• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Literary Nook: “The Parish of St. Mel’s” [10 July 1954]

24 May 2021 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This review of The Parish of St Mel’s and Other Verses, by John O’Brien, was published in The Cairns Post (Cairns, Qld.), 10 July 1954.]

Literary Nook

“The Parish of St. Mel’s”

All the variety, sincerity and good humour which made “Around the Boree Log” so popular with Australian readers of light verse are present in “The Parish of St. Mel’s and Other Verses” by John O’Brien (Monsignor Hartigan).

For 27 years parish priest at Narrandera, Father Hartigan’s book was published under the pen name “John O’Brien” and such was the appeal of his verse that the acclaim it then won has been confirmed year after year as there appeared new editions. To date 82,000 copies have been printed and there is still a demand for these ballads.

For years people who had enjoyed the first collection looked for a successor from John O’Brien’s pen but the work of a parish priest kept him far too busy up to the time of his death.

Since then his nephew, Father F. A. Mecham, has collected most of the verses written since the Boree Log publication and Angus and Robertson Ltd. have just published them under the name “The Parish of St. Mel’s and Other Verses.”

Warm affection, simplicity and humour characterise this collection as they did the earlier work. Both have been written in the best tradition of the Australian school of ballad writers of which Banjo Paterson was one of the foremost.

These verses show the poet’s appreciation of the changing age with the same gentle philosophy allied with (or based on) a wide sympathy and broad understanding. Whereas Boree Log verses dealt mainly with bush people, buggies and shanties the present collection includes later trends, not forgetting the curate’s motor cycle.

John O’Brien bears an honoured place on the scroll of Australia’s most popular versifiers and the reputation won by his first book will be enhanced in the latest which most tragically must be his last.

R.J.S.



Source:
The Cairns Post (Cairns, Qld.), 10 July 1954, p. 4

[Editor: Added a closing double quotation mark after “The Parish of St. Mel’s” in the heading.]

Filed Under: articles Tagged With: book review, John O'Brien (1878-1952) (subject), SourceTrove, year1954

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [29 January 1951]
  • Australia Day [28 January 1950]
  • Danger-signals from Australia [2 January 1942]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in