Canon James Kearney O’Neill was a native of
Ballypatrick,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, where his maternal uncle, Thomas J. Kearney, had previously been parish priest.
The order of the
Knights of Columbanus
The Order of the Knights of Saint Columbanus () is an Irish national Catholic fraternal organisation. Founded by Canon James K. O'Neill in Belfast, Ireland, in 1915, it was named in honour of the Irish saint, Columbanus. Initially established ...
was founded in 1915 by Rev. O'Neill to promote and foster
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
faith and education.
He was born and raised at Carey House,
Ballypatrick,
Carey
Carey may refer to:
Names
* Carey (given name), a given name
* Carey (surname), a surname
** List of people with surname Carey
Places Canada
* Carey Group, British Columbia; in the Pacific
* Carey Island (Nunavut) in James Bay
United Kingdom
* ...
. He studied at the Classical School in Downpatrick, enrolled in St. Malachy's Diocesan College in February 1872 and entered Maynooth in September 1875. In 1906 he was appointed parish priest of the Sacred Heart Parish, Oldpark Rd., Belfast.
He was greatly influenced by the social teaching of the Church and particularly the encyclical "Rerum Novarum" Fr. O’Neill (then Canon) died on 18 March 1922 and is buried at the rear of the church in Ballyvoy. The Order pays tribute to him in May of every year by the celebration of Mass in