Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture

Welcome to Inisfada

It is extremely hilarious how unmotivated I am while at home, but when I’m at college, I hop right onto my computer and type up a blog. Well, here’s my first post of the new year!!! Hope it meets your expectations.

I have neglected up until now to mention Inisfada or the St. Ignatius Jesuit Retreat House located in Manhasset. But before this, I would just like to thank Father Damian Halligan, the onsite historian at St. Ignatius, for being so welcoming to me, taking me around, and informing me of all its intricate details.

Now, you might be wondering, what does a Jewish girl have to do with a Jesuit Retreat House? Back in September of 2011, to increase publicity, St. Ignatius started giving tours of the house and its grounds and publicized the site in the local newspaper. Of course, being in love with anything that is old, or anything that looks old for that matter, I was very intrigued and had to go have a look. I immediately phoned the contact number and signed up for one of the first tours. My tour guide that day was a warm and welcoming Jesuit priest, none other than Father Damian. He took the group throughout the main areas of the house – the great hall, the library, the various drawing rooms, the dining room, the solarium, the bedrooms (48 in total!), and private chapel (St. Genevieve’s Chapel) – and around the grounds, pointing out exterior design elements – carvings from nursery rhymes, various carved flowers and symbols of nature, unique brickwork, and various other repeating motifs. I didn’t want the hour tour to be my only exposure to the house, so I decided I’d ask Father Damian if there was any historical work I could do there. I worked on creating an inventory of all the objects in the house, as listed in a diary kept by the housekeeper back in the 1930s. I was so inspired by the beauty and grandeur of so many aspects of St. Ignatius that I also based my entire AP Studio Art Concentration on the spirituality of Inisfada:

My concentration, through the use of nature, architectural, personal, and religious motifs, tries to evoke the struggle, comfort, and final salvation that one might go through in one’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment while staying at Inisfada, a Jesuit retreat home.

I digress and shall now enlighten you with a bit of background history of the property and structure. Begun in 1915 as a mansion for Nicholas Brady’s wife Genevieve, the house is designed in a medieval style. It is almost as if Brady transported a European mansion all the way to Long Island’s Gold Coast! The Brady family was a wealthy family with hands in the tobacco and oil industries. Nicholas’ father was an Irish immigrant who came to America with absolutely nothing – how is that for an American Dream story? Not only was the family wealthy, the Bradys were very religious, extremely philanthropic, and had strong ties with the Catholic Church.

Important figures such as Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) were invited to Inisfada and would stay weeks or months at a time. This family, though named Brady after Nicholas, was very much run by Genevieve Garvan Brady – his wife. She was very progressive for her day, and looked for equality between men and women – a motif very prevalent throughout the entire mansion. She was the driving force behind much of the religious ties the family had, and later on, after the death of Nicholas, went forward to build Jesuit seminaries and donate money towards her religious cause. In 1937, after moving to Rome where she soon after died suddenly and young, Genevieve gave the Jesuit ministry Inisfada as a gift. It first acted as a seminary and later as a retreat house. I am very sad to say that the legacy will be ending in June, as St. Ignatius will be closing its doors due to lack of funds and a change in direction for the Jesuit ministry. If you have any free time before then, I highly recommend a visit for anyone in the Long Island/New York City area to make a visit before the closing date!

For a while, I had been wanting to go back and speak with Father Damian regarding the future of the house once the Jesuits leave it in June. I also had several pieces from my art concentration that I had wanted to donate to the house earlier on, but hearing that it was going to close, decided I would give them personally to Father Damian instead. He invited me, my mother, and my father over for a nice lunch in the servant’s dining room (which I never had seen before) which was accessed through the giant kitchen (ringed with with ladders, like in old libraries, to reach the dishes!). My dad had never visited St. Ignatius before, so Father Damian treated us to another tour. Before leaving, he lent me the 1937 auction catalog from the house, when Genevieve Brady originally left it to the Jesuits. I’m extremely excited to start perusing it, and seeing if I recognize any of the pieces from when I was doing inventory.

I had such a lovely afternoon hearing great stories about the Brady family, the house, and Father Damian’s perceptions of spirituality and religion. I learned so many things, especially about Mrs. Brady, her strong personality and her extremely progressive nature. Such a powerhouse she was! Such an inspiration – just as her home has been to so many people since 1937! Seriously, Inisfada is a must see before June.

Take a gander and come away with an uplifted spirit!

Marina B. Nebro

Comment from Karen - January 3, 2013 at 11:41 AM

Beautiful all around. I hope this inspires more people to seek out this hidden treasure before it’s too late!