tribute to Mr John Maurice Kelly

yekrab

Hello, to all. Not that many people that i do admire, but Mr Kelly is one of them.

John maurice kelly was first and foremost a jurist as well as a politicians, among other things. This polymath taught Constitutional, and Roman law as well as Jurisprudence at UCD. I first came across his books, 'The Irish Constitution' and 'A Short History of Western Legal Theory' in the course of my undergraduate degree, and in my opinion they are nothing short of masterpieces, really greatly written, and compelling, definitely a must for the law student, or anybody who has an esotheric and idiosyncratic interest in those areas. When i was looking up on wikipedia, there wasn't really anything which expressed the uniqueness of the man, which was succinctly captured in the foreword by the former Chief Justice keane in kelly's book on jurisprudence. A lot of people say that they would like to meet celibrities like Tom Cruise, or Paris Hilton 'sigh' but my god, i ask why? what have they done? yet too many people care what they think about important issues, such as the election of the next president etc etc. Obviously i'm going to say that i would've liked to have met him. If anything because of his supposed withering repartee or wit in other words. I've been in the pub 'with the lads' so many times as they say, the more educated i get the worse their company becomes, i hate to say it but its the truth. I met my secondary school friends the other day, and almost cringed to death at their immaturity. So i'd like to have met kelly for good company, because i'd say he would be exactly that. I can't give the tribute that he deserves but i would say that among the billions of people in the world, he should be remembered, not just for his personal uniqueness, but rather his great almost unparalled contributions to the academic world. RIP

yekrab

A number of years ago, I wrote a small puerile tribute to J.M Kelly. Looking over it now, the errors in it are too much to take so, this is the new one.

John Maurice Kelly (1931-1991) was someone I never met. That being said, from reading his books, I feel that at least I could appreciate the quality of his work. He was a lecturer in Law, Roman law, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law, at UCD. He left the glorious detached world of academia to do some real work in law, working as a barrister for a number of years. He unfortunately also lowered himself by going into Politics (but at least he joined Fine Gael) becoming Attorney General at one point.

His book on legal history is an interesting book, but far from perfect or a masterpiece. It does nonetheless show a great deal of knowledge. I work in the legal sector; and sometimes after hours of reading cases, the feeling of being none-the wiser often gets to me. A lot of the cases are injudicious, capricious and irreconcilable. Judges - in their defense - are bound to make some mistakes every now and again with all that verbose rambling and 19th century Victorian patois that they love so much. J.M Kelly seemed to have been able to struggle through all that judicial wisdom with such ease, in a way I never could.

Christopher Hitchens, the champagne socialist for most of his life, who often clownishly misrepresented diverse figures from Holmes to Mother Teresa, also died relatively young. Both Hitchens and Kelly died in their early 60s. There was another commonalty, Hitchens lived a full life, not one of ennui. He challenged himself, took chances and risks, was willing to go for it with life. Most people just exist, very few live. There is value in overcoming adversity, putting yourself voluntarily in positions of ineffable stress to see what you are made of. It is not the failures in life that you regret, it is the not trying. Kelly went for it, so too did the 'I haven't even gotten my pants off yet' Hitch.

A precedent for the rest of us to take from.

nuac

Met him a few times. Brilliant lawyer and author

johnnyskeleton

nuac wrote: »

Met him a few times. Brilliant lawyer and author

Didn't he also write a novel?

Peregrinus

Yes. I've read it. It was pretty ****e, to be honest; he was wise to stick to the day job. It was a youthful indiscretion and he himself preferred it to be forgotten.

keano007

Anyone have a copy of his book ' a stort history of western legal theory' ? Ive been looking to buy a copy