Clongownians of Distinction by Chris Knight

Clongownians of Distinction A Guide to the Serpentine Collection

Harman Murtagh

Clongownians of Distinction A Guide to the Serpentine Collection

Harman Murtagh

2014

First published in 2014

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Clongowes Wood College Clane Co. Kildare

Design and artwork by Paula Nolan, Messenger Publications Messenger Publications, 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 www.messenger.ie Printed in Ireland by Anglo Printing, Drogheda

Contents Introduction....................................... 5

Andrew Devane .............................. 29 William Doolin ................................ 30

Alfred Aylward .................................. 7 Daniel Binchy .................................... 8 Thomas Bodkin ................................. 9 Frederick Boland ............................ 10 Joseph Brennan .............................. 11 Stephen Brown, SJ ......................... 12 John Bruton .................................... 13 James Aloysius Burke/ Séamus de Búrca ............................ 14

Eugene Esmonde ........................... 31 Thomas Esmonde ........................... 32 Thomas Finlay ................................. 33 Hugh Geoghegan ........................... 34 Oliver St John Gogarty ................... 35 Aubrey Gwynn, SJ .......................... 36 Francis Hackett ............................... 37 William Hackett, SJ ......................... 38 James Hanlon ................................. 39

James Bayley Butler ....................... 15

Richard James ‘Jim’ Hayes ............. 40

Sir William Butler ............................ 16

George Hodnett ............................. 41

John Conmee, SJ ........................... 17

James Hogan .................................. 42

James Corboy, SJ ........................... 18

John Vincent Holland ..................... 43

Timothy Corcoran, SJ ..................... 19

Sir Andrew Horne ........................... 44

Michael Courtney ........................... 20

James Joyce ................................... 45

Edward Coyne, SJ .......................... 21

James Fitzgerald-Kenney ............... 46

Thomas Crean ................................ 22

Thomas ‘Tom’ Kettle ....................... 47

George Crosbie .............................. 23

Sir Gilbert Laithwaite ...................... 48

Sir Francis Cruise ............................ 24

Thomas Lane .................................. 49

James Cullen, SJ ............................ 25

Matthew Lawless ............................ 50

Patrick Cunningham ....................... 26

Patrick ‘P.J.’ Little ............................ 51

Joseph Dalton, SJ .......................... 27

Enoch Louis Lowe ........................... 52

James Deeny .................................. 28

James Lynch ................................... 53

Aidan Joseph MacCarthy ............... 54

Alan O’Meara ................................. 81

Niall St John McCarthy ................... 55

Michael Joseph ‘The O’Rahilly’ ...... 82

Oliver MacDonagh ......................... 56

Edmund O’Reilly, SJ ....................... 83

Patrick McGilligan ........................... 57

John Marcus O’Sullivan .................. 84

Sir Ambrose McGonigal ................. 58

Christopher Palles .......................... 85

Sir Joseph McGrath ........................ 59

Roland Paoletti ............................... 86

Edward ‘Ned’ McGuire ................... 60

Count George Noble Plunkett ....... 87

Thomas McNevin ............................ 61

John Redmond ............................... 88

John Charles McQuaid ................... 62

William ‘Willie’ Hoey Redmond....... 89

Conor Maguire ............................... 63

Pat Reid .......................................... 90

James ‘The O’Gorman’ Mahon ...... 64

John Robinson ................................ 91

Francis Mahony ‘Father Prout’ ........ 65

Jack Kelly-Rogers ........................... 92

Thomas Francis Meagher ............... 66

Comte Henri Russell ....................... 93

Charles Mitchel ............................... 67

Finbar Ryan, OP ............................. 94

Thomas Murphy .............................. 68

Michael Rynne ................................ 95

John Naish ...................................... 69

Charles Sheil ................................... 96

Peter Baron O’Brien of Kilfenora .... 70

Sir John Sheil .................................. 97

Jeremiah Joseph ‘Ginger’ O’Connell .71

John Sisk ......................................... 98

Roderick ‘Rory’ O’Connor ............... 72

Sir Michael Smurfit .......................... 99

Sir Nicholas O’Conor ...................... 73

William Starkie .............................. 100

Kevin O’Higgins ............................. 74

Bartholomew Woodlock ............... 101

Thomas O’Higgins .......................... 75 Count Gerald O’Kelly ..................... 76 Cornelius O’Leary ........................... 77 William O’Leary, SJ ......................... 78 William O’Loughlin ......................... 79 Donogh O’Malley ........................... 80

Procedure for nomination of candidates for inclusion in the Serpentine .............................. 102 Photograph credits & copyright.... 103

I Introduction

Introduction For many years the Serpentine corridor at Clongowes has been used to hang portrait photographs of distinguished Clongownians. Additions (and sometimes subtractions) were made in no very systematic way, and the collection had a rather Edwardian character. Nevertheless, it was a very familiar part of the school, well remembered by generations of Clongowes students. In 2003-4, as part of a general scheme of improvement, the Serpentine was rebuilt and its display potential greatly improved. In preparation for the Clongowes bicentenary in 2014, it was decided to re-hang the Serpentine, standardising to some extent the criteria for inclusion, and identifying suitable new candidates to modernise the collection and make it more representative. A small committee, reporting to the headmaster, Father Leonard Maloney SJ, was formed in 2012. It comprised the rector, Father Michael Sheil SJ, himself an old Clongownian (1949-56), with two other old Clongownians, David K’Eogh (1961-5), an architect, and Harman Murtagh (1957-62), a historian, together with Margaret Doyle, the college archivist. Through many meetings over two years the committee formulated a policy for inclusion, researched and selected candidates who met their criteria, and procured suitable portrait photographs. It was agreed that only those who were deceased or retired would be included, except perhaps in the most exceptional circumstances. Inclusion would be automatic for cabinet ministers, bishops, the most senior judges and university heads. A candidate’s chances were greatly strengthened by his inclusion in the Dictionary of Irish Biography or the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, authoritative publications, which are a major source for many of the biographical notes in this publication. After that, the selection was made on the basis of distinction in any field, a colourful career and inclusivity. Republicans hang beside VCs; archbishops beside writers; judges beside businessmen; physicians beside diplomats; architects beside politicians; scientists beside social activists; scholars beside aviators.

Clongownians of Distinction

Introduction

I Continued

The choice is not judgemental, the sole criteria being that all are of course Clongownians or Tullabegians of distinction. (Tullabeg, a Jesuit College at Rahan County Offaly, merged with Clongowes in 1886.) Most of those recognised of course are no longer household names, if indeed they ever were – sic transit gloria mundi! – but all had noteworthy careers and achievements, and many made an important, original or colourful contribution to their times, and often to the benefit of posterity. No one is excluded on grounds of prejudice or persuasion, political or otherwise. Some suggestions evoked considerable debate, but on those ultimately selected the committee was unanimous. Sportsmen will have a gallery to themselves. The selection of its nature is incomplete. Suggestions for further additions can be considered, if made to the headmaster, supported by a case for the candidate’s inclusion and accompanied by information on where to source a suitable portrait photograph. The Serpentine committee will then advise the headmaster of their view on the appropriateness of the nominee for inclusion. The pictures are hung in a fairly haphazard arrangement. For ease of reference, this guide is arranged alphabetically, according to surname. The purpose of the guide is to supply a short biography of each of those selected for inclusion in the Serpentine. A wider knowledge of the identities and achievements of the hundred or so ‘Serpentine rogues’ will surely strengthen Clongowes tradition and pride and may be an inspiration to the present and future students at the school. The committee is grateful to all who have helped in this project, especially by sourcing photographs or providing information. For us, researching the lives and portraits of so many Clongownians of outstanding distinction has been a rewarding voyage of discovery, leaving us simultaneously both proud and humbled by the achievement of this great Jesuit school. We hope that you will share these sentiments. Harman Murtagh 2014

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg 1855-1858 Alfred Aylward Alfred Aylward (1843-1889?), Fenian and international revolutionary, was a native of New Ross, County Wexford, who attended Tullabeg in 1855-8. He was wounded, fighting with Garibaldi in Sicily. Having picked up some medical knowledge while recuperating, he served as a military surgeon in the American Civil War. Returning to Dublin, he was thrice arrested as a suspected Fenian, and later claimed to have been involved in Fenian bombings in England. The Fenians suspected him of being a government informer. Migrating to South Africa, he led a diggers’ rebellion to protest against the mining companies, but was acquitted in a subsequent trial. He later commanded a mercenary force that helped suppress a native rising in the Transvaal. Subsequently he was attached as a surgeon to the Boer forces in their first war against the British in 1881. He wrote an authoritative book on the Transvaal and edited a newspaper. Moving to America, he joined the Métis rebellion of Louis Riel in Canada. Branded a murderer, a traitor (to both the Fenians and the British), a conspirator, a mercenary and a secret-service agent, his later years remain a mystery, with rather implausible rumours that he was involved in the Phoenix Park murders, causing trouble in Sweden and advising the Mahdi in the Sudan. There were varying accounts of his death, which is believed to have occurred in 1889, but even this may have been a false rumour to deceive his pursuers.

Clongownians of Distinction

Daniel Binchy Clongowes 1910-1916 Daniel Binchy (1900-89), historian and diplomat, was a native of Charleville, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1910-16. He studied at UCD, where he was auditor of the Literary and Historical Society, and was called to the bar in 1920. His scholarly interests took him to the Continent where he secured his D.Phil magnum cum laude at Munich University and completed an archival programme at the École Nationale des Chartes in Paris, before returning to a professorship in UCD. This was interrupted in 1929-32, when he served as the first Irish minister to Germany. Returning to UCD, he was dean of the law faculty for a number of years. He retained an interest in diplomatic affairs, contributing articles on leading German political figures to Studies and publishing his highly regarded Church and State in Fascist Italy (1941). He was an associate of the great Gaelic scholars, Thurneyssen and Bergin, travelling annually with the latter to Dunquin to perfect his knowledge of Irish. Moving for a time to Oxford, he returned in 1950 to a professorship at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where he spent the rest of his career. His major contribution to scholarship is his six-volume Corpus Iuris Hibernici (1978), a transcription of the main manuscripts of early Irish law, which is the foundation of all subsequent scholarship on this topic. He wrote much else besides, always with lucidity and clarity, including a memorable and authoritative analysis of the fraught debate on St Patrick. He was an outstanding scholar, with an international reputation and honorary degrees from many universities.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1901-1905 Thomas Bodkin Thomas Bodkin (1887-1961), art historian and director of the National Gallery of Ireland, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1901-05. He studied at UCD and was called to the bar, serving for a decade as secretary to the commissioners for charitable donations and bequests. He mixed in artistic circles, becoming a close friend of Harry Clarke and Hugh Lane. From this developed his real bent as a forthright and perceptive art critic. He became an advisor to successive governments on artistic matters, arguing consistently, if unavailingly, for the importance of arts in education and design. He served on the board of the National Gallery for many years, eventually becoming director, then a part-time appointment. Despite the shortage of finance, he made many important additions to the collection and prepared the much-praised 1932 catalogue. Increasingly disillusioned by the neglect and marginalisation of the arts by successive Irish governments, in 1935 he accepted a professorship of fine art at the Barber Institute, Birmingham. He continued to try and influence artistic policy in Ireland, writing a report for the government in which he suggested a minister for the arts and an arts council. The last suggestion was taken up. He declined the appointment as its first director, which then went to his fellow Clongownian, PJ Little. He was a prolific writer and a popular broadcaster on the BBC ‘Brains Trust’. He was also a tireless campaigner for the return of the Lane pictures to Ireland. On his death, his own extensive art collection was distributed to galleries and museums throughout Ireland.

Clongownians of Distinction

Frederick Boland Clongowes 1918-1921 Frederick Boland (1904-85), diplomat, president of the United Nations General Assembly and chancellor of Dublin University, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1918-21. He was a prize-winning student at TCD and King’s Inns, and won scholarships to Harvard and Chicago University, before joining the Department of External Affairs as its first cadet in 1929. His first posting was to Paris, and after a spell in charge of foreign trade in the Department of Industry and Commerce, he returned to External Affairs, becoming secretary in 1945. He greatly increased the influence and stature of the department in the civil service. During World War II, he played a major role in ensuring Ireland’s pro-Allied form of neutrality. Afterwards, he did much to reduce Ireland’s diplomatic isolation, encouraging involvement in the initial processes of European integration, such as OEEC and the Council of Europe. In 1950 he became ambassador in London and from 1956 Ireland’s first permanent representative at the UN in New York. He was an outstanding diplomat, who did much to formulate and gain respect for Ireland’s independent stance in the Cold War. Elected president of the General Assembly in 1960-1, he famously broke his gavel calling Nikita Khrushchev to order. He was offered, but declined the post of acting secretary general, following Dag Hammarskjöld’s death in 1961. On retirement, he became chancellor of Dublin University, held numerous directorships, was president of the Irish Society for Autistic Children and chaired both the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace and the National Industrial Economic Council.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1899-1905 Joseph Brennan Joseph Brennan (1887-1976), civil servant and banker, was a native of Bandon, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1899-1905. Educated at UCD and Christ’s College Cambridge, he entered the British civil service in 1910. He served mainly in Dublin Castle, where by 1921 he had charge of the finance division in the chief secretary’s office. A Home Ruler by conviction, he advised the Irish delegation on the financial aspects of the Anglo-Irish treaty. Subsequently he became de facto head of the new Irish civil service, initially as comptroller and auditor general, and from 1923 head of the Department of Finance. His firm and prudent management ensured a smooth continuity of public administration in the changeover and established the financial standing of the new state, both very considerable achievements. Resigning from Finance because of disagreement with the direction of government policy, he became head of the new Currency Commission, the forerunner of the Central Bank of which he was appointed first governor in 1943. His strongly held view on public debt was resolutely conservative and antiKeynsian. His opposition to borrowing for economic development brought him into conflict with younger economists and leading politicians over budgetary and monetary policy, and in 1953 he resigned. Amongst his achievements were Irish membership of the International Monetary Fund and chairmanship of the ‘Brennan Commission’ (1932-4), which gave the Department of Finance control over the expenditure of other government departments. In retirement, he was active in cultural and social affairs, including the Clongowes Youth Club in Dublin.

Clongownians of Distinction

Stephen Brown, SJ Clongowes 1892-1897 Stephen Brown, SJ (1881-1962), bibliographer and librarian, was a native of Holywood, County Down, who attended Clongowes in 1892-7. Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1914, he earned an international reputation as a bibliographer, with numerous catalogues of Irish and international Catholic writing, such as Ireland in Fiction (1916) and International Index of Catholic Biographies (1935). He was also the author of several spiritual books. He edited various publications, including The Clongownian. In 1922 he founded the Catholic Central Library in Dublin, currently located in Merrion Square, serving for more than thirty years as its honorary librarian. He served on the Dublin Libraries committee and for ten years chaired the Library Association of Ireland. He was also involved, frequently as chairman, in numerous other bodies, such as the Bibliographical Society of Ireland, the Hospital Library Association, the Catholic Writers’ Guild, the Book Association of Ireland and the Catholic Association of International Relations. For many years he lectured on bibliography, book selection and reference books at UCD’s school of library training. A prodigious worker, he was an important figure in the development of modern librarianship in twentieth-century Ireland.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1959-1965 John Bruton John Bruton (b.1947), taoiseach and European Union ambassador to the United States, is a native of Dunboyne, County Meath, who attended Clongowes in 1959-65. He studied at UCD and was called to the bar. He was elected Fine Gael TD for Meath in 1969, aged only twenty-two, and served as a junior minister in the 1973-7 nationalcoalition government. He was minister for finance in the 1981-2 coalition government, and again in 1986-7. In 1990 he was elected unopposed as leader of Fine Gael. As a politician he saw himself as a Christian Democrat, more in the tradition of John Redmond than the republican revolutionaries, although he greatly admired Sean Lemass and was very open to reform and new ideas. He became taoiseach when Fine Gael joined Labour and Democratic Left in the rainbow coalition of 1994-7, which is generally judged to have been a very successful government. The rapidly expanding economy was well managed, progress was made with the difficult Northern Ireland situation and divorce introduced. During a successful Irish presidency of the EU, he helped finalise the stability and growth pact to govern the management of the single European currency. He addressed a joint session of the American Congress. Although his party gained seats in the 1997 general election, Labour losses left him unable to form a government. He retired from Irish politics in 2004. A passionate supporter of European integration, he played a leading role in the 2004 convention to draft a new European constitution. He served as ambassador of the European Union to the United States in 2004–9. Subsequently he became president of the newly formed financial services body, IFSC Ireland. He was elected president of the Clongowes Union for the bicentenary year of 2014-15. His brother, Richard Bruton (OC 1965-70), also a Fine Gael TD, was minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation in 1994-7 and became minister for enterprise and employment in 2011.

Clongownians of Distinction

James Aloysius Burke/ Séamus de Búrca Clongowes 1905 and 1908-1910 James Aloysius Burke/ Séamus de Búrca (1893-1967), Sinn Féin activist and politician, was a native of Rathnavogue, near Roscrea, County Tipperary, who attended Clongowes in 1905 and 1908-10. He studied at TCD and in 1916 was called to the bar, but never practised. He joined the Irish Volunteers and organised Sinn Féin clubs. Arrested for drilling Volunteer units, he was imprisoned in Belfast in 1918. Later that year he was elected unopposed to represent the Mid-Tipperary constituency for Sinn Féin. He was re-elected to the Dáil, successively for Sinn Féin, Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael, at every subsequent election until his defeat in 1938. He played an active role in the independence struggle, when the press dubbed him ‘the most hunted man in Ireland’. He was smuggled to America, where he raised over a million dollars for Sinn Féin. He was the only Tipperary TD to support the Anglo-Irish treaty in the Dáil. In retaliation, his house was burned by the anti-treatyites. He served as minister for local government and public health in 1923-7, reorganising local authorities, abolishing workhouses and initiating the national trunk-road system. He was in charge of public works in 1927-32, where his principal achievement was the enactment of the state’s national monuments legislation. In the 1930s he was for a time a supporter of the Blueshirts. He was one of the first directors of the Irish National Insurance Company. In 1952 he moved permanently to the south of England. He wrote at least three books on Irish politics and sociology. His Russian-born wife, Zenaide, a wellregarded ceramic artist, was cousin to Prince Felix Yousoupoff, the killer of Rasputin.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1896-1898 James Bayley Butler James Bayley Butler (1884-1964), biologist and academic, was the son of a civil servant in India and attended Clongowes in 18968. Graduating with science and medical degrees from the Royal University of Ireland, he was an original staff member of UCD, first as lecturer in botany and from 1924 as professor of zoology, a post he held until his retirement in 1956. Joining the RAMC in World War I, he was awarded an MBE for his outstanding service. He had an international reputation as an applied scientist, particularly in the fields of animal parasites, the control of wood-boring beetles and of the fungus responsible for dry rot in timber. He sold his patent for the waterproofing of maps to the US army during World War II. Another achievement was Glen Lion, the home he built overlooking the sea at Baily, Howth, County Dublin. He designed it as a replica Roman villa with fragments from Irish classical buildings, and many natural features and ingenious artefacts of his own making. At UCD he pioneered and promoted field studies and initiated the first marine field station at Dún Laoghaire, which later transferred to Dalkey. He had a legendary reputation as a teacher. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a vice-president of both the Royal Zoological Society and the RDS.

Clongownians of Distinction

Sir William Butler Tullabeg 1847-1849 Sir William Butler (1838-1910), lieutenant general and author, was a native of Golden, County Tipperary, who attended Tullabeg in 1847-9. Commissioned into the British army’s 69th Foot, he served in India, Guernsey and Canada. There, he performed several military missions. It was on his recommendation that the North-West Mounted Police – ‘the Mounties’ – was formed in 1873. Fired by the lure of Canada’s great rivers, prairies and forests, he undertook extended trips of exploration, travelling to the Pacific Ocean by foot, dog sled, horseback and canoe, living by hunting and fishing. He was also an intellectual. He wrote two classic accounts of his travels, several military biographies and Red Cloud (1882), an adventure story for boys that was later translated into Irish. His friends included Victor Hugo, Charles Stewart Parnell, John Redmond and the reforming general, Sir Garnet Wolseley. His military career took him to Africa, where he served in the Zulu War, in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 and against the Mahdi in the Sudan. His public support for Home Rule, Catholic faith and zeal for military reform meant that many in the establishment regarded him as a troublemaker – ‘at heart an Irish rebel’. Sent to command in South Africa, he strongly opposed war with the Boer republics, presciently respecting the martial potential of the Boer farmers and doubting the British army’s preparedness for a modern conflict. He resigned before the war broke out, returning to a staff appointment in England. Promoted to lieutenant general and made a knight of the Bath, in 1905 he retired to Bansha Castle, near Cahir, in South Tipperary. In Ireland, he led an active life: he was a senator of NUI, an education commissioner and a popular lecturer. Elizabeth, his wife – ‘Lady Butler’ – was a celebrated painter, especially of battle scenes.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1864-1867

I John Conmee, SJ

John Conmee, SJ (1847-1910), educationist and author, was a native of South Roscommon, who attended Clongowes in 1864-7, where he was a debate medallist. Joining the Jesuits he taught at Tullabeg, where he proved a model schoolmaster, contributing to the college’s remarkable examination successes, organising debates and encouraging music. While completing his theological studies at Innsbruck, he travelled extensively throughout Europe. Ordained in 1881, he became prefect of studies at Clongowes in 1883 and rector as well in 1885, although he was relieved of the former office in 1887. He oversaw the delicate and stressful operation of merging Clongowes and Tullabeg. An austere, yet kind and scholarly man, he was highly popular with the boys, knew their names, delighted in their company and did not forget them in after life. He made a lasting impression on young James Joyce, who remembered him with affection and gratitude in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) as ‘the decentest rector that was ever in Clongowes’, following his promise to intervene on Stephen’s behalf in the broken-glasses incident. He did not press Joyce’s father for his fees arrears. Later, after he had left Clongowes, he is thought to have been influential in obtaining the admission as ‘free boys’ of Joyce and his brother to Belvedere. In return, Joyce accorded him sixty-seven mentions in Ulysses (1922). Father Conmee held a succession of responsible jobs in the Society, including prefect of studies at Belvedere and UCD, provincial (1905-10) and rector of Milltown Park for a short time before his death. He wrote poetry and a booklet, Old Times in the Barony (1911), a well-regarded short account of the south Roscommon of his youth.

