Monsignor
Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
Patrick Joseph Hartigan (13 October 1878 – 27 December 1952) was an Australian
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
, educator, author and poet, writing under the name John O'Brien.
Biography
Born at
Yass, New South Wales
Yass ()
is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Yass Valley Council. The name appears to have been derived from an Aboriginal word, "Yarrh" (or "Yharr"), said to mean 'running water'.
Yass is located 280 km ...
Patrick Joseph Hartigan studied at
St Patrick's Seminary, Manly
St Patrick's Seminary, Manly is a heritage-listed former residence of the Archbishop of Sydney and Roman Catholic Church seminary at 151 Darley Road, Manly, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia. The property was also known as ...
and
St Patrick's College, Goulburn
His poetry was very popular in Australia and was well received in Ireland and the United States.
Hartigan died in
Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...
, an inner suburb of Sydney in 1952.
Works
Hartigan wrote under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
"John O'Brien." His verse celebrated the lives and
mores
Mores (, sometimes ; , plural form of singular , meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable ...
of the
outback pastoral folk he ministered to as a peripatetic
curate in the southern New South Wales and
Riverina
The Riverina
is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...
towns of
Thurgoona
Thurgoona is an outer suburb of the regional city of Albury in southern New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is located in the City of Albury local government area.
History
Thurgoona Post Office opened on 1 January 1874, closing in 1961.
...
,
Berrigan and
Narrandera
Narrandera ( ) until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell and Sturt highways, adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River, and ...
, in the first two decades of the 20th century.
The refrain ''We'll all be rooned'' from his poem ''
Said Hanrahan'' has entered
colloquial
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...
Australian English as a jocular response to any prediction of dire consequences arising, particularly, from events outside the interlocutor's control.
[ ''Echos of the well-known poem about Irish-Catholic-bush-pessimist Hanrahan* came out of the Australian Capital Territory'']
He also wrote a number of articles on early Irish priests in Australia, later collected in ''The Men of '38 and Other Pioneer Priests''.
[''The Men of '38 and Other Pioneer Priests'', by "John O'Brien" ed. T.J. Linane and F.A. Mecham, with a foreword by His Eminence Cardinal James Freeman, Kilmore Publishing, Lowden VIC, 1975.]
Legacy
His most popular book of poetry was filmed in 1925 as ''
Around the Boree Log
''Around the Boree Log'' is a 1925 Australian silent film by Phil K. Walsh adapted from the poems of "John O'Brien" ( Patrick Joseph Hartigan). It tells stories of a priest's life around the 1870s in the Goulburn area.Andrew Pike and Ross Coope ...
''.
A John O'Brien Festival is held annually in Narrandera.
References
External links
The Life and Poetry of John O'Brien - brief biography, timeline and 25 poems
and selection of Hartigan's bush poetry
John O'Brien's Poetry- brief biography and three poems
Narrandera's John O'Brien Festival*
1878 births
1952 deaths
Australian poets
20th-century Australian Roman Catholic priests
Catholic poets
People from New South Wales
People from the Riverina
Irish-Australian culture
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