The recent death of Michael Noel Brennan brought to an end an extraordinary career that spanned almost 60 years and combined the complexities of two different disciplines – one the modern pursuit of mathematical computation in the digital age, the other the ages-old intricacy of what is known as insular art, or the creation of decorative patterns for manuscripts and artefacts from the Celtic civilisation, a study he had begun to extend to the Islamic culture.
Although he was a mathematician by profession from the 1960s onwards, one of his early scholarly interests was the history of Celtic crosses, a subject close to his heart since the days when his father and uncle ran a well-known stone-carving business in Kilkenny.
Tragedy struck in 1959 when his father died at the early age of 54. But he was supported in continuing his secondary education at St Kieran’s College, where he won several distinctions and scholarships before going on to University College Cork, from which he graduated in 1965 with a Arts degree in mathematics and statistics.
Over the next 20 years he taught at second and third level in Kilkenny, Manchester and Athlone, although the main part of his career was spent in the Department of Computing, Mathematics and Physics at Waterford Institute of Technology, now South-East Technological University, whose staff he joined in 1985 and from which he retired in 2009.
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As he approached retirement Michael was able to devote more time to his other interests, beginning with the study of the origins and artistry of the Celtic Cross. That led to a more intensive study of the interlacing patterns common in the decoration of these artefacts and between 2004 and 2011, when he was already in his sixties, he undertook a PhD on the structure of interlace in Insular Art, c AD 400-1200, under the supervision of Prof Nancy Edwards of Bangor University in Wales.
His application of mathematical principles to the understanding of the interlace design process was regarded as an advance of international importance, and he became an Honorary Research Associate in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University and a Research Associate of The Irish Art Research Centre (TRIARC) in the Department of Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin.
Several of his scholarly essays appeared in compilation volumes and specialist publications over the past two decades, including his analysis of the production of the eighth-century Lindisfarne Gospels and the work of the scholar-monk Alcuin of York from the same period. In more recent times he had begun to apply his expertise to Islamic art and was preparing a pioneering study of the subject. In all of these academic contexts he was a regular contributor to international seminars and online special interest networks.
Throughout his life he maintained his connection with his native city, taking part in and contributing to weekly heritage walks there; he was due to give a lecture on stone craft in Kilkenny buildings to the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in January 2025.
He died in Waterford University Hospital on November 20th. 2024, having lived with blood cancer for several years. He is survived by his four daughters, Kate, Amy, Deirdre and Rachel, and his wife Breda. – DB
