[Editor: This article about John O’Brien is an extract from the “Personal Items” column published in The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 12 November 1947.]
[Personal Items: Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan]
The announcement that the ecclesiastical handle Monsignor has been tacked on to the name of Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan will delight thousands of his co-religionists; others may need to be reminded that P.J.H. is also known as “John O’Brien,” under which name he published Around the Boree Log.
A native of Yass, Hartigan was ordained at Goulburn in 1903. He was Inspector of Schools in the old Goulburn Diocese for some years and in 1917 became parish priest of Narrandera; it was there that he wrote Around the Boree Log, a collection of tuneful and delightfully humorous ballads which found a wide public and remains high on the list of “best-sellers” by the native-born.
In 1944 the Monsignor resigned his parish and retired to Rose Bay convent as resident chaplain. While there he has had the opportunity of delving into some of the by-ways of early Catholic history in N.S.W. and published a series of articles in the “Australasian Catholic Record.”
It seems that another Boree Log is on the stocks; it will be assured of a warm welcome.
Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 12 November 1947, p. 20 (column 1)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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