O'Brien, John (University of Hertfordshire UK)

Around the Boree Log and Other Verses O'Brien, John (University of Hertfordshire UK)

Monsignor Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952) was an Australian Roman Catholic priest, educator, author and poet. He was born at Yass in New South Wales. He ministered as a peripatetic curate to the southern New South Wales and Riverina towns of Thurgoona, Berrigan and Narrandera, in the first two decades of the 20th century. Writing under the pseudonym “John O’Brien” Hartigan’s verse celebrated the lives and mores of the outback pastoral folk. His poetry was very popular in Australia and was well received in Ireland and the United States. The refrain We’ll all be rooned from his poem Said Hanarahan has entered the Australian vernacular as a jocular response to any prediction of dire consequences arising from events over which the speakers have no control. Amongst his other works are: Around the Boree Log and Other Verses (1921), Poems Selected from Around the Boree Log (1923), On Darlinghurst Hill (1952) and The Parish of St. Mel’s and Other Verses (1954).