Gonzaga College: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 01:00, 7 February 2010

For the school in Washington, D.C., see Gonzaga College High School. For the school in Spokane, Washington, see Gonzaga University.

Template:Infobox Irish school

Gonzaga College S.J. is a private Roman Catholic boys' secondary school in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland, under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order). Founded in 1950, the curriculum is traditional, with a broad general programme of subjects including the classics at junior cycle and the opportunity in senior cycle to study eight subjects for the Leaving Certificate. Gonzaga College is one of five Jesuit schools in Ireland.

The school is named after the early Jesuit Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and takes its emblem from the coat of arms of the Gonzaga family. The school has a liberal, intellectual, Jesuit ethos.^[1]

History

The school buildings were bought from the Bewley family in 1949. Gonzaga College aimed to be a modern school from its inception. At first, students did not take the Leaving Certificate examination but instead did the UCD matriculation examination in fifth year, while sixth year was a pre-university philosophy year. Later, the British O-Levels were introduced for fourth years and the Leaving Certificate was introduced for sixth years. The prep school was closed in the 1990s. In the early 1970s it was proposed that the school would become a Comprehensive under the trusteeship of the Jesuits along the same lines as that achieved in Limerick, however the proposal was dropped suddenly when the government decided to abandon the denomintational Comprehensive model.

Campus

The school is located 3.7 km (2.3 miles) from Dublin city centre ^[2] on a large area of land including a front lawn with cricket crease, rugby pitches and tennis courts. The school buildings include a library, chapel, bell tower, priests' residence and science block. The architecture of the school fuses modern copper-roofed buildings with existing period houses. Some sections of the school grounds were sold to developers for residential housing in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2007, the school began a major extension project, increasing the size of the school building by over 80%. The new building opened to students for the 2009-10 school year.

Academic Performance

Gonzaga has a reputation for academic excellence.^[3] In 2005, Gonzaga College sent 68% of its Leaving Certificate pupils to University College Dublin and 21% to Trinity College Dublin. Almost annually, it comes first in a league table of Irish schools ranked by percentage of Leaving Certificate students progressing to third level education.^[4]

Sensitive to criticism that the school is elitist in its pupil selection techniques (the admission form still requires applicants' parents to list their job titles and employers' names), the school introduced an 'Assisted Places' scheme.^[5]

Visual arts, theatre and music are still emphasised in the curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to study Latin and Greek.^[6] The school chess team has been particularly successful, winning national and international awards^[7] Notably, their achievements include dozens of Leinster and All-Ireland titles as well as winning the prestigious Millfield International Chess Tournament, held in Somerset, UK, in 1992 and 1999.^[8]

Sports

The main school sport is rugby union, followed by and tennis,cricket and athletics.

The Junior Cup Rugby teams of 1989, 2003 and 2006 reached the final of the Leinster Schools Junior Cup. The Senior Cup team have often reached the quarter finals of the cup, but have never made it past this stage. They have, however, won the Senior League (for 'middle-ranking' schools) on two occasions. The school has produced a small number of professional rugby players and three Irish internationals, Tony Ensor and Barry Bresnihan (who went on to represent the British and Irish Lions). 2003 alumnus Kevin McLaughlin (rugby player) is currently playing for Leinster Rugby and made his Irish international debut in the 2010 Six Nations against Italy.

The team is one of Dublin's top five golf schools having won the Leinster titles in 1999 and 2006. Previously, the team reached the semi-finals of the junior cup.

Gaelic games were not played in the past but, in recent years, a team has been entered in a Gaelic Football 'blitz' involving other rugby playing schools. Gonzaga won this blitz in 2007.

The school is occasionally represented by a soccer team in friendly matches, but football is not an official sport of the school.

Table tennis is another sport which the school plays.

Chess

Traditionally, Chess has been Gonzaga's most successful sport. College teams have been victorious in numerous Leinster and National championships. Most recently the Junior and Senior team won both the Leinster and All-Ireland Championship in 2009. ^[9] Of the school chess teams' many achievements, most noteworthy was winning the prestigious Millfield International Chess Tournament in England in both 1992 and 1999. Many school chess players have built on their experiences at the college, and after graduating continued to achieve greater success, including Sam Collins and Mark Quinn, who are International Masters (IM).

Buildings

Recently, the school has begun a construction project to add classrooms, a theatre, and a new canteen/lunch hall [1]. The project was scheduled for completion by September 2009. The first stage was completed in September 2008, with the old science rooms being upgraded to cater for modern science practicals.

