the hotel - or her private house to enter the sedan chair en route to the future husband's house, the lowest cracker is fired. The noise is deafening, it is like the rattle of machine-gun fire, as cracker after cracker takes fire.

According as the string of crackers fires off, it is lowered to the ground so that the exploding cracker is a few feet off the ground. For very big occasions the rich will buy a cracker that will last a quarter of an hour without ceasing fire. It is impossible to make oneself heard when in the neighbourhood, even if one shouted. Two days ago a rumour was spread of a big Chinese victory over the Japanese at Shanghai - to celebrate it crackers were the sole means used. The noise was appalling. The long string of crackers could be heard rattling froin different buildings - young fellows in cars waved flags and threw little packets of crackers which, on exploding, sent twelve smaller crackers bursting in all directions. Boys threw little boxes of squibs from the windows, till the streets were reeking with the fumes of burnt explosive material. That evening they spent over two thousand five hundred pounds on crackers alone. For religious celebrations it is the same. To welcome a bishop or to celebrate ordinations - off go the crackers, to the huge delight of the onlookers. Originally, I think, crackers were used to frighten away evil spirits, but now they have lost this “religious” significance. At Pagan burials, too, crackers are fired in this case the idea is to drive away all evil spirits from the soul of the departed.

There is great work to be done here among the poor country people. The big need, as. it has always been, is for priests. Really one does not realise how badly priests are needed till one comes out to a mission country. We in Ireland are so much in contact with the faith - we breathe it everywhere we go that we cannot imagine a people not having it. Just imagine boys who never heard of God, or of the Redemption, who have not the slightest idea what the soul is and whose one thought of the next life is to ensure for themselves that they will be paid ancestor worship by their children. You can well imagine what a unique gift we bring them when we let them know of the Redemption and lead them to baptism. How often we sing at Benediction “Laudate Eum omnes populi”, and never think that there are “populi” who do not praise Him because they have never heard of Him. The deep meaning of “Thy Kingdom Come” never struck me so forcibly as when I came into a city where there is huge scope for its coming, as it has scarcely begun to come yet.

J MORAN SJ

16 Dec 1830: Born Leighlinbridge, County Carlow
14 Mar 1884: Appointed Archbishop of Sydney, Australia
16 Aug 1911: Died

Born: 08 July 1785, Wicklow Town, County Wicklow
Entered: 07 September 1810, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1819, Clongowes Wood College SJ, County Kildare
Died: 30 April 1830, Buenos Aires, Argentina - Argentino-Chilensis Province (ARU-CHL)

in Clongowes 1817 (1820 as Peter!)
By 1829 in Buenos Aires (ARG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
He was a prefect of Clongowes and a Missioner in Dublin before he went to Buenos Aires to attend an Irish Congregation there.
Loose leaf note in CatChrn : Entitled “Left Stonyhurst for Castle Brown” :
01 Nov 1814

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Son of Matthew and Sarah.
He came to Clongowes in 1816 with Brothers Mullen and Shea, and the other Juniors, Fraser etc, none of them ordained at this stage. Mullen and Moran were Prefects, Arcades ambo, and at the same time were studying Theology. After some time they were Ordained.
After Ordination Patrick was sent to a small chapel in Hardwicke St, Dublin, and spent two years there.
He was then sent on the foreign missions to Buenos Aires, where some Irish had settled. He was an edifying religious man, but of very moderate ability. He died shortly after arrival in Buenos Aires, 30 April 1830.
(Letter included loosely from Mgr James Ussher, dated Buenos Aires 25 March 1952, seeking information on early Irish Missioners, including Patrick Moran. he also related the details of his gravestone :
“Vir fidelis multum laudabitur - Prov 28:20. In memoriam Revdi. Patricii Moran SJ cujus corpus infra conditum est. Hocce monimentum statverunt Catholici Hibernici. Plenus Fide et Charitate erga proximos. Obiit die tricesimo Aprilis a salute reparata 1830. RIP.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORAN, PATRICK, of Wicklow. This Father died at Buenos Ayres, on the 30th of April, 1829, aet. 45. Soc. 19, to which Mission he had volunteered his services. Weak and delicate in constitution, he possessed great activity and strength of mind : and was always eager to labor in the service of Religion.

Born: 08 February 1913, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 03 September 1930, Emo
Ordained: 06 January 1945, Sydney, Australia
Final Vows: 15 August 1948
Died: 25 November 1988, Campion College, Kew, Melbourne, Australia- Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Younger Brother of Jack Moran (MAC-HK) - RIP 1991
Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Tertian Instructor in Philippines

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Val Moran attended Clongowes Wood College, for his secondary education, and was a clever student, regularly taking the prizes in classics. He was also school champion at tennis, captain of cricket and the opening bat, as well as a very useful second-row forward and goal kicker for the first XV rugby. In his last year he took the Union Gold Medal for English essay. He was also prefect of the Sodality and had the most Rabelaisian wit. He was a good mimic of various teachers.
Moran entered the Society at St Mary's Emo, 3 September 1930, and was sent to Australia as a novice because of poor health with tuberculosis. His ecclesiastical studies were all in Australia, and he gained a BA with honours in classics, 1933-35, from The University of Melbourne. Regency was at Riverview, 1936-38, where he taught English, Latin and Greek, and was involved with senior debating and cricket.
Maybe the threat of death from an early age gave him a remarkable freedom and serenity living quietly in the background, always present, emerging only when the moment was ripe, superb in timing, sharp in judgment but not in tone, humorous, eloquent, never using a word more than necessary.
He was a richly talented man, but never proclaimed his gifts ostentatiously. Above all, he was essentially very human and compassionate. He was easy to approach as spiritual father, and always gave wise counsel, while never intruding on one's personal space.
He was expert in the quick and telling comment about people and situations, usually accurate and humorous, but pointed. His teasing of some was always in good fun. His obituaries of Jesuits were a delight to read.
He was an outstanding Church historian, and probably had an unrivalled knowledge of the Society's history and spirituality He was a fine tertian master, not only in information communicated, but also in his spiritual discernment. His homilies at Mass were short and inspiring.
He was arguably die most interesting lecturer scholastics in the Australian province experienced. His lectures were of such fascination that expiry of time was always a cause for genuine regret. During every one he paused for a light comment on some ecclesiastical practice or misdemeanour. Everyone waited for these enlightened words and applauded in an appropriate fashion, but Moran never paused in his presentation.
He had wide appreciation of the Church. He looked for moments of liberty, of opportunity history, pointing out where he felt ecclesiastical dogmatism or fear had prevented the bearing of possible fruit. This was clearly why he was fascinated with Modernism and the 19th century in general.
Despite his illness, which required much rest and care, Moran held many important positions of authority within the province. He was rector of the theologate, Canisius College
Pymble, 1957-62, was a province consultor for some years, assistant tertian master 1969-74, delegate for formation, 1975-76, and province delegate for tertiary education, 1979-80. He wrote an article for Theological Studies, Vol. 40, No.3, 1979, entitled “Lolsy's Theological Development”, and he spent 1981 as a research scholar on Modernism at the Casa Degli Scrittori, Rome. Articles on George Tyrrell appeared in “The Downside Review”, July 1984, entitled “The Breakings of George Tyrrell”, and in July 1985 , “George
Tyrrell: Theological Journalist of Genius”. Other articles he wrote on Tyrrell were, “George Tyrrell at War with the Society of Jesus”, and “Fr Tyrrell and the Censorship of his Writings”. in 1988 he wrote, “The Universal Catechism at Vatican I” for Pacifica Vol. 1.
Moran's contribution to the Society in Australia was considerable and much appreciated, especially by the scholastics with whom he shared his life and scholarship.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Went to Australia mainly for health reasons

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932

Australia :
Fr. N. Hehir and Br. V. Moran (scholastic novice) sailed for Australia towards the end of last year. An interesting experience was waiting for them at Naples, which we tell in Fr. Hehir's own words “We found ourselves booked to take part in a remarkable ceremony at Naples. A printed programme announced that I was to say Mass in the Gesù coram Cardinali. Fortunately the boat was late. The Provincial said the Mass. On arriving, the two of us were led down the Church (in white soutanes) in the middle of a stirring sermon delivered by the Cardinal Archbishop. Then came a sermon by one of the two scholastics who were being farewelled. Then an embarrassing ceremony - a Neapolitan tradition - apparently followed. All the clergy, led by the Cardinal, kissed the feet of the four missionaries. Lunch followed in the novitiate. Finally we were raced back to catch our boat just before sailing hour.

Born: 30 May 1865, Gorey, County Wexford
Entered: 27 April 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Final Vows: 02 February 1897, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 13 February 1957, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 32nd Year No 2 1957
Obituary :
Br Edward Mordaunt (1865-1957)

At Tullabeg, early in the morning of 13th February, 1957, Br. Edward Mordaunt died peacefully in his sleep. He was 91 years of age and had been a Jesuit for more than 71 years. At his death he was the oldest member of the Province and the last survivor of those who had made their noviceship in Dromore, Co. Down.
Br. Mordaunt was born at Gorey, Co, Wexford, on 30th May, 1865. Educated by the Christian Brothers in that town, he came to Dublin at the age of seventeen and was apprenticed to a firm of tailors. There he became an expert tailor and cutter, a skill which he used to good purpose during his long life subsequently in the Society. At nineteen, feeling the call to religious life, he returned to the parish where he had lived as a boy (the one parish in Co. Wexford belonging to Dublin diocese), to Consult his parish priest. He was advised to enter the Society of Jesus and this he did on 27th April, 1885. One of his reminiscences of these Dromore days was seeing Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, a visitor from University College, Dublin, standing long and pensively in a field, watching the ploughman turning up the furrows. (Cf. “Sheer plod makes plough down sillion shine.") After the noviceship was transferred to Tullabeg, Br. Mordaunt came there as tailor (1888). In this craft he was quite outstanding. His Jesuit gowns were famous in the Province for the excellence of their cut and trim, and this high standard he taught to his pupil, John Ryan, who for over half a century was tailor at Tullabeg. Later Br. Mordaunt was tailor at Milltown Park for a period of twelve years (1890-1902). It is interesting to note, in the annual Catalogues for those years, how the list of Br. Mordaunt's duties and responsibilities lengthens as his manifold talents gradually come to light. Thus in 1892 he is : Sartor, Cust, vest,, Ad dom., but in 1901 he is, in addition, Aedituus, Emptor, Excitator. During this period, as subsequently in Tullabeg (1902-1911), he proved himself an excellent caterer and was frequently invited to other houses to organise festive occasions. Thus for several years, he was in charge of arrangements for the annual Union Dinner in Clongowes. He himself liked to recall how on the occasion of Fr. James Murphy's funeral at Tullabeg in 1908, he catered for a hundred distinguished visitors.
The competence which Br. Mordaunt displayed in domestic administration decided his superiors to apply him exclusively to that task. In 1911 he took up residence in Wilton House, off Leeson Park, where a hostel for university students had been established, following the foundation of the National University. This hostel was the forerunner of University Hall, Hatch Street, which was completed in 1913, and whither Br. Mordaunt transferred in that year. For thirty-three years he rendered distinguished service in University Hall as universal provider and manager of the domestic staff. He was a strict disciplinarian and secured obedience and efficiency from the servants in his charge. Some of his religious brethren might consider his managerial methods some what stern and autocratic, but somehow the youths over whom he ruled not only respected but were devoted to him. They discerned, beneath a rugged exterior, Br. Mordaunt's fundamental justice and benevolence. The students in the Hall also respected him, though they were not above playing an occasional practical joke upon him. In his shopping expeditions all over the city; Br. Mordaunt was a figure well-known to generations of tradesmen and shop assistants, who, one and all, bad a wholesome respect for his shrewdness and determination to get precisely the commodity he was seeking. During all those years he lived the life of an edifying religious, regular and attentive to his spiritual duties, despite his manifold distractions, and insisting on attention to their religious duties from the servants in his charge. God blessed him with health and vigour all his life. He was fond of walking and, when work was not pressing, he would ask his superior for a shilling and go for a long solitary march to the Dublin hills. A regular feature of his annual holiday in the Jesuit College, Galway, was his trip to the Aran Islands, as honoured guest of Captain Senan Meskil of the good ship Dún Angus.
In 1946, being now an octogenarian, Br. Mordaunt relinquished his tasks in University Hall but continued to work for two years more in 35 Lower Leeson Street. Then, at his own earnest request, in 1948 he was sent to Tullabeg that he might end his long and serviceable life in quiet and prayer. Until his memory began to fail a year or two before the end, he was an active and affable member of the Tullabeg community, always ready to enter with zest into the friendly banter of recreation and brimful of anecdotes from his long and varied career in the Irish Province. When his memory and later his bodily strength began to decline, he was cared for by the other Brothers with a charity and devotion which were truly admirable.
Father Rector said Br. Mordaunt's Requiem Mass in the People's Church, Tullabeg, on 15th February, with Right Rev. Monsignor McCormack, P.P., V.G., Clara, presiding. Also present were Father Provincial, the Rectors of Emo and of Lower Leeson Street and Father Minister of Clongowes. The Tullabeg choir sang the Absolution and “Benedictus”, and Br. Mordaunt was laid to rest in the college cemetery.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Edward Mordaunt SJ 1865-1957
Br Edward Mordaunt laboured for 33 years as universal provider and manager at University Hall Dublin. He had a special gift in that respect, though he was by trade a first-class tailor. He was often called upon by other institutions to manage their big celebrations, University College, for example. On the occasion of Fr James Murphy’s funeral in Tullabeg, he catered for over a hundred distinguished guests.

