[Fr.] Arthur O’Leary

Life
1729-1802; Capuchin friar, chaplain to English prisoners in France during Seven Years War, and received Govt. payment for secrets of disaffected Catholics, 1756-62; returned to Ireland [with ‘permission’]; author of pamphlets exhorted Irish to be loyal to British rule; defended Catholics against Wesley’s Methodism, 1780; wrote Essay on Toleration (1781); Addresses to the Common People of Ireland (1785-86); opposed Whiteboys in Munster; appt. chaplain to Spanish Embassy in London; preached in Soho. RR ODNB JMC

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Commentary

James Hardiman refers to ‘Curran, Sheridan, O’Leary, and others, in the foremost ranks of mankind’, in Introduction, Irish Minstrelsy (1831), Vol. I: Introduction, p.xxv.

Sir John Gilbert, History of the City of Dublin (1867), writes, ‘Richard Woodward, minister at St. Werburgh’s [...] acquired notoriety by his pamphlet reflecting on the principles of Roman Catholics, which was vigorously assailed and exposed by the able and facetious Arthur O’Leary.’ ( Vol. I, p.34.)

Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies, Vol.II [of 2] (London & Dublin 1821)

A Roman Catholic chergyman, who would have conferred honour on any profession by the benevolence of his character, was a native of Ireland, which country he quitted when young for France; studied at the college of St. Malo, in Britanny, and at length entered into the Franciscan order of Capuchins. He then officiated for some time as chaplain to the English prisoners during the [457] seven years war, for which he received a small pension from the French government, which he retained till the revolution in that country.  Having obtained permission to go to Ireland, he obtained, by his talents, the notice and recompence of the Irish government; and took an early opportunity of shewing the superiority of his courage and genius, by principally attacking the heterodox doctrines of Michael Servetus, revived at that time by a Dr. Blair, of the city of Cork. After this, in 1782, when there was a disposition to relax the rigour of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, and establish a sort of test-oath, he published a tract, entitled "Loyalty asserted; or, the Test-Oath vindicated," in which, in opposition to most of his brethren, he endeavoured to prove that the Roman Catholics of Ireland might, consistently with their religion, swear that the pope possessed there no temporal authority, which was the chief point on which the oath hinged; and in other respects he evinced his loyalty, and his desire to restrain the impetuousity of his brethren. His other productions were of a various and miscellaneous nature; and several effusions are supposed to have come from his pen which he did not think it necessary or perhaps prudent to acknowledge. He was a man gifted liberally with wit and humour, and possessed great acquirements. He wrote on polemical subjects without acrimony, and on politics with a spirit of conciliation. Peace indeed seems to have been much his object. Some years ago, when a considerable number of nocturnal insurgents of the Romish persuasion, committed great excesses in the county of Cork, particularly towards the tithe-proctors of the Protestant clergy, he rendered himself extremely useful, by his various literary addresses to the deluded people, in bringing them to a proper sense of their error and insubordination. This laudable conduct did not escape the attentions of the Irish government; and induced them, when he quitted Ireland, to recommend him to men of power in this country. For many years he resided in London, as {459} principal of the Roman Catholic chapel in Soho-square, where he was highly esteemed by people of his religion. In his private character he was always cheerful, gay, sparkling with wit, and full of anecdote. He died at an advanced age in January 1802, and was interred in St. Pancras church-yard.  A collection of his miscellaneous tracts has been published in one vol. 8vo. ; and Dr. Woodward, Bishop of Cloyne, to whom one of them was written, acknowledges him to write with both strength and eloquence. Mr. Wesley also styles him an ‘arch and lively writer.’

(pp.457-59.)

James Wills, The Irish Nation, Its History & Its Biography, 4 vols. (London 1871), 381-82: ‘[...] O’Leary, with the practical good sense of his character, spoke and acted with courage and clear discrimination. He endeavoured to prevail on his countrymen to take advantage of the favourable disposition of their rulers, by conforming themselves to the essential conditions of the constitution, and showed them the contradiction of asking for the immunities and privileges of a State the authority of which they rejected. / In a tract entitled “Loyalty Asserted” he endeavoured to maintain that the Roman Catholics might conscientiously swear that the Pope had no temporal authority in Ireland. In this he was strenuously opposed by his brethren. It is now superfluous to discuss the value of the proposed concession. / It is evident, from all the writings of O’Leary, that he was a man of a clear and liberal understanding, who saw the real position and wants of his unfortunate country, and did all that lay in his power to breathe peace and right-mindedness. His efforts were on some occasions successful in repressing the spirit of grievous outrage; and it was admitted by the Government that he did much good and prevented much mischief. / But the cloud of prejudices, the irritation of discontent, and the excitement of republican agitation, grew beyond the power of human influence. A man like O’Leary could not, in such an interval as the period of the Tones, Russells, &c.’ (For longer extract, see attached.) [Wills’s Irish Nation is available at Internet Archive, online; accessed 15.11.2009.]

