Alfred O'Rahilly, KSG (1 October 1884 – 1 August 1969) was an academic with controversial views on both

electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

and religion. He briefly served in politics, as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...

(TD) for Cork Borough, and was later the president of

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

. He also became a priest following the death of his wife.

Education and academia

Born (with the last name Rahilly) in Listowel,

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

to Thomas Francis Rahilly of Ballylongford, County Kerry and Julia Mary Rahilly (''née'' Curry) of Glin, County Limerick. He was first educated at St Michael's College, Listowel and at Blackrock College in Dublin. O'Rahilly first earned University College Cork degrees in mathematical physics (BA 1907, MA 1908). He studied scholastic philosophy at Stonyhurst College in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

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 of

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

. 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 founded '' Cork University Press'' in 1925. He spent a year, in 1927, at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

studying social and political theory. In 1938, he published a controversial book surveying electromagnetic theory called ''Electromagnetics'' (Longman, Green and Company), republished in 1956 by Dover as ''Electromagnetic theory, a critical examination of fundamentals.'' In 1939, UCC conferred on him the degree D.Litt., and in 1940 the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

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.

Politics and public life

After the 1916

Easter Rising The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...

, O'Rahilly publicly supported

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

and was elected to Cork City Council as a Sinn Féin and Transport Workers candidate. Arrested early in 1921 for political writings, O'Rahilly was interned in Spike Island prison. Released in October 1921 he was

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

al adviser to the Irish Treaty Delegation. O'Rahilly supported the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...

and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

with Darrell Figgis. O'Rahilly led Irish delegations to the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

conferences in 1924, 1925 and 1932, and took on a conciliatory role in

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and employers disputes in

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

. As President of

, he initiated workers' education courses in the university in the late 1940s which proved popular with Cork trade unionists. Standing as a candidate in Cork Borough for Cumann na nGaedheal, he was elected to the 4th Dáil at the 1923 general election. He resigned in 1924, causing a by-election later that year which was won by the Cumann na nGaedheal candidate Michael Egan.

Religion

A deeply religious

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

from early life, O'Rahilly was a member of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

but left before ordination and was dispensed from his vows. He maintained his (sometimes controversial) religious views throughout his life, and became a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, and then

Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

, in later years following the death of his wife. He wrote a biography of Willie Doyle. He also contributed to The Irish Catholic weekly newspaper. In 1954,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

conferred on him the Pontifical Order of Saint Gregory the Great. He was also an advisor on university education to the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid and sat on an informal committee from 1950. The committee included O'Rahilly, and the other presidents of the

; Michael Tierney of UCD, Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, Cardinal D'Alton, and Bishops Cornelius Lucey of Cork and Michael Browne of

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

Science

In O'Rahilly's major survey of electromagnetic theory, ''Electromagnetics'' (1938), he opposed

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...

's dominant (British) theory of the electromagnetic field and followed the French Catholic physicist, historian of science, and

philosopher of science Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Pierre Duhem Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (; 9 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of Elasticity (physics), elasticity. Duhem was also a prolif ...

in rejecting Maxwell's field account. As a logical consequence of his rejection of Maxwell, O'Rahilly also rejected Albert Einstein's

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...

. O'Rahilly embraced Ritz's ballistic theory of light and Ritz's electrodynamics. While Ritz's theory reduces to

Coulomb's Law Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental scientific law, law of physics that calculates the amount of force (physics), force between two electric charge, electrically charged particles at rest. This electric for ...

and Ampere's Law, since its derivation is phenomenological, it differs from the Liénard–Wiechert potential. O'Rahilly also wrote against applying the theory 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.

Family

His brother T. F. O'Rahilly was a

Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...

scholar and academic, noted for his contribution to the fields of

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

and Irish

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s. His sister

Cecile O'Rahilly Cecile O'Rahilly (; 17 December 1894 in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland – 2 May 1980 in Dublin, Ireland) was a scholar of the Celtic languages. She is best known for her editions/translations of the various recensions of the Ulster Cycle epic ...

was also a Celtic scholar, and published editions of both recensions of the '' Táin Bó Cúailnge'' and worked with her brother in the School of Celtic Studies at the

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...

. His first cousin The O'Rahilly was one of the founding members of the Irish Volunteers and died in the

.Breathnach, Diarmuid; Ní Mhurchú, Máire.
Ó RATHGHAILLE, Micheál Seosamh (1875–1916)
. ''Ainm''. Retrieved 27 December 2020.

Writings

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) and ''Electromagnetic Theory'' (2 vols, 1965).
''Father William Doyle S.J.''
(1922)
''Electromagnetics: A Discussion of Fundamentals''
(1938)

References

External links

Denis O'Sullivan
ed., ''Social Commitment and Adult Education: Essays in Honor of Alfred O'Rahilly as an Irish Adult Educator'' (Cork University Press, 1989)

in Humphry's Family Tree * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orahilly, Alfred 1884 births 1969 deaths Presidents of University College Cork Alumni of University College Cork Cumann na nGaedheal TDs 20th-century Irish Jesuits Knights of St. Gregory the Great Members of Cork City Council Members of the 4th Dáil People educated at Blackrock College People educated at St Michael's College, Listowel Politicians from County Kerry Relativity critics People from Listowel, County Kerry Christian clergy from County Kerry Scholars and academics from County Kerry Academics of University College Cork