Brian Earls, who has died aged 66, was a diplomat and scholar whose chief interest was the oral transmission of folk stories and the changes that occur when an oral tradition encounters literacy.
Intellectually curious and very widely read, he explored the relationship between the oral culture of the rural poor and Irish literature in the 19th century.
Once he began work in this area, he realised the importance and complexity of the subject would require many years’ work. Finding it satisfying and fulfilling, he continued to pursue his research while working as a diplomat.
His main focus, William Carleton, had origins deep within peasant Ireland. Earls uncovered his critical dependence on the oral world he had left behind, and in the process he revealed much of the internal dynamics of peasant society in early 19th century Tyrone.
Having conducted research over four decades, and using literary, anthropological, historical and cultural analysis, Earls felt he could depict the vanished world of the Irish peasantry from within and on its own terms.
He took early retirement from his diplomatic career to undertake this task.
Former ambassador to Poland Thelma Doran this week described him as a "scholar and a gentleman", who, while full of fun, always carried out his duties "seriously and conscientiously".
NUIG senior lecturer Niall Ó Ciosáin said: “Brian had unrivalled knowledge and understanding of the folk cultures of the 18th and 19th centuries and was one of the most perceptive analysts of the interaction between the printed word and the oral tradition in recent Irish scholarship.”
He was one of four children of Shaun Earls and his wife, Nora (née McGurk). He grew up in Goatstown, Co Dublin, and was educated at Oatlands College, Mount Merrion.
At University College Dublin he studied pure English. He then did a master's in Anglo-Irish literature and a PhD on Carleton.
He taught at the Dundalk Institute of Technology, and wrote textbooks on works by JM Synge and Joseph Conrad before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1975. His postings included Athens (1978-80), Council of Europe, Strasbourg (1981-83), Brussels (1985-90), Moscow (1992-97), Warsaw (1999-2004) and Ankara (2004-06). He retired, as first secretary politics division, in 2009.
While in the Soviet Union he travelled widely in the Caucasus and southern Russia, collecting examples of indigenous folk tales and humour. He also collected Russian paintings.
In Warsaw he researched Irish-Polish cultural linkages, the writings of Irish people familiar in the 19th century with Poland and the links fostered by nationalism and religion.
He regularly wrote for the online Dublin Review of Books. Essays included an analysis of Russian jokes and, earlier this year, a two-part extended study "Oscar Wilde and the Irish", which was particularly well received. He was also a valued contributor to Béaloideas, the journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society.
His writing style was exceptionally clear, and occasionally dry or sharp when confronted by what he considered lazy or merely fashionable modes of thought. His method of exposition, which required space, was ideally suited to online publication.
A large library reflected his eclectic interests. These included classical literary criticism (TS Eliot, FR Leavis, IA Richards) and European history, in particular analysis of contending currents in the continent’s cultural history. He read in English, Irish, Polish, Russian, Italian and Latin.
As a young man he rebelled against the prevailing values of the time. A theatrical revue which he co-wrote and directed ran into trouble with the UCD authorities, the second performance was disrupted and the Irish Catholic published a report under the heading "Filth".
In later years he was critical of what he considered to be unthinking anti-Catholicism. He believed the church was very much part of Irish history and ways of thought, and mostly in a positive way, providing the means whereby people could make some sense of their lives.
He did not, however, embrace conservative Catholicism and took a dim view of the antics of autocratic clerics and their followers.
He was proud of his father's service in the Defence Forces during the Emergency. When an official pardon for Irish Army deserters during the second World War was mooted in 2012, in a letter to this newspaper he declared himself neutral on the matter but cautioned against anything being done "that might impugn the honour of those who stood by Ireland in its hour of need".
Remembered as a “humane and brilliant individual for whom the material business of everyday life was often a mystery”, he was also exceptionally humorous, droll and hospitable.
His mother, Nora, brother, Maurice, and sisters, Mary and Catherine, survive him.