Life
1714-1783; Co. Sligo, ed. TCD; founded musical academy Dublin 1783; at Lord Mornington’s instance, wrote travesty of Italian burletta, which had been introduced to Dublin by D’Amici family, Midas (written at Brownlow’s Lough Neagh house); resided King St. Dublin; Midas performed Capel St. Theatre, 1761 and Covent Gdn 1764; other works incl. The Golden Pippin (1773 Covent Gdn.), story of Paris’s choice; Tom Thumb (Covent Gdn. 1780), adapted from Fielding; O’Hara was blind after 1780; he made a portrait of William King; poss. author of “The Night that Larry was Stretched”, but Tom Moore says that it was Dr. Burroughs[?]. RR ODNB FQ CAB OCIL
References
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II: ‘The author of the laughable burletta of Midas, was a native of Ireland, and the younger brother of a genteel family. He had an exquisite taste in music, and uncommon skill in the burlesque. He died June 17, 1782, having for some years been deprived of his eye-sight. He also wrote The Two Misers, a musical farce; The Golden Pippin, and April Day, both burlettas; and altered "Tom Thumb," originally written by Fielding, to its present form.’ (p.457.)
Patrick Kennedy, Modern Irish Anecdotes (n.d.), chap. on O’Hara, pp.48-49, in which the ‘last line an Italian glee then popular - Che no’hanno crudelta - is rendered ‘Kane O’Hara’s cruel tall’.
Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature (London, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast & Edinburgh: Blackie & Son [1876-78]), attaches the nick-name “St Patrick’s Steeple” to him and notes: the amiable fanatica per la musica kept a puppet show for his young friends. Further cites the MS of a jeu d’esprit ‘translation’ Grigri [Portuguese to French to English by chaplain of Irish regt. in Turkish service &c.] in Irish Monthly Magazine, 1832.
Samuel O. Fitzpatrick, Dublin: A Historical and Topographical Account of the City (London: Methuen 1907) cites John O’Keeffe's recollection that Mornington persuaded O’Hara to write Midas, a play ‘made up of Dublin jokes and by-sayings’, in opposition to the Italian burletta at Smock Alley. (p.252).
S. C. Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh Dublin (1899), calls him a son of Francis O’Hara, a rich merchant holding family pews at S. Werburgh Church.
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946): ?1714-82; Midas, An English Burletta (Crow St., 22 Jan 1762) 1762; The Gold Pippin, Eng. burl. (CG 6 Feb 1773) 1773; The Two Misers, mus. farce (CG 21 Jan 1775) 1775, from F. de Falbaire’s Les Deux Avares (Paris 1770), mus. by Dibdin; April Day (Hay 22 Aug 1777) 1777, mus. by Arnold; Tom Thumb (CG 3 Oct 1780) 1806, based on Fielding’s.
Bartlett, Familiar Quotations [online] lists him as a burlesque writer, 1714?-1782.
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