PAUL LENNON: Paul Lennon, who died earlier this month, was president of the Milltown Institute at a crucial time in its existence (1989-1995).
It had been established in 1968 as an amalgam of various theology schools in the south Dublin area. At first its teachers and students were exclusively clerical.
In 1989 its president was informed by Archbishop Connell that restrictions imposed by the Hierarchy on Milltown's degrees were to be lifted. This led to rapid expansion in lay student membership and teaching staff.
During his time Milltown obtained recognition from the National Council for Academic Awards (NCEA) so that it was able by the mid-90s to confer secular and Roman diplomas and degrees up to and including doctorate.
Born in 1936 Paul Lennon hailed from Omeath in Co Louth. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers college in Newry. After school he immediately entered the Carmelite order in which he was ordained in 1964.
He studied in UCD taking a degree in Latin and English. The college was changing at that time. There were new appointments such as J.J. O'Meara (see above) as Latin professor, and in English Denis Donoghue, Lorna Reynolds and John Jordan.
Paul was influenced by the Vincentian medievalist, Father Tom Dunning, who had brought in the revolutionary idea that old and middle English texts were literature to be explored and even enjoyed rather than mines for philologists. He went to Rome in 1959 where obtained degrees in philosophy and theology.
By 1965 he had enough of Rome and decided for Louvain. There he met Professor van Riet, who said to him, "Why don't you try something worthwhile, Fichte, for example?" He headed off on a journey that would take him 32 years, including study in Munich with the Fichte scholar Reinhard Lauth.
By occasionally taking a semester off here and there, he eventually obtained a summa cum laude for his thesis, Realism and Idealism: The Genesis of the Wissenschaftslehre in the Early Writings of Johann Gottlieb Fichte.
There were interruptions which benefited many others. He continued to lecture at the Milltown Institute taking a special interest in the philosophy of God and Kant. He had a livelier style of presentation than many of his colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s. One mature student at the time, who had not the slightest interest in the philosophy of God, attended his lectures just to enjoy the performance.
During these years he made significant contribution to the Carmelite order in the areas of administration and formation.
Within 15 months of his doctorate, in August 1999, he suffered a stroke. Four years of ill-health followed. When he had recovered reasonably well from the stroke, he was struck down with severe cancer. He found illness difficult and fought each inch constantly setting goals for himself.
He had a great delight in the GAA, in football, and had little regard for its fair-weather friends who attended only All-Ireland matches and did not brave the cold and the rain of winter league matches. Each year he embraced a short-lived hope that Louth might repeat the championship win of 1957 or the final of 1950.
He was a very able administrator, setting up the needed new structures in Milltown, but he will be best remembered as a supreme encourager and one who set very high store by loyalty in himself and others.
A short time ago he planned his funeral rites, choosing as a New Testament text, Romans 1:18-25. It was his final word to his friends and admirers: if we reject the knowledge and worship of God we are open to social and moral disorder. Deeply regretted by many friends, Carmelite and Milltown colleagues, he is survived by his cousins.
Paul Lennon: born 1936; died February 8th,2003