Community

ST. MICHAEL’S COMMUNITY C.S.Sp

Congregation of the Holy Spirit (The Spiritans)

Much of the history of the St. Michael’s residence and property on the corner of Merrion and Ailesbury Road, has already been adequately charted early on in this history. So a brief mention will suffice here.

The lands of Merrion on which St. Michael’s stands, formed part of Merrion Castle, an old Pale stronghold, owned by the Fitzwilliam family. These were ancestors of the later Earls of Pembroke. The main house of St. Michael’s was built by Michael Meade in 1860. It was modelled on Queen Victoria’s residence, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight and even today this is clearly visible. Michael Meade was founder of one of the most famous building firms in Dublin in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The Meades were builders of note, and were acclaimed for their good workmanship and the quality of the materials they used.

Michael Meade called the house on the corner of Merrion and Ailesbury Road, St. Michael’s and interestingly a large statue of the same saint ornaments his grave opposite the main gate of Glasnevin Cemetery. In 1900, St. Michael’s passed into the hands of Sir Ernest Cochrane of the firm of Cantrell and Cochrane, mineral water manufacturers. Sir Ernest had the house and gardens further enhanced and is credited with adding the Bossi fireplaces and panelling. In 1912 the building was sold to George N. Jacob, son of the founder of the well known Dublin firm Messrs. Jacob and Co. Ltd.

Around the early 1940’s the population of the area was growing and requests were being made by parents to have at least a Junior School within easy reach. In Blackrock College, it was felt the possibility of opening a school in the area should be explored. Fate was also playing its own mysterious hand. Just then, Jacobs were selling St. Michael’s. The President of Blackrock College - Fr. Michael Kennedy having duly considered all the permutations was in favour of going ahead. To say that the going price £8,000 [€10,157.90] - was a bargain would be a gross understatement. The property included the house and 11¼ acres approximately.

Eventually the decision was made - the Holy Ghost Order would negotiate on the matter. The purchase was successfully terminated, and the fine mansion plus the property passed into the hands of the Holy Ghost Fathers.

The first dean of the Junior School, Fr. Maguire was later succeeded by Fr. Cornelius Daly whose career was cut short by an untimely death. Fr. Toirleach O’Brien and later Fr. Maguire again, served the young developing community school as deans. Then in 1957, Fr. Seamus Galvin, was appointed to the school and community. Four year later, Fr. Maguire left St. Michael’s to take up his duties as National Director of the Holy Childhood and in the same year, 1961 Fr. Patrick Nolan came to St. Michael’s as Director.

Fr. Nolan was Director of St. Michael’s from 1961-1970 - director as distinct from Superior because St. Michael’s was affiliated to Blackrock College until 1970. Ordained in 1937, he was Director of Junior Scholastics in Rockwell College in the early nineteen forties.

He had a broader concept of education than many of his contemporaries. He arranged special lectures for St. Joseph’s students in Art and Sculpture and introduced his students to skill in carpentry, fretwork, bookbinding. Conscious of the fact that many of his students were destined to work on the mission fields, he arranged regular talks from returned missionaries to keep their minds focused on what was to be their ultimate goal, spreading the message of the Gospel in foreign lands.

After a stint as Bursar in Willow Park, he came to St. Michael’s as Director. As always, he showed characteristic interest in those under his care, sensitivity to their needs and concern for their well being. He was respected and admired by all the staff lay and clerical as well as the many parents and students with whom he came in contact. Everyone he knew had the benefit of his influence and the support of his prayers.

Fr. Nolan lived out the final phase of his life in Marian House, Kimmage and passed to his reward in 1999.

Fr. Galvin, Superior 1970-1976: Fr. Galvin’s enormous contribution to St. Michael’s as Dean of Studies, Dean of Games, Principal, President and Superior is treated at length elsewhere in this history.

Fr.Cyril Sheedy, Superior: 1976-1982. After his Secondary Education in Rockwell College, Fr. Sheedy entered the Holy Ghost Order in 1946 and was ordained in 1955. He went to Nigeria the following year and took up an appointment in Emene Secondary school in Enugu, Nigeria. He then moved to Aiyenba Teacher Training College. His life in Africa was cut short by a serious accident in 1960 after which he spent nine month recuperating in the Bon Secour Hospital in Dublin. Nigeria’s loss was our gain when he was appointed to St. Michael’s in 1960.

