Born: 1544, Waterford City, County Waterford
Entered: 1583, Madrid, Spain - Castellanae Province (CAST)
Ordained: 1563, Waterford City, County Waterford
Died: 31 January 1599, Spain

◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet Ent 1583

◆ Old/16 has DOB 1544 Waterford; Ent 1583; Prof 4 Vows; RIP 1599 in Spain

◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Comberford or Comerford

DOB Waterford; Ent c 1583

He was BA Oxford c 1562. Wood, “Athen. Oxon” Vol I, p 200, ed 1721 says “Nicholas Comerford was born in the city of Waterford in Ireland; took his degree in Arts 1562, after he spent at least four years in this university pecking and hewing at Logic and Philosophy. Which degree been being completed by determination, he went into his own country, entered the sacred function, and had preferment there, but was turned out from it because of his religion. He wrote in English a pithy and learned treatise, very exquisitely penned, as one (Richard Stanihurst, “In Descript Hibern.” c 7) saith, entitled “Answers to certain questions propounded by the Citizens of Waterford”. Soon after he left his country for the sake of religion; he went to the University of Louvain, where he was promoted to the degree of DD 23/06/1576; and afterwards as ‘tis said, wrote and published diverse other things.” He died in Spain. (Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)

Professor;

Peter Lombard addressed a Latin poem to him on his taking his DD (cf Foley’s Collectanea; his life in IbIg; Wood’s Athen. Oxon)

◆ Royal Irish Academy : Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press online
Comerford (Comberford, Quemerford), Nicholas
by Anthony M. McCormack

Comerford (Comberford, Quemerford), Nicholas (c.1541/5–c.1599), Jesuit, was born in Waterford city, son of Patrick Comerford and his wife, who was a Walsh. He was educated at Peter White's renowned school in Kilkenny city before studying at Oxford for at least four years, graduating BA (20 February 1563). He returned to Waterford, where he was ordained a priest and granted church office, of which he was later deprived due to his catholic views. In September 1565 he entered the university of Louvain (then in the Spanish Netherlands) to study theology. Described as one of the most eminent lecturers there, he received from Louvain (23 October 1576) his DD degree, on which he was congratulated by his friend, the future archbishop of Armagh Peter Lombard (qv), in a poem entitled ‘Carmen heroicum’ (‘Heroic song’). By April 1577 he was at Waterford, where the royal authorities complained that he preached continually against the established religion, and marked him down as one of the leading catholic clergymen in the area.

Renewed religious persecution in Ireland probably compelled him to leave c.1580–81 and he then entered the Society of Jesus at Madrid. Thereafter, he lectured in a number of Spanish colleges, appearing at Bayona in 1589, and at Lisbon in 1590. That year his candidacy for the archbishopric of Cashel was promoted by a number of Irish catholic clergy, but nothing came of this. His life after 1590 is unknown but he is said to have died in Spain in 1599. He wrote a tract in English entitled Answers to certain questions propounded by the citizens of Waterford, a number of sermons, and a poem in Latin entitled ‘Carmina in laudem comitis Ormondiae’ (‘Songs in praise of the earl of Ormond’).

Charles Smith, Ancient and present state of the county and city of Waterford (1746), 360; W. Harris, The whole works of Sir James Ware (1764), ii, 96; DNB; E. Hogan, Distinguished Irishmen of the sixteenth century (1894), 71–8; Crone (2nd ed., [1937]); B. Jennings, ‘Irish students in the University of Louvain’, Measgra i gcuimhne Mhichíl Uí Chléirigh, ed. S. O'Brien (1944), 74–97

◆ Henry Foley - Records of the English province of The Society of Jesus Vol VII
COMBERFORD, or COMERFORD, NICHOLAS (Irish), entered the Society about 1583. (Father Hogan's Ihernia, p. 249.) He was a native of Waterford ; studied at Oxford. Wood, then. Oxon., vol. i. p. 200, ed. 1721, says: “Nicholas Comerford was born in the city of Waterford, in Ireland; took his degree in arts 1562, after he had spent at least four years in this University in pecking and hewing at logic and philosophy. Which degree being com pleted by determination, he went into his own country, entered the sacred function, and had preferment there, but was turned out from it because of his religion. He wrote in English a pithy and learned treatise, very exquisitely penned, as one (Richard Stani hurst, In Descript. Hibern. c. 7) saith, entitled, Answers to certain questions propounded by the Citizens of Waterford. Also divers sermons. Soon after he left his country for the sake of religion ; went to the University of Louvain, where he was promoted to the degree of D.D., June 23, 1576; and afterwards, as 'tis said, wrote and published divers other things." He died in Spain. (Oliver, as above).

◆ Memorials of the Irish Province SJ June 1902 1.6
A Brief Memoir of Father Alfred Murphy SJ - by Matthew Russell SJ

Father Nicholas Comerford SJ

In Spain, about the year 1599, died Father Nicholas Comerford, a native of Waterford in Ireland. He was the first of sixteen Waterford Jesuits of the name who lived between the years 1590 and 1640, and the first of the many celebrated natives of Waterford who joined the Soeiety of Jesus. Among the three thousand students who at one time frequented the lecture halls of the famous University of Louvain, the genius and learning of this city of Waterford shone with the brightest lustre. Having received his early training at the then well known school of Dr Peter White, Comerford went to Oxford, where he received his degree of Doctor of Divinity on the 23rd October, 1576. He then returned to Ireland, where his zealous labours in the ministry attracted the hostile notice of the Lord President of Munster, who spoke of him as “teaching against our religion”, and thereby “causing a number to despair”, or in other words, to be converted to Catholicity. The same high authority speaks of him as being, with Father Archer, afterwards of the Society, “the principal agent of the Pope”, and complains that “Popery is mainly supported by the students of Waterford educated at Louvain, by whom”, he adds, “the proud and undutiful inhabitants of this town are cankered in Popery”.

