Canon Sheehan of Doneraile

Friends of this blog will be glad to hear that The Collected Letters of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile 1883-1913 by Msgr. James O'Brien is soon to be published.  The book will be launched at Springford Hall, near Doneraile, Co. Cork, on Easter Tuesday next, 2nd April, at 8pm.  Among the events to mark the centenary of his death, an academic colloquium on Canon Sheehan will be held on 26th/27th April in University College, Cork.


A Corkman through and through, Patrick Augustine, Canon Sheehan, was born on New Street, Mallow, Co. Cork, on this day, the feast of St. Patrick, 17th March, 1852.

The Canon, whose fame was once great, whose writings are still immortal, is worthy of this attention.  Read the essay Canon Sheehan: A Turbulent Priest here.


The classic My New Curate will be familiar to many but his other works including Luke Delmege, Glenanaar a novel of the Fenians, Lisheen, The Queen's Fillet, The Blindness of Dr. Gray, and Miriam Lucas deserve to be more widely read.

He was Parish Priest of Doneraile in North Cork from 1895 to his death on the feast of the Holy Rosary, 7th October, 1913.  The statue to honour him outside his Parish Church reads:

Erected

by his sorrowing parishioners

& his very many friends & admirers

at home & abroad

in affectionate remembrance

of the Very Rev.

P.A. Canon Sheehan, P.P., D.D.,

Doneraile A.D. 1895 - 1913

A most saintly devoted pastor 

who loved especially

the little children & the poor.

An author of world wide fame

the moral of whose writings was

the Glory of God

& the uplifting of his fellowman.

An ardent lover of his country

& one of the most gentle amiable

of men.

His memory will be ever

fondly cherished.

May he rest in peace. Amen.