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John O'Brien (poet)

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(Redirected from Patrick Joseph Hartigan)

Cover of 1968 edition of Hartigan's Around The Boree Log anthology first published 1921

Monsignor Patrick Joseph Hartigan (13 October 1878 – 27 December 1952) was an Australian Roman Catholic priest, educator, author and poet, writing under the name John O'Brien.

Life

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Born at Yass, New South Wales Patrick Joseph Hartigan studied at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly and St Patrick's College, Goulburn.[1] [2]

His poetry was very popular in Australia and was well received in Ireland and the United States.

Hartigan died in Lewisham, an inner suburb of Sydney, in 1952.

Works

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Hartigan wrote under the pseudonym "John O'Brien." His verse celebrated the lives and mores of the outback pastoral folk he ministered to as a peripatetic curate in the southern New South Wales and Riverina towns of Thurgoona, Berrigan and Narrandera, in the first two decades of the 20th century.[3][4]

The refrain We'll all be rooned from his poem Said Hanrahan has entered colloquial Australian English as a jocular response to any prediction of dire consequences arising, particularly, from events outside the interlocutor's control.[5]

He also wrote a number of articles on early Irish priests in Australia, later collected in The Men of '38 and Other Pioneer Priests.[6]

Legacy

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His most popular book of poetry was filmed in 1925 as Around the Boree Log.

A John O'Brien Festival was held annually in Narrandera.[7] The John O'Brien Heritage Museum is located in Audley Street.[8]

Bibliography

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Poetry collections

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Selected individual poems

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References

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  1. ^ Australian National University, "Patrick Joseph Hartigan", Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, 12 May 2011
  2. ^ "Monsignor P.J. Hartigan's reminiscences". Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser. 26 May 1952. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  3. ^ F.A. Mecham, "John O'Brien" and the Boree Log (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1981).
  4. ^ Franklin, James (2019). "Catholic rural virtue in Australia: ideal and reality" (PDF). Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society. 40: 39–61. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  5. ^ O’Dwyer, Tim. "We'll All Be Rooned, said Hanrahan". Lawyers Conveyancing. Archived from the original on 10 April 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2009. Echos of the well-known poem about Irish-Catholic-bush-pessimist Hanrahan* came out of the Australian Capital Territory
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ "John O'Brien Festival". Narrandera Shire Council. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ "John O'Brien, Australian Author and Poet". John O'Brien Heritage Museum. 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
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