The Irish College at Santiago de Compostela, 1605–1769

Patricia O'Connell

Hardback
164pp. 2006
ISBN:
1-84682-032-4
Catalogue Price: €45.00
Web Price: €40.50

The Irish College at Santiago de Compostela, 1605-1769

Patricia O'Connell

'As the author of books on the Irish Colleges at Alcalá de Henares (1997) and at Lisbon (2001), Patricia O’Connell was better qualified than most to trace the fortunes of the College at Santiago de Compostela. She has performed a most valuable service in providing an extended prospography of the rectors and students of each of the Colleges that she has studied ... [T]hose seeking a workmanlike engagement with the main features of the history of the Irish College at Santiago de Compostela, and a reliable insight into the surviving documentary record, will find much useful information ... [S]he has left a valuable legacy that others can build upon', James Kelly, Irish Economic and Social History (2007).

‘… a well written account in which [O’Connell’s] obvious enthusiasm for the subject does not make her paint an unrealistically rosy picture of the college. She charts the ups and downs to the institution such as the Jesuit takeover, the effects that changes in the Spanish court or international politics had, the internal developments and events and how local attitudes played their part in its history over the decades ... This is a good detailed study of the history of the college and the biographical details of the rectors and students add depth to it. O’Connell knows her stuff and the footnotes alone could almost be a book in themselves’, Tony Canavan, Books Ireland (April 2008).

‘Number 44 on Rua Nova in Santiago de Compostella is a typical Galician townhouse in a narrow street, but it has a remarkable history as the home of the Irish College from 1616 to 1769 and is part of a great story. Santiago, whose geographical closeness to Ireland is often overlooked, provides a rich source for research ... [T]he work done by the author in this and her other books (although regarded by herself as “in essence a pioneering operation”) is an invitation for continued research in this area', Fergus O’Donoghue, SJ, The Catholic Historical Review (July 2008).