Irish College

Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Colleges were set up to educate Catholics from Ireland in their own religion following the takeover of the country by the Protestant English state in the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland. Irish Catholics also left the country to pursue military careers in the Flight of the Wild Geese. See also: Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691

The first Irish Colleges were set up in Spain in the 1580s in Salamanca and Madrid under the supervision of the Jesuit priest James Archer. Later, more Colleges were established in Rome, Paris, Brussels, Louvain and Prague. Some of the Colleges fell out of use in the late 18th century as the Penal Laws against Catholics in Ireland were relaxed.

St Anthony’s College, the Irish Franciscan College in Louvain was founded in May 1607 by Florence Conry, Irish Franciscan, theologian and aide to Red Hugh O’Donnell. The College was founded under the patronage of the King of Spain in Louvain (now Leuven) one of the most important university cities in Europe. The college was an impotant centre for the writing of Irish history and the preservation of Ireland’s rich cultural traditions. Mícheál Ó Cléirigh was sent from the college to Ireland to compile the Annals of the Four Masters, an impotant chronicle of Irish history. Within the college the earliest printing press in the Irish language was established and a collection of the lives of Irish saints was produced.

In the last decade, the Irish Government has financed the renovation of the premises of the Irish College in Paris which now serves as an Irish Cultural Centre and a residence for Irish students, writers and artists. The Irish College in Rome continues to be used for the education and training of Catholic clergy. In 1983 the Irish College in Louvain was made available by the Irish Franciscans for development as a secular resource.

External links

• Irish College in Rome - Catholic Encyclopedia
• Irish Colleges on the Continent - Catholic Encyclopedia
• [1] - official site of the only remaining college on the continent, the Pontifical Irish College Rome
• The National Library of Ireland's current exhibition, Strangers to Citizens: the Irish in Europe, 1600-1800
• Irish College Louvain
• Pontifical Irish College Rome

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