John Pius Boland - Early Life

Early Life

Boland was born at at 135 Capel Street, Dublin, to Patrick Boland (1840–1877), businessman, and Mary Donnelly; following the death of his mother in 1882, he was placed with his six siblings under the guardianship of his uncle Nicholas Donnelly, auxiliary bishop of Dublin.

Boland was educated at two private Catholic schools, one Irish, the second English, and both of whose existence and evolution were influenced by John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman - the Catholic University School, Dublin, and The Oratory School, Birmingham (since re-located to near Reading) where he became head boy. His secondary education in the two schools either side of the Irish Sea helped give him the foundation and understanding to play an influential role in the politics of Great Britain and Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, when he was a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party which pursued constitutional Home Rule.

In 1892 he graduated with a BA from London University. He had studied for a semester in Bonn, Germany, where he was a member of Bavaria Bonn, a student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband. Boland studied law at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with a BA in 1896 and MA in 1901; although called to the Bar in 1897, he never practiced.