Mags GarganOn Sunday, July 20 an outdoor Mass in the grounds of Rockwell College marked the 150th anniversary of Spiritan presence in the Tipperary school.
The attendance of several hundred people included current and former students of the school and their parents, Spiritans attached to the Congregation’s communities in Rockwell and elsewhere, as well as staff and members of the public.
The Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel & Emly, who praised the College’s educational ethos, the Spiritan Provincial Marc Whelan C.S.Sp., Spiritan Community Leader in Rockwell Matthew Knight C.S.Sp. and school chaplain Samuel Udogbo C.S.Sp. with a large number of other Spiritan and diocesan clergy, while the music was led by the Tipperary Gospel Choir.
The story of Rockwell goes back to the years soon after Catholic Emancipation and the Great Famine when on July 20, 1864 three Spiritans were given possession of the former estate house and lands.
The college’s early years as the senior Irish seminary of the Spiritans coincided with the beginning of the great missionary movement and one the most celebrated former students was Bishop Joseph Shanahan C.S.Sp., a founder of new missionary societies and congregations. Other past pupils include Éamon de Valera, Thomas McDonagh and poets Monsignor Pádraig de Brún and Pádraic Ó Conaire.
Fr Brendan Carr C.S.Sp., a member of the current leadership team of the Spiritans and himself a past pupil, noted that the youthful vigour of what had been a large Spiritan community attached to the school in the past has now “matured to grey-haired wisdom and contemplative presence”, with direct involvement in the school by the smaller community of Spiritans now principally in the area of pastoral care.
Fr Carr acknowledged the excellent work done by the current and previous boards of management of the co-educational school, as well as by the principal Ms Audrey O’Byrne and her team of dedicated professionals.