DONAL KERR S.M.

Professor of Ecclesiastical History 1978-94

 

The contribution of religious orders to the academic and formational advancement of Maynooth College has not always been acknowledged, mainly because it was sporadic or, when it became more focused, as it did with the Vincentian order, came relatively late in the college’s history.

Father Donal Kerr SM, who died on May 10th 2001 aged 73, had been professor of Ecclesiastical History at Maynooth from 1978 to 1994, succeeding Monsignor Patrick Corish, who moved to the professorship of Modern History in the recognised college of the National University at Maynooth vacated by Fr. Tomás Ó Fiaich on his appointment to the presidency of the college in 1974, and Monsignor Michael Olden, who had briefly professed Ecclesiastical History before his appointment as president in 1977. His obituary in the Irish Times gave a comprehensive view of his life as cleric and academic:

 

Donal Kerr had a late vocation to religious life and priesthood, and although brilliantly successful as novice master and theology lecturer, at the age of 46 he began historical studies for a D.Phil at Oxford. When he was awarded the degree in 1978 his thesis had the unusual distinction of being immediately recommended for publication. In a few short years he became a world expert on the Famine period in Ireland, with publications described by his peers as more enduring monuments that those of stone.

Donal Kerr was born into a north Dublin family on June 16th, 1927 and was educated at Colaiste Mhuire, Parnell Square, from there he won took the Civil Service exams, earning top marks and being assigned to the Department of Finance in 1945. He immediately began to study for a B.A. degree at UCD, graduating in 1948, and followed this by studying for a Master’s degree in history which he secured in 1949. 

By then he had decided to enter the Society of Mary, the Marist Fathers, and over the next ten nine years would study in Ireland and in Rome, where he was ordained in 1958 and awarded a Licentiate in Theology from the Gregorian University in 1959. 

His initial ministry was in formation and teaching for his order, first as novice master and then superior of the Marist house of studies in Milltown. There his contemporary Fr. Sean Fagan, a former secretary-general of the order, would leading  controversial discourse on the recalibration of moral theology in the post-Vatican II era, a renewal that Donal Kerr fully supported.

Fr. Kerr also taught at Mater Dei Institute (1970-73) and at the Milltown Institute (1970-1978), established by the Jesuit Fathers in their Milltown Park community. In 1973, he undertook study for the degree of Ph.D. at Oxford University, taking as his subject an area that had long fascinated him and from 1978 until 1994 he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Maynooth pontifical university.

His first major work in his new field of endeavour was Peel, Priests and Politics (1982). This is a masterly and objective account of the attempt made by one of England's greatest prime ministers to solve the "Irish problem". The Times Education Supplement described it as an outstanding work "whose exact and comprehensive scholarship provides the basis for judgments and conclusions that are eminently impartial”.

In 1994 he produced A Nation of Beggars?: Priests, People and Politics in Famine Ireland 1846-1852, the first full account of the role of the Irish Catholic Church in the Great Famine of 1846 and its aftermath, which The Irish Times described as "an elegant, thorough work of history as high politics which hides within it the material for a much more radical rethinking of the past". 

Two years later he set out to tell the largely untold story of the church's response to the Famine in The Catholic Church and the Famine (1996), based largely on the letters of priests and bishops who wrote of their personal experience. In response to a request from his superior general, he wrote a history of the founder and early years of the Marist congregation: Jean-Claude Colin, Marist (2000).

He was associated for many years with the European Science Foundation. Based in Strasbourg and made up of 56 member research councils and academies in 20 countries, it brings European scientists together to work on topics of common concern, to co-ordinate the use of expensive facilities and to discover and define new endeavours that will benefit from a co-operative approach. Donal Kerr was responsible for the area of religion and culture. The association published eight volumes in the series Comparative Studies on Governments and Non-Dominant Ethnic Groups in Europe, 1850-1940, and he was the editor of Volume II: Religion, State and Ethnic Groups, for which he wrote the introduction and contributed a chapter. For several years this work brought him into contact with top scientists from all over Europe, sharing, encouraging and challenging.

He was a true democrat in the best sense of the word. He recoiled from the heavy hand, the autocratic style, the imposed view. His outstanding characteristics were his kindness and gentleness. These two qualities are to be seen in his historical publications. Backed by meticulous research, and total honesty in presenting all the pertinent material, his judgments are always balanced, fair and kindly.

He was survived by his brother Seamus and sister Sheila (Redmond).