Presidents of St Columb's College
| Name | Period of Presidency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Edward O'Brien | 1879-1880 | Ordained in 1859 he became the first President of St. Columb's College in 1879. He formerly held the Chair of Rhetoric at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Pope Leo XIII conferred on him the degree of D.D. and he was appointed Vicar General of the diocese. |
| John Hassan | 1881-1888 | Ordained in 1879, he took his D.D. the same year. Pope Leo XIII made him a domestic prelate and conferred on him the dignity of monsignor. Vice-rector of the Irish College from 1888 until his death in 1891. |
| Thomas McCloskey | 1888-1890 | Ordained in Rome in 1886 |
| Charles McHugh | 1890-1905 | Ordained 1881. Bishop of Derry 1907-26. Figured prominently in campaign against conscription. He was one of 18 Catholic and 3 Protestant Bishops who signed manifesto against Irish partition on 7th May 1917. Led the first Irish national pilgrimage to Lourdes. As Bishop he preferred to live in the College and it was there that he died. |
| Bernard O'Kane | 1905-1919 | A graduate of the Royal University and ordained in 1891. A brilliant scientist, he was a regular contributor to technical journals on astronomy, light and radio waves and modern wireless, working in parallel with and sometimes anticipating the discoveries of Guglielmo Marconi. He was bishop from 1926-39. |
| John McShane | 1919-1927 | Ordained 1900. He was President during the troubles of 1920 when the College was at the centre of a small but deadly civil war. He was opposed to corporal punishment - a man before his time. |
| Neil Farren | 1928-1939 | Graduated from University College, Dublin with first class honours in 1914. He received a BCL and a BD from Maynooth in 1916 and 1918, respectively. Awarded the degree of DCL for his (later published) thesis Domicile and Quasi-Domicile. He became Ireland's youngest bishop in 1939. During the Second World War he was appointed "ordinary" of the American forces in Ireland, a kind of bishop away from home, and his services were recognized by the award of the United States Medal of Freedom. |
| Joseph O'Doherty | 1939-1943 | Ordained 1919. A talented ventriloquist and prestidigitator. |
| Eugene O'Doherty | 1943-1944 | Ordained 1921. He received a D.D. for his thesis, Doctrinal Process and its Laws. His is the shortest presidency on record as he was appointed Bishop of Dromore within months of his assuming the post. |
| Patrick McDowell | 1944-1950 | Ordained 1925. He received a D.D. for his postgraduate work on The Church and Economics at Dunboyne House. Appointed a domestic prelate with the rank of monsignor in 1966. |
| Anthony McFeely | 1950-1959 | Ordained in Rome in 1932. Noted for his patronage of the school plays and musicals of the time. Consecrated as Bishop of Raphoe in 1965. |
| John Farren | 1959-1969 | Ordained 1941. Appointed immediately after ordination to the College staff he was to serve for almost thirty years, presiding over the planning for the move of the Senior School to Buncrana Road. |
| James Coulter | 1969-1983 | Ordained in 1943. Became official diocesan historian. Noted for his expansion of the curriculum to include German, Spanish, Economics and Accounts and for his careful management of the school through civil strife. He was made a Prelate of Honour but he refused the offer of an OBE. |
| Ignatius McQuillan | 1983-1990 | Studied at St Columb's College, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and took sabbatical leave in 1983 at the University of Oxford. Noted for his successful introduction of the new GCSE system. He later helped found Lumen Christi College. |
| John R. Walsh | 1990-1999 | Author of A History of the Irish Church (500-700), Noble Story and Religion: The Irish Experience which is a necessary source book for the new RE syllabus in the Republic of Ireland.Noted for his consolidation of the school on the new Buncrana Road campus. |
| Eamon Martin | 2000-2008 | Studied at St Columb's College, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Queen's University, Belfast, University of Cambridge and the Institute of Education in London. |
| Sean McGinty | 2008-2012 | First lay principal of St Columb's College. |
| Finbar Madden | 2012- |
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