In the summer of 1934, James F. Killeen, a school-leaver from St Joseph's College, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, sat down to read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
While fellow alumni passed those halcyon days in agreeable idleness, James was transported to a far-off place where barbarians were enticed to Italy by delicious wines, where philosophers discussed legislature, and where toleration of the various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious accord.
Gibbon's elegant prose and his portrayal of a mighty civilisation in decline impressed the young James to such a degree that the study of antiquity would become his life's work, indeed its sine qua non.
A scholarship to University College Galway that autumn paved the way for a succession of academic triumphs, including the Peel Prize in English Essay, first place in First Arts Scholarships, The Blayney Exhibition in Classics in 1936, first place in Post-Graduate Scholarships, and a first-class honours M.A. in Classics in 1938. He was awarded an honours Higher Diploma in Education in 1940.
During the second World War, James taught at a variety of secondary schools including his alma mater St Joseph's, the Grammar School in Sligo, and in Liverpool. In 1944 he was invited to join the teaching staff of UCG, where he lectured to all grades in Irish and English under the professorship of Father Tom Fahy. For many years he was also attached to the department of education in UCG, giving a weekly lecture to post-graduate students.
It wasn't only students on the campus who benefited from his stimulating talks. His wide-ranging interests and breadth of learning encompassed literary, archaeological, historical and philosophical subjects and he was frequently invited to speak on these to outside bodies, such as the National University of Ireland Club, London; the Galway Literary Society; the Association of Classical Teachers; the Royal Irish Academy; the NUI Graduates Association; and the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society.
In addition, James was a member of many academic societies, including the Classical Association, the Hellenic Society, the London Association of Classical Teachers, the Cambridge Philological Society, and the Association of Classical Teachers of Ireland. He also participated in the activities of a number of college bodies over the years, having been treasurer of the dramatic society, of the film society, and of the chess club, a game for which he retained a lifelong and passionate interest.
He was also a one-time secretary of the staff association, member of the library committee, and of the arts faculty policy committee.
In the post-war years, James travelled widely throughout Europe attending courses at the universities of Bonn, Cologne, Muenster, Rome, Naples, Vienna, Frankfurt and visiting Greece and Sicily on archaeological tours as well as making many visits to the classical sites in Rome, Ostia, Pompeii and Herculaneum. In 1955 he was one of two Irish delegates to the Council of Europe School of European Studies in Strasbourg and Saarbruecken.
It was while travelling through Europe on these summer sojourns that he met his future wife, Joyce Brown, a distinguished pianist and teacher at St Francis College, Letchworth. They married in December 1957 and settled in Galway under the shadow of the college spire. In 1969, James accepted an invitation to University College Cambridge (now Wolfson College) for a year's sabbatical leave, where he participated in seminars and other academic activities as well as researching problems arising out of the authors taken in the degree courses at UCG.
The next quarter-century was a whirlwind of personal and professional achievement. By the mid-1970s, James had two sons and a daughter, and had published countless papers on topics arising out of the writings of Sappho, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Aristotole, Theocritus, Herodas, in Greek; Plautus, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Livy Petronius, Tacitus, Martial, Juvenal, Suetonius, in Latin; Shakespeare, Milton, MoliΦre and Joyce, among modern writers.
During these years he was promoted to the post of Associate Professor of Ancient Classics under Margaret Heavey, whom he subsequently replaced, after she resigned the post in 1978. He held the chair until his retirement in 1983.
In the following years he remained in close contact with the university, and in particular with his lifelong friends Tomas ╙ Broin and Pat Diskin, with whom he formed a triumvirate known around the campus, and more especially down at the local, as the "Three Musketeers". Nothing cheered these characters quite as much as an evening of whiskey and good-humoured debate before a roaring fire.
Towards the end of his life, the spark which had burned so brightly and illuminated so many minds began to flicker and fade as dementia took hold. He bore his illness with typical fortitude and alacrity. A series of mild strokes confined him to bed in the final weeks, and he died peacefully at home on the evening of July 5th, 2001.
He is survived by his wife Joyce, daughter Ursula, and sons Anthony and Eugene.
E.J.F.K.