Local Faces: Br Colman

SINCE Moyle Park College opened its doors in 1957, Br Colman and the Marist brothers have supported the community of Clondalkin.

With the College becoming an integral part of society, it has developed rapidly alongside the population and village of Clondalkin. Celebrating his 95th birthday this week, Br Colman reflects on his time teaching and living in Clondalkin.

Born in the rural village of Glasson, County Westmeath in 1926, Br Colman says that from a young age religion and faith played an important part in his life.

“I suppose I always had an idea of religious life. My mother was a very devout catholic. We lived three miles from the primary school we had to walk to – three miles there and three miles home and the chapel was a bit further than that.

“She used to go to Sunday Mass, and we would go with her and my father as well indeed, and she would make the nine Fridays. My mother would make a special effort to go to mass on the first Friday of each month for nine months.

“There were two motor cars in our parish – one was the doctor, and the other was the priest. To get to mass, we had a pony and trap and you had to go out and get a pony and head over to the church and park him somewhere and when you came out you had to make that return journey home.”

When Br Colman heard about the Marist Brothers, he swapped Westmeath for Scotland and spent four years there, sitting the Junior Oxford Exams which is the equivalent of the Junior Certificate exams today.

Returning to Athlone, he attended the Marist Brothers Secondary School and completed his leaving certificate before training as a primary school teacher at Waterford teacher training college.

Whilst teaching at the Marist Brothers school in Athlone, Br Colman received his higher diploma in education which qualified him to teach secondary education.

“I changed into the brother’s secondary school, and I was made principal there for about seven years. I think it was a little easier than it is now. There wasn’t so much bureaucracy about it and there was no such thing as a board of management, so you made your own decisions.

“I suppose children were a little bit quieter and a little bit easier to manage in those times.

“We got on fine and the school was expanding, there was 208 students when I started and when I finished up there was 410 and then we were building a new school on a new site and Br Gerard was to come after me to succeed me in principal, so he took over the new school and I came up to Clondalkin in 1957.”

Speaking about his first experiences of Clondalkin in 1957, Br Colman says that it was a “nice little village” which consisted of one street, a pump and a horse drinking pond and where most of the residents worked in the Paper Mill at the time.

The first group of Marist Brothers, including Br Colman, arrived in Clondalkin from Athlone in June, 1957. The following September the school was set up in an old house on a large property named ‘Moyle Park’ with a main entrance from Convent Road in the village.

Speaking about the process of building the school, Br Colman says that they had to think of unique ways to come up with the money to build it at the time, one of which included organising a seven-a-side match.

“When I came here in 1957, we started gathering money to build the school and we built the school bit by bit – just a couple of classrooms at a time because we had no money.

“One of the things that I thought up was to run a seven-a-side and to collect money and we offered nine Filly shaves, a men’s razor – they were new at the time.

“I remember going in to see the boss of Cleary’s department store and he was sitting there, a massive mahogany desk. I had a local person with me, and he said ‘well, what do you want?’ – I told him we were starting this school and we were collecting money for it, and we were going to run a seven a side and we were looking for some Filly shaves.

“He lifted the phone and rang the department in Cleary’s and asked did they have nine Filly shaves – he said he had them and said ‘now, there they are now so and don’t go off and buy your blazers in Arnotts’”, said Br Colman, laughing.

“I haven’t been that involved in the GAA up here, but Round Tower will tell you that that seven a side really started a great pep and a spur on to Towers.

“They had a club but had no pitch of its own but it wouldn’t be anything like the Towers today like we know it.

“Tommy Keogh, who is a member of the club, he would say that Clondalkin Towers got on their feet as a result of that seven a side.

“We also used to run carnivals and we would make a few pounds out of it. The people in the paper mill were very helpful to us. We used to run draws and it was a shilling a ticket for £100.

“You obviously had to sell quite a number of tickets to make a profit off of it but one or two of the people that worked in the Mill would take 100 tickets and that would help.”

After a short stint teaching at Tallaght Community College, Br Colman went on to teach at Moyle Park College before retiring at the age of 65.

Reflecting on his time teaching at Moyle Park, Br Colman says that he feels a “sense of pride” looking back.

“Not every student is a great student academically and I often took pride in the fact that the weaker students did very well in the exams.

“They would not have got top marks or anything like that, but it was a great achievement for them to get a pass or one or two honours and it gives you a great sense of achievement.”

After his retirement and not ready to put the feet up and relax, he turned his attention to helping others in need.

“When I retired from teaching, I looked around and said, ‘what will I do with my time?’ and one of the things I decided to do was to join the local St Vincent De Paul.

“I was with the Immaculate Conception group here in the village that looks after the immediate village and then we were called upon to set up a new conference to look after some of North Clondalkin, so I was at that since, and we only stopped meeting and visiting when the virus came.”

These days, Br Colman rises at 5am every day and says that he makes sure that every day is filled doing the things he enjoys such as gardening and reading.

“I have a great interest in things like nature, ecology, plants and flowers. I did the garden for a good few years and grew vegetables but I am no longer able to do that, but I have a friend who comes in and helps me.

“I am still reasonably active, I do a lot of exercise to try and strengthen my legs and the physiotherapist has given me specific exercises to do which I do an hour a day.

“If I cannot do it because of weather conditions or something, I am a keen reader. I like books about nature and some religious books – I like a mixture.

“Prayer has always been very important to me, and it still is, and now I have more time to pray. I have had a very good, contented life and I have been blessed with good health.”

Although Clondalkin has undoubtably changed significantly from its days as one street, a pump and a horse drinking pond, Br Colman says that the sense of community spirit remains the same.

“When we first arrived here, the house was in a very dilapidated state, and it is nothing like what it is today.

“We had no heating, and I don’t think we even had showers – I remember swimming in the pond now and again- it was fairly basic.

“Some of the locals used to bring us up cakes and help us out in any way they could, and it is still the same -there is very good tradition in Clondalkin and I am grateful for the people here.”