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St
Josephs College
in Uppercourt
House, Freshford Co. Kilkenny
Historians have every
right to say that it is neither right nor fitting simply
to highlight some exciting events in the year 1932 to
an extent that might possibly downgrade or even erase
the memory of seven centuries of varied and quite interesting
happenings in Uppercourt's History.
Hopefully the following
brief report will be accepted as an engaging introduction
to Mill Hill's entering the scene, and establishing
a Junior Seminary here in Uppercourt, Co. Kilkenny.
In 1245, King Henry 111
granted "Geoffrey de Tourville, Bishop of Ossory,
a yearly eight-day fair in the manor of "Athedur"
( 'Achad Úr' literally Freshfield, but surprisingly
translated Freshford ). In 1251, Bishop Hugh Mapleton
built an Episcopal Palace at Uppercourt as a country
residence for himself and his successors. Bishops did
reside there until the Reformation in the mid 16th Century.
In 1324, Bishop Ledrede an English Franciscan was President
of an Ecclesiastical Court, before which Dame Alice
Kyteler of Kilkenny and her son William Utlag were cited
on charges of witchcraft.
In 1477, an Anti-Pope,
called Pope John 23rd made an appointment of a Chaplain
to Uppercourt, which actually never took place because
the anti-Pope's condition was publicised before the
Chaplain's appointment was due to take place. In 1551,
after the Reformation, John Bale was appointed the First
Protestant Bishop of Ossory by King Edward V1 in order
to advocate Protestantism in the area. Local Tradition
claims that on the 8th September, the Feast of our Lady's
Nativity, then a Holiday of Obligation, the Bishop ordered
his workmen to work in a hayfield. Freshford People
felt so insulted and so annoyed that their Religion
was downgraded in such a manner that they attacked and
killed five haymakers and might have killed Bishop Bale
also had not help come in time to save him. A few months
later Bishop Bale fled the area, and never returned.
In 1570, Richard Shee
was granted Uppercourt Manor, and it remained in the
Family 'till 1653. He owned an Estate equivalent to
the civil parish of Freshford.
In 1581, Richard built and provided for the Almshouse
in Rose Inn Street in Kilkenny. Robert Shee's grandson
was evicted during the Cromwellian Invasion of Ireland.
His large estate was given to Sir George Askew who was
owed £200/= in wages while with Cromwell's Army.
Towards to end of the 18th Century, Sir William Morres
became the owner of the estate through marriage. He
rebuilt the Manor House on a grand scale. He used stones
from the old Episcopal Palace, which was built about
1500 by Bishop Oliver Cantwell. Signs of the old Moate
and Dyke which surrounded the Palace can still be seen..
When William Morres died, his son, William de Montmorency,
owned all the land from Freshford as far as Woodsgift.
In the 1830s, these lands
came under the Court of Chancery. Then in 1840 a Mr
Bryan of Jenkinstown bought the property for £40,000/=.
An English Catholic, Thomas Eyre succeeded Mr Bryan
at Uppercourt, whose nephew another Thomas Eyre acquired
it later. This latter Thomas Eyre (who was a brother
of the Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow.) renovated the
Manor, raised it a storey and added a new wing which
included an Oratory. He also built Schools and houses
in Freshford Village, and in 1868 he became High Sheriff
in Kilkenny.
In 1880, he left Ireland and was succeeded by a Thomas
J. Eyre. In 1902 the latter was succeeded by his Cousin,
Stanislaus Thomas Eyre J.P., and D.L.
In 1918, Stanislaus T.
Eyre went to live in London, but often revisited Freshford
where he was very popular, and had often provided entertainment
for the children in the schools. Before leaving for
London he sold Uppercourt Manor and the 500 acre Demesne
to the Maher Family in Freshford.
It was from the Maher Family that the Mill Hill Missionaries
bought Uppercourt Manor together with part of the Demesne
in 1932.
Clearly the Year 1932
will be remembered for a variety of reasons. Throughout
the world states were planning to build a new world
in which another Great Slump, like that of 1929, would
never again assail them. In Ireland people were preparing
'to put the shoulder to the wheel' to help the Infant
State to bear the burdens of the Economic War.
Ireland's Faith and Trust
in God was manifested in a spectacular way in that year.
Catholics remembered that it was Fifteen Centuries since
St. Patrick arrived in Ireland. What more fitting Testimony
to that renowned Missionary's work than the manifestation
of Faith shown by the Irish People at the Dublin Eucharistic
Congress in June of that year, both in the Phoenix Park,
and on O'Connell's Bridge in Dublin.
1932, will be remembered
by the members of Mill Hill Missionary Society and its
many generous friends and helpers as the year of the
Founding of the Society's first Seminary in Ireland,
St Joseph's Foreign Missionary College in Freshford,
Co. Kilkenny.
