AIDAN LEHANE:FR AIDAN Lehane, who has died aged 85, held senior administrative and teaching positions at all five Spiritan (Holy Ghost) colleges in Ireland – Rockwell, Blackrock, St Michael's, St Mary's, Rathmines and Templeogue.
Born in Clontarf in 1926, he attended O’Connell School before being enrolled as a boarder at Willow Park, Blackrock. From there he went to Blackrock College where he quickly discovered that neither science nor mathematics were his “thing”. However, he developed a lifelong love of English literature, and PG Wodehouse and Gerard Manley Hopkins were particular favourites.
He enjoyed sports, particularly rugby, and twice won junior cup medals. Scrum half in 1941, in 1942 he captained the side playing at centre. He enjoyed cup success with the senior team in 1943, but was on the losing side in 1944.
However, he captained the Leinster schoolboys’ team which won the interprovincial series that year. He also played for the college tennis team.
Having completed his Leaving Cert he entered the novitiate at Kilshane, and studied philosophy at Kimmage Manor and UCD. He graduated with a BA (hons) in 1948 and followed this with an MA in English literature in 1949.
He taught for two years, from 1950 to 1952, at St Mary’s, Rathmines, obtaining the HDip Ed in 1951. For the next four years he studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He thoroughly enjoyed his time in Italy, mixing study with playing rugby for a local club.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1955 and expected to be assigned to missionary work. Instead he was appointed to the teaching staff of Rockwell College, Co Tipperary. He immediately felt at home in what was then Munster’s leading rugby school, and spent 17 happy years there. He was college president from 1968 to 1974.
He next attended the University of Toronto, pursuing a doctoral programme in education administration, and was awarded a PhD in 1977. He was appointed to Blackrock, where he was president.
He taught at St Michael’s for nine years, from 1983, after which he took a sabbatical at Stanford University, California. There he felt privileged to meet the philosopher René Girard, described as the “most compelling Catholic thinker of the age”.
He served as manager of St Michael’s from 1994 to 1998. He moved to Templeogue and also became chairman of Sandymount School, a non-denominational mixed school under the aegis of Enable Ireland, which caters for children with a physical disability.
He is survived by his Holy Ghost confreres and sisters Daire Downes and Leonie Gaffney, brothers-in-law Joseph and Maurice and nieces and nephews.
Aidan Lehane CSSp: born August 7th, 1926; died August 8th, 2011