Born: 01 May 1927, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1945, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1959, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1963, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 13 February 2013, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

Part of the Peter Faber, Brookvale Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim community at the time of death.

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/fr-senan-timoney-rip/

Fr Senan Timoney RIP
Fr Senan Timoney died unexpectedly and quietly on Ash Wednesday. At the age of 85 he could look back on a life in four provinces, having quartered his years neatly between Galway, Limerick, Dublin and the North.
As he had covered Ireland in his residences, he covered many of the Province’s houses and ministries with distinction: formation (Minister of Juniors, Director of Tertians), teaching (of Irish, Maths, French, sociology, religion, rowing), headmastering in Mungret, administering (Rector, Socius to Provincial), spiritual direction, pastoral and retreat work, keeping the accounts for Brian Lennon’s chip shop in Portadown, and accompanying the brethren through it all, a good companion and sought after in every house.
He was a formidable golfer, neat and accurate, with a trim figure which in the last years was wasted to the point of emaciation. On Ash Wednesday five years ago they diagnosed the blood condition which required regular transfusions. He moved from Belfast to Cherryfield, where the staff remember his engagement with life, always interested, ready to talk about the TV programmes he had watched, alert to the sick and the suffering, welcoming his countless friends.
He consciously kept death – and any talk of death – at bay. In the end his family and several Jesuits were round him He was given the ashes, and was alert practically up to the moment when the Lord took him. May God be good to him.

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 151 : Spring 2013

Obituary

Fr Senan Timoney (1927-2013)

1 May 1927: Born in Galway.
Early education in National School and St. Ignatius, Galway
7 September 1945: Entered Society at Emo
8 September 1947: First Vows at Emo
1947 - 1950: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1943 - 1946: Tullabeg - studied Philosophy
1953 - 1956: St. Ignatius College, Galway - Regency
1956 - 1960: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31 July 1959: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1960 - 1961: Rathfarnham: Tertianship
1961 - 1962: St. Ignatius College, Galway - Teacher; H. Dip. In Ed,
1962 - 1963: Emo - Socius to Novice Director; Minister
2 February 1963: Final Vows
1963 - 1967: Rathfarnham - Minister of Juniors
1967 - 1974: Mungret College
1967 - 1968: Prefect of Studies
1968 - 1969: Rector; Prefect of Studies
1969 - 1971: Rector
1971 - 1974: Headmaster
1974 - 1983: Crescent College, Dooradoyle – Vice-Superior; Teacher
1981 - 1987: Province Consultor
1983 - 1988: Loyola House:
1983 - 1987: Executive Socius; Superior
1987 - 1988: Sabbatical
1988 - 1992: Portadown - Superior
1992 - 1994: Manresa:
1992 - 1993: Directs Spiritual Exercises; Assistant to Director
1993 - 1994: Rector

1994-2013: Belfast
1994 - 1998: Superior: Tertian Director (1995: 1997-1998); Directed Spiritual Exercises; Spiritual Director; Pastoral Facilitator; Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
1998 - 2000: Superior; Chair JINI; Directed Spiritual Exercises; Spiritual Director; Pastoral Facilitator, Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
1999 - 2007: Province Consultor
2000 - 2003: Minister; Superior's Admonitor; Spiritual Director (SJ); Treasurer
2003 - 2007: Directed Spiritual Exercises; Pastoral Facilitator; Assistant Vicar for Religious in Diocese
2008 - 2011: Spiritual Director
2011 - 2013: Resident in Cherryfield Lodge

Senan died on Ash Wednesday morning. Around him were Caitriona, his niece, Mary Rickard, the Province Health Delegate and Liam O'Connell, Socius to the Provincial. Liam had said in succession prayers for the sick, for the dying and for the dead. Before he did that, Liam took the ashes and marked Senan's forehead with the sign of the cross. So ended Senan's earthly life; nearly 86 years since his birth in Galway and nearly 68 years since his joining the Society of Jesus in Emo, in September 1945.

Senan could look back on a life in four provinces, having quartered his years neatly between Galway, Limerick, Dublin and the North, As he had covered Ireland in his residences, he had covered many of the Province's houses and ministries with distinction: formation (Minister of Juniors, Director of Tertians), teaching (of Irish, Maths, French, sociology, religion, rowing), headmastering, administering (Rector, Socius to Provincial), spiritual direction and retreat work, keeping the accounts for Brian Lennon's chip shop in Portadown, and accompanying the brethren through it all, a good companion and sought after in every house, including his final assignment in Cherryfield. As a friend remarked: There wasn't a mean bone in his body.

Always trim, he was a formidable golfer, neat and accurate. Back in the forties such an omni-competent scholastic would have been marked out for the missions, especially Hong Kong. But in Senan's first year of noviciate the Lord sent him an unexplained fever, had him isolated briefly in Cork Street, and planted in Fr Tommy Byrne, the Novice-Master (Senan belonged to the year of Whole-Byrne novices), the illusion that here was a delicate young man who would not be able for the missions. This was Ireland's gain: Senan was never sick again until a heart attack in 1999 and red-corpuscle trouble ten years later, which necessitated the infusion of two units of blood every fortnight.

What, you may wonder, could raise the temperature of a man as equable and calm as Senan? He had known the Jesuits as a boy, had learned Mass-serving from Fr John Hyde, had seen the mainly Jesuit staff of Coláiste lognáid at close quarters, so he did not expect to be surprised when he joined up and went to Emo. But surprised he was, you might almost say appalled, by one feature of noviciate life. What was that? The discipline and chain? No. The isolation? No. The long hours of prayer? No. It was the silence that bugged him. People were not allowed to talk. “I could not get over it. It was unreal and made no sense to me”.

Senan had this gift of articulating what should have been obvious but was accepted as traditional. As Minister of Juniors in 1963 ("an awful job, like a ganger") he was baffled to find the fathers in Rathfarnham Castle herded into the large parlour at 1.45 after lunch, and tied there in stiff conversation till a nod from the Rector at 2.15. Senan made a move: “Let us go free at two oclock." The benign Fergal McGrath was appalled at the suggestion of such a break from tradition.

Freedom was an important value for a man so often burdened with administrative jobs. When he took over from Paddy Doyle as co instructor of tertians with Ron Darwen, Senan would not accept candidates who were assigned unwillingly to tertianship; they must want to come. His cordial relations with lay teachers were clouded by their union's (ASTI) refusal to admit Religious on the grounds that they would all vote the same way as their superior dictated. “We are not like that”, insisted Senan. “We can and do differ from one another while remaining friends”. And it was a feature of the Crescent Comprehensive where Senan taught for nine years, that Jesuits would, in good, amicable spirit, take opposing sides on issues of policy, to the astonishment of new teachers. He was active in staff meetings which would be held without the presence of the Headmaster, and would brief delegates to convey their motions to the Headmaster or the Board of Management.

One revealing episode showed the difficulty of maintaining this freedom. When Senan was secretary of the Catholic Headmasters' Association, ASTI were threatening to strike over a promise that the Government had made and reneged on. A meeting of the CHA voted to come out in sympathy with ASTI, and Senan passed this reassuring news back to his lay colleagues in Mungret. But no statement emerged from CHA, and Senan smelt a rat. He gathered the requisite ten signatures for calling an extraordinary general meeting, and demanded from the Chairman, his friend Sean Hughes, why no statement had been published. Sean admitted that after the CHA meeting and vote, he had consulted John Charles McQuaid, then Archbishop of Dublin, on the matter and was persuaded by JC to back off from a public pronouncement. The whole business smelled of the secretive and coercive character of the Irish church at its worst.

It would be wrong to picture Senan as a flag-waving revolutionary. Rather he used the existing structures intelligently to make his point without stirring up animosity. In Tullabeg, while enjoying the community life, he valued the stage shows as a way of voicing the frustrations of the brethren. In Crescent he supported the meetings of the staff to improve the school in dialogue with the Headmaster and the Board. In the CHA he used the mechanism of an extraordinary meeting to drag secretive machinations into daylight.

One of the most stressful periods of his life came from being vowed to secrecy. In November 1971, Senan and Paddy Cusack, then Headmaster and Rector of Mungret, were asked to meet in Nenagh for Sunday lunch with the Provincial, Cecil McGarry. Cecil came straight to the point: he was going to close Mungret. Then he stood the pair a good lunch (appropriate for people condemned to execution), and vowed them to secrecy about the plan. For four months Senan woke heavy-hearted to face this cloud, unable to discuss it with anyone. He had to make irrational decisions about the future: he watched the installation of new showers, knowing that in two years' time there would be nobody to use them. He cancelled the entrance exam for the following year for some invented reason. One day in March 1972, the Provincial summoned the staff at 2 p.m., and the school at 2.15, with the news of the planned closure. Despite the heavy hearts, the last two years of Mungret were good years, and those who graduated from the school then have remained exceptionally loyal to their friends and their old teachers. One striking example of this: among the crowds at Senan's funeral was a man whom he had expelled from Mungret. “Best thing ever happened to me. I preferred horses to Homer and was at the races when I should have been in class. Senan and my parents saw that schooling did not suit me. I've done fine without it”.

Senan remembered his next nine years, teaching in Crescent Comprehensive, with particular happiness. With four other teachers (of English, history, geography and science) he experimented in team teaching of first year classes. The team would focus on Lough Gur for three months, then on Ancient Limerick, then on the Burren and Aran Islands, taking the pupils through the history, geography, folklore, music and attractions of each topic. They were delighted to find pupils in turn taking their own families on guided tours of the places they had been immersed in.

After those productive years in education, it was a revelation to move north, first to Portadown, then to Belfast, though he had some of the North in his blood - his father was from Fermanagh. They were troubled years, the Good Friday Agreement still a long way off. When Senan went to Portadown, he found an open house, with neighbours popping in at all times of the day and night, chuffed that the Jesuits considered Churchill Park worth investing in. There were informal visits from staff of the Dublin Department of Foreign Affairs, anxious to suss out from the Jesuits how things were moving. He was appalled at the mistaken policy of sending in British army troops to police the North - they were trained to fight, not to keep the peace. He was impressed by the impact made there by Wee Paddy (Doyle), uhwhom he followed later to Belfast and as Instructor of Tertians.

That tertianship is still an unwritten piece of Province history, Senan was happy with the location of the tertians in small communities, in Derry, Coleraine, Belfast, and a meeting point in Maghera. A large tertianship house, with its own cook and institutional character, can foster dependence. But these tertians, living with two or three others, managing their own budget and diet, working things out for themselves, had a more realistic preparation for the probable shape of their future life as Jesuits.

So much for where Senan lived and what he did. A harder question: what made him the remarkable man he was? Here is Alan McGuckian's reflection:
I did the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life with Senan a few years ago. I remember when we came to the meditation on the incarnation he said with great seriousness; this changes everything. Our faith that the eternal word of God became flesh in Jesus makes everything different, makes everything new.

Those who have known him over the years remember a certain quality of inner freshness and dynamism. Part of that was a gift of nature. Much of it, I maintain, came from his fascination and engagement with Jesus.

Senan's capacity to form relationships was extraordinary. They could be lifelong friendships that were transformative for people – or very short term encounters. In recent years he spent a lot of time around hospitals. He wouldn't be five minutes on a ward when he knew the names of all the nurses and the porters and the cleaners, where they were from and how many children they had and that their brother's mother in law was the sister of the Bishop of Elphin. (I made that up, but you know what I mean.) He loved to get the news about people because he was genuinely interested in them.
Caitriona said to me that one thing she remembered most vividly was that Senan was open and welcoming to everybody. He didn't distinguish between high and low, rich and poor, virtuous and unvirtuous. He took people as he found them. I think that is a gift of grace more than nature. Though it should be said that there were certain kinds of mean-spirited behaviour that he would describe as “lousy behaviour”. Individuals, specified or unspecified, who were guilty of such behaviour, would be termed “lousers”. To be designated as a “louser” was definitely not a good thing!

