Immortalised by Joyce in the Nausicaa episode of Ulysses imparting benediction at the Star of the Sea Church in Sandymount on Bloomsday, June 16th, 1904, John Canon O'Hanlon (1821-1905) was a noted historian and writer of 19th-century Ireland.
Best remembered for his monumental Lives of the Irish Saints, O'Hanlon was also the author of numerous scholarly articles and 25 books, such as Irish-American History of the United States, History of the Queen's County, Irish Local Legends, and The Poetical Works of Lageniensis.
Born 200 years ago on April 30th, 1821, O'Hanlon grew up in Stradbally, Co Laois. He was educated locally in Stradbally and for a time in Ballyroan, before entering St Patrick's College, Carlow, in 1840 as a seminarian.
In 1842, his studies incomplete, he emigrated to the US, where he continued his seminarian studies in St Louis prior to his ordination in 1847. The early years of his priesthood were served in St Louis and in Hannibal, Missouri, before ill health forced him to return to Ireland in 1853.
The following year, having recovered, he sought appointment in the archdiocese of Dublin, where he served first as an assistant chaplain in the South Dublin Union before moving to St Joseph's Monastery in Clondalkin.
In 1859, he was appointed curate at the Church of Saints Michael and John in Lower Exchange Street, where he served until his appointment as parish priest of Sandymount in 1880. He continued in that post until his death at the age of 84.
Renowned in his priestly career as a caring, busy and hard-working pastor, few could understand how O’Hanlon had the time and energy to devote to being an historian, travel writer, artist and author.
He was also prominent in the Irish language movement as a council member and later vice-president of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language and president of the Star of the Sea branch of Conradh na Gaeilge.
He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1869.
In his most famous work, Lives of the Irish Saints, he showed his talents as an artist sketching antiquities as he travelled the length and breadth of Ireland researching and recording the lives of holy men and women.
The Lives was published in the format of one volume for each month of the year. Volume Three – for the month of March – was by far the largest, with 432 pages devoted to the life of St Patrick. By remarkable coincidence, AD 432 is generally accepted as the year that St Patrick arrived in Ireland.
He he had a lifelong interest in constitutional politics. Daniel O’Connell’s public meeting at the Great Heath was a few miles from O’Hanlon’s Stradbally home. This was the beginning of an association with O’Connell that was to play a dominant role in O’Hanlon’s later life.
He became the driving force in the establishment of the O’Connell Monument Committee in 1862 and was appointed its honorary secretary. This committee spearheaded and raised funds for the erection of the impressive O’Connell Monument which stands at the south end of O’Connell Street, Dublin.
True to form, O'Hanlon in his role as honorary secretary kept meticulous records of the activities of the committee and in 1888 he produced his Report of the O'Connell Monument Committee, which gives a fascinating insight into the planning and labour that were invested in raising the monument. It records that the first subscription was made by John Fetherstone of Crampton Quay in September 1862 amounting to one shilling – thus beginning a series of subscriptions and fundraisers in Ireland and overseas amounting to over £12,655 by the completion of the project.
O’Hanlon records that the foundation stone was laid by the lord mayor of Dublin on August 8th, 1864, and “the work was accomplished with an imposing ceremonial”.
He described the procession which preceded the ceremonial as one of the most splendid sights ever witnessed in Dublin. Starting from St Stephen’s Green, the procession “occupied no less than three hours in marching past one given point”.
O'Hanlon records that in the foundation stone were deposited a plate of the address given by Sir John Gray on behalf of the O'Connell Monument Committee, "and a copy of the address which was printed from the plate, the newspapers of the day, and a printed document describing the proceedings".
The unveiling of the monument took place 20 years later on August 15th, 1882, during which a ceremony was held at which the committee “delivered over to the Lord Mayor and Corporation of Dublin possession and care of the monument”.
For all his labours on the O’Connell Monument project, it was fitting that his death in 1905 occurred on May 15th, the anniversary of O’Connell’s death in 1847.