- Clongowes Wood College
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Clongowes Wood College S.J. Location Clane, County Kildare, Ireland Information Religious affiliation(s) Roman Catholic
Society of JesusEstablished 1814 Founder Fr. Peter Kenney SJ Chairperson Mr. John Tierney Rector Fr Bruce Bradley SJ Headmaster Fr Leonard Moloney SJ Gender Boys Age 12-13 to 17-18 School fees €16,500 per annum (2008/2009) [1] Website http://www.clongowes.com/ Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1814,[2] it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. One of five Jesuit schools in Ireland, it had 450 students in 2007 when the fees were €15,200 per annum.[citation needed]
The school's current headmaster is Fr Leonard Maloney;[3] Fr Michael Sheil SJ retired as rector in 2006 and Fr Bruce Bradley[4] (headmaster 1992-2000) is his successor.
Contents
School
The school is a secondary boarding school for boys from Ireland and other parts of the world.[5] The school is divided into three groups, known as "lines". The Third Line is for First and Second years; the Lower Line for Third and Fourth years; and the Higher Line for Fifth and Sixth years. Each year is known by a name: Elements (First year), Rudiments (Second year), Grammar (Third year), Syntax (Fourth year), Poetry (Fifth year), and Rhetoric (Sixth year).[6]
Buildings
The medieval castle was originally built in the 13th century by John de Hereford, an early Anglo-Norman warrior and landowner in North Kildare.[7]He had been given extensive lands in the area of Kill, Celbridge and Mainham by his brother, Adam de Hereford, who had come to Ireland with 'Strongbow', the Earl of Pembroke.
It is the residence of the religious community and was improved by a "chocolate box" type restoration in the 18th century. It was rebuilt in 1718 by Stephen Fitzwilliam Browne and extended in 1788 by Thomas Wogan Browne.[citation needed] It is situated beside a ditch and wall - known as ramparts - constructed for the defence of the Pale in the 14th century. The building was completely refurbished in 2004 and the reception was moved back there from the "1999 building".
The castle is connected to the modern buildings by an elevated corridor hung with portraits, the Serpentine Gallery referred to by James Joyce.[8] This gallery was completely demolished and rebuilt in 2004 as part of a redevelopment programme for the school buildings.
In 1929 another wing was built at a cost of £135,000, presenting the rear façade of the school. It houses the main classrooms and the Rudiments, Grammar, Syntax, and Humanities dormitories.
An expansion and modernisation was completed in 2000; the €4.8m project added another residential wing that included a 500-seat dining hall, kitchen, entrance hall, offices, plant room, and study/bedrooms for sixth year ("Rhetoric") students.[9]
The Boys' Chapel has an elaborate reredos, a large pipe-organ in the gallery, and a sequence of Stations of the Cross painted by Sean Keating. School tradition has it that the portrait of Pontius Pilate in the twelfth station was based on the school rector, who had refused to pay the artist his asking price.
History
The school traces its history back to a 799-acre (3.23 km2) estate owned by the Wogan family in 1418 under the reign of Henry IV. The name "Clongowes" comes from the Irish for "meadow" (cluain) and for "blacksmith" (gobha). The estate was originally known as "Clongowes de Silva" (de Silva meaning "wood" in Latin).[10] The estate later passed to the Eustace family and became part of the fortified border of the Pale in 1494. The Eustaces lost their estates during the Restoration.[11] The estate was sold by the Wogan-Brownes to the Jesuits in March 1814 for £16,000.
The school accepted its first pupil, James MacLorinan, on 18 May 1814.[12]
In 1886 the Jesuit-run St Stanislaus College in Tullabeg, County Offaly, was amalgamated with Clongowes Wood College.[13]
As of 2008, there are 13 Jesuits living at the historic school.[14]
Historical accounts
One early history is of the school is The Clongowes Record 1814-1932 by Fr. Timothy Corcoran, S.J. (Browne and Nolan, Dublin, 1932). A half-century later, a history was written by Fr Roland Burke Savage SJ and published in The Clongownian school magazine during the 1980s; that same decade, Peter Costello wrote Clongowes Wood: a History of Clongowes Wood College 1814-1989, published by Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1989).
Popular culture
The school featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. More recently, a documentary depicting a year in the life in the school was screened in 2001 as part of RTÉ's True Lives series.[15] The popular fictional series of Ross O'Carroll Kelly has mentioned Clongowes Wood on a number of occasions in the book and Irish Times column.
