Page 26 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 26
pressures on the school. But there was still a lot that the school lacked.
The old prefab science block was still functioning, though it was never
intended as anything more than a interim solution. The decision was now
taken to make one more major effort and supply the school with what
was needed in the way of specialist rooms. The Headmaster, Fr Dermot
Murray SJ, Chairman of the Interim Board Fr Cormac Gallagher sJ, and
the Bursar Fr Fergus O'Keeffe SJ, in spite of the debts still weighing on
the school, pushed through a project for a large building that would solve
the problems at last.
I will spare the reader another account of fund-raising efforts. Part of
the target was handed over to the Community Counselling Services, Inc.
to raise. But the most that could be expected of them was be a little over
half the cost. It was envisaged that the parents of new boys to the school
would be asked to contribute. And that would have to go on for several
years before the whole debt was paid off. So far, they have helped mag-
nificently.
What did we get for all the effort? Mr McCaffrey, of Robinson, Keefe
and Devane was the chief architect, and indeed, he gave a very great deal
of his time and interest. P.J. Walls, Ltd. were the builders. The Science
and Specialist block is a two story building. There are laboratories for
physics, chemistry, and biology, each of them with their own preparation
rooms, which is a marvellous comfort. There is also a computer room,
with its equipment being added to frequently. There is a special audio-
visual room, properly equipped so that one does not have to lug around
from one class room to another what one needs in the audio-visual line.
There is a large geography room. That was an answer to a sore-felt want
of many years' duration. There are two class rooms for the sixth year
students. An office for the Vice-Principal of the school. And a small but
prestigious room for the Greek elite where Fr Keane still carries on his
work of trying to roll back the frontiers of barbarism!
Altogether, an enormous addition to the school.
CONCLUSION
Such has been the history of Gonzaga College for about the first thirty
years of its life. We have followed its development from the first days
when the Jesuit community and the boys managed somehow to live
together in one house. We have watched the growth of various building
programmes until now, at last, we have more or less what is necessary.
In the purely educational field we have seen the outline of the original
aims of the school; the early sense of experiment and idealism, to the
gradual realistic acceptance of the hard, and sometimes harsh, facts of
today's Ireland.
Gonzaga will be thirty six years of age this year. So it is still a compar-
ative stripling when measured against the other Jesuit schools in Ireland.
24
The old prefab science block was still functioning, though it was never
intended as anything more than a interim solution. The decision was now
taken to make one more major effort and supply the school with what
was needed in the way of specialist rooms. The Headmaster, Fr Dermot
Murray SJ, Chairman of the Interim Board Fr Cormac Gallagher sJ, and
the Bursar Fr Fergus O'Keeffe SJ, in spite of the debts still weighing on
the school, pushed through a project for a large building that would solve
the problems at last.
I will spare the reader another account of fund-raising efforts. Part of
the target was handed over to the Community Counselling Services, Inc.
to raise. But the most that could be expected of them was be a little over
half the cost. It was envisaged that the parents of new boys to the school
would be asked to contribute. And that would have to go on for several
years before the whole debt was paid off. So far, they have helped mag-
nificently.
What did we get for all the effort? Mr McCaffrey, of Robinson, Keefe
and Devane was the chief architect, and indeed, he gave a very great deal
of his time and interest. P.J. Walls, Ltd. were the builders. The Science
and Specialist block is a two story building. There are laboratories for
physics, chemistry, and biology, each of them with their own preparation
rooms, which is a marvellous comfort. There is also a computer room,
with its equipment being added to frequently. There is a special audio-
visual room, properly equipped so that one does not have to lug around
from one class room to another what one needs in the audio-visual line.
There is a large geography room. That was an answer to a sore-felt want
of many years' duration. There are two class rooms for the sixth year
students. An office for the Vice-Principal of the school. And a small but
prestigious room for the Greek elite where Fr Keane still carries on his
work of trying to roll back the frontiers of barbarism!
Altogether, an enormous addition to the school.
CONCLUSION
Such has been the history of Gonzaga College for about the first thirty
years of its life. We have followed its development from the first days
when the Jesuit community and the boys managed somehow to live
together in one house. We have watched the growth of various building
programmes until now, at last, we have more or less what is necessary.
In the purely educational field we have seen the outline of the original
aims of the school; the early sense of experiment and idealism, to the
gradual realistic acceptance of the hard, and sometimes harsh, facts of
today's Ireland.
Gonzaga will be thirty six years of age this year. So it is still a compar-
ative stripling when measured against the other Jesuit schools in Ireland.
24
