Winner of the 2004 Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book, American Conference for Irish Studies
“This is a fine and impressive piece of work that makes an original contribution to nineteenth-century Irish history generally and to Irish education specifically. It will be welcomed by scholars who seek information about this important episode of Irish history.” —Senia Paseta, St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University
The history of the Catholic University of Ireland has long been overshadowed by the personality and writings of its first rector, John Henry Newman. Newman, author of the renowned _The Idea of a University, _played a vital role in the foundation of the university. But Colin Barr’s new study paints a richer portrait of CUI’s history by focusing on the university itself and on the influence of its founder Paul Cullen, archbishop of Armagh and then Dublin.
Most historians have based their treatments of the Catholic University of Ireland on Newman’s own voluminous correspondence and later writings and have tended uncritically to accept Newman’s own understanding of his role in Dublin and his relationship with Cullen. Newman has been cast in the role of a liberal, creative visionary who was frustrated at every turn by the obscurantist, ultramontane Cullen. Barr seeks to reassess Cullen’s role in the founding and history of the University by utilizing previously unavailable sources and by relocating the history of the Catholic University in its Irish context.
Paul Cullen, John Henry Newman, and the Catholic University of Ireland, 1845–1865 presents a balanced treatment of both the university and of Newman and Cullen’s roles in its history. The resulting text is a fascinating story of determination, conflict, and failure.
COLIN BARR lectures in modern European history at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
“Barr’s well-researched study . . . offers real insight . . . into an often-overlooked period of Irish history. Barr’s book is useful and evenhanded history, well organized, clearly presented, and based on wide-ranging research.” — Journal of Modern History
“. . . A marvelous and sometimes surprising picture of Newman’s work in the context of Irish higher education. Those wanting a careful and judicious explanation of a legendary relationship of two highly talented cleric-educators in the atmosphere of the midnineteenth-century Irish Catholic Church will find a full reading well rewarded.” — History of Education Quarterly
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