CONTENTS:
A History of the Brothers in Belfast by Br. C. Gallagher.
The President's speech on the closing of Barrack Street.
Br. Malachy Murphy (JM) on Oxford Street C.B.S.
St. Mary's 1930 - 1936 by Br. H.F. McGreevy
'William Cardinal Conway... The man, the boy' by Joseph Charleton
The Christian Brothers in Belfast
by Br. Charles Gallagher
(Former Vice-Principal and former Acting Principal of St. Mary's)
Dr. Dorrian, Bishop of Down and Connor made many requests to the Superior General of the Christian Brothers for a community of Brothers to conduct a school in Belfast. He offered the Brothers the 'National School' in Divis Street. On November 3rd 1866, Brothers Louis Caton, Thomas Neaton, Alipius Maguire and John Ennis arrived in Belfast to form the community. They took lodgings in 26 Regent Street, behind the Memorial Church, Carlisle Circus. When Divis Street School was opened by the Brothers on the 12th November so great was the number of boys seeking admission many had to be turned away. As yet the community had no residence and so it was decided to hold a bazaar to raise the required money. Part of the proceeds was expended on building a 'wing' to the Diocesan College, St. Malachy's, as a home for the Brothers.
So great was the success of St. Mary's, Divis Street a second school was deemed a necessity, so four extra Brothers arrived the next year (1867) to take charge of an establishment in Donegall Street - St. Patrick's (shown left). The Brothers were Simeon Begley, Thomas Butler, Lawrence Burke and Jerome O' Brien. The new school opened on 27th November 1867 with four hundred and fifty pupils.
A third school was opened in Oxford St., St. Malachy's, in 1874. The cost of the site and the building, £2.400, was a bequest from Mrs. McGill, a charitable lady who wished to have a school erected convenient to the Quays to serve the children of sailors and dock labourers. Mrs. McGill stated in her will that Oxford Street School should be under the care and direction of the Christian Brothers. The following year another bequest enabled the Brothers to enlarge the Divis Street school.
Intermediate examinations were first held in 1879 and fourteen of the Belfast boys were successful. The McGill family were so pleased they made a donation of £50. The following years showed successive lists of distinctions.
In 1900 Technical Education was introduced by the Belfast Corporation. The superior at the time, Br.T.P. Ryan, applied for a share of the funds available for Technical Education, outlining the work done in Divis Street, Donegall Street and Oxford Street. He calculated that a sum of £500 per annum would be needed to meet expenses. This was granted by the committee. As a result, a Physics Laboratory, a Chemistry Laboratory and a Lecture Room were provided at a cost of £500.
In 1903, Hardinge Street Trade School was opened. The curriculum included Science, Metalwork, Woodwork, Drawing, English, Mathematics, a Modern Language and Religion. At this time Br. Canice Craven was Superior of the community and Headmaster of Hardinge Street, with remarkable zeal and courage, attended by great success. In 1915 there was a first place in all-Ireland and a medal in Chemistry, three exhibitions valued at £20 each in Literature and Science and a third place in all-Ireland for English. In junior grade there were three exhibitions worth £15 each in Mathematics, Science and Literature, two second places in all-Ireland in Maths and Science and many other prizes. There were also two Royal College of Science scholarships (£150 each) and successes in the G.N.R. and other businesses. During Br. Young's time of office the Bishop was D. McRory, who afterwards became Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh. He proved to be a great friend and admirer of the Brothers.
The Golden Jubilee of the Brothers' arrival in Belfast was celebrated with High Mass in the Church of St. Mary, followed by lunch for the Bishop, Priests and Brothers. A week-long bazaar was held in St. Mary's Hall. The expenses were £1,500, a very good investment as there was, at the end of the week, a net profit of £5,000.
The year 1921 saw the political separation of the 'Six Counties' from the 'Irish Free State'. The Six County Ministry of Education asked for school particulars - number of teachers, salaries, classes, curriculum, etc. If this information was not supplied there would be no financial aid. No Catholic school answered the requisition and so were debarred from financial help.
Donegall Street School was expanded by the acquisition of a Hall for the accommodation of fourth, fifth and sixth standards.
