A
portrait of former principal Fr William Hackett SJ will grace the halls of Xavier College
in Melbourne,
after it was provided to the school by Jesuit Communications this week.
The
portrait, by artist James Quinn, has been on display at the Jesuit
Communications office in Richmond
since the organisation moved there in February 2007.
Before
that, it was at the then Jesuit Publications office in Victoria Street Richmond.
The old office was named the William Hackett Centre, in honour of Hackett's
contributions to the cultural life of Australia
through the establishment of the Catholic Library in Melbourne.
Fr
William Hackett is an important figure in the history of the Jesuits in Australia.
Born in Ireland, he was
involved in the Irish struggle for independence but found himself in Australia
as the movement entered its critical stages.
As
well as being headmaster at Xavier
College, Fr Hackett was
strongly involved in the public life of the country. He was a close companion
of Archbishop Mannix, and found himself involved in many of the political controversies
of the 1950s.
In
her recent biography, The Riddle of
Father Hackett: A Life in Ireland and Australia, Brenda
Niall explores Fr Hackett's life in Ireland and Australia and the way he balanced
his interests in the life of the two countries. She said he represented an
important moment in Australia's
history.
‘Men
who left Ireland
in the 1920s, as Hackett did, left a country torn apart by political passions.
Whatever their attitudes to the nationalist movement, they could not escape the
emotional turmoil of the Easter Rising of 1916 when, in Yeats' phrase, "a
terrible beauty" was born.'
Pictured: Jesuit Communications CEO Paul McEvey hands over the portrait to Peter Rhoden from Xavier College.