Monsignor Patrick J Corish, RIP

Monsignor Corish, Emeritus Professor of History and former Presiden of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, had died.  May he rest in peace.  From the Maynooth website:

Patrick J Corish, a native of County Wexford, was a priest of the diocese of Ferns. For many years he was professor of history in Saint Patrick's College Maynooth, in succession to the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich. Patrick Corish was the kind of teacher for whom every student longed. Entertaining, dedicated, serious, penetrating, supportive and challenging all at once, for many he was simply the best teacher they ever had.


For his professional colleagues he was a first class researcher, introducing to Irish ecclesiastical history in particular the scholarly innovations and methodological advances characteristic of the best continental historiography.

He contributed crucially to the growth and consolidation of the department of history in Maynooth and ensured its status as the preeminent department in the Faculty and one of the best in these islands.

An engaging and talented writer, his books, articles and reviews constitute an important historical corpus in themselves and remain the sine qua non for an informed understanding of the history of the early modern Irish Catholic community. His history of Maynooth College (1995) is well known and few books made as deep an impression on contemporaries as his provocative, elegant and eminently readable The Irish Catholic Experience (1985). He acted for many years as the editor of the sources journal Archivium Hibernicum and coordinated the History of Irish Catholicism project. His work on the early modern Irish martyrs, along with that of Benignus Millett OFM, was crucial to the success of their cause in Rome. He died on 10th January 2013.

1921: Born in Ballycullane, County Wexford
1939: Entered Maynooth College, for the diocese of Ferns

1945: Ordained to the Priesthood
1947: Awarded Doctorate in Theology, and appointed Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
1967: President of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth
1968: Reverted to being Professor of Ecclesiastical History

1975: Professor of Modern History at the Recognised College of the National University of Ireland in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth

1986: Retired as Professor, but became Archivist to the College

1995: Authored Maynooth College 1795 – 1995, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2005

2005: Appointed Monsignor (Pronotary Apostolic Supernumerary)

2013: Died on 10th January 2013.