Speaker Professor Sean Freyne
Dr Sean Freyne, died on 5th of August 1913 in Dublin. A former Catholic priest and native of Tooreen, Co Mayo, Sean was born on 23 April 1935, a native of Tooreen. He captained the Mayo minor team that won the All-Ireland in 1953, but was barred from playing in the final by the po-faced authorities of the day in Maynooth. As his coffin was being carried out of the church, shoulder-high, it was draped in the green-and-red flag of the Mayo football team.
A former professor of theology in the School of Religions and Theology in Trinity College Dublin, his academic interests included Galilee in the time of Jesus, the Gospels, and aspects of early Jewish and early Christian history. Among his most recent publications was the book, ‘Jesus a Jewish Galilean: A New Reading of the Jesus Story’. Professor Freyne lectured widely in the US and Australia. Between 1979-80, he served as a lecturer with the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. For the three years before that, he was Professor at Loyola University, New Orleans. Between 2007-2008, he was Visiting Professor of Early Christian History and Literature at Harvard Divinity School. At one time president of the International Society for the Study of the New Testament, he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and a trustee of the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Dr. Freyne’s expertise was widely sought by the media, and he appeared on many television and radio programs.
It was fitting that the attendance at his funeral in Rathmines included so many of his former students and so many former colleagues and friends from Trinity College Dublin, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University, Milltown and other centres for academic theology. There too were many priest colleagues – and we were reminded that Sean remained a priest until his death – President Michael D Higgins, former President Mary McAleese, and poet John F Deane, another Mayoman. Former president and canon lawyer, Professor Mary McAleese said his death was a “huge loss to theology”. She described Professor Freyne as “an absolute gentleman” and “the quintessential Irishman, always asking the probing question”.
He is buried in Culmore graveyard, Kilkelly, Co Mayo
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