Irish Jesuit Archives

At the Irish Jesuit Archives, I am taking the first tentative steps in investigating digital...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:00:00 +0100

At the Irish Jesuit Archives, I am taking the first tentative steps in investigating digital preservation.

Aim: Ensure that born-digital material in the Irish Jesuit Archives is secure and preserved for the future. (Setting myself quite a challenge, and determined not going to use Rothenberg quote!)

What are the constraints? Lone archivist, some ICT knowledge, no survey of digital material, no finance, no ‘real’ digital preservation experience…

Plan: Firstly, I am going to try and read as much as possible and document (on openoffice) what I have read and how to implement some of what I have learnt. I will post further ramblings here.

Fifty Digital Preservation Activities you can do via Library of Congress @ndipp
Preserving (Digital) Objects with Restricted Resources
Digital archiving in Ireland: national survey of the humanities and social sciences via Digital Repository of Ireland @dri_ireland
What I wish I know before I started via Digital Preservation Coalition
Getting Started in Digital Preservation via Digital Preservation Coalition
future Arch = traditional archives + digital archives @ the Bod
Digital Preservation via Library of Congress @ndipp and The Signal blog
“Intro to Digital Preservation #1 - Preservation Planning and Overview of PREMIS for Beginners” via the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
Future Proof - Protecting our digital future via @FutureProofNSW
Born Digital Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories

Some random thoughts from reading the above (31 May 2013):

No one size fits all solution to Digital Preservation…migration, emulation…but there are lots of resources/groups out there to help
Digital Preservation is on-going, long-term process…not going to finish it today or tomorrow but you have to start somewhere
Digital Preservation is an inter-disciplinary, trans-national affair
Guidance within Ireland compared to UK, Australia, USA is its infancy…perhaps a benefit!
Lots of acronyms which boggle the mind…Dublin Core -somewhere near College Green, METS - New York baseball team, XML - shirt size that beginning to wear… :)
Need to re-assess how to preserve flickr/twitter/tumblr. Not sufficient to print off. Even cataloguing and finding aids need re-assessment.
People seemed to be obsessed with the band OASIS and their dips, hips, aips and pips :)
Feel that Archivists are been left behind regarding their input into digital preservation!

Rathfarnham Castle, which dates from the Elizabethan times, is probably the earliest example of...

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:04:00 +0100

Rathfarnham Castle, which dates from the Elizabethan times, is probably the earliest example of what is termed a “fortified house” built in Ireland. One hundred years ago this May, the Jesuits purchased Rathfarnham Castle as a residence and house of studies for their university students. They sold the house in 1985.

A seismograph was built at Rathfarnham Castle by Fr. William O’ Leary in 1916. In 1932, a Milne-Shaw seismograph (above) was obtained to replace the ‘O Leary seismograph’. Further Info

On Friday, 10^th May at Rathfarnham Castle, Simon Loftus will read from his new book entitled ‘The Invention of Memory: An Irish Family Scrapbook 1560 - 1934’. Adam Loftus arrived in Dublin in 1560 and built the original Rathfarnham Castle.

Rathfarnham Historical Society will meet on Thursday 23 May 2013 at 8 p.m. in the Church of Ireland Parish Centre, Rathfarnham village. A lecture, titled Rathfarnham Castle Demesne will be given by Rebecca Jeffares. All welcome. Admission for non-members: 4 euro.

Over the Easter period, I was privileged to follow ‘In the Footsteps of Ignatius’ and...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:52:00 +0100

Over the Easter period, I was privileged to follow ‘In the Footsteps of Ignatius’ and spend five days in Loyola, Spain. Visits included the Loyola family’s Tower House - the Holy House, Loyola Basilica, the Onati caves at Arrikrutz, Arantzazu, Pamplona and Xavier Castle.

On my return, I have come across a souvenir book (image above of Loyola, c.1894) entitled ‘The Ignatian Album’ (1894), printed and published by Guy & Co. Ltd, 114 George Street, Limerick and presented to Fr. Patrick Keating SJ, on the occasion of him becoming Provincial of the Irish Province, by Fr. Francis Daly SJ, Mungret College, Limerick, (20 January 1895).

Loyola, March 2013.

