There was great excitement in the College on the morning of 13 January 1847. The students had noticed preparations in the parlour and had discovered that Daniel O’Connell was expected imminently. They rushed to the gate to cheer him in and escort him, together with his son John, to the front hall in Stoyte House where the President, Dr Renehan, stood waiting on crutches (having sprained his ankle). At that time the back quadrangle had not yet been built; but work had just begun. Father and son were taken to inspect the new foundations after which the Liberator stood at the door of New House and addressed the students He spoke of evils to be faced, rejoiced in the new conversions to the Catholic Church in the universities of England (John Henry Newman was one), and encouraged them all in the defence of the Faith. He then addressed the Juniors, after which he was asked to go to the prayer hall at the request of the senior students. The whole College had assembled there. The students were desperately anxious to give him an address of welcome but as they had not known he was coming, nothing had been prepared. Betwixt and between, two or three of them managed to put a few sentences together expressing gratitude for all he had done, attachment to his principles and praying God to protect him to the end. Father and son left the College at six in the evening amid cheers loud and long from the students and the townspeople, the band playing at the gate. It was James McMahon, a Clogher post-graduate student, who described the event in a letter to his bishop, Charles McNally, a former professor in Maynooth.