O’Leary, Arthur, c.1729-1802, Capuchin priest

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O’Leary, Arthur, c.1729-1802, Capuchin priest

c.1729-8 January 1802

Arthur O’Leary was born in the townland of Acres near Dunmanway, County Cork, in c.1729. He was educated locally. In about 1747 he travelled to France and entered the Capuchin friary at Saint-Malo. He later served as a French army chaplain, and during the Seven Years War (1756-63) was assigned to visit prisons and hospitals where prisoners of war were confined. O’Leary returned to Ireland in 1771 and became a member of the Capuchin community in Cork city. He officiated at a small chapel in Blackamoor Lane (sometimes spelt Blackmoor Lane) which opened shortly after his arrival in the city. Through his many writings O’Leary actively campaigned to secure the relief of Irish Catholics from the Penal Laws. Discouragement at the ascendancy of forces opposed to religious reform in Ireland may have inspired O’Leary's decision to move in 1789 from Cork to London, where he served as a chaplain to the Spanish embassy. He soon quarrelled with his superior in that post, Fr. Thomas Hussey (1746-1803), a future bishop of Waterford and Lismore and the first president of Maynooth College. He transferred to St Patrick’s Chapel, Sutton St., Soho Square, where he ministered to a congregation that included many Irish members. In his new situation O’Leary was active in efforts to secure relief for English Catholics and exerted himself on behalf of distressed French émigrés. O’Leary died in London on 8 January 1802. He was buried in St. Pancras churchyard but in 1891 his remains were reinterred in the Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green.

Vincent Morley, ‘Fr. Arthur O’Leary, ‘Dictionary of Irish Biography’. See https://www.dib.ie/biography/oleary-arthur-a6855

Brian J. Cudahy, ‘From Blackmoor Lane to Capitol Hill / an Irish Capuchin influence on Bishop John England of Charlestown SC’ (Franciscan Institute Publications, 2019). See https://www.franciscanpublications.com/collections/best-sellers/products/from-blackmoor-lane-to-capitol-hill