Senan clung to life with incredible tenacity - but, let it be said, with great patience and dignity. As I watched this I often asked “why?” What was it, I wondered, that he still had to do? What did he still have to learn? What did Senan still have to do? There is one thing that he did in these final months of suffering that means a lot to me personally and I will share it with you.

Over the past 20 years Senan had become a Belfast man. He was the son of an Ulsterman, so returning to the North was really a coming home to his roots. In Belfast he was utterly committed to the life of the community, and worked closely with people in all the churches. He was very committed to the life of the diocese of Down and Connor. There is now a new initiative of pastoral renewal in Down and Connor called The Living Church project, which I myself have the privilege to be involved in. Senan became so excited about the Living Church that he told me very solemnly one day more than a year ago that he had decided that he would offer up whatever he had to suffer for the Living Church. He announced this at a mass he celebrated when he came back for a one-day visit to Belfast.

Those of us who have watched him slowly decline in recent months know that the gradual, irreversible loss of control which was always fought so resolutely had to be a great suffering. One day a few weeks ago when I visited him in St Vincent's, Senan as always wanted to know the news. “How is everyone in Belfast? What about the work?” I told him that the Living Church project was moving forward slowly but surely. "Ah", he said, "I have had a fair bit of pain lately. When I was experiencing a lot of pain, I said to myself, “I know what that is for?” The only time he ever mentioned pain - and that without a trace of self-pity – was to say that he was offering it up, turning it to good use. That goes some way towards answering my question, “what did he still have to do?”

Perhaps that is why he shied away from any talk of death even in the last months, when his body was wasted to the point of emaciation. He came back from death's door so often that the devoted staff in Cherryfield called him Lazarus. He did not know the ground plan of the heavenly mansions, so he did not want to waste energy speculating about them. Instead he remained engaged in life, in his friends, in all the news, to the very end. He would have been delighted to go to the Lord with the ashes still fresh on his forehead. And happy that his prayer was answered: May I be alive when I die. His fellow-Jesuits feel a huge sense of loss for a man who was so central to our corporate life, and such a dearly loved companion.

Interfuse No 152 : Summer 2013

HOW TO FACE DEATH

Dr John Holien

3.3.2013: letter from Dr John Holien and the team in St Vincent's Hospital who looked after Senan Timoney during his last weeks of life; it was addressed to Senan's niece Mrs Hussey

Dear Mrs Hussey,
Firstly let me apologise for the long delay in writing to you to express my sincerest condolences to you and all the family and the Jesuit community on Senan's death. The team and I had become extremely fond of Fr Senan during his time with us, and the dignity, fortitude and patience he displayed right to the end was amazing - he was remarkably brave, determined and single-minded as he battled away, and these no doubt were traits he'd displayed all his life.

The team and I were aware just how hard the last few months had been for you and the members of his community as you all tried to come to terms with what had happened to Fr Senan. Having not had the pleasure of knowing him before he fell ill, I can only imagine what sort of man he was- the glimpses we had in Vincents made us realise we were caring for a person of enormous intellect, a man who'd dedicated his life to the betterment of others, a selfless man who was much loved by all who knew him. We were always struck by how determined he was even when the odds were against him, how hard he worked and never questioned or complained about what happened to him. He seemed to have this amazing gracefulness to just accept it, offer it up and get on with it, like a true Jesuit in every sense.

I can't tell you how sad we are to lose him - people come and go in Vincent's all the time, but Fr Senan was very special to us and we were devastated we could not make him better. The last few weeks in particular were so difficult as the amazing progress he'd made initially began to fade. I'm so sorry his final few days were not spent where we wanted them to be – at home amongst family and friends, reading the Irish Times and talking rugby.

I hope in the weeks and months ahead you can remember him as the man he was before his illness. It was an enormous privilege for us to have looked after him, I'm just so sorry we couldn't do more. I really mean it when I say Fr Senan made a lasting impression on us all, and I'm sure you have many wonderful memories of a very wonderful man to look back on.

With sincerest sympathies,

John Holien and team

Born: 09 November 1866, Munny, County Wexford
Entered: 07 September 1897, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1906, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1914, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 07 August 1950, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Older brother of Joseph Tomkin (ORE) - RIP 1936; Younger brother of Nicholas A Tomkin - RIP 1923; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

Father who died in 1872 was a farmer.
Third eldest of five boys and one sister

Educated at local NS, then was a farmer until age 27. Then he went to the Camelite College in Clondalkin, then to the Patrician Brothers School Mountrath and finally Mungret College SJ

by 1899 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Younger brother of Nicholas A Tomkin - RIP 1923; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 25th Year No 4 1950
Obituary
Fr. James Tomkin (1866-1897-1950)

Father James Tomkin died in the forenoon of Monday, 7th August, 1950, after an illness of some months. He was in his eighty-fifth year and had been a Jesuit for fifty-three years. His vocation was a late one. Born at Munny, Carnew, Co. Wexford, he forsook farming at the age of twenty-six to study for the priesthood. Even his Jesuit training did not obliterate all traces of his former calling. To the end he retained the slow caution, the shrewdness mingled with simplicity, the occasional quaint turn of speech so characteristic of the Irish farmer. Secondary studies, first at Patrician College, Mountrath, and then at Mungret, cannot have been easy for him, Yet he pursued them with the same dogged perseverance and reasonable degree of success which were remarked in his later Jesuit philosophical and theological courses.
James Tomkin's novice-master from 1897 to 1899 was Father James Murphy, for whom ever afterwards he entertained an admiration amounting to hero-worship. Fr. Murphy, for his part, thought highly of the novice and nine years later, when dying as Rector of Tullabeg, is said to have (uncanonically) appointed Fr, Tomkin his successor. In Stonyhurst, whither F'r. Tomkin went for philosophy after his noticeship, he took part in cricket matches played by the Community against extern teams and earned something of a reputation as a bowler. A year's teaching in Clongowes followed Stonyhurst and then four years' theology in Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1906. It was here that Fr. Tomkin's friendship and reverence for Fr. John Sullivan began. He shared the same room on Villa as Fr. Sullivan and admired his companion's kindness and unselfish ways. The great pre-occupation of Fr. Tomkin's last years was to further the Cause of Beatification of his old friend. He gave evidence at the Tribunal in Gardiner Street and was tireless in spreading devotion to Fr. Sullivan and collecting evidence of possible miracles. In 1907 Fr. Tomkin went to Tullabeg as minister and socius to the master of novices, His kindness soon endeared him to the novices of that generation, while his sagacity as a consultant about vocation became something of a legend. After his tertianship in Tullabeg (1912-1913) he went to Mungret and remained there until 1919, being Moderator of the Apostolic School for most of that time. There followed a further period in Tullabeg (1919-1924) as operarius in the People's Church. In this position he became the trusted friend and spiritual counsellor of scores of young men who were fighting in Ireland's War of Independence and later in the Civil War. He was often sent-for to secret rendezvous in order to give absolution and spiritual consolation to those about to go into battle. The theme of his exhortations on such occasions was twofold : to avoid intoxicating drink, and not to run risk of death while in the state of sin. The succour he gave them in those dark days made Fr. Tomkin's name revered by veterans of the Troubled Times. They came in large numbers to his funeral and had to be dissuaded from firing a volley over his grave. This period in Tullabeg was followed by one in Clongowes as procurator (1924-1928) and a period in Galway as Operarius. In Galway he had charge of the Pioneers. This was a ministry very much to his liking. He was a lifelong advocate of total abstinence, having received his first pledge from the hands of Fr. James Cullen when the founder of the Pioneer's was still a secular priest. In addition to directing the Galway centre, Fr. Tomkin had printed a small pamphlet written by himself and intended to set forth unequivocally the obligations of Pioneers.
In 1937 Fr. Tomkin returned to Tullabeg, where he was destined to spend the remainder of his life. Never a hustler, he yet had a fund of quiet, tenacious energy, and a skill at enlisting the co-operation of suitable adjutants in his various enterprises. These qualities helped him in re-organising and re-vivifying the Men's Sodality at Tullabeg in accordance with Fr, General's and Fr, Provincial's wishes and instructions concerning sodalities. In many ways he was an ideal pastor for the rural congregation which frequents the People's Church. He understood country life and the country people. During his Sunday sermons, as he leaned back against the altar, joined his hands and fixed a steady eye on the congregation, there was profound silence and close attention. He seemed to have more fluency and coherence in his sermons than in his ordinary conversation and his occasional references to current political happenings were much appreciated. At this time he was greatly sought after as a conductor of nuns retreats and as their extraordinary confessor. I think it was his kindness and unhurried patience in the confessional which made him so successful in this ministry. A few years before his death he gave up all active apostolate and seemed to turn more and more to prayer and contemplation. He was a great admirer of St. John of the Cross, whose works he read slowly and meditatively and often quoted. Those who knew him at this time retain as their most abiding impression of him his immense kindness and deep humility. I have never known him say a harsh word to or about anyone. At table his attention to his neighbour's wants could become at times embarrassing. In recreation he came in for more than his share of banter and “leg-pulling”, but never did he display the slightest anger or ill-feeling. He would ward off the shafts with a chuckle or a hearty laugh, or take evasive action with those who sought to trap him into awkward admissions. He had an entertaining way of perpetrating malapropisms of a variety all his own, as when he seriously referred to the doings of disembowelled spirits or observed that there was a peculiar twang on the soup. Fr Tomkin's foibles (for, like all of us, he had his share) were of that happy kind which gave no reasonable cause for annoyance and much for entertainment. His care of his health was exquisite, showing itself in the multitude of ingenious devices and practices with which he strove to ward off the ills which threaten our mortal frame. He was a firm believer in ghosts and was quick to discern diabolical intervention in even the most ordinary happenings. But such little peculiarities are completely overshadowed by his sterling religious virtues, his vivid faith, his edifying observance of religious discipline, his amiable charity and meticulous poverty, above all by his prayer, which towards the close of his life appeared to be almost continuous. He made no secret of the fact that God had specially favoured him, though, like many another adept in the life of prayer, he could give no very coherent account of the divine visitation. Tullabeg will miss his tall, familiar figure, pacing up and down the Spiritual Meadow, well wrapped against the treacherous blasts, and absorbed not, I believe, in idle dreams or memories, but in communing with God and His Saints.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1951

Obituary

Father James Tomkin SJ

Father James Tomkin SJ an eminent spiritual director and Superior of the Apostolic School from 1913 to 1919, died at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, on August 7th last after an illness of some months.

James Tomkin, born at Munny, Co. Wexford, in 1866, was already a practising farmier, and twenty-six years old when he first became conscious of his religious vocation. With the example of St Ignatius, however, to encourage him, he undertook at once secondary and university studies at the Patrician Brothers' School, Mountrath, and Mungret. He left an impression of unbending seriousness and deep maturity on his fellow students in the Lay-school at Mungret. On one occasion he had distinguished himself in a cricket match against the Past by scoring 71 runs. Quite unexcited, however, he retired to a clump of grass, and spent the time poring over Ueberweg's “History of Philosophy”, until it was time to take his place among the fielders. James was in his time Prefect of the Sodality, and played also on the Soccer XI. He obtained his BA degree in the Summer of 1897 (Mungret at that time prepared students for the examinations of the old Royal University). Having graduated successfully, James Tomkin, already thirty-one years old, entered the Jesuit Novitiate at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore, after which he studied philosophy at Stonyhurst, taught for a year at Clongowes and then began theology at Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1906.