Clongownians of Distinction

James Corboy, SJ Clongowes 1931-1935 James Corboy, SJ (1916-2004), first bishop of Monze, Zambia, was a native of Caherconlish, County Limerick, who attended Clongowes in 1931-5. He studied history in UCD and went afterwards to Rome, where he obtained his doctorate in theology. He was ordained in 1948. He returned to teach theology at Milltown Park, where he was rector in 1962, when appointed first bishop of the diocese of Monze in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), where an Irish Jesuit mission had been established. It was a daunting challenge, to which he rose with commitment and great administrative skill. His diocese was the size of Ireland, he knew nothing of Africa and he had to grasp and implement the radical changes of the Second Vatican Council, which he attended. His most immediate concern was to increase the prosperity of the Tonga people, who were farmers of cattle and maize. He formed a diocesan development department of clergy and laity for agricultural and social improvement, and set up the first credit union in the country. He established strong links with aid agencies to secure funding for development projects, and the recruitment of teachers, social workers and medical personnel. Irish congregations were invited in to provide schools, training units, a hospital and clinics. Declaring that the church in Zambia must become a church of the laity if it was to free itself from being an adjunct of the church in Europe, he established a pastoral centre to cater for every sort of training for laity. He proved a shrewd administrator and fundraiser, who mixed easily with all sections of society. In personal life, he remained the simplest and most unpretentious of men, never happier than in his vegetable garden. He retired to Ireland in 1991.

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg and Clongowes 1885-1890 Timothy Corcoran, SJ Timothy Corcoran, SJ (1872-1943), educationist, was a native of Dunkerrin, County Tipperary, who attended Tullabeg and Clongowes in 1885-90, winning first place and the gold medal in the intermediate grade as the best scholar of his age in Ireland. Having taught at Clongowes, he studied philosophy and education at Milltown Park and Louvain. He was ordained in 1912. In 1909 he became professor of education at UCD, a post he held until 1942. He was an active and an extremely influential figure – ‘the masterbuilder in education’ of the new Irish state – who was close to Éamon de Valera and a mentor of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid as well as generations of secondary teachers. His conservative views were strongly held and expressed with a forthrightness that even his apologists considered unfortunate. He believed in education by inculcation – whereby students benefited in knowledge from memorisation and the teacher’s authority. He dismissed child-centred methods as ‘soft pedagogy’, championed competitive examinations and advocated ‘the rod of correction’ to drive away the ‘folly bound up in the heart of a child’. He was contemptuous of theorists, such as Dewey, Froebel and Montessori. His position was at the extreme end of Catholic nationalism: rejection of foreign – especially non-Catholic – influence; primary education through Irish (which he didn’t speak himself); distrust of science; disinterest in foreign languages apart from the classics; rejection of Newman’s idea of a university; hostility towards protestants; denigration of Anglo-Irish literature. He was the original, if short-lived, editor of Studies. He penned numerous articles especially in the Catholic Bulletin, edited school texts and published several books on education history. His Clongowes Record (1932) is a major resource for the history of the college.

Clongownians of Distinction

Michael Courtney Clongowes 1956-1962 Michael Courtney (1945-2003), archbishop and papal diplomat, was a native of Nenagh, County Tipperary, who attended Clongowes in 1956-62, where he was school captain. After a short time in UCD, he attended the Irish College in Rome. In 1968 he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Clonfert, serving as curate of Tynagh and Woodford. He returned to Rome in 1976 for postgraduate studies, taking out a licentiate in canon law and a doctorate in moral theology. He then entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy, where he studied political science, international and diplomatic law. From 1980 he held a succession of junior diplomatic appointments for the Holy See in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt. He developed a good relationship with President Fidel Castro in Cuba, based on their mutual Jesuit education. In 1995 he became special envoy to the Council of Europe and allied institutions in Strasbourg. He was also permanent observer of the Holy See to the International Commission of the Civil State and a member of the governing board of the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris. He was a regular visitor to Nenagh, where he liked to holiday beside his beloved Lough Derg and race his Shannon-one-design dinghy in the annual sailing regatta, occasionally ending up in the water. Ordained titular archbishop of Annaghdown in 2000, he was appointed nuncio to Burundi, where he was murdered in 2003. Cardinal Francis Arinze, who had ordained him archbishop, said at his funeral: Nuncio Courtney preached mutual love, Christian reconciliation, harmony and unity between people… It is tragic that this very witness of the love of Christ, this ambassador of the pope who daily manifested the concern of the successor of Saint Peter for all citizens of Burundi is shot dead by the very people he was serving. He is buried at Dromineer on the shore of Lough Derg.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1907-1914 Edward Coyne, SJ Edward Coyne, SJ (1896-1958), educationist, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1907-14. He studied at UCD and Innsbruck, and was ordained in 1928. Later he completed his religious training and studies at Münster, the Gregorian University Rome and the Sorbonne. A term at the International Labour Office at Geneva marked his introduction to the practical application of economics and sociology. He taught ethics, moral theology and sociology in Tullabeg and Milltown Park, becoming an influential figure in the development of Irish social and economic thought. He was amongst those who advised Éamon de Valera on the Constitution. He served on numerous government committees, ranging from the Irish Sea Fisheries Association to the commissions on population and emigration. However, he was quite prepared to criticise government policy, when he felt it right to do so. He worked closely with both employers and workers. He was the driving force behind the foundation of the Catholic Workers College in 1951, serving as its principal until 1954. The college had close links with trade unions and management groups. Later it became the College of Industrial Relations and finally the National College of Ireland. In 1949 he was selected to organise UCD’s extra-mural courses. He edited Studies. He served on several joint labour committees, and was active in the cooperative movement, the Irish Agricultural Society (of which he became president) and Muintir na Tíre.

Clongownians of Distinction

Thomas Crean Clongowes 1881-1883 Thomas Crean (1873-1923), military doctor, VC holder and rugby international, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1881-3. While a medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons, he played rugby for Wanderers. Burly, fast and possessing excellent ball skills, he won nine Irish caps and played in all three games of Ireland’s first triple-crown win in 1894. In 1896 he played with the British touring team in South Africa, captaining the side in two winning matches. He was a popular member of the touring party, and afterwards decided to settle in South Africa, where he established a lucrative medical practice at Johannesburg Hospital. In the Boer War he fought as a trooper in the Imperial Light Horse, participating in the reliefs of Mafeking and Ladysmith. Appointed captain, he transferred to surgeon-captain with the regiment. In 1901 he won the Victoria Cross for his courage in treating wounded soldiers at Tygerskloof, while himself wounded and under fire. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1902-6. He then established a successful practice in Harley Street, London. In 1914, on the outbreak of war, he rejoined the RAMC, serving with the 1st Cavalry Brigade and in 1915 won the DSO for his courage. He was wounded several times and twice mentioned in dispatches. Promoted major, he commanded a field-ambulance unit in France, returning to England in 1917 to take charge of a hospital for the wounded at Ascot. The strain of military service left him in poor health. He struggled to resume his Harley Street practice after the war. In 1922 he was adjudged bankrupt and died the following year. In 2001 the South African government produced a postage stamp in his honour.

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg 1878-1881 George Crosbie George Crosbie (1864-1934), newspaper proprietor and politician, was a native of Cork, who attended Tullabeg in 1878-81. Called to the bar in 1889, he never practised. Instead he took over editorship of the Cork Examiner from his father, becoming chairman of the ownership company in 1899. He converted the morning paper into a thriving and profitable business, installing modern printing machinery and astutely purchased adjoining property, which allowed him to expand the paper’s premises from the original site. As a young journalist, he had made a name for himself by writing in support of the Land League. As editor, he strongly supported the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by his friend John Redmond, who persuaded him to run – unsuccessfully – for a parliamentary seat in a by-election in 1909. The Cork Examiner was the only leading Irish newspaper to condemn the 1916 executions. In 1919 the British forces closed the paper for publishing the prospectus for the Dáil Éireann national loan. In 1922 anti-treaty forces destroyed the presses during the civil war. Crosbie’s house was burned (and with it his fine art collection) and his life threatened at this time. He was close to the Cumann na nGaedheal government and served as a senator for some years before his death. He was immensely active in Cork business life, promoting the development and culture of his native city at every opportunity. The Cork Industrial Development Association, which he chaired for many years, was the forerunner of the IDA. His family’s association with the Examiner group of newspapers continues.

Clongownians of Distinction

Sir Francis Cruise Clongowes 1848-1851 Sir Francis Cruise (1834-1912), doctor and inventor of the endoscope, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1848-51. Graduating in medicine from TCD in 1858, he was subsequently admitted to the College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons (London). He established himself in private practice in Dublin, before joining the newly opened Mater Misericordiae Hospital in 1861, first as a surgeon, although later confining himself to medicine. He was respected as a careful clinician and an inspiring teacher. He is famous for his construction of the first effective endoscope, enabling the examination of internal organs, including the bladder, rectum, uterus, pharynx and larynx. It was exhibited at the Dublin meeting of the British Medical Association in 1867 and subsequently used throughout Britain. He became interested in psychiatry and was one of the earliest to employ hypnotism in medical practice, although he subsequently abandoned its use. He published a variety of papers in professional journals, several books on St Thomas à Kempis and a biography of his fellow physician Sir Dominic Corrigan. He was a fine musician, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an excellent shot. He was knighted in 1896, became deputy lieutenant of County Meath, where he was a landowner, and was appointed physician-in-ordinary to Edward VII and George V. In 1905 Pope Pius X created him a knight of St Gregory the Great.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1856-1861 James Cullen, SJ James Cullen, SJ (1841-1921), founder of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, was a native of New Ross, County Wexford, who attended Clongowes in 1856-61. He studied for the priesthood at Carlow College and was ordained for the diocese of Ferns in 1864. He first served as curate in Wexford, where he was active in the re-establishment of Catholic institutions and in combatting intemperance. His interest in the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius persuaded him to become a Jesuit, and after a period of study in Louvain he joined the order in 1883. Noted for his deep personal piety and strong organising ability, he was active in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Virgin. In 1888 he began publication of the Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart. His greatest achievement, however, was in the promotion of temperance. Socially very aware, he saw excessive drinking as a major cause of deprivation and misery. He founded the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association in the presbytery of the Jesuit Church at Gardiner Street, Dublin, in 1898. It was organised on a parish basis, but controlled by a Jesuit central directorate in Dublin. Members pledged to abstain from alcohol for life, and bore witness of their self-denial by wearing a Pioneer pin with an image of the Sacred Heart. The PTAA quickly grew into one of the largest temperance movements in the world, gaining 280,000 members in Cullen’s lifetime, a figure that had nearly doubled by the 1950s, when the movement was at its strongest. Cullen was a strong nationalist and linked the PTAA to the establishment of a better Ireland. He was active in Dublin’s inner city, where he promoted sodalities, religious leagues and social alternatives to pubs.

Clongownians of Distinction

Patrick Cunningham Clongowes 1947-1952 Patrick Cunningham (b.1934), geneticist, international public servant, and chief scientific adviser to the government, is a native of Waterford, who attended Clongowes in 1947-52. He graduated from UCD with degrees in agricultural science and animal nutrition, before completing his doctorate in animal genetics at Cornell University, USA. He held various posts in An Foras Talúntais (now Teagasc), becoming director of research (1980-88). In 1988 he moved to the World Bank, and in 1990 he was appointed director of animal production and health at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Rome. He was elected president of the European (1980-84) and World (1984-88) Associations of Animal Production. Since 1974 he has held a personal chair of animal genetics at TCD. His research has focused on quantitative genetic theory, the efficiency of livestock-improvement programmes, the genetics of cattle, horses and salmon, and the use of molecular methods in studies on domestic animal evolution. This included the use of new methods of reading DNA to measure genetic diversity and plan livestock improvement in developing countries. This work demonstrated for the first time the separate domestication of cattle in India on the one hand and in Africa and Europe on the other. He has written two books and over 100 scientific papers, and has twice featured on the cover of Nature. Following the BSE crisis in 1996, he led a team that developed a system of DNA traceability for the meat industry, which is now used successfully by their company IdentiGEN in Europe and North America. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and several international academies of science. In 1996 he received the RDS’s prestigious Boyle Medal, and he holds honorary doctorates from TCD, UCD and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. In 2007-12 he was chief scientific adviser to the government.

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg 1833-1834 and Clongowes 1834-1836 Joseph Dalton, SJ Joseph Dalton, SJ (1817-1905), educationist, was a native of Waterford, who attended Tullabeg in 1833-4 and Clongowes in 1834-6. Becoming a Jesuit, he held the combined post of rector and prefect of studies at Tullabeg, before being sent to Australia in 1865 as first superior of the Irish Jesuit mission. Energetic and capable, he was responsible for the development of a number of churches and celebrated schools. The Irish Jesuits took over and reorganised the ailing St Patrick’s College in Melbourne. Dalton formed the Richmond and Hawthorn parishes, and purchased the land for Xavier College at Kew. In Sydney he took over and ran the North Sydney parish and established St Ignatius College in Riverview. He also purchased the original site for St Aloysius College in Sydney and took an active part in setting up the Jesuit school there. The three IrishAustralian Jesuit schools were modelled on the Clongowes/Tullabeg formula, with which Dalton was familiar. They provided a liberal education, based on the classics, together with science, mathematics and modern languages. Debating was encouraged. An attempt to establish a school in New Zealand failed, but the Australian schools were extraordinarily successful. This achievement was all the more remarkable when set against the background of hostility towards Catholics and their institutions then prevalent in the colony and the small number of Jesuits involved. Dalton promoted retreats, Catholic education, Catholic newspapers and lay participation in parish affairs. He spent his declining years at Riverview, where he was esteemed as ‘the venerable patriarch of the college’. The chapel at Riverview is deservedly named in his memory.

Clongownians of Distinction

James Deeny Clongowes 1918-1923 James Deeny (1906-94), doctor and public-health reformer, was a native of Lurgan, County Armagh, who attended Clongowes in 1918-23. He graduated in medicine from Queen’s University Belfast in 1927, and subsequently obtained his MD and membership of the College of Physicians. Despite a brilliant academic record, he was denied an appointment in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, apparently on sectarian grounds. After a six-month study of tuberculosis in Vienna, he started a general practice in Lurgan, where he implemented a fresh approach, based on scientific research, into the causes and treatment of disease and the humane treatment of the sick. His experiences amongst the poor of Lurgan aroused his interest in the relationship between poverty, malnutrition and certain diseases. He published well-received studies on these and other topics, including tuberculosis, and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy. In 1944 he was appointed chief medical adviser to the Department of Local Government and Public Health in Dublin, where he quickly won renown as a dynamic innovator. His aim was to translate improvements in medical science into better and accessible public-health services. The results included enormous improvements in controlling typhoid fever and reducing infant mortality. However, his greatest achievement at this time was his plan to combat tuberculosis, which laid the foundation for the success of the anti-TB campaign of the 1950s. He drafted all public-health legislation. It was at his suggestion that a separate Department of Health was established in 1947. His detailed proposal for a free and comprehensive national health service was considered too radical to even publish. Seconded to the Medical Research Council as director, his persuasive skill was sorely missed when the inter-party government ran into trouble over the mother-and-child scheme he had formulated. He subsequently worked for the World Health Organisation in various countries and at its Geneva headquarters, where he wrote its fourth report on world health (1963-8). He remained extremely active in retirement, during which he served as special scientific adviser to the Holy See, received an honorary doctorate from QUB, was named 1988 Irish Life pensioner of the year and published his autobiography To Cure and to Care (1989).

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1929-1936 Andrew Devane Andrew Devane (1917-2000), architect, was a native of Limerick, who attended Clongowes in 1929-36. Having graduated in architecture from UCD, he was awarded a Taliesin Fellowship to work in Wisconsin with the leading American modernist, Frank Lloyd Wright. A deeply spiritual person, he empathised with Wright’s philosophy of harmonising synthesis and creation in buildings that were human in scale and sympathetic to their environment. On his return to Ireland, he became a partner of Joseph Robinson and Cyril Keefe, both Clongownians and already a successful team, to form one of the country’s leading architectural firms. Devane’s designs echoed the horizontal and curved lines of Wright’s most iconic buildings and owed much less to the influence of Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe. His buildings were generally low-rise, and he preferred to locate them back from the urban environment in landscaped and tranquil settings. Other characteristics included water features, shaded porches, vegetation and sculpture. He was partly or wholly responsible for the design of numerous distinguished buildings, that included the Carroll’s Building on the Grand Canal, the church at Dublin Airport, Gonzaga College, Mount Carmel Hospital, the Irish Pavilion at the 1967 New York World Fair, St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, St Fintan’s Church in Sutton, Inchicore Vocational School, the Irish Life Centre in Abbey Street, the AIB Headquarters in Ballsbridge, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, the 1960s extensions in Clongowes and his own home in Howth, together with many other hospitals, schools, churches and office buildings. In the early 1980s he retired to India to assist in the alleviation of poverty in Calcutta, where his last work in 1999 was the design of a home for orphaned boys.

Clongownians of Distinction

William Doolin Clongowes 1903-1904 William Doolin (1887-1962), pioneering surgeon and editor, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1903-04. He graduated in medicine at UCD in 1910, qualifying as a surgeon two years later. For three years he travelled extensively and worked in London, Edinburgh and on the Continent, becoming fluent in French and German. Returning to Dublin, he became a visiting surgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital and Temple Street Children’s Hospital. His major innovative professional achievements were in the surgery of cleft palate and harelip. He was also the first to describe the treatment of acute dilatation of the stomach and paralyticileus by means of a suction tube and the first to perform the Smith-Peterson operation on a fractured hip. He became secretary and later president (1938-40) of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Interested in literature and an accomplished prose stylist, he edited the Irish Journal of Medical Science from 1925 and the Irish Medical Journal from 1952, penning numerous editorials – occasionally caustic – and reviews. He published two collections of essays on medical topics and was one of the founders of the history of medicine section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, holding an honorary chair in the history of medicine in UCD. He received many honours, including FRCS (Eng.), membership of the French Académie de Chirugie and honorary degrees from TCD and UCD. The Doolin Lecture, inaugurated in his memory, is delivered annually in RCSI.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1924-1925 Eugene Esmonde Eugene Esmonde (1909-42), naval aviator and posthumous VC holder, was born in Yorkshire but grew up near Borrisokane, County Tipperary, as the son of a nationalist MP. He was a kinsman of Thomas Esmonde VC. He attended Clongowes in 1924-5. He was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1928 before transferring to the Fleet Air Arm. He subsequently flew as a civilian pilot for Imperial Airways. Returning to the Fleet Air Arm at the start of World War II, with the rank of lieutenant commander, he survived the sinking of HMS Courageous in 1939, before serving on HMS Victorious in 1941, when in foul weather he led nine Swordfish biplanes against the German battleship Bismarck, for which he was decorated with the DSO. His squadron was aboard HMS Ark Royal, when she was torpedoed in November 1941. The Swordfish squadron ferried some of the crew to safety before she sank. He was mentioned in dispatches for his actions on this occasion. He is famous for leading the doomed attack on the German warships, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen, during their ‘dash’ through the English Channel in 1942. Esmonde was ordered to intercept the German fleet with only six slow-flying Swordfish torpedo bombers. With little RAF support, all six British planes were shot down by faster German fighters and by antiaircraft fire from the ships. Only five of the eighteen aircrew survived the action. Esmonde was killed, when his plane – already minus part of a port wing – continued to attack, until shot down in flames by a German FW 190. His body was subsequently washed ashore and buried at Gillingham, Kent. Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the Channel commander, later wrote: ‘the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish aircraft constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty of the war’. The German commanders were equally unstinting in their admiration for the courage of the British airmen. Esmonde was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for ‘his high courage and splendid resolution’. He was remembered by name as an Irish hero in Winston Churchill‘s famous 1945 victory broadcast. His half-brothers, Sir John Esmonde, who attended Clongowes in 1909-11, and Sir Anthony Esmonde, who attended Clongowes in 1909-11 and 1913-14, were successive members of the Dáil for County Wexford.