But this excellence in the gifts of Marta did not exclude the gifts of Mary. He had the hands of Martha and the heart of Mary. A deep religious spirit underlay his efficiency, so that when his usefulness was at an end in 1948, when he was already 82, he requested to be sent to Tullabeg and to end his days in prayer and quiet. There on February 13th 1957 he passed peacefully to his reward at the age of 91, with the record of having been 71 years a Jesuit.

Died: 02 September 1609, Madrid, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

◆ InOld/15 (1) , Chronological Catalogue Sheet and CATSJ I-Y

Fr Moreau, a French Jesuit, with the help of Fr Jules Torrend, SJ established the Chikuni Mission in Zambia in 1905 after several other Jesuits had died trying to bring the faith into that country.

Born: 1586, County Meath
Entered: 17 May 1609, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Died: April 1612, Roman College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Educated Irish College Douai; Age 23 on Ent a Theologian
1617 Given as Meath man, Age 33 Soc 9. This year in Ireland

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
In Ireland 1617

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Two very similar entries, probably the same person??
2nd had studied at Douai before Ent 17 May 1609
2nd After First Vows went to study at the Roman College and died there 22 April 1612
1st was reputed to be a priest on the Irish Mission in the CAT 1617, but that there is no trace of his Entry in any of the Irish or European Catalogues

Born: 1576, Monmouth, Wales
Entered: 1601, Seville, Spain - Baeticae Province (BAE)
Died: 02 November 1608, Valladolid, Castille y León, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

◆ CATSJ I-Y
has a “Walter Morgan?” RIP 29 November 1608 Valladolid
and
has a “William Morgan”; DOB 1583 Waterford; Ent 1601; RIP 02 October 1608 Valladolid

◆ In Old/15 (1) and Chronological Catalogue Sheet

Born: 1583, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 03 April 1602, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: c 1610, Valladolid, Spain
Died: 30 October 1611, College of Palencia, Palencia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

“Fr William Morgan Irish was at Palencia College 1611 teaching Arts”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1609 In Spain

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Patrick and Kathleen née Lea
Had studied at the Irish College Salamanca before Ent 03 April 1602 CAST
After First Vows - noviceship was begun at Villagarcía, but finished at Oviedo College - he was sent for studies to Compostella and St Ambrose College, Valladolid where he was Ordained c 1610
1610 Sent to teach Philosophy at Palencia, but died there 30 October 1611

Born: 17 December 1934, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 24 September 1955, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 28 July 1967, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1973, Canisius College, Chi9kuni, Zambia
Died: 24 July 1998, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Part of the Bishop’s House, Monze, Zambia community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ZAM : 15 August 1973

by 1962 at Chivuna Monze Northern Rhosesia - Regency studying language
by 1970 at Swansea, Wales (ANG) studying

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
When the young Fred Moriarty arrived at the Jesuit Novitiate he was surprised to find a pupil from his own school with him. That companion was Fr Donal McKenna who was two years ahead of him at O’Connell's School, Dublin. They were to be working in Zambia for both their lifetimes. Fr Fred Moriarty's specialisation was development in Monze Diocese.

Fr Fred was born in Dublin 17 December 1934. He was a late vocation. He had done a full year of engineering and part time studies in accounts and commerce before joining the Jesuits. He played entertaining jazz on the piano and really enjoyed the New Year celebrations at Mazabuka annually. He studied philosophy at Tullabeg from 1958 to 1961. He arrived in Zambia on 15th August 1961. His ciTonga language study was from August 1961 for one full year. He spoke ciTonga fluently and in a businesslike manner. Then he taught in Canisius for two years. With Fr Shaun Curran, he leveled the second football field and prepared the running track. His theology was done at Milltown Park from I964-1968. Ordination was on 28 July, 1967. This was followed by tertianship in Rathfarnham in 1968-69. Fr. Fred did a post-graduate Diploma in Social Administration at the University of Wales, Swansea in 1969-1970.

From November 1970 to August 1971 he began his pastoral work at Kasiya Parish. He liked to move around on a Honda motorcycle. When he was changed to Chikuni the following year as Parish Priest, his mode of travel did not change.

Fairly quickly he had a tractor available for hire for the local farmers. Getting paid was a problem here but Fr. Fred's ciTonga was able to reach bargaining level before too long. He inherited the Credit Union from Fr Joe Conway and was able to live with all the hassle involved. Some thieving went on at the parish house on account of his having to go to Canisius College for supper. One day he came across someone wearing his shirt and had the courage to confront him. One rainy day on the way to Chipembele for Sunday Mass on the Honda he got drenched. During Mass his clothes were left hanging out to dry! He got a development team started in Chikuni. His last parish assignment was to St Mary's Parish in October 1975 until May 1978. St Mary's spreads north to Kazungula and beyond and Fred reached those places by Honda.

Bishop Lungu had responsibility for maize distribution during times of famine for the whole of Zambia. Fr Fred and himself were a wonderful team. Only God knows the good they achieved together in those desperate years. Around this time, Fr Fred went to India to have a look at the possibilities of silk worm culture in Zambia. He was also on the alert to learn from development in India. The Jesuits there have many different projects. He was always open to change and improvement. He could live with taking risks.

Fr Fred was a radio program coordinator. He recorded many programs in ciTonga and English for ZNBC. He coordinated with Fr Bill Lane and Fr Max Prokoph in this area. He had all the equipment with him and set himself up in Chikuni parish house or wherever he could get another program. He stuck to his task and only left when he had another program tucked under his sleeve. He did this as an extra for years.

On 25 April 1998, Fr Fred left Zambia. He was not in good health and was complaining of stomach pains. Bishop Paul Lungu left him to Lusaka but was killed in an accident himself a few days later. Fr Fred was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. He took his suffering like he had lived. He was interested in all the details regarding his illness. He was curious about what it would be like on the other side of life in this world. He had a lot of visitors when in hospital. The Mission Office and its supporting team were generous in their care. After visitors laid hands on him in prayer Fr Fred joined in with his own prayer for them. His family was present at that special time. He died peacefully on 24 July 1998. Fr Eddie Murphy did the homily at his funeral Mass in Dublin. His classmate, Fr Donal McKenna preached at Mass for him in Monze and finally Fr Colm Brophy spoke at his Mass at St. Ignatius in Lusaka.

His two ciTonga nicknames were Chimuka and Haamanjila. The first one was based on the fact that Fr Fred used never quite make it in time for meals. His work and the workers and the people being served took priority over food. His second name refers to his custom of checking out the food on the stove in Monze. He was always curious and wondered could more sugar be added to the jam as it boiled. Maybe he is still asking questions there where he is in his eternal well-earned reward.

Note from Bishop James (Jim) Corboy Entry
He regularised the eight mission stations as parishes and set up 13 more parishes. Development was another project close to his heart. With the help of Fr Fred Moriarty SJ Monze became the leading diocese in the country in promoting development

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 100 : Spring 1999

I MISS FRED (FRED MORIARTY)

Cletus Mwilla - Monze

I sit down to mourn Fr. Fred Moriarty. As many people have missed and miss Fred, I miss him for many reasons.

The memories of my childhood miss Fred as my Parish Priest in Chikuni. I miss a fast driver both on a Bike and in a Car. As children we fancied seeing Fred past our villages as Pastor. It was during his time in Chikuni that I received first Communion after he gave me Conditional Baptism. He led me to the Eucharistic Christ. I was his Altar Boy too.

I miss Fred as a family member. We lived together for almost five years in the community. I remember him as one who was humble enough to accept his Altar Boy as his Parish Priest. I miss Fred's generosity - always ready to assist. He went about the whole Parish celebrating Masses. Even when I left out his name for Sunday deliberately, so that he would get a rest, Fred knocked even almost at midnight to take his assignment.

I miss Fred's spiritual and chronicle generosity. I miss Fred's inclination to community life. Though late for meals, Fred always came to join. Hence his nickname: “The Late Fr. Moriarty”. He is indeed late now. “Pray for us, Fred”. I miss Fred and his love for eggs - another nickname in Tonga: “Njanda obile”. He always wanted two eggs.

I miss Fred for his commitment to duty, within and without time. A hot afternoon. He has just arrived from an outstation, drenched in the sweat and he finds someone waiting for him. Fred does not rush to the table. He attends to the one waiting. I miss his generosity.

I miss Fred's continued desire to walk with the poor, the needy. “I was hungry, you fed me”. I miss his love for justice.

Fred loved his dance. I miss Fred's Irish dance.

The opening line in his book “The Road less traveled” Scott Peck says “Life is difficult”. That is how much I remember and miss Fred. “You have run the race Fred; you have finished. Remember us to Jesus. Remember the needs of the poor and do not forget Southern Province for rain”.

Born: 31 January 1697, County Kerry
Entered: 27 November 1717, Toulouse, France - Tolosanae Province (TOLO)
Ordained: 1730, Poitiers, France
Died: 13 October 1732, County Kerry

First Vows at Sainflour Tolouse 28 November 1719
He taught Grammar and Humanities at the Toulouse Colleges for 3 years
1727-1730 Theology at Poitiers
1731 In Ireland where he died 13 October 1732

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1728 At Irish College Potiers in second year Divinity
There is a book of the Waterford Residence SJ with “Ex Libris Miss. Hiberniae SJ, Joannes Moriarty”

◆ Fr Francis Finegan Sj :
A nephew of Denis Moriarty Bishop of Kerry 1720-1738
1720-1722 After First Vows he was sent for Philosophy to Tournon.
1722-1727 He was then sent Regency at Pérpignan, Albi and Carcassone.
1727-1730 He was then sent to Grand Collège Poitiers in AQUIT for Theology and Ordained there 1730. His studies seems to have been somewhat hurried out of deference to his Bishop uncle, but it is possible also that he was in compromised health. With the permission of the General he returned to Ireland the year, of his Ordination and resided with his Bishop Uncle.
1731 A year later he returned to France with Ignatius Kelly then undertaking the Visitation of the Irish College, Poitiers, and he was appointed Minister there. A year later, his health was now in a precarious state. So, he was then sent back by the Rector at Poitiers to Ireland but he died as soon as he arrived in Kerry 13 October 1732

Born: 1564: Clonmel, County Tipperary
Entered: 1585: Coimbra, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Ordained: by 1597: Coimbra, Portugal
Died: 13 April 1621, Galway Residence, Galway City, County Galway

