Pádraig de Brún

Monsignor Pádraig de Brún (1889 – 1960) was an Irish clergyman, mathematician and classical scholar, who served as President of University College Galway.

De Brún was born at Grangemockler, County Tipperary, in 1889, the son of a primary school teacher. He was educated locally, at Rockwell College, Cashel, and at Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin. He was awarded an M.A. degree by the National University of Ireland, and won a travelling scholarship in mathematics and mathematical physics, enabling him to pursue further studies in Paris. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood at the Irish College in Paris in 1913, and took his D.Sc. from the Sorbonne for a thesis in mathematics.

After a period at the University of Göttingen, de Brún was appointed Professor of Mathematics at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, in 1914. In April 1945, he was elected by the Senate of the National University of Ireland to succeed Mgr. John Hynes as President of University College Galway, an office he held until his retirement in 1959. He subsequently became Chairman of the Arts Council of Ireland, a position he held until his death in 1960. He also served as Chairman of the Council of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

De Brún was a prolific writer of poetry, including the well-known poem in the Irish language "Thánaig Long ó Valparaiso". He translated into Irish many classical works, including Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Sophocles' "Antigone" and "Oedipus Rex", and Plutarch's "Lives", as well as Dante's "The Divine Comedy".

The French Government awarded Mgr. de Brún the title of Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1949, and in 1956, he was conferred with the order "Al Merito della Republica Italiana" by the President of Italy. He was created a domestic prelate by the Pope in 1950.

Mgr. de Brún died in Dublin on June 5, 1960. His brother was [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbrownemi.html Cardinal Michael Browne] . His sister, Mairéad, married the Irish revolutionary Seán MacEntee with whom she had the noted Irish scholar, Máire Mhac an tSaoi.

ources

*Obituary, "The Irish Times", 6 June 1960
* [http://www.nuigalway.ie/about/history.php]