There is a wonderful photo in the Castle of the physicists working at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory in August 1920. Taking his position amongst historical greats such as Prof. Chadwick and Ernest Rutherford is Fr C. Power S.J.
The script underneath describes the former as being famous for his discovery of the neutron while Rutherford discovered the alpha particle and was famous for his experiments on the same; while In true Jesuit understatement the same script says that Cyril Power “taught maths in C.W.C and managed the farm.”
In this podcast Eoin O’Reilly OC’74 (who devised the discussion) shares memories of ‘Sickle’ with MIchael Sheil SJ IC 56 and Harman Murtagh OC’62, along with CWC Archivist, John Bird.
*photograph courtesy The Clongownian
Eoin O’Reilly with Cyril Power outside the Castle
Adam Lewis a native and is currently principal of Boston College High School.
After time as principal of Loyola School in Manhattan, NY. And b4 a director of Senior Campus at Xavier College in Melbourne, Australia, a Jesuit school serving 1000 boys
He was also Deputy Principal of Saint Ignatius College Riverview in Sydney, Australia, was d a Jesuit school for 1500 boys.
His connection to. With CWC as a teacher and a rugy coach
He left CWC in 2008, after 8 years reaching history and Head Coach of rugby.
Peter O’Meara left Clongowes in 1988.
A native of Mallow where he lives with his wife Hilary and four children, Peter was President of The Clongowes Union for the year 2023/2024.
He is a Director of Savills Ireland, based in their Cork office, with whom he has worked for over 30 years.
Our guest is one of the early Alberto Hurtado Bursary graduates, who entered the Jesuit noviciate in Innsbruck this September.
Shadowing the life of Fr Cyril Power S.J. (OC 1907) Seán studied Theoretical Physics in Cambridge after leaving Clongowes. While at Cambridge he gained his full blue in Rugby, playing in two Varsity matches, one time on losing and the following year on the winning side
He left CWC in 2016
Adam MacNulty is President and Client Portfolio Manager, Brandes Investment Partners (Europe) based in Dublin
Previously he was with with Pioneer investments , Davys and Aviva Investors
A graduate of the Michael Smurfit Business School with an MBS in Financial Services following his BA Ecomomics from UCD
He left Clongowes in 1988
Blair is CFO of Vanguard Europe, which manages over $400bn in assets across the UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and France; as well as having a growing presence in Ireland. Blair has held a variety of senior finance and business strategy roles.
He has worked across different geographies, business sectors and in businesses at varied stages of maturity. The common thread is that he has focused on businesses requiring turnaround or those in rapid growth.
A CFA charterholder, chartered accountant and qualified tax adviser. He started his career with PwC in Dublin and studied in Dublin City University (DCU). Blair is originally from Co. Meath.
Blair left CWC in 2000.
Born in Galway in 1961, David Soden grew up in “Tullamore, Ring and Clongowes” and went
on to obtain a BCL at University College, Dublin. Having trained as a solicitor in Waterford, he returned to Dublin in 1989 and has been self-employed since the mid-1990s.
He’s one of a numbers of brothers who attended Clongowes and one. Of sets of brothers to appear on Portraits.
Married with no children, David’s interests include photography, music, the Camino de Santiago, wine bargains and a spot of duty in the garden
He left CWC in 1979.
John Daly was born in Dublin on the day JFK was shot, as good an alibi as you'll get.
Attended Clongowes Wood College (OC 1982 [his brother Conor OC 1985]), Dublin City University, University of Oxford (Keble College) and the Institute of Art & Law.
John has worked as a lecturer in a number of third level institutions including the National College of Art & Design and at the Open University; he also spent many years as an academic editor.
The visual arts have always played a significant part in his life, and John has been collecting artworks since age 16. He turned his hobby into his full-time profession when he founded the contemporary art gallery Hillsboro Fine Art in 1995. John has just written a monograph on German artist Karl Weschke (1925-2005) which will appear in June 2025.
He is an enthusiastic tennis and table tennis player and consumes far too much wine.
John is married to Yandan Sun and their son Daniel (age 10) is already considering CWC for his second level education believing it to be a branch of Hogwarts.
Tanner O’Connell grew up in County Meath before attending Clongowes.
He studied Commerce in UCD and completed a Masters in Accounting in Smurfit Business School.
After his studies he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in KPMG's Deal Advisory Department
Tanner joined Elkstone (a leading Irish Investment House) in 2018 and, working with Alan Merriman, has held Investment Director, Chief of Staff and Business Development roles.
He left CWC in 2008
Ross Finegan started out his career in 1994 at Deloitte Corporate Finance where he advised management teams on MBO’s
In 1996 he moved to JP Morgan Partners, the private equity arm of JP Morgan. In the mid naughtiest he cofounder of Lonsdale Capital Partners and is based l in London
He trained as a chartered accountant in PWC after completing a BComm in UCD
Ross Finegan left CWC in 1987
George T Smith heard the call to become a Basilian as a young man headed into law school. After meeting a group of Basilians at the University of St. Michael’s College, Smith discovered their unique blend of priesthood, brotherhood and dedication to teaching.
In 2010 he became the elected leader of the congregation of St. Basil at 43 years of age. A role he completed and these days he is William and Helen Cavanaugh Chair of Catholic Studies, first developed in 2003, and based in. Rochester, New York.
He left Clongowes in 1978, his Poetry year.
Judge Fergal M. Gaynor serves as the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and represents victims at the International Criminal Court
He also served as a Senior Assistant Prosecutor at the ECCC from 2015 to 2016 and as counsel for the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia between 2001 and 2013.
Judge Gaynor holds a Bachelor of Laws from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University (UK). He is a member of the Bar of Ireland.