Notable alumni

Colm Barrington - Former Chairman of Aer Lingus ^[10]
Paul Carney - Irish High Court judge ^[11]
Anthony Clare - Psychiatrist and broadcaster^[12]
Finghin Collins - Concert Pianist ^[13]
Ciarán Cuffe - Green Party TD^[14]
Conor Deasy - Lead singer with The Thrills ^[15]
Paul Durcan - Poet^[16]
Tony Ensor - Former Irish rugby international^[17]
Kevin Feeney - Irish High Court judge^[18]
Ross Geoghegan - Professor of Mathematics, State University of New York ^[19]
George K. Miley - Professor of Astronomy, Leiden University ^[20]
Red Morris, 4th Baron Killanin^[21]
Ross McCarron - Ex Leinster rugby player
Barry McCrea - writer
Michael McDowell - former Tánaiste and former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Eunan O'Halpin - Bank of Ireland Professor of Contemporary Irish History in Trinity College Dublin
Jim O'Callaghan - Fianna Fáil politician^[22]
Eamon Ryan - Green Party TD and current Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources^[23]
Peter Sutherland - former EU Commissioner,^[24], former Director General of the World Trade Organisation, former Irish Attorney General, Chairman of BP and Chairman of Goldman Sachs International
Hugh Tinney - Concert pianist ^[25]
Brendan Walsh - Professor of National Economics, University College Dublin ^[26].
Kevin McLaughlin (rugby player) - Leinster rugby player and Ireland Irish Rugby
Dónal Gunning - Irish karate representive at Japan U12 World Championships,2007

References

Parent Power: Zealous ethos drives Gonzaga to the top The Sunday Times
Archived history page from old version of the college website
A Short History of Gonzaga College, 1950-2000 by Christopher J. Finlay

Footnotes

External links

53°19′01″N 6°14′58″W / 53.3168101°N 6.2493271°W / 53.3168101; -6.2493271

[1] Gonzaga College SJ

[2] Wikimapia Distance measured precisely to G.P.O. as crow flies.

[3] Irish Times Article:Free schools score highly in third-level feeder list

[4] Irish Times schools ranking 2005 (subscription required)

[5] Admissions policy

[6] Latin and Greek encouraged by headmaster

[7] Millfield International Chess Tournament - 15 December 2005

[8] Chess Ireland - News

[9] All-Ireland Chess Success

[10] A beast of the aer

[11] Judge with one eye on the Media

[12] The chair man: Anthony Clare

[13] Finghin Collins ~ Concert Pianist

[14] Green Party TD

[15] The Secret History Of The Thrills

[16] Poetry and emotion

[17] Old dogs and new tricks

[18] Clash of Wigless Titans

[19] Ross Geoghegan

[20] George K. Miley

[21] The dream that still dwells in marble halls

[22] Jim O'Callaghan

[23] FF's strength in numbers

[24] SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PETER SUTHERLAND AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR MIGRATION

[25] Jubilee Concert

[26] Brendan Walsh

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 The main school sport is [[rugby union]], followed by and tennis,cricket and athletics.
-The Junior Cup Rugby teams of 1989, 2003 and 2006 reached the final of the [[Leinster Schools Junior Cup]]. The [[Leinster Schools Senior Cup|Senior Cup]] team have often reached the quarter finals of the cup, but have never made it past this stage. They have, however, won the Senior League (for 'middle-ranking' schools) on two occasions.  The school has produced a small number of professional rugby players and three Irish internationals, [[Tony Ensor]] and [[Barry Bresnihan]] (who went on to represent the [[British and Irish Lions]]). 2003 alumnus [[Kevin McLaughlin (rugby player)]] is currently playing for [[Leinster Rugby]] and made his Ireland international debut in the 2010 Six Nations against Italy.
+The Junior Cup Rugby teams of 1989, 2003 and 2006 reached the final of the [[Leinster Schools Junior Cup]]. The [[Leinster Schools Senior Cup|Senior Cup]] team have often reached the quarter finals of the cup, but have never made it past this stage. They have, however, won the Senior League (for 'middle-ranking' schools) on two occasions.  The school has produced a small number of professional rugby players and three Irish internationals, [[Tony Ensor]] and [[Barry Bresnihan]] (who went on to represent the [[British and Irish Lions]]). 2003 alumnus [[Kevin McLaughlin (rugby player)]] is currently playing for [[Leinster Rugby]] and made his Irish international debut in the 2010 Six Nations against Italy.
 The team is one of Dublin's top five golf schools having won the Leinster titles in 1999 and 2006. Previously, the team reached the semi-finals of the junior cup.