Colm Kiernan

Colm Patrick Kiernan, Historian. Born November 24, 1931, London, died March 27, 2010, Wollongong, aged 78. In 1964 Colm was appointed foundation Lecturer in History at the University of Wollongong, Australia. There began a long and successful career as an academic and researcher in both European and Australian History, which encompassed his writing of two volumes of “Science and the Enlightenment of 18th Century France”, the biographies of Arthur Calwell and Archbishop Daniel Mannix and his last book, “Australia and Ireland – Bicentennary Essays 1788-1988”.

Colm was the only son of Dr Thomas Joseph Kiernan, Irish Diplomat, and Delia Murphy, the Irish ballad singer. He received a classical education at boarding school in Clongowes, Ireland, the school which James Joyce describes in his writing “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. During this time, his father was posted to be the Irish Ambassador to the Vatican and his family was presented to the Pope. It was a grand occasion, and his parents, three sisters, Blon, Nuala and Orla were photographed for the local newspapers. Colm used to say the only thing he remembered from that occasion was that he was allowed to play on the Pope’s golden telephone. He was a strong believer in Catholocism, and having been educated by the Jesuits, he fully understood the Church laws and decrees. His faith was more an intellectual spiritual belief than a practical religiosity, but it was a very deep commitment from which he never wavered. He used to say that in boarding school he had attended enough Masses to last him the rest of his life.

When his father was appointed as the first Irish Ambassador to Australia, in 1946, Colm finished his schooling at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn. After completing his BA and MA at the University of Melbourne, he married Joan Louise McKay, (b 1935, d 1992) who had been the School Captain of Canberra High, on August 24, 1954 at St Christopher’s Church in Manuka, ACT, with a reception at the Hotel Canberra. They traveled to Cambridge, England, where Colm converted his degrees to a BA, MA (Cantab). Their first child, Margaret Joan Kiernan was born in Cambridge, while Carol Diane Kiernan was born in Dublin, Ireland, and Matthew Colm Kiernan in Wollongong.

While appointed Professor of Australian History at University College Dublin in Ireland, Colm researched the Irish background of many Australian political and historical figures including Peter Lalor. He was well versed in Irish, Gaelic, Celtic, Latin and old English and could translate many very difficult texts including those written by the Bronte sisters, also of Irish descent, particularly Charlotte who wrote in a mixture of Gaelic and old English.

He spoke fluent Italian, Spanish and French and loved language and literature and poetry. He wrote a poem for Susan Margaret Mayer, his second wife, whom he married on June 11, 1994. They had a son Ryan Colm Kiernan. He is survived by his wife Susan, his four children, Margaret, Carol, Matthew and Ryan, and nine grandchildren, Genevieve, Natasha, Elizabeth, Brendan, Madeline, Tighe, Roisin, Saoirse, Jarlath.

References:

Kiernan, Colm, Daniel Mannix and Ireland / Colm Kiernan Alella Books, Morwell, Vic. : 1984.