Jesuits to move from Belvedere

The remaining six members of the Jesuit community at Belvedere College, Dublin, will move from the school to the congregation…

The remaining six members of the Jesuit community at Belvedere College, Dublin, will move from the school to the congregation's residence on nearby Upper Gardiner Street from summer next year.

However, the Jesuits have no plans to lessen their involvement with the school.

In a letter to Irish members of the congregation last Thursday the Irish provincial Father Gerard O'Hanlon said the decision was part of a reorganisation strategy and in no way indicated a lessening of Jesuit commitment to the college.

Just three of the teaching staff at Belvedere are Jesuit priests. At one time 22 members of the congregation taught there.

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It is believed the residence at Great Denmark Street, where Belvedere College is situated, may be integrated into the school.

Since September last the college has had a lay principal, Mr Gerard Foley, who succeeded Father Leonard Moloney.

As their numbers age - 128 of 192 in Ireland are over 60 - the Jesuits, as with other religious congregations, have had to rationalise and restructure their operations and resources.

They have also been introducing "ethos programmes" at their schools, whereby the Jesuit ethic is impressed upon lay teaching colleagues.

The congregation has no plans to withdraw its involvement from any of its colleges -Belvedere or Gonzaga in Dublin, Clongowes Wood in Kildare, Coláiste Iognaid in Galway, or the Crescent in Limerick.

Indeed preparations are being made to intensify that involvement with some colleges.

Belvedere College was opened in 1832 and soon became part of the Jesuits' mission to provide an educated leadership for an emerging Catholic middle-class in Ireland.

They also played a key role in the establishment of the National University of Ireland at Earlsfort Terrace, later in the 19th century.

Belvedere College currently has 970 pupils. It is fee-paying, but provides a scholarship scheme for socially disadvantaged pupils

Famous past pupils include Cardinal Desmond Connell; former taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald; and businessman Sir Anthony O'Reilly.

But probably its most famous past pupil was James Joyce, who was ignored by the Jesuits with a passionate indifference until comparatively recently.