Page 97 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 97
THOUGHTS
ON THE PREP
SCHOOL
Summoning up a decade of Gonzaga life
through the eighies, the inimacy and
domesic scale of the Prep School come
irst to mind. Services in the Chapel, of
course, opened up a grander perspecive
as we joined the congregaion of Seniors.
Their apparently easy conidence and
diident poise stoked expectaions of
things to come. a cherishable moment of not holding
An atempt to put order on a lood of back before crossing the threshold
impressions is most likely to mislead, but to Senior School and greater self-
at this distance it is the lure of language, consciousness.
the thrill of words that seems to crowd The word ancient. Our irst contact
to the front and strike a connecing with Lain came that same year; its
spark. weight of sonority and structure was
The word magical. A lasing memory unarguable, and carried with it the music
Danny McNelis: Prefect of Studies from 1975 to 1983 of Prep One: the imaginaion immersing of older things. The nightly challenge of
itself in a great tale by C S Lewis or decipherment brought faint romanic
Roald Dahl, unfolding over many weeks, echoes of Indiana Jones, a hero then on
read with verve by Miss O’Kelly or Fr the cinema screen, running his inger
Farquharson – a luxury to be relived with across secret carvings in an abandoned
an audiobook, perhaps, but missing the temple.
essenial elements of live enactment and The words by heart. In Prep Four
collecive experience. English class with Mr McNelis, poems
The word magneic. Early Prep were to be learned and recited.
Fr Paul Farquharson School French classes had a quality of Expectaion was high and the discipline
ritual – Miss O’Kelly gravely keen; learning poetry was a serious
acivaing the heavy switches business. Our good fortune that we
of the reel-to-reel player, arrived in ime to encounter that old
a great machine which method.
commanded respect, set a Eugene Downes
rhythm for the class, lent the Class of 1990
language an apt formality.
The word illustraive. A Eugene Downes is Chief Execuive of
Prep Four essay assignment Culture Ireland, the government agency
could create hand-rubbing for the promoion of Irish arts worldwide.
He was previously a member of the
excitement, characters Irish Foreign Service, Cultural Atache in
someimes sketched in the Russia, a music and opera broadcaster
copybook margins under the with RTÉ, curator and producer of the
cultural programme for State Visits across
inluence of fantasy books Europe, Asia and South America, and
and of Ernest Shepard’s an adviser to the Irish Government on
magical drawings for the internaional arts strategy. He has served
Wind in the Willows. A year on the boards of the Abbey Theatre, the
Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Irish
or two would temper that Cultural Centre in Paris, Irish Theatre
free enthusiasm, but this was Insitute and Rough Magic.
ON THE PREP
SCHOOL
Summoning up a decade of Gonzaga life
through the eighies, the inimacy and
domesic scale of the Prep School come
irst to mind. Services in the Chapel, of
course, opened up a grander perspecive
as we joined the congregaion of Seniors.
Their apparently easy conidence and
diident poise stoked expectaions of
things to come. a cherishable moment of not holding
An atempt to put order on a lood of back before crossing the threshold
impressions is most likely to mislead, but to Senior School and greater self-
at this distance it is the lure of language, consciousness.
the thrill of words that seems to crowd The word ancient. Our irst contact
to the front and strike a connecing with Lain came that same year; its
spark. weight of sonority and structure was
The word magical. A lasing memory unarguable, and carried with it the music
Danny McNelis: Prefect of Studies from 1975 to 1983 of Prep One: the imaginaion immersing of older things. The nightly challenge of
itself in a great tale by C S Lewis or decipherment brought faint romanic
Roald Dahl, unfolding over many weeks, echoes of Indiana Jones, a hero then on
read with verve by Miss O’Kelly or Fr the cinema screen, running his inger
Farquharson – a luxury to be relived with across secret carvings in an abandoned
an audiobook, perhaps, but missing the temple.
essenial elements of live enactment and The words by heart. In Prep Four
collecive experience. English class with Mr McNelis, poems
The word magneic. Early Prep were to be learned and recited.
Fr Paul Farquharson School French classes had a quality of Expectaion was high and the discipline
ritual – Miss O’Kelly gravely keen; learning poetry was a serious
acivaing the heavy switches business. Our good fortune that we
of the reel-to-reel player, arrived in ime to encounter that old
a great machine which method.
commanded respect, set a Eugene Downes
rhythm for the class, lent the Class of 1990
language an apt formality.
The word illustraive. A Eugene Downes is Chief Execuive of
Prep Four essay assignment Culture Ireland, the government agency
could create hand-rubbing for the promoion of Irish arts worldwide.
He was previously a member of the
excitement, characters Irish Foreign Service, Cultural Atache in
someimes sketched in the Russia, a music and opera broadcaster
copybook margins under the with RTÉ, curator and producer of the
cultural programme for State Visits across
inluence of fantasy books Europe, Asia and South America, and
and of Ernest Shepard’s an adviser to the Irish Government on
magical drawings for the internaional arts strategy. He has served
Wind in the Willows. A year on the boards of the Abbey Theatre, the
Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Irish
or two would temper that Cultural Centre in Paris, Irish Theatre
free enthusiasm, but this was Insitute and Rough Magic.
