The Pontifical Irish College is a Catholic seminary in Rome for the training and education of priests.Pontificio Collegio Irlandese The college is located at #1, Via dei Santi Quattro, and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world. Designated a pontifical college in 1948, it is the last Irish College in continental Europe.Binasco, Matteo, and Vera Orschel. “Prosopography of Irish Students Admitted to the Irish College, Rome, 1628-1798 [with Index].” Archivium Hibernicum, vol. 66, 2013, pp. 16–62. JSTOR
Foundation and early history In 1625, the Irish bishops, in an address to Pope Urban VIII, expressed a desire for a college for Irish students in Rome. Cardinal Ludovisi, who was Cardinal protector to Ireland, resolved to realize at his own expense the desire expressed to the pope by the Irish bishops. A house was rented opposite Sant' Isodoro and six students went into residence 1 January 1628. Eugene Callanan, archdeacon of Cashel, was the first rector, Luke Wadding being a sort of supervisor. Cardinal Ludovisi died in 1632; he was of a princely family with a large patrimony, and he made provision in his will for the college; it was to have an income of one thousand crowns a year; a house was to be purchased for it; and he left a vineyard as Castel Gandolfo where the students might pass their villeggiatura. The cardinal's will directed that the college should be placed under the charge of the Jesuits. Both the heirs and Wadding disputed that provision; a protracted lawsuit was finally decided in 1635 in favour of the Jesuits.O'Riordan, Michael. "Irish College, in Rome." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 29 June 2019
Under the Jesuits On 8 February 1635, the Jesuits took charge of the college, and governed it until 1772. A permanent residence was secured, which became the home of the Irish students until 1798, and is still the property of the college; it has given its name to the street in which it stands. The Jesuits found eight students before them; one of these, Philip Cleary, after a brilliant academic course, left for the mission in Ireland in 1640, and suffered death for his faith ten years later. The first Jesuit rector became general of the society; he was succeeded by James Forde, who was succeeded in 1637 by William Malone, a combatant in controversy with Archbishop Usher. In 1650 Scarampo of the Oratory, on return from his embassy to the Kilkenny Confederation, brought with him two students to the Irish College; one was Peter Walsh, who became an Oratorian; the other was Oliver Plunkett, who was kept in Rome as professor at the Pontificio Collegio Urbano "De Propaganda Fide" until his appointment to the see of Armagh in 1670. John Brennan, one of Plunkett's contemporaries, also became a professor at Propaganda; whence he was appointed Bishop of Waterford, and then Archbishop of Cashel. Soon after came several remarkable students — James Cusack, Bishop of Meath; Peter Creagh, successively Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, and Archbishop of Dublin.
In the earliest part of the eighteenth century, one of the former students, Hugh MacMahon, Archbishop of Armagh, asserted the precedence of that see to Dublin in a work of great learning, "Jus Primatiale Armacanum". Richard Reynolds at the end of his course was kept in Rome at tutor to the children of the Pretender; James Gallagher became Bishop of Kildare. The college had never more than eight students at a time, and had often so few as five. In other ways, however, the college had its trials and changes. It came into financial difficulties. The villa at Castel Gandolfo was sold to the Jesuit novitiate in 1667, and yet the difficulties did not disappear. It was thought, moreover, that too large a proportion of the able students found a vocation in the Society of Jesus, in spite of the purpose of the college, which trained them for the mission in Ireland. Complaints as to administration were also made, and a Pontifical Commission was deputed to make an official inquiry. Its report was not favourable to the Jesuits, and in September, 1772, the college was withdrawn from their control.
After the Jesuits The college now passed from the care of the Jesuits, and an Italian priest, Abbate Luigi Cuccagni, was made rector. He was a man of acknowledged ability and the author of several works which were in high repute in those days. From the Irish College he edited the "Giornale Ecclesiastico di Roma", then the leading Catholic periodical in Rome. The first prefect of studies appointed under his rectorate was Pietro Tamburini, who afterwards became the leader of Jansenism at Pavia. During his prefectship he delivered his lectures on the Fathers which were afterwards published at Pavia. He had to leave the college after four years.
The rectorate of Cuccagni came to an end in 1798, when the college was closed by order of Napoleon. During those twenty-six years it quite equalled its previous prestige for although its number of students was sometimes as low as three, the College produced John Lanigan the historian, who promoted directly from being a student of the Irish college to the chair of Scripture at Pavia; Charles O'Conor, author of "Scriptores Rerum Hibernicarum" and several others works; Ryan, Bishop of Ferns; McCarthy, Coadjutor Bishop of Cork; and Michael Blake, Bishop of Dromore.
From 1826 Blake, the last student to leave the college at its dissolution in 1798, returned a quarter of a century later to arrange for its revival, which was effected by a brief of Pope Leo XII, dated 18 February 1826. He was appointed first rector of the restored college, and among the students who sought early admission was Francis Mahoney of Cork, known to the literary world as Father Prout. Blake was succeeded by Boylan of Maynooth, who soon resigned, and died in 1830.
