McAleese invokes learning values of Glenstal

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese did what she does so masterfully again yesterday on a visit to the all-boy Benedictine boarding school, Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick.

Her canvass of words swept from the profound to the witty, connecting with spellbinding effect.

Learning, she told the 215 young students, was like engraving on stone.

It had to be done well, otherwise it could remain incorrect to the eye over a lifetime.

“That is why we have to be so careful when engraving, and that is why your parents chose this school, because it is a place of the most delicate and acknowledged engraving,” she said.

The values of Glenstal were ones of love, “not mushy love”, and caring for others.

“In this school you have been helped and guided to hone a values system you will take with you wherever you go in the world — to help lift hearts and hopes. For 75 years this school has brought this message and has given that message from this extraordinary place, where the lost have always found great friendship.”

Her words touched hearts and minds as she recalled a visit to her son’s school shortly after she became president.

Justin had been asked to present a bunch of flowers on behalf of the students.

She quipped: “He looked morbidly depressed. He stretched out his arms with the flowers and, in a barely audible voice said, ‘don’t even think of hugging me in public’.”

One of her daughters told her the presidential visit to her school was a worse experience than having one’s mother inspect her bedroom.

Chris O’Connor, 18, the school captain from Swinford, Co Mayo, and vice captain, James O’Brien Moran, 18, from Tramore greeted the president with Abbott Christopher Dillon.

Leaving Cert student Bryan Hurley from Faithlegg, Co Waterford, was the designated official abbey photographer for the visit. But Brother Timothy McGrath, 62, claimed to have captured the best pictures of the day and hopes to show off his handiwork to the Leaving Cert students at the Saturday night social when some of the monks help the senior boys chill out with a few cans of beer.

“The boys can have a can or two and it takes the voodoo out of it. If they know they can have a can or two, they won’t be waiting to get out of here to get a beer,” said Brother Timothy.

Brother Michael, 81, has been at Glenstal for 58 years, but he clings to a precious asset from his past. “I’m very proud of my Dublin accent having been brought up in the Liberties,” he said.

Glenstal is beating the fall-off in vocations and, with 46 monks at present, it now has its greatest number of brothers and priests.