Thomas Kelly, Salzburg 2006

Professor Thomas A.F. Kelly (1956-2008)
Head of Department of Philosophy, NUI Maynooth, Ireland.

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Like other members of the IPN board and the process community in general, I was very shocked to hear that Thomas is no longer with us.

I had met Thomas at four of our international process meetings. I was very pleased to meet him first in St. Andrews when Mark Dibben organised the first meeting in decades on process thought in Britain. Mark had put together a fantastic little meeting to kick things off in the UK and it is a great tribute to Mark that he was able to gather together a wonderful bunch of people — particularly, of course, that he invited Thomas along.

Thomas for me was the life of the party. He was someone who was so erudite; he had such a wide range of knowledge on all different sorts of things, and a terrific sense of (Irish) humour to go with it. Some of my favourite memories of the beautiful town of St Andrews are ones I spent chatting to Thomas.

I was able then to see him again later in Korea and then particularly a year later in Dublin. Thomas had taken over the mantle from Mark for the Chapter of Process Thought in the UK and carried on the great work that Mark initiated. As St. Thomas brought Christianity to India, St. Thomas Kelly brought process to Ireland!

Dublin and particularly Maynooth was Thomas — Thomas in his element. I remember going with him to his crowded office — crowded with his library of books that were as much about art and science as it was about philosophy and theology. We had a great chat about art and the works in the National Gallery in Dublin. I knew that his wife Marian was a sculptor but until then I didn’t know just how much art played a part of Thomas’s life and thought. I reminded him about the Irish artist (Phelan Gibb) who once stayed with the Whitehead’s for an extended time in Lockeridge … but disgraced himself by getting drunk. “A drunk Irishman!”, Thomas said, “you’d never hear of it”.

We had a bit of a chat about physics, and he also took time to tell me something of the history of the University and of the buildings. He told me of the story of the mad academic who chose to drive his car over the pedestrian bridge between the old and new sections of the Uni and got well and truly stuck on the other side! Not sure if he was drunk!

I teased him about the conference we were about to have, and told him that I hoped he had the Chieftains organised to provide some musical entertainment at the conference dinner. He looked rather askance at my request and said when it came to music he was “one who preferred Wagner”. Fine, but still I was here in Ireland and in Ireland one heard the Chieftains (or U2 if they were cheap enough). He was not moved. Thomas was Irish, but not that Irish! As much as Maynooth was home he was as much a highly cultured European, with broad interests in many areas of learning, wonderfully enthused by all facets of art and music, and a fabulous linguist. And the occasion arose at this meeting when a simultaneous translation of a paper delivered in French was required and Thomas was the one for the job.

I remember him telling me about defending his PhD thesis in Fribourg, though I can’t quite remember if it was conducted in French or English. But he did have one examiner who was a rather pompous German, who when it came to asking his questions asked if Thomas could now answer in German (even though this professor could speak English as well as anyone). This was something that was a bit of a surprise, but he didn’t protest at all and so continued his defence in fluent German. (I suggested what that he should’ve said to the German examiner, “it is fine by me if you want to ask your questions in German, provided I can answer in Gaelic” — which of course he could just have easily done. He loved that idea, but we agreed that if Thomas had said that he would still be Thomas A F Kelly MA.)

I had always hoped that there would be a chance for Thomas to come to Australia (I think he said Marian had done some work in New Zealand). We once discussed the idea and I thought it would be great to have Thomas give a humorous talk in philosophy — say an after-dinner talk — as well as a serious conference presentation. He immediately came up with a title — one with a Wittgensteinian theme and one he said he’d sort of given once before though not quite with this title. It would be called “An Irishman Looks at the Tractatus”.

Ludwig, of course, had spent some time in Ireland, but I was left to wonder what on earth Thomas would come up with in such a talk. I knew it would be enormously entertaining if he were to give it, but very sadly now, I will forever wonder what he had in mind.

The highlight of our Dublin conference was when Thomas arranged for us to hear some of the papers being read in the library Royal Irish Academy. A wonderful, wonderful place so steeped in history.

He certainly went out of his way to make our whole time in Dublin and Maynooth a very memorable one.

I was able to meet up again with Thomas in Salzburg in 2006. Of course I didn’t think at that time it was be the last time many of us would see him. I know he, as much as us all, was looking forward to visiting India next year.

The photo included here is from that conference in Salzburg.

Peter Farleigh 8 April 2008