Portraits of Clongowes

Paul Holland has over 25 years’ experience in establishing & managing successful international businesses in the Executive Search, Sports Marketing and Investment sectors. Commencing in financial services, Paul progressed to a senior management role at Octagon, one of the world’s leading sports marketing agencies, with leading international sports rights holders; Euro Championships (Football), Ryd...

A qualified barrister, Richard is Director of Communications and Legal Affairs at Rugby Players Ireland. His role includes responsibility for all the communication tasks within the association, including the execution of an integrated strategy in support of Rugby Players Ireland’s key goals, whilst he also manages the Agents Registration Scheme. Having attained a Masters in International Relations...

Dave Kearney, a product of the highly regarded Leinster academy, came through the rigorous selection process and made his debut for Leinster in 2009 having starred for the Ireland U20s that season. With the family having a strong history in Irish sport Dave credits an early Gaelic football career with Cooley Kickhams in Louth as contributing factor for his undoubted skill set within rugby. He went...

Eoin Halpin is a professional archaeologist with some 30 years of experience, gained in both Ireland and abroad. In 1989 he co-founded Archaeological Development Services Ltd, one of the first archaeological companies established in Ireland. The company currently has offices in Dublin, Belfast and Kells. Eoin is a full member and ex-chairman of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland and a full...

Tony Egan started in Clongowes in 1971 and finished in 2021 during which time he was a pupil, returned as a Jesuit Novitiate and remained as a prefect when he left the Society of Jesus. Having busted Clongowes many times to see his elder brothers Terence and David, there was a familiarity with the place.

Cormac Lucey was born in Dublin and grew up in County Down and County Mayo. He was educated in Clongowes’s Wood College, UCD and qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1987. He has since worked in the financial industry, focusing on corporate finance. Between 2002 and 2007 he served as special adviser to the Tanaiste, Michael McDowell. He has developed and currently presents...

Ronan O’Reilly is Chairman of Ordinance Survey Ireland and has held that position for the last eleven years. A founding partner of O’Reiily Thomas in Drogheda over four decades ago. Ronan left Clongowes in 1975

Born in Cork, Brian Carney was educated at Clongowes Wood College before heading to UCD. While in UCD Brian never played for collidge, rather with local club Lansdowne RFC regularly turning out for their second and third teams. At Lansdowne Brian Corrigan, a local club stalwart noticed Carneys potential and suggested his union game would improve if he played Rugby League over the summer months. So...

Shane is the current President Elect of the Clongowes Union and is due to take the chain of office on Union Day 2024. Shane qualified as a solicitor in 1992 and is the founder and principal of Direct Law Solicitors. Shane is married to caroline and they have four children. Three boys attended Clongowes, the youngest of whom is currently in Rhetoric.

Kevin O’Higgins has been a solicitor in private practice in Dublin. He spent his early years in Arthur Cox and thereafter in a smaller commercial firm before opening up his own practice in the suburbs some 35 years ago. He has become one of faces of the solicitors profession in Dublin, particularly from his deep involvement with the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association of which he was the Honorary Se...

Patrick Mullins was bred for success in the racing industry being a son of former top amateur rider and multiple Champion National Hunt trainer Willie, a nephew of successful National Hunt trainers Tony, Tom and Mags, and a grandson of one of the great National Hunt trainers, Paddy. He claimed the title of Champion Amateur Rider for the first time in 2007/8 season. In 2012, he beat the record of 7...

For the past 8 Years Paul has been involved in the Modular Construction sector. Having been approached by a Swedish Student Accommodation Company in 2015, He then spent most of the subsequent years in Stockholm learning the intricacies of Modular, and spending time on the Factory floor watching the lego buildings being produced. Paul’s initial brief was to head up Operations in Student Accommodati...

Muiris FitzGerald is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics at UCD and was Professor of Medicine and Consultant Physician at SVUH (St Vincent’s University Hospital) from 1977 to 2006.Muiris is a former two-term Chairman of the HRB (Health Research Board) and served on the Foundation Board of HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority), the ISCP (Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherap...

