Thomas Morrissey

Who is Thomas Morrissey?

Fr. Thomas "Tom" J. Morrissey, historian, teacher and writer, was the fifth Director of Education at the College of Industrial Relations from 1983 to 1989.

Fr. Thomas was born in Limerick and was educated at Crescent College. He entered the Jesuit Order in 1948. He studied history at University College Dublin and graduated with a Master’s degree. In 1976 he was awarded a doctorate in education at University College Cork. He taught at Sacred Heart College, Limerick and at Mungret College from 1963 to 1968.

He played a major role in the planning and development of Crescent Comprehensive College in Limerick and was its headmaster from 1969 until 1982.

He was Director of the College of Industrial Relations from 1983 to 1990. During this time he developed a Board of Management to govern the College and registered it under the Companies Act.

Fr Morrissey has published at least twelve books. He wrote in 1980 James Archer of Kilkenny, the biography of a colourful and controversial sixteenth-century Jesuit. In 2010 he published a biography of Edward Byrne, former archbishop of Dublin.