The year 1929 saw the opening of the new
St. Mary's Secondary School in Barrack Street.
The debts incurred by all these expansions were partly met by the institution of an annual concert which realised between £350 - £450 per year.
Brother Dominic Young who had for thirty years worked in Belfast with great success was, in 1934, transferred to Dublin.
Matt Boyle, Vincent McKeown, Philip McKeever(?), Brendan Harkin, ? McDonald, Anthony Wildie, ? McNamee.
George(?) Russell, ? Rafferty, George Branagh, Joe Curley, John O’Hare, Francis(?) Kelly, ? ?, ??.
Gabriel Philip, Gerry(?) Leonard, ? White, Walter Hagan, Malachy Cosgrove, Jim McGeagh,, Larry Carville, Willie Nelson.
The Second World War broke out in 1939. Black-outs and air raid warnings were a constant fact of life. Nothing happened until mid-April 1941 when there was a full-scale air raid with the resultant loss of life and destruction of property, including the schools. After the raids the schools were left almost empty – eight per cent of the pupils had cleared out of the city and most of the community were scattered. Those who remained did their best to carry on with depleted and amalgamated classes. It was impossible to resume work in Hardinge Street so it was decided to evacuate the entire school to another locality.
A second air raid, worse than the first, came three weeks later. Death and destruction were all around. The community were providently spared, although a terrific explosion shook the gable-end of the house in Fleetwood Street. Next door five of one family and three of another were blown to bits. The raid lasted for four hours, thousands of incendiaries, mines and bombs rained down on a helpless population. Schools were closed until after the summer. Hardinge Street School was accommodated in a hotel in Cushendun, Co. Antrim. Three hundred and forty boys continued their studies amid the peace and tranquillity of the Glens. The school in the Glens continued until 1943 when the Junior Technical School was back in its old quarters in Hardinge Street, as most of the population was back in residence and life was returning to normal.
When the war was over it was decided that two communities should be formed, one consisting of Brothers teaching in Hardinge Street and Donegall Street School, and the other - those of Oxford Street, Divis Street and Barrack Street. The first community took up residence in 'Somerton Lodge', Somerton Road and the other in”Airfield House” on the Glen Road. 'Airfield House' was the former home of the brewer, Thomas Caffrey. It had been used as a fire station by the A.R.P. during the war. It had been sold to the Bishop for £5,500, who sold it to the Brothers for the same amount. The sum required was realised by the sale of the College Wing for £3,500 and £3,640 for the houses in Fleetwood Street. In May 1947 the Superior Brother John V. Mullins and twelve Brothers took up residence. The examination results of that year were very satisfactory, 56 Senior Certificates, 70 Junior Certificates.
Two outstanding students of that year were Henry Tipping of Armagh, who came first in the Senior Leaving Certificate in Northern Ireland and won an exhibition in literature and first place in Armagh Regional Scholarships, and Patrick Walsh who won a prize in the same grade. (Patrick Walsh went on to win two Exhibitions, Literary and Scientific, the following year.)
The 1947 Education Act brought about a great increase in the numbers in St. Mary’s and extra accommodation was urgently required. This was achieved by altering existing partitions and inserting six new ones. The extra classrooms allowed the total number of pupils to be increased to 577. By September 1950 arrangements were completed for the renting of the Foresters' Hall to allow for the further growth in the number of pupils which was now 624.
Within a short period the school population had risen to 690 and the continuation of this upward trend was now inevitable. A new and unrestricted site was required to build a new school. Land in the neighbourhood of 'Airfield' became available and was acquired for £12,000 in May 1959. In that same year tenders were received for the new primary school, St. Aidan's, in Ballymurphy. Work on St. Aidan's began in 1959. The following year, in May 1960, work started on the new Intermediate School on the Glen Road at an estimated cost of £125,798.
During 1961 space had to be provided in Barrack Street for a couple of hundred extra pupils. This was accomplished by building three new classrooms and taking over four classrooms in St. Mary's Primary School, Divis Street.
