James Henthorn Todd

James Henthorn Todd was born in Rathfarnham on 23 April 1805 and died there on 28 June 1869, bookending a life spent teaching, writing and arguing that faith should answer to history rather than fear. He tutored at Trinity College, preached at St. Patrick's Cathedral, helped found Saint Columba's College and the Irish Archaeological Society, and became Regius Professor of Hebrew and Librarian at Trinity. A house in Rathfarnham is not the exciting part; the exciting part is the man it returned to twice, young and old, after decades of shaping Irish learning.