Clongownians of Distinction

Thomas Esmonde Clongowes 1840-1846 Thomas Esmonde (1829-73), soldier and VC holder, was a native of County Waterford, who attended Clongowes in 1840-6. He was a great grand-uncle of Eugene Esmonde VC. Commissioned into the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot, he took part in the Burma war of 1852-3. He next served in the Crimean War, where he was promoted captain. He won the Victoria Cross for his courage during the siege of Sebastapol in 1855. The circumstances were that after participating in the unsuccessful British attack on the Russian strongpoint known as the Redan, under heavy fire he repeatedly rescued wounded men from exposed situations. A week later, while in command of a covering party, he rushed to a spot where a fireball from the enemy had just lodged, and extinguished it before it could betray the position of his men, thus saving them from a murderous fire of shell and grape that immediately opened up. Both acts were combined to merit the award. He was known afterwards as ‘Esmonde of the Redan’. He later achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He died from an eye infection incurred in a riding accident in Belgium and is buried at Bruges.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1935-1940 Thomas Finlay Thomas Finlay (b.1922), chief justice, is a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1935-40 and was school captain in his final year. He graduated with a degree in law and political science from University College Dublin, where he was auditor of the Law Society. He was called to the bar in 1944 and rapidly built up a large practice, especially on the midland circuit. He served as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin South-Central constituency in 1954-7. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1961. He was widely regarded as one of the ablest advocates in the courts and appeared in many celebrated cases and inquiries. His advocacy as counsel for the Irish government in Strasbourg in relation to alleged torturing of prisoners in Northern Ireland is particularly remembered. A respected colleague noted that he had the all too rare gifts of reducing the points at issue to the essential few and refraining from ‘that form of advocacy which allocates equal weight to all points, thus causing good ones to sink’. In 1972 he was appointed a judge of the High Court and became president of that court in 1974. Promoted chief justice in 1985, he presided over many important cases in the Supreme Court until his retirement in 1994. He remains an ex-officio member of the Council of State for life. His elder brother William Finlay (1921-2010), who attended Clongowes in 1935-8, was also a leading senior counsel. He held various senior offices and appointments, including dean of the law faculty at UCD, governor of the Bank of Ireland, chairman of the National Gallery and president of the Clongowes Union. Their father, also Tom Finlay (1893-1932), was a well-respected senior counsel and Cumann na nGaedheal TD, who attended Clongowes in 1905-11. The primary sporting interest of all three was fly-fishing in County Mayo.

Clongownians of Distinction

Hugh Geoghegan Clongowes 1950-1956 Hugh Geoghegan (b.1938), judge of the Supreme Court, is a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1950-6. The son of James Geoghegan, judge of the Supreme Court, he studied law at UCD, where he was auditor of the Law Society. He was called to the bar in 1962 and awarded the Society of the King’s Inns exhibition. As a junior counsel he practised on the midland circuit and in Dublin. He was called to the inner bar in 1977, and enjoyed a wide-ranging practice as a senior counsel in the superior courts. In 1984-92 he was also public-service arbitrator. He was appointed to the High Court in 1992 and promoted to the Supreme Court in 2000, where he remained until his retirement in 2010. In the course of his career, he served for different periods as a member of the Bar Council and of the Council of the King’s Inns of which he was elected a bencher in January 2000. Both before and after retirement he has been an active member of the Irish Legal History Society. He served as a member of the Clongowes board of governors in 1995-2002. He is married to Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, daughter of the former chief justice, Thomas Finlay, who is herself a judge of the High Court.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1896-1897 Oliver St John Gogarty Oliver St John Gogarty (1878-1957), surgeon, politician and man of letters, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1896-7. He graduated in medicine from TCD in 1904, where he won prizes for poetry, excelled in sport (especially swimming and cycling), and earned a reputation for rumbustious living and bawdy wit. Throughout his life he was a renowned conversationalist. After a spell in Oxford, where he came second in the Newdigate poetry prize, he studied ear, nose and throat surgery in Vienna and was appointed to a consultancy post in the Meath Hospital. He proved a capable surgeon with a reputation for dexterity and speed. He frequently remitted the fees of poorer patients. He became a friend of Arthur Griffith, spoke at the founding meeting of Sinn Féin in 1905 and was a regular contributor to its early publications. During the Troubles, he accommodated the Sinn Féin headquarters files in his house and sheltered IRA men ‘on the run’, including Michael Collins. In 1922-36 he was an active senator and a passionate supporter of the Free State government. His country home at Renvyle in Connemara was burned in reprisal, and in 1923 he escaped republican kidnappers only by swimming across the Liffey. He later rebuilt Renvyle and converted it into a hotel. As a politician, he campaigned strongly for slum clearance in Dublin. In 1901 he became a friend of James Joyce, and they shared the Martello Tower in Sandycove for a brief period in 1904, but soon differed. Joyce later depicted Gogarty in unflattering terms as ‘stately, plump Buck Mulligan’ in the opening scene of Ulysses. He was also a close associate of WB Yeats, who included seventeen of his poems in his Oxford book of English verse (1936). Apart from poetry, he wrote plays for the Abbey Theatre, novels – one of which was banned – and a study of St Patrick. His reminiscences of the halcyon days of his youth As I Was Going Down Sackville Street (1937) embroiled him in a costly libel action, which he lost. In 1939 he settled in America, where he continued to pursue a literary career.

Clongownians of Distinction

Aubrey Gwynn, SJ Clongowes 1903-1908 Aubrey Gwynn, SJ (1892-1983), historian, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1903-08. The son of Stephen Gwynn, nationalist MP and writer, he was brought up a Catholic by his convert mother. He graduated from UCD in 1912 with first-class honours in classics and became a Jesuit novice the same year. After study at Louvain and in the Netherlands, and a period teaching at Clongowes, he was ordained in 1924. In 1927 he began his academic career as a history lecturer in UCD and was the college’s first professor of medieval history in 1949-63, also serving as dean of the arts faculty. In 1958-61 he was president of the Royal Irish Academy. He was an important scholar who wrote or edited contributions on ancient, medieval and modern history. He published over a hundred journal articles, many reviews and several books, of which the best known and most widely consulted is the classic survey (in collaboration with Neville Hadcock) Medieval religious houses: Ireland (1970). A frail and modest man, he was the recipient of many international awards, but said that the letters SJ were the only qualifications he required. He was a keen supporter of St Joseph’s Young Priests’ Society, editing for more than twenty years their quarterly magazine St Joseph’s Sheaf. His brother, Denis Gwynn (1893-1971), attended Clongowes in 1903-08. A journalist and historian, Denis Gwynn was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and held a research chair in modern Irish history at UCC, where he was also general editor for Cork University Press.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1897-1900 Francis Hackett Francis Hackett (1883-1962), novelist, historian and journalist, was a native of Kilkenny, who attended Clongowes in 18971900. He developed a passion for literature. He emigrated to the USA in 1901, where he worked in various newspapers including the Chicago Evening Post, becoming the founding editor of its nationally renowned literary supplement, Friday Literary Review. In 1914 he became founding literary editor of the New York based, left wing journal New Republic. There he won recognition as at leading intellectual of the American progressive era, championing individualism, cultural pluralism, social democracy and literary modernism – he enthusiastically reviewed James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in 1917. Two selections of his literary journalism were published in book form. The re-emergence in Ireland of revolutionary nationalism prompted him to write several studies of Irish history and nationalism. As a journalist he twice visited Ireland to report on the Troubles, meeting leading politicians and literati. He moved from supporting dominion home rule to advocating outright separatism. From 1922-39 he lived in Europe, mainly Ireland, earning his living as a writer. He wrote fluently and his output was prolific. His gained critical acclaim and a measure of financial stability with his vivid and best-selling biography Henry the Eighth (1929), which is generally regarded as his best work. His novels included The Green Lion (1936) a coming-of-age story, partly set in Clongowes, which was banned in Ireland. His wife was the distinguished Danish-American writer, Signe Toksvig (1891-1983). After her novel Eve’s Doctor (1937) was also banned, they left Ireland in disgust. Returning to the USA, in What Mein Kampf Means to America (1941) he challenged American isolationism in the face of fascism, which he detested. His final postwar years were spent in Denmark, which he regarded as a progressive society in contrast to his disillusionment with newly independent Ireland. He was a brother of Father William Hackett, SJ.

Clongownians of Distinction

William Hackett, SJ Clongowes 1890-1895 William Hackett, SJ (1878-1954), Republican and Catholic activist, was a native of Kilkenny, who attended Clongowes in 1890-5. He entered the Jesuits on leaving school and was ordained in 1912. His philosophy training was in France and Holland. He taught at Clongowes and at Crescent College Limerick. Memberhip of the Gaelic League brought him into touch with leading republicans, such as Pádraic Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh. He also became friendly with protestant nationalists, including Stephen Gwynn, the Bartons of County Wicklow and their cousin, Erskine Childers. At Crescent he developed school debating and formed the Crescent Cadets, a training body for youths prepared to fight for Ireland. During the Troubles, he worked for the release of prisoners and organised visits by English Quakers and American journalists to view the results of Black-and-Tan atrocities. A search of his bedroom by government agents failed to find a rifle hidden up the chimney. He was transferred to Dublin to edit the Jesuit magazine The Messenger of the Sacred Heart. He remained in active touch with the republican leadership, including Michael Collins, but took the anti-treaty side in the civil war. Probably as a consequence, he was sent to Australia. There, he found a kindred republican spirit in Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. He worked in a Jesuit-run parish, founded the Catholic Central Library and mentored the Campion Society of young Catholic intellectuals. He was a controversial rector of Xavier College. A friend of three Australian prime ministers, including Robert Menzies, he was also active in Catholic Action, an organisation opposed to the spread of Marxist ideology in Australia. His biography The Riddle of Father Hackett, by Brenda Niall, was published by the National Library of Australia in 2009. He was a brother of the writer Francis Hackett.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1917-1922 James Hanlon James Hanlon (1908-1961), a physician who was blind and deaf, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1917-22. Qualifying as a doctor, he completed postgraduate studies in Vienna, and became a leading ear, nose and throat surgeon in Dublin. At the age of forty-two he developed a freak ocular infection that left him blind and eventually deaf. A trip to Lourdes did not cure him physically, but seems to have restored his self-belief. Thereafter his constant cheerfulness, zest for life and determination to overcome the limitations of his disability were quite remarkable. In 1952 he took a course in physiotherapy in London, attending lectures in the company of a secretary who interpreted the classes for him on the palms of his hands, a process of communication for deaf-blind people known as tactile signing. He was the first deaf-blind person ever to complete such a programme. Returning to Dublin, he soon established a successful physiotherapy practice and became renowned for treating polio victims, who were often left with severe muscle and joint discomfort and impaired mobility. He also became adept at diagnosing early signs of the disease. He was employed at the Richmond Hospital as a consultant physiotherapist and took consultancy rooms on Fitzwilliam Square. Despite his disability, he continued to play golf and to swim, sometimes diving with the Irish champion Eddie Heron at Blackrock Baths in Dublin. He had a prodigious memory. After his story was featured on the BBC, he travelled to the USA to raise funds for a new central remedial clinic in Dublin. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and met the famous deaf-blind author and activist Helen Keller. He returned to Lourdes each year, dying there in 1961. French television described him as a man of great courage and as a ‘hero for all’. His career is especially inspiring for those who are disabled.

Clongownians of Distinction

Richard James ‘Jim’ Hayes Clongowes 1917-1920 Richard James ‘Jim’ Hayes (1902-76), cryptologist, director of the National Library of Ireland and the Chester Beatty Library, was born in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, but grew up in Claremorris, County Mayo, attending Clongowes in 1917-20. He graduated from TCD with three honours degrees taken simultaneously, subsequently obtaining a doctorate in law. He joined the National Library of Ireland, where he was appointed director in 1940. During World War II he was seconded to the army as a code-breaker, but continued to run the library part-time. His linguistic skills, keen memory and organised mind led to major successes in intelligence work. He was the first cryptologist to break the German multi-dot codes, disclosing their whole intelligence network in Ireland. His greatest breakthrough was to unlock the complex letter-based ciphers that had baffled the British experts at Bletchley Park, who regarded him as a genius. (Irish and British military intelligence cooperated closely.) After the war, Cecil Liddell, head of MI5’s Irish section, admitted that a ‘whole series of ciphers couldn’t have been solved without Hayes’s input’. His academic work was largely bibliographical. He edited (with Bríd Ní Dhonnchada) a three-volume bibliography of modern Irish writing, entitled Clár Litridheacht na Nua-Ghaedhilge (1938), the nine-volume catalogue Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation (1965), followed in 1970 by a nine-volume companion catalogue listing periodical articles. He also wrote a book on the study of modern languages. The services of the National Library were greatly expanded and modernised by Hayes, although his imaginative plan to effectively merge it with the Trinity Library was rejected by the government in 1959. He was member of the Royal Irish Academy and served on the boards of the Abbey Theatre and the Arts Council. His final public service was to set up and manage the library of oriental and western manuscripts, books and artefacts presented to the state by his friend, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. He was a keen rugby and motor-sports enthusiast.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1903-1907 George Hodnett George Hodnett (1890-1982), colonel and military lawyer, was a native of Youghal, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 190307. He attended UCD, before serving in France and Italy with the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, reaching the rank of major. He qualified as a solicitor in 1920 and was called to the bar in 1923. Prior to that he had taken the Free State side in the civil war and persuaded Michael Collins to establish an army legal service, which he joined as second-in-command to Cahir Davitt, the judge advocate general. Together, they drafted a manual of military law for the new force. As Davitt retained civilian status, Hodnett, with the rank of colonel, was responsible for the direction of the legal staff and for the administration of law generally in the army. From 1924 until his retirement in 1955 he was deputy judge advocate general. His work contributed greatly to the to the establishment of the Irish military legal system and practice. In 1949 he was a member of the Irish delegation to the United Nations Geneva Convention conference, which updated the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of war. He was a proficient and enthusiastic tennis player, cricketer and fisherman.

Clongownians of Distinction

James Hogan Clongowes in 1910-1915 James Hogan (1898-1963), revolutionary, soldier and historian, was a native of Kilrickle, County Galway, who attended Clongowes in 1910-15. He graduated in history from UCD in 1918. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1915, but was on holidays when the Easter Rising took place, although he subsequently played an active role with the IRA’s east-Clare flying column in the war of independence. Having completed his MA thesis, he published his first book Ireland in the European system in 1920. Aged twenty-two, he was appointed professor of history at UCC, although excused from immediately taking up duty on account of his national work. He was adviser to Arthur Griffith during the treaty negotiations in London. He supported the treaty and served as assistant adjutant general of the new army and later as its director of intelligence. Demobilised in 1923, he resumed his scholarly career. He was an inspirational teacher and mentor of young historians. He played a leading role in the establishment of the Irish Manuscripts Commission and edited its journal Analecta Hibernica for more than thirty years. He edited the d’Avaux correspondence of 1689-90 and published books on modern democracy and the communist challenge. He also served on the advisory committee of the bureau of military history. The vocationalism of the 1930s attracted him to politics, but a brief flirtation with the Blueshirts terminated when he became disillusioned with O’Duffy, the Blueshirt leader. In 1936 he was the unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate in the Galway by-election caused by the death of his brother, but after a short spell as party secretary, he withdrew from further active political involvement.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes in 1906-1909 John Vincent Holland John Vincent Holland (1889-1975), soldier and VC holder, was a native of Athy, County Kildare, who attended Clongowes in 1906-09. He abandoned veterinary studies for a more adventurous career in South America, which included ranching, railway engineering and hunting. Returning to Ireland on the outbreak of World War I, he was commissioned into the Leinster Regiment. He was wounded at the second battle of Ypres in 1915, but recovered to take part in the Somme campaign of 1916, serving as bombing officer in the 7th Battalion of the Leinsters, with the rank of lieutenant. On 3 September he played a crucial role in the capture of Guillemont, rated as one of the great achievements of the 16th (Irish) Division. Having bombed dugouts in the area of his initial objectives, he led his group of twenty-six bombers through the British artillery bombardment into the main section of the village – still occupied by the Germans – where he continued his attack, eventually taking fifty prisoners and breaking the resistance of the defenders. Only five of his party survived the action unscathed. For his bravery, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Remarkably, he was quite ill during this action, and after the capture of the village was immediately admitted to hospital. A modest man, he attributed his award to ‘the fidelity and extraordinary gallantry of the men’ he commanded. He received a civic reception on his return home, but did not remain in Ireland. After a time in the Indian army, he was employed by the colonial service in Kenya. He served as a major in the Indian Army in World War II (in which one of his sons was killed) and finally settled in Australia, where he died at Hobart, Tasmania. He received a state funeral in Australia.

Clongownians of Distinction

Sir Andrew Horne Clongowes 1868-1873 Sir Andrew Horne (1856-1924), obstetrician and founder of the National Maternity Hospital, was a native of Ballinasloe, County Galway, who attended Clongowes in 1868-73. He qualified as a doctor in 1877 and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1881. After a period as assistant master of the Rotunda Hospital, he studied for a year in Vienna before establishing a private practice in Dublin. In 1894 he became a founder member, first joint master and ex-officio governor of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin. He was largely responsible for the hospital’s management over the next thirty years, presiding over its expansion into the largest maternity hospital in Europe. He was recognised as one of the leading obstetric and gynaecological physicians in Ireland, performing the hospital’s first caeserean section in 1901 and publishing a number of papers in medical journals. Knighted in 1913, he was also president of RCPI and vice-president of the obstetrics section of the British Medical Association. He was involved in a number of philanthropic societies, chiefly relating to women’s health and children’s welfare. He was an accomplished pianist, taking part with his fellow physician and Clongownian, Sir Francis Cruise, in musical recitals, popularly referred to as ‘Cruising round the Horne’. James Joyce, whom he is said to have once ejected from the hospital, mentions him in Ulysses: ‘Of that house A. Horne is lord’, and in Finnegans Wake: ‘Ho, he that hath hornhide’.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1888-1891 James Joyce James Joyce (1882-1941), writer, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1888-91. Sent to Clongowes at an early age – ‘half-past six’, as he said himself – he remained in the same class for three years. He had just moved up a grade, when his father’s poor financial situation seems to have led to his removal. His time in the school is vividly recalled in the first chapter of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Father Conmee, his rector in Clongowes, was influential in gaining him a place (without fees) in Belvedere, where he showed himself an outstandingly gifted student. He went on to University College, then also a Jesuit-run institution, where he took an undistinguished degree, while familiarising himself with modern European literature. After mixing for a time in Dublin literary and musical circles, in 1904 he eloped to the Continent with Nora Barnacle (whom he finally married in 1931), determined to succeed as a writer. His first publication was Chamber Music (1907), a small collection of poems. After a final visit in 1912, he never returned to Ireland, although he wrote about virtually nowhere else. He lived successively in Trieste, Zurich and Paris; he died and is buried in Zurich. His major works are Dubliners (1914), a collection of short stories, and three increasingly experimental novels, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His only play, Exiles, was first performed in 1918 and Pomes Penyeach, a second collection of poems appeared in 1927. He is a major, highly influential figure in world literature – modernist, yet deeply imbued with the humanist principles he first encountered with the Jesuits. As he promised, he has ‘kept the professors busy’ ever since, inspiring thousands of critical analyses of his work. Time magazine has rated him amongst the twentieth century’s hundred most important people. He is easily the most famous Clongownian.

Clongownians of Distinction

James Fitzgerald-Kenney Clongowes in 1894-1896 James Fitzgerald-Kenney (1878-1956), minister for justice, was a native of Ballyglass, County Mayo, who attended Clongowes in 18946. He studied at UCD, where he excelled in debate, and graduated in 1898 with a degree in arts. He was called to the bar in 1899, taking silk in 1926. A supporter of Home Rule, he joined the Irish Volunteers in County Mayo in 1914, remaining with the Redmondite wing after the movement split. Elected to the Dáil as a Cumann na nGaedheal deputy in 1927, he was appointed minister for justice within a few months and held the office until 1932. His inexperience made him an opposition target in the Dáil. After the foundation of Fine Gael in 1933, he was an active member of the Blueshirts and for a time the leader of its youth section. He lost his Dáil seat in 1944 and retired from politics to pursue a successful legal practice. He was a lifelong supporter of the Irish language, pioneering the Gaelic League in Mayo and establishing a local branch, which he chaired. He combined legal practice with farming the Mayo estate inherited through his mother. His other interests included shooting and fishing.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1894-1897 Thomas ‘Tom’ Kettle Thomas ‘Tom’ Kettle (1880-1916), politician, poet, academic and soldier, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 18947, where he was a gifted scholar, debater and athlete. He went on to University College Dublin, where his speaking prowess secured his election as auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. After a gap year at the University of Innsbruck improving his French and German, he graduated in 1902. He was called to the bar in 1906. He was an ardent nationalist and a leading intellectual of the Home Rule movement, which he enthusiastically supported. He became a political journalist, editing the pro-Home Rule paper The Nationist for a time, before being elected MP for East Tyrone in a 1906 by-election. His oratory in the House of Commons and on a fund-raising tour of the USA suggested him as a future party leader. However, after securing the professorship of national economics at UCD, he retired from active politics. Although he contributed to the debate on the economics of Home Rule, his deteriorating health prevented him making a major academic contribution, and he was prone to neglect his teaching duties. Nevertheless he published more than ten books and pamphlets, and made numerous contributions to journals and newspapers on Irish politics together with literary reviews, poetry, essays, philosophical treatises and translations from German and French. He supported enfranchisement of women, the workers in the 1913 lockout and the Irish Volunteers on whose behalf he travelled to the Continent to buy arms. In 1914 he followed Redmond’s exhortation to support the war effort, which he saw as a struggle for the survival of European civilisation against barbarism. He was particularly outraged by the German destruction of the library at the University of Louvain. Initially employed as a recruiting officer, he demanded and eventually obtained a posting to the front. He was killed in the 16th (Irish) Division’s assault on Ginchy during the latter stages of the Somme battle, while serving as a captain in the 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was a major constitutional nationalist, gifted with impressive oratorical skill, an incisive mind and great wit, but the radicalisation of Irish politics after 1916 saw his fame decline. However, in 1937 his admirers eventually erected his bust in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Clongownians of Distinction

Sir Gilbert Laithwaite Clongowes 1907-1911 Sir Gilbert Laithwaite (1894-1986), British diplomat, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 1907-11. He won a scholarship to Oxford University, graduating in 1914. He served with 10th Lancashire Fusiliers throughout World War I, in which he was wounded. In 1919 he became a civil servant in the India Office and for much of his career was involved at a senior level in Indian affairs. In 1936-43 he was principal secretary to the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow. Returning to England, he was successively assistant under-secretary for India, under-secretary (civil) to the war cabinet and deputy undersecretary for commonwealth relations. In 1949-51 he was British representative in Dublin, an appointment upgraded to ambassador after Ireland became a republic. In 1951-4 he was high commissioner to Pakistan, before becoming permanent under-secretary for commonwealth relations from 1955 to 1959. He was efficient, affable and industrious, with an impressive grasp of problems and a reputation for fairness. In retirement, he was president of the Royal Geographical Society and the Hakluyt Society for the publication of geographical material. He was a freeman of London, where he was master of the Tallow Chandlers’ Company in 1972-3. He served on the boards of several public companies. His public honours, included appointments as knight commander of the orders of the Bath, the Indian Empire and St Michael and St George.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1905-1911 Thomas Lane Thomas Lane (1894-1967), doctor and pioneering urologist, was born in India, the son of an Irish doctor in the medical service, and attended Clongowes in 1905-11. He graduated as a doctor from TCD in 1916, becoming MD in 1921. In 1920 he joined the staff of the Meath Hospital, working in the pathology and radiology departments. He was appointed a visiting surgeon in 1922. In the mid1930s, after a visit to the Mayo Clinic in USA, he switched to urology, becoming Ireland’s founding father of that speciality. He quickly established a reputation for genito-urinary surgery at the Meath by dramatically reducing deaths from prostatectomies. When his ambitious and long-cherished plan for a specialist urology wing at the hospital was in danger of foundering, he garnered international support, and in 1955 the new 80-bed urological unit – the second largest in Europe – was finally opened. It was designed in accordance with his ideas. Lane enjoyed an international reputation as a urologist, and the Meath became a place of pilgrimage for foreign surgeons. The Canadian Nobel laureate, Charles Huggins, suggested that the new unit should be named after Lane, but he rejected the proposal. However, the modern urology unit at Tallaght Hospital is called the Lane Ward to honour his memory and achievement. Lane was the author of many articles on urology, lecturer in urology at TCD and a founder member of the British Association of Urologists. Described as a perfectionist and impossibly utopian, he pushed for better hospital laboratory services and supported higher pay for nurses. In 1957 he became an honorary fellow of RCSI, the first practising Irish surgeon since 1786 to be so honoured. His son, Victor Lane (OC 1937-42), was also a leading urologist at the Meath Hospital.

