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The Professor Kevin Boyle archive was
formally launched at the Hardiman Library on 28 November 2014, by the Attorney
General, Máire Whelan, S.C.
The archive, kindly donated by the
Boyle family since Kevin’s untimely passing in 2010, has now been catalogued by
the University’s James Hardiman Library, and represents a major resource for
the study and teaching of law and human rights.
The Keynote speaker at the
international symposium, ‘The Human Rights Scholar-Activist or
Activist-Scholar?’ hosted by NUI Galway’s School of Law and the Irish Centre
for Human Rights, was Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Chair of the United Nations
Human Rights Committee. In his keynote address he said of Kevin Boyle: “His
involvement in resisting discrimination on grounds of religion during the early
part of the troubles must have been the defining period of his life….He was
scholar and activist and advocate; the dimensions were intricately connected.”
Former President of Ireland, Mary
Robinson, speaking via video presentation at the symposium, welcomed the fact
that the archive of the late Professor Kevin Boyle will be housed at NUI Galway. She said: “I'm glad that his papers will enrich scholarship and
activism from Galway for the betterment of the world in future.” The
world-renowned human rights lawyer and scholar, Professor Kevin Boyle, served
as a special advisor to Mary Robinson from September 2001, when she was UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
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Kevin Boyle with Harold Pinter, Kazuo Ishiguro and others
campaigning for free speech and in defence of Salman Rushdie
|
The Kevin Boyle archive includes letters
between Boyle and various others involved in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights
Movement and People's Democracy, such as Bernadette McAliskey and Michael
Farrell, both of whom were speakers at the recent symposium; material relating
cases argued before the courts in Ireland, the U.K. and at the European Court
for Human Rights, by Kevin Boyle, records from Kevin's time as founding
director of the international NGO, Article 19 as well as his extensive academic
career in Galway, Essex and internationally.
The archive offers a new and engaging
insight into emotions, tensions and experiences in Northern Ireland from the
late 1960s and onwards through the 1970s and a detailed account of the role of
activism and academia as areas such as freedom of expression, press freedom and
censorship, religious belief and a wide ranging cross-section of law and human
rights issues.
“The Kevin Boyle archive bears witness to a
life lived greatly in the pursuit of justice by a charismatic man whose
indefatigable optimism influenced so many others to continue his good work
throughout the world”, said Professor Donncha O’Connell, Head of School of Law, NUI Galway.
In the late 1970s Kevin Boyle joined
NUI Galway where he co-founded the Irish Centre for Human Rights with Denny
Driscoll in 1980. Professor Michael O’Flaherty is now the Director of the Irish
Centre for Human Rights: “I was one of thousands of those who were first
introduced to human rights by Kevin Boyle. He had a transformative impact on
our lives. As his successors in university centres such as the Irish Centre for
Human Rights we seek to respect his legacy and pass on his passion
for justice to new generations of students.”
John Cox, University Librarian, NUI Galway, explains the
significance of the Boyle archive: “The sheer breadth of subject matter, as
well as the vast amounts of personal correspondence, allow for new insights and
understandings of Kevin Boyle’s contributions to the discipline of human rights
and the practice of law. It is an honour for the Library to be entrusted with
this archive, one which illustrates the far reaching effect Kevin Boyle’s work
had on individual people’s lives. Now and into the future, the archive will
serve as a valuable resource to researchers in the field.”
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| University Librarian, John Cox, presenting Joan Boyle with a copy of the Kevin Boyle archive catalogue |
The archive is accessible at the Hardiman Research Building in the
Archives and Special Collections Reading Room.
For more information on the archive and
to view the archive catalogue visit http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/archives/depositedcollections/featuredcollections/professorkevinboylearchive/
