Clongowes Wood College

Clongowes Wood College S.J.
Location
Clane, County Kildare, Ireland
Information
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic Society of Jesus
Established	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.

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 1 School 2 Buildings 3 History 4 Historical accounts 5 Popular culture 6 Selected alumni 7 Partner schools 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

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 Stuart Cullen, 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, Rurai Blaney, 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. 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

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

External links

• Clongowes Wood College website
• Clongowes Youth Club

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