John Canon O'Hanlon MRIA (30 April 1821 – 15 May 1905)
was an Irish Catholic priest, scholar and writer who also published poetry and illustrations, and involved himself in Irish politics. He is best known as a folklorist and a hagiographer, and in particular for his comprehensive ''Lives of the Irish Saints''.
Life
O'Hanlon was born in
Stradbally
Stradbally () is a town in County Laois, Ireland, located in the midlands of Ireland along the N80 road, a National Secondary Route, about from Portlaoise. It is a townland, a civil parish and historic barony. It is known for its "Steam Ra ...
,
Laois
County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medi ...
.
His parents were Edward and Honor Hanlon.
He attended the
Preston School in
Ballyroan and then entered
Carlow College to study for the priesthood.
Before he completed his studies, however, he emigrated in 1842 with members of his family, initially to
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
,
but ultimately to
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
in the United States of America (a migration perhaps occasioned by the death of his father).
The family settled in Millwood in northeast Missouri.
O'Hanlon was admitted to the diocesan college in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, completed his studies, and was ordained in 1847.
He was then assigned a mission in the
diocese of St. Louis, where he ministered until 1853.
He then returned to his native Stradbally for health reasons.
A year later, his health having improved, O'Hanlon offered his services to the
Archdiocese of Dublin
The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...
,
and became a curate in the parish of Saints Michael and John.
A fellow curate there was
Charles Patrick Meehan
Charles Patrick Meehan (12 July 1812 – 14 March 1890) was an Irish Catholic priest, historian and editor.
Life
Meehan was born at 141 Great Britain Street, Dublin, on 12 July 1812.
He received his early education at Ballymahon, County Long ...
and "many stories are told of their eccentricities".
In 1880 he was appointed as parish priest of
Sandymount and
Ringsend
Ringsend () is a Southside (Dublin), southside inner suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Liffey and east of the River Dodder, about two kilometres east of the city centre. It is the sou ...
in Dublin, where he ministered at the church of St. Mary's Star of the Sea in
Irishtown (today there is a commemorative plaque on display in the church).
He remained in Sandymount/Ringsend until his death in 1905. He had been made a Canon of the Dublin Cathedral by
Archbishop Walsh in 1885, and celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest in 1897.
He is buried in
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery ( ga, Reilig Ghlas Naíon) is a large cemetery in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland which opened in 1832. It holds the graves and memorials of several notable figures, and has a museum.
Location
The cemetery is located in Glasne ...
.
Writings
O'Hanlon began writing while in America. His time there coincided with mass immigration from Ireland due to the
Great Famine, and he was deeply affected by the plight of these immigrants. As one consequence, he wrote ''An Irish Emigrant's Guide to the United States''
(a revised edition of which he would issue in 1890
). But he also engaged in more scholarly writing, working on a biography of
Saint Malachy
Malachy (}; Modern ga, Maelmhaedhoc Ó Morgair; ) (1094 – 2 November 1148) is an Irish saint who was Archbishop of Armagh, to whom were attributed several miracles and an alleged vision of 112 popes later attributed to the apocryphal ...
, publishing some of his research as articles in the ''
Boston Pilot
''The Pilot'' is the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston and claims the title of "America's Oldest Catholic Newspaper", having been in continuous publication since its first issue on September 5, 1829. Although the first Catholic new ...
'',
where he also published articles about
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...
He also wrote an ''Abridgment of the History of Ireland'' (1849)
(in 1903, in Ireland, he would publish an ''Irish-American History of the United States''
), and for a time he was editor of a Catholic newspaper, ''The St. Louis News-Letter''.
O'Hanlon was very interested in local history and folklore, and when he returned to Ireland much of his writing concerned these topics. Among his first publications in Ireland were two letters, from 1856, published in the ''Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society'', urging the usefulness of the records of the
Ordnance Survey
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in the
Phoenix Park
The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tre ...
for studying the history of the neighbouring counties of
Kilkenny
Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512.
Kilken ...
and his native Laois.
The usefulness of the Ordnance Survey and the importance of local histories and topographies were constant themes for O'Hanlon and he would write twenty further bulletins about the Ordnance Survey and the histories of other counties in Ireland.
Laois (which was known as Queen's County until 1922, but was always associated with the medieval kingdom of
Loígis
Loígis () is the name of an Irish tribe, as it is called by contemporary scholars. Formerly, scholars generally called the tribe ''Laoighis'' or ''Laeighis'' in Irish, ''Lagisia'' in Latin, and ''Leix'' in English. Loígis is also the name of the ...
or Leix) was always of particular interest to O'Hanlon and he worked on a two-volume ''History of the Queen's County'' (although this was only posthumously published in 1907),
published articles on the "Old Churches of Leix" in the ''
Irish Builder
The ''Irish Builder'' was a successful trade journal published in Dublin, Ireland, under various names. Names used by the journal were: '' The Dublin Builder, or Illustrated Irish Architectural, Engineering, Mechanics’ & Sanitary Journal'' (185 ...
'' during the 1880s, and collected the works of Laois patriot, balladeer and mythologist
John Keegan
Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, ...
