A bit of Clongowes history

Old Clongownians and brothers Rob and David Kearney have made a little bit of Clongowes rugby history. A recent match against Gwent Dragons was the first time two brothers from the College have played for the province in the Magners League. Elder brother Rob is already a permanent fixture with Leinster and Ireland and all set to become a Lion when he goes on tour to South Africa. Younger brother David (pictured here) entered the Leinster Academy and showed great potential. He was soon on the Ireland under 20′s team and has more recently played for Leinster. There is also a strong possibility that both brothers will represent Ireland at full international level. That will undoubtedly be another first for Clongowes and a little bit of Jesuit history as well.

Forthcoming events

• On 24 May at Bishop Lucey Park, Cork, Peter McVerry SJ will speak to and about families affected by the misuse of alcohol and other drugs, at a service remembering people who died from drug abuse.
• At 7 p.m. on 25 May, in the Davis Lecture Theatre (Room 2043 in Trinity College Arts Block) Prof. Sidney Griffith will speak on “Doing Christian theology in Islamic terms: the unity and trinity of God in early Christian/Muslim dialogue.” The lecture is sponsored by the Irish School of Ecumenics.
• Myles O’Reilly SJ is running workshops in Neurolinguistic Programming in June and July. They will take place in the Milltown Institute. For further details please contact 01-4972943 (Ext. 216), or email mylesforeilly@eircom.net.
• From 9 – 18 June, Slí Eile will take to the Camino – a 9-day pilgrimage across the north of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Closing date for applications in 30 June. Contact Caitlin or Seán at 01 8625345, or email ballymunadmin@sli-eile.com or sean.meehan@sli-eile.com.

Boys for others

Clongowes 4th year (Transition Year) students were busy helping out collecting for the Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Medical & Research Foundation at the weekend. All the volunteers said that it was something that they were happy to do and it was a worthwhile cause which Clongowes had long been associated with and would continue to be associated with in the future. Despite the rain and blustery conditions they spent the day collecting and raised a considerable amount for the charity. Pictured here are: Tom Nolan,Evan Balfe, Andrew Baldwin and Ben Daly.

Running for Slí Eile

In a monumental effort to raise funds for Slí Eile, director Padraig Swan ran a grueling 56 kilometres in the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, South Africa in April. It took him a mere 5 hours, 40 minutes. And he doesn’t plan to stop there. He will run a further three marathons this year, hoping to add substantially to the more than €10,000 he has raised to date. Slí Eile’s Audrey Hogan was at the Cape Town event too, egging Padraig along. After the marathon they stayed another two weeks to visit the projects in South Africa and Zambia where Slí Eile volunteers will work this summer. Read below for Padraig’s account of his African experience and for Audrey’s reflections on what the trip meant to her. Read more »

Short notices

• It is 35 years since Mungret closed. On 16 May some sixty alumni gathered for a reunion dinner with five Jesuits who had worked in the college as boys or men. After Mass in Gonzaga the following m0rning they lingered for over an hour, exchanging memories in a remarkable show of gratitude  and affection.
• A Jesuit priest features in Dermot Bolger’s play: The Consequences of Lightning. Come to the benefit performance in aid of Sli Eile on Friday, 22 May at the Axis theatre. Details from Sean Meehan at 01-8625345.
• David Gaffney SJ, who writes regularly in papers all over the country, sees an emerging pattern of “alternative safari” in the use of the Transition Year for students to get a sharp taste of Africa by working on building or other projects for a spell. Zambia in particular, with its relatively stable government and its link with Irish Jesuits, has attracted numbers of Irish boys and girls.

