Since 1620 the Jesuits have, with some involuntary intermissions, been working in Galway. In 1645 our first school was founded through the generosity of Edmund Kirwan. The school, incorporated it seems into a Jesuit residence in the present Abbeygate St, survived and flourished although it had been established at a time of political upheaval and military activity. After the surrender of Galway to the Cromwellian forces in 1652, the Jesuits tried to maintain contact with the people of the area, and there is reference in 1658 to three members of the Society living secretly in County Galway. Jesuits returned openly to Galway after the Restoration of Charles II, but were banished again by Williamite forces in 1691. Once more they made a comeback in 1728 and for forty years they worked among the people of Galway. Sadly, a decrease in manpower forced the withdrawal of the “Mission” in 1768.

In 1859, at the request of the Bishop, members of the Order once more took up residence in the city, this time in Prospect Hill and served in St Patrick’s Church. Within a year they had opened a college near the site of the present Bank of Ireland at 19 Eyre Square. The college’s present location on Sea Road dates from 1863. The modern phase of Coláiste Iognáid began in 1929. The local enthusiasm for the language revival efforts of the emerging State was to be served by a re-invigorated Coláiste Iognáid, which became an Irish-medium School in 1931.

The college now is a co-educational, bilingual, non-fee-paying secondary school.

Born: 29 May 1828, County Galway
Entered: 12 May 1852, Hodder, England - Angliae Province (ANG)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Professed: 02 February 1863
Died; 02 July 1872, St Benedict's Church, Willow Lane, Norwich, Norfolk, England - Angliae Province (ANG)

Born: 01 April 1809, Barna, County Galway
Entered: 25 September 1839, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province
Died: 26 September 1841. Newtown, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province

Born: 05 August 1853, Bruges, Belgium
Entered: 23 September 1871, Milltown Park, Dublijn
Ordained: 1883
Died: 02 March 1890, Gort, County Galway

Part of the Drongen, Belgium community at the time of death
Nephew of Henry Lynch - RIP 1874 and Charles Lynch - RIP 1906

by 1874 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1875 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1877 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1880 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1881 at Oña Spain (ARA) studying
by 1890 out of Residence :
One idea is that he walked out of Tullabeg and ended up in poor house in Galway

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Nephew of Henry Lynch Sr - RIP 1874 and Charles Lynch - RIP 1906
He studied Rhetoric at Roehampton, Philosophy at Laval and Theology at Oña in Spain.
Becoming mentally affected he was placed in St John of God’s, but he escaped and died at the County Home in Gort, Co Galway.

Born: 1598, Thomond, County Clare
Entered: 1617, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)
Died: 16 November 1619, Lisbon, Portugal - Lusitaniae Province (LUS)

Alias de Amaral

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Two Entries : Gorman (1); Michael Amaraly (2)
Matthew Gorman
DOB Tuam or Thomond; Ent 1616 Portugal; RIP post 1617
Michael Amalary
DOB Ireland; Ent 1619 Lisbon; RIP 01 November 1619

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
He died at the Novitiate fifteen months after Ent in Lisbon 16 November 1619

Born: 01 November 1867, Wicklow Town, County Wicklow
Entered: 09 October 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 15 August 1901
Died: 06 August 1942, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 17th Year No 4 1942
Obituary :
Brother Joseph Campbell SJ

Brother Campbell was born on All Saints' Day, 1867, at Wicklow, and entered the noviceship, after the usual term as postulant, on 9th October, 1889, at Tullabeg, where Fr. John Colgan was his Rector and Novice-Master. In 1891 he began his long career as cook and dispenser a post he filled with exemplary fidelity for nearly forty years. A man of powerful physique and rude health, he consecrated to this life-work every ounce of energy he possessed, and the self-sacrificing devotion with which he addressed himself to the work in kitchen and pantry will have earned for him a high place in heaven.
Of charming gaiety, gentle and kind in manner and speech, his good humour and patience were never seen to better advantage than when a spur or admonition had to be administered to novice or helper on the kitchen experiment. Most of the houses of the Province benefitted by the example of his edifying life and skill in the culinary art most especially Belvedere, Galway and Tullabeg. In 1934 when at Galway, he began to show the first signs of a serious break-down in health, and, though he continued working to the best of his powers after a term spent in St. Bride's Nursing Home, he had to be relieved of the responsibilities of cook. In 1936 he was transferred to Tullabeg, and during the last years of his life he continued to help in the scullery whenever his failing powers permitted, being by temper and constitution as well as habit impatient of inaction. His last infirmity he bore with exemplary patience and sweetness. The end came suddenly in the forenoon of 6th August, shortly before Fr. Rector was due to leave for a retreat at Loughrea.
Fr. Socius celebrated the Requiem Mass in the People's Church which was attended by a very large crowd of externs, chiefly retainers of the College, who had come to know and venerate him during his long association with Tullabeg. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Joseph Campbell 1867-1942
Br Joseph Campbell was born in Wicklow on November 1st 1867, and entered the Society in 1889. He did his noviceship in Tullabeg where he had Fr John Colgan as hios Rector and Novice Master.

A man of powerful physique and robust health, he gave 40 years of his life as cook and dispenser in various houses of the Province. He was a man of unfailing gaiety, gentle and kind in manner and speech.

His end came suddenly on August 6th 1942 in Tullabeg, where for some years he had been a semi-invalid. His 40 years of humble service, carried out with patience and gladness will surely merit him a high place in heaven with St Alphonsus Rodriguez, his model and exemplar.

Born: 23 May 1642, Fethard, County Tipperary
Entered: 20 July 1670, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: - pre Entry
Died: 18 January 1686, Portumna, County Galway

Was he the Padre Everardus mentioned by Carol Sforza Palavicino 09 May to Fr Spreul SJ?

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Peter and Kathleen née Nash
Had studied at Santiago and Salamanca and was Ordained before Ent 20 July 1670 Villagarcía
1672-1678 After First Vows he taught Humanities at Monforte and later at Arévalo
1678 Sent to Ireland and to the Connaught Mission. He died at Portumna 18 January 1686

Born: 1631, County Galway
Entered: 1657, Mexico - Mexican Province (MEX)
Died: 28 September 1673, St Francis Borgia Mission, Sonora, Mexico - Mexican Province (MEX)

Alias de la Fuente

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
Entered in Mexico along with Cornelius Guillereag (Mac Giolla Riabhaigh)
1667 After finishing studies worked among the Indians at St Francis Xavier Mission in Sonora, Mexico
1668-1670 Worked among the Indians at St Ignatius Mission in Sinaloa, Mexico
1670-1673 Worked among the Indians at St Francis Borgia Mission in Sonora, Mexico, where he died in 1673
Stephen Font (de la Fuente) and Cornelius Guillereag (Mac Giolla Riabhaigh) were inseparable companions on the Indian Mission in Mexico

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Stephen Font (de la Fuente) SJ 1631-1673
Fr Stephen Fonr (de la Fuente) was born in Galway in 1631 and entered the Society in Mexico in 1657.

After finishing his studies he worked among the Indians at the Missions of St Francis Xavier in Sonora (1667), of St Ignatius in Sinaloa (1668) and of St Francis Borgia in Sonora (1670), where he died in 1673.

Born: 25 September 1858, Foxford, County Mayo
Entered: 06 September 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: Paris, France - pre Entry
Final vows: 15 August 1905
Died: 04 October 1920, St Ignatius College, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia

Part of the St Aloysius, Sevenhill, Australia community at the time of death

by 1903 in Rhodesia (ANG) - Military Chaplain
by 1904 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1906 at Chinese Mission (FRA)
Came to Australia 1908

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was in his native locality and then he went to the Irish College, Paris, where he was Ordained for the Achonry Diocese before Ent.
He had a varied career. he taught at Belvedere, Clongowes and Galway. He was on the Mission Staff. He went as Chaplain to the British Troops in South Africa. He then spent some time in Shanghai as a Missioner, where he did great work, but found it difficult to work with the French.
He was then sent to Australia, where he did various jobs, including being a Chaplain to Australian troops.
He was a man of great talent but unusual temperament and difficult to manage. He died at Norwood 04 October 1920.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
He enetered at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg as a secular Priest.

1892-1894 After First Vows he studied Theology for two years at Milltown Park.
1894-1895 He was sent teaching at Belvedere College.
1895-1896 He was sent teaching at Clongowes Wood College
1896-1898 He was involved in the “Mission” staff
1898-1900 He was sent teaching at Coláiste Iognáid Galway.
1900-1902 He was sent to work in the Church at Tullabeg
1902-1903 He was assigned as a Military Chaplain to British Troops in South Africa
1903-1904 He made Tertianship at Drongen.
1905-1907 He went on the French Chinese Mission at Shanghai
1907-1908 He returned to Parish work at Coláiste Iognáid.
1908-1911 He was sent to Australia and first to St Ignatius Norwood
1911-1913 He was sent to the Immaculate Conception Parish at Hawthorn
1913-1914 He was at Loyola Greenwich
1914-1919 He returned to St Ignatius Norwood. During this time he was appointed as a Military Chaplain to Australian troops and went to Egypt in 1915. However by September of that year his service was terminated due to ill health. He only completed the voyage and did not see any action. When he returned to Australia he gave missions and retreats in various parts of the country.
1919 He was sent to Sevenhill.

He was a man with intemperate zeal, but dogged with ill health. He had considerable talent which could be hard to harness, which may help understand why he moved around so frequently.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irish Province News 29th Year No 4 1954

Obituary :

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

Born: 1679, Dungarvan, County Waterford
Entered: 17 November 1698, Villagarcía, Galicia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 1707, Valladolid, Spain
Final Vows: 02 February 1716
Died: 03 October 1743, Dungarvan, County Waterford

Alias Roche
Mission Vice-Superior 14 August 1727-1773

Entries in old books show that he belonged to :
1723 New Ross Residence
1723-1726 Waterford Residence
1737 Named Rector of Poitiers
His will made in 1743 names him as PP of St Patrick and St Olav Waterford (Thrifts Irish Wills VOL III p 75)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
1727 Appointed Mission Superior - as appears by a letter of his to John Harrison 13 June 1727
1729 Sent to Irish College Poitiers by General Tamburini
1733-1734 He was sent to Salamanca (Irish Ecclesiastical Record)
1743 At the Waterford Residence

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of John Daniel Kelly and Helena née Roche
1700-1707 After First Vows he studied Philosophy and Theology at St Ambrose, Valladolid where he was Ordained 1707
1707-1711 Teaching Humanities at Valladolid
1711-1714 Chair of Philosophy at Bilbao
1714-1715 Tertianship
1715-1718 He was sent back to his Chair of Philosophy at Bilbao
1718-1721 Chair of Theology at Coruña
1721 Sent to Ireland and Waterford Residence and was appointed (15 September 1725) Secretary and Assistant with right of succession to the Mission Superior Anthony Knoles
1727 On the death of Knoles (14 August 1727) he became Vice-Superior of the Irish Mission, and held this Office until 1773. By his prudent government he kept his subjects free from participation in the disputes then rife amongst Catholics. He received many applications to establish houses of the Society in places with old-time Jesuit associations but by reason of the lack of Jesuits he could not accede to the requests from Limerick and Galway. In the end he was able to open the Galway Residence.
At the request of the bishops in Ireland assembled at Dublin he was able to bring influence from abroad to prevent the renewal of religious persecution. While on Visitation as Mission Superior to the Irish Colleges on the Continent, he was able to bring their perilous financial situation to the attention of the General, and thanks to his painstaking work, his successor was able to bring financial negotiations to a successful conclusion.
He was very popular with the clergy and people of Waterford who prevented his return to Spain when he had been named rector of the Irish College, Salamanca.
He died as a result of an accident returning from a sick call 03 October 1743 Dungarvan

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962

Ignatius Kelly alias Roche (1727-1733)

Ignatius Daniel Kelly, generally known in Spain and Ireland as Ignatius Roche, was the son of John Daniel Kelly, of Dungarvan, and Helena Roche. He was born at Dungarvan on or about 15th June, 1679, and entered the Society at Villagarcia in Castile on 17th November, 1698. He studied philosophy for three years, and did a four years' course of theology in the College of St Ambrose at, Valladolid, ending in 1707; after which he taught grammar for three years, and acted as Minister for one. From 1711 to 1714 he was Professor of Philosophy at Bilbao, and after an interruption of a year of third probation, he resumed his Chair of Philosophy at Bilbao for another three years, during which he made his solemn profession of four vows on 7th February, 1716. Then, after teaching theology at Coruna for two years (1718-20), he returned to Ireland early in 1721, and was stationed at Waterford. Having been appointed Secretary and Assistant to Fr Knoles, with right of succession (15th September, 1725), he became Vice-Superior of the Mission when Fr Knoles died on 14th August, 1727, and continued as such till 1733. By his prudent counsels he kept the Society free from participation in the internecine disputes then rife among Catholics. He received many applications from various places to establish Residences of the Society, but the fewness of subjects prevented compliance. The Residence of Galway, however, was re-opened in the summer of 1731, the bishops of Ireland, assembled in Dublin, requested him to use his influence abroad to thwart the hopes of the heretics, which he did with such success that the danger was averted. In 1631-32* he made a Visitation of the Irish College of Poitiers to settle the confused financial relations between it and the Irish Mission. He appealed often to be relieved of the government of the Mission, but his petitions were not heard until 1733. His end was in keeping with his life. He met with an accident on his way back from a sick call to a poor woman, and died soon after at Waterford on 1st October, 1743.

*Addendum for 1631-32 read 1731-32

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Ignatius Kelly 1679-1743
Ignatius Kelly, generally known in Spain and Ireland as Ignatius Roche, was born in Dungarvan in 1679. As was usual in those days, he did all his studies in Spain, where he was received into the Society in 1698. He was Professor of Theology in Bilbao and Corunna.

Having returned to Ireland he was stationed at Waterford. He acted as Socius to Fr Knoles and became Vice-Superior on his death. The following extract from a letter of his to Fr John Harrison, Santiago, 13th June 1727, will give an idea of the conditions of the time, and the various devices used in correspondence to conceal identities :
“I have written to you several times asking for news of your health, which may the Lord preserve to you for many years. Here we are few and frail. Mr Knoles is incapable of doing anything unless suffer. Senor Tamburini has relieved him of the charge of this poor Mission, and has placed it on my shoulders, and I assure you I am tired of it.I am sorry that I cannot give you a formal Patent to Dom Andrew Lynch, who will be the bearer of this. His parents are very respectable, and his parents have the necessary qualities to become an apprentice in your factory”.
In spite of the poor account that Fr Kelly gave of the state of the Mission, he was able to reopen the Galway Residence in 1729.

In 1733 he was relieved of office, and spent the next ten years in the ministry. He was Parish Priest of St Patrick’s Waterford from 1734-1742, and died on October 1st 1743, as a result of an accident occurred while returning from a sick call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Born: 1685, County Galway
Entered: 21 November 1709 - Braziliae Province (BRA)
Final Vows: 15 August 1722
Died: 16 February 1761, Rome, Italy - Braziliae Province (BRA)

Provincial Braziliae Province (BRA)

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica”
A relative of Br William Lynch - RIP 1774 - probably
1738 In Brazil (in pen)
“The celebrated Father Thomas Lynch, ex-Provincial of Brazil, and greatly esteemed for learning, sanctity and apostolic labours, was imprisoned with his brethren of Bahia, put on board a man-of-war and their own ship (a fine vessel built by order of Father Lynch under the direction of a Scotch Temporal Coadjutor, an excellent mariner”. So says Father Thorpe in a letter from Rome, August 6. He met Father Lynch in Rome and heard from him all the horrors through which he and 260 Jesuits passed on their way to Europe. They were stowed away under deck and otherwise treated like Guinea slaves. (Father Thorpe’s letter at Stonyhurst and a contemporary copy at Milltown Park)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
Early studies in Lisbon
Very distinguished career as Professor at Pernambuco and Bahia
1733-1740 Socius to 2 Provincials
1741-1746 Rector of Olinda College (near Recife)
1746-1750 Rector of Rio de Janeiro College
1750-1754 Provincial of Brazil
1759 Pombal ordered expulsion of Jesuits and travelled to Rome arriving in 1760

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Thomas Lynch SJ 1685-1761
Father Thomas Lynch was born in Galway in 1685 and did his early studies in Lisbon.

In 1709 he entered the Society for the Brazilian Province. He had a very distinguished career as a professor at Pernambuco and Bahia. He acted as Socius to two Provincials, 1733-1740, then became Rector of the College of Olinda and also Rio de Janeiro. Drom 1750 to 1754 he was Provincial of Brazil. When by order of Pombal the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil in 1759, Fr Thomas shared the sufferings of his brothers. He survived the almost incredible hardships of the voyage and landed in Italy in 1760, but died the following year in Rome.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
LYNCH, THOMAS, one of the 260 Jesuits, and victims of Portuguese tyrannical iniquity, who arrived at Civita Vecchia, from the Brazils, in the summer of 1760. In a letter of F. John Thorpe, dated Rome, the 6th of August, that year, he mentions the arrival of 20 of these Confessors of Christ, the evening before, in the Eternal City, and says, “I found one, who spoke English. He proved to be the celebrated F. Thomas Lynch, formerly a Provincial in the Brazils, and greatly esteemed for learning, sanctity and apostolical labours amongst the English there, as well as the Indians. He is 75 years old, and had retired to the College of Bahia, where he was spiritual Father, when he was suddenly seized with his brethren, by the Portuguese Government, and hurried on board a ship, bound to Lisbon:. They were all kept under the hatches during the voyage, like so many Guinea slaves!

Born: 03 August 1858, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1876, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1890
Final vows: 02 February 1896
Died: 05 December 1942, Los Angeles, CA, USA - Californiae Province (CAL)

Transcribed HIB to TAUR : 1877; TAUR to CAL : 1909

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Transcribed into TAUR Province 1877, and went with Joseph M Hickey and Laurence Boyle to California

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

Alias Carrick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Born: 20 October 1819, Kilmacduagh, County Galway
Entered: 10 September 1844, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)
Final vows: 15 August 1860
Died: 25 November 1865, Florissant MO, USA - Missouriana Province (MIS)

Born: 1683, County Galway
Entered: 1699, Goa, India - Goana Province (GOA)
Ordained: 1708,
Final Vows: 1717
Died: 02 December 1721, Mysuru, Karnataka, India - Goana Province (GOA)

◆ Fr John MacErlean SJ :
1708-1711 After finished studies and ordination he taught at Daman College, Daman and Diu, India for a few years.
1711 Then sent as a missioner to Mysore (Mysuru), Karnataka, India where he died 10 years later

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Francis Skerret 1683-1721
Fr Francis Skerret was born in Galway in 1683 and entered the Society at Goa in India in 1699.

After his studies he was ordained in 1908, and taught for a few years at the College of Daman. He was then sent as a missioner to Mysore, where he died in 1721 after two years evangelising the Indians.

Born: 1599, County Kilkenny
Entered: 08 October 1621, Tournai, Belgium - Belgicae Province (BELG)
Ordained: 20 March 1627, Cambrai, France
Final vows: 15 August 1635
Died: 09 June 1665, Irish College, Santiago de Compostella, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Alias Salinger
Superior of Mission 29 June 1652-December 1652 and 16 July 1661-09 June 1665

Mother was Margaret Duingyn (Duigin?)
Studied Humanities at home and at Antwerp, Philosophy at Douai, was MA
1625 in 1st year Theology at Douai
1637 ROM Catalogue Good in all, fit to teach Humanities
1649 In Kilkenny (50 after his name)
1650 Catalogue DOB 1697. A Confessor and Director of Sodality BVM. Prefect of Residence many years and Consultor of Mission. Age 53, Superior of Kilkenny Residence and of Seminary at Compostella for 6 years
1654 Exiled from Clonmel
1655 Rector of Irish Seminary St Iago CAST
1658 At Compostella Age 57 Soc 36. A Superior at various times in Ireland. Rector and Provincial in Ireland. Rector Irish College. Taught Grammar.

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Studied Humanities, two years Philosophy and four years Theology in Sicily before Ent. Knew French, English, Irish and Latin.
Taught Humanities for many years; Was Confessor and Director of BVM Sodality; Superior of Residences and Consultor of Irish Mission for many years.
1650 Superior at Kilkenny College, and then moved to Galway when Kilkenny was captured.
1651 He was obliged to flee Ireland, escaped to Spain and succeeded John Lombard as Rector at Compostella, and he died there 09 June 1665 aged 66
He wrote the life of Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Walsh. 4to Antwerp 1655 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
Writer; Prisoner; Exiled with great cruelty; Professor of Humanities; Rector of Compostella Residence; Superior of the Irish Mission; Of great gentleness and prudence; Educated in Sicily and Belgium (cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan :
Son of Thomas and Margaret née Duigan
Early education was at Antwerp. He also graduated MA and D Phil at Douai before Ent 08 October 1621 Tournai
1623-1627 After First Vows he was sent a year of Regency at Douai and then stayed there for Theology, and was Ordained at Cambrai 20 March 1627
1628 Sent to Ireland and Kilkenny, and was later Superior at the Kilkenny Residence, and then Rector of the College. He identified himself with the small group of Ormondist partisans in the Kilkenny community whose approval of the Supreme Council's defiance of Rinuccini was reported to Rome and caused the General to send Mercure Verdier on Visitation to the Irish Mission.
1652 Superior of the Mission on 29 June 1652, but six months later was deported to Spain. He arrived in San Sebastián and was then sent to the Irish College Santiago, where he continued as Superior of the Irish Mission until 27 June 1654.
1654-1661 Rector of Irish College Santiago an Office he held for seven years
1661 Reappointed Superior of the Irish Mission 16 July 1661 but ill health prevented him from returning to Ireland. This meant there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission - William in Spain, and Richard Shelton in Ireland. He died at Santiago 09 June 1665

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online :
St Leger, William
by Terry Clavin

St Leger, William (1599–1665), Jesuit, was born in Co. Kilkenny in September 1599, the son of Thomas St Leger and his wife Margaret Duignan. He left Ireland to study classics at Antwerp and philosophy at Douai and graduated MA and D.Phil. On 8 October 1621 he entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. Ordained a priest at Cambrai on 20 March 1627, he was professed of the four vows of his order on 15 August 1635. In 1628 he had returned to Ireland, where he taught at Kilkenny city. Following the 1641 rebellion and the establishment in 1642 of the Catholic Confederation of Ireland, St Leger was prominent as a supporter of an alliance with the protestant royalists led by James Butler (qv), earl of Ormond. Nonetheless, in 1646 St Leger supported the decision by GianBattista Rinuccini (qv), papal nuncio to Ireland, to excommunicate those who adhered to the peace between the supreme council of the confederation and Ormond.

However, when Rinuccini excommunicated the supporters of the supreme council's cessation with the protestant forces in Munster in the summer of 1648, St Leger strongly opposed him. Rinuccini was particularly bitter over the refusal of St Leger, and the Jesuit order in general, to back him in 1648. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–52), St Leger was appointed superior of the Irish Jesuits on 29 June 1652, but he was obliged to flee to Spain in January 1653 after the authorities banished all catholic clergy from Ireland upon pain of death. He settled in Spain, where he became rector of the Irish college at Compostela. In 1655 he published a life of Thomas Walsh (qv), archbishop of Cashel during the confederate period. This work was criticised by Rinuccini's supporters for failing to mention the controversies of 1648 and St Leger's own role in them. In 1661 he was re-appointed head of the Jesuit mission in Ireland but ill health prevented him from returning home to assume this position. He died 9 June 1665 at Compostela.

Comment. Rinucc., vi, 188; Edmund Hogan, Chronological catalogue of the Irish members of the Society of Jesus (n.d.), 30; The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, ed. and trans. W. Harris (1764), ii, 144; Gilbert, Contemp. hist., i, 277; Gilbert, Ir. confed., vi, 69, 277, 314; Michael J. Hynes, The mission of Rinuccini (1932), 131, 265; ODNB

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
William St Leger (1652-1654)
William St Leger, son of Thomas St Leger, or Salinger, and Margaret Duigin, was born in the county of Kilkenny in September, 1599. He went to Belgium in 1617; studied rhetoric at Antwerp and philosophy at Douay, where he gained the degrees of Licentiate and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. He entered the Novitiate of the Society at Tournay on 8th October, 1621. After teaching grammar a year at Douay, he studied theology there for four years, and was ordained on 20th March, 1627, at Cambray. He returned to Ireland in 1628, and was usually stationed at Kilkenny, where he made his solemn profession of four vows on 5th August, 1639. He was Superior of the Kilkenny Residence and Director of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for many years. Then he became Rector of the College at Kilkenny, Consultor of the Mssion, and, finally, on 29th June, 1652, Superior of the Mission. When on 6th January, 1653, an edict banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days was published, Fr St Leger was lying ill in a friend's house at Kilkenny, but his weakness won him no respite. He had to be carried on a stretcher for twenty Irish miles to a seaport, where he was put on board a ship bound for San Sebastian, where he arrived before 26th April, 1653. After some time he took up his residence at the Irish College of Santiago. He continued Superior of the Mission, though resident in Spain, until 27th June, 1654, when he became Rector of the Irish College of Santiago, a position he held for the next seven years.

William St Leger (1661-1663)
Fr William St Leger (for whom vide supra 1652-54) was appointed Superior of the Irish Mission on 16th July, 1661, but was prevented by ill-health from returning, so that for the next two years there were two Superiors of the Irish Mission, one in Spain, Fr William St Leger, and one in Ireland, Fr Richard Shelton. Fr St Leger died at the Irish College of Santiago on 9th June, 1665. He was an accomplished Latinist, and to his pen we are indebted for many treatises which throw light on the state of the Catholic religion in general, and on the history of the activities of the Society of Jesus in Ireland in particular, from the earliest times down to the year 1662.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father William St Leger 1599-1665
William St Leger was born in Kilkenny in 1599.

Having joined the Society at Tournai he returned to Ireland after his ordination in 1628. He was a fluent speaker of English, Latin and Irish and taught classics for many years. He became Superior of the Kilkenny Residence, Director of the Sodality, Consultor of the Mission, and finally Superior in 1652. His zeal for souls made him a special object of hatred for the Puritans.

When an edict was published in 1653 banishing all priests from Ireland within ten days. Fr William was lying ill at a friends house, He was transported on a stretcher to the nearest seaport and put on a ship bound for San Sebastian. He made port in April, having been at sea since January. He took up residence at the Irish College Santiago, where he became Rector for seven years.

In 1661 he was again appointed Superior of the Irish Mission, but through ill health never returned to Ireland. For two years there were two Superiors, Fr St Leger in Spain and Fr Richard Shelton in Ireland. The difficulty was resolved by Fr St Leger’s death at Santiago on June 9th 1665.

We are indebted to him for many treatises on the State of the Catholic Religion and of the Society of Jesus in Ireland at that period. He is also the author of a life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel who died in Compostella.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
ST. LEGER, WILLIAM. The 1st time that I meet with him is in a letter written by him from his native place, Kilkenny, on the 3rd of January, 1646-7, wherein he speaks in the highest terms of the merits of Peter Francis Scarampi, the Oratorian, and Envoy of the Holy See to the Irish Nation. Pere Verdier found him two years later superior of the College at Kilkenny. When that City was taken, he removed to Galway. In 1651, the success of the Puritan faction compelled him to seek safety in flight. Retiring to Compostella, he ended his days in peace, on the 9th of June, 1665, aet. 66. We have from his pen the Life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Caascll, 4to. Antwerp, 1655, who died at Compostella.

Born: 1626, Athlone, County Westmeath
Entered: 11 November 1647, Kilkenny
Ordained: c 1658, Salamanca, Spain
Died: 05 November 1659, College of Segovia, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)

Alias de Leon

Studied 2 years Philosophy before entry?
1655 Catalogue In 1st year Theology at Salamanca
1658 Catalogue Studied 3 years Philosophy and 4 years Theology at Salamanca

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Had done two years Humanities and Philosophy before Entry
Knew Irish, English and Latin
(cf Foley’s Collectanea)

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
He had already studied Philosophy for two years, probably at Kilkenny with the Jesuits before Ent 11 November 1647 Kilkenny
1648 During His Novitiate fell to Cromwell, so the Novices were moved to Galway
1650 After First Vows he continued his studies in Galway until it too fell in April 1651 After which it seems that the Mission Superior was sending him to Belgium for studies, but his career there has not been traced, and it is said that at that time the Mission Superior was experiencing some difficulties having his young men received abroad.
He was accepted at Royal College Salamanca for Theology and Ordained there 1658.
He was assigned to teach at the College of Segovia, but a fortnight after arrival there was taken by a fatal illness and died there 05 November 1659

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
DILLON, ROBERT, was a Novice at Kilkenny in 1649.

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

◆ Irish Province News

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

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

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

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

Born: 15 August 1589, Cashel, County Tipperary
Entered: 13 May 1610, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: 1621, Louvain, Belgium
Final Vows: 14 July 1633
Died: 13 July 1664, Irish College, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)

Had studied Rhetoric before Entry then at Douai and Louvain
1655 In Irish College Rome (Fr Ferri being Rector)
1656-1660 Rector Irish College Rome (Bellarmino and Philip Roche are Consultors)
1662 John Young and William St Leger ask and obtain a papal indulgence for 100 Irish Jesuits (Arch Ir Col Rom XXVI 6)
Taught Humanities, Greek was Preacher, Superior, Master of Novices and Tertian Instructor
He wrote “Relationem de Civitate Corcagie et de Civicate Kilkennie” and “Libros Tres Militia Evangelicae” and “Vitam St Patrick Apostoli” and many other books.
His portrait was published in 1793 by William Richardson, Castle St, Leinster Sq, London

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Son of Robert Yong and Beatrice née Sall or Sallan (Sallanus)
Studied Humanities in Flanders before Ent, and then in the Society two years Philosophy and four years Theology.
1624 Sent to Ireland. He knew Latin, Greek, Irish, English, French and some Italian.
He taught Humanities and Greek for eight years; Preacher and Confessor for thirty years; Director of BVM Sodality twenty years; Superior of various Residences eighteen years; Master of Novices at Kilkenny and Galway five years; Consultor of Mission five years; Vice-Superior of Mission one year. (HIB CAT 1650 - ARSI) also Master of Tertians
He devoted himself to the Irish Mission for thirty years, chiefly in Cork, Waterford and Galway. During the persecution, he frequently went to people’s houses disguised as a miller.
He laid the foundation for the Novitiate at Waterford (should be Kilkenny?). He had to move this Novitiate to Galway, on account of the advance of the rebel Parliamentary forces, and was soon compelled to go with his novices to Europe.
He was then made Rector of the Irish College in Rome, and he was in office for eight years, and died in Rome 13 July 1664 aged 75 (Tanners “Confessors SJ”)
Several of his letters are extant and interesting. Several to Fr General dated Kilkenny, 30 January 1647, 30 June 1648, 31 December 1648, 08 February 1649, 22 June 1649 describe the situation relating to the history of this period. Later there are two letters from Galway to Fr General, 20 April 1650 and 14 August 1650 (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS).
A Writer; A very holy Priest; He took a Vow to observe the Rules.
Mercure Verdier (Irish Mission Visitor reporting in 1649) described him as “a distinguished Preacher, and remarkable for every species of religious virtue”
Father General ordered his portrait to be taken after death and his panegyric to be preached in the Roman College

◆ Fr Francis Finegan SJ :
Son of Robert and Beatrice née Sall
Had made his classical education in Flanders before Ent 13 May 1610 Rome
1612-1617 After First Vows, because of ill health, he was sent to Belgium and Courtray (Kortrijk) for Regency where he taught Greek.
1617-1621 He was then sent for Philosophy at Antwerp and Theology at Louvain where he was Ordained 1621.
1621 Sent to Ireland and Cashel, Clonmel and Kilkenny - to the great regret of Lessius who had wanted him appointed as a Chair in Philosophy - where he devoted himself to teaching young people and giving missions.
For many years he was Superior at the Cork Residence
When the Novitiate opened in Kilkenny he was appointed Novice Master
1646-1647 During the inter-regnum that followed the resignation of Robert Nugent as Mission Superior he acted as Vice-Superior of the Irish Mission
1651-1656 When the invasion of Cromwell resulted in the closure of the Novitiate he went back to Rome, initially as Procurator of the Irish Mission (1651) and then sent as Spiritual Father of the Irish College (1652-1656) as well as Tertian Instructor in Romanae Province (ROM)
1656 Rector of Irish College Rome 24 February 1656 where he remained until he died in Office 13 July 1664
He died with the reputation of a Saint. Wonderful stories were told of the favours he received from God in prayer, and information as to his virtues was gathered in Ireland and forwarded to Rome as if it was intended to prepare his cause for beatification.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ The Irish Jesuits Vol 1 1962
John Young (1646-1647)
John Young, son of Robert Young and Beatrice Sall, was born at Cashel on 15th August, 1589. Having finished his classical studies in Flanders, he entered the Novitiate of Sant' Andrea in Rome on 13th May, 1610, but had to return to Belgium two years later on account of ill-health. In Belgium he taught Greek at Courtray, studied philosophy at Antwerp and theology at Louvain and distinguished himself so much that it was with great regret that Fr Leonard Lessius, who hoped to have him appointed to a chair of philosophy, learned that he was ordered to Ireland. Returning home in 1621, he devoted himself to the instruction of youth, and worked as a missioner in Cashel, Clonmel, and Kilkenny, and was for many years Superior of the Cork Residence. He was admitted to the solemn profession of four vows on 14th July, 1633. When the Novitiate was opened at Kilkenny he was appointed Master of Novices, and during the interregnum that followed the resignation of Fr Robert Nugent he acted as Vice-Superior of the Mission (1646-47). When the triumph of the Cromwellian arms dispersed the noviceship he was sent as Procurator of the Mission to Rome (1651). At Rome he was made Consultor and Spiritual Father of the Irish College (1652-56), and Instructor of the Tertians of the Roman Province. He became Rector of the Irish College on 24th February, 1656, and continued in that office till his death on 13th July, 1664. He died with the reputation of a saint. Wonderful stories were told of the favours he received from God in prayer,
and information as to his virtues was gathered in Ireland and forwarded to Rome, as if it was intended to prepare his cause for beatification.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Young 1589-1664
Fr John Yonge or Young was born in Cashel in 1589. He was the son of Robert Yonge and Beatrice Sall, being thus on his mother’s side a relative of the two Jesuits Andrew and James Sall. He became a Jesuit in Rome in 1610.

He was an accomplished linguist, numbering Latin, Greek, Irish, English, French and Italian among his languages. He taught Humanities for eight years and was a preacher and confessor for thirty, Director of the Sodality of Our Lady for twenty, Superior in various houses for eighteen, Master of Novices for five, Consultor of the Mission for five and Vice-Superior of the Mission for one year.

He laboured mainly in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny and Galway. It was he who founded the noviceship in Kilkenny, reporting in 1647 that he had eleven novices, of whom four were priests, six were scholastics and one brother.

He used often penetrate into the houses of Catholics at the height of the persecution disguised as a miller. For him we are indebted for may letters on the state of the Mission. He also wrote a life of St Patrick.

In 1649 he was forced to move the novices to Galway and thence to the continent. He became Rector of the Irish College at Rome for eight years and finally died in 164 with the reputation of a saint and a thaumaturgus.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
YOUNG, JOHN. For thirty years this apostolic man devoted himself to the Irish Mission. The Counties of Cork, Waterford, and Galway, were the principal theatres of his labours. We learn from p.871 of Tanner’s Lives of the Confessors of the Society of Jesus, that this good Father frequently contrived, during the rage of persecution, to penetrate into the houses of the Catholics, in the disguise of a Miller. His spirit of discretion and experience, his eminence as a Preacher, his profound learning, his solid interior virtue, recommended him as the fittest person amongst his Brethren to lay the foundation of the Novitiate at Kilkenny; and no wonder, that under so great a master of Spiritual life, such Ornaments to their Country and Luminaries of Religion as FF. Stephen Rice, William Ryan, &c. &c. should have come forth. Pere Verdier reported him in 1649, to the General of the Order, as “Vir omnium Religiosarum virtutum genere insignis, et concionator egregius”. Obliged by the successful advance of the Parliamentary forces to remove his interesting Establishment from Kilkenny, he conducted it to the Town of Galway; but thence also he was compelled to emigrate with them to the Continent, where he saw himself under the necessity of drafting these dear children in various houses of the Society. Retiring to Rome, he presided over the Irish College there for eight years, and was rewarded with a happy death in that City, on the 13th of July, 1664, aet. 75, as I find it written under his beautifully engraved Portrait. A few original letters of this meritorious and saintly Father are still extant : some Extracts may afford pleasure to the reader.

1. Dated from Kilkenny, the 30th of January, 1647 OS.
   “Our long expected Superior, P. Malone, by the blessing of God, is at last arrived. His coming was indeed welcomed by all; but, above all, by me, who have been sustaining the double burthen of the Novitiate and the Mission. Now, blessed be God, I am relieved of the care of superintending the Mission. With regard to the Novitiate, we have eleven Novices, of whom four are Priests, six are Scholastics, and one a Temporal Coadjutor. Domestic discipline and regular observance proceed in due course, as I flatter myself. I do trust in the Lord, that they will not degenerate from the primitive spirit of our Fathers. They are trained in the simplicity of obedience, in the despising of themselves and the World, in subduing their passions, renouncing self-will, in the practise of poverty, in the candid and unreserved manifestation of Conscience, in inward conversation and familiarity with God : and of these things, praise be to God, they are very capable and most eager. Nothing is omitted which the Rules prescribe for their formation in the spirit of the Society of Jesus”.

The 2nd is dated from Kilkenny, the 30th of June, 1618.
“The letters of your Rev. Paternity, bearing date the 24th of August, 1647, did not reach me until the 23rd of last month. Never since the memory of man have the affairs of this kingdom been in a more turbulent state than at present, by reason of the discord now prevailing between the Supreme Council and the Nuncio”.
He then states that the Supreme Council, in consequence of severe reverses of fortune during the Campaign, and the great want of ways and means, had concluded a Treaty for six months with Inchinquin, the General of the Enemy’s forces : that some of the Conditions were judged unfavourable to Ecclesiastical rights by the Nuncio, who signified his utter disapprobation, and threatened an interdict, unless the Truce was recalled within the space of nine days; that the Supreme Council appealed to the Holy See; but notwithstanding such appeal, the Nuncio had proceeded to carry his threat into execution; and that confusion and the worst species of civil hostilities were engendered between the parties.

In this and other letters, dated from Kilkenny, the 31st of December, 1648, the 8th of February, 1649, the 22nd of June, 1649, he enters into many details relating to the history of this sad and eventful period, and gives proof of his own quiet and meek spirit, of his tender regard for Charity and the interests of Religion.

From Galway the Rev. Father addressed two letters to the Gen. Piccolimini.

The first is dated the 20th of April, 1650 : he remarks on the bright prospect there was for the Irish Mission of the Society in Ireland but seven years ago; what a wide field was opened for extending the glory of God, and procuring the salvation of souls; that several cities had petitioned for Colleges of the Order, and that competent foundations* had been offered and some accepted; that the small number of labourers for such an abundant harvest of souls (for they hardly amounted to sixty for the whole of Ireland, nam vix sexayinta in toto regno fuimus) induced them to apply for powers to admit Novices at home, who being instructed in virtue and afterwards in learning, might succeed us, most of whom are advanced in years, in the work of the Ministry. The necessary permission was obtained; it was confirmed and increased afterwards, and the Novitiate had prosperously maintained its course during the last four years “et Novitiatus hoc quadriennio prosper suum cursum tenuit”. But as nothing is stable in human affairs, during the last year the Establishment was disturbed by the din of arms and by the assault of the Parliamentary forces, insomuch that a transmigration to Galway had become necessary. Every day the political horizon grew darker, and the panic and despair of the confederated Chiefs portended the worst consequences to the Country. He adds, “For the more advanced of our Brethren we are not so concerned; for they are prepared by age and the long exercise of virtues to meet the brunt and storm of Persecution : but for the Juniors, as for so many unfledged young from the hovering Kite, we are all solicitude”. After earnestly consulting Almighty God, and deliberating with the Fathers of Galway and its neighbourhood, he states, that it was unanimously resolved to send the young men abroad as soon as possible, trusting in God and in the accustomed charity of the Society, that provision would be made for them. He finishes by saying, “My bowels are moved with the danger impending on those whom I have begotten in Christ; for, as their Master of Novices, I have brought them forth with the anxiety of a mother. I now commend and commit them to your Rev. Paternity, that they may be distributed and accepted through the Provinces; hear, I implore you, my good Father, this first petition of their very poor Mother; I do not say, my Petition; but of this declining Mission; because Satan waxes fierce and cruel, intent on extinguishing the spark which is left, and on leaving us no name or remainder upon the earth”. (2 Kings, xiv. 70.)

The second letter is dated the 14th of August, 1650. After briefly adverting to the successes of the Puritan Factions, and the atrocities and sacrileges which marked their triumphant progress, he says, that he will take the first safe opportunity of shipping off his dear Novices to the Continent, and conjures the General to exercise his tender charity towards these interesting Exiles.

• Amongst these benefactors (we have already noticed the greatest, Elizabeth Nugent, Countess of Kildare, who died on the 26th of October, 1645) we must particularize Dr. Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath; Mr. Edmund Kirwan and his relation Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala (his Lordship had obtained to be admitted into the Society “pro hora mortis”, and was buried in the Jesuits Church at Rennes); and Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashell, who died in exile at Compostella. The Supreme Council had also engaged in 1645. to erect a new University, to be under the charge of the Jesuits, as also to found a College under the name of Jesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Born: 05 August 1812, Castle Ffrench, County Galway
Entered: 06 December 1830, St Andrea, Rome, Italy - Romanae Province (ROM)
Ordained: by 1847
Final vows: 15 August 1850
Died: 31 May 1873, Professed House, Rome, Italy

Vice Provincial of Irish Vice-Province of the Society of Jesus: 1855-1858
Substitute English Assistant to Father General: 1858-1863
English Assistant to Father General: 1863-31 May 1873

by 1834 in Clongowes
by 1841 at Namur (BELG) studying Phil 2
by 1847 Clongowes
Vice Provincial 24 June 1856
by 1858 Substitute English Assistant Dom Prof Rome Italy
by 1863 English Assistant

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1847 He was a Teacher in Tullabeg
1850-1855 Rector at Tullabeg
1855-1858 Appointed Vice-Provincial
1858 Appointed Substitute English Assistant to Fr General in Rome
1865 Appointed English Assistant to Fr General in Rome and he died in office there 31 May 1873. He had been 43 years in the Society.
He was a Priest of great holiness, very mortified, and he died with the reputation of a saint.
A special memoir of him was published, and a painting of him at Milltown Park.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Ffrench 1812-1873
John Ffrench was born at Castle Ffrench County Galway on August 14th 1812, the second son of Charles Austin the 3rd Baron Ffrench. He entered the noviceship from Clongowes in 1830.

He became Rector of Tullabeg in 1850, Rector of Belvedere for a short while before being appointed Vice-Provincial in 1855. Three years later he was made Acting Assistant for the English Assistancy, and finally in 1865, full Assistant. He was the first Irishman to hold this position.

His last days were spent amid the alarms and turmoil of the Italian Revolution. The Gesù, where he lay dying, was partly occupied by Piedmontese troops. His illness seems to have been on longstanding, an infection of the lungs, declared by the doctors as incurable. He died in the odour of sanctity on May 31st 1873. As intramural burial was forbidden in those days, his body was conveyed after the solemn obsequies at the Gesù, to the Campo Verano, or the cemetery neat the Church of St Lawrence. Two years later the body was exhumed for reburial in a special vault. On the coffin being opened the body was found incorrupt.

In 1886 it was desired to place in the common charnel-house, the remains of those, dead some years, whose bodies supposedly must now be reduced to dust. However, on opening Fr Ffrench’s coffin the body was found still in a state of preservation, with no offensive signs of decay. The records of the Society contain this encomium of Father John :
He was a man of singular holiness, humility, patience and charity. He was very mortified and died with the reputation of a saint”.

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

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was Cook and Dispenser at Gardiner St and also at Belvedere where he lived for many years.
He was at Galway and Tullabeg Colleges over the years, and in 1883 went to Mungret, where he passed a peaceful life, and died 24 February 1895
He was always very neat and obliging.
Note from Christopher Coffey Entry :
He died peacefully 29 March 1911, and after the Requiem Mass he was brought to the small cemetery and buried between William Frayne and David MacEvoy, and close to the grave of William Ronan.

Born: 30 April 1881, Woodford, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1899, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1914, Milltown Park, Dublin
Professed: 08 December 1954
Died: 03 February 1958, Georgetown, British Guyana - Angliae Province (ANG)

Brother of Gerald Keary Ent and LEFT 1901

Transcribed HIB to ANG : 1901
First World War chaplain

by 1916 came to Tullabeg (HIB) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from John Fitzgibbon Entry :
Some dramatic details concerning Father Fitzgibbon’s death are given in a letter from Father Keary CF, a brother Jesuit, who writes : ‘Father Fitzgibbon had blessed a grave and read the Burial Service over one of our boys about 2pm on Wednesday last, and was talking to a German Catholic prisoner of war in the cemetery, when a shell landed in our midst and the Father fell forward. One of our boys rushed to his help, but had only raised him to his knees when another shell burst in on them, fording him to drop his burden and fall on his face to avoid being killed himself. A few minutes later Father Fitzgibbon’s dead body was removed, and was buried the next day’.

Born: 02 July 1900, Youghal, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1921, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 14 June 1932, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1935
Died: 31 December 1969, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

by 1928 in Australia - Regency
by 1934 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Patrick Cashman was sent to Australia in 1926 as a scholastic, taught at St Aloysius' College, and was assistant prefect of discipline, 1927-29.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 45th Year No 2 1970

St. Ignatius College, Galway
On December 31st came the sad news of Father Cashman's death in Rathfarnham. He passed away quietly in the last hours of the old year. May he rest in peace. He came here from the Tertianship in August 1934 and after 33 years spent in Galway he left for Rathfarnham in September 1967. He was the most popular priest in the city, keeping in constant contact with the people and help ing them in every need. He was well known for the helpful advice he gave and was loved by all for his friendliness and good will. He was the originator of the plan for the houses at Loyola Park, and saw the plan carried through. He took a keen interest in the Wheelchair Association and when men could not find employment he was the man to whom they came and the one who found jobs for them. In his early sixties he had a prolonged period of ill health, was in and out of hospital, but on his return from the U.S.A., after a few months spent with his brother, a Parish Priest, he seemed to have been given a new lease of life. At breakfast, on the morning after his return, he was so overwhelmed with the warm céad míle fáilte he got that in his own inimitable way he quoted two apt lines from the “Exile's return” : “I'd almost venture another flight, there's so much joy in returning”. The move to Rathfarnham was a hard blow to him. As he said in a letter to a Galway friend. "I loved the people back in the West". He accepted it quietly and settled down to his life of retirement. Fine tributes appeared in the Connaught Tribune and Cork Examiner, but the greatest tribute of all was the profound feeling of sorrow and of personal loss shown by such a multitude of friends in Gal way. The people of the West loved him, too. A life-long lover of his native language he spoke it fluently, taking his place at table with the school fathers, so as to have a chance of speaking it.

The last week of January brought us new cause for grief. After a month in the Regional Hospital, Father Jack Hutchinson died of a heart-attack on Saturday evening, 24th January. On Monday there was a Concelebrated Requiem Mass, 15 priests taking part, including Fr. Provincial and Father Rector who was the chief Celebrant. His Lordship, the Bishop presided. During the Mass the choir rendered hymns in Irish. Fr. P. Meagher, Socius, read the Gospel and Father P. O'Higgins read the bidding prayers in Irish. The impressive funeral and the large number of “Ours” from all over the Province who followed his remains to the graveside were ample testimony of the esteem in which he was held by all who knew him.
Father Jack was here as a Scholastic, 1943-46, and as a priest from 1963 till his death. He suffered a severe heart attack at Easter 1968, and since then his health was never very good. During the last two years of his teaching career he was also Spiritual Father to the boys, and when he became Operarius in the Church, he continued on as Sp. Father to the boys in a number of classes. He paid frequent visits to the Regional Hospital, and it was while getting ready to visit a patient there on the evening of December 23rd that the heart trouble came, which led to his death, a month later. During that last month, his lovable personality and fund of humour contributed much to the happiness of his fellow patients. He was the life and soul of the ward, and the men grew very fond of him and missed him sorely when he died. He was the last of five from our former community to die within the short period of 18 months, and yet, accustomed as we had grown, in that time to death, we seemed to feel all the more keenly this fifth last good-bye. Ar láimh dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha :
Fr. Hutchinson's Sodality and the boys of the 6th year presented Rev. Fr. Rector with a chalice as their tribute to the memory of a priest whom they loved.

Obituary :

Fr Patrick Cashman SJ (1900-1969)

One of the most lovable characters in the Province, Father Pat Cashman, went to his reward early in January. Truly it could be said of him that he was a man who was serenely at home in any company. "Cash" as he was affectionately known to his brethern, : was born in Youghal on July 2nd, 1900. He received his education at the Cistercian College, Mount Mellary. A “late vocation”, he entered the Society at Tullabeg on September 1st, 1921.
After Philosophy at Milltown Park, Fr. Pat was sent for Colleges to Australia and spent the three years of regency at St. Aloysius College, Milson's Point, Sydney. His Rector there in those years was Fr. F. X. O'Brien who returned home for a holiday some years ago and who is still hale and hearty at 86 years of age. Fr. Cashman won his way into the hearts of the Australians and he is still remembered with affection by those who were boys in those days.
In 1929 Fr. Pat returned to Milltown for Theology and was ordained on June 14th, 1932. The ordinations were early that year because of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. An older brother, Fr. William Cashman, who was a priest of the diocese of St. Paul, Minnesota, came to Milltown for the occasion. Having left Ireland when Pat was a child, he had to ask someone in Milltown which of the Ordinandi was Fr. Cashman. From 1933 to 1934 Fr. Pat was in St. Beuno's for tertianship and was a great favourite with all his contemporaries there.
The Status of 1934 assigned Fr. Cashman to St. Ignatius' College, Galway, where his life's work awaited him. He made his Final Vows there on February 2nd, 1935. He spent some years teaching in the Bun-ranganna and, while he was a kind and conscientious teacher, the control of his pupils was always rather of a trial to him. Not infrequently, pandemonium reigned, and as he used to say himself “Bím ag scread”. But, even though they played on him mercilessly as boys will do they were very fond of “Cashers”, as they called him. In his early years at Coláiste Iognáid he also acted as games' master.
It was as a “Church Father” that Fr. Cashman is best remembered in Galway, His innate kindness and sympathy and the utter sincerity of his character made him a “natural” for this ministry. People of every walk of life came to him for guidance and direction and he seemed to have a special charisma for attracting the local “characters”, many of whom he knew intimately. During all his years in Galway, he did great work to better the lot of the poor and underprivileged folk of the city. Sometimes, it must be admitted, he was imposed on by “touchers” who would come to him with a “hard-luck” story. But he had a natural shrewdness which enabled him to differentiate generally between the genuine and the spurious.
There is a terrace of houses off College Road in Galway which, in a way, is a perpetual memorial to Fr. Pat. He inaugurated the scheme by which a number of families built these houses by direct labour and at a reasonable cost. He was looked on as the patron saint of the scheme and the terrace was named Loyola Terrace in his honour. Later he tried to interest the poor people in breeding rabbits for food and profit, but this scheme was not a success.
As a confessor, Fr. Cashman was much sought after and he had tremendous patience with scrupulous penitents who can be a great trial at times. He was sorely missed when, through illness, he had to retrench this side of his work a good deal. He made a great success of the Pamphlet Box in the church, keeping it well-stocked with abundant and varied material suited to the seasons, Novenas, Retreats, etc.
Fr. Pat had a great fluency in Irish, though he rode rough-shod over rules of grammar and syntax, He delighted in talking to “sean-iondúirí”, as he called the old native speakers who lived in the vicinity of Galway. He would stop during a walk to chat to one of these and enquire about the current price of sheep or cattle or anything in which he knew they might be interested. In a conversation like this, he would be oblivious of time, and this could be irksome to anyone who happened to be out for a walk with him!
The stories about the friendly vendetta that went on continually between “Cash” and “Paddy O” constitute a saga. For a man of Fr. Paddy O'Kelly's many and varied talents, it was surprising how unfailingly he rose to the wily Cash's bait! Space does not allow of examples which we regret; some of them will doubtless continue to be recounted.
Fr. Pat's health had deteriorated, as a result of heart disease, and he knew that he was liable to have a fatal attack at any time. While taking adequate precautions, he kept on doing what good he could as long as God spared him, One of the greatest crosses he had to bear must have been his transfer from his beloved Galway after so many years there, yet he accepted the move like the fine religious he was. There was consternation in Galway when the news of his change was announced. Many old friends who had come to depend on him for advice and help felt that something had gone out of their lives that could never be replaced.
His change brought him to a very different environment in. Rathfarnham. Yet he settled in remarkably well, though he must have pined many a time for Galway and all he loved there. The Juniors were kind to him and they found in him an encouraging friend; soon he became a great favourite with them. He helped in the work of the Retreat House and his experience was invaluable. His was an intensely human character; there was nothing artificial or “phoney” in his make-up. Perhaps it was a wish of his that he would be laid to rest, when his time came, in Galway beside his old friend and mentor, Fr. Batt Coughlan and his sparring partner, Fr. Paddy O'Kelly. Indeed, that would have been most fitting, but it was not to be. After a concelebrated Mass in Gonzaga College chapel he made his last journey to the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin.
Is fada a aireoimid uainn thú, a Athair Pádraic. Go dtuga Dia solas na bhFlaitheas dod chaoin-anam uasal. Ní bheidh do leithéid arís ann,

Fr. Andrews kindly forwarded the following tributes from a lay man which appeared in the Connacht Tribune on the occasion of his death :

A Tribute
I am sure that it was with great sadness that many people, especially of the elder generation, heard of the death of Reverend Father Cashman, S.J. A few days before he died in Dublin, Father Cashman wrote, in a letter to the writer of this tribute : “How nice to be remembered by the old neighbours. I loved the people back in the west”.
He did, indeed and showed that love in a very practical way - efforts to obtain employment for unemployed, encouraging self initiative, guiding and encouraging carcers, giving financial aid (when he had it) to the widow and orphan. His practical sense showed itself in the encouragement he gave to the residents of Loyola Park, College Road, to combine other skills and build their own houses, which they did. Like that other gifted young Galway born Jesuit, Reverend Father Scully, S.J., who was responsible for building the Scully House in Dublin for old people and whom God in His wisdom and providence took from us at the height of his talents, Father Cashman's encouragement of Social Justice was practical, not theoretical.
He loved the Irish language and spoke it fluently whenever occasion presented itself. Father Cashman had a great gift of being at ease and on their ground, with the ordinary people, the very young, the teenagers, the busy housewife, the labouring man. Truly, he could “walk amongst Kings and not lose the common touch”. There was no condescension in Father Cashman's manner - he was homely, genuinely friendly, unpretentious in speech and manner.
In the pulpit preaching he spoke from his heart, without notes, gently, but firmly and very insistently urging the practice of prayer, confession, Holy Communion, Charity. He had not a great voice but he could rouse people with his thin, reedy, lilting Cork eloquence. He did not “pack” his sermons with too many points and he gave heart to people because he was sincere and earnest and listeners instinctively sensed this.
He was a familiar figure on the streets of Galway, so happy to be amongst the people, a real “Sagart Aroon” in his manner and appearance. He belonged to a long line of Jesuit priests and brothers who served the west generally and Galway particularly, for the greater glory of God. Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam’.
P. Ó CATHÁIN

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 67 : Christmas 1991

AHEAD OF HIS TIME - PATRICK CASHMAN SJ

Senan Timoney

“Ahead Of His Time”; an occasional series where you are invited to contribute an article on some deceased member of the Province whose life is now seen to have had a prophetic dimension.

Father Pat Cashman whom I always knew as Cash was the first Jesuit I met and got to know at all well. I was fortunate. He was a regular Sunday night visitor to our home along with Fr John E. Murphy, a Boston Jesuit who gained a PhD in Celtic Studies in UCG and who was tutored by Fr Bat Coghlan. When I went to school to the 'Jes' in Galway in 1938 Cash was my first Catechism teacher. Soon after that he became a full-time “Church” father so I missed ham in class but often served his Mass. Later when I returned to Galway, as a scholastic 1953-6, I lived with him in Community and again for a year in the early 60s after tertianship.

A man ahead of his time - in what ways? Perhaps in four: in human relations; in creation spirituality: as an educationalist; in the social apostolate.