On October 9th 1932, Most Rev Dr. Collier, Bishop of
Ossory, solemnly opened and Blessed the new College,
which was destined to receive and train Irish Youths
who desired to follow in the steps of St. Patrick by
spreading Christ's Gospel beyond the boundaries of their
land.
Political moves at home or abroad often influence our
Social Life. It was an English political decree, which
first convinced the Mill Fathers to seek a house in
Ireland. They considered that Irish students of the
Society studying in Mill Hill in London might study
in Ireland and not be taken into military service during
the 1st World War of 1914-1918. With the permission
of His Lordship Most Rev Dr. Hackett, Bishop of Waterford,
'Waterloo House' in Ballytruckle was acquired, and Fr.
Doyle was appointed Rector from 1917-1919.
This temporary residence
in Ireland which served as a Juniorate for the younger
boys, and as a Hostel for the Philosophers and Theologians,
who actually studied at St John's Seminary, has never
been forgotten. As the years passed, Waterloo House,
Ballytruckle remained in the memory of the Society's
Irish priests, who fully realised the advantage to be
gained by establishing a permanent Mill Hill Missionary
House in Ireland.
Fr. Owen Morris' name
stands out above all others when we study the records
of the Foundation of Freshford College in Kilkenny.
Fr. Owen was a native of Co. Monaghan. He probably did
not realise as a young man the Vocation to which God
would call him. When he left home he found a job in
Dublin where he remained for three years as an accountant.
When he was convinced that God was calling him to be
a Priest, he decided to become a Missionary Priest.
After his philosophical and theological studies were
completed he was Ordained a Priest in Mill Hill London
in 1911. His appointment was to Uganda in East Africa.
When he had returned to Uganda for the second time in
1924 after a well-deserved holiday in Cashlan East in
Carrickmacross, he often discussed with his fellow priests
the advantage of having a Mill Hill Missionary College
in Ireland. It is of interest that those dreams and
plans of his were born and developed in the heart of
the African Continent. They later materialised in the
form of St. Joseph's College Freshford. The Rt. Rev.
Dr Biermans, Fr. Owen's Bishop in Uganda generally encouraged
him to go ahead with his plans for an Irish Juniorate.
In 1924, the said Bishop Biermans was elected Superior
General of our Society, and now being in a position
to help he turned to Fr. Owen and authorised him to
take the matter in hand.
With the approval of
the Most Rev Dr. Patrick Collier, Bishop of Ossory,
Bishop John Biermans, Dr. Thomas McLoughlin, Fr. R.
Turner and Fr. Owen Morris signed the necessary legal
documents for the purchase of Uppercourt House near
Freshford Village from the owners Messers Michael and
Edward Maher.
The First Mass was celebrated in the New Juniorate on
the feast of St. Joseph and St. Lachtin March 19th 1932
by Fr. Owen Morris, attended by Fr. Michael Moran. When
Bishop Biermans visited Freshford he brought with him
the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of St. Joseph to attend
to the Domestic functions of the College. Before that
year had ended death claimed one of these pioneers.
Sister Mary Camillus Daly R.I.P. was the first to be
buried in the College Cemetry.
In April 1932, Fr. J.P. Kennelly was appointed from
the Staff in Mill Hill, London to be the First Rector
of the new College. Frs. Michael Moran, Donal Esmond,
and Thomas Burke-Kennedy were appointed to the Teaching
Staff. A Rector and staff do not make a Seminary but
students were not slow in coming. Already the only available
classroom seemed crowded when seventeen young lads,
the pioneers of the many that were to follow, took their
places there. Uppercourt had now change, it had become
St. Joseph's Missionary College. !
Demanding work and ceaseless
activities began to tell on Fr. Owen. His health was
failing, but helped by Fr. George Stewart, and Fr. John
Brennan, who had just returned from the Missions, he
set himself the task of making the new college better
known throughout Ireland His aim was to fill the College
with aspirants to the missionary Priesthood, and to
collect funds for the Rector and his Staff in order
to fully equip the New School.
It is of interest to reflect that these Priests - Frs.
Kennelly, Moran, and Stewart had been students together
in Waterloo House, in Ballytruckle, in Co. Waterford.
From the beginning our
Priests were blessed to have an Oratory in Uppercourt
House. Among the purchased documents is a parchment
which shows that Thomas Eyre and his Wife Lady Milford
had received permission from Bishop Patrick Moran of
Ossory on November 1st 1872 "To have the Blessed
Eucharist in their Castle at Uppercourt. . . and to
receive the Blessed Eucharist in that Oratory."
A Chapel is of course the focal point of a Seminary,
since it is there that the Priestly Vocation is nurtured
and developed.
