ABOUT THIS GARDEN

Two large functional buildings, Rhetoric and Logic Houses, were built in the early 1830s and became the Junior House. In this area some relief is provided by the ‘Junior Garden’. It is outlined as the garden of Riverstown Lodge on a map dated 1809. It was rejuvenated by the late Cardinal D’Alton when he was President in the 1930s. He initiated what is its most notable feature, the rock garden.

Patrick Corish (1921 - 2013) was a priest of the Diocese of Ferns, born in Ballycullane parish in County Wexford. He is best known as a distinguished Irish historian and a President of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. For many years, he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Saint Patrick's College Maynooth, in succession to the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.

In his retirement, he took great delight in developing the rock garden which was part of the original walled garden in the College. In 1984 he joined the Alpine Garden Society and raised many plants from seed in the quarter acre garden.

He died in 2013 and is buried in the College cemetery.

Since his death, an annual Monsignor Patrick J Corish Lecture has been held by Maynooth College in his memory.

I have seen the garden referred to as the "junior garden" and the "junior house gardens" and I do know which is correct.