Clongownians of Distinction

Matthew Lawless Clongowes 1843-1844 Matthew Lawless (1837-64), painter and illustrator, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 1843-4. He moved with his family to England in 1845, where he completed his education at Bath before studying art at various London institutions and also under the painter, Henry O’Neill. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1857 and continued to do so annually thereafter. His subjects were generally historical or literary (especially Shakespearian), and his work was noted for its finish and its accuracy. The Sick Call (1863), now in the National Gallery of Ireland, is probably his best oil, revealing his understanding of 17th-century Dutch painting, and placing him in the context of the pre-Raphaelite art. He excelled as a graphic artist. His sharp line and clean draftsmanship owe much to the illustrator Charles Keene, who in turn was heavily influenced by the German school. Many of his finest wood-engraved designs appeared in periodicals, such as Once a week, London Society and Punch. His book illustrations, while less numerous, are amongst his most accomplished works. Especially regarded is his single design of a woman weeping in Lyra Germanica (1861). Drawings and wood engravings by him are in the collections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Much lamented, he died of consumption at the early age of twenty-seven. He was an ardent Catholic, and the future Cardinal Manning is believed to have penned his obituary in The Tablet. The critic Edmund Gosse wrote in 1877 that by his death, ‘English art sustained one of the sharpest losses it ever had to mourn’.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1895-1902 Patrick ‘P.J.’ Little Patrick ‘P.J.’ Little (1884-1963), minister for posts and telegraphs and first director of the Arts Council, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 1895-1902. He studied law at UCD, where he was a prominent debater and managed St Stephen’s magazine. This gave him a taste for journalism, and he edited a succession of Sinn Féin newspapers in 1915-26, including New Ireland, Éire and An Phoblacht. He also practised as a solicitor. He was on the Sinn Féin executive in 1917-22 and was narrowly defeated in the 1918 general election, when he stood for Sinn Féin in Rathmines. Subsequently he went to South America and South Africa as a diplomatic representative of Dáil Éireann. He opposed the AngloIrish treaty and fought with the Four Courts garrison in the civil war. He was a founding member of Fianna Fáil in 1926. Elected TD for East Waterford in 1927, he held his Dáil seat until his retirement in 1954. He was parliamentary secretary to Éamon de Valera and government chief whip, until his appointment as minister for posts and telegraphs in 1939-48. His brief included broadcasting, which he believed should not be under direct state control. He supported both traditional and classical music, and was responsible for the establishment of the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra in 1947. He championed the establishment of a national concert hall and sought the establishment of a council for national culture. His ideas largely underlay the inter-party government’s Arts Act of 1951, which established the Arts Council. When Fianna Fáil returned to office soon afterwards, Little was appointed the Arts Council’s first director by de Valera, who had long relied on him for advice on artistic matters. He was an energetic director, and as effective as the limited available finances allowed. He established specialist panels to advise on particular aspects of the arts and also promoted local advisory committees, an initiative that ultimately petered out. He was twice a member of the Council of State. For many years he worked with the sick at Lourdes.

Clongownians of Distinction

Enoch Louis Lowe Clongowes 1833-1836 Enoch Louis Lowe (1820-92), governor of Maryland, USA, was a native of Frederick County, Maryland, who attended Clongowes in 1833-6. His early education was at St John’s Jesuit school in Frederick, and after Clongowes he completed his secondary education at Stonyhurst in Lancashire. He was a bright and outgoing student, particularly interested in English literature. After a tour of the Continent, he returned to America and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1845. He soon became involved in politics and proved a gifted orator, especially ‘on the stump’. In 1852 he won election to the Maryland legislature as a Democrat. In 1851, after a hotly contested campaign, he was elected governor of Maryland, holding office until 1854. During his tenure, the state constitution of 1851 was ratified, construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed to the Ohio River, the office of comptroller of the treasury was established, election-law amendments were supported, criminal law reforms were recommended, and the state deficit and taxation were reduced. The Washington administration offered him the ambassadorship to China, which he declined. In the civil war of 18615, like most Marylanders he sided with the South. He participated in the decision to break down the bridges around Baltimore to impede the advance of the Union army. In danger of arrest, he took refuge in Richmond, the Confederate capital, and remained in the South until the war ended. He then moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he practised successfully as a lawyer. He is buried at Frederick, Maryland.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1816-1817 James Lynch James Lynch (1807-96), bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, a founder of the Vincentian Congregation in Ireland and of Castleknock College, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 1816-17. He attended the College of Surgeons, before switching to study for the priesthood at Maynooth. He was ordained in 1833. By then he had joined a small group of priests who introduced the Vincentian Congregation to Ireland. He served as a professor and vice-president of their new school, Castleknock College, Dublin for many years. In 1866 he was appointed coadjutor vicar apostolic of the Western district in Scotland and titular bishop of Arcadiopolis. In 1869 he became coadjutor to the ailing bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, succeeding as bishop only in 1888.

Clongownians of Distinction

Aidan Joseph MacCarthy Clongowes 1923-1930 Aidan Joseph MacCarthy (1913-95), RAF physician and Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivor, was a native of Castletownbere, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1923-30. He qualified as a doctor at UCC in 1938, and moved to the UK to work before joining the medical branch of the RAF on the outbreak of World War II. He was sent to France and evacuated from Dunkirk, where he tended the wounded. In 1941 he was awarded the George Medal for his courage in entering a crashed and burning plane to rescue two of the crew. Posted to the Far East in 1942, he was captured in Java by the Japanese forces. He was subsequently sent to Japan, and was one of a small number to survive, when the transport ship carrying him and other prisoners was torpedoed. Eventually he was taken to a POW camp at Nagasaki, where he was forced to do factory work in brutal conditions. With thirteen other Irish prisoners, he was flogged by the camp commandant and forced to dig his own grave for supporting Britain against Japan. He was one of a handful of prisoners to survive the atomic-bomb attack on Nagasaki in 1945 by sheltering in a makeshift bomb shelter. Awaiting liberation, he saved the camp guards from being lynched and tended injured Japanese people in the destroyed city. He returned to Ireland in 1945 to the consolation of his dying mother, who believed him dead. He continued to serve with the post-war RAF and held various overseas appointments until 1970, when he retired with the rank of squadron leader after a serious illness. He was deeply religious, and attributed his survival during the war to his Catholic faith. For his service to the church, he was made a knight of St Sylvester. His autobiography A Doctor’s War was published in 1970. His life story was the subject of several documentaries by RTE. He is buried in his native Castletownbere.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1937-1942 Niall St John McCarthy Niall St John McCarthy (1925-92), judge of the Supreme Court, was a native of Cork who attended Clongowes in 1937-42. Graduating in classics from UCD, he was called to the bar in 1946, becoming a senior council in 1959. He was chairman of the Bar Council in 1980. He was a brilliant barrister, who was rated the leader of his profession for more than twenty years, during which he was involved in many of the most famous cases and inquiries. Eloquent, intelligent and thorough, he possessed to an exceptional degree the ability to distinguish the essentials from the peripheral and excelled at cross-examination. Appointed directly to the Supreme Court in 1982, he was consistently liberal, intellectually rigorous and a principled moderniser. He was insistent that principles, especially in the area of constitutional rights, should be acted upon, even if that meant taking the government or the oireachtas to task. In 1987 he was appointed chairman of the National Archives advisory council and successfully exerted pressure to have it housed in the Bishop’s Street building. He is credited with the preservation of the Irish Manuscripts Commission as a separate entity. He was chairman of the National Association for the Deaf in 1977-88. He was president of the Clongowes Union in 1988-9. He and his wife tragically died in a road accident in Spain in 1992.

Clongownians of Distinction

Oliver MacDonagh Clongowes 1940-1941 Oliver MacDonagh (1924-2002), historian, was a native of Carlow, but grew up in Roscommon. He attended Clongowes in 1940-1. Graduating in history from UCD in 1944, he was called to the bar in 1946, but never practised, preferring to take up a travelling studentship to Peterhouse College Cambridge, where he completed his doctorate in 1950. His early studies focussed on nineteenthcentury government growth. He was elected a fellow of St Catherine’s College Cambridge in 1950 and held other university posts, before moving to Australia in 1964 as foundation professor of history at Flinders University, New South Wales. He blossomed as a university administrator, a role in which he continued during a two-year spell as professor of history at UCC in 1968-70. He was a visiting professor at Yale, before returning to Australia as a research professor at the Australian University’s Institute of Advanced Studies in Canberra, where he spent the rest of his career. This gave him the freedom to concentrate on research. He focussed on Ireland, Australia and literary history. His best-known work is probably his two-volume study of Daniel O’Connell. He contributed the introduction and four chapters to Volume V of the Royal Irish Academy’s A New History of Ireland (1989). He was a well-respected authority on Jane Austen. He was an inspiring teacher, a fine public speaker, a frequent broadcaster and a passionate sportsman, with a particular interest in rugby. Devoutly Catholic, he revered Cardinal Newman, about whom he also wrote. The recipient of many honours, he was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the British Academy and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1904-1906 Patrick McGilligan Patrick McGilligan (1889-1979), minister for industry and commerce, external affairs and finance, was a native of Coleraine, County Derry, who attended Clongowes in 1904-06. A near-photographic memory won him scholarships and medals throughout his academic career. He graduated with a BA in classics from UCD in 1910. He won a gold medal for his oratory in the Literary and Historical Society. He was a good sportsman, playing soccer, tennis and golf. After a period teaching, he became an assistant to the professor of Latin at UCD, and was called to the bar in 1921. He was involved in the national struggle and stood unsuccessfully as Sinn Féin candidate for Derry North in 1918. He was eventually elected to the Dáil in 1923. He continued to be returned for various constituencies until finally defeated in 1965, after which he retired from active politics. His ability soon led to his appointment in 1924 as minister for industry and commerce, where his major achievements were the implementation of the Shannon hydroelectric scheme, along with the institution of a national grid and the founding of the Electricity Supply Board. From 1927 he was also minister for external affairs, increasing Ireland’s diplomatic representation abroad and advancing this country’s role in the League of Nations. He played a major part in securing autonomous status for the dominions at the British imperial conferences of 1929-30, which laid the foundations for the commonwealth. After his party lost office in 1932, he was appointed to a chair of law at UCD. He continued his political activity in the Dáil as a leading and effective opposition spokesman on economic and foreign affairs. During this time he became influenced by Keynsian ideas and developed a strong social concern. These concepts influenced his courage and innovation as minister for finance in the first inter-party government of 1948-51. He introduced a capital budget, borrowed for development, expanded house building and funded the attack on TB. He was attorney general in the second interparty government. Having taken silk in 1946 he practised for a time as a barrister and acted in several major constitutional cases. He was a major figure in the successful establishment of the Irish state, who played an especially important and constructive role in its economic and social development, and in gaining respect for it abroad.

Clongownians of Distinction

Sir Ambrose McGonigal Clongowes 1930-1935 Sir Ambrose McGonigal (1917-79), lord justice of appeal in Northern Ireland, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1930-5, where he was fine rugby player and won a Leinster schools cap. After ‘two inglorious years studying arts’ at Queen’s University Belfast, he enrolled in the King’s Inns, but with the outbreak of World War II, he joined the British forces and won an MC and bar serving with the commandos. Demobilised with the rank of major in 1946, he returned to legal studies this time in Belfast and was called to the Northern Ireland bar in 1948. Although a late starter, he soon made his mark as an advocate. In 1956 he became a queen’s counsel and was subsequently appointed senior crown prosecutor for County Down. In 1968, overturning the usual sectarian and political divide, he was appointed to the High Court. He was a strong presence on the bench, where he showed decisive judgement and unimpeachable integrity, with little time for any attempt to mislead him or for counsel that were ill prepared. His judgements were seldom reversed on appeal. Following the outbreak of the Troubles, judges’ lives were at risk and they had the added burden of trying non-jury criminal cases, arising from the disturbances. McGonigal was unflinching in his duty, handing down severe sentences where he thought it appropriate, but showing leniency to young offenders whom he considered to have been misled. In 1975 he was promoted to lord justice of appeal, knighted and sworn a privy councillor. In his new role, he upheld human rights in several cases, even where this required him to find against the government. He served on the senate of Queen’s University, where he made a significant contribution to the foundation of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, at the time a unique institution that provided common vocational training for solicitors and barristers. He also served on the board of St Mary’s College of Education. His brother Richard McGonigal SC, who attended Clongowes in 1917-19, was a leading barrister in the Irish Republic, as is his son, Eoin McGonigal SC, who attended Clongowes in 1959-64.

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg in 1872-1879 Sir Joseph McGrath Sir Joseph McGrath (1858-1923), first registrar of the National University of Ireland, was a native of Bagenalstown, County Carlow, who attended Tullabeg in 1872-9, where he came under the tutelage of the distinguished educationist, Father William Delany, SJ. He was an excellent student, especially proficient in mathematics. He played a leading role in school dramatics. He graduated BA from London University in 1878 and taught for a time at Tullabeg before becoming a mathematics and science tutor at St Patrick’s College Drumcondra and at UCD, which was then under Jesuit management. He was associated with the revival of debating at the latter institution and was auditor of the Literary and Historical Society in 1882-3. In 1892 he was appointed one of the two secretaries of the Royal University of Ireland, which conferred him with an honorary LLD. He was also called to the bar, but never practised. He narrowly missed being appointed first president of the new UCD, which became a constituent college of the National University of Ireland in 1908. Instead McGrath was appointed first registrar of the new university, a post he occupied until his death. He was an efficient administrator. He worked closely with the chancellor, Archbishop Walsh of Dublin, to draft the university statutes, as well as ensuring a smooth transition to it for staff from the older institutions. He was knighted in 1911. He served on the governing bodies of several academic institutions. He also served on the committees of various voluntary bodies, including the RDS, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Clongowes Union of which he was a founding member and lifelong honorary secretary. He was devoutly religious. His son, Father Fergal McGrath, SJ, who attended Clongowes in 1908-12, was a leading Irish Jesuit and author. He wrote the standard life of Father John Sullivan, SJ (1941), whose cause for canonisation is under consideration.

Clongownians of Distinction

Edward ‘Ned’ McGuire Clongowes 1915-1916 and 1918-1919 Edward ‘Ned’ McGuire (1901-92), businessman and politician, was a native of Waterford, who attended Clongowes in 1915-16 and 1918-19. After a year in UCD, he joined his father in the retail business. Together they turned Clerys, the Dublin department store, from a loss-maker into a highly successful enterprise. The Maguires pioneered modern methods of trading and advertising, appealing to a mass market by balancing low prices against high turnover. In 1933 the McGuires left Clerys and purchased the ailing Brown Thomas store in Grafton Street from Harry Gordon Selfridge. Largely under Ned McGuire’s direction, it was transformed into the leading store in Ireland. A range of fashionable new products was introduced, with names like Dior appearing in Dublin for the first time. The interior was remodelled and display revolutionised, drawing on the talents of the artist, Norah McGuinness. It was a highly profitable business, which McGuire continued to control until its sale in 1970 to Galen Weston. McGuire played a leading part in the formation of the Federated Union of Employers, introducing professional negotiators to the employers’ side of collective bargaining. He was president for many years, and in 1967 was honoured with the title of founderpresident on his retirement. His family had been close supporters of John Redmond, and he was a leading fundraiser for Fine Gael and a senator in 1948-65. He regretted that the party was not closer aligned to business and strongly opposed the adoption of the ‘Just Society’ policy in the early 1960s, which he hyperbolically condemned as ‘pure socialism of the most dictatorial kind’. An accomplished painter himself and a discerning art collector, he served on the board of the National Gallery of Ireland for many years and also as a member of the Arts Council. He was an all-round sportsman, particularly excelling at tennis. He was Irish men’s singles champion in 1931 and played on four Irish Davis Cup teams.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1825-1829 Thomas McNevin Thomas McNevin (1814-48), Young Irelander and journalist, was a native of Dublin who attended Clongowes in 1825-9. He graduated with a BA from TCD in 1837, having been auditor of the College Historical Society, where he debated with such orators as Isaac Butt and William Keogh. He became a close friend of Thomas Davis, by whom he was deeply influenced. He was called to the bar in 1838. He joined the Repeal Association, where he worked closely with Davis and the Young Ireland group, contributing regularly to their paper The Nation, edited by Charles Gavan Duffy. He was a leading spokesman for the Young Irelanders, voicing their growing disillusionment with Daniel O’Connell’s tactics and the servility and venality of his supporters. He idolised Thomas Davis and vehemently defended him from O’Connellite critics after the Young Irelanders split from the Repeal movement. Widely read, he was deeply involved in the Young Ireland project of providing the Irish people with accessible and sympathetic historical works to regenerate their national spirit. He wrote two volumes for The Nation’s library of Ireland series on, respectively, the Irish Volunteers of 1782 and the Ulster confiscation. They were well-written works, although based on secondary rather than original research. Although sometimes rash and impetuous, he was a sparkling conversationalist with a sharp intellect. He was devastated by Davis’s death in 1845 and set out to fulfil his friend’s ambition of writing a one-volume history of Ireland, but his mental health deteriorated and the project was incomplete at the time of his death in a Bristol asylum.

Clongownians of Distinction

John Charles McQuaid Clongowes 1911-1913 John Charles McQuaid (1895-1973), archbishop of Dublin, was a native of Cootehill, County Cavan, who attended Clongowes in 1911-13. He joined the Holy Ghost or Spiritan congregation and was ordained in 1924, having graduated in classics at UCD and subsequently obtained a theology doctorate at the Gregorian University in Rome. He then became dean of studies and subsequently president of Blackrock College, where he enjoyed an outstanding reputation as an administrator and Catholic educationist. He was an adviser of Éamon de Valera on the drafting of the 1937 Constitution, although disappointed that the final result was not more explicitly Catholic. He was appointed archbishop of Dublin in 1940. He proved an excellent administrator, establishing more than sixty new parishes, building schools and churches and showing special concern (and material support) for TB patients, the elderly, the physically and mentally handicapped, the poor and the sick. Later, he interested himself in traveller settlement, drug and alcohol abuse, and juvenile delinquency. Amongst his most cherished projects was the establishment in 1956 of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. The movement of the post-World War II state into social areas, hitherto largely in the control of the church, inevitably brought the government and the bishops into conflict. The most celebrated but by no means the only instance was the 1951 clash over the mother-and-child scheme, in which he played a leading role. The controversy brought down the inter-party government, but also created a damaging and enduring rift between the church and liberal opinion. McQuaid was disturbed and bewildered by the changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council. He had little sympathy with lay participation, and his continued ban on Catholics attending TCD was indicative of his lack of empathy with ecumenism. Both clergy and laity grew impatient at what they perceived to be his minimalist approach to reform, unbending authoritarianism and what the Herder Correspondence called ‘his penchant for the unnecessarily harsh or humiliating phrase’. In 1970, when he submitted his resignation to Pope Paul VI at the age of seventy-five, it was – to his surprise – accepted, with effect from January 1972. Throughout his long episcopate he was the dominant personality amongst the Irish bishops – then at the height of their influence – making him one of the most powerful and influential figures in the Ireland of his time. 62

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1902-1907 Conor Maguire Conor Maguire (1889-1971), revolutionary, politician and chief justice, was a native of Claremorris, County Mayo, who attended Clongowes in 1902-07. After attending UCD, where he was active in student life, especially debating and journalism, he qualified as a solicitor in 1914 and returned to Mayo to establish a law practice. A republican, he was imprisoned in Sligo for six months in 1919 for publicising the Dáil loan. On release he became closely involved in planning and operating the Dáil courts, established to undermine British authority, acting as a land-settlement commissioner and occasionally as an appeals judge. He was called to the bar in 1922, practising on the western circuit, and took silk in 1932. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for the NUI in 1932, when he was appointed attorney general in the first Fianna Fáil government. He became president of the High Court in 1936 and was chief justice in 194661. He served on the European Commission of Human Rights in 1962-5 and on the European Court of Human Rights in 1965-71. He was president of the Irish Red Cross in 1939-46, and was involved in the establishment of the Red Cross hospital at Saint-Lô and the settlement of German children in Ireland after World War II. His work earned him the Legion d’honneur. Inheriting a keen interest in the Irish language from his nationalist father, he was president of the International Celtic Congress in 1957-61 and of the Conradh na Gaeilge Oireachtas in 1962. He also served on the board of the National Gallery and as a member of the Arts Council. He was a rugby, cricket and billiards enthusiast.

