Life
1836-1919; b. Leighlin Bridge, Co. Carlow; parents moved to Liverpool, 1845, in parish of Mgr. Nugent; acolyte in St Nicholas pro-Cathedral; emig. America, 1852; raised regiment during Civil War at own expense; social reformer; founded St. Patrick’s Day Society in Chicago; appt. Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape by Pope, Dec. 1893; ‘preier Catholic layman’; various govt. offices in Chicago; public speaker; lectures published; hon. degress from Notre Dame University, and St John’s Coll. NY, and St. Xavier’s, Cincinnati; a Laetare medallist with John Gilmary Shea, Augustine Daly, General Newton, and Mr Charles Bonaparte. JMC
Works
Oration of William J. Onahan [...] delivered at the thirty-second annual commencement of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Wednesday, June 21, 1876 (Notre Dame, Ind.: Scholastic Print 1876), 11pp.
See also Mary Onahan Gallery, Life of William J. Onahan: Stories of Men who made Chicago ([Chicago:] Loyola UP [1929]), xiii, 74pp., il.. [5 lvs. of pls.].
There is an extensive unsigned obituary in Journal of Illinois State Historical Society, 11:4 (Jan. 1919), 636-53:
“[...] In conjunction with a number of Catholic prelates, notably Bishops Ireland, Spalding, and Eiordan, and Catholic laymen he organized the Irish Catholic Colonization Association, an organization which had for its purpose the bringing of emigrants from the poverty-stricken districts of Ireland and establishing them on farms in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Arkansas. This society met with wonderful success.
A constant contributor to the Catholic magazines and journals, Mr. Onahan 's writings cover a wide range of sub- jects and in extent would fill a dozen volumes. In recognition of his literary ability he received honorary degrees from the University of Notre Dame; St. Xavier's College, Cincinnati; St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y.; and St. Ignatius Col- lege, Chicago. In 1890 he was honored by the University of Notre Dame by the gift of the Laetare Medal.
Another project in which Mr. Onahan was keenly inter- ested was the founding of the Catholic University. His ac- tivities in this and other projects brought him into intimate relations with Bishops Ireland and Spalding, friendships which lasted throughout his life and grew stronger with the years. His friendship with Archbishop Ireland especially was wonderfully tender and strong. They were constant cor- respondents and whenever the Archbishop passed through the city he sent for Mr. Onahan. [...] (Available at JSTOR - online; accessed 28.11.2023.)
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References
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904), gives an extract on Patrick Sarsfield from Ohahan’s Eminent Irishmen in Foreign Service, which includes George II's remark: ‘Cursed be the laws that deprive me of such subjects!’; quotes extensively from Macaulay on Irish Roman Catholsic of great ability, emergy, ambition; dexterous Irish diplomats, Irish counts; Irish Kinghts of St Louis, &c., ‘who if they had remained in the house of bondage could not have been ensigns of marching regiments or freemen of petty corporations’; account of Boyne (Irish losses 800-1,500 v. 300-500); ‘your majesty has won the race’; Lenehan in his History of Limerick says, ‘the soul of the defenders was Patrick Sarsfield’; defection of Luttrell; Sarsfield arrived Brest, 3 1691; 450,000 Irish soldiers died on continental fields (or perhaps 600,000); Sarsfield’s death at battle of Landen (sometimes Neer-Winden): ‘Would to God this were shed for Ireland’; carried to neighbouring village; ‘Ireland’s favorite hero’.
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