,
while the best known of his own poems is the "Land of Leix".
O'Hanlon's best-known work remains his hagiography, in particular his ''Lives of the Irish Saints'', which organizes its chronicles by feast day, from January 1 to December 31. O'Hanlon issued a prospectus for a subscription work on the lives of Irish saints in 1875, and published 9 volumes until he died in 1905, when he was working on a tenth, dealing with 3,500 saints across more than six thousand octavo pages.
In addition to this ''magnum opus'' O'Hanlon published many works on individual saints, although he mostly re-used these articles and pamphlets in his ''Lives'', often verbatim. In a similar manner, his work on the churches of Laois provided material for the ''Lives''.
As a work of hagiography, the ''Lives of the Irish Saints'' has been surpassed by modern scholarship, but it remains a treasure trove of local information and tradition.
O'Hanlon did not limit himself to the lives of saints, and his interests extended to secular and more contemporary figures. He issued new editions of works by
William Molyneux
William Molyneux FRS (; 17 April 1656 – 11 October 1698) was an Irish writer on science, politics and natural philosophy.
He is noted as a close friend of fellow philosopher John Locke, and for proposing Molyneux's Problem, a thought exp ...
(''The Case of Ireland's Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England Stated'', 1893) and
Henry Joseph Monck Mason
Henry Joseph Monk Mason (15 July 1778 – 14 April 1858) was an Irish writer who, although not a native speaker, specialised in Irish-language activities. He was a founder of The Irish Society, dedicated to spreading the Scripture in Irish, and a ...
(''History of the Irish Parliament'', 1891) and had plans to publish a definitive biography of
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
, although he set these aside to work on his history of Laois.
O'Hanlon was also a poet, publishing under the pseudonym "Lageniensis" (Leinster man).
The collected works of Lageniensis centre on a long poem in
Spenserian stanza
The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem ''The Faerie Queene'' (1590–96). Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'alexandrine' line in iambic ...
, "The Land of Leix" and a series of
lays
Lay's is a brand of potato chips, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay because both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the Frito-Lay company, which has b ...
recounting stories from Irish mythology. Characteristically, the poems are annotated with extremely copious local and historical information.
O'Hanlon was always an eager traveller, frequently journeying to Europe to research the ''Lives'',
and travelling thousands of miles through the USA and Canada as a seventy-year-old man in 1891 (on the occasion of the jubilee of
Archbishop Kenrick who had ordained him
). Yet another string to his writer's bow could be said to be travel writing, in particular ''His Life and scenery in Missouri'' (1890).
He also turned his hand to pedagogical works (''Cathecism of Greek Grammar'', 1865) and to devotional writing (''Devotions for Cofession and Holy Communion'', 1866).
Interest in art
In addition to his other achievements, O'Hanlon was a competent illustrator, with a particular interest in recording local topographical features.
![Moycreddin cemetery 1874](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Moycreddin_cemetery_1874.jpg)
128 of the illustrations in his ''Lives of the Irish Saints'' (about one fifth of the total) were made by O'Hanlon himself.
O'Hanlon was a strong believer in the importance of topography, or the study of place, which is evident in his praise of the Ordnance Survey, for whom he advocated a government grant to employ artists to record local features. In his own drawings and his use of drawings by others he showed a clear concern to record visual antiquarian and historical details which otherwise might disappear.
These artistic abilities were also expressed in an interest in architecture. O'Hanlon wrote about the churches of Laois, commended the newly built church of St. Laurence O'Toole in Seville Place, Dublin, in his ''The Life of
St. Lawrence O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin'' (1857) and worked on the restoration of his own parish church, St. Mary Star of the Sea.
The Irish language
O'Hanlon was very interested in the revival and preservation of the
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
. He had joined the
Ossianic Society when he returned from the United States, and as a curate in Dublin he was already a council member of the
Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language
The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language (SPIL; ga, Cumann Buan-Choimeádta na Gaeilge) was a cultural organisation in late 19th-century Ireland, which was part of the Gaelic revival of the period.
It was founded on 29 December 187 ...
(founded in 1877), with which he remained active until his death, becoming a vice-president. He edited work by the Irish language activist Henry Joseph Monck Mason. A Star of the Sea branch of
Conradh na Gaeilge
(; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...
was founded in 1900 with O'Hanlon as its president.
He was known for frequently attending its classes to offer encouragement to students.
Politics
O'Hanlon's political convictions seem to date to his childhood. During that period there was a great deal of agitation and unrest in Ireland, both by moral and political activists, and by violent societies such as the Whiteboys and the Rockites. O'Hanlon recorded his early impression of the Ballykilvan evictions in 1828
and as a teenager attended Daniel O'Connell's meeting on the Great Heath in 1836.
He was probably also influenced in his political convictions by his pastoral experiences a priest among the poor, in both St. Louis and Dublin.
O'Hanlon was no radical priest and he always submitted to the authority of his bishop,
but certain of his publications attest to his own political views and to a desire to contribute to the political discussions about Ireland's status, both in Ireland and Britain. He attended the House of Commons in London in 1893 for some of the debates about Home Rule for Ireland, of which he was a proponent, and admired
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...
