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Houses
Ryan has four Houses. Each House is named after a significant person in the Catholic tradition - Connolly, Maguire, MacKillop and Griffin. Every student at Ryan Catholic College belongs to one of these Houses, which is determined when they commence their journey at the College. Siblings are placed in the same house where possible. Students are grouped according to their house when participating in interhouse sporting competitions, pastoral activities and their weekly Vertical Pastoral Care Class.
Connolly
Colour: Yellow
Named for: Fr. James Connolly
Fr. James Connolly was born in Ireland and studied at All Hallows College, Ireland and France. The Queenslander of March, 1871 mentions the arrival of Fr. Connolly from London. Records show that while a member of the clergy of the Brisbane diocese, Fr. Connolly was one of the two priests who made periodic visits to Townsville, and the Queenslander of August, 1871 records that Fr. Connolly laid the foundation stone of a new Chapel at Ravenswood. He was appointed as the first Parish Priest of Townsville in 1872, and in the same year opened the first Church of St. Joseph in Townsville at the Strand.
Fr. Connolly's signature on 27 March 1871 is the first in Vol. 1 of the Townsville Baptismal Register, and his last signature in this register is on 5 August 1878. In this year he was transferred to Sandgate, where he served as Parish Priest until his death on 22 September 1907. He is buried in the Nudgee Cemetery.
Griffin
Colour: Red
Named for: Mother Columba Griffin (RSM)
Mother Mary Columba Griffin (RSM) was one of the first Sisters of Mercy to come to Townsville. Mother Columba had joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy (Ireland) in 1865, and subsequently volunteered for "the Queensland mission". After a journey from Ireland to Brisbane on "The Golden Land", she joined the Sisters of Mercy, All Hallows' Convent, Brisbane, on 2 January 1868.
When the Sisters of St. Joseph withdrew from Townsville in March, 1878, the then Parish Priest of Townsville, Fr. William Mason Walsh, requested the Sisters of Mercy from All Hallows in Brisbane to come to Townsville in their place. St. Patrick's College Annual of 1868 records: "In 1868 Brisbane (Sisters of Mercy) established a branch Convent in Townsville to take the place of the Sisters of St. Joseph who were recalled to Sydney. Three Sisters, with Mother M. Columba Griffin in charge, arrived..."
Mother Columba's stay in Townsville was a short one, returning, it seems, to St. Vincent's Home for Children at Nudgee, where she spent many years of her life. She died in Brisbane in 1919.
MacKillop
Colour: Purple
Named for: Blessed Mother Mary MacKillop
Mary MacKillop, Saint Mary of the Cross. She was truly an Aussie battler.
Mary was born in Melbourne on 15 January 1842. She was born into a poor family and from her early teens to her mid twenties she supported her family by working as a school teacher and governess.
With the help of Fr. Julian Tenison Woods, the Parish Priest of Penola in South Australia, she opened a school for children of the working class in a stable on 19 March 1866.
In 1867, she took her vows as a nun. Her group became known as the "Sisters of St. Joseph." Mary had a radical vision for her Order and at one stage had to go to the Pope himself to secure the Constitution for her Sisters.
Mary and her Order pioneered schools in all parts of Australia and New Zealand. Her vision, courage and leadership and capacity to forgive others have become an inspiration to all Australians .
She died peacefully in Sydney in 1909.
McGuire
Colour: Green
Named for: Bishop Terence Bernard McGuire D.D.
When Townsville became a separate diocese in 1930, Terence Bernard McGuire was appointed as the first Bishop of the new diocese.
He was born at Moree, New South Wales, in September, 1881. As a young man he studied for the priesthood at St. Patrick's College, Manly (Sydney), and at Propaganda Fide College in Rome. He was ordained in Rome on 19 March 1904. After many years of service within the diocese of Lismore, he was consecrated as Bishop of Townsville in the Sacred Heart Cathedral on 25 May 1930.
Among his many achievements as Bishop of Townsville, was the establishment of St. Teresa's Agricultural College, Abergowrie, in 1933, and St Anne's Mission on Palm Island in 1934.
He was transferred to Goulburn as Bishop in 1938, and became the first Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn on 11 February 1948. He was succeeded by Hugh Ryan as the Bishop of Townsville.
Bishop McGuire died at Lewisham Private Hospital, Sydney on 4 July 1957.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and waters, the Wulgurukaba, and that this country has been a place of learning and ceremony for tens of thousands of years. We also acknowledge the neighbouring language groups as brothers and sisters of the land. We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. May we walk gently and peacefully on this land together.
Junior Campus (Prep - Year 4)
44 Golf Links Drive
Kirwan. QLD. 4817
Senior Campus (Years 5 - 12)
59 Canterbury Road,
Kirwan. QLD. 4817