Page 34 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
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indolent. After a few years it was decided that there was too wide an
academic gap between the boys in our class so we were divided into two.
The first six, of which I was one, were put into a class which prepared
for matriculation in the Fifth year. So one had the rare privilege of
tuition which was almost indvidual. The rest formed a B class with some
of the older members of the next class. I think it was I who christened
it 'the Dunciad'. It served me right that this class included boys like David
Strahan, David Carton, Michael O'Donovan and John Mulhern, whose
subsequent careers have been much more successful than my own.
Among those in our class was a German boy called Garret whose parents
had perished in the war-time bombing of Hamburg and who had been
brought up by Dr and Mrs Shanley in Merrion Square. 'Shano' as he was
known, remembered his own parents and their tragic death. I don't think
we grasped the tragedy of his early life, so much at odds with the comfort
and security in which we had been reared. He left us in 1956 before he
finished his course. I remember he gave me one of his books before he
went and I recorded my feeling of sadness in a diary I kept that year.
Another boy called Bertie (Alberta) was the son of the Spanish
Ambassador. He and his brother evoked some mirth when they told us
they were grandees of Spain which meant that they did not have to
remove their hats in the presence of the King.
Fr O'Conor, known to the boys as Charlie, presided over it all -
indeed in polite Dublin society, Gonzaga was often referred to as Fr
O'Conor's school. How far his appointment was designed to lend a
suitable social tone, as was widely assumed, I do not know. What I do
remember is that he did not spare himself in the work he did for the
school. He was moving round the grounds as we arrived in the morning;
he supervised the lunching and changing rooms; he took classes and
interviewed each of the boys individually at least once a year. All the term
reports were in his own elegant handwriting. He was a most meticulous
and thorough man. However he was austere, shy and somewhat grandiose
and I don't think many boys felt at ease in his presence. There was much
sniggering and imitation of his lofty laughter, his well-bred mannerisms
and his old-fashioned turns of phrase - he seemed to say 'By Jove'
rather a lot. It must be said that he was rather rigid in ways and may have
been lacking in understanding of the wayward. On one occasion it was
felt that he had acted rather harshly in expelling a boy who got involved
in a joy-riding incident; Blackrock behaved more mercifully towards
others involved in the same episode which found its way into the courts
and was reported in the daily newspapers. Fr O'Conor's signal
contribution was the vision he engendered of the future of the school. We
may have smiled a little at his many references to the school passing
milestones but what was important was that he was determined on
excellence both in academic standards and in the new buildings whose
construction he had to arrange. He combined graciousness and elegance
with humility and sanctity. To have known him was an inspiration in life,
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