Crescent College Past Pupils Union
August 2019 Newsletter

Our annual golf event is just 4 weeks away on the 6th September and the highly popular Past Pupils Dinner on 9th November so put them in your calendar/diary. 

Those who have been glued to the TV this summer cannot have missed the Limerick connection with the winner Greg O'Shea hailing from our fair city but we can go one better.  Greg is a Crescent Past Pupil from the class of 2013 and has had a successful rugby career following on from his JCT and SCT success with the school.  He's been with Munster since graduating and now on the Ireland rugby sevens squad aiming for glory in Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.  
We'd like to congratulate Greg and wish him and Ireland all success in the 2020 Games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_O%27Shea_(rugby_union)

Thomas "Todd" J. Morrissey, SJ has produced a new book (his 20^th): a biography of Dom Eugene Boylan, Trappist Monk, Scientist and Writer.  - A prize-winning student, music-lover, ladies’ man, physicist, who won a scholarship to University of Vienna, and lectured at UCD, and to everyone’s surprise became a Monk and later a famous writer of spiritual books, including the greatest best-seller in the USA, This Tremendous Lover, a book that encouraged readers to no longer view God as a Judge, recording all their faults, but as a God of Compassion and Love. Boylan was in great demand as a lecturer and writer. He had the ability to adapt his message to his audience, and to render ‘the supernatural almost natural’.
He established the first Cistercian foundation in Australia, saved the monastery in Caldey Island (off the Welsh coast) from closure by developing perfume from the flowers on the island, lectured and gave retreats in USA, including Thomas Merton’s abbey, and, in 1962, was elected abbot of Mount St. Joseph Monastery at Roscrea. A man of prayer who had an easy charm of manner, he became well known as a spiritual director and people flocked to Roscrea to go to confession to him. A man for most situations, he was also a lover of swimming and of fast cars. He was a powerful swimmer, but a very poor driver. He died following a road accident on a frosty night as he travelled to a funeral in Donegal. His death was mourned across Ireland and abroad. His funeral was attended by leaders of church and state, and by thousands of people from all sections of society.
Available in OMahonys Limerick or online - https://www.omahonys.ie/dom-eugene-boylan-a-biography-p-10433722.html

 

Rev Dr Michael O'Sullivan, SJ (Class of 1969) is an internationally recognised leader in the development of spirituality in higher education (see, for example, http://spiritualityinstitute.ie/about-us/).  In November 2018 in Denver he became the first Irish Jesuit to preside at a session at the American Academy of Religion (AAR).

The AAR, is the largest gathering of scholars of religious studies and spirituality in the world. At the event he presented a peer-reviewed paper, a first for an Irish Jesuit in the 110 year existence of the AAR. He is also the only Irish person to have been elected to the Board of Directors of the British Association for the Study of Spirituality.
He is on the organising committee of the historic international conference on 'Spirituality in Society and the Professions', which was hosted by the Waterford Institute of Technology (see http://spiritualityinstitute.ie/events/16-18-may-2019-international-conference-on-spirituality-in-society-and-the-professions/), in May of this year, the organising committee of the international conference on 'The Study of Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Theology: Evolving Methodologies' in Rome in Sept, and the international conference of the British Association for the Study of Spirituality in York St John University in England in June 2020.
 

If you are planning a class reunion for your year then please remember that the Crescent Past Pupils Union is here to assist.  We have class lists online here for your reference and we invite you to contact us reunions@crescentpast.com if you have any questions about reunions for your year. We are delighted to confirm that we can send a photographer to your event on the night to capture the evening if you want.  On the other hand if your year hasn't organised a reunion then why not come join us at our Annual Dinner on Saturday 9th November in Limerick.  Many class groups attend and we have groups celebrating reunions form every decade from 2000s to 1950s.  All past pupils and staff are welcome to attend what is always a most enjoyable evening.
 

As always ... if you're from Crescent and you've news to share with the Past Pupils Union please send an email to editor@crescentpast.com.  
For obituaries please visit http://crescentpast.com/obituaries/