A noteworthy happening in 1961 was the opening, on 4th September, of St. Aidan's Primary School in Ballymurphy. 480 pupils were enrolled. The Brothers on the staff of St. Aidan's formed part of a new community established in Glenfelim. They were joined by two Brothers from the Divis Street staff. Another new community was formed in 'An Dúnán', a residence adjacent to the new intermediate school which was under construction on the Glen Road. The Intermediate School was completed and opened on 3rd September 1962 with 420 pupils.
In 1966 final approval was given for the building of the new St. Mary's Grammar School on the Glen Road site. Building started soon afterwards. The new school was occupied in September 1968 with 1,320 on rolls, 202 remaining in Barrack Street. However, the Art Rooms and Gymnasium were not ready until January 1969. The dining room and kitchen were not used until their completion in September of that year, and the swimming pool in January 1970.
In August 1969 the three remaining classes in St. Malachy's Primary School, Oxford St., were transferred to Barrack Street under Brother Titus Lynch. The final class of St. Malachy's achieved the outstanding result of 25 pupils qualifying for grammar school out of a class of 27. By 1972 the classes of St. Malachy's Primary School had transferred to secondary education.
Down through the years changes and developments continued to this present year. At this time (1988) the Christian Brothers are engaged in the following schools:
St. Aidan's Primary School, Ballymurphy:
Christian Brothers Secondary School, Glen Road:
Corpus Christi College, Beechmount (newly amalgamated);
St. Mary's CBGS, Glen Rd. and Barrack St.;
Edmund Rice Primary School, Pim St.;
Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, Park Lodge;
Christian Brothers Secondary School, Hightown Road. (Now Edmund Rice College)
The Brothers working in these schools live in four communities, Airfield House (Glen Road), An Dúnán (Glen Road), Cúl na Móna (Dermott Hill) and Mount Carmel (Somerton Road).
Footnote: The above article was written By Br. Charles Gallagher in 1988. Today there are no Brothers on the staff of any of these schools. There are now three communities of Brothers in Belfast, one on the Glen Road, An Dúnán, another on Jubilee Avenue, Antrim Road and the third on the Crumlin Road. Airfield House, the former residence of Thomas Caffrey, the brewer, and then the Christian Brothers was demolished and a housing development, Airfield Heights, now exists on the site.
St. Aidan's Primary, CBS Glen Road, Edmund Rice Primary, Edmund Rice College and St. Mary's CBGS are now under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.
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at the
FUNCTION in the EUROPA HOTEL, BELFAST
on
SUNDAY 10TH MAY 1998
to mark the
CLOSURE OF BARRACK STREET
Tá áthas an domhain orm bheith in bhúr measc anocht. Tá mé iontach sásta go bhfuair mé an cuireadh bheith libh ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Cosúil le go leor daoine eile sa tír, tá mise bródúil as an obair a rinne na Bráithre Críostaí i Scoil Naomh Mhuire agus tháinig mé anocht le buíochas a ghabháil leo agus leis na múinteoirí go léir a réitigh an bealach do ghlún an lae inniu. Tá ard-mholadh le dul dóibh.
A school, a very famous landmark, is closing its doors for the last time and we have come together to gather our memories in celebration of its place, its unique, nostalgic, evocative and formative place in each of our lives. It was, of course, a school exclusively for boys so it may seem very curious that I should speak of my memories of it or indeed that I should be here at all but perhaps, as I peel back the layers of my own recollection, you will catch a glimpse or two of a world which you once knew intimately, or so you thought, and which shaped you in ways which cannot be measured or defined. Everyone of you has your own album of images, each very different from the next, each with its own integrity, but some things we all agree on and the scene is set brilliantly by the celebrated alumnus, poet Ciarán Carson in his remarkable book "The Star Factory". Two chapters are devoted to the school and this is what he says:
"The mouthful of 'St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School' was reduced to 'Barrack Street' in common parlance, a nomenclature which corresponded both to space and history. There was speculation that the ghosts of sentrymen or screws patrolled the doors of classrooms, and this vision of a prison was encouraged by the military carriage of the black-robed, black-buttoned, black-booted Christian Brothers."
If there is a hint in Carson's writing of a fearsome regime it was nothing compared to the fearsome regime the boys inflicted on each other. He tells of a new boy required to hide under the coats, damp coats which festooned the classroom walls, as the class collectively played a trick on the teacher, the trick of 'the Invisible Boy'.
