1. Alfred O'Rahilly, KSG was an academic with controversial views on both electromagnetism and religion.
17 Facts About Alfred O'Rahilly
1. 2.
Alfred O'Rahilly briefly served in politics, as a Teachta Dala for Cork Borough, and was later the president of University College Cork.
3.
Alfred O'Rahilly became a priest following the death of his wife.
4.
Alfred O'Rahilly was first educated at St Michael's College, Listowel and at Blackrock College in Dublin.
5.
Alfred O'Rahilly studied scholastic philosophy at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire following his master's degree, then returned to UCC for a BSc.
6.
Alfred O'Rahilly became Registrar of UCC in 1920, and held the post until 1943 when he became President of the University.
7.
Alfred O'Rahilly spent a year, in 1927, at Harvard studying social and political theory.
8.
The Alfred O'Rahilly Building was one of the major developments on the UCC campus in the 1990s and was named in honour of Alfred O'Rahilly.
9.
Alfred O'Rahilly supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for the Irish Free State with Darrell Figgis.
10.
Alfred O'Rahilly led Irish delegations to the International Labour Organization conferences in 1924,1925 and 1932, and took on a conciliatory role in trade union and employers disputes in Munster.
11.
Alfred O'Rahilly resigned in 1924, causing a by-election later that year which was won by the Cumann na nGaedheal candidate Michael Egan.
12.
Alfred O'Rahilly maintained his religious views throughout his life, and became a priest, and then Monsignor, in later years following the death of his wife.
13.
Alfred O'Rahilly was an advisor on university education to the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid and sat on an informal committee from 1950.
14.
Alfred O'Rahilly embraced Ritz's ballistic theory of light and Ritz's electrodynamics.
15.
Alfred O'Rahilly wrote against applying the theory of evolution to human society.
16.
Alfred O'Rahilly's brother T F O'Rahilly was a Celtic languages scholar and academic, noted for his contribution to the fields of historical linguistics and Irish dialects.
17.
Alfred O'Rahilly's sister Cecile O'Rahilly was a Celtic scholar, and published editions of both recensions of the Tain Bo Cuailnge and worked with her brother in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.