Clongownians of Distinction

James ‘The O’Gorman’ Mahon Clongowes 1815-19 James ‘The O’Gorman’ Mahon (1803-91), politician and adventurer, was a native of Ennis, County Clare, who attended Clongowes in 1815-19. He graduated from TCD in 1822. Soon afterwards he adopted the grandiloquent title ‘The O’Gorman Mahon’ by which he was always known. He became a prominent member of the Catholic Association and encouraged a reluctant Daniel O’Connell to contest the Clare election in 1828. He was a good public speaker, but short-tempered, argumentative and give to over statement. His prominence at the time made him a national hero, and he won a Clare seat in the 1830 election, but was unseated due to unlawfully funding his campaign with his new wife’s dowry. He was defeated in the 1831 election and never forgave O’Connell for opposing his candidacy. He was called to the bar in 1834, but never practised. He was briefly MP for Ennis in 1847-52. However, much of his life was spent as an adventurer touring the world. His financial situation was always precarious. He spent time in France, where he was a journalist and financial speculator. It was said that Louis-Phillippe, gave him a colonelcy in the army. In 1846 he fought against the Arabs in North Africa. Travelling to Russia, he became an officer in the tsar’s army and fought the Tartars before proceeding to China, India and Turkey. From there he went to Austria where he held yet another military rank, before crossing the Atlantic where he served in the army or navy of various South American states and on the Union side in the American Civil War. During his life he fought ‘between thirteen and eighteen duels’ on the grounds that it was ‘less trouble to fight a blackguard than to argue with him’. He frequently returned to Ireland, where he became a friend of the rising politician Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1879 he again became an MP (defeating his fellow-Clongownian Peter O’Brien in the Clare by-election) and engaged enthusiastically in the obstructionist tactics favoured by Parnell and his supporters. It was he who proposed Parnell for leadership of the parliamentary party in 1877. Gladstone described him as ‘a stately figure, conspicuous among his contemporaries for his singularly beautiful and gentle manners’. He was the original of ‘the Mulligan’ in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Mrs. Perkins’s Ball (1881).

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1815-1818 Francis Mahony ‘Father Prout’ Francis Mahony ‘Father Prout’ (1804-66), priest and humourist, was a native of Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1815-18, before going to the Jesuit school at Amiens. Destined for a career in the priesthood, he entered the Jesuit seminary in Paris and then went on to Rome to study philosophy in 1823-5. He was a brilliant student, particularly gifted at Latin, which he spoke fluently, but always ‘caustic, irascible, opinionated and argumentative’. He returned to Clongowes as a teacher, where he was appointed master of the Rhetoric class. Within a few months, on a class outing, master and class spent the evening drinking in Celbridge, returning to Clongowes after curfew, all thoroughly inebriated. Word followed that in the course of the revelry Mahony had made a loud and drunken attack on the character of Daniel O’Connell. He resigned as prefect and was transferred to Freiburg in Switzerland. From there he went to Florence, where he was asked to leave the Jesuits. Although hurt, he was not embittered and subsequently defended the Jesuits against their critics. He completed his theological studies in Rome and was ordained a secular priest at Lucca in 1832. He ministered for a time in Cork, but after quarrelling with his bishop left for London, where he led an increasingly Bohemian and dissolute life, and earned his living as a writer and journalist. Although he ceased to perform any priestly duties, throughout his life he still read his daily office in the breviary. He is best known for his series of papers ‘The reliques of Father Prout’, which first appeared in Fraser’s Magazine, and were published in a separate form in 1836. His writing was sharp, ascerbic and often brilliant. He attracted a wide readership and was often known as Father Prout, sometimes even signing himself ‘Prout Mahony’. For Fraser, also, he wrote ‘The Bells of Shandon’ and other well-known pieces of poetry. He also wrote for Bentley’s Miscellany, edited by Charles Dickens. His output included well-crafted translations of works in Latin and French. Moving abroad in 1837, his later life was spent in Rome and Paris as a foreign correspondent for London newspapers. He died in Paris, from where his body was brought back to Cork for burial. Once described as a combination of Voltaire and Rabelais, today he is little read except by a few scholars.

Clongownians of Distinction

Thomas Francis Meagher Clongowes 1833-1839 Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-67), revolutionary, soldier and acting governor of Montana, was a native of Waterford, who attended Clongowes in 1833-9. His leadership role in a school revolt over the paucity of fare at the Christmas dinner led to his schooling being completed at Stonyhurst. He abandoned studies for the bar to concentrate on politics, joining the Young Irelanders. He was a passionate and popular orator. In 1846, at the meeting where the Young Irelanders parted company from O’Connell, his famous speech in defence of the ultimate right to have recourse to arms earned him the sobriquet ‘Meagher of the Sword’. In 1848 he was one of the three delegates chosen to carry a congratulatory address to the new French revolutionary government, returning to Dublin with the green, white and orange tricolour, subsequently adopted as the national flag. Involved in planning the abortive Irish rising of 1848, he was arrested, convicted of high treason and condemned to death. His sentence was commuted to transportation for life, and he was sent to Tasmania. He escaped from Australia in 1852 and arrived in New York to a hero’s welcome. He became an American citizen, edited a newspaper and was admitted to the New York bar. However, his earnings from law and journalism were meagre, and his income was largely derived from lecturing on Irish revolutionary matters, although he showed little interest in the new revolutionary organisations, the Fenians and the IRB. When the American civil war broke out in 1861, he took a commission in the Union army, lent his name and energy to the recruitment drive, and ultimately attained the rank of brigadier general. He commanded the Irish Brigade in northern Virginia in 1862, where its ranks were decimated in the terrible battles of Antietam/Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. He resigned, when denied a request to withdraw the brigade to allow it to regroup and recruit. Meagher was a brave man, but untrained for military command for which he displayed no great talent. However, the well-publicised sacrifices of his brigade contributed greatly to improving acceptance of the Irish immigrants and raising their status in America. After the war, he secured an appointment as acting governor of Montana, where he worked to maintain law and order, contain the Sioux Indians and prepare the territory for statehood. He died in mysterious circumstances, when he fell overboard from a steamer moored at Fort Benton on the Mississippi. There are impressive monuments to Meagher in Waterford, in front of the state capitol in Helena, Montana, and at the Antietam battlefield in Maryland. 66

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1930-1936 Charles Mitchel Charles Mitchel (1920-96), actor and broadcaster, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1930-6. He spent some time in his father’s business and also attended TCD, which he left without an intended degree in forestry, having spent most of his time acting with Trinity Players. He subsequently became a professional actor. His clear confident diction suited him best to high status and ‘society’ parts. He worked for a time in Belfast with ENSA, the wartime agency for British forces entertainment. In 1947 he joined the Gate Theatre company and over the next decade became well-known for his performances in Dublin and on tour throughout Ireland and Western Europe. He was one of the founders of Irish Actors Equity and served as president of the Catholic Stage Guild. On the formation of RTE he was appointed the station’s chief newsreader and read the first news bulletin on 1 January 1963. He instantly became a household name and was the station’s first major star, generating an audience fan club and personally replying to the many devotees who wrote to him. He was awarded the accolade of Television Personality of the Year and was the first RTE presenter to win a Jacobs Television Award. Listeners were impressed and reassured by his reliable, gentlemanly persona and clarity of diction. He was watched even by the deaf, who could lip read his broadcasts. He later admitted that his RTE job was the one he had always wanted, and he was most reluctant to retire, when the time came in 1984. Nor did his audience easily accept his departure. He was a man of quiet good humour, easy with people and with a compassionate nature that involved him in the Samaritans, the Friends of the Elderly and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was a renowned expert on the breeding, showing and judging of basset hounds. He also played in goal for the RTE soccer team.

Clongownians of Distinction

Thomas Murphy Clongowes 1925-1926 Thomas Murphy (1915-97), doctor and president of UCD, was a native of Bunclody, County Wexford, who attended Clongowes in 1925-6. After a brilliant undergraduate career, in 1939 he graduated from UCD’s medical school and subsequently obtained postgraduate qualifications in public health and industrial medicine. He worked in Bord na Móna, as assistant medical officer in County Kildare and in the Department of Health before returning to UCD in 1955 as professor of social and preventive medicine. He was awarded an MD for his published work in 1969. He was a founder member of the Academic Staff Association. He became dean of the faculty of medicine in 1962, registrar of the college in 1969 and president in 1972, a position he occupied for thirteen fruitful years. He was the first president to administer the college from its new Belfield campus. He had a warm, approachable and friendly manner, and proved a shrewd, capable and popular administrator. He oversaw a huge expansion in student numbers and a corresponding increase in staff: twenty-nine new chairs, 120 additional statutory lectureships and a large number of junior appointments. He improved opportunities for promotion and encouraged staff to become more involved in administration and decision-making. He was directly responsible for setting up the Admissions Office and for the establishment of staff-student committees. He oversaw the development and expansion of the Belfield campus, including the building, equipping and occupation of new agriculture, computer-science, universityindustry and library buildings. A sports centre was opened, and site work commenced for a new engineering school. Recognised college status was granted to teacher-training colleges and financial support obtained from commercial institutions. His four sons, all Clongownians, followed him into the medical profession.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1855-1858 John Naish John Naish (1841-90), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was a native of Ballycullen, County Limerick, who attended Clongowes in 18558. He graduated BA from TCD in 1863, having enjoyed a brilliant undergraduate career in which he excelled at mathematics and experimental science. He entered Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the Irish bar in 1865. He practised on the Munster circuit, and in 1880 he became a queen’s counsel. A nervous and diffident speaker, he failed to establish a reputation as a forceful advocate, but compensated for this by his outstanding legal knowledge and expertise. He co-authored a book on common law procedure legislation, which became a standard reference work. In 1880 his legal knowledge gained him the role of legal adviser to Dublin Castle, and during the Land League agitation his legal skill was of considerable benefit to the government. He stood as a Liberal candidate for parliament at Mallow in 1882, but was crushingly defeated by the prominent Home Ruler, William O’Brien. In 1883 he was appointed solicitor general and soon afterwards became attorney general and a privy councillor. In 1885 Gladstone appointed him to the highest Irish legal office of Lord Chancellor. He was only the second catholic to hold the office since the reformation. He lost it with the collapse of the Liberal government, but was made a lord justice of appeal. He returned as chancellor in 1886, only to again lose office when Gladstone’s ministry collapsed, making him once more a lord justice of appeal. His health failed in his forties. He travelled to Germany and died in the spa town Bad Ems, where he is buried.

Clongownians of Distinction

Peter Baron O’Brien of Kilfenora Clongowes 1854-1858 Peter Baron O’Brien of Kilfenora (1842-1914), lord chief justice, was a native of Ballynalackan, County Clare, who attended Tullabeg and Clongowes in 1854-8. Graduating from TCD, he entered the Middle Temple and was called to the Irish bar in 1865. He devilled with Christopher Palles, but spent much of his time socialising and hunting, only settling down to work in earnest when his prospective bride made it a precondition of marriage. He proved an able barrister, skilful in persuading juries and courageous in standing up to domineering judges. In 1879 he stood unsuccessfully for Clare as a Liberal candidate in a by-election that was won by his fellowClongownian, The O’Gorman Mahon. He became a queen’s counsel in 1880, defending T.D. Sullivan in the abortive trial of the Land League leadership. In 1883 he was appointed crown prosecutor, acting in several agrarian murder trials, including the infamous Maamtrasna case, where several of those convicted are believed to have been innocent, including one who was hanged. His zeal in packing juries with those likely to be sympathetic to the prosecution earned him the odium of the nationalist press and the derogatory nickname ‘Pether the Packer’ (he had a pronounced lisp). Gladstone’s adoption of Home Rule saw him defect to the liberal unionists. He denounced as illegal the ‘plan of campaign’ in defence of tenant farmers. Successively solicitor general and attorney general (he was mentor to the young Edward Carson), he became lord chief justice in 1889 and an Irish peer in 1900. To nationalists he epitomised legal injustice, but in fact he was regarded as fair and merciful in non-political criminal cases, although in civil matters he was said to favour pretty females. He frequently performed unpublicised acts of personal kindness. Keenly intelligent but inclined to be lazy, his judgements were straightforward, but based more on instinct than on learning, prompting Palles on one occasion to audibly comment ‘you never learned that law from me’. Even opponents acknowledged his physical and moral courage in making unpopular decisions. His Reminiscences, edited by his daughter, was published in 1916.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1903-1905 Jeremiah Joseph ‘Ginger’ O’Connell Jeremiah Joseph ‘Ginger’ O’Connell (1887-1944), revolutionary and lieutenant general, was a native of Ballina, County Mayo, who attended Clongowes in 1903-05. Nicknamed ‘Ginger’ because of his red hair, he was so known throughout his life. He graduated with a BA and MA from UCD, where he was active in student affairs, debating and on the boxing team. Having served two years with the 69th (New York) Regiment in the US army (1912-14), he returned to Ireland as chief of inspection for the Irish Volunteers, travelling the country to organise Volunteer corps and provide military instruction. Keenly interested in military history, he delivered a series of lectures on famous Irish battles to the Gaelic League in Dublin, and also drafted a memorandum on how the Irish Volunteers could best undertake war. In 1916 he conveyed Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order to the Cork Volunteers, and although he took no part in the fighting he was subsequently arrested and interned at Frongoch. On his release he became instructor with the Sligo Volunteers, rising ultimately to the position of IRA director of training in 1920. In 1921 he was involved in defence aspects of the negotiations that led to the Anglo-Irish treaty, which he strongly supported. He was appointed deputy chief of staff in the new army with the rank of lieutenant general. He took a hard-line approach to the anti-treatyites, and his kidnapping by the Four Courts garrison was one of the factors that led to the start of the civil war. Released when the Four Courts surrendered, he was appointed GOC Curragh camp and command for the remainder of the civil war. With the subsequent contraction of the army, he was reduced to the rank of colonel, which he carried for the rest of his career. He held a succession of army appointments, including chief lecturer in the school of instruction, OC of the equitation school, quartermaster general and director of archives. In 1940 he drew up the army’s defence plan against invasion. He published numerous articles on military affairs and military history. His wife was a sister of his fellow Clongownian, Patrick McGilligan.

Clongownians of Distinction

Roderick ‘Rory’ O’Connor Clongowes 1900-1901 Roderick ‘Rory’ O’Connor (1883-1922), republican and revolutionary, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1900-01. He attended UCD and the College of Science, Merrion Street, graduating with degrees in arts and engineering. He was a prominent debater in UCD’s Literary and Historical Society, where he advocated militant constitutional nationalism. He worked as a railway engineer in Canada, before returning to Ireland in 1915, apparently at the behest of the IRB. He joined the Gaelic League and the Irish Volunteers. He was wounded in the 1916 Rising and subsequently interned in Britain. He became a member of the Sinn Féin executive in 1917. Ranked commandant general, throughout the Anglo-Irish struggle he was the IRA’s director of engineering primarily responsible for planning sabotage operations and the use of explosives, but also with involvement in arms procurement and prison escapes. Although he had formed a close association with Michael Collins, he vehemently rejected the Anglo-Irish treaty on the principled ground that it fell short of the republic, which he had sworn to uphold. He led the initial opposition to the treaty within the IRA, although the more moderate Liam Lynch ultimately emerged as chief of staff. Amidst a general upsurge in republican activity, the Four Courts was seized and O’Connor took command of the garrison. When negotiations broke down, the Four Courts was besieged by the new army, using artillery. With the court building very badly damaged and on fire, O’Connor surrendered after three days. The adjoining Public Record Office was completely destroyed. Whether responsibility for the resultant calamitous loss of the Irish state papers lay with the attackers or the defenders is still debated. O’Connor was imprisoned and subsequently shot by firing squad in reprisal for the murder of a TD. The tragic divisions of the period were symbolised by the fact that a year earlier he had been best man at the wedding of his fellow Clongownian, Kevin O’Higgins, who as minister for home affairs consented to his execution. Physically frail and devoted to classical music, bridge and chess, O’Connor was widely seen as a man of principled integrity, courage and determination, but lacking in flexibility and political acumen.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1852 Sir Nicholas O’Conor Sir Nicholas O’Conor (1843-1908), diplomat, was a native of Dundermott, County Roscommon, who attended Clongowes in 1852 and then went on to its sister college, Stonyhurst in Lancashire. After further education in Munich, he joined the diplomatic service. He held a series of junior appointments in Berlin, Washington, Madrid, Paris and Brazil, before becoming secretary to the Peking Legation in 1883. Following the minister’s death, he ran the legation successfully for eighteen months during a period of turbulent Anglo-Chinese relations. He became consul general in Bulgaria, where he was a steadying and influential hand in the transition of power to the newly elected King Ferdinand and his volatile prime minister, Stambulov. In 1892 he was knighted and appointed envoy to China. In 1895 he became ambassador to St Petersburg and was present at the coronation of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. When relations with the Russian foreign minister became strained over the question of access to Port Arthur (a Russian-controlled enclave in China), O’Conor made no secret of his displeasure over a perceived Russian breach of faith. He was transferred to Constantinople as ambassador to Turkey, where he served for a decade until his death. While there, he enjoyed a good relationship with Sultan Abdul Hamid II and his ministers, whom he pressed to make much-needed administrative reforms. He managed to settle several outstanding problems, such as Turco-Egyptian boundary in Sinai and the British frontier in the hinterland of Aden. He was made a privy councillor in 1897. O’Conor was a leading British diplomat of his time, operating in the highest echelons of international relations, when British power and influence were at their zenith. He was blunt-spoken and honest in his dealings, shrewd in his assessments of events and situations, and wellrespected as a negotiator.

Clongownians of Distinction

Kevin O’Higgins Clongowes 1903-1908 Kevin O’Higgins (1892-1927), minister for justice, was a native of Stradbally, County Laois, who attended Clongowes in 1903-08. After a spell as a clerical student, he attended UCD and was called to the bar in 1923. He joined the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin, serving a prison sentence in 1918 for opposing recruitment to the British army. Elected Sinn Féin MP for Queen’s County (Laois) in 1918, he sat in the first Dáil. He rose to be minister for local government, gaining the adherence of many county councils and other localgovernment bodies to its administration. His wedding – at which his fellow Clongownian Rory O’Connor was best man – prevented his attendance at the London treaty talks. Although originally opposed to any settlement short of republican status for Ireland, he vigorously defended the treaty in the Dáil, stressing the support for it amongst the public at large. He was appointed minister for economic affairs, before becoming minister for home affairs (later justice) and vicepresident of the executive council. He was the leading political personality of the day. He played a major role in securing Dáil acceptance of the constitution. More controversially, he authorised internment, military courts and even executions by the army. He approved the retaliatory shooting of republican prisoners, including his friend Rory O’Connor. His own father was murdered by the IRA. Determined to restore normal law and order, he introduced a new court system and created an unarmed police force. He also played a role in foreign affairs. He dealt firmly with the threatened army mutiny in 1924. He opposed divorce, restricted pub opening hours and supported book and film censorship. Possessed of great vigour and ability, with a wry sense of humour and an iron will, by nature he was rather shy and private. In 1927 a group of IRA assassins, evidently acting independently, shot him dead.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1930-1934 Thomas O’Higgins Thomas O’Higgins (1916-2003), minister for health and chief justice, born in Cork but raised in Dublin, attended Clongowes in 1930-4. He graduated from UCD, where he was auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. He was called to the bar in 1938, taking silk in 1954. Grandson of a nationalist MP, son of a TD and a nephew of Kevin O’Higgins, he was elected to the Dáil for Laois-Offaly in 1948. In the 1954-7 inter-party government, he was minister for health and established the Voluntary Health Insurance Board. In the 1960s he worked closely with Garret FitzGerald and Declan Costello in re-shaping Fine Gael in the ‘Just Society’ period. He was the Fine Gael candidate in the 1966 and 1973 presidential elections. Although unsuccessful in both, in 1966 he came within one per cent of defeating Éamon de Valera, which was widely regarded as an astonishing achievement. In 1973 he retired from politics and was appointed to the High Court. The following year he became chief justice. His most significant decisions all upheld a broadly conservative position: the constitutionality of the Emergency Powers Bill in 1976, the statutory ban on broadcasts by Sinn Féin supporters in 1982 and the prohibition of homosexual conduct between consenting males in private in the Norris case (1984). In 1985-91 he was a judge of the European Court of Justice. His autobiography A Double Life was published in 1996. His brother, Michael O’Higgins, also a Clongownian, was TD for Wicklow in 1961-9.

