Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

Patrick Joseph Hartigan (13 October 1878 – 27 December 1952) was an Australian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, educator, author and poet, writing under the name John O'Brien.

Life

Born at

Yass, New South Wales Yass () is a town on the periphery of the Southern Tablelands and South West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia. The name appears to have been derived from an Australian Aboriginal, Aboriginal word, "Yarrh" (or "Yharr"), said to mean 'running ...

Patrick Joseph Hartigan studied at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly and

St Patrick's College, Goulburn St Patrick's College, Goulburn was an Independent school, independent, Roman Catholic, Day school, day and boarding school for boys located in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. The college, founded by the Goulburn Catholic Diocese in 1874 ...

. 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 counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

, an inner suburb of Sydney, in 1952.

Works

Hartigan wrote under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"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 The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

pastoral folk he ministered to as a peripatetic

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

in the southern New South Wales and

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

towns of

Thurgoona Thurgoona is an outer suburb of the regional city of Albury, New South Wales, Albury in southern New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is located in the City of Albury Local government in Australia, local government area. History Thurgoona ...

, Berrigan and

Narrandera Narrandera ( ), until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the central Riverina region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell Highway, Newell and Sturt Highway, Sturt highwa ...

, 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'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

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 Coo ...

''. A John O'Brien Festival was held annually in Narrandera. The John O'Brien Heritage Museum is located in Audley Street.

Bibliography

Poetry collections

* '' Around the Boree Log and Other Verses'' (1921) * ''The Parish of St Mel's and Other Verses'' (1958)

Selected individual poems

* " Said Hanrahan" (1921)