Patrick Augustine Sheehan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Very Rev. Patrick Augustine Canon Sheehan in Gaelic
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

: An Canónach Pádraig Aguistín Ó Síothcháin (17 March 1852 – 5 October 1913), was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

Roman Catholic priest

Priesthood (Catholic Church)

The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....

, author, political activist was invariably known and referred to as Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, having been appointed on July 4, 1895 Parish Priest of Doneraile

Doneraile

Doneraile is a town in County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. It is located on the R581 regional road 8 km east of the N20 road which runs from Limerick to Cork. It is about 12 km north of Mallow town...

, where he wrote almost all of his major works.

Early life

Patrick Augustine Sheehan was born on St Patrick's Day, 1852 at 29 New Street, Mallow, County Cork

Mallow, County Cork

Mallow is the "Crossroads of Munster" and the administrative capital of north County Cork, in Ireland. The Northern Divisional Offices of Cork County Council are located in the town....

. Third eldest of five children born to Patrick Sheehan, owner of a small business, and to Joanna Regan, he was baptised by the Very Reverend Dr. J.C. Wigmore, the sponsors being Timothy Cronin and Mary Ann Relehan.

As a child, Sheehan was fair-haired and delicate with "large wistful blue eyes". He was described as "a bit of a dreamer, and when other lads were shouting at play, he went alone to some copse or thicket, and with a book, or more often without one, would sit and think, and look dreamily at floating clouds or running stream; and then, with a sigh go back to his desk".

At the age of eleven, Canon Sheehan lost both of his parents in quick succession and, together with his three surviving siblings, became the ward of the Parish Priest of Mallow, Dr. John McCarthy who later became Bishop John McCarthy of Cloyne. Responsibility for the Sheehan household devolved on his older sisters Hannah and Margaret.

When Sheehan and his brother Denis, who subsequently joined the Civil Service, had been despatched to secondary school, his sisters entered the Convent of Mercy in Mallow. Margaret Sheehan made religious profession, as Sr. Mary Augustine, on her death-bed before completion of her novitiate. She died on 7 November 1868.

Hannah Sheehan was professed as Sr. Mary Stanislaus, and became Mistress of Schools at Mallow Convent but died young on 17 December 1871. John, the youngest of the family, died at the age of five.

In his Under the Cedars and the Stars Canon Sheehan wrote of his childhood: "Strange I never felt the proximity of father and mother. But of my sisters, one in particular, the only dark-haired in the family, has haunted me through life. I no more doubt of her presence and her light touch on the issues of my life, than I doubt of the breath of wind that flutters the tassel of the biretta on my head. Yet what is strange is not her nearness but her farness".

Early education was received in the Long Room National School in Mallow. Of the school master he later wrote: "His range of attainments was limited, but what he knew he knew well, and could impart it to his pupils. He did his duty conscientiously by constant, unremitting care, and he emphasized his teaching by frequent appeals to the ferule".

One of his classmates there was the journalist and parliamentarian, William O'Brien

William O'Brien

William O'Brien was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

M.P., with whom he was to ally himself in later years. He completed secondary education in St Colman's College, Fermoy, at a time which coincided with the Fenian Rising, the events of which were to have a profound effect on him. He returned to the theme of violent insurrection in several of his novels, most notably The Graves at Kilmorna, recounting Fenian

Fenian

The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...

incidents witnessed by him while a student in Fermoy.

Maynooth years

After St Colman's, he passed through the sphinx-guarded gates, as he called them, of St. Patrick's College

St Patrick's College, Maynooth

St Patrick's College, Maynooth is the "National Seminary for Ireland" , and a Pontifical University, located in the village of Maynooth, 15 miles from Dublin, Ireland. The college and seminary are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was officially established as the Royal College...

Maynooth

Maynooth is a town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to a branch of the National University of Ireland, a Papal University and Ireland's main Roman Catholic seminary, St. Patrick's College...