Fergal left CWC in 1989.
Simon Byrne is a Sales Manager with 25 years experience in the Irish Beauty industry, specialising in cosmetics and fragrance. He is a previous winner of the Francois Coty award for outstanding contribution to the Coty Ireland business as well as being a Certified Fragrance Sales Specialist accredited by the UK Fragrance Foundation (FiFi).
The third of 4 brothers from Waterford to attend Clongowes, he left the school in 1982.
A keen offshore sailor, he has completed many long distance classics including two Round Ireland Yacht Races and in 2015 won the Spirit of ISORA award (Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association), akin to the Clongowes Aloysius award but for offshore racing. Although now retired from sailing (his body refused to co-operate any further) he initially started his part time media side hustle writing a regular sailing blog on the ISORA website.
He can now be found providing “alternative” match day commentary on Bective Rangers TV (BRTV) live stream of matches on You Tube as well as hosting his own Bective Rangers TV video podcast “Chucks Chats”, a series of intimate fireside interviews with club luminaries.
Married to Ciara and with three grown up daughters and a female dog. He resides in South County Dublin having recently moved back to the city from a near 20 year sojourn in Greystones.
On the completion of the podcast series, Portraits of Clongowes, Dec Ryan reviews the episodes with Rossa McDermott, informally bringing closure on the 100 episodes in Series I, II, III & IV recorded over the past eighteen months.
The latest podcast series were made possible by the kind support of Jigsaw Youth Mental Health, Hannon Travel. Liz O’Kane Buying Agent, and GoFundMe. The generosity of spirit, the positive feedback and the sponsors support has been more than generous.
Other individuals silently donated to the project along the way , offered encouragement and ensured the series continued so that most people who wanted had a chance to share their memories.
The Wrap Questions …. Tune in.
Peter studied Business & Law in UCD, trained with KPMG Corporate Finance in Dublin and worked in Private Equity Investment in London with Downing Development Capital.
He returned to Ireland to join his family’s business, Greenscene, and managed the sale of the business to, private equity backed, MCR Group in 2023. He now advises other Irish SMEs and their founders seeking an exit or funding, through his consultancy business BCOR Advisory.
www.bcor-advisory.com
Peter is an elected representative for Wicklow, with Fine Gael, having successfully contested the 2024 local elections.
He recently won a Wicklow Senior Football Championship with Tinahely, where he lives.
Peter left CWC in 2014.
Dave Moloney works as an engineering leader in Google in California, making the camera systems that power Google Maps and Google Earth.
Trained in law and software engineering, Dave's career has taken him to Ireland, UK and US: organic farmer, software & internationalization engineer, and global operations in Handspring & Palm, as the smartphone came into being. Within Google, he has led internal entrepreneurship efforts: Google Play, hardware eCommerce, Pixel phones, and a Starlink precursor. Dave advises startups in Ireland and the US, and works with Enterprise Ireland to help Irish technology companies take root and thrive.
Dave lives in Silicon Valley with his wife (also a Dub) and two sons, who are in high school. They all crave the cooler weather of Ireland.
He left Clongowes in 1980.
Since graduating from University College Cork, Aonghus Kelly has worked around the world in the field of human rights and war crimes
Originally from Galway he initially went to UCG to study law and he has made it his life’s work to investigate war criminals – having worked in the Balkans, Cambodia and the Middle East.
After UCC, he has studied in Wellington, UCC, Sarajevo, Indiana and Cambridge
He left CWC 1998
Dan Sheehan signed his first professional contract with Leinster in June 2020, and made his debut for Leinster in October 2020 in the Pro14 against Zebre, scoring two tries in the match.
Sheehan was honoured as Leinster's Men's Young Player of the Year for the 2021-22 season, and was also named in the URC Elite XV of the year for the 2022-23 season.
On the international stage, Sheehan made his senior debut in November2021, against Japan at the Aviva Stadium. Dan earned his first start for Ireland in the February 2022 Six Nations match against Italy.
Dan had been Living in Bucharest for 3 years with his parents when their work took them to Poland, which saw him sent to boarding school with his brother. Bobby.
He hails from in Dublin and studied in Trinity College after leaving Clongowes in 2017
Well known to generations of Clongownians and parents, Margaret Doyle arrived in the school in 1972 from a teaching role in Maryland, in the USA.
Margaret started teaching History and Geography in Clongowes on my arrival that same year, and me fresh from years preparing for my English history O’Levels in Madrid.
In 2014 motivated by her keen interest in military history and had been documenting the exceptional contribution of Old Clongownians to World War One and organised a trip ringleaders led by Colonel Dick Heaslip and Captain Donal Buckley, who guided fifty-two people on the trail of the Irish Soldier and the Clongownians who served and died in the First World War.
Her teaching continued for 30 years along with many other activities such as orienteering and trips abroad . After teaching Margaret then became the school Archivist, a role she held for 16 years before fully retiring.
The list of her accomplishments during almost half a century in Clongowes are lengthy.
Richard Flood portrayed the role of Samuel Johanson in an episode of the series Titanic: Blood and Steel in 2012.
He joined the main cast of the television series Crossing Lines in 2013, playing detective Tommy McConnel, a specialist in weapons and tactics from Northern Ireland, until 2014. That next year, in 2015, Flood joined the main cast of the series Red Rock, where he played the police superintendent James McKay.
In 2017, it was announced that Flood would be cast as Ford in the Showtime series Shameless. He became a series regular ahead of the ninth season. In 2019, Flood was cast in a recurring role as Dr. Cormac Hayes on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. He was promoted to star for the 2020–21 season.
Flood appears alongside Acushla-Tara Kupe in TVNZ+'s crime drama, The Gone, released in May 2023.
He left Clongowes in 2001 .