The life and times of a great Kerry scholar will be recalled at a commemorative talk in Killarney Library on this Thursday night from 7.00pm to 8.00pm.
Retired priest and author Fr Tom Looney will remember Caherciveen native Fr Charles Brennan (1875-1937) who was a professor in St Brendan’s College Killarney for nine years.
As a Gaelic activist, he helped found Craobh na nÁirne of the Gaelic League and edit the famed monthly publication Loch Léin.
Writing under his pen-name ‘Óisín’, Fr Charles achieved national acclaim. As curate in Tralee (1907-1914) he became actively involved with the volunteers with the result that Dublin Castle insisted on him being transferred from the capital.
En route to his Castletownbere parish ‘Small’ Jer O’Leary from Killarney presented Fr Charles with a rifle at Killarney’s Railway Station. He did so on behalf of the Tralee volunteers as their parting gift to their leader.
Fr Charles is buried in the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Ballydaly.
The lecture will be delivered by Fr Tom Looney, a noted historian and the author of the biography on the GAA’s first superstar Dick Fitzgerald – King in a Kingdom of Kings – which was first published by the Currach Press in 2008
Following his ordination in 1969, he became emigrant chaplain in Wembley in London and later served for six years in the Cork mission to Peru.
On his return to the Kerry Diocese, Fr Tom was based for 16 years in Tralee and Ardfert, four in Tuosist and eight years in Kilcummin before he was appointed parish priest in Dingle. He was transferred to Fossa in 2015 and he retired in August 2020 following 51 years in the priesthood.
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