Clongownians of Distinction

Count Gerald O’Kelly Clongowes 1902-1907 Count Gerald O’Kelly (1890-1968), diplomat, was a native of Gurtray, Portumna, County Galway, who attended Clongowes in 1902-07. His title came from an eighteenth-century ancestor, created a hereditary count of the Holy Roman Empire by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. After school he travelled extensively in the Far East and America, before serving with the army service corps in World War I, when he was wounded in action. His family supported Sinn Féin, and he became Dáil Éireann’s representative in Switzerland in 1919-21 and subsequently the Irish trade agent in Belgium. In 1929 he was appointed first Irish envoy and minister plenipotentiary to France, where he developed excellent social connections that he put to good use on behalf of Irish interests. From 1931 he was also minister (non-resident) to Belgium. Recalled in 1935, he officially retired from the diplomatic service, but was appointed special counsellor to the Irish legations in Brussels and Paris. He was the sole Irish diplomat to remain in Paris throughout World War II, and was responsible for securing the release of many Irish citizens (including several who held British passports) from internment by the Germans. His wine business at 8 Place Vendôme functioned as an unofficial Irish embassy, and it was with O’Kelly that James Joyce’s papers were left, when he fled France in 1940. O’Kelly returned to the official diplomatic service in 1948 as minister to Portugal. After retirement, as chargé d’affaires, he remained comfortably ensconced in the Lisbon embassy residence until his death. He was a collector and connoisseur of old prints. He translated the poetry of Omar Khayyám and the writings of Marco Polo into French. He was a grand officer of the Légion d’honneur, a knight of Malta and a grand officer of the Order of Christ.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1940-1945 Cornelius O’Leary Cornelius O’Leary (1927-2006), political scientist and political activist, born in Limerick but raised in Cork, attended Clongowes in 19405. He graduated in history and Latin from University College Cork in 1949, subsequently completing a doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he published his thesis under the title The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections, 1868-1911 (1962). He joined the staff at Queen’s University Belfast, becoming professor of political science in 1979. He was a popular figure in the university, with both staff and students. His publications were mostly in collaboration with other scholars, and included (with Ian Budge) Belfast: Approach to Crisis: A Study of Belfast Politics, 1613-1970 (1973), (with Sydney Elliott and R.A. Wilford) The Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982-1986: A Constitutional Experiment (1988) and (with Patrick Maume) Controversial Issues in Anglo-Irish Relations, 1910-1921 (2004). He strongly opposed political violence during the upheavels of the Troubles. This led him into the unlikely position of political advisor to the Ulster Defence Association, and he even wrote a paper on Northern Ireland independence. At times he feared for his life. He was vice-chairman of the Irish pro-life campaign. He is buried at Timoleague in County Cork.

Clongownians of Distinction

William O’Leary, SJ Tullabeg 1880 William O’Leary, SJ (1869-1939), seismologist, was a native of Dublin, who attended Tullabeg in 1880. He entered the Jesuits in 1886. Having studied philosophy and astronomy at Louvain and theology in Dublin, he became a science teacher at Clongowes and was ordained in 1906. In 1908 he went to Strasbourg to undertake seismological studies and on his return to Ireland established a meteorological and seismological observatory at Mungret College, where he remained as director until 1915. In collaboration with other observers he carried out a number of upper-air investigations using balloons and completed a new seismograph for earthquake detection and measurement. He subsequently moved to Rathfarnham Castle, where he founded a seismological observatory and constructed a seismograph, which gave excellent service into the 1940s. Aware of the need for very accurate timing in seismology, he developed a free-pendulum clock, which he patented in 1918. A similar clock he later constructed for Washington’s Georgetown University is now in the Smithsonian Institute. In 1929 he went to Australia and became director of the observatory at Riverview College, the Irish Jesuit foundation in Sydney. There he collaborated with the Lembang observatory in Java on a programme of photographic research on variable stars, discovering many that were hitherto unknown. He was an accomplished and a popular speaker and a member of several learned bodies, including the Royal Irish Academy, the Société Astronomique de France, the Seismological Society of America and the Royal Astronomical Society.

Clongownians of Distinction

Tullabeg 1859-1865 William O’Loughlin William O’Loughlin (1849-1912), commodore surgeon RMS Titanic, was a native of Tralee, County Kerry, who attended Tullabeg in 185965. Having completed his medical studies in the Catholic University in Dublin and in St Vincent’s Hospital, he qualified as a doctor in 1871. After briefly acting as medical officer to Clane dispensary, he joined the White Star Line as a ship’s doctor. He made this his career, serving aboard such liners as Majestic, Adriatic, Oceanic and Olympic. He had a reputation for devotion to duty, kindness to all and generosity to charity. In 1912, because of his seniority, he was chosen as senior surgeon aboard the newly launched Titanic. He accepted the appointment with some reluctance because he was ‘tired at this time of life to be changing from one ship to another’. On 14 April, during the voyage to America, he dined in style with the wealthy Astors, Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line and Captain Smith. O’Loughlin proposed the toast (in champagne) ‘to the mighty Titanic’. A few hours later the ship struck the fatal iceberg, sinking with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Numerous eyewitness accounts attest to his coolness and courage during the disaster. An editorial in American Medicine stated that ‘he paid no attention to his own danger, but he went from one group to another, soothing the frightened, encouraging the weak and striving in every way to prevent panic and hysteria’. He declined to wear a life preserver and drowned when the ship went down. Colleagues recalled him often saying that when he died, he wished to be buried at sea. In 1914 the New York Times established a memorial fund to honour him. The money collected went to equip a new emergency ward at St Vincent’s Hospital, New York, an institution with which he had close ties.

Clongownians of Distinction

Donogh O’Malley Clongowes in 1937-1938 Donogh O’ Malley (1921-68), minister for health and minister for education, was a native of Limerick, who attended Clongowes in 1937-8. He graduated as an engineer from UCG (now NUIG) in 1943. He was an outstanding sportsman, winning honours at rugby, swimming and soccer, and also interested in horseracing and greyhounds. His style, outspokenness, gregarious nature and generosity made him immensely popular. In 1954 he won a Dáil seat in Limerick East for Fianna Fáil, topping the poll as he did in every subsequent election. He also sat on Limerick City Council and was mayor of Limerick in 1961, resigning to take office as junior minister in charge of public works. In 1965 he was promoted to the cabinet as minister for health, transferring to the department of education in 1966. With his friends Charles Haughey and Brian Lenihan – ‘the three musketeers’ – he was a leading figure in the new generation of modernising politicians, who were committed to Lemass’s vision of economic expansion and social development. He proved an outstanding and dynamic minister, driven by his genuine social concern to introduce a raft of new policy initiatives, to the horror of civil servants, especially in the department of finance. O’Malley overcame bureaucratic and political opposition by deftly appealing to the public and cultivating the press. His greatest achievements were undoubtedly his 1966 free-education and school-transport schemes (both announced to the public without prior cabinet approval, much less that of the Department of Finance). He also established regional technical colleges (now institutes of technology) and (when minister for health) regional health boards. His sudden death, aged only forty-seven, caused widespread shock and grief. Many felt Ireland had lost a future leader, and he remains an emblem of the lost promise of the 1960s. His wife Hilda, as a young woman, was the inspiration for Patrick Kavanagh’s poem ‘On Raglan Road’.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1914-1921 Alan O’Meara Alan O’Meara (1903-74), professor of medicine and medical scientist, was a native of Skibbereen, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1914-21. He graduated with science and medical degrees from TCD in 1927, subsequently gaining doctorates in medicine and science, and becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. As a student, while studying the growth of staphylococci, he noticed that in time a mould developed. This observation came to the notice of Alexander Fleming and contributed to his discovery of penicillin. O’Meara studied for a time in Leeds, where he introduced what came to be known as O’Meara’s modification of the VogesProskauer reaction, used throughout the world in water analysis and bacterial taxonomy. Working for the Wellcome laboratory, he discovered ‘O’Meara’s method’ of driving copper out of peptones used for bacterial culture, thereby greatly facilitating the production of satisfactory media. He also secured increased production of the tetanus toxoid in anticipation of the coming war. Returning to Trinity at the invitation of the Medical Research Council, he developed the ‘anti-B substance’, a serum factor that conquered virulent diphtheria, which had been a major cause of child mortality up to that time. This was a major contribution to world health. He was appointed professor and made a fellow (later senior fellow) of Trinity. Subsequently he became a leading cancer researcher, earning an international reputation for his work on fibrin in secondary cancers in humans. He was the author of numerous papers on immunology, bacteriology and pathology. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

Clongownians of Distinction

Michael Joseph ‘The O’Rahilly’ Clongowes 1890-1893 Michael Joseph O’Rahilly (1875-1916), nationalist and journalist, killed in action in the Easter Rising of 1916, was a native of Ballylongford, County Kerry, who attended Clongowes in 1890-3. Illness interrupted his subsequent medical studies at UCD, and his father’s death obliged him to return to Kerry to run the family business. His share of funds raised by the sale of the business enabled him to live at different times in Ireland, England and America. Finally settling in Dublin in 1909, he devoted himself to the nationalist cause. From about this time, he habitually used the title ‘The O’Rahilly’ by which he is generally known. In 1910 he was elected to the executive of the Sinn Féin party and mounted a campaign against the 1911 royal visit. He contributed regularly to nationalist publications, such as United Irishman, Sinn Féin, and the republican monthly Irish Freedom. He was active in the Gaelic League, revamping its loss-making paper An Claideamh Soluis. To raise funds, he introduced the American practice of flag days to Ireland, which was soon widely imitated. He was involved in the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and played a central role in their subsequent gun-running and arms procurement activities. In 1916 he sided with Eoin MacNeill against a pre-emptive rising and carried the countermanding order to Limerick. However, when the rebels mobilised in Dublin on Easter Monday, he joined the men he had trained. He described the Rising as ‘madness, but glorious madness’, adding ‘I helped wind the clock, so I might as well hear it strike’. In the General Post Office, with Desmond FitzGerald as his aide-de-camp, he was placed in charge of the roof, food stores and prisoners. When the GPO was evacuated, he was mortally wounded leading a charge on a barricade in Moore Street. He was the only Volunteer officer to be killed in action. One of Yeats’s last poems ‘The O’Rahilly’ (1937) celebrates him as an exemplar of existential heroism.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1825-1830 Edmund O’Reilly, SJ Edmund O’Reilly, SJ (1811-78), theologian, born in London but brought up in County Limerick, attended Clongowes in 1825-30. He studied for the priesthood, first in Maynooth and then in Rome, where he became a close friend of Paul Cullen, rector of the Irish College and later archbishop of Dublin. In 1835 he graduated with a doctorate in divinity. Ordained for Limerick diocese in 1838, he was immediately appointed to the chair of dogmatic theology at Maynooth. He was renowned for his theological knowledge and frequently advised Irish bishops on theological matters and on points of sacred learning generally. At one time he was considered for a theological chair in Rome. In 1850 he was theologian to Archbishop Cullen at the synod of Thurles. In 1851 he resigned from Maynooth to become a Jesuit, taking his final vows in 1862. He was appointed professor of theology at the Catholic University of Dublin, where he became a close associate of John Henry Newman. In 1859 he founded the Jesuit house of studies at Milltown Park, of which he was rector until his death. In 1863-70 he was provincial of the Irish province. He published numerous theological articles, and a collection of his writings, edited by Matthew Russell (whom he had helped to edit Irish Monthly) was published in 1892 under the title The Relations of the Church to Society.

Clongownians of Distinction

John Marcus O’Sullivan Clongowes 1897-1898 John Marcus O’ Sullivan (1881-1948), minister for education, was a native of Killarney, who attended Clongowes in 1897-8. As a student at UCD, he won a gold medal for oratory in the Literary and Historical Society. Gaining an MA in philosophy, he was awarded a fellowship that allowed him to travel for further studies to Germany, where he received a doctorate at Heidelberg for his dissertation on Kant and Hegel, subsequently published in English as Old Criticism and New Pragmatism (1909). He failed to get the chair of philosophy at UCD, but instead was made professor of history, which had been a subsidiary subject in his primary degree. He was an excellent and inspiring teacher, but did little to encourage research. His own output was largely confined to articles in Studies, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record and more popular magazines. His views were those of a conservative Catholic, and he regarded philosophers of change, from Luther to Lenin, as prophets of disorder and disunion. He supported the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, and was elected Cumann na nGaedheal TD for County Kerry in 1923, holding his Dáil seat for the next twenty years. He was an effective parliamentarian, able to research and expound on the most diverse subjects. His first government appointment was in charge of public works. In 1926-32 he was minister for education. He proved a capable administrator, although his scope for action was limited by his belief that the primary responsibility for education lay with the churches. His major legislative achievement was the Vocational Education Act of 1930. He represented Ireland at the League of Nations throughout the 1920s and was president of the fifth commission of the League in 1930. He was an active and articulate opposition spokesman in the Dáil after Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932. He also served on the governing body of UCD and the NUI Senate.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1843-1847 Christopher Palles Christopher Palles (1831-1920), chief baron of the exchequer court, was a native of Mountnugent, County Cavan, who attended Clongowes in 1843-7. Graduating from Trinity with a BA in mathematics in 1852, he was admitted to the King’s Inns and to Gray’s Inn, and called to the bar in 1853. His skills at presenting cases, cross examination and drafting pleadings gradually won him a large practice, and he took silk in 1865. A Liberal supporter, he became successively crown prosecutor for Kildare, solicitor general and attorney general. In 1874 Gladstone appointed him chief baron of the Irish exchequer, then one of the four senior Irish common law courts. When these were integrated with chancery as the High Court, Palles retained his title, retiring from the bench only in 1916 at the age of eighty-five. In the course of his long judicial tenure he achieved an extraordinary reputation throughout the common law world. A fellow judge in a posthumous tribute singled out his ‘mastery of law as a science in all its ramifications; his penetrating research; his remarkable case memory; his grasp of common law, of equity and of statute law; his assimilation of every branch of jurisprudence; [and] his methods of historical ratiocination, convincing deduction, and lucid exposition’. Many of his judgements are part of the canon of common law. To all, he was courteous, dignified and fearlessly impartial. He served on the board of national education and the senate of the National University of Ireland. He was awarded several honorary degrees. He was the first president of the Clongowes Union, which was founded in his house, and he held the office until his death. His portrait hangs in TCD, and there is a copy in the King’s Inns. He was the subject of a biography (1960) by fellow-Clongownian, Professor V.T.H. Delany of TCD.

Clongownians of Distinction

Roland Paoletti Clongowes 1942-1949 Roland Paoletti (1931-2013), architect, was a native of London, who attended Clongowes in 1942-9. He went to the Manchester School of Architecture, where he was a contemporary of Norman Foster. His first important job was with Basil Spence, then busy with Coventry Cathedral. Subsequently he reconnected with his Italian roots by attending the Istituto Universitario in Venice, then a highly creative environment where Franco Albini, Giancarlo de Carlo and Carlo Scarpa all taught. He ran Spence’s Rome office, working on projects such as the new papal audience chamber in the Vatican. Next he moved to Hong Kong to coordinate the architecture of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Authority. This experience prepared him for his major achievement, which was as chief architect of the £3 billion London Jubilee Line extension. No engineer was appointed at the outset, and Paoletti seized the opportunity to procure the most talented architectural firms to design eleven new stations along the line. Two – Waterloo and London Bridge – were by his own in-house team. The influential Architectural Review hailed him as ‘the Medici of London Transport’. Most of the Jubilee line is deep, and Paoletti applied a design philosophy in which the stations were conceived as huge cathedral-like spaces of concrete and glass that allowed natural light to pour down into the basements below. ‘For the price of an underground ticket,’ he declared, ‘you will see some of the greatest contributions to engineering and architecture worldwide’. The result was a unique variety of architectural statements: each station different, but all beautiful and awe-inspiring. With their swagger and individualism, the stations have been widely acclaimed as a tour de force in public-transport architecture. Although Paoletti lived for his work, he was well read and had broad interests. Increasingly religious in his latter years, he referred gratefully to his Jesuit education. He was appointed a commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1867-1869 Count George Noble Plunkett Count George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948), revolutionary and scholar, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1867-9. He travelled widely, and much of his early life was spent studying renaissance art, but he eventually graduated BA from Trinity in 1884 and was called to the bar in 1886. He was privately wealthy. In 1884 Pope Leo XIII made him a papal count for his generosity to the nursing congregation, the Little Company of Mary. He wrote a number of books, including standard biographies of the Italian artists Botticelli (1900) and Pinelli (1908), Architecture of Dublin (1911) and several collections of his poetry. He also co-edited Charles O’Kelly’s account of the Jacobite war (1894) and revised Margaret Stokes’s Early Christian Art in Ireland (1911). In 1907 he became director of the National Museum of Ireland and took steps to greatly increase attendances. Politically, he grew increasingly radical. He took Parnell’s side in the wake of the O’Shea divorce case, and was subsequently sworn into the IRB by his republican son, Joseph, one of the 1916 leaders executed after the Rising. Both his other sons were also involved. After it, he was sacked from the National Museum and deported to Oxford. All this led to his nomination as the republican candidate in the 1917 Roscommon by-election, which he won easily, but refused to take his seat in Westminster. He was returned again at the 1918 election and presided over the opening session of the first Dáil. He was successively minister for external affairs and for the arts. He opposed the treaty, but remained in politics, although interned. When de Valera formed Fianna Fáil, he remained with Sinn Féin and lost his Dáil seat in the 1927 election. In 1938, with six other abstentionist second-Dáil TDs, he transferred republican sovereignty to the IRA army council. Always courteous, his oratory was more suited to a learned gathering than to the rough and tumble of revolutionary politics.

Clongownians of Distinction

John Redmond Clongowes 1868-1874 John Redmond (1856-1918), leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was born in Dublin, but grew up in County Wexford. In 1868-74 he attended Clongowes, where he excelled at acting and debating. He attended Trinity, but left without taking a degree. He was called to the bar in 1886. In 1881 he was elected MP for New Ross for Parnell’s grouping, soon to be reconstituted as the Irish Parliamentary Party. From 1891 he sat for Waterford. On his first day in parliament, he made his maiden speech and was also expelled from the house. He became chief whip, and with his brother Willie toured America, Australia and New Zealand to raise funds for the party. Both Redmonds were jailed in 1888 for their role in the campaign to reduce agricultural rents. He supported Parnell after the party split in the wake of the O’Shea divorce scandal. He strove for reconciliation, and in 1900 he was unanimously elected chairman when the party reunited. He was a superb orator and proved a tough and an effective political leader. Debate, consensus and parliamentary activity were the hallmarks of his political career. He played a major role in securing the Wyndham Act, which allowed more than 200,000 tenants to buy their farms on reasonable terms. He drove through the enactment of the Irish Universities Bill. His major objective was to secure Home Rule. This appeared to have been achieved in 1914, but its implementation and the troubled question of Ulster’s exclusion were deferred by the outbreak of World War I. Otherwise, he would have headed the new Irish administration. His support for the war – honourably intended, but arguably misjudged – split Irish nationalism. Huge numbers of Irishmen enlisted and died. (They included more than 600 Clongownians who enlisted, of whom 95 died.) The deferment of Home Rule, the duration of the war, the 1916 Rising by the dissidents and the threat of conscription all brought about a sharp decline in Redmond’s public support. The death of his brother, Willie, in the war was an added blow. His aspiration for a peaceful Irish settlement shattered, he died disillusioned in 1918. In the subsequent general election, his party was routed by the more militant Sinn Féin.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1873-1876 William ‘Willie’ Hoey Redmond William ‘Willie’ Hoey Redmond (1861-1917), nationalist politician and soldier, was born in Liverpool, but grew up in County Wexford. He attended Clongowes in 1873-6. He was the younger brother and close confidant of John Redmond, although much more outgoing in personality. He spent time as a merchant sailor and contemplated the army as a career, but instead became involved in the Land League agitation, which resulted in the first of several spells in jail. He was elected MP for Wexford borough in 1883, and subsequently represented Fermanagh North and Clare West. He travelled extensively, raising funds for Irish political causes in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and America. He was a popular figure in the House of Commons, passionate and theatrical as a speaker, although not rated a deep thinker. He was more progressive than his brother in his social and economic thinking, opposing the Boer War, while supporting women’s suffrage and old-age pensions. His belief that the Ulster Unionists could be brought round to accepting Home Rule, if the two traditions fought side by side, was one of the reasons he enlisted in the 16th (Irish) Division in World War I. Despite his age, he went to the Western Front, from which he wrote regularly for the newspapers. He was badly shaken by the Easter Rising, which convinced him of the folly of constitutional nationalism’s support for the war. However, he was much too chivalrous to think of deserting his comrades. In 1917 he was mortally wounded in the attack on Wytschaete in Belgium, and buried in a convent garden in Loker. His death was widely mourned, and his bust by Oliver Sheppard stands in a park in Wexford town.

Clongownians of Distinction

Pat Reid Clongowes 1921-1922 Pat Reid (1910-90), escape officer, British diplomat and author, was born in India, the son of a civil servant, and attended Clongowes in 1921-2. He attended King’s College London and worked as a civil engineer until 1939, when he enlisted in the army and was captured in France in 1940. Dressed as a woman, he escaped through a tunnel from Laufen prison camp in Austria, but was recaptured within a week. He was then sent to Colditz Castle in Saxony, the supposedly impregnable prison for escape-prone Allied prisoners. He became British escape officer and masterminded several escape attempts, including that of Airey Neave, the first that was successful. In October 1942 he organised his own escape with three companions, by loosening window bars with a saw smuggled in in a food parcel. They evaded the security with the help of a ‘music practice’ conducted by the legless pilot Douglas Bader, who stopped and started the prison band in coordination with the patrols of sentries. All four reached Switzerland safely. Reid was awarded the Military Cross and promoted major. He remained in Switzerland as a military attaché, largely concerned with military intelligence and working closely with the French resistance. He remained on in the diplomatic service after the war, working in commercial affairs and then on the staff of OEEC in Paris in the distribution of Marshall aid. He became famous with his book The Colditz Story (1952), followed by The Latter Days at Colditz (1953). These accounts of prison escapes were made into a successful film (1955), in which John Mills starred as Reid, and a classic TV series (1972-4). He wrote several subsequent books about wartime escapes. He stood for the Conservatives in the 1955 general election, but failed to get elected. He subsequently worked as a civil engineer. It is a school tradition that his first ‘break’ for freedom was from Clongowes!

