Canon Sheehan of Doneraile; The Story of an Irish Parish Priest as Told Chiefly by Himself in Books, Personal Memoirs and Letters (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PATRICK SHEEHAN?THE BOY THE Sheehans and O'Sheehans l are very numerous among the clans of old Munster, and without attempting to trace the particular sept to which Patrick Aloysius, the father of our subject, belonged, it may be noted that the escutcheon of the ancient Sheehans is singularly suggestive of the character and life-purpose of Patrick junior. It bears on an azure field a dove carrying an olive-branch above a green mound; the motto beneath is "Pro Virtute Patria." Nothing could be more apposite than this device, if the disposition and character of Canon Sheehan were to be translated into symbolic language. He was the gentlest of men, a bearer of peace, and a true Sheehan in the sense in which the Irish word is commonly used for a "lover" of his kind and of his country. The Baptismal Register of the parish of Mallow in the diocese of Cloyne states that Patrick Sheehan,2 son of Patrick Sheehan and Joanna Regan, was baptized on the 17th day of March, 1852, by the parish priest of St. Mary's Church, Rev. Justin McCarthy, the sponsors being Timothy Cronin and Mary Ann Relehan. The best testimony to the worth of the Sheehan family is to be found in the virtues of mind and heart which the parents of young Patrick transmitted to and developed in their children, and which led three of them to consecrate their lives to the service of religion. Two elder sisters, Hannah and Margaret, became nuns in the Order of Mercy; Patrick entered the priesthood; a younger brother,Dennis Bernard, is still living, and is engaged in the Irish Civil Service as Auditor of the local Government Board. They have all given evidence of literary talent. A fifth child, John, died at the age of five years, and is buried with his parents in the Mallow cemetery. 1 The name is variously spelled, ...