Page 74 - The Gonzaga Record 1988
P. 74
RECOLLECTIONS OF A FOUNDER PUPIL
The original intention of my parents had been that, following my
parting, in the summer of 1950, with the convent school in which I
received my initial education - a parting which, though ostensibly civil,
was effected with a mutual sense of relief - I should go to Belvedere.
It was in this connection that I first met Fr William White, then Prefect
of Studies there, in whose office in Great Denmark Street I attended to
be interviewed. I left anticipating keenly my return to Belvedere as a
pupil.
Some weeks later, my parents having become aware of a new Jesuit
school to be opened that autumn in Ranelagh, a short bus ride from
home, I was called to be interviewed a second time and again found
myself face to face with Fr White. The kindliness and effervescent good
humour which had made me feel at ease on the previous occasion were
still evident, but I took away from a more exacting encounter a new and
mildly disquieting impression of a man who was not to be trifled with.
Of a subsequent meeting with Fr Charles O'Conor, the new College's first
Rector, I have a vaguer recollection, no doubt because it took place in the
presence of my parents.
Smell, it is said, is the most evocative of all the senses. Some years ago,
in a Dublin department store, the breaking-open of a package by a shop
assistant release the aroma of rough, fresh leather as I hurried past. On
the day that Gonzaga had opened its doors to its first pupils, a bright
morning in September, 1950, carrying my first leather satchel, soon to be
stocked from Fr White's stationery shop, I had presented myself at what
Past v Present Cricket Match - May 1988 .
72
The original intention of my parents had been that, following my
parting, in the summer of 1950, with the convent school in which I
received my initial education - a parting which, though ostensibly civil,
was effected with a mutual sense of relief - I should go to Belvedere.
It was in this connection that I first met Fr William White, then Prefect
of Studies there, in whose office in Great Denmark Street I attended to
be interviewed. I left anticipating keenly my return to Belvedere as a
pupil.
Some weeks later, my parents having become aware of a new Jesuit
school to be opened that autumn in Ranelagh, a short bus ride from
home, I was called to be interviewed a second time and again found
myself face to face with Fr White. The kindliness and effervescent good
humour which had made me feel at ease on the previous occasion were
still evident, but I took away from a more exacting encounter a new and
mildly disquieting impression of a man who was not to be trifled with.
Of a subsequent meeting with Fr Charles O'Conor, the new College's first
Rector, I have a vaguer recollection, no doubt because it took place in the
presence of my parents.
Smell, it is said, is the most evocative of all the senses. Some years ago,
in a Dublin department store, the breaking-open of a package by a shop
assistant release the aroma of rough, fresh leather as I hurried past. On
the day that Gonzaga had opened its doors to its first pupils, a bright
morning in September, 1950, carrying my first leather satchel, soon to be
stocked from Fr White's stationery shop, I had presented myself at what
Past v Present Cricket Match - May 1988 .
72