Father Comerford was ultimately obliged to yield to the stress of persecution, and take refuge on the Continent along with Father Archer. While abroad he entered the Society at Madrid. Brennan, in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, says that “he was one of the most eminent lecturers in Louvain . ... Wishing to combine the religious with the literary life, he entered the Society of Jesus. He was afterwards”, he adds, “sent to Spain, and he was there honour ably employed for many years, and obtained unbounded applause in some of the most celebrated colleges of that kingdom”. Cardinal Allen and other influential persons endeavoured, in 1589, to have him appointed to the Archbishopric of Cashel, but the humble religious succeeded in evading the proferred dignity. He wrote in English a learned discourse, entitled, An Answer to certain Questions propounded by the Citizens of Waterford, as well as a volume of sermons, and many learned tracts on philosophical and theological subjects.

◆ Rev. Edmund Hogan SJ : “Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century” - London : Burns and Oates, Limited, New York, Cincinnati : Chicago, Benzinger Brothers, 1894 : Quarterly Series : Volume Ninety

Nicholas Comerford

FATHER WHITE received great help in his arduous undertaking from the presence and influence in Spain of his distinguished kinsman, Father Nicholas Quemerford or Comerford, S.J., who “was honourably employed and obtained unbounded applause in some of the most celebrated colleges of that kingdom”. (1) The Comerfords showed ardent attachment to the Faith in the sixteenth century. A wayside cross erected at Danganmore at that period bears the inscription : “Pray for the souls of Richard Comerford and of his wife Dame Johanna Saint-Leger”. In 1592, Richard Comerford of Waterford, Merchaunt, is reported to the Government for entertaining Sir Morren, a priest; and Belle Butler, wife unto Thomas Comerford of Waterford, Merchaunt (now in Spain), is denounced. for retaining Sir John White, priest. Nicholas was the son of Patrick Comerford, (2) of Waterford, and of his wife, a lady of the influential family of Walsh; he was uncle of Dr. Patrick Comerford, the distinguished Bishop of Waterford and Lismore; he was related to the best families of his native city, was the first of sixteen Waterford Jesuits of the name, who lived between the years 1590 and 1640; and he was the first of the many celebrated natives of Waterford who joined the Society of Jesus. He was educated at the school of Dr. Peter White, “from which”, says Stanihurst, “as from a Trojan horse, issued men of distinguished literary ability and learning - the Whites, Comerfords, Walshes, Wadings, Dormers, Shees, Garveys, Butlers, Stronges, and Lombards. (3) Out of this schoole have sprouted such proper ympes through the painfull diligence and the laboursome industry of a famous lettered man, Mr. Peter White, as generally the whole weale publike of Ireland, and especially the southerne parts of that island, are greatly thereby furthered. This gentleman's methode in trayning up youth was rare and singular, framing the education according to the scoler's veine. If he found him free, he would bridle hym, like a wyse Isocrates, from his booke : if he perceived hym to be dull, he would spur hym forwarde; if he understoode that he were the worse for beating, he would win him with rewardes; finally, by interlacing study with vacation, sorrow with mirth, payne with pleasure, sowernesse with sweetnesse, roughness with myldnesse, he had so good successe in schooling his pupils, as in good sooth I may boldly byde by it, that in the realme of Ireland was no Grammar School so good, in England, I am well assured, none better. And because it was my happy happe (God and my parents be thanked) to have been one of his crewe, I take it to stand with my duty, sith I may not stretche myne habilitie in requiting his good turnes, yet to manifeste my good will in remembrying his paines. And, certes, I acknowledge myselfe so much bounde and beholding to hym and his, as for his sake I reverence the meanest stone cemented in the walles of that famous schoole”. (4)
From White's school Comerford went to Oxford (where White himself had been some time Fellow of Oriel), and, according to Anthony Wood, “he there took his Degree of Arts in the year 1562, after he had spent at least four years in pecking and hewing at logic and philosophy. Which degree being completed by determination, he went into his own country, entered the sacred function, and had preferment there, but was turned out from it because of his religion. He wrote in English a pithy and learned treatise, very exquisitely penned, as one Richard Stanihurst saith, entitled Answers to Certain Questions Propounded by the Citizens of Waterford. He also wrote divers sermons. Soon after he left his country for the sake of religion, went to the University of Louvain, where he was promoted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity June 23, 1576, and afterwards, as it is said, wrote and published divers things”. (5)
Wood was mistaken with regard to the date, the 23rd of June, as we know from Foppens MS. History of Louvain (6) that Comerford went to that University in 1565, and became Doctor of Divinity, on October 23, 1576; on which occasion his fellow citizen, Peter Lombard, who ranked “Primus Universitatis”, composed and published a Latin poem entitled Carmen Heroicum in Doctoratum Nicolai Quemerfordii. Comerford came at once to the help of his countrymen; his presence was soon felt and was thus reported in 1577 by the Lord President of Munster : “Doctor Quemerford of Waterford is also of late come out of Louvain; he and all the rest taught all the way between Rye and Bristol against our religion, and caused a number to despair. There are a great number of students of this city of Waterford in Louvain, at the charge of their friends and fathers”. (7) The fame of Louvain spread over Europe, its lecture-halls were frequented at times by three thousand students, and Cardinal Bellarmine declared he had never perhaps seen anything equal to it as to numbers, learning, &c. (8) Among those thousands the genius and learning of the city of Waterford shone with the brightest lustre.
A people so gifted and enlightened as the in habitants of Waterford could neither be cajoled nor coerced into the embraces of heresy. This is fully recognized and deplored by the missionary Lord President of Munster, who continues in these terms : “James Archer of Kilkenny, Dr. Comerford of Waterford, and Chaunter Walsh are the principal agents of the Pope. Popery is mainly supported by the students of Waterford educated at Louvain, by whom the proud and undutiful inhabiters of this town are cankered in Popery, undutiful to Her Majesty, slandering the Gospel publicly, as well this side the sea as beyond in England, that they fear not God nor man, and hath their altars, painted images, and candlesticks in derision of the Gospel, every day in their synagogues - so detestable that they may be called the unruly newters rather than subjects. Masses infinite they have in their several churches every morning without any fear. I have spied them; for I chanced to arrive last Sunday at five of the clock in the morning and saw them resort out of the churches by heaps ; this is shameful in a reformed city”. This “shameful” conduct went on for twenty years longer, for Dr. Lyon, Protestant Bishop of Cork, reports to Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, in a letter dated July 6, 1596, “The Mayor of Waterford, which is a great lawyer, one Wadding, carieth the sword and rod (as I think he should do) for Her Majesty; but he nor his sheriffs never came to the church sithence he was mayor, nor sithence this reign, nor none of the citizens, men nor women, nor in any other towne or city throughout this province, which is lamentable to hear, but most lamentable to see; the Lord in His mercy amend it when it shall please His gracious goodness to look on them”. These canting knaves, Drury and Lyon,
Were of that saintly, murderous brood,
To carnage and the gospel given,
Who think through unbelievers' blood,
Lies their directest path to Heaven.
If Drury could have “spied”, and caught Comerford and Archer, he would have got themn hanged, drawn, and quartered, as two years previously he had served their brother in religion, Edmund O'Donnell, S.J. However, this cruel man, who reported the movements of Comerford, went a year afterwards to give an account of himself to God; having hanged Bishop O'Hely, he suddenly got sick and died, uttering blasphemies. (9).
Fathers Comerford and Archer escaped the clutches of Drury, perhaps through the kindness of Annie O'Meara, the wife of Magrath, the Queen's Archbishop of Cashel. Annie was in the habit of eliciting State secrets from his Grace, and of giving timely warning to priests when any danger was impending. Indeed the poor apostate friar aided her in the good work; for on June 26, 1582, he wrote to her from Greenwich : “I desire you now to cause the friends of Darby Creagh (Bishop of Cork) to send him out of the whole country, if they may; for there is such search to be made for him that, unless he be wise, he shall be taken. I desire you, also, to send away from your house all the priests you are in the habit of having there”. This unfortunate man and his wife were ultimately reconciled to the Church by Dr. O'Kearney, the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel.
Dr. Comerford and James Archer, after their departure from Ireland, entered the Society of Jesus; the latter at Rome in 1581, the former at Madrid. (10) The erudite Franciscan, Father Brennan, says in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, that Comerford “was one of the most eminent lecturers in Louvain. ... Wishing to combine the religious with the literary life, he entered the Society of Jesus. He was afterwards sent to Spain, and he was there honourably employed for many years, and obtained unbounded applause in some of the miost celebrated colleges of that kingdom”. He was at Bayona de Galicia, in Spain, in the year 1589, at Lisbon the year after, when he was by Cardinal Allen and divers others estates sent for from Rome to have the archbishoprick of Cashel”. (11)
After the year 1590, Father Comerford disappears from our view; he is not named in the Catalogue of Irish Jesuits of 1609, and is supposed to have gone to receive the reward of his labours in the year 1599. Sketches of his career are given in Stanihurst's Descriptio Hiberniae, Wood's Athene Oxonienses, Harris' Edition of Ware's Irish Writers, the Collectanea of Dr. Oliver and Brother Foley, S.J., Brennan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, Meehan's Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy, the Ibernia Ignatiana, and in the National Biography. He wrote : a. Many learned tracts on philosophical and theological subjects. b. Sermons. c. Carmina in laudem Comitis Ormondia. d. An Answer to certaine Questions propounded by the Citizens of Waterford.
Father Comerford was the first of a long line of distinguished Waterford Jesuits, and as he and his immediate relatives worked with all their might for the preservation of Catholicity in their native city, their efforts were crowned with success. The Lord Chancellor, “in his speech upon his granting a seizure of the Liberties of Waterforde”, said, “The city of Waterforde hath performed many excellent and acceptable services to the Queen of England, insomuch that they deserved the posie of Urbs intacta manet. . . . But this citie which thus flourished, and the inhabitants and citizens thereof, whom I know to be equal, for all manner and breeding and sufficiencie, to any in the King's dominions, or in Europe; yet when they yielde their heart to foreign states (12) (which is the principal part of man), then they neglected their duty and fidelity, (12) so far forth ; as being directed by Popish priests and Jesuits, that they could not within their whole corporation find one man (14) to serve the King's majesty in the magistracy of Mayor, for want of conformity. (15) . . . And so I pronounce that a seizure be awarded of all their liberties”. This English document, from which I have given a few extracts, is in the Irish College of Salamanca, and has foot-notes appended to it, apparently by Father White, of which I also give a few instances.

◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
QUEMERFORD, NICHOLAS, of Waterford, educated at Oxford, where he took his degree of Arts in 1562. Anthony Wood, (according to Harris, p. 96. Writers of Ireland, but I cannot verify the passage) says, that after spending four years in that University he returned to Ireland and took Orders. Repairing to Louvain, he was promoted to the degree of D.D. 23rd of June, 1576, on which occasion his countryman Peter Lombard, who ranked “Primus Universitatis” wrote “Carmen Heroicum in, Doctoratum Nicholai Quemerfordi”. p. 219, vol. I. Athenae. Oxon. Afterwards he became a Jesuit and died in Spain. He wrote in English a Learned discourse intitled “Answers to certain Questions propounded by the citizens of Waterford” also “Sermons” and other works."

◆ Memorials of the Irish Province SJ January 1903 1.6

A Short History of Some Irish Jesuits : Joseph McDonnell SJ &
Short Memoirs of the Early Irish Jesuits Who Worked in Ireland Down to the Year 1840: Joseph McDonnell SJ (Pamphlet)

Father Nicholas Comerford SJ
In Spain, about the year 1599, died Father Nicholas Comerford, a native of Waterford in Ireland. He was the first of sixteen Waterford Jesuits of the name who lived between the years 1590 and 1640, and the first of the many celebrated natives of Waterford who joined the Soeiety of Jesus. Among the three thousand students who at one time frequented the lecture halls of the famous University of Louvain, the genius and learning of this city of Waterford shone with the brightest lustre. Having received his early training at the then well known school of Dr Peter White, Comerford went to Oxford, where he received his degree of Doctor of Divinity on the 23rd October, 1576. He then returned to Ireland, where his zealous labours in the ministry attracted the hostile notice of the Lord President of Munster, who spoke of him as “teaching against our religion”, and thereby “causing a number to despair”, or in other words, to be converted to Catholicity. The same high authority speaks of him as being, with Father Archer, afterwards of the Society, “the principal agent of the Pope”, and complains that “Popery is mainly supported by the students of Waterford educated at Louvain, by whom”, he adds, “the proud and undutiful inhabitants of this town are cankered in Popery”.