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1899-1903 John Robinson John Robinson (1887-1965), architect, was a native of Glenageary, County Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1899-1903. He briefly studied for the priesthood and was then apprenticed as an architect. After working in London, he returned to Dublin to form a lasting partnership with his fellow Clongownian (1901-2), Cyril Keefe. The firm became the favourite architects of the Catholic hierarchy and built numerous churches, especially in Dublin’s swelling suburbs. The churchmen of the time were rigidly conservative, and Robinson and Keefe initially adopted a Hiberno-Romanesque style, later changing to Lombardic-Romanesque, which was spacious and inexpensive, but still traditional. He was the official architect to the 1932 Eucharistic Congress. Robinson was able to indulge his taste for more contemporary art-deco architecture in commercial buildings, vocational schools and cinemas. Notable Dublin examples are the Gas Company offices (now the Trinity School of Nursing) in D’Olier Street, the Carlton Cinema in O’Connell Street, Cathal Brugha Street Catering College and the daring Sweepstakes building (now demolished) in Ballsbridge. The firm received a fresh injection of modernism when it was joined by a third Clongownian, Andrew Devane (1929-36), and was reconstituted as Robinson, Keefe and Devane. Robinson’s final major commission was the very traditional new Galway Cathedral (1957-65). He was a papal knight of the Order of St Gregory and active in the Knights of Malta. As president of the Clongowes Union in 1939-42, he promoted social action by launching the Clongowes Youth Club in Dublin. His son, Patrick Robinson, who attended Clongowes in 1929-35, is also a distinguished architect.

Clongownians of Distinction

Jack Kelly-Rogers Clongowes 1916-1919 Jack Kelly-Rogers (1905-81), aviation pioneer, was a native of Dún Laoghaire who attended Clongowes in 1916-19. He was sent to the naval-training ship Conway, moored on the Mersey, before joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in which he served aboard an aircraft carrier. Transferring to the Royal Air Force, he was commissioned a pilot officer in 1927. Aviation became his career, especially on the flying-boats, which his naval service had taught him to understand intimately. Based at the flying-boat training school at Southampton, he gained world-wide experience. In 1935 he was recruited by Imperial Airways (later BOAC). He became commanding officer of its flying-boats, ferrying passengers to Australia, South Africa and America. In 1938 he tested the first in-flight re-fuelling of flying boats. He made the first scheduled west and eastbound airmail flights across the Atlantic by a European operator, landing at Foynes to be greeted by Éamon de Valera. In 1940, in a famous wartime episode, he flew the four-engine flying-boat Corsair out of the narrow Dungu River in the Congo, where it had been marooned for ten months. That same year he flew the first passenger flight to and from America, and was the first overseas pilot to land at LaGuardia Airport, New York. In 1942 he flew Winston Churchill home from America, allowing him to take the flying-boat’s controls for a time. In 1946 he inaugurated the first land-plane services between Britain and New York, which ended the era of the flying-boats. In 1947 he became technical manager of Aer Lingus. He wrote extensively on aviation matters and became a fellow and president of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was interested in aviation history. In 1959 he played a leading role in establishing a monument in Connemara commemorating the pioneering transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown. He collected items of Irish aviation interest, and was primarily responsible for the creation of a short-lived Irish aviation museum at Dublin Airport. There is a Clongowes tradition that he once landed a plane on the hallowed turf of the cricket crease.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1851-1852 Comte Henri Russell Comte Henri Russell (1834-1909), pioneering mountaineer, was a native of Toulouse, but the son of an Irish father. He attended Clongowes in 1851-2. Funded by his private fortune, he travelled extensively, visiting North America, crossing through Russia to China and then touring Australia, New Zealand and India. He was an eccentric, with a great love of the mountainous outdoors and a deep respect for the natural environment. He is often called ‘the Irishman who conquered the Pyrenees’ and certainly from 1861 their exploration became his passion. On his own or with guides, he made numerous first ascents of different mountains and eventually climbed every peak on both the Spanish and French sides of the range. He is especially known for his association with the Vignemale, the highest peak of the French Pyrenees, which he scaled many times. In 1882-93 he built ‘Chez Russell’, a residential complex in a series of man-made caves on the mountain. It was blessed by a priest and became the venue for sumptuous and legendary banquets, where as ‘the comte des monts’ he entertained visiting princes and notables. In 1884 he achieved a great ambition by lying in a sleeping bag in his cave at the edge of a glacier, enjoying a cigar and a mug of rum punch, while ball lightning rolled down the mountain in a thunderstorm that felt like an earthquake. His seventh and final cave, Le Paradis, was constructed in 1893 close to the summit of the Vignemale. It was here that he celebrated his ‘silver wedding’ (to the mountain), marking the twenty-five years that had passed since his first ascent. He made his thirty-third and final ascent of the Vignemale in 1904. He formed the Société Ramond for the scientific and ethnographic study of the Pyrenees. He was a member of the Alpine Club, and of the Geographical and Geological Societies of France. He popularised the sleeping bag, hitherto only used by shepherds in the mountains. He wrote more than a dozen books and has had nearly as many written about him. He died in Biarritz and is buried in Pau. The Pic de Russell (which he first climbed in 1865) in the Pyrenean Maladeta massif is named after him. His statue is to be seen at Gavarnie.

Clongownians of Distinction

Finbar Ryan, OP Clongowes 1898-1899 Finbar Ryan, OP (1881-1975), archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad, was a native of Rochestown, County Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1898-9. He entered the Dominican Order and in 1905 was ordained at San Clemente in Rome. He taught at Newbridge College, where he became dean. He was subsequently prior at St Saviour’s in Dublin and St Mary’s in Cork. He founded The Imeldist, a religious magazine for children and edited The Irish Rosary, both Dominican publications. An outstanding preacher and lecturer, he was twice elected provincial of the Dominican order in Ireland. He was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1937, succeeding as archbishop in 1940. His authority extended to several other islands in the West Indies. He built churches and founded the diocesan seminary. He was active as a school builder and strongly promoted Catholic education. He wrote the first book in English on the Fatima apparitions (1939), which ran to several editions. In 1962 he was the most senior religious leader to officiate at the ceremonies marking the independence of Trinidad and Tobago, and the new government awarded him the Trinity Cross. He was also a freeman of Cork, a papal count and a grand officer of the Supreme Order of Christ. Although he allowed steel-pan music to be played in Trinidad churches, he was generally authoritarian and traditionalist, like his close friend, Archbishop McQuaid of Dublin. He attended the Second Vatican Council, but it is likely that he found its deliberations and decrees less than congenial. He retired to the Dominican Retreat House in Cork in 1966.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1912-1917 Michael Rynne Michael Rynne (1899-1981), republican activist, soldier and diplomat, was a native of Ennistymon, County Clare, who attended Clongowes in 1912-17. He attended UCD, where he was president of the Students’ Representative Council. He graduated BA in 1920 and was called to the bar in 1924. He subsequently studied international law on the Continent, earning his doctorate from the University of Munich in 1929. He had joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917 and saw active service in the war of independence. He was involved in the events of Bloody Sunday and served as a staff officer in the IRA headquarters, where he was a close associate of Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy. He commanded the Blessington (County Wicklow) flying column in 1921. He resigned from the army after the civil war. In 1932 he became a legal adviser in the Department of External Affairs. After Éamon de Valera took power, he advised him on such matters as the League of Nations and the dismantling of the 1921 treaty. By 1950 he was an assistant secretary and dealt with the preliminary stages of Ireland’s application to join the United Nations. In 1955 he was appointed ambassador to Spain and retired in 1961. Under the pen name Andrew Lysaght, he wrote poems, short stories, radio plays and songs. His son Etienne Rynne, who attended Clongowes in 1948-50, was a distinguished archaeologist.

Clongownians of Distinction

Charles Sheil Clongowes 1910-1914 Charles Sheil (1897-1968), judge of the Northern Ireland High Court, was a native of Portadown, County Armagh, who attended Clongowes in 1910-14. He graduated from Queen’s University Belfast and was called to the bar in 1921. Combining eloquence and common sense with a clear and logical mind, he was a successful advocate and soon built up a large practice in Northern Ireland. He became a king’s counsel in 1943. He was crown counsel for Antrim in 1926-43 and then county court judge for Tyrone. In 1949 he was appointed to the High Court, and for the next twenty years he was the sole Catholic member of the Northern Ireland superior-courts judiciary. As a judge, he was dignified without being pompous, and commanded universal respect for his courtesy, good humour and skill at charging a jury in the most complex of cases. Off the bench he was a most convivial and witty companion. He had a strong religious faith and was extremely ecumenical in outlook. He served for twenty-five years on the senate of Queen’s University and was a governor of Armagh Observatory. In 1936 he spoke at the first dinner of the Ulster branch of the Clongowes Union, of which in 1955 he was elected president. His three sons attended Clongowes, one being Father Michael Sheil SJ, current rector of Clongowes, and another, Sir John Sheil, a Northern Ireland Appeals Court judge.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1949-1956 Sir John Sheil Sir John Sheil (b.1938), lord justice of appeal in Northern Ireland, was a native of Belfast, who attended Clongowes in 1949-56. He was educated at Queen’s University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin. He was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1964, becoming a queen’s counsel in 1975. He was elected a bencher of the Northern Ireland Inn of Court in 1988. He served as a judge of the Northern Ireland High Court in 1989-2004, becoming a lord justice of appeal in 2004. He was chairman of the mental-health review tribunal in 1985-7 and of the fair-employment appeals board in 1986-9. He was also a member of the British Council. In 2010 he was appointed to the surveillance commission, the body responsible for overseeing the use of covert surveillance by public authorities in the UK. He was knighted in 1989, appointed to the privy council in 2004 and made an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple in 2005. He was president of the Clongowes Union in 2000. In 2008 his twin brother, Father Michael Sheil SJ, current rector of Clongowes, was also president of the Clongowes Union. Lady Brenda Sheil, Sir John’s wife, is a lay canon of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, and his son Michael, also a Clongownian (1994-9) is following the family tradition at the Northern Ireland bar in Belfast.

Clongownians of Distinction

John Sisk Clongowes 1922-1927 John Sisk (1911-2001), civil engineer and businessman, was a native of Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1922-7. He graduated from UCD with a civil-engineering degree, before joining his father’s building firm, where he gained a practical knowledge of joinery and natural stonework. He opened a branch of the firm in Dublin and obtained the contract for the new department of industry and commerce in Kildare Street, which he built in 1939-42. During World War II he built bases for the American army in Northern Ireland. After the war, he won contracts for sanatoria and the new Galway cathedral. When he gained overall control of the family construction firm, he merged the Cork and Dublin branches to create a more cohesive corporate structure. He grew the firm into the largest in the Irish construction market (a position it still holds), winning many significant overseas contracts. He introduced performance-incentive schemes for his staff, together with other innovations such as the tower crane. He looked beyond Britain for business opportunities, obtaining the distribution rights for Bosch electrical hand tools. The success of a temporary partnership with a Dutch firm to build Wexford bridge led to a permanent relationship under the name Ascon, which became the largest civil-engineering firm in Ireland. He was a fellow of the Institute of Engineers. He believed that managers should retire at sixty, and in 1974 he followed his own advice. He was a generous benefactor of charitable causes, but disliked any publicity. However, his generosity was rewarded with the Dutch Order of Oranje-Nassau and a papal commendation.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1948-1953 Sir Michael Smurfit Sir Michael Smurfit (b.1936), businessman and entrepreneur, was born in England but grew up in Ireland. He attended Clongowes in 1948-53, but left, aged sixteen, to join his father’s Dublin-based packaging company, Jefferson Smurfit & Sons Ltd. In 1967 he was appointed joint managing director, and over the next thirty-five years he led the company into major expansion throughout the world, becoming chairman and chief executive in 1977. He proved an outstanding businessman, who developed the Smurfit Group into Ireland’s first international company. Following the merger of the Smurfit Group with Kappa Packaging BV in 2005, the re-named Smurfit Kappa Group employed 42,000 workers in thirty-three countries on five continents and had sales of €6 billion. His other interests are golf (he co-owns the K Club in County Kildare, which hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup) and art collecting. He is a generous benefactor of charities and education. The postgraduate business school at UCD is named after him as a result of his financial support. He was president of the Clongowes Union in 2012. He is honorary Irish consul in Monaco, where he lives. He was knighted in 2005 and has been honoured by many governments and universities.

Clongownians of Distinction

William Starkie Clongowes 1876 William Starkie (1860-1920), classical scholar and educationist, was born at Ross’s Point, County Sligo, but grew up at Rosscarbery in County Cork. He attended Clongowes in 1876 and was then sent to Shrewsbury School in England, where he became head boy. After graduating from Cambridge University, he became professor of classics at the Catholic University in Dublin, before moving to Trinity where he was elected a fellow in 1890. His translation of The Wasps by Aristophanes (1897) was highly regarded. In 1897 he was appointed president of Queen’s College Galway (now NUIG) and to the professorship of history, English literature and philosophy. He returned to Dublin in 1890 to the important and influential office of resident commissioner of national education. He tackled the job with vigour and reforming zeal. He abolished the system by which teachers’ salaries depended on the results of annual oral examinations of their pupils. However, his campaign to amalgamate small schools failed because of opposition from the Catholic clergy. He gained a reputation for being anti-clerical and anti-Irish, despite his personal fidelity to Catholicism and the extensive reforms he made to the primary-school curriculum. These included the introduction to the syllabus of Irish history, geography and language studies, all hitherto disregarded because they were deemed potentially subversive. He introduced science and was also responsible for making Shakespeare familiar to national-school children. He fought for better standards of hygiene and improved facilities. He regularly visited schools himself and laid great emphasis on a teacher’s performance, based on his belief that ‘the crown of all education is the priceless contact with an inspiring personality’. No nationalist in a political sense, he feared assassination during the Troubles. His son Walter, professor of Spanish and lecturer in Italian at Trinity, was a noted authority on Spanish literature as well as a writer of essayistic travelogues. His daughter, Enid, was a well-known French scholar at Oxford.

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Clongowes 1833-1836 Bartholomew Woodlock Bartholomew Woodlock (1819-1902), bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise and rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1833-6. He studied at the Roman seminary in the palace of Sant’ Apollinare and in 1841 was ordained priest for the Dublin diocese. He received his doctorate in divinity the following year. In 1842, he helped found All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin, for the education of priests for the foreign and colonial English-speaking missions. He became the college’s third president in 1854-61 and was made a monsignor in 1855. He was a founder member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ireland in 1844 and its spiritual director for many years. In 1861-79 he was rector of the Catholic University of Ireland in succession to John Henry Newman. He believed that Catholic education should be integrated and under the control of the bishops. However, his ambitious plans for the university’s development were largely unsuccessful. A scheme to build a new college at Drumcondra was a failure, and he experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining financial support from the hierarchy to expand, or even operate, the existing college. By the 1870s the university had only a handful of students and professors. He resigned, when he was appointed bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 1880. He was extremely active in introducing educational congregations into the diocese. He supported early restoration work at the famous Early Christian site at Clonmacnoise. He exhausted his private funds to complete St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford. In 1891 ill health forced him to resign, and he retired to All Hallows. He is buried in Longford.

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Procedure for nomination of candidates for inclusion in the Serpentine Clongowes welcomes suggestions for the inclusion of further portraits in the Serpentine collection. Candidates must have spent some time as a student at Clongowes. A precondition for inclusion is that a candidate must normally be either retired or dead. However, this can be waived in very exceptional cases. Typically a candidate should possess one or more of the following characteristics: fame; great distinction or a pioneering role in his field; a notable achievement; appointment to an important office of state or to high rank in the public service (national or international); a significant contribution to religion, scholarship, education, business, the learned professions or the arts; prominent participation in famous events. However, other grounds for inclusion are not ruled out. Cabinet ministers, bishops, Supreme Court judges and university heads qualify for inclusion automatically. A suggestion for inclusion should give the main facts of a candidate’s career, including dates of birth, death and Clongowes attendance. It should state why he is considered worthy of inclusion. It should provide information on where a suitable portrait illustration of the candidate can be sourced. On receipt of a suggestion, the headmaster will normally refer it to the Serpentine panel for advice. The decision to include the candidate or not, as the case may be, will then be taken by the headmaster.

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I Photograph credits & copyright The author/editor and Clongowes Wood College SJ as publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Alfred Aylward ................................................................CWC Daniel Binchy .............................................................Family Thomas Bodkin ..............................................................CWC Frederick Boland ............................................................CWC Joseph Brennan .........................................................Family Stephen Brown, SJ .................................. Irish Jesuit Archive John Bruton ................................................................Family James Aloysius Burke/ Séamus de Búrca ............................. Sir William Butler ..........................................................CWC John Conmee, SJ ...........................................................CWC James Corboy, SJ ...........................................................CWC Timothy Corcoran, SJ .....................................................CWC Michael Courtney .......................................................Family Edward Coyne, SJ ................................... Irish Jesuit Archive Thomas Crean ......................Imperial War Museum, London George Crosbie ...........................................................Family Sir Francis Cruise .......................Royal College of Physicians James Cullen, SJ ...........................................................CWC Patrick Cunningham ...................................................Family Joseph Dalton, SJ ........................Riverview College, Sydney James Deeny ..............................................................Family Andrew Devane ...........................Robinson, Keith & Devane William Doolin ...........................................................Family Eugene Esmonde .......................................................Family Thomas Esmonde ..........................................................CWC Thomas Finlay .............................................................Family Hugh Geoghegan .......................................................Family Oliver St John Gogarty ...................................................CWC Aubrey Gwynn, SJ ..................................Irish Jesuit Archives Francis Hackett .................................U.S. Library of Congress William Hackett, SJ ................................Irish Jesuit Archives James Hanlon .............................................................Family Richard James ‘Jim’ Hayes ............................................CWC George Hodnett ..........................................................Family James Hogan .................................. National Photo Archives

John Vincent Holland ................ Irish War Museum, London Sir Andrew Horne ..........................................................CWC James Joyce ..................................................................CWC James Fitzgerald-Kenney ...................................................... Thomas ‘Tom’ Kettle .......................................................CWC Sir Gilbert Laithwaite .....................................................CWC Thomas Lane ...............................................................Family Matthew Lawless ...............National Portrail Gallery, London Patrick ‘P.J.’ Little .........................................................Family Enoch Louis Lowe ..........................................................CWC James Lynch .................Dios.Kildare & Leighlin (Delaney Trust) Aidan Joseph MacCarthy ............... book Robson Publicatons Niall St John McCarthy ...............................................Family Oliver MacDonagh .............................................CWC/Family Patrick McGilligan .......................................................Family Sir Ambrose McGonigal ..............................................Family Sir Joseph McGrath .......................................................CWC Edward ‘Ned’ McGuire ................................... Fitzwilliam LTC Thomas McNevin ...........................................................CWC John Charles McQuaid ..................................................CWC Conor Maguire ..................................................................... James ‘The O’Gorman’ Mahon ............................................. Francis Mahony ‘Father Prout’ .............................................. Thomas Francis Meagher ...............................................CWC Charles Mitchel ................................................................RTÉ Thomas Murphy ..........................................................Family John Naish ............................................................................ Peter Baron O’Brien of Kilfenora ................... The Law Library Jeremiah Joseph ‘Ginger’ O’Connell ......................... National Photo Archives Roderick ‘Rory’ O’Connor ................ National Photo Archives Sir Nicholas O’Conor ......................................................CWC Kevin O’Higgins .............................................................CWC Thomas O’Higgins ......................................................Family Count Gerald O’Kelly ........................Dept. of Foreign Affairs Clongownians of Distinction

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Photograph credits & copyright

Cornelius O’Leary .........................Queens University, Belfast William O’Leary, SJ ......................Riverview College, Sydney William O’Loughlin .......................................................CWC Donogh O’Malley ................................................................. Alan O’Meara ..............................................................Family Michael Joseph ‘The O’Rahilly’ ...................................Family Edmund O’Reilly, SJ ............................... Irish Jesuit Archive John Marcus O’Sullivan .................................................CWC Christopher Palles ..........................................................CWC Roland Paoletti ....................The Architects’ Journal, London Count George Noble Plunkett ....................................... National Photo Archives John Redmond ..............................................................CWC

William ‘Willie’ Hoey Redmond............................................ Pat Reid ..........................................................................CWC John Robinson ................................................................. 91 Jack Kelly-Rogers ........................................................Family Comte Henri Russell ......................................................CWC Finbar Ryan, OP .............................................................CWC Michael Rynne ...................................................................... Charles Sheil ..................................................................CWC Sir John Sheil ..............................................................Family John Sisk ..................................................................Hal Sisk Sir Michael Smurfit .....................................................Family William Starkie .............................................................. UCG Bartholomew Woodlock ........ Dios. Ardagh & Clonmacnoise

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The author/editor and Clongowes Wood College SJ apologises for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

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A SUPPLEMENT TO

ClongoWnians DISTINCTION

HARMAN MURTAGH

First published 2014 Supplement 2019

Clongowes Wood College SJ Clane Co Kildare

A SUPPLEMENT TO

ClongoWnians DISTINCTION

HARMAN MURTAGH

Contents

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

MICHAEL BOLAND (Clongowes 1960-1966) Physician and President of World Organisation of General Practitioners

HUGH COVENEY (Clongowes 1950-1953) Hugh Coveney: Minister for the Marine, Lord Mayor of Cork 1982-1983.

