The life and times of Patrick Canon Sheen

DONERAILE in County Cork has many claims to fame. The first Steeplechase was a race from the church in Doneraile to the church in Buttevant with the riders using the steeple at Buttevant as their target.

It was the home for a while of the poet Edmund Spencer and it is said that John B Keane worked for a while there as a chemist’s assistant. Indeed, he might have gotten the idea for the tinkers song in Sive from The Curse of Doneraile when a man lamented the stealing of his watch.
Alas, how dismal is my tale, I lost my watch in Doneraile.
My Dublin watch, my chain and seal, Pilfered at once in Doneraile
May fire and brimstone never fail, To fall in showers on Doneraile.
As lightening flashes across the vale, So down to hell with Doneraile
The fate of Pompey at Pharsale, Be that the curse of Doneraile.
May Beef or Mutton, Lamb or Veal, Be never found in Doneraile.
But Garlic Soup and Scurvy Kale, Be still the food of Doneraile.
May Heaven a chosen curse entail, On rigid rotten Doneraile.
It was also where Patrick Canon Sheehan ministered for most of his religious life. Born in Mallow in 1852, Sheehan’s parents died when the family were very young and they were looked after by the local parish priest. He was educated at St Colman’s Fermoy, then Maynooth and was ordained in 1875. He ministered for a while in Plymouth, Mallow and Cobh before being appointed PP of Doneraile in 1875.
He worked tirelessly on behalf of his parishioners. He acted as negotiator between landlords and tenants during the time of the Land League and with the support of Lord and Lady Castletown, got an electric plant to supply light to the town and to pump water to the houses. Through the Castletowns, he formed a life-long friendship with the American jurist Oliver Wendall Holmes.
It is as an author that he is best remembered. He was a renowned preacher and his early writings dealt with religious matters. While in Plymouth his duties included visits to Dartmoor prison where he came to know some Fenians. He had been aware of the movement as a young man and these experiences were reflected in My New Curate which dealt with the Land League and was loosely based on the activities of his own curate, Fr O’Callaghan and also in Glenanaar, published in 1905 which was based on the Doneraile Conspiracy, a noted incident in the life of Daniel O’Connell.
Other works included, Lisheen, The Blindness of Doctor Gray, The Queens Fillet and Miriam Lucas. His most prophetic work was possibly The Graves of Kilmorna. This dealt with two men preparing for armed rebellion, knowing that they did not have a chance of success but hoping that their deaths might sway the people from their politicians. It was published posthumously in 1915 just before the Easter Rebellion.
Nominated bishop of the diocese of Lismore in New South Wales in 1909, his declining health meant he could not accept. His health continued to decline and Patrick Canon Sheen, a powerful voice in the Church at the turn of the last century, died in Doneraile on October 5, 1913, 97 years ago this week.