College in County Kildare

County Kildare

County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...

on 25 August 1869, to prepared for the priesthood. Although he never shone in the spartan Maynooth regime, he was a brilliant student who, despite recurring illness, succeeded in completing his studies a year before he was old enough to be ordained. Transferred by his guardian, Bishop John McCarthy of Cloyne, to the seminary of the Vincentian Fathers in Sundayswell in Cork, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne at Cork, on Sunday, 18 April 1875 by Bishop William Delany. It is believed that he celebrated his first Mass in the chapel of the Convent of Mercy in Mallow.

In his essay The Irish Priesthood and Politics Canon Sheehan gives a succinct description of his time in Maynooth: "I remember well that the impression made upon me by Maynooth College then, and afterwards, when I saw its long, stone corridors, its immense bare stony halls, the huge massive tables etc., was one of rude Cyclopean strength, without one single aspect or feature of refinement. So too with its studies. Rentless logic, with its formidable chevaux-de-frise of syllogisms, propositions, scholia; Metaphysics, sublime, but hardened into slabs of theories, congealed in medieval Latin; Physics, embracing a course that would have appalled a young Newton or Kepler; and then the vast shadow of four years' Divinity towering above and over-shadowing all!". The Maynooth literature course was hardly any better: "The Graces were nowhere! Even in the English literature or Belles-Lettres class, as it was called, the course seemed to be limited to hard grinding Grammar, and nothing more. During the first semestre, a few lectures were given on literature. All I can ever remember of that period were the words 'Lake Poets', which the good professor was forever repeating".

In January 1870, Fr. O'Rourke, the Professor of French and English, whom Sheehan describes as a "very gentle, polished man", was obliged to leave the College and go abroad for health reasons. He was replaced by a young priest who was then just finishing his postgraduate research on the Dunboyne Establishment. Canon Sheehan regarded him as "one of the most remarkable, if not one of the most distinguished, students that ever passed through Maynooth". To the "young hero-worshippers, sick and tired of logic-chopping, and the awful dullness of the morning classes, he came as a herald of light and leading".

Swiftly, he opened to their "wondering eyes the vast treasures of European and, particularly, of English literature". It was at his feet that Canon Sheehan first heard the names of Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...

, Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....

, and Browning

Robert Browning

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...

Priesthood

Canon Sheehan began his priestly ministry in the Cathedral Parish and in the former abbey church of St. Nicholas in Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

in the diaspora diocese of Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

. He quickly established a reputation as a preacher and was much sought after for sermons, retreats, and incidental addresses. While in Plymouth, he also acted as a supply chaplain for Dartmoor prison which, at the time, still held several of those convicted for treason felony after the Fenian Rising of 1867. He returned to Ireland in 1877 to take up a curacy in his native Mallow. In 1881 he was transferred to Cobh

Cobh

Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour. Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island...

(then Queenstown) and subsequently back to Mallow where he remained until Bishop Robert Browne nominated him Parish Priest of Doneraile

Doneraile

on 4 July 1895.

Canon Sheehan's appointment to Doneraile was an important one and an implicit indication of the trust and confidence placed in him by his bishop. It was the largest territorial parish in the Diocese of Cloyne and incorporated the medieval parishes of Templeroan, Doneraile, Caherduggan, and Rossagh. Bishop Matthew McKenna's Visitation Register of 1785 mentions that the parish of Doneraile had 683 habitations while Cahirduggan possessed 200 and Templeroan 120. It had a long tradition of distinguished pastors since candidates for appointment to Doneraile were often chosen for their ability to promote cordial relations with the St. Legers, Viscount Doneraile

Viscount Doneraile

Viscount Doneraile is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, both times for members of the St Leger family. It was first created in 1703 for Arthur St Leger, along with the subsidiary title of Baron Kilmayden, also in the Peerage of Ireland. This creation became extinct in...

, who were generally resident landlords, and politically known (and at times suspect) for their long tradition of enlightened tolerance for their Catholic tenantry which eschewed the traditionally bigoted outlook of their Boyle, Kingston, and Midleton counterparts.

