From behind his desk in room 222 of the O’Rahilly building at University College Cork, Prof Brian Bocking hands me a framed photograph of a blue-eyed man with a shaved head, dressed in the style of a Burmese monk. He tells me that at the turn of the 20th century this man was known throughout Asia, where he travelled extensively until the outbreak of the first World War. Described as an autodidact, atheist and Buddhist revivalist, the monk in the picture is known as U Dhammaloka; he led a colourful life, eventually finding himself tried for sedition in Burma. His story is all the more remarkable for the fact that he was a working-class Dublin vagrant who made his way halfway around the world to become one of the first, and best-known, western Buddhist monks in Asia.

When we think of Ireland’s religious past and the people who dominated it, stories like these often get overshadowed by Catholic and Protestant narratives. At best they become mere historical footnotes. At worst, as in this case, they are not remembered at all.

Read the complete story(Some news sites require registration)