Associate Professor Stephen Kelly delivered a keynote address on the canonisation of St John Henry Newman at the Irish Embassy in London.
Newman is the first English person to be made a saint in almost 50 years, and Liverpool Hope University is proud to house a vast resource of his life works.
The Gradwell Collection, which contains a generous corpus of Cardinal Newman’s own published works (including first editions) and books on or related to Newman, can be found in the University’s Sheppard-Worlock Library.
Associate Professor Kelly, who is Head of History and Politics at Liverpool Hope, described Newman’s relationship with Ireland, and specifically his period as the first rector of the Catholic University of Ireland from 1851 to 1858.
He also emphasised Newman's contribution to modern educational thinking, particularly his influence on Liverpool Hope’s ecumenical ethos.
The University aims to enhance and extend the reach of Cardinal’s Newman’s life and spirituality, by ensuring this scholarly resource is complemented by the availability of a recently updated extensive collection of Newman-related publications.
This collection includes, preserved on microfilm, the diaries, letters and miscellaneous documents from the Cardinal Newman Archive held at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, in Birmingham.