Father Comerford was ultimately obliged to yield to the stress of persecution, and take refuge on the Continent along with Father Archer. While abroad he entered the Society at Madrid. Brennan, in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, says that “he was one of the most eminent lecturers in Louvain . ... Wishing to combine the religious with the literary life, he entered the Society of Jesus. He was afterwards”, he adds, “sent to Spain, and he was there honour ably employed for many years, and obtained unbounded applause in some of the most celebrated colleges of that kingdom”. Cardinal Allen and other influential persons endeavoured, in 1589, to have him appointed to the Archbishopric of Cashel, but the humble religious succeeded in evading the proferred dignity. He wrote in English a learned discourse, entitled, An Answer to certain Questions propounded by the Citizens of Waterford, as well as a volume of sermons, and many learned tracts on philosophical and theological subjects.

http://comerfordfamily.blogspot.com/2007/12/comerford-profiles-3-revd-dr-nicholas.html
The Revd Dr Nicholas Comerford or Quemerford (ca 1541/1545-ca 1599) was a prominent Jesuit theologian from Waterford in the aftermath of the Reformation, and was the first of 16 members of the Comerford name who were Jesuits or members of the Society of Jesus in the half century between 1590 and 1640. He lived in Oxford, Waterford, Louvain and in Portugal and Spain, he spent some time living in Rome as the Pope’s guest, and at one time he was nominated as Archbishop of Cashel, although the nomination was blocked by the King of Spain and was never accepted by the Vatican.
Nicholas Comerford was born in Waterford ca 1541-1545, the son of Patrick Comerford and his wife, […] Walsh.[1] It is said that Nicholas was sent to school at Peter White’s famous academy in Kilkenny,[2] although he may have been too old to have been one of White’s pupils. White was educated at Oxford, and was a Fellow of Oriel College before returning to Waterford, where he was Dean of Waterford Cathedral until he was ejected for nonconformity. He then established his famous academy or school in Kilkenny in 1565, and his pupils there included the historian Richard Stanihurst (1547-1618), and later the Franciscan theologian and historian Luke Wadding (1588-1657), as well as other members of the White, Comerford, Walsh, Wadding and Lombard families from Waterford and Kilkenny.[3]
After school, Nicholas Comerford went on to Oxford. Although it is not known which college he was a student in – perhaps White’s Oriel or his professors’ Magdalen College –we know he spent at least four years “in pecking at logic and philosophy” and graduated BA on 20 February 1563.[4] During his time at Oxford (ca 1559-1563), his contemporaries included Edmund Campion (1540-1581), a friend of Stanihurst and later a Jesuit martyr, who was a student at Saint John’s College and graduated in 1564; and Richard Stanihurst, who went to Oxford from Kilkenny in 1563.
The Regius Professors of Divinity in Oxford during Nicholas Comerford’s time there as an undergraduate were Richard Smyth (1559) and Lawrence Humphrey (from 1560).
Smyth was Oxford University’s registrar when by royal appointment he became the university’s first Regius Professor of Divinity in 1536. He was principal of Saint Alban’s Hall (later incorporated into Merton College) and Divinity Reader at Magdalen College. He was reported to have renounced Catholicism and the authority of the Pope at Oxford on the accession of Edward VI, but accounts show him as a Catholic again soon after, and he was replaced as Regius Professor in 1548 by Peter Martyr. Smyth and Martyr held a public disputation in 1549, and Smyth was arrested soon afterwards and imprisoned for a short while. On his release, Smyth left Oxford to become Professor of Divinity at Louvain, but he returned to England on the accession of Mary, became Regius Professor once again (1554-1556 and 1559), a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and a royal chaplain, and he took a leading role in the trials of Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. Smyth was regius professor once again in 1559, but only briefly, and soon lost this position and all his benefices following Elizabeth’s succession to Mary in 1558. He was briefly imprisoned in Archbishop Matthew Parker’s house, and on his release fled to the continent. In Douai, Mary’s widower, Philip II of Spain, appointed him dean of Saint Peter’s Church and then in 1562 he became the first chancellor and Professor of Theology at the new Douai University.[5]
For most of Nicholas Comerford’s time at Oxford, however, the Regius Professor of Divinity was Lawrence Humphrey (ca 1527-1590), who had lived in Basel, Zurich, Frankfort and Geneva during Mary’s reign. There he made acquaintances with the leading Swiss reformers, and adopted their ecclesiastical. He returned to England on Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1558, and was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1560. A year later, he was elected President of Magdalen College, despite the opposition of the fellows, and gradually converted the college into a stronghold of Puritanism. In 1580 he was made Dean of Winchester, and when he died on 1 February 1590 he was buried in the chapel of Magdalen College.[6]
After graduating from Oxford in 1563, Nicholas returned to Ireland, and was ordained priest in Waterford.[7] But he soon moved to Continental Europe on account of his religious views.[8] By 1564, he was in Louvain, where Richard Smyth had found refuge 15 years earlier. Nicholas Comerford’s brother, James Quemerford or Comerford of Waterford, a former chaplain to the Mayor of Waterford, wrote to Nicholas in Louvain on 14 August [1564], professing himself to be “of the old religion.” He was still in Louvain in 1565. [9]
But Nicholas was soon back in Ireland again. By 1569, he was chaplain to Sir Edmund Butler of Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and Cloughgrenan, Co Carlow, a younger brother of Thomas Butler, ‘Black Tom,’ the 10th Earl of Ormond. On 3 July 1569, Sir Edmund Butler wrote to the Lord Deputy, Henry Sydney, beseeching him “to allow the messenger whom I sent to you and them with two letters to return with answer, at least my chaplain, Sir Nicholas Comerforde.”[10]
Nicholas was Rector of Kilconnell in the Diocese of Cashel until about 1570, when the Dean and Chapter of Cashel wrote to Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, on 19 May 1570 nominating and presenting the Revd William Phelan as his successor.[11]
In 1571, the notorious pluralist, Miler Magrath, became Archbishop of Cashel. With this appointment, Ireland, and the Diocese of Cashel in particular, were now unsafe places for a man of Comerford’s Catholic convictions. He moved to the Continent, and by 1574, he was back in Louvain once again. The Catholic University of Leuven or Louvain was founded in Brabant, or present-day Belgium, in 1425, and its distinguished students included Desiderius Erasmus and Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens (Pope Adrian VI).
In Louvain, he was a contemporary of Peter Lombard of Waterford, later Archbishop of Armagh. When Nicholas Comerford received his doctorate in theology (DD) at the Catholic University of Louvain on 23 October 1576, the occasion was marked by a poem in Latin penned by his cousin Peter Lombard (1555-1625) from Waterford, who later became Professor of Theology at Louvain and then Archbishop of Armagh: Carmen heroicum in Doctoratum Nicolai Quemerfordi.[12]

