Frank Clarke strolls around the inner sanctums of
Clongowes Wood College, effortlessly explaining the history of oil
portraits and hidden doors concealed as fake bookcases, like a star
graduate of the school; someone who has been ingrained in its culture
for decades.
He is however, neither of these things.
The tall gregarious
Australian has only been a Clongowes staff member since 2006.
His
knowledge, commitment and loyalty for everything the Jesuit boarding
school stands for, would easily lead one to believe otherwise.
Frank is the first person to hold the role of director of ethos in any school in Ireland or Britain.
Indeed, he was the only person to hold the role on these islands up
until last year, when the Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick
appointed their former headmaster to a similar post.
So, what exactly is a
director of ethos?
''If you meet someone is a pub, it's always a tough
one. What do you do for a few quid? You're the director of what??''
Frank laughs.
After leading me from the school's reception area, up a sweeping
staircase and through a number of drawing rooms, we have settled at a
long table flanked by leather backed chairs upstairs in Clongowes' main
building.
''The soundbite I give people at a barbecue or whatever, is that I am
responsible to the headmaster for the programmes and processes that
make us a Jesuit school.''
The seeds for the director of ethos role in Clongowes were planted
back in 2001, when the then Provincial of the Jesuits in Ireland wrote
to their schools, basically telling them that it was no longer good
enough to say they were a Jesuit school - they had to prove it.
At Clongowes, this led to the decision to appoint a person at senior
management level to ensure the school was living up to its Jesuit
commitments.
In 2006, the school advertised internationally for a
director of ethos.
This is where Frank came in.
Born and bred in the Australian bush, Frank was living at the time
with his Irish wife Sinead in Sydney, working as a religious education
teacher at a Jesuit school.
Having previously visited Clongowes with the
school's rugby team, the job advertisement caught Frank's attention.
He
applied, and contrary to his expectations, he was offered the position.