About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Kearney, Paddy

Click here for list of interviews

Paddy Kearney was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1942 and attended St Charles College where he matriculated.  He is a graduate of the Universities of Natal, Witwatersrand and Toledo, Ohio (on a Fulbright Scholarship) with Bachelors' Degrees in Arts and Education, and a Masters Degree in Education.

He taught in secondary schools in Johannesburg and Durban and lectured in Education at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

From 1976 to 2004 he headed the staff team at Diakonia, an ecumenical social justice agency that helps Durban churches respond to the challenges in that area.

In 1985 he was detained under Section 29 and after seven days was released in a ground-breaking court order as a result of an application by Archbishop Denis Hurley.

Kearney is at present a consultant to the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council.

He is currently writing a biography of Archbishop Hurley that is due for publication by Continuum in New York and London in 2008.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.