Whereas Australia’s best known poets, Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson wrote of the bush from a perspective of visiting city dwellers, whether romantic (Patterson) or harsh and cruel (Lawson), John O’Brien wrote as a person who actually lived in rural towns and participated in that existence.
John O'Brien was the psuedonym of Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952), who was born in Yass, New South Wales. Hartigan was a Roman Catholic priest in the Goulburn diocese and later parish priest at Narrandera, rural towns in New South Wales.
O’Brien’s poems are gentler, more affectionate of rural life and its people, descriptive of essential features such as farming, the Irish and the church. In many ways they are similar to Steele Rudd's anecdotes and stories in On Our Selection, but in poetic form.
“Said Hanrahan” (1921) gently pokes fun at the pessimism of the Irish Catholics and the attitude that sees difficulty in each situation, but against a backdrop of very real drought, floods and bushfires, constant threats in the Australian landscape and the Australian psyche.
The poem remains relevant today as new generations face difficulties in the environment and in society.