, as well as
William Gladstone. It was in this period, the 1890s, that he published his editions of Molyneux's ''The Case of Ireland's Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England Stated'' and Monck Mason's ''History of the Irish Parliament'' with the apparent goal of returning these earlier advocates of Irish autonomous government to popular consciousness. He dedicated the latter to Gladstone. When he collected his poetical works as Lageniensis, he addressed the dedication to
Lady Aberdeen, whose husband had served as
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
and had just been appointed as
Governor General of Canada
The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...
, both viceregal positions. O'Hanlon commends Aberdeen for her work with the poor in Ireland and her establishment of the Irish Industries Association. He then goes on to compare the situations of Ireland and Canada in relation to Home Rule, and argues that Ireland should be granted the same autonomy as Canada and, in a bitter reference to the
Parnellite split
The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party (Ireland), Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliament ...
deplores the "malign and sinister obstruction to which Irish Home Rule has been subjected through bigotry, unnatural party combination, class prejudice and selfishness", while hoping that eventually there will be established in Ireland "a Constitution, which shall secure equal rights and liberties for all creeds and parties in Ireland, while promoting and consolidating still more the strength and resources of the British Empire".
After the failures of Parnell's party, as well as the final resignation of their key ally Gladstone, in 1894, O'Hanlon seems to have given up hope for Home Rule.
But his true political hero remained Daniel O'Connell. O'Hanlon was General Secretary of the O'Connell Monument Committee, author of their ''Report'' (1888),
and probably the main driver overcoming many setbacks during the difficult 20-year period it took to erect a monument to O'Connell in Dublin's Sackville Street (now
O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections ...
).
A modest fame
O'Hanlon was a modest man but he was recognized for his achievements. At his Golden Jubilee his parishioners and fellow priests recognized his pastoral work, his patriotic advocacy or Irish national interests, and his extensive writings.
William Walsh, the archbishop of Dublin, remarked that he worked so hard at his pastoral duties that men wondered how he found time to write, but he wrote so much that men wondered how he found time to do any missionary work.
He associated with literary circles in Dublin. He was elected a Member of the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...
.
Finally, tribute was paid to O'Hanlon by none other than
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
, in the Nausicaa episode of ''
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
'', where his activities in the St. Mary Star of the Sea church counterpoint Leopold Bloom's observation of Gerty McDowell on the nearby Sandymount Strand: "and the blue banners of the blessed Virgin's sodality and Father Conroy was helping Canon O'Hanlon at the altar".
List of works
* ''Abridgment of the History of Ireland from its Final Subjection to the Present Time'' (Boston, 1849)
* ''The Irish Emigrant's Guide to the United States'' (Boston, 1851; new edition, Dublin, 1890)
* ''The Life of St. Laurence O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin'' (Dublin, 1857)
* ''The Life of St. Malachy O'Morgair, Bishop of Down and Connor, Archbishop of Armagh'' (Dublin, 1859)
* ''The Life of
St. Dympna, Virgin Martyr'' (Dublin, 1863)
* ''Catechism of Irish History from the Earliest Events to the Death of O'Connell'' (Dublin, 1864)
* ''Catechism of Greek Grammar'' (Dublin, 1865)
* ''Devotions for Confession and Holy Communion'' (Dublin, 1866)
* ''The Life and Works of
St. Oengus the Culdee, Bishop and Abbot'' (Dublin, 1868)
* ''The Life of
St. David, Archbishop of Menevia, Chief Patron of Wales'' (Dublin, 1869)
* ''Legend Lays of Ireland'' (verse, under the pseudonym "Lageniensis") (Dublin, 1870)
* ''Irish Folk-Lore, Traditions and Superstitions of the Country; with Humorous Tales'' (Lageniensis) (Glasgow, 1870)
* ''Lives of the Irish Saints: with special festivals, and the commemorations of holy persons, compiled from calendars, martyrologies, and various sources, relating to the ancient church history of Ireland'' (Dublin, 9 volumes published from 1875, with a 10th partially completed in 1905)
* ''The Buried Lady, a Legend of Kilronan'' (Lageniensis) (Dublin, 1877)
* ''The Life of
St. Grellan, Patron of the O'Kellys'' (Dublin, 1881)
* ''Report of the O'Connell Monument Committee'' (Dublin, 1888)
* ''The Poetical Works of Lageniensis'' (Dublin, 1893)
* ''Irish-American History of the United States'' (Dublin, 1902)
* ''History of the Queen's County'' (completed by Rev. E. O'Leary) (Dublin, 1907)
* Editor, Henry Joseph Monck Mason ''Essay on the Antiquity and Constitution of Parhaments of Ireland'' (1891)
* Editor, William Molyneux ''The Case of Ireland's Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England Stated'' (1893)
* Editor, ''Legends and Stories of John Keegan'' (with a memoir of Keegan by David James O'Donoghue) (Dublin, 1908)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:OHanlon, John
1821 births
1905 deaths
Irish folklorists
Irish Catholic poets
Alumni of Carlow College
People from County Laois
19th-century Irish poets