Ralph McInerny


Ralph Matthew McInerny was an American author and philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame. McInerny's most popular mystery novels featured Father Dowling, and was later adapted into the Father Dowling Mysteries television show, which ran from 1987 to 1991.
He sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin and Monica Quill.

Academic career

McInerny wrote his PhD dissertation entitled The Existential Dialectic of Soren Kierkegaard under Professor Charles De Koninck at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.
He was Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Jacques Maritain Center, and Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He taught there from 1955 until his retirement in 2009.
McInerny was also a Fulbright Scholar, receiving educational funds from the Fulbright Commission Belgium. He served as president of the Metaphysical Society of America in 1993.
McInerny's brother Dennis, also a philosophy professor, believes that his brother's greatest legacy is not to be found in his novels, but in his adherence to scholastic and Thomistic beliefs.

Personal life

McInerny was a Catholic. He attended Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary for high school. He married the former Constance Kunert January 3, 1953, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She preceded him in death on May 18, 2002. The McInernys had four daughters and three sons, one of whom, Michael, predeceased Ralph.
McInerny died of esophageal cancer on January 29, 2010. Those daughters who survived him were: Cathleen Brownell of North Barrington, IL, Mary Hosford of Baltimore, MD, Anne Policinski of Wayzata, MN, and Beth McInerny of St. Paul. MN. The surviving sons were David of Overland Park, KS and Daniel of Waco, TX.

Fiction

Father Dowling

  • Her Death of Cold
  • Bishop as Pawn
  • The Seventh Station
  • Lying Three
  • The Second Vespers
  • Thicker Than Water
  • A Loss of Patients
  • The Grass Widow
  • Getting a Way with Murder
  • Rest in Pieces
  • The Basket Case
  • Slight of Body
  • Four on the Floor
  • Abracadaver
  • Judas Priest
  • Desert Sinner
  • Seed of Doubt
  • A Cardinal Offense
  • The Case of the Constant Caller
  • The Case of the Dead Winner
  • The Tears of Things
  • Grave Undertakings
  • Triple Pursuit
  • Prodigal Father
  • Last Things
  • Requiem for a Realtor
  • Blood Ties
  • The Prudence of Flesh
  • The Widow's Mate
  • Ash Wednesday
  • The Wisdom of Father Dowling
  • Stained Glass
  • ''The Compassion of Father Dowling''

Sister Mary Teresa (all as Monica Quill)

  • Not a Blessed Thing
  • Let Us Prey
  • And Then There Was Nun
  • Nun of the Above
  • Sine Qua Nun
  • The Veil of Ignorance
  • Sister Hood
  • Nun Plussed
  • Half Past Nun
  • ''Death Takes the Veil''

Andrew Broom

  • Cause and Effect
  • Body and Soil
  • Savings and Loam
  • Mom and Dead
  • Law and Ardor
  • ''Heirs and Parents''

Notre Dame

  • On This Rockne
  • Lack of the Irish
  • Irish Tenure
  • The Book of Kills
  • Emerald Aisle
  • Celt and Pepper
  • Irish Coffee
  • Green Thumb
  • Irish Gilt
  • The Letter Killeth
  • Irish Alibi
  • The Green Revolution
  • ''Sham Rock''

Rosary Chronicles

  • The Third Revelation
  • ''Relic of Time''

Other novels

  • Jolly Rogerson
  • A Narrow Time
  • The Priest
  • The Gate of Heaven
  • Rogerson at Bay
  • Romanesque
  • Spinnaker
  • Quick as a Dodo
  • Connolly's Life
  • The Noonday Devil
  • Leave of Absence
  • Frigor Mortis
  • The Nominative Case
  • Easeful Death
  • The Search Committee
  • Infra Dig
  • The Red Hat
  • As Good As Dead
  • The Ablative Case
  • ''Slattery''

Collections

  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths
  • ''Good Knights''

Poetry

  • ''The Soul of Wit: Some Poems''

Anthologies edited

  • Murder Most Divine
  • Murder Most Catholic
  • ''Great Mystery Series: 11 of the Best Mystery Short Stories from Alfred Hitchcock's And Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazines''

Non-fiction

Philosophy and theology

Biography

  • The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain: A Spiritual Life
  • I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes
  • Some Catholic Writers
  • ''The Defamation of Pope Pius XII''

Instruction

  • Let's Write a Novel
  • Let's Write Short Stories
  • Let's Read Latin: Introduction to the Language of the Church
  • ''Characters in Search of Their Author: The Gifford Lectures, 1999-2000''