Memory Minder

A notable burial was that of Catholic priest and prolific author Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan who was born to Irish Catholic parents in 1878 at Yass, NSW.

Hartigan produced a body of work including historical research, poetry and prose written with humour and pathos about the daily lives of everyday citizens in the bush.

In 1906 he began publishing verse in such journals as the Albury Daily News, Catholic Press and the Bulletin under the pen-name 'Mary Ann'. Encouraged by George Robertson, C. J. Dennis and others, he published Around the Boree Log and Other verses, under the pseudonym 'John O'Brien', in November 1921. Recording with humour and pathos the lively faith, solid piety and everyday lives of the people around him, Hartigan successfully combined the old faith of Ireland with the mateship and ethos of the bush, towards the end of an age when the small selectors and squatters went by sulky or 'shandrydan' to 'The Church Upon the Hill'.

'We'll all be rooned', said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

Tall, handsome in his young days, and impressive always, Hartigan for all his broad humanity and kindliness was shy and somewhat detached. Possessed of a dry humour underlain by a touch of wistfulness, he was a good conversationalist and raconteur: literature, art, cricket, horses, the land and cars were ready subjects. He was an excellent, yet undemonstrative preacher—his addresses, including panegyrics on his friends, with their pervading poetic imagery, sense of history and heartfelt sincerity are beautiful examples of Irish-Australian oratory.

Hartigan died in 1952 and was buried beside his parents.

A notable burial was that of Catholic priest and prolific author Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan who was born to Irish Catholic parents in 1878 at Yass, NSW.

Hartigan produced a body of work including historical research, poetry and prose written with humour and pathos about the daily lives of everyday citizens in the bush.

In 1906 he began publishing verse in such journals as the Albury Daily News, Catholic Press and the Bulletin under the pen-name 'Mary Ann'. Encouraged by George Robertson, C. J. Dennis and others, he published Around the Boree Log and Other verses, under the pseudonym 'John O'Brien', in November 1921. Recording with humour and pathos the lively faith, solid piety and everyday lives of the people around him, Hartigan successfully combined the old faith of Ireland with the mateship and ethos of the bush, towards the end of an age when the small selectors and squatters went by sulky or 'shandrydan' to 'The Church Upon the Hill'.

'We'll all be rooned', said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

Tall, handsome in his young days, and impressive always, Hartigan for all his broad humanity and kindliness was shy and somewhat detached. Possessed of a dry humour underlain by a touch of wistfulness, he was a good conversationalist and raconteur: literature, art, cricket, horses, the land and cars were ready subjects. He was an excellent, ... More