John Conmee, SJ

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.