When Finbarr Donovan died on July 27th his passing was mourned by not only his grieving wife Maureen and four sons, Stephen, Brendan, Paul and John, but also by a wide spectrum of Irish life, commercial, religious and academic.
The presence of the Abbots of Mount Melleray, Roscrea, Collon and Glenstal and of many of their monks testified to the regard in which Finbarr was held. His long-standing friendship with Father Colmcille of Melleray and Collon resulted in the collaborative publication of the two-volume history of the Cistercians in Ireland.
If one accepts that there are characteristics and virtues appropriate to maturity and age - wisdom, serenity and the ability to retain the eternal verities as permanent touchstones - then Finbarr's life was indeed a lesson to all.
A man of joyful disposition, resolute character, with a great capacity for friendship and a deep but undemonstrative faith, he lived a life of regular, scheduled and systematic work, devoted to his family, business and academic interests.
In the last four or five years of his life, when his terminal illness accentuated its grip, his daily lifestyle altered very little; indeed his resolute character and personal courage enabled him to study and understand his illness so that his medical consultants were fascinated by his queries and challenges.
A mathematics and physics graduate of University College Cork, where he also did postgraduate work, he studied also at Cambridge and Leeds; however, he always regarded UCC and its Faculty of Mathematics as his academic home and kept up contact and correspondence with his fellow postgraduate students around the globe. He was one of the earliest Irish experts in the field of computer studies and demonstrated his mastery of the emerging technology in Aer Lingus, ITT, Allied Irish Bank and later in USIT World.
Such was his perception of patriotism and civic duty that he saw his work in these institutions as much more than a career; he saw his role as his personal contribution to cultural and economic development on a national level. This admirable attitude was fundamental to his valuable work in the National Council for Educational Awards, where throughout the last decade he was IT consultant and acted as registrar in science and mathematics. The burgeoning departments of IT and computer studies in the University of Limerick and most of the institutes of technology owe a great debt to the advice, inspiration and academic leadership supplied by Finbarr.
Though trained as a scientist, he was never one to envisage any conflict between the humanities and science; consequently he had always a deep interest in history, as clearly manifest in his extensive library and reading tastes. To satisfy this interest he undertook in the last five years a pioneering comparative study of the contribution of the main Irish teaching orders to Catholic education in Australia, a project which he approached with typical enthusiasm and application and which involved four extensive trips to the various archives in Rome, London and Australia.
He returned from these trips renewed in spirit and sustained in health, as if the challenges of the research offered him an optimism and a buoyancy which enabled him to ignore the debilitating illness. This research work, which was completed last March, earned him a doctorate from Trinity College, which was conferred in early July, three weeks before his death.
A born conversationalist and gifted with an impressive memory, he could recall with remarkable detail events of 50 years ago and more, in his idiosyncratic style, following every minor theme and distraction to its conclusion, before eventually returning to the main story! In his last few months he liked nothing better than an hour or two of afternoon conversation, in which he roamed over recollections of characters he had met in the course of his career, the history of his ancestral west Cork parishes, some eminent characters whom he had met in Australia and the recent decline in science and mathematics which he perceived as part of a general pattern of falling standards.
He faced his impending death with courage and equanimity, fortified by his deep religious convictions and the consolation of a life governed by principle and a systematic work ethic.
He especially enjoyed travelling and enjoyed nothing more than planning an itinerary and arranging a schedule of meetings. Though absent for so long from his native city, Finbarr remained always the quintessential Corkman, deeply attached to the South Parish where he grew up, and given to reminiscing on schooldays in the Quay, his activities with the Scouts, his years in UCC and on the halcyon years of Cork hurling.
It will be of special comfort to him that he is laid to rest in St Finbarr's Cemetery, just feet away from the grave of that doyen of Cork hurling and national politics, Jack Lynch.
He will be sadly missed by his devoted family and by his many friends at home and abroad.
S.╙ B