1587-1593: At Coimbra Studying Arts and Theology
1593: At San Roque College Studying Arts and Theology (or Helping Fr Manoel de Gaes?)
1597: At Coimbra Finishes Arts and Theology, now a Confessor at S Fins.
1616: Catalogue Age 50 Soc 30 Mission 16. Was prefect at Connaught Residence. Minister and Consultor. Some years in Spain. Weak health, phlegmatic, very edifying, prudent and fit to be Superior. Learned in Scholastic Theology, Controversy and Moral Cases of Conscience. “Stays too much in room reading his Examen”. Was expected from Portugal but did not come.
1617: Catalogue Age 63 Soc 31. Is in Ireland.
1626: Catalogue there is an Andrew Morony Junior - ArcLed asks if he is the same as Nich Morony.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica” :
Had been a Minister and Consultor in Spain; Was a good Theologian and controversialist; Very fond of study; “doctus et gravis” and most edifying. Came to Ireland about 1600 and stationed in West Munster for many years. His learning and virtue was well known to General Aquaviva, says Holiwood (alias Lawndry, so he probably studied in Rome (Lawndrey’s Litterae 1611) - Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronolgica”.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Probably an uncle of “Francis” Mulroney, as in the 1626 list of Irish Mission there is an “Andreas Mulrony Junior”
Had studied Humanities at Lisbon before Ent 1585 Coimbra
After First Vows he stayed in Coimbra for studies. Unclear where he completed his Theology and was Ordained
1593 He was then appointed to assist Father Manuel de Gois in preparing his “Cursis Conimbricensis” for printing at the Casa San Roque
1597 Was Minister and Priest at Braga Residence, and Operarius at St Fins in Northern Portugal by 1598
1598 Fr Holywood was recruiting Irish Jesuits for Ireland and asked for Mulrony because of his fluency in Irish.
1601 Sent to Ireland, initially in Dublin, and then with Nicholas Leynach in Munster and Connaught (1605), and then conducted a Mission with Walter Wale in Ulster (probably means North Leinster and South Ulster) 1607.
1610 First Superior of Galway Residence and Consultor of Mission (he was mentioned as a possible Rector for Irish College Lisbon too, 1613). He spent the rest of his life in Galway, where he died 13 April 1621. Some five months before his death, the General advised Father Holywood to instruct Mulrony in the government of the mission in case death or other circumstances should make it impossible or Holywood to carry his duties

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Andrew Moroney SJ 1554-1620
On August 14th 1604, the Lord President of Munster, Brouncker, issued a decree that all Jesuits depart from the Kingdom before the last day of September. A reward was offered : £40 for the body of a Jesuit, £6.3.4 for every seminary priest, and £5 for every Massing priest. None were brought in, but some months later a spy sent in a list of all the priests still in Munster. Prominent among these was the name of Andrew Moroney SJ. His name is also given as Mulroney.

He was born in Clonmel in 1554 and became a Jesuit in 1591. He came on the Irish Mission in 1601, having been highly recommended for the work by Fr Henry Fitzsimon. He certainly lived up to his reputation, being over the next twenty years, one of the outstanding missioners in the country.

He came to Ireland along with Fr Nicholas Leynich, who was his constant companion on the Mission. Later he was transferred to Connaught where he was Superior of the Connaught Residence. Carrick-on-Suir also received a great deal of his ministrations.

Towards the end of his life he worked in Dublin. The early letters of his Superiors to Rome are loud of their praise of him as a virtuous and reliable man. He died some time after 1620.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORONY, ANDREW. As early as the 7th of September, 1599, F. Fitzsimon recommended him as a fit person to be employed as a Missionary in the south of Ireland. That he was so employed, is evident from F. Field s letter of the 25th of February, 1603. Four years later I meet him still at Munster.

Born: 19 March 1714, Ballykeefe, County Limerick
Entered: 03 September 1734, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Ordained: 1743, Poitiers, France
Final Vows: 04 June 1752
Died: 15 July 1785, Dublin City, County Dublin - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

Taught Humanities 6 years
1736-1738 & 1740-1741 Taught Grammar
1738-1747 Prefect of Boarders, Teaching Rhetoric, Studying Theology at Irish College Poitiers - Minister 1745-1747
1755 At least from this date in Ireland
1761 In Ireland towards end of 1761 (notice sent by Fr Corcoran & notice on an old stone, on which IHS at Limerick and Morony family
“Wonder if 1739-1740 dates are correct as original MS has 1640-1641 & 1639-1640, and the writer is very orderly”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1746-1785 A Writer and a celebrated Preacher in Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Dublin
Taught Humanities, and was Procurator at Poitiers.
1746 & 1756 In Limerick
In his book, printed in 1796, he is said to have been “lately living in Dublin.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied at Bordeaux before Ent 03 September 1734 Bordeaux
1736-1739 After First Vows he was sent on Regency teaching to Tulle and as Prefect at the Irish College Poitiers.
1739-1741 Sent on two further years of Regency at Agen and Luçon
1741-1746 Sent for Theology at Grand Collège Poitiers and he was Ordained there in 1743
1746-1747 Sent to Ireland and spent a year at Clonmel
1747-1773 Sent to Limerick where most of his working life was spent. At Limerick he proved himself not only a successful schoolmaster but enjoyed a high reputation as a Preacher throughout Munster. According to the census of 1766 he conducted his school at Jail Lane, near Athlunkard St.
1773 At the Suppression of the Society, 1773, he closed his school and went to live in Dublin. He was one of the signatories of 7 February, 1774, Accepting the brief of the Suppression. He died in Dublin 15 July 1785
Such was the esteem in which his memory was held as a preacher that eleven years after his death, two volumes of his sermons were published by the aid of the generous subscriptions of his many admirers

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Joseph Moroney SJ 1714-1785
Fr Joseph Moroney was born on March 19th 1714 at Ballykeefe, Mungret, Limerick. He joined the Jesuits at Bordeaux in 1734.

Twelve years later he was sent to Ireland, where he became famous as a preacher, in Limerick, Waterford and Munster in general, but mainly in Limerick. According to a census, he conducted a school at Gaol Lane, Limerick, but on the Suppression of the Society, the school ceased to function in 1783.

He published his sermons in two volumes. They are plain instructions without any evidence of great genius or eloquence, but then he is not the only great orator who reads rather poorly in print.

Fr Moroney ended his days in Dublin where he died in 1785.

◆ MacErlean Cat Miss HIB SJ 1670-1770
Loose Note :
Joseph Morony
Those marked with * were working in Dublin when on 07 February 1774 they subscribed their submission to the Brief of Suppression
John Ward was unavoidably absent and subscribed later
Michael Fitzgerald, John St Leger and Paul Power were stationed at Waterford
Nicholas Barron and Joseph Morony were stationed at Cork
Edward Keating was then PP in Wexford

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORONY, JOSEPH,was born at Limerick, on the 19th of March 1714, and joined the Society at Bordeaux, on the 4th of September, 1734. Twelve years later he came to the Mission, and was placed in his native city. On the 28th of June, 1752, he was numbered with the Professed Fathers. F. Joseph Morony became celebrated as a Preacher in Limerick, Waterford, and several parts of the Province of Munster, and left 2 Vols. of discourses printed in Dublin 12mo, 1796. The 1st Vol. contains 260pp : the 2nd 309 pp. A good judge informs me they were solid instructions in a plain stile, but without any evidence of great genius or eloquence. 1 think he died in Dublin.

Born: 19 March 1714, Ballykeefe, County Limerick
Entered: 03 September 1734, Bordeaux, France - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)
Ordained: 1743, Poitiers, France
Final Vows: 04 June 1752
Died: 15 July 1785, Dublin - Aquitaniae Province (AQUIT)

Taught Humanities 6 years
1736-1738 & 1740-1741 Taught Grammar
1738-1747 Prefect of Boarders, Teaching Rhetoric, Studying Theology at Irish College Poitiers - Minister 1745-1747
1755 At least from this date in Ireland
1761 In Ireland towards end of 1761 (notice sent by Fr Corcoran & notice on an old stone, on which IHS at Limerick and Morony family
“Wonder if 1739-1740 dates are correct as original MS has 1640-1641 & 1639-1640, and the writer is very orderly”

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1746-1785 A Writer and a celebrated Preacher in Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Dublin
Taught Humanities, and was Procurator at Poitiers.
1746 & 1756 In Limerick
In his book, printed in 1796, he is said to have been “lately living in Dublin.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Had studied at Bordeaux before Ent 03 September 1734 Bordeaux
1736-1739 After First Vows he was sent on Regency teaching to Tulle and as Prefect at the Irish College Poitiers.
1739-1741 Sent on two further years of Regency at Agen and Luçon
1741-1746 Sent for Theology at Grand Collège Poitiers and he was Ordained there in 1743
1746-1747 Sent to Ireland and spent a year at Clonmel
1747-1773 Sent to Limerick where most of his working life was spent. At Limerick he proved himself not only a successful schoolmaster but enjoyed a high reputation as a Preacher throughout Munster. According to the census of 1766 he conducted his school at Jail Lane, near Athlunkard St.
1773 At the Suppression of the Society, 1773, he closed his school and went to live in Dublin. He was one of the signatories of 7 February, 1774, Accepting the brief of the Suppression. He died in Dublin 15 July 1785
Such was the esteem in which his memory was held as a preacher that eleven years after his death, two volumes of his sermons were published by the aid of the generous subscriptions of his many admirers

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Joseph Moroney SJ 1714-1785
Fr Joseph Moroney was born on March 19th 1714 at Ballykeefe, Mungret, Limerick. He joined the Jesuits at Bordeaux in 1734.

Twelve years later he was sent to Ireland, where he became famous as a preacher, in Limerick, Waterford and Munster in general, but mainly in Limerick. According to a census, he conducted a school at Gaol Lane, Limerick, but on the Suppression of the Society, the school ceased to function in 1783.

He published his sermons in two volumes. They are plain instructions without any evidence of great genius or eloquence, but then he is not the only great orator who reads rather poorly in print.

Fr Moroney ended his days in Dublin where he died in 1785.

◆ MacErlean Cat Miss HIB SJ 1670-1770
Loose Note :
Joseph Morony
Those marked with * were working in Dublin when on 07 February 1774 they subscribed their submission to the Brief of Suppression
John Ward was unavoidably absent and subscribed later
Michael Fitzgerald, John St Leger and Paul Power were stationed at Waterford
Nicholas Barron and Joseph Morony were stationed at Cork
Edward Keating was then PP in Wexford

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORONY, JOSEPH,was born at Limerick, on the 19th of March 1714, and joined the Society at Bordeaux, on the 4th of September, 1734. Twelve years later he came to the Mission, and was placed in his native city. On the 28th of June, 1752, he was numbered with the Professed Fathers. F. Joseph Morony became celebrated as a Preacher in Limerick, Waterford, and several parts of the Province of Munster, and left 2 Vols. of discourses printed in Dublin 12mo, 1796. The 1st Vol. contains 260pp : the 2nd 309 pp. A good judge informs me they were solid instructions in a plain stile, but without any evidence of great genius or eloquence. 1 think he died in Dublin.

◆ Fr Joseph McDonnell SJ Past and Present Notes :
16th February 1811 At the advance ages of 73, Father Betagh, PP of the St Michael Rosemary Lane Parish Dublin, Vicar General of the Dublin Archdiocese died. His death was looked upon as almost a national calamity. Shops and businesses were closed on the day of his funeral. His name and qualities were on the lips of everyone. He was an ex-Jesuit, the link between the Old and New Society in Ireland.

Among his many works was the foundation of two schools for boys : one a Classical school in Sall’s Court, the other a Night School in Skinner’s Row. One pupil received particular care - Peter Kenney - as he believed there might be great things to come from him in the future. “I have not long to be with you, but never fear, I’m rearing up a cock that will crow louder and sweeter for yopu than I ever did” he told his parishioners. Peter Kenney was to be “founder” of the restored Society in Ireland.

There were seventeen Jesuits in Ireland at the Suppression : John Ward, Clement Kelly, Edward Keating, John St Leger, Nicholas Barron, John Austin, Peter Berrill, James Moroney, Michael Cawood, Michael Fitzgerald, John Fullam, Paul Power, John Barron, Joseph O’Halloran, James Mulcaile, Richard O’Callaghan and Thomas Betagh. These men believed in the future restoration, and they husbanded their resources and succeeded in handing down to their successors a considerable sum of money, which had been saved by them.

A letter from the Acting General Father Thaddeus Brezozowski, dated St Petersburg 14/06/1806 was addressed to the only two survivors, Betagh and O’Callaghan. He thanked them for their work and their union with those in Russia, and suggested that the restoration was close at hand.

A letter from Nicholas Sewell, dated Stonyhurst 07/07/1809 to Betagh gives details of Irishmen being sent to Sicily for studies : Bartholomew Esmonde, Paul Ferley, Charles Aylmer, Robert St Leger, Edmund Cogan and James Butler. Peter Kenney and Matthew Gahan had preceded them. These were the foundation stones of the Restored Society.

