St. Conleth's College 75 Year Quinquennial 2014

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St. Conleth's College
1939 - 2014
Memories of 75 Years
by Basil Brindley
Some twenty-five years ago I derived very considerable
pleasure from writing a story about my early association
with the birth of St. Conleth’s. Those were wonderfully
happy, carefree days and I was very touched when Kevin
Kelleher and Ann Sheppard recently invited me to submit
an update of the recollections which I had penned away
back in September 1989. They kindly supplied me with a
copy of the St. Conleth’s College “Memories of 50 Years”
and I make no apologies for admitting to a renewed sense
of enjoyment from once again reading over that personal
contribution entitled “War on Sunday, School on Monday”.
Twenty-five years is a considerable chunk of time and sadly
we have lost many old pals since I produced that story in
1989. But some things never change. Sunday 3rd September
1939 marked the outbreak of World War 11 and the
following day, Monday 4th September saw the birth of
St. Conleth’s when Bernard Sheppard opened the hall door
of Number 17 Clyde Road - a couple of hundred yards
down the way from its present location. The little acorn
started life with half a dozen seedling students but Kevin
Kelleher and Ann Sheppard celebrated the Seventy-fifth
Anniversary of St. Conleth’s with an assembly of more
than 400 boys and girls on the 4th of September.
In his forward to the 1989 Commemorative book, Kevin
tells us that we will “very quickly find out what St. Conleth’s
is all about – PEOPLE. We have produced academics.
And we have achieved sporting greats. We’ve produced
solicitors, barristers, medics, artists, writers,
accountants and people in all walks of life. But mainly,
and most importantly, we have produced People!” He
winds up by saying “We sincerely hope that St. Conleth’s
will be around for another 50 years, so that we can double
up on the reminiscing, and produce our centenary yearbook
in the year 2039.”
Basil Brindley
Father Stan
- part of the gang at
Conleth’s and Darwin Hall
Thank you, Kevin. At eighty- seven years of age, I’m
delighted to comply with your request to supply this little
contribution for our “Seventy-fifth” but I’m afraid that
some alternative arrangements will have to be ironed out
for the Centenary job as “Yours Truly” is hardly likely to
be around for any sort of celebrations on his 112th birthday.
God forbid!
Meanwhile let’s turn our thoughts to those other old
pals who have already completed that final journey
home. Pride of place must certainly go to Michael
‘Mr. Dolphin’ Nugent.
Michael was first in line for that historic opening day at
St. Conleth’s in September 1939 and he completed a
unique achievement when serving his full six year term as
a model student. He was School Captain in his early years
and when the Past Pupils Union was established in 1950,
he became the first president, followed by three other
founder members of St. Conleth’s: John Lovatt Dolan,
‘Yours Truly’ and Philip Morgan. The first P.P.U. dinner
was held on 9th February 1950 and, naturally enough,
the venue was Michael’s ‘Home away from Home’, The
Dolphin Hotel in Essex Street, which had been owned by
the Nugent family since the beginning of time!
A surviving copy of the Celebration Menu recalls some
wonderful memories of the friendships which we treasured
in our Clyde Road Kingdom more than sixty years ago. The
list is headed by a request to please “Sign and return to
Bernard Sheppard”. Two members of the local clergy,
Fr. Molloy and Fr. Harley are included, together with eight
past presidents – Michael Nugent, John Lovatt Dolan,
Basil Brindley, Philip Morgan, Gerry MacCarthy, Jim
Rawson, Arthur Hughes and Brian MacMahon. When
compiling a few notes for this Seventy-fifth volume, I
unearthed a couple of senior citizens who had attended that
Dolphin Dinner in 1950. During an extended chat with
Kevin Kinlen, the pair of us recalled some wonderful old
times which myself and my priestly brother Fr. Stan shared
with the entire Kinlen family at “Darwin Hall” - a truly
magnificent residence in Rathfarmham which was blessed
with a secluded fruit garden where we
gorged ourselves with plums in the
summer and played theatre amongst the
shrubs in the winter. After these revelations
I got hold of Kevin’s contribution to
the previous issue of our Conlethian
Booklet. Under the title “The life force in
Conleth’s “he told us that – “The pupils
did not realise it at the time, but they were
given practically individual attention by
Kevin Kinlen, great teachers, such as Michael Murphy,
who never lifted his hand to a student or
raised his voice but whose mere physical
a fellow traveller from the
early days of St. Conleth’s