In human relations: Cash had no need for a course in group dynamics or in interpersonal relationships. In Terence's words he could say: Humo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto - I am a man and reckon nothing human alien to me. He related well to people - rich, poor, Irish speaker or English speaker, town or country man. A character himself, he was quick to recognise other characters. His great 'scientific' dialogues with Father Paddy O'Kelly may have been the “simple” mind of an East Cork man tilting at encyclopedic knowledge but there was great shrewdness there allied to great fun. I can remember the oft-repeated explanation of how the moon on its back filled with water and how this gave rise to the downpours that from time to time inundate Galway. A comedian? - yes but for more than that. A great person to deal with people, especially in confessional or parlour.

In creation spirituality: Cash had a great understanding of, sympathy with, “feel” for God's creation and this he was able to communicate to people of all ages. I can recall a photo of him holding a bird in his hands as he “presided” over an Irish villa in Kerry. I also remember an RTÉ appearance in the late 60s as he spoke to other fanciers at a bird market near St. Patrick's Cathedral. After visiting his sister, a nun in France, he came home full of ideas for rabbit farms in Co. Galway. He was full of animal love but it was an enthusiasm he could share.

As an educationalist: in many ways Cash would have been at home in the classrooms of the 80s. When he taught English in Bun Rang 5, if you didn't want to do his assigned essay it was perfectly in order to serve up an episode in your current serial story which could then be interrupted again if the next assignment proved more attractive. Imagine the great effects this championing of the imaginations had on boys of 11 - and on the prefect of studies!!

In the social apostolate: As I have said, Cash was at home with all sorts of people - whether it was his friend Ned Gilmore of Munster Lane or the abbess of ky lemore Abbey. This human skill he used for a building initiative in Galway city. He had heard people complaining about the shortage of houses so he organised the purchase of land at the end of college Road - now Loyola Park. He got a group of tradesmen and others together to build the houses (were there twelve?). No one of the twelve men knew which house was to be his so each man put his best into the construction of all the houses before the time came for them to be assigned by lottery. It took an immense amount of work and cajoling to get this work started, continued and completed but it is a fitting memorial - now well over 30 years old - to a man who was ahead of his times in very many ways. Dominic Collins from Youghal was a trailblazer for Irish Jesuits. In his own way, Pat Cashman, another Youghal man, was one also.

Born: 14 June 1848, Luxembourg
Entered: 31 May 1885, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Final Vows: 15 August 1895, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 02 March 1925, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was German by birth, born at Luxembourg and had fought at the Franco-German war.

He made his Novitiate at Dromore under John Colgan.
He was an excellent carpenter.
During the Great War he went for rest to Galway. The local police became aware of his presence and brought him to the station. He was disturbed by this incident and returned to Dublin the following day.
He died at Milltown 02 March 1925.

Born: 03 January 1874, Moylagh, Oldcastle, County Meath
Entered: 09 October 1905, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 08 September 1919, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 01 July 1942, Dublin

Part of St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly at time of his death.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 17th Year No 4 1942
Obituary :
Brother Thomas Connell SJ

Brother Connell was born in 1874, near Oldcastle, Co. Meath. He spent several years in he service of the D.U.T.C., and was 31 years of age when he entered the noviceship in 1905. He spent 1907-1912 “ad dom” in Belvedere. and 1913-1914 as cook, infirmarian, and “ad dom” in the Crescent. In 1915 he went to Galway and there began his career as a most diligent and successful gardener. In 1928 he went to Tullabeg where he remained as gardener to his death. He was a very conscientious and genuine religious. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Thomas Connell 1874-1942
Br Thomas Connell was born at Oldcastle County Meath in 1874. Having spent some years as an employee of the Dublin United Tramway Company, he became a Jesuit in 1905 at the age of 31.

His life in the Society was spent as a gardener, first in Galway and then till his death in Tullabeg. A man of few words, he was always absorbed in prayer with God and was considered by many generations of Philosophers as a mystic. He was an example to all in his fidelity to duty and observance of the Rule.

He died in Tullabeg on July 1st 1942.

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

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

First World War chaplain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Born: 16 September 1886, Westport, County Mayo
Entered: 07 September 1906, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1921, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1925, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 01 November 1974, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, County Louth

Part of St Francis Xavier's community, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin
by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 49th Year No 4 1974
Obituary :
Fr Hugh Kelly (1886-1974)

The tendency to be egotistical noticeable in some persons who are free from the faintest taint of egotism is a tendency hard to account for - but delightful to watch.
“Anything”, says glorious John Dryden, “though ever so little, which a man speaks of himself in my opinion, is still too much”.
A sound opinion most surely and yet how interesting are the personal touches we find scattered up and down Dryden’s noble prefaces. So with Newman - his dignity, his self-restraint, his taste, are all the greatest stickler for a stiff upper lip and the consumption of your own smoke could desire, and yet the personal note is frequently sounded. He is never afraid to strike it when the perfect harmony that exists between his character and his style demands its sound, and so it has come about that we love what he has written because he wrote it, and we love him who wrote it because of what he has written.
It may need an apology to introduce an obituary with a spate of quotation but the culprit, the writer, recalls the above passage from one of Birrell’s essays on Newman being read out at the Rathfarnham home juniorate class, forty odd years since by Fr H. Kelly, then Master of Juniors. It was a specimen of the felicitous way in which he conveyed or suggested an appreciation of good things and the passage itself, it might occur to one more than merely passingly acquainted with Fr Kelly, might serve as a resumé of his own manner and character. He was one of the most unimposing, unimperious of men; if one happened to gain a point on him - not indeed that he ever had a mind for controversy, other than that of a friendly exchange of opinion, you almost regretted having won.
He was born in Westport, Co Mayo, 16th September 1886. One of six children, four boys - one of whom, Peter, the eldest, as Hugh himself, became a priest and died some years since, Adm of the Cathedral in Tuam - and two sisters who now alone survive : Mother Peter of the Presentation Convent in Tuam, and Mrs Eileen Ryan of Westport: with whom Fr Hugh even in latter years contrived to maintain home associations for a few days annually.
His first schooling was with the Christian Brothers at Westport of whom he retained kindly remembrances and for one of whom, not identifiable at the moment, he possessed something of a veneration. His eldest brother was at Maynooth and according to the custom of the time Hugh, with the priesthood likewise in view, proceeded to St Jarlath's where he excelled in classics gaining first place in Greek in the public exam in his concluding year.
Two years in Maynooth, the story goes that on reading a life of St Ignatius, after thought, he presented himself as a candidate for the Society in 1906 to Fr Conmee the then Provincial; he was accepted and on occasion years later he would expatiate on the journey by sidecar from Tullamore station to Tullabeg “with the fall of the year”.
The fellow novices of his year were men later distinguished in their own right. As they are listed in the catalogue of 1907, in the order of seniority apparently, apart from H Johnson who arrived later, they stand : Hugh Kelly, Deniş Nerney, John Deevy, James Gubbins, John Coyne, Michael Meaney, Michael Fitzgibbon, Stephen Bartley and Henry Johnson. All persevered, five became octogenarians; two, Fr John Coyne who was to become Fr Hugh's intimate friend through life, and Fr Henry Johnson who might have rivalled Fr Coyne in closeness of friendship did not seas divide, still happily survive.
After completing the noviciate Hugh Kelly continued for two years as a junior at Tullabeg. In 1910 he moved to Milltown to attend University College, still in its infancy. In 1912 he secured his BA degree which he later crowned with an MA under the guidance of Fr G O’Neill but with no sabbatical period with which to specialise. His thesis was Newman, already a beloved subject. He taught in Mungret, 1912-17, among other chores undertaking the editorship of the Mungret Annual. Fr Edward Dillon, a contemporary member of the Mungret Community, in his last years delighted to recall the happy relations between himself, a seasoned classical, and the young scholastic who was already dis playing a flair for imparting knowledge and generating enthusiasm among his scholars. One success, at any rate, must be chronicled : Tom Johnson, later Fr Tom, brother of Henry above, gained the Senior Grade Medal for Latin in the public exams under Hugh Kelly's tutelage.
1917 found Hugh at Jersey for philosophy but in middle course the threat of conscription here at home and the consequent peremptory behest of Fr T V Nolan, the Provincial, withdrew all our scholastics from foreign parts and Hugh with the other émigrés concluded the philosophic course at Milltown Park and immediately proceeded to theology in the same domicile. Ordination 1921; tertianship at Tullabeg 1923-24; an intervening year again at Mungret and in 1925 he succeeded Fr Frank Ryan at Rathfarnham as Master of Juniors, Fr D. O’Sullivan has kindly under taken, in his modesty, “to supply lacunae” and we content ourselves with some reference to Fr. Kelly's concluding years (reference extended beyond our first calculation); after completing his Rectorate at Rathfarnham in ‘48 he was engaged as operarius and scriptor at Gardiner Street.
It would be inexcusable to omit mention of the various reviews of books he provided for Studies almost continuously and the numerous full-dress articles in Studies but frequently further afield; he had a keen sense for the propriety of language, and a happiness of expression that induced editors to keep him to the mill. An article on Belloc on one occasion drew from that great man a letter of thanks; this really was easy going, as he immersed himself early in Belloc and Chesterton; his acquaintance with Burke and Boswell and Johnson's Poets was a byword among his pupils. He humorously remarked that he would burn for the number of novels he had “consumed” but he too readily recognised trash to be led into devious ways.
The gravitation to Gardiner Street was only a lull; his term of more active service was not concluded. In 1954 he was impelled into the responsible position, again at Rathfarnham, of Tertian Instructor and retained that demanding post for eight years; once again his kindliness, his diffidence almost, though he had a good grasp of the literature of the Institute and the Spiritual Exercises educed on occasion that smile about enthusiasms to which Fr O’Sullivan, in an earlier context, hereafter refers. When he was relieved of the task ultimately he was beginning to feel older yet for another decade he soldiered on, again at Gardiner Street; his Novena of Grace when in on his eighties evinced the energies of one twenty years younger and his command of appropriate language made the lectures something of a literary treat, Together with being solid spirituality. Practically to the end he retained his concentration and as the various volumes of Newman's letters appeared his satisfaction in perusing them was immense.
However, about a year since even the interest in systematic reading languished; this was a novelty for him and he began to have sleepless nights and cheerless depressing days. His appetite, a healthy one generally, failed and from mere lack of sustenance there was fear of his stumbling and injuring himself. The devotion with which he had served Mother Mary Martin’s Missionaries of Mary practically from their foundation (the absence of any allusion to which, as also to the innumerable retreats given by him through the country and even in Boston, Mass, we apologise for), led to Our Lady of Lourdes' Hospital, Drogheda, run under the Missionaries' auspices, being considered as a place of care in decline. Under the nuns’ and nurses’ devoted attention he survived over a year, remarkably tenacious of life but definitely failing. The end came, graciously, we hope, of the Providence Whom he so loyally served through life, at the dawn of the Feast of All Saints.
The obsequies from Gardiner Street on Monday, November 7th, had something unique in the number who followed the cortège to Glasnevin as if to register their affection rather than mourning for the deceased,

We apologise to Fr D O’Sullivan for delaying so long from presenting his tribute to Fr Kelly, as follows:

I lived with Fr Hugh Kelly for only five years - three years under him in Rathfarnham when he was Minister of Juniors and Prefect of Studies and, after an interval of twelve years, as his Rector in Tullabeg. My Rathfarnham memories of Fr Hugh are of the happiest. Life in community, in spite of our division into “home” and “university” juniors was real and was great fun. Studies were perhaps a little higgledy-piggledy due in part to the amiable eccentricities of our Rector, Fr John Keane. Many scholastics studied hard, bringing home the University honours so much esteemed by him - too much perhaps; others studied less. But, almost all, after a somewhat Cistercian noviceship gradually found their Jesuit feet-even if in startlingly variform ways.
The process, luckily, was to a great extent unconscious. The three years with Fr Hugh as Prefect of Studies were unashamedly liberal and cultural, for he was a man of culture though I doubt that he ever knew the word could be used so cynically and pejoratively as it nowadays is. He taught us by his example and the sincerity of his observance that rules could be liberating: and, more formally, that the liberal arts were liberalising. Science was a puzzle to him; but in English literature particularly he was an admirable tutor. We smiled a little at his enthusiasms but, till our dying day, we shall be marked by them. Newman came alive for us: and Fr Hugh took care that when Belloc and Chesterton came to Dublin we heard them and saw our household gods in the flesh.
I was not to meet him again until after Tertianship. I did not look forward to the meeting : he had been removed abruptly and, to the general mind of the Province, unfairly from the Rectorship of Tullabeg and I had the unpleasant task of replacing him. I need have had no fears. Never once was there the slightest disruption of loyalty and friendship : Hugh Kelly was a man of the Exercises. He practised the third degree - unostentatiously - as befitted his temperament and character. His obedience had also a quality of the near-heroic, He was, by inclination and by training, a man of letters : yet he served some fourteen years on the metaphysical treadmill, filling as well the tasks of Rector and Prefect of Studies. He was reckoned adequate as a professor and he worked conscientiously at the various branches of philosophy that fell to his lot: but few scholastics found him inspiring.
As a man they liked and admired him and he was a welcome companion on their weekly villa-walks when they enjoyed his conversation and he theirs. In community life in general he displayed the same Pauline “courtesy”: and in recreation he was as good a listener as he was a conversationalist, One perhaps - as often with men of his mould - took his good qualities for granted. I know that when to the unselfish delight of all-he was, after only two years, chosen to be Rector of Rathfarnham, I realised how much his presence in the Tullabeg community had been a quiet force for humane and harmonious living.

Born: 23 April 1894, Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone
Entered: 20 November 1920, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1932, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 18 February 1936, Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin

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

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

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 11th Year No 2 1936
Obituary :
Brother William McCaffrey

Brother William McCaffrey was born at Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, on the 23rd April, 1894. He entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on the 20th November, 1920. The noviceship over, he remained in Tullabeg, working in the garden, until 1928, when he went to Galway to be employed in the same kind of work. After two years there he was changed to Rathfarnham to act as Infirmarian, where he spent a year, and was then transferred to the Crescent, (cur pen Disp).
In 1932 he was back in Rathfarnham, this time (Cur. Val.) as a result of lung trouble. In the hope that the bracing air of Wicklow would do him good, he was sent to the Newcastle Sanatorium in that county. It failed to have any effect, and, after a brief stay, he was placed under the care of the Irish Sisters of Charity at the Hospice tor the dying, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Under their kind care he lingered on for some years , but nothing could save him and he died Tuesday, 18th February, 1936.
In 1934 he was attached to Milltown Park. A few days before he died, Father C. Power, Rector, gave him the Last Sacraments and on the morning of his death he was attended by the Minister Father D. Hayes. RIP

Born: 24 June 1889, Birr, County Tipperary
Entered: 31 August 1921, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 18 October 1926, Fourvière, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1932, Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Died: 06 February 1949, St Francis Xavier, Lavender Bay, North Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Studied Medicine before entry. Had studied 1 year Theology at Dalgan Park, County Meath with the Columban Fathers and was destined for Chinese Mission

by 1927 at Paray-le-Monial France (LUGD) studying
by 1929 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1930 third wave Hong Kong Missioners
by 1934 at Gonzaga College, Shanghai, China (FRA) teaching
by 1938 at Wah Yan, Hong Kong - working

Served as Medical Doctor in RAMC during the First World War.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Gerald Kennedy served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during WW1 in Flanders and on a ship on the Atlantic. He entered the Society 31 August 1919 (1921 in fact) at Tullabeg with a medical degree, and after Philosophy at Milltown Park, 1923-25, and Theology at Ore Place, Hastings and Fourvières, 1925-28, completed Tertianship at St Beuno’s, 1928-29.
He was then sent to the Hong Kong Mission 1929-1945, and spent these years at Ricci Hall, the university residence, the seminary (at Aberdeen) or Wah Yan College, lecturing and teaching as well as doing pastoral work, but he never learned the Chinese language. He was popular with the students in the seminary, entertaining them with his charm. He gave the Jesuits their hints on how to be successful classroom teachers, and wrote a textbook in Chemistry and Physics whilst at Wah Yan.
He spent 1934 with the Jesuits and Shanghai, in Gonzaga College. From 1938 he worked with refugees in a hospital in Canton. Medical supplies were scarce, but he discovered a partial cure for cholera. He worked as rice-forager, money collector and spiritual guide to the sisters who ran the hospital. During 1941 he was at St Theresa’s hospital Kowloon, but he was worn out. He had fought the good fight.
As a result, he was recalled to Ireland, where he recovered his former vigour sufficiently to give Retreats in Galway, 1945-46, and did pastoral work in Tullabeg. He was sent to Australia and the Lavender Bay parish 1948-49, where he worked for six months in the chapel of the Star of the Sea, at Milsons Point. He was remembered for having a dry, searching humour, and a mixture of kindly trust and breeziness.

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 21st Year No 1 1946

Arrivals :

Our three repatriated missioners from Hong Kong: Frs. T. Fitzgerald, Gallagher and G. Kennedy, arrived in Dublin in November and are rapidly regaining weight and old form. Fr. Gallagher has been assigned to the mission staff and will be residing at St. Mary's, Emo.

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948

Frs. Kennedy G., O'Flanagan and Saul leave for Australia on 9th July.

Irish Province News 24th Year No 2 1949

Death of Fr. Gerald Kennedy :
Fr. G. Kennedy died in Australia on February 6th. He had been in failing health for a considerable time, and it was hoped that the Australian climate might restore his former vigour. But in China, before and during the war, he had been prodigal of his energy in the service of others. He did wonders during the cholera outbreak at Canton he accomplished wonders, not only by his devoted attention to the sufferers, but by his medical knowledge. Out of the very limited resources available he compounded a remedy which saved many lives and achieved better results than the Americans were able to obtain with their vastly superior equipment.
To know Fr. Kennedy was to love him. He has left to the Province a fragrant memory.

Irish Province News 24th Year No 3 1949

Obituary

Fr. Gerald Kennedy (1889-1921-1949)

When Gerald Kennedy became a Jesuit, he was already a mature man of thirty-two. Born in 1889, he took his medical degree at the National University in Dublin, went through World War I in the R.A.M.C., and then settled down to a dozen years of country practice in Nenagh and Birr. Having spent a few months at Dalgan Park, he entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1921. His noviceship over, two year's philosophy at Milltown Park were followed immediately by theology at Hastings and Fourvière, where he was ordained on December 18th, 1926. After making his tertianship at St. Beuno's (1928-1929), he sailed for Hong Kong. He remained on the Mission until his return to Ireland in November, 1945. He then spent a year on the retreat staff. The 1946 Status found him once more back in Tullabeg as Prefect of the Church, in which office he continued until June, 1948. That same summer he made his last trip - to Australia, which he reached in August. He was assigned to parish work in Melbourne, and there he died on February 6th, 1949.
In his twenty-eight years as a Jesuit, Gerald Kennedy won the esteem and affection of all who lived with him. The measure of that warm respect may be found in the name by which he was universally known : “Doc”. It was a term that did more than merely remind us that he had lost none of the shrewd skill and observation of the country practitioner. It held a far richer connotation. “Doc” was, in the best sense of the world, a character. There was nothing dark about his dry, searching humour-a mixture of kindly thrust and breeziness (no one who heard it will forget his cheery salute to the company : “God save all here - not barring the cat!”). In spontaneous mood he was inimitable for his humorous description of situations and personalities. His account of a Chinese banquet will be remembered as a masterpiece of gastronomic analysis. For all his sense of fun, however, “Doc” had a deep and steady seriousness of mind - his very gait was purposeful. A constant reader, his main interests were biography and history with a particular leaning towards French culture. Both as a doctor and as a Jesuit, he was for years keenly preoccupied with the psychological problems of the religious life and of spiritual experience. One of his many obiter dicta was to the effect that no Jesuit should be allowed on the road as a retreat-giver or spiritual director, who through ignorance or prejudice was incapable of helping souls in the higher forms of prayer. His own spiritual life was simple, direct and matter of fact. A strong yet gentle character, his unobtrusive simplicity went hand in hand with a certain blunt forcefulness of purpose. Outstanding among his virtues were a remarkable sense of duty and an unfailing charity.
Of his life as a Jesuit, Fr. Kennedy spent more than half on the Hong Kong mission. Over forty when he arrived in China, be never acquired a grip of the language. This did not prevent him, however, from quietly poking fun at the advanced students and old hands, to gravely correcting their tones or shamelessly manufacturing new phrases for their puzzlement and exasperation. Nor did his ignorance of Chinese materially lessen his usefulness. During his early years on the mission, he was in turn Minister in the Seminary and on the teaching staff of Wah Yan, His Ministership coincided with the period of the building and organisation of the Seminary - a harassing time. His cheerfulness was well equal to it. As an extract from a contemporary letter puts it : “In spite of many inconveniences of pioneering (e.g. the absence of a kitchen and a water supply) the Minister's sense of humour remained unshaken”. While at Wah Yan, he found time and energy (and, considering the steam-laundry quality of the climate for many months of the year, that says much) to compose a small text-book of Chemistry and a further one of Physics for his class. He was always on the job.
It was from 1938 onwards, however, that “Doc” really came into his own. In the November of that year a food ship was sent from Hong Kong to the relief of the refugees in Japanese occupied Canton. Fr. Kennedy travelled up as one of the organising committee, On account of his medical experience he was soon attached to the Fong Pin hospital, run by the French Canadian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Here he found full scope for his doctor's knowledge and for his untiring charity. There was work for a dozen doctors and for as many administrators. Fr. Kennedy was alone. He had to deal with a hospital overcrowded beyond all reasonable capacity, to refuse patients was to let them die on the streets and to incur the censure of the Japanese. The nursing staff was pitiably inadequate and could not be made good even by the heroic devotion of the Sisters. Sufferers were two and three in a bed, and on the floor of the wards, the dead, awaiting removal and burial, lay cheek by jowl with the dying. All medical supplies were scarce - some were unobtainable. It was in such conditions that “Doc” had to treat his patients. Yet, amazing as it may seem, it was in the midst of such killing and stupefying work that Fr. Kennedy discovered a partial cure for cholera. He did some thing more amazing still - with his work as doctor he managed to combine the offices of rice-forager, money-collector and spiritual director to the Sisters. Both in Canton and in Hong Kong he went the rounds raising supplies and funds for the hospital, and gave the Sisters regular conferences and an eight-day retreat-in French. He kept up this pace for over two years.
He was back in Hong Kong for the outbreak of war in December, 1941. During the hostilities and for the most of the subsequent Japanese occupation of the Colony, he was in St. Teresa's Hospital, Kowloon. His work there was much the same as he had had in Canton, although the conditions were slightly better. He was doctor, administrator and again, spiritual guide and consoler to the French Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres. With his fellow Jesuits he underwent all the strain, mental and physical, of those three and a half years. More than others, perhaps, he suffered from the almost starvation diet. Yet, his cheerfulness never failed nor his unremitting devotion to his work. The same cannot be said for his health. When the peace came, he was a tired man, worn out in mind and body.
Fr. Kennedy was always a fighter. Back in Ireland, he recovered some of his old vigour - sufficient, at all events, to urge him to volunteer for Australia. He must have suspected that he had not very long to live, for shortly before sailing he expressed the hope that he might be given two or three years of work in which to justify the expense of his passage out. He need not have worried. Six months was all he had in Australia, it is true. But by his whole life in the Society, by his fund of good humour, by his charity, by his immense labours on the mission, by his deep, simple spirituality, “before God and men”, “Doc” more than paid his way.

Born: 06 January 1898, Headford, County Galway
Entered: 31 October 1920, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows 02 February 1933, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 09 October 1964, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 40th Year No 1 1965

Obituary :
Br Patrick Murray SJ (1898-1964)
Br. Patrick Murray was born in Headford, Co. Galway, on 6th January, 1898, and went to the local National School. When he finished there he worked for a number of years on his father's farm in Headford. At the age of twenty-two he decided to enter the noviceship at Tullabeg and he did his noviceship under Fr. G. Byrne. His career in the Society was for the most part spent in the trying and monotonous task of refectorian, From 1923 till 1935 he was at Milltown Park. He then went back to Tullabeg where he lived until 1950. He returned to Milltown and became connected with fund-raising at Gardiner Street and it was with this work that he spent the reminder of his life.
Fr. Peter Troddyn writes of him :
“I was associated with Br. Murray during the last ten years or so of his life, when he was working on the St. Francis Xavier Draw - when in fact it might be said that as its only full time worker he ‘was’ the St. Francis Xavier Draw. It was largely thanks to his constant application to a considerable amount of sheer drudgery that that enterprise was able to contribute very substantially to the building-fund of the St. Francis Xavier Hall, and to a lesser degree to those of Milltown Park and of the Catholic Workers' College. Latterly he would sometimes call it ‘my draw’, with a little touch of justifiable pride : so it truly was. It was Bishop James Corboy, then Rector of Milltown, for whom the Brother had a great respect and affection, who first suggested that he should take up this work, after the Milltown ‘Golden Circle’ had been absorbed by the SFX draw. For a number of years Brother worked long office hours at the draw office, but returned to Milltown each night. On his cross-city trips he inveigled many bus-conductors into becoming draw promoters and he used ‘innocently’ leave advertising handbills behind him to trap a few more clients: meanwhile he kept in touch with his friends of the Milltown Tuesday night whist drives, and saw to it that they were “in” the draw. He was always delighted when one of them won a prize, and made sure that the fact got the maximum of local publicity. He loved to play in the whist drives himself and those games, and a few with other Brothers, were practically his sole recreation. One of these, indeed, has given me a delightful account of what must have been his last game - after last summer's retreat in Clongowes - when Brother's droll humour made a memorable evening for his fellow-players,
Anyone who has any dealings with ‘the public’ over a counter will know how trying they can be, but Br. Murray was invariably patient and courteous to all those with whom he dealt - although he might say what he thought afterwards - as in the case of the wide-awake if semi-illiterate man who asked that we first pay him a £100 so that afterwards he could attract subscribers! The loyal band of voluntary helpers of the draw were extremely attached to the Brother as was shown by the large number of them who attended his funeral - and latterly, when his health was failing, did everything they could to lessen his work. One, indeed, Hubert Donohue, whom he called his right-hand man, was present, much moved, with Brother Ryan when he died. It might be thought that these last ten years of the Brother's work in the Society were very interesting: In fact they involved mostly steady application to such tedious tasks as addressing envelopes (on an ancient electric machine which had even more aches and pains than its often far from well operator); sorting address-plates, checking wrongly filled-in cards, and so on. It was mostly a lonely task, too, but Brother kept it up to the end, to the limits of his physical abilities. He was a man of simple loyalties - to his native County Galway, to his family, to many Superiors in the Society : he greatly appreciated in them even the smallest signs of under standing and affection. He was a shrewd judge of character, although of uncomplicated make-up himself, and he could be remarkably discerning in speaking of the vocation and training of a Brother in the Society. I am sure that for his own life as a Jesuit Brother he has won a very big prize in the Eternal Draw.

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

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 43rd Year No 4 1968

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

Irish Province News 44th Year No 1 1969

Obituary :

Br Peter Foley SJ (1891-1968)

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

Born: 07 July 1907, Edinburgh, Scotland
Entered: 31 August 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 24 June 1937, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1941, Milltown Park, Dublin
Died: 15 February 1960, Milltown Park, Dublin

by 1929 at Berchmanskolleg, Pullach, Germany (GER S) studying
by 1939 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1940 in Rome, Italy (ROM) studying

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 35th Year No 2 1960
Obituary :
Fr Edward Hannigan (1907-1960)

Fr. Hannigan died very suddenly on 19th February, shortly before 10 o'clock. He had said Mass and had his breakfast and gone through his post. He went down the corridor to use the telephone and on the way back to his room felt weak, sat down and died a few ininutes later. He had however time to make his confession before he lost consciousness and was anointed before he expired.
He had been educated in Mungret and did his noviceship in Tullabeg and juniorate in Rathfarnham. He went to Pullach for philosophy and then taught in St. Ignatius' College, Galway. After theology in Milltown Park and tertianship in St. Beuno's he was sent to Rome to do a biennium in Moral Theology in 1939. His work in Rome was interrupted when the war became active and he sailed for Ireland in May 1940 on a Japanese liner from Naples, possibly the last boat to reach England from the Mediterranean that year,
He was not given an opportunity to complete his studies after his return to Ireland but was asked to teach both Moral Theology and Canon Law in succession to Fr. John MacMahon who had just been appointed Provincial, and it was not until 1949 that he was able to return to Rome to present and defend his thesis. The thesis was a model of method and precision. The subject was: “Is it ever lawful to advise the lesser of two evils?” Fr. Hannigan carefully summarised all the recent and many ancient opinions of this difficult topic and then his own conclusions. The thesis was accepted and praised by his examiners; but what really impressed them was the brilliance of his Lectio Coram and his oral defence of the thesis. His ten years of teaching in Milltown had made him confident and self-possessed in his exposition; his command of Latin came as a surprise to them and he showed exceptional skill in dealing with the objections and difficulties which were urged against him, never allowing himself to be cornered or led into a false position. As a result not only did he receive the doctorate summa cum laude but negotiations were begun to have him assigned to the staff of the Gregorian. It was not due to any lack of earnestness on the part of the authorities of the Gregorian that these negotiations did not succeed.
It is not easy to form a just estimate of his work as Professor of Moral Theology at Milltown Park. It was widely felt that he did not do complete justice to his very great abilities. However he did bring to his work some very useful qualities. In the first place he spoke Latin fluently and accurately and so reduced to an absolute minimum the difficulties which inevitably arise from the use of Latin in teaching Theology. He was able to do this because of his remarkable gifts as a linguist. These gifts appeared at other stages in his life in the Society. He had an extremely good knowledge of Irish. As a scholastic he had proved that he was fully competent to teach through Irish, which he had done for three years in Galway; and although he did not frequently speak Irish he never lost his command of grammar and idiom. So too he brought back from Pullach a very good knowledge of German, which was still accurate and idiomatic when he came to Rome to defend his thesis twenty years later.
Again he planned his course carefully and finished it at the appointed time omitting nothing. Indeed one of the points of which he was often criticised was that he treated in class matter that anyone with intelligence could have made up for himself; but perhaps some of the weaker members of the class were grateful to him for this. However, he was unwilling to expand the matter contained in the textbook. This was a pity because his comments would have been interesting and reliable. He preferred to illustrate Genicot with quotations from other books. But when consulted in private on a case his opinions were very good indeed, clear and accurate and well supported. Priests who made retreats or days of recollection in Milltown Park were very loud in their praises and grateful to him for the help he gave them.
An account of Fr. Hannigan cannot omit to mention his very narrow escape from a tragic death during the fire at Milltown Park. He was living on the top storey of the Finlay wing and must have been slow in getting up after the alarm had been given. He was trapped in his room with the roof on fire and the corridor impassable with dense smoke. Fr. J. Johnston who was in the next room was similarly trapped, but opened the door of his room in a vain attempt to reach the fire escape, was overcome by the fumes and perished in the fire. Fr. Hannigan wisely stayed in his room and kept the door shut and waited for the fire brigade to run a ladder up to his window. The ladder was found to be too short so the fire-man handed him up a supplementary ladder which he hooked on to the window sill and so climbed down the twelve feet which separated him from the safety of the fire-brigade ladder. He must have been the last man to have left the top storey alive, saved by his own courage and self-possession.
Fr. Hannigan could give a good retreat although he could not often be persuaded to undertake this work. As procurator he will be remembered for his unfailing courtesy and for the quick and efficient way in which he did business with those of the community who had to visit him. He made the same impression on all with whom he came in contact especially on the tradesmen with whom he had to deal and with his assistants in organising whist drives for the building fund. The very numerous letters of sympathy received by Fr. Rector gave ample proof of this.
Fr. Hannigan had a very intense interest in life. He was a keen follower of almost all sports, rugby, soccer, golf and racing; also of politics national and international and of the obscure workings of the stock exchange. But above all he was remarkable for his charm and friendliness as a member of the community. Those who lived with him will be conscious of a deep sense of personal loss for a long time to come. We extend very sincere sympathy to his brother and sister.

Born: 18 May 1905, County Galway
Entered: 31 August 1921, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin
Professed: 03 December 1977
Died: 18 December 1987, McQuoin Park Infirmary, Hornsby, NSW, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Part of the St Francis Xavier, Lavender Bay, North Sydney community at the time of death

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1924 at Lyon France (LUGD) studying
by 1930 in Australia - Regency

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
His early education was at Cloáiste Iognáid, Galway for ten years.

After First Vows his Jesuit studies were in Ireland and France (Lyon)
1928-1932 He was sent to Australia for Regency at Burke Hall Melbourne
1932-1935 He returned to Ireland and Milltown Park Dublin for Theology and was Ordained there in 1935
1935-1936 He made tertianship at St Beuno’s, Wales
1936-1940 He then returned to Australia and initially taught at St Ignatius College Riverview and Kostka Hall Melbourne
1940-1952 He was appointed Rector of Xavier College Kew aged 33
1952-1954 He was made Rector at Sevenhill
1954-1960 He was appointed Rector of St Ignatius College Norwood
1960-1962 He was appointed Parish Priest at Lavender Bay Sydney
1962-1971 He was appointed Parish priest at St Mary’s North Sydney
1971 He returned to Lavender Bay and remained there until his death in 1987

He had reputed gifts in administration and finance and lay people appreciated his short sermons during Mass. His leadership position in the Province lasted nearly 50 years.

He was recognised as a skilful financial manager and handled the debt problem at Xavier College well. He sold land and removed the debt and the College never looked back. He began a massive building programme called the “Rigg Wing”, completed the Chapel sanctuary with a striking marble altar and he also reorgainsed the grounds. Similarly, he removed all debts in the Norwood Parish and School. At St Mary’s North Sydney he remodelled the sanctuary of the Church and built the Marist Brothers School.

Jesuits remember him as a community man, rarely away from the house. He loved company and a good story, had a sharp wit and enjoyed gossip.

Born: 02 July 1920, Kilkenny
Entered: 07 September 1938, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1952, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1955, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 29 September 2012, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

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

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 150 : Winter 2012

Obituary

Fr James (Jim) Lynch (1920-2012)

2 July 1920: Bom in Kilkenny.
Early education at The Lake National School, CBS Kilkenny and Belvedere College
7 September 1938: Entered Society at Emo
8 September 1940: First Vows at Emo
1940-1943: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts at UCD
1943-1946: Studied philosophy in Tullabeg
1946-1949: Clongowes - 3rd Line Prefect; Teacher, Certificate in Education
1949-1953: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31 July 1952: Ordained at Milltown Park, Dublin
1953-1954: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1954-1963: Clongowes
1954-1959: Clongowes – LowerLine Prefect; Teacher
2 February 1955: Final Vows
1959-1962: Clongowes - Higher Line Prefect; Teacher
1962-1963: Clongowes - Minister; Prefect
1963-1985: Belvedere – Teacher; Assistant Gamesmaster; Chaplain to Youth Club (63-64)
1985-2012: Galway - Assisted in the church
2008-2012: Cherryfield Lodge - Prayed for the sick and the Society

Fr Jim Lynch SJ was admitted to Cherryfield Lodge from St. Ignatius, Galway in November 2008. He was very happy in the Jesuit Nursing home and he recently celebrated his 60th years in the Priesthood. He died peacefully in Cherryfield Lodge on 29th September 2012
May he rest in the Peace of Christ

Jim never hid the fact that he was born in Kilkenny on July 2nd, 1920. His first nine years were spent in Kilkenny. However, he was also very proud to be a Belvederian having received most of his education there when his family moved to Dublin in 1929 and to their new house near Landsdowne Road, or the Aviva Stadium as it is now. In fact this was the beginning of a long association of the Lynch family with Belvedere and Old Belvedere Rugby Club, especially for his brother Frank who became President of the Rugby Club. Jim was quite an athlete when young. He played rugby for Belvedere and gained a Leinster schools' Cup medal in 1938. He was also a member of the Belvedere team that lost a cup match due to a controversial decision by the referee. Having awarded a try to Belvedere, the referee cancelled the try when he noticed that the touch judge had kept his flag up to signal an earlier 'foot in touch'. It was the story of the try that wasn't a try and Jim kept the paper cuttings of the incident. Jim also represented Belvedere in rowing and swimming.

Two words come to mind when mention is made of Jim's name, namely, faithfulness and reliability. Jim was totally faithful to the Jesuit way of life. He retired to bed early and rose early to attend to his religious duties. His faithfulness to Ted Booth both in Clongowes and Belvedere was remarkable. He showed similar care for the elderly during his years in Galway, acting as “infirmarian”, checking on his brother Jesuits that they were alive and well and that they had taken their tablets,

Jim was totally reliable in whatever he was asked to do as a Jesuit. He taught in Clongowes for a total of twelve years, both as a scholastic and as a priest. He was also 3rd Line Prefect for three years and Lower Line Prefect for eight years. He was Minister for one year, the hardest year in his life, he always said. He left Clongowes for Belvedere in 1963 and taught there for the next twenty-two years until his retirement, aged sixty-five. The next twenty-three years of his life were spent in Galway ministering in the Church. For many years he travelled to Wales to spend the summer supplying in a parish.

I don't think Jim found any of the ministries he was asked to undertake easy. Teaching did not come easy to him nor did preaching, Yet, Jim did what he was asked to do and no complaining. His attachment to Belvedere was deep having been there as a boy and man. It wasn't easy for him to cross the Shannon and leave Belvedere for Galway where he served for twenty-three years. But he did it and came to like Galway and its people. And the people hold fond memories of him.

Jim spent the last four years of his life in Cherryfield, praying for the Church and the Society. That must not have been easy either, yet perhaps Jim had now become an even more pliable instrument in the Lord's hands. The Staff in Cherryfield bore this out in his last years. When Rachel, the nurse Manager, asked Jim about having to do this or that he would reply, “Whatever you say: you are in charge”. He was a delight to visit in Cherryfield. When you asked how he was he would always reply, “Not too bad for an old fellow”. There was no self-pity or drawing attention to himself, just to the nurses and their kindness to him.

Jim's life was like that of most of us, it was ordinary and he sought to serve God in the ordinary. He did the ordinary course of studies' as in was in those days, three years in Rathfarnham at UCD, three years philosophy in Tullabeg, three years regency in Clongowes, four years theology in Milltown Park and a return to Rathfarnham for a year of Tertianship. Then it was on to the Colleges and finally, in retirement from teaching, to serve in one of our Churches. However, what is not ordinary is the faithfulness with which Jim did the ordinary and that for seventy-four years as a Jesuit. In death it will be Jim's tum to experience the utter reliability and faithfulness of the God on whom he modelled his life.

When I think of Jim now, some lines of the 17th century poet George Herbert come to mind:

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything

“A guest”, I answered, “worthy to be here”.
Love said, “You shall be he”.
“I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee”.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve”.
“And know you not”, says Love, “who bore the blame?”
“My dear, then I will serve”,
“You must sit down”, says Love and taste my meat”.
So I did sit and eat.

John Humphreys

Born: 20 September 1902, Ennis, County Clare
Entered: 12 November 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 15 August 1939, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 01 May 1952, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin

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

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - School Teacher before entry

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 27th Year No 3 1952

Coláiste Iognáid :
The deaths of Fr. Cyril Perrott and Brother G. Lynch, within a week of one another, on April 24th and May 1st, came as a great sorrow to us. Fr. Perrott's death, in particular, being quite unexpected. On April 22nd, he entered hospital for a duodenal operation, and, having come successfully through, as it appeared, he suddenly collapsed on the 23rd, and died the following morning. The Office and funeral, of which details appear elsewhere, were a remarkable tribute. Messages of sympathy and offerings for Mass poured into the house. The school was closed from the time we received news of his death until after the funeral. The boys gave a wreath, and each class an offering to have Mass said, whilst the entire school walked in the funeral.
Brother Lynch died in Dublin, after a long illness. His death was not unexpected, but he was sincerely mourned by the Community and the people of Galway to whom he had endeared himself by his quiet courtesy and unfailing good humour.

Obituary :
Brother Gerard Lynch
Brother Gerard Lynch was born in Ennis, Co. Clare, on September 20th, 1902. He was educated at the Christian Brothers' Schools in his native town. At that time, the Brothers were not under the National Board, and hence were free to take on suitable boys for training as teachers in their own schools. Gerard Lynch taught in this way for six years in Ennis, and when the Brothers elected to go under the National System, he was transferred to St. Mary's Industrial School, Salthill, Galway, where he taught from 1926 to 1928. It was here that he became acquainted with the Fathers of the Society, especially with Fr. William Stephenson, S.J., who was his guide and counsellor when the question of his vocation to religion arose. His characteristic unselfishness was manifested at this time by the fact that his modest savings were regularly sent to his mother.
He entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on November 12th, 1928. On taking his vows in 1931, he was sent to Manresa, Roehampton, to attend a course of training as Infirmarian in a London hospital. From 1932 to 1933 he was Infirmarian, Refectorian and Manuductor at Rathfarnham Castle, and from 1933 to 1936 held the same offices at Tullabeg. In 1936 he came to Galway as Sacristan, Infirmarian and Manuductor.
Though somewhat frail in build, Brother Lynch always enjoyed good health until Easter of last year. He then got a severe attack of influenza, from which he never completely recovered. In August, it was noticed he was losing weight, and for some months he was under the doctor's care in Galway. The cause of the trouble remained obscure, in spite of numerous X-rays and other tests. Finally, about the middle of October, he was sent to St. Vincent's Nursing Home, Dublin, where an exploratory operation revealed ulceration of the large intestine, of tuberculous origin. It was hoped that this would yield to treatment, but, in spite of every medical attention, Brother Lynch continued to grow weaker. He bore his long illness with wonderful patience and resignation, and received the Last Sacraments twice, the last time ten days before his death, which came peacefully at 6 a.m. on the morning of May 1st. The funeral took place from Gardiner St., and was attended by large numbers of the Fathers and Brothers of our houses. The remains were received on the preceding evening by Fr. T. Mulcahy, S.J., Superior of Gardiner St. The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. Fergal. McGrath, S.J., Rector, St. Ignatius' Galway, and the prayers at the graveside were recited by V. Rev. J.R. MacMahon, S.J., Vice-Provincial, Fr. Provincial having just left for Rhodesia.
It is difficult to avoid superlatives in speaking of Brother Lynch, and it can truly be said of him that be was a perfect model of the Jesuit Brother. He was a most exact religious, filled with deep piety and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady and the Saints. Though his duties in Galway were many and exacting, he was most faithful to his religious duties, and often had to be urged to go to bed when found fulfilling some devotions that he had been unable to get in during his busy day. His charity was boundless. Anyone could go to him at any time for help, sure of being received with a cheerful smile and immediate compliance with any request. This charity was also strikingly manifested towards the faithful who frequent the church, and it was noted that his manner was as obliging and courteous to the poorest as to the most influential. He was highly efficient in his work, had a wonderful memory for detail, and took the greatest care to have the altar and its surroundings tastefully cared for. He will be long remembered in Galway, both by the Community, each member of which can recall some act of helpful kindness from him, and by the laity who saw in his untiring work and reverent devotion a living act of faith in the sacramental presence of Our Blessed Lord.

Born: 14 March 1880, Grange, Caherconlish, County Limerick
Entered: 14 August 1896, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 27 July 1913, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1916, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 27 June 1922, Dublin

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

by 1901 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1902 at Kasteel Gemert, Netherlands (TOLO) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1903
by 1913 at Innsbruck Austria (ASR-HUN) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After his Novitiate he stayed at Tullabeg to study Rhetoric. Later he went to Vals for Philosophy.
1903 He was sent to Australia for a Regency teaching in Sydney.
After his Regency he did Theology at Milltown and Innsbruck and was Ordained 1913.
He then made Tertianship at Tullabeg.
1916 He was a Teacher at Mungret, and was appointed Rector there in 1917.
1721 He was sent to Clongowes as a Missioner.
His health failing he died in Dublin 27 June 1922

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
1896-1900 He entered at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg and after First Vows he continued for two years Juniorate.
1900-1903 He was sent to Vals and Kasteel Gemert for Philosophy
1903-1904 He was sent to Australia and St Aloysius College Sydney for Regency
1905-1910 He continued his regency at St Ignatius College Riverview, where he was First Prefect, was involved with senior rowing and senior debating master.
1910 He returned to Ireland and Milltown Park Dublin for Theology and also at Innsbruck, Austria, followed by Tertianship at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg
1917-1920 He was sent as Rector to Mungret College Limerick
1920-1921 He was sent to Coláiste Iognáid Galway
1921-1922 He was sent to Clongowes Wood College

Born: 01 September 1910, Eyrecourt, County Galway
Entered: 22 October 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1943, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois
Died: 12 December 1968, St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois

Cornelius changed to Brendan in HIB 1956

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 44th Year No 2 1969
Obituary :
Fr Brendan Brennan SJ (1910-1968)
On the night of Thursday, December 12th, at about 11.00 o'clock, Fr, Brendan Brennan passed to his eternal reward at St. Mary's, Emo. He was aged 58. He had returned to Emo only about a fortnight before his death, so, in a sense, he had come home to die, for he had spent most of his priestly life at Emo, 16 years in all, as Socius to the Master of Novices, and Minister. Brendan was born on May 22nd, 1910 at Eyrecourt, Co. Galway. He was the only son of Dr. John and Mrs. Brennan. He grew up with his two sisters in a deeply religious family in the quiet and peaceful setting of Eyrecourt. All these factors had an influence on the moulding and shaping of his character. He was deeply religious himself, though his religion was of the unobtrusive kind. He was quiet and unassuming and loved peace and quiet. This was why he loved Emo; life there was prayerful, regular, quiet and peaceful. He received his early education at the local school in Eyrecourt and in September, 1923 he entered Mungret College, with his cousin, Dominick Kearns of Portumna. He was quite clever and talented but, because of his shyness, he was inclined to hide his talents. He was an accomplished pianist as a boy, but very few realised this in after life. He took part in the school plays at Mungret, but who afterwards would have thought he had a talent for acting? At Mungret he made very satisfactory progress at studies and matriculated in June 1927. On September 1st of that year at the age of 17 he entered the Novitiate at Tullabeg with four of his Mungret classmates. Being an only son his parents found his decision to enter Religion a heavy cross, but they cheerfully made the sacrifice. During the Novitiate, his father died making Brendan's decision to proceed to his vows a difficult one. On September 2nd 1929 he took his first vows and went to Rathfarnham Castle. At first he was assigned to the University, but, shortly afterwards, he was permitted to join the home Juniorate Class, as he felt very diffident about taking a University Course. Thus he spent only two years in Rathfarnham. Many of his contemporaries, knowing his abilities, considered it was a mistake to have permitted him to give up the University, as this only increased his lack of confidence in himself in after years, especially as regards studies. From this time on his diffidence seemed to increase, though he was always quite competent in his studies and in any task assigned to him.
In 1931 he moved to Tullabeg, which in the meantime had become the Philosophate of the Irish Province, to begin his study of Philosophy and, when this was completed, he was sent to Belvedere to do his regency, Here he took his full share in teaching, in running games and clubs and other school activities. His great personal charm and winning smile proved irresistible to the Rector, Fr. Patrick Morris, with the result, he set an all-time high record in the number of Coffee days and Wine days he got for the Community, during the year he was Beadle. On the completion of his Regency, Brendan began his study of Theology at Milltown in 1937. He was ordained there in 1940 and did his Tertianship at Rathfarnham, 1941-1942. After his Tertianship he began his long association with Emo for in 1942 he was appointed Socius to the Master of Novices, Fr. John Neary. Two years later he became Minister as well as Socius. These offices he held uninterruptedly until the Summer of 1951, when he was assigned to Mungret as Minister and teacher. He remained in Mungret for three years until the Summer of 1954, That summer he was changed to Clongowes as teacher and Prefect of the Study Hall. His stay in Clongowes was short, for in the following Summer he returned to Emo to resume his former duties of Socius and Minister. His second period in Emo was to last for seven years. Thus he had some part in the formation of close on one third of the Irish Province.
As most of his priestly life was spent in Emo, perhaps it would be well to pause here and try to discover what type of man he was. This is not an easy task; because of shyness and reserve he did not manifest himself to others easily. Yet one did not live with him for very long before one sensed the strength of his character and the many admirable traits of that character. As Socius his commonsense and shrewd judgment of men must have been of considerable assistance to successive Novice Masters in assessing the worth of their charges. His sense of basic priorities was evident in his insistence that readers in the Refectory should be heard and heard clearly. He was unsparing in his efforts to train the novices in public speaking and to be punctilious about pronunciation. But all correction was done in the preparation of the reading and in fact he was quite sparing in “Repeat, Brother” during the actual reading in the refectory. It was no small tribute to his efforts that so many of his graduates were audible from the old Rathfarnham rostrum before the days of amplification. The pleasure grounds were kept in excellent trim, thanks to his care for the essential tasks and his impatience with the privileges of beemen, flowermen, rockerymen and suchlike eccentrics! All the novices were expected to work hard and he set the example by his own hard work, until an attack of diphtheria affected his heart. Idiosyncrasy, bumptiousness, fastidiousness and hypochondria could not long survive his no-non sense approach. His mock incomprehension of modern art en gendered a sense of proportion in matters aesthetic. If he was, as now appears in retrospect, over insistent on uniformity and dogged conformity to routine that was what was expected in those days of a good Socius. There was little scope there for initiative in the system of training. While he was somewhat sparing with compliments he rarely missed an opening for admonition. The very frequency and impartiality, however, together with the air of feigned shock or the whimsical look in his eye, took the sting out of it and feelings were rarely hurt. During out door works the laggard was galvanised into activity by a touch of light-hearted scorn and Old Belvederians had always to be kept apart! There were many other things one could recall about him, the firm, determined stride that seemed to express the firmness and determination of his character, the deep laugh, the closely cropped hair, the personal poverty, the spartan regimen of his life,
As Minister, he was extremely reliable and efficient, yet he was efficient in a kindly way and was approachable at all times. Missioners and Retreat givers returning to base after their work could feel assured that the car would be at the station to meet them and that they would be warmly welcomed when they got home. Because of his diffidence and shyness he found it difficult to undertake Retreats or Lectures himself, but he liked the quiet Apostolate and frequently helped out in Emo Parish Church with Confessions and Masses. He kept the house in excellent condition and succeeded in maintaining a precarious water supply in spite of drought and other difficulties such as an inadequate source of water and a primitive pumping system. During the rebuilding operations and the re-wiring of the house for E.S.B. current, he was most competent in overseeing the work being done. He could be quite impatient with and sharply critical of inefficiency in Consultants or workmen. His care of and attention to the sick, infirm or aged members of the Community was noteworthy, whilst he did not waste much sympathy on any Novice who seemed to be over-solicitous about himself or his health.
Early in his time in Emo he learned to drive the car and soon became a most proficient driver, though he could put the heart across the more nervous passengers by his finger tip control of the wheel. When going on journeys he was always prepared and pleased to take members of the Senior Community along with him for the outing, and, if time permitted, did not hesitate to make detours so as to bring them along some scenic route, so that they could enjoy the views. Whilst he lived a spartan life himself and was very abstemious, he never wished to impose that form of life on others. In fact he liked to see others enjoy themselves and relax and would contribute whatever he could to help them to do so. Nevertheless, having said all this, there still remains the fact that he found it hard to form close, personal relationships and friendships with people. But there were the few, who were received into, what one might call, the inner circle. He seemed to prefer to live his life aloof and alone, but there were the few Fathers on whom he would call to have a smoke and a chat when he needed relaxation. The same was true of Externs. There were just a very select few, who were admitted to close friendship and it was noted that they were all persons who put him at his ease, who were at ease with him and who dealt with him without formality and fuss. With all others he was courteous and kind, but brief and to the point. The only people he had no time for were the sightseers or people who just wanted to waste time.
His long association with Emo came to an end, when Fr. Visitor appointed him Minister in Tullabeg in 1952. He spent two years there and in the more relaxed atmosphere of that house, he seemed to have come out of himself more. Towards the end of his period there he became Oeconomus as well as Minister. As in all other jobs he had, he proved himself very competent and did a very thorough job on his accounts.
In 1964 he interchanged places with Fr. Seán Ó Duibhir. Fr. Ó Duibhir went to Tullabeg to take over as Minister and Organiser of Retreats and Fr. Brendan moved to Galway to become Operarius in the Church, Director of the Women's Sodality and of the Girls' Club and Director of the College Development Fund. Perhaps fate was hard on him, when it cast him in the role of Spiritual Director of Women and Girls. His temperament and character made it difficult for him to understand them. Their illogical approach to a subject, their petty rivalries and jealousies were just things he could not understand or fathom. Yet his own aloofness and shy reserve was his best weapon in dealing with them. It saved him from becoming involved on the side of any party or section and, when he decided and spoke his mind, his decisions and words were all the more effective. The way he could appear to be helpless and distressed ensured their compliance. So in this strange way he was quite an effective Director. He held these offices until 1967. That year on the Feast of Corpus Christi he suffered his first heart attack, a coronary thrombosis, a light one. He was removed to the Regional Hospital immediately and there he made a speedy and, what then appeared, successful recovery. On recovering he went to his beloved Emo for convalescence. Because of his attack he was relieved of the Directorship of the Sodality on the 1967 Status. But on his return from convalescence he was appointed assistant Oeconomus and took charge of the collection of School Fees. Throughout the next twelve months he remained in good health and the danger of further heart attacks seemed to recede. When Fr. Joseph O'Connor took seriously ill in March 1968, Fr, Brendan took on the full job of Oeconomus. His previous experience in Tullabeg helped him, but new features of the Accounts, Incremental Salaries, Lay Masters Insurance and P.A.Y.E. did put a strain on him, until he mastered their intricacies; then he seemed to take the job and its responsibilities in his stride. Perhaps it put more strain on him than people realised; anyway, on July 30 he suffered another thrombosis and once more had to be rushed to the Regional. It was proof of his thoroughness, that, though struck down suddenly, his accounts were found to be up to the minute. Expenditure and Receipts for July were analysed and a balance struck and moneys prepared for lodgement.
This time prospects of recovery were not so bright and in fact during the first week or ten days in hospital he suffered two more attacks. This was not a good omen. Besides, probably be cause of his heart condition, he was restless, tense and unsettled in the Regional, so it was decided to transfer him by ambulance to the Pembroke Hospital in Dublin, towards the end of August. There he was more relaxed and he seemed to do much better and made steady progress towards recovery. In the second half of September he was sufficiently recovered to stay for a period of convalescence with his sister, Dr. Kearns, in Portumna. During his stay there, however, he suffered still another thrombosis and had to be rushed to the Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. Once more he rallied and recovered sufficiently to spend the greater part of November convalescing in Portumna. By now it was clear that he needed a long period of quiet and rest, so it was decided to send him to Emo Park for the rest of the year. He moved to Emo at the end of November. All hoped that, in the quiet and peace of the Novitiate, many years of life remained to him, but it was not to be so. On the 12th of December, he retired to his room before 10 o'clock and shortly afterwards Fr. Gerry O'Beirne, when passing, heard moaning from his room. Fr. Gerry entered to find him in the throes of another attack. Fr. Rector was summoned and anointed him. The doctor was called and was in attendance in a very short time, but in spite of his best attention Fr. Brendan passed peacefully away, surrounded by the prayers and attention of Fr. Rector and of members of the Emo Community. Thus ended a life of quiet unobtrusive and faithful service in Christ's harvest field. For the most part it was a hidden life, yet, when one looks at the record of it, it was a very full life. During the last four months of life he lived in the shadow of death, but he faced death with perfect equanimity and peace of soul. This was the best proof of the sterling quality of his character and of the depth of his spiritual life.
After Office and Requiem Mass in the Novitiate Chapel, which was attended by a very representative gathering from all the houses in the Province, he was laid to rest in the Community cemetery at Tullabeg. There, in the very place, where he began his life of dedicated service of God he rests awaiting the resurrection.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1969

Obituary

Father Brendan Brennan SJ

Fr Brennan's connection with Belvedere was confined to the three years 1935 to 1938 which he spent as a scholastic teacher in Belvedere. He was in charge of the Bike Club and enjoyed communicating to its members his own love of the country-side. After his tertianship, he was Assistant Novicemaster for many years. On retiring from this important position, he went to work in St Ignatius Church, Galway, but returned to the Novitiate when his health begun to fail: He died suddenly on December 13th, 1968.