In 1577, Nicholas was reported by the Lord President of Munster, Sir William Drury, as having recently come out of Louvain with the Kilkenny Jesuit James Archer and others, and had been preaching “all the way between Rye and Bristol against our religion.” Later, Drury spoke of him as one of “the principal agents of the Pope.”[13]
Nicholas returned to the Continent, and by 1578 it was reported that the chief Irish ecclesiastics then living in Rome on the bounty of the Pope included Dr Nicholas Comerford.[14] Gregory XIII was a liberal patron of the Society of Jesus and is best remembered for his reform of the calendar, giving his name to the Gregorian Calendar.

Later in 1578, Nicholas Comerford was living in Porto in Portugal, where he was said to be “of great authority among the Irish by reason alike of doctrine and of probity.”[15] Between 1578 and 1583, he joined the Jesuits or the Society of Jesus in Madrid, and was professed of the four vows.[16] He spent some time in Rome, later moved to Porto in Portugal, and then lectured in theology in a number of colleges in Spain and Portugal.

By 1589, he was living in Bayona in Spain. Christopher Arthur, a merchant from Limerick who was visiting Spain in 1589, reported to the Lord Deputy, Fitzwilliam, that among the Irish bishops in Spain, Dr Comerford of Waterford was living in Bayona de Galizia. [17]
By 1590 he was in Lisbon.[18] In January that year, Comerford was nominated by Cardinal William Allen (1532-1594) and others as Archbishop of Cashel in opposition to Miler Magrath, who was Archbishop of Cashel 1571-1622. Allen had been the Principal of Saint Mary Hall, Oxford, which was closely linked with Oriel College, while Nicholas Comerford was an undergraduate at Oxford, and Allen – like Comerford – moved to Leuven in the 1560s. However, the nomination did not receive the support it needed from King Philip II of Spain. Six years before Comerford’s nomination, Dermot O’Hurley, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, had been hanged at Dublin Castle on 20 June 1584. However, the Spanish monarch did not want Comerford to leave Spain for Ireland, and instead, the king offered him any other post he might chose in Spain. As a consequence, Comerford’s nomination as Archbishop Cashel was not accepted in Rome, and the see remained vacant until 1603, when David Kearney was appointed in 1603; a Comerford was eventually appointed to Cashel in 1693, when Edward Comerford was appointed Archbishop of Cashel in succession to John Brenan.[19]

The failure to become Archbishop of Cashel marks the end of Nicholas Comerford’s ecclesiastical career. It is possible that he continued to live out his days in Spain, although there is no further mention of Nicholas Comerford in the Jesuit records after 1590, and he is reported to have died in Spain ca 1599.[20]

Nicholas Comerford was the author of Answers to certain questions propounded by the citizens of Waterford, said to have been “a learned and pithy treatise.” He also wrote a number of tracts on philosophy and theology, some of his sermons were published, and he was the author of a poem in Latin, Carmina in laudem comitis Ormondiae (Songs in praise of the Earl of Ormond).[21]

[1] Dictionary of National Biography, vol 4, p. 894 (where the date of birth is given as ca 1544); Hogan, Catalogue of Irish Jesuits (Dublin, 1880) p. 6, which also prefers ca 1544; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), vol 11, p. 866, where the date ca 1540 is preferred. More recently, Anthony M McCormack prefers ca 1541/1544; see Anthony M McCormack, ‘Comerford (Comberford, Quemerford), Nicholas,’ pp 715-716, in Dictionary of Irish Biography (eds James McGuire, James Quinn), vol 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2009).
[2] ODNB 11, p. 866; McCormack, p. 715.
[3] J. Browne, Transactions of the Kilkenny Arch. Soc., 1. (1849-51), 221-29; Richard Stanihurst, Description of Ireland, Chapter 7; Power, Brenan, p. 244; Dowling, Continuity Ossory, pp 247-249.
[4] Foster vol 1, p. 314, which gives the date 20 February 1562-63; Brenan, Ecclesiastical History, p. 443; DNB 4, p. 894, which gives the date 1562 for his BA; Hurley says he graduated at Oxford in 1562, see Patrick Hurley, ‘Memoir of Dr Patrick Comerford, OSA, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, 1629-1652,’ Irish Ecclesiastical Record, December 1887, p. 1083; ODNB 11 gives the date 1562(see p. 866); McCormack agrees with 20 February 1563 (see p. 715).
[5] J. Andreas Löwe, Richard Smyth and the Language of Orthodoxy: Re-imagining Tudor Catholic Polemicism (Studies in Mediaeval and Reformation Traditions: History, Culture, Religion, Ideas, 96; Leiden: Brill, 2003), passim; JP Spellman, ‘The Irish in Belgium,’ Irish Ecclesiastical Record, July 1886 (Dublin: 1886), p. 642.
[6] C.H. Cooper and T. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses (Cambridge 1861), vol 2, pp 80 ff.
[7] DNB 4, p. 894; ODNB 11, p. 866; McCormack, p. 715.
[8] DNB 4, p. 894.
[9] Ronan, p. 114; Cal State Papers Irl 1601-1603, p. 663.
[10] Carew vol 1, p. 385.
[11] Ormond Deeds, 5, p. 185.
[12] Foster 1, p. 314; Spellman, pp 642-643; Hogan, Catalogue of Irish Jesuits, p. 6; ODNB 11, p. 866; McCormack, p. 715.
[13] ODNB 11, p. 866; Hogan (1894), p. 74.
[14] Ronan, p. 580.
[15] Ronan, p. 590.
[16] Hogan, Catalogue of Irish Jesuits, p. 6; DNB 4, p. 894; ODNB 11, p. 866.
[17] Cal State Papers Irl, vol 4 (Elizabeth 1588-1592), p. 136; ODNB 11, p. 866.
[18] ODNB, vol 11, p. 866.
[19] Cal State Papers Irl vol 4 (Elizabeth 1588-1592), p. 295.
[20] Hogan, Catalogue of Irish Jesuits, p. 6; Spellman, p. 663; DNB 4, p. 894; ODNB 11, p. 866; McCormack, p. 715.
[21] Brenan, Ecclesiastical History, p. 444; ODNB 11, p. 866; McCormack, p. 715.