Returning to Ireland, Kenney, Gahan and John Ryan took residence at No3 George’s Hill. Two years later, with the monies saved for them, Kenney bought Clongowes as a College for boys and a House of Studies for Jesuits. From a diary fragment of Aylmer, we learn that Kenney was Superior of the Irish Mission and Prefect of Studies, Aylmer was Minister, Claude Jautard, a survivor of the old Society in France was Spiritual Father, Butler was Professor of Moral and Dogmatic Theology, Ferley was professor of Logic and Metaphysics, Esmonde was Superior of Scholastics and they were joined by St Leger and William Dinan. Gahan was described as a Missioner at Francis St Dublin and Confessor to the Poor Clares and irish Sisters of Charity at Harold’s Cross and Summerhill. Ryan was a Missioner in St Paul’s, Arran Quay, Dublin. Among the Scholastics, Brothers and Masters were : Brothers Fraser, Levins, Connor, Bracken, Sherlock, Moran, Mullen and McGlade.

Trouble was not long coming. Protestants were upset that the Jesuits were in Ireland and sent a petition was sent to Parliament, suggesting that the Vow of Obedience to the Pope meant they could not have an Oath of Allegiance to the King. In addition, the expulsion of Jesuits from all of Europe had been a good thing. Kenney’s influence and diplomatic skills resulted in gaining support from Protestants in the locality of Clongowes, and a counter petition was presented by the Duke of Leinster on behalf of the Jesuits. This moment passed, but anto Jesuit feelings were mounting, such as in the Orange faction, and they managed to get an enquiry into the Jesuits and Peter Kenney and they appeared before the Irish Chief Secretary and Provy Council. Peter Kenney’s persuasive and oratorical skills won the day and the enquiry group said they were satisfied and impressed.

Over the years the Mission grew into a Province with Joseph Lentaigne as first Provincial in 1860. In 1885 the first outward undertaking was the setting up of an Irish Mission to Australia by Lentaigne and William Kelly, and this Mission grew exponentially from very humble beginnings.

Later the performance of the Jesuits in managing UCD with little or no money, and then outperforming what were known as the “Queen’s Colleges” forced the issue of injustice against Catholics in Ireland in the matter of University education. It is William Delaney who headed up the effort and create the National University of Ireland under endowment from the Government.from the Government.

Born: 1605, Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales
Entered: 1626 Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1635 Liège, Belgium
Final Vows: 19 October 1642, Liège, Belgium
Died: 01 August 1667, St Omer France - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Very learned Theologian, knew twelve languages and music.
Of ANG, he was about six years in Ireland.
1636 Tertian at Ghent.
1639 Professor of Philosophy for some years at Liège.
He does not appear in the 1649 ANG CAT, as he was taken prisoner on his way to Spain by an English pirate ship, and carried off to Ireland.
Mercure Verdier - Visitor to the Irish Mission - met him and mentioned him in a letter to General Caraffa 24 June 1649, as a truly religious and exceedingly learned man, both in Theology and Philosophy, a great linguist, being acquainted with eleven languages, besides Greek, skilled in music, of a modest demeanour and robust health. He added “We have few Missioners in our Province like him, ready for everything”. He laboured in Ireland for about five years.
1651 and 1655 He was again at Liège
1660 Professor of Theology at Brussels, and died at St Omer’s College 01 August 1667 aged 64

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORRIS, CHRISTOPHER, born in Wales in 1607 : at the age of 19 joined the Society and became a Professed Father on the 19th of October, 1642. After filling the chair of Philosophy at Liege, he was ordered to Spain; but was taken by an English ship and carried, to Ireland, where he was engaged as a Tutor to a Nobleman’s son who little profited by his advice and instruction. Pere Verdier who met him in Ireland, reports him to the General, Vincent Caraffa, on the 24th of June 1649, as “vir vere religiosus, et eximié doclus in Theologicis et Philosophicis disciplinis en linguarum undecim praesertim Graeece peritus : scit Musicam : est modesto vultu : robusta vatetudine; and he adds : in nostra Provincia paucos similes habemus operarios ad omnia, instar illius, paratus”. It is painful to conclude with saying, that I can offer the indulgent Reader no further information of this worthy and highly gifted Father, excepting that he died at St. Omer on the 1st of August, 1667.

Born: 08 October 1910, Bunbury, Western Australia
Entered: 01 March 1929, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained: 08 January 1944, Sydney, Australia
Final vows: 15 August 1946
Died: 10 December 1971, Loyola College, Watsonia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia- Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Edmond Morris, affectionately known as “Poss”, was educated at Xavier College, Melbourne, and entered the Jesuit noviciate at Loyola, Greenwich, NSW, 1 March 1929. He studied for his university exams and philosophy at Rathfarnharn and Tullabeg, Ireland, 1931-37, and theology at Canisius College, Pymble. He was ordained in 1943, and did tertianship at Watsonia in 1945.
Most of his working life was spent teaching religion and history at Xavier College, Melbourne, 1946-68. He found teaching religion very difficult, but obtained good results from his history students each year. He enjoyed teaching and was respected by students and peers alike for his dignity and humility. He was a very hard worker, and a devoted rowing master, much appreciated by all those who were associated with that sport. He was an entirely likeable character, genuinely sincere and open, showing complete concern for others. He suffered much from ill health, and spent the last years of his life at Loyola College, Watsonia, Vic., being its rector for one year, 1970. For many years he had been a diffident personality, but always remained gentle and approachable. Perhaps his total lack of guile and his earnestness made him the butt of constant banter. He really was an angler's dream; no matter how heavy the line, he always rose to the bait. There was the pained look, the vehement defence, and then the semi-reproachful smile.

Born: 16 January 1898, Wexford Town
Entered: 05 September 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 29 June 1938, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 10 June 1965, St John’s Hospital, Limerick

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1927 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1937 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 41st Year No 1 1966
Obituary :
Fr James Albert Morris SJ (1898-1965)
Early in the morning of 10th June 1965 Fr. Morris died rather unexpectedly at St. John's Hospital, Limerick. R.I.P. He had been removed to hospital only the day before. For some weeks he had been suffering from a series of colds and headaches but they were not considered serious until a few days before his death. In fact he taught his Religious Knowledge class up to the previous weekend. However, he never seemed quite the same since he got a fall from his bicycle in August 1964, when he was doing a supply at Wexford. The doctors could not find anything seriously wrong with him, but, very unlike his usual way, he often complained of his health later.
James Albert Morris was born in Wexford on 16th June, 1898. He received some of his primary education from the Loreto Nuns, Mullingar. To the end he remained a great friend of the Loreto Nuns, especially, of course, those in their local Wexford Convent. Indeed, he was disappointed when he came to Limerick in 1962 to find that there was not a Loreto Convent in the locality. For him they ran the best girls' schools. And so very many of them knew him! If one went to give a retreat at a Loreto Convent some nun would always be sure to ask : “How is Fr. Albert?” The Wexford people and priests, nuns, his old pupils, and all in the Society knew him by no other name but Albert. In the Society one often heard of “the two Alberts” - Albert Morris and Albert Cooney, co-novices, together in many houses, and close friends and faithful correspondents during all their years in religion.
From 1913 to 1916 he was a boy in Clongowes. On leaving, thinking of going to U.C.D., he spent a short time at Terenure College, and later with Dom Sweetman, O.S.B., at Gorey. It would seem that he was trying to decide about his vocation during these years. He entered our noviceship at Tullabeg on 5th September, 1923. For his first year Fr. Michael Browne was his Master of Novices. Albert, and he remained so to the end, was nervous when he had to appear in public before Ours, even later to the extent of finding it distressing to say Litanies or give Benediction. There is a story told, characteristic of master and of novice, when Albert had to preach in the refectory. He probably had prepared a sermon that was too short for supper, and when he found himself nearing the end of it, he made many pauses during which he turned round several times to the novices serving at table as if to say : “Why don't you finish up?” Fr. Michael Browne noticed it, realised what was happening, had one of his customary choking fits of laughter and the poor novice had to fill in the time till the end of the meal.
Having finished his noviceship under Fr. Martin Maher and taken his vows he spent a year as a junior at Rathfarnham before going to Vals, France, the House of Philosophy, for the combined Provinces of Toulouse and Champagne. For the rest of his life even in the shortest conversation he used to throw in a French phrase. On his return to Ireland he taught at Belvedere from 1928 to 1932. Then to Milltown Park, where he was ordained on 31st July 1935. Tertianship followed at St. Beuno's, Wales.
His first assignment as a priest was as Sub-Moderator, 1937-39, at the Apostolic School, Mungret. Here he took his last vows on 29th June 1938. We find him back in Belvedere on the teaching staff from 1939 to 1943. Then began the work in which he was engaged almost for the rest of his life,
In 1943 he went to Tullabeg as Assistant Director of the Ricci Mission Unit, later to be known as Irish Jesuit Missions, for our work in what is now Zambia had begun years after the Hong Kong Mission. The stamp bureau was the chief work here and aided by generations of philosophers and his co-assistant director, the late Fr. William Allen, of the Australian Province, he gave most enthusiastic and painstaking service. Nuns and teachers everywhere in Ireland, receptionists in hotels, clerical workers in shops and factories were his clients and he carried on an enormous correspondence. He opened all the parcels of stamps for it was not infrequent that in the middle would be found a box of sweets or some other present for Fr. Albert. He was always a pleasant community man and he was pleased whenever he could come in to recreation to share his stamp bureau presents with his fellow Jesuits.
He remained in Tullabeg until at his own request, he was moved to Emo in 1959, still working for Irish Jesuit Missions. Among the changes that the Visitor, Fr. J. MacMahon, made in 1962 at the Status was the assigning of Fr. Albert to the Crescent, Limerick. Here he combined his interest in foreign mission work and later taught Religious Knowledge in the junior school.
On 12th June His Lordship the Bishop, Dr. H. Murphy, presided at the Office and Requiem Mass in the Sacred Heart Church, Even though it was a Saturday, there was a large attendance of priests present, including the Administrator of Wexford, Very Rev. Fr. T. Murphy, and a companion. Fr. Albert had spent his summers for many years supplying in Wexford and often at Sunshine House, Balbriggan. He was laid to rest in the community cemetery at Mungret. May God reward him and may our missionaries abroad never forget him in their prayers.

Born: 1674, County Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1699, Watten, Belgium - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1708
Died: 02 August 1715, London, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Very talented and great progress in Brehon Laws
His name is in CATS or 1700 and 1714

Alias Cross

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Named in the Annual Letters for the College of St Ignatius, London, as a zealous Minister there.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
MORRIS, JAMES, admitted in 1699. In the Annual Letters of 1710, he is described as a free Missionary in London, and labouring like an Apostle. He died on the 2nd of August, 1715, at. 41.