Born: 05 February 1874, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 10 August 1909, Valkenburg, Netherlands
Final Vows: 02 February 1911, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 25 January 1958, St Ignatius College, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia

Transcribed : HIB to ASL 05 April 1931

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus : 22 February 1922-1931.
John Keane was Vice Provincial for [six] months while Fr Fahy was in Rome from Sep. 1923 – [Feb.] 1924.
Vice Provincial - Australian Vice-Province 05 April 1931

by 1904 at Valkenburg, Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1906 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1913 at Linz Austria (ASL) making Tertianship
Provincial 25 February 1922
Vice-Provincial Australia 05 April 1931

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Note from Thomas Maher Jr Entry
He died at the residence of his sister in Thurles 12 February 1924. During his illness the local clergy were most attentive, visiting him daily as his end drew near. He was also frequently visited by the Provincial John Fahy.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280 :
Early education was at Coláiste Iognáid Galway before Entering at S Stanislaus College Tullabeg 1891.

He studied in Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium and was Ordained 1909.
1912-1913 He made Tertianship at Linz Austria
1914-1919 He was at Belvedere College, Dublin as Prefect of Studies [then Rector]
1919-1920 He was appointed Rector of Mungret College Limerick
1922-1931 He was appointed Provincial of the Irish Province
1931-1947 He was appointed first Vice-Provincial of Australia, after which he became Master of Novices and then Tertian Instructor (1941-1947)
1947-1958 He was sent to St Ignatius College Norwood as a curate, and he died there.

He was held in such high esteem that he attended four General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, the last of which was in 1957, and this was a record in the Society.

He was one of the most remarkable men to have worked in Australia. During his Provincialate in the Irish Province he built the Rathfarnham Castle Retreat House and Juniorate, and the Irish Mission to Hong Kong was established. In Australia he built Loyola College Watsonia during the depression years, and later Canisius College Pymble.

He was a typical administrator with strength to complete his vision. He did not find decision making difficult. He was also a shy, reserved man, with whom it could be difficult to make light conversation. Some found him forbidding and lacking personal warmth. But, he was a solidly spiritual man and very understanding of one’s problems once rthe ice was broken. He probably found it hard to simply be an ordinary Jesuit in community once he left high office, but he did try to be genial and affable. It was probab;y also difficult for ordinary Jesuits to relate to him in any other way than that of his being a Superior.

Note from Jeremiah Sullivan Entry
The province liked him more than either his predecessor, William Lockington, or his successor, John Fahy

◆ Biographical Notes of the Jesuits in Hong Kong 1926-2000, by Frederick Hok-ming Cheung PhD, Wonder Press Company 2013 ISBN 978 9881223814 :

Note from John Neary Entry
In 1926 Fr John Fahy appointed him and George Byrne to respond to the request from Bishop Valtora of Hong Kong for Jesuit help.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932
Australia :
Fr J. Fahy, late Irish Provincial, and first Provincial of the new Vice-province of Australia, tells us about impressions made on him by the people of his new home
“I have been in this country about a month, and ever since my arrival I have been really amazed at several things. One of them is the amazing progress and power of the Catholic Church in Australia. We had heard in the Old Land, and had frequently read about your doings, about your love for the Faith, your devotion to your pastors,but really the sight of what you are doing far surpasses anything that we read in our newspapers.
Another thing that surprises me is the readiness of many to help the next man, that I am told, is a characteristic of the Australian people.
Not many days ago I was leaving Sydney and I had a letter to post. It was raining fairly heavily, and as I was going to the station by car. I thought I would stop and risk getting wet while rushing into the Post Office. I had just pulled up at the herb when a man rushed out from a near by doorway, and, though he did hot know who I was, and no doubt did not care, said “ Don't come out into the rain, I will post your letter for you.” That, I think, is typical of the prompt readiness with which the average Australian desires to help his fellows.

Irish Province News 20th Year No 2 1945

Australia :
Fr. John Fahy, Provincial of Ireland 1922-23), was appointed Tertian Instructor of the Vice-Province of Australia, this year, and began work on February 15th. The Long Retreat, made by fourteen Fathers, commenced soon afterwards.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 4 1946

GENERAL CONGREGATION :

Letters :

Fr. John Fahy, to Fr. Vice-Provincial, 10-9-46 :
“Your three Electors are flourishing, notwithstanding a fierce sirocco which has been burning the Romans ever since our arrival. All the Electors have now arrived, with the exception of four : Lithuania, Romania, Croatia and one German. To-morrow we begin our quattriduum, all - I think - feeling confident of Divine Help and Guidance. Rome is filled with men and women, all come for General Chapters, so we live in an election atmosphere”.

Province News 33rd Year No 2 1958

Obituary :

Fr John Fahy (1874-1958)

Fr. Fahy was born and brought up in Galway. He got his early education at St. Ignatius' College and entered the Society in, 1891.
In 1893 he went to the Juniorate at Milltown Park. In the following year, when I went there, I began to appreciate more and more his unselfish kindness and readiness to help, and his clearness and accuracy of mind. In some ways he was exceedingly simple. For instance, in the autumn of 1895, Fr. Sutton, who had just taken over the command of Milltown Park, summoned a meeting of Theologians and Juniors, proclaimed a severe code of laws, and invited questions. The theologians proceeded to ask a number of very ingenious questions, each tending to confuse the issues more and more, and to make our obligations less and less clear. The one person (apart from Fr. Sutton) to whom it would not appear that this result was intentional was John Fahy. He stood up and said : “Father, in order to be perfectly clear, is it this, or this, or that?” And, of course, it was that; all the clouds were swept away, and John was quite unconscious of the furious glances directed at him!
Towards the end of 1895, the Juniors were transferred to Tullabeg, and Mr. Fahy went with them to teach Mathematics and Physics. He remained with them until 1898, when he was sent to teach the same subjects at Clongowes. In 1901 he returned to Tullabeg as “Min. Schol. Jun”, and Prefect of Studies of the Juniorate.
In 1903 he went to Valkenburg in Holland, then the house of Philosophy of the German Province; Bismarck's ban on the Society was still in force in Germany. In 1905 he went to Louvain for Theology, was ordained in 1908, finished his course the following year, and went to Linz for his Tertianship in 1909-10. He left everywhere a high reputation both for character and scholarship. On his return to Ireland in 1910, the Provincial, Fr. William Delany, wanted to make him Master of Novices. This caused him much alarm, and he persuaded Fr. Delany to look elsewhere. He was sent to Belvedere, first as Prefect of Studies, then as Minister and in 1913 as Rector. His time in Belvedere, ending in 1919, was a period of steady advance in the fortunes of the College.
One day during the rising in Easter week, 1916, some of the front windows of Belvedere were shattered by a volley from a company of soldiers in Great George's Street. Fortunately the community were at lunch, and the refectory was at the back of the house. Fr. Fahy opened the hall door, walked down to the soldiers and explained to them the mistake they were making. He also pointed out some other houses, such as the Loreto Convent, from which they need not fear any sniping. He also, during those days, drove a number of food vans, whose ordinary drivers shrank from coming into the zone of fire.
In 1919 he was appointed Moderator of the Mungret Apostolic School, and in the following year he became Rector of the College. In 1922 Fr. General appointed Visitors to all the Provinces of the Society, and Fr. W. Power, Visitor to Ireland, appointed Fr. Fahy Provincial.
His Provincialate (1922-31) was a period of considerable advance for the Province and of much promise for the future, a promise which, God be thanked, is being realised. In the early days of his generation, foreign missions were for us little more than a fairy tale, true, no doubt, but remote from experience. Fr. Fahy, when the prospect of the Hong Kong mission appeared, succeeded in conveying his own enthusiasm to the Province. In choosing a Superior he looked for and found a man of courage and enterprise who was ready to go ahead and take risks. A few years later the question of taking on a district in China itself arose at a Provincial Congregation. China was being overrun by the Japanese at the time, and there was much confusion. of opinion. When everyone else had spoken, Fr Fahy stood up in his turn. He made no attempt to press his point, but very simply stated the case as he saw it. He got a practically unanimous vote. The same thing happened when the question arose of making the Australian mission independent of the Irish Province. Nobody, Australian or Irish, seemed to know what to think. Once more when, Fr. Fahy had spoken the vote was unanimous. I think it was on that occasion that Fr. Thomas Finlay remarked : “That's the greatest Provincial I have known”.
When the Australian mission became first a Vice-Province and then a Province, Fr. Fahy was its first Superior. Under his guidance it made remarkable progress, which it has continued to make under his successors; in fact, in spite of the very satisfactory increase in the numbers of the Province, it is difficult to find men to fill all the openings that present themselves.
He conducted a Visitation of the Philippines which, I have heard, bore excellent fruit.
In recent years he had been acting as a curate, and it is said that the children in the streets used run to greet him; which shows that his generous and kindly heart had succeeded in conquering his reticence. The feeling of his brethren towards him was shown by their electing him, at the age of eighty-three, to represent them at the General Congregation.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Fahy SJ 1874-1958
The name of Fr John Fahy is revered not only in the Irish and Australian Provinces, but throughout the Society in general.This reputation he acquied from his participation in Genereal Congregations. It was remarkable how in any discussion, Fr Fahy would sum up the matter in dispute in a few clipped, concise words, and give a solution, which always won approval and carried the day.

He was born in Galway in 1874, and educated at St Ignatius, entering the Society in 1891. The greater part of his studies were done abroad.

When Fr William Power was made Visitor to the Province in 1922, he appointed Fr Fahy provincial. His term of office lasted until 1931, and during that time great expansion took place. We acquired our foreign Mission in Hong Kong, the retreat House at Rathfarnham was built, Emo Park was bought and a great increase in the number of novices took place. Fr Tom Finlay said of him “that was the greatest Provincial he had ever known”.

When Australia became a Vice-Province in 1931, Fr Fahy went out there as Superior. The rest of his life he devoted to Australia, as Superior, Master of Novices, Master of Tertians.

In 1937 he was appointed Visitor to the Philippines.

At the age of 83, he was chosen by his brethren in Australia to represent them at the General Congregation.

After such a life of outstanding work for God and the Society, he died on January 25th 1928. He was a man of great judgement, of vision, of courage and constancy in carrying out what he had planned.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1958

Obituary

Father John Fahy SJ

Fr John Fahy who has died in Australia was successively during the years 1910 to 1919, Prefect of Studies, Minister, and from 1913, Rector of Belvedere, His time here. in these various offices was a period of steady advance in the fortunes of the house.

We are told that one day during the rising in Easter Week, 1916, some of the windows of Belvedere facing George's Street were shattered by a yolley from a company of soldiers. The Community were at lunch in the back of the house and so, fortunately, no one was hurt. Fr Fahy opened the hall door, advanced towards the soldiers and explained to them the mistake they were making. He also pointed out some other houses, such as the Loreto Convent, from which they need not fear Sniping. During those troubled times he frequently drove a number of food vans, whose ordinary drivers shrank from entering the firing zones.

In 1922 he was appointed Provincial of the Irish Province. He held this office until 1931. During those years he made many important decisions, chief among which were the foundation of the Mission in Hong Kong, the decision to make the Australian Mission independent of the Isish Province. In matters such as these he was clear headed and decisive. It was as a result of such an occasion that Fr Tom Finlay declared about Fr. Fahy: “That's the greatest Provincial I have known”.

When the Australian Mission became first a Vice Province and then a Province, Fr. Fahy was its first Superior. Under his guidance it made the remarkable progress, which it has continued to make over the years; in fact, in spite of the satisfactory increase in numbers of the Province, it is difficult to find men to fill all the openings that present themselves.

In recent years he had been acting as a Curate and it is said that the children in the streets used to run out to greet him when he appeared; which goes to show that his kindness of heart had at last conquered his characteristic reticence. At the age of eighty-three the seal was placed on his life of service to the Society of Jesus, when his brethren showed their confidence in him by electing him to represent them at the General Congregation.

Born: 28 May 1905, Clontarf, Dublin
Entered: 19 September 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1936, Milltown Park Dublin
Final vows: 02 February 1939, Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Galway
Died: 12 February 1978, St Peter’s Parish, Bray , County Wicklow

Part of Loyola community, Eglinton Road, Dublin at time of his death.

by 1928 in Australia - Regency at Riverview, Sydney
by 1938 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 53rd Year No 2 1978
Obituary :
Fr Joesph Kelly (1905-1978)

On Sunday, February 12th, 1978, Father Joseph Kelly SJ, died after celebrating Holy Mass. He had been, from 1975-1978 Assistant Parish Priest in the Parish of Little Bray, and had lived at St Peter’s Presbytery, Little Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Father Joseph Kelly was born in Dublin on May 28th 1905, and after concluding his schooling at Belvedere College he entered the Noviceship in Tullabeg on September 19th 1922. Ill health prevented him from completing the Arts Course which he began at UCD in 1924; and he spent the years 1926-1930 Prefecting in Riverview College, Sydney. After completing Philosophy in Tullabeg he went for Theology to Milltown park where he was ordained priest on July 31st 1936 by Archbishop Alan Goodier SJ. His Tertianship was spent at St Beuno’s and he pronounced his Final Vows in St Ignatius College, Galway, on February 2nd 1939.
Father Joseph Kelly then began a life of hidden and continuous work that allowed of little relaxation.
He was Minister of the Community and Prefect of the Church in St Ignatius, Galway, from 1938-1942. There followed twelve years as Higher Line Prefect in Clongowes. In 1954 he went to Dublin - to Manresa - where he remained until 1960. His work in Manresa was giving enclosed Retreats to men, and travelling to various places to give the Spiritual Exercises. The years 1960-1973 were spent at Tullabeg at the various hidden but exacting work which included that of Confessor in the Church and Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer.
He spent two quiet years at Loyola, Eglinton Road (1973-1975) before going to the Parish Church of Little Bray where, - very much still “at work” he died suddenly after celebrating Holy Mass.

◆ The Clongownian, 1979

Obituary

Father Joseph Kelly SJ

In the month of August 1930 Tullabeg was opened as the Jesuit House of Philosophy. I had finished one year of Philosophical Studies at Milltown Park and went with the other students to Tullabeg.

Joe Kelly arrived late in September from Sydney in Australia to begin a three year course of Philosophy, and it was here that I spoke to Joe for the first time.

I had, of course, heard a good deal about Joe - I had been with him for two years in Belvedere - but, to my knowledge, I never spoke to him - he was a big boy on the SCT and three years my senior, I knew that severe migraine type headaches had made it impossible for Joe to continue his studies in UCD and Fr John Fahy, the Provincial at the time, decided to send him to Riverview College in Sydney.

During the journey to Australia, Joe formed a strong bond of friendship with Father Cyril Power who had been appointed Professor of Moral Theology in Werribee College in Melbourne. These two were alike in some respects definite in their views and forthright and outspoken in expressing them. I have always had the greatest admiration for both of them. . The severe headaches which ended Joe's studies in UCD continued to be his cross for many years and once again brought an end to his work - this time in the ministry in the Sacred Heart Church in Limerick and in St Ignatius' Church in Galway.

When in 1941, I was asked by my friend and Provincial, Fr J R McMahon to go to Clongowes as Lower Line Prefect, I was pleased that I would once again be associated with Joe who had been appointed Higher Line Prefect. Thus began a partnership that lasted for twelve years. This must be close to a record for Clongowes.

Boys are quite accurate in their judgements and the Clongowes Higher Line from '41 to '54 recognised that they had in their HLP a man of outstanding qualities and they were quite correct in this. Intellectually, Joe would have been capable of taking his place among the literary men of the Province - he had a sharp penetrating mind and a talent in literary style that would stand comparison with the best of his time. But, of course, his health prevented him from putting these talents to use.

As a therapeutic measure Joe took to carpentry and, of course, he soon became an accomplished carpenter. Later under the tuition of John Cribben he became also a useful metal worker.
During the war, as there was no petrol available for the mowing machines, Joe converted these machines so that they could be horse drawn, In order that the creases and athletic tracks could be kept mown, he frequently worked with these machines from morning until evening.

His insistance that everything in his Line should be as near perfection as was possible, was evident in the care which Joe devoted to the boys' games. He spared no effort in labouring to this end especially in the training of the College Athletics Team and the Senior Rugby Team. He initiated the Triangular Contest with Newbridge College and the Cadet College in Athletics, Rugby and Basketball.

In Athletics, Joe reaped some rewards for his painstaking care in the training of the boys for the different events by winning both the Leinster and the Al Ireland Shield more than once. But the Senior Rugby Cup eluded him. Year after year, Joe turned out Rugby Teams well tutored and drilled and capable of winning the Senior Cup. But year after year they were dogged by ill luck of one kind or another. His best team was beaten by the misfortune of fog! I remember sympathising with some members of his team and one of them replied “We had all hoped that we would be the team to give Father Kelly the reward he so well deserves”.

Joe's vocation was, in God's Providence, to a life of suffering. He suffered physically from continuous, un-interrupted headaches and, knowing his intellectual capabilities and fully aware of the fact that he was unable to use them must surely have caused him mental anguish. Towards the end of his life the Lord asked him to endure also the Spiritual anguish of what St John of the Cross called the “Dark Night of the Soul”.

He endured all these sufferings manfully and when Almighty God called him to Himself, Joe was working in the Sacred Ministry in the Parish of Little Bray, serene and happy like one who has fought the good fight and was now ready to meet his Lord.

KO'D

Born: 02 September 1893, 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

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: 10 December 1875, Santry, Dublin
Entered: 7 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 01 August 1909, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, Coláister Iognáid, Galway
Died: 19 November 1938, St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1897 at Enghien Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1911 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 :
He Entered the Society at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg, in 1893.

1895-1896 He remained at Tullabeg for his Juniorate.
1896-1899 He was sent to Enghien, France for Philosophy.
1900-1905 He was sent for Regency to Mungret College Limerick.
1905-1909 He was sent for Theology to Milltown Park Dublin
1909-1910 He made Tertianship at Drongen Belgium
1910-1914 He was sent teaching to Coláiste Iognáid Galway
1914-1916 He was sent teaching to Crescent College Limerick
1916-1919 He was sent to Australia and St Aloysius College Sydney
1919-1923 He was sent teaching to Xavier College Kew
1923-1938 He did his main work in Australia at the Richmond Parish where he was much appreciated for his wit and interesting sermons.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 14th Year No 1 1939
Obituary
Father John Egan
1875 Born, 10th December, at Santry, Co. Dublin. Educated Belvedere.
1893 Entered Tullabeg, 7th September
1894-95 Tullabeg, Novice, junior
1896-98 Enghein, Philosophy
1899-1900 Clongowes, Doc
1901-1904 Mungret, Doc,, charge of “Mungret Annual”
1905 Crescent, Doc. an. 7 mag
1906-09 Milltown, Theol
1910 Tronchiennes Tertian
1911-13 Galway, Doc. Oper
1914-15 Crescent, Praef. Stud.. Cons. dom
1916 Australia, Milson's Point. Doc. an. 13
1917-18 Milson's Point, Praef. Stud. Cons. dom., An 14 mag
1919-22 Xavier Coll, Doc. an. 19 mag, Praef. Spir. Mod. Apost, Orat etc
1923-38 Richmond, (Melbourne), Praef Spir, Cons dom 6, etc. etc. Min for 2 years

Father Egan died in Melbourne, Saturday, November 19th 1938. RIP

Father Garahy (fellow-Novice of Father Egan) kindly sent the following :
Those who knew Father Egan during the years that he lived and worked in Ireland were shocked to hear of his unexpected death in the last days of November. He taught successfully as a scholastic in Clongowes, Mungret and Crescent College, and after his Tertianship he was attached to Galway College for three years In 1914 we find him Prefect of Studies in the Crescent College. In 1916 he was appointed to the Australian mission as it then was From that year till 1919 he filled the post of Prefect of Studies in St. Aloysius College, Sydney, and from 1919 till 1923 worked as a Master in Xavier College, Melbourne. Since then until his death he was employed as Operarius in Richmond parish, Melbourne.
Although many years have passed since his departure for Australia, Mr. John Egan is still well remembered by his Irish Brethren as a forceful and energetic teacher in the College. Mentally alert and keenly interested in his work, his pupils respected him for his thoroughness and clarity of exposition, and few were the slackers to be found in Mr. Egan's class.
The writer, a fellow Novice, remembers him in those Noviceship days as an edifying religious, with a keen sense of humour and an uncanny faculty for repartee. Years afterwards in the Tertianship, when the acquaintance was renewed, Father Egan had lost nothing of his geniality and good spirits. He went through that period of formation none the less, with the same spirit of earnestness and piety that he had shown as a novice in Tullabeg.
To his Brethren in Australia we offer our sincere sympathy.

◆ The Aloysian, Sydney, 1938

Obituary

Father John Egan SJ

Few members of the Jesuit. Order in Melbourne enjoyed wider popularity than Rev John Egan, whose sudden and unexpected death on Saturday morning caused poignant regret in Richmond, where he had been stationed for the past twelve years. He was loved by young and old, and his death is a severe loss to his Order.

Rev Fr Egan, who was born in Dublin in December, 1875, was only 18 years of age when he entered the Society of Jesus, and he was educated in Belvedere College, Dublin. For several years he taught in Jesuit colleges in Ireland, and thirty years ago he came to Australia, where the remainder of. his life was spent. He was a professor in colleges of his Order in Sydney and Melbourne, where his thorough work won the admiration of the staff associated with him and the students, and twelve years ago he became attached to the parish of St Ignatius', Richmond, where by his geniality and happy disposition he entrenched himself in the hearts of the parishioners. For some time he had not been feeling very well, but he continued doing his parish work until death intervened. Throughout Richmond and in other parts the passing of Fr Egan is very keenly mourned, He gave his best to the sacred ministry, and he worked zealously and devotedly to the end. May his soul rest in peace.

“The Advocate”

◆ Mungret Annual, 1937

Obituary

Father John Egan SJ

Father Egan was born in Dublin in December, 1875, and entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 18. As a novice he was an edifying religious with a keen sense of humour, and an uncanny faculty for repartee. When he came to Mungret, in 1902, he threw himself heart and soul into the work of the College. He was a forceful and energetic teacher, and many of the boys in his higher classes will remember his thoroughness, and clarity of expression; and at the same time will recall in what high respect they held him, for few were the slackers to be found in his class. The whole burden of running the College plays, and erecting the stage, lay on his shoulders - this was no easy task, for in those days plays were held in the Apostolics' dormitory, and the stage had to be put up and taken down within twenty four hours. In addition, in some mysterious way, he found time to edit the :Mungret Annual”. The “Annual” of these years were full of local and topical interest, for Mr Egan was an outstanding editor.

After ordination, he taught in Galway and in the Crescent College, Limerick. In 1916 he was appointed to the Australian mission, as it then was, and was for some years in St. Aloysius College, Sydney, and Xavier College, Melbourne. In 1923 he was attached to the parish of St Ignatius, Richmond, Melbourne, and laboured, there till his death. Speaking at the Requiem High Mass, His Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne paid high tribute to the memory of Father Egan :

“If ever there was one man amongst the clergy, diocesan and regular, who gave an example in his own life of what a good shepherd ought to be, that one was Father Egan. He was not one to appear much in the public eye, and he was not one to attract, or much less seek, notoriety of popularity of any kind, but he was always about his Master's work. He knew how to do it because he moulded himself on the Master, and he did it well. The people of Richmond, and especially the poor, will miss him for many days. I had many opportunities of coming in contact with him, and I know the interest that he took in the people, and his sympathy with the poor and the tact with which he was able to deal with all. I never came in contact with Father Egan without being edified; he was indeed a genuine and loyal priest. His work was done, and it was done well, and the time had come for his Master to call him to his eternal reward. Let us pray for him”.

RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Egan (1875-1938)

A native of Santry, Co. Dublin, was educated at Belvedere College and entered the Society in 1893. He was at the Crescent for one year of his regency, 1905-06. The period of his higher studies was spent in Belgium and Dublin where he was ordained in 1909. On his return he was appointed prefect of studies, but after two years, 1914-16, was sent out to Australia where he continued his work in the colleges. The last fifteen years of his life was spent in church work at Melbourne.

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: 07 June 1878, Rathangan, County Kildare
Entered: 07 September 1896, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 27 July 1913, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1916, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 03 June 1961, 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 1901 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1902 at Kasteel Gemert, Netherlands (TOLO) studying

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 36th Year No 3 1961
Obituary :
Fr John Aloysius Byrne (1878-1961)

Fr. John A. Byrne died on Saturday, June 3rd, after a fairly long illness. He had been failing for some years past and had, much to his dislike, to be sent to hospital a few times, when the professional care and his great powers of recuperation soon restored him to comparative health. But these powers were now exhausted. He grew weak, he could take no food, his memory grew very confused: and he passed away almost imperceptibly within a few days of his eighty-third birthday.
He was born at Rathangan in Kildare and was educated at Clongowes from which he entered the novitiate at Tullabeg in 1896. Here also, after his vows, he did his juniorate and then went on to Vals in France to do his philosophy two years later. He had a special gift for foreign languages and came to speak French like a native. In fact, he was one of the very few foreigners who were allowed to read at first table. His stay at France coincided with one of the periodical outbursts of anti-clerical legislation, by which the Society was exiled. He used to describe how the mayor with a posse of gendarmes came to promulgate the sentence which was resented by the local population. All the property, including the great library, had to be packed up and transported to the house fraternally given at Gemert in Holland. The scholastics had to make their way mostly on foot, staying at religious houses en route.
He did his colleges at Clongowes where he taught French with remark able success. Years afterwards middle-aged men would accost him as mon père - they were his old pupils. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1913 and did his Tertianship at Tullabeg the first year of the first World War, where he had as a fellow Tertian the future Archbishop Chichester, In 1915 he returned to Clongowes as master where, with the exception of three years spent at Galway, 1923-26, he remained until 1931 when he was transferred to Rathfarnham Castle. Clongowes remained always for him his truest home in the Society; but it could be said that the Castle ran it close.
He spent thirty years at Rathfarnham. He was minister and procurator in the rectorships of Fr. T. V. Nolan and Fr. P. G. Kennedy. In 1942 he retired from the office of Minister but remained on as procurator for many years. By degrees he became an institution in the Castle. Generations of Juniors and Tertians came and went with whom he had much to do in one way way or another, All came to appreciate his kindness and friendliness. He became a great favourite with the community and the children at Loreto Abbey, where he often said Mass and heard Confessions. For years he attended the excellent concerts which are a feature of that school, and his speech of thanks and appreciation at the end was always one of the highlights of the entertainment. He was also much esteemed and liked by the Sisters of Mercy at the children's preventorium hospital at Ballyroan. He helped regularly at the parish Masses and was well known and esteemed by many of the neighbours.
Fr. “Johnny”, as he was universally known by “Ours”, was emphatically a community man. His interests were those of the house. He was always at his best at recreation. He usually managed to have some piquant or new contribution to make which he had picked up in the paper or from the wireless. He verified fully the demands of Nadal - he was religiously agreeable and agreeably religious. He was a regular subject for perfectly good-natured leg-pulling. He had a stock of stories and adventures which he told dramatically and which never failed to get their laugh even towards the end when he had to be prompted. At the concerts on St. John Berchman's day he was a necessary feature and always brought down the house by his song which he accompanied himself. One of his best “pieces” was the ordinary tone in French, which he rendered with hilarious effect. He was always very kind and considerate to the staff of the house and the children at the gate lodges and many other children from the village loved him.
He was a religious of very perfect observance; he was most particular in his attendance at all community duties. It always excited a certain surprise if he was not at the community dinner or litanies. He practised in his personal life a rigorous observance of poverty. He had much to do with others because of his different offices; he was always most obliging and more than willing to give any help he could. He seemed always to be at the disposal of others. In speech he was the most charitable of men. By St. James's estimate he was the perfect man. He never said an uncharitable or unkind word; he never showed any impatience. When something was said or done that seemed to call for condemnation his comment would be c'etait moins bien. This absence of sharpness and censoriousness, this kindness of mind for everyone, was his most gracious quality. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Byrne 1873-1961
Fr John Byrne was born at Rathangan County Kildare in 1878, was educated at Clongowes and entered the Society in 1896.
The early part of his priestly life he spent as a teacher in Clongowes, a superb master of the French language, known to generations of boys as “mon père”.
The rest of his life, thirty years in all, he spent in Rathfarnham Castle, where he became quite an institution. He was a fine pianist and incomparable mimic, talents which he used for the entertainment of his brethern, contributing in no small way to enlivened recreation and oil the machinery of community life.

He was a most kindly and lovable person, known and dear to all the people in the vicinity of the Castle, and to all he ministered to in his long life at Rathfarnham. After a fairly long illness, his end came quietly on June 3rd 1961. A truly gentle and religious soul.

◆ The Clongownian, 1961

Obituary

Father John Byrne SJ

John Augustine Byrne was born in Rathangan in 1878. He was one of a large family, nine sons and three daughters. Of his brothers, five beside himself were Clongownians, Joe (1890-94), Peter (1892-97), Harry (1893-98), Aloysius (1896-01) and Patrick A (1903-07). They were not only a large, but also a highly gifted family, whose members achieved distinction in various careers in after life. They had, however, the sorrow of losing two of their number at an early age, Ally and Paul Stanislaus, both killed in action in 1917, the former at Arras, the latter at Passchendaele.

John Byrne went from Clongowes to the Jesuit novitiate, then at Tullabeg. He remained on there for some years of study, and in 1900 went to commence philosophy at Vals near le Puy in the south of France. It was a crucial period for the Church in France. In the following year the Jesuits found their position made impossible by the Waldeck-Rousseau law against “unauthorised congregations”, and had to leave the country. The Toulouse Jesuits, with whom John Byrne was studying, took refuge in Holland, at first at Helmond and in 1902 in Gemert.

The year 1903 found Mr John Byrne as Third Line Prefect in Clongowes, but in the following year he was appointed to the two tasks most closely associated with his name, the teaching of French and direction of the choir. In 1910 he went to Milltown Park for theology and was ordained in 1913, After tertianship in Tullabeg, he was back at Clongowes for a long period, from 1915 to 1931, broken by three years in St Ignatius College, Galway. In 1932, he was appointed Minister of Rathfarnham Castle, where he spent the rest of his life.

It is thus seen that Father Byrne was some twenty-three years at Clongowes, as a boy, as a scholastic and as a priest, but it may also be said that, though the last thirty years of his life were spent away from Clongowes, his heart was always there. He maintained the keenest interest in all that concerned Clongowes, had a remarkable knowledge of the careers of the boys whom he had known there, and it was noted that in the last few months of his life his conversation constantly recurred to the college where he had been so happy and had given so much happiness to others.

I think that is the outstanding memory preserved by all of us who knew Father John, that he was a happy man and one whose happiness communicated itself to others, because it was the evidence of a kindly, simple, utterly unspoiled nature, inspired by a deep and genuine spirituality. My first recollection of him is when I was a small boy at Clongowes and he was a scholastic. Even allowing for the romantic aura that time casts over far-off days, I think I can truly say that I never recall a more beloved master. He had a rich endowment of the gifts that appeal to the young. Though not a very methodical teacher, he had the great gift of making us enjoy what we were learning. He spoke French like a native and had a keen appreciation of the genius of the French language; so we picked up without effort the phrases with which he bombarded us, usually accompanied by vivid dramatisation. He had a number of funny little ways for holding our attention. One was to point violently at one boy and simultaneously address a question to a boy at the other side of the room. It was all a bit unorthodox, but it was certainly “French without tears”.

Outside of class, he had many gifts that endeared him to us. He was a most talented musician. He played, to my knowledge, the violin, cello, double bass, clarinet and euphonium, in addition to the piano and organ, and had a quite extraordinary gift for improvisation. He had a fine baritone voice, and I can remember well a trio, “Memorare, O piissima Virgo”, occasionally sung by himself, Father John G Byrne and Father Dom Kelly. Of Father Byrne as choirmaster, I have one grateful, non-musical memory. As a small boy, I was making my way up to the choir on Sunday evening, when he met me on the stairs and pressed something into my hand, with a whispered injunction not to let the study prefect catch me eating it. It was a large slice of cake wrapped in a paper napkin, a welcome gift in those more Spartan days when sixpence a week was thought liberal pocket-money. Apart from his choir work, he was invaluable to the Line prefects in getting up concerts, and was always a welcome performer himself. Though of so delicate, almost frail build, he was a good all-round athlete, being a reliable half-back on the community soccer team, and at cricket a good bat and first-class fielder.

Some ten years later, I was back at Clongowes as a scholastic and found my old master on the staff again. Now, of course, I knew him in a different way, and could appreciate qualities that a boy would not discern. One of these was his whimsical sense of humour. It often took the form of recording, always in a kindly spirit, little scenes in Clongowes life of the past, introducing such familiar figures as Father Daly, Miss Ellison, the Matron; John Cooper, the butler; Knight or Simpson, the cricket professionals; Sergeant-Major Palmer, the drill instructor; Kit Doyle, the carpenter (always addressed by Father Daly as “Mr. Christopher”); Mattie Dunne, the smith, whose artificial leg fascinated and rather terrified us, and a host of others who stood out as only those do whom one meets in youth. These reminiscences might have been tedious to others, but I know that to me, both at that time and in much later years, they were a source of undiluted pleasure, bringing back in most happy vein the scenes of my boyhood.

Other, deeper qualities I also learned to value in Father Byrne during the period when we worked together, his deep, simple piety, his solicitude for the spiritual welfare of the boys, and above all, his complete unselfishness. He was one of those who could always be called on for help in the organisation of school entertainments or other extra-curricular activities. (In this connection, one must recall his skill as a scribe. He had a remarkable gift for engrossing ornamental headings for time-tables, class results, concert programmes, etc., and his beautiful script was in evidence all over the college.) Although of a sensitive nature, he was never out of humour or depressed, never reseniful of slights, always ready to make the best of things and of persons.

I fear that this tribute to my old master and colleague is somewhat disjointed and inadequate, but it is my best endeavour to do honour to the memory of one who did much to add happiness to my life as a boy and as a young master, and with whom I shared grateful affection towards our Alma Mater, To Father John Byrne's sisters, Miss Tessie and Miss Josie Byrne, and to his brother, Major Patrick A Byrne, we offer our deepest sympathies.

F McG SJ

Born: 15 July 1848, Dalysgrove, County Galway
Entered: 12 November 1870, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1886
Final Vows: 03 February 1890, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 19 October 1907, St Mary’s, Rhyl, Wales

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

Youngest brother of Hubert - RIP 1918; Oliver - RIP 1916; James - RIP 1930 Oliver was the first of the Daly brothers to Enter.

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1873 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying
by 1874 at Roehampton, London (ANG) studying
by 1875 at Laval, France (FRA) studying
by 1877 at Poitiers, France (FRA) Regency
by 1884 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1886 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1902 at Holy Name, Manchester (ANG) Missions

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Third brother of Hubert - RIP 1918; Oliver - RIP 1916; James - RIP 1930 Oliver was the first of the Daly brothers to Enter. They were a very old Catholic family who resided in the Elphin Diocese. Oliver joined earlier than the others in Rome and was allotted to the Irish Province.

After First Vows he studied Philosophy in France and Theology in jersey.
He taught for many years at Belvedere, Clongowes, and Mungret.
He also served on the Mission Staff in Ireland for a short time, and then he went to Manchester as a Missioner.
He received permission to go to Rhyl for a rest, had a stroke there and never recovered consciousness.
Some Fathers from St Beuno’s assisted at the requiem Mass in St Mary’s Rhyl. He was then buried at Pantasaph, North Wales.

Appreciation by Vincent Naish preached at the Church of the Holy Name Manchester :
“...it is my duty, my dear brethren, to ask your prayers on behalf of the soul of my dear old friend and fellow-worker, Francis Daly. It so happens that it is given to me, by chance, to say a few words in support of my plea. I have had the privilege and pleasure of knowing Father Daly well. Forty three years ago we were boys together at school, and during those years of unbroken friendship I never knew a soul more full of zeal for God’s glory, more possessed with simple faith, and more devoted, in his own sweet way, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Blessed Mother.
Of the family - a grand old Irish Catholic family - five were boys and three girls; he was the youngest of the boys, who became members of the Society of Jesus, of whom all the three elder survive him. One sister joined a religious Order. That family was known throughout the length and breadth of Ireland for its spotless life and perfect devotion, which seemed to unite all the members in the beauty and piety of the family life. There was a family private chapel in the house, and father, mother, boys and girls all joined together each day at God’s altar.”
He continues saying that the four brothers worked in different parts of the world - in Ireland, England, Scotland and Australia. They in the Holy Name Parish who knew of the devotion and zeal of Father Daly were fortunate, because to very few men was it granted in their time to know a more hard-working Priest, devoted to the spiritual welfare of Catholics in this country of Ireland. Hundreds of hopeless fallen cases of human nature he was ever eager to attend to, and by the very simplicity of his faith, and his transparent earnest manner, he often succeeded where others were afraid or shrank from.
He then asked that as many as possible would attend the requiem Mass the following day, and to offer their Communion for the good, holy, zealous Priest who had gone to his reward. At the end of Mass the organist played the “Dead March” from Saul, and the people stood.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Francis Daly 1848-1907
Fr Francis Daly, who died at Rhyl North Wales on October 19th 1907, was the author of “The Child of Mary before Jesus Abandoned in the Tabernacle”. In 1953, this book had entered on its 38th edition, enjoys to this day a steady sale of 582,000 copies. He was on the staff of Mungret College when he compiled this prayer book. At his request, the profits accruing were expended on the furnishing and establishment of the sacristy of the Boy’s Chapel.

Francis was the youngest of five sons, four of whom became Jesuits, the others being Oliver, James and Hubert. Born in Ahascragh County Galway in 1848, he entered the Society at Milltown Park in 1870.

He taught for many years in Belvedere, Clongowes and Mungret. After some years on the Mission Staff he went to Manchester as a missionary.

While resting at Rhyl in 1907 he had an apoplectic stroke, cause by over exertion in his labours, from which he never recovered. He is buried at Pantasaph, North Wales.

◆ The Clongownian, 1908

Obituary

Father Francis Daly SJ

The Rev Francis H Daly SJ, who was the fourth son of the late Mr Peter Paul Daly, of Dalysgrove, Co. Galway, Ireland, was born on July 15th, 1848. He came of a deeply religious and pious family. There were five boys and three girls. Of the former, four became Jesuits, and of the latter one entered a religious Order. On his mother's side the deceased priest was a cousin of the late Father Peter Gallwey SJ, and also of Fathers Grehan and Sherlock, other well known Jesuits. His brothers, all in the Society of Jesus - Fathers Oliver, James, and Hubert survive him: the first-named is at present in Glasgow, whilst Father James has for over thirty years been Prefect of Studies of Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare, Father Hubert Daly SJ, is in Australia.

The deceased received his early education by private tuition, and subsequently at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore, King's County. Later on he was sent to Mount St Mary's College, near Chesterfield, and afterwards to Namur, in Belgium. His theological and philosophical studies were made on the Continent, and about twenty-five years ago he was ordained priest in the Channel Islands. During his priestly career the late Father Daly SJ, worked with unremitting zeal and energy in many districts, his missionary work in various parts of England, north and south, being well-known and appreciated. With the Irish people in this country he was especially at home, and to them quite naturally was always a welcome visitor. He was most kind and charitable, and many acts, ungrudgingly done, have been related since his death in several quarters. Many a prayer has during the past week ascended to Heaven for the repose of the soul of the dear, good, kind priest.

A Notable Work
The late Father Daly SJ, was the author of the little book known as “The Child of Mary Before Jesus Abandoned in the Tabernacle”. This useful work was intended for the members of the Confraternity of the Children of Mary, and its circulation has run into many thousands, Only this year the tenth edition was published. Its spiritual reading has done incalculable good amongst those for whom it was intended.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1908

Obituary

Father Francis Daly SJ

Two special friends of Mungret have been, during the past year, called to their reward. These were Rev Francis Daly SJ, who died at Rhyl, N Wales, 17th October, 1907; and Rev Jas Murphy SJ, who died at Tuliabeg, Ireland, March, 1908.

Father Francis Daly had been Professor in Mungret College, 1891-1897. It was during those years that he compiled “The Child of Mary” and “The Ignatian Album”, both of which we have reviewed in the “Mungret Annual” on the appearance of new editions. “The Child of Mary” is still used almost universally by the pupils. On Father Daly's initiative the profits on the sale of some of the editions of this little book were allocated to the purpose of furnishing and decorating the sacristy of the college chapel, and this work, carried out under Father Daly's own direction, remains as a monument of his taste and skill. Aster leaving Mungret in '97 he worked for several years on the missionary staff in Ireland and afterwards in England. He never lost interest in Mungret, and remained to the last a steadfast and zealous friend of the college. When he visited Mungret a short year ago he seemed to be as vigorous and cheery as ever, and we were little prepared for the news of his fatal illness which reached us towards the end of September. The apopleclic stroke by which he was prostrated seems to have been hastened, if not caused, by excessive exertion in his missionary labours. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Francis Daly (1848-1870)

A brother of Father James Daly (infra) came to the Crescent teaching staff for one year only, 1887-88. On finishing his tertianship in Belgium, he was engaged in teaching in the Irish Jesuit College, when he joined the mission staff. In 1902 he was loaned to the English Province where he engaged in mission work until his death.

Born: 03 February 1878, Mullingar, County Westmeath
Entered: 14 August 1895, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 July 1912, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1913, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 02 February 1955, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1900 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1912 at St Andrew on Hudson, Hyde Park NY, USA (NEB) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News 30th Year No 2 1955 & ◆ The Clongownian, 1955

Obituary :
Father Robert Dillon Kelly
When Fr. Dillon Kelly died early in the morning of February 2nd, a long and faithful life came quietly to a close. He had just completed his seventy seventh year. The eldest of a family of four brothers, he was born on February 3rd, 1878 in Mullingar, where his father, Dr. Joseph Dillon Kelly, had an extensive practice. He was at school in Belvedere when still quite young, and later went to Clongowes. On August 14th, 1895 he entered the noviceship and had as companions Fr. Finucane and Fr. Barragry, who this year will celebrate their Diamond Jubilee.
When in Belvedere he was taught for some time by Fr. Richard Campbell, and on one occasion missed the memory lesson. Fr. Campbell : “Robert what happens to the little bird that can sing and won't sing?". Robert : “I don't know, Sir”. Fr. Campbell : “It must be made sing!” However, the lesson may have been impressed on him, and most of us can guess, there is little doubt that Robert learned it then once and for all. During all his life as a Jesuit, anything that he was given to do he did faithfully and well. One who was his friend from the noviceship days writes : “We were in the Noviceship together. He found it hard, more than most novices, but bravely went through, It was the same in the Juniorate. He found the studies hard, but kept on doggedly”. So it was through life. Whatever the work, he gave himself to it wholeheartedly and demanded a high standard of achievement both from himself and from others. Affectionate by nature, loyal and sincere, he made many friends and those who needed a helping hand knew the value of his friendship, for he spared no trouble to assist them in their difficulties. In Limerick, where he spent twenty-nine years of his life as a priest, to the many generations who passed through his hands in the School, the Choir, and the Dramatic Societies, he was always and everywhere “D.K.” It was a simple and spontaneous expression of their affection for him. When he would rise to speak at the Ignatian Dinner, his welcome was tumultuous.
Through the long years he spent in the Crescent he filled many duties. He was games-master when he came first in 1914; then and for many years afterwards teacher in the School; later a wise and selfless confessor in the Church. In all he was the same, keen, alert, devoted to his job. But I think he will be best remembered there for his work with the Choir and the Dramatic Societies. From 1914 till he left for Galway in 1943 he was in charge of the Choir, and none will dispute the excellence of his achievement. Perfection was the only standard he accepted, and he did not rest till he obtained it. Early in 1916 lie produced his first play, The Pope in Killybuck, with the boys of the School ; and those who took part in it learned then and, I should say, have never forgotten what good acting and good production mean. A born actor himself, he knew what he wanted from each one, and no detail of gesture or movement or tone of voice was too small to be insisted on. A friend of his writes : “I have seen plays produced by many, but none with the perfection of his”. Year after year, from then on, he produced many plays, both with the boys and with the Dramatic Societies attached to the Crescent. David Garrick and Little Lord Fauntleroy stand out in memory, but perhaps his greatest triumph was The Greek Slave. A new organ was badly needed in the Church but there was no money to pay for it. Fr. Dillon Kelly got permission to do what he could to raise funds. He produced The Greek Slave. It was played to packed houses for a fortnight in the Theatre Royal, and when it was finished he had the money for the new organ, In his last years he would still talk lovingly about that organ. He knew every pipe and stop and piece of timber that went into it.
In 1943 Fr. Dillon Kelly left Limerick for Galway. He was sixty-five, but his health was already beginning to fail. The story of his years in Galway is one of slow but steady decline, with many long spells of serious illness. To one who had always been busy and active the tedium of those years must have been trying indeed. Yet he did not complain. Quietly he adapted himself to his growing weakness. As the years went on he came to live more and more in the past, and loved to dwell on memories of early holidays in Galway as a boy, of Villas with the giants of the past, and of the many happy fishing days in Waterville. With the approach of Summer, memory often became too strong for him, and he would be stirred into making plans for yet one more excursion with rod and line in the old familiar haunts. The spirit was eager, but the tired body was unable to respond. He could but cast his line over the quiet waters of his dreams.
And so slowly, very slowly, came the end. St. James says “patience has a perfect work”, and I think it was in the patient, uncomplaining acceptance of his weakness that the true quality of Fr. Dillon Kelly was revealed. Quick tempered and often superficially impatient of minor annoyances, there was in him a dignity and a nobility of character that shone bright in his declining years. His touching, almost childlike, gratitude for some little act or word of kindness showed a delicacy and depth of feeling unsuspected by many who did not know him well. Of someone it has been said that nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it. I venture to say that nothing in the long life of Fr. Dillon Kelly became him more nobly than his patience in the years when he was failing He had been hoping that Our Lady would come for him on her Feast Day, and she did not disappoint him. May he rest with her in peace.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Robert Dillon-Kelly SJ 1878-1955
It is the lot of some Jesuits, rare indeed, to be associated with one house or activity for most if their lives. Fr Dillon-Kelly was one of these. He spent 29 years in the Crescent and, to this day, his name is remembered and his memory affectionately recalled as “DK”.

Born in Mullingar in 1878, he was educated at Belvedere and Clongowes. 1914-193 in the Crescent he was in turn, Prefect of games, teacher and operarius. But his main work was with the choir and Dramatic Society. As a producer, it is no exaggeration to say that he would rank with the leading producers in the world. His greatest triumph was “The Greek Slave” which ran to packed houses, and earned enough money to pay for the new organ in the Church. His declining years were painful in their inactivity and illness were spent in Galway, 1943-1955.

He was a great character. Quick-tempered and superficially impatient of petty annoyances, there was in him a dignity and quality of character which shone bright in his latter years. His greatness of heart which went into all his activities, and not least into his personal religious life. He loved Our Lady and she took him as she wished, on her own Feast Day, February 2nd 1955.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1955

Obituary

Father Robert Dillon-Kelly SJ

Father Robert Dillon-Kelly SJ, whose death at St Ignatius' College, Galway, is announced, was son of the late Dr Joseph Dillon-Kelly. Bom at Mullingar in 1878, he was educated at Belvedere and Clongowes Wood Colleges and entered the Society of Jesus at St Stanislaus' College, Tullamore, in 1895.

He studied Philosophy at Jersey, Channel Isles, for three years and taught for six years at Mungret and Belvedere Colleges before going to Milltown Park, Dublin, for his theological course.

He was ordained priest in 1912 by the Most Rev Dr Donnelly, Bishop of Canea and Auxiliary of Dublin, and completed his training at St Andrew's on-Hudson, Poughskeepie, USA.

In 1914 Father Dillon-Kelly began his long and notable association with the Sacred Heart Church and College, Limerick. Himself a talented musician, he brought the church choir to a high pitch of perfection and was also most successful in dramatic productions both by the boys of the college and by amateur societies in the city,

In 1943 he was transferred to St Ignatius, Galway, where he worked in the church as long as failing health permitted.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Robert Dillon-Kelly (1878-1955)

Of an old Mullingar family, had received his early education at Belvedere and Clongowes when he entered the Society in 1895. He pursued his higher studies at the French scholasticate-in-exile at Jersey and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1911. He made his tertianship in the USA, and on his return to Ireland was appointed prefect at Clongowes. After two years there, he entered on his long association with Sacred Heart College in 1914 and remained in Limerick for the ensuing twenty-nine years. His first contact with Limerick, however, had been much earlier, when he spent the first year of his regency at Mungret College, 1902-03. Throughout his long years at the Crescent, Father Dillon Kelly gave splendid service to Limerick and the Society. As a master of English or French, he imparted enthusiasm for the subject to his pupils. He helped his pupils to realise the impor tance of correct diction and clarity of expression, and did much to illustrate and implement his teaching on these matters in the debating societies and dramatics. His other notable work for the Crescent was his mastership of the church choir. He gave unsparingly of his time to voice training and the results of his labour soon became evident in the beauty and solemnity of the music of the Benediction services and of the Solemn Masses at Sacred Heart Church.

By the early 1940's, Father Dillon Kelly's health was visibly failing, His physique had never been robust and he was no longer able for the strenuous work attaching to his duties. So, he was transferred to St Ignatius', Galway where his work was less onerous but carried out with the same loyalty and fidelity as in former days.

Born: 11 January 1877, Arklow, County Wicklow
Entered: 01 February 1894, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 01 August 1909, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1911, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 24 May 1943, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

First World War chaplain

by 1898 at St Aloysius, Jersey, Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1910 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1918 Military Chaplain: VI Corps Rest Station North, BEF France
by 1919 Military Chaplain: 88th Brigade, BEF France

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 18th Year No 3 1943

Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart :

Father Flinn’s Death :
“So the grand old man has gone to his reward may he rest in peace. He surely did a man’s work in the great cause”. “I never had the pleasure of meeting Fr. Flinn, but from the many letters he wrote me I have a very vivid picture of his great sincerity and unselfish zeal in the noble cause for which he gave his life”. “What a worker, and what a record to leave behind him”. These are but three of the very many tributes paid to Fr. Flinn, by Bishops, priests, religious and laymen from every part of Ireland. Few of Ours can have been as well known, few so much respected as Fr. Flinn. His work of organising and running the Pioneer Association made for him contacts, many personal, others by letter only, but in them all his wholehearted love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was the inspiration of his Pioneer work, was manifest and recognised. He was a truly holy man, in whom the love of Our Lord was a very real and very personal thing. It was thus a personal matter for him that sin should be prevented, and when committed that it should be atoned for. In the curse of intemperance he saw what he believed to be the greatest source of sin in Ireland. and hence he set himself to work. heart and soul to fight intemperance, which so greatly injured the cause of Christ whom he loved. That was his Pioneer creed. That made for him the Pioneer cause a sacred one, for he believed it was the cause of the Most Sacred Heart, and in that belief he was so sincere that his sincerity impressed even those who criticised his methods. It was this sincerity and the zeal which sprung from it, allied with the courage which is
born of true humility, that won for him a deep respect, and often an enthusiastic admiration from all those who came in contact with him.
In 1922 when Fr. Flinn became Central Director, there was a membership of about 250,000 in 410 Centres. At his death the membership had grown to 350,000 and there were more than 950 centres. This great expansion did not bring with it any slackening in the very strict rules of Fr. Cullen. At the Annual Meeting last November, Fr. Flinn could boast that in his 21 years as Director there had been no change in the rules in spite of very great pressure being brought on him to make changes. That is a very remarkable thing, for in the growth
and expansion of an organisation there is almost always modification and adaptation. Not so the Pioneer Association under Fr. Flinn. It grew to be a movement of national importance, but Fr. Cullen's dying wish that there should be no change of rule was for Fr. Flinn a duty. The Pioneer Association today is the Pioneer Association that was founded by Fr. Cullen, with rules no less strict, observance no less rigidly enforced. Here again it was not just sentiment nor a mere hero worship of Fr. Cullen that made Fr. Flinn adopt so uncompromising an attitude. The Pioneer Association was the fruit of fifty years of tremendous experience in temperance work on the part of Fr. Cullen. Movement after movement to fight against intemperance had been started only to fail. The Pioneer Association with its very strict and very rigid rule was begun and was successful where the other movements failed. This success both Fr. Cullen and Fr. Flinn attributed to the strict rules and the strict way in which these rules were enforced. Hence Fr. Flinn was not prepared to depart in any way from a method which was proved by experience and by its results to attain the end for which it had been started. Rule after rule was planned to check what experience had shown to be causes of lapses in the past, and to bar excuses which made pledge-breaking easy. Fr. Cullen was fifty years at the work. His experience was tremendous. “I shall be a long time
in charge before I dare to set my judgment against his." Thus spoke Fr. Flinn at the Annual Meeting last year, and there is little doubt that it was this great loyalty to Fr. Cullen and to the spirit of the Association as founded by Fr. Cullen which made Fr. Flinn's long period as Central Director so successful a one for the Association and so fruitful of great work to the glory of God.

Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (Juniorate, Tertianship. and Retreat House) :

General :
Fr. Joseph Flinn, who had been resting at Rathfarnham, died on Monday morning, 24th May, deeply regretted by all. He had daily edified the Community by his cheerfulness and courage liable as he was at any moment to serious heart attacks. We offer his Community at Gardiner Street our sincere sympathy on their great loss. R.I.P.

Obituary :

Father Joseph Flinn SJ (1877-1943)

Fr. Flinn died in the early hours of Monday, 24th May, at Rathfarnham Castle, where he had been convalescing after a serious heart attack.
Born at Arklow on 11th January, 1877, he was at school in Liverpool and at Mungret before going to Clongowes in 1891, where he remained until December, 1893. During his stay at Clongowes he seems to have been very popular with the other boys, had a place on the school teams, both rugby a»nd cricket, and during the last term held the position of Vice-Captain of the House. On the day before he left, the boys showed their appreciation of his robust character by according him a wonderful ovation in the refectory.
He entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on 1st February, 1894, and after taking his Vows studied rhetoric for two years. He did his philosophy at Jersey from 1898 to 1901, and in the latter year became Prefect at Clongowes, first of the Gallery (1901-2), then Third Line (1902-3), Lower Line (1903-4), Higher Line (1904-5). He spent 3 years at Mungret before beginning his theology at Milltown, where he was ordained, priest in 1909.
On his return from Tronchiennes where he made his third year's probation in 1910, he started his successful career as missionarius excurrens, being attached first to St. Ignatius, Galway (1911-13) then to Rathfarnharn Castle (1913-17, and 1919-22). While at Galway he had charge of the local Pioneer centre, thus gaining experience of temperance work, towards which he was to make such a vital contribution in later years. In 1917 came the call to act as military chaplain in France during the great war. In spite of the marked distaste he had for the work it was all along more an agony than a service for him - he set about his new duties with characteristic conscientiousness. When hostilities ceased he resumed his work as missioner at Rathfarnham. till his transfer to Gardiner Street Church in 1922, when he was appointed to succeed Fr.James Cullen as Central Director of the Pioneer Total
Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart.
Fr. Flinn was thoroughly equipped for the great task which now confronted him. As a Missioner he had won renown both here and in England by reason of his tireless zeal, and his exceptional talents as an organiser and trenchant speaker. These talents were now pressed into the service of the Pioneer movement, which for the next twenty years and more, under his fostering care, gradually attained that commanding position which it holds to-day. Details of the remarkable growth of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association under Fr. Flinn's able administration are given on another page. Suffice it here to say that his name. which had become a household word in the land, will be ever inseparably linked with those of Fr. Matthew and Fr. Cullen in the history of Temperance. His talents as an organiser probably outdistanced those of Fr. Cullen himself. He was a great stickler for tradition, and much of the success he achieved was doubtless due to his allowing the faultless machinery created by the founder of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association to function undisturbed. Still the fresh impetus given the movement since 1922 must be attributed in large part to Fr, Flinn's strong personality, his gifts as a forceful speaker, the meticulous care with which he organised the annual rallies and most of all to the supernatural outlook which characterised his work.
Fr. Flinn was also a member of the Fr. Matthew Union and of the Committee of the Catholic Social Service Conference.
Just and conscientious to a fault, strong and purposeful by disposition, Fr. Flinn possessed a character of sterling quality. Completely devoted to the cause of God, hard and austere towards himself, unworldly, he showed himself kind and sympathetic towards others with a soft spot in his heart for the poor, the underdog. To an infinite capacity for taking pains he joined an ardour and enthusiasm for work which was infectious. Though for the ten years preceding his death he laboured under a physical disability of a very distressing kind, chronic heart trouble, which more than once brought him to death’s door, he continued his labours undismayed, and retained his courage and serenity to the very end. His devotion to the memory of Fr James Cullen was touching in its humility and self-effacement - when Fr. Cullen’s mantle fell upon his shoulders, he inherited as well that great man's spirit of his selfless devotion to a great cause. R.I.P.

