Eulogy delivered by Dr Peter Denman
Dean of Arts, NUIM
Professor Thomas A. F. Kelly, R.I.P.
25 February 2008
We are here to salute the passing of a friend and colleague, Professor Thomas Kelly, a
man who professed both his subject and his faith with ardour, and we are here to express
our sympathy with Marian his wife and Mary his mother, and to show solidarity with
each other – for so many of us are going to feel the absence of Tom from our lives.
My task is to say a few words - appropriate words - about Tom, and the words that come
first to mind are these: Exuberant, generous, zestful, talented, ebullient, irrepressible,
good, knowledgeable, joyful, kind, indefatigable, lovable, loving, fun to be with.
These capture some qualities of the Tom we knew, qualities that remained undiminished
through an active and distinguished professional life.
Tom discovered his academic path early, studying philosophy as an undergraduate at
UCD in the 1970s. He was one of just five taking major philosophy in his year, and
probably unusual in that he was not a cleric. But he was always an individual in his
chosen path. He went on to have a glittering career as a postgraduate student, doing his
PhD research at Fribourg in Switzerland. Throughout his professional life as a
philosopher he was an energising presence on this campus for more than two decades,
attached first of all to St Patrick’s College and latterly to NUI Maynooth. His transition
between the two institutions was not one of departure but of inclusiveness, and he
relished the fact that the Department of Philosophy operated across our co-located
institutions. When in due course Tom was appointed professor of Philosophy, he was the
very first lay person to hold that position in the two centuries since the foundation of
Maynooth..
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We might want to dwell on what he would have done in future years, but let us think of
all he achieved. He lectured in Europe, the US and Asia; taught a course in the University
of Vienna. He founded Cairde Tomas Naofa, established the Chapter for Process
Thought in Maynooth, and was Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in SPCM..
His academic interests were multiple, embracing metaphysics, the philosophy of
language, philosophical anthropology and process thought. Books that he wrote or edited
included Language and Transcendance on Heidegger and Apel, Language, World and
God, Between System and Poetics, and Amor Amicitiae. He was President of the Irish
Philosophical Society, and edited its journal and the Maynooth Philosophical Papers. He
compiled and contributed to “What Price the University?”, stimulating colleagues to set
out their ideas on third-level education in the present climate. When the compendious
Encyclopedia of Ireland was published by Gill and Macmillan in 2005, Tom was an
invited expert contributor, like a number of our colleagues in the Faculty of Arts, - but
Tom was the only one of us who also had an entry devoted to him in the encyclopedia.
His academic record was distinguished, but even those of us who knew him as an
academic colleague realised there was so much more to him than that. His happiness in
his life with Marion, the mutual support and companionship of his mother Mary which
had been maintained ever since the death of his father while Tom was still a student, his
own indomitable spirit and steady faith, and the warm benevolence that seemed to inform
his every action – all this was part of the person.he was.
I remember, on his appointment to the Professorship of Philosophy, he hailed me in the
Arts Building, keen to tell me his news. There was nothing preeening or self-regarding,
he just wanted to share the good news, and he was rightly confident that I like many
others would be pleased on hearing it – pleased for him, and pleased at his pleasure. That
was Tom, he was a centre of delight.
Talking to our undergraduates here, I have seen their eyes light up when describing his
courses; I have heard them applauding at the end of his course lectures. Whether in the
timetabled formality of the lecture hall and seminar room, or at a chance meeting in a
queue for coffee, Tom was open to his students, and he opened up philsophy for them. At
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the end of last week a small book of condolence was placed outside his office.. It has a
number of heartfelt messages, but there are two written by students that struck me
especially. One, from the third year class representative, having said how much Professor
Kelly will be missed, ends simply but eloquently with “Thank you, sir, thank you”. And
another wrote “Dear Thomas, I always walked down this corridor just hoping to bump
into you”.
Yes, many of us looked forward to just such a casual meeting. But in fact, there was no
such thing as a casual conversation with Tom; it was always a full-on engaged encounter
that could take off in several directions, serious but never dull, fun but never frivolous, it
might range across languages - for he had a knowledge of some half-dozen, classical and
contemporary; if you introduced a quotation, Tom would cap it or complete it; he always
had an apt riposte to any comment. Indeed, as I speak here today it occurs to me – but
gives me no pleasure - that this may be the first time Tom is allowing someone else to
have the last word..
I have seen him stand forward to address a couple of hundred secondary school pupils,
brought together by their teachers for an information day ostensibly about CAO
applications and points and hints for the leaving certificate subjects, and who visibly
recoiled when they learned that someone was going to take thirty minutes of their time
talking about philosophy. But within minutes of starting, Tom would have have their full
attention, and that attention directed not at him but to problems of existence, or morality,
or modes of argument
For he was a tireless advocate for philosophy - it was central to his life, and he
understood that its concerns were central to ours. And this advocacy had nothing to do
with promoting the territorial claims of his subject or department, it was a seamless
commitment to the intellectual and moral concerns of living and thinking. And his
scholarly reach extended across disciplines. He not only took every opportunity possible
to remind us that philosophy should underpin every facet of our work, he put that idea
into practice. He was always ready to enter into dialogue with other disciplines, his
philosophy department was remarkable for the number of visiting speakers, many of
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them coming from the sciences or from the social sciences. More than anyone else, his
career has bestridden the two institutions here.
And beyond all this, he produced striking paintings, he had a fine singing voice, he was a
bellringer, he studied creative writing and was published.. Because of the breadth of his
accomplishments one might be tempted to style him a “renaissance man”, but to say that
would do him an injustice in that it suggests he was out of his time. Whereas Tom was
very much linked to and involved with our time, our world, our issues.
So, if I must find words for Tom, they need to be words carefully chosen, highly
wrought, poetic and spiritual. And I think these lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins catch
something of the zest, the involvement, the intense living quality of the man whose loss
we feel so sharply today.
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves – goes itself; myself it speaks and spells;
Crying What I do is me; for that I came.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam – dona ei requiem - may the earth rest lightly on him.
(Peter Denman)
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