Dr. Brian Casey begins a new series about those that are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery beginning with Bishop Daniel O’Connor, Augustinian Bishop of Madras

At teatime on Thursday 8 May, the world saw white smoke come from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and soon after Cardinal Robert Prevost emerged onto the balcony at St Peter’s Square having been announced to the world as Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo is a member of the Order of Saint Augustine – better known as the Augustinians.

They are an international missionary order that seek to live a spiritual life of action, inspired by the rules, writings and teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo, the North African born fourth century doctor of the Church.

They arrived to Dublin in 1280 with a further twenty-one friaries established over the following 150 years with Galway being the last friary, founded in 1500. Irish Augustinians have sent missionaries all over the world throughout their history. They have served in America, India, Newfoundland, Australia and Nigeria. Many of these men went onto be missionary bishops across the world. It shows that their long history is that of a complex tapestry of challenging missionary endeavour.

One of these Augustinian bishops that stands out among his confreres buried in Glasnevin cemetery is Daniel O’Connor. Much like Pope Leo XIV, he had a talent to mediate and negotiate between different parties, searching for an appropriate middle ground.
O’Connor was born in Limerick in July 1786. In 1807, he joined the Augustinians in Galway and was ordained a priest in 1810. He was an entrepreneurial priest, overseeing a fundraising drive to rebuild the church in Dungarvan, county Waterford.

In 1829, he was the leader of a delegation of religious leaders that travelled to London to lobby the British government over a clause that had been in the Catholic Emancipation Bill that would have prohibited religious orders.

He headed up the negotiations with the government who assured him that this action would never be taken and this turned out to be the case.
O’Connor impressed the bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, James Doyle, and he recommended him for an appointment as bishop.

This saw him appointed as the first English-speaking Catholic vicar apostolic to Madras, India. To this point, all other Catholic bishops appointed in India had been Portuguese. He was soon recognised as a leader of ability of local Catholics, acting as a mediator with the local government. His competence became a burden, and his abilities meant that his workload was quite heavy resulting in him having a stroke in 1837. He continued in his work, seeking to resolve disputes with Augustinians in India, overseeing the translation of the catechism into Tamil.

His health remained poor, so he reluctantly retired to Ireland in 1842 after spending two years in Rome. He came to live at St John’s Priory in the Liberties.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own