The Novena of Grace in honour of St. Francis Xavier takes place at St. Francis Xavier’s...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000

The Novena of Grace in honour of St. Francis Xavier takes place at St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin, from 4th - 12th March 2013.

The background to the Novena of Grace can be read here.

In the archives, there is an account of the cure of William Bacon from a stomach ailment, thanks to the intercession of St. Francis Xavier during the Novena of Grace, dated Dublin 8 January 1665. There is also a book with the title ‘The manner of performing the Novena, or the nine days devotion to St. Francis Xaverius of the Society of Jesus and Apostle of the Indies, as also the devotion of the ten Fridays to the same saint’ printed for Ignatius Kelly, at the Stationers-Arms in Mary’s Lane, Dublin, 1749.

In 2012, slides and photographs taken by Irish Jesuits in Zambia (1950 - 1990) and Hong Kong (1929 -...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:46:01 +0000

In 2012, slides and photographs taken by Irish Jesuits in Zambia (1950 - 1990) and Hong Kong (1929 - 1990) were presented to the Irish Jesuit Archives by the Irish Jesuit Mission Office. For historical accuracy, at different times, these missions were also referred to the Chikuni Mission and Chinese Mission. www.jesuitmissions.ie

Taken out of their original boxes which were in poor condition, over 2,000 slides and photographs are in the process of been rehoused. They have some handwritten pencil and biro descriptions which may help in identification however if you can identify any of the people, places or give background information such as dates to any slide or photograph, then either comment on the flickr site or email archives@jesuit.ie

A book entitled ‘The Man Called James Corboy: Irish Jesuit...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:39:00 +0000

A book entitled ‘The Man Called James Corboy: Irish Jesuit Bishop of Monze, Zambia’ written by Sr. Catherine Dunne SHM was launched by Father Provincial Tom Layden SJ at Milltown Park on Thursday, 24 January 2013.

James Corboy was born at Brookville, Caherconlish, county Limerick, 20 October 1916. Educated at the Crescent and Clongowes, he entered the society in 1935 and was ordained in 1948. He was consecrated Bishop of Monze, 24 June 1962. He retired as bishop in 1992, returned to Ireland in 1996 and died in Dublin, 24 November 2004. His body was returned for burial in Zambia in 2005.

Clicking on the image of the book or here takes you to a flickr set of images of Bishop Corboy.

Coláiste Iognáid, Galway, formerly known as St. Ignatius...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:03:00 +0000

1876 medal in the archives

1865 medal rubbings by Ruth Dromgoole

Coláiste Iognáid, Galway, formerly known as St. Ignatius College, celebrates its sesquicentenary in 2013. As part of this celebration, Fr. Brendan McManus SJ is collating photographs relating to the history of St. Ignatius Church, Sea Road, Galway.

The Irish Jesuit Archives possesses two letters from Ruth Dromgoole, Department of Education, National Museum of Ireland (March 1946 and February 1950) in which she sought information on a medal in the museum’s possession, as she was preparing a catalogue of a collection of medals. On both occasions, she enclosed descriptions and rubbings. Description:

JESUIT COLLEGE, GALWAY, C.1865 (R.I.A. 144)

Obverse: ‘View in perspective of church. Above, COLLEGIUM S. IGNATI SOC. JESU GALVIENSE. In exergue A.M.D.G. Signed, J. WOODHOUSE A R H A.’; Reverse: ‘Across, PRIZE MEDAL enclosed in sprays of oak-leaves and acorns, ends crossed and tied. Above, Imperial crown. Around, a circle of egg and ornament. Diam. 2.55”. Bronze. By John Woodhouse. Serrated rim.’

The only difference between her description of the medal in the National Museum and that in the Irish Jesuit Archives is that the medal in the archives is dated 1876, and has been awarded for Athletic Sports. There is a faint name under the spray of oak leaves and acorns, which I have yet to decipher.

This summer, the conservation of the yacht ASGARD, the 1914...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:01:28 +0000

This summer, the conservation of the yacht ASGARD, the 1914 Howth gun-running vessel, was completed at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. The Irish Jesuit Archives hold a crucifix with the inscription: ‘Gordon Shephard: Killed in France Jan. 19 1918 R.I.P Magnum Signum Amoris’. So who was Gordon Shephard and what links this crucifix to the ASGARD?

