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
Born at Yass, New South Wales Patrick Joseph Hartigan studied at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly and St Patrick's College, Goulburn.Australian National University, "Patrick Joseph Hartigan", Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, 12 May 2011
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
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.F.A. Mecham, "John O'Brien" and the Boree Log (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1981).
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. 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.
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 list of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collected in "Said Hanrahan" 1919 The Catholic Press, 31 July 1919, p19 Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, Angus and Robertson,1921, pp. 77-81
References
External links
The Life and Poetry of John O'Brien - brief biography, timeline and 25 poems Brief biography and selection of Hartigan's bush poetry John O'Brien's Poetry - brief biography and three poems Narrandera's John O'Brien Festival ADB article