Stephen Brown, SJ

Stephen Brown, SJ I 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.