2013 Press Releases
UCC hosts Canon Sheehan conference
The life and achievements of the noted priest, author and social activist, Canon PA Sheehan will be celebrated at a conference on the 26 and 27 April.
The event – which is free, open to all and for which no pre-registration is required– is part of a year-long series of events to mark the centenary of Canon Sheehan’s death.
Leading historians of Canon Sheehan’s life and work will address the conference, including Professor Martin Putna, former Director of the Vaclav Havel Library, Prague; Dr Ruth Fleischmann, of the University of Bielefeld, Germany; Fr Joseph Hubbert, of Niagara University, USA; Professor Eda Sagarra of Trinity College Dublin; Dr Don O’Leary of University College Cork; Mr Declan O’Keefe of Clongowes Wood College; and Monsignor James O’Brien, of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Vatican city.
Topics to be covered during the event include the impact of Canon Sheehan’s work in the Czech language; his attitude to modern scientific advances; and the reception accorded to his work in Germany; as well as his pastoral work and social activism.
Conference co-organiser Gabriel Doherty of UCC’s School of History says: ‘The School of History is honoured to host this important academic gathering, the focus of which is the life, work and legacy of Canon Sheehan. He was a tremendously significant, but recently rather overlooked, figure in local, national and international, cultural, economic and political debates in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and we hope that this event will help to raise public awareness of the career of one of the most significant Irish clergymen of the last two hundred years.’
To coincide with the conference, on Sunday 28 April there will be a gathering of members of the public and speakers involved in the conference in Doneraile town, and a ‘Canon Sheehan walk’ will take place through the town and its hinterland, along a route of landmarks associated with the Canon’s life and his novels.
For further information please contact: Gabriel Doherty, University College Cork (T) 021 4902783, or the conference website: http://www.ucc.ie/en/history/