The son of Sir Hoartio Hale Shephard (the then advocate-general of the presidency of Madras), Gordon Strachey Shephard was born in India in 1885. Educated at Eton, he passed into Sandhurst in 1903 and was commissioned in 1905.

Shephard first met Erskine and Molly Childers in London in 1909. Erskine and Gordon became firm friends, sharing their passion for sailing. Shephard combined his military career with his sailing exploits - also providing the British Admiralty with photographs and maps of German installations while sailing. In a ‘Riddles of the Sands’ type episode, Shephard and another sailor were held for three days by the German authorities for spying in September 1911. In 1912 Shephard joined the Royal Flying Corps.

In the summer of 1913, Shephard, and the Childers’s sailed on the Asgard to Germany and around Scandinavian but left Shephard to sail the Asgard back from Oslo in October to Holyhead. For this feat, he was awarded the Challenge Cup of the Royal Cruising Club. Erskine Childers then asked Shephard to help with the smuggling of guns into Ireland. Shephard accepted. Having helped sail the Asgard to Germany and back for the purpose of gun-running, Shephard was put ashore in Milford Haven, Wales on 19 July 1914. Remarkably, he showed up at Howth on 26 July, to assist with the unloading of guns from the Asgard. Afterwards, Mary Spring Rice and Shephard started back to Dublin and in a matter of fact way, said ‘I took him to tea at the Arts Club’.

In August 1914, Shephard flew to France. In 1917 he was promoted, the then youngest Brigadier General in the Royal Flying Corps. On 19 January 1918, Brigadier-General Shephard, D.S.O. M.C., died as a result of a flying accident at Auchel. Two days afterwards, Erskine Childers wrote to Lady Agnes Shephard, Gordon’s mother, ‘He was one of my heroes and will always be so. Molly and I loved him’.

Lady Agnes Shephard presented the crucifix to the Molly Childers who gave it to the Jesuits when they lived at Rathfarnham Castle.

A curator from the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:15:00 +0100

Fr. Daniel Finn SJ on Lamma Island, Hong Kong

Finds by Fr. Finn SJ from Lamma Island

A curator from the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office was researching in the archives this week, previously having attended the 14th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists (EurASEAA) at University College Dublin School of Archaeology, September 2012.

His interest lay in the previously unseen letters and photographs sent from Hong Kong to Ireland by Fr. Daniel Finn SJ, lecturer in geography at the University of Hong Kong. Fr. Finn was a pioneering archaeologist in Hong Kong from 1927 - 1936. He describes his pottery and stone finds from the Chalcolithic period in ‘Archaeological finds on Lamma Island near Hong Kong’. Fr. Finn died in London in 1936 after returning from an international conference on archaeology in Oslo where he represented the university and government of Hong Kong.

Subsequently, the archaeological finds of Fr. Finn were displayed in the University of Hong Kong. During World War Two, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong threatened their existence. The Japanese began to confiscate the collection but the fact that Ricci Hall belonged to the Irish Jesuits, not the University, meant that Irish neutrality saved the collection.

Daniel Finn was born in Cork in 1886 and was educated at PBC. He was a talented student, earning first place in the preparatory grade in Ireland in 1896 and first place in Latin, French, German and Italian. At sixteen he entered the Jesuits. At eighteen he won first place in the Classical Scholarship Examination at the Royal University. He studied archaeology at University College, Dublin and at Oxford. During World War One he was banished from the Tirol on Italy’s entry into the war. His fluency in languages extended to Irish, Hebrew, Hungarian and Chinese.

The current exhibition at Marsh’s Library, Dublin is entitled...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:16:00 +0100

The current exhibition at Marsh’s Library, Dublin is entitled ‘Marvels of Science: Book that changed the World’ and is part of the Dublin City of Science 2012 festival. The 70 plus rare and important scientific texts exhibited were produced in 24 different cities in 10 European countries. The earliest date from the 14th century and the exhibition includes work by Robert Boyle, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Christiaan Huygens, Sir Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, William Petty, Narcissus Marsh, Jonathan Swift, Isaac Newton and by Jesuits, Christoph Scheiner, Giambattista Riccioli, Gaspar Schott and Athanasius Kircher.