The religious climate in Doneraile, and the support of the St. Legers, had permitted an early restoration of Catholic structures which included a convent and schools (1818), and a fine Catholic Church (1827). The situation was such in Doneraile on August 8, 1869 that Bishop William Keane of Cloyne, during his episcopal visitation, noted that he was able to drive unhampered through the town of Doneraile "in choir dress and stole...to be received at the Church gate by clergy and laity in the manner prescribed by the [Roman] Pontifical", something that could not have happened in towns such as Youghal, Mitchelstown, and Middleton.

Social engagement

During his pastorate in Doneraile, Canon Sheehan established the custom of weekly meetings with his parishioners which were held on Sunday afternoons. In the early years, these meetings concentrated on apprising tenants of the conditions of the Land Purchase Acts, and of their concrete application to their circumstances. By 1903, practically all land leases had been bought out by the tenenary in

Doneraile parish, without acrimony or agitation and on terms that were satisfactory to both landlord and tenant. From then on, Canon Sheehan concentrated on promoting modern agricultural methods, especially in tillage and dairy farming. The same meetings also resulted in a long series of social improvements in the town of Doneraile which saw the installation of a modern water supply system and the building of an advanced electrification plant.

He also took advantage of the Irish Labourers Act (1883) to pursue a plan to have all cabins demolished and replaced by a modern housing scheme. In all of these enterprises, Canon Sheehan could count on the support of Lord Castletown of Upper Ossory, who had married Lord Doneraile's only child, the Honourable Ursula Emily Clare St. Leger. Perhaps it is not completely coincidental that all of these social projects are ruminated on by Canon Sheehan's fictional Parish Priest in, what was perhaps his most successful novel, My New Curate.

One of Canon Shehan's inherited pastoral duties in Doneraile, which he well acquitted, was to act as an independent intermediary between Viscount Doneraile and his tenantry; and between the tenantry and their landlord, so as to avoid the levels of agrarian strife experienced on beleaguered estates such as those of the nearby Earl of Kingston

Earl of Kingston

Earl of Kingston is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1768 for Edward King, 1st Viscount Kingston. He had already succeeded his father as fifth Baronet of Boyle Abbey and been created Baron Kingston, of Rockingham in the County of Roscommon in 1764 and Viscount Kingston in 1766,...

, and to secure the de facto religious liberty traditionally enjoyed by Catholics on the Doneraile estates. Canon Sheehan's arrival in the parish came at a sensitive moment as tenants began the process of purchasing their holdings from the Doneraile, and other smaller local estates, under the terms of the Ashbourne Land Purchase Acts of 1885 and 1887. The Parish Priest of Doneraile was frequently asked to assist tenants in their approaches to the local land agents to agree terms for the purchase of their holdings.

While something of a traditional expectation of a 19th century Irish Parish Priest, this practical social engagement on Sheehan's part needs to be understood in the wider context of the Catholic intellectual response to the challenge thrown down to capitalism

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

, marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

and socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical letter Rerum Novarum

Rerum Novarum

Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...

of 1891.

As many of the contemporary theological journals published in Germany, Belgium and France make evident, Catholic theologians, rejecting marxism

Marxism

, socialism

Socialism

, and the excesses of capitalism

Capitalism

, debated and formulated social solutions that would come from the combined actions of the Church, the State, the employer and the employee, and elaborated in greater detail the principles to be used in seeking justice in industrial, social, and economic life. While Canon Sheehan was aware of the social question of his time, and was actively engaged in the great contemporary social evolution directly affecting him in his parish, he can never be regarded as having in any manner espoused the Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...

, as quickly emerges from his portrayal of such a priest in his novel Luke Delmege published in 1901 and, not surprisingly, translated into all of the major European languages.

Writing to the editor of the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in 1913, the then Bishop's Secretary, Fr. William Browne, thus described Sheehan: "He was always courteous and polite, of course, but very silent. When he first came home as a young priest from England, he was stationed here in Queenstown. I rather thought that his silent, reserved manner would have kept people in awe of him, yet when he died, all the older generation had instances to relate of his unostentatious kindness, especially to the poor and sick".

