Cornelius O'Leary

Who was Cornelius O'Leary?

Cornelius O'Leary was an Irish historian and political scientist.

O'Leary was born in Limerick but was raised in Cork, where he attended University College Cork, gaining a first-class honours degree in history and Latin in 1949. He subsequently studied for a PhD at Nuffield College, Oxford as the first student to be supervised by the psephologist David Butler. While researching his PhD, he worked at a number of secondary schools in London.

His thesis was published as The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections, 1868-1911 and in the same year he was appointed lecturer at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. He was made professor of political science in 1979, having been controversially denied such a post previously. He was the first Catholic to hold such a chair at the university and explained that, when he was appointed in 1960, he saw Queen's as part of the Unionist establishment. According to an obituary written by Bernard Crick, O'Leary suffered from alcoholism, which resulting in him often being absent from the university and colleagues having to cover for him. At one point he lived in hotels and lodging houses rather than at a fixed address.