" Curled foetally, the Boy, as present absentee, would be cajoled by furtive kicks and fisticuffs to give himself away - on one occasion someone stuck a compass point into him, where upon the Boy's responding utterance was muffled by a collective outbreak of whooping cough; it was agreed thereafter that such weapons should be decommissioned .... ."
It was no coincidence, I suppose, that the shop at No. 68 Divis Street, near the school, was for many years occupied by a James Gribben described as a boot maker and also a 'manufacturer of good quality leather straps for the discerning educator'.
But the threat of straps did not, it seems, deter the "boys bursting with testerone - who lounged in the cramped open-air urinals...., puffing and inhaling furtive cigarette smoke".
The boys bursting with testosterone were, of course, of more than a passing interest to the harmonal Dominican girls up the road. I married a Barrack Street boy, one of the thousands of young men who has cause to be grateful that the Christian Brothers came to Belfast in 1866 with a mission to educate the poor in the school that came to be known as
'the ragged school'. Many a ragged personality was honed and rounded into a confident, articulate, able young professional. They filtered out into the civic life of Belfast, of Ireland and every part of the globe. Their imaginations, their genius helped change the landscape of this struggling country; their fidelity protected and invigorated a threatened culture and a weakened language until a strong, self-confident generation emerged to effect a cultural renaissance of extraordinary energy and power which is only now coming into its stride.
Three hundred years ago the last of the great bards Daibhí Ó Bruadair died in poverty and despair. Ireland had gone through a convulsive century which saw the tragic demise of Gaelic Ireland, its talent scattered abroad, never to return. He believed that Ireland was finished, the poets all gone.
"D'aithle na bhfileadh n-uasal " (The high poets are gone)
Truaghsan timpeall an tsaoil (and I mourn for the world's warring)
Clann na n-ollamh go h-éagna (the children of the wise bards)
folamh gan freagra faobhair" (emptied of their sharp retorts)
But fresh green shoots did grow. New men took the place of the wise bards.They guided and directed the children of new generations through many social, spiritual and economic upheavals. From generation to generation the walls of Barrack Street school looked outwardly the same but inside and outside the world was changing and the Brothers changed too.
It is important on an evening like this to remember those lives which were dedicated with a total and unswerving commitment to the education and betterment of the young. They were not saints though there were saints among them. They were, many of them, men whose abilities would have taken them to the top of any profession but whose vision for humanity, for God and for education led them to place their lives at the sevice of others. At a time when the Order itself has, with humility and generosity, apologised for the dark side of its story, it is apt that those of us who know both sides acknowledge the redeemed side.
I was privileged through my brothers and uncles who were Christian Brother boys to get to know the litany of famous Brothers' names, many long since dead, some happily here tonight. But through the life of one man, whom I knew well, as probably did many of you here, I was blessed with an insight into the profound greatness of heart and mind of many of the Brothers. The man in question was a distant cousin of my fathers, a regular visitor to our home and a man I was very close to, particularly at the time of his death. He was as typical a Brother as it is possible to find. His name was Johnny McGreevy, known as Brother Bede, better known as 'The Boot' or 'Bisto'. A Barrack Street boy whose experience of the Brothers fostered his own vocation. I want to dwell on him for a moment, not for his own sake but because he exemplified so much of what was humanly frail and divinely good about the Brothers. He is my archetype. A man of many contradictions, ultimately vindicated in all his strengths and weaknesses by the love and affection he elicited from those whose lives he touched. The son of an RUC man, he was a staunch, irrepressible nationalist. A gentle, even quietly serene man most of the time, he turned into a raving lunatic on the sideline. The hurling teams he trained fought two matches simultaneously, one against the physical onslaught of their opponents and the other against the vicious verbal onslaught of their coach. Referees were given all manner of directions as to where they should put themselves. In the CBS in Derry where he taught before coming back to his Alma Mater, St. Mary's, he was christened 'Roaring Meg' after the cannon on Derry's walls.
I remember my father goading him at matches, reminding him of another contradiction, he couldn't play football or hurling to save his life. "What are you roaring at those fellas for? Sure you couldn't kick a door." Back came the retort, "You don't have to be a greyhound to train one".