In 1904 he was appointed a Canon of the Chapter of Cloyne and assigned to the prebendary of Kilenemer. He was conferred, honoris causa, with a doctorate in Divinity in 1902.

Literary career

Canon Sheehan's literary career modestly began in 1881 with a series of essays published in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record on subjects ranging from religious instruction in intermediate schools to the effects of emigration on the Church; from the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

to the political significance of Gambetta

Gambetta

Gambetta may refer to:People*Léon Gambetta , French statesman.*Schubert Gambetta , Uruguayan footballer*Diego Gambetta, Italian sociologistOther uses*Gambetta...

in post-war France; from liberal thought in the United States to a theological critique of a current of patristic thinking in England and in the United States that saw St.Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

as the Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

of his age. At a time of intense interest in education and educational methods in Ireland, he made a significant impact on public debate by drawing attention to European educational theories and particularly to the importance of the German Universities.

During this early period, Sheehan began long associations with the Irish Monthly

Irish Monthly

The Irish Monthly was an Irish Catholic magazine founded in Dublin, Ireland in July 1873. Until 1920 it had the sub-title A Magazine of General Literature. It was founded by Rev. Matthew Russell, S.J., , who was the editor for almost forty years from 1873...

, founded in Dublin in 1873 by T. A. Finlay and Fr. Matthew Russell, S.J., to commemorate the Ireland's consecration to the Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....

; with the Dublin Review

Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)

The Dublin Review was an influential Catholic periodical founded in 1836 by Michael Joseph Quin, Cardinal Wiseman and Daniel O'Connell. Quin had the original idea for the new journal, soon persuading Wiseman to lend his support, and next enlisting O'Connell whose Catholic Emancipation campaign he...

, a quarterly journal of high literary merit, founded for the diffusion of Catholic theology in 1836 by Nicholas Wiseman, Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

and Michael Joseph Quin

Michael Joseph Quin

Michael Joseph Quin was an Irish author, traveller, journalist and editor. He is known as the originator of the Dublin Review.-Life:...

; and with the Catholic Truth Society

Catholic Truth Society

Catholic Truth Society is a body that prints and publishes Catholic literature, including apologetics but also prayerbooks, spiritual reading, lives of saints and so forth...

, established in 1884 by Herbert Vaughan for the popular promotion of Catholic doctrine. Several pamphlets would be written by him for the Catholic Truth Society on subjects such as Thoughts on the Immaculate Conception, The Canticle of the Magnificat, and Our Personal and Social Responsibilities.

He attracted much attention in Ireland, England, on the continent as well as in the United States through his observations in literary and religious magazines on issues related to clerical life, education and philosophy. He wrote a number of children's stories and published works of poetry, his sermons and his collected essays. Several of his books were translated and published in German, French, Irish, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Spanish and Italian.

Canon Sheehan is best remembered as a novelist; in his novel My New Curate, recounts an incident of a clerical appointment that may well be autobiographical and refer to his arrival in Doneraile: "The Bishop sent for me and said, with what I would call a tone of pity or contempt, but he was incapable of either, for he was the essence of charity and sincerity: 'Father Dan, you are a bit of a literateur, I understand. Kilronan is vacant. You'll have plenty of time for poetising and dreaming there. What do you say to it?' I put on a little dignity, and though my heart was beating with delight, I quietly thanked his Lordship. But, when I had passed beyond the reach of episcopal vision, which is far stretching enough, I spun my hat in the air, and shouted like a schoolboy: 'Hurrah!'".

Political activist

Canon Sheehan first became politically engaged after the passing of the Wyndham

Wyndham

-Localities:*City of Wyndham, an LGA in Victoria, Australia*Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, a LGA in Western Australia, Australia*Wyndham Hills, Pennsylvania, an opulent community in York County, Pennsylvania, United States*Wyndham, New South Wales...

Land Purchase Act in 1903, authored by William O'Brien

William O'Brien

MP., and set in motion by D. D. Sheehan

D. D. Sheehan

Daniel Desmond Sheehan, usually known as D. D. Sheehan was an Irish nationalist, politician, labour leader, journalist, barrister and author...

