St. Conleth's College 75 Year Quinquennial 2014

20
St. Conleth's College
1939 - 2014
Michael Quirke, Norbert Shannon, Dr Golden and Dermot Kinlen in the 1940s
PO’H : St. Conleth’s now has over 350 students in
classes from Preparatory to Sixth Year. What
were the numbers like back then?
AH : When I came here, there were four or six in my
class, but several classes were combined, and
that felt important as there were some older boys
to bring up the numbers. This provided me an
incentive to achieve greater marks in my essays,
in particular. I don’t think mixed ages is always a
bad thing : it encourages both competition and
co-operation.
PO’H : Is it actually true that you were at St. Conleth’s
before Mr. Kelleher?
AH : It is true! I was here before Kevin was here.
Kevin joined in 1944, I think. Few of us could
understand how a North-sider could have
crossed the Liffey and accepted a teaching position
in our school! We thought he’d leave after a
year. Little did we know! Some wiser people
thought that the addition of his rugby skills
would be good for the sporting prowess of the
school. Well, it didn’t have an immediate effect.
In a game against St. Andrew’s, I played as the
no. 11. At half time the score was 22-0 to
Andrew’s. The Andrew’s captain said to his team
that they could ease up now. We sent our captain,
Michael Nugent, with a message : “We heard
your remark to the team. And our reply is this :
Do your darnedest, don’t ease up on us!” They
obliged. Final Score : 44-0.
PO’H : Any other amusing stories?
AH : Annual Sports Day was huge, and the No.1 Army
Band would play there!
Also, when a few of us had graduated, Bernard
Sheppard expressed a desire that we create a Past
Pupils’ Union. We recent graduates obliged.
Fifteen said they’d be there at the first dinner, in
the Dolphin Hotel, owned by the Nugent family.
Only seven showed up. We had to pay for fifteen,
so we were scrambling for money, saying that we
would pay back next week, and searching our
pockets in vain. We also made frequent trips to
the bathroom to ‘make room’ for the extra food.
We had no doggy bags, so we had to eat it all!
PO’H : And were there any ‘worst of times’ ?
AH : In the 50s we viewed with dismay the deterioration
of Bernard’s health. Other past pupils and
I did our best to keep in touch, and we saw
Bernard by appointment on a number of afternoons.
It was sad to lose him in that way but his
legacy lives on in the school.
PO’H : Any final thoughts on St. Conleth’s ?
AH : If anyone asks if I enjoyed my time at St. Conleth’s,
my answer is simple : I sent my son there