Selected alumni
- Frederick Boland, first Irish ambassador to Great Britain and to the United Nations, and father of Irish poet Eavan Boland
- John Bruton, former Taoiseach of Ireland
- Gordon D'Arcy, rugby player
- Edmund Dwyer-Gray, 29th Premier of Tasmania
- Eugene Esmonde, World World II pilot and posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Rob Kearney, rugby player
- Enoch Louis Lowe, 33rd Governor of the U.S. state of Maryland
- Francis Sylvester Mahony, 19th-century humorist known by the pen name "Father Prout"
- Fergus McFadden, rugby player
- Paul McGuinness, business manager for the Irish rock band U2
- Charles Mitchel, RTÉ's first newsreader
- Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair
- Kieran Prendiville, television writer, producer, and creator of the BBC drama Ballykissangel
- James John Skinner, first Minister of Justice of the Republic of Zambia and a former Chief Justice of Malawi
- Pat Reid, MBE, MC was a British Army officer who escaped from Colditz and noted non-fiction and historical author.
- John Ryan Artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, patron and publican.
- Brian Carney, Irish rugby league player
- James Joyce, Writer and author of Ulysses.
- Oliver St.John Gogarty, Writer, critic, and inspiration for Buck Mulligan in Joyce's Ulysses.
- Maurice Healy (writer), author of the celebrated memoir The Old Munster Circuit.
- Michael Smurfit, Businessman, former CEO of Jefferson Smurfit Group and owner of 'The K Club', County Kildare.
- Barry O'Callaghan, Chairman and CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the Chairman of Education Media and Publishing Group.
- Kevin O'Higgins, former Irish Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice.
- James FitzGerald-Kenney, O'Higgins' successor as Minister for Justice.
- John Redmond, Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918.
- Thomas Kettle, Irish journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier, economist and Home Rule politician.
- Thomas Francis Meagher, Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders.
- Michael Joseph O'Rahilly, (The O'Rahilly), Irish Volunteer, killed in the Easter Rising.
- John Charles McQuaid, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland between 1940-1972.
- John M. O'Sullivan, Cumann na nGaedheal politician, cabinet minister and academic.
- J. T. Walsh, US film actor with roles in Good Morning Vietnam, A Few Good Men and others
Partner schools
- Aloisiuskolleg, Jesuit boarding school in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany
- Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck, boarding school in Goch, Germany
- Kolleg St. Blasien, Jesuit boarding school in St. Blasien, Germany
- Portora Royal School, voluntary grammar school in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh
- Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, Jesuit boarding school in Sydney, Australia
- Passy-Buzenval, catholic private school, Paris, France
See also
- List of Victoria Crosses by School
- List of alumni of Jesuit educational institutions
- Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin
References
- ^ Mitchell, Susan; Maguire, Áine (July 20, 2008). "Parents face big jump in private school fees". The Post. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/07/20/story34589.asp. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/1814-1886.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/headmaster.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/jesuit-community.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/fileadmin/documents/Admissions_Policy.pdf
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/organisation.html
- ^ Costello, Peter (1989). Clongowes Wood: a history of Clongowes Wood College, 1814-1989. Gill and Macmillan. ISBN 9780717114665. http://books.google.ie/books?ei=ZfyJTothz67xA8fUnDI&ct=result&id=vji7AAAAIAAJ&dq=History+of+clongowes+wood+College%2C1814-1989+by+Peter+Costello&q=John+de+Hereford#search_anchor. Retrieved 03-10-2011.
- ^ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce. Chapter 5, March 25, Morning: "A long curving gallery. From the floor ascend pillars of dark vapours. It is peopled by the images of fabulous kings, set in stone. Their hands are folded upon their knees in token of weariness and their eyes are darkened for the errors of men go up before them for ever as dark vapours."
- ^ http://www.lmp.ie/newbuild/clongowes.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/beforethejesuits.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/thewoganbrownes.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/1814-1886.html
- ^ http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/211/1/Tullabeg-Rahan-1818-1968/Page1.html
- ^ http://www.clongowes.com/jesuit-community.html
- ^ Irish Times
External links
Jesuit secondary schools in Ireland Belvedere College · Clongowes Wood College · Crescent College · Gonzaga College · Mungret College · St Stanislaus College · St Ignatius College
Former schools are italicized Coordinates: 53°18′39.3″N 6°41′0.4″W / 53.310917°N 6.683444°W
Categories:- Old Clongownians
- Secondary schools in County Kildare
- Boys' schools in Ireland
- Jesuit secondary schools in Ireland
- Catholic boarding schools
- Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
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