The same man who gently encouraged so many people to go on to third level education, who gave up his time to help those he knew needed extra help to get through an exam, who was always ready with a word of encouragement for me, he was the same man who could reduce a person to minute pieces with his withering sarcasm. One famous remark written on a student's feeble attempt at calculus read,
"Was your father a butcher, because this is tripe."
Today he would be cannon fodder for the politically correct. His views on television, women, lack-lustre hurling, the demise of the classics mark him out as a conservative but he was radical and resolute in his commitment to the gospel and that is what fuelled his life of service. For all his complexities and simplicities he was ultimately loveable, loved and loving.
It is important to remember such men and to vindicate their lives in the remembering. Their lives, freely given, built bridges to futures lived, and lived well, by many others.
They invested themselves in those lives for no reward other than to give the young the best chance in life they could construct. It was not done for thanks but we owe it in any case to Brother McGreevy and to the Brothers and lay teachers whose gift of their lives allowed the gifts of others to blossom, flourish and grow. Tá cuid mhór acu ar shlí na fírinne. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílse.
I'm conscious speaking my faltering Irish that I was first tested on my competency in Gaelic and 'as Gaeilge' by the redoubtable Br. Beausang, who has surely a picture in the attic, for he looks the same as he did thirty odd years ago, untangling the Waves of Tory in the Ard Scoil, and forty years ago as he gave me my first medal for Irish verse in Barrack Street School.
We are fortunate to have in our company tonight some of the Brothers and teachers associated with Barrack Street. To those who think the Brothers cloned their pupils, the range of life destinations and journeys in this room alone is testimony to their fedelity to searching out and nurturing the awesome uniqueness of each individual.
In Barrack Street men mostly tried their very best, sometimes did their worst, were kindly and cross, resentful and forgiving. It was a place to learn about the chaotic nature of relationships. It was a place to learn about the self and about others. It was a place where human beings lived and worked as teachers, students, secretaries, cooks, caretakers, bosses and bossed in a community clustered around the commandment to love one another. Over the decades it has been a journey of discovery about the meaning of this. Each generation has added a little to the sum of our meagre comprehension but more than once the life of a Christian Brother, lived well, has afforded each of us a precious glimpse of what God's love is capable of.
Those glimpses are more than many people get in their lives. We are grateful for them, grateful to those who constructed the Exhibition of Barrack Street memorabilia to feed the nostalgia, grateful to John Mulholland for suggesting this dinner over the Aras dinner table, grateful to you for comong tonight because your presence vindicates the work of this school and, I hope, restores the drooping spirits of the Brothers as they face a new, colder, more challenging, in-your-face world, their vulnerability laid bare. Tonight is a night of affirmation and celebration.
The last word I'll leave to one of the school's most famous alumni, Joseph Devlin MP
"......it is impossible to exaggerate the debt our country and our race owe to these high-minded and devoted men. There is no body of men in the world who exhibit a greater self-sacrifice in the public interest than the Christian Brothers."
These words, spoken in the fateful year of 1915, were spoken long before the Christian Brothers' Secondary School in Barrack Street - St. Mary's - opened its doors for the first time. Now these doors will close but the words remain fresh and true.
Barrack Street will change and that is no harm.
Cardinal Newman said,
"To live is to change.
To be perfect is to change often."
As Brother Beausang might say,
"Bíonn blas ar an bheagán."
Many thanks for allowing me to spend this special evening in your company. May you find fun, laughter and friendship in the reminiscences tonight.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
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Br. Malachy Murphy (JM) on Oxford Street C.B.S.
It was the only school we had that was not parochial property and had been built for the Brothers by virtue of a trust set up by a Mrs. Magill for the "sons of bargees", according to a plaque on the wall. I could never trace Mrs. Magill beyond learning that she was a wealthy and charitable lady who lived in Bangor. The 'bargees' in question were workers on the Lagan Canal, but, over the years, because of its siting close to the terminus of the Co. Down Railway, and where many of the South and East Belfast tramlines converged, it became popular with a number of better-off Catholics living in those areas, as many parents among the scattered Catholic population found it easier to deliver their sons to Oxford Street than to the local parish school.