Uppercourt, a Georgian
Mansion had been well designed for a Private Residence,
but it was apparent from the first that its lay-out
was ill suited for the housing and education of young
boys, and for the normal activities of College life.
From May 'till September the house and grounds were
noisy with the activity of skilled tradesmen and labourers.
From the start St. Joseph
undoubtedly took a hand in the furnishing of the College,
and materials of all kinds as well as donations came
from many Friends and Benefactors. Who but St. Joseph
could have foreseen that the beds and tables, which
the Eucharistic Congress Committee in Dublin had acquired
for Congress visitors, would eventually become the property
of a New Missionary College in Kilkenny?
In 1935, Fr. J. P. Kennelly
began the publication 'St. Joseph's Advocate' and this
has kept Mill Hill in Ireland in close touch with its
Friends and Benefactors. Fr. Morris and Fr. Stewart
criss-crossed Ireland to find the money to pay the Bills
that landed on Fr. Kennelly's desk.
When Fr. James Rogan was appointed Rector in July 1937
he could see that the Oratory on the second floor was
inadequate for the growing. number of students. A College
Chapel was necessary. Ill health compelled Fr. Rogan
to hand over to Fr. Henry Moran in July 1938. On December
17th, the founder of Freshford College Fr. Owen Morris
died and was buried in the College grounds. A great
Priest had gone to his reward.
Sunday June 18th 1939,
was a memorable day in Freshford College, because on
that day Dr Collier Bishop of Ossory assisted by Dr
Keogh of Kildare and Dr Lyons of Kilmore Ordained Fr.
Peter Rogan of Kilcullen as Bishop for the Vicariate
of Buea in Cameroons, West Africa.
Exactly nine years after its foundation the College
rejoiced in another event which was a significant milestone
in its history - the Ordination to the Priesthood of
its first students. On July 6th 1941 Frs. G. Egan, J.
McCarthy, and M. Curry were ordained Priests in the
College Oratory by Dr Collier of Ossory.
Under Fr. Henry Moran's direction the work of building
a new Chapel was going ahead despite the hardships which
the Building Trade suffered during those war years.
The new Chapel was blessed and opened by Dr. Collier
on 18th November 1944.
During the years 1945 - 47 when Fr. J.P. Martin was
Rector the number of students grew to a total of eighty.
When the Fifth General Chapter of the Society elected
Fr. J.P. Martin to its Council, Fr. J.P. Kennelly returned
to replace him as Rector in 1948.
Fr. Kennelly set about
building proper Classrooms and Dormitories, which despite
the economic problems of those times were ready for
Official Opening on September 12th 1950. Fr.Thomas Mc
Loughlin, Superior General of the Society, and one of
the signatories of the purchase documents of Uppercourt
House, came for the Occasion when Bishop Peter Rogan
blessed the New Building and sang the Pontifical High
Mass. The Architects and Engineers for both Chapel and
Classrooms were Messers Jones of Dublin
In September 1950 the
students returned to Freshford to find Fr. H. Moran
as Rector and Fr. Kennelly as Director of Promotion
Work. Prior to his leaving Ireland to become Rector
of our House in Los Angeles, USA Fr. Moran had a beautiful
Marian Grotto erected in the college Grounds.
September 1954 witnessed the First Freshford-Trained
and Educated - Priest becoming Rector of his Alma Mater.
With the appointment of Fr. D. Twomey as Rector of St.
Joseph's, Freshford College had come to maturity.
Fr. Harry Tansey took over as Rector in 1960. Fr. Tansey
was the First Freshfordian with Mission experience to
become Rector of St Joseph's.
In 1963, Fr Paddy Kenny
became Rector. In 1973, Fr. C. O' Connor was became
Rector until 1979 , when Fr. B. Clarke took over for
a year. Fr. Jim O' Donoghue was appointed Rector from
198. In 1983 Fr. M. Gillespie became Rector and remained
there until the College was sold in 1989 to the Fitzgerald
Family of Auctioneers of Antiques. Today Mill Hill Priests
and Promotion Staff are established in what used to
belong to the Irish Sisters of Charity, and is known
as St Joseph's, 'Freshford House', Waterford Road, Kilkenny
City. Tel. 056 21482
Freshford Parish has every right to be proud of its
history. It would seem to have been providential that
from the Diocese, where St. Ciaran Cleire, a Pre-Patrician
Saint, had once preached; and from the Parish where
the great St. Lachtin had built his Cell; and from the
Grounds where the Catholic Bishops of Ossory used to
live and had built a 12th Century Church, once considered
a pearl of Irish Romanesque Architecture, that a constant
stream of Missionaries would go forth to bring the Good
News of Salvation to ends of the Earth?
(Compiled from various sources over about 40 years !
RH)
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