◆ Menology of the Society of Jesus: The English Speaking Assistancy

October 12

Father Nicholas Comerford was the first of a long line of distinguishcd Waterford Jesuits, who worked with great fervour and energy for the preservation of Catholicity in their native city, and whose efforts were crowned with success. Father Nicholas was born in Waterford and began his education in the well-known school of Mr. Peter White. He went up afterwards to Oxford, and took his degree in 1562. Returning to his own country, he was ordained and advanced to some preferment, but was afterwards deprived of it on account of his religion. He then repaired to Louvain, where he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1577, his reappearance in Ireland drew the following comments from the Lord President of Munster “Dr. Comerford of Waterford is also of late come out of Louvain, he and the rest argued the whole way between Rye and Bristol against our religion, and caused doubt in several persons. There are a great many students of this city studying in Louvain, at the charge of their parents and friends”.

Fathers Comerford and Archer escaped the hands of Sir William Drury and, leaving Ireland, entered the Society; the former in Madrid, the latter at Rome. Father Comerford was employed in Spain for many years with great success and distinction in several Colleges, Bayonne in Galicia and Lisbon being among the number. His name occurs in the Irish State Papers, bearing date March 14th, 1589, as having been summoned from Rome by Cardinal Allen in order to be promoted to the archbishopric of Cashel, but
at this time he disappears from our view, and as he is not named in the Catalogue of 1609, he probably died about the same period.

Born: 15 February 1915, Eyrecourt, Ballinasloe, Co Galway
Entered: 30 September 1933, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 12 February 2003, County Dublin

Left Society of Jesus: 15 June 1945

Parents, Patrick and Mary (Donnellan) were shopkeepers and father died in 1915.

Elder of two boys.

Early education was at a Convent school and National school both in Eyrecourt, and then he went to Rockwell College for two years, followed by three years at St Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe.

Baptised at St Brendan’s, Eyrecourt, 21/02/1919
Confirmed at St Brendan’s, Eyrecourt, by Dr Dignam of Clonfert, 11/05/1926

1933-1935: St Mary's, Emo, Novitiate
1935-1939: Rathfarnham Castle, Juniorate, UCD
1939-1941: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, Philosophy
1941-1942: Clongowes Wood College S, Regency
1942-1944: Campion Hall, Oxford, England, Studying for a DPhil
1944-1945: St Ignatius Leeson St, preparing thesis for publication and assisting at University Hall.

On leaving was appointed as Assistant Lecturer in Classics at UCD. He was ultimately appointed Professor of Latin at UCD.

Address 2000 & 1991: Maple Road, Clonskeagh, Dublin City & UCD, Belfield, Dublin City

https://www.dib.ie/biography/omeara-john-a9461

O'Meara, John
Contributed by
Bradley, Bruce
O'Meara, John (1915–2003), academic, was born 18 February 1915 at Eyrecourt, Co. Galway, the elder of two sons of Patrick O'Meara, a small businessman from Ilaunmore on Lough Derg, and Mary O'Meara (née Donelan). The very early death of his father, at the end of 1915, and the troubled state of the country coloured his early years but he was to paint a warm portrait of his childhood in his gentle, elegant memoir, The singing masters (1990), written towards the end of his long life. After primary education in the local school, he was sent to Rockwell College in 1928. Planning to become a priest, he transferred to Garbally College, the minor seminary of his native diocese, Clonfert, in 1930. His academic ability and attraction to the ancient classics were quickly apparent and he remembered reading all the Odes of Horace four times during his last two years at school. During a retreat, he decided that his call was to the Society of Jesus rather than the diocese and he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Emo, Co. Laois, in October 1933. This was followed by four years at UCD, while living in Rathfarnham Castle. Here he studied Latin under Patrick Semple (1875–1954), whom he was later to succeed in the chair, and Greek under the redoubtable Michael Tierney (qv), with whom he would cross swords on several issues when his former patron had become president of the college.

A brilliant academic course led to the award of an MA and an NUI travelling studentship in 1939, but the outbreak of war encouraged his Jesuit superiors to send him first to philosophical studies in St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, Co. Offaly (known as 'Tullabeg' to the Jesuits), for two years, and then to teach in Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, for a further year (1941–2). Although not over-impressed by the quality of philosophical teaching he encountered at Tullabeg, he began his first serious work on Neoplatonism there, when studying the Enneads of Plotinus, and he delighted in what he remembered as a life 'of study, good companionship and a common noble purpose' (Singing masters, 78). He retained a special affection for the Jesuits throughout his life.

In October 1942 he was finally able to embark on his studentship, which, owing to the war, he took up in Oxford rather than Berlin or Leipzig, as he might have wished. An inclination towards Platonism from his early years, stimulated by Michael Tierney's tuition, and a growing interest in the Irish ninth-century Platonising philosopher John Scottus Eriugena (qv), then largely neglected, led him to propose the topic 'Prolegomena to the Contra academicos of St Augustine' for his doctoral thesis. This was intended to allow him to explore both Augustine and Plotinus, along with Plotinus's disciple Porphyry. Partly, at least, because of the war, these were not, academically, the best of times in Oxford. Living in the Jesuit Campion Hall, he had to pursue his studies with a lack of adequate supervision and largely on his own. Later on, as professor, he tended to direct his students towards the great European centres of classical study in preference to Oxford or Cambridge. But he loved the enchantments of Oxford itself and the opportunities it afforded of being taught by the great German classicist Eduard Fraenkel and of encountering such memorable figures as Edwin Lutyens, Evelyn Waugh, a very elderly Hilaire Belloc, and the brilliant master of Campion Hall, Fr Martin D'Arcy, and his own bright, attractive personality and high intelligence enabled him to make the most of it.