In late 1831, Paul Cullen was appointed rector of the fledgling and struggling Irish College. He successfully secured the future of the college by increasing the student population and thereby strengthening the finances of the college. Within two years of his rectorate he had forty students in the college; and to provide proper accommodations for the increasing numbers who sought admission, a new building with the Church of Sant'Agata de' Goti was given to the college by Gregory XVI in 1835. He astutely fostered relationships with the Irish hierarchy, on whom he relied for students, often becoming their official Roman agent. This role yielded income and influence and was to remain a key function of future rectors. He endeavoured to chart a middle ground between conflicting parties of Irish bishops. He was active in his opposition to the establishment of the secular Queen's Colleges.Review of Cardinal Cullen & his World at Pontificio Collegio Irlandese, 2 December 2011 Two years later Dr. Cullen purchased a fine country villa as a summer home, amid the olive groves which cover the slopes of the Sabine hills near Tivoli. Among the distinguished students who passed through the college during Cullen's rectorate were C. P. Meehan, Edmund O'Reilly, Bishop Croke, Cardinal Moran, and Archbishop Dunne of Brisbane. Cullen was a vigorous, detailed and committed correspondent with his successor Tobias Kirby and their correspondence forms the heart of this part of the college's archives. The Irish political leader Daniel O'Connell was received by Cullen and is remembered in the college with a memorial.
Tobias Kirby succeeded Cullen in 1849 and was rector until 1891. Kirby lived in Rome for 69 years and it is reported to have returned home only twice during that period."The Catholic Church's Irishmen in Rome: the correspondence of Paul Cullen and Tobias Kirby", History Ireland, Issue 1 (Jan/Feb 2008), Volume 16 Kirby marshalled the college's resources both in Rome and back in Ireland, helped in part by the election of his former classmate and friend as Pope Leo XIII. Kirby was raised to the episcopate and eventually became the titular Archbishop of Ephesus.
20th century His successor Michael Kelly served a seven-year term as rector before being appointed in 1901 as coadjutor to the Archbishop of Sydney. He was succeeded by Michael O'Riordan, a priest of the diocese of Limerick whose correspondence and good offices between the Irish bishops and the Vatican are particularly revealing for the period from the Easter Rising on. It has been argued that the Vatican drew close to Irish Nationalist opinion in these critical years due, in no small part, to the work of O'Riordan, and his vice-rector and ultimate successor, John O'HaganMcGreevy, Ronan. "Document requested by pope about Easter Rising revealed", The Irish Times, September 18, 2015
O'Hagan took stewardship of the college at a propitious time for Ireland, and this is reflected in many of the major events associated with his time as rector. A recent assessment of him drew attention to the beatification of Oliver Plunkett in May 1920 which it is suggested he "transformed into a nationalist fête." His papers have digitized and catalogued. In the winter of 1926/7 he travelled to the United States for fundraising missions in order to meet the costs of the 'new' College, the current building with tis impressive façade and grounds which had opened that same year. Later still in 1929 O'Hagan presided over the centenary celebrations in Rome for Catholic Emancipation and was influential in the decision to appointment a Nuncio in Dublin. He died in office in 1930 and is buried in Rome.
21st century In 2003 the British prime minister Tony Blair and his family stayed in the Irish College during a trip to Italy.Blairs opt to stay in Irish College during Italian trip by Paddy Agnew, Irish Times, February 27, 2003.
In 2007, a former student, the Iraqi priest Ragheed Ganni, was murdered along with three subdeacons after he had celebrated Mass for his parish community in Mosul, Iraq.Bergin, Liam. "Latest Martyr from Rome's Irish College -an Iraqi", Boston Pilot, July 18, 2017
In 2011, under orders from Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, led a "root and branch review" of all structures and processes at the college. He was assisted in the visitation report by the then-Archbishop of Baltimore Edwin O’Brien, and Francis Kelly of the North American College in Rome. The report was highly critical of the college, as a result of which three Irish members of the staff were sent home and the fourth resigned."Irish College in Rome changes staff after apostolic visitation", Catholic News Agency, May 10, 2012 The rector accepted a position as Professor of the Practice of Sacramental Theology at the Theology Department at Boston College. In 2012, the four Irish archbishops, Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, and the Archbishop of Cashel, Dermot Clifford, were sent a copy of the visitation report by the Vatican. A response prepared for them said "a deep prejudice appears to have coloured the visitation and from the outset and it led to the hostile tone and content of the report." It was also commented that staff had not had a chance to respond properly to criticisms.McGarry, Patsy. "Irish College staff in Rome given no right of reply", The Irish Times, June 15, 2012
In 2016, seminarians from St. John Vianney College Seminary moved to the Irish College for formation at Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas.15 US seminarians to transfer to Irish College in Rome By Sarah Mac Donald, August 5, 2016. Building on the partnership with the St. John Vianney Seminary, in 2023, Irish lay students were invited to a "study abroad" programme alongside US undergraduates from University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), residing in the Irish College.
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