In 1912 Father Tomkin joined the staff of Mungret, succeeding Father Cahill, the following year, as Superior of the Apostolic School. Having held this responsible post till 1919, he went back again to the scenes of his noviceship; this time to take charge of the Public Church. During the years that followed (1919-24) he became the trusted friend and spiritual counsellor of many of the young men who were then fighting in Ireland's War of Independence and later in the Civil War. The help he gave them in those days made his name revered by veterans of the troubled times; they came in numbers to his funeral. From Tullabeg, Father Tomkin was changed to Clongowes, and from there to Galway. Finally, in 1937, he returned to Tullabeg, there to spend the remainder of his life. Once again he had charge of the Public Church with the direction of the Men's Sodality, and once again he established himself in the hearts of the people. At this time, also, he was widely sought after as a director of nuns' retreats and as their extraordinary confessor. A few years, however, before his death, being already in his eighties, he was forced to retire altogether from the active apostolate. He then devoted him self entirely to the life of prayer, and those who lived with him can testify abundantly to the simplicity and humility and evident holiness of all his ways. RIP

Born: 21 April 1863, Munny, County Wexford
Entered: 29 August 1882, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1894
Final vows: 15 August 1900
Died 10 April 1923, St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin

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

Older brother of James Tomkin - Ent RIP 1950; Joseph Tomkin (ORE) - Ent 03/11/1892; RIP 04/10/1936; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

by 1890 at St Joseph's Seminary, Mangalore, Karnataka, India (VEM)
by 1899 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Older brother of James Tomkin - RIP 1950; Cousin of Nicholas J Tomkin - RIP 1942

After his Novitiate he studied Philosophy an Milltown.
1885 He was sent as Prefect to Clongowes for Regency. He returned to Milltown for a year and then back to Clongowes.
1889 He was sent to teach at the Jesuit College in Mangalore, India (VEM). he spent seven years there until severe illness forced him to come home to Milltown for Theology.
1896 He was sent to Clongowes and the following years he was at Galway as Minister and spent some years there.
1899 He was sent to Drongen for Tertianship at the end of which he was back in Galway as Minister, and also as a Teacher and an excellent Operarius. He distinguished himself as a Preacher, always making great preparations for his sermons.
1909 He became an Assistant Editor of the Irish Messenger, and continued in this for many years.
He died at St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin 10 April 1923

Born: 26 May 1831, Mullingar, County Westmeath
Entered: 29 September 1849, Amiens, France - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 22 September 1861, St Beuno's, St Asaph, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1868
Died: 30 November 1891, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, 31 July 1880-6 May 1883

by 1853 at St Marie, Toulouse (TOLO) for Regency
by 1861 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying Theology
by 1867 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
Provincial 31 July 1880

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Studied for some years at Toulouse.
1854 Sent to Tullabeg for Regency.
1855-1859 Further Regency as a teacher in Clongowes.
1859 he was sent to Paderborn for Theology, but in failing health he came to England and did his studies at St Beuno’s, where he was Ordained by Dr Brown 22 September 1861.
After Ordination he was sent to Clongowes, and later to Limerick.
1866 He was sent to Drongen for Tertianship.
1867 He was appointed Vice-Rector at Galway.
He was then sent to Clongowes as Minister for two years, and then the same for two years at Limerick.
1873-1876 He was at Milltown.
1876-1877 He was Superior at UCD.
1878-1887 he was appointed Rector at Milltown January 1878, and continued living there when he came out of office in 1883.
1887 he was sent to Gardiner St as Operarius and lived there until he died after a very short illness 30 November 1891
He was a man of great literary culture, a good classical scholar and of a very retiring disposition.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father James Tuite (1831-1891)

Born at Mullingar and educated at Clongowes, was admitted into the Society in 1849. He pursued his higher studies at Toulouse, Paderborn and St Beuno's, Wales and was ordained in 1861. Father Tuite was master at the Crescent in the first decade of its foundation, 1864-66, and returned to the teaching staff in 1870. During the last year of his association with the Crescent he devoted himself entirely to church work, 1872-73. He was later rector of Milltown Park and appointed Provincial in 1880. His later years were spent in church work at Gardiner St, Dublin.

Born: 22 October 1850, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim
Entered: 27 June 1874, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 09 September 1888
Final Vows: 02 February 1892, Dublin
Died: 03 March 1934, Milltown Park, Dublin

Older Brother of Joseph Tunney - RIP 1923

Early education at St Mel’s College, Longford and Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1877 at Roehampton, London (ANG) studying
by 1886 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1891 at Drongen (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 9th Year No 3 1934
Milltown Park :
Death took two of our number within a week -
Father Tunney died on the 5rd of March. His death was not unexpected. Some heart attacks in recent weeks had prepared us for it.
Father Healy's death came as a great shock, for though he had long been a sick man, he was optimistic of becoming stronger, and worked away quietly as director of Retreats in the province for most of this year, censoring, and reviewing books. Few suspected how near death was. He was at Father Tunney's office in Gardiner Street the 6th of March. He said Mass as usual on Friday the 9th. While sitting down to lunch about 12,30 he felt ill and was helped to a chair in the Fathers' library. There a slight haemorrhage occurred and he lost consciousness, not before receiving Absolution, He was anointed, then borne to his room where he died at about 1.15. The doctor arrived before he died, but nothing could be done. Father S. MacMahon writes an obituary notice on Father Healy in this number.

Irish Province News 9th Year No 3 1934

Obituary :

Father Hugh Tunney

Some time ago a Father of the New York Province died in America. In the account of his death given in the January number of “Woodstock Letters”' we find the following :
Father will be remembered in the Province for what he was rather than for what he did for us. He held no post of distinction among us , he was neither a great preacher, nor a scholar, he erected no buildings, nor was he successful in soliciting “free-will offerings” from the faithful.
These words describe to the letter Father Hugh Tunney's life in the Society. He has not left behind him the reputation of a brilliant preacher, of a learned scholar, or a successful superior, but he has left what is just as good, or it may be in the sight of God what is better the record of a steady, painstaking, conscientious workman. He was certainly one of those
good and faithful servants that won such high praise, and such glorious reward from the supreme Master and infallible judge of men.
For nineteen years he was prefect or master of elementary classes, for eight years Confessor to the poor who attended the people's chapels in Tullabeg or Clongowes, for thirteen “Conf. ad Jan.” at Milltown. He did his work, year in, year out, with a faithfulness, a constancy, a devotion that won for him the high place in heaven that, please God, he now enjoys.
He was as faithful to his own prayers, and to all the duties of religious life as he was to his unpretending but meritorious work for others.
At recreation he was a gay, and as cheerful as the best of his companions, well able to hold his own against all-comers and many is the story told of some eminent theologian or brilliant scholar coming off very much second best after a harmless, good humoured, bantering passage of arms with Father Hugh.
Father Tunney was born in Carrick on Shannon, 22nd October 1850, and educated at the Seminary, Longford. He began his noviceship at Milltown on 7th June, 1874, made his juniorate at Roehampton, (he was amongst the last of the Irish juniors who regularly went to Roehampton for the juniorate, Fathers Henry and Guinee were with him), philosophy at Milltown theology at Louvain, tertianship at Tronchiennes, the latter ended in 1891.
He did good work in nearly all the Irish houses of the Province. He was in Milltown for twenty-two years, Tullabeg eleven years Belvedere ten, Clongowes four, Mungret and Galway
one each.
For the last eight years of his life broken health compelled him to join the ranks of the “cur vals,” but even then he was not idle. A very short time before his death the infirmarian found him struggling through his breviary, and ventured to make a few friendly suggestions. A pitying smile was all he got, and the struggle continued. It is the man who perseveres to the end that will be saved. And so it was with Father Hugh Tunney. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1934

Obituary

Father Hugo Tunney SJ

Belvederians of thirty years ago will remember a white-haired priest who taught in the “Little House”, as we called it then. Fr Hugo Tunney, with his quiet, pleasant manner, was well liked by the boys, and was a favourite confessor in the old chapel. When he left Belvedere, he took charge of the public church attached to Tullabeg, where he spent several years in the service of the people of the neighbouring countryside. Milltown Park claimed him then, and proved to be his last resort, though the day of his death did not come for many a year, and in the interval he found many opportunities to exercise his zeal still as Confessor, for he was in great demand by the men of the district, who used to flock to Milltown. Park, where at that well-known “side door” they could always find Fr Tunney ready to exercise his ministry, for them.

He kept always a clear memory of the boys of Belvedere whom he had known in earlier years, and all of them will say a prayer for this kindly old man, that his soul may rest in peace.

Born: 10 February 1950, Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1967, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 27 June 1981, Jesuit church, Sea Road, Galway
Final Vows: 03 December 1994, Loyola, Eglinton Road, Dublin
Died: 31 January 2020, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

Raised Newcastle, County Galway
by 1981 at Fordham NY, USA (NYK) studying
by 1990 at St Joseph’s,Philadelphia PA, USA (MAR) teaching 1 semseter
by 1991 at Austin TX, USA (NOR) making Tertianship

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/an-authentic-jesuit-academic/

An authentic Jesuit academic
Gonzaga chapel was packed for the funeral Mass of David Tuohy SJ, which took place at 11 am on Monday 3 February 2020. David died peacefully, after a short illness, on the morning of Friday 31 January, just over a week before his 70th birthday. It was an occasion marked by hearty laughter, profound sadness, and deep prayer. David’s family, fellow Jesuits and many friends were joined by members of the Church of Ireland community including Archbishop Michael Jackson and the Reverend Anne Lodge. David had indicated some wishes for his funeral. He chose the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus as the gospel reading and his long-time Jesuit friend David Coghlan SJ as the main celebrant and homilist.
It was not the first time that David had asked his Jesuit friend to preach on the Emmaus gospel as David Coghlan explained. “In 1994 when he was taking his Final Vows as a Jesuit David asked me to preach on this gospel and what he wanted me to emphasise was how Jesus, by explaining what he was about, transformed the misguided vision of the two –“Our own hope had been”... In his work with educational leaders, he engaged with them very seriously on what their vision was, what their values were and how they would be actualized in their trust or school structures and educational processes.”
In his opening remarks of welcome, David Coghlan said that during the six months of his illness David spoke constantly in terms of an image from St Luke’s gospel, where the friends of a sick man climb on to a roof of a house and taking off the tiles, lower their friend, who is on a stretcher, down through the ceiling to place him in front of Jesus to be healed. “As David received cards, messages, and reports of love and prayers, he spoke of how he understood that those who were praying for him were holding the ropes and lowering him down to Jesus,” said David. “He was very moved by the prayers and support he was receiving from all over the world. Sometimes he’d apologise for being in bad form, especially when was feeling sick, and in my helplessness, I’d say that there was no need to apologise as I was merely holding the ropes.”
And anyone who spoke at both David’s removal and funeral, including the Jesuit Provincial Fr Leonard Moloney SJ, also attested to the fact that the prayers or presence of his fellow Jesuits, from at home or abroad, throughout his illness was a true source of comfort and support for David – in particular, his Jesuit contemporaries and the Leeson St community. Mary Rickard, Rachel O’Neill and all the staff of Cherryfield nursing home and St James’ hospital were also acknowledged for the wonderful care they gave him in his last months.
David Tuohy was a native of Galway and was schooled in Coláiste Iognáid SJ. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1967 at the age of 17 and was ordained in Galway in 1981. He did his primary degree in botany at UCD under Professor Johnny Moore SJ. He became a teacher, the first of many careers, and taught in Coláiste Iognáid and Belvedere College. He completed his doctorate in NUI Galway in 1993 and took a post lecturing in UCD, before moving to NUI Galway in 2000. He resigned from that post several years later and became an educational consultant. According to David Coghlan in his homily », David’s time in these universities was foundational and shaped the work he would subsequently go on to do with teachers, school principals, educationalists, and doctoral students.
“His energy and output were enormous,” said David, referencing “the consultancy work with individual schools, boards of management, religious congregations, educational trusts, of which his pioneering work with Le Chéile stands out, research for the Dept of Education, work in Africa with the Loreto sisters, with the Church of Ireland, The Marino Institute, school of nursing... The list is extensive.”