NIAL FENNELLY (Clongowes 1953-1959) Judge of the Supreme Court

AIDAN HIGGINS (Clongowes 1942-1946) Writer

PIERCE MCCAN (Clongowes 1899-1900) Republican activist and Sinn Féin MP

DANIEL O’CONNELL (Clongowes 1911-1913) Astronomer and Seismologist

THOMAS O’HIGGINS (Clongowes 1903-1906) Minister for Defence

JAMES O’MARA (Clongowes 1888-1892) Sinn Féin MP and fund-raiser

Clongownians of Distinction

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

or many years the Serpentine corridor at Clongowes has been used to hang portrait photographs of distinguished Clongownians. Additions (and sometimes subtractions) were made in no very systematic way, and the collection had a rather Edwardian character. Nevertheless, it was a very familiar part of the school, well remembered by generations of Clongowes students. In 2003-4, as part of a general scheme of improvement, the Serpentine was rebuilt and its display potential greatly improved. In preparation for the Clongowes bicentenary in 2014, it was decided to re-hang the Serpentine, standardising to some extent the criteria for inclusion, and identifying suitable new candidates to modernise the collection and make it more representative. A small committee, reporting to the then Headmaster, Father Leonard Moloney SJ, was formed in 2012. It comprised the Rector, Father Michael Sheil SJ, himself an old Clongowian (1949-56), with two other old Clongownians, David Keogh (1961-5) an architect, and Harman Murtagh (1957-62), a historian, together with Margaret Doyle, the college archivist.

Through many meetings over the two years the committee formulated a policy for inclusion, researched and selected candidates who met their criteria, and procured suitable portrait photographs. It was agreed that only those who were deceased or retired would be included, except perhaps in the most exceptional circumstances. Inclusion would be automatic for cabinet ministers, bishops, the most senior judges and university heads. A candidate’s chances were greatly strengthened by his inclusion in the Dictionary of Irish Biography or the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, authoritative publications, which are the major source for many of the biographical notes in this publication. After that, the selection was made on the basis of distinction in any field, a colourful career and inclusivity. Republicans hang beside VCs; archbishops beside writers; judges beside businessmen; physicians beside diplomats; architects beside politicians; scientists beside social activists; scholars beside aviators. The choice is not judgemental, the sole criteria being that all are of course Clongownians or Tullabegians of distinction. (Tullabeg, a Jesuit College at Rahan County Offaly, merged with Clongowes in 1886.) Most of those recognised of course are no longer household names, if indeed they ever were-sic transit gloria mundi! - but all had noteworthy careers and achievements, and many made an important, original or colourful contribution to their times, and often to the benefit of posterity. No one is excluded on grounds of prejudice or persuasion, political or otherwise. Some suggestions evoked considerable debate, but on those ultimately selected the committee was unanimous. Sportsmen will have a gallery to themselves. The selection of its nature is incomplete. Suggestions for further additions can be considered, if made to the Headmaster, supported by a case for the candidate’s inclusion and accompanied by information on where to source a suitable portrait photograph. The Serpentine committee will then advise the Headmaster of their view on the appropriateness of the nominee for inclusion. The pictures are hung in a fairly haphazard arrangement. For ease of reference, this guide is arranged alphabetically, according to surname. The purpose of the guide is to supply a short biography of each of those selected for inclusion in the Serpentine. A wider knowledge of the identities and achievements of the hundred or so ‘Serpentine rogues’ will surely strengthen Clongowes tradition and pride and may be an inspiration to the present and future students at the school. The committee is grateful to all who have helped in this project, especially by sourcing photographs or providing information. For us, researching the lives and portraits of so many Clongownians of outstanding distinction has been a rewarding voyage of discovery, leaving us simultaneously both proud and humbled by the achievement of this great Jesuit school. We hope that you will share these sentiments.

Harman Murtagh 2014 Clongownians of Distinction

Michael Boland

Clongowes 1960-1966

ichael Boland (b. 1948), physician and president of the World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (WONCA), is a native of Skibbereen, Co. Cork, who attended Clongowes from 1960 to 1966, where he was school captain, and afterwards studied medicine at UCD, graduating in 1972. After completing general-practice training in Cork, he settled in Skibbereen to work as a general practitioner. In 1979 he became active in furthering continued medical education for general practitioners by small-group learning in each locality. Sensing the need for an academic structure, he played a key role in the establishment of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) in 1984, and was its first chairman. Within three years 95 per cent of Irish GPs had become members, recognising its efficacy in employing a wide variety of delivery methods to bring further education to as many as possible. As a member of the Medical Council, he was instrumental in securing official recognition of general practice as a specialty in medicine in 1979. He was the founding Irish member of the European Academy of Teachers of General Practice and a council member for twenty years. Graduating to the world organisation of general practitioners, he joined the council of WONCA in 1986 and was elected to the executive. In 2001 he became president of WONCA, which under his leadership grew to represent eighty-three countries. In 1998 he chaired and hosted the organising committee for the WONCA conference in Dublin, which was attended by 5,000 delegates. It was the largest gathering of general practitioners ever held and the largest medical conference ever to take place in Ireland. As a member of the New Leeuwenhorst Group he joined GPs from all over Europe in the development of general practice as a discipline in relation to education and research, and helped to develop it in countries such as Cuba, Kenya, South Africa and South Korea. Subsequently as director of the Postgraduate Resource Centre of ICGP he led initiatives in such areas as practice computerisation, distance learning, alcohol misuse, suicide and men’s health. As board chairman of the Office of Tobacco Control he oversaw the introduction of the 2004 smoking ban in work and public places. He is the recipient of many awards, including an honorary doctorate from UCC. In 2013 the Irish Medical Times acknowledged the pivotal role he played in helping to shape Irish general practice into the ‘professional, evidence-based, patient-centred model that is widely recognisable today, a model built on the twin pillars of academic rigour and patient need’, adding that it is largely due to his vision, leadership, intellectual energy and enthusiasm that it is a world-renowned and highly respected profession. Two of his children are doctors. His son Michael followed him to Clongowes and was also school captain (2003-4), a family double that remains unique.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1950-1953

Hugh Coveney

ugh Coveney (1935-98), Minister for the Marine and Defence and businessman, was a native of Cork, who attended Clongowes in 1950-3. He studied at the College of Estate Management, London, before going on to qualify as a chartered surveyor through his father’s firm in Cork, which he subsequently developed into one of the largest surveying practices outside Dublin. He played a leading role in developing the Cork suburban shopping centres of Douglas and Bishopstown. He also built up an extensive portfolio of interests in hotels, mining, cable television and farming. Possessed of great personal energy and charisma, his work and many other activities were invariably characterised by methodical research and attention to detail. A commitment to public service brought him into politics in 1979 as a member of Cork Corporation, and he served as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1982-3. At one time he also served as chairman of the Cork executive of the Irish Farmers Association. He was first elected to the Dáil for Fine Gael in 1981, but lost his seat in 1987. In 1994 he returned to politics by winning a by-election in Cork South-Central. He became Minister for the Marine and Defence in the ‘rainbow coalition’ that was formed soon afterwards, establishing himself as an effective champion of Irish fisheries in particular. He was transferred to the Office of Public Works the following year. He was a close confidant of Taoiseach John Bruton and served on the government’s budget committee and on the Northern Ireland talks team. He held his seat in the 1997 general election, but the government’s defeat brought him to the opposition benches, where he was Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture and food. He died in a tragic accident in 1998. He was an enthusiastic and successful sportsman, playing rugby with Cork Constitution and later becoming a proficient amateur golfer. He was also an active and very successful competitive sailor, contesting a succession of one-ton yachts in events such as the Admiral’s Cup. In the hurricane-hit 1979 race he and his crew had to be rescued by helicopter from his damaged craft. At the time the three-boat Irish team, which he captained, was on course for victory. He supported a number of charities, especially those associated with the needs of children. He was a lover of art and a patron of Cork artists. His six sons all attended Clongowes. Simon, the second eldest, won the by-election that followed his father’s death and entered the cabinet in 2011.

Clongownians of Distinction

Nial Fennelly

Clongowes 1953-1959

ial Fennelly (b. 1942), judge of the Supreme Court, is a native of Callan, Co. Kilkenny, who attended Clongowes from 1953 to 1959, where he was imperator of Rhetoric. Graduating from UCD with an MA degree in Economics, he attended the King’s Inns, where he was awarded the Exhibition Prize and called to the bar in 1964. After a short spell with Córas Tráchtála, the export board, he returned to the bar, and built up an extensive practice in Dublin and on the south-eastern circuit, being especially regarded for his expertise in commercial and constitutional matters. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1978. He was appointed chairman of the Legal Aid Board in 1982, later resigning over the inadequacy of its funding arrangements. He was chairman of the Bar Council in 1990-1. From 1995 to 2000 he was the first Irishman to be appointed Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, where his opinions dealt with issues of free movement, tax and competition. He was chairman of the Irish Centre for European Law, president of the Irish Society for European Law and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law at Trier in Germany. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2000, where he was noted for his independence of mind and expertise in European law matters. He was elected a bencher of the King’s Inns in 1986 and of the Middle Temple in 2006. On his retirement in 2014, he was appointed sole member of the commission to enquire into matters relating to An Garda Síochána, which provided an interim report in 2015 and its final report in 2017. He has written extensively on European law, especially in relation to constitutional issues. Of Courts and Constitutions, a book of learned essays, was published in his honour in 2014. In 1975 he married Maedhbháine Milmo. They have four children.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1942-1946

Aidan Higgins

idan Higgins (1927-2015), writer of novels, short stories and radio drama, was a native of Celbridge, Co. Kildare, who attended Clongowes from 1942 to 1946. His family’s status as minor gentry rested on a fortune accumulated by a great-uncle from a mining venture in Arizona; by the time Higgins was born it was all but depleted. He worked in advertising for a time and lived in London, Spain, South Africa and Berlin. Samuel Beckett commended Higgins’s early collection of short stories, Felo de se, to the publisher John Calder, and so began Higgins’s literary career in 1960. His first and best-known novel, Langrishe, go down (1966), won him the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and was widely translated. It was later adapted as a BBC television film with Judy Dench and Jeremy Irons playing to a script by Harold Pinter. This modernist masterpiece is set in a dilapidated Irish big house in the 1930s – the scarcely disguised crumbling estate on which Higgins grew up in Celbridge. The book traces universal social and cultural decline through the brutalizing relationship between Imogene, one of the ageing, impoverished Langrishe spinster sisters, and a German scholar, Otto. Higgins’s second novel, Balcony of Europe, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1972. It tells of the relationship between an Irish artist, Dan Ruttle, and an American Jew, Charlotte Bayless, and is played out against a backdrop of war-torn Andalusia. It too deploys the stream-of-consciousness technique and fragmented narration that are hallmarks of Langrishe. Higgins’s novelistic focus is more on the impact of events on the changing individual consciousness of his characters than on the exigencies of plot. Higgins’s subsequent output included several other novels, collections of short stories, criticism and radio plays. Three volumes of his autobiography, Donkey’s Years (1996), The Whole Hog (1998) and Dog days (2000) are collected in A Bestiary (2004). He was a founder member of Aosdána, the affiliation of Irish creative artists. In the Irish literary canon he is the successor to Swift and to the great modernists, including Joyce, Beckett and Flann O’Brien. Like them, he pushes the boundaries of conventional form and chronology, shifts points of view, and shatters the conventions of grammar and rhetoric. For American novelist Annie Proulx, his distinctiveness is in his ‘muscular power and linguistic acrobatics… the elegant play with language and the daring architecture’. His experimentation and cosmopolitan gaze place him in the international literary company of such writers as Djuna Barnes, William Faulkner and Henry James, and he was as much at home with Kant and Goethe as he was with Maurice Blanchot. He was greatly respected by his peers for the quality of his writing, his probity, his powerful intelligence, his ‘ferocious attention to the task in hand’, and his rejection of cliché, provincialism, hypocrisy and, in its worst sense, religiosity. The poet and critic, Brian Lynch, compares him to Proust, writing that rather than being a novelist, he was a Memory Man, a describer of his own past. Higgins himself said he was “consumed by memories, and they form the life of me”.

Clongownians of Distinction

Pierce McCan

Clongowes 1899-1900

ierce McCan (1882-1919), republican activist and Sinn Féin MP, was born at Ballyanne, Co. Wexford in 1885. He attended Clongowes in 1899-1900 and afterwards farmed extensively at Ballyowen House near Cashel Co. Tipperary, where he was a member of the Tipperary Hunt. He became active in nationalist politics, joining Sinn Féin in 1905, the Gaelic League in 1909 and the Irish Volunteers in 1914. He played a leading role in establishing these organisations in Co. Tipperary. During World War I he was involved in a plot to free German prisoners of war from Templemore Barracks. The RIC reported at the time that he was ‘intimately acquainted with PH Pearse, The O’Rahilly, Thomas McDonagh, the Plunketts and other extremists’. In 1916 he obeyed MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned rebellion, but when he heard that a Rising had taken place in Dublin, he tried to organize some sort of action in Tipperary. This came to nothing, but led to his internment in Dublin and later in England. Released, he was again re-arrested in 1918 and imprisoned in Gloucester Jail. While there, he was elected a Sinn Féin member of parliament, but while still in prison he died in the great influenza epidemic. He was known to have been a very patriotic and deeply religious man, with a great love for the Kerry Gaeltacht. 10,000 people attended his funeral in Thurles. When the Sinn Féin MPs met in Dublin to form the First Dáil, Cathal Brugha told the assembly that McCan’s ‘death was for the cause for which he would have lived, and that his memory will ever be cherished in the hearts of the comrades who knew him, and will be honoured by succeeding generations of his countrymen with that of the other martyrs of our holy cause.’ McCan Barracks in Templemore, now the Garda Síochána College, is named after him.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1911-1913

Daniel O’Connell, SJ

aniel O’Connell, SJ (1896-1982), astronomer and seismologist, was born near Rugby in England, but sent to Clongowes after the early deaths of both his parents. He entered the Jesuits on leaving school and was ordained in 1928. He enjoyed a brilliant university career in UCD where he specialised in mathematics and experimental physics, completing his MSc in 1920. He became interested in astronomy under the guidance of Father W. O’Leary SJ who was director of the Rathfarnham Observatory. Later, while completing his theological studies in the Netherlands, he pursued spare-time astronomical studies with a number of leading Jesuit experts. Ill-health forced him to abandon a travelling scholarship to Cambridge, and he was sent to Australia to recuperate. There, he soon became assistant director of the Jesuit observatory at Riverview. In 1931-3 he was a member of the Harvard University Observatory team, noted for its work on variable stars, which thereafter remained his principal astronomical interest. Returning to Riverview, he became the observatory’s director in 1938. His most notable work was in the astronomical field of eclipsing stars and cepheid variables, using the newly developed technique of photographic photometry. His research also included seismological work and the measurement of time with various kinds of clocks. He founded the Riverview Observatory Publications series, which gained an international reputation. He became a member of numerous Australian learned bodies. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by NUI in 1948, made a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy. He represented Australia at various international astronomical conferences. In 1952 he was appointed director of the Vatican Observatory at Castelgandolfo, near Rome, where he oversaw the installation of a new 24/36-inch Schmidt telescope in the Barberini Gardens. He continued his work on eclipsing binary stars, again using photoelectric photometry. He was responsible for many publications, including in 1958 The Green Flash and other Low Sun phenomena. In 1968 he became president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. On his retirement in 1972 Pope Paul VI appointed him president emeritus, paying tribute to his ‘zeal and distinction – acknowledged by all – in the advancement of science’. He was visited by Pope John Paul II shortly before his death at the Jesuit headquarters in 1982.

Clongownians of Distinction

Thomas O’Higgins

Clongowes 1903-1906

homas O’Higgins (1890-1953), Minister for Defence, was a native of Stradbally, Co. Laois, who attended Clongowes in 1903-06. He qualified as a doctor at UCD and was appointed to a dispensary in Co. Kildare, where he became an enthusiastic local organiser for Sinn Féin and the Irish Volunteers and was imprisoned on three occasions, including a year at Ballykinlar Camp, Co. Down. He joined the national army in 1922, where he became director of medical services and rose to the rank of colonel. A keen horseman, he was instrumental in the establishment of the army equitation school and the inauguration of the Nations’ Cup competition at Dublin horse show. Following the assassination of his brother Kevin O’Higgins (OC 1903-1908), the leading government minister, in 1927, he left the army and entered politics, first winning a Dáil seat in Dublin, before switching to Laois-Offaly, which he retained until 1948 when he was elected for Cork City, which he held until his death. He was a forthright and trenchant speaker, with a commitment to the maintenance of free speech, but sympathetic to right-wing views current in the 1930s, such as anti-communism and corporatism. This led him into the Blueshirts, and in 1933 he was instrumental in bringing that organisation into the political alliance that resulted in the establishment of Fine Gael, of which he became a vice-president and later deputy leader. He was Minister for Defence in the inter-party government of 1948-51. He died at his home in Dublin in 1953. Two of his sons, Tom (OC 1930-1934) and Michael (OC 1930-1935), followed him into the Dáil.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongowes 1888-92

James O’Mara

ames O’Mara (1873-1948), Sinn Féin MP and fund-raiser, was a native of Limerick, who attended Clongowes from 1888 to 1892. He graduated BA from the Royal University of Ireland in 1898, while simultaneously working in his father’s bacon company. He took over Donnelly’s bacon factory in Dublin, where he proved a shrewd and successful businessman, becoming extremely wealthy. In 1900 he was elected to parliament for Kilkenny South as a Nationalist, introducing in 1903 the bill that made Saint Patrick’s Day a national holiday. However, by 1907 he had become disillusioned with the lack of progress towards Home Rule and resigned his seat to join Sinn Féin, to which he became a generous benefactor. In 1918 he was appointed Sinn Féin director of elections, and his formidable administrative skills made a major contribution to the party’s comprehensive victory in the general election of that year. He regained his old South Kilkenny seat by a large majority. He became a trustee of Dáil funds, subsequently travelling to the United States to join Éamon de Valera in a fund-raising drive. Again, his administrative skills proved highly successful, and the campaign raised more than $3million. But differences between him and de Valera caused him to resign his trusteeship and his Dáil seat in 1921. He was replaced as fund-raiser and special envoy to America by his younger brother, Stephen (OC 1902-03). James O’Mara strongly supported the Treaty, but was deeply affected by the civil war. He was not a candidate in the 1922 election, but was appointed first Irish ambassador to the United States, serving only briefly. He returned to politics as TD for Dublin South from 1924 to 1927, when he declined a cabinet post in WT Cosgrave’s government. He retired from business in the 1930s, dying at his Killiney home in 1948.

Clongownians of Distinction

PROCEDURE FOR NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR INCLUSION IN THE SERPENTINE Clongowes welcomes suggestions for the inclusion of further portraits in the Serpentine collection. Candidates must have spent some time as a student at Clongowes. A precondition for inclusion is that a candidate must normally be retired or dead. However, this can be waived in very exceptional cases. Typically a candidate should possess one or more of the following characteristics: fame; great distinction or a pioneering role in his field; a notable achievement; appointment to an important office of state; to high rank in the public service (national or international); a significant contribution to religion, scholarship, education, business, the learned professions or the arts; prominent participation in famous events. However, other grounds for inclusion are not ruled out. Cabinet ministers, bishops, Supreme Court judges and university heads qualify for inclusion automatically. A suggestion for inclusion should give the main facts of a candidate’s career, including dates of birth, death and Clongowes attendance. It should state why he is considered worthy of inclusion. It should provide information on where a suitable portrait or illustration of the candidate can be sourced. On receipt of a suggestion, the Headmaster will normally refer it to the Serpentine panel for advice. The decision to include the candidate or not, as the case may be, will then be taken by the headmaster.

Clongownians of Distinction

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS AND COPYRIGHT Michael Boland: Hugh Coveney:

Mrs Susan Boland Ted O’Brien Studio Cork (for the Cork Chamber of Commerce) Nial Fennelly: Fennelly Family Aidan Higgins: Unknown Piece McCan: Clongowes Wood College SJ Daniel O’Connell SJ: Unknown Thomas O’Higgins: Jim O’Higgins James O’Mara: Unknown Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permissions for the use of copyright material. The author/editor and Clongowes Wood College SJ apologises for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

Clongownians of Distinction

Clongownians of Distinction

Articles inside

James Lynch

Enoch Louis Lowe

Matthew Lawless

Patrick ‘P.J.’ Little

Thomas Lane

Thomas ‘Tom’ Kettle

Sir Gilbert Laithwaite

James Fitzgerald-Kenney

James Joyce

James Hogan

Sir Andrew Horne

John Vincent Holland

George Hodnett

James Hanlon

Richard James ‘Jim’ Hayes

William Hackett, SJ

Hugh Geoghegan

Thomas Finlay

Aubrey Gwynn, SJ

Oliver St John Gogarty

Francis Hackett

Thomas Esmonde

Eugene Esmonde

William Doolin

Andrew Devane

Patrick Cunningham

Joseph Dalton, SJ

James Deeny

James Cullen, SJ

George Crosbie

Sir Francis Cruise

Thomas Crean

James Corboy, SJ

John Conmee, SJ

Timothy Corcoran, SJ

Michael Courtney

Edward Coyne, SJ

Sir William Butler

James Bayley Butler

James Aloysius Burke/ Séamus de Búrca

Introduction

Frederick Boland

Thomas Bodkin

Joseph Brennan

Stephen Brown, SJ

John Bruton

Alfred Aylward

Daniel Binchy