One of the most interesting cases is Forgotten Females - which highlights the role of woman in investigative science which has been largely hidden (the works of Louyse Bourgeois, Marie Meurdrac and Elisabetha Hevelius and Elizabth Albin). Lastly, The Curious Experiments: A scientific detective project by six students from the Grashof Gymnasium in Essien, Germany should serve as inspiration for anyone endeavouring in ‘scientific outreach’.

The Archive Awareness Campaign 2012 will be launched tonight, 16...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:59:00 +0100

Archive Awareness Campaign 2012

Crescent College Cricket team, Limerick (1905)

The Archive Awareness Campaign 2012 will be launched tonight, 16 August, at Newman House, 85/86 St. Stephens Green, Dublin. The theme is Sports, Games and the Olympics. The purpose of the campaign is to encourage participation in archive events; increase awareness and the use of archives among existing, new and different users.

Photographs from the Irish Jesuit Archives will be uploaded every day on flickr to celebrate the Archive Awareness Campaign. The images date from 1882 - 1970 and are taken from Coláiste Iognáid, Galway; Crescent Comprehensive, Limerick; Mungret College, Limerick; Clongowes Wood College, Kildare; Gonzaga College, Dublin; Belvedere College, Dublin; St. Ignatius College, Sydney, Australia and Zambia.

A full list of Archive Awareness in Ireland events can be found here & on flickr.

Debra Hess Norris, Chair of the Art Conservation Department at...

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:02:00 +0100

Albumen photographs, TCD 16/07/2012

Hurling in Northern Rhodesia, c.1960

Debra Hess Norris, Chair of the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, and Professor of Photograph Conservation gave a two-day workshop entitled Preservation of Photographic Collections - It won’t be long: The preservation of our photographic heritage with a little help from my friends…just imagine, hosted by Trinity College Library, Preservation & Conservation Department and supported by the Irish Professional Conservators’ and Restorers Association (IPCRA) on 16 -17 July 2012.

Debbie’s knowledge and enthusiasm for photographic conservation and the Beatles (each lecture/talk started and ended with an anecdote and a Beatles photograph) ensured that everything from the tintype to cellulose acetate film negative was covered. I cannot say that I understood everything that was discussed but I suppose that is what a workshop is all about.

Learning:

how to identify photographic print/negative materials and differences between them, especially if deteriorating (from albumen to silver gelatin, printed out and developed out!)
common problems that you come across in photographic preservation and practical solutions (lots of web resources - Image Permanence Institute)
the importance of emergency planning and outreach

One of the best aspects of the workshop was hearing from the 40 participants, who came with their varying degrees of experience (in my case very little), from a wide geographic area (Ireland, UK, France, Spain, Poland, US) and variety of jobs (paper, book, object and photographic conservators; museum curators; archivists; librarians; Digital Humanities people; and students of conservation). We also were afforded the opportunity to see some of TCD photographic collections - the highlight for me was Emerson’s platinum prints of the Norfolk Broads. I now have more confidence in developing and implementing preservation processes for photographs at the IJA and will endeavour to collaborate more with other Jesuit Archives around the world.

A photographic album found recently in a basement in a Jesuit...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:48:00 +0100

A photographic album found recently in a basement in a Jesuit residence, Dublin, Ireland, highlights the connections between Jesuits in Ireland and Australia. Irish Jesuits arrived in Australia in 1865 and Australia became a mission of the Irish Province until 1950. This album by Sidney Riley Studios, Queen Street, Brisbane, Australia contains views of the interior and exterior of St. Ignatius’ Church, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia. St. Ignatius’ Church/School, was opened by Dr James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane, 18 May 1930. The Jesuit in the image is either Fr. Richard Murphy SJ or Robert Little SJ.