In June 1956 I had a meeting with Mr. Benn, Deputy Head of the Education Ministry. We reviewed the situation in the Brothers' schools and he expressed his personal view that Oxford Street should close. The Principal, Br. O Connell, and I investigated a number of possible sites, but in such a built up central city area we were not successful.
In the mid-sixties Br. Leonard was Superior of the Brothers' Community in Somerton Road and was under pressure to provide a Primary School for the rapidly increasing Catholic population of the Upper Antrim Road. He proposed to me that I should close Oxford Street and he would ask the Education Ministry to agree to the opening of a school on the Antrim Road. I gladly agreed but made the stipulation that Oxford Street staff be accepted in the new school, and so arose the bizarre fact that Our Lady of Lourdes P.S., Park Lodge is, on paper, a replacement for Oxford Street.
In 1965 there was a General Inspection held in Oxford Street and the Inspectors reported that the accommodation situation was critical. In the circumstances Br. Leonard's proposal was opportune and in the summer of 1966 admissions to the school ceased. In August 1968 the opening of the new Grammar School on the Glen Road allowed the transfer of the remaining Oxford Street pupils to Barrack Street and in June 1972 the last class in the Oxford Street School transferred to secondary education and the school was officially declared closed.
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St. Mary's Fifty Years Ago
1930 - 1936
In 1930 St. Mary's, or Barrack Street as it was then commonly called, had just been completed. It offered new and bigger classrooms, science laboratories and, for a while, a relatively large school yard which was shared with St. Mary's Primary School, located in one corner of the site. By most contemporary standards, the new school was an impressive institution.
Br. J. Murray regularly harried the late comers who broke into a trot when they saw him after they had turned around the corner - too late to turn back once they had been spotted. On Wednesday afternoons Br. J. N. Nagle organised extra Irish classes in the school or, if the weather permitted, games up in the pitches of the Falls Park.
Hurling was strong in the school and one of the methods used to improve the skills of the line ball player was to cut the ball in half and practice hitting it off the ground. Another scheme designed to improve hurling skills was to suspend a ball from the balcony and practise mid-air striking.
Bro. J. Burke in charge of mathematics laboriously turned out copies of past maths papers - no photocopier then - which were more than sufficient to keep the senior mathematicians busy for most of the academic year. Little wonder that St. Mary's at this time had a very high reputation in the sphere of Mathematics.
Among others on the staff at this time was Mr. J. Kane who was closeted away in the Science Room. A feature of the syllabus at the time was that final year students had to undergo and pass a stiff practical examination before they could proceed any further. Mr. Ivory presided over the Latin department but on occasion, could be enticed to expound at some length on the football matches which had been played during the previous weekend, long before Belfast Celtic became a track for greyhound racing.
Mr. Dan Cashman was the Junior Latin master as well as a teacher of History and along with Br. Nagle took a keen interest in the hurling team and certainly put the panel through rigorous sessions. Mr. Barney Mulrean taught English and along with Messrs. P. McGrath, D. Kennedy and P. Bentley contributed greatly to a rich and varied staff.
It was Bro. Young who pioneered entrance to careers in the Post Office by preparing students for competitive examinations - both were highly successful. Bros. Mullins and McGee came to St. Mary's in the '30s and contributed greatly to the school's tremendous sporting achievements.
Revisiting Barrack Street after fifty years, St. Mary's appeared to be much smaller than it seemed to have been all those many years ago. Nevertheless, small or large, it was certainly a fertile source of successful students - doctors, priests, religious, accountants, scientists and every profession has its large qouta of St. Mary's old boys.
The scope of St. Mary's is much wider now but the same ideals 'Facere et docere' are still there and the sons of Edmund Rice are active in a much larger school community. 'May they instruct many into justice'.
Looking back after all this time there seems to be truth in 'Erant gigantis in diebus illis'. Many of those whom I have mentioned in these very brief memories have gone to their reward.
May God reward them well.
________________________________________________________________________
WILLIAM CARDINAL CONWAY
The boy, the man.......
by Joseph Charleton (Written in 1965)
(This article was published in the 1965 Simmarian. One past pupil talks about another and includes the life and times of Belfast in those years.)
