From ‘Sir’ with love

Five hundred people turned up in Croagh Park on Wednesday 1 April to enjoy an evening with Sir Alex Ferguson and raise funds for the Belvedere Social Integration Scheme. The SIS covers the costs of secondary school education for boys not otherwise in a position to attend.  The Manchester United manager gave his time (and wonderful anecdotes and insights from down the years) free of charge, so financially the evening was a great success. The first rugby jersey signed by every member of the Grand Slam team ’09 was presented by former Belvedere student and rugby great, Ollie Campbell. It raised  a further €13,000 at auction. To top it all off, those present watched Ireland beat Italy one-all (!)  in the World Cup qualifier match shown on big screens at either end of the dining hall.  ’The boys done good!”

Building homes in Madagascar

Fifth year students from Gonzaga College in Dublin are once again raising money to help build homes in Madagascar, working in conjunction with Habitat For Humanity. They hope to raise €80,000 to cover the cost of their flights to Madagascar as well as building materials, food, clothes, and anything else that will make the trip a success. It is an ambitious plan, they acknowledge, but this doesn’t put them off. “The final goal will be achieved eventually,” say Rory Vignoles (extreme left, back row) and Donagh Seaver (second from right, back row), adding that “All donations, no matter how small, will be very much appreciated”.

Jesuit schools in Leinster rugby

All the Leinster Jesuit schools made it safely through the first round of the Leinster schools senior rugby cup. Belvedere College, Gonzaga College and Clongowes Wood College all qualified for the second stage of the competition. Belvedere, the holders, bet St Gerard’s school, Bray, 19-0. Gonzaga won 20-10 against King’s Hospital. Clongowes staged a tremendous second-half fight-back to defeat close rivals Newbridge College 33-20, after trailing 17-3 at the interval. Clongowes full-back Gerard Mullen is pictured here scoring the opening try for Clongowes to get the fight-back under way. With Belvedere and Gonzaga set to meet in the next stage there will be at least one Jesuit representative in the semi-final. Clongowes are set for a cracking encounter against pre-tournament favourites Terenure.

Short notices

• An Inter-Institutional Centre for Spirituality and Social Transformation has been launched in Waterford Institute of Technology, through the participation (pictured here) of Michael O’Sullivan SJ (Milltown Institute), Sister Bernadette Flanagan (All Hallows) and Michael Howlett (Waterford IT).
• The current Irish Catholic reports how ChurchServices.tv, part of CatholicIreland.net, is broadcasting Masses live to a growing audience, including some beleaguered Christians in Kenya. The site is an offshoot of Sacred Space, “The fire that lights other fires”.
• On 20 December, 3 to 5 p.m., girls and boys (with parent/adult supervision) are invited to join the Manresa Team, together with Mr. Paul McGuire (Belgrove Junior Boys School, Clontarf), for an afternoon of carol singing and reflection on the meaning of Christmas, followed by a little party at Manresa, 426 Clontarf Road.
• Noelle Fitzpatrick and Padraig Swan of Sli Eile Jesuit Centre for Young Adults were interviewed on Tuesday Dec 16th, on the Mooney Goes Wild programme on RTE Radio One. They spoke about their weekend pilgrimage in the Midlands without food or money and you can listen to the interview here.

St Declan’s marks 50th birthday

St Declan’s School celebrated its 50th birthday on 27 September, with past and present students and their families filling Haddington Road church for a Mass celebrated by Jesuit Provincial John Dardis. In 1958, Fr Dermot Casey, a Jesuit psychologist, raised £4000 to buy 35 Northumberland Road, in Dublin 4. He needed a place to cater for children of normal intelligence who could not cope with mainstream primary school for a variety of reasons, such as what we would now call Asbergers Syndrome, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and other conditions. The good fruits of his efforts were manifest at the celebration – never more than when two past students, Sian and Brendan, spoke about what St Declan’s had done for them. Click on ‘Read more’ for the text of Brendan’s address. Read more »

“They give with nothing to gain”

Northside People West, a suburban Dublin newspaper, featured JUST on 3rd September, around the experience of Jean and Karl, would-be third-level students in Ballymun:

