St Stanislaus College

St Stanislaus College SJ
Location
Tullabeg, Co. Offaly Republic of Ireland
Information
Type	Boarding School
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic (Jesuit)
Established	1818
Closed	1886
Gender	male
Religious order	Society of Jesus

Rahan St Stanislaus College was a school in Tullabeg, Rahan (raithean meaning ferny place) County Offaly. St Carthage founded a monastery of 800 monks there in 595 before founding his monastery in Lismore. The Presentation Sisters also have a convent in Rahan, Killina, which was founded at the same time (circa 1818) as the Jesuits founded St Stanislaus College.

St Stanislaus College was founded as a boarding school for boys under the age of thirteen in 1818. It was endowed by the O'Briens, a local gentry family (Killina - also donated lands for presentation convent and school in Killina), and was intended to cater for upper middle class Catholics, as was the sister college at Clongowes Wood College where most of its students would graduate to. In the 1850s, the school was enlarged to take older boys. Cricket was played at the school the first pitch being laid under Fr. Delaney's rectorship and the facilities developed by Father Wisthoff, a German Jesuit, were highly regarded; he also had the Grand Canal widened to allow rowing.

While Fr. William Delany SJ, LLD(RUI), was rector 1876 similar to Carlow College and St. Patrick's College, Thurles students were able to be matriculated and examined by the University of London for BA degrees, following the establishment of the Royal University of Ireland in 1882 pupils would progress to the Jesuit UCD, students from tullabeg it was noted achieved high marks in examinations for the Royal University.

However, in 1886, the school was closed and the boys were transferred to Clongowes. This may have been because of a shortage of priests, as the Jesuit House in Dromore, Co. Down closed the same year and Mungret College in Limerick had just been established.

St. Stanislaus College was sometimes titled Domus Probationis et Studiorum Tulliolana (The House of Formation and Studies at Tullamore) by the Jesuits. In 1918, Tullabeg became a house for Jesuits novices, Seminary, where it became affectionately known as "the Bog". Some Jesuits would serve their Tertianship in Tullabeg. Among its Rectors, Very Rev. William Henry, S.J.. In 1930 some 52 novices were transferred to the Jesuits in Emo Court, and Tullabeg catered for training Jesuits who had completed their University studies. In 1962 the philosophy school was transferred to Jesuit School of Philosophy in Milltown. It was subsequently a retreat house until shortly after Easter 1991, Fr. Brendan Murray was the last rector.

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