Séan Aherne
NT, BD, H. Dip ED. JMI Director
A Celtic Christian Monk living in a small monastery near Dublin. He first met John Moriarty in 1992, and over the next fifteen years they became close friends. Bro. Seán is passionate about John’s vision for a Christian Monastic Hedge School for Adults. He has regularly introduced Sacred Heart University students in Dingle to Celtic Christianity and brings them on tours to early Christian sites and Holy wells on the Dingle peninsula. He is co-editor with Michael W. Higgins, Introducing John Moriarty in His Own Words. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2019. Is John still a Christian Brother and would like to mention this?]
Amanda Carmody
JMI Chairperson
Niece and friend of John Moriarty. She was born into the Moriarty family farm at Leitrim Hill and lived there for three and a half years. This is where John first encountered her as ‘Little Amanda’, and she remained close to John and often guided and nurtured by him during his lifetime. It is a blessing that so much of John’s character and wisdom is in his writings and recordings has been part of her life, so in this way John continues to nurture and inspire.
Josh Hayes
Ph.D. (New School for Social Research)
An Associate Professor of Philosophy at Alvernia University, PA, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research, New York City, in 2005. His primary research interests are ancient and medieval philosophy and Twentieth Century and Contemporary European Philosophy. His numerous articles explore the history of philosophy from the Pre-Socratics, to Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the medieval Arabic tradition, and the continental tradition. His co-edited books: Aristotle and the Arabic Tradition (Cambridge UP, 2015); Heidegger in the Islamicate World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); Philosophy in the American West: A Geography of Thought (Routledge, 2020). Current research explores the contemporary relevance of nature, place, and political community in light of ancient philosophy and Christian, Jewish, and Islamic medieval commentaries. New manuscript “Al-Farabi and the Arabic Cosmopolitan Tradition” where he defends Al-Farabi as a proponent of a cosmopolitan conception of citizenship and community. Dr. Hayes has regularly taught a course on the Dingle campus of Sacred Heart University.
Michael W. Higgins
Ph.D. (York University)
Inaugural Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, and Senior Fellow, Massey College. He holds a Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) from Sacred Heart University (2008), and an honourary Laws Doctor (LL.D) from the University of Waterloo (2013). He is an author, Vatican affairs specialist for the Globe and Mail and CTV Network, Catholic educator, CBC radio documentarian, scholar, and administrator. Previously, he was Professor of Religious Studies and Vice-President for Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University, and he has served as the president of St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo and of St. Thomas University in New Brunswick. He is the author of the bestselling biography, Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen (Paulist Press, 2013), as well as Thomas Merton: Faithful Visionary (Liturgical Press, 2014), and Introducing John Moriarty in his own words (Lilliput Press, 2019), among several other books.
Charles Gillespie
Ph.D. (University of Virginia)
Is Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies, Sacred Heart University. Gillespie, Justin Kosec, Kate Stratton. “Treasure in Clay Jars: Christian Liturgical Drama in Theory and Praxis,” Theatre Symposium Vol. 21 Iss. 1 (2013); “Theodramatic themes and showtime in Nassim Soleimanpour’s White rabbit red rabbit.” Religions, 11(10), 2020. Bouchard, L. D., & Gillespie, “Religion and Theatrical Drama, an Introduction.” Religions, 12(4), 2021. Co-editor with Larry D. Bouchard, Religion and Theatrical Drama (Catholic Studies Faculty Publications, 2021); “Reading Ricoeur together: Interpretive work and surplus meaning in a just pedagogy.” In D. Boscaljon & J. F. Keuss (Eds.), Paul Ricoeur and the hope of higher education: The just university (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).
Mary McGillicuddy
JMI Company Secretary
Author of John Moriarty: Not the Whole Story. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2018. She has regularly offered seminars and reading groups to the public discussing the ideas and challenges of John Moriarty.
Brendan O’Donoghue
Ph.D. (University College Dublin)
He taught philosophy at University College Cork 2008–2010, and University of Edinburgh 2010–2011. Adventures in Philosophy: Stories and Quests for Thinking Heroes (Gill Books, 2018); A Poetics of Homecoming: Heidegger, Homelessness and the Homecoming Venture (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011); Editor, A Moriarty Reader Preparing for Early Spring (Lilliput Press, 2012).
Kevin J. Power
Ph.D. (University College Cork)
A Cork-born philosophy teacher and musician, now living in Castlegregory, Co. Kerry. His doctoral thesis: “Zazen, Philosophy of Mind and the Practicality of Realising Impermanence” from University College Cork in 2015. Since then, he has lectured in philosophy of mind, environmental ethics, philosophy of death and dying, as well as writing and delivering a unique module entitled ‘The Philosophy of Interdependence’ for UCC’s Adult Continuing Education programme, as well as teaching Bioethics at the Dingle campus of Sacred Heart University. Kevin’s writing and music is available through his website www.innerchapter.com.
John B. Roney
Ph.D. (University of Toronto), JMI Director.
Professor of History, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, Co-Director of Sacred Heart Campus in Dingle, County Kerry. He has taught and published on cultural and intellectual topics about Ireland, as well as French-, and Dutch-speaking regions of Europe, and has developed a special interest in environmental history, with a specific focus on the cultural heritage of artisan fisheries and coastal communities on the west coast of Ireland. Recent publications: “Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné and the revival of church and state in post-French revolutionary Europe.” In International Perspectives on the Nineteenth Century Réveil: A Collection of Essays (2021); “In Defense of Conscience and Virtue: The theological and political ideas of Jacques Abbadie, Dean of Killaloe, Ireland.” In The Theology of the Huguenot Refuge: From the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Edict of Versailles (2020); “[mis-]Managing Fisheries in the West Coast of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century,” Humanities (2019); “Negotiating the Middle Ground: Thomas Moore on Religion and Irish Independence.” In Representing Irish religious histories: historiography, ideology, and practice (2016). Editor and author Coastal Environment in the West of Ireland: Sea, Land, and Spirit (Cambridge Scholars Pub. 2022); Landscape of Promise and Ruin: Culture, Identity and Reality in the Irish West, 1830-1930 (Cambridge Scholars Pub. Forthcoming 2023).
Martin Shaw
Ph.D.
He founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK, and Reader in Poetics at Dartington Arts School. Author of the award-winning Myth-teller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings). For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, those who are unwell, returning veterans as well as many women and men seeking a deeper life. His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry magazine and Mississippi Review. Most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding), and Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass. His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Art Foundation. He is also editor of John Moriarty, A Hut at the Edge of the Village (Lilliput Press, 2021).
