Dr. Hogan took us through the buildings, which are spacious and surround
two large quadrangles. They are built of stone, four stories in height,
are entirely modern and fitted up with all the conveniences and
accessories that belong to an up-to-date institution of learning. The
chapel is also modern, built within the present generation and entirely
conventional. It is not large enough to accommodate all of the students,
and the underclass men attend mass elsewhere.
Beyond the second quadrangle is a campus of seventy acres of lawn and
garden and grove, where five hundred young men were engaged in taking
their daily supply of fresh air and exercise when we passed through the
archway. Almost every kind of game was going on, from croquet to
football. There were several cricket contests in progress; others were
playing at hockey and basketball; others were on the track running, and
the lazy ones were lying stretched out on the velvet grass. There are
now five hundred and sixty-two students, nearly all of them theologs,
and one hundred and twenty graduated in 1908. They come chiefly from
Ireland, a few from Irish families in England, a few more from
Australia, but at present there is no representative of the United
States. When I asked a group of young men how they got along without any
Americans, one of them illustrated the quick wit of his race by replying
promptly: "We hope never to have them here, sir; they are altogether too
smart for us. If they keep on, the Americans will run the world."
It costs very little to get an education at Maynooth. The fees are
small,--$20 for matriculation, $25 for tuition, $150 a year for board,
and other small fees for electric light, rent of furniture, etc., which
brings the total up to about $225 a year. There are two hundred and
seventy scholarships which have been founded by friends of the
institution and societies in the different parishes, and they pay an
average of $150 a year. There is a fine library with forty thousand
volumes, and a gymnasium and everything else that is needed.
The ancient castle of Maynooth, built by the Earl of Kildare in 1427,
stands at the gateway of the college, and occupies the site of the
original stronghold of the family, built in 1176 by the first Maurice
Fitzgerald, who came over with the Strongbow at the time of the
Conquest. It has been a ruin since 1647, and a beautiful ruin it is--one
of the largest and most picturesque in the kingdom.
[Illustration: MAYNOOTH COLLEGE COUNTY KILDARE]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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