Irish Province News 21st Year No 3 1946

FROM OTHER PROVINCES :

England :
Fr. Quigley, who is Senior Chaplain to the British Forces in Egypt, finds the names of other Jesuit chaplains in the Register at Alexandria, and among them Fr. David Gallery (1901), Fr. V. Lentaigne (1904-5) and Fr. Joseph Flynn (1907-14).

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Joseph Flinn SJ 1877-1943
The name of Fr Joseph Flinn will always be linked with those of Fr Matthew and Fr Cullen in the Ministry of the Temperance Movement.

Born in Arklow on January 11th 1877, he was educated at Mungret and Clongowes. After his ordination as a Jesuit, he was atached to the Mission Staff. He then served as a Chaplain in the First World War, and on his return was assigned to Fr Cullen as his assistant. He succeeded Fr Cullen in 1922 and for twenty years and more guided the Pioneer Association on its ever-expanding path. With his great organising ability and meticulous adherence to the Founder’s ideas, he gave the Movement an impetus which has spread its branches beyond the shores of Ireland.

Completely devoted to God and His Glory, austere towards himself, unworldly, he showed himself kind to others, especially the poor and the underdog. For the last ten years of his life, though afflicted with a heart complaint, he worked as hard and as cheerfully for the Cross as ever.

Fr Joe was possessed of a vigour and drive that was truly phenomenal. This was evident iin all his activities, as Prefect, as Missioner, as Pioneer leader, and was conveyed succinctly by his well known nick-name “The Pusher”.

He had tremendous fire. On the platform he would remind one of the Prophets of the Old Testament, breathing indignation, with fire flashing from hius eyes and his hand uplifted calling on the people of Ireland to follow him to the Holy Land of Temperance and sobriety.

He died at Rathfarnham Castle on May 24th 1943.

◆ The Clongownian, 1943

Obituary

Father Joseph Flinn SJ

News of Fr Flinn’s death has reached us as we are going to press, hence only a very brief notice of his life and work is possible.

In his last year here at school he was second captain of the school. He entered the Jesuit noviceship in- 1894. In 1901, he returned to Clongowes as a Scholastic and was Prefect successively of all three Lines. He took a very deep interest in everything connected with Clongowes, and regularly sent news of “The Past” to the Editor of “The Clongownian”.

He was ordained in 1909. He was immediately appointed to the mission staff and devoted his time to the giving of public retreats and missions until 1922, with an interval when he served as a military chaplain during the war of 1914-1918. In 1922, he was appointed Director of the Pioneer Total Abstinence organization, and gave all his energies to this work up to within a few months of his death.

As missioner and military chaplain he was noted for his unflagging zeal and his gift for winning over “hard cases”. He was a forceful and convincing preacher and public speaker. But his outstanding gift was that of organizing. For over twenty years the Annual Meeting of the Pioneers in the largest Dublin theatre was a triumph of organization. Perfect stewarding ensured smooth handling; of the immense audience. The panel of speakers was well chosen, and there was never any; flagging in interest. Even the smaller details, the musical programme that followed, the singing of the various hymns, all were carefully prepared. The result was always a most inspiring and enjoyable afternoon. Several members of the Irish hierarchy. who addressed these meetings were heard to describe them as amongst the most impressive Catholic gatherings they had ever seen.

This gift of organization was shown on some even greater occasions, as, for instance, the Jubilee of the Association, in 1923, when thousands of Pioneers brought by special trains from all over Ireland, marched through the city to the Royal Dublin Society's Buildings at Ballsbridge, where a monster meeting was held. It was shown again on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress, in 1932, when again, Pioneers in their thousands, rallied to the shrine of their Eucharistic King.

But it was not merely Fr Flinn's organizing ability that gave to these gatherings their success. An even greater source of inspiration was his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, and his constant insistence on that devotion as the mainspring of the Pioneer movement. In this, Fr Flinn carried on the tradition of Fr James Cullen, for whose memory he had the deepest veneration. On every occasion, Fr Flinn spoke of Fr Cullen. At all his big meetings Fr Cullen's portrait was prominent, and in recent years one of the nost striking feature was the throwing on a screen of portraits ( Fr Cullen, Fr Willie Doyle, Fr John Sullivan and Matt Talbot, with a reminder to the audience that these four men of God were all Pioneers.

Fr Flinn literally gave his life for the work for the Sacred Heart, as it was undoubtedly his exertions on those great occasions and many others that undermined his health. His reward will surely be great.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1944

Obituary

Father D Joseph Flinn SJ

The generations to come may well rate Father J. Flinn as the greatest of Mungret's sons and it is certain that he will rank as one of the most powerful forces in the new Ireland. His work was the work whose influence will be felt and recognised fully only in the time it will have borne its fruit. It is probable that. Father Flinn's name will be coupled with those of Father Mathew whom he so admired and of Father Cullen whom he succeeded and whose work he put on the lasting basis of an excellent organisation. To this work he came in 1922, prepared with an experience of human nature gained by prefecting boys in Clongowes and in Mungret from 1901 to 1905, by nine years as a missioner throughout the country, and by two years of service in the British army as a chaplain. He came to it with natural gifts of energy, ability in organising and direct forceful oratory. From within he drew zeal that was uncompromis ing and supernatural tenacity of purpose. His twenty years of office saw the Pioneer movement throw off its swaddling clothes and emerge as a national body of sure purpose, unwavering loyalty to its stated ideals and deadly earnestness in the pursuit of them. The Pioneers have counted in Ireland since Father Flinn took charge. In these labours for God and Ireland he wore himself out without counting the cost. The movement is his best epitaph. The apostle has been called from the vineyard. With such glorious work done, his must have been a triumphal entry to heaven. To his brother we offer our sympathy and assure him of our prayers. RIP

Born: 13 May 1867, Shrule, County Galway
Entered: 07 December 1886, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 1904
Final Vows: 15 August 1906, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 13 August 1923, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1891 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1893
by 1900 at St Aloysius Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1905 at St David’s, Mold, Wales (FRA) making Tertianship

Editor of An Timire: 1919-1922.

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education was at Clongowes.

Obituary by Father James Rabbitte
“Richard Golding finished his Novitiate at Tullabeg - Father (John) Colgan being Mag Nov - and he remained there for some years of Rhetoric. In 1891 he was in Louvain doing Philosophy, and then 1892 returned for his second year to Milltown. On 20 October 1893 he arrived in Australia for Regency, and all of his time was spent there at Riverview as a Teacher and Prefect. (It would seem that he had previously contracted pulmonary consumption and was sent home for care by Dr Cruise, and this had produced a change for the better).
In July 1899 he returned to Europe and went to Jersey for Philosophy. Then in 1902 he was at Milltown again doing Theology. After Ordination he went to Mold, Wales for a FRA Tertianship. In 1906 he was sent teaching at Clongowes. In 1919 he was sent to Belvedere as Assistant Director of the Messenger.
He was at leas six feet tall, thin, well-proportioned, features regular and pleasing, placid in manner. His method of speaking was slow. He had a sense of humour. It was amusing to hear his quiet, slow relating of an anecdote and listen to his dry little chuckle of amusement. His family at Shrule were amongst the most respectable and religious. Father Richard was straightforward, inoffensive and holy.

John B Kelly “Reminiscences” 1926 Clongownian :
“Another Rhetorician in my year was Dick Golding. I remember him, even as a student, as a wonderful essay writer, with an almost uncanny perfection of style about everything he wrote.”

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Richard Golding entered the Society in December 1886, and undertook novitiate and juniorate studies at Tullabeg. Because of poor health he was sent to Riverview where he taught, 1894-99. He was third prefect in 1894 and 1897, and second prefect, 1895-96, worked with cadets and edited the “Alma Mater” in his final year.

◆ The Clongownian, 1924

Obituary

Father Richard Golding SJ

The whole outer world, and with it our own ways of thinking, have changed more in the last thirty years than it did in the preceding seventy years. In those older days, I think, we thought less of money and of publicity, of advertising ourselves and our work. There were still many who found their chief reward in consciousness of work unnoticed and unobtrusive but lovingly and lastingly wrought. Such a world produced a patient, quiet spirit, a mind tolerant and quiet, not easily ruffled by the ebb and flow of fortune which seems to it to concern itself, as indeed it does, so largely with trifles.

Such, in my memory, was the Dick Golding that came to Clongowes about Easter of 1879, and such he always remained during the many years we were boys together there, and I am sure that the boys of after years who were taught by him, and listened to his sermons, must have felt the gentleness and nobility of his character-for he was still unchanged when I met him again in very different surroundings. I saw him in the hospital during his last illness. Entering the room, I walked over to the bed. holding out my hand, and he looked up at me with the well-known bright, clear eyes and quiet smile, and said: “I don't shake hands with my friends now”. He was completely paralysed and could not lift his hands. That was all I ever heard from him of his illness. It was only from the nurse and the doctor I lerned “what he must be suffering”. I always thought - though I never discussed the subject with him - that he looked on at the changing of the times with a certain sadness, seeing the older and more cultured civilization retiring before the advance of vulgarity - but still without any irritation or vexation - regarding it as part of the inscrutable ways of the Providence of God, who out of evil can always make good come. Sometimes he used to go to Galway for a week or a fortnight's vacation in the summer, and while there he was a frequent visitor at the workhouse, where he would spend a long time chatting with old men who, though not learned in books, were of the older order, pure and untainted in mind, faithful and true to all that is noblest and best. And it seemed to me that whatever the Galway fresh air and sea breezes might do for the healthful refreshment of one coming from the close atmosphere of the Messenger Office, Dublin, the hours he spent in that strange, old-fashioned world did far more to refresh his spirit. I sincerely believe that in all his life he never had an enemy - left none to speak evil of him after death. The danger is that his friends do not pray for him, saying: “Why should we pray for him; he surely does not need it!”.

Cara da Chairdibh

Born: 29 January 1835, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Entered: 22 December 1862, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 15 August 1873
Died; 02 January 1904, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows he was sent for a year as Sacristan to Galway.
He was then sent to Tullabeg, and the rest of his life in the Society was spent here or at Clongowes, normally in the role of Sacristan or Dispenser. He is probably best remembered in the latter capacity, as he was anything but extravagant!
He was considered to be a quietly loyal and faithful brother who have edification by his manner and his religious life. He died at Clongowes 02 January 1904.

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

◆ The Clongownian, 1904

Obituary

Brother Peter Kehoe SJ

The photograph of Brother Peter Kehoe SJ, which we reproduce in this number, will recall a familiar face to many past students of Clongowes · and Tullabeg. After a laborious and saintly life, Brother Kehoe quietly passed away on January 2nd, 1904. He had been long suffering from asthma, but he would never allow it to interfere with his daily work. Indeed, during the last days of his illness, he could not be persuaded to give up the keys of his office. The saintly old man always answered that he was determined to die in harness. On the very morning before his death he ascended with difficulty the stairs, heard Mass, and received Holy Communion. His strong will overcame all obstacles, and led us to believe that his end was not so near.

Brother Kehoe was born on January 28, 1835, and was baptised in the Cathedral of Enniscorthy by Father James Roche. He entered the Society in 1862, and came to, Clongowes. On the 20th April, 1863, he left Clongowes for Milltown Park, · About 1864 he went to Galway, but only remained there a short time - his services as land steward were needed in Tullabeg. Here he remained for many years, and few can tell the enormous good he did in his own modest way. His success on the farm requires no comment, it is known to all - wonderful economic principles ruled his whole life. He remained for two years in Tullabeg after the amalgamation, and then went to Milltown Park. In 1889 he came back to Clongowes as dispenser, and remained there until his death. For three years (1897-1900) he filled two important posts - he acted as land steward and dispenser. There are many stories about success gained through love of holy poverty. Those who saw the wan, emaciated face of Brother Kehoe felt that, though most generous in dispensing to others the good things of this world, he was a hard master to himself. A noble emulator of the sainted Brother St Alphonsus Rodriguez, and now his companion, we hope he will not forget us.

Born: 01 October 1887, Loughrea, County Galway
Entered: 05 May 1920, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final Vows: 02 February 1931, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 21 August 1953, Our Lady's Hospice, Dublin

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

Brother of Timothy McEntee - LEFT 1921

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

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 28th Year No 4 1953
Obituary :
Brother Hugh McEntee
When Brother McEntee went to hospital no one imagined that his health was to deteriorate the way it did. After a period of convalescence, he returned to Clongowes for a short time. We were surprised to see the great change in him. Clearly he had lost his customary vigour.
During this brief period, he could be seen making his way slowly along the corridor, trying to exercise himself that he might regain some of his previous energy to fit himself once more for his work as Sacristan, The boys, who always held him in high esteem, noticed his weakened condition and to members of the community they expressed their hope that Brother McEntee would soon be hale and hearty once again and be back in the Sacristy. But it was not to be, for despite further medical attention, he continually failed in health, finally in the Hospice of the Dying, on August 21st, he passed peacefully away, having received the Last Sacraments.
He was born at Loughrea on October 1st, 1887, and was educated there. As a young man he set up his own drapery business in the same town. After some time he sold out and came to Dublin where he was in employment at T. Lyons and Co., Wholesale Drapers, Chathan Row. Here he was remarkable for his piety and zeal, chiefly manifested by a striking devotion to the sick, as well as his constancy in assisting in the enrolment of large numbers of boys in the Brown Scapular. As regards. the latter devotion, he had great faith in the revelation to St. Simon Stock, namely, that those members of the Brown Scapular who died in the proper dispositions would be released from Purgatory on the Saturday following their death. Hence, it was that he prayed that he would die on a Friday, and his prayer was answered.
On May 5th, 1920, he entered the novitiate at Tullabeg. He remained at this house until 1927 when he was transferred to Clongowes. With the exception of the period 1938-1944 when he was in Mungret, Brother McEntee spent the rest of his religious life at Clongowes.
As Sacristan of the Boys' Chapel and the People's Church, he was a model of order, neatness and efficiency. He had a constant loyalty and an abiding interest in his work, and was always most obliging and charitable. The local boys, whom he had instructed in Mass-serving and as Benediction acolytes, were very devoted to him. The boys in the college looked upon him as a necessary part of Clongowes, where he was erroneously but affectionately known as “Brother McGinty”. A past pupil, now a priest in the Dublin Diocese, said that as a boy he was most impressed by the brother. This good priest confessed that in his public request for prayers to his congregation he unconsciously reverted to his student days and referred to “Brother McGinty”. No doubt, the good brother appreciated the slip.
Brother McEntee's earlier devotion to the sick revealed itself in is religious life by his thoughtfulness in sending Catholic booklets, leaflets and holy pictures to hospitals and orphanages, and these undoubtedly brought consolation and assistance to many souls.
May he rest in peace.

◆ The Clongownian, 1954

Obituary

Brother Hugh McEntee SJ

Many Clongownians will regret the passing of Brother Hugh McEntee SJ. He was born on October 1st, 1887, and died on August 21st, 1953, having given the greater part of a holy life to Our Lord's service in the Society.

Both as refectorian and sacristan, he was most painstaking and efficient. His desire to diffuse happiness and pleasure in others, especially young boys, was ever : active ; his keen sense of humour was at call whenever occasion demanded; his manner was friendly, genial. and kind. But more than all his other commendable qualities, one may recall his practical devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He never spared himself in order to have the Boy's Chapel and the People's Church always spotlessly clean and ornate. Every sacred vessel and even the least candlestick seemed, with the perfect lustre of each, to tell the Hidden God really present in the tabernacle, the true story of his own heart's adoration and love.

His piety did not begin merely when he entered the Society. Even as a young man, when he owned a drapery business in Loughrea, Co Galway, he had a remarkable zeal for the sanctification of souls. He was an active and eager auxiliary of the local clergy in the work of enrolling boys and young men in the Brown Scapular of the Blessed Virgin.

He first came to Clongowes in 1927, when he was appointed refectorian and here he remained until July, 1938. After six years in Mungret College, he returned to us as sacristan. His last illness was long and painful but his resignation to God's will was most exemplary. RIP

Born: 09 April 1871, Boyle, County Roscommon
Entered: 11 November 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 1905, Milltown Park., Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1912, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 10 April 1948, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

First World War chaplain.

by 1898 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1907 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1916 at St Aloysius College, Glasgow (ANG) Military Chaplain
by 1917 Military Chaplain : 5th East Lancashire, Witley, Surrey
by 1918 Military Chaplain : Officers Mess Park Hall Camp, Oswestry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 23rd Year No 3 1948
Obituary

Fr. Hugh Mulhall (1871-1893-1948)

Fr. Mulhall died on Saturday, April 10th after a few days illness. He had been visibly failing for some time before but had not been confined to bed. On Monday, April 5th, he got a heavy cold, which developed into congestion. He was anointed and received Holy Viaticum on Wednesday night and although he rallied a little next day, he was clearly dying on Friday. This was his seventy seventh birthday and he was very grateful to all the Fathers wbo celebrated Mass for him that morning. His sufferings were increasing but God mercifully put an end to them on Saturday afternoon. R.I.P.
Hugh Mulhall was born at Boyle on April 9th, 1871. His mother was a sister of The Mac Dermott, a fact which Fr. Mulhall never forgot and of which he liked to remind others. He was educated at the diocesan college of the Immaculate Conception, Summerhill, Sligo, from which he went to Maynooth where he spent about four years. All his life he was proud of being a ‘Maynooth man’ and he preserved a vivid memory of his contemporaries. He could tell after a lapse of nearly half a century which of them had got ‘a first of first’, which had ‘led his class’ which had come to high ecclesiastical dignity.
He entered the novitiate at Tullabeg on St. Stanislaus' Day, 1893. In due time, he pronounced his first vows and after a short Juniorate, he spent two years in the Colleges, one year at Galway and one at Clongowes. He was sent to Stonyhurst for his philosophy which he did in two years. He was on the teaching staff in Galway again in 1900. In 1903 he did his theology in Milltown and was ordained there in 1905. He went to Tronchiennes in 1907 for his tertianship under Pere Petit and was sent to the Crescent, Limerick to teach in 1908. As his methods of teaching were original but not calculated to secure success in the examinations, he was transferred to the Church staff. After a year spent at Tullabeg as missioner and operarius in the people's church, he was appointed a military chaplain in the First World War, in 1916. He never went to the Front but served as chaplain to hospitals and camps, at Stobhill, Glasgow, at Whitley, Surrey, and at Oswestry. The four or five years which he spent as chaplain were the most active and pleasant of his life and gave him a stock of memories and stories which he never forgot.
He must have been rather an unsoldierly figure and he was certainly unconventional in manner, but he soon came to show that he was a first-class chaplain. He had an extraordinary gift of interesting people in religion. He was very intelligent, quick and subtle of mind, unusually independent of notes and books. Like Macaulay, he could be said to carry his wealth in his breeches pocket and not in the bank. He had his considerable capital under his hand and could draw on it at once. He had a rare gift of being able to expound a question or situation in a lucid, orderly and winning way. He could show to a prejudiced hostile non-Catholic that even the most ‘advanced’ Catholic doctrines, such as the infallibility of the Pope or the Immaculate Conception, were sweetly reasonable and actually demanded by the general situation. He was devoted to the men and did great good among them. At the mess and in his general dealings with the officers, he produced a deep impression. A point of morals or a question of belief would be mentioned and the Padre would be asked for his opinion. His opinion was always received with respect, if not with approval, he could give the Catholic position clearly and cogently. He undoubtedly exercised a great influence.
In 1921 he was appointed to the Mission Staff. He suffered with increasing intensity from nervous troubles and after a period in a sanatorium in Scotland, he spent some years in Rainhill in the English Province doing retreat work. But his malady got worse and he was obliged to give up active work. In 1931 he came to Rathfarnham Castle where he remained until his death.
Fr. Muhall was emphatically a ‘character’, unusual and remark able in many respects. He attracted attention at once by his great unwieldy figure, with its indication of uncommon physical strength. Almost all his life, he enjoyed good health and never knew what a headache was. For a man with his leisure, he read extremely little, but he had a most tenacious memory and never forgot what he heard from others or learned from his own experience. He loved talking and could not sit in a tram or bus or train without entering at once into conversation with his neighbour. He had great skill in starting and keeping going a conversation. He would have been quite at home in the eighteenth century when conversation was the chief recreation of civilised men. But his conversation was always of a spiritual turn, and it was a proof of his special gift that he could interest anyone in religious matters. His great interest was the conversion of Protestants. He noted every conversion mentioned in the papers, he entered into correspondence with Protestants, he got prayers said for them.
Though he endured constant mental sufferings arising from scruples, fears, inhibitions and excessive sensibility, he was usually cheerful and patient, always ready to talk with a visitor, always bright at recreation. He told a story very well, had a very fine sense of humour. He was always most interested in news about our Fathers and Brothers. It need scarcely be mentioned that his eccentricities, due for the most part to the state of his mental health, did not make religion easier for himself or for others. He was a man of deep child like piety, the Sacred Heart and Our Lady being the chief objects of his devotion.
It is hard to imagine Rathfarnham without the massive figure who sat on the seat near the exit steps, impervious to east wind or rain, or who stumped up and down on the short side walk, leaning on his stick, or who sat for hours at a time at the window of the library, looking out but not at the landscape. He was looking into himself or into the past, for he was inordinately preoccupied with self, in the phrase of the old Greek philosopher, he made himself the measure of all things! It was difficult at times to resist a feeling of pity that such gifts as he undoubtedly possessed, came apparently to so little use. But God's estimate may be very different. We do not know the value that He attached to his suffering and patience. Fr. Mulhall never said a bitter or unkind word about another, he was always studiously mild in his criticism. One who knew him well for most of his life in the Society, described him as the most charitable man he had ever met. We trust that God has given him the peace of mind for which he prayed and sought so long. In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam. R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Hugh Mulhall SJ 1871-1948
Many of the Province will recall the huge almost unwieldy figure of Fr Mulhall which moved round the Castle during their Juniorate days at Rathfarnham.

He was born in Boyle on April 9th 1871. Having spent about four years in Maynooth, he entered the Society in 1893. During the first World War he acted as chaplain, earning for himself a reputation among the troops for his kindly interest and a special aptitude fro explaining difficulties in religion in a lucid and simple manner.

The War over, he was appointed to the Mission Staff, but the malady from which he suffered for the rest of his life soon made its appearance, and he was forced to abandon active service. He suffered from extreme scruples. This affliction he bore with great patience and humility, never heard to murmur against his lot, but grateful to God who gave him so many good friends among his brethren who tried to help him in his sickness. This cross he bore for 17 years.

He died a happy death on April 10th 1948.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Hugo Mulhall (1871-1948)

Was born at Boyle, Co Roscommon and on the completion of his education at Summerhill College, Sligo, entered Maynooth College. He was received into the Society in 1893. He pursued his higher studies in England, and at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1905, and, on finishing his tertianship in Belgium, arrived in the Crescent in 1908. Although a man of subtle intellectual gifts, he showed no aptitude for teaching and was soon transferred to church work at which he laboured conscientiously until 1914. After some experience on the mission staff, he volunteered as a military chaplain but never served outside England. After the first world war he returned to mission work in Ireland and was later back in England engaged in retreat work.

Born: 20 November 1873, London, England / Labasheeda, County Clare
Entered: 6 September 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 30 July 1905, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 2 February 1910, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 5 June 1954, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

by 1900 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1901 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 29th Year No 4 1954

Obituary :
Father John Casey
Father John Casey was born in London in 1873, son of the late Patrick Casey, merchant, formerly of Labasheeda, Co. Clare. He was educated in Mungret College and entered the Society at Tullabeg in 1890. After two years' Juniorate in Milltown Park, he studied philosophy at Louvain and Stonyhurst. A gifted mathematician, he taught for six years at the Crescent, Limerick, and at Clongowes before going to Theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained priest in 1905.
The following year he began his long association with Mungret College, where, from 1906 to 1919, and again from 1927 to 1933, he held appointments as prefect of studies and professor of mathematics and physics. He performed the same duties during the years 1921 to 1926 at St. Ignatius' College, Galway.
In 1933, Father Casey was transferred to Tullabeg, where he taught the philosophers mathematics and teaching methods to within a few years of his death, and was besides Spiritual Father to the Community.
To write an adequate obituary notice of a man who spent over 60. years in the Society, seems at first sight a well nigh impossible task, for almost inevitably the writer belongs to the older generation that knew him best in his prime or to the younger generation that knew him only in his later and declining years.
As one belonging to the former category, I shall try to give an appreciation of Father Casey's earlier years in the Society and supplement it by an account written for his Golden Jubilee by one who knew him, after his ordination, during his long teaching career in the colleges, and conclude with some extracts from the younger generation who knew him well past middle age or, perhaps, only in the sere and yellow leaf.
Those who were boys at Clongowes during the closing years of the last century or the opening years of the present one can call to mind a very unique set of scholastics who helped to mould their spiritual, intellectual and physical outlook on life. But among them all there was none for whom they entertained such a combined hero-worship and holy fear as Mister Casey, the powerful Clareman from Labasheeda.
Spiritually, they knew him or rather took him for granted for what he was : a holy man without any of the external trappings that are so frequently associated with the pedestal. Prayers before and after class, the Angelus at 12, but no “holy talk” in between.
Intellectually, he was par excellence the teacher of Euclid (as it was called in those days) which one was expected to demonstrate intelligibly on the blackboard or be sent for “twice nine” in default. Nor would it suffice to repeat a proposition “by heart”, as one unhappy victim tried to do until he was bidden to change the letters ABC to XYZ, with the result that he was reduced to impotent silence and found himself sentenced forthwith to the inevitable penalty.
Physically, he was the hero of playday walks, who always took a bee-line course, no matter what obstacles were in the way, and expected every boy to follow the leader at the risk of perishing in the attempt, 'or else be left shame-facedly behind nursing his wounds.
Not much of the “delicate” man was apparent in those days, and yet some years after his ordination he had to undergo an emergency operation, his life for a time had been in grave danger, and he survived only to become a comparative valetudinarian. But his spirit was not broken, nor his power of hard work, and he continued for over thirty years teaching mathematics, perhaps the first “Magister Perpetuus” in the Colleges.
Let another old pupil of Father Casey's give his impressions of him when, after his ordination, he fulfilled the dual function of Prefect of Studies and Professor of Mathematics for so many years :
“Looking back over a lapse of more than thirty years, one can see as clearly now as then how he dominated (it is the only word) the scene of activity in class or study hall. Other memories there are, indeed, of masters and boys and affairs, but it.can be safely said that of all who passed through Mungret at that time, there is no one who cannot conjure up at a moment's notice the vision of Father Casey striding swiftly along the stone corridor or appearing as Prefect of Studies at the head of a classroom without seeming, somehow, to, have come in by the door. And what a change was there when he did come! In the most restless gathering ensued a silence which could be heard, the hardiest spirit was reduced to his lowest dimension, and any vulgar fraction of humanity who might have incontinently strayed into a Mungret classroom instantly became a minus quantity.
Many of Father Casey's pupils who have since been called upon themselves to exercise authority of one kind or another, must have wondered enviously how he did it. For he used the physical and adventitious aids to pedagogy rather less than most Prefects of his time. Yet somehow he conveyed by a manner which, if we had had the wit to realise it, must have been sustained by a continuous effort, that if affairs did not progress with the speed and exactitude of a proposition in Euclid, and in the manner he indicated with precision, that then the sky would fall or the end of the world would come, or some dreadful Nemesis of the kind would await the unfortunate who lagged upon the road. ....
I doubt if Mungret has ever had or will ever have a greater teacher of Mathematics than Father John Casey. It is one thing to be a great mathematician and another thing to be a great teacher of mathematics; the combination of the two, as in Father Casey's case, must be very rare indeed. Without pretending to know much about it, it has always seemed to the writer that an expert in any subject was usually a poor teacher at least to elementary students. He knows so much that it is difficult for him to realise how little his pupils know, and it must be heart-breaking to find that there are some to whom the very rudiments of his science are inexplicable. At all events, Father Casey was the best mathematician and the best teacher we ever knew. Here again the achievement was psychological rather than physical ; we got a certain amount of work to do, carefully explained and well within our capabilities; it was conveyed to us as a first axiom that that work had to be done ; the question of trying to dodge it simply never entered our heads ; ergo the work was done and we passed our exams. One could almost hear Father Casey saying Q.E.D. when we got the results.
The greatest achievement of a master, however, is not to be found by measuring the results of examinations ; it is in the amount of respect he earns from his pupils. Father Casey carried away with him not only our profound respect as a teacher but our enduring affection as a man. For if boys recognise weakness and trade upon it, they also know strength and understand the proper and unerring use of it. We know that here was a man who had been given certain work to do and intended to do it for that reason alone....”

To conclude this brief obituary, over to you, Younger Generation :
“Father John Casey died peacefully on June 5th, at the age of 80. During most of his life he had to struggle against ill health. In his last years he was completely blind and so feeble that he had to be assisted to stand. But these infirmities of the body did not subdue his great and courageous spirit. He remained until the end as clear and fresh in mind as those thirty years his junior. His interest in and grasp of events both in the Province and the world in general remained undiminished. Always affable and gay, he was ready at recreation to join in any topic of conversation and the width of his interests was remarkable. Only three days before his death he was expounding the merits of Milton's ‘Samson Agonistes’. It is not surprising that this poem on blindness by a blind man should have made a special impression on him. When, however, Father Casey referred to his own affliction, there was never a trace of self pity. When he did mention it, which was rarely, it was always to note its humorous side.
Three years before his death he asked the Community of Tullabeg to join with him in a Novena that God might spare his eyesight sufficiently to continue to say Mass. But God required what must have been for him the supreme sacrifice. Father Casey quietly accepted. The memory of the calm face of the blind man assisting at Mass each morning will remain always with those who witnessed it.
Father Casey was too reserved and unassuming to wish us to catalogue his virtues. His spiritual children will always cherish his unfailing sympathy and sage and balanced counsel. In fourteen years of closest companionship the writer of these lines never heard him speak an unkind word. May his meek and gentle soul find rest and light at last in the Vision of God”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Casey 1873-1954
The name of Fr John Casey is remembered well and with affection and respect by many generations of pupils in our Colleges, especially Mungret, where he spent many years of his life. Born in London in 1873, and raised in County Clare, his life was no bed of silk.

He underwent a severe operation shortly after ordination which rendered him a veritable invalid all his life. In spite of his bad health, he gave a long life of valuable service to the Society, as teacher, Prefect of Studies, and Spiritual Father. For this last office he had a special aptitude – a clear judgement, an insight into character and a high standard of religious observance. A rector of Tullabeg once said, that as long as Fr Casey was Spiritual Father, he himself had no anxiety about the spiritual condition of the Philosophers.

For the last three years of his life he was totally blind and could not say Mass. This cross, as well as his long life of ill health he accepted cheerfully, as from the Hand of God. Fidelity to duty, thoroughness in work, courtesy to others, these qualities sum up the man.

He died on June 5th 1954 a model in many ways to succeeding generations of Jesuits.

◆ Mungret Annual, 1941

Jubilee

Father John Casey SJ

Its is now just thirty-three years as time has flown - the month of September of the year 1908 to be precise - since the writer entered Mungret for a term of five years. During a great part of these years Father John Casey was at Mungret - either in the capacity of Mathematics Master or as Prefect of Studies. Looking back now over that gap of time, one can see as clearly now as then, how he dominated - it is the only word - the scene of activity in class or study hall, Other memories there are in deed - of masters and boys and affairs - but it can be safely said that of all who passed through Mungret at that time, there is no one who cannot conjure up at a moment's notice the vision of Father Casey striding swiftly along the stone corridor or appearing as Prefect of Studies at the head of a classroom without seeming somehow to have come in by the door. And what a change was there when he did come! In the most restless gathering ensued a silence which could be heard, the hardiest spirit was reduced to his lowest dimension and any vulgar fraction of humanity who might have incontinently strayed in to a Mungret classroom instantly became a minus quantity. Looking back on one's own limitations of these days, one is almost tempted to call it the triumph of mind over matter; but it was not merely a victory in the age-long psychological struggle between master and pupil - it was a rout, utter and absolute.

Many of Father Casey's pupils, who have since been called upon themselves to exercise authority of one kind or another, must have wondered enviously how he did it. For he used the physical and adventitious aids to pedagogy rather less than most Prefects of his time. Yet somehow he conveyed by a manner which; if we had had the wit to realise it, must have been sustained by a continuous effort, that if affairs did not progress with the speed and exactitude of a proposition in Euclid, and in the manner he indicated with precision, that then the sky would fall, or the end of the world would come, or some dreadful Nemesis of the kind would await the unfortunate who lagged upon the road. And of course some inevitably lagged and of course the Nemesis did not come to them even in the measure they deserved, but the illusion persevered and the triumph persisted. It is only with the passing of the years that the realisation comes that here was genius in one of its most unusual and most remark able manifestations.

Once only in my time at Mungret did I see the alter ego breaking through the ego while he was at his own particular work. Be it said parenthetically that when we were out of class or study it broke through continually in the little we then saw of him. But this was a special occasion-he had had to go away for an emergency operation, his life for a time had been in grave danger, and we had not seen him for many weeks and did not know when he would come back. Then one night when, with an indulgent apostolic prefect in the chair, we were in study and studying many books not to be found in the curriculum, my next door neighbour breathlessly whispered the time-honoured formula of the approach of authority. It seemed incredible but I saw a dark shadow appear from the back of the study, stop at every line of desks, collecting various periodicals, while those in front of the line were quite oblivious of anything unusual. It was a scene of the utmost drama while it lasted and ended when, laden with books and papers collected en route, Father Casey turned round at the top to a thoroughly demoralised study hall, smiled broadly and announced “Cæsar has returned to his armies”.

I doubt if Mungret has ever had or will have a greater teacher of Mathematics than Father John Casey. It is one thing to be a great mathematician and another thing to be a great teacher--the combination of the two as in Father Casey's case, must be very rare indeed. Without pretending to know much about it, it has always seemed to the writer that an expert in any subject was usually a poor teacher at least to elementary students. He knows so much that it is difficult for him to realise how little his pupils know and it must be heart-breaking to find that there are some to whom the very rudiments of his science are inexplic able. Probably that is where method comes in. At all events Father John Casey was the best mathematician and the best teacher we ever knew. I write as one to whom the subject was always a great trouble and who would never have passed through the Intermediate without the assistance I got in Father Casey's class. Here again the achievement was psychological rather than physical ; we got a certain amount of work to do, carefully explained and well within our capabilities, it was conveyed to us as a first axiom that that work had to be done; the question of trying to dodge it simply never entered our heads; ergo the work was done and we passed our exams, perhaps not at the top, but certainly not at the bottom. One could almost hear Father Casey saying “QED” when he got the results.

The greatest achievement of a master however is not to be found by measuring the results of examinations - it is in the amount of respect he earns from his pupils. Boys are unerring in sizing up values in those who are placed over them - no psychoanalyst ever found the weak spots with greater certitude or more uncanny comprehension. What in another may be merely an amiable foible is turned to ill account so that it becomes overnight a serious difficulty to a teacher's success. The old Nannies belief that boys of a certain age are “limbs” of diabolical origin, is made manifest to the poor man's serious discomfort. We tried all these arts on Father John Casey but we never found the weak spot. He carried away with him not only our profound respect as a teacher but our enduring affection as a man. For if boys recognise weakness and trade upon it, they also know strength and understand the proper and unerting use of it. We knew as well as if it had been put into words for us that here was a man who had been given certain work to do and intended to do it if for that reason alone; we knew that outside that work no one in Mungret wished us more fun or amusement ; indeed we sus pected that if we scored one up on the Prefect of Discipline outside class and study hours there was a dignified and gentle chuckle from the Prefect of Studies. Father Eddie Bourke SJ, may remember a day when as a boy in 2nd Club he threw a laundry bag through the dormitory window so that it landed in front of Father Casey in the chapel quadrangle. When faces, poked out of the window, were horrified at this catastrophe, Father John gaily and accurately threw the bag up again remarking: “A bolt from the blue” - and went on reading his office. Various illnesses and short-sightedness prevented him from taking much part in our games. Yet whenever nowadays one meets a Mungret boy of the 1908 vintage the first question is “Where is Father Casey now?”

The last place I saw him was sitting on a bench at Lisdoonvarna enjoying a short holiday. He still teaches mathematics he told me - but nowadays to Jesuit scholastics and not to “the likes of us”. Anyway he has passed through all the burden of the day and the heats, and finds himself in the quiet of the evening time. That its peace may long endure as it does when the sun sets on the Shannon over his native Labasheeda, and that his prayer may help them on the more difficult tasks that now engage them as his instruction and example did long ago, will be the wish of all who passed through Mungret in his time, wherever these lines may find them.

DFG

-oOo-

We offer our heartiest congratulations to Father John Casey SJ (1888-'90) on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee as a member of the Society of Jesus, which fell due last September. Father Casey's name is a household word amongst many generations of past Mungret boys, who, we are certain, will revive their impressions of their school-days, when they read on another page the appreciation of their former Prefect of Studies by a distinguished past pupil of Father Casey, District Justice Gleeson (1908-13). Mungret sends her sincere good wishes ad multos annos to Father Casey, whose name is written in indelible characters in the annals of the college.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1955

Obituary

Father John Casey SJ

The death of Fr Casey on June 5th meant the breaking of a link with the past for many old Mungret men. What memories his death evoked, the vision of a figure striding along the corridor or appearing in a classroom to be followed by a hushed silence. Strict yet kind, he had many friends among the Past who will mourn his passing.

He was born in London the son of a Clareman, in 1873. He was educated in Mungret College, and entered the Society in Tullabeg in 1890. After two years juniorate in Milltown Park, he studied Philosophy at Louvain and Stonyhurst.

He taught for six years at the Crescent and Clongowes before going to Theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1905. The following year he began his long association with Mungret College where from 1906 to 1919, and again from 1927 to 1933 he held appointments as prefect of studies and professor of mathematics and physics. The following is a testimony of one who was taught by him

“I doubt if Mungret has ever had or will ever have a greater teacher of Mathematics than Fr John Casey. It is one thing to be a great mathematician and another thing to be a great teacher of mathematics : the combination of the two as in Fr Casey's case must be very rare indeed. Without pretending to know much about it, it has always seemed to the writer that an expert in any subject was usually a poor teacher at least to elemertary students. At all events Fr Casey was the best mathematician and the best teacher we ever knew. Here again the achievement was psychological rather than physical; we got a certain amount of work to do, carefully explained and well within our capabilities; it was conveyed to us as a first axiom that that work had to be done ; the question of trying to dodge it never entered our heads; ergo the work was done and we passed our exams.

The greatest achievement of a master, however, is not to be found by measuring the results of examinations; it is in the amount of respect he earns from his pupils. Fr Casey carried away with him not only our profound respect as a teacher but our enduring affection as a man”.

In 1933 Fr. Casey was transferred to Tullabeg where he taught the philosophers mathematics and teaching methods to within a few years of his death, and was besides, Spiritual Father to the community. In his last years he was completely blind and so feeble that he had to be assisted to stand. But these infirmities of body did not subdue his great and courageous spirit. One who lived with him for fourteen years re marked that he never heard him speak an unkind word. May his meek and gentle soul find rest and light at last in the vision of God.

Born: 12 July 1830, Trim County Meath/Loughanure, Clane, Co Kildare
Entered: 23 May 1858, Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare
Professed: 15 August 1868
Died: 29 March 1911, Mungret College, County Limerick

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was born at Trim but brought up at Loughanure, on the Meath and Kildare border.

At the time of Entry he had good knowledge of carpentry and building. In the 50 years he spent in the Province, he is in nearly all the houses, wherever a trusty man was needed to oversee and tale charge of a building project, or some important structural change safely through. So, he was at Crescent for the building of the Church there. He was also in Galway during the building of the Church there. Later he went to St Beuno’s in Wales during the construction of the new library there.
1887 By this time he began a special relationship with Mungret. He taught carpentry to a number of young men who came to the house to be trained as Brothers for the Missions. Later he went to Milltown as clerk of works for the building of the chapel there, and then back to Mungret to supervise the building of a new storey on the old buildings of the former Agricultural College.
Even though age had begun to undermine his strength he was still able to do a fair share of work by overseeing the work of others. He was a man of reflective and contemplative style, and his conversation often gave evidence of true insight and good judgement. Among the football and cricket students he was their oracle for the weather!
He was an observant religious, peaceful in his dealings with all, never querulous, and he bore the increasing infirmities of age with great patience. Winters became more taxing, but he always seemed to emerge from this season hale and hearty. Even toward his end, there had been hopes by all that he would be seen strolling thought the grounds and corridors. He said “If the east wind holds it will carry me off, if it changes I shall pull round again for a bit, please God”.
He died peacefully 29/03/1911, and after the Requiem Mass he was brought to the small cemetery and buried between William Frayne and David MacEvoy, and close to the grave of William Ronan.

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

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Brother Christopher Coffey 1830-1911
Christopher Coffey was born in 1830 at Loughanure, on the borders of Meath and Kildare. In 1858 he entered the Society as a coadjutor Brother. He had a good knowledge of building and carpentry, so during the half century he spent in the Society, he resided in those houses where building or structural works were necessary.

This he was at Crescent for the building of the Sacred Heart Church. Similarly he was in Galway for the building of the Church of St Ignatius. He was actually sent across the water to St Beuno’s for the erection of the library there. In 1887 his special connection with Mungret began.

In Mungret he taught a class of young men who had come to be trained as coadjutor brothers for the foreign missions. He interrupted this task to go to Milltown Park for the building of the chapel, but was soon back in Mungret to assist at the building of the new storey to the original house.

He was an observant religious “just before God, walking in all the Commandments of the Lord without blame”. In his old age he was remarkably edifying and cheerful under his disabilities.When hopes were expressed by his friends of seeing his familiar figure round the grounds and corridors for many more years, he used say “If the east wind holds it will carry me off; if it changes I shall pull around again for a bit, please God”.

He retained his faculties to the last, and fortified by the Rites of the Holy Church, he passed away peacefully on March 29th 1911, and he was buried in the cemetery at Mungret, close to the grave of Fr Ronan.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1911

Obituary

Brother Christopher Coffey SJ

Another of the old familiar faces has vanished from our midst. Few of our past students but will remember Br Coffey. On and off he had lived some twenty years in the college. During that time he had ever the cheery “good-day” for all, the big and the little, the young and the old.

Born at Trim in 1830, and brought up at Loughanure, on the borders of Meath and Kildare, Christopher Coffey entered the Society in 1858 as a Lay Brother. He had at the time a good knowledge of building and carpentry, During the half century he spent in the Society he resided in nearly all the houses of the Irish Province, wherever a trusty man was needed to take charge of a rising edifice or to see some important structural change safely through. Thus he was at the Crescent House, Limerick, for the building of the Church of the Sacred Heart some 46 years ago. Similarly he was at Galway, when the Church of St Ignatius was built, and he went later on to the College of St Beuno's, N Wales, for the erection of the new library there.

His special connection with Mungret began about 1887, when he taught carpentry to a number of young men who had come to this house to be trained as Lay Brothers for the foreign Missions, under a plan which was in trial for a couple of years. Later on he was at Milltown Park, as clerk of the works for the building of the chapel, and back here again when the new storey was being added to the old buildings or former Agricultural College.

As age undermined his strength he could still do his share for the general good by overseeing the labours of others. He was of a reflective and even a contemplative turn of mind, and his conversation often gave much evi dence of true insight and sound judginent. Among the football and cricket enthusiasts of the school he was looked up to as their trusted oracle of the weather.

He was an observant religious, and we may say of him that he was “just before God, walking in all the Commandments of the Lord without blame”. Peaceful in his dealings with all, he was in no wise querulous, bearing, the increasing infirmlties of old age with admirable patience: Last winter had tried him severely; but in spite of the ups und downs he would re-appear seemingly hale and hearty as ever. Even to nearly the end, hopes were entertained of again seeing his familiar figure stroll about the corridors and grounds. . But In his own philosophic way; he said - “If the east wind holds it will carry me off, if it changes I shall pull round again for a bit, please God”. He retained his faculties to the last, and fortified with the rites of Holy Church he passed away peacefully on Wednesday, the 29th of March. . On the following Friday, after Requiem Mass and Office, his re mains were borne to the little' cemetery, and were there laid to rest between those of Brs Frayne and MacEvoy, and close to the grave of Fr Ronan, where with them and some other fellow-workers he awaits the final trumpet-call. RIP

Born: 28 December 1873, Clogheen, County Tipperary
Entered: 07 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1908, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1911, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 10 October 1954, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

by 1896 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1897 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying
by 1910 at Linz Austria (ASR) making Tertianship

Editor of An Timire, 1912.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 1st Year No 3 1926
The Irish Sodality : This Sodality is directed by Fr Michael McGrath. It grew out of the first week-end retreat in Irish at Milltown Park in 1916. After the retreat, steps were taken with a view to the formation of an Irish-speaking Sodality for men. Success attended the effort, and the first meeting was held in Gardiner Street on Friday in Passion Week. The Sodality soon numbered 400 members. In 1917 a second Irish-speaking Sodality, exclusively for women, was established. In a short time it was found advisable to amalgamate the two branches. The Sodality is now in a flourishing condition, and has every prospect of a bright future before it. In addition to the Sodality, there is an annual “open” retreat given in Gardiner Street to Irish speakers. The first of these retreats was given in 1923 by Fr Coghlan, he also gave the second the following year. The third was given by Father Saul.

Irish Province News 30th Year No 1 1955
Obituary :
Father Bartholomew Coghlan

Fr. Bartholomew Coughlan Fr. Coghlan was born on December 28th, 1873 at Clogheen, Co. Tipperary. After attending Mungret College he entered the Noviceship at Tullabeg on September 7th, 1893. He went to Roehampton for his classical studies in 1895, and did Philosophy in Valkenburg from 1896-1899. He came to Crescent College, Limerick in the summer of 1899, and taught there until he went to Belvedere in 1901. In 1903 he went to teach in Clongowes, and in 1905 began Theology in Milltown. He was ordained there in 1908 and after Theology taught for a year in the Crescent, then going to Linz, in Austria, for his Tertianship.
After Tertianship, Fr. Coghlan spent a year in Belvedere, teaching, and assisting Fr. Joseph MacDonnell, in the work of the Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart. Then he spent three years teaching in the Crescent, followed by four in Mungret. In 1918 he came to Galway to work both in church and school. He taught in the college until it was suspended in 1926, when he continued on with his work in the church. For a number of years he was Director of the Irish Sodality attached to St. Ignatius.
After long years of unswerving devotion to all aspects of church work, but especially to the arduous toil of the confessional, advancing age began to make its demands on his splendid constitution. For a time he fought off these attacks and continued to live by the regime he made peculiarly his own, but in the end he could no longer rally spent forces, and died peacefully, fortified by the rites of the Church, on October 10th. He was laid to rest mourned alike by the community, to which his very presence gave a special, highly-prized character, and his passing a sense of irreparable loss; and by the people of the city whom he had served so long and so unselfishly.
We give below two appreciations of Fr. Coghlan which have reached us. That the writers are separated by almost a generation suggests the universality of the appeal of Fr. Coghlan's personality,
“A man of giant frame, and of giant intellect and amazing memory; a reader and speaker of the chief European languages, Irish, German, French, English, Italian, Russian and Swedish and a lover of the classics; a historian consulted by many on the bye-ways of history, a theologian whose advice was widely sought for, especially in moral questions; a confessor, who was a real anam-chara, a soul friend, to prelates and priests and people, high and low, from all over Connacht; a true patriot, in the Fenian tradition, one of the first priests to join the Gaelic League, and always at hand with his aid in the fight for freedom - Fr. Batt was all that. But it was his sheer honesty and sympathy with our common humanity, his kindly self-sacrificing ways with the poor and the sick, and his rich fund of humour, springing from its spiritual root, humility, that endeared him to all who were privileged to know him. From that root, too, came a strange childlike simplicity that made him abhor all pose or affectation and was the chief characteristic of his death-bed, when as men view all life from ‘that horizontal’, all pose or affectation falls away.
“We have lost a mine of information, an unsparing confessor and comforter of souls, a true Irish priest, and a real community man.
“Go ndéantar toil Dé. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam umhal uasal”.
“When I thought of writing something by way of appreciation of Fr. Coghlan, a remark of Fr. Peter Dwyer, who died some years since, occurred to my mind : '’ am a good friend of Fr. Coghlan's’ - and then, ruefully, ‘But Fr. Coghlan is very hard on his friends’. He was alluding, of course, to Fr. Coghlan's obliviousness of time, once he had induced you to sit down in the big chair - which he himself rarely or never used, ‘for a few words’. Fr. Coghlan loved a chat - it was his only relaxation in these later years when he became unable to move about freely; the wonder is that he survived, and with relatively good health, without some modicum of physical exercise.
And then while you were thus ensconsed you had the benefit of his varied knowledge the method was informal - the transitions, simplicity itself; but when you surveyed this mass, you found included - Russia and Sweden, and Germany and Italy, an episode from Michelet, a remark from Pastor. But these were only a fraction of his acquisitions; then Silva Gadelica and Séadhna and the Homes of Tipperary brought him home and it was home moulded his outlook, however extensive his other learning. With all that he was not merely bookish; his wide experience as a confessor had broadened the humanity in him which won him so much esteem and so many friends at home and without. Some of these friends were won many years previously, and correspondence continued when direct contact had long become impossible; his Christmas letters were well nigh as far-flowing as his reading - to religious whose vocations he had fostered, to scholastics or young priests who had won his intimacy while attached to the staff here. In his friendship for the latter particularly, I think, he preserved his youth.
His character and whole temperament was simple and straight forward; nothing studied or calculated attracted him; he was impatient of affectation or what appeared affectation to him and he reacted accordingly; if he had a ‘wart’ it was this - that he was possibly over-sensitive on this point.
The sincerity, which was instructive, was readily recognised; the sympathy and consolation he could provide in his equable fatherly way made him the confessor par excellence and priests and laity, having once discovered this treasure, returned continuously over long years for his guidance. These demands were no small burden, but he was devoted to this work and even towards the end - when his strength was evidently overtaxed - he replied to expostulations ‘some people will probably be waiting below who would find themselves less at home with another’ and he trudged to the box.
These appear to be the salient points in this review from one who only knew him late; if Fr. Dwyer's remark was true we only now appreciate ‘when the well is dry’ that the balance of payments for time expended was all in our favour his value was of things from afar. R.I.P.”

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Bartholomew Coughlan 1873-1954
Fr Batt Coughlan, as he was affectionately called, was a man of giant frame, giant intellect and amazing memory, a reader and speaker of the eight chief European languages, including Russian and Swedish.

He was a lover of the classics, an historian, consulted by many on the by-ways of history, a theologian whose advice was widely sought for, especially in moral questions. He was a confessor who was a real “anam-cara”, a soul friend to prelates, priests and people, high and low from all over Connaught.

He was a true patriot in the Fenian tradition, and one of the first priests to join the Gaelic League, always at hand with his aid in the fight for freedom.

But is was his sheer honesty and sympathy with our common humanity, his kindly self sacrificing ways with the poor and the sick, and his rich fund of humour springing up from its spiritual root, humility, that endeared him to all. From that root too came a strange childlike simplicity, that made him above all pose of affectation, and was the chief characteristic of his death bed, when as men view all life from that horizontal, all poise of affectation falls away.

He was born in Clogheen Tipperary inn 1873, educated at Mungret and entered at Tullabeg in 1893.

His life in the Society was spent mainly in the classroom and Church. From 1918 he was stationed at Galway, till the breath left him peacefully and effortlessly on October 10th 1954.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1955

Obituary

Father Bartholomew Coghlan SJ

Fr Batt Coughlan was born on December 28th 1873, at Clogheen, Co Tipperary. After leaving Mungret College he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg in 1893. After doing some of his studies abroad he was ordained in 1908 at Milltown Park. After completing his studies, Fr Coughlan spent a year in Belvedere assisting Fr Joseph McDonnell in the work of the Irish Messenger. There followed three years teaching in the Crescent College, with four in Murgret. In 1918 he went to Galway to work in both school and Church, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Fr Coughlan was a man of great intellect, and amazing memory. He spoke the chief European languages, Irish, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish, and loved the classics. He was a historian consulted by many on the byeways of history, a theologian whose advice was often sought on moral questions, a confessor who was a real soul friend to prelates, priests and people of all classes from all over the West. It was, however, his sheer honesty and sympathy with our common humanity, his kindly self sacrificing ways with the poor and sick and his rich fund of humours spring from its spiritual root, humility, that endeared him to all who were privileged to know him. From thắt root too came a strange childlike simplicity that made him abhor all pose and affectation, and was characteristic of his deathbed when all pose and affectation fall away. As some one remarked “We have lost a mine of information, an unsparing confessor and comforter of souls, a true Irish priest, and a real community man”. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Bartholomew Coghlan (1873-1954)

Was born in Clogheen, Co. Tipperary and at the end of his school days at Mungret College, entered the Society in 1893. He studied at Rhoehampton, Valkenburg, Milltown Park, and in Austria. He was ordained priest in Dublin in 1908. Father Coghlan's first association with the Crescent was during his scholastic days from 1899-1901. He returned as a priest in 1908 but spent only a year. He was again at the Crescent from 1911 to 1914. He continued as master at Mungret College (1914-18) when he left for St Ignatius College, Galway, where he remained until his death. By modern standards, Father Coghlan was not a great teacher. He was, perhaps, too learned to be a successful master. His repertoire of languages included Gaelic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish. But he carried his gifts modestly. He was universally loved and respected by his pupils. During his long association with Galway city, Father “Bart”, as he was affectionately known, was the anam-chara of the town and county. His spiritual direction was highly valued by the clergy, religious and laity alike.

Born: 14 December 1875, Killomoran, Gort, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1893, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 26 July 1910, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1913, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 07 March 1951, St Ignatius, Lower Leeson St, Dublin

by 1896 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1898 at Enghien Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1900 in Vals France (LUGD) studying
by 1912 at Linz Austria (ASR) making Tertianship

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online
Connolly, Patrick J.
by C. J. Woods

Connolly, Patrick J. (1875–1951), Jesuit priest and journal editor, was born 23 November 1875 at Killomoran, near Gort, Co. Galway, a son of Patrick Connolly, an illiterate farmer, and his wife, Mary (née Connors). He was educated at Mungret College, Limerick. After entering the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg in 1893, he studied in England, at Roehampton, and France, at Vals. He then taught at Mungret, Belvedere and Clongowes, and was ordained priest in 1910.

From July 1914 until September 1950 he was editor of the new Irish Jesuit quarterly, Studies, which he made the most important catholic periodical read by Irish intellectuals. It contained articles on social issues, philosophy, history, economics (all pertaining directly or indirectly to Ireland), and on the state of continental Europe. An example from 1933 is a perceptive assessment of Hitler by D. A. Binchy (qv). Connolly's only original contribution was a two-part article, ‘Karl Lueger’, on the militantly catholic mayor of Vienna (Studies, iii, 1914, 280–91, iv, 1915, 226–49). Having spent a year in Austria after ordination, he greatly admired Lueger, a man of humble origins supported by the petty bourgeoisie and industrial workers, as a daring social reformer and as an opponent of ‘the Liberals and the Jews’. From 1924 until 1949 Connolly was spiritual director of St Joseph's Young Priests Society. On 7 December 1939 he was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the NUI. Attached, for almost all his career, to the Jesuit house at 35 Lower Leeson St., Dublin, he died 7 March 1951 in Dublin.

