Back to Autumn 2008 Newsletter
Gonzaga Union Newsletter Autumn 2008
Volume 1 Issue 3
Tribute to Fr. Joe Brennan SJ
Friday 29th February Green & White Dinner 2008
Tonight our Social Justice award goes to a man born into a large Dublin family some 80 years ago next November.
Father Joseph Brennan, or Joe as he is better known, was born into a family of 11 children whose parents were the late Ita and Joseph Brennan By any yardstick Joe Brennan is a good man. Many would say a remarkable man. A man who lives his vocation every day in the service of others. A humble person who consistently strives to do his best by his fellow man.
It is perhaps no surprise that Joe has so far dedicated over 40 years of his life to being a terrific teacher given that both his grandfathers were members of that august profession.
His paternal grandfather, the late Charles Brennan and who hailed from Cahirciveen in County Kerry was a founding member of the INTO, and his maternal grandfather wrote the authoritative arithmetic book used in nineteenth century Irish schools. In a teaching career spanning over 40 years Joe has taught in Clongowes, Belvedere, Mungret and Gonzaga.
In terms of the history of Gonzaga, it could be said that Joe has been the link between the first generation and second generation of the school. Joe lived in the community and worked closely with the late Father’s Edmund Keane and Billy Lee from the first generation, and his influential presence in the school over the last third of a century, has helped preserve the school’s ethos and culture, keeping Christianity inside the gates and the worst excesses of the Celtic Tiger outside the gates.
Joe’s own family have an uninterrupted link with Gonzaga going back over 50 years, which commenced back in September 1957 when the first of Joe’s nephews, Young Joe, who is present with us tonight, entered Preparatory 1, at the fragile age of 8. The Brennan family’s emotional link to the school is made all the deeper by the sudden tragic death at the age of 16 of Joe’s nephew Michael, when playing for the Senior Cup Team in Gonzaga on a Wednesday afternoon in January 1973. Mick, as he was known to the legion of his friends, was an all-round sportsman who excelled at tennis and was the Gonzaga rugby player of his generation.
It was not until September of the following year in 1974, that Joe himself joined the Gonzaga community as a history and religious knowledge teacher. It wasn’t an easy time to join Gonzaga as a teacher. In Joe’s first history class for 6th year that year, he was faced with a young Mark FitzGerald a 6th Year boy, in the company of a then recent past pupil - Michael McDowell. Joe did a remarkable job with these two boys. Firstly, in history that year he managed to help Mark achieve 50% of his total points in the Leaving Certificate in that subject, and secondly, not longer after, he persuaded his dear niece Niamh, to take the rather bumptious Mr. McDowell off the shelf!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Father Joe’s capacity for friendship and his devotion for those in need coupled with deep commitment to his faith are just some of his admirable attributes. These Ladies and Gentlemen aren’t hollow words and I would like to share with you this short film which is a tribute to Joe.
Back to Autumn 2008 Newsletter