He served as Superior in St. Michael’s 1976-1982. Apart from his duties of attending to the needs of the community he was also a member of the academic staff, teaching English and Classical Studies.

A man of many parts, his considerable talents were not confined to the class room and he directed musicals both with the students and the past students, musicals which included ‘Dick O’Whittington’, ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Guys and Dolls’. He was also closely associated with the Past Pupils’ Union and after he retired from active teaching the past Students’ Union presented him with a trophy in recognition of his contribution over the years.

Fr. Cyril always showed a keen interest in the activities of St. Michael’s and the students he worked for still remember him with respect and gratitude.

As Superior he was conscientious, kind and thoughtful; visitors were always sure of a warm welcome.

Fr. Lehane [Superior 1983-1992] Fr. Lehane’s career as President/Principal, Manager and Superior is treated in detail elsewhere in this history.

Fr. Lehane’s successor, Fr. Patrick Holohan, became superior of St. Michael’s in August 1992 and continued in that role until 1995.

A native of Fethard, Co. Tipperary and educated in Rockwell College, Fr. Holohan joined the Holy Ghost Congregation. After religious profession he went to U.C.D. where he graduated B.A. in 1951. He read his theology course in Rome, was ordained there in 1956 and qualified S.T.L. in 1957. Appointed to Nigeria in 1958 he was successively and successfully, Supervisor of Schools Enugu Diocese, Educational Secretary, Onitsha Archdiocese and Cathedral Administrator at Onitsha.

Fr. Holohan returned to Ireland in 1971, was appointed to Rockwell, graduated H.D.E. and was Dean of Students in Rockwell from 1972 until he was appointed President of his alma mater in 1980. He came to St. Michael’s in 1987 and was a member of the St. Michael’s Senior School academic staff until his appointment as Superior of the community.

The community was fortunate to have a man of Fr. Holohan’s calibre as Superior and his years at the helm were years of loyal and devoted service to those in his charge.

Fr. Michael Duggan was appointed superior of the St. Michael’s community in September 1995 and continued in that role until 2005.

A native of Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford, Fr. Duggan received his secondary education in Rockwell College (1939-1944) and entered the Holy Ghost Novitiate in September 1944. He is a graduate of UCD (1950) and was ordained 5^th July 1953. His first posting after ordination was to Kenya and from 1954 to 1963 served there in various capacities including chaplain to prison camps during the Mau Mau uprising.

Returning to Ireland he was Assistant novice master in Kilshane, 1963-1968. Following an assignment in Willow Park, he transferred to Kimmage Manor in 1970 where he was involved in promotion work and Secondary school retreats. In 1985 Fr. Michael became superior of the Kimmage community and was chaplain in Clonskeagh Hospital from 1991 until his appointment to St. Michael’s.

Apart from his Congregational functions, Fr. Duggan is well know for his work in fostering devotion to St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) and was Co-ordinator of the Padre Pio prayer groups in the Archdiocese of Dublin, 1969-2002. He was one of the concelebrants at the Mass of canonisation for Padre Pio.

Never one to spare himself when the welfare, spiritual or material, of others was involved he devoted himself heart and soul to looking after the community and fulfilling the many demanding duties of his function. Previously a community leader was only asked to serve for a maximum of 6 years, Fr. Duggan’s term of office extended from September 1995 to April 2005

When Fr. O’Malley retired to Kimmage in 2004, Fr. Duggan combined the duties of Superior and Bursar.

Fr. Duggan’s term of office finished in April 2005 and Fr. John Hogan was appointed Community Leader and Bursar, at first on a temporary basis, but his appointment was later extended.

Fr. John Hogan CSSp was appointed Superior or Community Leader and Bursar to the St. Michael’s Community in September 2005 in succession to Fr. Michael Duggan.

