{{Short description|Australian historian and writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}} {{Use British English|date=July 2011}} {{infobox writer | name = Colm Kiernan | image = COLM_KIERNAN_in1976.jpg | imagesize = 230px | alt = | caption = Colm Kiernan in 1976. | pseudonym = | birth_name = Colm Padraic Kiernan | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1931|11|24}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2010|3|27|1931|11|24|df=y}} | death_place = Wollongong, Australia | resting_place = Lakeside Memorial Park, Kanahooka | occupation = Historian, writer | nationality = | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = BA, MA (Melb)<br/>BA, MA (Cantab)<br/>PhD (UNSW) | alma_mater = }}
'''Colm Padraic Kiernan''' (24 November 1931 – 27 March 2010) was an Australian historian and writer.
== Historian ==
In 1964, Colm Kiernan was appointed foundation Lecturer in History at the University of Wollongong, Australia.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://ro.uow.edu.au/campusnews/57|title=History of Wollongong|date=30 November 1979|work=University of Wollongong Campus News|access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> 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<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/24/1048354539815.html|title=Labor's lesson to learn|last=Henderson|first=Gerard|date=25 March 2003|work=smh.com.au|access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> and Archbishop Daniel Mannix, and his last book, ''Australia and Ireland – Bicentenary Essays 1788–1988''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com.au/newspapers?id=BwARAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yZIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3902,5727508&dq=colm-kiernan&hl=en|title=Time for conclusions on the role of the Irish|last=Clark|first=Manning|date=18 April 1987|work=The Age|access-date=13 April 2010}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
== Irish background == Kiernan was the only son of Dr Thomas Joseph Kiernan, Irish diplomat and academic,<ref> Kiernan, T. J., "Transportation from Ireland to Sydney, 1791–1816", Canberra : 1954.</ref><ref>Kiernan, T. J., "The Irish exiles in Australia", Burns & Oates, Melbourne : 1954.</ref><ref>Kiernan, T. J., "The white hound of the mountain, and other Irish folk tales", Devin-Adair Co., 1962.</ref> and the Irish ballad singer Delia Murphy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/showfilm.php?fid=73862|title=The Ballad of Delia Murphy|year=1988|work=tcd.ie|access-date=23 April 2010}}</ref><ref>O'Hara, Aidan, "I'll live till I die": Drumlin Publications. Leitrim:1997, {{ISBN|1-873437-17-X}}.</ref> Thomas and Delia had four children, Blon, Nuala, Colm and Orla. Colm 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<ref>Kiernan, T. J., "Pope Pius XII", with an introd. by Fulton Sheen, Clonmore & Reynolds, Dublin : 1958.</ref> and his family was presented to the Pope. It was a grand occasion, when he, his parents and three sisters were photographed for the local newspapers. Kiernan 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 Catholicism, and having been educated by the Jesuits, he 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.<ref name="SMH">[http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/irish-scholar-loved-an-argument-and-flourished-in-australia-20100415-shhd.html "Irish scholar loved an argument and flourished in Australia"] ''smh.com.au.'' 16 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.</ref>
== Poem == The Irish poet Daniel Kelleher wrote this poem for Kiernan (here shown as CK) to mark his christening.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Caroline | author-link =Caroline Kennedy |title=The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis |publisher=Hyperion |location=New York |date=2001 |page=134}}</ref> It was read at his funeral.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/irish-australian-historian-who-was-scholarly-fiery-and-a-great-teacher-1.653726 |title=Irish-Australian historian who was 'scholarly, fiery and a great teacher' |date=17 April 2010 |work=irishtimes.com |access-date=28 October 2025}}</ref>
{{poemquote| ''For CK at his Christening''
We wish to the new child, A heart that can be beguiled, By a flower, That the wind lifts, As it passes. If the storms break for him, May the trees shake for him, Their blossoms down.
In the night that he is troubled, May a friend wake for him, So that his time be doubled, And at the end of all loving and love May the Man above, Give him a crown. }} When he was the Irish Ambassador to the United States, T. J. Kiernan recited this poem to the parents of John F. Kennedy Jr. soon after he was born in 1960. It was recited again by Senator Ted Kennedy to mark the death of John Jr. in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/EMK/Tribute+to+John+F.+Kennedy+Junior.htm|title=Tribute to John F. Kennedy Junior|last=Kennedy|first=Edward M.|date=23 July 1999|work=jfklibrary.org|access-date=17 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625070053/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical%2BResources/Archives/Reference%2BDesk/Speeches/EMK/Tribute%2Bto%2BJohn%2BF.%2BKennedy%2BJunior.htm|archive-date=25 June 2006|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
== Irish Australian == When his father was appointed as the first Irish Ambassador to Australia, in 1946, Kiernan finished his schooling at St Patrick's College, Goulburn.<ref> "The Dictionary of Irish Biography", 9 Volume Set, Edited by James McGuire, James Quinn, Cambridge University Press: 2010, 9780521633314, entry under Kiernan, Thomas Joseph, by Michael Kennedy.</ref> After completing his BA and MA at the University of Melbourne, he married Joan Louise McKay (1935–1992) on 24 August 1954, at St Christopher's Church in Manuka, A.C.T. They traveled to Cambridge, England, where Kiernan converted his degrees to a BA, MA (Cantab). Their first child was born in Cambridge, their second in Dublin, Ireland, and the third in Wollongong. Kiernan was the first PhD completion in the Arts Faculty for the University of New South Wales, Kensington.<ref name="SMH"/>
While appointed Professor of Australian History at University College Dublin in Ireland, Kiernan researched the Irish background of many Australian political and historical figures including Henry Handel Richardson and Peter Lalor.<ref> "Australia and Ireland, 1788–1988 : bicentenary essays" (1986) {{ISBN|0-7171-1474-0}}</ref> He was well versed in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Latin, and old English and could translate many very difficult texts including those written by the Brontë sisters, also of Irish descent, particularly Charlotte, who wrote in a mixture of Gaelic and old English.<ref name="SMH"/>
He spoke fluent Italian, Spanish, and French, loved language, literature, and poetry, and was passionate about all things Irish Australian. He married Susan Margaret Mayer, his second wife, on 11 June 1994, and they had a son together. Kiernan is survived by Susan, his four children and nine grandchildren.<ref name="SMH"/>
==Bibliography== {{Expand list|date=September 2016}} *{{cite book |author=Kiernan, Colm |title=The Enlightenment and science in eighteenth-century France |year=1973 <!--isbn=-->}} *{{cite book |author=Kiernan, Colm |author-mask=1 |title=Calwell : a personal and political biography |location=West Melbourne |publisher=Thomas Nelson |year=1978 <!--isbn=0-17-005185-4-->}} *''Ireland and Australia'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-207-15008-7}} *''Daniel Mannix and Ireland'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-949681-14-8}} *''Australia and Ireland, 1788–1988 : bicentenary essays'' (1986) {{ISBN|0-7171-1474-0}} *''The Irish in the Labor movement'' (1991) {{ISBN|0-7305-9155-7}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/irish-scholar-loved-an-argument-and-flourished-in-australia-20100415-shhd.html Obituary] in The Sydney Morning Herald *[http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/obituaries/2010/0417/1224268534706.html Obituary] in The Irish Times
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiernan, Colm}} Category:1931 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Irish emigrants to Australia Category:Australian biographers Category:University of New South Wales alumni Category:University of Melbourne alumni Category:People educated at St Patrick's College, Goulburn