Born: 08 August 1792, Clones, County Monaghan
Entered: 29 May 1836, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final Vows: 01 November 1847
Died: 14 December 1859, St Joseph’s, Bardstown, KY, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 09 October 1882, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
Entered: 07 September 1900, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1916, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1922
Died: 10 March 1966, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare

Chaplain in the First World War.

by 1905 at Kasteel Gemert, Netherlands (TOLO) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1907
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 2/8 Battalion, Sobraon Barracks, Colchester
by 1918 Military Chaplain : 8 Battalion East Lancs, BEF France
by 1919 Military Chaplain : Clipstone Camp, 13 lines, Mansfield, Notts

Morris Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-model-school-jesuit-2/

JESUITICA: Model School Jesuit
The recently published history of the Model School, Enniskillen has quite an Orange flavour – many of the old boys are pictured wearing the Sash. It is a surprise to find a Jesuit
among them, Fr Paddy Morris. His father, Charles, was an independent-minded educator and the first headmaster of the Model School. He built it up against the determined opposition of the local Catholic clergy, who saw it as rivalling the national schools under their control. In 1900 Paddy entered the Jesuits with John Sullivan (also educated in Enniskillen, at Portora), served as a British army chaplain in the First World War, and later spent twelve years in Belvedere, six of them as its Rector, before ending his days, like John Sullivan, serving the People’s Church in Clongowes.

https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/the-last-parting-jesuits-and-armistice/

The last parting: Jesuits and Armistice
At the end of the First World War, Irish Jesuits serving as chaplains had to deal with two main issues: their demobilisation and influenza. Some chaplains asked immediately to be demobbed back to Ireland; others wanted to continue as chaplains. Of the thirty-two Jesuits chaplains in the war, five had died, while sixteen were still serving.
Fr Patrick Morris SJ, who worked at the Clipstone Camp in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, comments: “What havoc the influenza has brought... We had a bad time in camp here... Three of my boys died, but they were well prepared”. He caught the flu himself but “went to bed immediately and nipped it in the bud”.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Patrick Morris entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1900, and after initial studies arrived in Australia and Xavier College in 1907 where he taught senior students, and was assistant prefect of discipline, and looked after the choir and debating.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 41st Year No 3 1966

Clongowes Wood College, Naas
About 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, 10th March, Fr. Morris died peacefully in the college infirmary. He had been in failing health since the beginning of the school year and kept asserting that he felt his strength dwindling. Just after Christmas he got a chill and was confined to bed in his room for some ten days or so. As soon as matron returned at the beginning of the new term he was transferred to the infirmary. The outlook seemed gloomy but bit by bit he recovered his strength and by the beginning of March he was able to sit in his room and to walk about a little. He then fell a victim of the flu and though at one point he appeared to have taken a turn for the better, the improvement did not last. Special nurses were got for him but his position deteriorated rapidly at the end.
On the evening of 11th March the remains were brought to the People's Church where all the Masses on the high altar the following morning were offered for Fr. Morris. On the morning of the 12th the remains were removed to the Boys' Chapel, the boys of the college lining the route. At 10.30 the Office for the Dead was chanted and Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. James Casey. As it was Saturday many of the local clergy found it impossible to attend, but Monsignor Millar came from Newbridge and some priests came from other neighbouring places. There was a large gathering of the local people gathered at the graveside. (A notice on Fr. Morris' life appears at the end of this issue.)
Following Fr. Morris' death many letters of condolence were received. It was obvious that he had been widely known and greatly revered by a big circle of friends. Within the community he continued to the end remarkable for the regularity of his ways, his pleasantness of manner and his high esteem for spiritual things.

Obituary :

Fr Patrick J Morris SJ (1883-1966)

Fr. Morris was born in the town of Enniskillen in the year 1883. He was one of the youngest of a large family-five boys and five girls. His father, Charles Morris, was the first Catholic headmaster of the Enniskillen Model School, whose pupils were 80 per cent Protestant. His father was a great man in the town, and was known as Boss Morris. It was in this school that Patrick got his early education, and he never lost touch with it. He was one of the chief guests of honour when the school celebrated its golden jubilee. We read that he made the outstanding speech of the evening, and got an enthusiastic reception from all the old boys, Catholic and Protestant alike. One of his contemporaries wrote that he had a peculiar spring in his walk which always stood to him when playing football and other games - hardly the activities we associate with the staid Fr. Morris of later years, though indeed he was always a most graceful performer on the ice,
In September 1900 he entered Tullabeg as a novice, having Fr. John Sullivan and Fr. John Hannon as fellow novices. Fr. James Murphy was then at the height of his prowess as Master of Novices, and he gave the novices a very hectic time of it, which was not appreciated by all. Fr. Morris used to tell of the great relief he felt when, on the Feast of St. Stanislaus at the end of the Long Retreat, Fr. Keating the Provincial announced that the novices were about to be orphaned, as their Master of Novices had just been appointed Provincial. The novices had a far quieter life henceforth under the genial guidance of Fr. Michael Browne. Fr. Morris was the last survivor of the little band of novices who entered in 1900. After the two years noviceship, he remained on in Tullabeg for the following year as a junior. In 1904 he went to Gemert for his three years philosophy. While there he mastered the French language and became a fluent speaker, which stood him in good stead in after years.
At the end of his philosophy he set sail for Australia. He was one of a party that was brought out by the Provincial, Fr. Conmee, who was undertaking a visitation of the Australian Mission; and ever afterwards he held Fr. Conmee in the highest veneration. He used to say that he was the outstanding personality on the boat, and was sought after by all the passengers on account of his geniality, learning, and experience of life. Fr. Morris spent his six years in Australia teaching at Xavier College, Kew, where he first showed signs of that pre-eminence as a teacher which he afterwards attained. On his return to Ireland in 1913 he went to Milltown Park to begin his theology. He was ordained there on St. Ignatius Day 1916, and very nearly lived long enough to celebrate the golden jubilee of that day. Soon afterwards he was appointed chaplain in the First World War, and continued in that office for three years. He seldom referred to those harrowing years, but on a long-table day evening one would sometimes be given a glimpse of the sole Irish Padre in the Officers' Mess upholding the honour of the one true Church against all comers, in the days when the ecumenical movement was not as popular as it is now,
In 1919 we find him in Mungret as a teacher. The following year he did his Tertianship in Tullabeg, and at the same time acted as Socius to the Master of Novices. He then returned to Mungret for three years, the first as Sub-Moderator of the Apostolics, and the following two as Minister of the House. He than moved on to Belvedere in 1924 and remained there for 12 years. The first six he taught in the college; and then in February 1931 he was appointed Rector, and held that office until 1936. He than went to Emo where he was Minister and taught the novices. In 1943 he moved on to Clongowes, where he spent the remainder of his life. He took part in the teaching of the boys, and took over the care of the People's Church which he served devotedly until a year or so before his death. It was not until some months before he died that he notably began to fail. He used say that he would welcome death. It came to him finally towards the middle of March, when he passed peacefully away to his reward. .
To sum up Fr. Morris is not an easy task. There were so many facets to his character and work. A good part of his life was spent in teaching. All who came under his charge spoke in the highest terms of his ability in this line. Many have said that he was the best teacher they ever had. He was methodical to a degree, and a master of his subject, whether it be English, Latin or French. He was widely read in these languages, and was blessed with a very retentive memory a source which was often tapped to good purpose by the devotees of the Times Crossword Puzzle! He was specially devoted to Belloc and Chesterton, and knew them thoroughly. When a grammatical question turned up at recreation, he would handle the point with great clarity and exactness. He expected the boys to correspond. Anyone whom he felt was not doing his best would be given very short shrift. All held him however in high regard, and many were the expressions of gratitude to him, expressed by his former pupils at the time of his death.
Of his Rectorship in Belvedere he used to say himself that he had not been a great success. He generally referred to it half-jokingly as “when I sat in the chair of Moses!” He was probably too punctilious and exacting to make a really successful superior. Yet Belvedere made steady progress during his term in office. It was due to his foresight that the fine new playing fields at Cabra were acquired, when the ground had very nearly been disposed of otherwise. He took a personal interest in every sphere of the college activities, the studies, the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the Union, and the games though his intervention here may not always have been wise or tactful. Once he had decided on a course of action, it was very difficult indeed to get him to change his mind. On the other hand, he could be very kind and thoughtful where boys were concerned. On one occasion when some of them arrived at school cold and covered with snow, he at once brought them to the refectory and got them a hot meal before allowing them to go the classroom. He was very loyal to the school and its good name, and would tolerate no conduct that would bring it into disrepute.
Perhaps one may say that his greatest work was done when he had charge of the People's Church in Clongowes. He was devoted to the work, and was ever ready to come down from his room at the top of the Castle to hear a confession at any time of the day or night. His sermons on Sundays were prepared with meticulous care; and his kindness to the sick or those in trouble knew no bounds. As his name became a familiar one in the countryside, many came to consult him and to ask his blessing. They were all received with the greatest of charity. He was frequently called out to visit the sick, often long distances away, and had a special gift of bringing peace and comfort to the dying. One of the local curates drove him the whole way down to Carlow or Kilkenny to bring consolation to his own mother when she was on her deathbed. In earlier days, he rode his bicycle for many miles on these errands of mercy. In the latter days, when people saw he was unable for this exertion, and when motor cars became more common, they came in their cars and carried him off. He was ready to go at any time and any distance. It will be many years before the name of Fr. Morris will be forgotten in County of Kildare. The amazing thing was that he suffered from very bad health himself over a number of years - low blood pressure, asthma, insomnia, and a number of other complications, but his fighting spirit triumphed over them all, so that he was very rarely confined to bed until his last illness. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1966

Obituary

Father Patrick J Morris SJ (Rector 1931-1936)

Father Patrick J Morris SJ, who taught in Belvedere for many years and was also a former Rector of the college, died in March 1966. His former pupils will remember him as a lover of the classics and a truly well-read man. He was a brilliant teacher and imparted to his pupils an appreciation of great literature. An Army Chaplain in France in the 1914-18 war, Father Morris expected a high standard of loyalty and discipline from his boys. Nevertheless he could relax on occasions and his classes laughed with counterfeited glee at his classical or literary quips. In his later years he was magnanimous enough to admit that he had been too demanding during his years at Belvedere.

It was Father Morris who gave Belvedere its ideal - “per vias rectas”. A North of Ireland man, he set a high value on integrity. He had a shrewd and sound judgment and former members of his Sodality of Our Blessed Lady will readily recall the many lectures he gave to the Sodalists in which he enumerated the qualities they should expect in the ideal wife. All this was in the 1930s when student counselling was almost unheard of in Ireland. He always stressed a virile and manly holiness and a true and sincere dedication to Christ the King.

On leaving Belvedere he spent some years at Emo Park before his transfer to Clongowes. There, in failing health, he won acclaim as a devoted and kindly confessor in the people's church and as a Christ-like lover of the sick. In his last years he made no secret of the fact that he longed to die. On 11th March he went to his reward. God rest his soul.

Born: 05 October 1908, Listowel, Co Kerry / Ballysimon, County Limerick
Entered: 01 September 1925, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1939, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 07 February 1942, Manresa House, Roehampton, London, England
Died: 07 April 1973, Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Belvedere College SJ, Dublin community at the time of death

Early education at Mungret College SJ.

Chaplain in the Second World War.

by 1948 at Riverview, Sydney Australia (ASL) teaching
by 1962 at Holy Name Manchester (ANG) working

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
Note from Lol Kearns Entry
“While driving in convoy on the first stage of our journey to Brussels, my driver ran the car into a tree north of Magdeburg and my head was banged into the glove compartment in the dashboard. I saw Fr Morrison again at CelIe as he bent over my stretcher and formed the opinion that I should never look the same again.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/into-journal-remembers-jesuit-chaplain/

INTO journal remembers Jesuit chaplain
Irish Jesuit and Second World War chaplain Fr Michael Morrison features in the Irish National Teachers Organisation’s InTouch magazine for the January/February 2019 issue.
Fr Morrison was born in Listowel in County Kerry, was educated by the Jesuits in secondary school, joined the Society and taught at Belvedere College SJ in Dublin. He enlisted as a chaplain with the British army, initially ministering in the Middle East and later transferring to the Derry Regiment of the Lancashire Fusiliers.
He arrived with British and Canadian forces to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Northern Germany in April 1945, which was the first camp to be liberated on the Western Front. At that time, there were 60,000 individuals within the camp with conditions described as ‘hell on earth’ – 13,000 people died from sickness and starvation in the weeks after liberation.
While at Bergen-Belsen, Fr Morrison administered the last rights, held Mass for people of different religions and conducted a joint service over a mass grave with, for example, the Jewish British army chaplain. In a letter home, he wrote: “What we met within the first few days is utterly beyond description”, and it was reported that he spoke very little about what he witnessed in later years. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Michael Morrison lived in his early years at Ballysimon on the outskirts of Limerick city. The Christian Brothers educated him at Sexton Street, and then he went to Mungret from 1922, where he excelled himself at hurling. In his last year at school he was a member of the junior team that won the O'Mara Cup.
He entered the Society at Tullabeg, 1 September 1925, and after his home juniorate at Rathfarnham, studied philosophy at Tullabeg. He did regency at Belvedere and Mungret, 1933-36, teaching mathematics and was involved with sport. He studied theology at Milltown Park, 1936-40, and was at Rathfarnham, 1940-41, for tertianship.
During the Second World War he was a military chaplain with the British Army in Egypt 1941-46, serving with the Eight Army and was present at the fall of Tunis. He was later at Belsen in 1945, working in Camp Number 1, the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were 50,000 people where typhus was raging When Morrison's unit entered the camp between 7.000 and 10,000 people were found dead in the huts and on the ground. The majority of the living were seriously ill. Many thousands died subsequently Morrison anointed about 300 people daily, helped by very few chaplains. He celebrated Mass on 22 April 1945, the first time at the camp. It was a moving experience for those able to attend.
After the war he went to Australia, teaching briefly at St Aloysius' College, and then at Riverview, 1947-48. He finally did parish work at Richmond, 1949-58.
After leaving Australia, he spent several years attached to the Jesuit Holy Name church in Manchester. He returned to Ireland later, and taught at Mungret, and then at Belvedere College as college bursar, 1963-73.
Morrison was a good listener, allowing others to speak. His quiet, matter-of-fact way of viewing things rendered him one of the most factually objective witnesses of the day-to~day circumstances of World War II. His health deteriorated in his latter years after a series of strokes. He was a man of strong principles, loyal to his duties, and, in his sickness, always unwilling to be a burden.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 16th Year No 2 1941
General News :
The Irish Province has to date sent 4 chaplains to England for home or foreign service for the duration of the war. They are Frs. Richard Kennedy, Michael Morrison, Conor Naughton and Cyril Perrott. The first three were doing their 3rd year's probation under Fr. Henry Keane at the Castle, Rathfarnham, while Fr. Perrott was Minister at Mungret College. They left Dublin on the afternoon of 26th May for Belfast en route for London. Fr. Richard Clarke reported a few days later seeing them off safely from Victoria. Both he and Fr. Guilly, Senior Chaplain to British Forces in N. Ireland, had been most helpful and kind in getting them under way.

