clongowes wood college

This is a splendid building incorporating the old castle of the Wogan-Brownes, several of whom were distinguished soldiers in European armies. Clongowes was opened as a boys college by the society of Jesus in 1814. For a time in the 1890's James Joyce was a pupil and re-created his experience of student life there and at Belvedere College in his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Some remains of the Pale, the fortification that once marked the boundary of English influence in Ireland, can be seen in the grounds. The chapel has several works by modern Irish artists: The Stations of the Cross are by Sean Keating and the stained glass windows by Evie Hone and Michael Healy. The college museum contains interesting antiquities.