by
G. P. Walsh
Patrick
Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952), priest and poet, was born on 13 October 1878 at
O'Connell Town, Yass, New South Wales, eldest surviving son of Patrick Joseph
Hartigan, produce merchant, and his wife Mary, née Townsell, both from
Lisseycasey, Clare, Ireland. After attending the convent school at Yass, he
entered St Patrick's College, Manly, in February 1892 but, uncertain of his
vocation for the priesthood, left for St Patrick's College, Goulburn, where he
studied under the noted classicist Dr John Gallagher, later bishop of Goulburn.
He returned to Manly in 1898 and was ordained priest on 18 January 1903. After
a curacy of seven years at Albury, he became inspector of schools for the vast
diocese of Goulburn in 1910 and was based at Thurgoona near Albury. He was one
of the first curates in the State with a motor car; in 1911 he took the last
sacraments to Jack Riley of Bringenbrong, said to have been A. B. Paterson's
'The Man from Snowy River'. In 1916 he was appointed priest-in-charge of
Berrigan and next year parish priest of Narrandera.
All
this time Hartigan was a keen student of Australian literature. In 1906 he began
publishing verse in such journals as the Albury Daily News, Catholic Press and
the Bulletin under the pen-name 'Mary Ann'. Encouraged by George Robertson, C.
J. Dennis and others, he published Around the Boree Log and Other verses, under
the pseudonym 'John O'Brien', in November 1921. Recording with humour and
pathos the lively faith, solid piety and everyday lives of the people around
him, Hartigan successfully combined the old faith of Ireland with the mateship
and ethos of the bush, towards the end of an age when the small selectors and
squatters went by sulky or 'shandrydan' to 'The Church Upon the Hill'.
'We'll
all be rooned', said Hanrahan,
In
accents most forlorn,
Outside
the church, ere Mass began,
One
frosty Sunday morn.
'Said
Hanrahan' and the other poems were an instant success. Dennis hailed them in
the Bulletin as in 'the direct Lawson-Paterson line mainly—unaffected talk
about Australians, much as they would naturally talk about themselves'. Around
the Boree Log ran to five editions and 18,000 copies by 1926, was widely
popularized throughout eastern Australia by the recitations of John Byrne ('The
Joker'), acclaimed in Ireland and the United States of America, and made into a
film in 1925. Twenty poems were set to music by Dom S. Moreno of New Norcia,
Western Australia, in 1933.
Hartigan
was a popular figure in the town and community. His years at Narrandera were
happy if arduous, disturbed only perhaps by the sectarianism engendered by the
Sister Liguori case. His poems and short stories regularly appeared, many in
the religious journal, Manly. Advancing age, ill health and a desire to carry
out more historical research led Hartigan to retire as pastor of Narrandera in
1944; he became chaplain of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Rose Bay. In Sydney
he was a familiar figure in the Mitchell Library and wrote a series of
articles, 'In Diebus Illis', recording the struggles of the pioneer clergy,
published in the Australasian Catholic Record in 1943-45 and posthumously in
book form as The men of '38 … (Kilmore, 1975). Still much in demand as
occasional speaker and preacher, in 1947 he was appointed domestic prelate with
the title of right reverend monsignor in October 1947. His main comforts in his
semi-retirement were the love of his near relations, receiving visitors
(especially from Narrandera) and watching the shipping on the harbour. Ill with
cancer from 1951 he completed On Darlinghurst Hill (Sydney, 1952), written for
the centenary of the Sacred Heart Parish.
Hartigan
died in Lewisham Hospital on 27 December 1952 and, after a requiem Mass in St
Mary's Cathedral, was buried beside his parents in North Rocks cemetery.
Tall,
handsome in his young days, and impressive always, Hartigan for all his broad
humanity and kindliness was shy and somewhat detached. Possessed of a dry
humour underlain by a touch of wistfulness, he was a good conversationalist and
raconteur: literature, art, cricket, horses, the land and cars were ready
subjects. He was an excellent, yet undemonstrative preacher—his addresses,
including panegyrics on his friends, with their pervading poetic imagery, sense
of history and heartfelt sincerity are beautiful examples of Irish-Australian
oratory.
Much
of 'John O'Brien's' unpublished verse appeared in The Parish of St. Mel's
(Sydney, 1954). A selection of his poems, illustrated by the paintings of
Patrick Carroll, was published as Around the Boree Log (Sydney, 1978). A
portrait by E. M. Smith is at St Patrick's College, Manly.
Select
Bibliography
F. A. Mecham, John O'Brien and the Boree Log (Syd, 1981) and
for bibliography
Catholic Weekly (Sydney), 8, 15, 22 May 1952, 1 Jan 1953, 9
Sept 1971
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Mar 1976.
Sources:
Pages:
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