In 1922 our family went to live in a house at the foot of the Falls Road and my brothers and I were duly enrolled pupils of the Christian Brothers in Donegall Street.
Our route to school often took us up Dover Street and I struck up a friendship with a boy who lived in that street and who was also a pupil of St. Pat's C.B.S. This was how I first came to know Billy Conway and I have been fortunate that our friendship, begun in boyhood days, continued through St. Mary's and has lasted, close and interrupted, to the present.
It is not easy to write analytically of such a dear and honoured friend. My inclination is rather to write of the Belfast in which we both grew up and of the teachers and schoolfellows who meant so much in our lives. It is better so because environment and companions are large factors in one's formation and in the compact community of our youth where no man, whatever his wishes, was an island.
I left school in 1931 to go to Dublin. The move meant separation from most of my friends. His Eminence (plain Billy then) entered St. Malachy's to attend Queen's University and to start his studies for the priesthood. We were, however, regular correspondents and together with Seamus O' Neill (now professor in Carysfort College, Dublin) and the late Eoin McKernan we met again for the summer holidays in the Donegal Gaeltacht. In 1965 I was one of the small party who went to Rome with the Archbishop of Armagh for the conferring of the Cardinalate and later in the same year I paid a visit 
to our old haunts around Rann na Feirste, An Bun Beag, an tEargal and Cnoc Fola. I wrote a nostalgic letter to His Eminence describing my visit and had a long letter back. The Donegal Gaeltacht played a big part in our early education.
Our interest in the Irish language, particularly in speaking it, was nurtured by Br. Nagle, who taught us in our last years in St. Mary's, and by the Ard-Scoil to which we went in the evenings. Brother Nagle was inspired by a natural love for the language so that we always liked his classes, and that I take to be the test of a good teacher. An exhibitioner from the famous Christian Brothers' North Monastery, Cork, Brother nagle brought all his ability and enthusiasm to the study of Ulster Irish. He haunted Rann na Feirste, absorbing its language and its lore. We liked to thik of him as an Ulsterman by adoption and he made us very concious of the great heritage of our people. Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam. From this fine Christian Brother the Cardinal learned his Irish which he still speaks with a definite Donegal blas. Tá mo chuid Gaeilge féin measctha le canúintí na gcúigí uilig.
Curiously enough Billy Conway as a boy had also a tremendous interest in English literature and in writing English. Those of my age remember Br. Duggan rolling out the great verse of Milton or using Jesperson slyly to enlighten initiates about the origin of the word 'tobacco'. There's not a St. Mary's man from those days but can declaim reams of Milton, Wordsworth and Co. It was quite a sight to see the Seniors as they converged on the school, 'Golden Teasury' in hand, drmming out the endless lines while 'Old Dameotas' waited waited confidently to tear our song. Irish and English progressed side by side in Billy Conway's studies and from an early age he was writing for magazines like 'Our Boys' and for newspapers. I remember well the pride with which he showed me a story he had written for 'Our Boys'. It was a natural choice that he should become the first Editor of 'Glas agus Ór', the school magazine which preceded 'The Simmarian'.His editorial committee included Johnny Tohill, Fred Bereen, Fred Devlin, Sean McKeown and myself. It is worth recording that we not merely wrote the magazine, we printed it as well.
Billy Conway was good at all subjects and very good, as I recollect, at science. His decision to become a priest took me entirely by surprise and I felt that a great scientist was lost. He afterwards told me that his original intention was to become a doctor like others of our class - Fred Bereen, John Tohill, Frank Murray, Cahill Campbell, but (to use a Gaelic phrase) it came to his mind ' that a priest was better' and in this apparently simple way his vocation was settled. His interest in the sciences is as keen as ever today and the Irish Church is fortunate to be led in this modern age by a man with his broad grasp of the great issues arising out of rapid scientific advances. Here again the boy was father to the man.