At the end of the Mass, Leonard Moloney SJ also mentioned David’s expertise at board meetings where he as Provincial needed support when complex issues would arise. “David had to give me the odd kick under the table at some of those meetings,” he quipped. David was also the author of numerous books, articles, and ground-breaking research and reports. His book on Denominational Education and Politics: Ireland in a European Context, published in 2013, was widely acclaimed. His work as an educationalist spanned the continents of Africa, Australia, America, and Europe. He was “an authentic Jesuit academic in the Jesuit intellectual tradition of education in his heart and in his practice,” according to David Coghlan, who added that the central theme of David’s whole apostolic enterprise was “values, leadership, and Catholic education.” In later years, around 2011 David began working with the Church of Ireland on a number of substantial projects that have borne fruit in the form of key initiatives for giving vigour to Church life in Ireland. He developed a deep friendship with Archbishop Michael Jackson and the Reverend Dr. Anne Lodge. On 1 October 2017, he was made an ecumenical canon in the Church of Ireland.

David Coghlan in his homily told a story that underlined the importance of this ecumenical work for his friend David. “Last week in his dying days when he was telling me again what he wanted me to say at this Mass, and from an apparent sleeping state, he opened his eyes, stretched out his arm and grabbed me to remind me to be sure to mention his ecumenical work.” In his address at the end of the Mass, Archbishop Michael Jackson certainly did not forget to do just that. In 2015 David was asked by Archbishop Jackson to take part in his Come&C project (“come and see”). This involved facilitating parishioners in Dublin and Glendalough who had taken part in a survey on mission, commissioned by the Archbishop. Over 80% of these parishioners had responded to the survey. They then came together to reflect on it and to plan for the future in terms of a commitment to discipleship in their local parishes, inspired by the gospel vision. David subsequently co-authored Growing in the Image and Likeness of God, with Maria Feeny which grew out of this work. The book explored discipleship and the five ‘marks of mission’ within the Anglican communion. Archbishop Michael Jackson spoke about this project in his address at the end of the funeral Mass. “We in the Church of Ireland dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough have so much for which to be thankful on this day of thanksgiving for the life of David Tuohy,” he said. “Because David transformed. He transformed our rather insufficient and inert understanding of our Anglican identity, in which we slumbered somewhat, by taking the five marks of mission of the Anglican communion and bedding them in our psyche and in our spirit.”

Noting that the power to simplify complex concepts was one of David’s key gifts he added, “Forevermore we in Dublin and Glendalough will remember the five marks of mission as the five ‘T’s, that came ready- made from the pen of Dr. Tuohy: Tell, Teach, Tend, Transform, Treasure. And so will the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he presented them!”
There was of course more to David than his impressive academic career, As David Coghlan pointed out, he had a wonderful, quirky sense of humour. He often accepted the offer of a gin and tonic by remarking, “I feel a bout of malaria coming on so I need the quinine!” He could turn his hand to anything, according to David, and that included cooking, writing biblical meditations, co-producing musicals, coaching rugby, rowing and show jumping. “And who remembers how he trained to be a soccer referee and was certified by the FAI and had the referees’ black outfit, whistle and notebook?”, David asked adding wisely, “As a player, I wouldn’t have dared give him any backchat!” David’s entire life was underpinned by a deep connection to his family, his sister Ann, his brother Paul and all the many nieces and nephews around the world with whom he made contact. Paul pointed out in his address at the end of the service that David had probably married or baptised all of the family gathered for his funeral Mass. Archbishop Michael Jackson finished his tribute to David by saying, “I will miss him terribly, and I have no doubt that many others will also,” a sentiment echoed in the closing words of David Coghlan’s homily. “When the pain and awfulness of today has transformed into the warm and lovely memory of someone beloved, then we may be hopeful, be appreciative of who David is for us and we may let into our hearts the transformative love that God offers us. But that may not happen easily today.”
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/discipleship-great-cathedral-creation/

Discipleship in ‘the great cathedral of creation’
David Tuohy SJ was the invited preacher at the ordination of four Church of Ireland Deacons, on Sunday 18 September, in Christ Church Cathedral. Archbishop Michael Jackson presided at the ordination of Deacons, Tom O’Brien (St Mary’s, Howth), Rebecca Guildea (Zion Parish, Rathgar), Stuart Moles (St. Patrick’s, Greystones) and Anne Lodge (Raheny Parish). David had conducted a two day retreat for the Deacons in September, in Manresa Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Clontarf, Dublin, and is involved in ongoing accompaniment of participants in the Anglican Church’s Mission programme, Come and See.
In his homily, he said that the four ordinations challenged everyone present to reflect on their own call to discipleship and the journey it entails. “The first dimension of our journey is inwards, to the depth of our own being, to let God touch and transform our human weakness.” Referencing the first reading in the liturgy – the call of the prophet Isaiah – he continued, “Isaiah saw God in the glory of His heavenly kingdom. We see him in the great cathedral of His creation. Our familiarity with the word of scripture directs us to the drama of God’s presence in our world and our lives. Our discipleship seeks the wisdom that goes beyond the superficial to the drama of God loving and caring for us. We let God open up a sense of wonder that captures our minds and our hearts.”
We are never alone on the journey of discipleship and sharing with a community of believers, all with their differing gifts, marks the second dimension of discipleship, he continued. But this part of the journey can be fraught, with individualism and eogism threatening the harmony of unity. “Our world is characterised by different tyrannies,” he said. “The tyranny of majorities who demand conformity from others in order to preserve their own privilege; the tyranny of minorities who demand special treatment in a way that undermines others. We are flooded with media images that portray irreconcilable differences between communities and individuals caught up in a selfish pursuit of excess privilege,” he said. This being the case, true discipleship, following the example of Christ, “requires a language that speaks of hope, reconciliation, mutual understanding and community in a new and creative way.”
For the follower of Jesus, this language also entails action. And the action, as modelled by Jesus, is of compassionate service. As well as looking after the needs of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the prisoner, David said the disciple of Jesus is also called to challenge a life strangling and pervasive fundamentalism.”To-day, there is a need to engage with the fundamentalism of science, and to let the religious imagination engage with new discoveries in cosmology, medicine and the social sciences, where it will find a creative and loving God. There is the need to engage with the fundamentalism that values the human person only as an economic unit of production, giving rise to the exclusion of certain groups from sharing in a society’s wealth. There is a political fundamentalism that seeks to exclude all aspects of religion from public debate. The call of service is to open people’s minds to the way some philosophies and structures can oppress, impoverish and dis-empower both those who hold these philosophies and their victims, as well as reaching out and ministering to those victims.”
He concluded by acknowledging how the ordination of the four deacons was an encouragement to all present. “As they take on a new role of journeying with and serving the community, we are invited to pray for them. Above all, we are invited to give thanks for their generous response to God, and to give glory to the God who continues to call all of us to work with Him in building up his Kingdom.”
All four Deacons had taken part in the the Mission programme that David is involved in leading. Participants reflect on the Anglican Church’s five marks of Mission and seeing how they apply concretely today in the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. Those marks are: Tell (Preach), Teach (Nurture friends and newcomers), Tend (Look after with loving care), Transform (the unjust structures), and Treasure (enable and look after God’s creation).
David says that as a Jesuit, being part of this journey with people exploring Mission in the Church of Ireland, has given him a new insight into different ways of organising Church and engaging with Church. “And I’ve found the female clergy and female lay participation with Synods very affirming of the faith of all the people and their lives in a Christian community.”

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/a-galway-farewell/

A Galway farewell
The Month’s Mind Mass for David Tuohy SJ took place in St Ignatius Church, Sea Road Galway (see photo) on Sunday 29 February 2020. David was a native of Galway who lectured for a time in Galway University, and a large crowd, including some of his fellow Jesuits from Dublin, came to mark his passing on Friday 31 January this year. After Mass, all were invited to the Jesuit Community house for tea and sandwiches. The celebrant and homilist was Martin Curry SJ, also from Galway and a life-long friend of David’s. He told the congregation that it was precisely in the neighbourhood in which they were gathered, right beside Coláiste Iognáid, that David realised he was called to be a Jesuit, and that he was ordained in that very church in June 1981.”Whatever thoughts David had when he joined about what he might do as a Jesuit,” said Fr Martin, “he certainly never imagined the fantastic achievements that he completed in his 53 years.”
Read the full homily below.
The Trumpet Shall Sound
It is very fitting that the Gospel today for Saturday of 1st week in Lent is the call of St Matthew by Jesus. Because it was in this neighbourhood of Coláiste Iognáid and Galway that David recognised his own call to become a Jesuit. He joined the novitiate in 1967, just after school. And he was in fact ordained in this Church by Bishop Eamonn Casey in June 1981.
Matthew was a tax collector for the Romans and as such was an enemy of the Jewish people of his time. David was an ordinary student at the Jes and took part in lots of activities in the school. He spent a lot of his life working in schools and became an expert in the management of schools and educational theory.
We remember his great work with very many groups in the country and in Africa, his time lecturing both in UCD and in NUIG, but perhaps one of his greatest achievements was the setting up of the Le Chéile Trust, where he brought together 11 congregations at first, later 14, and formed them into a legal trust to preserve their ethos and identity as the number of religious diminished to near zero. The patience and expertise needed to bring all those groups together was enormous. Recently David was trying to set up a similar trust for the Jesuit schools in Ireland, but he was taken from us before that could be finished. Whatever thoughts David had when he joined about what he might do as a Jesuit, he certainly never imagined the fantastic achievements that he completed in his 53 years. I won’t repeat his history – that was very adequately done by Fr. Coghlan at the funeral. I would like to remember the motivation underlying David’s work throughout his life. He was really in touch with God, particularly through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. He didn’t talk about it too much, but hearing him expound on his ideas and reflecting on his more recent work with the Church of Ireland you could begin to see the lively faith-base from which he worked. God was with him, and while we sometimes didn’t recognise it, we knew that David’s thinking and energy was coming from a really deep source, which was God’s friendship and grace. This was very eloquently recognised by Archbishop Michael Jackson in his words at David’s funeral. David’s incredible understanding of difficult concepts, whether in education, spirituality, legal issues, financial issues, or lots of other things, left most of his fellow Jesuits swimming in his wake. Sometimes he couldn’t understand why we were so slow, and it brought out a bit of his impatience, but that didn’t interfere with his friendship and his ability to continue to reach out.

He faced the prognosis of terminal cancer with great courage. They were words nobody wants to hear said to themselves by the consultant, but he didn’t avoid them. He looked the issues squarely in the face – although that was very very difficult – and he decided how to manage the time he had left. A few days before he died, I was with him and we talked about his funeral and the arrangements he wanted. I was reminded of an incident that happened here in the Jesuit community about March 1975. It was Saturday afternoon, and there was nothing major happening, as we were both in our rooms next door to each other on the top floor of the house. I had found a trumpet in Fr. Sean Mallin’s room and I spent about an hour trying to get a sound out of it. Suddenly, I got a clear blast from it, and there was a huge crash from next door! My door flew open and an amazed David stood there, having just fallen out of bed, laughingly asking what the hell was going on. I reminded him of that just before he died, and we said that now another trumpet was blowing – calling him to the next life. He smiled even through the pain of it all, but he didn’t try to avoid what was going to happen. It is a month now since his funeral, and the immediate sadness has diminished somewhat. David spent his life telling people about God and his goodness, and the promises he made to each of us – that we would reach eternal happiness with him when the time came. David’s time had come, and we now pray that the happiness promised him will be fulfilled.