Drew Flood is the Business Development Manager at Aware the Mental Health Charity for the last 9 years, they raise over Two Million each year with only 25% funding from the state, they have over 50,000 people contacting them each year for Mental Health support & Education . Drew had a very enjoyable 28 years in the Hospitality Business in Ireland he Trained with the Doyle Collection straight after...

Hewer is a retired television presenter, company director (and former public relations consultant. From 2005 to 2014, he appeared as Alan Sugar's adviser in the UK series The Apprentice. From 2012 to 2021, he presented the Channel 4 programme Countdown Hewer was born in Swindon although his parents met when they both were university students in Dublin. Hewer was educated at Clongowes Wood College...

James retired from sporting life after his historic victory in The Gollymockey Chase in June ‘78. Flies Ryanair in memory of Cathal Ryan who was hauled out of mass one Sunday for messing by his father, the TC. James pursued a career in mental health, addiction treatment services and criminal justice as a nurse then social worker. Now at the Bridge project, a multidisciplinary agency providing educ...

After graduating from Clongowes in 1977 Paul attended RTC Galway where he studied Computer Information Systems, In late 1979 Paul joined Bank of Ireland midland region,While he enjoyed certain aspect of the job it was unfulfilling and he took a leap of faith in 1985 by emigrating to the United States. He settled in Chicago, where he got a job as a runner on the Chicago Board of Trade floor. Within...

Richard Bruton grew up in Dunboyne, County Meath, and was educated at Belvedere College, Clongowes Wood College, University College Dublin and Nuffield College, Oxford. At Oxford, he graduated with a MPhil in Economics, his thesis being on the subject of Irish public debt. After university he worked at the Economic and Research Institute. Richard has served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin Bay No...

William co-founded Framestore in 1986 after studying Business and Law at Trinity College. He has been part of Framestore’s successful rise from an award winning commercials house to world renowned film VFX company based in London, New York, LA and Montreal. During William’s time at Framestore the company has worked on Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger,...

Godfrey Deeny is an international fashion critic who covers the runway shows of London, Milan, Paris and New York, and is regularly a front-row reviewer at the fashion seasons of Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Rome and Sydney. After leaving Clongowes Deeny studied in Trinity College Dublin and then a Masters in New York. He lives in Paris with his wife Sonia and two young daughters

Tony O’Beirne, more commonly known as ‘Tigger’, was an accomplished sportsman in Clongowes and Captain of the School. His extended family were closely linked with CWC with his uncle, Gerry O’Beirne SJ teaching many a generation latin and Spanish. His cousin Bernard, also captained the school, and was the Aer Lingus flight captain of that ill fated flight that crashed over Tuskar Rock in 1968. Tigg...

Mr. Rossa White is Head of Group Investor Relations at FTSE-100 listed DCC plc, one of Ireland’s largest multinational companies. Before joining DCC at the start of 2021, he was Chief Economist and Deputy Director at Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). He was part of the team that led Ireland back to the bond market following the banking crisis of 2007-2011, having set up an econ...

Former rugby star, Willie Burns, who scored a hat-trick of tries on his debut for the ‘Barbarians’ twenty-five years ago is the first inductee into the Birr Chamber of Commerce Parish sports star awards Hall of Fame. Willie won the Schools Leinster Senior Cup at Clongowes in 1978. He currently is Business Development at Newcourt Pensions Ireland

Cultivating and maintaining leadership and resilience in life is a constant challenge. It much of what Jack Kavanagh conveys today. In 2012, just over a year after leaving Clongowes, Jack sustained a spinal cord injury following a simple windsurfing accident only weeks before entering his second year of Pharmacy in TCD. As a result he is paralysed from the armpits down with 15% muscle function rem...

John Oxx is a retired Irish trainer of thoroughbred racehorses. By the end of the 2009 season Oxx had trained 35 Group One winners over his career, including the winners of 11 Classic races. Perhaps best known as trainer of Sinndar and Sea The Stars.