SOME 20,000 boys have passed through Blackrock College since it was founded in 1860 but only a selection can figure in the new illustrated history of the school. It is the work of the indefatigable Father Sean Farragher CSSp, archivist and photographer, and art teacher, Annraoi Wyer.
Father Farragher has already produced books about the French founder of the college, Father Leman, and on Eamon de Valera's long associations with it.
The history of Rock is fairly well known from its beginnings as the "French College" and expansion over the years to include the preparatory school, Willow Park, and the Castle, where the final year students prepare for their examinations in what they like to think is superior isolation from the lower classes. St Michael's in Ailesbury Road was founded as an offshoot of the main college in 1944 but has always been independent.
Boney boys, Rock men
The fascination of this latest book on the college is the more than 1,000 photographs used along with extracts from the archives to illustrate every phase of development from the beginning in Castledawson House where the students in their French style military uniforms were known as the "Boney boys".
While sport was soon to become an important aspect of college life, there cannot have been much time for it as the boys wrestled with a curriculum as set out in the first prospectus - of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, history, geography, mathematics, physical and natural sciences, music, drawing and "the various branches of a liberal Education".
The college's later rugby successes have tended to overshadow the academic achievements of the early decades under the French fathers of the Holy Ghost congregation. They had come to Ireland principally to recruit priests for their African missions but Blackrock soon became a leading Catholic school the success of which led in time to the foundations of sister colleges at Rockwell, Co Tipperary, and St Mary's, Rathmines.
The college annuals soon began to proclaim the successes of the more distinguished alumni as they spread throughout the British empire on the strength of their examination results and degrees. The castle was at first a university college where past students of the school could study for the degree examinations of the Royal University as well as those for entry into the Civil Service.
By the end of the century, Rock boys were being listed as distinguished office holders in South Africa, Australia, India, and even as official interpreters in China, Japan and the Ottoman empire. Pupils who were to influence Irish life in various ways such as Eamon de Valera, John D'Alton - later to become Cardinal - Alfred O'Rahilly, Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, and Padraig O Conaire, vied for the top prizes.
Rock past pupils also filled many teaching posts in the new national university but its establishment meant the castle lost its status as an institution for undergraduates to prepare for their degree examinations.
Glory and glitter
Another Rock boy, John Charles McQuaid, would go from being a pupil to become president of the college and then Archbishop of Dublin. Father Farragher sees Dr McQuaid's headship of Blackrock in the 1930s as a particularly glorious period in the history of the college which played host to the garden party to celebrate the Eucharistic Congress, probably the most glittering social occasion in the history of the young Free State.
Dr McQuaid's arrival in the top post also meant a restoration of the close relationship of the college with Eamon de Valera following the strains imposed by the Civil War, Father Farragher comments. The de Valera papers reveal how he and Dr McQuaid worked together on various drafts of the 1937 Constitution but the latter was always respectful of the political primacy of his friend and he never tried to impose his own views. Indeed there are letters where he apologises to Dev for being over hasty in some of this suggestions.
Also to become well known: names in different spheres were Jimmy O'Dea and Joe Lynch in the entertainment world; Brian Nolan alias Flann O'Brien, Tony Cronin, and Tim Pat Coogan in the literary and journalistic sphere; Alex Spain in business, and T.P. Whelehan ash a wine expert.
Prominent figures
In more recent times, Bob Geldof, Ruairi Quinn, Rory O'Hanlon, Brendan Mullin and Hugo McNeill are listed as achieving prominence in the political, entertainment and sporting arenas. There is a photograph of former senior civil servant in the Attorney General's office, Matt Russell, holding a knife between his teeth in a Willow Park opera in 1945.
On the night in 1962 that RTE was launched many of the main figures were Rock men such as President de Valera who opened it, Archbishop McQuaid who blessed it, Cardinal D'Alton who gave the religious address and Jimmy O'Dea who performed in the first programme. The first Director General, Kevin McCourt, was also a Rock man.
Rugby never became the be all and end all in Rock that outsiders like to imagine. Important, yes, but still only a game. Why the school should achieve such records in both the senior and junior cups is due in the first place to a succession of skilled and inspiring coaches on the staff such as Tony Hampson, Jerome Godfrey and John Roche but tradition and the lure of a medal also kept the cups coming back.
And perhaps the HolyGhost had a hand as well.