Jean had been 29 years out of school when she decided to follow her dream of becoming a primary school teacher. But she almost abandoned her ambition when she faced her first college exam. “It was horrendous. I cried my eyes out on leaving the exam hall. Then I phoned Frank Brady from JUST and he invited me over for a coffee. We had a great chat, and he assured me I knew what I needed to know, and prepared me for my next exam the following day.” Read more »

Discernment in community course

The Secretariat of Ignatian Spirituality (CIS) will hold a workshop on Communal Apostolic Discernment in the light of GC35, in Rome from January 19 to February 3, 2009. The course objectives are to develop the skills necessary to implement the Congregation’s recommendations concerning communal apostolic discernment and to apply this form of discernment to apostolic needs. The course is aimed at those involved in Ignatian group work, including Jesuits, lay collaborators, religious, and priests. For further information: Secretariat for Ignatian Spirituality, Borgo S. Spirito 4, C.P. 6139, 00195 Roma-Prati (Italia). Email: cisdir@sjcuria.org. Website: ciscourse.

Reflections on Zambia

A group of fifth year students from Gonzaga College SJ travelled to Zambia with Habitat For Humanity over Easter 2008, the third year that the college students have being involved in building houses together with families in need. This year sixteen students travelled along with four teachers for a three week period during their holidays. One of the students, Karl Aherne, has written a reflection on the experience. Read more »

Belvedere’s Family Fun day

Belvedere College’s second annual Family Fun Day will be held on Sunday, May 25, in the Old Belvedere Rugby Club from 12-6pm. Aimed at all families, friends and past pupils of the College, it consists of sports, activities and games for younger children. There is a free barbeque and soft drinks. For enquiries and application form, contact Belvedere College Development Office, (00353)1 8586600, pmcd@belvederecollege.ie.

Promoting JUST cause

The Jesuit University Services Training (JUST) project, based in Ballymun, Dublin, which has seen more than 50 people avail of its services this year, will be spending the summer break concentrating on promoting access to third level education in the area. They plan to reach out to the growing immigrant community and will have the services of a fluent Polish speaker, Prof. Helina Czosnynka, during the summer, as well as connecting with the Polish ministry based in Gardiner Street. JUST is also exploring how it can work with the second and third level Jesuit education network in Ireland. The JUST offices are currently in the old shopping centre, Ballymun, and they are awaiting news of, hopefully, a new main-street premises with the reconstruction of the new shopping centre. The death of Liam Greene SJ is still keenly felt by staff and students.

Spirituality on the up

Milltown Institute’s programmes in Applied Spirituality are consistently the most subscribed postgraduate courses. The External Examiner for the programmes last year, Peter Tyler from St. Mary’s University College, London, emphasised that they are the only ones of their kind in Britain and Ireland. Traditionally the domain of religious and priests, they now attract professionals in the fields of medicine, social care, counseling, education, and business. Lay women form the largest percentage of students, but there has been a recent increase in the number of men. For more information (places are limited): Michael O’Sullivan SJ, (00353) 1-2776315; mosullivan@milltown-institute.ie, www.milltown-institute.ie.

50 years of pioneering education

St. Declan’s School, which caters for children with mild levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Founded in 1958 by Irish Jesuits, it is a pioneering venture in the area of specialised education. Many children have spent time at the school, on Northumberland Road in Dublin 4, when mainstream schooling has not suited their needs. St Declan’s policy, however, is to help them overcome their particular difficulties and make a speedy return to mainstream schools. The school’s new website, built at the Jesuit Communication Centre, went live on Tuesday 22 April. See it at www.stdeclans.ie.

Clongowes Seconds come in first

The Jesuit colleges scored another victory in the Leinster schools rugby competitions this year. Clongowes Wood college’s Junior Cup Team Seconds showed their class by beating Blackrock college 12-5. They won the Junior Seconds league cup in what was an exciting final in Donnybrook rugby grounds. The team, pictured here with the cup, had only lost one match during the entire season (ironically it was to Blackrock College!).