The inscription reads:
In Memory of Rev. Enda McDonagh, a priest of (the Archdiocese) of Tuam and who was Professor of Moral Theology in this college
Born in Bekan 9 June 1930 Died with piety 24 February 2021
Wherever there is charity and love, God is there too.
May he have a bed among the saints
Rev. Professor Enda McDonagh (1930-2021) Tuam
Enda McDonagh was born in Bekan, Co. Mayo, and attended the local national school under the instruction of his parents who were both teachers. From 1943-48 he attended St. Jarlath’s Diocesan College, Tuam and from 1948-56, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. In 1951 he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science awarded by the National University of Ireland and subsequently was awarded a Bachelor's degree and Doctorate in Divinity from St Patrick's Pontifical University. He was ordained in 1956 and appointed Professor of Moral Theology in 1958. At various times during his active professorship he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Director of Postgraduate Studies and Member of the Academic Council of St. Patrick's College; Member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland; Founder of the Inter-Church Association of Moral Theology; President of the Irish Federation of University Teachers; President of the Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations; Visiting Professor at several international institutions, and Chaplain to the President of Ireland. Between his retirement in 1995 and his death he was honoured by appointments and awards as Chairman of the Governing Body of University College, Cork; Honorary Canon of St Patrick’s Cathedral (Church of Ireland), Dublin and Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Dublin ( Trinity College).
Rev. Donal Daly SVD (1936-2020)
Born in Fermoy, Co. Cork, Donal Daly entered the Irish novitiate of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) at Donamon, moving to the order's seminary in Chicago to study theology. After ordination in 1962, he studied at the Gregorian University, Rome, where he was awarded the degrees of STL (1964) and PhD (1967). He professed Philosophy at Donamon until 1969, when he joined the staff of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where SVD students were now studying. He moved to the Philosophy Faculty of NUI Maynooth in 1997 and was at various times Chairman of the Academic Staff Association, a member of the Executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, and Chairman of the Irish Philosophical Society. After retirement in 2003 he continued to teach Philosophy at seminary level.
Rt. Rev Professor Monsignor Patrick Corish (1921-2013) Ferns
Born in Ballycullane, Co. Wexford into a family of teachers, Patrick Corish was educated at St. Peter's College, Wexford and entered College in 1938, where he took a degree in Arts. After ordination in 1945, he continued his studies at the Dunboyne Institute, where he attained the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and at UCD, where he was awarded a Master of Arts degree for his study of the Wexford bishop Nicholas French (1604-78). In 1947 he was appointed as Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Maynooth. In 1967 he briefly served as president of the college, and in 1975 became Professor of Modern History at the expanding recognised college of the National University of Ireland. He retired in 1986 but continued to serve as college archivist and research adviser. His interaction with the wider world of scholarship focused mainly on involvement in organisations dedicated to the advancement of ecclesiastical history and learning. He was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy in 1956 at the age of thirty-five. In addition to a number of seminal studies in books and articles, in 1995 he produced the official history of Maynooth College as part of the celebration of the bicentenary of its founding. He had a special recreational interest in alpine gardening, an attachment reflected in the commissioning of a memorial to him in the former Junior Garden.
Professor Thomas A. F. Kelly (1956-2009)
Thomas Augustine Francis Kelly was born in Dublin and educated in Philosophy at UCD, the University of Dublin (TCD) and the University of Fribourg, where he was awarded his Doctorate in Philosophy. In the mid-1980s he joined the staff of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth as a Lecturer in Philosophy. With the integration of the seminary Philosophy department into the National University of Ireland at Maynooth at the turn of the 21st. century, he quickly established himself in the new environment, being shortly afterwards appointed Professor. He served as President of the Irish Philosophical Society and was editor of its journal and of the Maynooth Philosophical Papers. In addition to his scholarship in his chosen area, he was also an accomplished musician, painter and creative writer.
Rev Professor James Desmond Bastable (1918-2000) Dublin
James Desmond Bastable represents those of the resident staff of the historic Maynooth College who were advanced to appointments elsewhere in the Irish university system. He was born on 25 October 1918 in Blackrock, Co. Dublin into a family that also produced a second priest and philosopher, his twin brother Patrick, who entered the Columban order. James attended the Christian Brothers in Westland Row before entering Holy Cross College, Clonliffe from from where he was ordained in 1942. After a number of chaplaincy appointments, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Maynooth in 1944. In 1951 he founded the journal Philosophical Studies, which ran to thirty-three volumes. In 1969 he went to UCD as a member of the staff of the Department of Philosophy, where he joined his brother. He retired in 1977 and later worked as a convent chaplain.
Rev Professor Gerard Watson (1933-1998) Armagh
Gerard Watson was born in Randalstown, Co. Antrim. He studied at Maynooth from 1951 to 1958 and was ordained in Rome in February 1959. He was immediately appointed to Chair of Classics at Maynooth, having completed a Ph.D at Queen's University, Belfast with a thesis on the Stoic theory of Knowledge. A specialist in Greek Philosophy and Patristics, he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1978. He was heavily involved in the expansion of Classics education under the new secular university regime at Maynooth leading to its emergence as a respected centre of studies (by the 1980s NUI Maynooth had the largest proportion of Classics scholars per head of student population of any third-level institution in Britain or Ireland).
ADMINISTRATIVE AND DOMESTIC STAFF
