Santiago Gregorio O'Farrell (14 March 1861 – 15 May 1926) was an Argentine politician and lawyer of Irish descent. He was a member of the National Civic Union and the League of Christian Democrats. He is considered a leading Latin American supporter of

Christian democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

. He served three terms in the

Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputados de la Nación), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress ( es, Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 ...

for Buenos Aires.

Family

His father, Don Miguel O’Farrell, was a rancher and politician, who became a deputy in the provincial legislature of Buenos Aires. His mother, Mary Seery y Casey, was from

Mullingar, County Westmeath Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeath ...

. O'Farrell spent 1873-74 in Colegio del Salvador but in 1875 he moved to the Jesuit-run Immaculate Conception in Santa Fe Province. In 1883, he graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in law and began to practice Law. A year later, he married Margarita Harrington Culligan, daughter of Juan (John) Harrington y Harrington, a rancher born in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. They were married in Regina Martyrum Parish in Buenos Aires and had thirteen children.

Law and politics

In 1883, the year he graduated, he founded the O'Farrell Law firm in Buenos Aires, which remains one of the oldest and most prestigious law firms in existence in Argentina. He became involve din politics in 1889 joining the Civic Union and when that party split he went with the National Civic Union whilst his younger brother, Juan, joined the Radical Civic Union. In 1893 at the age of 32 he was appointed president of the Catholic Workers' Circles founded the previous year by the Redemptorist priest Federico Grote. Fr Grote spent his time promoting the Social teaching of the Church especially found in the Social Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII, e.g.

Rerum Novarum ''Rerum novarum'' (from its incipit, with the direct translation of the Latin meaning "of revolutionary change"), or ''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor'', is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, pass ...

. In O’Farrell he found a layman who was equally enthusiastic about the Social Gospel. He served three terms in the Argentine federal parliament between 1896 and 1910. His period in the legislature was dominated by his defence of the family and several interventions about the weaknesses of the army. After he left politics he involve himself extensively in social, Church and especially Irish issues. One of the issues he pressed for was a monument to Admiral William Brown, the Irish born hero of Argentine independence. O’Farrell died in 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:O'Farrell, Santiago G. 1861 births 1926 deaths Argentine people of Irish descent Argentine politicians Argentine anti-communists 19th-century Argentine lawyers Argentine Roman Catholics Politicians from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine lawyers