It currently has 450 students. 2004 is Clongowes' 191st academic year.
Its current Headmaster is Fr. Leonard Moloney S.J. and Fr. Michael Sheil S.J. is the rector
In 1886, St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, was amalgamated to Clongowes Wood College. A history of the college was written by Fr. Roland Burke Savage S.J. and published in 1987.
Aspects of life at Clongowes include the following:
- there are six class or year forms, namely Rudiments Grammar, Syntax, Humanities, Poetry and Rhetoric. These are grouped into three Lines - Third, Lower and Higher.
- the ditch at the front of the Castle is called the Golly Mocky or Nellys Ditch.
- the medieval castle, which is the residence of the religious community, was improved by a "chocolate box" type restoration in the 19th century (fashionable at the time); it is situated astride the Ramparts, which are the ditch and wall constructed for the defense of the Pale in the 14th century. The castle underwent extensive refurbishment in 2004;
- the castle is connected to the modern buildings by an elevated corridor hung with portraits, the Serpentine Gallery referred to by James Joyce . The Serpentine Gallery was completely demolished and rebuilt in 2004 as part of a redevelopment programme for the school buildings;
- the Boys' Chapel has an elaborate reredos, a large pipe-organ in the gallery, and an interesting sequence of Stations of the Cross painted by Sean Keating . The Stations are framed only by the arches in which they sit, and it is said that Keating avenged the Rector's refusal to pay for proper frames by painting a Pontius Pilate who looked suspiciously like the Rector.
- the kick-off chant used by supporters at Leinster Senior Cup rugby games is the Wamba , which is probably a war chant from the sub-continent of colonial India :
"Wamba Wamba wamba,
ging gang gully gully gully gully ach cha,
ing gang go, ing gang go,
chow chow chow wamba wamba wamba.
Yak yak yak yak yak yak yak.
Come on Clongowes win the Cup!
C.L.O.N.G.O.W.E.S. CLONGOWES!!!!!"
- "Cheering Practice" started in Clongowes in the late 70s where the boys were gently coerced into learning this and other chants/songs to sing at the rugby matches. It is a practice that has spread not only to all the other rugby schools but to GAA schools and soccer schools as well. Manic tribal loyalty-type supporters result.
- there is a nine-hole golf course
- one of the rugby pitches is called the Cabbage Patch;
- Poetry block, where fifth year pupils are housed, was built in the nineteen seventies and is said to have a structural fault ("a giant crack") running through it .
- Clongowes Homepage Other famous OC's include the poetand writer Oliver St John Gogarty, 'The O'Rahilly' Rebel leader in the GPO, Kevin O'Higgins Free State Minister assassinated in the 1920's and also Holland and two other VC's from the Boer War, WW1 and WW2. The only school outside England to have three or more VC's. Also Tom Kettle the war poet and John Redmond leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party
- Clongowes Youth Club
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