From early in his years as a Jesuit student, he had struggled with issues of faith, and, as the challenge of priesthood drew nearer, the struggle became critical and the reassurance of superiors that this was a common experience no longer sufficed. In June 1945, having returned to Dublin, he decided to leave the order. For a time, gifted as he was with musical ability and a fine tenor voice, he wondered about embarking on a singing career. Meanwhile, he had begun working in the classics department at UCD and, with Michael Tierney's support, he obtained Semple's now vacant Latin chair, becoming professor at the early age of 33, in 1948. A year earlier he had married Odile de Barthès de Montfort from the Passy section of Paris, who was secretary to the French ambassador in Dublin at the time. They were to have one son, Dominique, who followed him into the classics, and two daughters, Caitríona and Odile.

The UCD appointment proved inspired and created a context in which he could exercise his wide range of abilities as teacher, scholar and administrator to the full. Handsome, urbane, witty and approachable, he quickly emerged as an excellent teacher, equally competent in dealing with Latin as language and as literature. He could adapt his teaching to the needs of the large numbers of students whose only interest in Latin was to fulfil the university requirements then in force by passing a preliminary examination in it, but his special gift was to be able to inspire and encourage those better equipped and more committed to the higher reaches of the subject.

Meanwhile, despite the demands of administering a relatively large department, his own scholarship was not neglected and he produced a steady stream of studies, editions, translations and reviews from the beginning of his tenure, which in time won him international recognition in his two chosen fields. He had been elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1953 and, in time, would play a leading role in the Academy's Hiberno-Latin project. He represented Ireland on many overseas bodies, including the Fédération Internationale des Études Classiques. He was especially at home in French culture and his work with eminent French scholars duly won him inscription in the Légion d'honneur. His translations included not only Augustine's Against the academics (1950), on which he had written his doctoral thesis, and the third-century Greek Father of the Church Origen of Alexandria's On prayer and his Exhortation to martyrdom (1954), but also the Topography of Ireland (1951) of Giraldus Cambrensis (qv), and the The voyage of St Brendan (1976).

The main focus of his research always remained Augustine and Neoplatonism, but the interest he had developed in Eriugena came increasingly to the fore in later years and in 1970 he founded a society to promote Eriugena studies, in which he had long taken the lead. In Eriugena he saw a thinker who wrote in Latin but, remarkably for a ninth-century western European, knew Greek, and who had 'sought to reconcile the dominating, somewhat de-Platonised Augustinianism of the West with the Neoplatonised theology of the Greek Fathers' (Singing masters, 63). O'Meara's The young Augustine: the growth of St Augustine's mind up to his conversion (1954) became something of a classic on its subject and was later translated into French (1958) and reissued in paperback in 1980.

He took a keen interest in university politics, being elected to the UCD governing body (1956 and 1962) and to the senate of the National University of Ireland in 1962. By the time he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the college in 1964, following Michael Tierney's retirement, he had become a somewhat controversial figure in the eyes of some, owing to his views on such matters as the move of UCD to Belfield, which he opposed, and closer association with Trinity College, which he strongly espoused. In both instances, he was on the opposite side of the argument from Tierney. From early in his life, he had been a sceptic in relation to the revival of Irish: he was attracted to the language itself but viewed public policy in the light of what he saw as Ireland's enduring need to escape from cultural isolation. He was pragmatist enough to argue that Latin should cease to be required under university regulations, which, along with changes in the catholic church in the 1960s, had the effect of gradually reducing the hitherto large numbers in his department. Its larger impact may have been to contribute to the decline of Latin in the school curriculum, but this can hardly have been part of his purpose. He took a genuine interest in encouraging second-level teachers of classical subjects and was responsible for launching the Association of Classical Teachers in this cause. In all of these issues, his steely, combative side, not unfamiliar to his students, and his willingness to swim against the stream in the name of principle, whatever the cost to himself, was amply demonstrated.

Following retirement in 1984, he remained active in the studies to which he had devoted a significant part of his life, spending time in Princeton and other centres of excellence, as well as writing The singing masters, in which he displayed lyricism of vision and the felicity of his own style. The memoir deals only with his early life, ending with his departure from the Jesuits and marriage to Odile. There were many who regretted that no later volume followed. The year after it appeared, his colleagues produced a small Festschrift, From Augustine to Eriugena (1991), in his honour. This contains a comprehensive bibliography of his published work. He continued to keep in touch with and encourage his former students, offering friendship and advice as he had throughout his professorial career, up to the time of his death, which occurred unexpectedly in Dublin, after a minor operation, on 12 February 2003.

Sources
John O'Meara, The singing masters (1990); F. X. Martin OSA and J. A. Richmond (ed.), From Augustine to Eriugena: essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in honor of John O'Meara (1991); personal knowledge

Forename: John
Surname: O'Meara
Gender: Male
Career: Education, Classics and Languages
Religion: Catholic
Born 18 February 1915 in Co. Galway
Died 12 February 2003 in Co. Dublin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._O%27Meara

John J. O'Meara

John J. O'Meara (18 February 1915 – 12 February 2003) was an Irish classical scholar, historian of ancient and medieval philosophy (in particular Augustine and Eriugena), educationalist and writer.

Biography
John J. O'Meara was born in Eyrecourt (Co. Galway) to Mary Donelan and Patrick O'Meara on 18 February 1915, but lost his father when he was less than a year old. He had a younger brother, Patrick ('Paddy'). He was educated at Rockwell College and Garbally, Ballinasloe, becoming for a time a Jesuit seminarist. In his autobiographical book, The Singing Masters, O'Meara describes the hard times of his childhood, including the terror brought by the British Black and Tans, and by the subsequent Irish Civil War. He also describes his early experience of the beauty of nature, and of the difficult experience of following and at last ending his engagement as a Jesuit novice. A collection of short stories, Remembering Eyrecourt. Vignettes and Tales of earlier Days, Eyrecourt 2003, also describes the world of his childhood

O'Meara took an M.A. degree in classics at University College Dublin in 1939 and was awarded a scholarship allowing him to complete a Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford (1942–45). The Singing Masters also describes war-time Oxford and the antiquated (and quaint) conditions in which he studied there. His thesis concerned Augustine's use of Porphyry and was later revised and published in Paris (1959). Returning to Dublin he was appointed Professor of Latin at University College Dublin in 1948, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. O'Meara held visiting appointments at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University) and Vassar College. In Ireland he played a major role in the effort to modernize education in the schools and universities, in particular the teaching of Latin and Irish, and the collaboration between University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. His ideas were ahead of their time in the conservative and Church-dominated atmosphere in Ireland.

