Alfred O'Rahilly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President ofUniversity College Cork | |
| In office 1943–1954 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office August 1923 – August 1924 | |
| Constituency | Cork Borough |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1884-10-01)1 October 1884 Listowel,County Kerry, Ireland |
| Died | 1 August 1969(1969-08-01) (aged 84) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Cumann na nGaedheal |
| Other political affiliations | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives |
|
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University College Cork |
Alfred O'Rahilly,KSG (1 October 1884 – 1 August 1969) was an academic with controversial views on bothelectromagnetism and religion. He briefly served in politics, as aTeachta Dála (TD) forCork Borough, and was later the president ofUniversity College Cork. He also became a priest following the death of his wife.
Born (with the last name Rahilly) inListowel,County Kerry,Ireland to Thomas Francis Rahilly ofBallylongford, County Kerry and Julia Mary Rahilly (née Curry) ofGlin, County Limerick. He was first educated atSt Michael's College, Listowel[1] and atBlackrock College in Dublin. O'Rahilly first earned University College Cork degrees in mathematical physics (BA 1907, MA 1908).
He studied scholastic philosophy atStonyhurst College inLancashire following his master's degree, then returned to UCC for a BSc (1912). In 1914, he was appointed assistant lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics at UCC, and then in 1917 he was made Professor ofMathematical Physics.
In 1919 he received a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He became Registrar of UCC in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University. O'Rahilly foundedCork University Press in 1925. He spent a year, in 1927, atHarvard studying social and political theory.
In 1938, he published a controversial book surveying electromagnetic theory calledElectromagnetics (Longman, Green and Company), republished in 1956 by Dover asElectromagnetic theory, a critical examination of fundamentals.
In 1939, UCC conferred on him the degree D.Litt., and in 1940 theNational University of Ireland awarded him a DSc.
The O'Rahilly Building was one of the major developments on the UCC campus in the 1990s and was named in honour of O'Rahilly.[2]
After the 1916Easter 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 inSpike Island prison.
Released in October 1921 he wasconstitutional adviser to the Irish Treaty Delegation. O'Rahilly supported theAnglo-Irish Treaty and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for theIrish Free State withDarrell Figgis.
O'Rahilly led Irish delegations to theInternational Labour Organization conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on a conciliatory role intrade union and employers disputes inMunster. As President ofUniversity College Cork, he initiated workers' education courses in the university in the late 1940s which proved popular with Cork trade unionists.[citation needed]
Standing as a candidate inCork Borough forCumann na nGaedheal, he was elected to the4th Dáil at the1923 general election.[3] He resigned in 1924,[4] causing aby-election later that year which was won by the Cumann na nGaedheal candidateMichael Egan.
A deeply religiousCatholic from early life, O'Rahilly was a member of theSociety of Jesus but left before ordination and was dispensed from his vows. He maintained his (sometimes controversial) religious views throughout his life, and became apriest, and thenMonsignor, in later years following the death of his wife. He wrote a biography ofWillie Doyle. He also contributed toThe Irish Catholic weekly newspaper.
In 1954,Pope Pius XII conferred on him thePontifical Order of Saint Gregory the Great.
He was also an advisor on university education to the Archbishop of DublinJohn Charles McQuaid and sat on an informal committee from 1950. The committee included O'Rahilly, and the other presidents of theNational University of Ireland;Michael Tierney ofUCD,Monsignor Pádraig de Brún,Cardinal D'Alton, and BishopsCornelius Lucey ofCork andMichael Browne ofGalway.
In O'Rahilly's major survey of electromagnetic theory,Electromagnetics (1938),[5] he opposedJames Clerk Maxwell's dominant (British)theory of the electromagnetic field and followed the French Catholic physicist,historian of science, andphilosopher of sciencePierre Duhem in rejecting Maxwell's field account.[6] As a logical consequence of his rejection of Maxwell, O'Rahilly also rejected Albert Einstein'stheory of relativity. O'Rahilly embracedRitz's ballistic theory of light andRitz's electrodynamics.[7] While Ritz's theory reduces toCoulomb's law andAmpere's law, since its derivation is phenomenological, it differs from theLiénard–Wiechert potential. O'Rahilly also wrote against applying thetheory of evolution to human society.
Because O'Rahilly thought Cork lacked a social science curriculum he volunteered to teach courses in economics and sociology. When told that they could not spare him from the physics courses, he volunteered to teach an economics course and sociology course along with his physics courses.
His brotherT. F. O'Rahilly was aCeltic languages scholar and academic, noted for his contribution to the fields ofhistorical linguistics andIrishdialects.[8] His sisterCecile O'Rahilly was also a Celtic scholar, and published editions of both recensions of theTáin Bó Cúailnge and worked with her brother in the School of Celtic Studies at theDublin Institute for Advanced Studies.[9]
His first cousinThe O'Rahilly was one of the founding members of theIrish Volunteers and died in theEaster Rising.[10]
O'Rahilly's writings include:Father William Doyle, S.J. (1920, 4th ed. 1930),Flour, Wheat and Tariffs (1928),Money (1941),Jewish Burial: The Burial of Christ (1941),Religion and Science (1948),Aquinas versus Marx (1948),Moral Principles (1948),Social Principles (1948),The Family at Bethany (1949),Moral and Social Principles (1955),Gospel Meditations (1958) andElectromagnetic Theory (2 vols, 1965).