GRO; Ir. Times, 8 Dec. 1939, 8 Mar. 1951; Irish Independent, 8 Mar. 1951; Irish Provincial News, vii, no. 3 (July 1951), 76–9; Michael Tierney, ‘Looking back’, Studies, xxxix (1950), 369–72; Michael Tierney, ‘Studies, 1912–1962’, Studies, li (1962), 1–8 (with portrait); J. A. Gaughan, Olivia Mary Taaffe, 1832–1918, foundress of St Joseph's Young Priests Society (1995) (with portrait)

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 26th Year No 3 1951

Obituary :

Father PJ Connolly

Father Patrick Connolly died on Wednesday morning, March 7th, just four weeks after an operation which had seemed to promise complete recovery. His sudden death came as a shock to many of his friends who had been expecting to see him back again in his familiar haunts. To the members of his own community it was the breaking of a very much cherished link with the past. For Father Connolly had come to Leeson Street in the summer of 1914, and had been Editor of Studies for the long and unbroken period of thirty-six years. Though his name no longer appeared as Editor in the status of 1950, he was asked to see the September issue through the press since he had in fact planned it. That was the last issue which came out under his supervişion. In December the new Editor very suitably produced an issue which opened with a most generous and sympathetic notice of Father Connolly's achievement from Dr. Michael Tierney, now President of University College, Dublin and for many years his most faithful and valued contributor. The issue for March had not yet appeared when the final call came. Fittingly enough, life ended within a few months of the end of an unusually long and fruitful editorship.
Father Connolly was a Galwayman, a native of Gort. On the day that he died Sir Joseph Glynn, another native of Gort, died after a long illness in Dublin. The two men, priest and layman, had been associated for many years in the work of Saint Joseph's Young Priests' Society, and their common interest in their native county may well have held them together in this good work for the education of young boys who wished to study for the priesthood. But Father Connolly had another motive for his life-long interest in this work. He himself had been educated in Mungret College, in the great days of Father Vincent Byrne's rectorship, and he never lost an opportunity of helping his Alma Mater when there was question of finding a suitable school for the education of some young aspirant to the priesthood. In later years it was a standing joke in the community to reproach him with having been the Rector's favourite boy during his years at school. He left Mungret in the summer of 1893, and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg in the following September. As a Junior he was sent for two years to the English Juniorate at Manresa, Roehampton, even then it was thought probable that his work would lie in literary activity. From Manresa he went to Vals as a philosopher, then to Mungret, Belvedere and Clongowes for the years of his regency. He was in Milltown Park from 1907 to 1911, being ordained in the summer of 1910. After a year in a Tertian in Austria, he came back to Clongowes as Master of English as 1912.
The Fathers of the Leeson Street community had begun to publish Studies in the Spring of 1912, with Father Corcoran as Editor. It was a false start - so false that it came near to being fatal. At the visitation of 1914 the abandonment of the whole enterprise was seriously considered, and one of the debts which the Irish Province owes to Father T. V. Nolan is that he decided to continue publication, bringing Father Connolly from Clongowes to Dublin for that purpose. Hitherto the Leeson Street community had been responsible for the finances of the new Quarterly. Henceforward the Province made itself responsible for any possible loss. But the appointment of the new Editor soon turned loss into gain.
The first ten or twelve years were the most successful of Father Connolly's long tenure of office as Editor of Studies. They were the years when the first World War was opening new horizons in social and international questions abroad. At home Sinn Fein was sweeping the country, and the Anglo-Irish literary movement of the first two decades of the century was giving place to a more actively political and national campaign. It was an opportunity for any Editor with vision, and Father Connolly's fellow-workers were never slow to remind him that vision was his special gift. Beyond all doubt the quarterly issues of Studies from 1914 to the early 'thirties were a fine achievement, of which lay Editor might be proud. Hardly a name that was known in .the country as writer or thinker is missing from the title-pages of those years. The Civil War took the heart out of the national movement from 1922 onwards, but there was still enough mental energy in the country to make men eager to plan, and put their thoughts on paper. Eoin MacNeill and his pupils had set men studying the history of Ireland from a new angle, and Father Connolly was always willing to print any article that could fairly be described as a serious contribution to the study of Irish history.
As the years went on, the split between the two sections of what had once been the Sinn Fein party tended to harden on party lines, and an Editor was less free in his choice of contributors. During the 'thirties the European scene was intensely dramatic in its swift movements, with the clash of strong personalities and the ever-growing challenge to Catholic principles. Some of the best articles printed in these years dealt rather with European than Irish politics, though there was always a steady stream of articles on Irish social and economic problems as well as on various aspects of Irish history. Then came the second World War, with the declaration of Irish neutrality. No Irish Editor found those years easy to negotiate, and Father Connolly's own mental and physical energies were beginning to fail. The astonishing thing is that he continued for so long to produce, four times a year, new issues of Studies which - though some of them lacked the old brilliance and effervescence - had still a wide range of interest for many readers. The end of the War brought the problems of the post-war world in which we are still struggling to live. It did nothing to lessen the economic difficulties which face all editors and publishers today. Father Connolly struggled manfully against failing health and ever increasing external handicaps. His successor inherits a fine tradition, and may be sure that he inherits also the good-will of many readers and contributors to what has become a national institution.
Father Connolly had been a member of the Leeson Street community for almost forty years at the time of his death, and his well-marked habits and mannerisms had come to be accepted as part of the permanent background of the community's life. In the city his friends were numerous, and they were most loyal to him as he was always loyal to them. It was at the suggestion of a group of these friends that the National University of Ireland conferred the degree of Doctor of Literature Honoris causa on Father Connolly in recognition of his services to Irish letters in the past thirty years. The ceremony took place on December 7th, 1939. In the December issue of Studies Dr. Tierney gave a rapid sketch of the various journalistic ventures that have been associated, at one time or another, with the long history of University College, Dublin. He ended as follows : “Though there has recently been a welcome revival in the kind of serious journalism of which Father Connolly is such a master, the last thirty years has been a hard period for quarterlies. Our present world is far less favourable to their survival than the very different one into which Studies was born. ... The continued existence of Studies at the level at once of scholarly inquiry and of appeal to an educated intelligence to which Father Connolly brought it under unceasing difficulties is a necessity both for the College and the nation it serves. He will, I am sure, ask for no better acknowledgement of the value of his work than the determination to continue it in the spirit he inherited from predecessors stretching back to Newman, and has handed on invigorated and enriched by his own long years of unselfish devotion”.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Patrick Connolly SJ 1875-1951
Fr Patrick Connolly was born in Gort, County Galway on December 14th 1875. He received his early education at Mungret College and after he entered the Society.

As a scholastic and as a priest he taught English at Clongowes, where he showed his fine literary taste, and high standard of writing. “Studies, the contemporary Review of the National University had been founded in 1912, and for some years run an editorial board with no great success. Indeed, things had come to such an impasse, that there was question of ceasing publication. To the credit of the Provincial FR TV Nolan was the decision to carry on, and to his greater credit and discernment was his appointment of Fr Connolly as Editor in chief. Almost immediately it began its course as a high class review, which was to have a great place, not only in the cultural life of Ireland, but also to be accepted by the leading Universities of the world.

Fr Connolly was a born Editor. He made the maintenance and advance of Studies is life-work. Questions of Irish interest, political, historical, economic predominated, but it remained a Catholic review and had articles of Church interest. This good wrk that Fr Connolly kept going through the gravest of crises – two world ward, the struggle for independence at home, the economic war and various smaller domestic storms. He did all of this for well nigh 40 years.

But Studies did not absorb all his energies. For many years he had a deep and practical interest in St Joseph’s Young Priests Society. He was the Spiritual Father and examined candidates and was accustomed to visit students in their various colleges. Personally he was a bit odd, but a great favourite, especially in Leeson Street, where he was somewhat of an institution. When he explained that the old “characters” of the Province had disappeared, his hearers would smile and remark to one another, that while he lived, the race of “characters”would not be extinct. He had a genuine affective love for the Society. As an appreciation of his distinguished services he received an honorary degree of Litt from the National University.

He died on March 7th 1951, after an operation which seemed to promise complete recovery.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1951

Obituary

Father PJ Connolly SJ

On March 7th we learned with regret of the death, in a Dublin Nursing Home, of Rev P J Connolly SJ. Born in Gort, Co. Galway, he was educated in Mungret, leaving here for the Noviciate of the Society of Jesus in the autumn of 1893. After he had completed his noviceship, he was sent to Manresa House, Roehampton, to pursue his studies in humanities, and upon leaving there, he continued his studies on the Continent, more particularly in France and Austria.

Upon his return to Ireland, he taught for some years at Clongowes, and in Mungret, leaving to begin his Theology at Milltown Park, Dublin in 1907. He was ordained at Milltown in 1910.
Two years after the foundation by the Jesuit Fathers of the quarterly review, “Studies”, Father Connolly was entrusted with its editorship in 1914. From the very first he brought new life to the pages of “Studies”, changing its rather severe academic tone to make it at once scholarly and topical. Almost every well-known writer and thinker in the Ireland of 1914 to 1950 contributed to it at one time or another, as well as a surprising number of writers famous all over the world. One cannot but admire the powers of persuasion he displayed suc cessfully for so long, as well as the tact and skill required from him in his exact ing task.

Like many great editors, he wrote little himself, but no one could excel the exactness with which he judged just what treatment a subject required, or the skill with he guided the first faltering steps in authorship of younger writers and castigated their literary efforts with a zeal no less kindly for its apparent sterness.

On 7th December 1939, the National University conferred on Father Connolly to the degree of Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa.

After thirty-six years of devoted, un remitting, and immeasurably skilful labour, Father Connolly relinquished the editorship of “Studies” in August 1950, and his death only a few months later was a loss, not only to “Studies”, but to the service of Irish literature, not easily repaired. RIP

Born: 02 October 1878, Mountjoy Square, Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1897, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 27 July 1913, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1916, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 09 December 1935, St Ignatius College, Manresa, Norwood, Adelaide, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

by 1902 at Chieri Italy (TAUR) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1904

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
He came from a well known County Wicklow family. Mass was said in their private Oratory at home for the family and those who lived nearby by priests from Milltown Park.

1899-1901 After First Vows he continued at St Stanislaus Tullabeg for a Juniorate
1901-1903 He was sent to Chieri Italy for Philosophy.
1904-1905 He was sent to Australia for Regency, and firstly to St Aloysius College Milsons Point
1905-1910 He was then sent to continue his Regency at St Ignatius College Riverview, where he was Third Prefect and orgainised junior Debating
1910-1914 He returned to Ireland for Theology at Milltown Park and then made tertianship at St Stanislaus College Tullabeg (1913-1914)
1915-1920 He was sent teaching at Coláiste Iognáid Galway
1920-1921 He was sent teaching at Mungret College Limerick
1922-1931 He was sent back to Australia and firstly to St Ignatius Church Richmond, caring especially for the Church of St James
1931-1935 He was sent to the Norwood Parish and he was not in good health at this time.

He was a gentle and amiable man.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 11th Year No 2 1936

Obituary :
Father Charles Cuffe
Father Charles Cuffe was born 2nd October, 1878, at Mountjoy Square, Dublin. In 1889 he went to Mungret lay school, remained there a short time. and continued his education at Ushaw College, Durham. In 1895 he returned to Mungret. He began his noviceship at Tullabeg, 7th September, 1897.
He made two years juniorate at Tullabeg, three years philosophy at Chieri, and in 1904 we fid him in Australia, Praef. Mor. at St Aloysius College, Sydney. Next year he was transferred to Riverview, where he remained, Praef. Mor., etc., until 1910, when he began his theology at Milltown Park. Tertianship at Tullabeg followed. After Tertianship he went to Galway, where he taught, and worked Sodalities up to 1920, when he became Assistant Moderator of the Apostolic School at Mungret. The following year saw him once more in Australia amongst the “recently arrived”.
For about the next ten years he was stationed at St. James' Presbytery, Somerset Street, as Minister, and Director of a vast number of Parish works. At the end of that period his health began to fail, and, according to the Australian Catalogue of 1932, he was stationed at Norwood (Adelaide) with the ominous “Cur Val”, appended to his name. However, he did not give in. He remained at Norwood, getting through no small amount of work to the end. He died on Monday, 9th December, 1935. R.I.P.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1936

Obituary

Father Charles Cuffe SJ

To those who knew Fr, Cuffe in youth his death at the relatively early age of 57 may appear surprising, as nobody could have seemed more destined than he to reach a ripe and even venerable old age. But already in the year 1931 he had a heart seizure of a serious kind, from which he rallied, indeed, but never quite recovered. Hence for his friends the end was not unexpected.

It was not, however, on that account the less mournful for it was impossible to know him and not to grow attached to him. He had the qualities that conciliate affection the natural qualities of kindliness, helpfulness, generosity and seren ity of soul, the supernatural quality of solid virtue and piety.

Born in Dublin, Oct 2, 1878, he was educated at Mungret College, Limerick, 1888-89 and 1895-97. He entered the Novitiate, Tuliabeg in Sept. 1897 and took his first vows in 1899. In 1901 he went to Chieri in Italy to study Philosophy. In 1904 he made his first acquaintance with Australia where he taught and acted as Prefect (principally at Riverview) till 1909. In 1910 he commenced the study of Theology in Milltown Park, where he was ordained priest in 1913. In 1915-16 he returned to Tullabeg for his Tertianship. From 1916 to 1920 he was on the staff of St Ignatius College, Galway. In 1921 he became Assistant Moderator in the Apostolic School, Mungret. The following year he took a last farewell of Ireland to find in Australia the final theatre of his activity and the place of his resurrection. He worked in St James' parish, Melbourne till the parish was relinquished to the diocesan clergy in 1931. He then went to Norwood. Shortly after arriving, he suffered that breakdown in health which the doctors thought must mean death within six months, but in point of fact took four years to complete its work.

Such is the dry-as-dust chronicle of events. It gives us little clue to the animating spirit of the life. Character and personality escape the chronicler of dates and occupations, yet it is just character and personality we would like to recapture and retain. The outstanding feature of his life as I remember it was a quiet cheerfulness which was proof against any trials; a steady dedication to the tasks of the day without any of that peevish fretfulness which dissipates energy and wears out the forces of soul and body; an extraordinary readiness to lend a helping hand to those about him. These characteristics seemed natural - an inheritance as it were or the result of early training. He was one of those rare beings who seem to have escaped the effects of the Primal Fall. No one could imagine him making an enemy or even losing a friend. He walked the quiet ways of life, doing good unobtrusively and winning affection unostentatiously. He was ideally suited to the parish work in which his last years of activity were spent.

The Melbourne Advocate in its obituary notice, Dec. 12, 1935, writes:

Fr, Cuffe needs no monument in stone to recall his fruitful labour for souls. He leaves an abiding memory in the hearts of all with whom he came in contact. For he was a most kindly and lovable priest, generous and deeply esteemed”.

I think it was Dr Johnson who said : “No man is on his oath in a lapidary inscription”. I suppose it is the same in obituary notices. But no one who ever knew Fr Cuffe will need an oath to accept this tribute. Every word of it rings sincere and true. It is the least, and not the most, that could be said of him. He was a good priest, a good religious, a good friend; and he will be remembered by all who had the privilege of his acquaintance till they too pass from the transitory to the eternal. May he rest in peace.

Born: 02 June 1857, Kilkenny City. County Kilkenny
Entered: 14 August 1887, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final Vows: 15 August 1898, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 19 February 1930, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

2nd year Novitiate at Drongen Belgium (BELG);

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

On the 2nd June, 1857 Fr. Forristal was born, and 30 years later entered the Society at Dromore, as a priest. The 2nd year's novitiate was made at Tronchiennes, after which he went to Milltown and repeated his theology with success. A year at Belvedere and two at the Crescent brings him to 1893 when he became Professor of the short course at Milltown. At the end of two years, Mungret had him as Director of the Apostolic School. Five years were spent at this important work. A year at the Crescent followed, and then back to profess the short course at Milltown. In 1903, he became Professor of Scripture. From 1907 to 1924 his time was divided between Crescent, Galway, Milltown and Mungret, discharging varied duties. In 1924, there was a very bad heart failure, and he passed the rest of his life in Tullabeg, “Cur, Val”. He died on Monday, Jan. 27th 1930. Death was very sudden. He had been at recreation, which ended at 5,30, in the best of spirits. An hour later, the Br. Infirmarian knocked at his door, and receiving no answer, thought it well to enter. He found Fr. Forristal dead. His head and shoulders were resting on the pillow of the bed, his feet stretched out on the floor. One boot was off, lying beside his foot. Presumably he sat down on the side of the bed to take off his boots. The effort of stooping was too much for his weak heart, and without struggle or pain, he passed to his reward. The Rector and Minister were at once on the scene. He was absolved, and received Extreme Unction. The body was still warm. It is a great consolation to know that he was able to say Mass every day up to the very end.
Fr. Forristal occupied nearly every position that a Jesuit could occupy, from Master of elements up to Professor of theology, and to all he brought the same steady, quiet energy that ensures solid success. He was a very observant, excellent religious. If one would single out any one of the qualities that adorned his life it would certainly he the unfailing good humour that accompanied him wherever he went, and endeared him to all who had the good fortune to know him and live in the same house with him.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father James Forristal 1857-1930
Fr James Forristal was in Kilkenny on June 2nd 1857 when he was already a priest. Thirty years later he entered the Society as a novice at Dromore.

For two separate periods he was a professor at Milltown Park, first as Professor of the Shorts 1893-1895, and then from 1900-1907 as Professor of Scripture. He also spent five years as Director of the Apostolic School Mungret. Having spent some years in various capacities at the Crescent, Galway and Milltown, in 1924, he had a stroke which invalided him, and he spent the remaining 6 years of his life in Tullabeg.

Death came very suddenly on Monday January 27th as he left recreation at 5.30 in the best of spirits and apparently in good health. An hour later, the Brother Infirmarian found him dead, head and shoulders resting on the bed, with one leg off, as is the effort of bending down was too much for his weak heart.The Rector and Minister were soon on the scene. He was absolved and anointed, the body being still warm. He had been able to say Mass every day up to the end.

He had led a busy and industrious life in the Society, carrying out his various duties with a quiet energy, which ensures solid success. An observant religious, he was endowed with unfailing good humour which assisted him greatly in his work, and endeared him to the different communities in which he had lived.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1930

Obituary

Father James Forristal SJ

It is many years since Fr Forristal came to Mungret. He was here about thirty years ago. He is well remembered by the boys who were here then. He was for a time Moderator of the Apostolic School and Director of the BVM Sodality. Having left Mungret, he taught Theology for some time at Milltown Park, and was for a long time attached to the Sacred Heart Church, Limerick. He was for a time in charge of the week-end Retreats at Milltown. For many years he was in weak health, but he always kept his cheerfulness. He was known widely throughout Ireland, and loved for his genial kindly character and unfailing courtesy.

His death occurred rather suddenly at Tullabeg, in March. 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 Commnnity

Father James Forristal (1857-1930)

Was born in Kilkenny and was a secular priest when he entered the Society in 1877. He was a member of the Crescent community, 1891-1893, 1900-1901 and 1907-1915. Father Forristal was sometime professor of theology at Milltown Park and for five years superior of the Apostolic School of Mungret College.

Born: 20 August 1862, Rathmore, County Kerry
Entered: 02 February 1882, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 01 August 1897
Final Vows: 02 February 1899, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 20 February 1943, St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales

Came to Australia 1889 for Regency
by 1898 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1902 at St Aloysius, Galle, Sri Lanka Mission (BELG) teaching at Seminary
by 1923 at St Wilfred’s Preston England (ANG) working
by 1943 at St Beuno’s, St Asaph, Wales (ANG) health

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
A highly intelligent and interesting man, Denis Murphy began his career in the Society in 1882, and after initial Jesuit studies arrived at Riverview for regency in December 1888. He taught the public exam classes in Latin, Greek, French and mathematics, and was an assistant prefect of discipline until 1893. In the years 1893-94 he taught the lower classes at St Patrick's College before returning to Ireland for theology After tertianship he spent time in Ceylon and England.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 10th Year No 3 1935

Works by Father Denis J Murphy SJ :

1. “English Idioms and Pronunciation” - Written for Indian students of English. It gives in parallel columns incorrect and correct English idioms. A pamphlet of 25 pages, very helpful for schools in India
2. “Current Errors in English History” - Two booklets, of about 100 pages each, give true history of important events according to best historians, and show how false is the Protestant version.

Irish Province News 18th Year No 2 1943

Obituary :
Father Denis Murphy SJ (1862-1943)
Fr. Murphy's death occurred at St. Beuno's College, St. Asaph, North Wales, on the morning of 20th February. After spending some time in a Preston Nursing Home he had been transferred to St. Beuno's last summer and, the' unable to offer Mass since 2nd June, he kept up his former interests and maintained contact with Preston, the scene of his labours for the twenty years previous to his death, as well as with the Province. On the very morning of his death Fr. Socius received a letter from the Brother who was looking after him, reporting Fr Murphy's anxiety to give full information of the Masses he had been saying up to his illness and mentioning that he still retains his buoyancy and good spirits and begs to be kindly remembered to the Provincial and the community at Gardiner Street.
Born at Rathmore, Co. Kerry, in 1862, he entered the Society at Milltown Park, Dublin, on February 2nd, 1862, and spent five years as master in Melbourne before pursuing his theological studies. He was ordained priest by the late Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, in 1897, and after occupying the post of Prefect of Studies at St. Ignatius' College, Galway, for three years, volunteered for school work in Galle, Ceylon, then under the care of the Belgian Jesuits. Monsignor Van Reeth, S.J., Bishop of Galle, had come to Europe in 1901 in search of a Head for his recently established school for native boys. Father Murphy offered himself for the position. Under his tactful and talented management; the college, from being a collection of mere floorless huts, where boys were taught the elements of the three Rs, became a secondary school of distinction, St. Aloysius College, where pupils were prepared for the Senior School Certificate of Cambridge. After twenty years of unbroken service in the tropics Father Murphy was compelled through ill-health to return to Ireland in 1922. In the autumn of that year began his twenty years' association with the parish of St. Walburge's of Preston, where his priestly zeal and remarkable gentleness of disposition won him all hearts. The diamond jubilee of his entrance into religion was made the occasion last February, of remarkable popular rejoicings in Lancashire.
Fr. John Delaney has kindly set down the following details of Fr Murphy's work in Ceylon : “On his way home to Ireland from Australia for his theology, Mr Murphy's boat called at Colombo. While on shore he visited the Irish Oblate father who was then Parish Priest at St. Philip Neri’s the Garrison Church of the town. Chatting about Mission work on the Island, the Oblate father impressed so much on Mr. Murphy's mind the crying need of English speaking missionaries in such a place that he determined to apply to his Superiors for permission to return as a priest and work in Ceylon. He was strengthened all the more in his desire, as he found that the Society had two dioceses Galle in the South and Trincomali in the East of the Island, as well as the papal Seminary in the Hill Capital, Kandy, where the future clergy of India and Ceylon were being formed by the Jesuit Fathers.
During his tertianship he offered himself to the Provincial for Mission work in Ceylon, His generous offer was accepted, though Fr. Murphy heard no more about it for some time. On his return to Ireland he was appointed to Galway and asked to work up the school there. Many there are to-day who still remember and speak with admiration of the untiring zeal and the fine spirit of work he showed at St. Ignatius.
While Fr. Murphy was working in Galway the Belgian Jesuit Bishop, Dr. Joseph Van Reeth, who was in charge of the Galle Diocese Ceylon, came to Rome on his ad limina visit. While touring Europe in quest of subjects who would help him to found and work up a College in his diocese - a project very dear to his heart - he applied to the Irish Provincial, who remembering the Tertian's generous offer, placed the Bishop's request before him. Fr. Murphy packed up and set sail for the East, accompanied by as German Scholastic, who had joined the English Province for Mission work. That was in 1901. His work was to continue till 1921.
Fr. Murphy's activities in Ceylon can be placed under two heads : (1) the educational, or (2) the directly spiritual :
Arriving in Galle and taking charge of the Boys' School that had a roll of 82 pupils, he commenced his solid, persevering, self-sacrificing work that was to culminate in the great St. Aloysius' College of to-day - a fully equipped Secondary School with Elementary and Commercial Branches complete, side by side with an up-to-date Scientific Department containing a magnificent Laboratory that is regarded as one of the best in the Island.
Getting down to the very rudiments, Fr. Murphy began to lay the solid foundation of a thorough grasp of the English tongue for which the pupils of St. Aloysius' College became so renowned in later years. Parsing, analysis, rich vocabulary and correct idiom he hammered at continuously in season and out of season. People saw the wisdom of his plan and he himself was greatly encouraged when at the end of the first year he succeeded in getting his two Candidates through the Senior Local Cambridge Examination.
Then, he set about training his own pupils, first as monitors then as teachers, some of whom he sent to the Training College, gradually staffing the school with his own past pupils. During his regime he succeeded in capturing twice the much-coveted Government scholarship offered in open competition to all the Colleges of the Island. Before he returned to Ireland he had the satisfaction of seeing over 500 boys housed in a magnificent set of buildings the new St. Aloysius College-designed and completed on really oriental lines. His remarkable spirit of work had a contagious quality, too. His Old Boys testify even, to-day to that, and assert that with his great slogan "Certa Viriliter" emblazoned on the College Coat of Arms as their motto. Fr. Murphy really infused a genuine spirit of work into their lives. His directly spiritual work was equally successful. Starting off with a highly intensified spiritual life himself and remarkable for his spirit of prayer, love of poverty, penitential practises - rarely did he sleep on a bed - he gathered around him souls whose great desire was to be disciples of The Master. He was loved by the children for the wondrous charm of his simplicity. Converts reverenced him as their father. Children of Mary in the Convent and the College were anxious to place themselves under his spiritual direction. Members of religious congregations, many of whom hailed from Ireland, drew inspiration for their lives from his word and his example. His kindness, gentleness and discernment, his Christlike demeanour were an unfailing attraction for all.
For many years he crossed over regularly to Madras for the Annual Retreat of the Irish Presentation Nuns. Their first Convent in Madras was an offshoot of Rahan near Tullabeg. The former Rahan Parish Priest was a brother of the late Archbishop of Madras. These were the links between the two communities. From humble beginnings these Irish Presentation Nuns gradually developed their influence till to-day they are a power in the land through their schools, convents and colleges including the famous Training College of Madras, where the foundations of Catholic education of South China are so well laid.
The secret of Fr. Murphy's success lay in those supernatural qualities which his late Jesuit Superior in Galle discerned when he spoke of him as “a genuine religious and a very saintly man”. The same encomium as was paid twenty years after, when a late Provincial of England alluded to him as “the saint of St. Walburge's” R.I.P.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Denis Murphy SJ 1862-1943
On his way home from Australia, Mr Denis Murphy – as he was then called – called in at Colombo, and was much struck by the lack of priests there. He volunteered for the Mission of Ceylon. His offer was accepted in 1900 on the appeal of the Bishop of Galle for a man to run his recently established school for native boys. Under his management, the school, from being a mere collection of floorless huts became a secondary school of distinction, the present College of St Aloysius. For twenty years Fr Murphy worked in Ceylon.

Then through ill health he returned to Ireland, and he worked for another twenty years on the English Mission at Preston. He celebrated his Diamond Jubilee as a Jesuit in 1942, having been born at Rathmore in Kerry in 1862.

He died at St Beuno’s on February 20th 1943, leaving behind a permanent monument to his zeal in the College of St Aloysius, Ceylon.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1902

Letters from Our Past

Father Denis Murphy SJ

Ceylon.

A Jesuit. Father. well known to many .. of our students, and one who takes a great interest in the apostolic school, writes from Galle, Ceylon :

“Some six years ago this diocese had only six Catholic schools. Now there are thirty-six, each & source of numerous conversions and fonning the nucleus of a Chris tian community. The total number of children now attending the Catholic schools is about 2,500; six years ago it did not exceed 700,

We have, however, numerous difficulties to contend against. The Buddhists are encouraged and organised by European spiritualists, like Colonel Alcot and Miss Besant. Then there is the bitter opposition and bigotry of the. Protestants, who have plenty of money and have been in the field a hundred years before us. The Catholics are: poor, and find it difficult to support the priests or teachers. Above all, the workers are too few. Imagine thirty-six schools and forty-two churches and chapels, many of them thirty or sixty miles apart, worked by some eight priests ! Thus it happens that Catholic teachers and children are often months without seeing a priest. And it occurs again and again that schools decay and Catholics 'turn Protestant and Buddhist owing to the want of a priest to look after them.

But wherever a priest is the school fourishes and conversions multiply. Down at Matura, five years ago, there were two flourishing Wesleyan schools. Rev. Fr Standaert SJ, then opened his school of two boys in the church verandah, Now Fr. Standaert's school numbers one hundred and fifty children ; of the Wesleyan schools, one is fast dying, the other already dead.

The climate though hot, is wholesoine and invigorating, sea or land breezes nearly always blow; while our diet, dress, and houses are well adapted to a tropical climate. Hence, I feel the heat less than during an Australian summer”.

-oOo-

The same writer says in another letter :

“The Catholics, having endured a terrible persecution under Dutch Calvinists for 150 years up to the year 1800, are now fast multiplying. Their number at present is about a quarter of a million ; Trotestants are 60,000; the rest, Some 3,000,000, are Buddhists and Mohammedans. This (locese has over 7.coo Catholics scattered over an area as Targe as Munster. Two hundred converts are made yearly. In this diocese we have only twelve priests and need help Dadly. The Singhalese are a gentle loveable race, pos sessing an eastern refinement. Their modesty and humility seem to fit them admirably for the reception of Christianity. Here in Galle a higher Catholic school is sorely needed to keep our boys from Buddhist and Protestant schools. We teach from the alphabet to Senior Cambridge.

Some 'twelve months ago this (St Aloysius), school had a little over one hundred pupils, there are now over two hundred. About half are Catholics, the rest are Buddhists, Mohainmedans and Protestants. Gentle, good, ainiable boys they are. We are getting converts amongst them. About a dozen are now preparing for baptism. The scenery of Ceylon is beautiful, especially around old Kandy, the hill city of the kings, which I visited lately”.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1904

Letters from Our Past

Father Denis Murphy SJ

Ceylon.
“I was very glad to hear that you hope to be able soon to send help to Galle. The need is great, and the harvest is ripe. English-speaking priests are sorely needed in Ceylon and India. First, as English teachers in colleges. Second, as Preachers in churches Thirdly, because Continental priests don't well understand British character, ideas and methods, which of course permeate British Colonies. This is certainly an agreeable mission, with. many thousaud Pagans awaiting the light. Caste males no difficulty here; but is a terrible barrier in India, I am sorry I cannot write more, as I hear this eve ping the Singhalese chart of the Via Crucis in the native tongue, while our pious congregation, in many-coloured native costumes, gather in. Still we are only one in thirty-five of the population of Galle. There is great room for conversions. So pray for me with my littie Catholics and non-Catholics.

NOTE - Though Father Murphy is not a Past Student, we think his letter will interest many of our readers, es pecially those who remember him in Galway.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1905

Letters from Our Past

Father Denis Murphy SJ

A great friend of the Apostolic School, now a missioner in Ceylon, writes from St Aloysius College, Gaile

Ceylon
My dusky lads admire the Mungret photos and would like to be in such a grand college. In Ceylon, though the Protestants have built many fine Colleges, the Catholics have only one large College building - St Joseph's, Colombo, but we hope to have a fine college built in Galle very soon.

Of my 240 boys about half are Buddhists and Mohammedans, good little fellows, with the natural law writ clear and deep. Few leave us without Catholic principles and a desire to embrace the true faith, but parents oppose, and helpless boys must prudently yield now; later on we hope they will follow their convictions. We must rely for converts chiefly on the young, the old Buddhists being too corrupt in heart and mind.

Our rival colleges here are the Anglican, the Wesleyan with some 400 pupils, and the Buddhist College supported hy English Theosophists. The latter college was fast dying last year and nearly all its pupils were leaving for St Aloysius' College; but Colonel Olcott came, bought up a large building, bronght out a Cambridge MA, and now that Buddhist institution flourishes.

It is difficult to exaggerate the need of English-speaking priests in India and Ceylon. English education is now spreading rapidly. Every bishop has a college in his diocese and naturally requires as teachers those whose mother tongue is English. Amongst Europeans here, too, there is great need of priests of their own nationality,

So you see there is a splendid field of labour open to Mungret in these lands.

The bishop of Kandy and a Singhalese priest are just giving a mission here. The dialogues, in which the private lakes the rôle of a Buddhist or Protestant asking for information from the bishop, are very interesting and instructive for the people. The bishop, an Italian, learned this plan from the Jesuits in Rome,

-oOo-

The same writer, in another place, sends the following most interesting items :

The people of this country, until some three months since, were cursed by drunkenness, leading to countless murders. But a temperance movement, like Father Matthew's, has spread through the island in an extraordinary manner, and already public houses and law courts are empty; publicans and lawyers are in poverty. For a Buddhist people it is marvellous. They have watchers near every public house, and pledge-breakers are boy. cotted and macle to take on their backs stones or baskets of sand to the Buddhist temples.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1908

Letters from Our Past

Father Denis Murphy SJ

Ceylon - Rev D Murphy., writes from Galle:

We need English), or still better, Irish, aid very badly here, especially for college work. We have now a nice college of some 300 dusky lads and my poor self the only Paddy! We have white boys, chiefly of Dutch descent, called Burghers, and yellow boys - Singhalese and Portuguese - with many black boys of Tamil blood, The latter are industrious when made to be, and by nature very. gentle and obedient.

The Eastern memory is very good. The mind is acute but lacks reasoning power. All these qualities of mind and character are improving under European education.

Lying and theft seem a second nature to young and old here - quite shocking at first. But our boys quickly learn that “honesty is the best policy” in word and deed; so I find them now truthful and honest when they find both esteemed and rewarded; while the opposite bring punishment and disgrace. Amongst my 300 boys I have not had for many months a complaint of loss of books (stolen), which was quite a plague formerly. Our Catholic boys have much piety.

At games we do well. The college holds the champion ship for foothall over the Buddhist, Anglican, and Wesleyan colleges - past and present. The Aloysian club holds the foolball championship of Galle: Aided by four old boys the college played an excellent team of eleven English officers and men from HMS Sealark; and after a hard hour's game the match ended in a draw; and our English opponents acknowledged that Ceylon boys can play a splendid game. Of course all this makes our lads proud of their college, and fosters esprit de corps. The evenings are quite cool enough for Association; but Rugby cannot flourish in the tropics.

An English theosophist bas revived the Buddhist College here in Galle, which was almost dead four years since, having sent nearly all its pupils to us. Our boys though Buddhist grow with Catholic ideas and principles, If we could only gain the parents' permission many would become Catholics. We must wait and pray, con tent with those we do gain.

I like Ceylon climate better than Ireland's. We have no winter, nor is the heat too great; a fresh land or sea breeze constantly blows.

I hope some more will come to us from Mungret. The Easi has greatest need of English speakers.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1909

Letters from Our Past

Father Denis Murphy SJ

Ceylon - Rev D Murphy., writes from Galle:

Very glad missionary thoughts are turning Eastward, especially to India and Ceylon where English speakers are very badly needed. We must help in English countries French and Belgians, who want our aid in a most special way for education and English preaching English Protestant Missionaries swarm over Ceylon and India, but alas ! how few Catholic. May God send us some priests and nuns froin Ireland! I gave two retreats last Xmas in Madras to two large convents of Irish nuns, over thirty in each. Without them the various bible societies with Protestant Englislı nuns in abundance would have nearly all female education in their hands. South of Madras there is not one English speaking nun in India. Very sad !

We are more fortunate in Ceylon. We have the Good Shepherul Sisters from Ireland in Colombo and Kandy, and here in Galle we have a large convent of Belgian and Irish, with threë natiye sisters, all doing excellent work and famous for their Limerick lace. A beautiful convent by the sea bas been established at Matara, twenty seven miles from Galle.

Mr Piler is coming to us next month. You cannot imagine what a change one scholastic makes here or how much good he can du, surrounded and hard pressed as we are by Buddhists and Protestants. We have nine native teachers and a school of 300 fine lads, gentle, obedient; and industrious ; but only halt are Catholics We teach from alphabet to senior Cambridge and soon to London matriculation.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Denis Murphy (1862-1943)

Born at Rathmore, Co. Kerry, entered the Society in 1882 and was ordained in 1897 at Milltown Park. He had spent his regency at Australia before his theological studies. After his ordination he was appointed prefect of studies at St Ignatius', Galway and discharged the duties of his office with marked success for three years. He then volunteered for work with the Belgian Jesuits in Ceylon and for twenty years did splendid work in building up the College of St Aloysius at Galle. He was forced by ill-health to return to Europe in 1921 and was appointed to Sacred Heart College. Here he was engaged in teaching as well as being a member of the church staff. At the end of the year, however, feeling called to do mission work in England, he was sent at his own request to the Jesuit church at Preston where he laboured to the end. He remained a member of the Irish Province, although he had spent only four years of his long life in the actual work of his Province.

Born: 11 April 1879, Oola, County Limerick
Entered: 14 August 1895, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 28 July 1912, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1915, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 27 January 1959, Crescent College, Limerick

by 1900 at Valkenburg Netherlands (GER) studying

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 34th Year No 2 1959
Sacred Heart Church and College, Limerick
With dramatic swiftness, Fr. Barragry passed away on Tuesday, 27th January. On the previous Saturday, he complained of a chill but continued throughout the day at his confessional. On Sunday, he was up and about but complained of loss of appetite. In getting into bed on Sunday night, he felt restless and depressed. Early on Monday morning, he was discovered lying on the floor of his room, by Fr. Rector. The doctor advised his removal to hospital, suspecting a recurrence of the diabetes. From the moment of his arrival in hospital in the late afternoon, his temperature began to rise steadily. He had another very restless night and on Tuesday morning, the community learned that there was no chance of his recovery. He remained perfectly lucid until about forty minutes before his death which occurred about 2.15 in the afternoon. On Wednesday, his remains arrived at the residence about noon and were laid out in the back parlour. Throughout the evening, crowds of his penitents and his friends came to say farewell to this very lovable priest. We all knew that Fr. Barragry was widely respected, but for many of us it was a revelation to discover the extent of his friendships. At the solemn obsequies on Thursday, His Lordship the Bishop attended with a large gathering of the secular and regular clergy. The boys of Sacred Heart College marched with the cortège to the city boundary and many of them finished the journey to Mungret by car or bicycle.

Obituary :
Fr John Barragry (1879-1958)
By the death of Fr. John Barragry on the 27th January the Province has lost, not only a colourful and interesting character, and one who provided a great deal of innocent pleasure for those who knew him or lived with him, but also an observant religious: remarkable for his devotion to poverty and for his exact obedience; a man of deep faith and simple piety, and a great lover of the Society. Many, both inside and outside the Society, feel they have lost a loyal and devoted friend.
Fr. Barragry was born at Oola, Co. Limerick in 1879, educated at the Crescent, and entered the Society at Tullabeg at the age of sixteen. Having completed his novitiate and juniorate, he was sent to Valkenburg in 1899 for his three years philosophy and, to the end of his life he retained an interest in the Niederdeutsche Provinz, and in the careers of those with whom he studied. On finishing seven years' teaching at Clongowes and three years theology at Milltown Park, he was ordained in 1912. Between 1914 and 1920 he was Prefect of Studies at Galway and at Mungret, and those who studied under him recall the firmness, enthusiasm and kindness, which characterised his work on their behalf.
For a short period he was Minister of Juniors and Professor of Mathematics at Tullabeg and then, from 1925 to 1931, he was again Prefect of Studies, but this time at the Crescent. Here, with the exception of seven years, when he taught at Clongowes and at Belvedere - where he was Procurator from 1934 to 1938, he was to spend the rest of his life. In the course of these years at Limerick he contributed in no small way to the success of the college as we know it today, and to the building up of the Ignatian Sodality. From 1944 till his death he was Procurator, and fulfilled this office with that exactitude and care which marked all his work.
Fr. Barragry was an efficient and understanding teacher, and he was remembered with affection by many of his past pupils years after they had left. Gratitude and warm appreciation are still expressed by those who knew him, even as far back as forty years ago. Last September, Monsignor Power of Saltley, Birmingham, recalling the old days in Limerick, asked :
“Is Fr. Barragry still alive? Good! How is he? The same as ever, I hope?”
All his life Fr. Barragly showed a great interest both in men and in affairs, and both his memory for the past and his knowledge of their careers were prodigious. Not a few of his pupils owe their start in life to the solicitous interest he took in placing them after school. Indeed many others also found in him a friend and a willing helper. His apostolate of "job-finding" and assisting the less fortunate, the poor and the unemployed, took up a great deal of any leisure he had.
As time went on he lost nothing of his interest in current affairs, specially in relation to Ireland. He had a deep love of his country, and watched daily, with a growing sense of pride, the material, economic and cultural achievements that had come about since the days of his boyhood. Though he felt that the study of the Irish language was beyond him, he championed its cause on more than one occasion, both , in private and in public.
His savoir vivre was tremendous, and up to the end he remained. keen in mind and active in body. A friend who spoke to him shortly before his death could not but admire the unimpaired, alert mind of a man in his eightieth year. He uttered no complaint on the score of health and was apparently the same as ever."
In 1955, four years before his death, he celebrated his Diamond Jubilee in the Society. His old friends - the Ignatians - gave him great joy by presenting a golden chalice to mark the occasion, and by arranging that an award—the Fr, Barragry medal— should be presented annually to the most outstanding pupil at the College.
During his years as operarius at the Crescent, Fr. Barragry was a kind and conscientious confessor, and as long as health allowed him to preach, his sermons were carefully prepared. Though in his eightieth year, he had no thought of going “on the shelf”, and was active and at his post practically to the end.
After confessions on Friday night, 23rd January, he complained of a bad shivering fit and was advised by the Rector to keep to his room. He said Mass on Sunday and seemed improved, but towards evening he took to his bed. At 4.30 on Monday morning the Rector thought he heard the sound of knocking and went in to see if anything was wrong. He found Fr. Barragry on the floor, where he had fallen during the night, and being unable to rise or attract attention, he had pulled a few blankets from the bed to keep himself warm. Later that day the doctor ordered him to hospital, and on Tuesday, when it was evident that he was dying, he was anointed and received Holy Viaticum about noon. Shortly before two o'clock, Fr. Rector and Fr. Naughton began the prayers for the dying, and at 2.10 he passed peacefully away.
It can be truthfully said that Fr. Barragry went through life joyously, maintaining always a bright and infectious cheerfulness. He dearly loved his little joke.
On one occasion, slipping quietly away for a villa in Donegal, he left strict injunctions that his life-long friend and colleague, Fr. Martin Corbett of Mungtet, was not to be told. As Fr. Martin and he were always keenly interested in the “latest”, he felt he had scored quite a victory in getting off “unbeknownst”, and was determined that when the time was opportune, he would make known his triumph.
Sitting by the side of the road, surrounded by the wild beauty of the Barnesmore Gap and the sunshine, and pulling a picture post card from his pocket, he scribbled with glee - taking pains to avoid any indication of his exact location : “Lovely views! Any news? J.B.”
Fr. Barragry traded his talents industriously, by patient, faithful service and by prayer. We may well hope that he now enjoys the reward of a well-spent life-a far more beautiful sight than he ever saw in Donegal.
Solus na Soillse agus radharc na Tríonóide d'á anam.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father John Barragry SJ 1879-1959
One could hardly live in a community with Fr John Barragry – or Barrags as he was affectionatle called – without feeling the impact of his energetic and vivid personality.
A Limerick man, born in Oola County Limerick in 1879, after a brilliant career as a boy in the Crescent, he became a Jesuit at Tullabeg at the age of 16.

His life in the Society was spent in the Colleges as Prefect of Studies in Mungret, Galway and the Crescent – 30 years in the classroom, as he himself used describe it. The latter part of his life was spent as procurator, first in Belvedere and then in the Crescent. This was his favourite house, and Limerick his natural habitat. “I know my Limerick” he was heard to retort to one he thought had pretensions to a greater knowledge.

He was intensely interested in people and affairs, especially in matters of the Society government and appointments. His curiosity was boundless and harmless, though to some it was irksome and annoying. To many it was a great source of recreation. His storied of how he dealt with difficult situations were famous. While stationed in Tullabeg teaching the Juniors, it was reported that Our Lady had appeared to a little girl on the avenue. There was great excitement, and the local IRA were on duty, armed, to regulate the people who came to see. “Down I went to see” would recount Fr Barragry. “A young fellow on guard stopped me”. “Halt” said he. “Shoot” said I, and that finished him”. To a Rector to whom he had suggested a way of saving money and who took the suggestion as a slur on his vow of poverty, he said “My Dear Father Rector, you mist never confound poverty with economy”.

He was a hard worker for souls, and energetic Director of the Ignatian Sodality, and tireless in his efforts to place old students in good situations in life.

He died on January 27th 1959 after a brief illness.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Barragry SJ (1879-1959)

Born at Oola, studied at this school from 1893 to 1895 when he entered the Society at Tullabeg. On the completion of his classical studies, he was sent for his course in philosophy to Valkenburg, Holland (1899-1902). His period of regency was spent at Clongowes, after which he entered on his theological studies at Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1912. For the next ten years after his tertianship, he was engaged in teaching at Galway (1914-1918); Mungret (1918-20); Tullabeg (1920-22), where he was prefect of studies for the scholastics; Belvedere (1922-24). He spent the next seven years at Sacred Heart College where, as prefect of studies, he did much to modernise teaching methods. After a year back in Clongowes (1931-1932) he spent the next six years as procurator in Belvedere College. His last and longest assignment was again at Sacred Heart College where, as procurator, he laboured until his death (1938-1959).
Father Barragry was a man of many gifts; he had a fluent command of German and French; he was an able classical scholar and a brilliant teacher of mathematics. His organising ability was proven in his work as prefect of studies and in the considerable help he gave to the formation of the Belvedere Old Boys' Union. Here, at the Crescent, he reorganised the Ignatian Sodality in the 1920's. He was a talented preacher and sodality director. For many years he was much sought after as a confessor. After an illness of only two days, he died on 27 January, 1959 and was laid to rest in the Jesuit plot at Mungret Abbey. RIP

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

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

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

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Peter Foley (1826-1893)

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

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

Born: 03 August 1851, Banteer, County Cork
Entered: 12 November 1874, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1889, Leuven, Belgium
Final Vows: 15 August 1893, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 05 November 1919, Sydney, Australia

Part of St Aloysius community, Sevenhill, Adelaide, Australia at time of his death.

by 1877 at Roehampton London (ANG) studying
by 1879 at Laval France (FRA) studying
by 1886 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) Studying
by 1891 at Drongen (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1892 returned to Australia

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He made his Noviceship at Milltown under Charles McKenna.
After his Novitiate he was sent to Roehampton for Rhetoric, and after some months was recalled with some other Juniors and sent to Tullabeg where he studied for the London University.
He was then sent to Laval for Philosophy, but due to the expulsion of the French Jesuits he returned to Ireland during his second year, and he was sent teaching to Crescent for Regency. He then did more Philosophy at Milltown and further Regency at Tullabeg.
He was then sent to Leuven for Theology and was Ordained there.
After Ordination he went back to teaching at the Colleges, and then back to Leuven to complete his Theology. On return he went to Mungret teaching for a number of years,
1902 He was sent as Prefect of Studies to Galway.
1903 He was sent to Australia where he worked in various houses until his death. A painful throat cancer brought about his death 05 November 1919

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Timothy Guinee entered the Society at Milltown Park, 12 November 1874, studied philosophy at Laval, France, and Milltown Park. He taught French, mathematics and physics at the Crescent Limerick, 1880-81, and also at St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg 1882-85 . The long course in theology followed at Louvain, 1885-89, then he taught for the university examination at Clongowes for a year before tertianship at Tronchiennes, 1890-91. He taught at Mungret, 1891-1901, being prefect of studies, 1895-1901, and also at Galway, 1901-02, where he was prefect of studies.
Guinee arrived in Australia, 8 October 1902, and taught at Xavier College and St Patrick's College, 1902-13. Then he engaged in parish ministry at Hawthorn, 1913-15, North Sydney, 1915-16, and Sevenhill, 1916-19. He was superior for the last few years of his life, Finally dying of cancer of the throat.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Timothy Guinee (1851-1919)

Born at Banteer, Co. Cork, entered the Society in 1893. He spent one year of his regency at the Crescent, 1880-81. In 1888 he was ordained at Louvain and on his return to Ireland was master and prefect of studies at Mungret College. He left for Australia in 1902 and spent many years as master or at work in the church at Melbourne.

Born: 30 May 1851, Rathcroghan, County Roscommon
Entered: 14 August 1882, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: - 1876, Irish College, Paris, France
Final Vows: 15 August 1907, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 11 July 1930, St. John's Hospital, Limerick

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

by 1884 at Oña Spain (ARA) studying
by 1895 at Roehampton London (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 2nd Year No 1 1926

College of the Sacred Heart Crescent
On September 12th was celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Fr John Kelly's Priesthood. In deference to his own wish, the rejoicings were private, but Fr. Provincial, Fr Rector of Mungret and several other Fathers, joined the Crescent Community at dinner. Fr. Provincial, in a sincere and happy speech, reviewed the life-work of the Jubilarian. Fr John entered the Novitiate at Milltown Park in August 1882. For six years previously he had been storming his Bishop for permission to join the Society. During these years he did valiant work as teacher in his native Diocese, Elphin. His years in the Society have been “full of days” For over twenty of them he taught in the Colleges, then spent about seven years on the Missionary Staff. Showing rare skill in “Missioncraft” and for many, many years he has endeared himself to the people of Limerick and the surrounding counties as confessor, preacher and adviser. When it became known outside that Fr. Kelly's jubilee was being celebrated, he received many congratulations from clergy and laity and His Lordship, Dr. Keane, paid him a special visit.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 4 1930

Sacred Heart College Limerick :
Sad events :
July 11. At 10,45 A.M. the venerable Fr. John Kelly passed to his reward. He had been in St John's Hospital since May 24. During his stay there he had been quite comfortable and happy. His old Limerick friends visited him in great numbers, and, lavished the greatest kindness on him, He died a most peaceful and painless death - simply worn out by long years of unremitting toil. RIP.
His solemn obsequies took place on July14. His Lordship, Dr. Keane, presided at the Office and High Mass, and gave the absolutions around the catafalque. The clergy, Regular and Secular, were present in good numbers though so many were away on holiday.
So huge was the gathering of the laity, that it was difficult to find even standing room, and when the funeral moved off from the Church the entire Crescent space, and the streets leading from it towards Mungret, were thronged with people, young and old, on whose faces one could read sorrow for the passing of an old friend. The funeral was an immensely
long one, and a stream of admirers followed on foot all the way to the cemetery at Mungret College. Prominent during the obsequies, and up to the moment of burial, were Fr John's Promoters in the Confraternity of the S. Heart, of which he had been the devoted Director for many years, and of which he had charge up to less than a year before his death. Fr Provincial said the last prayers before burial.
Two deaths - one of the youngest member of the Community, the other of its oldest, well within a month, were a severe trial for the Crescent Fathers. It was a consolation to them during the rather sad time they passed through, to note the very wide and very sincere respect with which the Society is regarded in Limerick. At a full meeting of the Sodality BVM,
on the evening of Fr. Kelly's burial, the Rector thanked the public for the remarkable sympathy shown to the Community of the deaths of Mr Hyland and Fr. John Kelly.

Irish Province News 5th Year No 4 1930

Obituary :
Fr John Kelly
Fr. Kelly died at the Crescent on Friday, 11 July, 1930.
He was born 30 May, 1851, and entered the Society at Milltown, as a priest, 14 Aug 1882. He finished the novitiate at Oña, where he spent two years repeating theology, and then went to Clongowes for a years, His next move was to Belvedere, where he spent eight years teaching. Tertianship at Roehampton followed in 1894, then Tullabeg, as “Miss. Excurr” for a year. In 1896 we find him at the Crescent, where he worked, “Doc. Oper”, until 1904, when he travelled to Galway. Three years as “Oper”, and five as “Miss. Excurr” followed, during the last two of which he lived at Milltown. From 1913 to 1915 he was “Oper” at Gardiner St. In the latter year he returned to the Crescent, where he lived until his holy death in 1930.
Fr. Kelly had a part in nearly every kind of work proper to the Society. He was master, missioner, operarius. For a long time he was Spiritual Father, frequently had charge of the “Cases”, and for many years was “Cons. Dom” in the various houses where he lived. To all these works he brought great earnestness and devotion to duty. He had considerable success as a master, especially in his early days in the Society, but he chiefly excelled as a Director of Sodalities. The extraordinary scenes of reverence and sincere regret witnessed at his funeral, and described in the Limerick notes, show what a place he had won in the hearts of the people, and how much his work was appreciated in Limerick.
In the midst of all his distracting duties Fr. Kelly never forgot his own perfection. He was an excellent, observant religious, and never failed to edify those with whom he lived, by his solid, steady, unobtrusive piety.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Kelly (1882-1930)

Was a secular priest when he entered the Society in 1882. He was a native of Co Roscommon and had received his higher education at St Patrick's College, Maynooth. He completed his noviceship and continued his higher studies at Oña, in Spain. In his early years in the Society, Father Kelly gave good service as master in the colleges and first joined the teaching staff of the Crescent in 1896 where he was to remain for the next eight years. His outstanding gifts, however, were those of missioner and retreat director. The last quarter century of his life was spent at the Crescent where he enjoyed the confidence and respect of the many who sought his spiritual guidance.

◆ SHC - Sacred Heart College Limerick 1931

Obituary

Father John Kelly SJ

Fr John Kelly died at St. John's Hospital, Limerick, on the morning of July II, 1930. We take the following obituary notice from the “LIMERICK CHRONICLE” of July 12 :

“By the death of the Rev John Kelly SJ, which occurred at St John's Hospital yesterday morning, after an illness of some duration, the Jesuit Order has lost a distinguished member and scholar. Father Kelly was born at Rathcroghan, Co Roscommon, on the 30th May, 1851, and was ordained for the secular priesthood of his native diocese of Elphin in the Irish College at Paris, in 1876. After his ordination he was on the professorial staff of Summerhill College, Sligo, for nearly four years, prior to entering the Society of Jesus on the 14th August, 1882, and continuing his studies at the Oña House of the Order in Spain. On returning to this country, Father Kelly was attached for some time to Clongowes and later, for eight years to Belvedere College, Dublin. In 1896, he was transferred to the mission staff, and during eight years he was widely known through Ireland as a successful missioner. At Limerick, in the Sacred Heart Church and in the College, he worked from 1904 to 1907, when he went to Galway as missioner again. From 1912 to 1915, Fr Kelly was attached to St Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. Since he left Gardiner Street, Fr Kelly had been at the Sacred Heart Church, Limerick, where, until about twelve months ago, when he had to be relieved of his duties, owing to failing health, he was most energetic and did splendid work. He was an able and convincing preacher, widely read and of broad and tolerant views. Possessed of a charming personality and a gift for making friends, Father Kelly was a fine type of priest, a wise counsellor, and warm hearted and sympathetic in his views. His familiar figure will be missed in the city, where he was well known and beloved by all classes and creeds for his kindly disposition and beautiful traits of character, and wide outlook in every thing appertaining to Christianity.

In the Sacred Heart Church, where Fr. John had laboured so long and so faithfully, his solemn obsequies took place on July 14. His Lordship, the Most Rev Dr Keane, presided at the Office and High Mass, and gave the absolutions. Though many were away on holidays the clergy, secular and regular, were present in large numbers. So huge was the gathering of the laity, that it was difficult to find even standing room, and when the funeral moved off from the Church the entire Crescent space, and a large portion of O'Connell Avenue were thronged with people, who mourned for the passing of an old friend. Many followed on foot all the way to Mungret College, where, in the Community cemetery, Fr John was laid to rest. Prominent during the obsequies, and up to the moment of burial, were Fr Kelly's Promoters in the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart, of which he had been the devoted Director for many years. To his nieces and nephews, several of whom travelled long distances to be present at the funeral, we offer our sincere sympathy”.

