Thursday 3 September 2009

The Riddle of Father Hackett


…de Eureka Street:

Brenda Niall, one of Australia's best biographers, has written a highly readable and surprising life of William Hackett (1878–1954), the Jesuit priest who was pressured out of Ireland to Australia in 1922 for his involvement with republican armed forces during the Civil War….

….Niall identifies love of the Irish landscape and the Irish language as key factors in Hackett's increasing radicalisation.

The latter brought him close friendship with Padraig Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh.

In 1922 Hackett drew a sympathetic response from the order's leader for his plan for a new Jesuit school in which Irish would be the first langauge....

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