Eugene O'Growney

Eugene O'Growney (born 25 August 1863 at Ballyfallon, Athboy, County Meath d. 18 October 1899 in Los Angeles, California), was an Irish priest and scholar.

Neither of O'Growney's parents spoke Irish Gaelic, and it was little used where he was born. In fact, he was ignorant of the existence of a language of Ireland until introduced to it by a student at St. Finian's seminary at Navan.

His interest in the language begun there and continued at St. Patrick's College Maynooth, where from his entrance in 1882 he devoted himself to the study of the Irish language, antiquities, and history. O'Growney's holidays were spent in the Irish-speaking parts of the country where he acquired his knowledge of the spoken language. He was ordained a priest in 1888, and was appointed a Curate at Ballynacargy Co Westmeath. Later, he was appointed professor of Irish at Maynooth in 1891, and at about that time, became editor of the "Gaelic Journal".

At the instance of the Archbishop of Dublin he began his series of "Simple Lessons in Irish', first published in the "Weekly Freeman", which have done more than any other book in the last two centuries to familiarize thousands of Irish with their ancestral language. O'Growney was one of the founders of the Gaelic League, organized in Dublin in 1893 "for the purpose of keeping the Irish language spoken in Ireland", and later became its vice-president, a position he held until his death.

In 1894, failing health sent him to Arizona and California, where he died at the age 36 from tuberculosis. His body was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, which overlooks Los Angeles. In 1903, at the insistence of the Gaelic Leagues of America, and with the approval of the acting President of Maynooth, O'Growney's body was disinterred, brought back to Ireland and buried in the grounds of St Patrick's College, Maynooth. His tomb is a tiny replica of the Church of St Kevin at Glendalough.

A hurling team named in his honour competed in the Pacific Coast Gaelic Games championships in the San Francisco area during the second decade of the 20th Century.

References

• The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI
• New York Times 4 September 1903
• Ebsworth, WA. (1977) Archbishop Mannix, Graphic Workshop, Melbourne
• The Leader, San Francisco, 1917

External links

• http://www.archive.org/stream/irishecclesiast09unkngoog#page/n436/mode/2up
• http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/looking-at-places/meath/fr.-eugene-ogrowney/
• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11224a.htm
• http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2009/04/22/38745-fr-o034growney-statue-sculptor-james-power-dies-aged-90