Numerous messages of sympathy from the people of Limerick were received by Rev Fr Rector and the Community. The members of the Limerick Corporation, of the Municipal Technical Institute, of the Amalgamated Pork Butchers' Society, of the Limerick Golf Club and of Labour Organisations in the City passed votes of condolence, showing how much he was respected and how much his work was appreciated. The people of Limerick have not forgotten Fr John Kelly. RIP

Born: 17 July 1863, Dundalk, County Louth
Entered: 20 June 1883, Milltown Park, Dublin and Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 31 July 1896, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Professed: 15 August 1900
Died: 27 December 1942, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

Novice at Milltown Park, Dublin and Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
by 1899 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/the-macardles-of-dundalk/

The Macardles of Dundalk
Desmond Gibney, Lecturer of Accounting at the National College of Ireland (NCI) in Dublin, has written an article in the Irish Jesuit quarterly Studies about the Macardle brothers of Dundalk. Both brothers were well established in their respective fields, one was in charge of a prominent brewery now owned by Diageo and another was a Jesuit priest (highlighted in the photo) who influenced the writing of James Joyce.
The article entitled ‘Irish Catholics in Early Twentieth Century Ireland: The Case of the Macardle Brothers’ explores the very different paths taken by the brothers of a wealthy Catholic family, around the time of the First World War, Easter Rising and establishment of the Free State. It deals with themes of loyalty of Irish Catholics to the crown, and expands on Fergus Campbell’s study of the ‘Irish establishment’ around the time of the First World War.
Thomas Macardle, was chairman and owner of Macardles Brewery in Dundalk which continues with the brewing of Macardles Ale today. He received a knighthood for his services to British army recruitment during the Great War. His daughter Dorothy was a famous historian and writer, and also served time in jail for her republican activities.
Andrew Macardle, served two terms as Superior in Gardiner Street. He was renowned for his skills in attracting converts to the Catholic faith. He taught James Joyce in two Jesuit schools, Belvedere and Clongowes. In fact, Andrew sent a seven-year old Joyce for punishment for the offence of using vulgar language! Notwithstanding that, Joyce used Andrew as the inspiration for the benign character of McGlade in ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’.
Summer 2018, Studies, Volume 107, No. 264, pp199-210,

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 18th Year No 2 1943
Obituary :
Father Andrew Macardle SJ (1863-1942)

Fr Macardle was born on 17th July, 1863, of a well-known Dundalk family. being the son of the late Mr. E. H. Macardle, J.P.
He was educated at the Marist College Dundalk, and after securing his First Arts in the Royal. University entered the Society on 20th June 1883. his noviceship being spent at Milltown Park and Dromore House Co. Down. His studies both in rhetoric and in philosophy and theology were all done at Milltown Park. He spent three years as master at Clongowes and Belvedere before beginning his higher studies.
He was ordained priest at St. Francis Xavier's Church, Gardiner Street on St. Ignatius' Day, 1896, by the Most Rev. William Walsh and made his third year probation at Tronchiennes with five other members of the Province, of whom Fr. Stanislaus McLoughlin is the sole survivor.
After a year at the Crescent College as Minister, he was appointed to the mission staff, and for the next ten years gave missions and retreats in all parts of the country. For four years he laboured at the Crescent as master and operarius till his appointment as Rector of St Ignatius' College, Galway. During the ten years (1908-1919) of his Rectorate he worked indefatigably in promoting the welfare of the Church and College. To him is due the purchase of the then derelict fields opposite St. Ignatius', and of the Protestant house of worship now the Columban Hall, which has proved, ever since, so useful an adjunct to the College. The familiar statue of the Immaculate Conception in Carrara marble, which he erected outside the Residence was the gift of his mother. The present existing Stations of the Cross in the Church were also donations during his period of office, and the present Sanctuary flooring in tiles was laid by direct labour under his personal supervision. In addition to his other duties in the Church he directed the ladies' sodality, and was choir-master during the ten years he spent in Galway. Under his capable management the College grew in prestige and in the numbers of boys on the school-roll. Three out of the four scholarships granted by the University in those years were secured by the College, and their holders now occupy honourable positions in the civil life of Galway. During this sojourn in the west he had many contracts and made many life-long friends, and appears to have been a power in the land.
In 1919 began that association with Gardiner Street, which was to continue till his death. He was twice Superior - from 1919 to 1922 and again from 1928 till 1934. It fell to his lot during the latter period to organise the celebrations of the first centenary of the opening of the Church as well as those of the Eucharistic Congress Week, details of which will be found in the Province News July and October, 1932. A large measure of the success of both these remarkable functions is attributable to Fr. Macardle's careful planning, which was best seen in the arrangements for the Slav Mass and necessitated much correspondence with Prelates on the Continent.
He directed for years the Ignatian Sociality and the Association of Perpetual Adoration and work for poor Churches. In connection with the latter activity he was able in 1939 to send to the Primate of Spain a magnificent collection of sacred Vestments, Missals. Chalices and other altar requisites to help replace what had been destroyed by the sacrilegious fury of the Reds during the Spanish civil war.
Fr. Macardle excelled as a confessor and as instructor of converts. As early as his first mission, or Retreat given as a tertian in Jersey he showed himself the possessor of special gifts in the matter of converting non-Catholics, and Canon Hourigan, the well-known Irish pastor on the island, invited him back later to repeat his former successes as preacher and apologist. A conservative estimate of the number of converts he made during his priestly ministry would be six hundred and more.
His devotion to this form of apostolate knew no bounds. His leisure hours in the evening he gave over to the instruction of would-be converts, and he continued to instruct them in the parlour, almost to the day of his death, during the tedious months in which he struggled so manfully with the mortal disease which finally carried him off on 27th December. R.I.P.

We append an appreciation of him which appeared in the Standard of 8th January, 1943, from the pen of an extern :
All that is best in Catholic and Christian Ireland will mourn the passing of Father Andrew Macardle, S.J., truly a great priest, who, in his days pleased God.
Having dedicated himself to God in the Society of Jesus, he became impregnated with its spirit to an extent which few have surpassed. To every task assigned him, he brought the same great Christian culture and kindliness, industry and patience. A true priest and Christian gentleman, he could not but have a host of friends. Yet perhaps his greatest admirers are to be found among the parishioners of St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, for whom he spent himself unsparingly during so many years.
Each day found him for long hours in the Sacred Tribunal, where his wise guidance and sympathetic counsel was sought by a clientele varied as human nature itself.
Driven by failing health from his official duties as a confessor he continued to exercise his influence on souls from his private room, truly a fitting preparation for the account he was so soon to render.
His cultured bearing, breadth of view based on sound theological knowledge had the happiest results with prospective converts. Yet perhaps the greatest fruit of his ministry was gathered from his work as a confessor, for his patience and self-sacrifice made of him another Christ.
In the pulpit, at the Ignatian Sodality of which he was Spiritual Director, in the midst of his devoted flock, Christian culture served always as the handmaid of Christian faith.
So it was that he was venerated as a Superior loved and trusted as a confessor and spiritual father and honoured as a priest a true Jesuit because in faith and hope a soldier, whilst in charity possessing the gentleness of the spotless Lamb of God. “For the greater glory of God”, let us, priests and people, be true to his blessed memory in faithfulness to the example he has left us.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Andrew McArdle 1863-1942
Fr Andrew McArdle was a Dundalk man, born there on July 17th 1863, of a well known family. He entered the Society in 1883, having already go his First Arts exam at the Royal University.

He became Rector of Galway in 1908. It was during his term as Rector that the Columban Hall was purchased. The statue of Our Lady in front of the house was a gift from his mother. The Stations of the Cross in the Church were also presented to him by a benefactor. Under his regime the College grew immensely in prestige.

In 1919 he began his connection with Gardiner Street. He was twice Superior, from 1919-1922 and 1928-1934. He celebrated the centenary of the Church and all its functions in connection with the Eucharistic Congress of 1932 were ably arranged by him.

He was outstanding in the work of the confessional, and did much to build up the reputation of Gardiner Street for that ministry. He also excelled as an instructor of converts, this dated from his first Mission in Jersey. A conservative estimate of the number of converts he made during his priestly life would be 600 and more.

He died on December 27th 1942.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Andrew Macardle (1863-1942)

Was born in Dundalk, educated at the Marist College in that town, and entered the Society in 1883, after he had already commenced his Arts studies in the Royal University. All his higher studies were made in Ireland. He was ordained in Dublin in 1896. Father Macardle first arrived at the Crescent in 1897 but remained only a year as he had to leave to make his tertianship at Tronchiennes. He returned, however, in 1899 and remained for two years on the teaching staff but also gained useful experience in church work. For the next eight years, Father Macardle was a member of the mission staff until his appointment to the rectorship of St Ignatius, Galway in 1908. He remained in office there for ten years. During his time in Galway, most of the permanent decorative schemes for the church were implemented by him. The rest of his life was to be passed in Gardiner St., Dublin, where he was twice superior, 1919-22 and 1928-34. Father Macardle was one of the best-known priests of his time. He was in much demand as a preacher for great occasions, in England as well as in Ireland. But one aspect of his work was never known or mentioned in his lifetime: his work in the instruction of converts. He was a master of patient and urbane exposition of the Church's claims, qualities of paramount importance in this most exacting apostolic work. Even in his closing years, he would spend interminable hours in the parlour with prospective converts. When the final summons came, this great priest could, under God, account for over six hundred conversions to the true faith.

Born: 02 April 1856, Corduff, County Cavan
Entered: 22 January 1877, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 26 July 1891
Final Vows: 25 March 1896, Sacred Heart College SJ, Limerick
Died: 05 February 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin

Came to Australia 1899

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Edward Masterson entered the Society at Milltown Park, Dublin, 22 January 1877, and after his juniorate taught Greek, Latin, French, English and mathematics at Clongowes Wood, 1880-81, and then again from 1886-87. He taught the senior examination class English, classics, and French at Tullabeg College, 1882-86 .
Philosophy studies were broken and undertaken at Milltown Park, 1881-82, 1887-88, then at Mungret, 1888-89. Theology followed at Milltown Park, 1889-93, and tertianship 1894-95. He became professed of the four Vows 25 March 1896.
Before being sent to Australia, Masterson was prefect of studies at the Crescent, Limerick 1893-94 and 1895-97. For a short time, 1897-98, he lectured in theology at Milltown Park.
His first appointment in Australia was teaching at Riverview, 1898-1901, and then 1905-06. He also taught at St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, and gave philosophy lectures at
St John's University College, 1901-02.
He worked in the parish of Norwood, 1903-05, and returned to Ireland in 1906, where he taught and did parish work in Galway. He was also at Mungret teaching philosophy, and at Milltown Park professing canon law, scripture and philosophy.
He certainly moved regularly. He was a learned man, and wrote letters to the papers defending the Catholic side against the Orangemen during the infamous O’Haran case in Sydney

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 2nd Year No 3 1927
Jubilee :
On February 3rd at St. Ignatius', Galway, Fr. Masterson celebrated his Golden jubilee. In order to be present Fr Provincial travelled from Dublin. He, Frs Rector, Minister and Coghlan spoke in grateful terms of all that Fr. Masterson had done for the Society. The Jubilarian, deeply moved at all the kind things said about him, made a suitable reply. Fr. Masterson held a number of the most important positions in the province. He was Socius to the Master of Novices, Prefect of Studies, and had charge of the Short Course at Milltown. 1898 found him at Riverview. He remained in Australia until 1906, and during that time proved himself one of the sturdiest and most successful champions of Catholicity in Australia. After his return to Ireland he was for many years diocesan examiner in Galway, and subsequently professed Canon Law and Philosophy at Milltown. These absorbing occupations did not prevent him contributing to the Press very many erudite articles on every variety of Theological thought.
Fr. Masterson possesses in a high degree the gift of making sincere friends. This was very much evidenced at the Jubilee. He received more than 100 letters and telegrams, and every oneof them he answered with his own hand. This proves that there is hope of many years sterling work before him still and this hope finds a place in the heart of every member of the Irish province.

Irish Province News 10th Year No 2 1935
Obituary :
Father Edward Masterson
Father Masterson was born at Corduff, Co. Cavan, 2nd April 1856, and educated at the Seminary in Cavan. He began his novitiate at Milltown Park on the 22nd January, 1877, and
remained there as Novice and junior until 1880, when he was sent to Clongowes. After a year he returned to Milltown, got through one year of philosophy, but then had to travel to
Tullabeg, where he taught until 1886 - “amalgamation year” - when he went with the Tullabeg Community to Clongowes. After a year, philosophy was resumed at Milltown, finished at Mungret, and then theology commenced at Milltown in 1889. After the four years we find him Prefect of Studies at the Crescent, the following year a Tertian and Socius to the Master of Novices in Tullabeg, then Milltown, where he professed the Short Course, and in 1898 he turns up in Riverview, Australia. He remained in Australia, doing work in various houses, until 1906, when he was back in Ireland, and stationed in Galway. Here he taught, worked in the church, and for some years was Diocesan Examiner until 1915, when he became Professor of Canon Law at Milltown.
From 1920 to 1922 he taught philosophy at Mungret, then returned to Milltown as Professor first year philosophy, until 1926, when Galway saw him once more as Oper., etc. In 1930 he went to Militown for the last time, and remained there until his death on Tuesday, 5th February, 1935. Father Masterson is entered in the Catalogues 20 times as Cons. Dom. and 18 times as Praes. Coll.
The following tributes to the memory of Father Masterson give us a very true estimate of his character :
From Mr. Costelloe :
These few lines will record a tribute from Milltown Park to the memory of Father Edward Masterson. It is not as a great theologian or brilliant controversialist who brought renown to the Society that the present generation of scholastics will chiefly remember him, although they knew him to be both, but as a religious who by his great kindness and charity endeared himself to all the members of the Society who were privileged to live with him.
All knew that he profited in no small measure by his Jesuit training, and combined in an extraordinary and marked degree the Christlike quality of being all things to all men. Yet I think, it is not untrue to say, that he was most happy and most at his ease when mixing and conversing with the scholastics. The late Father Henry Fegan said of him “I knew no other Jesuit who loves so much to spend his spare time with the young men”. He loved to join them at recreation on the corridors or in the garden. He shared their interests, counseled and encouraged them in their undertakings and applauded generously their successes. For those of other Provinces, there was always the kindly word of welcome on arrival, and the sincere God speed on departure. All knew by hearsay and some by experience the compelling force of his cogent logic, yet he was at all times a most considerate examiner. When a nervous scholastic came before him for examination in theology, it was his custom to begin by putting a straightforward question entailing little thought in order to soothe unsteady nerves and arouse feelings of self confidence. The unsuccessful candidate, particularly in moral theology, was the recipient of much consolation and encouragement. The writer of these lines saw him when a man of 78 years of age climbing several lofty flights of stairs to convey sympathy and hope to one who failed to enlist the favour of his examiners. As a professor he was slow to censure but quick to apportion a full meed of praise. Though his mind was of a serious cast, he was not wanting in a sense of humour and loved to hear or relate a good story. When death robbed a member of the community of one near and dear he was among the first to proper in an unobtrusive way, an appropriate word of genuine sympathy and an assurance of a first intention in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. All who knew him could not fail to be impressed with his deep fidelity to the Society and its traditions.
He was a deeply religious man, exact and careful in the performance of his spiritual duties. In the later years of life, although burdened by ill-health, he never deviated or sought relaxation from the common life of the community, and was a continual source of edification and indeed envy to many some fifty years his junior, He has left a sweet memory enshrined in the hearts of those who lived with him at Milltown Park, and our community, though considerably the poorer by his passing is made rich by the remembrance of his kind deeds. May he rest in peace.

From Father MacSheehan :
Father Masterson was associated with Galway for nearly 20 years, having come here for the first time about 1906, shortly after his return from Australia. Both as teacher and preacher he immediately won an outstanding name for himself, for he was as familiar with the old Delphin Classics as with the works of Newman and Lacordaire. Here however, as elsewhere, it was as theologian that he was best known and esteemed. At the diocesan conferences his opinion was invariably sought when any abstruse or disputed point was in question, and his accuracy for references was a bye-word. He was for some time diocesan examiner of young priests, and the late Bishop did him the honor of submitting to him for revision a new course of catechetical instructions he had just drawn up. With his pen, too, he was busy in Galway, and when delicate health and overstrain of work compelled him to lie up for a few days, it was invariably a sign that he had been pouring too long over his beloved Ballerini, preparing yet another article on “Recidivi” that would bring dismay and consternation among the ranks of his adversaries. (incidentally it is a pity that this particular series of articles has never appeared in pamphlet form.) But, if he could “slay his enemies” on paper, no one could be more genial in social intercourse and in community life. The many warm and lasting friendships that he formed both with externs and especially with the young men of the Society, bear ample testimony thereto. That he claimed many friends in Galway is shown by the fact that hardly a year passed that he did not revisit it, that many in Galway claimed him as a friend, by the spontaneous grief and sorrow with which the news of his demise was heard. The prayer of each and everyone of these is that he may rest forever in the sweet friendship of the Lord.

During his last stay at Milltown, Father Masterson was confessor to some of our well-known public men. Amongst the general public who attended his funeral were : Mr. P. J. Little, T.D., representing Mr. de Valera; Mr. T. O. Deirg Minister for Education; Mr. W. Honohan, representing Mr MacEntee, Minister for Finance; Mr. Sean Brady, TD; Mrs de Valera; Mr. F. Fahy; Mrs. Concannon TD; Mr. Louis Walsh, DJ; the President of the High Court and Mrs. Sullivan.
By mistake Father Masterson's name was left out of the 1923 Catalogue. It is certain that in 1922-23 he was Professor of first year philosophy. One of his pupils of that year writes “I remember being impressed by his great care in preparing lectures, and, in general, by his devotion to his work. He always seemed to set a very high store on doing what he considered his duty.”

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Edward Masterson SJ 1856-1935
Edward Masterson was born at Corduff Couthy Cavan in 1856 and received his early education at St Patrick’s Seminary, Cavan. He entered the Society in 1877, the noviceship then being in Milltown Park.

His Regency and Philosophy were erratic, commuting between Milltown, Clongowes and Tullabeg. He was a Master on the staff in Tullabeg in the fateful year of 1886 and migrated to Clongowes on the amalgamation of the two Colleges that year. After his Ordination in Milltown in 1892 he was Prefect of Studies at Crescent for some time, and then after his tertianship he began to profess in Milltown Park.

He went to Australia in 1898 where he began to show that talent for controversy which was to make him famous afterwards. He defended the Catholic doctrines on mental reservation brilliantly in a controversy which excited the widest attention.

He returned after 8 years in Australia, and was stationed in Galway from 1906-1915. In the latter year he became Professor of Canon Law in Milltown, where he spent the rest of his life, except for a brief period at Mungret, and another at Galway. In all he was associated with Galway for 20 years, where his reputation as a theologian was extremely high and where he still plied his pen. To this period date his series of articles on “Recidivi” in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. It was at Milltown that he defended the political opinions of Suarez against a Professor of Clonliffe. After expounding Suarez’s view he said “This is the doctrine that is taught on the banks of the Tiber, let us now see what is taught on the banks of the Tolka”.

He was a most kindly man, renowned for his interest in the young theologians, a most considerate examiner, the first to console the fallen and to congratulate the victor. Much consulted by public men acting as their ever-ready counsellor and confessor. A deeply religious man, renowned for his religious observance, seeking no relaxation on account of his health, he ended his active and fruitful life at Milltown Park on February 5th 1935.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Edward Masterson (1856-1935)

Born at Corduff, Co. Cavan and educated at the diocesan College of St Patrick, entered the Society in 1877. He was ordained at Milltown Park in 1892. Father Masterson was a member of the Crescent community in 1893-94 and from 1895 to 1897, during which time he held the office of prefect of studies. In 1897 he left for Australia and remained on the mission until 1906. On his return to Ireland, he was stationed at Galway until 1915 when he was appointed to the chair of Canon Law at Milltown Park. With the exception of a few years as lecturer in philosophy at Mungret or back once more in Galway, Father Masterson spent most of his time at Milltown Park. He had a facile pen in theological or philosophical controversies of other days, and was esteemed in his time as an able spiritual adviser.

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

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

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

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Thomas Molloy (1836-1894)

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

Born: 14 October 1827, County Cavan
Entered: 15 September 1864, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: - pre Entry
Final vows: 02 February 1877
Died: 06 July 1903, University College, Dublin

1866 2nd year Novitiate at Galway
by 1867 at Drongen Belgium (BELG) studying

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
He was a priest of the Diocese of Kilmore. When he had completed his studies he was appointed President of St Patrick’s College, Cavan. Under his leadership he raised the status of the College as one of great efficiency. he endeared himself to his students by his courteous and friendly manner, whilst at the same time modelling the virtues necessary for Ministry.
After years of service to his Diocese he entered the Society of Jesus.

After First Vows he was immediately appointed Rector at Galway, and later Rector at Crescent, Limerick.
As a Missioner, he became known and revered in many parishes in Ireland.
He continued to be held in high regard by the Priests of Kilmore, even after he entered the Society. When the Bishop Dr Finnegan died, as names of a possible successor were sought from the Priests of the Diocese, many voted for Philip O’Connell, eve though they knew he was precluded from Ecclesiastical Office by his membership of the Society of Jesus. He was mourned greatly by the Priests of Kilmore and the Society, many of those Kilmore Priests had been students of his at St Patrick’s.
(Text taken from an obituary which appeared in “The Nation”)

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Philip O’Connell (1827-1903)

Was a secular priest of Kilmore diocese when he entered the Society in 1864. After his ordination at Maynooth, he had been appointed to the staff of St Patrick's College, Cavan where he eventually became President. His obituary notice in “The Nation” states that “during his tenure of that office, he raised the College to a high state of efficiency”. His first association with the Crescent was from 1869 to 1870 when he was a member of the teaching staff. He returned to Limerick in 1872 as member of the mission staff and remained here until 1876. Appointed rector of the Crescent in 1882 he remained in office until 1885 when he resumed his mission work. During the years 1885 to 1896 he was stationed variously at Clongowes, Milltown Park and Tullabeg. He was appointed rector of St Ignatius', Galway in 1896 and remained there until 1900 when he returned for another year to work at Sacred Heart Church. He was a member of the community at University College and attached to University Church at the time of his death. Whether as missioner or retreat director, Father O'Connell was one of the most respected priests of his day. The obituary notice in “The Nation” says of him: “As a missioner, he was known and revered in many parishes of Ireland; and from many a peasant homestead will arise a prayer to God for the repose of his soul. Among his brother priests of the diocese of Kilmore, he was held in special veneration. This feeling found expression when, on the death of the late Dr. Finnegan, the names of those from whom the priests of the diocese judged his successor should be selected were submitted to the Holy See. Many of his old colleagues and friends voted for Father O'Connell, though it was known that his obligations precluded him from accepting ecclesiastical dignities”.

Born: 16 July 1869, Charleville, County Cork
Entered: 29 October 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 15 August 1901
Died: 08 March 1944, Milltown Park, Dublin

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 19th Year No 2 1944
Obituary :
Brother William Canty SJ (1858-1943)

Brother Canty died a happy, peaceful death at Milltown Park, on March 8th. He was born at Charleville, on July 16th, 1869, and entered the Society on 29th October, 1890. He came into touch with the Society through the instrumentality of Mrs. O'Mahony, two of whose sons, after having studied in Clongowes, became Jesuits.
Nearly all Brother Canty's work for God was confined to the tailor's shop, where he was not only a model of tireless work, but also very expert. He valued highly the quiet of such a scene of activity : “It's so much easier” he would say, “to get in a fair amount of prayer when you have no one disturbing you”. He was for a time Sacristan in Galway, looking after the altar boys as well as the Church. The best comment on his good influence on these lads was the visit that two of them, now living in Dublin, paid to Milltown to visit the remains.
His was a quiet, unobtrusive figure. He was the servus bonus et fidelis to whom the rich reward is promised. One felt in him, as the years went by, the growth of the spiritual deeper and simpler. It was another example of what Fr. Martindale has so truly said of St. Alphonşus, the type. “It may be that old men of this type I will not say the complete expression of the type, like Alonso are not so seldom to be met with in the ranks of lay-brothers of religious Orders. Perhaps anyone who has lived in a larger house of some such Order a house of Studies, for instance, will remember more than one of these gentle old men, full of profound spiritual insight expressing itself often in acts of the most pathetic childlikeness or downright childishness”. Again he says, and we should like to make his words our own, “Let so much, then, be said in homage of Alonso, and in affectionate recollection of not a few of his brothers, still, or not long since, among us”.
Some of this simplicity in Br. Canty's character appeared in his love of the birds. Twice or oftener in the day one might see him come with a few crusts from the Refectory, which he crumbled for the sparrows, finches and even blackbirds. They had got so used to his kindly ministrations and quiet ways that he could walk among them without disturbing them unduly.
One of the gifts he had received from God was that of unfailing good health. He said he had not ailed for 17 or 18 years. On this account he may have been a trifle rash in ignoring the bronchitis that attacked him and which developed into pneumonia, and carried him off after a few days illness. He said, just after the anointing, that he was glad to die in Milltown above any other house in the Province, his reason being that in no other house would he find so many Priests who would speed him on his way with the gift of the three Holy Masses. There were over 50 Priests in the house at the time,
He has left a kindly, holy memory behind him. May God give him the eternal reward of his temporal labours in His House,
He worked in many Houses of the Province : Tullabeg, Clongowes, Galway, Mungret and Milltown Park. He had celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit. The details of his years of service being : Tullabeg 10, Clongowes 12, Galway 9, Mungret 6, and Milltown 16, R.I.P.

Born: 02 January 1911, Lippa, Spiddal, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1931, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1945, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1948, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 02 June 1960, St Stephens Hospital, Glanmire, County Cork

Part of Mungret College community, Limerick at time of his death.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 35th Year No 3 1960
Obituary :
Fr Stephen Curran (1911-1960)
Stephen Curran was born near Spiddal, Co. Galway, on 2nd January, 1911. He was at school at St. Mary's College, Galway, but in 1927 he transferred to the Apostolic School, Mungret College, where he remained until he entered the Noviceship at Emo in 1931. In due course he moved from Emo to Rathfarnham Castle for his Juniorate (1933-36), during which he read for his degree in Celtic Studies at University College, Dublin. For the next three years we find him studying Philosophy at Tullabeg, In 1939 he was assigned to St. Ignatius College, Galway for his “Colleges”, and in 1942 he began Theology at Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1945. After Tertianship at Rathfarnham Castle, 1946-47, he spent the remaining years of his life in teaching at Mungret College, Limerick.
“A gentle scholar, poet and universal friend”. These words from a very appreciative letter of sympathy from the Mungret Union give a true impression of Fr. Curran.
Gentle he was all his life and in every way, notably in a certain delightful charm in his manner of speech and conversation, gentle too in his habitual judgments and outlook, in his dealings with others, and in his exceptional degree of modesty about his own very highly cultivated talents.
A true scholar also. He was blessed with the knowledge of Irish as his natural language, he had enriched this knowledge by a deep and lifelong study. He also had studied kindred Celtic languages. Added to this was a persistent study of Irish history, literature, poetry and art, ancient and modern. A few years ago he became interested in Spanish; this interest turned into serious study and he became proficient at the language and taught it successfully to the Philosophers. It is characteristic that at the same time he studied the history, literature and art of Spain, reading Cervantes, St. John of the Cross, modern drama, novels and biography, Added to this he cultivated Spanish boys in the school, listened to Spanish radio, got to know their newspapers and periodicals, and hoped to have an opportunity of visiting Spain.
This all indicates that he “saw life whole”; it also brings us to his predominant characteristic, his wholehearted and affectionate interest in people. This was evident in the whole bent of his conversation, especially in Irish. Another example is this : the Hungarian Rising inspired him with sympathy and admiration for that people. He studied their history and literature and mastered some of the fundamental mysteries of their so very different language; but his real happiness was when he visited the refugee camp and got in touch with the living Hungarian people. As well as this natural interest there was the urge of his apostolic priesthood. He envisaged translations of religious matter from Spanish into Irish, and had published at least one article, an Irish version of a poem on the Nativity. He worked in England for the last two or three summers and returned with great sympathy for the people. The outstanding example of this interest of his comes from his time in hospital in Cork; he got to know all the patients around him, and all about their families, occupations, ailments and personal histories. When visited by any of his Community he divided the time talking, with wholehearted interest, about the patients and about Mungret. Incidentally his genuine and obvious delight at seeing his brethren was a pleasure to witness, and his sense of gratitude, for what he truly thought quite undeserved attention, would almost overcome him. In a letter shortly before his death he said that so good had everyone been to him by prayer and every way that he expressly wished that to every prayer of petition for him should be added one of thanksgiving
After his Tertianship in Rathfarnham he came to Mungret, his own school, in 1947, and there he laboured until his last illness. The word is used deliberately. Fr. Curran laboured to the fast ounce of his strength. He taught Irish classes right through the school, every day and nearly all day. But the curriculum was merely basic. Irish for him was something loved and living, and he strove with all his inward and outward power to make it live for others. He was like one devoted, lighting little beacons in the darkness and little fires in a great cold. He seemed fully informed about every development in Irish, about writers of the day in prose or poetry, about books, periodicals and plays, and even about techniques in printing and publishing; in general, all received his happy approval, He spoke Irish to the boys, interested them in Club Leabhar na Sóisear, Inniu, An Gael Og, etc. With scarcely any recreational space or facilities he kept Cumann na Gaeilge going with conversation, debates, dramas, prize essays, and a lending library.
Indeed in his last illness he provided for the awarding of the Bonn Óir le haghaidh óráidíochta and the Corn le haghaidh comhrá. Once or twice a year he produced Irish plays. For these he himself planned the stage, painted the scenery, did all the coaching in speaking and acting, costurned the players and was an expert at make-up. One year he produced the opera Maritana, making his own translation very beautifully. On several occasions his players took part in the Féile Luimní, He really was the life and soul of Irish in the College, and we seriously fear that without him, whom all of us together cannot match, it may lapse into a mere class subject.
He whose home tongue was Irish and whose native earth was betwixt the hills and the sea in Cois Fhairrge must have found the inland plains dull and the English language flat. Be that as it may, an unwonted gaiety and joyousness took possession of him when on holidays in a gaeltacht beside the sea and his companionship was a delight. There he who ordinarily was so retiring became a leader, full of happy enterprise and initiative; there too his natural gifts as a homely raconteur shone.
His last illness began with what might have been an ordinary attack of flu. He soon showed symptoms of pleurisy and pneumonia and was brought to the Regional Hospital. They found grave disorder in the lung and recommended Surgeon Hickey, St. Stephen's Hospital, Cork. He made the journey by car on Shrove Tuesday. He had there a big exploratory operation and it was found that the lung and surrounding area was flooded with a great quantity of blood. It had come from a leak in the main artery very near the heart. This artery was in a very thin and worn condition. For nearly two weeks after this he was so low that those who visited him thought him dying. But he made a great recovery and became quite himself, saying Mass and spending some time out in the grounds. He knew he was building up for the crucial operation and he knew its nature, but he kept cheerful and optimistic, planning away for the future, always with the proviso, “If it be God's Will”. The operation consisted in grafting a patch on to the defective artery. Without this he could not live, but the chances of its success were small. It was said that the only other place it could be performed is in Texas. Nothing could exceed Mr. Hickey's devotedness and attention, and Fr. Stephen had full confidence in him and a tremendous admiration for him. The operation began at 1 p.m, and was not over till after 9 p.m. About 10 p.m. Fr. Stephen came to himself and spoke to the doctor, Mr. Hickey. Mr. Hickey said to Fr. Rector: "You may go home now Father and pray he may get through the night, if he does he should be all right". About an hour later he took a bad turn and at 12.25 on Thursday, 2nd June he died. He had been anointed and the chaplain was with him. Those who saw him after death remarked on the tranquillity and peacefulness of his appearance. He was buried in the Community cemetery on the Eve of Pentecost.
Ar dheasláimh Dé go raibh a anam ar feadh na síoraochta.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Stephen Curran 1911-1950
Fr Stephen Curran was a truly gentle and lovable soul. Born near Spiddal on January 2nd 1911, he never lost his tender love of his native language nor his native place. Next to God and the Society, this was his one love.

He worked unremittingly in his Alma Mater, Mungret, from his tertianship in Rathfarnham in 1947 until his death in 1960. Is devotion to his classes was his leading trait, and his energy was unflagging in promoting our native language, in producing plays and running debating societies, and in writing for various Irish periodicals.

His early tragic death at the age of 49 may be traced to the exemplary execution of his duties. The early habits and customs of the noviceship he carried out right to the end. If ever a man earned the right to hear those words “Well done good and faithful servant”, Stephen Curran surely did.

“Ár dheis-lamh Dé go raibh a anam”, as he himself would like to say.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1961

Obituary

Father Stephen Curran SJ

Few of us thought that when Father Curran went to hospital last February twelve months, that he would never return to the College alive.

Father Curran was born in Spiddal, Co Galway, on January 2nd, 1911. He went to school at St Mary's College, Galway. From this he transferred to the Apostolic School in Mungret in 1927. Here he remained until he entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1931. After the long studies of the Society he was ordained in 1945. After two years he came to Mungret where he spent the remaining years of his life.

Father Curran's name will always be associated with the Irish language, He spoke it with anyone he found willing to do so. He gave all his free time to working for the Irish Society in the College. His greatest love, perhaps, was centred on the Irish play he produced every year. For this he planned the stage, painted the scenery and did the make-up. In his last illness he made arrangements for the awarding of the “Bonn Oir le haghaidh oraidiochta” and the “Corn le haghaidh comhra”. The Editor of the Annual got a yearly reminder of the Irish Essay.

Many tributes were paid to Father Curran by past students. The Mungret Union spoke of him as “A gentie scholar, poet and universal friend”.

Another wrote of him as “A grand priest”.

Father Curran was an outstanding teacher, but those of us who were priviliged to live with him, will best remember his gentleness, kindness and charm of manner. Father Curran died in St Stephen's Hospital, Cork on June 2nd, 1960. May he rest in peace. RIP

Born: 14 April 1896, Forkhill, County Armagh
Entered: 29 March 1921, Manresa, Roehampton, London / St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1933, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1936, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 26 October 1981, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

by 1935 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Clerk before Entry; Transcribed from ANG to HIB 05 January 1922

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 57th Year No 1 1982
Obituary

Fr Francis McSwiggan (1896-1921-1981)

Born in Forkhill, Co Armagh, in 1896. Fr McSwiggan entered the Society at Manresa, Roehampton, on 29th March 1921, and came to Tullabeg during his noviceship. We (fellow-novices of his, who had entered on 31st August 1921) understood that he had been working in England, and so joined the Society there. As he was hoping to work in Ireland, the transfer to the Irish noviceship was arranged.
He was then 25 years old, while most of us, just out of school, were 16, 17 or 18. “Mac”, as we came to know him, was quiet, not talkative, with little sense of humour. He was not amused by the fiddle-faddles which sent young novices into fits of giggles.
Noviceships are normally uneventful, the one event of his noviceship which stands out in memory was his vow-day, Easter Sunday, 1923, when he could easily have been shot dead. We novices were out on a long-table day walk to Bellair hill some eight miles away. The road from Tullabeg to Ballycumber, after passing the Island chapel, crossed the railway line from Clara to Ferbane and Banagher. The hump-backed bridge over the line has since been demolished and the railway itself is closed.)
The Civil War was on at the time, and the “irregulars” (as those of the IRA who would not accept the Free State were called) had blown up a railway bridge over a stream about two hundred yards from where we crossed the line. They had set in motion a train from Clara, with no one on it, and when it came to the blown-up bridge, it overturned and rolled down the embankment.
On their walk, several novices went down the line to inspect the wreckage. It was guarded by Free State soldiers under a jittery young officer, who was highly suspicious of several groups of young men converging on him across the bog. Someone explained that we were clerical students out for a walk: but when he saw three more standing on the bridge staring down, he yelled and signalled to them to move off. Perhaps they did not hear him. They did not move, just stood staring; “Mac” in the middle, Fr Charlie Daly (Hong Kong) and if I remember aright Jock Finnegan who later left us. Seizing his rifle and taking aim, the officer announced in lurid language that he'd soon shift them to hell out of that. An older novice prevailed on him not to fire: they were only four fellows and hadn't heard him: he (the novice) would run up the line and get them to move on: which he did. Thus Fr “Mac” could easily have been shot dead on his vow-day.
Instead, a long life of faithful devoted work was opening before him. The 1923 Status sent him to Milltown for philosophy. In 1926 he went as Doc to Belvedere for four years, going on to theology in Milltown (1930-34, ordained 1933) and tertianship in St Beuno's (1934-35). Fr Geddes, the Instructor, asked the next year's tertians where those of the previous year had gone. “Wot?”, he exclaimed, “Fr McSwiggan, Prefect of Studies at Galway! Is he then supposed to be a very learned person?”
Whatever about that, he filled the post for five years before going to Clongowes for four years teaching, when he was a very popular confessor with the boys. In 1944 he moved to the big study in Mungret for two years, then back to Belvedere teaching till 1956, when he transferred to St Ignatius, Galway, as operarius, long in charge of the Apostleship of Prayer. Of those years, those who lived with him, All of us, however, who knew him are glad to think of him enjoying at the end his Master's welcome: Euge, serve bone et fidelis ... (Mt 25:21).

Mac, as he was known to those who lived with him, was a man of his period and his North of Ireland upbringing. He grew up in the faith of the minority, a minority that had to struggle for its rights and even its existence, and whose members were second-class citizens, for the most part poor and despised. Because of this a certain amount of iron and hardness had entered his soul, a certain intolerance and dogmatism, Everything in faith and morals as taught and interpreted in his upbringing, schooling and training became de fide definita, to be held rigidly: everything was either black or white; nothing was shaded or grey. He had a touch of bigotry in him, and if by chance he had been born into the other faith, he would have been a fundamentalist, an extremist.
His views were rigid, but in application to the individual and in giving direction tempered by his innate kindness, so it is easy to understand how he was a popular confessor to the boys in Clongowes and later from 1956 onwards, in the church in Galway, till deafness first and ill-health later forced him to give up church work. He carefully prepared his sermons, but his delivery was not the best: he was inclined to rush and elide words. He was assiduous in hearing confessions and indefatigable in bringing holy Communion to the sick and housebound.
For many years he was Director of the Apostleship of Prayer, which entailed the giving of the Holy Hour month after month. To increase the attendance he tried various ways: promise cards, handbills etc.; but berated those in attendance for the shortcomings of those who did not attend and who did not respond to his efforts and appeals. As Director he visited various schools in the city to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart and to increase the circulation of the Messenger. In his earlier years, as a priest teaching in the colleges, as well as giving retreats here and there around the country, he spent a good part of what was left of his summer holidays acting as chaplain to the staff and children of Sunshine House. Balbriggan. In later years when attached to the church he spent his villa period doing supply work in Liverpool. He was a man of zeal, a hard worker and a man of prayer.
He was very competent in Irish and keen on poetry. He even made some translations of Irish poetry into English, faithfully reproducing the metre, internal shyness, assonance and other features of the original in the translations. Unfortunately he wrote these (as he wrote his sermons) on odd scraps of paper or in already-used copybooks between the lines or in the margins, so few will have survived. In his last years, when he was more or less confined to his room, he became interested in puzzles, intellectual problems and short stories. He tried out his puzzles on his friends, and often spoilt the stories by enjoying their humour so much that he would break down with laughter before his hearers could see the point. He was fascinated by the universe and awed by its vastness and complexity, so he took an interest in astronomy and space exploration. To the end his mind remained clear and sharp and he kept it so with these interests.
Being a man of a fixed mould of mind, even more perhaps than others who had received similar formation and training, he found the post-Vatican II period disturbing and found it hard to accept some of the new thinking, new developments and adaptations: some of these he criticised quite openly, and his criticisms could be quite harsh! He was a keen observer and a sharp critic of the faults and failings of Ours, for he judged us all by the yardstick of his own self, and if we did not measure up to that, he let us know. Yet while his criticism was often sharp and hurt somewhat, because of some innate human quality in the man, no one ever resented it too much: all still had an affection for “old Mac”.
His death must have been the easiest event in his whole life. On 26th October 1981 he took his lunch in his room and lay down to rest, Shortly afterwards the good nun who looked after him came and found him on the point of passing away. She called the Minister, who anointed him, and before the end of the rite he had gone to his Lord and Master without stress or strain like a child dropping off to sleep. May he rest in peace.

Born: 25 October 1886, Clifden, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1904, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 15 August 1919, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 15 August 1922
Died: 12 June 1963, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia - Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1909 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
Came to Australia for Regency 1911
by 1918 at The Seminary, Kandy, Sri Lanka Mission (BELG) teaching at Seminary
by 1921 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
Tom McLoughlin was educated at CBC Wexford until he went to Clongowes Wood, Dublin, 1901-04. He entered the Irish noviciate at Tullabeg, 7 September 1904, and continued with his juniorate studies at the same place, 1904-06. His philosophy was at Louvain, 1908-11, before regency at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, 1911-16, where he taught and was third prefect. He directed the junior debating and was master-in-charge of the library Theology followed at Kurseorag, Kandy, and Milltown Park, 1916-20. Tertianship was at Tronchiennes .
McLoughlin returned to Australia to teach and was first prefect and rowing master at Riverview, 1921-25. He was not suited to the office of first prefect because he was not the man to insist on discipline with the tact and authority of one more suited to that work. His only interest in games was that Riverview was playing, and he wanted them to win.
He was sent to St Patrick’s College, 1925-35, where he taught French. During this time he also edited the “Patrician”. He was considered a good teacher, making French easy and entertaining for students. His classes were delivered with an almost flippant spontaneity that concealed the careful preparation he put into them. There was always the atmosphere of friendliness and warmth to his classes. He could be strict, but liked incidents to be finished immediately He was a keen handball player and enjoyed a game with the boys. His contact with the Old Boys was much appreciated, and his memory of their activities was most impressive. He received many visits from them. He vigorously promoted the Old Collegians' Association.
From 1936 until his death he returned to teach at Riverview and to edit “Our Alma Mater”. He was also prefect of studies, 1937-50, and chaplain to the Old Boys from 1950.
He was one of the great institutions at Riverview, a much respected friend and patron of the Old Boys. He taught French with some success for many years. He was most thorough and painstaking in everything he undertook, yet he was not at all fussy, a good disciplinarian, very kind and understanding. He was a good influence on every boy he taught.
He showed concern for those in special need, teaching the lower classes by choice. Every night he corrected many French exercises and prepared live classes for the next day. His work on “Our Alma Mater” was also a nocturnal task. One edition had 2,000 names of Old Boys. He had no secretary. He was a great letter writer.
In his declining years he continued to look after the alumni, supervise a few study periods, hear confessions, and edit “Our Alma Mater”. Towards the end he sustained a heart attack from which he died. Over 1,000 attended his funeral Mass at St Mary's Church, North Sydney, some travelling hundreds of miles to he present. The 300 senior boys of Riverview lined the roadway at the cemetery.

Born: 09 May 1863, Derry, County Derry
Entered: 07 September 1886, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 31 July 1898
Final Vows: 15 August 1901
Died: 28 May 1956, Meath Hospital Dublin

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

First World War chaplain

by 1896 at Enghien, Belgium (CAMP) studying
by 1899 at Leuven, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship
by 1918 Military Chaplain : Kinmel Training Centre, 53rd SWB, Rhyl
by 1919 Military Chaplain : Stanislaus Heaton Camp, Manchester

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - JOHN MC LOUGHLIN - post Novitiate assumed the name Stanislaus

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 31st Year No 3 1956
Obituary :
Fr Stanislaus J McLoughlin
The death of Fr. Stanislaus MacLoughlin has taken from us one that was a legendary figure in the Province. His various activities, his unusual interests, his unpredictable reactions to difficult situations were a never-flagging source of wonder to his brethren. Moreover, the fact that seventy of his ninety-three years were spent in the Society made him a valuable source of information about Province traditions.
Born in 1863 in Derry, he entered the Noviceship in 1886 at Dromore, Co. Down, after spending some years teaching. All his companions of those days have died, except Fr. L. McKenna and Br. Mordaunt. The years before ordination he spent in Enghien, the Crescent and Milltown Park. He went to Tronchiennes for his tertianship and then was sent to Belvedere in 1899. From Belvedere he passed to the Crescent once again, where he was for most of the time till the First World War. Then he went to Galway, where he was Prefect of Studies, till he was sent as a chaplain to the British troops in North Wales, After the war he was appointed Minister in Belvedere and then was transferred to the Messenger Office. Most of the remaining years of his life were spent in University Hall, Milltown Park, or Rathfarnham Castle Retreat House.
There was nothing ordinary about Fr. Stan. One could not come in contact with him and easily forget him, for everything he did was stamped with his strong personality. He was forthright in his opinions, never hid his likes or dislikes, and was slow to revise a judgment once passed on a person or a work. His outstanding qualities and failings are those we usually associate with the Six Counties and his device could very well have been “not an inch”. He used to tell how as a young man before he became a Jesuit he was teaching in Belvedere and had as one of his pupils, James MacNeil, the future Governor General. James was ordered by the then Mr. McLoughlin to stay in after school, for some misdemeanour, but protested that he could not stay in as he had to catch the train to Maynooth. “If you leave this room, it will be over my dead body”, was the uncompromising answer of Mr. MacLoughlin. Time moderated this spirit, but never destroyed it.
Fr. MacLoughlin had a number of interests which we rarely find associated in the same person. Building, distilling, taming animals, breeding new varieties of birds, rearing fowl, all attracted him, Especially in his old age, when loss of strength and increasing deafness made it impossible for him to give retreats or hear confessions, he turned more and more to curious experiments with these creatures. Fate always seem to step in just as he was bringing his experiments to a successful conclusion and put him back at the place from which he commenced.
In most people's minds, Fr. Stan is associated with Belvedere College and indeed his connection with Belvedere goes back to 1885, the year before he entered the Society. But it was not until he returned from Wales in 1919 that he became intimately bound up with the school. He was not teaching, but was working in the Messenger Office most of the time so that his activities in the school were all works of supererogation. He took an active interest in the Newsboys' Club, the S. V, de Paul Conference, the Old Boys' Union and became an unofficial aide to Fr. J. M. O'Connor, then Games Master. With Fr. C. Molony he founded the Old Belvedere Rugby Club. Not only did he help to found the Club, but he searched the suburbs for a suitable playing pitch and when it was acquired he started, at the age of sixty-four, to build a pavilion for the members. The story of that pavilion is a saga with many amusing episodes, all of which underline the determination with which he carried through any work he undertook. He approved of the Club as he believed it sheltered youths at a critical age from the dangers they were likely to encounter elsewhere. Football as such did not interest him and he might be seen at important fixtures, at Lansdowne Road walking up and down behind the spectators and not paying any attention to the game. It was the players attracted him and he jealously scrutinised any changes in the rules of the Club which seemed to him a falling away from the ideal. He was always prepared to criticise and denounce what he considered dangerous innovations. Two incidents will show the affection and respect the members of the Club felt for him. On the occasion of his diamond jubilee they commissioned the artist, Sean O'Sullivan, to draw them a pen and ink sketch of Fr. Stan, which they promptly set up in a place of honour in the present Club pavilion. Again, after a general meeting, at which he had been particularly critical the whole meeting stood out of respect when he rose to leave. The stories that have collected round Fr. MacLoughlin's name are legion, but it should not be forgotten that many were made up by himself, for he had a fine sense of humour and a gift for telling an anecdote. Fr. MacLoughlin's gifts made him especially suited to influence adolescents. He had such a variety of out-of-the-way information and such an original way of looking at things that he appealed very much to boys who were beginning to feel restive under the established order of things and becoming critical of authority. Hence his great success as a retreat-giver in Milltown Park and Rathfarnham. His work for schoolboys is principally associated with Rathfarnham Retreat House, where for many years, he directed and advised Dublin schoolboys in their realisation of a vocation or the choice of a career. There must be many priests today in the Society and outside of it who have him to thank for his generous help and unfailing encouragement in following their vocation. May they remember him now in their prayers.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Stanislaus McLoughlin 1863-1956
Fr Stanislaus McLoughlin was a legendary figure in the Province. His various activities, his unusual hobbies, his unpredictable reactions to different situations, were an unflagging source of wonder to his brethren.
Born in Derry in 1863 he entered the noviceship at Dromore in 1886.
He was associated with the Crescent as a young Jesuit priest, and was responsible for the fine rugby pitch which that College now has in the centre of the city. He will always be remembered in connection with Belvedere, where the prime of his life as a Jesuit was spent. With Fr Charles Moloney he founded the Old Belvedere Rugby Club. Not only that, but he scoured the city looking for a suitable pitch, and having got it proceeded to build a pavilion on it.
He had a special gift for directing young men and boys. This was exercised at Belvedere and especially in his later years at Rathfarnham where he conducted retreats for young people.
He died on May 28th 1956, ninety-three years of age, seventy of which he lived in the Society.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1956

Obituary

Father Stanislaus MacLaughlin SJ

Rev Stanislaus J MacLaughlin SJ, Rathfarnham Castle, whose death has occurred, was a native of Derry, where he was born in 1863. Before entering the Society of Jesus at Dromore, near Belfast, he taught for some years as lay master at Belvedere College.

He studied philosophy at Enghien, Belgium, and before his theological studies at Milltown Park, he taught in the Sacred Heart College, the Crescent, Limerick, for five years.

He was ordained in 1898. His religious training was completed at Tronchiennes, Belgium, in the following year. From 1900 to 1918 he was attached to Belvedere College, the Sacred Heart College in Limerick, and St Ignatius College, Galway.

In St Ignatius he was for some time Prefect of Studies, and he ministered in the church attached to the College. In the years 1918 and 1919, he was a military chaplain and did garrison duty at Rhyl and Manchester,

He was master at Belvedere College in 1920 and 1922, and was attached to the “Messenger” office, Dublin, from 1924 to 1932. He was then appointed Assistant Director of the House of Retreats, Milltown Park. He also held that post from 1933 to 1935.

He acted again as Assistant Director of the House of Retreat from 1942 to 1944. From 1936 to 1941 he was acting President of University Hall, Hatch Street, Dublin. In 1945 he was transferred to Rathfarnham Castle, where he helped to organise and conduct retreats for men and boys.

Fr McLaughlin took a lively and practical interest in the Old Belvedere Rugby Club from the early days of its foundation, and he continued as a constant guide, father and patron to its members.

We have given above the facts of the life of Father Stan; but these things convey no accurate picture of the person we have known and the personality who is gone from among us. It would need a kind of symposium of the memories of his contemporaries, of the boys who knew him in class, and of Old Belvederians of many vintages who began the club with him in Ballymun; who feared his entry to the general meeting lest they had done something of which he disapproved, who enjoyed his philippics, and who loved the fine old man whose indomitable spirit was so admirable and whose active mind and active body outlasted in vigour all his contemporaries and shamed younger men.

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John McLoughlin (1863-1956)

A native of Derry, had been engaged for some time in the teaching profession before he entered the Society in 1886. Some years after he became a Jesuit, he adopted the name Stanislaus by which he was known henceforth. He made his higher studies at Enghien and Milltown Park. Father McLaughlin spent in all some sixteen years at the Crescent. He first came here as a scholastic in 1889-94; 1905-09; 1911-16 and 1921-23. Yet he became associated in the public mind more with Belvedere College where he worked devotedly for the Old Belvedere RFC. But his best claim to remembrance was his work in the retreat movement for boys. For many years he worked at Rathfarnham Castle Retreat House where his influence was great amongst Dublin youth seeking for guidance in the choice of a state in life.

Born: 22 October 1909, Clontarf, Dublin
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 13 May 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 08 January 1955, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Early education at O’Connell’s School

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 30th Year No 2 1955

Obituary :

Father Pádraic Ó Brolcháin

Fr. Pádraic Ó Brolcháin was born in Dublin on October 22nd, 1909. Educated at O'Connell Schools, he joined the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg on September 1st, 1928, and did his two years of noviceship under Fr. Martin Maher. There followed the usual University studies spent at Rathfarnham Castle and then philosophical studies in Tullabeg. From 1936 to 1938 Mr. Ó Brolcháin taught in Clongowes Wood College, and his third year of “Colleges” was spent at the Crescent. He was pleased in after years to have had the experience of teaching in both boarding and day schools as a scholastic. Many of the experiences of those Clongowes and Crescent days are to be found in an unpublished novel which he wrote later on, as a break during Theology which he studied at Milltown from 1939 to 1943. Ordained in 1942, he did his tertianship at Rathfarnham Castle and from there was appointed Vice-Superior of the Apostolic School at Mungret where he remained until his transfer to Galway in 1948. He was attached to the teaching staff there until his death which took place at St. Vincent's Private Nursing Home, Dublin, on the morning of January 8th last.
It is difficult to summarise a man's life under a single heading, but perhaps it was his courage that distinguished Fr. Ó Brolcháin. A man's organising ability, and Fr. Ó Brolcháin had plenty of it, will avail little if he has not the courage to overcome difficulties and for Fr. Pádraic, difficulties were obstacles to be overcome not yielded to - Plays, dancing, swimming, Tóstal and Connradh na Gaeilge activities - all having a connection with his manifold Gaelic activities for boys, presented each its own crop of difficulties, but it was typical of the man that he overcame them all in his own quiet, diplomatic way. That these spheres of activity all demanded self-sacrificing devotedness was apparent, but Fr. O Brolcháin would be the last to talk about the cost to himself.
To some who may have thought that he organised to an excessive degree, it may come as a surprise that on his own admission, he was not methodical by nature . . . he had taught himself to be so. It was not only in his extra curricular activities that he was systematic; his class-preparation was also meticulous.
Like so many busy men, Fr. Pádraic was most prodigal in giving his time to others and his “tar isteach” was always an invitation to take as much tinę as you wanted. He was always interested in new ideas, always willing to listen and, if he did not agree with you, he would tell you so and leave you none the less satisfied, for you felt you had had a sympathetic listener. In conversation one came to learn also of the Catholicity of his interests and of his literary tastes. His delight indeed, when he took a night off, was to read.
It was easy also to speak to him of things spiritual, for here was a well-ordered mind which had thought the Constitutions and Exercises over for itself. His great belief was in the necessity and supremacy of the interior law of charity and love. It was this interior law which made him such an obliging member of the community, ever ready to help out in any need.
His last year of life saw Fr. Pádraic no less active but he had not been feeling too well, and at the end of August underwent a severe operation whose chances of permanent success he knew to be slight. The month of November he spent in Galway where he was the same affable, approachable person welcomed back now by both boys and community. He could speak of his own sickness with such detachment that one imagined that a third party was being discussed. He left us at the beginning of December to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and Loyola, but he was not destined to recover. On the morning of January 8th he gave his soul back to God.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Pardaig Ó Brolcháin SJ 1909-1955
Fr Padraig Ó Brolcháin was born in Dublin in 1909. His father was an intimate friend and collaborator of Arthur Griffith, and was by him put in charge of the educational policy on the foundation of the Irish Free State. Padraig was educated at O'Connells Schools and entered the Society in 1928.

He was a dedicated soul, dedicated to God, to the Society and to all things Irish. He was a man of tremendous enthusiasm, of great organising ability and of great courage and pertinacity in carrying out his ideas.He had a keen zest in the outdoor life, and the duty of it all was that he died so young, before all his plans and ideas reached full fruition.

He was an effective and zealous spiritual father to the boys in Mungret for some years after his tertianship, but bis best work was done in Galway, where his zeal and keenness on physical fitness found permanent expression is his swimming club for boys.

He touched everything, even writing, being a fairly steady contributor to the Timire and Madonna, and leaving behind him an unpublished novel on school-life in one of our Colleges.

Being informed that he had cancer, he accepted his fate with the same cheerfulness which he had gone through life. His last act was to go to Lourdes to seek a cure, if it were God’s will, but He called him home instead on January 8th 1955 at the early age of 46.

Ár dheis laimh Dé go faibh a anam!

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Pádraig Ó Brolcháin (1909-1955)

Was born in Dublin and educated in O'Connell's Schools. He spent one year of his regency at the Crescent, 1938-39. After the completion of his studies - he was ordained in 1942 at Milltown Park - Father O'Brolchain was appointed vice-superior of the Apostolic School, Mungret College. In 1948 he was transferred to Galway. His appointment to Galway was a source of deep pleasure for him, for it brought him to the heart of a Gaelic speaking area. Throughout his too short career in the Society, his enthusiasm for the Irish language, which he spoke from his tenderest years, was almost infectious. Yet, his enthusiasm was never aggressive. Urbanity was of the essence of the man. In Galway, his work for the language was self-sacrificing and cheerful. But as in the earlier days at Clongowes, the Crescent or Mungret, so in the later years at St. Ignatius', he was not merely their teacher, but guide, philosopher and friend for the boys with whom he came in contact.

Born: 27 May 1905, Belfast, County Antrim
Entered: 31 August 1923, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1938, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1941, St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin
Died: 26 December 1989, Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Part of the Sacred Heart community, Limerick at the time of death

Had studied Medicine for one year before entry

by 1930 at Berchmanskolleg, Pullach, Germany (GER S) studying

◆ Interfuse
Interfuse No 82 : September 1995

Obituary

Fr Seán Ó Catháin (1905-1989)

27th May 1905: Born in Belfast
31st Aug. 1923: Entered the Society of Jesus
1923 - 1925: Tullabeg, novitiate
1925 - 1929: Rathfarnham, juniorate: MA (UCD) in Celtic studies
1929 - 1931; Pullach bei München, Germany: philosophy
1931 - 1934: Galway, regency
1934 - 1939 Milltown Park
1934 - 1935: private study,
1935 - 1939 theology
1938: Ordained a priest
1939 - 1940: Rathfarnham, tertianship.
1940 - 1946: Leeson Street:
1940 - 1941 private study,
1941 - 1946 University Hall, vice principal, private study culminating in a PhD.
1946 - 1948: Clongowes, teaching
1948 - 1978; Leeson Street:
1949 - 1966 Lecturer at UCD's department of Education;
1966-1973 Professor of Education;
1950 - 1959 Inspector of studies in colleges of the Province.
1973 - 1978 writing.
1967 - 1973: Superior.
1978 - 1989: Limerick (Sacred Heart Residence): church work, librarian. In 1982 (also in October 1989) he suffered a stroke which impaired the memory function of his brain. After spending some time in St. John's Hospital, Limerick, he was removed to Our Lady's hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin
26th Dec. 1989: Died

The following additional details concerning Seán's academic career have been gleaned from the Report of the President, UCD, 1972-3 (section on retirements) and 1989-'90 (obituary section). Seán gained four diplomas, all with first-class honours (the middle two in Irish), from one or other of three Irish university colleges: pre-medical (UCC, 1923), BA (UCD, 1928), MA (UCD, 1929), HDip in Ed (UCG, 1932). For his PhD in Ed (UCD, 1941) his thesis was on 'The diffusion of Renaissance ideals of education in the schools of the Jesuit Order'. 'During these years (seemingly 1932-48) he acted as an Assistant Extern Examiner (through Irish) in Education for the National University of Ireland.

