Maurice O'Connor Drury

File:Maurice O'Connor 'Con' Drury (1907 – 1976) extracted 'head shot'.jpg

Con Drury, probably photographed by Wittgenstein when he visited Dublin in 1936.

Maurice O'Connor Drury (3 July 1907 – 25 December 1976) was an Irish<ref>"despite his English birth and education, his army record, as his request, gave his nationality as ‘Irish’." Hayes, J. "Con Drury: philosopher and psychiatrist." History of Psychiatry. 2017;28(4):p.393. {{#invoke:CS1 identifiers|main|_template=doi}}</ref> psychiatrist, best known for his accounts of his conversations, and close friendship, with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. <ref>Drury, M. O’C., Conversations with Wittgenstein, in R. Rhees (ed.), Recollections of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.97–171. Introduced (pp. 76–96) by Drury, M. O’C., Some Notes on Conversations with Wittgenstein.</ref>

Early life and education

'Con' Drury (as he would be known to his friends) was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England of Irish parents. He grew up in Exeter, Devon, England, where his father, Henry D'Olier Drury, who had been a teacher in Marlborough College, retired.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

Drury was educated at Exeter Grammar School. He then studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. His tutors included G. E. Moore, C. D. Broad and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Drury became Wittgenstein's friend for many years to come, until the latter's death in 1951.<ref name=":1" />

After graduation Drury entered the Cambridge theological college Westcott House, leaving after one year. He then enrolled in the medical school in Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1939.<ref name=":1" />

Medical career

Drury joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in Egypt and taking part in the Normandy landings. After his demobilisation, Drury worked as a House Physician in a hospital in Taunton.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1947 he was appointed Resident Psychiatrist at St Patrick's Hospital Dublin.<ref name=":1" /> From 1951 he also worked in a subsidiary nursing home, St Edmundbury, Lucan, Dublin. He lectured medical students on psychology in Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons. He is described as relating to his student audience as "quite an intellectual man, who was very much speaking and relating to an audience as an intellectual."<ref name=":0" /> He was promoted to Senior Consultant Psychiatrist in 1969. In 1970 due to anginal pain he moved to a private residence in Dublin.<ref name=":1" />

Drury brought Wittgenstein's "critique of language" to bear on the practice of medicine, and particularly psychology that promised the same control over the mind that physics achieved with matter. This promise, pointed out Drury, was one where the delivery date was always being pushed into the future.<ref name=":1" />

Personal life

He married the matron of St Patrick's Hospital, Eileen Herbert, in 1951.<ref name=":1" /> One of his children, Luke Drury, a physicist, was elected president of the Royal Irish Academy in 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His second son, Paul, was one of Ireland's most prominent newspaper editors, editing The Star, Evening Herald, Irish Daily Mail, and Ireland on Sunday. He was also deputy editor of the Irish Independent. He died in 2015.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Drury was a member of the Zoological Society of Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Writings

Drury was the author of one book, The Danger of Words (1973).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ray Monk described the work as "though much neglected" perhaps "the most truly Wittgensteinian work published by any of Wittgenstein’s students."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was included in a collection of many of his writings edited by John Hayes and published in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

His papers are on deposit in the library of Mary Immaculate College Limerick.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Works

• The Danger of Words (1973)

References

<references />

External links

• Dr Silvia Lanzetta "Maurice O’Connor Drury: the inheritance of Wittgenstein"
• Con Drury, Wittgenstein’s Irish interpreter 2017 article by John Hayes for The Irish Times
• Entries on Drury at the Irish Philosophy site of Cathy M. Barry.