De Valera's Irelands by Dermot Keogh, Keogh Doherty Page B

biography.
    Meda Ryan

Eamon de Valera and Blackrock 1898–1921
Seán Farragher, CSSp
    The School Journal for 14 August 1898 has this entry: ‘Fr Superior return­ed considerably refreshed by his holiday in Clare.’ That holiday, in the plans of Providence, proved a deciding factor in Eamon de Valera’s ca­reer, as the Superior in question, Fr Laurence Healy, spent his holiday at Lisdoonvarna in the company of Fr James Liston, curate at Bruree. When the intermediate results were published on 30 August, young Edward de Valera, as he was then known, learned that he had secured a £20 exhi­bition – or scholarship – in junior grade. As he had to travel seven miles to the nearest secondary school, namely the Christian Broth­ers’ school at Charleville, necessitating much expenditure of time and energy, he hoped to be accepted at a boarding school on the strength of this £20 scholar­ship. He had lived with his uncle Edward Coll in a labourer’s cottage since his return from New York in 1885, where he had been born of an Irish mother and a Spanish father. His uncle could not be expected to con­tribute much to the £20. As no reply was received from the colleges in the south to whom he had applied, Fr Liston advised him to write to Fr Healy. He was immediately accepted on the strength of his exhibition alone.
    As school had begun on 1 September he was already a week late. So without any further delay he purchased a new suit for 16/– and the other items mentioned in the prospectus, and set off for Dublin, aged 16. Horse trams still operated from Kingsbridge to the city centre. He then had to walk to Merrion Square to board the electric tram. He asked the conduc­tor to let him down at Blackrock College but the conductor was at a loss to know whether he wanted to go to St Joseph’s Vincentian College Black­rock or to the French College as ‘Rock was still known locally; and in­deed it was still its official title for the intermediate board, as can be seen from the admission card supplied by them to Edward de Valera for his middle grade examination in 1899. That was the original official title of the college.
    Fr Laurence Healy was in fact the first Irishman to be appointed Presi­dent of the college, succeeding Fr Jules Botrel, a native of Brittany, in 1896. That year too saw the first Irish bursar, Fr Neville, take over from Fr Mar­tin Ebenrecht from Alsace. Other links with the early origins of the col­lege were snapping just then. Fr Jerome Schwindenhammer – one of the three founder members in 1860 – was to die in France shortly after Dev arrived at the college. The first ceremony he witnessed at the college would have been the funeral mass for Fr Huvetys, the first superior of Rockwell (1864–1880) and superior of Blackrock (1880–89).
    New links with the future were being formed. The first phone was installed in the college just before Dev arrived. The first ever kinematic or movie shown in the college took place that year too. The past students were about to form their first union and their senior or ‘Castle’ team, as it was known, was about to apply for senior status, which was granted in 1899.
    De Valera was quoted in his obituaries as saying he chose Blackrock as it was then the most competitive school. It was credited in fact with the highest number of exhibitions won by boarding colleges in the pub­lished results of that year. The college victory dinner was held mid-Sep­tember to celebrate these results and de Valera often recalled the opening words of the dean of studies’ speech: ‘Who fears to speak of ‘98!’ This quotation puts us in immediate touch with the competitive spirit and the ideals of that era, when each school had still to depend for its survival on the published successes of its students.
    As de Valera began middle grade at Blackrock he felt himself very much of an