"A pioneer and reformer is honoured." The words are Dr Ken Whitaker's, speaking at the publication of Thomas A. Finlay SJ, 1848-1940: Educationalist, editor, social reformer by Thomas J. Morrissey SJ (Four Courts Press, €35), writes Brendan Ó Cathaoir
Born in Co Roscommon, Finlay was the son of a Scottish Presbyterian. Ordained priest in 1880, initially he had the dual responsibility of rector at Belvedere and professor at the then Jesuit-run University College on St Stephen's Green. He became, in turn, professor of classics, of philosophy, and of political economy in UCD.
Many factors combined to forge his remarkable impact on university students, and his influence among educationalists and literary figures. Gifted intellectually and an independent thinker with wide-ranging interests, he mixed easily with young people and fostered their skills as writers and public speakers.
C.P. Curran, a friend of James Joyce, observed that a notable proportion of Finlay's students staffed government departments after the foundation of the State. They "had one common denomination, an unselfish instinct for public service. They got their impetus in great measure from Finlay."
As teacher and social reformer, he instilled a responsible patriotism. Besides his seemingly endless energy and capacity for work, an amiable disposition drew people to him.
Described by Owen Dudley Edwards as "pre-eminently the Renaissance man of the Irish Renaissance", Finlay was a founder member, with John O'Leary, Yeats and Maud Gonne, of the National Literary Society of Ireland. He was the founder or co-founder of six journals and editor of three; they ranged from the Irish Messenger to the Irish Homestead - organ of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society - to Studies.
All this made him widely known in Dublin. What made him a household name throughout much of the country was his work in the agricultural co-operative movement. George Moore thought it a pity "so delightful an intelligence should be wasted on agriculture".
While the agricultural co-operative movement is indelibly linked to Sir Horace Plunkett, Finlay was the virtual co-founder. He was a strong proponent of the Raiffeisen credit system, which he had encountered while studying in Germany. (This was a forerunner of the credit union movement.)
Elizabeth Countess of Fingall recalled: "When Horace Plunkett first met Father Finlay, he told me that he had at last found a man who had been thinking on the same lines as himself long before they met. It was like the meeting of two fires. In those days it was still a brave thing for the Jesuit to join the Protestant unionist MP. Father Finlay brought varied gifts to the work. An extremely good businessman, he had a deep knowledge of human nature which belongs to the best type of Catholic priest. He had the wisdom of the serpent and the gentleness of the dove. Also a rich sense of humour - perhaps that is the greatest gift of all."
At their first meeting, Plunkett and Finlay exchanged views on reorganising Irish agriculture upon co-operative lines. Finlay also informed Plunkett "of the appalling conditions of the Dublin slums, where some 20,000 families - perhaps 100,000 souls - were living in one-room tenements. It was clear from what he had said that much of his spare time was devoted to that baffling problem."
His commitment to social justice earned him the guarded respect of James Connolly. But the Irish Parliamentary Party viewed efforts to seek economic support from a Tory administration as collusion with a hostile government determined to kill Home Rule with kindness. Be that as it may, Finlay played a key role in setting up the Recess Committee, which led to the establishment of an Irish Department of Agriculture in 1900.
The aims of the co-operative movement were to make every farmer strong and to halt the stream of emigration from Ireland; to end the endemic poverty that was "at once repulsive and pitiable".
Its ideals survived the bitterness surrounding partition. After the horrors of the Civil War, the task of re-creating unity fell heavily on Finlay. Plunkett left Ireland after his house was burned down by anti-Treaty forces.
Finlay's genius for friendship is illustrated by the Caravaggio painting now hanging in the National Gallery. He befriended the widow of a British army officer shot by the IRA. Encouraged by him, she studied medicine and became a prominent consultant on children's illnesses. In recognition of his guidance, she presented the Jesuit community in Leeson Street with the painting which was identified almost 60 years later as The Taking of Christ.
Finlay remained blessed with energy and good health. During his long years as chairman of the trustees of the National Library, he never missed a meeting. He was 82 when he retired from UCD and in his 47 years' teaching had never omitted a lecture.
For half a century, Plunkett wrote in 1930, Finlay "laboured disinterestedly for the moral, social and economic uplifting of the poor".
Intertwined with this and further service to Irish education was his work as a priest of "deep faith and simple piety". He travelled thousands of miles by side-car, trying to explain agricultural co-operation to small farmers at meetings in dimly lit halls - and directing retreats and preaching.
Dr Morrissey, like the subject of his new book, is a prolific writer. Although constricted by the absence of personal papers - it is likely that Finlay destroyed his correspondence - this biography does justice to the public career of a wonderful man.