- Alfred O'Rahilly
Born in
Listowel ,County Kerry , Alfred O'Rahilly (1884-1969) was a notedacademic , President ofUniversity College Cork andTeachta Dála for Cork City.Education and Academia
Educated at St.Michael's College in Listowel, and at
Blackrock College inDublin , O'Rahilly went on to third level education atUniversity College Cork , where he completed an MA andPhD .He was appointed assistant
lecturer in the Department ofMathematics andMathematical Physics in 1914, and made full Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1917. He became Registrar of the college in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University.O'Rahilly founded the "Cork University Press" in 1931.
Politics and public life
After the
1916 Rising O'Rahilly publicly supportedSinn Féin and was elected toCork City Council as a Sinn Féin and Transport Workers candidate. Arrested early in 1921 for political writings, O'Rahilly was interned on Spike Island Prison Colony.Released in October, 1921 he was
constitutional adviser to the Irish Treaty Delegation. O'Rahilly supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for theIrish Free State with Edmund Darrell Figgis.O'Rahilly lead Irish delegations to the
International Labour Organisation Conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on conciliatory role intrade union and employers disputes inMunster .Standing as a candidate in Cork City for
Cumann na nGaedhael , he was elected to the 4thDáil in 1923. He stood down in 1924, causing a by-election, in which he was replaced by Michael Egan (also Cumann na nGaedheal).Religion
A deeply religious
Catholic from early life, O'Rahilly was a member of the "Society of Jesus". He maintained his (sometimes controversial) religious views throughout his life, and became apriest , and thenMonsignor , in later years following the death of his wife.Links and sources
*J. Anthony Gaughan, "Alfred O'Rahilly " Biography (Kingdom Books, 1986) (ISBN 0-9506015-6-X)
* [http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?MemberFirstName=alfred&MemberName=o%27rahilly&restr=0&disp=src&housetype=&HouseNum=&ConstID= Houses of the Oireachtas - Members Database entry]
* [http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/orahilly-alfred.htm UCD Archives - Papers of Alfred O’Rahilly]
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