The "McSweeney Chalice" has long ties to the family of Paul McLoughlin '64. Originally used by Rev. Owen MacSwiney, Bishop of Kinmore, during the mass persecution of Irish Catholics by Oliver Cromwell, the chalice has since been passed down from and to many generations of priests. A piece below, written by Mr. McLoughlin, details the history of the chalice in connection with his own lineage and the recent 50th Reunion of the class of 1964.

Rev. Owen MacSwiney, Bishop of Kinmore and the first inheritor of the Calix, was the last and only bishop left in Ireland at the time of Oliver Cromwell's purge. The Calix was originally carried in three parts concealed in a small box so as to avoid detection as the priest travelled the countryside saying underground Mass. Spared expulsion by virtue of age and ill-health, Bishop MacSwiney died in Ireland in 1669.

The Calix then passed from generation to generation of MacSuigny priests in various dioceses in the environs of Cork City. In 1865, it was willed to the Rev. Dean Denis McSwiney upon the death of his uncle, Rev. Roger McSwiney. In 1896, Dean Denis, President of the Irish Seminary in Paris, which trained Irish priests during the ban of a seminary in Ireland, sent the Calix to the next generation of family priests who had emigrated to America.

The Calix is engraved with the names of four of the McSweeny brothers, R.R. DD PATRICIUS, EDUARDUS, JOANNES ET FRANCISCUS, all of whom attended Xavier. Patrick set sail to America in 1848 at the age of eleven with his father, O’Callaghan McSwiney, on the Famine Ship, Swatara. She foundered off Dover, Delaware and the two made their way to Villa Nova, to be taken in by Patrick's uncle, Rev. William Harnett O.S.A., the 2nd, 4th and 6th President of Villanova.

In 1850, Honoria Harnett McSweeny sailed to New York with the remainder of the family on the Brig Garland. That same year, the three eldest sons, Patrick, Daniel and Edward, were enrolled at the College of St. Francis Xavier on West 15th Street. Daniel would receive a BA from Xavier in 1861, one of five in the first graduating class of the newly chartered College, an MA from Xavier in 1863, and an MD from Physicians & Surgeons in 1864. He served briefly as a Civil War Surgeon. Daniel McSweeny is on the Xavier Honor Roll established in 1972 on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary.

Monsignor Patrick F. McSweeny enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the establishment of the Church of the New York. A member of the “Accademia”, Monsignor McSweeny is remembered in the annals of Archdiocesan history as a witty and independent-minded man of whom it was said that “nothing on this side of the grave had any terrors for him”.

Patrick's sister, Mary Frances, married John McLoughlin. Their son, Maurice McLoughlin, attended Xavier in 1882. His Grandson, Paul McLoughlin, Class of ’64, is the 14th member of the McSweeny/McLoughlin Family to attend Xavier between 1850 and 1964. The Calix and its relation to Xavier was discovered while preparing for the 50th Reunion and was lent to Xavier for the 50th Reunion Mass by Msgr. Peter Vaccari, Vicar General of the Archdiocese. The Calix is kept at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie.