Throughout his education and his career in academia, Ciaran O鈥橬eill has perused great historical tomes, canonical works of literature, and numerous academic journals. But the current focus of his scholarly attention is a personal diary from 1840s Dublin which chronicles an illicit love affair.
The diary kept by Trinity College Dublin law student James Christopher Fitzgerald Kenney, and what it reveals about love, class, courtship, and moral conduct, will be the subject of a lecture on Nov. 6 by O鈥橬eill, who is the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies this semester. The will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the Burns Library鈥檚 Thompson Room, and is free and open to the public.
A collaboration between the Boston College Center for Irish Programs and University Libraries, the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies program brings to campus distinguished academics, writers, artists, journalists, librarians, and notable public figures who have made significant contributions to Irish cultural and intellectual life. Burns Scholars teach courses, offer public lectures, and use the resources of the John J. Burns Library in their ongoing research, writing, and creative endeavors. O鈥橬eill also will co-organize a daylong symposium on history and fiction on Dec. 1 in Connolly House [details will be available via听].
Ciaran O鈥橬eill (Gary Wayne Gilbert)
For O鈥橬eill, who has been the Ussher Lecturer in History at Trinity College Dublin since 2011, spending the fall at 天美传媒app represented an opportunity to reconnect with friends and acquaintances like Center for Irish Programs/Irish Studies Program Director James H. Murphy, C.M., Associate Professor of English James Smith, and Professor of History Oliver Rafferty, S.J., to become more familiar with a university where he gave a talk three years ago鈥攁nd to enjoy the wealth of holdings at Burns Library. He is utilizing Burns鈥� resources for a book about social and political power and its dynamics in Ireland.听
鈥淭here is so much material at Burns I wanted to get my hands on,鈥� said O鈥橬eill, a native of County Laois, some 50 miles southwest of Dublin. 鈥淚f you love teaching, which I do, you have to make the most of any opportunity to do research, because it feeds and enriches your interests and ultimately makes you a better teacher.鈥�
As a scholar with research interests rooted in 19th-century Ireland, O鈥橬eill views the Kenney diary鈥攚hich has been preserved and digitized at Trinity College鈥攁s a window unto a time when Ireland鈥檚 status as part of the British Empire seemed to simultaneously mask and amplify the complexity of its social relationships and mores. Part of the diary鈥檚 significance lies in the fact that Kenney was an elite Catholic, who represent a largely unexplored chapter in Irish history, explained O鈥橬eill, who is collaborating on a study of the diary with Juliana Adelman of Dublin City University.
鈥淣ot much has written about the Catholic elite,鈥� said O鈥橬eill, whose 2014 book Catholics of Consequence: Transnational Education, Social Mobility and the Irish Catholic Elite, 1850-1900, won the James S. Donnelly Prize for History and the Social Sciences. 鈥淭here is an assumption that those who were in positions of power and influence in pre-independent Ireland were defined by their non-Catholic status. But it鈥檚 possible to trace the Catholic elites from school, where they came together, and through the various networks and clusters they built up over time.鈥�
An heir to his family鈥檚 fortune and a future magistrate, Kenney became involved with Mary Louisa McMahon, a woman of lower social stature about four years his senior鈥攖wo critical elements that made the affair an unsavory one, said O鈥橬eill. It was a potentially, but not equally, dangerous relationship for both: McMahon, an unmarried woman in her mid-20s (practically a spinster by the era鈥檚 standards) from a scandal-wracked family, risked her chance of redemption and respectability; Kenney risked his reputation. 听
鈥淭he power advantage is definitely on Kenney鈥檚 side, and even as he continues the relationship he keeps her at arm鈥檚 length; in his diary, he comes across as a somewhat unpleasant, emotionally diffident person,鈥� said O鈥橬eill.
An additional layer of complexity to the diary is that Kenney writes in a detached, novelistic manner, as if he and McMahon were characters in a story, O鈥橬eill said.
鈥淭his diary offers many topics for reflection and discussion, about love, power, and consent, and the social structures in 19th-century Ireland. But there are other questions beyond history that can be considered: How does a researcher deal with this material鈥攁 personal diary鈥攊n an ethical manner? And how much do we trust the veracity of what the narrator is saying, especially if it鈥檚 written in this literary manner? The gender and social inequality glimpsed in the diary is all the more profound given that we know how Kenney鈥檚 life and career turned out, while Mary McMahon, as far as anyone can tell, just drops off the face of the earth.鈥�
O鈥橬eill enjoys such interdisciplinary inquiries, whether in his writing, teaching, or lectures: 鈥淥nce, when I gave a presentation about the diary, half the audience decided that Mary was a figment of Kenney鈥檚 imagination, because it seemed so unlikely anyone would love him.鈥�
Prior to Trinity College, O鈥橬eill served as Irish Government Senior Scholar at Herford College, University of Oxford. He holds a degree from National University of Ireland Galway and a doctorate from the University of Liverpool.听
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鈥擲ean Smith | University Communications | October 2018