Seán Ó Catháin was the second son of Seán and Kathleen nee Dinneen. Seán senior was a native of Kilbeheny, near Mitchelstown, while Kathleen from Rathmore, Co. Kerry. It was in London at the turn of the century that Seán, who had succeeded in the examinations for the civil service, found himself posted for work at the department of customs and excise. Kathleen Dinneen had qualified as a primary teacher and found employment also in London. They were both the children of Irish speaking parents.

Sometime about 1904 Seán Ó Catháin was transferred to Belfast. Some day a curious enquirer may discover whether his transfer was by way of promotion or downright exile to dour Belfast, where there were fewer Gaelic Leaguers!

Here our own Seán was born, and baptised at the parish church of the Sacred Heart, Oldpark Road. In due course he was confirmed at St. Patrick's parish church, Donegall Street. After primary school he was sent to St. Malachy's college and had all but completed his secondary schooling when his father was once more transferred to a very different location of the customs and excise. This time it was to Cork, not far from his native place. It is almost certain that the transfer was scheduled for the late spring of 1921 - a very significant date. Britain was busily partitioning Ireland in the administrative sector in preparation for political partition and the opening of a new Six-county parliament on 22nd June 1921. In fact, the separation of the administrative files of government had been going quietly on even before the general election and victory of Sinn Féin in December 1918! All this underhand work was unknown or unsuspected, apparently, by the young republican politicians, the heirs of 1916!

Seán junior resumed his secondary schooling at the North Monastery CBS in June 1922. He entered the medical school at UCC, but in the event he was not destined to become a medical doctor.

In 1923 Seán senior was transferred to Dublin, In August Seán junior entered the novitiate at Tullabeg, and in due course made his first religious profession. In after years he often spoke of his privilege to have spent his first year as a novice under the direction of the saintly Fr. Michael Browne. He went to Rathfarnham Castle where he was to spend four years. At UCD he won scholarships; at home he was a live-wire in the Irish Society, and every Christmas distinguished himself as an actor in the Irish plays. He crowned his career at Rathfarnham with a first-class-honours MS in Celtic studies.

He was next appointed to the philosophate at Pullach, where he graduated DPh of the Gregorian university. Bilingual from infancy, it is not to be wondered at that he acquired an enviable mastery of the German language. Later he added Italian and French to his linguistic accomplishments.

Back in Ireland he was appointed to Galway for his regency, and it was during this period that Fr. Timothy Corcoran, professor of education at UCD, began to take an interest in Seán as a future successor in his own chair at Earlsfort terrace. These were happy years in a youthful, full and flourishing province, with only an occasional rumour of trouble trickling into Ireland from Hitler's Germany. But peace in Europe was already openly threatened when Seán was ordained priest in 1938. By the summer of 1940 he had completed his fourth year of theology and made his tertianship.

He was now appointed to Leeson Street for private study. Here under the watchful eye of Fr. Corcoran he began his studies in education that would lead to another doctorate. By an odd turn of events his prospects of eventually succeeding to the Chair of Education diminished considerably before the year was over. Fr. Corcoran's health had not been robust of late but he battled on - not only conducting his own lectures but also supplying for his assistant, Mr. W J Williams, who had recently suffered a stroke. It was anticipated that Williams, who was within a very few years of retirement, would resign, but when Fr. Corcoran himself was obliged on medical grounds to resign in September 1942, Williams declared he was going forward for Fr. Corcoran's chair. Meantime the Provincial and consultors (at the urging of members of the Hierarchy) put forward the name of Fr. Fergal McGrath as candidate. (No complaint was ever heard from Fr. Seán.) However, as soon as Fr. McGrath learned of Williams' intention, he immediately withdrew his name - and Williams secured the professorship. He had to retire in 1948. Since 1942 Fr. Seán was stationed as vice-warden at Hatch Street, where he continued work on his doctoral thesis. At the end of this study he spent the years 1946-48 as a master at Clongowes, and 1950-59 - with his characteristic thoroughness - Seán carried out the duties of inspector of our province's schools.

In 1948, when the chair of education was once more vacant, Fr. Seán allowed his name to go forward, and found overwhelming support in the electoral body. However, for the next eighteen years he enjoyed the title (and salary) of lecturer only and not professor. It was an open secret that the late Professor Michael Tierney had used all his considerable influence to downgrade the chair of education. Tierney's hostility dated from the time (1920's and 1930's) when his political views attracted strong opposition in The Catholic Bulletin, on the editorial board of which Fr. Timothy Corcoran's word was law.

In 1966 came belated acknowledgement of Fr. Seán's ability and worth when he was accorded the rank of professor. However, I always felt that the seven years during which he held the professorship were wearying if not even distasteful to a man of his sensitivity. It is enough to recall here that in 1968 student unrest in France spilled out all over Europe and across the Atlantic, and in the universities civilised behaviour, good manners and respect for any authority were the first casualties.

During his later years as professor, when he was also superior at Leeson Street, Seán's health was not robust. He suffered much from sleeplessness, yet during the thirteen years I lived with him he never missed an appointment and was exemplary for punctuality. A product of the old school, that is, brought up in the province to value the necessity of co-operation whether in teaching, church work, parochial missions etc, he lived in no ivory tower of academia. He was interested in everybody and everything connected with the Irish province, and that meant all our fathers, scholastics and brothers, and the works they were engaged in. He had an authentic apostolic bent, as could be deduced from his active interest in the work of two societies, one named after St. Vincent de Paul and the other called St. Joseph's Young Priests. He was an excellent community man, incapable of pulling a long face at table or recreation: he simply radiated a sense of fun. It was a delight to hear him enter the lists with Fr. Frank Shaw, My own impression was that if they had chosen the law for their profession, both would have gained celebrity as advocates.

As superior, Seán tended to be over-scrupulous, but against this he was particularly caring for the sick and generously sympathetic in times of bereavement. Like Fr's Fergal McGrath († 1988) and Redmond Roche († 1983) he acquired an almost legendary reputation for attendance at funerals. 1973 seemed to be the end of his active life; early that autumn he resigned from the chair of education and two months earlier had been replaced as superior of Leeson Street. The next five years he spent in quiet study and in a ministry within his capacity.

An unexpected challenge awaited him in 1978. The Provincial was faced with diminishing manpower, and one of our churches, the Crescent, rather urgently needed an operarius. The difficult proposal was made to Seán, a Dubliner of long standing, and now in his seventies. Generously, as was the custom of this province, he answered the call of duty and courageously entered on a new and unaccustomed way of life. In Limerick, while his fragile health remained, he gave of his best; but the last years must have been frustrating for a man of his once boundless nervous energy. In 1989 he seemed to rally somewhat, and twice at least attended funerals in Gardiner Street, but his years were telling against him. At length he had to go into St. John's hospital, Limerick, whence he was taken back to Dublin to spend the short time that remained to him at Our Lady's hospice, Harold's Cross. There, on St. Stephen's Day, God called him home.

Tá an tAthair Seán imithe uainn ar shlí na firinne, agus tá uaigneas orainn dá dheasca sin go bhfeicimid arís sna Flaithis é; ach idir an dá linn guímis go bhfaigh a anam dilis suaimhneas síoraí, go raibh sé faoi bhrat Mhuire i radharc na Trionóide.

Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin

Born: 15 March 1909, Ballymitty, County Wexford
Entered: 16 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1944, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 29 April 2006, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ
Tertianship at Rathfarnham

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 128 : Special Issue June 2006

Obituary

Fr Aidan Ennis (1909-2005)

15th March 1909; Born in Ballymitty, Co. Wexford
Early education in Dominican College, Wicklow, and Clongowes
16th Sept. 1926: Entered the Society at Tullabeg
17th Sept. 1928: First Vows at Tullabeg
1928 - 1931: Rathfarnham - Studied Arts in UCD
1931 - 1934: Tullabeg - Studied Philosophy
1934 - 1937: Clongowes - Teacher (Regency)
1937 - 1941: Milltown Park - Studied Theology
31st July 1940: Ordained at Milltown Park
1941 - 1942: Tertianship at Rathfarnham
1942 - 1944: Mungret College - Minister
2nd February 1944: Final Vows at Mungret College
1944 - 1945: Milltown Park - Minister
1945 - 1947: St. Francis Xavier, Gardiner St. - Pastoral Ministry
1947 - 1962: Mungret College
1947 - 1955: Farm Manager; Teacher; Lecturer in Philosophy, Confessor
1955 - 1959: Teacher; Lecturer in Philosophy; Spiritual Director
1959 - 1962: Teacher, Lecturer in Philosophy
1962 - 1965: Catholic Workers College - Minister, Lecturer
1965 - 1969: Mungret College - Spiritual Director; Teacher, Lecturer in Philosophy
1969 - 1976: St. Ignatius, Galway
1969 - 1975: Teacher; Ministered in Church;
1975 - 1976: Parish Curate
1976 - 2006: Gardiner Street
1976 - 2002: Ministered in the Church; Gardener
2002 - 2006: Cherryfield Lodge - Prayed for the Church and the Society
29th April 2006: Died peacefully in St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin,

Fr. Aidan Ennis was admitted to Cherryfield Lodge in January 2002. He was frail and needed nursing care. He remained in reasonably good health for the next four years. His condition began to deteriorate, especially in the final four months.

Proinsias Fionnagáin writes:
Aidan Ennis was born on 15 March 1909 in the parish of Ballymitty, Co. Wexford. His birthplace was an old residence and park a short mile away from the Catholic parish church. French tourists to that district might certainly describe the Ennis property as a gentilhommiere. There were two sons in the family, Patrick John, the elder, and Aidan, and four daughters. The Ennis family is now extinct.

Aidan and his brother were both educated at Clongowes. Aidan entered the Society in 1926 at Tullabeg. When the present writer entered, one year later, he could not fail to notice that Aidan was one of seven Clongownians of the 1926 vintage. His fellow OCs were John Burden (+1974), John MacAvoy (+1983), Gerard Perrott (+1985), Brendan Lawler (+1993) and Michael O'Meara (+1998). Cecil Hayden, a deeply spiritual man, was deemed over-scrupulous by superiors and told to go back to his family's business, HAYDENS' HOTEL, in Ballinasloe. He never returned to Ballinasloe, but became a hotel manager in Dublin and an apostle of devotion to the Holy Rosary. Aidan survived many of his fellow novices and I was the only fellow-novice to be able to attend his funeral.

My only memory of Aidan in the novitiate is of summer 1928, when he seemed to have given himself a special apostolate of encouraging first-year novices like myself to seek permission to make the Vows of Devotion. It was only the Father Provincial who could sanction this act of devotion. So far as I could learn later, only Brother Thomas O'Sullivan was granted the privilege. Both the Father Provincial and the future Father Thomas had been Old Boys of St. Ignatius College, Galway--another proof that blood is thicker than water!

In June 1931, our Major Villa was housed in Castlebellingham Castle, Co. Louth. A first-year junior, Dan Fitzpatrick, destined for the new Vice-Province in Australia, was looking out for a cycling party to visit his mother and grandmother at Omeath, Co Louth. Omeath was the last and soon to be extinct Gaeltacht on the east coast of Ireland. Dan's grandmother was a native Irish speaker of Omeath. Aidan got interested in the prospect of the trip to Omeath, and, as we may be sure, proved a welcome addition to Dan's other companions as well. By some alchemy of fate, conversation with Dan Fitzpatrick's relatives produced some remarkable associations for Aidan. Dan's dead father had been a member of the crew on the Titanic on her tragic maiden voyage to America in April 1912. An aunt of Aidan was the wife of one of the pursers on the doomed ship. The Ennis home in Ballymitty appears in a published work dealing with Irish victims on the ship and the address of this purser. Aidan was pleased when I brought this book to his notice; he was but an infant when this uncle by marriage perished.

Sometime, during my scholastic career, I met Aidan's parents on holidays and I noticed an uncanny resemblance between Aidan and his father. The elder son, Patrick, did not have a like paternal resemblance.

Allow me to record here another name from the Ennis family tree. I had noticed in a book review on the west of Ireland mention of Bishop Patrick Duggan of Clonfert whose massive memorial Celtic Cross is to be seen close by the lasting resting place of the patriot Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, and other dignitaries of the archdiocese in Glasnevin cemetery. I was mentioning the book at table when Aidan broke in. “Proinsias”, he said, “you are talking about a kinsman of mine”. Bishop Duggan of Cionfert was born in Belcare, archdiocese of Tuam, in 1813. His family on the distaff side was descended from an old and distinguished stock, the Canavans, and Aidan's mother was an out-cousin of the Duggans of Belcare. She was a Canavan and had handed on to her son, Aidan, the story of her distinguished relative. In August, 1896, Bishop Duggan arrived in Dublin on business with his solicitor. He got ill unexpectedly, was brought to Jervis St. Hospital, and a few days later died on 15 August. That very same evening his remains were transferred to our church and reposed for three days in the Ignatian Chapel. Archbishop Walsh was celebrant of the solemn Mass in the church, in the presence of Cardinal Logue and some three handred priests, diocesan and regular.

When I returned from France in 1981 I was appointed a member of the Diocesan Commission of historians studying the Causes for Beatification of the Irish Martyrs for the faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I did not foresee that the years 1982 to 1992 would be the busiest of all my experience of life in the Society. My status in the community was simply 'assistant in the church'. Aidan had the same status but had a noticeably large following, whether in the church or the Ignatian Chapel. with the Gaelgóirí. His only light reading seemed to me to be the Gaelic poets Piaras Ferriter, Tadg Gaelach Ó Súilleabhain et al. I associate him with our popular pilgrimage to Carraig an Aifrinn, Co. Wicklow...another instance of his lack of physical stamina. His only recreation seemed to be practising golfing shots in the garden when no one was around. He was well into his eighties and still driving the house car. It was the general disapproval of the community that called for his abandonment of the steering wheel. It was felt that he was endangering the lives of himself, Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire, Seamus Mac Amhlaoibh et al., setting off for the annual holidays in Co. Donegal, after passing through the troubled counties of Tyrone and, especially, Fermanagh.

Aidan was not only a devoted assistant in the sanctuary or confessional in the church; he was a devoted trainer of the altar boys and, yes, the boy-scouts.. A new parish priest started to innovate 'in the alleged and mostly unapproved) spirit of Vatican II. He decreed that the boy servers were to be helped out by girly servers. Anybody could predict the result: the boys fled the sanctuary never to return. The boy scouts, too, disappeared over- night. The last boy-scout was an obese child. The recently recruited girl-scouts quickly tired of their social promotion and left to be with the boys. Fr Aidan must have felt deeply distressed by all the changes in the 'spirit of Vatican II'. Much of Aidan's unknown kindnesses could be guessed at from our casual meeting in the streets with persons, poor as well as well-to-do, who asked for Aidan, who was helping them to cope with the inevitable disappointments in life.

When Aidan was well into his eighties he could still deliver an admirable sermon. I remember the funeral Mass of the last of his sisters. Aidan produced a wise and instructive homily on the subject of death and its appositeness for deepening the faith of the living. Not long after he was invited by Belvedere College to preach at the obsequies of Father Peadar MacSéamus who, just before his last illness, had completed fifty years in the College. On this occasion Aidan excused himself from accepting the invitation to preach - a sure sign of Aidan's declining stamina.

His last two decades amongst us must have been lonely years. One by one, his brother and four sisters quit this valley of tears. One death after another must have been for Aidan an indication that the Ballymitty Eunises were approaching extinction. Eventually, Aidan, sole survivor of the family, was now the heir-at-law of the gentilhommiere in Co. Wexford. And so ended his paternal surname in the old beloved homestead. It is comforting to know that in his closing years in Cherryfield he experienced tender care and affection up to his last and eternal Status.

From the homily by Derek Cassidy at the Funeral Mass in Gardiner Street:
Aidan was born into a Home called "Springwood", and, as the name suggests, it was well supplied with Trees and Bushes and many different coloured shrubs and flowers. Perhaps it is this very early exposure to the seasons of growth, flowering and decaying, that gave Aidan his calm, tranquil and easy going disposition to the happenings of day to day living: whatever, he was a man of considerably even temper

I have selected the readings from Aidan's own copy of the Jerusalem Bible, wherein I discovered some of his notations. I want to finger a moment on that reading from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 & 2. Aidan re-phrased the last sentence slightly, to read “Then you will be able to discern the will of God”. In his praying and reflection on the message of the two verses, Aidan stressed for himself, and from his place now with God, stresses for you and me, God's mercy. When I am fully aware of the quality of mercy that God offers me, when I am ready to live in that awareness, then I can avoid modelling my behaviour on the world around me, and, instead, allow my behaviour to be modelled by my appreciation of God's mercy, and then, and because Aidan underlined for himself this word “then”, I must say, then, and only then, will be able to discern the will of God, and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.

Over the very many years of his dedicated life in the Jesuits, almost 80 years of commitment, Aidan was very well practiced in the exercise of applying God's mercy. He was infinitely patient - like the Gardener must be whilst waiting for the soil to give birth to the flower. He was tender, kind and compassionate in his Healing Ministry in the Confessional, especially here in St Francis Xavier's Church, where Aidan spent a total of 28 years. He would say himself that he learned much more about life from the people here in Gardiner Street than he was ever able to teach about life! He had a deep affection for the devoted congregation here, and in a way the people of Brendan Behan Court were his Pets!

Fr Aidan also spent some time in Mungret College, Limerick, now closed. I first met him there, where he taught Philosophy to young men preparing for Priesthood on the Missions. Fr Willie Reynolds told me yesterday that he had been speaking with some of those who knew Fr Aidan from Mungret, and they offer their Prayers of support to us.

The psalm that I selected from Aidan's notes was Ps. 25, with the response “To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul”. I mentioned that Aidan is 80 years in the Jesuits this year - in September. In those 80 years he lifted up his soul to God each morning and evening, some minimum of 58,400 times!! That is once more a dedication quite similar to what is required of a Gardener: digging and weeding and watering and waiting for the blossom to show. Love, Forgiveness, Mercy: these three qualities are sung of in Ps 25. All three are qualities attributed to God; all three are the qualities that Aidan modelled his life around.

I chose the Gospel of the Ten Lepers from amongst many that Aidan has noted. I chose it mainly because of the plea made by the ten, “Jesus! Master! Take pity on us”. What a very beautiful prayer of regard. I can only imagine that it is a prayer that Aidan himself used frequently. I humbly suggest that Aidan today commends this prayer to you and me. So as we continue with our Prayer of Thanksgiving for Aidan's life and gift to us, we might allow our hearts to accompany him now through our Faith as he enters into the full blossom of Life with the God of his dreams.

Interfuse No 128 : Special Issue June 2006

DEDICATED TO FR AIDAN ENNIS

Thomas MacMahon

A Theme and Three Variations

Original
Who is Sylvia? What is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her.

That she might admired be.

“Two Gentlemen of Verona”
William Shakespeare
1564-1616.

1
Who is Aidan? What is he,
That all S.J.'s commend him?
Hoary hair, grey eyes has he,
The staff such drapes did lend him
That he might attired be.

“One Clergyman of Cherryfield”
Thomas Mac Mahon 1915-present (etc. DV)

2
Cé hé Aodán? Céard é féin,
Go molann é gac éinne?
Naofa, geal agus eolach é,
An oiread gräs thug Neamh dó,
Le go dtiurfai moladh dó.

“Beirt Duine Uasal ó Bheróna”
Liam Crith-Slea 1564-1616

3
Quis est Aodan ? quidnam est,
Pagani ut inirentur?
Sanctus, clarus, prudens ille,
Talem gratiam dedit caelum
Ut is mirus haberetur.

“Duo Nobiles Veronenses”
Gulielmus Hastam-Verberans MDLXIV -MDCXVI

◆ The Clongownian, 2006

Obituary

Father Aidan Ennis SJ

Aidan Ennis was born on 15 March 1909 in the parish of Ballymitty, Co. Wexford. His birthplace was an old residence and park a short mile away from the Catholic parish church. French tourists to that district might certainly describe the Ennis property as a gentilhommiere, There were two sons in the family, Patrick John, the elder, and Aidan, and four daughters. Aidan and his brother were both educated at Clongowes. Aidan entered the Society in 1926 at Tullabeg and was one of seven Clongownians of the 1926 vintage.

He studied Arts in UCD and Philosophy in Tullabeg before spending three years teaching in Clongowes. He then studied Theology in Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1940. He took his final vows at Mungret College in 1944 where he was serving as Minister. Following short spells in Milltown Park and Gardiner Street Aidan went to Mungret College where he taught and lectured in Philosophy. He worked for three years as Minister in the Catholic Workers College before he returned to Mungret for four years before moving to Coláiste lognáid in Galway in 1969. He spent seven years there before returning to Gardiner Street where he ministered in the church.

When I recurned from France in 1981 my status in the community was simply “assistant in the church”. Aidan had the same status but had a noticeably large following, whether in the church or the Ignatian Chapel, with the Gaelgeóiri. His only light reading seemed to me to be the Gaelic poets Piaras Ferriter, Tadg Gaelach Ó Suilleabhain et al. I associate him with our popular pilgrimage to Carraig an Aifrinn, Co. Wicklow. His only recreation seemed to be practicing golfing shots in the garden when no one was around. He was well into his eighties and still driving the house car. It was the general disapproval of the community that called for his abandonment of the steering wheel. It was felt that he was endangering the lives of himself and others by setting off for annual holidays in Co. Donegal.

Aidan was not only a devoted assistant in the sanctuary or confessional in the church; he was a devoted trainer of the altar boys and the scouts. Much of Aidan's unknown kindnesses could be guessed at from our casual meeting in the streets with persons, poor as well as well-to do, who asked for Aidan, who was helping them to cope with disappointments in life. When Aidan was well into his eighties he could still deliver an admirable sermon. I remember the funeral Mass of the last of his sisters. Aidan produced a wise and instructive homily on the subject of death and its appositeness for deepening the faith of the living. Not long after he was invited by Belvedere College to preach at the obsequies of Father Peadar MacSeamus who, just before his last illness, had completed fifty years in the College. On this occasion Aidan excused himself from accepting the invitation to preach - a sure sign of his declining stamina.

One by one, his brother and four sisters quit this valley of tears and eventually, Aidan, sole survivor of the family, was now the heir-at-law of the gencilhommiere in Co. Wexford. And so ended his paternal surname in the old beloved homestead. It is comforting to know that in his closing years in Cherryfield he experienced tender care and affection up to his last and eternal Status.

Born: 09 June 1894, Foxrock, County Dublin
Entered: 07 October 1913, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1926, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1931, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 14 November 1961, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

by 1917 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1929 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Fr Francis Finegan: Admissions 1859-1948 - Post Office Civil Servant before entry

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 37th Year No 1 1962
Obituary :
Fr Andrew O’Farrell (1894-1961)
Fr. Andrew O'Farrell was born in Dublin in 1894. He received his secondary education at Blackrock College and then entered the service of the Hibernian Bank. He worked for some years in the Head Office, College Green, and in after life maintained a close connection with officials whom he had known there, especially with the late Henry J. Campbell, who was his manager and later became General Manager. In 1913 he resigned from the Bank and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg.
At the end of his novitiate Fr. O'Farrell went for a year to Rathfarnham. Owing to his early entry into the Bank he had not matriculated and so did not go on for a degree, a regrettable decision in view of the great ability which he later showed. In 1915 he went to Jersey for philosophy, where his natural talent for languages at once showed itself. He rapidly acquired a thorough knowledge of French and a high degree of fluency in speaking it. He used to recall, with amused satisfaction, how the scholastic who taught him remarked : “Vous parlerez bien Français parceque vous êtes très bavard”. He also developed a great taste for French literature which lasted all his life. It is remarkable that all this progress was made in the short space of eighteen months, since in the spring of 1917, owing to the threat of conscription, all the Irish philosophers were recalled from England and the continent to Milltown Park.
Fr. O'Farrell finished his philosophy at Milltown and then did four years' teaching, the first at Clongowes, the remainder at Mungret. He returned to Milltown for theology and was ordained in 1926. After theology he did another year's teaching in Clongowes, then tertianship at St. Beuno's and in 1929 came to Galway, where the college had just been re-opened as an all-Irish school.
It was now that Fr. O'Farrell's abilities found full scope. He had always been a keen student of the Irish language, and so threw himself with enthusiasm into the work of the college and perfected his own knowledge of Irish by regular attendance at Irish courses in the Gaeltacht. In later years, though he no longer needed to attend courses, he visited every summer the Gaeltacht of Carraroe, where he became a familiar and beloved figure and usually supplied for or assisted the parish priest, In St. Ignatius Fr. O'Farrell also found the opportunity to make use of the facility in French which he had acquired in Jersey. He was a most successful teacher and on several occasions his pupils obtained first place in French in one or other of the certificate examinations. Though often hampered by ill-health, Fr. O'Farrell continued up to within a few days of his death to devote himself to the apostolate of the classroom. In the current Catalogue the words appear after his name: "doc. ann. 39". To those who have any conception of the value of Catholic education these brief words are a record of great and lasting achievement. At Fr. O'Farrell's funeral His Lordship the Bishop of Galway spoke with appreciation of his long and devoted life as a teacher and held it up to others as an inspiring example.
It was not only as a teacher that Fr. O'Farrell established himself in Galway but also as a priest. Though he was never one of the church staff, he did an immense amount of quiet work, visiting the sick, hearing Confessions and consoling those in trouble. He was most self-sacrificing in trying to help others and those who knew him intimately will agree that he nearly always had some task on hand, a job to be got, an interview to be arranged, information to be got, and that he was indefatigable in his efforts and often very successful, owing to the large number of influential friends whom he had, both in Galway and elsewhere. Mention must also be made of his work for the choir, which he directed from 1932 onwards. He was not a great musician, though an adept at sight-reading, and his interest in music was somewhat limited - he did not seem to care much, for instance, for orchestral music - but his taste in church music was sound and he insisted on accuracy of performance.
It has become somewhat of a commonplace to say of those who die that they will be greatly missed, but the statement can be sincerely made about Fr. O'Farrell. For over thirty years he was a familiar figure in Galway, usually on his bicycle, waving a salute to the many friends whom he passed, and almost always bound on some altruistic errand. He had an intimate knowledge of the life of the city and often manifested a humorous enjoyment of the complications that arise in any closely-knit community, but his comments were always tempered by charity, and indeed he would often express almost scrupulous regret if he thought he had gone too far in criticism. It is not only in Galway itself that his loss will be felt, but also in the remote and beautiful region in Iar-Connacht where he spent so many holidays. His goodness of heart, combined with his extraordinarily perfect grasp of the Irish language, won for him over many years the esteem and affection of the people of Carraroe and the surrounding countryside, and during his visits there, there was hardly a day but some messenger would come asking that “an t-Athair Ó Fearghaill” would come to some humble home to console the sick or to advise on some family problem. In his last moments it must have been one of Fr. O'Farrell's greatest consolations to think that those whom he had so befriended would often have on their lips and in their hearts the familiar prayer: “Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam!”

Born: 08 September 1911, Cappagh, Ballinasloe, County Galway
Entered: 01 September 1927, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1941, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1945, Miltown Park, Dublin
Died: 07 June 1969, College of Industrial Relations, Ranelagh, Dublin

Summerhill College, College Road, Knocknaganny, Sligo student

by 1946 at Heythrop, Oxfordshire (ANG) studying

Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, 31 July 1953-19 July 1959.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - Summerhill College, College Road, Knocknaganny, Sligo student

Irish Province News 34th Year No 4 1959

GENERAL
On 20th July Fr. Charles O'Conor, former Rector of Gonzaga College was appointed Provincial in succession to Fr. Michael A. O’Grady. The best wishes of the Province are with the Provincial in his new office, and to Fr. O'Grady the Province offers its gratitude for his services during his Provincialate. He will be remembered, beyond doubt, above all for his outstanding kindness, under standing and sympathy. His great and quite genuine charm of manner made personal contact between him and his subjects easy. They could always feel that their position was understood even if it could not always be improved. And these qualities extended themselves outside the Society and won for Fr. O’Grady and for the Province the goodwill, esteem and affection of everyone with whom he came into contact.
When he became Provincial in 1953 Fr. O’Grady was faced with a task which demanded gifts of this high order, The period of office of his predecessor, Fr. T, Byrne, had been one of expansion after the war. It was for Fr. O’Grady to consolidate. He found himself with a number of new enterprises-the Catholic Workers' College, the Mission in Rhodesia, Gonzaga College - which he had to see firmly established. This involved, among other things, a heavy building programme. It has been his great achievement that he courageously carried through this programme, though the toll on his health was at times very great. Besides the buildings at Gonzaga and the Workers' College, there were the preparatory school at Belvedere, the Pioneer Hall, the extension to Manresa and the renovation of Loyola, Eglinton Road, which was purchased as a Provincial Residence in his term of office. That, in spite of the expenditure involved, the Province is in a sound financial position is a tribute to Fr. O'Grady's generous use of his great personal gifts and to his inexhaustible patience and zeal.
Other activities recently undertaken which received his wholehearted encouragement were the Missions to Britain and to the Irish workers in Britain, the work of teaching Christian Doctrine in the Technical Schools, and the Child Educational Centre, which was started in his Provincialate and was finally established in its new premises in Northumberland Road last year.
He visited both China and Northern Rhodesia, and it was largely through his tireless negotiation that a satisfactory status for the Rhodesian Mission was worked out and the Mission of Chikuni created. He also saw the expansion of the Mission to the Chinese in Malaya. In both Missions he supported extensive building schemes of which the most ambitious were the new Wah Yan College, Queen's Road, Hong Kong and the Teacher Training College, Chikuni. And for all this the Province is grateful to Fr. O’Grady.

Obituary :

Fr Louis O’Grady SJ (1911-1969)

To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look To comply with the desires expressed by the writer of the following appreciation we prelude with a few chronological facts of the life of Fr. M. A. O'Grady; something has been said of his death and obsequies in the notes from Gardiner St.
He was born September 8th, 1911, a fact registered in the mind of the present writer in that he completed his sixteenth year only a week after he entered the Noviceship in 1927.
After the Noviciate he did the usual arts course at U.C.D. from Rathfarnham, with distinction. He caused great alarm by having a severe haemorrhage which necessitated a blood-transfusion while at the Castle; it, the transfusion, was the source of considerable merriment when the community was assured that he was out of danger and his merry acceptance of the quizzing was a temptation to persist.
He did Philosophy in Tullabeg, 1932-5 and was on the staff at Clongowes 1935-38 and thence to Milltown where he was ordained, 1941.
After the Tertianship he proceeded with his dear friend Fr. Scozzari, later so tragically to die, of the Sicilian province, to Maynooth where both distinguished themselves in their doctorates.
Apart from his double term as Provincial, 1953-9 it may be said that Milltown claimed him until his appointment to the College of Industrial relations. He was rector of Milltown from 1947 till he assumed his higher offices. These are the bare bones to which we hope the following will add life.

An Appreciation
He had been baptised Michael Aloysius, but in the noviceship in an unusual fashion he acquired a new name or a new form of name : he was henceforth Luigi or Louis. The Luigi came first. It was no accidental re-christening, no casual re-naming. It was rather a singular and striking tribute in which his fellow novices saluted if not another Aloysius at least a fellow novice whose total dedication of himself was in the Gonzaga mode.
The phenomenon of the “saintly” novice must be as old as the religious life. More often than not the phenomenon is happily ephemeral : either the prig disappears or his priggishness does. Luigi was the exception. He never changed and the epithet prig is the one no person would ever use of him. I feel sure that no act of his was ever insincere.
The peculiar character and the specific colour were already there in the noviceship. Though Louis was always what one would describe as a normal, an ordinary man, from the beginning he was in some sense set a little apart from his fellows. While it could never have been said of him that he was illiberal in his views or intolerant in his actions, yet from the earliest times his fellows knew that behind the warm and friendly exterior there was a core of utter intransigence. One did not think of this as obstinacy (the obstinate man might change his mind); in Louis's case the matter of principle was already prejudged and decided : it was not open to reconsideration. Those who knew Louis well will remember the cloud which would suddenly transform his features and change the customary smile to a frown when in any cause a measure of either insincerity or uncharity appeared.
To my mind, when it strives to express what manner of man Louis was, the one complex which keeps coming to the front is the disproportion between his physical capacity and his spiritual potential. In a special and differing sense it could be said of him that “the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak”. In him the spirit was always willing more than the flesh could support. He would help everybody though no single body could sustain what everybody claimed. Of him one cliché is unavoidable, the one which says that he did not know how to say no.
About his own health Father Louis never liked to speak : it was. he said, a dull topic. In deference to that sentiment, I will allow myself only one sentence. Though I knew Louis very well and for a long time, it was only when (on more than one occasion) I shared a room with him on holiday that I realised how very ill he was at times, how much he suffered and how desperately hard the night could be before another day began.
Father Louis's genius could be described as an infinite capacity for making friends. There was something in him which invited confidence, the confidence of many both in high places in Church and State and of even more perhaps in lowly estate : he was equally at home at either level : he did not know how to look up or look down. Many of the friendships which he made began with an appeal to him for help. The truth was that men came to Louis not so much because they wanted the benefit of his judgment as because they needed the strengthening of his understanding and kindness.
As time went on the number of those who depended on him grew. Unfortunately his physical strength did not grow apace, and he began to be at times desperately tired. He spoke to me once about that well-known exhortation to moderation which takes the form : if you were dead, people would get along all right without you. Characteristically his comment given with a tired smile was : that argument is useless : the difficulty is that I am not dead.
He is dead now, God rest him, and what can we do who are saddened by his death other than thank God for the precious goodness which shone so brightly amongst us. Under God's grace the cost in effort and determination was great; in later years the cost included perhaps inevitably some small measure of irritability, At times he drove himself very hard with an intensity which few could emulate : there was never any doubt about the high grade of asceticism to which he attained : but of this few were aware. Surprisingly this achievement of his increased rather than diminished his humanity: it gave him a freedom of action beyond the ordinary, and allowed him to disregard convention for convention's sake.
Speaking of Louis's humanity it should be recorded that those who had always the first claim on his affection were the members of his own family, especially, in later years, his ageing mother but not less indeed his brothers and sisters.
Father Louis's life was totally at the service of the Society which (within or after the Church) had claim on his whole loyalty. Some who did not know him might think from what I have written that he was an invalid who from his sick-bed gave counsel to many. Not true this: in any case he was never that long in a sick bed. The Society made a full claim on him, as a teacher and administrator at the highest level both separately and together. His gifts of intellect were considerable and had he been chosen for a purely scholastic career he might have made a name for himself as a philosopher or a theologian. He was not good at languages and I know he found the use of Latin as a medium of teaching a burden. As a consequence the movement away from Latin in post-Vatican II days he welcomed; but of many other changes in the same time he felt less happy.
Father Louis, one may surmise, might have been happier had he been born a quarter of a century earlier or a quarter of a century later. By nature and taste he had always been in church affairs more liberal and progressive than otherwise. In the pre Vatican II world he might have been said to be left of centre. When the centre moved rapidly to the left, like many of his contemporaries, he was perplexed to some degree and to some extent unhappy.
When I was asked to write this notice of my friend, I hesitated, because I did not think that it would be easy to do justice to the subject of it. In many ways Father Louis O'Grady was a conventional religious, not differing that much from his fellows. As a teacher and an administrator he was possibly more competent than brilliant. The record in the books may not put him in the first dozen. That does not matter, because in the case of Louis O'Grady it is not what he did which counts but what he was. Father John Ryan has said somewhere that in Ireland there was never any need for a judicial process of canonisation : if a man, especially a religious, could pass the scrutiny of his fellowmen, especially his fellow-monks, it was enough. Most of his religious life Father Louis, as rector or provincial or superior, underwent that extra sifting which the monks reserve for those who sit in the chair of Moses; he passed that stringent test splendidly, and as far as I know nem. con.
The ability of the man, about whom I write, to make friends was a purely natural asset, with nothing about it which was either studied or artificial. But the synthesis of this natural gift with the purer and more intense flame of Christian charity was the work of a lifetime. No one could know Louis for long without realising how near to God he was at all times. And this was the source in him of that rare sensitive personal integrity which was with him in the noviceship and was with him to the end : and this too was the source in him of that expansive, universal, dynamic. fearless love for men which knew no limit of moderation or even of prudence.
The strain and the tension in this man's life could have but one ending, for the conflict was unequal. During the night of June 6:7 the persistently over-taxed energy finally ran out, and Louis was dead.
It is not easy to link with him the notion of rest and peace. Nevertheless one feels that the change from life to death (or from life through death to life) in Louis's case cannot have been great; perhaps now that he is dead, with more truth he can say what he could surely have said at any time in his life : I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Born: 06 October 1923, Knocknakilla, Cree, County Clare
Entered: 15 September 1942, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 07 September 1955, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin

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

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 31st Year No 1 1956
Obituary :

Mr Michael O’Kelly
Michael O'Kelly was born at Knocknahyla, Mullagh, Co. Clare, in 1924, and educated at St. Flannan's College, Ennis. At school he showed all round ability; among his academic distinctions, he took 1st place in Irish in the Leaving Certificate, and as a Junior footballer represented his county.
He entered the Society in 1942, did his Juniorate in Rathfarnham and his Philosophy in Tullabeg. There is not much to record of these years. He always kept his deepest thoughts very much to himself. He was an excellent companion; cheerful, amusing, at times facetious with a kind of facetiousness that delights rather than bores. He was fond of banter; and was almost continually at it, yet never gave offence. He was argumentative in a way that did not irritate; it was merely a sign that “O'Kell” was in good humour; a sign, too, of the strength of character that under lay his lightheartedness. Like all strong characters, he was impatient of inefficiency; meticulous in all he set his mind to, he expected to find others the same; but if at times he gave way to exasperation, it was always good humoured. He was full of common sense and moderation. The Irish language movement has lost a desirable apostle in Michael O'Kelly.
In 1950 he went to Galway as teacher and assistant games-master. From the beginning, among the Community and with the boys in the classroom and on the football field he endeared himself to all. In spite of a fine physique he had been constantly ill; he suffered particularly from a leg ailment, the result of an injury at football. In his second year in Galway his knee began to trouble him again. The doctors diagnosed cancer and his leg had to be amputated. After a winter in hospital he returned to Galway in the late spring. Though now on crutches, he went back to work as if nothing had happened and took his full part in Community and school life. In class he used his crutch to point to the blackboard ; from the sideline he refereed matches. His influence over the boys was great; they crowded about him when he appeared and he was often seen playing games with them or taking photographs, balancing himself on his crutches.
He came to Milltown in 1953. Already there were signs that secondary cancer had set in, but he attended all his lectures which meant climbing two flights of stairs. He insisted on doing as much as possible for himself. In May, 1954, he had a set-back. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, from which he was never to return. It was clear from the first that there was little hope for him. He underwent an operation which was successful to the extent of making his last days easier. He made a surprising recovery. Contrary to all expectations he lived on" for a year and a half after the operation, his physique and determination keeping him alive. He had many relapses, though each recovery was less complete than the previous. Nothing would induce him to give up hope. A few weeks before his death he was taken into the hospital grounds and spoke more confidently than ever of leaving hospital. If he did not always believe what he said, he kept his misgivings to himself. În September he felt his mental powers weakening, he was anointed and on the 5th he became unconscious. He died peacefully on the 7th, exactly thirteen years from the day he entered the Society.
During his illness he showed remarkable courage, even more remarkable cheerfulness. He accepted his infirmity with resignation no one ever heard him complain of it. To the end he kept up his interest in all that happened in Milltown, Galway and throughout the Province. Those who came to visit him - and there was always a great stream of visitors - often found that it was they who went away cheered by their visit. He was thirty-one when he died; had he lived he would have been ordained next Summer. To his sister, brother and aunt we offer our deepest sympathy. May he rest in peace.

Born: 18 March 1896, Baltinglass, County Wicklow
Entered: 13 August 1913, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1927, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1930, Chiesa del Gesù, Rome Italy
Died: 22 July 1968, Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road, Galway

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

Studied for BSc at UCD

by 1929 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship
by 1930 at Rome Italy (ROM) studying

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/jesuitica-jesuits-name-bugs/

JESUITICA: The flies of Ireland
Only one Irish Provincial has had a genus of flies called after him. In 1937 Fr Larry Kieran welcomed Fr Hermann Schmitz, a German Jesuit, to Ireland, and he stayed here for about four years, teaching in Tullabeg and doing prodigious research on Irish Phoridae, or flies. He increased the known list of Irish Phoridae by more than 100 species, and immortalised Fr Larry by calling a genus after him: Kierania grata. Frs Leo Morahan and Paddy O’Kelly were similarly honoured, Leo with a genus: Morahanian pellinta, and Paddy with a species, Okellyi. Hermann served Irish entomologists by scientifically rearranging and updating the specimens of Phoridae in our National Museum. He died in Germany exactly fifty years ago.

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 43rd Year No 4 1968

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

Obituary :

Fr Patrick H O’Kelly SJ (1896-1968)

Fr. Patrick O'Kelly was born in 1896 at Baltinglass. He was the son of Mr. E. P. O'Kelly, M.P. for Wicklow, and was one of a family of nine, of whom four, himself and three sisters, entered religion.
He went from the local National School to Clongowes in 1908 and spent five years there. Though he did not achieve any very notable distinction, he was above average in all departments of school life. He was awarded a book prize in the mathematical group in all the grades of the Intermediate examinations, Junior, Middle and Senior. He was useful at all games, but the only athletic achievement of his which is on record is second place in the Lower Line walking race at the Easter sports of 1911. Strange to say, this minor event is engraved on the memory of the writer after all these years. The race took place most unsuitably immediately after a “full feed”, and Paddy's superhuman efforts had catastrophic after-effects. Paddy entered the novitiate at Tullabeg in 1913, took his vows in 1915 and spent four years in the juniorate at Rathfarnham. His mental powers developed greatly at this period and, with that remarkable power of application and exactness of mind which characterised him in after life, he had no difficulty in getting his Honours B.Sc. in mathematics and mathematical physics. Whilst in Rathfarnham, he had a very severe attack of rheumatic fever, as a result of which the doctors declared that he would never be able to play any game again, and that it would be dangerous for him even to walk upstairs quickly. Never was medical prophesy so completely off the mark.
At Milltown Park in 1919-21, he showed a decided aptitude for philosophy, clearness and exactness being his characteristics. A minor memory recalls the troubled times in which we then lived. In one of the Christmas plays, Fr. Paddy took the part of a sergeant of the R.I.C., complete with dark green uniform and bristling moustache. Just before the curtain went up, he remembered that he had left some essential property in his room, and dashed up the stairs to get it. On the way he encountered the late Father Patrick Gannon, who nearly had a heart attack at meeting what he took to be a Black and Tan engaged on a raid.
Then followed three years at Belvedere, where, in spite of the doctors' forebodings, he took an active part in organising the games, theology at Milltown, with ordination in 1927, tertianship at St. Beuno's, and a biennium in philosophy in Rome, 1929-31, his last vows being pronounced in the Church of the Gesù.
In 1931 he was appointed professor of Ontology at Tullabeg, which post he filled until 1937, being also Minister from 1932 to 1935. As a professor, if not very inspiring, he was most painstaking and thorough. He was a devoted, one might say almost fanatical follower of the doctrines of Suarez, and found himself ploughing a lone furrow, as his brilliant colleagues, Fathers Joseph Canavan, Arthur Little and Edward Coyne, were equally ardent Thomists and had secured the intellectual allegiance of the majority of the philosophers.
A curious incident must have seemed to Father Paddy to be almost a heaven-sent approval of his loyalty to Suarez. Browsing one day in a Dublin secondhand bookshop, he found an ancient copy of one of Suarez' works. Examining the fly-leaf, he found it inscribed to a certain person “from his friend Francisco Suarez”. The price of the volume was only a few shillings, but Father Paddy found that he had not even this amount in his pocket. He hurried to the nearest Jesuit house, borrowed the money and secured his prize. Experts afterwards confirmed that the signature was really that of the great theologian whose theories Father Paddy had so stubbornly defended.
During his years in Tullabeg, Fr. Paddy had ample opportunity for the pursuit of botany and entomology, subjects which, ever since the juniorate, had occupied his spare moments. Though he never had any formal training in either, he pursued them not as a mere hobby, but in the thorough way in which he did everything, and his knowledge was wide and exact.
In 1937, Fr. O'Kelly was transferred to St. Ignatius', Galway, and here began the most active and successful period of his life, which was to last for thirty-one years. He was at the height of his powers, and well equipped for all the varied tasks he found at his disposal, Of no man could it be more truly said that he was paratus ad omnia. He was a full-time teacher, mostly of mathematics, also of French, English and Religious Knowledge. But at the same time he was a full-time operarius in the church, and also exercised a most devoted ministry to the sick and suffering.
His energy soon became legendary. His bicycle stood at the door, always ready for action, and he thought nothing of starting off immediately after a full day's class to ride twenty or thirty miles to visit some invalid. When he went to give retreats during the summer, he usually performed the whole, or at least a large part of the journey by bicycle. His spare time was occupied by other activities, gardening, botanising, and painting, for the last of which he had a considerable, though untrained talent. Even his recreations were of a strenuous kind. When he played a round of golf, he was as much interested in the speed with which he completed it as in his score, and he was one of those hardy wights, the all-the-year round swimmers.
His best friends would not deny that there was a certain degree of exaggeration in this boundless activity, and that his zeal some times led to friction when he crossed the path of others, but none could but admire his utter devotion to his priestly duties, and his readiness to take on the most difficult tasks. He soon won the admiration and affection of the people of Galway, and there must have been countless souls who were enabled by his ministrations to face sickness and death with courage and hope, and not a few whom he helped to return to the fold from which they had strayed, Through the years his energy seemed undiminished. In the last year of his life, he again took on full teaching, which for a short time he had curtailed, and he was, just before his death, actually preparing to assume a new task, the teaching of biology through Irish, and was making, with his usual thoroughness, a study of the required vocabulary of technical terms. It had often been feared that his relentless activity must be putting a strain on his constitution, but there was no outward sign of this, and on the Sunday before his death, he had carried out all his usual work in the church. As he would have wished, he died in harness. He always went to bed at a late hour so as to be ready to answer a sick call. Death came while he was thus on duty. He was found on the morning of Monday, 22nd July, seated at his table, with the decrees of the Vatican Council, which he had evidently been studying, open before him.
Every section of the population of Galway, clerical and lay, was represented in the immense congregation which thronged the church for his funeral. Many tributes were paid to him in the local press and in letters of condolence sent to the community. Perhaps more eloquent than any of these was a remark made shortly before his death by a poor man. “Sure, he'd jump into the canal to save a soul”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1969

Obituary

Father Patrick H O’Kelly SJ

Fr O'Kelly who was found dead seated at his table in St Ignatius College, Galway on July 22nd, 1968, was a priest who never spared himself in the service of others. Very gifted intellectually, he was a superb field. worker in all branches of the natural sciences From 1921 to 1924 he taught Honours Mathematics at the top of the school in Belvedere winning from his admiring pupils “mantissa” as a nickname. He never lost his interest in things Belvederian.

◆ The Clongownian, 1969

Obituary

Father Patrick H O’Kelly SJ

Patrick O'Kelly was born in 1896 at Baltinglass. He was the son of Mr E P O'Kelly, MP for West Wicklow and younger brother of the late Professor W D O'Kelly who has also passed away. Paddy came to Clongowes in 1908 and spent five years here. Even though he did not achieve any notable distinction, he was above average in all departments of school life. He shone at mathematics and won a book prize in this group in all the grades of the intermediate examinations, Junior, Middle and Senior. He was useful at games, especially at athletics and in the Clongownian of 1913 there is a photo of Paddy winning the Higher Line 440 yards race in the Easter Sports. Upon leaving Clongowes in 1913, Paddy entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, took his vows in 1915 and spent four years at University studies in Rathfarnham Castle. It was here that he showed his real mental calibre as well as that remarkable power of application and exactness of mind which ever characterised him in after life. He had no difficulty in getting his Honours BSc in mathematics and mathematical phycics.

In Milltown Park during the years 1919-21 he showed a decided aptitude for Philosophy as he was endowed with a high degree of clearness and exactness. Paddy spent three years teaching in Belvedere College before going for his theological studies to Milltown Park. He was ordained in 1927. He completed his formation as a Jesuit with a spiritual year (Tertianship) at St Beuno's College, Wales, and was then sent to the Gregorian University, Rome for special studies in Philosophy.

On his return to Ireland in 1931 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy and filled this post until 1937. He was then transferred to St Ignatius College, Galway, where he once again taught his favourite subject mathematics, but he was also a very competent teacher of French and English. It was here. in Galway that his energy became legendary, and his charity all-embracing. After a full day's class he thought nothing of cycling twenty miles to visit some poor invalid.

He won the admiration and affection of the people of Galway by his utter devotion to his priestly duties and there must have been countless souls who were enabled by his ministrations to face sickness and death with courage and hope.

Fr Paddy's death was the one he would have wished for, death whilst on duty. He was found on the morning of Monday, July 22, seated at his desk with the degrees of the Vatican Council open before him. He had evidently been studying them when God called him to his reward. To all Fr, Paddy's relatives and friends we offer our sincere sympathy.

Born: 31 December 1849, Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan
Entered: 19 April 1872, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1887, St Beuno’s, Wales
Final vows: 02 February 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Died: 21 January 1932, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly

Youngest brother of John (ANG) - RIP 1892, and Philip (ANG) - RIP 1926

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1873 at Laval, France (FRA) studying
by 1885 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1888 at St Beuno’s, Wales (ANG) studying
by 1890 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News
Irish Province News 7th Year No 2 1932
Obituary :
Fr Richard O'Reilly
On Thursday, 21 January, Fr. R, O'Reilly died at Tullabeg, in his 59th year in the Society, at the age of 82.

He first saw the light at Ballyjamesduff, Co, Cavan on the 31st December 1849, was educated. first at St. Mary's, Chesterfield, then went to Clongowes in 1868, where he joined the class I Grammar, taught by Fr. N. Walsh, and had as class fellow Fr. M. Devitt. He was elected captain of the House two years in succession. This unique honour was probably due to that popularity which won for him so many friends in after life.
He entered the novitiate at Milltown 19 April 1872, and at the end of the two years was sent to Roehampton. After spending some months there he joined Frs. M. Devitt and H. Lynch at Milltown in September. All three attended the courses of the old Catholic University for the year 1874-75.
Three years philosophy at Laval followed, and then began a course of teaching for 6 years in Ireland, The first of them was spent in Tullabeg the next three in Clongowes, and the last two at the Crescent. His subjects were Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics. For one year he had charge of the H. Line debate in Clongowes. Theology came next, one year in Jersey and three at St. Beuno's. A year was spent in Mungret as Minister and Procurator before going to his Teirtianship at Tronchiennes in 1889.
On returning to Ireland he began his long career as Minister, Procurator, Consulter, broken only by three years as Miss. Excurr., during which he was stationed in Galway.
In all he was Minister for 11 years, Procurator or sub-Proc. for 29, Consultor for 39, twenty-seven of them being in Tullabeg.
He lived in Tullabeg for 29 years, in Clongowes for 9, Mungret 5, Galway 3, Milltown 3, Crescent 2, and Belvedere 1 (1917-18). These, with 8 years abroad, brought him to within a few months of his Diamond Jubilee in the Society.
He had charge of the People's Sodality in Tullabeg for a Number of years, and his devotion to the work made the members really devoted to him. They almost looked on him as their Parish Priest. He spoke to them with great frankness when occasion demanded it, and told them of their faults, but this only increased their respect.
For years he never missed saying Mass in the People's Church daily, though in winter it was so cold that with difficulty he kept the blood circulating in hi s fingers so as to hold the chalice. The novices looked serving Mass in that Church for a week during winter as a severe penance yet Fr O'Reilly said Mass there, week in week out, for many a year,
With the priests too he was very popular. At all their social meetings he was ever a welcome guest, and was given the place of honour. When Dr. Mulvaney was consecrated Bishop, it was Fr. O'Reilly who was placed on the Bishop's right hand.
All this shows what manner of man Fr. O'Reilly was. Through life a quiet, steady worker, easy to get on with, yet, when his own opinions seemed right, they were defended with energy. His kindliness won for him hosts of friends at home and abroad. No man enjoyed a joke better and when he himself was the object of the fun every thing was taken in the best possible humour, a somewhat rare virtue. To the end he was an excellent religious, and his devotion to the obligations of Jesuit life resembled at times those of a novice.
Fr, O’Reilly was anointed on Saturday evening, 16 Jan., yet he was able to get up on Sunday, actually said Mass and heard two others. On Monday he offered the Holy Sacrifice for the last time, and on the following Thursday morning was found dead.
His Lordship Dr. Mulvaney, many priests and a great crowd of people attended the Requiem Mass and funeral

◆ The Clongownian, 1932

Obituary
Father Richard O’Reilly SJ

Many old Clongownians will have heard with regret of Father O'Reilly's death at Tullabeg, on 21st January, 1932. He was then already beginning the 83rd year of his age and had nearly completed the 60th year of his religious life. Born at Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on 31st December, 1849, he was educated first at Mount St Mary's College, Chesterfield, from which he entered Clongowes on 31st October, 1868, and was placed in the class of I Grammar, of which the late Father Nicholas Walsh was then Master. Richard was then 18 years of age and considerably senior to most of his class-fellows, to whom he gave a good example of piety, industry and genial comradeship. His skill at games, especially on the cricket ground, where he excelled as a batsman, secured his election as Captain of the Higher Line XI in the summer of 1870, and his re-election to the same position in 1871. In the summer of this year an unpleasant incident occurred which occasioned some criticism of the Captain. An inter-collegiate cricket match had been arranged between Ciongowes and Tullabeg, and was to be played on the Clongowes ground. On the morning of the fixture, a scurrilous and insulting letter, anonymous, but purporting to come from the Tullabeg team, was delivered to the Clongowes Captain, who immediately showed it to the Rector Father Carbery, with the result that the latter sent an express messenger to Tullabeg cancelling the invitation previously issued to the XI of the latter College. This precipitate action caused much disappointment and bitterness, especially when it was ascertained that the Tullabeg XI had no cognisance whatever of the writer, and were looking forward to the match in the most friendly spirit. At the end of the Summer Term, 1871, Richard O'Reilly left Clongowes, having completed his course in the class of Rhetoric, of which Father James Dalton was Master. On 19th April, 1872, he entered the Jesuit Noviceship at Milltown Park. Two of his elder brothers had joined the Society before him - John in the English Province and Philip in the Irish, from which, in 1886, at his own request, he was transferred to England. Richard having completed his two years novitiate and one year of second Rhetoric at Milltown Park, was in 1875 sent to Laval for the usual three years course of Philosophy, and in 1878 to Tullabeg as master. In the following year he went to Clongowes as Master; taking Middle Grade for two years, and I Rhetoric for one year (1881-82), when he was also Presiderit of the Higher Line Debate.

After two years further teaching at the Crescent College, Limerick, he began his Theology at Jersey, in 1884, and passing to St Beuno's, N Wales, in 1885, where he was ordained in 1887. At the end of his fourth year theology, in 1888, he was appointed Minister and Procurator of Mungret College. He made his Tertianship in the following year at Tronchienne, and in 1890 was appointed Procurator and in charge of the farm at Tullabeg, where he remained in the same position for seven years. In 1897 he joined the Missionary Staff, and in 1900 he took charge of the farm in Clongowes for a period of six years. In 1906 he returned to Mungret as Minister and Procurator for four years. In 1910 he was again Procurator at Tullabeg, where, with the exception of one year as Minister in Belvedere College, he spent the rest of his life, either acting as Minister or in charge of the farm, and there he celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1922.

Of the 60 years of his life in religion, he gave 29 to the service of Tullabeg and 9 to that of Clongowes. In the various offices which he held he displayed great activity, and showed an ardent interest not only in his own work but in the responsibilities and concerns of others inside and outside the Society. For over a year before his death his energy had begun to wane, heart trouble set in and at last congestion of the lungs supervened. He received the last Sacraments on January 20th and died peacefully in sleep on the morning of January 21st, 1932. RIP

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1932 : Golden Jubilee

Obituary

Father Richard O’Reilly SJ

The 21st of January saw the death of Father O'Reilly at the advanced age of 82. For some months his health had been precarious and people wondered whether he would survive until his Diamond Jubilee in the Society. That he did not live to see it and the Golden Jubilee of Mungret College is a cause of sincere regret to us.

