Thursday November 23rd was Graduation Day for thousands of National College of Ireland students. This proud day for the college also saw the conferring of an Honorary Fellowship on Noel Barber SJ.

The citation was delivered by Leonard Moloney SJ, who is Chair of National College of Ireland. Fr Moloney is also Irish Jesuit Provincial, doubling the connection between himself and Fr Barber.

Outlining Fr Barber’s extensive studies and academic career, including his two years as Visiting Scholar at the ESRI, his editorship of Studies from 1989 until 2001, and his writings on Gerard Manley Hopkins, the citation paints a picture beyond scholarship, revealing a great ministry to education, which experience was brought to NCI when Fr Barber served as a board member from 2001 to 2015. 

Fr Barber was directly associated with the discovery of Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ, that had hung for years in the Jesuit community dining room in Leeson Street, which now hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, on permanent loan to the nation.