Irish Province News 17th Year No 1 1942

Chaplains :
Our twelve chaplains are widely scattered, as appears from the following (incomplete) addresses : Frs. Burden, Catterick Camp, Yorks; Donnelly, Gt. Yarmouth, Norfolk; Dowling, Peebles Scotland; Guinane, Aylesbury, Bucks; Hayes, Newark, Notts; Lennon, Clackmannanshire, Scotland; Morrison, Weymouth, Dorset; Murphy, Aldershot, Hants; Naughton, Chichester, Sussex; Perrott, Palmer's Green, London; Shields, Larkhill, Hants.
Fr. Maurice Dowling left Dublin for-Lisburn and active service on 29 December fully recovered from the effects of his accident 18 August.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

Australia :
Frs. Fleming and Mansfield (who is a member of the Australian Vice-Province) were able to leave for Australia via America in July.
Frs. Lennon and Morrison are still awaiting travel facilities.

Irish Province News 48th Year No 3 1973

Obituary :

Fr Michael Morrison (1908-1973)

Fr. Michael Morrison was born in Listowel, Co. Kerry, in October 1908, but in his early years moved to Ballysimon on the outskirts of Limerick city; he was one of three children, another boy, Jim, and a sister, whom their mother, early bereaved of her husband, devotedly brought up.
In Limerick he attended the CBS, Sexton Street, primarily and in 1922 went to Mungret, where because of his skill and vigour in the hurling team he was the object of an amount of hero worship among those who found difficulty in earning a place on one team whereas he, by natural right, had a secure billet on both senior and junior teams. In his last year at school he was a stalwart member of the junior team that won the O'Mara Cup.
He entered the novitiate in 1925 and having negotiated many a “novices' jump” proceeded to Rathfarnham in 1927 where during the next three years he was occupied with the humanities. Through no fault of his he was drafted, to Tullabeg for philosophy in 1930 without having completed his university degree - he had spent a year in the home juniorate, because of pressure for accommodation for an overflowing community in Rathfarnham.
After philosophy he spent two years of regency at Belvedere where again his athletic skill in training teams was in requisition. Apart from this particular expertise he was a good teacher especially with mathematics at which he shone even as a boy. He spent a final year of college in his Mungret Alma Mater.
He began his course in Theology at Milltown in 1936, and was ordained in 1939. In 1941 Monsignor Coughlin, the principal chaplain in the British Army, made a strong appeal to the Irish Jesuits for priests to serve with the troops. Fr Michael was one of the first appointed. Soon he was in Egypt moving back and forth with the fortunes of the army in the desert. He was in the final breakthrough of the Eighth Army and was present at the Fall of Tunis where he met Fr Con Murphy, SJ, who had come the other way with the First Army.
Fr Michael did not cross over to Italy with the Eighth Army, but returned to England with his Units in preparation for the attack on the Northern flank of the German Army.
On the 12th April, 1945, the chief of staff of the First German Parachute Army made contact with the British Eighth Corps to ask for a local armistice. He explained that a terrible situation in the POW., and civilian internment camps had arisen at Belsen. Typhus was raging, and the Germans were unable to handle it. Would the Eighth Corps take over?
A truce was immediately arranged. A neutral area was set out around Belsen. The German SS camp staff were to stay on indefinitely. The Hungarian Guard was also to remain. A section of the Wehrmacht was to guard the area but was to be returned behind the German lines fully armed after six days.
Fr Morrison was with the 32nd Casualty Clearing Unit near Belsen at the time and it immediately moved to the camps. Then began for him a period of great trial and anguish. He was principally occupied in Camp Number 1 - known now to all the world as the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were fifty thousand people. Thirty-nine huts housed the men, forty-one, the women.
When Fr Morrison's unit entered the camp on April 17th, between seven and ten thousand people lay dead in the huts and on the ground, Of the living the majority were in periculo mortis, and many thousands were dying.
The first date for which statistics were available was April 30th, and on that day five hundred and forty eight people died. It was difficult to assess the number of Catholics, but at a guess it was in the region of 30 per cent. In February, 1945, there were 45 priests in the camp but only 10 were alive on April 17th, when Fr. Morrison arrived. Of these 10, only one, a Pole, Fr Kadjiocka, was able to give Fr Morrison any help. Soon afterwards several other chaplains arrived. The number Fr Michael anointed daily during this first period in the camp was about 300. He wrote in a report :

The joy and gratitude shown by the internees at receiving the sacraments more than compensated for the difficulties. (difficulties such an understatement!) of working in the huts. One was conscious too of being a member of a living unified Church and of the bond which held us together. In the camps were Poles, Hungarians, Czecks, Jugoslavs, Greeks, Rumanians, Ukranians, French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, and all were able to partake of the same sacrament.
On Sunday, April 22nd. Mass was celebrated for the first. time in Belsen Camp. There was a torrential downpour that morning and it was suggested that Mass be postponed until some other day, but the congregation would not hear of it ... they were drenched through but that did not diminish the fervour and enthusiasm of their singing.

Fr Michael very seldom spoke of his trials at Belsen and it would be difficult for the boys in his latter days at Belvedere to appreciate that the bowed priest who moved about so haltingly with a stick, and was nevertheless, so ready to speak with everyone, had such a distressing experience in his life.
After demobilisation, Fr Morrison went, lent, to Australia where he taught in Riverview College and served in St. Ignatius' Church, Richmond.
Michael was by disposition inclined to let others talk, it could hardly be said of him, on any occasion that he “took over”. His quiet, matter-of-fact, way of viewing things rendered him possibly the most factually objective witness of the day-to-day circumstances of the war situation summarised above. In later years he was, as noted above, averse to alluding to it and memories of it probably deepened the loneliness that affected him when his health declined.
After his return from Australia he spent several years attached to our Holy Name church in Manchester and on his coming back to Ireland after a short term in Mungret he was assigned as Economus to Belvedere, an office he retained until his health gave way; He retained his interest in games and enjoyed a game of golf.
Sadness visited him in the way of family bereavement. After his mother his sister and brother predeceased him; he retained his interest in their families but with the incapacity induced by several strokes and the consciousness of waging a losing battle a strong philosophy was necessary to buoy him up. This he fortunately possessed and the circumstances of his final seizures was characteristic : on the morning of his death he mentioned casually at breakfast that he had had another slight stroke; superiors were immediately informed but in the meantime he began to make his way, alone, upstairs to his room. The exertion brought on another and fatal attack. He was anointed and brought to Jervis Street Hospital but efforts to revive him were unavailing; he was a man of strong principle withal boyish, loyal to his duties, unwilling to be a burden. May he rest in peace.
His obsequies were carried out at Gardiner Street, April 10th; apart from his immediate relatives and a large number of ours there was a big congregation of Belvederians present and past.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1973

Obituary

Father Michael Morrison SJ (died 7th April, 1973)

Father Michael Morrison came to Belvedere late in life and was, perhaps, not very well known to its present alumni because he was not on the teaching staff. Until he be came ill he was bursar of the college. He was born in Listowel, but he went later with his family to live in Ballysimon, Co Limerick. He attended Mungret College for his secondary schooling. He was a superbly good hurler and had the distinction of being on the Junior team and of being picked for a place on the Senior team at the same time.

Michael entered the Jesuit Novitiate in 1925. Then came his humanity studies at Rathfarnham and his philosophy course at Tullabeg. In 1933 he was appointed as a scholastic to Belvedere and had charge of the Junior Rugby team which reached the final in his second year, but failed to win it. After the match there was quite a controversy about an unusual decision of the referee!

He began his course in Theology at Milltown in 1936, and was ordained in 1939. In 1941 Monsignor Coughlin, the principal chaplain in the British Army, made a strong appeal to the Irish Jesuits for priests to serve with the troops. Father Michael was one of the first appointed. Soon he was in Egypt moving back and forth with the fortunes of the army in the desert. He was in the final breakthrough of the Eighth Army and was present at the fall of Tunis where he met Father Con Murphy SJ, who had come the other way with the First Army.

Father Michael did not cross over to Italy with the Eighth Army, but returned to England with his Units in preparation for the attack on the Northern flank of the German Army.

On the 12th April, 1945, the chief of staff of the First German Parachute Army made contact with the British Eighth Corps to ask: for a local armistice. He explained that a terrible situation in the POW, and civilian internment camps had arisen at Belsen. Typhus was raging, and the Germans were unable to handle it. Would the Eight Corps take over?

A truce was immediately arranged. A neutral area was set out around Belsen. The German SS camp staff were to stay on in definitely. The Hungarian Guard was also to remain. A section of the Wehrmacht was to guard the area but was to be returned behind the German lines fully armed after six days.

Father Morrison was with the 32nd Casualty Clearing Unit near Belsen at the time and it immediately moved to the camps. Then began for him a period of great trial and anguish. He was principally occupied in Camp Number 1 - known now to all the world as the Horror Camp. Herded together in this camp were fifty thousand people. Thirty-nine huts housed the men forty-one, the women.

When Father Morrison's unit entered the camp on April 17th, between seven and ten thousand people lay dead in the huts and on the ground. Of the living the majority were in periculo mortis, and many thousands were dying.

The first date for which statistics were available was April 30, and on that day five hundred and forty eight people died. It was difficult to assess the number of Catholics, but at a guess it was in the region of 30 per cent. In February 1945 there were 45 priests in the camp but only 10 were alive on April 17th, when Father Morrison arrived. Of these 10, only one, a Pole, Father Kadjiocka, was able to give Father Morrison any help. Soon afterwards several other chaplains arrived. The number Father Michael annointed daily during this first period in the camp was about 300. He wrote in a report:

“The joy and gratitude shown by the internees at receiving the sacraments more than compensated for the difficulties ('difficulties —such an understatement !) of working in the huts. One was con scious too of being a member of a living unified Church and of the bond which held us together. In the camps were Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Jugoslaves, Greeks, Rumanians, Ukranians, French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, and all were able to par take of the same sacrament.
On Sunday, April 22nd Mass was celebrated for the first time in Belsen Camp. There was a torrential downpour that morning and it was suggested that Mass be postponed until some other day, but the congregation would not hear of it ... they were drenched through but that did not diminish the fervour and enthus jasm of their singing”.

Father Michael very seldom spoke of his trials at Belsen and it would be difficult for the boys now at Belvedere to appreciate that the bowed priest who moved about so haltingly with a stick, and was nevertheless, so ready to speak with everyone, had such a distressing experience in his life.

After demobilization, Father Morrison went to Australia where he taught in Riverview College and served in St Ignatius Church, Richmond. He returned to Europe in 1958 and worked for some years Manchester before becoming Bursar at Belvedere.

May he rest in peace.

