Series 4 - Andrew Leary O'Brien memoir

2 sub-series

Photocopied and reproduced by Professor Kerby Miller from: O'Brien, A. L., (1946), The Journal of Andrew Leary O'Brien, Including an account of the origin of Andrew College, Cuthbert, Georgia. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

[This collection contains outdated attitudes or language that does not reflect the current views or positions of the University of Galway Library. Reader discretion is advised.] Materials pertaining to the Andrew Leary O'Brien memoir. Andrew Leary O'Brien was born in Moileragh (Meelaherragh) parish, Kanturk, County Cork in 1815 into a 'strong-farmer' family and emigrated, initially to Quebec to study for the priesthood, in 1837. Kerby A. Miller notes that O'Brien appears to have been 'much better educated and more literate than most pre-Famine Catholic emigrants,' and is representative of the about half of pre-Famine emigrants to North America who were Catholic. His memoir began as a diary recorded over many years and consolidated into a single document around 1859, and eventually published. It documents his family and family history in Kanturk, his early life in Ireland, decision to emigrate and the journey, landing in New York and moving to Canada to study for the priesthood, his life in Canada and move back to New York and Pennsylvania, his move down to South Carolina and eventually onto Georgia where he settled and began teaching, the political climate in 19th century Canada and the pre-Civil War American South, enslavement in the South and O'Brien's participation in it, conversion to Methodism, homesickness and dealings with family at home, teaching and his part in founding a college, and attitudes toward Irish and Catholic immigrants. The series contains: a copy of the memoir, The Journal of Andrew Leary O'Brien, Including an account of the origin of Andrew College, Cuthbert, Georgia, published in 1946; Miller's research notes and correspondence; and census research.