Page 48 - Gonzaga at 60
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GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
I was a member of the irst class of boys to complete the course at Gonzaga – the class of 1958.
But, unlike most of my year, I was not a founder pupil as I did not arrive unil September 1953
when the school was three years old. I had been at St Michael’s in Ailesbury road, then only a
preparatory school for Blackrock. My father, a proud Old Belvederian, would not hear of my
going on to ‘Rock. The Jesuit provincial Father O’Grady told him that Gonzaga would be the
leading Jesuit school of the future. He went to see Father O’Conor and came home charmed.
Ater a cursory examinaion I was given a place in Senior II which was then the top class.
My immediate impression of the place when I cycled up on that September morning was
one of coldness and unfriendliness, quite at odds with what I had known at St Michael’s. The
Jesuits seemed to me aloof, distant and silted compared with the warm spontaneous characters
who had been my former mentors. I spent my irst term asking my parents if I could return to
Charles Lysaght went St Michael’s. Unfortunately, I had been put in a class where most of the boys were at least a
from Gonzaga to year older. Although I kept up academically, this was a social strain and contributed to the mild
University College Dublin unhappiness of my years at the school.
and King’s Inns, where he
read poliical economy Most of the boys were the sons of important men or belonged to notable families. Many
and law. In 1960 he of the fathers had been at school at Belvedere or Clongowes. There was not quite the same
became the irst of a
succession of Gonzaga social mix I had known at St Michael’s. I think that this made me surprised that the boys were
past pupils/Old Boys to less well behaved. Shortly ater I arrived, some members of our class set of a sink bomb. The
win the Irish Times trophy
for student debating. whole class was detained ater hours and told that they would not be allowed to go home unil
Subsequently he the guilty paries owned up. They did so eventually and were duly slapped. I remember not
went to Christ’s College
Cambridge and became being impressed by the misbehaviour or the manner in which the miscreants had been forced
the irst Irish Catholic ever to confess their guilt.
to have been president
of the Cambridge Union, We were small class – fourteen boys. All of them, apart from Niall Scot and myself, had
defeaing Vince Cable, a been there from the foundaion. Christopher Robson was the academic leader, Jerry Liston the
member of the present dominant personality and Leonard Litle the perfect gentleman. There had been school prefects
Briish government, in
the elecion. A member drawn from the class but this had been disconinued before I arrived. There was no Head Boy.
of the Irish and English When we got to Senior IV it was decided that there was too wide a range of academic
Bars, he has lectured in
law at London University performance. We were divided into two. The irst six, of which I was one, were put into a class
and King’s Inns and been that prepared for matriculaion in Senior V. So one had the rare privilege of tuiion that was
a legal adviser at the
Department of Foreign almost individual.
Afairs and the Law The rest of our year formed a B class with some of the older members of the next class. I am
Reform Commission. His
publicaions include a ashamed to recall that I christened it the Dunciad. If its members were not academic high lyers,
biography of Brendan most of them had pracical ability. George Sisk, David Carton, David Buckley, David Strahan, Rory
Bracken (1979) and
Great Irish Lives (2008), Daly and John Mulhern all proved this with successful careers in business. Michael O’Donovan
a collecion of obituaries lowered when he got to university and had a successful career in medicine in Canada.
of Irish persons in The Among our six was a blond orphaned German boy called Garet who had been adopted
London Times to whose
columns he is a regular by Dr and Mrs Shanley in Merrion Square. ‘Shano’, as he was known, remembered his mother
contributor.
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
I was a member of the irst class of boys to complete the course at Gonzaga – the class of 1958.
But, unlike most of my year, I was not a founder pupil as I did not arrive unil September 1953
when the school was three years old. I had been at St Michael’s in Ailesbury road, then only a
preparatory school for Blackrock. My father, a proud Old Belvederian, would not hear of my
going on to ‘Rock. The Jesuit provincial Father O’Grady told him that Gonzaga would be the
leading Jesuit school of the future. He went to see Father O’Conor and came home charmed.
Ater a cursory examinaion I was given a place in Senior II which was then the top class.
My immediate impression of the place when I cycled up on that September morning was
one of coldness and unfriendliness, quite at odds with what I had known at St Michael’s. The
Jesuits seemed to me aloof, distant and silted compared with the warm spontaneous characters
who had been my former mentors. I spent my irst term asking my parents if I could return to
Charles Lysaght went St Michael’s. Unfortunately, I had been put in a class where most of the boys were at least a
from Gonzaga to year older. Although I kept up academically, this was a social strain and contributed to the mild
University College Dublin unhappiness of my years at the school.
and King’s Inns, where he
read poliical economy Most of the boys were the sons of important men or belonged to notable families. Many
and law. In 1960 he of the fathers had been at school at Belvedere or Clongowes. There was not quite the same
became the irst of a
succession of Gonzaga social mix I had known at St Michael’s. I think that this made me surprised that the boys were
past pupils/Old Boys to less well behaved. Shortly ater I arrived, some members of our class set of a sink bomb. The
win the Irish Times trophy
for student debating. whole class was detained ater hours and told that they would not be allowed to go home unil
Subsequently he the guilty paries owned up. They did so eventually and were duly slapped. I remember not
went to Christ’s College
Cambridge and became being impressed by the misbehaviour or the manner in which the miscreants had been forced
the irst Irish Catholic ever to confess their guilt.
to have been president
of the Cambridge Union, We were small class – fourteen boys. All of them, apart from Niall Scot and myself, had
defeaing Vince Cable, a been there from the foundaion. Christopher Robson was the academic leader, Jerry Liston the
member of the present dominant personality and Leonard Litle the perfect gentleman. There had been school prefects
Briish government, in
the elecion. A member drawn from the class but this had been disconinued before I arrived. There was no Head Boy.
of the Irish and English When we got to Senior IV it was decided that there was too wide a range of academic
Bars, he has lectured in
law at London University performance. We were divided into two. The irst six, of which I was one, were put into a class
and King’s Inns and been that prepared for matriculaion in Senior V. So one had the rare privilege of tuiion that was
a legal adviser at the
Department of Foreign almost individual.
Afairs and the Law The rest of our year formed a B class with some of the older members of the next class. I am
Reform Commission. His
publicaions include a ashamed to recall that I christened it the Dunciad. If its members were not academic high lyers,
biography of Brendan most of them had pracical ability. George Sisk, David Carton, David Buckley, David Strahan, Rory
Bracken (1979) and
Great Irish Lives (2008), Daly and John Mulhern all proved this with successful careers in business. Michael O’Donovan
a collecion of obituaries lowered when he got to university and had a successful career in medicine in Canada.
of Irish persons in The Among our six was a blond orphaned German boy called Garet who had been adopted
London Times to whose
columns he is a regular by Dr and Mrs Shanley in Merrion Square. ‘Shano’, as he was known, remembered his mother
contributor.
