THOMAS A. F. KELLY (1956-2009)
First Lay Professor of Philosophy on the Maynooth Campus
Lecturer (c. 1985) and Professor (1998) of Philosophy
Thomas Augustine Francis Kelly was born in Dublin and educated in Philosophy at UCD, the University of Dublin (TCD) and the University of Fribourg, where he was awarded his Doctorate in Philosophy. In the mid-1980s he joined the staff of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth as a Lecturer in Philosophy, a position he occupied for seventeen years.
With the integration of the seminary Philosophy department into the National University of Ireland at Maynooth at the turn of the century, he quickly established himself in a challenging new environment, being shortly afterwards appointed Professor, the first lay person to occupy such a position since the foundation of the original Maynooth College.
He was widely active in the promotion of philosophy as a university subject and as a key to the understanding human existence and the practice of good living. He lectured on the subject in mainland Europe and in the U.S. and Asia; was a promoter of the Process/New Thought movement in philosophy; served as President of the Irish Philosophical Society and was editor of its journal; and acted as editor of the Maynooth Philosophical Papers, an anthology of current research in his academic department.
His published works included Language and Transcendence: A Study in the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Karl-Otto Apel (1994); Language, World and God: An Essay in Ontology (1996); and Amor Amicitiae: On the Love that is Friendship (Ed. 2004, with Philipp W. Roseman, a collection of essays 'In Medieval Thought and Beyond' published in honour of Fr. James McEvoy (1943-2004), an erstwhile colleague at Maynooth).
Between System and Poetics: William Desmond and Philosophy after Dialectic, which he edited for publication in 2007, is a study of the work of the Cork-born philosopher (b. 1951) of international repute, a professor at Villanova University and the Catholic University of Louvain, who subsequently occupied the visiting chair in Philosophy created at Maynooth University in honour of Professor Kelly. This allows the Philosophy Department to bring a thinker of international renown to Maynooth for a period of one month every year. The holder of the Chair delivers a public lecture, teaches a seminar in his or her area of expertise, and has the right to supervise or co-supervise doctoral students
In addition to his scholarship in his chosen area, Thomas Kelly was also an accomplished musician, painter and creative writer. His accidental death, while out walking near Maynooth, was universally lamented by colleagues and students alike, many of whom had joined in the typical applause that marked the conclusion of his regular lectures. Survived by his wife Marian and his widowed mother, was buried in the Historic Maynooth College Cemetery, becoming the first lay member of the academic staff to be so interred.
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