Clericus.ie

Clericus is a digital humanities research project that aims to develop a database on the Irish clerical population for the early modern and modern periods. The database includes over 2,100 biographical entries relating to Irish clerical students educated in the Irish College Paris.

Clericus.ie offers researchers a powerful digital tool for the study of one of the oldest and most diverse professional cohort in Irish history: the clergy. The database includes over 2,100 new biographical entries relating to Irish clerical students educated in the Irish College Paris.

To search students from the Irish College Paris on Clericus, go to the People research page and select "Liam Chambers and Sarah Frank, Database of students at the Irish College, Paris, 1832-1939" in the sources list.

The Irish College Paris database was compiled by Dr Liam Chambers and Dr Sarah Franks using student records from the Historical archives of the Centre Culturel Irlandais. The surviving records cover the period 1825 up until the evacuation of the college at the outbreak of World War II, and are a rich source of information regarding the biographies of individual students. This includes information relating to dates of birth, baptism, confirmation, subjects studied and other, oftentimes humorous, scandalous or tragic observations regarding students and their behaviour. Thus, in 1872 Michael McCormack of Cashel diocese was 'expelled for introducing brandy into the college', while several years later, John Murray of Cloyne diocese was 'detected in a secret and suspicious correspondence with persons outside; required to leave'.

The value of the data to members of the public researching their family history is increased due to the inclusion of parents' names (including maiden names) for over half of the students. Almost 200 Irish College Paris students would also spend time studying at St Patrick's College Maynooth, which in turn deepens our understanding of individual career paths. One excellent example to highlight this enrichment process is seen in Kevin Clark of Meath diocese, whose database entry draws on information from every resource utilised within the Clericus system thus far.

The Clericus project's team are:
- Prof Thomas O'Connor, Principal Investigator
- Stavros Angelis, Chief Technical Officer
- Chun-Hung Chen, Technical Assistant
- Dr Tony Farrell, Research Assistant
- Dr Richard Fitzpatrick, Research Assistant & Content Manager