O'Meara contributed to the founding of the Irish Association of Classical Teachers in 1959. In 1954 he published The Young Augustine (with many re-editions), an introduction to reading Augustine's Confessions which has kept its value. As well as being a leading internationally recognized scholar on Augustine, he did much to further the study of the early medieval Irish philosopher John Scotus Eriugena, founding the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies in 1970 which stimulated a spectacular development in the study of Eriugena. He published a monograph on the philosopher, Eriugena (1988), and when he died he was working on finishing a complete edition and English translation of Eriugena's masterpiece, the Periphyseon. O'Meara also published English translations of Latin texts important to Ireland, Giraldus Cambrensis' Topography of Ireland and The Voyage of Saint Brendan. O'Meara was president of the Alliance Française in Ireland and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and of other international scholarly associations. In 1947 O'Meara married Odile de Barthes de Montfort, with whom he had three children and with whom he published a little book presenting new discoveries concerning Bernadette of Lourdes (Ordeal at Lourdes).

Select bibliography
A short biography and a bibliography of John O'Meara's publications in: From Augustine to Eriugena: Essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in Honor of John O'Meara, ed. F. X. Martin and J. A. Richmond, Washington, D. C., 1991, pages ix-xx.
The Topography of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis, Dundalk 1951 (also in Penguin Classics)
The Young Augustine: the growth of St. Augustine's mind up to his conversion, London, 1954
Reform in Education, Dublin 1958
Porphyry's philosophy from Oracles in St. Augustine, Paris, 1959
(with Odile de Montfort) Ordeal at Lourdes, Dublin 1959.
Charter of Christendom:the Significance of St. Augustine's city of God, New York City, 1962
The Voyage of Saint Brendan, Dublin 1976 (also Atlantic Highlands 1978).
Eriugena Periphyseon (The Division of Nature), translated by I. P. Sheldon-Williams revised by J. O'Meara, Montréal and Washington, D. C. 1987.
Eriugena, Oxford 1988.
The Singing Masters, Dublin 1990.
Studies in Augustine and Eriugena, edited by T. Halton, Washington, D. C., 1992.
Understanding Augustine, Dublin 1997

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/outspoken-and-popular-classical-scholar-1.349887

Outspoken and popular classical scholar
JOHN O'MEARA: John J

JOHN O'MEARA: John J. O'Meara, who has died aged 87, was Professor of Latin at University College, Dublin, from 1948 to 1984. A prominent figure in educational circles for almost half a century, he made a remarkable contribution to the development of classical studies in Ireland.

John Joseph O'Meara was born on February 18th 1915, the eldest of the two children of Patrick O'Meara and his wife, Mary (née Donelan), of Eyrecourt, Co Galway. His father died the following year and his mother took over the running of the family business; he and his brother were reared by their aunt.

He was educated at Rockwell College, Cashel, Co Tipperary, where he was drawn to the religious life and transferred to St Joseph's, Garbally, Co Galway, to pursue his vocation.

He later decided to join the Society of Jesus and, as a Jesuit scholastic, studied at UCD for the BA (1938) and MA (1939) in classics. Having studied philosophy at St Stanislaus College, Co Offaly, he taught Latin, Greek and German at Clongowes Wood, Co Kildare. In the early 1940s he studied at Oxford University, taking a doctorate in philosophy.

But doubts about his faith had taken hold and he reluctantly decided after 11 years to leave the Jesuits. In 1945 he started as an assistant in the UCD classics department. Two years later he was appointed to the chair of Latin. His lectures were immensely popular, treating Latin, a former student recalled, "as literature and not merely as a language". He presided or spoke at many student meetings, and students and colleagues were generously entertained in his period house in Sandymount.

A long series of scholarly publications established his reputation as a classicist of the first order. His research was primarily concerned with Eriugena (Johannes Scottus), the most notable of the ninth-century Irish scholars in Europe, whose work had been long neglected. In 1970 he founded the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies, which has resulted in a wealth of studies.

He himself wrote Eriugena (1988) and translated into English the final two books of the edition of Eriugena's greatest work, Periphyseon (De Divisione Naturae), published by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies in 1995.

His reputation was further enhanced by his many works on St Augustine, particularly by The Young Augustine: an introduction to the Confessions of St Augustine (1980). He is known in Ireland for Gerald of Wales's The History and Topography of Ireland and St Brendan's Navigatio. A memoir of his life up to the age of 30, The Singing-Masters, was published in 1990.

He was no stranger to controversy.

He opposed the proposal to move UCD from the centre of Dublin to Belfield. He criticised national policy to revive the Irish language. He advocated that Latin should cease to be a compulsory requirement at university. And his recommendation of a partial merger between UCD and Trinity College, Dublin, was attacked in 1958 by the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal D'Alton. His outspokenness almost certainly cost him election to the presidency of UCD in 1964.

On the expiry of his terms of office as a member of the UCD Governing Body and as a senator of the National University, he did not seek re-appointment to either body. When compulsory Latin requirements in church and university were dropped in 1966, his student numbers dropped dramatically.

Increasingly he spent semesters and sabbatical years abroad, including periods at Dumbarton Oaks as a fellow of Harvard and at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton. He built up a wide range of international contacts and his cooperation with leading French scholars was acknowledged by honours that included the Légion d'Honneur.

He played a major role in launching the Hiberno-Latin Dictionary project at the Royal Irish Academy.

His term as chairman of the National College of Art and Design coincided with significant improvements in its facilities and recognition for degree-level courses. He founded the Association of Classical Teachers to raise standards and morale among secondary teachers. Governor for Ireland of the Fondation Européenne de la Culture, he was also a director of Irish University Press.

He had a lifelong interest in music, studying the piano in his youth. He later considered pursuing a career as a singer. Later he was content to play for the entertainment of his grandchildren, "a not unjoyous or useless occupation".

He is survived by his wife, Odile de Barthès de Montfort, son Dominique, and daughters Caitriona (Brennan) and Odile (Ryan).

John O'Meara: born, 18th February; died, February 12th 2003