SPOCA Historical Photos

A large number of photos and other images which SPOCA has drawn together over many years has been collated, organized and catalogued diligently and with great effort by Jim Smith in recent times. That set of images is now available on a separate website which is part of the Victorian Collections site. It can be accessed from here. (The full address is a bit long to write here but can be located online via the usual search technique, using the keywords 'Victorian Collections' and 'SPOCA').

Other Historical Documents

There are many additional records which detail various aspects and recollections of the history of the College as told by alumni from many decades going back over one hundred years. The following list summarizes the contents of those items, each of which can be accessed individually by clicking on the relevant file name from the 'icons table' which is below this list:

1867 – Scotch & SPC – an anecdote about Scotch College, SPC, the Duke of Edinburgh and an attempted royal assassination!

1892 – A School Photo (with names)

1896 – A School Photo (no names on photo but next item may help - can anyone link a name to a face?)

1896 – Names of students enrolled in 1st Qtr 1896

1906 – An article from The Argus (9 March 1906) describes the early history of the College (also in Notables section)

1922 – A history of the College contained in the first issue of The Patrician yearbook

1960 – A new School Song was 'unveiled' (lyrics & score)

1965 – A talk by Fr. Michael Costigan delivered on the Centenary of the Jesuit involvement in the history of the College

1969 – The Patricians FC playing fixture for that year with player names and jumper numbers

2012 – After Dinner Talk by Tony Gaynor with many memorable anecdotes

2015 – Michael Head wrote a set of notes which accompanied a talk he gave on the history of the Irish Jesuits in Australia

2018 – Fr. Jo Dirks wrote a series of recollections of "The College in the Fifties" in the form of a poem

2018 – Greg Bourke delivered a homily during the Mass conducted to mark the 50th anniversary of the Closure

2020 – Lentaigne Tryptych at St Ignatius (a connection to Frs. Lentaigne and Kelly, early rector and teacher, respectively)

2020 - Letter to Patricians announcing the launch of the Digital Images website

For those interested in ancestry (of Colleges rather than families), the link below is worth reading. Clongowes Wood SJ College in Ireland sent the first Jesuits to St Patrick's, including the first rector of the College in 1865.  Fr Joseph Lentaigne SJ had previously been rector of Clongowes Wood which could therefore be considered a 'parent' College.

Clicking this link will transfer to the website of that College for further background. The College was also part of the itinerary for the "Ireland Trip 2018" and is described in the trip details in the Archived Events section.