Dunsany, County Meath

Born: 08 September 1832, County Waterford
Entered 15 July 1854, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Died 31 October 1857, St Louis, MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Part of the Florissant MO, USA community at the time of death

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

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

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

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

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

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

Obituary

Father Charles Morrogh SJ

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

◆ The Clongownian, 1923

Obituary

Father Charles Morrogh SJ

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

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

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

Born: 01 January 1797, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1818, Hodder, Stonyhurst, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: 1823, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Final Vows: 15 August 1838
Died: 12 November 1862, St Francis Xavier, Liverpool, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities at Stonyhurst before Ent.

Ordained 1823 Wolverhampton by Bishop Milner.
1823-1844 Served the Missions of Courtfield, Rotherwas, Bedford Leigh, Chipping and Wigan until September 1844.
1844 Sent to Gilmoss, near Liverpool, which he served until illness saw him moved to St Francis Xavier Liverpool, where he died 12/11/1862 aged 65

He was universally esteemed for his simplicity of character and his great humility.

Born: 01 March 1938, Ennis, County Clare
Entered: 07 September 1955, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 10 July 1969, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 17 September 1985, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin
Died: 26 November 2012, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1963 at Chantilly, France (GAL S) studying
by 1971 at Auriesville, NY, USA (NEB) making Tertianship
by 1972 at St Gregory NY, USA (NEB) studying
by 1996 at Berkeley, CA, USA (CAL) studying

Born: 24 June 1822, County Armagh
Entered: 14 November 1851, Montréal, Québec, Canada - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1866
Died: 14 January 1891, Fordham College, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)

Born: 17 February 1858, Rath Beg, County Kerry
Entered: 14 August 1876, Clermont, France - Lugdunensis Province (LUGD)
Ordained: 1891
Final vows: 02 February 1897
Died: 28 April 1927, Spring Hill College, AL, USA - Neo-Aurelianensis Province (NOR)

by 1891 came to Milltown (HIB) studying 1890-1892

Born: 31 August 1874, Ardfinnan, County Tipperary
Entered: 07 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 01 August 1909, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1912
Died: 12 May 1954, Milltown Park, Dublin

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1896 at Valkenburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1898 at Enghien, Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1911 at St Mary’s College, Kent, England (FRA) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 29th Year No 3 1954
Obituary :
Father Charles Mulcahy
By the death of Father Mulcahy, the Province has lost an excellent Retreat-giver, a much sought guide for young men and one of the best language teachers known to our Colleges.
Born in 1874 at Ardfinnan, Co. Tipperary, he received his early education at Rockwell College, where he fortunately found a master suitable to his bent for modern Languages, including Irish, a subject hardly known to the schools in those days. In 1890 he went to Clongowes. There he was a diligent and successful student. A contemporary describes his first impression as “of an elegant young man, strolling round the cycle-track with Mr. Wrafter and a couple of Higher liners”. A small detail, but not without its significance. Apart from tennis, he had no sportive interests.
He entered the noviceship in 1893, encouraged in his Jesuit vocation by a friend of his family, Father Healy, C.S.Sp., a former Head of Blackrock College. We may, perhaps, say that he was fortunate to have finished his noviceship at a time when the pedagogical outlook did not force every Junior into a University procrustean couch, for he was immediately sent to Philosophy; two years at Valkenburg and one year at Enghien, where the foreign diet gives a flavour to speech, not to be found at home. He returned for the long period of scholastic service common in those days; seven or eight years of unbroken teaching work. All past pupils pay tribute to the excellence of his teaching, and his power to create interest in literature.
After four years at Milltown, and Tertianship at Canterbury under Father de Maumigny, whose spirituality influenced him profoundly, he returned to Milltown, for a brief year as Sub-minister, and Master of Juniors. He taught at the Crescent, 1913 and 1914 when he was appointed Minister and Socius to the Master of Novices and Master of Novices 1918-1919 at Tullabeg. During this period he developed his great talent as choir master. Though not a singer himself, he was a good pianist, and more than one Province choir owed its efficiency to him.
In 1919 he went to Clongowes as Rector and Consultor of the Province. St. Paul is very emphatic on the diversity of gifts. Government, as both profane and religious history shows, is among the rarer talents. It does not appear to have been his particular gift. After three years he was back at the teaching work, first at Mungret, where he was in charge of the Studies, then at Clongowes, part of the time as Spiritual Father. Finally in 1940 he settled down in Milltown, at the work which gave the fullest scope to his talents : Retreat work and spiritual direction of an increasing number of men, who got to know his worth in the Retreats, and would constantly return to consult him.
A prominent Government official pays this tribute to him : “I remember well his first appearance in the chapel at Milltown Park and every time I saw him for a matter of 10 years emphasised the impression that he was essentially a man of God, a man who appeared to walk perpetually in the presence of God. He succeeded in communicating that to his hearers. He was for me the embodiment of Ignatian spirituality. There could be no doubt whatever that he had lived a long life endeavouring to carry out the precepts of the Society as perfectly as possible for him. He carried on, until his health broke down, a personal apostolate with scores of men, particularly I think young men, whom he met for the most part in connection with retreats at Milltown Park. He had a charming sense of humour which kept breaking through the seriousness of his character”.
Similar testimony comes from Mount Anville, for whose Community he worked for many years. They say that he gave the exercises a way that could be understood by the children. And the kindness and sympathy shown them enabled them to open their problems to him readily.
It has been said with truth that the measure of a man's achievement and greatness in any walk of life is the devotion and application to duty which it involves : judged by that criterion Father Mulcahy has left an example which all can envy but few emulate. “I have”, says one in a position to judge, “known him over many years and have treated with him in many different capacities : I have never yet known him to deviate by a hair's breadth from the path of duty or allow the claims of any personal interest to obtrude on those of his office. If indeed there is one of whom it can be said that he gave himself to his work without stint, that man was Father Mulcahy”.
From the noviceship days, he was a keen reader of ascetical books. He could tell one, straight off, the best books in French, German, Italian, English on any point in the spiritual life. Though highly appreciative of general literature, the book shelf in his room became, as the years went on, more and more narrowed down to spiritual books, showing that St. Paul's invitation was a living one for him : “I will shew unto you yet a more excellent way”. And the more excellent way was the “conversation in Heaven”, whose gates advancing years reminded him were ready to open wide : “they that instruct many to justice shall shine as stars for all eternity”. Father Mulcahy had certainly done that for many years of self-sacrificing patience.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Charles Mulcahy 1874-1954
Fr Charles Mulcahy was born in Ardfinnan in 1874, and received his early education at Rockwell College and Clongowes.

Entering the Society in 1893, he did his studies abroad at Valkenburg and Enghien. His formation completed, he was appointed Socius to the novices in 1914, and in 1918 was made Master of Novices. The following year he went to Clongowes as Rector. Administration, however, does not seem to have been his strong point, so after three years of office he returned to the classroom, in Mungret and Clongowes.

He was a first class teacher of languages and music. From his noviceship days he was a keen reader of ascetical books, and could recommend straight off the best books in French, German, Italian or English on any point in the spiritual life.

In 1940 he returned to Milltown Park, where he gave himself to retreat work and spiritual direction, his real métier. His excellence in this line is eloquently attested by the constant stream of people of all classes who consulted him in the parlour. He had a special gift for directing young men. “They that instruct many unto justice, shall shine as stars for all eternity”. Fr Mulcahy had certainly done that right up to his death on May 12th 1954.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 27 : May 1983

PORTRAIT FROM THE PAST : CHARLES MULCAHY
Dr Leon Ó Broin
The noted Irish scholar and former. Secretary of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs has graciously contributed this vignette of Fr Mulcahy. The author's laconic title for the piece is “An Old Fraud”: you'll see why.

When you went up to the first floor of the Retreat House in Milltown Park you saw in an alcove before you the room. 15A.where Charlie Mulcahy received visitors. It was a large, high-ceilinged, rather cheerless room, with little in it beyond a table with a raft of books, a typewriter, an armchair, a plain chair, an iron bedstead and a priedieu.. It was there in August 1943 - forty: years ago - I spoke to him first, I had seen him a week or two earlier as he. entered the chapel downstairs to give the opening lecture of a week end retreat. He was 69, but did not look it... He was an “old fraud” he would tell you, for his features were those of a man in his middle years, and his light brown hair was strong and plentiful. His walk gave him away, however; though quick and purposeful he shuffled noticeably. His speech was rather like that, too, it was quick and abbreviated. He repeated himself, but that may have been the teacher's practice of stressing the salient points of a lesson.

I have good reason to remember the first lecture of his I heard, because in it he laid the basis for everything he taught me in the next ten years or so, namely the supreme importance of understanding where all of us stand before God, our essential creaturehood and its obligations, the absurdity of Independent Creature. scribbler I wrote down an outline of his lectures and sent it to him from home, with a note asking him to develop a point that seemed to affect me particularly. His speedy reply was not quite what I expected, but it was thoroughly ad rem. “What you want to help yourself”, he wrote, “is much less thinking, and as much praying as you can manage. You seem to enjoy writing your thoughts. That makes for clarity, but hardly for reality”. Reality for him, as I was - to observe, was to live perpetually in the presence of God. Who could not but notice this when he walked in the garden or along the corridor in the direction of the community chapel? He was a picture of quiet, adoring concentration.

He invited me to come to Milltown “to talk myself out” on this question of reality, and when we met I remember how insistent he was that, in the matter of assent to the truths of religions, I should understand the difference between what was merely notional and what was real. He added that I would benefit from reading Newman on the subject. That visit was the forerunner of many. We became good friends, and his interest extended to my work, my literary interests, my ageing parents, my wife and family. He told me a little about himself, very indirectly though. He had run the whole gamut of Jesuit responsibilities, teaching in various schools, being master of novices, rector in Clongowes and Provincial Consultor; now he was “retired”, his function being “to pray for the Society” (Orat pro Societate), which did not mean, I suspect, that he could not direct an occasional retreat, look after the spiritual interests of a religious community, and conduct a personal apostolate among. young men he had encountered on those enclosed week-ends. These he endearingly referred to as his “toughs” They came to see him for. advice and to hear their confessions, sometimes two or three of them in a row and my own chats had to end abruptly when he would explain ever so courteously, that he had another “tough” waiting for him outside. Among his “toughs” in earlier days, if you can call them such, had been the remarkable Father Willie Doyle; and he always spoke warmly of Father John Sullivan with whom he had lived in community.

A native of Arafinnan, Co. Tipperary, Charlie had gone to Rockwell college where he was fortunate to have a teacher who developed his bent for modern languages, including Irish, a subject hardly known to the schools in those days. In time, I gather, he became one of the best language teachers in Jesuit Colleges. He continued his study of Irish in the Balingeary Gaeltacht of which he had pleasant memories - “It had become in a way a sort of home to me”, where he was able to indulge his love of traditional music. He was a good, good pianist and had considerable success with choirs.

As a Jesuit novice he had spent three years studying philosophy in Valkenburg and Enghien, and did his Tertianship in Canterbury under Father de Maumigry whose spirituality influenced him profoundly. He worried over what was happening in Germany during the war, and has my wife praying for that country ever since. He read German, of course, as well as French and English, but more in depth than in breadth. I imagine his practice being to return the books he liked, in order to savour their quality anew. He had a real feeling for the French language; when I introduced a young friend, whom he found full of “thoughts and tastes”, he felt sure that a bookman like me would approve of trying to break him into a little French.

“France was the country of expression”, he believed, and “a country that possessed a Rene Bazin must have a sane outlook for a young Catholic”. One of the things at which he grieved was that, having read a lot of Bazin, his immediate interests meant that he would have to defer beginning on him again for some time.

He hinted on the important things that were pressing on his time. “I have a young Deacon here for a six-day retreat. He is to be ordained on Sunday next. Say a word of prayer to the Lord for him”. In another letter he said “I have one young man here in Retreat. The one is as occupying as a complete bunch of them. He is gloriously in earnest, God bless him. He has a lovely Cork accent”. So his reading of profane literature dwindled to practically nothing. When now he talked of it at all, it seemed it was some thing he had to make an effort to recall. His stock of books became smaller and smaller. Those he retained had, all of them, an ascetical character; they were what he needed for his own spiritual purposes, and those he proposed to lend to his “toughs” in the hope of promoting theirs. I notice in one of his letters - all of which I kept - that the volumes he lent me included: Meschler, Father Arthur Little, and Saint Francis de Sales, At other times it was books by the Jesuits, Coleridge and Goodier, and Saint Augustine. I would feel the uplift of certain chapters in Coleridge, he assured me, and then went on to ask if I did not think it queer how calmly we talk of an uplift? Why, it means entrance into a new world and not merely a World like what Columbus discovered?

