Kathleen O'Flaherty (26 December 1916 – 21 July 1994) was an Irish scholar, academic and writer on French literature based in University College Cork.

Early life and education

Kathleen Mary Josephine O'Flaherty was born in Mayfield,

Enniscorthy Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountains and Ireland's longest beach, Curracloe. The Plac ...

, County Wexford to Bernard Joseph O'Flaherty and his wife, Frances Mary Lewis. Her father was a prominent solicitor in the town. She was educated by the Ursuline convent, St Mary's, Waterford. After finishing secondary school O'Flaherty spent a year at the Université Catholique de Lille before going on to

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 ...

where she graduated in 1938 with a BA in English and French. While there she was the first graduate to be awarded the French government medal and also won the Peel memorial prize. O'Flaherty continued her studies in UCC gaining her master's for a dissertation on

A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classics, classical scholar and poet. He showed early promise as a student at the University of Oxford, but he failed his final examination in ''literae humaniores'' and t ...

in 1939. Her thesis supervisor at the time was Daniel Corkery. Though she then achieved the travelling studentship from 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 ...

, O'Flaherty was unable to use it due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She went on to gain her Ph.D. in 1943 with a dissertation on

François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Bri ...

Career

After completing all her college degrees, O'Flaherty took a part-time position in the college and also taught in the Cork school founded by Mary and Eithne MacSwiney. She also wrote a number of books in these first few years, including ''Voltaire: myth and reality'' (1945) and ''Paul Claudel and ‘The tidings brought to Mary''’ (1948). In 1945 O'Flaherty took up a position as assistant editor of

Cork University Press Cork University Press (CUP) is a publisher located in Cork, Ireland. It was founded in 1925 and is associated with University College Cork. The Press publishes under its own imprint and two others: Attic (which specializes in women's studies) ...

working closely with her mentor

Alfred O'Rahilly Alfred O'Rahilly, KSG (1 October 1884 – 1 August 1969) was an academic with controversial views on both electromagnetism and religion. He briefly served in politics, as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork Borough, and was later the president of Un ...

who was president of UCC. She worked there until 1953. Her own publications were on French interests and she was published in several journals. O'Flaherty shared her home from this point on with a fellow French lecturer Yvonne Servais. They lived together for the rest of their lives. They worked on new undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for the university. O'Flaherty was promoted to lecturer in 1954 and to a readership in 1968. In 1970, she became the professor of French. She began to increase her writing output and published several new books. O'Flaherty and Servais lived in Rosscarbery, County Cork but spent significant time in Paris every year. They built up an excellent library, left to UCC when they died. This library is housed in UCC Library's Special Collections. In 1972 O'Flaherty was made a chevalier in the

Ordre national du mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

by the French government. Servais died after a brief illness in June. O'Flaherty died in the

Bon Secours Hospital, Cork The Bon Secours Hospital, Cork is a private hospital in Cork, Ireland. The hospital is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health. This includes sister hospitals in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Tralee. The hospital has over 18,000 admissions and 29,000 o ...

on 21 July 1994.

Bibliography

*''Voltaire: myth and reality''. Cork: Cork University Press, 1945. * ''Paul Claudel and The tidings brought to Mary''. Preface by Paul Claudel. Cork: Cork University Press, 1948. *''L'explication francaise'' with Yvonne Servais, Cork: Cork University Press, 1964. *''The novel in France, 1945–1965: a general survey''; Cork: Cork University Press, 1973. *''The Irish Novel in Our Time''; Publications de l'Université de Lille III, 1976. * ''Pessimisme de Chateaubriand : resonances et limites''. Paris: Academie Europeenne du Livre, 1989.

Early life and education

Career

Bibliography

References

Further reading