Father Donal V. O'Sullivan (died 5 July 1916) was an Irish Catholic priest, and chaplain in the

1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in World War I The service of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in World War I saw the battalion serving on the Western Front throughout the war. It participated in several of the most significant battles of the war, including the battles of Neuve-Chapelle, t ...

. He was killed aged 26, in Albert in France, on 5 July 1916, during the attack on

Bouzincourt Bouzincourt () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. The name ''Bouzincourt'' is derived from the words for forest (bosquet) and the typical Picardy village suffix '-court' . It was therefore a wooded vil ...

, a part of the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. O'Sullivan was mortally wounded by shrapnel from a shell which exploded near him, while he ministering to a wounded English soldier, who survived the war. His brother Dr J. Ivo O'Sullivan KM served with the 5th Connaught Rangers, as a medic in the war, in Ypres, Salonika, Gallipoli, earning a Military Cross. A Chalice owned by O'Sullivan, was presented to the St Joseph's Young Priests Society, by his Nephew Dr Ivo O'Sullivan.

Life

O'Sullivan was born to Dan and Hannah O'Sullivan of High Street, Killarney, Co. Kerry. He was educated in

St Brendan's College, Killarney St Brendan's College, known locally as The Sem, is a secondary school in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland History St Brendan's is a Catholic Diocesan College, founded in 1860 by Bishop David Moriarty as a boarding and day-school for boys under ...

and St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and was ordained at Maynooth in 1914 for the Diocese of Kerry. He returned to St Brendan's to teach for 18 months, before becoming an army chaplain. O'Sullivan ministered to the 7th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, and kept a diary from the day he left Killarney for the war until his death. The soldier who had been ministered to by O'Sullivan when he was killed travelled to Killarney and met his mother Hannah.

Death

O'Sullivan is buried in Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery in the Somme. In 1927 the local priest in Kerry, wished to have O'Sullivan reinterred in a local graveyard, however his mother Hannah disagreed saying he would have wished to remain alongside the men to whom he ministered.Ivo O'Sullivan
Recording, www.irishlifeandlore.com According to Tom Johnstone, who sources this to a letter from the curé of

to O'Sullivan's mother in the possession of the O'Sullivan family at Ballydowney House, Killarney, County Kerry, it was the curé who requested Mrs O'Sullivan's permission to reinter O'Sullivan beside a new

calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

erected to replace the one destroyed in the war. But reburial of the war dead was disallowed by the British government at that time, with the sole exception of the

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior The British grave of the Unknown Warrior (often known as 'The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior') holds an unidentified member of the British armed forces killed on a European battlefield during the First World War.Hanson, Chapters 23 & 24 He was gi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, Donal 1890 births 1916 deaths 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Irish military chaplains World War I chaplains Christian clergy from County Kerry People from Killarney People educated at St Brendan's College, Killarney Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme Royal Ulster Rifles officers Royal Munster Fusiliers officers