Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
May 1977
I first met John during 1990, the final year of my BA degree. As the incumbent staff
hadnt the background, he had been drafted in by the UCG Archaeology department to
teach a module on medieval Ireland. After nearly three full years of
the Rynne/Fanning/Waddell triumvirate, his sudden appearance in our midst made
him appear as something rather rare and exotic. He began with an introduction of the
course and of himself, and what would be expected in the module exam. At the end of
our allotted time he announced that he would like to go for a coffee and that all and
any members of the class were more than welcome to join him. From memory,
something like a half-dozen of us took him up on the offer, trailing him down to UCGs
downstairs, but-not-quite-underground, restaurant. He insisted on paying for all the
beverages , and our small group took up residence in a quiet corner. After some brief
hesitations on the part of us students until we realised that he really did want to hear
our opinions and ideas the conversation got going. Matt Seaver has recently
described him as: the first and foremost Irish medieval archaeologist, urban
historian, raconteur, font of knowledge on literature, film, chess, opera and so many
other subjects. It was in the general font of knowledge sense that he just blew me
away - I was simply stunned at his breadth and depth of knowledge on so many
subjects, and in awe of his ability to discuss them in a way that was both knowledgeable
and accessible. After more than two decades, it is difficult to remember more than
fleeting wisps of the conversation that day. That said, I do remember that it included
him holding forth on the latest research on The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill. I
also remember him correcting someone in the group with the line 'Well, what Plato
meant by 'Platonic Love' isn't what we mean by the phrase today!' ... it's funny the
weird things that stick in your mind! The offers to join him for coffee over the course
of the semester continued and the attendance from the class varied from week to week.
I don't think I was there for every one, but I think I was there for most. I certainly know
that John bought more than his fair share of coffee and we students benefited from his
ability as a great teacher, conversationalist, and general Renaissance raconteur.
The inevitable exams rolled around and although I did reasonably well in most
modules, I failed John's section - hard! I went to talk to Etienne Rynne, the head of
Department, about it and he explained that John had (as he promised) set the the
paper before he left. It was one of those exams - if you'd been to the lectures and
understood the structure of the topic, the questions would hold no terrors for you. I
only began to understand what went wrong when Etienne took me through the paper
... question after question was the same ... He simply didn't agree with many of John's
positions on medieval Ireland and marked down any student who failed to challenge
them and mirror his own. In a number of other cases, he admitted that he was simply
not aware of certain pieces of evidence or the more recent publications on John's
reading list ... so mentioning them got you no extra marks. Etienne was an expert on
many things, but marking Bradley's exam papers didn't appear to be one of them! As
though it was some consolation, he did remark that 'quite a few of your class didn't do
so well on this module'. My final mark of 14% remains the lowest I ever achieved in
any exam (although an 'Inter Cert' mock exam in French comes a close second at
14.5%).
Dr. Melanie C Maddox is hoping to organise a session in memory of John Bradley for
the Third Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 15-17, 2015)
in St Louis. Provisionally titled 'The Archaeology & History of Irelands Medieval Irish
Town: A Session in Memory of John Bradley', for more information see: here.
Should anyone feel the desire to record a personal tribute to John, you'll find a ready
home and welcome audience at the John Bradley - in memoriam Facebook page.
However, should anyone wish to, I also offer an open platform on this blog.