The Irish standard., 1917-12-15
sonite party were threatening Ill
kinds Of pains and penalties IL Homo


kinds Of pains and penalties IL Homo
Rule was forced ON them.
The new Prelate, who Is IS years of
age, is son of the late John Ulick
O'Sullivan, Ballyfinane. and uncle to
Professor ]. O'Sullivan, National Uni
versity, Dublin, and to T. O'Sullivan.
M. p, for East Kerry.
Sketch Of His Active Life.
Born in the early sixties Of the last
century in the parish Of Currans. Co.
Kerry, Charles O'Sullivan made his
secondary studies in the diocesan
seminary Killarney, passing in 1877
to Maynooth College, where his
brother, Father Ulick O'Sullivan, had
been ordained priest the previous
year. In Maynooth he was a class
fellow of the present bishops of Killa-
be and Downe and Conner, Bishops
Fogarty, and McRory. He was a
senior student, and his ordination was
not far distant, when he suffered
serious bereavement. His brother,
Father Ulick, was already, in spite
of his extreme youth, Administrator
of the important parish of Tralee, and
in the eyes of priests and laity, by
reason of his holiness and learning,
strong prospective candidate for the
Mitre of Kerry,-whilst attending a
fever case, in particularly unwhole-
some surroundings, he contracted the
fell disease and died a martyrs death.
Shortly after, in 1884, Charles O'Sulli-
van was ordained priest, and left May
nooth College to take up work in his
native diocese. In his student days
in Killarney and in Maynooth, he had
followed in the footsteps of his elder
brother and at the time of his ordina.
ton, had already laid broad and deep
the foundations of that reputation for
vast erudition, which he has long en-
joyed, an erudition which is the pride
and the delight of his friends and the
admiration of every casual acquain-
lance, a, profound knowledge, not only
of books, but of affairs and of men,
such as one rarely meets with, a
delightful conversationalist, he draws
without effort on the rich, overflow
ing treasure of a well-stocked mind
to the instruction and edification of
his bearers. Deeply versed, as the
clerical conferences prove him to be,
in all the ecclesiastical sciences. The
ology, Scripture, Canon Law, Ecclesi-
astical History, he has yet made the
physical sciences his special hobby
and is quite at home in all the mys-
teries, all the most recent applications
of electrical science in particular, but
of the other departments of physical
him no terra incognita, and he has
on occasion surprised the writer, him
self a schoolmaster, as we'll by his
familiarity with the most reconcile
things in classical construction as by
his intimate knowledge and mastery
criticism of those peculiarities of the
masters of Latin and Greek, poetry
and prose, which are usually supposed
| to be the exclusive preserve of the
teacher and the specialist. AS for the
mathematics and their practical appli-
cations, in such matters he is past
master OF men and of affairs he will
treat in conversation with an unerring
Illuminating touch, every remark CIV
ing evidence of balance, discrimina-
ton, judgment, which can be the out
come only of a happy combination of
natural ability far above the ordinary
deep study, close observation, and
long, carefully sifted experience. AS
a public speaker, ever forceful and
logical, his appeal is to the intellect
rather than to the feelings, to head
rather than to heart.
Like his elder brother, he was not
long a priest when he was given an
opportunity for the exercise of his adj
ministrative talent. That was in Mill
street when the parish priest, Canon
Griffin, was incapacitated for work,
and, in consequence, was forced to
rely on the loyalty, zeal and business
ability of his youthful coadjutor.
In the thirty-three years of his pub
lie life he has consistently shown him
self in every attribute true man, true
patriot, true priest. 1t must be these
attributes that SO deeply impressed,
and so strongly recommended him to
his brethren and his superiors. For
we find him in 1902, only eighteen
years from the date of his ordination,
appointed Canon OF the chapter of
the diocese of Kerry, and, two years
later, on the death of Bishop Coffey,
chosen -dignissimus for the mitre of
Kerry. But on that occasion the dig
nior, his senior by ten years and Arch
deacon of the diocese into the bargain,
was appointed. Not long after Mon
signor Carmody resigned the Dean
ship, and Canon O'Sullivan was ap-
pointed Dean of Kerry. And when
on the occasion of Bishop Mangan's
lamented death, the See of Kerry
again fell vacant, Dean O'Sullivan had
the unique distinction of being chosen
for the second time, after an interval
of thirteen years. Rome has set the
seal of its approval on this repeated
selection of the priests of Kerry, and
has summoned an able, learned, patri-