Desmond Durnin | ANZ Clergy


About Help Contact login Rev Desmond Durnin SJ Title: Rev First Name: Desmond Middle Names: Preferred Name: Surname: Durnin Order: SJ Date of Birth: 13-Mar-1907 Place of Birth: Crescent, Clontarf Country of Birth: Ireland Date of Ordination: Place of Ordination: Country of Ordination: Ordination Diocese: Seminary: Date of Death: 06-Jan-1982 Place of Death: Melbourne VIC Country of Death: Australia Date of Burial: 1982 Place of Burial: Boroondara, Kew VIC Country of Burial: Australia Find A Grave URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199464917 FindaGrave - Person Photo FindaGrave - Grave Photo Biographical Notes Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017: Durnin, Desmond Teacher, prefect; born Crescent, Clontarf, Ireland, 13 March 1907; died Melbourne, 6 January 1982, aged 74. Desmond Durnin was educated with his brothers at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School in Dublin, and Desmond entered the Society, 18 September 1925, at Tullamore. Juniorate studies were at Rathfarnham, Dublin, 1927-29, and philosophy at Milltown Park and Tullamore, 1929-32. Regency was at Xavier College, Burke Hall, Kew, 1932-36, and theology at Milltown Park, Dublin, 1936-40. Tertianship followed at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, 1940-41. While awaiting a ship to Australia, Durnin worked at the Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon. After arriving in Australia on the Columbia Star in 1942, Durnin was involved with teaching and prefecting junior boys for some 40 years. He spent over thirty years at Burke Hall, for six of which he was the headmaster. He was seven years at Riverview, 1950-56, and twice at St Louis, Perth, in 1949 and again for four years, 1963-66, during which time he was given the task of supervising the building of the school that never was at Attadale. He furnished and set up Campion College, Kew, in its earliest years as a house of studies for the university scholastics, mostly living at Burke Hall and teaching junior religion. In his later years, he became a frequent visitor to the sick, especially at Caritas Christi. Durnin was a great story-teller: the saga of the trip from England to Australia in 1942 avoiding German submarines, the calling of a gynecologist, Dr. Quinlan, when he had a heart attack, and the many stories of how he uncovered crimes perpetrated in the boarding house. He loved an audience, and there seemed to be always time for a story. Being minister of the house of studies with scholastics was not quite his scene, but he was, at times, a source of entertainment for the young men, and at other times frustrating. He was a humble, charitable and generous man. There was irony in that he who had served the sick so well in a Catholic hospital was taken to the Methodist Epworth hospital in his final sickness; and there he died. (Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)

Title:

Rev

First Name:

Desmond

Middle Names:

Preferred Name:

Surname:

Durnin

Order:

Date of Birth:

13-Mar-1907

Place of Birth:

Crescent, Clontarf

Country of Birth:

Ireland

Date of Ordination:

Place of Ordination:

Country of Ordination:

Ordination Diocese:

Seminary:

Date of Death:

06-Jan-1982

Place of Death:

Melbourne VIC

Country of Death:

Australia

Date of Burial:

1982

Place of Burial:

Boroondara, Kew VIC

Country of Burial:

Australia

Find A Grave URL:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199464917

FindaGrave - Person Photo

FindaGrave - Grave Photo

Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Durnin, Desmond

Teacher, prefect; born Crescent, Clontarf, Ireland, 13 March 1907; died Melbourne, 6 January 1982, aged 74.

Desmond Durnin was educated with his brothers at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School in Dublin, and Desmond entered the Society, 18 September 1925, at Tullamore. Juniorate studies were at Rathfarnham, Dublin, 1927-29, and philosophy at Milltown Park and Tullamore, 1929-32. Regency was at Xavier College, Burke Hall, Kew, 1932-36, and theology at Milltown Park, Dublin, 1936-40. Tertianship followed at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, 1940-41. While awaiting a ship to Australia, Durnin worked at the Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon.

After arriving in Australia on the Columbia Star in 1942, Durnin was involved with teaching and prefecting junior boys for some 40 years. He spent over thirty years at Burke Hall, for six of which he was the headmaster. He was seven years at Riverview, 1950-56, and twice at St Louis, Perth, in 1949 and again for four years, 1963-66, during which time he was given the task of supervising the building of the school that never was at Attadale. He furnished and set up Campion College, Kew, in its earliest years as a house of studies for the university scholastics, mostly living at Burke Hall and teaching junior religion.

In his later years, he became a frequent visitor to the sick, especially at Caritas Christi.

Durnin was a great story-teller: the saga of the trip from England to Australia in 1942 avoiding German submarines, the calling of a gynecologist, Dr. Quinlan, when he had a heart attack, and the many stories of how he uncovered crimes perpetrated in the boarding house. He loved an audience, and there seemed to be always time for a story. Being minister of the house of studies with scholastics was not quite his scene, but he was, at times, a source of entertainment for the young men, and at other times frustrating. He was a humble, charitable and generous man. There was irony in that he who had served the sick so well in a Catholic hospital was taken to the Methodist Epworth hospital in his final sickness; and there he died.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)

Rev Desmond Durnin SJ

Biographical Notes