Dr John Durkan

died September 29, 2006.

JOHN Durkan was born in Shettleston, into an Irish immigrant family (his father, a miner, came from County Mayo).

He was educated first at St Paul's Primary School, and then, thanks to financial help from his parish priest, at St Mungo's Academy, Glasgow, from 1927. There, the young Durkan came under the influence of his history teacher, Brother Clare (James Handley), the historian of Irish immigration to Scotland.

At this time, however, John's bent was more literary than historical and he went on to study English and Italian Literature at Glasgow University (1932-36). At school and at university, he published poems and prose pieces, many of which appeared in The Glasgow Herald. Subsequently, he published criticism in F R Leavis's Scrutiny.

As an undergraduate, John demonstrated that fierce independence of mind and refusal to conform which were to be his trademark. In 1936, at a meeting of students held in Turnbull Hall, the Catholic Chaplaincy, to champion the cause of General Franco at the outset of the Spanish Civil War, John's was the lone voice that stood out from the crowd in refusing to give automatic support to a military rebellion against a democratically elected government.

After graduation, he joined the Glasgow Observer (later the Scottish Catholic Observer) and then taught at Whitchurch Central School in Hampshire, an Anglican establishment which opened his mind to inter-faith dialogue. His English sojourn also left him with an abiding appreciation of English life and culture, and especially the music of Elgar and Delius.

With Britain at war, in October 1940 John served first in the artillery and then in the Intelligence Corps, a more congenial milieu. He was posted to India and would later recall the irony that, in a war against Germany (and Japan) it was a recording of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing Bist du bei mir by J S Bach that never failed to draw a tear to his eye as he thought of Europe, Scotland, and home.

It was only in March 1946 that John embarked on the historical work which will remain his legacy to scholarship. The war had awakened his curiosity about history, and especially Scotland's medieval and early modern past.

From the mid-1940s until he retired in 1976, John taught in a variety of schools in Glasgow. In retirement he was appointed a senior research fellow in the Department of Scottish History at Glasgow University - which never ceased to provide him with a deep sense of satisfaction.

Few teachers in the modern era have established international reputations in the world of scholarship but this is the measure of John Durkan's achievement. In the vacations, without the benefit of any research grants, he took himself off to libraries and archives all over Europe.

John was fortunate in being able to share in the fellowship of a generation of remarkable Catholic historians whose goal was to present the history of the Church in Scotland in the highest rigour and insight. Monsignor David McRoberts, Fr William James Anderson, Fr Anthony Ross, Dom Mark Dilworth were among those who became his companions in the vineyards of manuscripts and documents. For them, the age of ecclesiastical polemic and apologetic was dead. The "truth" of the past became what was important. Introducing, for example, balance and nuance into traditional accounts of the Scottish Reformation became a moral imperative for John.

He was a founder member, in 1949, of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association and became the most published author in the association's journal, The Innes Review, which, in the tradition of the eighteenthcentury priest-historian Thomas Innes, embodied John's own ambition to produce openminded and impartial scholarly workwhich would help to break down denominational prejudices. He published not too far short of a century of articles and reviews, and even took to publishing under assumed names to make up for a lack of contributions in the early years.

His bibliography is nothing short of extraordinary. Certain works in The Innes Review are seminal (some also published separately in book form): William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow (1951), Early Scottish Libraries (with Anthony Ross in 1958), The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (1959), The Library of Mary, Queen of Scotland (1987). The University of Glasgow 1451-1577 (co-authored with Professor James Kirk) appeared in 1977. In 1994, he published his Bibliography of George Buchanan. He continued to work and publish to the end and had the satisfaction of seeing what will be a monumental study of early Scottish schoolmasters go to press.

Formal recognition of his achievements came with the receiving of PhD (1959; a study of Scottish universities in the Middle Ages) and DLitt (1979) degrees from Edinburgh University and a DD (1998) from Glasgow University. In 1994, to mark his 80th birthday year, a conference in his honour was held in New College, Edinburgh University.

It was partly in recognition of his contribution to Scottish Catholic history that Pope John Paul II raised John to Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory in 1993. But the honour also marked the contribution he had made in serving on various Church commissions. He was also lecturer in church history for a number of years in Chesters College, the Glasgow archdiocesan seminary which later became part of the present Scotus College.

John Durkan carried his vast learning lightly. He will be remembered for his scholarship on Renaissance and Reformation Scotland and for his largerthan-life personality.

He always retained an earthy ability to talk of the ordinary things, of football and current gossip. He was appreciative of his family, especially his sisters, the late Mary and Betty, who survives him. His inf luence remains.