James Carney

Who was James Carney?

James Patrick Carney was a noted Irish Celtic scholar.

He was born in Portlaoise, County Laois and was educated at the Christian Brothers school in Synge Street, Dublin. He took his degree at University College Dublin in 1935, before going to Bonn University to study under Rudolf Thurneysen.

On returning to Dublin, Carney worked under Osborn Bergin, Gerard Murphy, Richard Irvine Best and T. F. O'Rahilly. He pioneered an approach to early Irish texts which focused on their literary merit and their affinities with the other literatures of the medieval world. His Studies in Irish Literature and History which appeared in 1956 challenged the 'nativist' approach to Irish literature which had dominated the scholarship of the previous decades. His work on Saint Patrick also proved controversial.

He was attached to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies from its foundation by Éamon de Valera in 1940 and became Professor of Irish there. From 1950–52 he was visiting professor at Uppsala University where he and his wife founded a Department of Celtic Studies. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by that institution in 1975.