A native of Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare, Fr. John was educated by the Christian Brothers and entered the Congregation of the Holy Spirit at Kilshane where he made his original commitment to the Congregation on September 8, 1956. He earned a B.Sc. in 1960 after prefecting for one year at Rockwell. He was ordained at Kimmage Manor on July 4, 1965.

Posted to Gambia the following year, he taught until 1972 at St. Augustine’s High School in Banjul and then joined the staff of Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral parish in Banjul. In 1979 he became district superior of all Spiritans in Gambia until 1982 while also being executive director of West African Major Religious Superiors Conference. As such, he participated in a meeting of thirteen Spiritan superiors in Dakar to discuss the feasibility of starting a West African Foundation as the first step toward a new province. Their recommendation to the generalate was positive and in August 1980 a novitiate was opened at Bwiam Gambia, with six novices.

In February 1983 he was named director of the West African Foundation for three years and this mandate was renewed for another three years in 1986. By 1988 the new foundation had four priests, one Brother and 27 senior seminarians. In 1989 his title was changed to superior of the budding new province-in-the-making, a position he retained for two three-year terms. The center of the foundation was transferred to Ghana, where buildings at Ejisu housed the novitiate and the Spiritan school of philosophy. At the same time he was also pastor of Corpus Christi parish in New Tafo, Kumasi until 1993.

In February 1995 the West African Foundation held its first chapter, over which Fr. John presided. By then the province-in-the-making numbered twenty-three priests and seventy-one professed members. Almost unanimously the chapter elected Fr. John Kwofie its first African-bom superior.

After a well earned sabbatical (1995-1996), Fr. John returned to Parish Apostolate in Ghana and ministered in Bolgatanga, Kumasi and Accra until 2002.

On returning to Ireland he accepted an assignment as Delegate to the retired confreres in Kimmage Manor until he was appointed Community Leader and Bursar to the St. Michael’s College Community, September 2005.

Then there were the Bursars, those dedicated and selfless men who worked side by side with the superiors, looking after the material welfare of the community. They also ensured that the residence was properly maintained, and the excellent condition of the house is a testament to their skill, insight and efforts. The house still retains its traditional beauty and character.

It deserves to be mentioned in this context that in 2002, the Community sitting room underwent a complete refurbishment, the first in over twenty years.

[Fr. Declan Crowley RIP, was Bursar for a brief time in the early 1980’s before he was appointed to the USA)]

Fr. Tom O’Malley 1984-1997 and 2000-2004; now retired in the Kimmage community.

Fr. Eddie O’Farrell: Bursar from 1997 to 1998 when he was called to work in the Holy Ghost Generalate in Rome until 2006. He is now back in Ireland and is currently Provincial Secretary.

We welcome Fr. Patrick (Paddy) Dundon who was appointed to St. Michael’s community with effect from 30^th November 2006.

A native of Dublin, Fr. Paddy was educated in Willow Park and Blackrock College 1944-1954. He entered the Holy Ghost Novitiate, Kilshane in 1954 and made his first commitment to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 1955. He moved to Kimmage Manor, House of Studies in the same year and in 1959 graduated from UCD with a BA (Hons), in Philosophy having been assigned to help with the production of the Provincial Magazine, the “Missionary Annals”, for a year’s perfecting 1956-1957.

On completing the necessary theological studies he was ordained to the priesthood in Miltown Park, July 1962. After his apostolic consecration the following year, Fr. Paddy was appointed to Brazil as a founder member of the Irish Holy Ghost Mission. Having served there until 1980 he was recalled to the home province to join the Provincial Council until he was assigned to the Irish Missionary Union as Executive Secretary 1983-1988. Sabbatical leave in the Holy Land followed.

It was back to pastoral work from 1989-1995 as part of the team that initiated the Holy Ghost involvement in the parish of Bawnogue, Clondalkin, Dublin, where he is still fondly remembered. Fr. Paddy travelled to Durban, South Africa in 1995, worked there with the International Holy Ghost missionary group until his return to Ireland in 2005 and was on sabbatical leave until his appointment to St. Michael’s.