Father O'Reilly was born at Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on the 31st of December, 1849. After a year or two spent at Mt St Mary's College, Chesterfield, he went to Clongowes in 1868, where, before the end of his schooldays, he had the rare honour of being elected Captain of the House for two years in succession.

In 1872 he entered the Novitiate of the Society at Milltown Park, Dublin, and, at the end of two years, was sent to Roehampton. After some months spent there, he returned to Ireland to attend the courses of the Catholic University.

He spent three years at Laval, in France, studying philosophy and then taught for a year at Tullabeg, at that time a College of the Society. The next five years were spent teaching in Clongowes, and in the Crescent. Theology came next, one year in Jersey and three at St Bueno's, in Wales. In 1888, he came to Mungret as Minister and Procurator, before going to his Tertianship in Tronchiennes. He returned to Mungret in 1907, in his former capacity as Minister, and filled that office until 1910.

By far the greater part of the remainder of Father O'Reilly's life was spent at Tullabeg. He was given charge of the Sodality attached to the People's Church there, and won the respect of the people for miles around. His Sodalists were devoted to him and almost looked on him as their parish priest; and this in spite of the fact that when occasion demanded, he could be fearless in his rebukes.

His popularity with his fellow-priests was unbounded. Excellent at kindly repartee, they enjoyed a passage at arms with him, and his quick wit was nearly always successful in routing his opponents. When he himself was overthrown, a somewhat rare occurrence, he never showed signs other than those of an imperturbable self-possession and good humour. At social meetings he was ever a welcome guest, and was given the place of honour. When Dr Mulvaney was consecrated Bishop, it was Father O'Reilly that was placed on his right hand.

He knew everyone for miles around Tullabeg and was keenly interested in their doings. Those in trouble found him ever ready to come to their help with practical and sound advice. A quiet steady worker and excellent religious, his departure will be keenly felt by a wide circle of friends. He has taken with him some of that old-world courtesy and interest in things of the intellect, qualities all too rare in an age of staccato phrases and loose thinking. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father Richard O’Reilly (1849-1932)

A native of Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan and educated at St Mary's, Chesterfield and Clongowes, entered the Society in 1872. He made his higher studies at the old Catholic University, Laval, Jersey and St. Beuno's, Wales. He spent two years of his regency here from 1882 to 1884. With the exception of three years on the mission staff, all of Father O'Reilly's priestly life was passed in the bursar's office and from 1902, with the exception of one year, his days were passed at Tullabeg where he worked many years in the church. In his school days he was elected captain of the house for two successive years-a distinction probably unique in the annals of that school.

Born: 26 May 1895, Fermoy, County Cork
Entered: 31 August 1914, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 16 April 1927, Institute Catholique, Paris, France
Final Vows: 02 February 1934, Coláiste Iognáid, Galway
Died: 21 May 1972, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin

by 1918 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1925 at Hastings, Sussex, England (LUGD) studying
by 1927 at Paray-le-Monial France (LUGD) studying
by 1930-1931 at St Beuno’s, Wales for Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 2nd Year No 3 1927

Fr Paye was ordained on Holy Saturday. He had been ordained Deacon in Paris by His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop.

Irish Province News 47th Year No 2 1972

Obituary :

Fr Frederick Paye SJ (1895-1972)

On August 31st, 1914, when World War I was not a month old, a little cavalcade of sidecars making its way in the warm late evening sunlight from Tullamore, jogged up the curved avenue where green beeches were already beginning to emulate their copper rivals and deposited a dozen aspiring Novices on the shallow stone steps of Tullabeg, to be greeted by the Novice Master - Father Martin Maher and his versatile Socius - Father Charles Mulcahy. The first car carried Fred Paye, one of four Mungret boys who together with one from Castleknock, and seven from Clongowes comprised the largest single influx to date of man power to swell the growing Irish Province.
Fred Paye hailed from Fermoy and was a junior member of a family of seven, six boys and one sister; he was bereaved of his father practically in infancy and in early boyhood lost his mother, the duties of paterfamilies devolving on the eldest brother, William, After elementary school in his native town, when Fred gave evidence of a vocation, William gladly seconded his inclination and on completing the Intermediate course at Mungret, Fred was accepted for Tullabeg.
Not surprisingly the group came to be nicknamed, at least among themselves, “The Twelve Apostles”, or for short “The Twelve”.
Which of them thought out the idea that two of the number should, on the “free Communion” days of the week, offer their Communions for the perseverance of the group is a matter of conjecture. It was a plan which incurred the unqualified condemnation of the Socius; “forcing God's Hand” he declared it, but in the event seven of the twelve have, please God, joined the Jesuits Triumphant, and five pensioners may be found in the ranks of the Society of Jesus Militant.
In 1914 no one talked of A.B's or X.Y's image, but there was a G.I. Noviceship text book, which contained an ideal of the Model Novice called Imago boni Novitii; Brother Paye strove earnestly to approximate to the ideal. One not surprising result of this was a long reign as Beadle, and the opportunity to guide in some measure the “A B’s” of whom he was a more than competent “Leading Hand”. The metaphor would not have pleased him. He was already a fair Irish scholar and a Gaelic enthusiast, deriving some of his competence from Fr P O'Leary's living language at Castlelyons. If he was no man's enemy he had little love of the English, believing perhaps like St. Joan of Arc “God loves them in their own country”. It was an era of resurgence and for him the Easter Week Rising, the first news of which reached the Novices playing cricket, presented a challenge to which he made a generous and constant response.
Noviceship was followed by a year of Home Juniorate; a year very much of high thinking and plain living. No one who spent Christmas to Easter of 1917 on the frozen central plain of Ireland is likely to forget it. The canal was frozen for a long period and deep snow covered the ground, practically, for several months; the only available fuel was damp turf in a small smouldering stove lit during night recreation which was the sole source of heat in St. Mary's dormitory. To this was added a spartan regime entailed by the sacrifices expected during the doldrums of the war. On the intellectual front, however, the young men profited by the splendid teaching of Mr Harry Johnston in Greek, Latin and English, the quaintly couched presentation of natural philosophy of Fr Willie Byrne - all braced by Father Charles Mulcahy's resourceful pedagogy. In the group which included Eddie Coyne, Arthur Little and Joe Carbury, it could not be said of Fred Paye that he merely met the scholars; he was a solid, serious, methodical student; as a group they were closely knit, cheerful and even exciting. After the Juniorate philosophy, and philosophy meant the Seminary at Stonyhurst. To join an English Province House at a time when memories of 1916 were all too fresh, and when Ludendorff's last stand heightened the tension the prospect for one of Fred Paye's outlook was not delectable. The threat of conscription in 1918 eased the situation in bringing the Irish contingent back in 1918 to Milltown Park and Minor Orders; the Status gave Mr a teaching appointment in Belvedere, where he saw the Anglo-Irish war come to a close. Two years later in 1922, he was transferred to Clongowes, a long regency being still common. There, as Lower Line Prefect, he had to succeed such energetic characters as Father Corboy and Father McGlade. He coached or had coached rugby and cricket, organised debates and plays and lectures and controlled effortlessly and without severity the least controllable of the line. As a teacher, now and later, his absolute sense of justice, his undemonstrative manner, his decisive competence and industry made him trusted and effective - as was remarked a “hustler”. At his funeral one of his Galway boys to was to proclaim he “owed his vocation to Father Paye”. He was not alone in this.
In his nearer approach to the priesthood Mr Paye was fortunate in his Professors for he did his theology in Ore Place, Hastings, where the most distinguished of the French Jesuits, dispossessed by their own Government and living as refugees in England, maintained the highest theological traditions. Afterwards he went to Paray-le-Monial for his Tertianship.
In 1930 he returned to Ireland and for the next quarter of a century he taught in the Colleges. An enthusiastic Irish scholar, he was too clear-headed not to realise that the revival would constitute a long haul; boys at Mungret and in Galway, during the periods when Fr Paye was attached to those houses, later recalled him as a quietly dominating personality in the classroom.
He is perhaps most happily remembered in these years by his services as Villa Master of Jesuit Irish Villas in Ballyferriter, and his devotion to Ballingeary. But it was in the last years of his life that he really came into his own. An old friend of his, Father T. Mulcahy had the prescience to realise what he might do as a “Churchman”, and for seventeen years he was attached to Gardiner Street.
He had a wonderful charisma for dealing with the “hard case”. Gentleness, firmness and confidence all played a part in making him “the sinners' friend”, as His Master had been called.
His services were given most generously and freely, and very soon many - not least the Brothers of the Morning Star, came to count on his help. It is, of course, work which shuns publicity, and only in death can be paid to him the tribute of praise and gratitude he never sought.
His fidelity to the duties of Gardiner Street was admirable; his box, one of the busiest in the church, was invariably occupied as assigned hours; his preaching, 'as of one having authority', thought
fully prepared, logically constructed and deliberately enunciated bore in upon bis hearers the conclusiveness of his message. As a Director of the Cuallacht Mo Bhí - the Irish speaking St. Vincent de Paul Conference - the same loyalty was manifest; possibly most impressive, the punctuality with which he visited with Holy Communion clients, bedridden, some for months, some continuously for years.
We offer our sympathy to his nieces in Cork who so kindly provided some details of family background. Fr Paye, whose day of death was May 21st, survived his sister and all his brothers. May they all rest in peace.

Born: 16 March 1909, Mayfield, Cork City
Entered: 01 September 1926, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1943, Clongowes Wood College SJ
Died: 20 September 1985, Cherryfield Lodge, Milltown Park, Dublin

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

Youngest brother of Thomas - RIP 1964 and Cyril - RIP 1952

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 60th Year No 4 1985

Obituary

Fr Gerard Patrick Perrott (1909-1926-1985)

Born on 16th March 1909. Ist Septem ber 1926: entered SJ. 1926-28 Tullabeg, noviciate. 1928-31 Rathfarnham, juniorate. 1931-34 Tullabeg, philosophy. 1934-37 Galway, regency. 1937-41 Milltown, theology. 1941-42 Rathfarnham, tertianship
1942-53 Clongowes, teaching. 1953-56 Galway, minister, prefect of church. 1956-66 Mungret, rector. 1968-85 Leeson street: 1968-82 bursar of S H Messenger; 1975-85 editorial assistant, SHM. 1985 Cherryfield. Died on 20th September 1985.

These are but a few personal reflections on the life of Fr Gerry Perrott, whose death we mourned this last September.
I knew him since September 1924, 61 years ago, when he and I were at school together. During the intervening time he was an unfailing friend; always a friendly happy person.
One outstanding feature of Gerry was his fidelity to his work, no matter what it was.
As a teacher, and indeed as minister and rector, he was a very good disciplinarian, yet showed himself nonetheless kindly and approachable to all.
What I always enjoyed in Fr Gerry was his good humour. No matter what the time of day - and he was a man of very set routine - he always had a moment to spare.
In the years after ordination, when he and I lived under one roof, he worked hard even in summer, when he would set off and give three or even four retreats to Sisters in large communities or small, Similarly at Christmastime he would give one triduum if not two.
His versatility was often the subject of my conversation with him. He laughingly glossed it over and put it down to a family gift.
No matter what problem cropped up under his administration, I never saw him in a state of real worry over anything.
The past pupils of Mungret were very devoted to him and he to them. I would venture to say that the new life of their Union dated from Gerry's time as rector there.
Thank God and Saint Ignatius for such a Jesuit. May he now once again enjoy the company of his two Jesuit brothers, Frs Tom and Cyril, who Tom 1964). God rest his happy soul.

◆ The Clongownian, 1985

Obituary

Father Gerard Perrott SJ

Gerard Perrott was one of seven who entered the Society of Jesus in Tullabeg from Clongowes in 1926. He is the fourth to finish his course; the remaining three are soldiering on. He was also the third member of his family to become a Jesuit. His brother Tom entered in 1916 and his brother Cyril in 1922. Both of them died before him; Cyril as a young priest in St Ignatius, Galway; Thomas at a good age in Australia where he spent most of his life as a priest. He was founder of the Jesuit school in Perth. Fr Gerard with his kindly nature felt their loss very deeply, Indeed, he suffered an unusual number of bereavements in his family.

He had lost his father, a victim of an ambush during the Black and Tan war and as a novice he lost his brother Paul, killed in a motor-cycle accident. Much later he was to lose his much loved sister, Mother St Thomas of Hereford of the Society of Mary Reparatrix.

If the novice Gerry from the pleasant waters of the River Lee' found the then bare and desolate aspect of his surroundings anyway depressing, he never showed it. He went through the noviceship in the resolute and regulated way that was standard, but always there was about him a gentle geniality and friendliness which won him many friends. It made him a 'good companion' all through the hard years of studies, and was a very pleasing quality later on when he was Rector in Mungret College and in St Ignatius, Galway. His ready friendliness and his deep genial laugh were a pleasure to his community and to the many who enjoyed his pleasant company,

In his person he was very neat, and he had a neat and effective way of doing things which probably came from the business of his family who were house painters and decorators in Cork.

In studies he might, perhaps, be described as an easy-going all-rounder who could get what mastery of his subjects he required without great difficulty or stress. He was very good at Irish, but did not become highly specialised in any subject, though, doubtless, he could have had he been required to. He could deal easily and competently with any task he was given.

As Rector he trusted his subjects and had a good practical commonsense wisdom. He tended to let things sort themselves out rather than impose a decision - part, perhaps, of his wisdom!
In later years he was Secretary to the Irish Messenger Office where he dealt with a large daily correspondence efficiently and with a warm personal touch that was greatly appreciated by the recipients. He was in failing health for some years before he died but carried on with quiet determination until shortly before the final phase of his illness.

His many Jesuit friends will miss his genial presence and will cherish his memory. To his nephews and nieces and other relatives, we offer our sincere sympathy.

AE

Born: 29 April 1906, Bray, County Wicklow
Entered: 31 August 1922, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1935, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1938, Mungret College SJ, Limerick
Died: 04 January 1971, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

by 1937 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) making Tertianship

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 46th Year No 2 1971

Obituary :

Fr William R Prendergast SJ

Fr Prendergast died on January 4th this year. His death ended a long period of chronic if sometimes mysterious ill-health, under which he never gave up but continued to the last the sort of exacting work which had occupied so much of his life, facing gallantly never-ceasing demands on his failing energy.
His loss, when he might in happier circumstances have expected a continuing or perhaps growing capacity for good was a loss to the Society, the Church and even to the country.
One of three very able brothers he did not come under Jesuit influence until he joined the Order and was fortunate in finding in Fr Frank Ryan and still more in Fr J Canavan, men who appreciated and helped him, and won his undying gratitude. A practical rather than an academic-minded man he did not have much early opportunity to reveal his special quality. This, and perhaps his early training at home, made his deep humility something of a handicap. He was more than different. He had an obvious inferiority complex, thinking so little of his own powers that he needed the stimulus of praises, and this quite mistakenly gave the impression that he was vain. There was nothing remarkable about his formative student years, if one excepts the fact that he was sent, as might have been expected, to be First Prefect in Mungret immediately on its completion. The school was then smaller in numbers and had only recently begun to compete in rugby, a game which he had never played. Yet during his five years he saw his teams bringing home on more than one occasion the Munster Rugby cups which larger and longer-established schools sought for eagerly.
In 1943 he was appointed to the small mission staff and there, for more than twenty years, he found full scope for his gifts. A tireless worker he was also a natural orator of unusual quality with a fine presence and a good voice --- almost too powerful a voice. But that was only a foundation for a style which was dramatic and picturesque, if perhaps old-fashioned, but which was to the end most effective. He had also a remarkable power of illustrating and an excellent, though controlled sense of humour and a talent for exposition of even complicated thought. There was an other and perhaps equally important quality which made itself felt. Travelling one day in a town when Fr Prendergast had just given a big Mission, the present writer heard of the impression made during this mission from an enthusiastic taxi-driver. “You know, Father”, he said, after his account of the Mission, “every man and woman in the town knew that he really wanted to help them”. His busy mission periods were interspersed with continuous retreats to priests that were equally fruitful. Of one of them (to the clergy of a Northern diocese) a parish priest wrote in a letter to me: “He paid us the compliment of being very carefully prepared; he was refreshingly rude and his doctrine and advice were a grand blend of the practical and the ideal”.
It is not, one hopes, beside the point to record his personal influence. More than once miracles were attributed to him, a notion that he found ridiculous and suspect. But to see him in a crowd of gay children after an instruction, to hear the invariable tributes to his self-sacrificing efforts to help, both temporally and spiritually, was to understand the largeness of his heart. He was a delightful companion, the most tolerant and kind of friends, quick to share the joys and sorrows of his beloved priests and people. In the end ill-health forced him off the hard road of the Missions. But, both in our church in Galway and in the Rathfarnham retreat house where he was working until just before his death, he had devoted clients. Unmethodical and terribly busy as he was, he might at times seem to neglect even close friends. But he never forgot them. Though they might have grudged him to others for the most part, they knew him, and in their hearts relied on him if need arose, and they can now surely rely on his assistance from heaven. To his brothers and nephews we offer our sincere sympathy.

Born: 15 May 1887, Bandon, County Cork
Entered: 12 November 1902, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 31 July 1917, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1921, Belvedere College SJ, Dublin
Died: 31 October 1956, Milltown Park, Dublin

Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1907 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 23rd Year No 4 1948

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

Irish Province News 32nd Year No 1 1957

Obituary :

Fr Michael Quinlan (1887-1956)

Fr. Quinlan was born on 15th May, 1887, at Bandon, Co. Cork, the fifth child in a family of twelve, He attended the National School at Bandon, of which his father was Principal, and in 1899 went to Clongowes, where he remained until June, 1902, leaving after the Middle Grade, He entered at Tullabeg on 12th November, 1902, and after his first vows he remained there for two years' Juniorate. He then went to Stonyhurst to study philosophy for three years,
It was during this time that he took his B.A. degree at the Royal University in Dublin. He taught for five years at Belvedere and in 1914 he went to Milltown Park for theology. He was ordained on 31st July, 1917. Before his tertianship at Tullabeg he taught for one year at Belvedere and after the tertianship he returned to Belvedere in 1920 as Prefect of Studies. He was Rector of Belvedere from 1922 to 1928, and Rector of Galway from 1928 to 1933. After one year at Clongowes he was transferred to Gardiner Street, where we find him as Minister from 1934 to 1945, and Operarius from 1945 to 1955. Owing to failing health he was sent to Milltown Park. He died on 31st October, 1956, and he was buried with his fellow-novice, Fr. MacSheahan, at Glasnevin.
The author of this obituary notice has just attended a meeting of the St. Joseph's Young Priests' Society. It was the first meeting of that branch since the death of its Spiritual Director, Fr. Michael Quinlan. It would not be possible to remain unaffected by the obviously sincere tributes paid to his memory. “He was always ready, at any time or place, to help us in every way in his power”. “In the twenty years he was with us he was our most faithful friend and guide and advisor, never missing a meeting, always easy to approach”. “We could bring him any problem, sure, in advance, of a sympathetic hearing, certain he would leave nothing undone to find the solution”.
Fr. Bodkin, who succeeds Fr. Quinlan as Spiritual Director, warmly endorsed these remarks, having known Fr. Quinlan since he was a scholastic in Belvedere and Fr. Bodkin a small boy there. In those far-off days there was in evidence the same unfailing kindness which deepened with the years, and now remains the characteristic of the man that one instinctively associates with his name.
What was said at that meeting today finds a loud and ready echo in the hearts of countless numbers of Dublin's poor. As successor to Fr. Potter, Fr. Quinlan directed the “Penny Dinners”, devoting himself with tireless zeal, till near the end of his life, to collecting and distributing to visiting the poor, writing countless letters begging alms for them, missing no chance of interesting people in a position to help this excellent form of charity which for many long years has been carried on by the Gardiner Street community.
One got further insight into his interest in the poor and in his love for them, during a mission in Gardiner Street. The number who spoke of him in terms of deep affection, and the detailed knowledge he himself showed by the accurate information he put at the missioners' disposal, gave evidence of the practical zeal he had for their spiritual and corporal welfare.
Not content to direct a Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul, he proved himself a veritable apostle by the innumerable contacts he made with the poor in their homes. He was often observed slipping out quietly with one or two or three parcels of food or clothes for those in dire need. One large store in Dublin is said to have kept him supplied with lots of shoes and boots. The children of the poor flocked around him in the streets, and were happy when they could say they were attending “Fr. Quinlan's School” - the one he had charge of in Dorset Street.
A Jesuit told him once : “Congratulate me, I'm fifty today”. Fr. Quinlan paused a moment and then said the unexpected - regretfully but quite seriously. “Fifty are you? I'm afraid you'll never be a Rector now!” He had a most exalted idea of the honour conferred on a man whom the Society considered fit to be raised to that high eminence, and he would not fail, from time to time to regale you with stories about the time “when I was Rector”. He held that position twice, in Belvedere and at Galway, and it was in his time at Galway that the College got the status of an “A” school. Though no linguist, he managed to reach sufficient proficiency to teach mathematics through Irish, “and I doubt”, writes a contemporary, “if there has ever been a better teacher of that subject in the Province”.
For years in Gardiner Street, whether as Minister or Prefect of the Church, or later as an Operarius, he got through a prodigious amount of work. It was nearly always he who filled the gaps if a preacher had to drop out. It was, above all in the Confessional, we may very reasonably surmise that his great-hearted charity found its widest outlet. It has been well said that devotion to the work of hearing Confession is an infallible mark of a true priest. Judged by that test, Fr. Quinlan was a true priest indeed. He was “always ready”, early or late, irrespective of fixed “hours” to treat with souls in the sacred tribunal, One has heard it said more than once: “I'd love to go to Fr. Quinlan for Confession only that his ‘box’ is always so crowded”.
He was the author of many articles and pamphlets which have circulated widely, particularly one on Confession which is still enjoying an enormous sale.

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father Michael Quinlan 1887-1956
It has been truly said that devotion to the confessional is an infallible mark of a good priest. Judged by this standard Fr Michael Quinlan was an excellent priest. He was always ready, early or late, irrespective of fixed hours to help souls in the sacred tribunal. It was afterwards said “I’d love to go to Fr Quinlan for confession, only his box is always crowded”.

Born in Bandon in 1887, he entered the Society in 1902, after his schooling in Clongowes.

He became a Rector comparatively young, first in Belvedere from 1922-1928, and then in Galway from 1928-1933. He always had a reverence for the office of Rector, simple and amusing in its way.

In Gardiner Street, where he spent the latter part of his life, he was in charge of the schools and the Penny Dinners. His devotion to the poor knew no bounds. He was tireless, ingenious and shameless in their service. This and his devotion to hearing confessions mark him out as a man of God. He was also active with his pen, and he was the author of numerous pamphlets, many of which remain popular.

He died on October 31st 1956.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1957

Obituary

Father Michael Quinlan SJ

Fr Quinlan was born on 15th May, 1887, at Bandon, Co Cork, the fifth child in a family of twelve. He was at school at Clongowes, entering the Society of Jesus in 1902. He studied Philosophy at Stonyhurst and then taught for five years at Belvedere. In 1914 he went to Milltown where he was ordained on 31st July, 1917. He came back to Belvedere in 1920 as Prefect of Studies and in 1922 was appointed Rector of the College. At the end of his term of office he went to Galway as Rector and was there from 1928 to 1933. He worked at Gardiner Street from 1934 to 1955. From then till his death in October, 1956, he was at Milltown Park.

Anyone who knew Fr Quinlan could not help but see that his heart was in the work of a priest in Gardiner Street. In the last months of his life his cross was not the pain and weakness he was called on to suffer, but the separation from the work he loved best - the work of the confessional - and from that network of innumerable contacts with the poor he had built up over the years. For years in Gardiner Street, whether as Minister or Prefect of the church, he got through a prodigious amount of work. It was above all in the confessional that his charity found its widest outlet. It has been said that devotion to the work of hearing confessions is an infallible sign of a true priest. Judged by that test, Fr Quinlan was a true priest indeed.

◆ The Clongownian, 1957

Obituary

Father Michael Quinlan SJ

Father Quinlan came to Clongowes as a boy in 1899 and remained until 1902, when he entered the Society of Jesus at Tullabeg. Having finished his earlier studies, he taught for five years at Belvedere and went on to Theology in 1914. He was ordained in 1917.

In 1920 he became Prefect of Studies at Belvedere and he was Rector of that College from 1922 to 1928, and Rector of Galway from 1928 to 1933. After one year at Clongowes he was transferred to Gardiner Street where he worked until 1955, when he was transferred to Milltown Park. He died on October 31st, 1956, and was buried with his fellow-novice, Father MacSheahan, who had died on the previous day. Father Quinlan was for many years Spiritual Director of the St. Joseph's Young Priests Society, who paid glowing tributes to his work for them and to his great sympathy and accessibility. He was much sought after for Confessions and was the author of many articles and pamphlets which have circulated widely, particularly one on Confession which is still enjoying a wide sale. May he rest in peace.

Born: 30 July 1840, County Limerick
Entered: 30 July 1863, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final vows: 15 August 1874
Died: 14 December 1904, Clongowes Wood College, Naas, County Kildare

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
1865-1874 He was sent as Sacristan to Galway.
1874-1875 He was sent as Dispenser to Clongowes.
1875-1876 He was sent to Limerick as Sacristan, and he assisted at the opening of the Sacred Heart Church.
He also spent some time at Tullabeg where he was responsible for the Domestic staff.
When Tullabeg closed as a College he was sent to Milltown, and later at Galway again as Sacristan.
Finally he returned to Clongowes and he died there 14 December 1904.
He was a simple soul and worked hard with goodwill.

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

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

Obituary :

Br Ignatius Rice (1908-1960)

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

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Br Vincent Robinson (1943-1964-1982)

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

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

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1982

Obituary

Brother Vincent Robinson SJ

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

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

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

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

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

Gerry O'Hanlon SJ

Born: 21 November 1869, Monivea, Athenry, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1889, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 10 July 1905, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1908, Clongowes Wood College SJ, Clane, County Kildare
Died: 12 December 1953, 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 1893 at St Aloysius, Jersey Channel Islands (FRA) studying
by 1900 at Stonyhurst, England (ANG) studying
by 1907 at Drongen, Belgium (BELG) making Tertianship

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

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

◆ The Clongownian, 1954

Obituary

Father George Redington Roche SJ

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

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

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

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

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

-oOo-

The Late Fr George Redington Roche

An Appreciation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sidney B Minch

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

by 1877 in Maryland (MAR) working

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

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

At one time he had very strong political views.

◆ The Clongownian, 1909

Obituary

Father Richard Rochford SJ

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

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

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

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

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

Father Richard Rochford (1822-1909)

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

Born: 01 September 1869, Ballycumber, County Offaly
Entered: 08 October 1891, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Final vows: 15 August 1902
Died: 08 November 1956, Clongowes wood College SJ, County Kildare

◆ Irish Province News 32nd Year No 1 1957 & ◆ The Clongownian, 1957

Obituary :

Br Kieran Corcoran (1869-1956)

With Br, Corcoran there passed away a figure that had become something of a legend in the life of Clongowes. We of a later vintage lived with him and saw his passing; but who, with a solitary exception, can recall his coming over fifty years ago, or indeed can think of a Clongowes without that stalwart figure moving impressively about its lawful occasions? For even till about a couple of years ago, when his heart attacks became more crippling, he bore himself upright as always, and though his work became more and more curtailed, he sought employment about the house, and it is not so long ago since one saw him, as ever, in the midst of buckets and crates of eggs making his weekly tally! After three months as a Postulant he joined the Noviceship at Tullabeg in 1891, whence he was posted to Galway in 1893, taking his first Vows in the October of that year. From 1893 to early in 1904 he was stationed in our Gardiner Street house and the list of positions he filled makes impressive reading. There he pronounced his final Vows in 1902, and from there he left in February of 1904 to begin his unbroken half-century and more in Clongowes Wood till the day of his death. Jubilee succeeded Jubilee, and on his Diamond one in 1951 he was favoured with a letter from the hand of Very Rev. Father General; and in 1954, the Golden Jubilee of his sojourn in Clongowes Wood, was marked by celebrations and many messages of congratulation.
The maintenance of the fabric of the College was his prime care all those years, that and the employing and supervising of the small army of artisans and servants involved in that care. This he did with conspicuous skill and mastery and he could rightly claim (if ever he thought of it) that his activities vitally touched the lives of masters and boys, asleep or awake at many points. How much of that is simply taken for granted in a big institution and how small the meed of recognition! The host of daily, almost hourly, activities involved in "maintenance" of a large and sprawling and, in places, antiquated building who thinks of them? The endless inspections and checking; the planning ahead; the expert knowledge in many fields; the sudden improvisations called for and demanding sound judgment; crises in lighting or heating or drainage systems, all these involve considerable responsibility and systematic care. Suffice it to say that through all the years of his stewardship Br. Corcoran was seldom or never unequal to the heavy task laid on him by day or by night. For he was thorough in all he did, deeply conscientious and rigidly systematic. Only the best workmanship, whether it was sweeping a Gallery or slating a roof could pass muster with his eagle eye. Workmanship of the best, materials of the best and a job that would last “to and through the Doomsday's fire” if necessary was what he demanded, and he had the knack of getting these from his staff. And he never spared himself physically in his endless routine of daily and hourly inspections. In fact so rigid was his sense of routine that one could almost infer the time of day from his passing, whether it was in and about the building or “beating the bounds” on his daily perambulation of the main and Kapolis avenues! As a result the spick and span state of walls and floors and ceilings everywhere in the place from endless scrubbings and paintings and polishings were justly the admiration of his Brethren and of visitors. He took a pride in his office, and had he been capable of boasting he could justly have pointed to the myriad of improvements he effected (the walls of the Lower Line Gallery were in whitewash when he first came!) throughout his fifty years as an enduring monument to his memory.
And sustaining and inspiring in all this was his sterling worth as a Religious. He impressed all with his deep Faith and simple and genuine piety; his unfailing presence and punctuality at every religious duty; bis reverence for the priestly state and his considerateness for others. In pressing forward for the good of the College he never lost sight of the claims of the individual, and in the exercise of the considerable authority that rested with him he strove for fairness. The handicap imposed by frequent heart attacks must have been a galling one to a man of his disposition, and his endurance of this; his uncomplaining acceptance of God's will, especially in the last year or two, when he had often to keep to his bed or his room, was impressive to those who had any dealings with him.. Characteristic of him was his rejoinder at the very end to one who counselled him to say his prayers internally" instead of vocalising them (as was bis wont), “Oh, but one would have to be very sick to do a thing like that!" And to a visitor leaving his room at night he motioned with his hand to the alarm-clock beside his bed and murmured, "The clock, the clock, wind it! For meditation! It was set for half-past six, and this was the day before he died.
Fully conscious to the end, and in his 87th year, he passed away without pain on the 7th of November in the room he occupied so long in the very heart of the School he served for half a century with such fine loyalty, and with young life pulsating all around him. On the 9th he was borne to his grave down the long avenue so familiar to him in his unvarying daily walk, the community and entire school preceding the coffin. May he rest in peace!

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Brother Kieran Corcoran 1862-1956
Br Kieran Corcoran was identified with Clongowes for over fifty years. The maintenance of the fabric of the College was his prime care, together with the running of the whole place, both Castle and College, Methodical, efficient, though kindly with all, he managed the domestic staff and got astonishing results out of them. As a result, the spick and span state of the walls, floors and ceilings everywhere in the place, from endless scrubbings, polishings and paintings, was justly the admiration of his brethren and visitors.

Sustaining this continual effort was his religious spirit. He impressed all with his simple faith and deep piety. He had a natural dignity which commanded respect and reverence for his cloth.

He entered Tullabeg as a novice in 1891, and in 1954 he celebrated the golden jubilee of his stay in Clongowes. He died on November 7th 1956 in the room which he had occupied for over half a century, in the very heart of the school he had served so well ad majoram Dei Gloriam.

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

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

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

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

Born: 03 May 1910, County Galway
Entered: 04 February 1929, Loyola Greenwich, Australia (HIB)
Ordained: 31 July 1940, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1943
Died: 11 May 1980, St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, Australia- Australiae Province (ASL)

Transcribed HIB to ASL : 05 April 1931

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Jerry Golden began his early schooling in Galway and then in Cork until the age of twelve when his father came to other came to Sydney. His further education was with the Marist Brothers Darlinghurst and the Jesuits at Riverview. He entered the Society at Loyola College, Greenwich 4 February 1929. After taking vows he was sent to University College, Dublin, where he took a degree in history and economics with honours. He next studied philosophy in Jersey. Here, his French colleagues appreciated his ready humour.
During 1936-37 at the Institute Catholique, Paris, Golden spent nine months in a Paris hospital recovering from a leg injury that became gangrene This affected him deeply, and was
watershed of his life.
He returned to Ireland for his theological studies at Milltown Park, 1937-40. Tertianship was at Rathfarnham, Dublin, after which he returned to Australia.
Golden's first ministry was at St Mary's, North Sydney, 1943-48. Then he began a ministry as university chaplain, for which he became an icon. He was sent to Newman College in 1950 and remained there until 1966.
When he arrived at The University of Melbourne, most Catholic undergraduates went their own way, but the Newman Society of Victoria used to meet in the basement of the Central Catholic Library. This was a time of Catholic apologetics, of the defence of the Catholic faith.
At Newman College, Golden set about building up a sense of solidarity between the students at Newman College and the members of the Newman Society. A new era of student involvement in the life of the Church began. It was a movement both spiritual and intellectual and assumed the title of “the intellectual apostolate”. He acted as a catalyst among the students, stimulating discussion and encouraging greater Church involvement. Students began reflecting on the question of religious meaning, the ultimate orientation of their studies, and even questions about the nature of the university itself. The Newman Society was opposed to Bob Santamarias Movement, but the issues were never discussed. Student formation involved Summer Camps held at Point Lonsdale, when the university freshers were initiated into the spirit of the Newman Society, and of Winter Camps where the process was taken further. Topics discussed were major issues of Church, politics of the day and Life of the university. Golden's gift in this process was his presence and encouragement, and ability to enthuse students into organising themselves. He never gave a sustained talk. but was active in discussions.
During the academic year faculty groups developed, some 150 students being organised into discussion circles which would meet in the seminar rooms of the Kenny building. Lunch-hour lectures were held at the university, and a weekly Mass in the mathematics hall of the Old Arts Building was well attended in the early years. Much of Golden's own time was taken up individual counselling of students.
In this work his students experienced him as positive, affirming, optimistic and very intuitive. He was patient and a good listener, wise humorous, self-effacing, and apostolic. He was a welcoming man with an engaging smile, and always seemed relaxed. He was no revolutionary, but in practice was radical and risky as he sought to build leadership in others. He spoke openly about the distinction between lay and clerical spirituality, and gave students a glimpse of “the New Jerusalem”. He did not go out to the university as such, but encouraged students to join university activities as well as to engage social works. Students sold Catholic pamphlets outside the student union. By the 1960s society changed, and students began to lose their interest in searching together for eternal truth. It was an age of greater individualism, and Golden had more time to himself. Students were not coming to him in good numbers. Reflecting upon these days, Golden decided it was time to take a sabbatical in Cambridge 1966, where he experienced life in the chaplaincy. He later returned to Adelaide where he took up residence at Aquinas College and was chaplain to the Teachers’ College. From 1970 he returned to St Mary's, North Sydney, where he set up youth groups, and became well knows for his opposition to renovations to the church. He was traditional in his views church architecture. Then followed time in the parish of Avalon Beach, 1977-78, where he enjoyed the friendship of the local surfing community. During these years he spent short time in the parishes of Waterloo and Redfern. In 1979 he received appointment as chaplain to the Catholic College of Education at Castle Hill, NSW. There he became ill, was taken to hospital, and died quite suddenly. Golden was slightly gruff, good-humoured and sagacious. He was resilient. versatile and adaptable. Above all he was truly charismatic. This gave him a special influence with young people male and female. His enjoyment in playing tennis, golf and table tennis sustained his relationships with friends. He was a strong support to needy members of his family.

◆ Irish Province News

Irish Province News 55th Year No 3 1980

Obituary

Fr Jeremiah Golden (1910-1929-1980) (Australia)

(1931-34: junior, Rathfarnham; 1937-41: theologian, Milltown, 194 1-22, tertian, Rathfarnham).
Father Jeremiah Golden died unexpectedly on Sunday, 11th May. St Mary’s, North Sydney, was filled for the Requiem of Fr Jerry on Tuesday, 13th May. A large number of priests, Jesuit and diocesan, concelebrated with Fr Provincial, who gave the homily. Jerry exercised a considerable apostolate of spiritual direction among Sydney’s diocesan clergy. Many nuns and brothers were among the large congregation, and some of his friends from university chaplaincy days flew to Sydney from Melbourne and Adelaide for the Mass. Bishop William Murray of Wollongong, a close friend and tennis companion of Jerry, led the prayers at the graveside ...
A tribute from Archbishop Gleeson of Adelaide: “Together with (my Auxiliary) Bishop Kennedy, I offer to you and to all the members of the Society of Jesus our sincere sympathy on the death of Fr Jerry Golden SJ. We all remember him with deep affection and appreciation, not only for the work that he did at Aquinas University College and in the University itself, but also for his great pastoral concern and particularly for the way he made himself available for hearing confessions in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, I shall be offering holy Mass for the repose of his soul and for the welfare of the Society in the loss of one of its outstanding members”.
(Excerpts from the Australian Province's Fortnightly Reports).

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

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

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

◆ The Clongownian, 1908

Obituary

Brother Daniel Hampson SJ

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

Born: 12 June 1866, Youghal, County Cork
Entered: 18 October 1884, Loyola House, Dromore, County Down
Ordained: 1899, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 15 August 1903
Died: 12 October 1915, Béthune, France - Military Chaplain

Member of the Mungret College, Limerick community at the time of death
Younger brother of William - RIP 1950
Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ

by 1892 at Leuven Belgium (BELG) studying
by 1902 at Linz Austria (ASR) making Tertianship

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
Early education at Coláiste Iognáid.

He studied Philosophy at Louvain and Theology at Milltown. He also did Regency in the Colleges, and at one stage was a Teacher for the Juniors. He was a man of brilliant achievements academically. He was for some years at Crescent as a Teacher and Operarius. He gave Lenten Lectures at Crescent and Gardiner St, reputedly brilliantly. For some years before he became a Chaplain to the troops he acted as Dean of Residence at University Hall.
1914 He became Chaplain to the Irish Guards and continued with them until his death in France 12 October 1915

The following Tribute was paid to him in a letter from Desmond Fitzgerald, Captain Commanding 1st Battalion Irish Guards 16/10/1915 :
“Dear Father Delaney, You will of course by now hard of Father Gwynn’s death, and I know full well that the universal sorrow felt by all ranks of this Battalion will be shared by you and all the members of your University, who knew him so well. No words of mind could express, or even give a faint idea of the amount of good he has done us all out here, or how bravely he has faced all dangers, and how cheerful and comforting he has always been. It is no exaggeration to say that he was loved by every officer, NCO and man in the battalion.
The Irish Guards owe him a deep and lasting debt of gratitude, and as long as any of us are left who saw him out here we shall never forget his wonderful life, and shall strive to lead a better life by following his example. The unfortunate shell landed in the door of the Headquarter dugout just as we had finished luncheon, on October 11th. Father Gwynn received one or two wounds in the leg, as well as a piece of shell through his back in his lung. He was immediately bound up and sent to hospital, but died from shock and injuries at 8am the next morning, October 12th. he was buried in the cemetery at Bethune at 10am October 13th. May his should rest in peace. But, although he has been taken from us, he will still be helping us, and rather than grieve at our loss, we must rejoice at his happiness. Yours sincerely, Desmond Fitzgerald..”

◆ Jesuits in Ireland : https://www.jesuit.ie/news/201511/john-gwynn-sj-no-greater-love/

John Gwynn SJ – “No greater love”
A memorial mass took place on Sunday 11 October 2015 at the Sacred Heart parish in Caterham, Surrey, to commemorate the centenary of the death of Irish Jesuit Fr. John Gwynn, who was Chaplain to the Irish Guards and who served in France during the First World War. Many knew him as a powerful and eloquent preacher at the Sacred Heart Church and at St. Francis Xavier’s Church in Dublin, where questions of sociology had a strong attraction for him. Fergus O’Donoghue SJ who represented the Irish province at the event said, “I was very glad that myself and Brother Michael O’Connor (former Royal Marine and British Jesuit) had gone because the local parish people had made such an effort, and there was a display on John Gwynn’s life, and generally it was just great.” A memorial plaque was erected in the Church by the Irish Guards who were based at Caterham barracks nearby. Bishop Richard Moth, the bishop of the diocese and former bishop to the Armed Forces, noted the enthusiasm of the Sacred Heart parish and presided over the special mass on Sunday evening. “It was by chance that an article of Fr. Gwynn was seen online by his grandniece from Massachusetts,” says Fr. Fergus. “She got in touch and sent a message. It was lovely because the whole parish got involved.” The mass itself featured the song We Remember You by children from St. Francis’ School as well as the recessional hymn Be Thou My Vision, based on St. Patrick’s Breastplate. Lord Desmond Fitzgerald, the Captain of the 1st Irish Guards has written: “It is certainly no exaggeration to say that Fr Gwynn was loved by every officer, N.C.O. and man in the battalion.” Furthermore, an Irish Guard who was also an Old Belvederian spoke of the Jesuit’s presence at the Medical Officer’s dugout so that he could be near his injured men, and that he organised sports and concerts to keep up morale. He even returned to the battlefield despite being crippled after a shell wounded him.
John Gwynn SJ experienced internal suffering during his lifetime. “It’s quite clear that he had a condition like bipolar disorder (a mental illness characterised by extreme high and low moods), then known as suffering from nerves,” says Fr. O’Donoghue. Through all of this, he was extremely brave and he was an enormously successful chaplain. Fr. Gwynn was fatally wounded in action near Vermelles, Northern France on 11 October 1915 and he died the next day at 50 years old. It was said that he would have been happy to die as a ‘soldier of God’.

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

Note from William Gwynn Entry :
William Gwynn’s father was a military man and had been transferred to Galway by the time that William and his younger brother John (who also entered the Society) were ready for their schooling. Both boys were educated at St Ignatius' College Galway.
.........After tertianship at Linz, Austria, 1901-02 with his brother John

◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973

Father John Gwynn 1866-1915
Fr John Gwynn was born in Youghal on June 18th 1866, and received his early education at St Ignatius Galway. He was one of those who made his novitiate at Loyola Dromore.

He was a man of brilliant attainments. His Lenten Lectures delivered at Limerick and Gardiner Street, were outstanding, and were published afterwards under the title of “Why am I a Catholic?” He acted as Principal of University Hall for some years.

In 1914 he became Chaplain to the Irish Guards, and was killed in France on October 12th 1915. The following are one or two excerpts from the Officer Commanding the Battalion at the time of his death :

“The Irish Guards owe him a deep and lasting debt of gratitude, and as long as any of us are left out here, we shall never forget his wonderful life, and shall strive to lead a better life by following his example. No words of mind could express or even give a faint idea of the amount of good e has done us all out here, or how bravely he faced all dangers, and how cheerful and comforting he has always been. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that he was loved by every Officer, NCO, and man in this battalion.

He was buried in the cemetery at Bethune at 10am on October 13th 1915. May he rest in peace”.

◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1916

Obituary

Father John Gwynn SJ

Though not. a pupil of Belvedere, Father Gwynn was connected with the College by teaching here for some time, and many who knew him here or came into contact with him in other ways will be glad to read the following brief sketch of his time as Chaplain to the Forces. It was sent to us by one of the Irish Guards, who writes of Father Gwynn thus :

“This account does not in any way exaggerate his doings. On the contrary more could be said by those who were more intimate friends of his.

When he joined us in Meteren last November twelve months. I had a conversation with him, in which I learned he was. an old Belvederian, but before my time. He was actually loved by the men of our battalion, and too much cannot be said of the way in which he looked after each and every man of the battalion.

His first experiences were very rough. It was January 15th when I saw him wading in water up to his chest to reach the front line of trenches to comfort the men with his jolly conversation.

He was as well known and appreciated by the other battalions which comprised our Brigade as he was with us, and made friends with all. He was taken to hospital suffering with lumbago a few days prior to the 18th May, 1915, when I was wounded. His loss was a great blow to all ranks: Not being present at the time, I can only imagine the regret his death caused to all those who had made his acquaintance”

The following is the account referred to :

A short appreciation of his work while he was attached to the 1st Bn Irish Guards, on active service, from November, 1914, until his death from wounds received in action on October 11th, 1915.

This account, written by request, is an attempt to give, quite shortly and . simply, a rough idea of Father Gwynn's work at the front with the 1st. Battalion Irish Gụards. No words could express the amount of good he did, and it is impossible to draw a true picture of his life and work. Only those who knew him personally and watched him, out there, can realise how wonderful his work was.

For many years before the outbreak of war, Father Gwynn was one of the governing body at University College, Dublin, but as soon as the war began he volunteered to act as Chaplain on active service. In the first week of November, 1914, he was attached to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, and joined it forth with, having, as he often said afterwards, but little idea of what his work would be. He was our first war-time Chaplain, so there were no precedents to follow, and he had to strike out his own line. When he joined us he found the Battalion resting and re-equipping in a little French village; for it had just come through very bad days at Ypres, and was greatly reduced in officers and men. We remained in this village until the week before Christmas, and during this rest we were reinforced by large drafts from home. Father Gwynn at once set to work to get to know the men, and very quickly they understood each other, for he and they were Irishmen. His tact and judgment gained for him the confidence of officers and men, and after a very few days he settled into his new surroundings as if he had been in them from the beginning.

From Christmas week onwards the Battalion was employed in trench warfare, and underwent many vicissitudes. Father Gwynn shared with us every hardship and trial throughout the wet winter; he lived with us, and became part of the Battalion. When we were in the trenches or in action he stayed with the Medical Officer at the Battalion Regimental Aid Post, near the Headquarters - the place to which wounded men are taken for first dressings. At other times he would share the Medical Officer's dug-out, so that he might lose no time if a man were wounded but go to him if need be at any moment of the day or night. During the day he would constantly go round the trenches, even when they were being shelled, and visit and talk to the men, heedless of his own danger.

When the Battalion was in billets or resting he would hold services, hear confessions, or give help to any man in his own billet, or in the local churches. Those churches in which he held his services had often had their roofs blown off by German shells. He was ready, too, to take an active part in any concerts or sports for the men, and employed his spare time in training some of them to form a choir to sing at his services. As far as was humanly possible he attended all the wounded and dying, and administered Extreme Unction whenever this was necessary; and he invariably read the burial service over men who were killed, even when it meant, as often it did especially after the British advance in September - that he must stand up at night in the open on a battlefield swept by bullets.

On February 6th, 1915; when an attack was being made, Father Gwynn was slightly wounded by a shell which burst near him. He was shaken, but remained at duty. In April and early May he suffered much from lumbago, but pluckily stayed at work till the middle of May, when, completely crippled, he was carried into hospital on a stretcher. He was absent two months, staying at different French hospitals. During that time another. Chaplain was posted to the Battalion to carry on his work, but Father Gwynn returned in mid-July, before lie was really fit to do so. By sheer force of will, and with the necessary amount of care, he gradually regained a great part .of. his normal health, but he was never quite so strong as he had been before his illness. Nevertheless, from the moment he returned to the Battalion he took up the work he had begun, and continued it right up to his death. In October, 1915, we were employed in holding and consolidating the trenches captured from the Germans, and those days were some of the most unpleasant in our experience. At this time more, if possible, than at any other, did Father Gwynn show the most splendid courage and unselfish care for the men. Certain portions of the line came in for vigorous shelling, and the trench was often blown in by aerial torpedoes, which in some cases buried a number of men. At the worst place would be found Father Gwynn, always ready to help the wounded, or to administer the Blessed Sacrament to the dying. He made it his unaltering practice to write to the relations of any man that had fallen, and in this way his words will have brought comfort to many desolated Irish homes. Thus each day he did his work.

On October 11th, 1915, he was at luncheon in the headquarters dug-out with four companions when a German shell landed and burst in the doorway. Father Gwynn received many wounds in different parts of the body, and one piece of shell struck his back and pierced a lung. That same shell also wounded our Commanding Officer, so that he too afterwards died, and slightly wounded another. Luckily, the Medical Officer was present, and Father Gwynn's wounds were at once. dressed; and, although he was in great pain, he was only unconscious for a few minutes. The stretcher on which he lay was carried with difficulty down a long communication trench-in many places blown in by German shells - and eventually reached the motor ambulance that took him to the Officers' Hospital at Béthune, where he received every possible attention. But it was the end. He died at eight o'clock next morning, October 12th, 1915, from wounds and shock. He was buried at 10 am on October 13th in the Béthune cemetery, where lie so many other officers and men who have likewise given their lives for their country. The burial service was read by Mgr Keating, the head of the Roman Catholic Chaplains in France. All the men would have wished to be present, but the Battalion was still in the trenches, and few could be spared. Yet many other officers and men of other units managed to be there, It can truly be said that the news of his. death was felt as a blow by every officer, NCO and man, and each one realised the loss, pot merely of their chaplain, but of a dearly loved friend.

A monument of marble has been raised by the Battalion over his grave, which bears these two inscriptions :

RIP REV FATHER JOHN GWYNN SJ,
attached to the
1st Irish Guards
He died at Béthune on October 12th,
1915, from wounds received in action
near Vermelles on October 11th,

1915. Aged 44 years.

This Monument has been erected by all ranks of the 1st Bat. Irish Guards in grateful Remembrance of their Beloved Chaplain, Father Gwynn, who was with them on Active Service for nearly, 12 months from Nov 1914, until his death, and shared with unfailing devotion all their trials and hardships.

Father Gwynn was fortunate in his death, and in the cause for which he died, and also fortunate, as he often said, in finding in the 1st Battalion of Irish Guards a splendid and worthy field for his work - a body of men capable of vision and of inspiration as well as. of courage and faith. And now can only be said over again what I said in the beginning : by his deeds, which cannot be expressed in words, he has left to those who saw him at his work an in indelible memory, and -an inspiration.

May his soul rest in peace!”

◆ The Clongownian, 1916

Obituary

Father John Gwynn SJ

Chaplain to the 1st Irish Guards

Born 1866. OT 1884. Died of wounds, Béthune, Oct. 12th, 1915

The following notice of Father Gwynn's death appeared in the Freeman's Journal :

We regret to announce the receipt of intelligence from the War Office by his relatives of the death at the Front of the Rev John Gwynn SJ. The sad event took place on the 12th inst. Father Gwynn had been at the Front almost since the beginning of the war, having been appointed Chaplain to the Irish Guards. He was wounded early this year, and though ill and suffering since that time, and occasionally in hospital, remained at his post as long as he was able. His loss will be greatly felt, not only by the men of his gallant regiment, but by all who had the pleasure and honour of knowing him and his work in Dublin. He was a Galway man, born half a century ago, entered the Society of Jesus in 1884, and was a student at historic Louvain, subsequently becoming a professor in Clongowes and in the University College, Dublin. He was a powerful and eloquent preacher, and questions of sociology had a strong attraction for him.

One of the papers he read some years ago before the Catholic Truth Society on social problems in Dublin was of special interest. His Lenten Lectures at St Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, received much attention.

The high esteem in which Father Gwynn was held by both officers and men is shown in the following letter from the late Lord Desmond Fitzgerald to Father William Delany SJ

1st Batt, Irish Guards, BEF,
October 16th, 1936

Dear Rev Father Delany,
You will, of course, have heard by now of Father Gwynn's death, and I know full well that the universal sorrow felt by all ranks of this battalion will be shared by you and all the members of your University, who knew him so well. No words of mine could express or even give a faint idea of the amount of good he has done us all out here, or how bravely he has faced all dangers, and how cheerful and comforting he has always been. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that he was loved by every officer, NCO and man in the battalion. The Irish Guards owe him a deep and lasting debt of gratitude, and as long as any of us are left who saw him out here we shall never forget his wonderful life, and shall strive to lead a better life by following his example. The unfortunate shell landed in the door of the Headquarter dug-out just as we had finished luncheon, on October 11th. Father Gwynn received one or two wounds in the leg, as well as a piece of shell in his back through his lung. He was immediately bound up and sent to hospital, but died from shock and his injuries at 8 am the next morning, October 12th. He was buried in the cemetery at Bethune, at 10 am, on October 13th. May his soul rest in peace. Although he has been taken from us, he will still be helping us; and rather than grieve at our loss, we must rejoice at his happiness.

Yours truly,
DESMOND FITZGERALD,
Captain Commanding 1st Batt, Irish Guards.

◆ The Mungret Annual, 1916

Obituary

Father John Gwynn SJ

Most of our readers will have heard of the death of Father Gwynn, which occurred on October 12th, 1915, in France, where he was acting as Chaplain to the First Battalion of the Irish Guards. Our College has much reason to mourn his loss. He was on our Teaching Staff in 1902-03 and again in 1913-14. Soon after the outbreak of the war he volunteered as an Army Chaplain, and those in this house can well remember the eagerness with which he awaited the all too tardy, acceptance of his offer by the War Office, for he was in spirit and temper a born soldier In November, 1914, he was attached to the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards as, their Chaplain. He was no stranger to that regiment; for he gave retreats to them more than once at Knightsbridge and Caterham.

The life of a Chaplain at the front must be a busy one; and certainly Father John did not spare himself: “When the men were in the trenches” a Guardsman says of him, “he constantly shared the Medical Officer's quarters, either in his dug-out or at the Regimental Aid Post, where the wounded were taken for first dressings”. It was his practice also to write to the relations of any man that had fallen, and thus was the means of bringing consolation to many an Irish home. He still managed to spare time to take part in any concerts or sports got up by the men, and he contrived to train some of them to form a choir for his services. He had indeed a great fund of gaiety and bonhomie, and he had much of the boy about him. It was a treat to hear him render “Clare's Dragoons”, “De Wet” or “Corcabaskin”. He had great gifts as a lecturer too, and as a preacher. At the front he had much to suffer. Shortly after his arrival he was knocked down by the concussion of a shell and slightly wounded by a splinter. He soon, however, recovered consciousness and did not even go off duty. On another occasion, while ministering to the wounded under fire, it would seem that he was almost buried under a fall of sand and clay, caused by the bombardment. He had to spend a month or two in a hospital in France because of severe lumbago, and indeed returned to his men before he was completely cured. Finally, on the 11th of October he was in a dug-out with some of the officers when an enemy shell landed in the doorway and, exploding, injured several of them. Portion of it pierced Father Gwynn's left lung, and he was wounded in several other places. Taken at once to hospital he lingered through the night, preserving perfect consciousness. Having received the Last Sacraments he expired calmly on the morning of the 12th. He was buried at Bethune next day with solemn rites, the last blessing being read by Mgr Keatinge, Senior Chaplain to the Forces, who in a letter subsequently described him as “a splendid priest, absolutely devoted to his men”. Another soldier who shared his dangers has written of him - “By his deeds he has left to those who saw him at his work an indelible memory and an inspiration”.

The marble monument which the Irish Guards have raised to his memory in the churchyard at Bethune has this inscription :

R.I.P.
REV. FATHER JOHN GWYNN, S.J.,
Attached to the
1st Irish Guards,
He died at Bethune on October 12th, 1915,
from wounds received in action near
Vermelles on October 11th, 1915,
Aged 49 years.
This monument has been erected by all Ranks of the 1st,
Bat. Irish Guards in
grateful Remembrance of their Beloved
Chaplain, Father Gwynn, who was with
them on Active Service for nearly twelve
months, from Nov 1914, until his death,
and shared with unfailing devotion all
their trials and hardships.

To his sister, Mrs. Daly, Mount Auburn, Mullingar, and to his brother, Father William Gwynn SJ, of Manresa, Norwood, S Australia, we offer our deepest sympathy. RIP

◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959

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

Father John Gwynn (1866-1915)

Was born in Youghal and received his early education at St Ignatius' College, Galway. He entered the Society in 1884 and made his higher studies at Louvain and Milltown Park where he was ordained in 1899. Father Gwynn spent three years as master at the Crescent, 1903-06. With the exception of one year, 1910-11, when he was temporarily employed as lecturer in theology at Milltown Park, he was henceforth a member of the community at UCD, first at St Stephen's Green and later at Leeson St. He was the first warden of Winton House, the parent of Modern University Hall, Hatch St, Dublin. Father Gwynn volunteered as chaplain in the first world war and earned fame for his courage and devotion to his men. He died in the discharge of his duties as a priest.