We often hear people say that when they die, they hope that they leave the world a better place than it was when they came into it. We can certainly say that about David – we are all better for having known and having shared life with him. And so are thousands of other people as well. We pray that his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed will rest in the peace and joy of Christ forever.
Martin Curry SJ

https://www.jesuit.ie/news/lecture-david-tuohy-sj-jesuit-humanism-education/

Exploring Jesuit Humanism
Conscience, competence, compassion and commitment, not solely as conventionally understood, are the key characteristics of a Jesuit humanism for today, according to Jesuit educationalist Dr David Tuohy SJ.
David Tuohy was the keynote speaker at an education conference in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, on Thursday 22 January. It was organised by the Irish Jesuit 1814-2014 Restoration Committee as part of their ongoing activities marking the 200th anniversary of the Jesuit Restoration.
The event was chaired by historian and broadcaster Dr John Bowman. David’s talk, entitled ‘Learning to Love the World as God Loves It: Jesuit Humanism In Education’, was responded to by Dr Anne Lodge of the Church of Ireland College of Education, and Mr Gerard Foley, Headmaster of Belvedere College SJ. All of their talks feature in this podcast.
In his lecture and Powerpoint presentation, David explored the Renaissance foundations of Jesuit humanism, the impact of the enlightenment, suppression and restoration of the Jesuits, and the present modern-day challenges to this Jesuit humanism which underpins Jesuit education.
The lecture unfolded the richness and depth of a Jesuit humanism rooted in the Ignatian vision of each human being as created by God and invited to co-create the world with him. This entails an inward developing of the gifts and talents of the individual (the student) as well as an outward orientation of sharing the fruits of the flourishing talents in the love and service of God and others.
This vision has ramifications for the role of the teacher which cannot simply be that of imparting knowledge to a vacant vessel. Rather and analogous to a good Spiritual Director, the teacher shares knowledge and fosters the assimilation of that knowledge in each individual as food for their intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth and development. The teacher is a ‘compass’ for rather than a ‘dispenser to’ the student.
The historical vicissitudes of half a millennium exact their own pressures on any such vision. David explored this impact on the evolution of the vision right up to the present age. Geo-political alliances today are based almost entirely on economic considerations and the experience of authority has been well and truly superseded by the individual’s authority of experience. These challenges notwithstanding, Jesuit schools and colleges are thriving today. The Jesuit humanism based on Ignatius vision of God’s love for the world and its peoples is as necessary today as at any other time in its challenging history.
In her response Dr Anne Lodge, of the Church of Ireland College of Education, highlighted the importance of the way a Jesuit education really fostered the talents, worth and uniqueness of every single student. In terms of a philosophy of education this student-centred approach which values the goodness of each person was not always the dominant vision. She said that when the Jesuits were counter-cultural they were at their best and she noted that today’s culture often put a skewed emphasis on measurable outcomes for students simply summed up as points in the leaving. The counter cultural vision of Jesuit education was therefore much needed.
Gerard Foley, Headmaster of Belvedere College SJ, outlined some of the ways Belvedere students exemplified in practice the theory being talked about. He spoke about the students’ engagement with homeless people in the annual sleepout. He cited the story of one young student who was teaching English to a migrant as part of a joint project with the Jesuit Refugee Service. After a number of weeks he said he’d changed his whole perspective on economic migrants. Mr Foley told the story of the teacher who was sowing a roof-garden on top of the college. “Without ever mentioning God, he’s been teaching the students about the care of the earth, the power of the seed, the beauty of creation”.
In conclusion he referred to Jim Culliton SJ, a former deputy headmaster of Belvedere who used to stand in the corridor and say to the parents he met, “Celebrate the child you have, not the child you hoped to have”.

David Tuohy, SJ
1950-2020

David Gerard Tuohy was born in Dublin on 10th February 1950 to Matt Tuohy and Peg Power. He grew up in Galway and attended Colaiste Iognaid. He entered the Jesuits novitiate in Emo on 7th September 1967, completed a degree in botany in UCD in 1973 while living in Rathfarnham Castles (the province juniorate), studied philosophy in the Milltown Institute (1973-5), taught in Colaiste Iognaid (1975-77), where he attained the H. Dip. He studied theology in the Milltown Institute (1977-81). He was ordained deacon in the Jesuit church in Galway by the Bishop Eamon Casey, Bishop of Galway on 24th February 1980 and ordained priest, also by Bishop Casey, on 27th June 1981, after which he studied for aeducational administration in Fordham University New York. Over the next few years he taught in Belvedere College (1982-85), worked as a parish chaplain in a parish in Tallaght (1985), taught in Colaiste Iognaid (1985-90), lectured in NUI Galway (UCG as it was then, 1990) and in Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia (1990-1, 1991-2). In between the two periods in Philadelphia, he did his tertianship in Austin, Texas in 1991 under the direction of Joseph Tetlow. He pronounced his final vows on 3rd December 1994 at Loyola, Eglinton Road. Dublin. While a lecturer in UCG (1992-1993) he completed his doctorate in education in 1993 and took a post in UCD (1993-2000), from which he moved to NUI Galway in 2000. He resigned from that post in 2006 and became an educational consultant. During his tenure in UCD he lived in the Milltown Park community (1993-95), and with the foundation of the Dominic Collins community at 129 Morehampton Road in 1995 he was resident there until 2000. After his resignation from NUI Galway he returned to the Dominic Collins community (2006-2017). He spent a sabbatical (2010-11) in Boston College and in Jerusalem. With the immanent suppression of the Dominic Collins community he lived in SFX, Gardiner St (2017-9) and moved to St Ignatius, Leeson St in 2019. He was diagnosed with cancer in August 2019 and after a troubled five months died on 31st January 2020.

While his tenure in the Education Depts of UCD and NUI Galway were relatively short, they were the base from where he shaped generations of teachers and school principals, facilitated school staff days and supervised research dissertations. He taught courses in educational administration and led summer schools for school principals. His book, School Leadership and Strategic Planning (ASTI) went through two editions, the first edition being launched by the then Minister for Education in 1997.

It was after his retirement from his university post to become an educational consultant that he flourished. His energy and output were enormous. He engaged in consultancy work with individual schools, boards of management, religious congregations and educational trusts. His outstanding achievement in this regard was his pioneering work with Le Cheile. A group of small religious congregations each of which had one or two schools wished to form a common trust for their schools. Over several years David facilitated these congregations’ leadership to create a common vision and he led them through the multiple legal complexities of creating the trust as a company, framing a constitution, property ownership, decision making structures and so on. He became company secretary and organised board meetings and AGMs. To date Le Cheile comprises the schools of fifteen religious congregations and fifty-three schools.

He was a prolific writer. His books include, The Inner World of Teaching (Falmer Press, 1999, later translated into Polish), Youth 2K: Threat or promise to a religious culture? (2000, Marino Institute of Education), Leading Life to the Full: Scriptural Reflections on Leadership in Catholic Schools (Veritas, 2005), and his masterpiece, Denominational Education and Politics: Ireland in a European Context, published in 2013. He authored numerous commissioned research reports across a wide range of educational topics for: The Department of Education, The Loreto Education Office, The Marino Institute, The Church of Ireland Education Office, The Loreto sisters in Uganda, Alexandra College. The topics of these reports covered: new programmes at second level, of non-curricular school policies in a school development planning context, the applied Leaving Cert, teacher development, boarding schools, parental values, secondment and the provision of education for refugees in northern Uganda,. He published articles in educational journals: Studies, Irish Educational Studies, The Furrow, Educational Management and Administration and Oideas, and book chapters and delivered papers at conferences, in Ireland, UK, Finland and Australia. He reviewed books on education created podcasts.

He was hoping that if his illness was prolonged and not too debilitating, he would return to a book project on art and education on which he had been working. Before his illness he was working on the constitutions of an Irish Jesuit educational trust where he was bringing his knowledge of the philosophy of Jesuit education, framed as Jesuit humanism, and his experience of establishing educational trusts together.

His work with the Church of Ireland Education Office extended into work with the united dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and a friendship with Archbishop Michael Jackson. He led a project on developing discipleship in the diocese and co-authored its outcome, Come & C (Messenger Publications, 2019). He was appointed an ecumenical canon of Christchurch Cathedral and preached at the diaconate ordinations in Christchurch. Archbishop Jackson spoke warmly about David’s work in the archdiocese at David’s funeral and co-presided (with the provincial) at the prayers of commendation.

What of David Tuohy the Jesuit and man?
David was an authentic Jesuit academic in the Jesuit intellectual tradition of education in his heart and in his practice. Jesuit documents describe Jesuit scholars as apostles and that the intellectual life is apostolic even when it appears to be secular. The previous Superior General, Fr Nicolas, emphasised the need for Jesuits in the intellectual apostolate to be men of humility, abnegation and patience, free from desires for personal advancement and of competitive rivalry. He referred specifically to the ‘ministry of research’, which he said that Jesuits who teach in higher education should also be involved. He stated that ‘no field can be excluded a priori from the ministry of research: philosophy and theology, but also the sciences dealing with life, human and social science, physics etc’. It was out of this vision and his internalisation of the Jesuit educational tradition that David lived and worked. The central theme of his whole apostolic enterprise was values, leadership and Catholic education.

Underpinning all his work was an incredibly rapacious mind. His ability in maths and statistics was awesome. In his work with the Le Cheile Trust he grasped the legal complexities and was well able to take on the legal profession. Indeed he could challenge any professional. Woe betide a sloppy builder or workman or even a solicitor!

He could never resist a puzzle - sudoku, crossword, jigsaw. He could turn his hand to anything. He organised and supervised building construction, administered the practical running of communities, kept community accounts, mastered legal and insurance complexities and wrote biblical meditations. He co-produced musicals, coached rugby and rowing. He seemed to understand the complexities of every sport – rugby, soccer, baseball, cricket, gridiron. As a junior he trained to be a soccer referee and was certified by FAI and had the referees’ black outfit, whistle and notebook. He was an accomplished cook and he organised the menus and cooked the dinners at Jesuit gatherings.

As a person he was full of love, fun, making and keeping friends easily. He was deeply attached to his immediate and extended family across the world – being in regular contact, visiting them and officiating at their baptisms, weddings and funerals,. He researched his family’s history and constructed complex family trees. He enjoyed his pleasures: visiting art exhibitions, fishing with his cousin, playing golf, attending symphony concerts and Agatha Christie murder plays.

David’s journey was not always easy. He could get trapped easily into a cycle of anger and pessimism. Some working relationships were fractious, especially with some superiors. He could be very intolerant of what he perceived as incompetence, narrow thinking and people’s inability to understand structures and roles. Some special projects and work did not develop as he had hoped due to this.

The final few months of his life were very difficult as he fluctuated between periods living in the community with reasonable health and being in hospital with infections and in Cherryfield Lodge (the province nursing home). Over his dying few months since his cancer was diagnosed, he spoke constantly in terms of an image from St Luke’s gospel (5: 17-26). In this gospel story, a group of a sick man’s friends wanted Jesus to heal him, but because the house in which Jesus was speaking was so crowded, they climbed onto the roof, took off the tiles and lowered their friend down through the ceiling in front of Jesus. As David received cards, messages and reports of love and prayers for him, he spoke of how he understood that those who were praying for him were holding the ropes and lowering him down to Jesus. He was graced with a strong faith as his treatment stopped and he grew weaker. He died in Cherryfield Lodge 31st January 2020 a week before his 70th birthday.

David Coghlan SJ

Born: 18 July 1846, Drogheda, County Louth
Entered: 11 September 1865, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1879
Final vows: 02 February 1886
Died: 02 January 1918, St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin

Early education at St Stanislaus College SJ, Tullabeg

by 1868 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1873 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1872 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1875 at Antwerp Institute Belgium (BELG) Regency
by 1877 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying
by 1885 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After his Noviceship he made studies at Laval, did Regency teaching and Prefecting at Tullabeg and Clongowes, and taught English in Antwerp for two years.
1876 He was sent to Innsbruck for Theology.
1879-1884 He was sent as Prefect and Minister to Clongowes.
1886 He was sent to Gardiner St as Minister, and then at the urgent request of the then Rector of Clongowes, returned there as Minister. He returned to Gardiner as Minister and remained in that job for some years. Later he was sent to Galway, but returned again to Gardiner St as Minister. This time he was also a very useful Operarius and Prefect of the Church. He was a very forcible Preacher with a fine voice and presence.
1911 He had a stroke, and for six years led a most patient life, edifying everybody. He was very neat about his room and person.
He was one of the best known Jesuits in the Diocese, and greatly esteemed by the Archbishop and the clergy.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Verdon 1846-1918
Fr John Verdon was born at Drogheda on July 18th 1846. He received his early education in our College at Tullabeg. He entered the Society in 1865 at Milltown where he did his noviceship under Fr Sturzo.

