Joseph F. O’Callaghan
I am professor emeritus of Medieval History at Fordham University; the former Director of the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham; and past president of the American Catholic Historical Association. My primary academic interest has been the history of medieval kingship and parliaments with particular attention to medieval Spain. I taught both undergraduates and graduates at Fordham for forty years until my retirement in 1994.
My most recent publication is Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003). My other books include: The Learned King: The Reign of Alfonso X of Castile (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993; Spanish translation, Universidad de Sevilla, 1996); Alfonso X and the Cantigas de Santa Maria: A Poetic Biography (E.J. Brill, 1998); A History of Medieval Spain (Cornell University Press, 1975); The Cortes of Castile-León, 1188-1350 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989; Spanish translation, Cortes de Castilla y León, 1989); Alfonso X, the Cortes, and Government in Medieval Spain (Ashgate/Variorum, 1998); and The Spanish Military Order of Calatrava and its Affiliates (Variorum Press, 1975. I also translated The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola (Fordham University Press, 1992) and The Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002)..
My articles have appeared in The American Historical Review; The Catholic Historical Review; Speculum; Traditio; En la España Medieval; Hispania; Viator; Miscelánea de Estiudios Medievales; Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español; Historia, Instituciones, Documentos; Cuadernos de Historia de Espana; Concentus Libri; Medievalismo; Thought; Archivos Leoneses; Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis. Other articles have been published in collected studies, encyclopedias, and historical dictionaries.
In addition to teaching at Fordham University I also served as adjunct professor of Church History at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, New York, and at the Holy Ghost Fathers Seminary, Ferndale, Norwalk.
From my earliest years I have had an interest in Ireland and especially in the history of the O’Callaghan family. During my many years of teaching I continued to gather data about the family and published two articles on “The O Callaghans of Kilcranathan,” and “The O Callaghans and the Rebellion of 1641,” in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 92(1987), and 95 (1990). The O Callaghan Family of County Cork: A History is the fruit of my years of research on this topic.
Both my parents came from Ireland. My father William lived at Bweeng in his childhood and then at Dromcummer on the Blackwater before emigrating to the United States. My mother, Helen O’Sullivan, was born in Minnesota, the oldest child of Michael O’Sullivan from Ardnagashel, Bantry, and Margaret Ellard from Coolycarney, Wexford.
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Kilkenny (Volume 1) by Art Kavanagh – The book is a 256 pg. Hardback with over 60 illustrations (black & white).