History of St Ignatius School
St Ignatius Parish
Irish Jesuit Archives images of Church/School

You might well ask, what connection has Andy Coogan, a 95 year...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:13:00 +0100

You might well ask, what connection has Andy Coogan, a 95 year old man who carries the Olympic Torch today in Dundee, Scotland, with the Irish Jesuits. The answer is Fr. Richard (Dick) Kennedy SJ, (Dublin), who along with Andy, survived as prisoners of the Japanese during WW2. Andy was a champion runner however his promising athletic career was cut short by the outbreak of war, and he missed the chance to compete at the 1948 Olympics as a consequence of over 3 years as a POW. With help from Graham Oglivy, he is currently writing his memoirs. He was nominated to carry the torch by his grand-nephew, Sir Chris Hoy.

Andy was designated to assist Fr. Kennedy during their initial imprisonment in Singapore. Fr. Kennedy was a military chaplain to the British army. Together they organised a clandestine chapel and risked their lives to establish a secret chapel. Fr Kennedy went with Andy and the other men to toil in a copper mine in Formosa (Kinkasaki) which was absolute hell. The men died like flies and with little or no medical aid. Fr Kennedy became an inspiration helping the camp doctor who had no medicine and only rusty razor blades to perform operations.

Andy last saw Fr. Kennedy at an airfield in the Philippines after their liberation. In around 1947, Fr. Kennedy visited Andy’s home while he was working and left £10 for him as “unpaid wages”.

Subsequently, Fr. Kennedy was imprisoned in 1953 under the Communists of Canton and on his release worked in Hong Kong for the rest of his life. He never spoke about his time as a POW.

Video of Andy Coogan

Article on Andy Coogan

The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin,...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:12:00 +0100

The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin, 21-26 June, 1932. Fr. John Ryan SJ was on the organising committee for EC1932 and was a speaker at the General Meeting in English.

Jesuit houses accommodated pilgrims in places such as Belvedere College, where the Bishops of Dromore, Clogher and Mgr. McGettigan of Edinburgh stayed and Milltown Park, who accommodated 70 priests, including the Bishop of Nottingham, Dr. McNulty. For those who stayed at Rathfarnham Castle and University Hall, Hatch Street click here.

One of the most interesting participants of the 1932 Congress, Archbishop Mar Ivanios, resided with the Jesuit community at Rathfarnham Castle. Earlier in the year, he made a pilgrimage to Rome to meet Pope Pius XI where he received the pallium. While in Dublin, Mar Ivanios said mass in the chapel at Rathfarnham Castle and he celebrated the Eastern Mass at St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street. To celebrate the 80^th anniversary of Archbishop Mar Ivanios, Servant of God, visit to St. Francis Xavier’s Church, on Saturday 24 June a reception and mass will be held there.

A tweet by @katymilligan on twitter that the 1915 RHA Annual...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:19:00 +0100

Telegram, 21 Decmeber 1914

Arrival list, 22 December 1914

Flemish mass, 18 - 23 May 1915

A tweet by @katymilligan on twitter that the 1915 RHA Annual Exhibition was in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund provided the spark for me to check out IJA/ADMN/3/7.

The documents in IJA/ADMN/3/7 relate to the Belgian refugees who arrived in Ireland (1914 - 1915) as a consequence of the First World War. Initially, Irish Jesuits were asked by the Local Government Board (17 October 1914) to go down to the North Wall at 7.30am on the 18th and meet the 100 Belgian refugees. This was due to ‘a few of your Order, who speak Flemish’. Subsequently, the Irish Provincial became a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and distribution of refugees arriving in Ireland. The majority of the documents relate to offers to house refugees and schemes to aid them, both physically and spiritually.

Back to the tweet…there are letters from Philippa M. Lawless, 2 Mountjoy Square to Father Nolan (October 1914) suggesting ‘a scheme of mine which might prove of use to our Belgian refugees’: ‘Irish Art exhibition of Paintings…where it is proposed to give half of proceeds to Belgian refugees in Ireland’.

The modern day incarnation of working with refugees is undertaken by the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland www.jrs.ie

Eye of the Storm Seismology and archives are present in Siobhán...

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:46:00 +0100

Eye of the Storm

Seismology and archives are present in Siobhán McDonald’s new work, ‘Eye of the Storm’, which launches tomorrow at the Galway Arts Centre. ‘She explores the idea of studying ‘nature’ for this exhibition and employs geology as a language to conceive an understanding of time and our relationship to a constantly evolving environment, juxtaposing new artworks in poetic relation with historical and geological artefacts. Early 20th century Jesuit seismograms, from Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS), The School of Cosmic Physics, and a series of newly realised works- drawings, paintings, sculpture, video and sound works - consider and reflect on the volcano, history, technology and mans’ recordings of events, as they interconnect with human experience through the physicality of the surrounding landmass.’