His philosophical studies were carried out at Laval, after which he did his Colleges at Tullabeg and Clongowes, and also at Antwerp, where he taught English for some years. Having completed his Theological studies at Innsbruck, he was ordained in 1879.

After his return to Ireland he was a master at Clongowes and then at Gardiner Street. Except for a short spell at Galway, all his priestly life was spent at Gardiner Street, both as Minister and Operarius.

He was one of the best known and esteemed Jesuits of the Dublin diocese, beloved of the people and clergy, from the Archbishop down. As a preacher he was forcible with a fine voice and presence.

In 1911 he had a stroke, and for six years he led a most patient life of suffering, to the great edification of everybody. He died a most peaceful and happy death, surrounded by his brethren, on January 2nd 1918.

◆ The Clongownian, 1918

Obituary

Father John Verdon SJ

An Appreciation by Joseph I Donaghy

It was with feelings of the most poignant regret that old Clon gownians and particularly those of the Amalgamation period - read the announcement in the public press of the death of the late Father John Verdon SJ, at St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street.

This sentiment was not by any means confined to old Jesuit pupils, but was shared, not alone by the Catholic citizens of Dublin, but by everyone in any part of Ireland who had at any time come under the magnetic influ ence of the genial personality of the deceased clergyman.

Father Verdon might have been described as the living exponent of the doctrine of good. hearted cheerfulness. He carried this into everyday life, and won all hearts no less by his spontaneous kindness than by the un affected good humour and bonhomie that formed part of his nature.

Reference has been made to the Amalgamation in 1885-87 of the College of old St Stanislaus' with that of Clongowes Wood, For those who were acquainted with the special circumstances connected with the two colleges - the old time rivalry and the more than keen spirit of emulation or something more that existed between the respective alumni - the experiment was not devoid of anxiety nor unattended with a certain amount of risk.

Happily for all concerned the carrying of it into effect devolved upon a worthy Triumvirate than whom it would not have been possible to find any better suited in every way to the task.

With the late Father John S Conmee as Father Rector, Father H Fegan as Higher Line Prefect, and Father John Verdon as Minister, the success of the undertaking might well have been pronounced a foregone conclusion; and so, with God's blessing, it proved to be beyond the expectation of even the most sanguine.

How ably Father Conmee, of happy memory, discharged his onerous duties as Rector let those attest who still recall his eloquent and impressive sermons - each a literary treat - his genial manner, which added to rather than detracted from the dignity of his bearing, and the highly capable and efficient manner in which he administered the affairs of the College.

As for Father Fegan (whom God preserve), surely no more ideal Higher Line Prefect than he ever held the keys of office, and certainly none more deservedly beloved of his boys. Witness the address with which they presented him on the occasion of his ordination and his reply-in its way, a living classic.

But it is with the third member of this distinguished group that we are presently concerned. To say that Father Verdon was “a born Minister” was to express a truth that everyone realised who came within the radius of his gentle ministration. While he was seldom if ever called upon to “press his bashful charges to their food” (if the paraphrase may be pardoned), he certainly did enjoy “the luxury of doing good” to them in a thousand and one little ways that, highly appreciated as they were at the time, would now seem trivial in the enumeration.

Big-hearted and generous to a degree, he nobly upheld the high traditions of Clongowes hospitality. Anything small or petty was altogether foreign to his nature.

Ever considerate of the feelings of others, he avoided anything that could give offence tu the most susceptible. At the same time, when duty or principle required it, he could express himself in a manner that never failed to carry conviction to the minds of his hearers. Endowed with a keen sense of the ludicrous, his light and playful humour touched nothing which it did not embellish, and none of his sallies ever contained the slightest sting either for those of whom they were spoken or to whom they were uttered.

It is not to be wondered at that his fatherly solicitude for each individual boy made Clongowes in very truth “a home from home”, and gained for Father Verdon - not that he sought popularity - that affection and esteem in which he was universally held.

During the many subsequent years he resided at Gardiner Street he often used the influence he had acquired at Clongowes to bring back to the path of rectitude some wayward student in Dublin, or it might be some more advanced member of society who had fallen away from the teachings of the old Alma Mater. His wide experience of the ways of the world and his deep knowledge of human nature, com bined with his unfailing and resourceful tact, enabled him to heal many a domestic sore and put an end to many a long-standing feud.

In the pulpit he was convincing and eloquent. A master of his subject, he delivered his discourse with a zeal and earnestness and with a degree of histrionic ability that marked him out as a preacher of the first rank. His excellent qualities of head and heart, of intel lect and judgment, combined to make him what in fact he was-a distinguished member of a distinguished Order.

In such a brief sketch as this necessarily is ryuch must remain unisaid, and those who kaew and appreciated his many excellent qualities must each supply for himself what ever he finds missing.

It only remains for the writer to tender his most sincere thanks to the Editor of the “Clongownian” for having afforded him the treasured privilege of placing this humble chaplet of memories - rudely strung together though they be - on the grave of one who in his lifetime did so much to refine, to brighten, and to spiritualise the condition of his fellow men, and who, like a true son of Ignatius, made every word and action at all times and in all places subservient to the greater glory of God.

Born: 12 November 1912, Carraroe, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Mary's Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 30 July 1947, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1950, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 29 March 1973, St Ignatius College, Athelstone, Adelaide, Australia

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Martin Wallace was educated at local schools until he was sixteen, and was a teacher of Irish before entering the Society at St Mary's, Emo Park, 7 September 1938. He studied philosophy at Tullabeg, 1940-43, and did regency at Galway, 1943-44. Theology was at Milltown Park, 1944-48, and tertianship at Rathfarnham, 1948-49. He taught Irish, English, mathematics and religion at Galway, 1949-61, and was assistant prefect of studies for the preparatory school, 1954-60.
It is not clear why he came to Australia, but he taught religion, English, and history at St Ignatius' College, Norwood, 1962-66, and then moved to the new school at Athelstone in 1967. He had been offered job in Ireland to teach Irish, but he wanted to remain in Australia. In his earlier days in Australia he was well liked as a warm, cultured and sensitive man with a love of theology, history and the classics. He was a gifted conversationalist.
But he was also a conservative man, fearful of changes in the post~Vatican II Church and Society He was sensitive in personal relationships and not very tolerant of opinions differing from his own. However, the younger boys that he taught appreciated him, affectionately calling him “Skippy”. He had a lively wit, and was kind to his students. He suffered from insomnia for many years and would pass long nights reading the latest theological journals. He rarely left the community grounds, spending his spare time in the garden constructing an extraordinary series of rock gardens, paths and bridges along the creek that bordered the school property at Athelstone. He was at home with nature where he found peace and serenity.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 48th Year No 2 1973
Obituary :
An tAthair Máirtín de Bhailís (Martin Wallace)
Fadó, fadó, as the old tales tell, a young boy served Mass in his home parish of Cillín, An Cheathrú Rua, Conamara. He was one of the best and most reliable servers, so efficient was he, indeed, and so much at home at the altar that many of the local people predicted that he would one day be a priest. That boy was Máirtín de Bhailís or, as he was known to the neighbours, Máirtín Bheartla Tom Rua. In some parts of Ireland where there are many families of the same surname it is customary to identify an individual by adding to his own name the names of his father and grandfather.
Máirtín, was born on November 12th, 1912 and death deprived him of a mother's care at a very early age. His good father brought up the family on very slender resources and Máirtín had an abiding sense of gratitude to him for his fortitude and devotion to duty. His teacher in the primary school, Micheál Ó Nualláin, considered Máirtín to be one of the brightest lads he had ever had in his school. Educational facilities beyond the primary level were non-existent in An Cheathrú Rua at that time; how he would have benefited from the magnificent post-primary schools there today! Máirtin went into Galway to do a commercial course at the Technical School there. He became secretary of the city branch of Conradh na Gaeilge. Fr Andy O’Farrell, who had known Máirtín from the many vacations which he spent in the Gaeltacht, was President of the branch. He invited Máirtín to become a member of the teaching staff of Coláiste Ignaád. It was a wise and fortunate choice, for he proved to be a born teacher. All who were his pupils have nothing but the highest praise for him. A great friend of Máirtín in those days and for the rest of his life was Mgr. Eric Mac Fhinn, still happily with us.
When Máirtín began to think of the priesthood, An tAth, Eric coached him in Latin for Matriculation. Before he entered the Noviceship at Emo on September 7th, 1938, this good friend took him with him on a trip to Rome. This was one of the great joys of his life. After his noviceship, Máirtín went to Tullabeg for Philosophy in 1940. The 1943 Status posted him back to Coláiste lognáid where he taught for one more year before going on to Milltown for Theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 30th, 1947 and said his first Mass at St Andrew’s, Westland Row. On the hill tops round his home parish bonfires blazed a welcome for An t-Ath Máirtín, who was the first priest from the parish within living memory. It was a memorable experience for him and for his family. After Tertianship in Rathfarnham, he was once more posted to Galway as Doc. There he was to remain for over a dozen years until he set sail for Australia.
It was during these years that Máirtín began the work at which he particularly excelled and which gave him immense pleasure translating into Irish selections of the writings of the Fathers. He was a perfectionist and a most painstaking worker in this field. This was well illustrated in a book of his, “Moladh na Maighdine”, which was published by FÁS in 1961 and which proved to be a best seller; it is long since out of print. The work is divided into two main sections. The first, entitled “Moladh na Naomh”, is described by the author as “Tiontú ar na startha is taitneamhaí san Breviarium Romanum i dtaobhi Mháthair Dé”. The second section is called “Moladh Sinsear”, and the author says of this, “Chuir mó a raibh soláimhsithe dtár bprós agus dár bhfilíocht féin i dtaobh Mháthair Dé i dtaca an aistriúcháin”. By doing this, he wished to show how our ancestors thoughts on Our Lady corresponded to those of the saints and theologians of the universal church, Máirtín was working on a translation of the Confessions of St Augustine and had completed a good deal of it when bo found that An tAth Pádraig Ó Fiannachta of Maynooth was doing a similar work. He very generously loaned his version to An tAth Pádraig. The latter states in the foreword of his book, “Mise Agaistin”' that Máirtín's version as of great help to him.
Those who were privileged to know Máirtín de Bhailís will remember him as a man of immense good humour and warm humanity, an excellent companion. It was a delight to hear him speak in the lovely Irish of Cois Fharraige. One felt regret that he had not been assigned to University studies, for he had a great talent for scholarship and would undoubtedly have distnguished himself in this field. It was a great loss to the Province when, in 1961, he set sail for far-off Australia. Due to the onset of a form of arthritis, his medical adviser urged him to seek a drier climate where the condition could be arrested.
For information of Fr Máirtin’s years down under' we are indebted to his Rector at St Ignatius College, Athelstone. Adelaide, Fr P D Hosking. From his arrival in Australia in 1962 until 1966, Máirtín taught at Norwood, Adelaide, and then moved to Athelstone when St Ignatius College transferred its senior school there. He taught at St Ignatius from that time until his death which occurred in an interval between classes on the morning of March 29th. About a year previously he had had a very serious illness and this, no doubt, had taken its toll on the heart. One feels that, had it been left to his own choice, this how he would have wished to go to God-in harness, so to speak.
In the course of a very moving panegyric at the Requiem Mass for Fr Máirtín, The Rector had this to say: “He was essentially a simple man and a gentle man, but with a roguish Irish humour. It is because of such qualities that he won universal love and affection. When he was very ill last year many of the boys showed great concern and frequently asked about his health, There would be few, if any, of his past pupils who would not remember his quick wit, his deep human understanding and his genuine concern for their well-being. He was a man who had won the undivided loyalty and respect of the young
As a simple man he had a great love for nature, and especially for his garden along the banks of the creek at Athelstone. But at the same time he was widely read, and had delved into numerous books on Spirituality, on history and on literature. He revealed this depth of learning by the scope of his conversation. There were few topics about which he could not rightly claim to have genuine knowledge though he did always say that he was no mathematician!
Above all else he was a priest, a spiritual man, a man who loved God deeply and showed this by every aspect of his life. He He had particular devotion to Our Blessed Lady, he wrote one book about her in his native Gaelic, and translated another one .... We pray for Fr Martin today, that God may receive this gentle soul gently and mercifully. We are grateful for the example and for the memory of such a man who meant so much in our lives at St Ignatius College. The whole school family says goodbye to him today with heavy hearts, but knowing that our part of the world is a better place for his having been in it and lived with us”
Solas na bhFlaitheas dá anam uasal!

