Exhibition & Talk – Dr Daniel William Cahill

The Delany Archive is organising a talk and exhibition about Dr Daniel William Cahill (1796-1864), who was a prominent priest, celebrated science lecture and native of Arles. Cahill was Professor of Natural Philosophy, Carlow College (1825-1834) and had earlier been educated at Carlow Lay College. The talk will be delivered by Dr Diarmid Finnegan, Queen’s University Belfast.

Lecture

“‘This panorama of billions of worlds’: Daniel William Cahill (1796-1864) and the politics of astronomy in post-Emancipation Ireland” with Dr Diarmid Finnegan, QUB.

This talk will explore key episodes in Cahill’s largely untold story. In particular, it will investigate Cahill’s strategic use of charity sermons, lectures on astronomy and political journalism to support Irish Catholic interests in post-Emancipation Ireland. Cahill’s lectures, while explicitly framed as neutral with respect to religion and politics, mobilised modern astronomy in ways designed to disrupt opposition to Irish independence and to further Irish Catholic interests. In using the non-sectarian science of astronomy in this way, Cahill joined a large cast of other popular science lecturers who skilfully presented the startling findings of astronomical science while also pursuing diverse and often antagonistic political and (anti-)theological agendas.

Exhibition

A small exhibition about Cahill’s life will be available in the Library Lobby between 23 April-31 July.