Writer and lecturer on Celtic spirituality and Irish-language enthusiast, Father Diarmuid ╙ Laoghaire died on July 21st aged 85.
Born in Dublin on August 1st, 1915, he was one of three children of Michael O'Leary, from Doneraile, Co Cork, and his wife Mary (nΘe Flood), from Co Meath; his father was manager of McBirney's department store in Dublin.
Brought up in Glasnevin, he was educated at Holy Faith Convent School and Belvedere College, where he played cricket and acquired a life-long interest in the game.
Under the influence of his Irish teacher at Belvedere, Tadhg ╙ Murchadha, his interest in the language developed. He took Celtic Studies at UCD, gaining an MA in 1939 for a thesis on a religious text by the 17th century author Geoffery Keating, research which has been incorporated into the standard biography of Keating.
He was awarded the NUI Travelling Studentship in Celtic Studies and subsequently pursued further research at Aberystwyth, where the British Library manuscripts had been moved because of the war.
He joined the Jesuits in 1933 and was ordained in 1948. During the 1950s he was responsible for the Jesuit students in Rathfarnham Castle, while still engaged in research, writing, and work with the Irish-language community. He was prefect of studies at Belvedere from 1960-62, and taught Irish at Gonzaga from 1962-77. Thereafter he was a member of the Jesuit community, Milltown Park.
He was awarded a PhD from UCD in 1967 for a thesis in Irish on the lives of the saints in the medieval period, a topic which exposed him to the Irish contribution to Christianity in Europe at that time.
As well as speaking Irish, he was fluent in French and Breton, and was well known throughout Wales, where he talked regularly on radio, and appeared on television. He also preached in Welsh on occasions. He translated a collection of short stories from some of the best modern Welsh authors into Irish. For his contributions in Welsh he was made a member of Gorsedd, or bard, in the Eisteddfod, an honour which is bestowed on merit.
As a lecturer both in Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Dublin, and in many other settings, he shared his gifts with others. His Milltown Institute colleagues honoured him with a Festschrift, Coth· an D·chais (1997), which included contributions from scholars in Wales, France and Ireland.
A gentle, gracious and convivial man, Father ╙ Laoghaire preferred to speak in Irish, but changed without demur to English as the company required. He could be droll, enjoying a story told against himself; together with his friend and confrΦre Father SΘamus MacAmhlaoibh he used travel the country to Irish-language gatherings.
He was dedicated to exploring and fostering the link between religious faith and Gaelic culture. Along with his more strictly scholarly interests, he devoted much time and energy to supporting and enriching the faith of the Irish-speaking community. This project was greatly energised by the change from Latin to the vernacular in the liturgy of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
He gave long service to a wide variety of groups, including Cumann na Sagart, Conradh na Gaeilge, An tOireachtas, Pobal an Aifrinn, An Chuallacht, Scoil Ghaelach Bhr∅ Chualann, and especially An RΘalt, the Irish-language section of the Legion of Mary. In recognition of his services to Irish-language groups he was awarded Gradam an Phiarsaigh in 1992.
As editor of Foilseachβin ┴bhair Spioradβlta and through translations and other writings, he was one of those who ensured that a relatively varied spiritual and liturgical literature of Catholic provenance is available in Irish.
Long time a contributor to An Timire (the Irish-language devotional magazine founded by the Jesuits in 1911), he was also editor from 1972-1997.
His collection of prayers from the Gaelic oral tradition of Ireland and Scotland, ┴r bPaidreacha D·chais (1975), was a major contribution to the study of popular spirituality. The book has run into four editions. His last scholarly publication, a critical edition of an apocryphal life of Mary from an Irish 15th century text, will be published in Belgium in the Corpus Christianorum series.
Father Diarmuid ╙ Laoghaire: born 1915; died, July 2001