Born: 22 June 1826, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Entered: 21 February 1858, St Andrea, Rome, Italy (ROM)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 02 February 1870
Died: 18 October 1912, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 20 April 1870-17 March 1877

by 1859 at Roman College Italy (ROM) studying Theology
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was already Ordained a Priest for the Ferns Diocese before Ent. It was said he would have become a Bishop there had he not joined the Society. He had studied under Cardinal Johannes Baptist Franzelin, the Austrian Jesuit Theologian, and whose life he wrote in later years.

He did his Regency at Tullabeg (1861-1863), Galway (1864-1865) Clongowes, being Minister there as well (1866-1869).
1869-1870 Tertianship in Rome
1870-1877 After Tertianship in Rome he was sent to HIB as Provincial.
1877-1883/4 He went to Gardiner St as Superior
1884-1889 Operarius at Gardiner St
1889-1895 He was appointed Rector of the newly opened Milltown Theologate.
He suffered from a lingering illness and died in Gardiner St 18 October 1912

Henry Lynch SJ writes of him :
“Nicholas Walsh did not get the Obituary notice his memory deserved. This was ‘our’ fault, of course. Had he died 10 or 15 years earlier, the papers would have been full of him, but he lived too long and was forgotten. In his day, however, he was really one of our great men in the public eye, though he was never popular with “Ours”, especially in the days of his authority. A certain natural pomposity and autocratic manner accounts for this, though he really was quite simple and good-natured at heart. But in his day he was in the very first rank of Preachers and the Bishops and Priests held him in great estimation. He Preached at the Consecration of Sligo Cathedral in 1874, and at the installation of Dr William Walshe as Archbishop of Dublin. His retreats and Lectures were very fine, impressive and solid, and were very much sought after and appreciated. His speech a the Maynooth Centenary (1896) was said t have been one of the best delivered on that historic occasion. He was a favourite Confessor with men, and even in his declining years heard many in the parlour.
He mellowed much in old age and “Ours” came to know and like him better and even poke fun at him which he took very well. He had many influential friends who helped him in his good works.
When Superior of Gardiner St, he put up those four magnificent pictures of Ignatius in the transept of the Church. When Rector at Milltown he built the fine Collegiate Church there. When he ceased to preach, like Matthew Russell, he took to writing books, and published four - “Life of Franzelin”; “Old and New”; “The Saved and the Lost” and “Woman”. In these four books he gathered and published all the matter of his many famous retreats, Sermons, Lectures, and domestic exhortations. The books had poor sales.
All through his life he enjoyed splendid health and rarely had a pain or ache, not even in his last days. He died of senile decay. During the last 10 years of his life he lived in complete retirement at Gardiner St, except for just one year at Clongowes as Spiritual Father. For the last three or four years he was confined to his room altogether and there were signs of dementia towards the end.
He was a man who always upheld a very high standard of piety and conduct to all, and was, himself, most devout. He died in the end room of Bannon’s corridor, and the Provincial William Delaney and Minister Joseph Wrafter were with him at the end.”

Note from John Bannon Entry :
On the evening of his death the Telegraphy published an article on him headed “A Famous Irish Jesuit - Chaplain in American War” : “The Community of the Jesuit Fathers in Gardiner St have lost within a comparatively short time some of their best known and most distinguished members. They had to deplore the deaths of Nicholas Walsh, John Naughton, John Hughes and Matthew Russell, four men of great eminence and distinction, each in his own sphere, who added lustre to their Order, and whose services to the Church and their country in their varied lines of apostolic activity cannot son be forgotten. And now another name as illustrious is added to the list. The Rev John Bannon....

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Nicholas Walsh 1826-1912
Fr Nicholas Walsh was born in Wexford on June 22nd 1826. He joined the Society as a priest in 1858.

He studied under Cardinal Franzelin whose life he wrote in later years. From his tertianship in Rome he was sent back to Ireland as Provincial, a post he filled for seven years.

He was a magnificent preacher and lecturer, His speech at the Maynooth Centenary in 1896, was adjudged the best delivered on that occasion.

When Rector of Milltown Park in 1889, when that house was opened as a Theologate, he was responsible for the building of the fine collegiate chapel there.

In his retirement in Gardiner Street, he took to his pen and published four books : “The Life of Cardinal Franzelin”; “Old and New”; “The Saved and the Lost” and “Woman”.

He died of a lingering illness in Gardiner Street on October 18th 1912.

Born: 02 September 1893, Alexander Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 07 September 1912, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 2 February 1929. Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 12 June 1972, Galway Regional Hospital, Galway

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

Father is an Officer in Customs and Excise, and lives at Iona Road, Drumcondra, Dublin.

Only son with one sister.

aka Ciaran Mac an Bhaird; Kyran Ward

Educated at Christian Brothers School Belfast he then went to O’Connell’s Schools for four years. In 1910 he went to Belvedere College SJ

by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1928 at St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 47th Year No 3 1972

St Ignatius College, Galway
News has just come of Father Ward's death, after a very short illness, in the Regional Hospital, on the morning of June 12th. He was on the threshold of celebrating his 60th year in the Society.
The Concelebrated Requiem Mass on 14th June was in Irish. Fr O'Shea (nephew) was the First Concelebrant, assisted by Fr Provincial and Fr Rector, Fourteen priests took part in the Concelebrated Mass, many of them old friends of Fr Ward from other houses. Ar láimh dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Obituary :
Fr Ciarán Mac an Bháird SJ (1893-1972)
Fr Ward died in Galway Regional Hospital after a brief illness on Monday, the 12th June, in his 79th year.
His father, Timothy, was a Galway man, but Fr Ward was born in Belfast, where he attended St. Patrick's Christian Brothers School. He completed his secondary education at Belvedere College, Dublin, and entered the Noviceship in Rahan, Tullamore, just sixty years ago in the 7th September, 1912.
After his studies in Rathfarnham he went to Jersey for Philosophy. Owing to the war and danger of conscription he was transferred to Milltown Park to complete the last year of Philosophy, after which he taught in Clongowes from 1919 to 1923. He then returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained in 1926. He finished his studies in St Beuno's College, North Wales, and then returned to Clongowes to teach there for three years.
In 1931 he was transferred to the Sacred Heart College, Limerick. He proved himself a very efficient teacher especially in Irish, French and Latin. In addition to this he was Assistant Prefect of Studies, Master of Ceremonies and Minister. As Master of Ceremonies he had charge of the Mass Servers whom he trained with very special care and attention. Many of the congregation commented on the devotion and reverence of the boys under his care.
He was also keenly interested in Drama and produced operettas each year in Irish for Prize Day. He had a special gift of being able to communicate his own personal talent as an actor to the boys he chose for his plays. In addition to all this work he organised each summer groups of boys to spend Irish-speaking holidays in the Kerry Gaeltacht at Ballyferriter and Baile na nGall. In all these activities Fr E Andrews was his ever faithful associate as later in Galway where they again combined energies.
He came to Galway in September 1941 and for 21 years, in addition to full teaching work, he was Adj Pref Studies and Master of Ceremonies in the Church. In this latter work he maintained the high standard of training of Mass Servers which he had reached in the Crescent.
He also continued his former interest in Musical Drama and produced Operettas in Irish each year for prize day. His Drama Groups won many first places at the Féile Drámaíochta in the Taibhdhearc. Many of those dramas he translated from French into Irish.
He carried on Fr Ó Brolcháin's work of training the boys in Irish dancing and his groups won prizes for their four-hand reels,
He was marked down in the Catalogue as “Doc an. 48” and all these years he was completely dedicated to this work. With his great gifts he was a man of singular reserve and self-effacement.
His special interest in promoting the use of Irish as a spoken language in the College had remarkable results and an Inspector from the Department commented on this as a remarkable achievement.
Fr Ward, despite the reserve alluded to, was a very pleasant companion and excellent Community man; a ripe sense of humour enabled him to enter into the cajolery of recreation and with such company as Fr C Perrott, Fr A O'Reilly, Fr Fitzgibbon and Fr Cashman the time passed regularly in even an hilarious fashion. This same bonhomie entered into his dealings with the boys, pupils and altar-servers. He gained their confidence and would recount on occasions quiz-questions and stories he had picked up in their company. He was devoted to his work and could not suffer it to be scamped but even then he would have a laughable encounter to tell about, something he had wormed out of an uncommunicative culprit who was awed by the mock-severity of his teacher's approach.
During the last few years of his life he suffered much from arthritis, but he bore it all in heroic fashion without complaint. Such was his devotion to his work that he won the admiration of parents and boys, who will remember for many years his unselfish devotion to their interests.
The Mayor and Corporation of Galway sent a letter of sympathy to Fr Rector and Community on his death. Ar dheis Dé go raibh & anam.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1972

Obituary

Father Kyran Ward SJ :

The death occured in Galway in mid-June of Father Kyran Ward, S.J., after a short illness,

Father Ward, who was 78, had been a member of the teaching staff of Coláiste Iognáid since 1941 and had continued to teach there right up to his last illness. He was a talented and devoted teacher of Latin and French. In all, he had been teaching for 48 years, at Clongowes Wood College, Cresent College, Limerick, and Galway,

In Limerick and Galway he produced many school operattas and plays. His drama groups carried off many prizes at the Féile Dramaíochta at the Taibhdhearc in Galway. Several plays had been translated into Irish from the French by himself.

Fr Ward had been in Belfast, where he attended St Patrick's Christian Brother School. The family having moved to Dublin, he came to Belvedere, finishing here in 1912. In September of that year he entered the Jesuits at St Stanislaus' College, Rahan, He studies at Rathfarnham Castle from 1914 till 1916 before travelling to Jersey to study philosophy. On completing his course of philosophy at Milltown Park, he taught at Clongowes from 1919 till 1923. He then returned to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained there in 1926. Fr Ward finished his studies at St Beuno's College, North Wales.

He returned to Clongowes to teach there for three years before being appointed in 1931 to Crescent College, Limerick, where he was Vice-Rector. He remained at the Crescent for ten years before his final appointment to Galway

To his sister, Mrs J B O'Shea; his neice, Mrs Tony Byrne; and his nephew, Fr Maurice O'Shea CC, Artane, Dublin, we offer our sincere sympathy.

Born: 01 November 1829, Trim, County Meath
Entered: 01 February 1867, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: Maynooth - St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare - pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1879
Died: 22 November 1895, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublinn

by 1869 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He had been Ordained at Maynooth and was a curate in Mullingar for a number of years before Ent.