Irish Jesuits have influenced the field of seismology and astronomy in Ireland and abroad, particularly in the twentieth century. Men such as: Henry Gill - ‘Experiments with Spinning Tops to illustrate earthquake reactions’; William O’ Leary - established Mungret and Rathfarnham Observatories; Edward Pigot - pioneered seismology in observatories in China, Samoa, Tonga and founded Riverview Observatory, Sydney; Daniel O’ Connell - Director of the Vatican Observatory and the ‘O’ Connell Effect’, Noel Burke Gaffney - Riverview Observatory, Sydney, ‘The seismological and related aspects of the 1954 hydrogen boom explosion’, his brother Michael Walter who has an observatory named after him at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and in Ireland, Richard Ingram and P.M Troddyn.

Galway Arts Centre

Siobhan McDonald

Scientists of the shaking earth

Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies

Irish Jesuit Archives flickr

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Constitution of...

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:54:00 +0100

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Constitution of Ireland and, to mark the occasion, the Royal Irish Academy has produced a publication entitled The Origins of the Irish Constitution 1928-1941 by Judge Gerard Hogan. Irish Times article.

The Origins of the Irish Constitution is a project of the Royal Irish Academy in association with the Office of the Attorney General and the National Archives of Ireland to publish a comprehensive selection of key documents relating to the development and drafting of the constitution. The documents will be collected from a variety of archival holdings, covering the period 1929 to 1941.

Fr. Edward Cahill SJ was part of a Jesuit Constitution Committee which gave advice to Eamon de Valera on the drafting of the Irish Constitution. The Irish Jesuit Archives provided correspondence between Cahill and de Valera for the new publication.

Article by Dermot Keogh on The Catholic Church and the writing of the 1937 Constitution.

ANZAC day remembers all Australians and New Zealanders who...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:06:00 +0100

ANZAC day remembers all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.

Thirty-two Jesuits of the Irish Province served as chaplains during World War One. Six of these served with Australian forces. Fr. Edward Sydes SJ who was born off the coast of Australia on the British ship ‘Norman Morrison’, died in the Australian Section, 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, 14 November 1918 from illness sustained as a chaplain. Frs. Michael Colman (Mayo), William Gwynn (Cork), Joseph Hearn (Mayo) and Patrick Tighe (Dublin), all worked in Australia prior to joining the AIF. Fr. Michael Bergin SJ (Tipperary) not only never set foot in Australia but was the only Catholic chaplain serving with the AIF to have died as a result of enemy action.

The six Jesuit fathers’ records are available for download from the National Archives of Australia and Mapping Our Anzacs.

As a footnote, Fr. Bernard Page SJ who arrived in Australia at the age of seven, served with the Cavalry Field Ambulance during the war.

The 1912 Clongownian has obituaries for Commodore Surgeon...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:44:00 +0100

The 1912 Clongownian has obituaries for Commodore Surgeon William Francis N. O’ Loughlin (above) and Dr. Arthur Jackson Brewe, who both perished on the Titanic.

Dr. O’ Loughlin, a native of Tralee, county Kerry, was a student of Tullabeg from 1859 -1865 whereupon he attended medical lectures at the Catholic University, Dublin. For forty years he was attached to the medical department of the White Star Line and at the time of his death he was the senior surgeon of the company. His story is well documented here.

Dr. Arthur Jackson Brewe c.1867 was born in Galway and was the eldest son of Mrs. Butler, Winterfield House, Drumgriffin, Galway. He was educated at preparatory school in Glencoe, and subsequently at Clongowes Wood College (1881 - 1886) whence he matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin. He emigrated to New York, then Philadelphia and took a special course in Neurology. He had been on a tour of Africa and joined the Titanic at Cherbourg having travelled through Rome, Naples, Florence and Paris. Dr. Brewe was a private physician to some of the best know Philadelphian millionaires!