I imagine the present pupils of St.Mary's are more fortunate than we were nearly forty years ago in the matter of sporting facilities. The Brothers of our day, particularly Brothers Tynan, Duggan, Nagle, Murray and Moloney deserve great credit for their efforts to provide us with facilities for games and athletics. We played Gaelic football and hurling, officially in the Falls Park - unofficially at the back of "Rocks's". Many of our MacRory Cup team had been soccer players and indeed the picture of a match is quite clear in which our full forward, a leading soccer centre-forward, found himself in front of goal with the ball in his hands and was about to concede a foul but recollecting himself rammed home a glorious goal. Of our team two players, Ted McLaughlin and Alfie Murray
(now President of the GAA) afterwards won Railway Cup medals with Ulster. Billy Conway was not naturally athletic, he was probably growing too fast, but he brought his own great interest to school games. His favourite was handball as it was played against the wall of the old primary school. I hear this individual brand of wall game is still being played at every vacant gable.
(Alf Murray)
Incidentally, the Cardinal's generation was the first into the new building in Barrack Street, hence our tremendous desire to enhance the school name. We had a MacRory Cup team respected by the giants of Cavan, Monaghan and Armagh, our athletes included Donal McFarland, 440 yds. and 880 yds. champion of Ulster, J.J. Magennis, Ulster sprint champion, Dr. Frank Murray, Dr. Joe Hill, Jimmy Maguire and half a dozen others fit to meet the best of St. Malachy's, Methody and Inst. at Cherryvale, and our hurlers were the best in the Province. Under the same roof we had Cardinal Conway, Dr. Fred Bereen, Pat Charlton, Pat Fitzharris, Fr. Paddy O'Donnell C.SS.R., now novice-master, Fr. Walter Larkin, President of St. Malachy's, Br. J.B. McGreevy - all exhibitioners, a goodly dozen fine priests and Christian Brothers, together with scores of other excellent men - the salt of our Ulster earth. What better companions could any man have? It is my earnest prayer that the St.Mary's boys who read this may have memories as rich.
Two issues, which perhaps are less urgent now, dominated our lives in the late nineteen twenties - economics and politics. It is as a man that I realise the extraordinary self-denial of our parents in a city of appalling unemployment, the sacrifices of the Brothers to build and maintain a Grammar school where fees were a paltry £3 per year - we never knew that some of the less fortunate could not pay even this, and the great good fortune that was ours to have as companions such outstanding boys from the humble, wholesome homes of Belfast and the surrounding towns. And I must not omit the excellent lay-teachers whose example and efforts meant so much to us - the late Tom Ivory who expertly expounded Roman battle plans in terms of the Belfast Celtic forward line, that true gentleman Tom Kane, the kindly Paddy McGrath and the dynamic Corkonian, Dan Cashman, still gloriously 'declining'.
The second issue to shape our lives was politics and the big question was whether the newly-constituted Irish Free State would survive and take over the North. I remember well the famous visit and imprisonment of President de Valera and the stir which was created by the speeches in Irish by Ministers of the Irish Government in the Ardscoil. Whatever side we favoured the discussions were often furious and served their part in our education. Billy Conway was always with the Irish element but he had a great respect for the staunch qualities of those who stayed King's men. Reared in a mixed street, a stone's throw ( and many a one was thrown) from the Shankill Road, he was not blinded by the passions and injustices so prevalent in the Belfast of our youth. That I can honestly say and as Cardinal he has a unique background and experience which enables him to promote understanding between Catholic and Protestant, North and South. Despite his great reputation as professor and educator south of the border I see always the St. Mary's - St. Malachy's - Queen's University background to his approach. It is my own belief that all Northern people will recognise in him as Cardinal Archbishop over the ancient diocese of Patrick which straddles the border, the vital hinge on which the gate of division will open to complete the integration of our Christian island.
I undertook this article of appreciation as a small return to my old school for all that it did for me - and for so many others like me. I am beginning to think there is the nucleus of a book in it, a book which will unfold the slow development of the great issues in Ireland and the part which one man can play in them if he is geared in quality and in time towards leadership from boyhood. One can see this in the Cardinal Primate. There is no doubt that in God's good time he will accomplish much for all our people and all God's Kingdom. To achieve this end his mind is constantly on the youth of this generation seeking the leaders for the next.
Go mbuanaí Dia a shaothar.