[1] There began a long and successful career as an academic and researcher in both European and Australian history, which encompassed his writing of two volumes of Science and the Enlightenment of 18th Century France, the biographies of Arthur Calwell[2] and Archbishop Daniel Mannix, and his last book, Australia and Ireland – Bicentenary Essays 1788–1988.

[10] The Irish poet Daniel Kelleher wrote this poem for Colm Kiernan (CK) to mark his christening.

When he was the Irish Ambassador to the United States, T. J. Kiernan recited this poem to the parents of John F. Kennedy, Jr. soon after he was born in 1960.

[13] When his father was appointed as the first Irish Ambassador to Australia, in 1946, Kiernan finished his schooling at St Patrick's College, Goulburn.

[14] After completing his BA and MA at the University of Melbourne, he married Joan Louise McKay (1935–1992) on 24 August 1954, at St Christopher's Church in Manuka, A.C.T.

[10] He spoke fluent Italian, Spanish, and French, loved language, literature, and poetry, and was passionate about all things Irish Australian.