Teaching post in China

Daniel Ross SJ, the Coordinator for Higher Education in the Jesuit Chinese Province (ajcueao@mac.com) is looking for a Jesuit who might be ready to teach for a limited period in Sun Yat Sen University, which is ranked number 8 in China and is the top school in the southern part of the country. In China it is very unusual to find specific requests for Jesuits to teach and even more unusual for them to specify that this is due to our traditional Jesuit emphasis on liberal arts and humanism.  For the background to this request, read Daniel’s note below. Read more »

Traditions meet

Tuesday 12 May, at 7.30 p.m. in Gardiner Street Ignatian Room, Bertie Ahern TD launched Todd Morrissey’s new book: Where two traditions meet: John Sullivan SJ. Read more »

Grants for Africa

Murt Curry SJ and John Guiney SJ give a lot of time and care to preparing applications for funding for projects in Jesuit missions, mostly in Africa. They are happy enough that despite the recession, three of their recent five applications were successful. All that careful paperwork and negotiations will soon be translated into projects that will improve the life of people in South Sudan, Kenya and Zambia.  Applications for funding from Misean Cara to the tune of €148,000 have recently been approved through the Irish Jesuit Mission Office.  Of the three grants, one is for construction work in South Sudan, the other two for skills training in Nairobi and Lusaka. Read more »

Brian Lennon’s book on Forgiving

Brian Lennon’s book So You Can’t Forgive…? is now on its second printing. Recently he and Nuala O’Loan (former Police Ombudsman) were the speakers at a recent launch of it in Omagh. Over 100 attended. Several years ago Nuala suffered a miscarriage after being injured in a bomb. It took her 18 years to recognise that she `had not walked in the shoes of the men who took the life of my unborn baby…I could not know how I might have behaved if I had lived their lives, and so at the end of the day all I could do was to leave them to God’. Read more »

Easter in Sudan

Richard O’Dwyer SJ in South Sudan is still registering first impressions with the freshness of a new arrival.  Here is his Easter message: “Just after I had shaken the last hand and wished the last of the congregation Happy Easter after our Holy Saturday Vigil, I was informed that the mothers of our newly baptised infants wanted to meet me in the afternoon of Easter Sunday. Feeling pretty tired and not quite knowing what to expect, I groaned inwardly and muttered something to myself, if I am to be perfectly honest!  However, on Easter Sunday morning I discovered that the “meeting” was a party to celebrate the baptism of the children.” Read more »

What is a saint?

Since AMDG Express often mentions book-launches, it should also be allowed to mention books that are not launched, which slip into the shops without benefit of wine, cheese or speeches – and who is to say they do any less good for that? One such is an attractive volume published by Veritas at Easter called So great a cloud. It is Stephen Redmond SJ’s collection of stories about great Christians who he believes are in heaven, and whose witness impressed him. Celebrity sits uneasily on Stephen, but his writings and music over the years deserve celebration, especially the compliment of being enjoyed.

Why care about social justice?

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice  launched “‘Why Care?’ – Social Justice Unit for Schools” on Wednesday 13 May in the JCFJ office, Upper Sherrard Street, at 2.00pm. This new web-based unit was developed through a collaboration between the Centre and a number of teachers from Jesuit schools. It was designed for second-level students, more specifically those in Transition, Fifth and Sixth Year, to explore such questions as ‘What is Social Justice?’ and ‘Why Should I Care?’. Focusing on housing and homelessness and on crime and prisons, the unit provides a step-by-step introduction to these subject areas. The material presented draws on the work of the Centre in highlighting these issues and advocating policy change in relation to them.

University chaplains on in-service day

CN3 (Chaplains Network at Third Level) had its Spring in-service day at St. Stephen’s chaplaincy, UCD Belfield, on Friday 8 May. The topic: how to communicate, to an increasingly secular and often sceptical audience, the uniqueness and specificity of the chaplain’s role. This theme echoes a concern among chaplains, voiced at CN3’s AGM in January, that their role is often narrowly conceived and perceived (‘Call in the chaplain when someone dies’) and that therefore there is a need to better communicate, to staff and students alike, their message and the breadth and depth of their service. Pat Coyle, Manager of JCC, ably assisted the chaplains in this task. Leon Ó Giollain SJ (pictured here), a chaplain in UCD, reports on the day below. Read more »