MP. of Kanturk

Kanturk

-Transport:*Kanturk railway station opened on 1 April 1889, closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1947 and finally closed altogether on 4 February 1963. Kanturk is however served by the nearby Banteer railway station.-People:...

, the Canon encouraging and giving advice to local tenant farmer

Tenant farmer

A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...

s in the area around Doneraile to purchase their leases under the act from the local landlord

Landed gentry

Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....

s. The success of land purchase in Cork was much to the frustration of John Redmond

John Redmond

John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...

's Irish Party

Irish Parliamentary Party

The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...

(IPP) who believed that a national Home Rule movement could not survive without social grievances and without the antagonism of Catholic and Protestant.

When William O'Brien launched his new movement, the All-for-Ireland League

All-for-Ireland League

The All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...

(AFIL) in 1910 in opposition to Redmond's party, O'Brien advocating the unity of Catholic and Protestant interests in all walks of Irish political, social and cultural life, co-founder and member Canon Sheehan was again a leading active figure, standing and speaking on platforms advocating the principles of the League, which returned eight Independent M.P.s in the December elections.

Canon Sheehan wrote the manifesto of the movement in a very long editorial for the first issue of the League's new newspaper, O'Brien's radical Cork Free Press
Cork Free Press
The Cork Free Press was a nationalist newspaper in Ireland, which circulated primarily in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork, and was the newspaper of the dissident All-for-Ireland League party...

in June 1910, which was a manifestation of Joseph Devlin

Joseph Devlin

Joseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician...

's militantly Catholic Ancient Order of Hibernians

Ancient Order of Hibernians

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836...

, whose members were also members of the IPP, largely influencing its political course, particularly against any form of concessions to Ulster as advocated by the AFIL. The League, so successful in Cork, was less successful elsewhere. Its principles of establishing a movement of a new kind to attract rather than repel Unionist and Protestant support for an All-Ireland Home Rule

Home Rule Act 1914

The Government of Ireland Act 1914 , also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.The Act was the first law ever passed by the Parliament of...

settlement, while influentially limited, did motivate a worthy political initiative.

Perhaps the most remarkable side of Canon Sheehan was his vision of a reorganised Irish society which he hoped would take shape in an Independent Ireland. His nationalism was neither exclusively Gaelic nor Catholic and best portrayed by him in his novel The Intellectuals (1911), whose archetypical characters of man and women of Catholic and Protestant background from Ireland, England and Scotland, meet to discuss current issues of the day, Sheehan in the preface saying "that his object was to show that there really was no invincible antagonism amongst the people who make up the commonwealth of Ireland that may not be removed by a freer and kindlier intercourse with each other".

Literary celebrity

Lord and Lady Castletown of Doneraile Court befriended Canon Sheehan and held him in the highest esteem. His success as a writer had turned him into a celebrity, and whenever the Castletowns had guests of note, they were invariably brought to meet the man of letters. It was through them that the Canon met the American Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...

for the first time in 1903.

A ten-year correspondence ensued, ended only by Canon Sheehan's death. In a letter to the Jesuit Father Herman Heuser

Herman Heuser

Herman Joseph Heuser was a Catholic priest, author, and educator.He obtained the degree of Doctor of Divinity.The Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center holds records relating to the correspondence between him and prominent figures in the Catholic Church, including Cardinal James...

, Canon Sheehan's American biographer, Holmes explained: "I was at Doneraile and called every day after luncheon, that time being the best for him. He knew, and I feared, he was dying, though I did not admit it. He bade me go to his library and select a book. On his assurance, I took Francisco Suárez

Francisco Suárez

Francisco Suárez was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement, and generally regarded among the greatest scholastics after Thomas Aquinas....

's De Legibus, which I had heard him praise, and it bears his inscription. I wish I could have offered him something besides affection and reverence for his lovely spirit".