William Farrell makes incidental reference to Fr. O’Leary in his autobiography, while speaking about the folly of the United Irishmen’s secret oath: ‘It is really astonishing now no writer of ability stepped forward to sound the alarm and put people on their guard. A Swift or an O’Leary would have done it, but we had neither, though I must own that it was carried on with such secrecy and spread with such rapidity that it would be [29] very difficult for the general impression was that the words “I will persevere in endeavouring to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of all religious persuasions” implied that they were bound by the oath to exert themselves in gaining over as many as they could and swearing them in to the Society, and on this acount it spread in every direction like wild-fire.’ (Carlow in ’98, Autobiography of William Farrell of Carlow, ed in Roger McHugh, Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1949, p.30-31.)

R. E. & C. Ward, Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare, ed (1988), quotes Charles O’Conor in a letter to John Curry: ‘Mr O’Leary of Cork might be called into our Society ...’ (1 Oct. 1777; p.350); also, Letter to Charles Ryan: ‘I have not yet seen our friend’s Mr O’Leary’s book. I expect much from it and hope that has exhausted the subject that made me uneasy on the perusal of Dr Woodward’s book.’ (28 Mar. 1787; ibid., p.484).

Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Gerard O’Brien (1989), remarks that an interesting note in [Buckley’s] Life of O’Leary (pp.138-39) quotes Lord Tyrawley as saying to Lord Kenmare in 1779, that Grattan voted against the Catholics in 1778 at the behest of Lord Charlemont, his borough patron, but he added, “In future you will have him with you; and he will be a powerful champion in your cause.” The Life of O’Leary is also cited in Wall, p.195, n.11, giving Lord Kenmare’s opinion of Fitzgibbon as chief opponent of the Relief Act of 1782. Further, Wall quotes Archbishop Butler’s description of Grattan in Life of O’Leary (p.281) as being ‘all in all with the Catholics’ at this time. (Wall, idem.).

G. C. Duggan, Stage Irishman [ &c.] (Dublin: Talbot Press 1937), retaling Arthur Murphy’s account of Fr. O’Leary’s response to Dr. Johnson’s charge of ignorance of ancient languages. ‘A Fr. O’Leary, a well-known play-goer from Dublin, had asked Arthur Murphy for an introduction to the famous Doctor. When the visitor arrived in his rooms, Johnson at once addressed him volubly in Hebrew either because he thought it a complimentary way of speaking to a priest, or because he had a low opinion of Catholic scholarship. Fr. O’Leary was forced to confess, “Faith, sir, never a word I know of what you’ve said.” Dr. Johnson turned to Murphy and said, “this is a pretty fellow you’ve brought hither. Sir, he doesn’t comprehend the primitive language.” Father O’Leary then addressed Johnson at length in Irish, and, seeing the Englishman’s puzzled expression, said to Murphy, “This is a pretty fellow to whom you’ve brought me that doesn’t understand the language of the sister kingdom”, and left the room. [Murphy, Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson (1792); Duggan, q.p.]

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Quotations
Address to the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland (Dublin 1799): In this pamphlet O’Leary, states that the Union would end all religious disqualification and national jealousies (p.99; quoted in Dáire Keogh, ‘Catholic responses to the Act of Union', in Acts of Union: The Causes, Contexts and Consequences of the Act of Union, ed. Keogh & Kevin Whelan, Dublin: Four Courts Press 2001, p.165.)

Anti-sectarian: responding to the events of 1798, Fr. O’Leary enjoined ‘Christians of every denomination to lay aside the destructive weapons which frenzy has so often put into their hands’ in order that ‘the sacred name of religion, which even in the face of an enemy discovers a brother’ should not ‘any longer be a wall of separation to keep us asunder.’ (Quoted in a review of Gerard Moran, Radical Irish Priests, in Books Ireland, Nov. 1998, pp.297-98.)

References
Patrick Kennedy, Modern Irish Anecdotes (London: Routledge 1872), contains stories of “Fr. O’Leary”, viz., “Choice of a Religion”; “A Wilful Mistake”; “A Friend in Court”; “The Bear that Spoke Irish”.

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); gives ‘a Plea for Liberty of Conscience’ and some anecdotes.

D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); cites Rev. Michael Bernard Buckley (Remains, with mem. ed. Rev. Charles Davis, 1874), as poet, lecturer and biographer of Rev. Arthur O’Leary [n.d.].

Libraries & Booksellers
Belfast Central Public Library holds M. B. Buckley, Life and Writings of the Rev. Arthur O’Leary (Dublin: Duffy 1868), 410pp.

Hyland Books (Cat. 224) lists Arthur O’Leary, Miscellaneous Tracts by the Rev. Arthur O’Leary (Dublin 1781)

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