John Callaghan

Life
[pseud. “Philopater Irenaeus”; also MacCallaghan]; b. Carrigadrohid, Co. Cork; ed. Nantes, Rennes, and La Flèche; appot. prieur-curé of Cour-Cheverny, nr. Blois; supported Confederation of Kilkenny and the Duke of Ormonde in his pseudonymous Vindiciarum catholicorum Hiberniae, defending the Inchiquin truce, replying to pamphlet of Paul King, OFM, for Cardinal Rinuccini; supported Jansenists of Port Royal and inspired animosity of other Irish prelates at Louvain; his account of his education attacked vehemently by Pere Jean Brisacier, who accused him of a lesser education at the Jesuit College of Quimper, where he was said to be a lackey and an ussher.

 

Works
Vindiciarum catholicorum Hiberniae, authore Philopatre Irenaeo [2 vols.], quorum primus rerum in Hibernia gestarum, ab anno 1641 ad annum 1649 … synopsim; secundus libelli famosi [of P. King] in Catholicos Hiberniae proceres … confutationem continet (Paris 1650), 12o.

 

Commentary
Muriel McCarthy, et al., Hibernia Resurgens [Catalogue of Marsh’s Library Exhibition] (Dublin: Marsh’s Library 1994). See Biography and bibliography as supra.

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References
Marsh’s Library, Stillingfleet Collection holds Vindiciarum catholicorum Hiberniae (Parisiis: apud viduam I. Camusat et Petrum le Petit 1650), 12o [Walsh 299].

The British Library holds Vindiciarum catholicorum Hiberniae, authore Philopatre Irenaeo, … libri duo, quorum primus rerum in Hibernia gestarum, ab anno 1641 ad annum 1649 … synopsim; secundus libelli famosi [of P. King] in Catholicos Hiberniae proceres … confutationem continet. [Another copy.]. 2 pt. Apud Viduam I. Camusat, et Petrum le Petit: Parisiis, 1650. 12o. Also [by Philopater], The Nurse of Pious Thoughts: wherein it is briefly showed that the use which Roman Catholikes do make of sacred pictures, signes and images, is not Idolatry, etc.. Douay, 1652. 24o.

Dictionary of National Biography contains no entry on him.

 

Notes
Philopater” was a common controversialists’ name; and see numerous texts by and on Irenaeus (incl. the colloquist in Spenser’s Short View of Ireland).

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