Fran O'Rourke is an Irish singer who specialises in the songs of James Joyce. A philosopher by trade and Professor Emeritus of the School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, he also has a vibrant interest in Joyce and has performed the writer's songs on many occasions, solo and together with guitarist John Feeley. They have also recorded the album JoyceSong - Irish Songs of James Joyce together. Most recently, in September 2017, Fran gave a recital for the Irish embassy in Moscow.

Fran recently completed a second PhD at University College Dublin on James Joyce, Aristotle and Aquinas. As well as performing the Irish songs which feature in Joyce's writings, he has recently lectured on philosophical elements in Joyce in Houston, Berkeley, Rome, Shanghai and Novosibirsk. He is happy to give both a talk on Joyce and philosophy, as well as a recital of Joyce-related Irish songs.

Fran retired in 2016 as professor of Philosophy from University College Dublin, where he taught for thirty-six years. A graduate of University College Galway, he studied at the universities of Vienna, Köln, Louvain, and Leuven, where he received his PhD summa cum laude in 1986. He has held Fulbright and Onassis fellowships, and in 2003 was Visiting Research Professor at Marquette University.

His book Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas (2005) was described by Alasdair MacIntyre as ‘one of the two or three most important books on Aquinas published in the last fifty years’. His study of James Joyce and Aristotle, Allwisest Stagyrite: Joyce’s Quotations from Aristotle, was published by the National Library of Ireland in 2005. His latest publications, Aristotelian Interpretations (2016, by the Irish Academic Press) also contains an extensive chapter on Joyce.

 

Photo: Fran with Joyce's guitar, repair of which he sponsored.

Photo credit: Mihai Cucu