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Clongowes Wood College

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Rector
  
Fr Michael Sheil, SJ

Phone
  
+353 45 868 202

Founder
  
Peter Kenney

Number of students
  
449 (2010)

Headmaster
  
Mr Chris Lumb

Province
  
Leinster

Founded
  
1814

Clongowes Wood College

School type
  
Voluntary secondary school Boarding school Private

Motto
  
Aeterna Non Caduca (Eternal not falling)

Religious affiliation(s)
  
Roman Catholic Society of Jesus

Established
  
1814; 203 years ago (1814)

Address
  
Castlebrown, Clane, Co. Kildare, W91 DN40, Ireland

Similar
  
Newbridge College, Castlekn College, The King's Hospital, Euro Languages College, Naas Golf Club

Profiles

Clongowes wood college sj union day 2016


Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. The school was founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1814, is Ireland's oldest Catholic school, 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 2011/2012 when the fees were €16,800 per annum.

Contents

The school's current headmaster is Mr Chris Lumb (2015–Present.) Mr Lumb is the first lay headmaster of Clongowes in its 200-year history. Fr Leonard Maloney previous headmaster (2004 - 2015) Fr Michael Sheil, S.J., retired as Rector in 2006 and Fr Bruce Bradley (headmaster 1992-2000) was his successor. In September 2011 Fr Michael Sheil, S.J., returned as Rector.

Clongowes wood college vs st michael s college qf senior cup 2013


School

The school is a secondary boarding school for boys from Ireland and other parts of the world. 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, drawn from the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: Elements (First year), Rudiments (Second year), Grammar (Third year), Syntax (Fourth year), Poetry (Fifth year), and Rhetoric (Sixth year).

Buildings

The medieval castle was originally built in the 13th century by Stuart Cullen, an early Anglo-Norman warrior and landowner in North Kildare. 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 area 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. 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.

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.

The moat that outlines the nearby forest of the college is the old border of The Pale, with the Wogan-Browne castle (now the residence of the Jesuit community) landmarking its edge.

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 "of the wood" in Latin). 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 (1660). The estate was sold by the Wogan-Brownes to the Jesuits in March 1814 for £16,000.

The school accepted its first pupil, James McLornan, on 18 May 1814.

In 1886 the Jesuit-run St Stanislaus College in Tullabeg, County Offaly, was amalgamated with Clongowes Wood College.

As of 2008, there were 13 Jesuits living at the historic school.

Historical accounts

One early history 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, S.J., 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).

Sport

Clongowes is known for their strong pedigree in rugby union. Despite their relatively small size, Clongowes have won the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup on eight occasions, winning their first final in 1926. Following this there was a gap of 52 years until their next title in 1978. Beginning with their 3rd title in 1988 and up until 2011, Clongowes have appeared in 13 finals, more than any other school in the competition during this period. Clongowes performed their first set of back-to-back titles with wins in 2010 and 2011. Clongowes have reached the final of the 2012 competition with a potential "Three-peat" on offer if victorious, the first time this will have happened since the 1960s.

Cultural associations

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. 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.

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
  • St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Marist Brother boarding school in Sydney, Australia
  • References

    Clongowes Wood College Wikipedia