Mentioning Augustine, he would say that there was no need to commend the great African Doctor. “You know my weakness for him. He always touches the soul in that human way of his”. From Francis de Sales he culled reams from his writings on the religious life and on pursuit of perfections and gave me a copy of his transcript. Saint Ignatius was never far away from his thought, of course; retreats and his direction of souls were strictly fashioned by the Spiritual Exercises, That, for instance, was where the obligations of the creature came from; and this, on the discernment of spirits. “Keep joy in prayer and all will be well. If you are spiritually: unhappy, then you may know the enemy is near..in The doubt increases; the soul begins to be restless; it loses its sweetness and spiritual joy. Ignatius says at once, without any reservations, that this alone is a sign that 'the light is untrue”.

He gave me once a Ballade of Distractions that a colleague of his in the Society had strung together. It had done him good, and he felt sure I, too, would find it useful. It's real prayer, is it not?. You remember St. Augustine: Lord, you were with me, but I was not with You. That was the theme of the Ballade it began : Here am I in the chapel in retreat, / Lord, at your hidden glory humbly staring, /my soul, that ought to find its joy complete, / the splending of Your Godhead to be sharing / Has found the effort just a little wearing. And off it's gone, the countryside to view./ Taking, alas, a most terrestrial airing / my thoughts are rambling though I'm here with you.

Going through his letters I find some fine things: In one he says “It was not in dialectics God saved his people”. In another “God will be generous as is His wont. I have not had such a good time of late”, (His health was beginning to break) “but that, too is a gift of God as St. Ignatius tells us”. In another still “I will make special mementoes in the Mass for the musicians (my children: Eimear and Noirin) till their troubles are over. Our Lady, the Great Mother, will guide their hands and their brains”, and, when their examinations were successfully passed, he told Eimear not to forget to thank his heavenly helpers. “How human”, he said, “is the Gospel scene with its pertinent question: ‘Where are the other nine?’” And, reminding me and my wife of an approaching feast, he assumed we had a picture of the Holy Family in the house, that the children would gather a few autumn leaves to adorn it, have a lamp burning before it, and pay some visits to it till the feast was over. That would leave an impression on their minds that would do them good.

The autumn leaves typified his passion for flowers. He planted them in profusion in a garden rockery round the beguiling figure of a petite Virgin and used reproductions of them as bookmarkers.

When my father's days were clearly numbered, his concern for him, my mother, and me was most touching. “You may be sure there were many Masses and many prayers offered for him. I offered Mass myself of course and remembered him in my prayers all the day. May God bless him when the hour comes for bringing him to a better home. It will be, I am sure, a relief rather than anything else. What a grand solemnity there is in the scene with Martha: I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me although he be dead shall live, and everyone that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever. There is no other consolation. May God bless and console yourself”. In his next letter he wrote that “the Lord has been good to the one He has called by shortening his waiting. May he rest in peace. I offered Mass for him this morning You may be sure of much spiritual help from Milltown, I did not get your message till close on 9 last evening. I hope you got my wire. I will offer Mass on Monday for the dead, yourself, and for the old lady who has been left to grieve, not too long in the Mercy of God one would hope, but God understands better than we. Is not our misunderstanding of what He does and why He does it pathetic and childlike? But you will be understanding it all better every day. May God bless you and console you”. He was very anxious about the dear old Granny, fearing that she might be unsettled; and, feeble though he was now, he went with the Rector one day to see her in her little flat. He continued to remember her in his Masses, putting her especially in God's care and guard.

The first sign that his own mortal end was not too far off appeared in his letters. They were suddenly shorter, disjointed, with words misspelt or omitted altogether. He tried to behave normally, insisting to the visitors that they should take the armchair, and, when that courtesy was refused, sitting bolt upright himself on the edge of it. He was an ascetic, of course, his only concession being a very occasional cigarette which he smoked from a holder, and which he laid aside when someone came to see him. But he could read no more, or read only without fully comprehending. It was utterly pathetic and yet somehow significant that, when the end came, all that this erstwhile lover of books had was his rosary beads and a crucifix. When speaking of the enduring patience of Christ he had said that a secret cross was a very precious thing, and that we shouldn't allow the strength of it to evaporate. It was a weakness to be always searching for a confidant, to be always blabbing out our grievances. In this matter he practised what he preached. He never spoke of his infirmities; even when he could hardly speak at all. When I last saw him he was lying awake but silent, his whole body covered in a white powder whose purpose was to mollify the burning irritation of his poor flesh.
God help us all at the end.

◆ The Clongownian, 1954

Obituary

Father Charles Mulcahy SJ

The death occurred on May 12th of Rev. Charles Mulcahy, S.J., Milltown Park, Dublin, a former Rector of Clongowes Wood College. He was aged 80, and from 1942 until failing health in recent year's compelled him to retire, he was on the staff of the Retreat House at Milltown Park, where he gave many retreats to priests and laymen.

He was a son of John Mulcahy, woollen manufacturer, of Ardindan, Co Tip perary, and was educated at Rockwell and Clongowes Wood Colleges. After a distinguished course in the Intermediate, in which he excelled in modern languages, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1893.

He studied philosophy at the German and French houses of the Order at Valkenburg, in Holland, and Enghien, in Belgium, and taught for eight years at Clongowes Wood before beginning his theological studies. A master of considerable ability, he excelled in the teaching of Irish, French, German and Italian, as well as Latin and English. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1909, and completed his religious training under the well-known spiritual guide, Père René de Maulmigny, at St Mary's College, Canterbury, then conducted by the Fathers of the Paris Province of the Society.

Father Mulcahy was appointed Rector of Clongowes Wood College in 1919, having previously been Assistant Master of Novices, and later Master of Novices at Tullamore. He was Rector of Clongowes for three years, and afterwards Dean of Studies at Mungret College, Limerick. From 1927 to 1931, and again from 1933 to 1941, he taught at Clongowes, and for most of this time he was also Spiritual Director to the Community and boys.

Father Mulcahy was much in demand as. a director and counsellor of souls giving spiritual guidance to very many people in all walks of life, both by letter and in personal interviews in this work he was distinguished for his quiet kindly manner, and for the way in which he could bring his own wide spiritual reading to bear on the problems brought to him.

Father Mulcahy will be remembered gratefully by the many clients whom he helped in this way, as well as by those who at Clongowes and Mungret Colleges, benefited from the unusual teaching gifts which he developed by meticulous devotion to duty as well as by careful reading during the years he spent as a teacher of languages.

He is survived by his brother, Mr. William Mulcahy, Director of Ardinnan Woollen Mills.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Charles Mulcahy (1874-1957)

Born at Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary and educated at Rockwell College and Clongowes, entered the Society in 1893. He pursued his higher studies, at Valkenburg, Enghien and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1908. He was master here from 1912 to 1914. Unfortunately for the Crescent, he was transferred to Tullabeg as assistant, and later to the important post itself of master of novices. From Tullabeg he was transferred as rector to Clongowes where he relinquished office in 1922. Father Mulcahy felt more at home in a classroom and until 1940 Mungret and then Clongowes benefitted by his matchless pedagogic gifts. He retired from teaching in 1940 and until his death was a member of the Milltown Park community. Here he gave splendid service as retreat director, while many religious communities in Dublin revered him for his ability as a spiritual director.

Born: 22 April 1912, Sandymount, Dublin
Entered: 03 September 1930, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 03 February 1947, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 21 April 1994, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the Gonzaga College community , Dublin at the time of death.

Early education at Belvedere College SJ

◆ Interfuse No 82 : September 1995 & ◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1995 & ◆ The Gonzaga Record 1995

Obituary
Fr Donal Mulcahy (1922-1994)

12th April 1922: Born in Dublin
Education: Holy Faith, Glasnevin; Belvedere
3rd Sept. 1930: Entered Society at Emo, Co. Laois
4th Sept. 1932: First Vows at Emo
1932 - 1935: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD, BA
1935 - 1938: Philosophy at Tullabeg, Co. Offaly
1938 - 1941: Belvedere College, Teacher and H.Dip in Ed
1941 - 1945: Theology at Milltown Park
31st July 1944: Ordained a at Milltown Park by J.C. McQuaid
1945 - 1946: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1946 - 1953; Mungret College, Teacher and Spiritual Father to the boys
1953 - 1962: Gardiner Street and teaching Religion at DIT (Bolton Street)
1960 - 1962: Minister, Ministering in the Church
1962 - 1971: Manresa House, Superior
1972 - 1979; Consultor of the Province
1973 - 1977: Dooradoyle, Superior
1977 - 1983: Tullabeg, Superior
1983 - 1993: Gonzaga, Minister, Treasurer
1983-1985: Treasurer, Rathfarnham Castle
1983-1989: Milltown Institute, Financial Director
1993 - 1994: Gonzaga, living in Cherryfield
21st April 1994: Died

A perspicacious man my father would have called him - and Donal was a father to me for over 12 years. Perspicacious means: of quick mental insight, understanding, perceptive, reasoned, comprehending. The reading from the Book of Wisdom rightly celebrates Donal's wise common sense and his quality of judgement - totally caring, totally honest, never judgmental.

It was that wisdom that the boys in Mungret received when he was spiritual father, Latin teacher, Junior Cup Team trainer. The students in Bolton Street enjoyed that same wisdom during his time as chaplain there in the 50's. Those who were Province consultors or house consultors with him over the years experienced and appreciated it. It was this wisdom, deepened with prayer, that he brought to his community building, his genius for home making.

Donal's home making career began here in Gardiner Street in 1960 and it was this trade that he continued to ply as Rector in Manresa from '62, Minister in Crescent from '71, Rector in Dooradoyle, which he built from scratch in '73, Superior in Tullabeg at Rahan from '77 and as minister/bursar in Gonzaga from '83 up to last summer. In all of these places he enhanced the physical surroundings, and community facilities, with an eagle eye to financial rectitude! In so doing he freed his fellow Jesuits for their work, with confidence that there was a warm home to return to and be refreshed humanly and spiritually. The second reading could not be more apt to describe Donal's philosophy and way of life.

Let love be genuine, hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honour, never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, practise hospitality.

Communities in Donal's care lived in that atmosphere. His nephews, nieces and grand-nephews/nieces will attest to his deep interest in their well-being, academic, sporting, career prowess, his shrewd assessments and warm encouragement. We Jesuits received the same concern and help. Truly a man who overcame evil with good.

The loyalty and generosity Donal showed to everyone, high and low, is legendary. The contacts he made through the Garden Fetes in Manresa and Tullabeg, the custom he gave those who were loyal to him, the reliability of his husbandry and hospitality, reminded me of the Gospel scene, where Jesus tantalised his friends only to enrich their understanding and grasp the real meaning of life. Donal lived that hospitality that made people “stay awhile” and break bread with him.

But despite all this, Donal was not perfect, you'll be sorry to hear. And if ever you watched TV with him, it is something to hear you would get..... in the form of quite disconcerting snoring! followed by an awakening and the question...,”Did I miss much” or “tell me what has happened so far!”. I understand such a characteristic was shared with his brothers: I do not know if it is hereditary! But I'm sure his sense of humour is, and his enjoyment of the simple things in life: there was nothing he liked better than a good variety show with wholesome humour. He was even addicted to the Late Late Show, God help us, Glenroe and the Rose of Tralee, the highlight of the year, along with Tops of the Town. He enjoyed a good “who done it” novel, or his fishing when on holidays.

Donal's untiring humanity is borne out in the courage he had in overcoming his speech impediment and the crippling arthritis over so many of his later years. Can any of us remember him complaining, making demands, being inconsiderate of others? The manner of his dying typifies his character, no fuss, minimal disruption, the choir didn't even get a day off school!

Donal's last words to me Thursday evening, about 20 minutes before he died, were, “There's nothing I need and thanks very much for coming” - a typical response from him.

My last words to you, now, Donal are: “Thanks for being there, so many times, for so many of us in our need. You revealed the Lord in the hospitality of the home, in the breaking of the bread for us, may you now be "at home", as he breaks bread with you”.

John Dunne