Fortitude

Fortitude Unveiling

On Monday night, November 11th, 2024, Wesley College proudly unveiled AE Child's Fortitude, a magnificent stained glass window that commemorates the bravery and sacrifice of Wesley Past Pupils who served in the Great War. Held on Remembrance Day, the event gathered past and present pupils, parents, staff, and governors, and we were especially honored to welcome two of AE Child’s grandchildren, Keith & Roger Dungan.

Principal Mr. Brian Moore introduced the event, followed by a service led by Rev. Nigel Mackey, with prayers offered by our student leadership team. The male voice choir performed a beautiful piece that added to the solemnity of the occasion. Former Principal Mr. Christopher Woods gave an engaging presentation on the history of Fortitude and the tradition of Irish stained glass.

A special moment was the unveiling of the official plaque by Edward McCall, a 3rd Year student whose keen interest in Fortitude made him the ideal choice for this honor. Now proudly displayed in the GB Shaw Auditorium, Fortitude is a lasting tribute to courage and resilience, and we can now invite everyone to come and appreciate this remarkable piece of Wesley’s heritage.

A special mention of thanks to Keith & Roger Dungan for attending the unveiling. Thank you also to Alan Tomlin & Larry Ebbs who restored the window and Steve Jones who designed the frame cabinet.  And a special thank you to Gary Ringland, Debbin Hwang and Gillian Gunn for their care and attention to detail during every step in the process.   

More photographs of the unveiling are available on the Wesley College app and website here: Fortitude Unveiling 

Photos by Stephen Wall Morris

A Window on the First World War

Situated in the heart of the city, Wesley College Dublin was attended by 311 students in 1914. Boasting its purpose-built school premises on the corner of St Stephen’s Green and Harcourt Street, it had taken in its first girls in 1911 and had secured a sound reputation, attracting both day pupils and boarders. As the academic year drew to a close in the summer of that year, all appeared well. By the autumn, however, Europe was at war.

In 1914 alone, 44,000 Irishmen enlisted in the British Army. Wesley College staff and pupils were as caught up with the fervour of the time as the rest of the island of Ireland. Past pupils enlisted in the Army, Navy and Royal Flying Corps. Others served as doctors, surgeons or chaplains. Illustrating the significant impact of the war on the College, the entire Senior Cup Rugby Team from the previous year signed up together after the summer break. The Wesley College Quarterly Magazine from December 1914 lists all of the past pupils who signed up to fight. In total, 600 past pupils served in the armed forces in some capacity; 84 died.

At the end of the World War, the Principal of the College, Dr Irwin, was determined that a “Memorial Hall” be built. The Wesley College Quarterly Magazine, as part of the fundraising effort, put out the call “in tribute to the old boys of the College who so gallantly fought for us, and of whom eighty-four made the supreme sacrifice.”

In 1926, AE Child was commissioned to create the main window over the altar in the Memorial Chapel. It would comprise three windows with the central panel a figure representing Fortitude. The knight in armour, with sword and dragon, was typical of figures produced by Child in the 1920s. Such symbols of heroism, complemented by the words “Faithful unto death”, reflected a desire to honour the war dead. 

Later referred to as the “Memorial Chapel,” the building was opened on Saturday 2nd April 1927. At the head of the Chapel, behind the altar, were placed the Memorial Board and a newly commissioned stained glass window, Fortitude, by Alfred E Child. The new window created an impact when the Chapel opened. A description at the time reads: “On entering the chapel one is attracted by the stained-glass window opposite to the entrance door, with its knight in armour, and the inscription: ‘Faithful unto death,’ designed and executed by Mr A. E. Child, Dublin. Under this window is a marble tablet bearing in letters of gold the names of those who gave their lives in the war."

In 1969 Wesley College moved to its current site in Ballinteer. The window was removed from the Chapel prior to demolition and taken to the new Wesley College campus. There were some discussions at the time regarding the possibility of building a new College Chapel. The Myles Hall in the Administration Building, however, could accommodate the whole school and became the centre for major gatherings. While the Memorial Board was placed outside this new hall, there was no obvious location for the window, a piece of artwork originally commissioned for a building of considerable height.

In 2023 a location was found in the GB Shaw Auditorium. The glass was cleaned and pieces on the edges of the window were re-leaded. New glass, hand-painted by Alan Tomlin, was added to replace a two-inch “sacrificial border” that was not possible to remove when the window was taken from the old chapel. Each of four sections from the three windows was positioned, one on top of the other. Held in place with T-Bars, each section is further secured with copper wire to cross supports, replicating the original fixings required for an external window. Set into the wood panelling opposite the main entrance, the restored window is positioned at a height, as it would have been seen in the original Memorial Chapel. It is braced to the blockwork wall behind to take the considerable weight of glass and lead. Modern low-wattage lighting allows the window to be seen throughout the day and evening.

A. E. Child

Born and raised in England, Alfred Ernest Child came to Ireland in 1901 to take up an appointment as Instructor in Stained Glass at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. A little later, on 1st January 1903, a new co-operative stained glass workshop opened with Child as its manager. This was An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass), part of the Celtic Revival movement. Against a background of growing Irish nationalist fervour, AE Child’s remit was to train Irish stained glass artists in the hope that Irish commissions would move away from mass-produced imports. An excellent craftsman himself, Child was “solely responsible for instructing a generation of Irish stained glass artists in the craft including Harry Clarke, Michael Healy and Wilhelmina Geddes.”

Many thanks to Mr. Christopher Woods for compiling the following booklet on Fortitude. Booklet printed by Print Tender.

wcd fortitude book 231024 v2 1 .pdf