1870-1875 He was sent to Galway.
1876-1878 He was sent to Limerick.
1879 He was sent to Gardiner St and remained there until his death 22 November 1895
He was a Minister in some of these Residences and universally loved by all.

The day after his death the Freeman’s Journal wrote :
“He was for a time zealously devoted to the work of the Missions, and afterwards in the capacity of the Spiritual Director of the Sacred Heart Home and Manager of SFX Schools in Lower Dorset St. He gave great service to the cause of the protection and education of the children of the poor. . He was also Spiritual Director of the SVP Conference attached to Gardiner St, and was always foremost in any effort they made for the relief of the destitute and orphaned. Even in the ranks of the gifted Order to which he belonged, his death will create a gap which it will be hard to fill”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Michael Waters 1822-1895
Fr Waters was a native of County Meath, and having been ordained at Maynooth, he worked as a curate in Mullingar for some years. He entered the Society in 1867.
He was stationed first at Galway, then in Limerick, but was at Gardiner Street that his great work was done. As Spiritual Director of the Sacred Heart Home and Manager of St Francis Xavier Schools, he rendered great service to the cause of the children of the poor. He also directed the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which provided another means for him to help his beloved poor.

He died on November 22nd 1895. The Freeman’s Journal on the following day among other tributes, paid him the following “Even in the ranks of the gifted Order to which he belonged, his death will create a gap which it will be hard to fill”.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Michael Waters (1829-1895)

A native of Co Meath, was a secular priest of the diocese of Meath when he was admitted to the Society in 1867. He had studied at Maynooth and was a curate for some years at Mullingar when he decided to enter the Jesuit Order. After the completion of his studies in the Society, he was stationed for some years at St Ignatius, Galway. Father Waters's association with the Crescent was short. He spent only two years, 1875-78, in Limerick but his work proved of lasting character. He was appointed to organise the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for women, a work set on sure foundations that has endured and increased in strength throughout the past four score years. His remaining years were spent in Dublin, at Gardiner St, where his work amongst the poor was long remembered.

Born: 16 August 1851, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 06 September 1866, Milltown Park
Ordained: 1883
Final Vows: 22 February 1887
Died: 26 March 1922, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner St, Dublin

Early education at Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway

by 1869 at Amiens France (CAMP) studying
by 1870 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying
by 1871 at Maria Laach College Germany (GER) Studying
by 1881 at Oña Spain (ARA) studying
by 1886 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Noviceship at Milltown under Luigi Sturso.
After his Novitiate he was sent to France for Rhetoric and Rome for Philosophy.
He had to leave Rome due to political troubles and finished his Philosophy at Maria Laach.
He was sent first to Clongowes and then as Prefect to Tullabeg for Regency.
He was sent to Oña for Theology.
After Ordination he was sent teaching for several years at Crescent and Galway. He was rector for three years in Galway and then joined the Missionary Staff.
1904 He was sent to Gardiner St and lived there until his happy death 26 March 1922. He was six years Superior there 1912-1919.
He was a very fluent and ready speaker with good knowledge of French, Italian, German and Spanish. He was very kind to the sick and dying

Note from James Redmond Entry :
He studied Rhetoric at St Acheul, Amiens with Michael Weafer, Thomas Finlay and Peter Finlay, Robert Kane and Vincent Byrne, among others.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Michael Weafer 1861-1922
Fr Michael Weafer was born in Galway on August 29th 1861, and he was educated at St Ignatius Galway. He was one of those who made their noviceship under Fr Sturzo at Milltown Park in 1866.

He was present in Rome studying Philosophy during the Revolution of 1870, and with Fr Patrick Keating had to finish his studied at Maria-Laach.
Fr Weafer was Rector of Galway from 1901-1904. The rest of his life was spent mainly in Gardiner Street, of which he was Superior from 1912-1919.
He was a very fluent and ready speaker, with a good knowledge of French, Italian, German and Spanish. He was renowned for his kindness to the sick and dying.
He died on March 25th 1922.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Michael Weafer (1851-1922)

Was born in Galway and entered the Society in 1866. His first association with the Crescent was during his regency, 1878-80. He spent two more year on the teaching staff after his ordination and later completed his higher studies in Belgium. In 1889, the annua mirabilis of the Crescent in the last century, Father Weafer returned as prefect of studies and remained on the Crescent staff until 1900, when he was appointed rector of St Ignatius, Galway. At the end of his rectorship at St Ignatius, Father Weafer was transferred to Gardiner St., Dublin, where he laboured at the church until his death. He was superior of the Gardiner St community from 1912 to 1919.a

Born: 15 March 1875, Madras, India
Entered: 07 September 1892, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1908, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1910, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 28 April 1957, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1896 at Valkenburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
Came to Australia for Regency, 1898
by 1909 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Though born in India, Esmonde White was educated in Ireland. For regency he went to Riverview .There he stayed a relatively brief time, teaching and being assistant prefect of discipline, before departing in the autumn of 1901 for the same position at Xavier until 1905, when he returned to Ireland. From 1909 he was involved in the school ministry in Ireland.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 32nd Year No 3 1957
Obituary :
Fr Esmonde White (1875-1957)
Within a period of twelve months, Rathfarnham has lost four of its older men. Perhaps none of them has left so big a gap as “the quiet man”, Fr. White. Yet so it is; for, shrouded though he was in an almost fantastic silence, Fr. White was always there. Religious duties, meals, recreation, from none of these did he ever absent himself. He could be called bi-lingual inasmuch as his chief contribution to recreation was the statement, in Irish or English, “No doubt at all about it?” Perhaps he was on more familiar terms with the birds, whose calls, especially that of the cuckoo, he could faithfully reproduce. Certain it is that he never said an unkind word. No one who knew Fr. White would infer that this was merely the negative virtue of a very silent man. In the first place, it is certain that he had not always been so silent. In his student days at Valkenburg he had acquired so good a mastery of the language as to merit, in later years, the emphatic comment of a German Jesuit : “That man speaks German well”. Moreover his genial charity showed itself very positively in action, for he loved to see people happy. One who was with him in the colleges remarked: “He was always doing odd jobs for others and made so little compliment about them that, in Belvedere for example, if anyone wanted something in Woolworths, he had only to ask Fr. White, and off he went!”
Fr. White was born on 15th March, 1875 in Madras, India. Educated in Clongowes, he gained his place in the three-quarters on the Senior Cup team, played a useful game of Soccer, and bowled on the Cricket eleven. To the end of his life he bowled, left-arm, silently, at invisible wickets - one of his most characteristic gestures. He entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1892, studied philosophy at Valkenburg, and spent the seven following years in Australia, teaching at Xavier and at Riverview. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1908, did his Tertianship at Tronchienues and spent the remainder of his long life in the class room. All told, he taught for thirty-eight years. He taught at the Crescent from 1910 to 1914, being Prefect of Studies for the two latter years, He was at Belvedere 1915-19, and again from 1923 to 1937, having been in the meantime Minister and Socius at Tullabeg and Prefect of Studies at Galway. Then after a year at Emo and two years at Rathfarnham, as Spiritual Father, he went back to Belvedere, 1941-47, as Sub-Minister. After one year at Milltown Park he came in 1948 to Rathfarnham, where he remained until his death.
With the drawbridge of his interior castle perpetually up, he seemed very happy within, as he tunefully hummed and whistled, to the edification of the brethren without. He loved Belvedere College and when, after a stay of two years in Rathfarnham, he saw his name again on the Belvedere status, he literally danced with joy, at the sober age of sixty-five! While Prefect of Studies in Belvedere Junior House, he combined gentleness with severity in such perfect measure that a past pupil recalls: “He hit very hard with the pandy bat but obviously felt every bit as miserable about it as the unfortunate victim!” The same pupil added, and none of us could deny the tribute: “He was one of Nature's gentlemen!” Those of us who lived with him would suggest that Grace played a bigger part than Nature in making Fr. White one of the kindest of men.
His last illness was short. Some six weeks after leaving Rathfarnham for the Nursing Home, his condition suddenly worsened and he died in the Hospice on 28th April, Before leaving Rathfarnham, he made an interrogation of unusual length: “Two questions are puzzling me”, he said to the indefatigable infirmarian. “First of all, who are you?” When Brother Keogh had identified himself, Fr. White went on: “Secondly, who am I?” With sincerity and truth we can all answer the second question : “One white man!” May he rest in peace!

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Esmonde White SJ 1875-1957
To those who lived in community with him, Fr Esmonde White seemed to be almost shrouded in an fantastic silence. He certainly was a perfect man, according to St James, for he never offended with the tongue, his remarks being confined to “No doubt at all about it”, said either in English or Irish.

Born in Madras, India, in 1975, he was educated at Clongowes, where he acquired a reputation as a left-hand bowler, whence, no doubt, he developed a gesture common with him to the end of his life, bowling left-handed at invisible wickets.

His life as a Jesuit was spent mainly in the Colleges and the classroom, a ministry of 40 years at least. He was mathematical in his observance, never absent from a duty, ever easy to oblige others, the quintessence of kindness, A model of motivated observance, close to God always, he yielded up his spotless soul to God on April 27th 1957. In the words of his obituary “He was a white man”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1957

Obituary

Father Esmonde White SJ

Fr White was born on 15th March, 1875, in Madras, India. Educated in Clongowes, he gained his place as a three-quarter on the Senior Cup team, played a useful game of Soccer, and bowled on the cricket eleven. And anyone who knew him or was taught by him will know that to the very end of his life he was to be seen as he walked along, occasionally bowling, left-arm, an invisible ball at an invisible wicket.

He entered the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg in 1892, studied Philosophy at Valkenburg, and spent the seven following years in Australia. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1908, He taught at the Crescent, Limerick, from 1910 to 1914, being Prefect of Studies for the two latter years. He was. at Belvedere 1915-1919, and again from 1923 to 1937, having been in the meantime Minister and Assistant to the Master of Novices at Tullabeg and Prefect of Studies at St Ignatius College, Galway, Then, after a year at Emo and two years at Rathfarnham as Spiritual Father, he went back to Belvedere from 1941–1947. From then until his death he was at Rathfarnham.

He loved Belvedere and when after a stay at Rathfarnham, he once again was changed to Belvedere we are told that he literally danced for joy, and that at the very sober age of sixty-five! He was Prefect of Studies in the Preparatory School for a period and for all his perpetually good humour knew well how to wield his sceptre of office. His most outstanding characteristic was his fantastic power of silence; he wasted no words. But it was a good-humoured silence, which missed little enough of what was going on and certain it is that his thoughts were always kindly since he never said an unkind word. Those of us who lived with him would suggest that Grace played a bigger part than Nature in making Fr White one of the kindest of men.

◆ The Clongownian, 1957

Obituary

Father Esmonde White SJ

Father Esmonde White was born in Madras, India, eighty-two years ago. Having left Clongowes, he joined the Novitiate at Tullabeg in 1892. He studied philosophy at Valkenburg in Holland and was then sent to the Australian Mission where he was Prefect and Master for six years, first in Kew College, Melbourne, and then at Riverview, Sydney.

He returned to Ireland in 1905 and completed his theological studies at Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1908. He also studied at Tronchiennes, Belgium. He was Master and Prefect of Studies at the Sacred Heart College, Limerick, from 1910 to 1914, and at Belvedere College, Dublin, from 1915 until 1919, when he was appointed Minister and Assistant Master of Novices at Tullabeg.

He was later in charge of studies at St Ignatius' College, Galway. In 1923 he returned to Belvedere, and remained there until 1937, when he was transferred to Rathfarnham Castle. May he rest in peace.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Esmonde White (1875-1957)

Born at Madras, India and educated at Clongowes, entered the Society in 1892. He pursued his higher studies in Valkenburg, Milltown Park and Belgium. He was ordained in 1908. Father White was a member of the Crescent community from 1909 to 1914 during which time he was prefect of studies. Most of his teaching career was spent at Belvedere College.