On April 27^th 1923, Harold Jacob commissioned Harry Clarke, the famous stained glass artist, to make a window out of the usual run of domestic stained glass for the landing of his father’s house, St. Michael’s, Ailesbury Road in Dublin. Most of the work produced in his studios was for churches and this commission gave him a perfect opportunity to do something never done before in Ireland.

So he conceived the idea of illustrating Keith’s poem, The Eve of St. Agnes on stained glass, and this decision was mutually agreed by them on the 7^th May of the same year. Clarke moved his studios from number 33 to number 6 and 7 North Frederick Street at this time and it delayed the making of the window which was finally completed on the 1^st April, 1924.

The stained glass window consisted of twenty two small leaded panels, framed in decorative leaded borders, fourteen of which are inscribed with the lines of the poem they illustrate.

Eleven panels are on antique flashed blue glass, acided, stained and painted. Four panels are in antique flashed blue glass plated on flashed gold-pink glass, acided, stained and painted. Four panels are on antique flashed blue glass plated on flashed ruby, acided, stained and painted. One panel is of antique ruby glass, acided, stained and painted and two are on kelp, stained and painted. Originally erected as two openable windows to be read LH top to bottom, then RH top to bottom, each side measuring 62x20 ½ - signed Harry Clarke April 1^st.1924.

The window had a decorative lunette showing Clarke’s disguise of the lead lines as feathery fronds a method he would repeat in the Bewley’s Café windows. The nineteen preliminary pencil watercolour and gouache drawing and can be viewed today in the Crawford Gallery in Cork.

Harold Jacob received a work which expressed a full range of Clarke’s artistry both as an illustrator and as an artist in glass. The total bill amounted to £160.17.6d. (€204.5 approx)

The window created a sensation at the Aonach Tailteann Art Exhibition in August where it was awarded the Trophy Gold Medal. It was so admired by the visitors who came to see it that many of them returned again and again to view it as a beautiful piece of unusual art. At this time, Clarke was at the height of his career and this was his masterpiece.

You may ask how it arrived at its present home. Jacob senior was returning from his biscuit factory one evening during the war years when his car was involved in an accident in St. Stephen’s Green. He was taken to the nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital where he died.

Mrs. Jacob decided to sell St. Michael’s which was bought by the Holy Ghost Fathers. Prior to putting the property on the market she sold the window for an undisclosed sum to Richard King, the manager of Clarke’s Studios as Harry Clarke had died in 1931.

After the death of King his wife found the window in packing cases under a bed in her house and in turn sold the window to the Municipal Gallery (Hugh Lane) in 1978 for £20,000. (€25,395approx.)

When the new extension to the gallery was about to be opened last year (2006), the Assistant Curator and the City Architect for special buildings, visited St. Michael’s to ascertain where the window had been erected. The President of the College, Fr. Séamus Galvin and Mr. Felix Larkin met them and they verified the exact location of where it had been installed.

It was Felix Larkin who alerted Fr. Galvin to the fact that this stained glass window was originally made by Harry Clarke for St. Michael’s and he presented a framed copy of a poster of this window to St. Michael’s in memory of his brother the late Fr. Arthur Larkin, a past student and former President of the College Union.

This window is now displayed in the special stained glass room in the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane and it is hoped that many of our students will get an opportunity to visit the gallery and admire this priceless masterpiece which has such a historic link with St. Michael’s.

We have tried above to sketch a pen picture of the bridge that spanned the years between 1944 and 2006. The events have been only cursorily charted and we ask the reader to forgive the shortcomings in the narrative.

These events themselves are relatively easy to identify, however it would be much more difficult if not altogether impossible to convey the commitment, the human sacrifices and sheer hard work that have gone into the making of the thoroughly modern St. Michael’s. Much has already been achieved but we feel confident that the College has still many more “miles to go”. As Time, that great creator and destroyer rolls on, many images will undoubtedly be reflected on the mirror of memory, images that will continue to hearten and inspire us. However, we cannot allow our reflection on the past to become too lingering lest it dulls the dynamism of the present and makes the future less worthy of the past.

Send mail to webmaster@mrkelly.net with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 11-Nov-2008

Send mail to webmaster@mrkelly.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 11-Nov-2008