Canon Sheehan was diagnosed with a fatal illness in 1910 but refused to undergo surgery, carrying out his parish duties until he died of cancer on the evening of Rosary Sunday, 5 October 1913. Towards the end of his life he had begun to write an autobiography, but burned the manuscript a few days before his death believing that "it might do harm to others" .

Publications

Religious Instruction in Intermediate Schools. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, September 1881.
The Effects of Emigration on the Church. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
Gambetta
Gambetta
Gambetta may refer to:People*Léon Gambetta , French statesman.*Schubert Gambetta , Uruguayan footballer*Diego Gambetta, Italian sociologistOther uses*Gambetta...

. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
Emerson's Philosophy. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record
Free-Thought in America. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
Education at German Universities. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record.
The German and Gallic Muse. In: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record
Recent Works on St. Augustine. In: The Dublin Review, July 1888.
Geoffrey Austin, Student (1895)
The Triumph of Failure (1901)
My New Curate (1899) ISBN 0-85342-877-8
Mein neuer Kaplan: Erzählung aus dem irischen Priesterleben, Cologne 1900
Mariae Corona
Collection of Sermons and Essays
Luke Delmege(1901)
Mon Nouveau Vicaire, Éditions Pierre Dumont, Limoges 1901
The Canticle of the Magnificat, Dublin 1901
Under the Cedars and the Stars(1902)
Lost Angel of a Ruined Paradise. A Play (1903)
Glenanaar (1904) ISBN 0-86278-195-7
Geoffrey Austin (German translation), Cologne 1904
A Spoiled Priest and Other Stories (1905)
Early Essays and Lectures. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906.
Der Erfolg des Misserfolgs, Kalenkirchen 1906
Succès dans l'Échec, Éditions P. Lethielleux, Paris 1906
Mūj Nový Kaplan, Otto, Prague 1906
Lisheen (1907)
Ange Egaré d'un Paradis Ruiné, Éditions P. Lethielleux, Paris 1907
Das Christtagskind, Styl, c.1907
Parerga (1908)
Mi Nuevo Caodjutor: Sucesos de la vida de un anciano parroco irlandés; traduccion espanola por M.R. Blanco del Monte, Friburgo de Bresgovia (1908)
The Blindness of Dr. Gray, or, The Final Law (1909)
Dolina Krvi (Glenenaar), Lubliana 1909
Pohozené Dítě: Novella, Kotrab, Prague 1909
Mi Nuevo Coadjutor, Madrid 1910
The Intellectuals. An Experiment in Irish High Club-Life (1911)
The Queen's Fillet (1911)
Von Dr. Grays Blindheit, Einsiedeln 1911
Miriam Lucas (1912)
Lukas Delmege, Regensburg 1912
Lukáš Delmege, Kralín, Prague 1912
Lisheen oder Der Průfstein der Geister, Einsiedeln 1914
The Graves at Kilmorna (1915)
Miriam Lucas (German translation), Einsiedeln 1918
Der Ausgestoßener, Saarlouis 1920
Die Gräber von Kilmorna, Einsiedeln 1926
Das Haarband der Königin, Einsiedeln 1919
Cithara Mea. Poems
Our Personal and Social Responsibilities, Dublin
Thoughts on the Immaculate Conception, Dublin 1924
Mnisi z Trabolganu, Warsaw 1924
Sprawa Odłożna; Mnisi z Trabolganu: Opowiadnia, Warsaw 1924
Tristram Lloyd, (1928)
The Greatest Doctor, Dublin 1930
Tristram Lloyd, Éditions P. Lethielleux, Paris 1930
Gleann an Air: Uirsceal ar Shaoghal i nEirinn, Dublin 1931
Luke Delmege (Spanish translation), Castellano, Londres 1932
How Character is Formed, Dublin 1933
An Sagart Óg, Dublin 1935
Tristram Lloyd (Spanish translation), Madrid
Tristram Lloyd, (Italian translation), Alba 1942
Il Mio Nuovo Cappellano, Roma 1954
Il Trionfo dell'Insuccesso, Francavilla-al-mare 1968
La Benda della Regina, Milano 1970

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